Chapter 36: Ch: X, not XXX.

 Ch: X, not XXX.

Esperanza settled in to wait, too tired to carry on and too energized by darling Falco’s immersion in that marvelous, terrible bath to even consider sleep.

 

She lounged in a chair by the fire that always smelled like sweet Shai’s perfume. She spent some time trying to compose herself in a posture that would suggest casual and languid intimacy. With promises of more to come…

 

She noticed a small shelf of books, how remarkable. It was a strange little collection too; a local guide book, some notes on esoteric magic, a red notebook in some strange script. The last volume seized her attention like a fishhook in her soup.

 

Months and months could pass without finding something new, even for a cagy dealer and collector like herself. She had never even heard of this volume, and it seemed complete.

 

That was the greatest shock. Most books in the trade had long since been divided into single chapters and scattered for profit.

 

Diligent collectors had spent decades gathering scattered pages and chapters to recreate some few of the great novels of the past. Now to find this, in its entirety, that was marvelous. That it seemed to tickle all her favorite fantasies was just a bonus.

 

With unashamed glee, she settled in for a good read.

An Affair of Monsters.

Warm sea breezes tickled her face, gently tousling her golden ringlets. A pale hand brushed the stray locks behind a shell like ear bearing a small, blue jeweled piercing through her lobe.

 

“How long until we arrive, captain Thurmand?” Her voice was languid and warm, the result of a lifetime’s practice. Cultivating that perfect mix of casual familiarity and easy courtesy that bred loyal subjects was her personal art, passed down from her dear departed mother.

 

“Perhaps six hours until we sight land, then a half day to wait for the tides to turn in our favor for the run through the shoals. Tomorrow morning we should be within sight of Port Easteraz.”

 

“I shall rest a while below, please see that I am not disturbed with anything… unwelcome.” With a smile and a gentle caress of her muscular forearm she bid her captain adieu and slipped below decks, into her cabin.

 

As the cabin door closed I slumped my shoulders just a little, nanny would have been furious. Were she not so ill with the sea heaves.

 

I whistled a happy tune just for myself, another naughty behavior unfit for a princess.

“Mmmurgfl… Bleeeeeghhhh!” Nanny scolded from the triple sized chamber pot she was hugging so closely, it smooshed her enormous bosom out to the sides hilariously.

 

I did not laugh, of course, that would be cruel. Poor nanny Isolde was fierce and overprotective but so kind and sweet… When not punishing her naughty princess as though she were still romping in the palace garden, rather than on her way to be married to a stranger.

 

“I sent for that ginger tea the captain recommends, it should help.” I whispered, hugging the poor dear as best I could in her condition. The ship was really tossing about, shaking and groaning with the strain of such heavy seas.

 

We had been all but promised calm seas by the viziers and seers of my father’s capital, yet here we were. Fortunately, my crew was made up of my own loyal ladies, each a stalwart since our earliest days.

 

I had no real desire to marry Firenze Easteraz, rumor said he was a twit and if the more salacious tales were true, he had little interest in feminine bodies, beyond a passion for clothing. At least I would not be pestered by that!

 

I had heard of boys, and gossipped with anyone I could find who might have seen one, yet they remained elusive. To hear village girls talk, boys were everywhere, but when I came to town… naught but babes and old men to be found.

 

That made me so desperately curious!

 

A bell rang, strident and loud, followed by muffled shouts. Isolde stirred, trying to rise and fell back, heaving piteously. “I will go see…” I said, rising to go.

 

“Isolde! Unhand me!” the fool woman held me tight in those brawny arms. She wrestled me down and held me with a desperate look in her eye.

 

“Arlrmph Bellllph Bllerrrhghh!” She vomited. After a short while, the seas calmed and the bell stopped, all seemed well. Isolde relaxed her grip and seemed to begin to control her heaves.

 

“See dear Isolde, all is well, let me fetch that tea…”

 

The cabin door trembled under a terrible blow, and then again. With a splintering crash the door collapsed inward!

 

A sleek furred form rushed into the room with liquid grace, chittering fiercely. An otter-like being slithered and danced through tumbled furniture and wreckage with movements that took my breath away!

 

The creature wore an iron collar, sealed with a malevolent looking red sigil, glowing from within. In each paw, or hand the beast held a wicked curved knife. Aside from the collar, and a harness holding two empty sheaths it was nude and clearly male.

 

With a strangled warcry, Isolde dove for the creature, and fell, vomiting horribly at its feet. As Isolde lay there a shadow filled the door.

 

One massive furred hand, striped in orange and black gripped the door frame, claws the color of old ivory shredding that sturdy oak with terrifying ease. “Brrring them out. Sven, do not kill.”

