A Song of Askaldenfirsts and Dragons. Part seven: Gaaldalksirin

They found themselves in a room with torches. The room resembled a mixture of a bedroom and an underground prison. There was a semblance of a bed... Laylith saw seven young women of different races who were hanging chained to the wall. Suddenly, Laylith’s arms were also chained and carried to the wall, where she was magically hung up. Ansell approached her.

“You are beautiful, Laylith, and I need concubines-slaves for pleasure,” said the old elf, and smiled slyly.

“What?!” Laylith exclaimed and realized that she couldn’t move her hands or cast a spell. But Ansell, just in case, magically closed her mouth with a magical leather gag.

“You must have a lot of questions. For example, why?” Ansell said. “The answer might seem strange to you. I’m just bored. But you know what?” he got excited, took a chair and sat down in front of her. “Gaal made it harder for me. I won’t be able to control him, the tukhtaash-outlandes may or may not be able to control him, and this is very interesting!” he smiled slyly. “Gaal is the essence of fire and he is capable of killing greyskuggies. Of course, I’m a great pretender and I can suffer when necessary, obey when necessary, save when necessary, I even cry and roar like a wounded wilfhayer if necessary!” he laughed. “But you don’t expect me to tell you everything, do you? Well, all right,” Ansellellor began to cast a spell and eight plates of spoons appeared in the air right in front of the prisoners’ faces.

The magical leather gags fell on the wet stone floor. And then the spoons began to scoop the stew from the plates and bring it to the young women’s mouths. All seven obeyed, but not Laylith.

“You filthy bastard, skeshdak, I’ll cut–” Laylith shouted. Suddenly the spoon she was dodging hit her on the cheek. “What a–” the spoon slapped her cheek again, and Laylith began to turn her head from side to side, “Rakhom Kus Kadukh! Rakhom Kus Kadukh!” The fire spear spell didn’t work. Now the spoon hit her mouth, grazing her teeth, and that made Laylith angry.

“Well, have fun here, I’ll let you have a little chat, but I’ve got things to do,” Ansell said and disappeared.

“Don’t resist,” one girl said to Laylith and she looked at her and recognized her, “Chathi? How is that possible?”

“Do you know Chathi?” The girl wondered. “I’m her sister! Where is she now?”

“Sister?” Laylith asked sadly. “I won’t torment you, Chathi was killed.”

“What?! How?! ” the tukhtaash woman was shocked, and tears welled up in her eyes.

“Shut up, I’m sick of your whining, and now you’re going to cry, you filthy stupid tukhtaash!” a snunorf woman with reddish-orange hair and green eyes shouted.

“You shut your own mouth, you little slut!” Laylith shouted, and the spoon hit her on the nose.

“What did you say, ugly half-blood?” the northerner woman asked.

“Amalibertha, stop it!” said a young isters woman with a slightly triangular beautiful face and neat elongated lips, large brown eyes and straight black hair.

“Better prepare your hole for your master, Ellia!” Amalibertha shouted and opened her mouth, letting the spoon feed her.

“Bertha, you’re so annoying with your aggression!” said to her the half-isters, half-azdairik, round-faced brunette young woman with curly black hair and big dark hazel-green eyes.

“But the bastard takes me less often than you!” Amalibertha said and opened her mouth for another portion of the stew.

At that moment, the spoon that was next to Laylith hit her on the lips again.

“You need to eat. It’s not such a bad stew,” said the young arqilunian woman, she looked very young. She was with slightly elongated ears, a little smaller than arqilunian’s, the girl had almost uniform dark hair and gray-greenish eyes.

“You’re so young!” Laylith blurted out.

“I’m twenty years old,” the girl replied, “I’m not a pure-blooded arqilunian, and neither are you. My grandfather–”

“Again your grandfather!” Amalibertha snapped. “Grandfather will come, grandfather will save me, grandfather this, grandfather that. Blah, blah, blah,” and she opened her mouth for another spoon of stew.

“At least Ellanella has good memories, and what do you have, Bertha?” Ellia asked.

Chathi’s sister sobbed and ate. Laylith decided to follow her example because the spoon kept hitting her as she refused to eat, and the food was scattered all over the girl’s face and hair.

“Who killed her?” Chathi’s sister suddenly asked.

