The Finest Steal

"Your customer has arrived," he said, using the code phrase he had been given.

Instantly, there was movement. As if they had materialized from the walls, women issued from places he could have sworn were empty, slithering into the light with grace that far outstripped their station in life. No less than a dozen peasant women, all in similar grey dresses, surrounded him.

"Prince Lusio," said the leader, a middle-aged woman with ragged blond hair pulled back in a ponytail. She called him 'Prince' as a malapropism that Lusio had never bothered to correct. "You've come again." A smile formed on her time-creased face. "Your presence is most welcome."

Hands grabbed his wrists, and Lusio failed to restrain a yelp. Something pushed hard on the backs of his legs, and he buckled, knees thumping painfully onto the dirt floor. Four hands held his arms, two on his shoulders and two on his elbows.

"Hold him!" yelled a female voice, "Hold him down!"

Lusio pulled against them, then reversed his effort and pushed, jumping easily to his feet. He twisted, throwing one of the women off balance, then the other readjusted her grip on his left arm. Facing her, Lusio aimed a punch at her sharp young face, only for his elbow to be stopped by another hand. Thinking quickly, he picked up his left knee, placed his heel on the stomach of the woman to his left, the pushed with all of his strength. The woman bent over, but did not let go of his arm, and as her weight shifted back, she brought him forward.

"Get his legs! Get him on the ground!"

Another kick to the insides of his knees, and Lusio went down for the second time, but this time the women were ready. They piled onto his back, forcing him down, and his chest pressed to the floor. The weight of hands above him sent air wheezing out of his lungs.

He tried to draw a breath, but couldn't. Panic mixed with despair as he looked up and saw tough-looking women standing guard at the stairs. Even if he could escape this, there would be no getting past them.

His chest heaved. His head jerked as if it could snatch a breath by moving.

"You're choking him," said a calm woman. "Lighten up."

The weight lessened, and Lusio opened his mouth as far as it would go, taking a huge, unaristocratic gulp of air. Then another. Then a few more. At last, when his body was body was satisfied, he became aware of his surroundings again.

It did not look good. His ankles had been tied to opposite ends of a wooden beam half as long as he was tall, and each of his wrists was held fast in the hands of a different woman. They grunted, hoisting him to his feet, them held him fast with his back straight.

The leader of the women, the blond one who had greeted him before, stood over him with hands on her hips. She radiated satisfaction as she said, "Well done, well done, everyone. I don't know why I ever doubted you." Finally, she looked at Lusio. "Prince, I'm afraid our deal is off."

Lusio shook, trying to get his wrists loose. "You planned this. Amita, she sold me out!"

She gave a knowing chuckle. "Whoever Amita is, she's made no appearance to us. But I'll show you who did."

The woman stepped aside to reveal another, smaller, deadlier woman. Half-hidden under an intricately patterned veil, with her jet-black hair tied back in a strange ponytail pattern, revealing only her intense, squinting face. "Do you know who I am, Lusio Alvárez?"

Lusio gaped for a moment, then closed his mouth and browsed hastily through all the women this could possibly be. The frightful reality dawned on him. "Aurora!"

"Indeed," said Aurora. "It's not wise to scheme against a sorceress."

"Don't blame yourself, Lusio," the bandit woman rejoined. "We plan on moving out of Tophoe, and my women are deserving of a little reward." She leaned up to him, grabbing her chin in one hand. "You should be flattered. My women wouldn't give me a moment's peace until I promised them that we'd do this. You've been on their minds since we began doing business together."

"It seems..." Lusio tried to keep from shaking. "It seems I inspire such feelings a lot."

"Ooh, you're a cocky one. No matter." She flicked her hand at her women. "You may strip him whenever you're ready."

Like a pack of wolves, hands swarmed around him, tearing at clothes and pulling garments away. Lusio waited for someone to make the mistake of letting go of his arms, but they were paying too much attention for that. His vest, then his cloak, then his shirt were rumbled up to his shoulder, then skillfully slid off his wrists. With a perilously hasty application of a knife, they sliced his pants away.

Within a minute, he was exposed, his skin bare against the cold night air and the hungry eyes of the women. All at once, they beheld his chastity cage and gave a unison cry of shock.

"What is that?" gasped one woman.

"What happened to him?" murmured another.

"Must be a wound."

"You mean he had it severed?"