 

The creature attached to that hand was even more frightening. A huge amalgam of man and tiger crouched and stepped inside, wreckage crunching under his padded feet. The massive terror held no weapon, he needed none. He was also very male and clad in only a similar collar.

 

“Come soft ones, I pity yourrr fate at the masterrr’s tentacles but we have no choice.” His voice was soothing and soft for someone so terrifying, rumbling from his massive chest like the purr of a gigantic cat.

 

He straddled Isolde’s supine form with his powerful thighs, gripping her and holding her fast. While he pinned my protector so disgracefully, he grabbed me up like a child might a doll!

 

Isolde struggled mightily, but she was no more a match for the brute than I. He clasped me in hands surprisingly gentle and handed me to Sven, trussed like a gift. He was so swift and careful, I never realized I had been neatly bound in the shredded remnants of my own robe until it was too late.

 

Sven took me in arms that, though short, were strong and warm.

 

I was paralyzed with fear, in all my eighteen years I had never been in close proximity to even a human man, now these monsters had me in their furry clutches! And yet his grip was as gentle as could be. He smelled of warm musk and good earth, a comforting smell.

 

The brutes carefully dragged Isolde and I onto the deck. Down in the hold, the crew were on their knees. My faithful companions were bound, bloodied and battered, but I loved every one of them for their courage.

 

My brave women were surrounded by a motley band of beastmen, each one unique and distinct. Cat men, dog men, ape men and more. A bat man perched upside down from the rigging, while a raven man winged past, patrolling overhead.

 

Only one of the terrible monsters wore clothing beyond weapons or gear. He was horrifying, a slick mass of squirming tentacles, protruding from the collar of a fine sea captain’s uniform. His back was to them, as he spoke to the crew in a voice as cold and cruel as the sea floor.

 

#

 

Captain Sisklikth let his tentacles squirm with glee, those semi sentient appendages knew what he liked and liked giving it to him.

The slaves cowering in the hold had better be ready. His sperm sacks were nearly bursting with new life and eager to fill these trembling human bellies with innumerable children…

 

“I am your new owner and master… the collars my crew will soon affix to you should make you biddable and beddable…” He let a bubbling giggle escape his beak, it unnerved humans so. “My little joke, I don't really care, as long as you bear my young until you burst.”

 

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The humans shuddered with delicious fear as though they were one organism, that was enchanting, this whole group seemed to share deep bonds. This was going to be delightful.

 

Lost in my thoughts, I was surprised to hear movement behind me. “Sven, Tyndal? Did you find me more pretties?”

 

When I turned I was delighted to find two more examples of the standard human female. One was large, with enormous frontal protrusions… breasts! Yes breasts, useless things, my young would consume their mother from within, as is proper. The other was smaller, almost dainty, very nice.

 

I reached out a few tentacles for the small one, just for a taste. “Master, they are not collared…!”

 

#

 

The horrid squelching thing reached its terrible tentacles for my face, I shrieked in terror.

I admit it, a wail of abject mind blasting, soul destroying fear ripped its way through my carefully conditioned and trained lungs. It rampaged across the vocal cords that master singers and orators had tuned and refined for my entire life.

 

The otter and tiger man both held their ears and roared in pain, while the bat man fell from the rigging with a frightening crash.

Most of the other beast men wailed or called in their many voices. The octopus captain trembled in his coat, bubbling with rage.

“I will plant my seed in your every orifice and laugh with joy as my young burow through your…”

 

The fearsome tiger man was still holding his ears in pain, which meant no one was holding Isolde. Someone really should have been holding Isolde. She had a temper.

 

Five perfectly manicured nails, at the ends of five smooth, ladylike fingers emerged from the octopus man’s beak. They were driven through his tough, rubbery hide from behind, by the prodigious might of my mother’s beloved bodyguard.

 

Isolde shook the monster’s remains from her hand and lunged at the otter man with the captain's still dripping beak. Wildly, the otter man slid and skipped away leaving me on the deck, still neatly trussed.

 

As the hideous octopus thrashed his last, the light on the tiger man’s collar faded, before going black.

 

All the beastmen stopped, trembling in awful pain and fear, a new wail arose as they cried out in agony.

 

I heard their voices on the wind, and in my soul as the men’s collars began to glow anew, this time with a cool blue light, a light that felt familiar and welcome. It felt like my own reflection in the eyes of a caring friend.

 

A friend like dear Isolde, weeping over my bound form and wielding the captain’s beak as a knife to cut me free. Isolde yanked me roughly to my feet and set me behind herself, still waving that monster’s beak threateningly at everyone around, while trembling with nausea.

