Innocent (4 page)

Again and again they came together, in combinations ever more lewd and intimate, indifferent to status or taboos, all three nude but for boots. Drunk and dirty, slimy with each other's juices and their own, they were lost to everything except the pleasure of each other's bodies. Cianna had even mounted Aeisla's face, eyes shut in bliss as her tuppenny and bottom ring where licked, when the demon lurched, banking steeply, to send them sprawling across the cage.

Cianna screamed in shock. as her shoulder hit the edge of the cage. Wood snapped. She clutched at a spar, almost upside down, hearing Sulitea's scream of command, jolted, screaming again as the spar snapped in her hand, falling, striking the leathery surface of the demon's wing, which rose, squirming beneath her and she was rolling, clutching at the wing, then at nothing, screaming, tumbling through air, jolted hard, and still, in blackness.

She lay dazed, too shocked to moved, vaguely aware of the cries of Sulitea and Aeisla, then the thunderous crash of the demon's wingbeat, once, twice and no more. Only slowly did awareness of her surroundings penetrate. The darkness, not absolute, but with the pale crescent of a small moon showing above her, and clouds scudding across a starlit sky. She was on hard earth, in long grass, which a fresh wind whipped against her bare skin. There was scent too, grass seed, animal dung, and something else, something as familiar as it was horrifying. The musk of goblins.

It was gone as soon as it had come, snatched away on the wind. Still it was enough to drag her from her shock, her mind full of awful images of what would happen if she was caught. Images of being dragged down and ravished where she lay, with their grotesque cocks in every hole, to be left sperm sodden and in all likelihood pregnant. With her fear rising quickly, she scrambled through the grass, feeling before her in the hope of shelter, near to panic, only to stop, realising the futility of her actions. Forcing herself to calm, she took a firm grip on her necklace

For a moment she considered calling for Sulitea and Aeisla, only to decide that her voice would either be lost on the wind, that or summon the goblins or some yet worse beasts. Besides, the demon had flown on, she was sure of it, and equally sure that they would search for her in the morning. Deciding to stay still, she curled her body into a tight ball, praying to her ancestors that she could come through the night unharmed.

Chapter Two

As dawn came up Cianna found herself in a world of grass and rock and air, a wide open hillside, with the sighing wind whipping at her skirts and sending broken cloud scudding across the sky. To all sides was a sea of long yellow-green grass, stretching to the haze of horizon, broken only by jagged pinnacles of grey rock and the vast double peak in the distance, with its ragged plume of smoke. Of the demon, Sulitea and Aeisla there was no sign, save an area of flattened grass, and at one place twin gouges in the black earth of the hill. No trace of human habitation was visible, not so much as a hut or a track

Her first thought was to wait, convinced that they would return for her, but as the sun rose into the sky she became ever less hopeful. Of Sulitea's faith she had no doubt, but other thoughts began to intrude, of disaster, with the demon dissipating a thousand feet above the ground, or of capture, with the girls stunned from their rough landing, and taken, gagged and bound before they could resist. The first did not bear thinking about, the second suggested that she herself should seek out people and hope to be brought together again. The more likely choice, that they had simply lost her in the darkness and confusion, suggested she look for a village or at least a house.

Finally deciding that it was pointless to sit waiting in the grass any longer, she got up, brushed herself down and set off, walking down the slope. As she entered a sheltered dip she once more caught the scent of goblins. Quickly fighting down the immediate pang of lust the scent brought her, she left it for more open ground where she would be able to run before the smell of their musk overcame her. With her need for shelter growing ever more urgent, she began to hurry, yet when the irregular shape of a horse and rider finally appeared far out across the grass, she felt as much fear as relief.

The fear grew as the rider changed direction, clearly having seen her. She stopped, waiting, one hand over her sex in an instinctive gesture of protection and concealment, the other working at her necklace. He came closer, and she realised that his face and hands were dark, and grey-black, the colour of charcoal. She almost ran, only to remember that Sulitea had said the people of the south were dark skinned and hold herself. He also seemed small, and was certainly thin, as if poorly fed.

Pulling the horse to a stop a good hundred paces from Cianna, the man dismounted. She watched, cautiously, as he dug in his saddle bag. Pulling out what appeared to be a leaf, he unrolled it, revealing a dark shape. He approached, holding out the brown lump, his face set in a crafty leer. Cianna caught a scent on the breeze, sweet and rich, like honey. Instinctively she licked her lips and the man's grin grew broader.

‘Here, my pretty,' he said. ‘I have toffee, fine sweet toffee, for you.'

‘Food?' Cianna answered. ‘Thank you, you are kind.'

‘You speak?' the man said, his expression immediately changing to surprise, mingled with disappointment.

‘I speak,' Cianna confirmed, struggling to comprehend his accent but catching the meaning easily enough.

‘You are no nymph then. A half-breed? An albino?'