"I heard women do that sometimes, so the man can never cheat on her no matter-"

"Don't be fools," the leader cut in. She crouched and lifted his chastened cock on the pads of her fingers. "I assure you, this is in ideal condition. The problem is that he is caged."

Clueless stares surrounded her.

"The sons of nobles wear cages over their masculine parts," she went on, "for just this reason. No noble will ever marry a man who's been taken already." She smiled. "It seems this young treasure is a virgin. But we'll fix that." The leader turned to Aurora, who sat on a barrel in the corner, watching with a cheerless frown. "Aurora, we'd pay handsomely for a spell. How much to get his cage open?"

Aurora exploded onto her feet. "You offer me coin to bend the laws of reality?" she thundered, commanding the room with her tiny voice. "I am not one of those shameless witches-for-hire. Solve your own problem. I take my leave." On that, she stormed out.

"Kailashi," said the leader, undaunted. "We'll have to do this the difficult way. Go into to town and summon the locksmith. Pay her double if you have to."

A small young woman stood up from the crowd, ragged white hair peeking out from beneath an equally ragged hood. "O-okay," she stuttered.

"Don't you dare complain, Kailashi. You're the one who didn't want to do this in first place."

She sprinted away, and Lusio felt the cold pangs of danger sink into his heart. That cage was his failsafe, his last guarantee that, no matter how badly the women of the city abused him, they wouldn't take away what he needed most.

But without his chastity cage, one of the women would surely take him, and he would have no choice but to marry her or live in the unspeakable dishonor of growing old as a bachelor. And if more than one woman had her way with him- he didn't want to think about it.

A woman with a scarred ear, barely twenty by Lusio's estimate, stepped up to the leader and murmured something in her ear, almost loud enough for Lusio to hear.

"No!" snapped the leader, facing the young woman with barbed stare. "I've told you before, and I will tell you one last time. We'll use this man, then we have to leave him. If we bring him with us, we'll have every sell-sword on the continent hunting for our heads." She looked at Lusio, seeing the fresh hope in his eyes, and her expression lightened. "In the meantime, I believe it's time to get out the Pine Titan. Rita, you're first. Everyone else, hold him down." She leaned back against the wall, folding her arms contentedly. "And enjoy the show."

The ocean of hands pulled Lusio over onto his stomach, then yanked him up onto all fours. Looking up, he saw a woman standing ostentatiously in front of him, one hand resting on her broad hips, looking at him through a big, lascivious smile. She chuckled in a deep voice as she poured some slick-looking liquid from a jar onto a wooden peg. To his disconcert, that wooden shape looked uncomfortably familiar. When she tied it around her waist, suddenly his fears were confirmed.

"He's shaking!" crooned one woman. "Look at him! He's shaking!"

Gritting his teeth, Lusio made a token effort to break free, but they were ready for him. He barely moved.

The woman with the strapped-on wooden thing knelt down in front of Lusio, bringing her face almost down to his. Her untamed curtain of long, brown hair swung gently behind her. "Bitch," she whispered in his ear, "ever been pegged before?"

"You're going to regret this," Lusio spat. "You don't know who you're tangling with. I have connections." He put as much conviction into it as he could, even though he knew his threats were empty.

She stepped behind him, out of his sight, and fingers picked at his flesh, then traced his hole. He flexed, making one last attempt to pull free, as a woman began tying a rope around his left wrist. She pulled it tight, and a sting of pain gave way to an unpleasant tingling.

The wooden peg pressed against his rear, then with one quick shunt of her hips, the woman forced it in. Lusio's eyes bulged, and a roomful of female voices jeered at him. He pressed his eyes shut, wincing against every push as the woman pulled out, then slammed back into him. His right hand beat at the barrel he was fixed to. His left hand's tingling grew painful, and he wanted to beg for the bond to loosen, but the words would not come together on his tongue.

The door slammed open, and a few women looked. Then a heavy old woman's voice shouted, "Enough!"

Instantly, the pushing stopped. Lusio breathed deeply, then craned his neck up at the stairs to see a woman descending into the basement, with slick hair tied back in an elaborate forked ponytail, a swirl-decorated dress trailing from her slight figure.

Lusio gasped. 'A priestess!' Armored nightwatchwomen followed her, but Lusio barely noticed them.

The atmosphere of the room deadened. The bandit women all shrank into their shoulders like children who had just been caught stealing sweets.

The priestess looked down at Lusio, her face registering shock for only a moment, then turned on the bandit leader. "You should be ashamed of yourselves! You're behaving as beasts! For my goddess' sake, get a blanket on that poor man!"

