Fate Deals the Cards Temperance

  Chapter 16

  Ties That Bind

  All through the day and into the night he lay there, as one after another rode the Violet clan’s seemingly inexhaustible steed. Two more clans joined Hessen and Violet in sharing the bounty, as the night wore on and the conclave’s hunters returned with empty bellies. Food there was aplenty, but the prey they sought was always rare, so far from the slave towns and settlements.

  Wild-caught goblin men never brought a chieftain’s warband of rapacious, blood-mad savages down on them, hunting for their missing slaves… or worse yet a human hunting party.

  Dozens staggered away in the arms of their sisters, dripping with goo and almost always smiling. The poor creature’s body could only feebly twitch as they changed riders now, lying there in a horrid mess.

  “How long can we allow this to go on, mother Jameela?” My captor asked angrily. “This is shameful and wicked!”

  “We are within our rights under conclave, mother Violet. Complain to the elders if you must, but we will take what we need while he lives.”

  As dawn neared, I smelled and heard the goblins gathering around, whispering and shifting about excitedly. After a few tense minutes, someone called out. “Mother Jemeela, welcome! Please look at what we’ve caught! I think he’s an escaped pleasure slave!”

  “My capture, Millie. Not ‘ours’ but yes, mother Jameela, come see the shame of our people, made manifest.” My captor insisted angrily. “This must end, I would cut his throat now, elder.”

  I smelled a gobb woman, one not in or near tummytime, so I had trouble paying attention, until a hand took me firmly by the cock and gave a squeeze. “Yes, hard as tree roots, even after so-so many-many… What have you found?”

  Deep, snuffling breaths sniffed at me, as she investigated my chest, belly, armpits and even my hair. “I can barely smell him at all, under the filth and the stinks of all you awful wantons!” She scolded the gathered girls merrily.

  “He has no smell at all, hardly…” My captor murmured respectfully to this newcomer. “He never struggled, beyond testing his bonds. Well, while we were riding him, of course! I took a turn as well; I assure you it’s quite a stretch!”

  “So where is the problem?” The old woman demanded harshly. “You shared with one clan… the law is clear, you must share with all. We will use him until we have no more need, or he fails. That is the law.” That old and creaky voice barked.

  “This is obscene, elder! I can’t allow my prey to be abused this way!” ‘Mother Violet’ snapped, the fury in her voice plain to even me.

  “What are you asking? If you’re done with him, cut his throat and be done.” A new voice grumbled. “He’ll rend you to pieces, if he escapes, be sure of that.”

  “Ah, mother Bella! Examine this goblin man, he’s a puzzle.” The sniffy one called out happily.

  I listened carefully as a set of faltering footsteps drew near. “I’m too old to get excited over a wild caught cock, no matter how young and pretty… What a mess he’s made!” She barked, followed by a high, wheezing laugh.

  That cut off immediately a moment later, when she took a sniff of my hair, tickling my ears with her breath.

  “You young fools!” She gasped in mingled horror and fear. “This is no goblin of any kind! Oh, this is woeful indeed! Get that basket off his head!”

  Clawed fingers fumbled at the obscuring basket, scratching me a few times as she worked to untie the rawhide thongs holding it on my head. I blinked painfully in the bright light of early night and coughed, spitting a half pint of blood onto the leaf litter I lay on.

  “Water, bring him water, girls!” Hard goblin hands clapped once, setting feet to scurrying. “Forgive us, chief Ghnash… Sarafina sent word, but we did not expect you until full spring…”

  I was still blind, tied down and covered with… stuff, but when a trickle of tepid, weird tasting water dribbled over my dry, chapped, torn lips it was as if I had been transported to heaven.

  More importantly, I could smell those girls all around… I’d already smooshed them, but maybe, seconds? I tugged at my ropes eagerly, and flopped back down with a grunt, when they remained immovable.

  “This is the one Sarafina told of? The chief who speaks like a woman and keeps his mind when his stick goes up?” Someone scoffed and spat in disgust. “Just another wild cock.”

  “No! Not a wild cock at all, sister Fatima. This one is sane and is one of us. He is isekai… and a witch in his own way.” Sarafina’s warm familiar voice called out, sounding very angry for some reason.

  The scent of Emmie washed over me, as a warm, soft body I knew so well collapsed on top of me, sobbing piteously.

  “Emmie? Emmie hurt?” I gasped, struggling mindlessly against my ropes.

  “Untie! Untie chief!” Emmie screamed, ignoring my perfectly reasonable question.

  “No… don’t, not on your lives! Emmie, come to me now.” Sarafina scolded my mate and the girls around me.

  “If you release him, we may all be slain. You have raped a sentient male into a frenzy, now we must wait for his blood to cool.” She sighed, exhaustion heavy in her voice.

  The sun finally went down, and slowly, my sight improved, as the many women departed, chased away by Sarafina, which made me big-mad at her… but I could smell Emmie nearby, so I was just regular mad, before long.

  “I can’t be near him?” Emmie asked so softly it hurt my ears, even through the ringing rushing noise running through my head.

  “Not too close, dear and don’t untie him. Stars above, I know he’s a mess!” Sara sighed. “We daren’t even try to clean him up… He’ll just have to lay here, I’m afraid.”

  Slowly I began to realize, I was lying in a pool of my own filth… piss, shit, jizz and just awash in the residue of however many goblins had taken a ride on me… Which finally started to dawn on me, as the ringing in my ears subsided.

  “Tribe? Saphie? Others?” I gasped, when Emmie trickled a stream of water into my mouth from one of my waterskins.

