The Maze (4 page)

“The Strong Man must hunt down, capture, and conquer one of the Trained Ones before the time limit is up.  He must convince her to submit without harming her.”  The announcer paused and grinned wickedly after he said the word ‘convince’, and smiles and chuckling could be heard from the crowd.

“He must find a way to defeat her and make her speak the code to his belt.  That code will free him of his tethers.  To claim his prize, the Strong Man must carry his conquered woman through the exit of the Maze before time runs out.  His reward is the female and permission to breed. Should any of the Trained Ones be harmed or disfigured by him, the Strong Man will be sent immediately to the mines.”

“He will lose the game if he fails to capture a Trained One, if he captures a Trained One but she refuses to unlock his cage before the game ends, or if he leaves the maze without conquering one of the Trained Ones.  If he loses, he is at the mercy of the Elders. He will meet an, uh, unpleasant circumstance,” the announcer said as he grabbed his crotch, laughing, “And at best, he becomes a Trainer to the females or is given a place to serve in society.  If the elders are unimpressed with his performance, he is sent to the mines for the rest of his pathetic life.”

The hundreds of thousands in the crowd booed loudly.

The announcer grinned.  “For a female to gain True Freedom, giving her the right to decide whether or not she will breed at all, she must kill the Strong Man.  If she does this, the game is over.  Her companions, if still inside, will become Free Ones.  Remember, my friends, that a female declared a Free One cannot choose whether or not to breed, but she does earn the freedom to choose with whom she will breed and, after conceiving, she may keep the poor soul who is the father as her personal pet.  She is also awarded her choice of service for society.”

“A Trained One may also become a Free One by enduring the maze and avoiding capture for the full three Elien days and then escaping within the set time.  To m
ake things more interesting for you, the
exit will not be opened until the buzzer sounds one hour
before
the end of the game, and at that point the females may attempt to make their escape.  Escaping, of course, means forfeiting any chance of winning True Freedom.  Once the
buzzer sounds, they
will be given ex
actly
one hour to reach the exit
and leave victorious
.  As all of us know, we can’t accurately keep track of the exact point within that three-day period without our monitors.  So, to give our viewers a sense of suspense, only our Strong Man will be given a monitor and the females will need to listen for the buzzer to set their time to escape!”

The crowd laughed, clapping. That gave the Strong Man a definite advantage!

“Any of the Trained Ones still lost in the maze when time runs out will be chemically altered and either placed in the elders’ harem or put up on auction to the highest bidder.  If they aren’t bought at auction, they are sent to the training camps or the mines.  And remember, Trained Ones, you are each expected to play this game on your own.  If you are caught working together intentionally, you will lose by forfeit and be treated as if you did not escape the Maze.”

“Finally, the question arises.  What if a Trained One is captured but she refuses to be conquered? That’s where the fun begins.  Which one, male or female, is stronger? Which will win? If she cannot be conquered, and does not unlock his cage by the end of the game, then she is declared a Free One. If she is conquered and carried from the maze, she is his prize, his brood mare from that point forward. If the Strong Man conquers a Trained One and has his cage unlocked, but does not reach the exit and escape the Maze in time, then both of them will be returned to their trainers for further and far more intense training, before being allowed to try the Maze again in the future.  If the Strong Man conquers a Trained One before the exit is even opened, he may spend the remainder of the three days using her for his amusement in any manner he sees fit.  I’m sure he’ll enjoy it, and I’m sure we will as well.”  He lifted his hands to clap, and roaring approval blazed through the crowd.

“We’ve also designed some new features for the Maze.  For your enjoyment, we’ve added another level and the contestants will be placed into four different quadrants after waking up from their naps…  Yes! Sleeping gas!”

That was all Keeria remembered as she slumped to the floor of the cage.

* * *

The c
age door was unlocked when Keeria opened her eyes.  She fought to stand, her head still foggy and reflexes slow.  She tried desperately to focus on what awaited her outside the safety of her glass cage. Large drooping trees draped across the enclosure, tangled with thick vines and unusual flowering plants. The air was hot and heavy with mist, making it difficult to breath.  At first, Keeria thought she was outside, but artificial lighting
and purified air
proved her wrong. She w
as in an enclosed BioDome.

She ventured out, listening carefully for the sound of water. She turned in the direction of
a
light tinkling, and she was rewarded with the sight of a small stream.  She drank quickly, quenching her thirst as she studied the water’s movement. Hopefully, it would lead her out.  Unless, of course, it was on a pump system.  Either way, the water would only travel down.  Determined to reach the planet’s surface, and the way out of the BioDome, she started to follow the water downstream.

The crowd cheered.

* * *

Traisk lifted his head, slowly studying the world around his glass prison.  The gas hadn’t surprised him, it was used frequently on the Strong Men during their training.  Dark stone walls enclosed a sparsely furnished room with four doors.  He shivered, his breath visible as he tried to adjust to the frigid cold. He pressed his hands to the walls; each side felt frozen.  He knew he was deep underground, probably as deep as the mines.  Which door?

Traisk closed his eyes, focusing on his perception of heat.  At the second doorway to his right he felt a measurable temperature difference.  He chose that one to enter.

The crowd roared with approval.

* * *

Lina looked across her pen, bile in her throat as the aftereffects of the gas wore off.  Her surroundings were surreal.  Stairs going up and down, dozens of doors several feet off the floor, and trap doors in the ceiling and the floor.  She ran up several flights of stairs, finding only dead ends. Several of the doors had nothing behind them, and two led into hallways with ten doors to either side.  Overwhelmed and confused, she despairingly broke into tears.  She would never get out!

Mocking laughter echoed through the arena.

