Posted by Menagerie on September 18, 2004 at 05:27:18:
THE VOID
Elspeth lay in despair on her belly, her cheeks wet with tears. Her dungeon confinement, as always dank and desolate, had taken on a musty air of hopelessness.
Ever since she had heard the news of her Lord's death, she had been sprawled prostrate on the hard, wooden cot in the six-cubit-square cell she had called home these last seven years. Those few shards of clothes she had been allowed had been discarded; she was nude, her voluptuous breasts pressed flush against the unyielding cot, her magnificent, muscular legs flexing, first one and then the other, as she wept.
For two days she had been like this, thinking of neither sleep nor food, as she dwelt upon the Master who had taught her love through cruelty, respect through disdain; his organ, which she had serviced with mouth and bunghole, would no longer be hers to enjoy. She fingered the chain that led from her iron collar to the wall behind her; she had trembled in anticipation as her Lord had first affixed her to the unyielding stone and demanded she pay tribute, on her knees, to his manhood. Yes!--She had been his to use, but he had also been hers...and now--No!
A key turned in the lock; the steel bars swung open. It was Mandar, the Overseer. "Elspeth," he said sternly.
She lifted her eyes to him, knowing failure to acknowledge the Overseer, even in her despair, would have painful consequences. But there was love in his eyes.
"I knew what you meant to our Lord," said the hulking, bearded man, in an uncharacteristically quiet voice. "Of all the Faithful, you were first in his heart."
Her voice was low and choked with sobs. "Why did he have to be taken from us?" she wailed.
"It is The Way," said Mandar, grimly. "Even a thrall such as yourself knows there are others whom he called Lord, and he died in their service. They, too, shall perish in time, for the honor of those who command them."
He paused. "For seven years, you were as one with the Master, and his loss leaves you no longer whole. You must join me in the journey; then, you and he will be together once more."
She bit her lip, and nodded. It was, she knew, The Way.
She was allowed a coarse garment, little more than an animal skin, for it was a long journey into a harsh clime. She stood still as the Overseer affixed her shackles; not that she would flee--Flee? Why?--but because that was as it would be. Mandar hoisted her onto the beast of burden, then checked the bags, mounted the beast and reined it to the west. Few provisions were needed; Elspeth would not make the return journey.
They rode in silence. Occasionally their path would cross that of a neighbor, who would make a face of sympathy for the loss of the Master, then look away; it was not proper to fix one's eyes on the thrall. Elspeth's eyes were cast downward; she sought no compassion, no consolement. She yearned only to be with her Lord once again.
The signs of civilization gradually diminished; castles, huts and tilled fields gave way to wasteland. The wind kicked up; dust stung their eyes. Bare trees waved their stark fingers against the violet sky. Mandar ducked his head against the swirling gale; Elspeth did not. She sat straight, proud; she was going where she belonged.
She accepted a piece of flat bread from the grim Overseer, her final meal. As she brought it to her mouth with her fettered hands, they began to hear--really, first to feel--a dull hum; it went through them as would a rusty blade. Mandar calmed the frightened beast. Elspeth, for the first time, felt a thrill of fear; her nipples stood up against the rough garment. Sweat where her legs joined, and soon an itch within her love mound that left her confused.
Mandar finally spoke. "Seven years, Elspeth; you became ours when you were sixteen. You always wondered why the Master never had you as he did other women." The hum was getting louder, becoming a roar; the Overseer raised his voice. "It was in preparation for this day. It was because it was you he wanted to reunite with him when he made the final sacrifice."
He paused; she still didn't understand. "I know what it is you are feeling. I have made this journey for a dozen slain lords. You were not had by our Master because it was the only way you could join him"--his voice had grown to a shout--"beyond the Bah'harg!"
Before them loomed the Bah'harg. The great stone carving was twisted and turned in impossible loops; the protrusions from its forejoints were, each of them, many times the size of the humans. Wreckage surrounded it, past armies which had dared to challenge this behemoth of an ancient age. Despite herself, Elspeth gasped; the twitch between her powerful thighs was unbearable, and she clenched them to control it. Her chained hands grasped vainly at Mandar's cloaked shoulder; for the only time, he laid a massive hand on hers, soothing her. The noise all about them roared, Nature become Anarchy.
And the Bah-harg began to move.