Someone stepped out of a shadow and covered Lusio in a scratchy shroud. Whichever woman had been using the peg on him, she had disappeared into the guilty crowd.

Finally, one of the outlaws spoke up. "Someone talked... who did it? Who ratted on us?!"

The priestess stepped aside, and the watchwomen ushered forward a mousy girl with a dirty hood over messy white hair. Her face showed even more guilt than those of the other bandits. "Boss," she squeaked, "I'm sorry. But we can't do this. We just can't. Stealing is one thing, but..." She looked ready to cry, and the priestess put an encouraging hand on her shoulder. "But this is worse! We didn't have to do this! What did he ever do to us? He's innocent!"

"You did the right thing, Kailashi," the priestess said tenderly to her. She looked harshly up at the other bandits. "As for the rest of you, you're going to answer for your crime. Constable, round them up."

From there, everything happened in a whirlwind. None of the bandits put up a fight as the constables arrested them, chained them together and led them away. One watchwoman carefully drew her sword and sliced each of Lusio's bonds, then helped him to his feet. Feeling the blood rush back into his left hand, Lusio nearly forgot to hold up the blanket. He held it up around his waist, barely concealing his manhood and his much-abused rear.

The woman who had freed him stared at his chest a little longer than Lusio liked, then the priestess chased her away with a subtle gesture and a mean stare. She stood up in front of Lusio, eyes serious. "Young man, are you alright?"

"Uh..." Lusio took a moment to gather himself. "Nothing... I mean, still alive."

"You've been violated."

"Not... well, yes. At least I'm still a virgin. Where it counts, I mean."

If the priestess was shocked by that, she didn't show it. "I see. What brought you into the clutches of those wicked women?"

"Nothing sinful, my lady. Only that I was hurrying home, and they molested me."

"Hurrying home? Alone?" She raised an eyebrow. "After curfew?"

"So you see why I was in a hurry."

Disbelief sharpened the priestess' face. For a few uncomfortable seconds, her steady brown eyes stared through his lie. Then she turned away, saying, "Very well. Follow me. I can see to it that you return to your wife with no further indecencies."

"Thank you," Lusio had the presence of mind to say, as the priestess gently herded him up the stairs, onto a bench on the main floor. As soon as he sensed that none of the watchwomen were looking, Lusio took the opportunity to adjust his blanket so that it covered him from his shoulders to his knees.

For a few minutes, he sat silently, letting the rush of fear fade in his overtaxed nerves. In a few minutes, horse hooves thumped on dirt, and a horse-drawn vehicle pulled up to the house. To Lusio's pleasant surprise, it was not an open-top wagon, but a carriage with full enclosure.

The priestess stood. "Go thither," she said, pointing to the carriage. "And tell the driver where your wife dwells so she may return you."

"Thank you," said Lusio again. "But... the way this evening is going, I think I'd rather stay in your temple until sunrise."

"Whichever you wish."

One last time, Lusio said, "Thank you."

As he stepped aboard the carriage, feeling it rock under his meager weight, Lusio felt wretched for lying to the priestess after she had saved him. To tell the truth would have meant exposing his identity and ruining his sister's plan, but still his dishonesty stung him. He made a mental note to make a sizeable donation to the temple some time later.

Speaking through an opaque screen, Lusio relayed his direction to the carriage driver, then relaxed as the wooden thing rolled serenely over wet mud and clopped across cobblestones.

"You should drink," came the driver's voice, after a few silent minutes. "What you've just endured is hard on the nerves, especially for a man. There's a skin of water beneath the seat if you care for it."

With offhanded thanks, Lusio reached beneath the polished-wood seat, pulled up a richly painted water skin and drank a few sips. His sips turned to gulps, and soon he drained the whole thing. The driver had been right; he had needed it.

But when he tasted something odd about the water, the cold hand of panic clenched his spine. He had just accepted a drink from a stranger. His senses began blurring before he even realized what was happening. 'Lusio,' he thought, 'you fool!' He tried to call for help, but his tongue felt heavy and numb. He pawed at the door to the carriage, but his hand would not go that far. He slumped onto his side, and his senses abandoned him.

* * *

His vision came back first. He saw white, red and purple. There was softness and warmth all around. Nothing stirred. He smelled perfume.