“A tukhtaash woman named Kyatkhi. But she’s not from Itskel-taash, she’s an outlander from across the ocean,” said Laylith and swallowed what was in the spoon. Not that it didn’t taste good, but Laylith wasn’t thrilled.

“Are you saying that my sister was killed by a tukhtaash woman from Taashtar?” Chathi’s sister laughed. “Let Ansell come up with something better!” she looked up and shouted, “Can you hear me, you bastard?! Come up with another story and don’t send spies to me!”

“It’s true!” Laylith was indignant. Tears welled up in her eyes. “Kyatkhi cut your sister’s throat.”

“And how did you two meet? I mean you and my sister,” the tukhtaash woman asked.

Suddenly the spoons and plates hanging in the air disappeared.

“Well, finally,” said a beautiful young azdairik woman with big brown eyes, thin eyebrows, and straight reddish brown hair.

“We met in court in Itskel-taash,” Laylith answered briefly.

“Is that the whole story?” Chathi’s sister grinned.

“No, but I want to be brief. I ran away to the Greywind Forest, fell into your city-kingdom, and Slu Tis came up to me, by the way, she’s your queen now–”

“Ha-ha-ha,” Chathi’s sister laughed, “Slu Tis is the queen of Itskel-taash?”

“Yes. Then me and my dad, my friend, and my... um... father’s friend worked in your city, and then we went to lunch or dinner, I don’t know exactly what it was. Anyway, in the dining room I was pushed by one snunorf and–”

“And he did the right thing!” Amalibertha interrupted her.

“Shut up, Bertha!” a beautiful young azdairik woman shouted at her.

“Tannah, I’ll fuck you with a stick myself when I get out of here!” Amalibertha shouted.

“What’s your name?” the arqilunian girl suddenly asked.

“My name is Laylith, and yours?”

“Ellanella, or Nella,” the arqilunian girl replied.

“And I’m Tannah,” said the beautiful young azdairik woman.

“And I’m Neika,” said another azdairik woman with upturned corners of her lips, large almost black eyes and straight hair of light and brown strands.

“I’m Kansifa, nice to meet you. Though, what’s nice about it,” the half-isters, half-azdairik said. “Evil snunorf bitch, it’s Bertha, as you understand.”

“Keep showing off, skarkeshuh, the time will come and my snunorf bitchy fist will show you what your nose should look like!” Bertha said.

“And this is Ellia,” Kansifa said, pointing with her eyes at the isters woman, and Ellia nodded to Laylith. Then Kansifa turned her head to the tukhtaash woman, “I’m so sorry, Rshana, sincerely, we’re so sorry.”

“She’s a spy, girls, can’t you see that? My sister is alive!”

“No, Rshana, Chathi is dead,” Laylith shook her head.

“I wish the old elf had left gags on us instead of listening to this annoying and idiotic talk!” Bertha said.

“How long have you been here?” Laylith suddenly asked, ignoring Bertha.

“I’ve been here nearly two years,” Tannah replied.

“And I’ve been here for two years, seven months and thirteen days, if I’m not mistaken,” Neika said.

“How do you keep count of how many days, hours have passed here?” Laylith asked.

“Well, I don’t know how many hours have passed, but it is quite easy to count the days. I just remember the date when he kidnapped me, and recently I asked him what day and month it was, and he told me,” Neika replied.

“Didn’t you try to escape?” Laylith asked another question.

“Don’t answer,” Rshana shouted, “she’s a spy!”

“Rshana, I swore to myself that I would avenge Chathi’s death! I will kill them all! I will kill our king, if he is still alive, I will kill Ansell, I will kill all the tukhtaash from Taashtar!” Laylith said with pride and anger in her voice.

Bertha laughed.

“Our king? The elf king?” Nella wondered. “Are you talking about Aelarnal Ilfelkeer DelRaddik?”

“Yes!” Laylith answered briefly. “He killed my mother!”

“Very sad,” Nella said, lowering her eyes.

“Never mind,” Laylith said hopefully and angrily, “when Gaaldalksirin finds out that the First, the one who forced him to play a terrible game and be a puppet, is keeping innocent ermirian girls in prison... Well, I guess we won’t be given the opportunity to kill Ansell, and we’ll have to settle for spitting into the ashes!”