There was no one to threaten, only I and Isolde were standing, all the others were on their knees. Even the pirates were kneeling, as I looked about they were all kneeling toward me.

 

“Isolde? What is happening?” I asked, hiding my nudity behind her broad, matronly form.

 

“I think, princess, that some wicked magic is afoot, your eyes are glowing, they shine with the same light as the collars.”

Isolde kicked the dead monster over and wrenched the fine coat from its surprisingly diminutive body. She draped the garment around me with tender care and glared in challenge at the monsters kneeling all around.

 

“Cat man, what is all this? Why are you kneeling?” I demanded, feeling certain I would be answered promptly… for some reason.

 

“The magic of the collarrrs mistrrress, binds ourrr wills to you. When your slave slew mast-... Sisklikth the debased and wrrretched, we became your prrroperty.” He banged his head to the deck and growled. “Please execute me forrr laying these filthy paws on you mistrrress, Sven begs the same.”

 

The otter man scooched forward, still face to the deck to grovel beside the tiger man.

As we spoke, my crew had seized the initiative and taken the beast men prisoner in turn. Even the flying raven man returned, remaining docile until he was taken into custody by the women of my crew.

 

The otter and tiger man remained, heads to the floor. “What is all this? Stand up!” I barked “My subjects do not grovel!” I could feel each of these men, just a little. Each one, like a tiny pleasant warmth inside my rib cage, near my heart. All grouped together, but distinct. Each one beautiful, like the men themselves… where had that thought come from?

 

Isolde was not pleased when the two beast men rose to their feet, but she knew better than to question me now. “You say you belong to me? I don’t want you!” For some reason that felt like a lie, it hurt my heart to say it.

 

They turned together, stepped to the rail and prepared to leap into the sea! “Stop!” I shouted. “Are you mad?”

 

The tiger turned and fell again to the deck, his companion followed. “Mistrrress, the magic of the collarrr will tourrrturrre us until ourrr minds brrreak and we become rrrampaging beasts. We would prrrefer death.”

 

“Remove your collars then.” I commanded. “Simply done.”

 

“The collar of Iben Ghazi can be rrremoved with no tool or hand. It is forrr life, until death mistrrress, we serrrve orrr we go mad and die in torrrment. Thus did Murreew of the papyrrrus clan become a lowly pirrrate and slave.”

 

He shifted slightly on his face to indicate his companion. “Sven is a fisherrr of the waterrrways, frrreedom is his peoples grrreatest trrreasurrre, he begs to be slain by your mighty slave.”

 

Sven chittered and barked charmingly for a moment. “Sven says, to die at the claws of she who slew that verrrmin, would be a fine death. He begs this honorrr. Please, if I might slay him if you will not. Drrrowning is a shameful death among his people.”

 

“Is this true?” I asked, knowing the truth of it in the tiny space near my heart that was Sven, so tiny and lost, so alone. I felt his honest desire for release from bondage, but still a tiny stubborn spark of hope.

 

It broke my heart to see. Even in that fractional instant it took for my newfound awareness to show me the truth. In that same instant I decided. “If you must choose, then I say this. In one month’s faithful service to me, if you wish, I will ask Isolde to execute you.” I stood tall, using all my well honed orator’s tricks. “I say to you all, until you can be freed from this bondage, or until you ask for release in death, serve me. I command you to serve one month before making that choice.”

I stood my tallest, surveyed each face, now so strangely familiar. “I have spoken.”

 

“That my dear daughter, how I became the pirate princess of the southern shoals.” I kissed her on the top of her pretty head and skrittched her lovely furry ears.

 

“I will tell you the next part tomorrow.” I said.

#

Esperanza closed the book with slow and deliberate movements. She would savor this, devouring each chapter completely before moving on.

 

Her latest find of a complete work, especially one that might be unknown, or better yet new…

The booksellers guild would go mad if she found another                                                                                                                                                                                        active author. She giggled to herself at the thought.

 

Just a single book was enough to ensure her access to the second level of the secret library, perhaps deeper if it completed some known work. If it was truly new she might be set for life.

Now that she was in the proper frame of mind… that notebook in a foriegn script brought her trunk of mystery front and center in her thoughts.

 

Most bookmongers had a box of unknown tomes. In foriegn languages or penmanship so terrible it might be a lost tongue, whatever the cause the Oaths were clear.

 

Any book that cannot be read must be gifted to someone who can read it. One must then plead for the gift of translation.

 

Every chapter, page and even paragraph that could be found or translated and contributed something new to the secret library was a treasure.

An entire volume, complete, could make a career. Another active author would make Esperanza a legend. “This one must savor chapter one again…” She murmured, snuggling into the overstuffed chair.

 

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