A few blinks sharpened his focus, and he saw that he was in a stone-brick room hung with tapestries of old wars and great alliances. Dusty old books lined a prim shelf on the wall. Above him, a frilly canopy blocked his view of the ceiling.

He lay on his back, buried underneath layer upon layer of thick, neatly lain blankets that crushed him against a queen-sized mattress. With no clothes covering him, his skin felt the soft weight of the sheets. He tested his hands and his feet. Each one was chained to a corner of the bed.

He let his head slump onto the mattress. "I'm such a fool," he muttered.

Footsteps padded on soft carpet, and he brought his head up. Across the room, a heavy old wooden door eased shut. With footsteps barely audible, a leather-clad figure strutted up to him. A crescent-shaped smile flashed beneath her sharp eyes.

Amita opened her arms and sang, "Did you miss me?"

"You..." Lusio croaked. "You set me up."

Amita giggled in her golden voice. "You might say that. Those bandits who wanted to peg you? That wasn't me. But when I saw that carriage ride up to the apothecary to pick you up, I saw a shining coin in the air, and I snatched it. I bought off the carriage driver. I got her to deliver you here instead."

Lusio looked around, suddenly curious as to whose castle he was in.

"You guessed it," Amita smarmed, as she began peeling away Lusio's blankets. "Welcome to House Asmaä. I went to the Asmaä guildmistress and told her that I could bring her the assassin who keeps scrambling everyone's plans. I've never seen a client say 'yes' so fast." She pulled away the last blanket, exposing Lusio, and ran her hand down his hot, firm chest. She licked her lips. "Delicious... anyway, before I brought you into her castle, I asked just two things in return: a nice, big pile of money... and this." She pulled out a neatly polished copper key.

Lusio gave a start. His muscles bulged as his limbs tensed involuntarily.

"You've guessed it," said Amita, reaching down and fondling his chastity cage. "Asmaä has some fine locksmiths. And now someone finally has your key."

"No..." Lusio muttered. "You don't have to do this. Just let me go! I can make you rich!"

"With the bounty Asmaä paid me, I'm halfway there already."

"My sister would be grateful. If you-"

Amita pulled off her scarf and rammed into his mouth. Holding it there with one hand, she tied it around his head, forcing the dirty fabric between his jaws. "Shut up," she commanded. "A handsome little treasure like you is worth a lot more than any bounty. Unless you have a brother who's even cuter than you, there's nothing you can offer me that's better than riding you."

Lusio simply stared back at her, checkmated.

"That's better." Amita straddled Lusio's stomach, and he could feel her warmth through her clothes. "Now, I'm going to open up that cage and put this lovely body of yours to good use. But first, I'm going to explain why you shouldn't be scared."

Lusio cocked his head to the side.

"You see," said Amita, twirling the key casually on one finger. "Even after I take you, you can still salvage your honor. All you have to do is marry me." She paused, smiling down at him. "That's right. Dig into that sweet, sweet money of yours and make a lady out of me- like I said, I'm already halfway there. Then once I'm rich, marry me. The Asmaä guild expects me to grab you and disappear halfway across the world, but if we both escape from this castle tonight, I can set up shop in yours." Putting a hand on his chest, she leaned forward and undid her scarf, freeing his mouth. "What do you say do that?"

"My sister," said Lusio, swallowing hard to remove the taste of her filthy scarf. "My sister will be furious."

"I don't think you have a choice, sweet thing. Without me, you're not even getting out of this bed."

Lusio hesitated.

"Two options, pretty boy. Either take my offer, or I deflower you and leave."

"I'll do it," he blurted out. "Fine, I'll do it. I know when I'm trapped." He gave a weak little pull at his arm restraints. "It looks like my luck has finally run out."

"Run out? Your house got a stroke of luck, getting me on board. I'll be twice the schemer you ever were. Just wait. But first..." With a chuckle she couldn't suppress, Amita slid back along Lusio's body, until his caged cock stuck straight up in front of her. Delicately, she leaned down and cradled it in her left hand, then brought up the key. Lusio closed his eyes against the sight, but he could not shut out the soft 'clink' of the lock coming undone. The metal folded open, leaving Lusio's sex undefended. He could feel it rise, free from his metal cage. His body was ready for her, indifferent to the consequences.

Amita gave a deep, long hum as if she had just tasted sugar for the first time. "Oh, I can't believe I get to do this." She slid her leggings down to her knees. "Watching you pleasure Tama got me all stirred up. I'm going straight for the main course."