“Did you just say Gaaldalksirin? Gaaldalksirin, the dragon?” Nella perked up. “My grandfather told me when there were two luminaries in the sky about the story of Gaal from the Ksirin clan, and then when Iglara was destroyed, he said that the dragon did it, is that true?”

“Yes,” Laylith replied.

“Do you all believe in these arqilunian dragon tales?” Bertha laughed again.

“Didn’t skeshdak tell you what was going on in Ermir?” Laylith wondered.

“No, what’s going on there?” Neika asked.

“I don’t know how to make it short,” Laylith said. “Gaal burned everything on Ermir, partly along with other dragons. Their eternal battle with the falsalvgudinas was the plan of the Firsts... Do you know who these Firsts are?”

“Grandfather said they were almost like gods, they were called barzandakors–” Nella said.

“They’re aliens from another planet,” Laylith interrupted her. “They came here because of a certain mineral. Until now, it has been difficult for me to understand this story myself. These Firsts were few in number, and they couldn’t negotiate with the local population about mining or extraction, because the extraction of the mineral meant a very severe deterioration of the soil and, as a result, deterioration of the habitat of the ermirians, agricultural fields and forests. This is understandable. But why didn’t they just start exterminating everyone? In Ermir two or three thousand years ago the arqilunians didn’t know half of modern spells or even more, the level of evolution was low, the number of ermirians themselves was many times smaller. Slavery flourished in some countries, and in general primitive culture dominated, there were various major wars in which many people died... So, the Firsts, instead of just killing everyone with magic, clearing the territory to zero, came up with various legends, stories, secrets, created or, more precisely, changed the consciousness of some snunorf women and made them powerful sorceresses and mothers of dragons. Why? What for? Intelligent evolving beings, dragons and their mothers eventually realized many things. However, Gaal, after contact with Iglara and the destruction of the star, became like an angry beast. Perhaps it was the idea of the Firsts, but now the fire dragon has regained consciousness and memory and learned what I’m telling you! And he’s not happy. His mother is dead, he realized that he’s a toy in the hands of the Firsts, and he also realized that the Firsts, or rather Ansell himself, are responsible for the fact that the greyskuggies were moved here! Greyskuggies are shadow-smokes that want to kill and eat every living creature on our planet! Well, when I get out of here, and tell Gaal what this Ansell is doing… Oh, I don’t envy the First,” Laylith said, enjoying her future victory in a way that made her happy.

“So it’s true what he said about dragons, isn’t it?” Tannah was astonished.

“Did he tell you something?” Laylith asked.

“Yes, but we didn’t believe him,” Kansifa replied.

“Don’t listen to her, you shouldn’t believe her, Rshana is right,” Bertha interjected.

Tannah looked at Laylith incredulously.

“We’ll see if she’s a spy or not,” Tannah said, “when he fucks her.”

“Fucks me?” Laylith asked irritably. “You mean when he rapes me? We’ll see about that!”

“Yes, we’ll see,” Amalibertha said excitedly.

“What do you want to say?” Laylith asked with dislike.

“He’s raping us right here and making us watch,” Tannah said.

“Every day,” Neika added.

“Lately, he only takes me,” Nella said with sadness and hopelessness.

“So have you tried to defend yourself, attack, run away? What did you do?” Laylith wondered.

“What can we do against a powerful mage? You’re chained to the wall, what can you do? Nothing!” Kansifa said. “When he does this to us, he magically moves us in these shackles to that bed over there and immobilizes us in a certain position, and then–”

Nella suddenly began to cry.

“Enough, Kansifa,” Neika said, “we see this every day, why remember this horror again?! Look what you’ve done!” And she turned to Nella, “Nella, don’t worry too much, today he probably won’t take you, and he will take Laylith, she’s a new toy for him, you know the First.”

“Thanks for the prediction!” Laylith said irritably.

“The only way to get out of here is to get pregnant!” Tannah put in.

“What?!” Laylith was surprised.

“There was a tukhtaash girl with us here, and her name was Lua Uut, and she got pregnant from Ansell. He stopped raping her at some week of pregnancy, she stopped hanging like us, he chained her in a different way. Shortly before she gave birth, he moved her somewhere,” Tannah said.

“What makes you think he didn’t kill her?” Laylith asked. “He could have waited for the birth, taken the baby and killed her. He could have killed the baby too.”

“Then why did he waste his time and favor her?” Tannah asked.

