Slaves of Elysium (26 page)

Jeni felt her heart pounding as her stomach did flip-flops, yet at the same time she was overcome by a strange sense of distance from herself, as though she could not quite believe what was happening. She was going to be sold... she was going to be sold...

She looked at Rebecca, but saw only an expression of steely determination on her face. She was going to attract the best buyer in the hall and this was no time for mere nerves to trouble her.

They were led along the short passage under the dais, passing a newly sold girl being brought back, to the small room that held the lifts. They were put on two platforms side by side. The fields took hold of their cuffs and they were stretched out ready.

From above came the muffled voice of the auctioneer. His bell chimed an end to the bidding. A ring of light opened up in the ceiling as a lift platform descended with the previous lot, now the property of some lucky bidder just a little way above them.

‘And now, lot number one two seven. A rare pair of barbarian girls...'

And they were carried up into the light.

Jeni felt hundreds of eyes upon her, as well as the cold lenses of the tiny camera's that were displaying her every intimate detail on the large screens. But she could see nothing more than a dim blur because of the lights shining upon her. At that moment the only person who seemed to exist in the whole world was the auctioneer.

‘Two golden-haired girls from a distant land shipwrecked on our shores, this is “Rebecca” and this is “Jeni”. Fully medically certified, broken in and trained to perfection as a pair, they are ready to serve the will of some fortunate master or mistress.'

Jeni and Rebecca were synchronously rotated within their confining frames. The auctioneer lifted and squeezed their breasts and patted their behinds as they turned about like pieces of meat on spits. When they stopped again he drew out their long golden tresses and let it slide though his fingers.

‘This rare tint is certified to be their own natural colour, as is this...' he ran his fingers over their pubes, fluffing up their curls. ‘Beauty, wild mystery and grace combined. Be the envy of your friends. I shall start the bidding for this most unusual pair at five hundred crowns.'

And he rang his bell.

Six hundred, six-fifty, seven.

Jeni was trembling with excitement. She had never felt anything like this before. She saw Rebecca's face lit up with strange hunger, feeding on the perverse thrill of being sold like an animal, the focus of every eye in the building; the object of their desire yet already priced beyond most of their means. They were important, valued, helpless.

A slight pause, then the bidding rose to eight hundred, eight-fifty, eight-sixty, seventy.

‘Are we done?' the auctioneer asked the audience. ‘Perhaps you think being barbarians they will not respond as normal girls? Shall we test them?'

And he slipped the rubber tip of his stick, already stained with a hundred girls' juices, into Jeni's wet cleft, turned and lifted...

Ahh! A thrill of pure pleasure coursed through her as he touched her in exactly the right spot; releasing her pent-up excitement in a rush only just short of orgasmic. The screens relayed every flutter of her eyelids and the sudden ecstatic drop of her jaw.

Eight eighty, eight ninety...

The auctioneer's stick parted Rebecca's labia. As he touched her spot she groaned aloud, then gasped out in a clear voice, ‘Buy us, masters, please. I beg to be owned!'

For a moment the auctioneer stared at her. Slaves did not speak on the block.

Then a card was raised high above the heads of the other bidders. ‘A thousand crowns!'

A murmur of surprise rose up. The auctioneer spun round startled, saw who had made the bid and quickly rang his bell.

‘Sold: to card number one eight seven... Councillor Adamasees.'

‘Made it!' Rebecca exclaimed softly.

 

 

 

Apart from the slap of Jeni and Rebecca's sandals on the smoothly rolled gravel, the carriage glided silently along the narrow tree-lined lane. Adamasees Lorthon was making a tour of his estate, while also testing the stamina of his new purchases.

He sat in a reclining seat supported by the light frame of the small carriage, which mostly comprised the levitator unit and power pack. A central shaft ran forward, at the end of which was slotted through a crossbar that pinned to the backs of the broad harness belts the two girls now wore. Their arms were in turn crooked behind and around the crossbar and then drawn forward to where their wrist cuffs were chained to the front of their belts. Adamasees preferred this method of harnessing, as he felt it secured the girl more rigidly to the frame of the carriage.

Jeni and Rebecca were both dressed in Adamasees livery. Their golden cuffs and chastity belts bore the Adamasees crest, which was replicated by the indelible transfers that decorated the smooth skin of their upper left buttocks and, in smaller scale, their right cheeks. The seal even appeared on the clasps of their sandals and the gold filigree cups enclosing their breasts, which controlled their lively bobbing while they ran.

Their heads were enclosed in light bridles without bits, which Adamasees felt interfered with their breathing too much for serious work. Instead they were fitted with flat hooks that went around the corners of their mouths and down the inside of their cheeks. These kept their mouths lightly but attractively stretched and also reminded them of their status, while allowing free passage of air.

The rest of the bridles comprised decorative strap work, as there were no reins attached to them to transmit his commands. Instead Adamasees had a small joystick control under his right hand, which was linked to controller units built into the girls' breast cups and chastity belts. Fine sprung metal contacts lay across the curves of their buttocks. Pushing the joystick forward caused them to deliver shocks that closely mimicked the sting of a whip and encouraged them to go faster. Contact rods inserted in their vaginas gave a shock when the joystick was pulled back and warned them to slow down. Direction was taken care of via their breast cups, where stinging pricks on either their left or right nipples indicated which way they were to turn. Naturally the further and more rapidly Adamasees moved the joystick translated into a greater intensity of shock.

Despite their barbarian upbringing, the pair had learned to respond to the commands after only a few demonstrations. Adamasees conceded it might be the result of good training at the House of Remnos, and thought he would recommend the establishment to his friends.