The coils shifted in the sand; the protrusions--now clearly legs--stretched out, and anchored themselves on the ground. The huge head of the idol turned from the color of stone to a midnight blue; eyes snapped open, shimmering yellow. A mouth, bigger by half than their beast, yawned wide. Elspeth's heart hammered; her fingers dug deep into the Overseer's shoulder. And the roar was replaced by a voice, a voice from beyond their world:
"Mandar...I know why you come. Again, so soon."
Mandar locked eyes with the enormous statue made flesh. "Yes, powerful one. Another loss; another to offer so that his life be not entirely lost."
The Bah-harg shifted its eyes to Elspeth. A strange calm washed over her; this was a destiny many would have sought. It was her great joy that the Master had chosen her, to be his, forever. They remained, so still there was barely breath, for a long moment--the monster from beyond and the slave woman, to join as one. Then, the Bah-Harg stirred; the coils shook the ground; the head, supported by the stick-like legs, slowly wagged back and forth.
"Mandar," in a voice suddenly tinged with just the barest tones of kindness, "prepare her for me."
The huge man dismounted, stroking and quieting the skittish beast all the while. He then placed his gigantic hands around Elspeth's waist, carefully lifted her off the animal and set her lightly upon the ground. The Bah-harg watched them, intently. Then it spoke: "You have not known man."
Her head down, she responded, "That is so."
"There will be another time," rumbled the monster, "when you will know that joy. You will bear this ordeal, and emerge fuller than most." She trembled; she knew it would be terrible.
Mandar unlocked her shackles; she stared at him, surprised. He nodded. "It is because you belong to the powerful one now. He will confine you as no earthly chains could." And with that, he removed her single garment.
Elspeth stood naked before the Bah-harg. Despite the absence of her shackles, she kept her hands before her belly and together; her full breasts stood out, heaving with her breath. Her mane of red hair framed a face taut with fear. She hesitated; the Bah'harg purred, "Come to me, my child."
The fear on her face transformed into determination. She placed one awkward foot forward, then another, and soon was striding toward the giant, her eyes never leaving its face. Its lips curled into a smile: "Your Lord has chosen well. It is you who are truly a mistress, a mistress of the fates of the universe." And with that, its mouth yawned wide.
Elspeth's stride did not slow; she stepped inside, and the giant jaws began to close. She glanced over her shoulder, and again Mandar surprised her--she had never seen him smile. "Farewell, Elspeth," he called; "Join our Master in the belly of the beast."
And she felt the long, forked tongue, as strong as any chains she'd endured, and the muscles of the Bah'harg's throat as she began to be pulled down its gullet...closing on her flesh, clamping down as a heavy fog made solid. A scream caught in her throat. She was being drawn, feet first, inches at a time, into the monster. Its saliva washed over her; each muscle spasm as she passed down the long neck crushed her as if a thousand ropes were tightened around her. She could no longer breath, or see; the Bah'harg's mouth was closed. And yet, she suddenly became aware of the feeling between her legs, within her sex; gasping, waves of pleasure began to rush through her body. Was this what the monster meant? Was this what the Master had saved her for?
Down, down; her consciousness growing dimmer. Confined as in a cocoon, merely carried along a few hands at a time. Why didn't she suffocate? she wondered. She knew she was strong; seven years as a thrall, and rather than breaking, or just accepting black fate, she had reveled in her bondage, believing it gave her an inner peace few free women could cherish. But there was more; perhaps, in the grip of the Bah-Harg, one could truly never die...
Elspeth became aware that the tube that was the monster's throat no longer closed around her feet; she was entering a void, an emptyness. Her calves, then her thighs emerged; her waist, her breasts--and then she sloughed into a pouch, one that moved with her, that flexed as she raised an arm or leg. It was almost as a womb; was she to be reborn?
The answer came suddenly, horribly. For it was then the searing juices poured into the sac; she caught her voice and screamed, horribly, her flesh now being eaten as the monster's stomach churned. The scream died into choking, into gasping, into...silence. The Bah'harg had consumed; there would be nothing left.
The Overseer watched as the monster gradually settled, back into a statue of impossible coils and extended legs, of a stone, unseeing face, and he knew the corporeal Elspeth was no more. He had experienced this a dozen times; it was always the same. The sound had died; the howling wind had become a gentle breeze. He remounted his beast, turned to begin the long return home. He would find another Lord; he would, he was sure, return to this place again.
At the outskirts of the ruins that were the domicile of the Bah'harg, he paused and cocked his head for it. And he heard it, over the gentle zephyr.
The delighted laugh of a woman...the answering laugh of a man.
He envied Elspeth, Mandar decided; he knew, at that moment, that she and the Master had found peace together.