* * *

Suri rubbed her head as she tried to reposition herself in the cage, staring about the room.  There were no windows and no doors. There had to be a way out.  Otherwise, how did she get in here?  She perused every inch of the room and found nothing.  She leaned against a wall and slumped to the floor to think. She was trapped.

The onlookers were silent

* * *

Traisk carefully picked his way down the dimly lit hall, stopping frequently to listen to the sounds around him.  He estimated that he had been roaming for at least two hours when his ears picked up the sound of something, or someone, crying in the distance.  One of the Trained Ones, perhaps?  He followed the sound, prowling silently like a jungle cat as he sought out the origin of the noise.  It grew louder as he approached.  He could hear her clearly through the stone wall.  With a giant foot, he kicked the nearest door in, shattering it from its hinges.  Lina stood aghast as his towering form stepped in through the doorway.

“Seems like I caught my first one.  Oh no you don’t!” he shouted as she charged him with ferocity, her short sword held comfortably in her right hand.  He dodged her strike, rolling aside as he laughed. “I thought they taught you to fight! I played this game when I was four. Missed me again,” he said as he dodged a second stroke of her sword.

“You will not claim me, animal!” Lina hissed, her brown eyes dark with fear and distaste.

“Frankly, you are not the one I have my eye on.  I will, though, keep you as a prize just in case I can’t catch her.  Put that down before you hurt yourself.”

“Die first, you bastard!” Lina twirled and caught him on the arm with the side of her blade.  He glanced down at the bleeding slice, and then looked back at her with a wicked grin.

“Did that mean to hurt? I’ll show you what hurts when I get my hands on you,” he promised her, watching her movements as she moved around him.  She had fooled him with that last move, but now he was onto her. He studied her path as they circled each other in the room, closing in to herd her unknowingly to where…

The trap door was.  She shrieked as she slipped over the side and dropped her cinquedea, hearing it clatter below her swaying body.  She was hanging onto the edge, gritting her teeth, when Traisk leaned over the side with a smile.

“Need some help?”

“Go help yourself, you gorilla.”

“You are certainly not the most grateful of people.  Give me your hand.”

“I will not let you conquer me!”

“I told you, you aren’t my target.  Just a safety net.  Your hand. Th
at or you fall. Your sword’s on a shelf, but I can’t see how much further this shaft goes.  It’s too dark.  Go ahead and try.
”

Growling, Lina grabbed his large hand and allowed him to pull her out of the trap.  She panted, sitting next to him, and then suddenly hopped up to run. She was fast, but he was long limbed and he caught her and had her on the ground within seconds.

“No, not grateful at all.  This should subdue you,” Traisk said, tearing strips of leather from the lower part of the vest which covered her upper body, and then binding her hands to her sides with the strips.  Her h
ands tied, she did the next best thing.  She kicked him as hard as she could.

“Did you think your little foot could hurt me?  Honey, I’m a Ketar winner. I get kicked by trainers for the fun of it.”

She spit in his face.  Traisk slowly reached up to wipe the spittle off his cheek, shaking his head.  Without a word, h
e pulled her across his lap, leaving her bottom perched high in the air as her face rested on the cold ground.  She shrieked, trying to esc
ape his impenetrable hold.

“I know you are beaten during your training, but do you ever get to taste this type of punishment?”

Traisk’s question was purely rhetorical.  He lifted his hand to swing it in a wide arc and then bring it down across the expanse of Lina’s olive toned upper thighs.  She struggled to escape, but did not make a sound in response to the swat.  Traisk chuckled, untied the strings that laced her leather shorts in place, and pulled the garment from her.  She wriggled and snarled, calling him names and threatening his manhood.

“No, not
at all grateful,” he lectured, his giant hand covering her now bare right cheek with a resounding slap.  He watched the skin blanch then turn to a vivid red.  “You should really consider learning some manners, young lady,” he continued, coloring her left cheek with three more unquestionably painful swats.  Lina, her face pressed to the floor, fought uselessly against his strength as his rough palm delivered smack after agonizing smack to her upturned, naked flesh.  She started to whimper as he branded her burning flesh with large, pronounced, red handprints.  Her whimpers turned to cries as his hand moved south to concentrate on that delicate crease joining her bottom to the tops of her thighs.

Positioning her to stretch that sweet sit spot out and make it more accessible to his punishing hand, Traisk continued his delivery of
a healthy dose of memorable whacks to her exposed, not-so-pale rump. He had time and needed to think, so his spanking continued until Lina finally dissolved into tears
and went limp in his inescapable hold
.

“You win, please stop,” she begged.  Traisk was both
amused and
surprised that she had given in so quickly.  He remembered Master Kal’s words…
“Beware, they are cunning and very creative little beasts. Don’t let them deceive you.”

“Oh, I’m only beginning, little girl. Besides, it’s too early in the game to declare a winner. We have a crowd to please, too.  Nope, I’m not ready to stop playing this game just yet. In the meantime, you can be my plaything. You do h
ave a luscious backside, especially when it’s so nice and red.
”

The crowd shouted its excitement.  Traisk was going to give them a show!

While she still l
ay weeping across his lap he pulled up and restrung her shorts, before standing her up again.  He brought her wrists together in front of her and then trussed her
ankles to her wrists with long leather strips which
i
ntertwined in a figure eight between her thighs.  This allowed only enough slack so that she could walk with him, albeit stiffly and with tiny, jerky movements th
at
would inhibit any attempts to escape. She gl
ared at him hatefully as he swung himself over the trap door ledge to retrieve her
cinquedea
, and then watched as he tucked it neatly into the waistband of his subligaculum, the leather shorts worn by a Strong Man in the Maze.