Within a very short space of time the effects of Lady Athelnia’s cruel little piece of equipment would make themselves known. In my cell that second night my mind was filled with thoughts of her. It would not be unfair to have said that the combined effects of her feminine beauty and her unusual black leather outfits had served to mesmerise me. There was little doubt in my mind that the more primitive people of my own province would have characterised her as a witch for what they would have seen as this spell that she cast over me and would have ascribed to her supernatural powers. The fact that she was a woman with power would have been quite sufficient in itself to have condemned her. Had they the opportunity she would have been tried, found guilty and sentenced to either burning at the stake or thrown bound hand and foot into a village pond, either sentence having the same outcome.
This difference of attitudes underlined the source of the ongoing conflict between our two provinces. My own was a fiercely patriarchal one where women were regarded merely as chattels to be owned by their fathers or husbands whereas Schranzenberg had allowed women to both own property and to cast their votes in democratic province elections. for nearly a century. Subsequently I would also learn that the story that my fellow captive had told of crucifixion and butchery of captives was entirely made up. These tales were propagated to maintain the loyalty and ferocity of our soldiers, without regard as to whether they might be true or not. The reality of the situation would soon dawn on me. All that I had been taught about this place over the years was untrue, Schranzenberg was a progressive society whose people seemed happier than in the repressive one that I had grown up in.
Whatever the truth about my owner one thing was for certain, I was totally taken by her beauty. The women of my homeland with their dowdy clothes and close cropped hair hidden beneath the ubiquitous headscarves that the primitive laws laid down as mandatory for their sex were no match for this high born lady in her beautifully crafted hand made boots and her meticulously tailored leather outfits that now created so much lust in my securely locked loins would have scandalised our parish elders. Not only in terms of the amount of female flesh they displayed would her fashions be anathema but also with their implications of feminine power that they suggested. This of course didn’t help me at all in regard to the metal harness that now held my genitals in such a cruel and unyielding embrace. Any thought of Lady Athelnia that entered my head prompted a strong erection that merely served to heighten my frustration as the cage prevented any further expansion, or indeed satisfaction, of my desires.
The second morning of my captivity unfolded with yet more revelations. My owner unlocked the cell in which I had spent the night and I was led into the great hall once again. Whilst she partook of breakfast in her usual manner, seated at the huge dining table. Mine was placed in a pewter bowl and placed on the floor at her feet. This represented a significant change from being fed in the castle kitchen but served to signify our respective positions. I was being treated in much the same manner as an animal might be but strangely I wasn’t finding this disagreeable in any way, it was almost as if I was a valued pet. I noticed as I ate that the lady wore different boots today. These ones, still made of the finest black leather polished to a high sheen were a conventional riding boot without the tapered heel although with the same criss crossed lacings from instep to the knee where they were tied with neat bows. Once we had completed breakfast my mistress handed me a pair of shorts made of some rough black material and a heavy black leather collar.
” You will wear these at all times except when we are alone when you will remain naked. Apart from the collar, which signifies my right of ownership over you and underlines your status as my slave, do you understand?”
I looked her in the eyes and replied ” Of course mistress.”
” Good, I am pleased that we understand one another. It does make things so much easier when a slave accepts his position. There is nothing more tiresome than a man who fights against his inevitable submission, they all accept it in the fullness of time even if that acceptance is only under the duress of my whip.”
I slipped the shorts on over my cock, still straining against it’s cage, having been provoked once more by the cold eroticism of her words and Lady Athelnia examined the fit, declaring that they would serve the purpose of ensuring that I appeared decent whilst in public. She buckled the collar around my neck and attached a leash, an action that seemed to have a further effect on my cock that now strained against it’s confinement still more. She drew on her leather gloves and, taking the leash, led me from the castle, this time on the opposite side from that which we had originally arrived after my sale in the slave auction. This aspect was completely different. The castle had been constructed on the top of a steep cliff with a panoramic view of a wide sandy bay that stretched out for possibly a full league to either side. It was obvious that such a position would be easily defensible from any attempt to invade from this direction and consequently the battlements were much less substantial. Only a single narrow winding path led down to the beach where a calm blue sea lapped the shore gently far across the wide expanse of flat golden sand. The beach was dotted with timber pillars to which fishing boats were moored, lying on their sides as the tide was fully out.
” Of course you do have a choice of sorts as to how your life will pan out from this point onwards.”
I looked up quizzically towards my mistress, unsure of exactly where this was leading. She continued.
” Well the obvious way is that you will go to one of my farms where you will be put to work under one of my overseers. It will be hard, often backbreaking work. They are of necessity cruel men and you will be worked hard and treated harshly and have very little reward apart from basic food. That will be the way your life will progress for maybe thirty or forty years…or.”