And so Adamasees Lorthon glided along the estate road, contentedly watching the rolling buttocks of his newest slaves, their golden plats flying out behind them.

 

Jeni delighted in the sensation of running in the open air, yet within the firm comforting confinement of her harness. Pulling one of the gliding carriages took effort, of course, but nothing like as much as it would have taken to move a wheeled vehicle of similar weight.

She had no idea how the lifting force operated, but it was as though the body of the carriage was running on invisible frictionless rails that held it straight and level. They had soon discovered that once they got up to speed they could lift their legs a little and let their harness support most of their weight through the main shaft. The carriage did not tip forward at all, and they could take longer, more leisurely strides, exerting just enough force to maintain a steady pace while moving with an unearthly grace. It felt like they were travelling in a dreamlike swoop along the road.

Of course the Elysians did not need to use muscle power to propel their carriages, but there was something intriguing about this combination of the basic and highly advanced. Obviously Elysians still maintained their ties with the past, as made evident by the lifestyle of their new owners.

After a few days Jeni felt she had the measure of Lorthon and Vandra Adamasees. Very simply, they were rich people who enjoyed the advantages of their wealth to the full, and liked others to know it. Fortunately, from the point of view of a pleasure slave, they were easy enough to please in bed if they got what they wanted, and Jeni silently thanked Mistress Kara once again for training her so thoroughly. In fact the couple were rather unimaginative, and they had been pleasantly surprised by some of the little tricks she and Rebecca demonstrated.

The house servants clearly knew they were currently their employers' favourites, so they were treated with as much respect and consideration as slaves could ever expect. The only slight show of resentment had come from Leta and Keta, the twin girls who had been the Adamasees' former favourite slaves.

Jeni and Rebecca now slept in what had been the twins' special basket at the foot of their owners' bed, while Leta and Keta had been relegated to some outside kennel. But there was nothing the pair could do about it while Jeni and Rebecca remained popular.

Though she knew it was not her fault, this simmering antagonism pricked Jeni's conscience, and she determined to try to get on good terms with the twins if at all possible.

But unfortunately she had little opportunity for bridge building, as their owners wanted them at their sides almost constantly. For now she would just have to enjoy the simple pleasure of pulling the magical carriage.

They stopped at a couple of outlying farmhouses, apparently part of the Adamasees' estate, where Lorthon was received with every sign of respect. Rebecca clearly enjoyed looking over the rich farmland, as it confirmed her original assessment of their new owners.

While Lorthon went inside one of the properties and they were left hobbled and unattended under an awning, Rebecca said, her voice slightly slurred by her bridle hooks, ‘Look at all this land! Lorthon and Vandra are loaded!'

To Jeni's ears it seemed as though Rebecca was already assuming a personal share in the estate, instead of being merely one of its owners' chattels. ‘Well make the most of it while it lasts,' she warned her.

‘What do you mean?'

‘The Adamasees' are pretty shallow. You can tell they don't form deep attachments to their slaves. We're just their latest toys. One day we'll be replaced by somebody new, and then we'll be put out with the twins, or sold on.'

Rebecca blinked. ‘I know that. Do you think I'm stupid? But while they're showing us off to everybody I mean to impress. When the time comes somebody else will want us, maybe with even better connections. I've seen it happen. We don't get old here remember? I can wait a year or two for things to work out.'

‘We may not get old, but we might go out of fashion,' Jeni pointed out.

‘Blondes never go out of fashion,' Rebecca said confidently.

Jeni did not reply. She was thinking of Cath and Narvok Tem, and the indulgences he obviously permitted her. Cath had been with him for a quarter of a century.

A lot of marriages did not last that long. It had to be something special, something more than a comfortable familiarity between master and servant. Had Cath found the right person for her? It gave Jeni hope that somewhere in Elysium was the perfect master or mistress for her – somebody who would not care about the latest slave fashions, but would want her for herself.

They arrived back at the Adamasees' country residence shortly after midday. It was the size of a mansion and more open than city houses, its wings spreading comfortably out from a central domed hall. The only echo of the feudal past was the high wall that surrounded its spacious grounds.

Trotting the girls round to the stable, Lorthon was met by his wife who had been supervising the garden slaves.

‘How did they run?' Vandra asked, stroking the girls' sweating flanks.

‘Well. And so they should for what they cost. Still, it's good to know they're more than just decorative.'

His wife laughed. ‘And pleasurable. You had no complaints about their service last night. How many times did you come in Jeni?'

‘All right, my dear, I take your point. I suppose they were worth the money.'

‘They were. And now we must show them off properly. I thought we would make a start by taking them to next week's games.'

‘Oh, what's on the programme?'

‘It doesn't matter. Everybody who counts will be there.'

Rebecca's nipples pricked up. They were going to be shown off to society.

 

They travelled to the games in the Adamasees' private flying disk, Jeni and Rebecca kneeling beside Lorthon and Vandra in a covered compartment behind the driver. Unlike Syndor's disk it kept to the roads, gliding along high enough to pass over any ground traffic. Jeni wondered if only the military were allowed to travel freely overland.

The road curved round the city to the stadium, which lay just outside the walls of Ceroth. It was a huge oval arena that reminded Jeni of a reconstruction she had seen of the Roman coliseum in its heyday. Jeni began to wonder just what sort of ‘games' they were going to watch.

As they got closer she saw a swarm of people heading for the stadium, along the road from the nearest city gate, travelling either on foot or by floating carriage. There seemed to be thousands of them. Clearly the games were very popular.