The Summer of Francesca Ch. 22

The academy offered master classes for experienced trainers and apprenticeships for local youths. It used Anne in both.

The master classes drew a large audience. Anne was spread for inspection on one of the academy's frames as they arrived. They took their seats and the instructor began with a lecture on the effects of various instruments (bamboo, leather, knotted cords), or the European and oriental styles.

Anne was often short of sleep after a cold night on the floor of her cell, and her attention wandered with one trainer. In her exposed position this was obvious. The first time she let her eyes close, he brought her back with a quick stroke of the crop. When it happened again he slapped her hard and left a mark on her thighs that lasted a week. After that he appointed an attendant to stand behind her and goose her randomly; her yips punctuated his talk from then on.

The lecture was accompanied by a demonstration and a question period after. The audience gathered around her to view the results. Later at Mr. Schuyler's, Anne recognized Frieda as a regular attendee who sat toward the back but took notes.

Once an emeritus trainer was invited to give a demonstration. The academy briefed him on Anne's cerebral nature and he considered a response. Andrei appeared at Anne's cell an hour before the event along with his associates, a pair of young men. The youths wore tights that showed the bulge of their sex, arousing Anne's interest at once.

They led her out to the frame and hung her up on it tautly before removing their shirts. Spread out at their mercy she felt the stirrings of desire.

Under their leader's guidance they took up positions before and behind Anne and started to work her over slowly. Her ardor rose with the sun as they increased the pace and took her toward a climax.

Soon the earliest members of the audience arrived, standing to watch the men bring her up. Before long a substantial crowd had gathered, but Anne was afire with passion and failed to notice.

Under the guidance of the older man, the two excited Anne right to the limit and held her there, writhing and weeping with frustrated desire until everyone was present. Someone told her later it went on for nearly half an hour; by the end Anne was consumed with her need for release.

Andrei nodded to the two men and they stepped forward. One pulled her cheeks apart while the other penetrated her and Anne exploded. As the audience watched, all her dammed-up emotion released at once and she burst like a balloon, wailing, twisting and contorting herself until she was completely spent and hung from the ropes scarcely breathing. The man had held on and was still in her; he withdrew and stepped back.

The crowd gathered around to inspect the results; someone pinched her but she did not respond. They congratulated Andrei and the youths. Several of the trainers had questions, and they wandered off to discuss them with the master.

Some time later, Anne opened her eyes to find an attendant prodding her belly. She stood to be bound and he drove her forward to her cell. She sank to the floor and he fastened the tether to her collar before filling her water bowl.

Around sundown she woke again as an attendant entered the cell. She rose to her knees with an effort and he gave her some paste. After she drank from her water bowl she opened her mouth in invitation, but he did not want to use it and left her there. Images of the two young men floated before her and she smiled wistfully before lying down for the night.

She had mostly recovered by the next morning when Francis entered the cell. He fed her and said Andrei thought she had potential; with her intellect properly subdued she would bring a good price at auction. She bowed her head and thanked him.

At the first session for apprentices, a trainer brought her out on her leash. She introduced herself and explained that she was here to learn obedience and submission and their task was to teach her. They should show her no mercy or respect; that was bad for her, it gave her ideas, they should suppress any feelings of that kind.

They watched as Anne was tied to the frame. Each apprentice reduced her to tears or moans, or whatever the assignment of the day was. Occasionally she was told to resist crying out and each apprentice had to break her down.

Most of the youths proceeded with gusto once they overcame their initial doubts. Afterwards she was left tied up since she could not stand on her own for several minutes. She answered questions from the students who had just whipped her, mostly of a technical but sometimes of a quite personal nature; and she assured them they had done well.

The boys brought more brute strength to the effort, but the young women had a finesse that penetrated to her core.

After each session a trainer took Anne back to her cell to be fed and watered. She was given nothing to eat for several hours before a class and she was usually ravenous once she recovered.

Three of the apprentices stood out in her memory.

Vincent began to fall in love with her, treating her gently and complimenting her when he passed her during the day. He even spoke of "rescuing" her. She mentioned this to a trainer, and on the next day the authorities had him tie her to the frame and work her over with a bullwhip for an hour; by the end of the morning she was an emotional wreck and Vincent was cured of his infatuation. He did not speak to her again except to issue commands in a harsh tone, and marked her down for punishment over the slightest infraction.

Kgosi was tall, powerfully built, and jet black from his shaved head on down. The son of central African royalty, he was already a natural master. When it was his turn to beat Anne, just strapping her into the frame was enough to leave her wet with desire even before he struck her, and he had her moaning and begging within seconds.

When she was given to the apprentices, he thrust himself into her with such force that she screamed from the shock of it. Sometimes he was so violent she passed out before he erupted in her, and she knew nothing until he dragged her upright by her hair. When he released her she did him homage by bending down to the ground and kissing his dusty bare feet, an act she performed for no other apprentice; except one.

Erik was Kgosi's opposite in every way. What led the shy Dane to seek an apprenticeship was unclear since he had so little aptitude for it. He hung back during lessons, he struck Anne lightly with obvious reluctance, and he never sought to possess her. Francis noticed this; he spoke with Gudrun and they came up with a plan.