She left the rest silent. Eventually I looked up into her face and she continued.
” If you wish to cooperate with my desires completely your life could be very much different from that. Better food and living conditions possibly even the occasional opportunity for sexual release.”
I nodded slowly, interested to now hear what she had to say.
” You may have noticed that I am a very keen horsewoman. It is something that I have known ever since childhood. But just riding, as pleasant as that is at times isn’t really much of a challenge. No, the real test is to hunt. And to hunt one needs a suitable quarry. A quarry that is quick, intelligent, cunning even. The province really has no other suitable hunting areas and the ultimate quarry is a human, so my proposal is that you should become my quarry. That will be your sole purpose. Should you agree the hunts will take place twice a week and should you evade capture for an agreed length of time you will earn privileges. You are clearly a fit man with good stamina, that is partly the reason I kept you in shackles for the journey to my castle from the auction, a test that you passed satisfactorily. I also think that you have a natural intelligence that will make you a challenging quarry that I would enjoy hunting.”
I considered what she had said. It certainly seemed a better prospect than working on a farm for decades. And if I was honest with myself the prospect of being wanted by this woman, even though not in a sexual way, appealed to me very strongly.
” If I may enquire mistress, what happens if I fail to evade capture for that length of time?”
Her smile was wistful but inscrutable as she considered my question.
” Success brings you privileges and therefore of course failure must also bring penalties. Should you be captured within the specified period of time then there would be some form of punishment. That way you will have the necessary motivation to make sufficient effort to ensure that the hunt will be entertaining. Any punishment for your failure would be decided by me and of course there would be no resort to any appeal. I will allow you the next twenty four hours to decide and give me your answer. Should you decide not to accept then you will be shipped out to one of my farms immediately. “
Her suggestion did possess a certain attraction to me and it also avoided the prospect of spending the remainder of my life merely as a forced labourer. In a way it would be a bit like a sporting contest and it also offered the prospect of escape. I knew from those trips along the coastline on my grandfather’s fishing boat that beyond the wide sweep of the bay that we now stood looking over there was another of a similar size, beyond which was a wooded area that adjoined the border of my own province. Should I make it as far as those woods it would then be a quite simple matter to find my way back home.
It was at this point that I decided to take up her offer saying.
” Yes mistress, I have made up my mind I will accept your terms.”
Lady Athelnia smiled somewhat enigmatically as we turned away from the cliff. I was led towards a low building that nestled just inside the castle walls. This was Lady Athelnia’s personal stables where she kept the grey stallion that had been her mount on the journey back from the slave auction as well as two other horses. But it was not her horses that she had brought me to see. I was led to the rear of the stable block where a heavy oak door opened onto a stone staircase. Wall sconces with flickering candles illuminated our spiralling descent, the air growing colder as we went down.
” This is part of the old castle, it was much smaller when this was In use.”
At the bottom of the staircase another heavy door barred our way. My mistress lit a taper from one of the sconces and turned the big iron key in the lock. The door swung open and we went inside. She used the taper to light four more candles that cast a small amount of light around this subterranean room. As the darkness was alleviated the nature of this place became clear.
” This was the old castles’s torture chamber. When the original castle was first built torture was still legal and common practice in Schranzenberg, a normal part of the interrogation process whenever prisoners were taken. But then it was realised that they would tell you anything that you wanted to hear under duress and it was outlawed at the end of the last century. This place hasn’t been used for almost forty years but I wouldn’t rule out bringing you here should your efforts at evading capture not meet entirely with my approval. Maybe a quick tour might impress upon you the necessity of providing an entertaining hunt.”
She now ordered me down onto my knees in the centre of the room. I felt the cold stone of the dungeon floor against my flesh, an iron hook suspended on a chain hung down from the ceiling above my head. A shudder ran through me as I imagined what had taken place inside this room over the past three centuries. I could imagine the screams of the torturer’s victims as all manner of unspeakable atrocities had been inflicted upon them. The place now stood silent, the flickering of the flames of the candles the only movement. I cast my eyes around. I noticed in one corner a rusting iron barred body cage, it’s hinged front hanging open as if ready to receive it’s next victim. A wall rack was hung with a variety of pieces of equipment, all designed either for the confinement or the torture of the human body. The thought crossed my mind that the place didn’t look as if it hadn’t been used for four decades.
I felt her watching me, taking in my reaction to my surroundings, wondering if I might be spooked by the atmosphere, using a form of psychology to undermine me. I felt a determination to see it through rising within me. I would accept the challenge and become her prey. The clear implication of her showing me this room was that this would be the place where I would end up at the completion of the hunt. It was a thought that filled me with a mix of fear and excitement, both looking forward to and dreading that first hunt.
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