“Maybe it’s just a game for him,” Laylith explained. “Maybe the bastard likes to create a false sense of hope and he shows power so that you want him to pour his seed inside, and have his bastard suck all the energy out of you!”

Suddenly Ansell appeared, he was wearing a fur cape, and he took it off, remaining in a spacious tunic.

“Well, did you get to know each other?” he asked and smiled slyly.

“You filthy vashkhalar,” Laylith cursed, “I swear to you, you’ll die!”

“We’re all going to die someday, Laylith,” Ansell said. He glanced at her, then looked at Ellanella, “So, Nella, are you ready for a new round?”

“No, please, please, I don’t want–” Nella pleaded.

“Don’t touch her, you bastard, skeshdak!” Laylith screamed.

“Take me!” Rshana shouted. “Leave Nella alone, give her a break! Take me!”

Laylith suddenly realized how much Rshana was like her sister in self-sacrifice and nobility of spirit, kindness and compassion.

“Losharat!” Laylith shouted to the First. “Someday, if Gaal doesn’t burn you, if my father doesn’t eat you alive, I’ll gut your guts and see what the Firsts are made of!”

“Laylith, stop it, honey. I’ll play with you later, and then I’ll fulfill your request and make Lisandra out of you,” Ansell said. He could see the displeasure and fear in Laylith’s eyes. There was a bowl of fruit on the table, and the First took one and took a bite. “Oh, why are you so disappointed, little one? You wanted to be Lisandra yourself, remember? You were ready to give up your identity, yourself, and now what? Are you no longer so eager to become a powerful askaldenfirst?” he laughed.

Laylith thought it was very stupid of her to make such a decision. She liked Lisandra and she grieved that she was gone. But after all, if she becomes Lisandra, she will forget everything that had happened to her, and she wouldn’t be able to tell anyone about what Ansell did...

“I’ll make you askaldenfirst, Laylith, don’t doubt it,” Ansell decided to emphasize; he put down the fruit and rubbed his hands. “So, shall we begin, dear Nella?” and he muttered something under his breath, uttering a spell. Nella was chained to the wall of the dungeon with outstretched arms and legs, and now she began to move in this position to the bed, which was located next to the table. Ansell muttered something else under his breath, and suddenly Laylith felt a gag formed around her mouth, and her head turned strictly toward the bed, and she couldn’t move, but at least she could close her eyes. She managed to see that almost all the girls had gags... Amalibertha didn’t seem to have a gag, and neither did Nella.

The First chained Nella to the bed with magic, and then climbed on top of her and began to tear off her clothes. Nella cried.

“Bertha, begin!” Ansell ordered.

“Punish her, Daddy, that filthy creature, do to her what her grandfather should have done to her,” Bertha shouted.

And Ansell grabbed Nella, she was lying on her back with her hands chained and her legs partially raised. Laylith thought, why Nella didn’t grab him by the neck with her legs? It was almost possible; perhaps the chains on her legs were shorter than Laylith had thought... Ansell threw off his tunic and pulled down his pants and he entered Nella, and Nella sobbed even louder.

“This creature should be punished for its racial impurity! Yes, that’s right daddy. Fuck her good, beat the shit out of her!” Bertha continued.

Laylith tried to scream, “Shut up, bitch, shut up, shut up!” But she couldn’t.

Finally, Ansell poured his seed inside poor Nella and got off her.

“Now lift your ass up, darling, let the seed flow deep,” Ansell said, “you want to go back and see grandpa again, don’t you, Nella?”

Ellanella didn’t answer, but did as he said. Ansell dispel the magical gags and the girls’ partial paralysis. Laylith felt some freedom; she felt tears welling up in her eyes.

“I’ll fucking kill you!” Laylith said, “You’ll beg me to put your miserable little cock in your mouth!” And she shouted, “You will beg, you vile skeshdak, creature, losharat!”

“See you tomorrow, girls,” Ansell said and disappeared.

“Amalibertha, you vashkhalar, you–” Laylith stammered, when she saw that the northerner turned away, trying to hide her tears.

“Laylith, Bertha is mocking us on purpose so that it won’t hurt her to play her role,” Rshana said. “Tell me honestly, is my sister really dead?”

“Yes,” Laylith replied. And Rshana nodded, but she didn’t cry anymore.