‘None of these. I am Cianna, a human girl, shipwrecked on your coast.'

‘Shipwrecked? We are fifty leagues from the sea!'

Cianna shrugged, not knowing what to say.

‘You are no Makean, that is plain,' he went on. ‘Nor from any land I know. How is it that your skin is white and your hair red?'

‘How is it that you skin is the colour of burnt wood and your hair black as coal?' Cianna responded.

The man looked puzzled, then laughed, holding out the toffee once more.

‘You are human, that is plain,' he said. ‘You may as well have this anyway.'

‘Anyway?' Cianna asked, taking it cautiously and sniffing at it.

‘It's not poisoned,' the man said. ‘It was to stop your teeth while I fucked you.'

‘You mean to fuck me?'

‘I did, naturally. What else would I do with some strange nymph hybrid? I think I might anyway.'

‘You might?' Cianna responded. ‘You want to ravish me?'

‘What's to stop me?'

‘You are small, and seem undernourished. Are you sure you could achieve me?'

‘Not for certain, no. What say we fuck anyway? It has been a month since I have seen a woman.'

‘Why would I wish to fuck with you?'

‘You might not, granted, so let me express myself another way. I have shelter, and there are goblins hereabouts, living in crevices beneath the tors. You have smelt them perhaps?'

Cianna nodded.

‘And you know what goblins do to girls like you, don't you?'

Again Cianna nodded.

‘Just so. And if in the day you can escape them, they'll get you tonight. They can smell human cunt just as you can smell their musk. Once they catch you, you won't be able to resist for a moment, will you? No, you'll be sucking and jerking at them like a greedy little slut, and flaunting yourself for their attention. Think, fat green cocks well up your cunt, your arsehole too, until every one has had his fill. Then they'll drag you down underground for further use, fucked and buggered in some dank earth lined chamber, fed on worms and goblin sperm…'

‘Very well, you may have me in return for shelter,' Cianna babbled quickly.

‘A wise choice,' he answered, dropping the toffee down on a rock, ‘and if we are to enjoy each other's bodies, we should know each other's names. I am Gaidrhed, a goatherd, admittedly of no great consequence.'

‘Cianna,' she replied, ‘a lady's maid.'

‘And well trained in the art of licking cunt, no doubt,' he said. ‘A good thick cock will make a change, I'm sure. Now down on all fours with you, I like my mates that way.'

Cianna went down, reluctantly, kneeling among the long grass. Gaidrhed wasted no time on preliminaries, simply lifting his smock and pulling open the flap of his crude leather trousers to flop out his cock and balls. She opened her mouth, expecting to be made to suck him hard, but he ignored the offer, stepping up to her and pushing down on the small of her back to make her flaunt her bottom.

‘Well, you have the shape of a girl, and the smell of a girl,' he said as he sank to his knees behind her. ‘But your skin, so pale! Even the hair of your cunt is red! Strange indeed, not that it will stop you from getting your fucking. Now, hold still, and a touch lower. Your legs are inconveniently long.'

Resignedly, Cianna spread her knees, opening and lowering her sex. He hawked and spat, his phlegm catching her full on her sex, between the folds of her tuppenny. A moment later his cock touched her, rubbing the spittle between her lips and over her hole. He was jerking at it too, his knuckles brushing at her inner thighs and catching her clitoris to draw an involuntary moan from between her lips.

‘That's better, is it not?' he said. ‘There is nothing quite to equal a stiff cock in the right place now, is there?'

As he spoke he prodded his near erect cock to her hole, pushing it in. Cianna sighed as she felt herself fill, then braced herself as his hands closed in the soft flesh of her hips. He began to fuck her, using long, slow strokes, his thin body slapping against her buttocks. She looked back, finding his eyes glued to her bottom, watching his cock move in her hole. It was getting faster as he quickly became more urgent, the pushes jammed her forward into the grass and making her pant and sigh.

‘Not in me, please,' she said.

He made a wry face, and went on fucking her, faster, harder, only to suddenly jerk his cock from her body. Tugging at it hard, he sent a spurt of come across her bottom and the small of her back. Cianna reached behind herself, using her thumb to wipe the mess off her skin and flicking it away into the grass. Gaidrhed was already on his feet, squeezing his cock back into his trousers.

‘So,' he said, ‘you have earned your shelter. My hut is nearby.'

‘Thank you,' she said, grudgingly, as she got to her feet. ‘Might I have something to cover myself? Also some of your confection?'

‘Do. There is a blanket on the horse. So, what land are you from, and how did you come to Makea.'

‘On a ship, as I said,' Cianna answered, frantically trying to decide on her story and remember what Sulitea had told her. ‘A Cypraean longship.'

‘I have seen ships, once,' he answered. ‘When I travelled to Kefra, on the coast. I would not wish to set a foot on one. Here, among the high grassland is my place. The open sky, the wide plain, the call of my goats. Here are things I understand.'