The next day, Francis took him to Anne's cell and showed him how to leash and lubricate her. She moaned as his hand entered her; he repeated the motion and she moaned again, though more softly. When he was done he lingered for a moment and she contracted around him in reply. He was in her, it was a good beginning.

Francis guided him as he walked her over to a field where Gudrun waited. He began to caress Anne's neck as he listened to them, and the two trainers nodded quietly to one another.

He paraded her around the area; Anne felt him using the leash like reins to control her movements and noticed he often put his hand on her shoulder. At the far end of the field, out of sight of the others, he made her halt and inspected her closely. After a minute of hesitation in which he plainly wrestled with temptation and she did her best to encourage him, he walked her back to the others. But he held her closer this time and stroked her rear as they stood together.

She knelt at his command to take paste with a spoon and stood as he placed the garrote on her neck. Anne's nipples stiffened; Erik looked down at them and Gudrun said "You see? She likes it." She began to tremble as he tightened it; Gudrun showed him how to calm her by placing one hand between her legs and stroking her haunches with the other.

After a minute of this she stopped shaking, and within another she was herself again and ready for her beating.

With Erik now enjoying his role, Francis had him tie Anne to the frame and run his hands over her. Francis gave him a short-handled whip and let him take a few strokes. He had plainly overcome his reluctance to striking her, so Francis let him range for several minutes and invited him to use the crop.

After that, Erik was the most enthusiastic of the apprentices and the quickest learner. Gudrun showed him the entry in Anne's book that she thrived on hard usage and he took it to heart, leaving marks on her at every session. One time after Kgosi had used her, Erik ordered her to kneel before the group and take him in her mouth while Gudrun held her leash; she was pleased to feel him stiffen quickly and respond to her attentions. When he had finished with her and pushed her head away, she kissed his shoes and knelt before him with her forehead on the ground. He told her to rise and gave her a cookie.

One day an attendant was promoted to trainer. Alain had viewed many beatings but never conducted any. A careless instructor let him begin with the long-handled crop and he put marks on her that lasted a month. Supervised by more senior trainers after that, he learned to add control to power and was soon one of the best. Anne looked forward to their encounters. They even became friends after a fashion, though he never relaxed his command over her.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

A few years ago Victoria, a clever young apprentice (now a trainer) invented the impaler. A single piece of cast iron, it was a flat plate with cylinders extending above and below. The lower cylinder was sunk in the ground like a root and encased in concrete with the plate at the surface; the upper one stood above it with a rounded point. She wanted to call it Vlad but the other staff quickly named it Albert.

One morning Anne was alarmed to see five attendants, four men and a woman, enter her cell. In an ominous silence they fed and marched her out to the lawn in front of the academy building. Two men grasped her arms and hoisted her up while the other two pulled her feet out in front of her. Victoria reached between her thighs and guided the men as they lowered her onto Albert. Anne sighed as it entered and penetrated deep into her belly. Unable to stand, she sat immobilized on the spike with her hands tied behind her. After the men left, Victoria gave Anne a cookie and stroked her breasts to calm her before putting a blindfold over her eyes.

The cylinder was cold at first, but after a few minutes the heat of her body warmed it and she found it comforting in its way. Though she could not move, she could shift a little from side to side and feel it within her solid and unyielding. She welcomed its authority.

Soon the academy office opened; people came and went on the walkway, heard but not seen, sometimes pausing in front of her. Clouds drifted past obscuring the sun and breezes chilled her now and then; she learned to focus on Albert as a distraction from the cold. He became a welcome presence, a silent companion of her solitude. She tried to emulate her new master's motionless serenity.

Once a group of boys and girls, probably trainers' children, discovered her. They fingered her hair and breasts for a minute before running off. Anne was quite an ordinary sight to them; a new girl on the spike but not the first one they had seen, the youths had learned to treat them like playthings.

One older girl stayed behind. She caressed Anne's hair and Anne smiled up at her. She began softly to squeeze Anne's nipples between her fingers. They were lovely she said, firm and pointed, just the right color. Anne felt them swell beneath her touch. She asked Anne how long she had been here and who she belonged to. Anne briefly told her story; the girl kissed her on the cheek and walked away. Anne wondered who she was and if they would ever meet again.

At midday Victoria gave her water and paste; with her blindfold on, Anne responded to the touch on her lips of a spoon or bottle. She hoped Victoria could tell how grateful she was.

In the afternoon Anne made a discovery. By rocking back and forth and wiggling she could pleasure herself with Albert. She tried; soon she was moaning and so lost in the activity that she failed to hear a group of men approach and stand over her until one of them coughed.

She stopped at once, embarrassed to be discovered; but a deep voice ordered her to continue. She resumed and soon forgot her audience and brought herself to a climax, panting and weeping beneath her blindfold. He told her to do it again and she obeyed, more slowly this time. She slumped down on the spike as the men walked away. Later she learned they were executives of the academy on their way from a board meeting.

She was beginning to shiver from the cold at sundown when a crew lifted her off the impaler and removed her blindfold. An attendant led her to a sandy area to relieve herself and to her cell where he chained her up and gave her dinner. He told her it was a great privilege to be displayed on the front lawn, the first sight a visitor beheld on approaching the academy. She blushed with pride at the honor.

Since no one wanted her that evening, he turned the light out and left her. As she lay on the stone floor awaiting sleep she hoped the academy would let her go on another date with Albert.