He went on, Cianna glad of his garrulity and seldom replying. With her wrapped in a coarse blanket and mounted behind him on the horse, they rode west. Cianna ate toffee and listened to him casually describing how he had intended to catch a wild nymph and fuck her while her teeth were sticky with the toffee. He laughed as he talked, apparently assuming her approval of an act which if done in Boreal would have been thought highly perverse.

For over an hour they rode, across the open grassland, then down, into a shallow valley in which grew a straggle of trees unfamiliar to Cianna. Gaidrhed turned the horse, towards a hut not unlike the longhouses of her own village, built of stone and thatched with grass. Two goats peered from the doorway.

‘My hut,' he declared. ‘So, this evening you may cook for me, and I will fuck you once more, perhaps twice. Then I will decide what to do with you.'

‘I have friends,' Cianna answered cautiously. ‘Somewhere.'

‘Citizens?'

‘No. Others from the ship.'

‘They are not here. I am.'

He pulled the horse to a stop and jumped down, helping Cianna with a hand beneath the meat of her bottom. She made no objection, but allowed him to fondle her briefly before she was sent into the house with a smack to one buttock while he went to tend to the horse. Inside it was much as she had expected, a long room, the lower part of which served as shippen, the other for Gaidrhed's storage and work. A crude ladder led up to a square opening in the plank ceiling, which she climbed, finding a long room, sparsely furnished, with a single window looking out over the hills. There was a pallet on the floor, made of tied bundles of grass and spread with goat skins, which she sat down on, hunched into the blanket, feeling worried and very alone.

Eventually Gaidrhed returned, as talkative as ever. Cianna listened half-heartedly, all the while trying to decide what she should do. When he once more demanded that she get down on her knees she obeyed without hesitation, letting him fuck her from behind. Food followed, course bread and a pungent soup, which she heated over a peat fire. Having finished, he produced a bottle of arrack. Once he had become thoroughly drunk he fucked her again, and a last time as they lay together on the pallet, with the scent of goats and the drink strong in Cianna's nostrils.

Cianna awoke to the unfamiliar smell and the feel of the coarse hair of Gaidrhed's skins. For a moment there was confusion, to be replaced by a deep sense of loneliness as full awareness sank in. Gaidrhed was gone, but she could hear movement in the room below. Rolling onto her back, she lay staring at the crude beams above her, their surfaces glistening black with age in the brilliant sunlight.

Her situation seemed entirely hopeless. She was lost in a strange land, friendless, save for those who wanted to amuse themselves with her body, and without protection. There was still faith in Sulitea, who she knew would expect her to continue as they had planned, alone or not. Yet Gaidrhed seemed unlikely to know any deep secrets, or indeed anything beyond the running of his tiny farmstead, which was all he had spoken of. It was easier to wait, and hope Sulitea and Aeisla came to find her.

She was still undecided when Gaidrhed's head appeared in the hatch leading from the lower room. He climbed up, a bucket in his hand, which he held out. Cianna saw that it was half full of goat's milk, and took a grateful swallow, until he pulled it back.

‘There,' he declared, setting down the bucket, ‘that is the important work done. Now, you may see to my morning erection.'

As he spoke he had pulled up his smock, exposing a half stiff cock. The garment came off, over his head, and he was nude, save for his boots, which he left on as he climbed aboard the pallet. With a sigh of resignation Cianna spread her thighs.

‘Over,' he demanded, ‘arse up.'

Cianna gave another, deeper sigh, but rolled onto her front, lifting her bottom for penetration. He mounted her immediately, and began to rub, squirming his cock against her sex lips. In no time he was fully hard, and he popped it inside her, fucking at a steady pace and pawing her bottom. She made herself comfortable, parting her thighs to let him have the best angle and supporting herself on her elbows to let her breasts hang. He took a brief grope, then went back to fondling her bottom.

‘A rare treat,' he grunted, ‘soft and full and fat, breasts and bottom too, if a trifle loose in the cunt.'

‘My tuppenny is not loose!' Cianna protested.

‘By what I am used to your are loose,' he insisted. ‘Now quite, and let me get the scent of you.'

He moved his hands, spreading her buttocks with his thumbs and drawing in his breath happily. She caught her own scent, rich and female, bringing back the taste and smell of her mistress' sex to her, and Aeisla's too. The thought brought a fresh pang of loneliness, and worry, making it impossible to enjoy the fucking. If Gaidrhed noticed he gave no sign, poking merrily away at her hole until at last he gasped, pulled out his cock and sprayed come across her upturned buttocks.

‘That I enjoyed,' he stated, as he climbed from the pallet. ‘You are less tight than a goat, perhaps, but you smell better, look better and you struggle less.'

‘A goat!?' Cianna demanded.

‘I am a goatherd, as you know,' Gaidrhed replied mildly. ‘Now, today we visit the town of Ketawa, and Ikail's slave market.'