  “Safe, all safe. Not far from here. Kitty girl tracked you down.” Emmie whispered, nuzzling my face, which was sweaty, flecked with blood and dried drool, but the cleanest part of me by far. “So worried…”

  “Free Ghnash. Nub will hurt anyone… now.” I mumbled eventually.

  “Wait a little longer, my chief.” Sara murmured apologetically and deeply shamed. “Give them time to flee farther away, just in case. You have not yet come back to yourself… and will not for some time, I think. Here drink this, it will bring dreamless sleep.”

  Something body temperature, warm, sweet and familiar trickled into my still parched throat and darkness began to close in on me. “Give him no other food or drink until I say, Emmie. Help me wash him while he is out. He has suffered enough indignities already.”

  I heard and felt nothing after that, not for a long time.

  /

  “Still no reading, my lord.” Axelrod gasped, leaning on a lance, as his red, rheumy eyes blinked and his nose dribbled a constant stream of snot onto his tabard. “Bonneventure died last night, dysentery and the flux, my lord. I am suffering the ague rather severely as well, my lord.” He failed to stifle a coughing fit and hacked a lungful of goo onto the reeking, slushy ground.

  “If more sacrifices must be made, so be it.” The lord’s voice rang out loud and clear from his tent, silencing the entire camp. We march, those who cannot keep up will be left behind.”

  /

  “Every few decades some-gob comes in from the wilds, claiming to have found a special male or a potion that will solve our ills…” Mother Jameela complained around the meeting fire.

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  “This is just another half-monster goblin man, I’m sure, none of those bellies has been properly filled...” Mother Fogdew hissed softly. “A terrible waste. Salt-flat tribe has no interest in this. Kill him, as is the law and be done with this shameful episode.”

  “This is what I say!” Mother Hessen shrilled into the lodge. “Give him to me, in recompense for Amber; who he hurt onto death! She suffers even now, beyond our aid. We will send him screaming into the void for her.”

  “That is not the law, Hessen! My prey will not be tormented any further!” Violet insisted, her voice filled with outrage and shame. “I demand he be returned to me! Where is Mother Sarafina? She calls the conclave and does not even attend?”

  “Mother Sarafina declares that her chief has been injured and requires her aid…” Lapis said, very meekly in the presence of so many elders. “She sends me, her senior apprentice, to convey her words.”

  “Speak then, child. Explain this farce.” Eldest Bella commanded softly, but with an air of authority that allowed no hesitation.

  “Great mother, Sarafina wishes you to know this; She did not call conclave to present an oddity or curiosity. She brings you the goblin king and he brings war in his shadow.”

  With that cryptic statement, the young goblin rose and departed the sacred lodge, barely rustling the flap as she left.

  “Impertinence… insufferable!” Hessen sputtered, furious beyond reasoning by the vanished whelp and her cowardly mistress. “It slew one of mine, give it to me now! Conclave should order Sarafina to surrender it for destruction! As is the law!”

  “So long as it is safely slain, Salt-flats care not how, or who does the needful thing.” Mother Fogdew sighed. “We shame ourselves further with this pointless bickering over a dead girl and worthless male. We should be glad only one died on that monster.”

  “That is still my prey! My honor will not allow further abuse of him! I will allow him to be given to sister Fogdew, so long as she will kill him swiftly. She is neutral in this!” Violet insisted, stamping her feet on the dirt floor of the lodge to express her fury and shame.

  The lodge fell silent as mother Bella raised one slim, gray-green finger, pointing at the stars above the roof of the bower. Save for the soft hiss and crackle of the small fire burning in the center all fell still. In that moment, the sweet scent of the chula tree incense, the scents and sounds of the still night all lingered, waiting for the eldest to speak.

  “A night and a day.” Her weathered throat croaked in the dimness and drifting incense. “In a night and a day we will meet and speak again.”

  Silent and furious, seven goblin witches filed out of Bella’s lodge and into the fading night.

  /

  “It’s a conclave of goblin clans, Lapis, of course it’s a complete shit-show!” Sarafina murmured softly in the bower she shared with Emmie.

  “I never considered that they might capture him… The poor thing has been so stressed lately.” She petted the chief’s shaggy head, resting on her lap, entirely unconscious. He purred and shifted, even from so far away, in the world of dreams.

  “Be still chief… Ghnash has earned his rest.” She cooed softly, as she tucked a long brown nipple into his jagged mouth. In a heartbeat, his ears began to twitch, just like any pup, suckling at her mothers breast.

  Sarafina chuckled softly at the wondering glance her apprentice gave her teacher. “This is something you will learn later. Witch’s milk is strong, but dangerous; dangerous to both the breast giver and the suckling babe.”

  She looked down at the tangled teeth and fangs, her poor tender boob dangled over, and sighed. “Doubly dangerous with this one, yet even in this state he does me no harm.”

  “Conclave gives us a day and a night, beginning at dawn to surrender him.” Lapis whispered softly.

  “What does the clan say? You are my ears, child.” Sara asked gently, as she switched sides. “I can give so little, anymore, but he is so big…” The old witch sighed while drying his drool from her empty breast.

  “I am the last to say a male is worth keeping, mother Sarafina… But this male is worth keeping. The clan agrees unanimously. Only two girls have left for other clans since we arrived at conclave.” Lapis answered reluctantly. “The clan has spoken, even if it puts us at odds with the others.”

  “Yes, conflict and sorrow all around… and only will it get worse, when he finally wakes. I can keep him asleep only a little longer.” She stroked his once smooth, green skin, now marked with bruises, bites, claw marks and abrasions.

  “Hand me a needle, I need to sew his ear up; it’s mostly held on by scabs and clotted blood.”

  She grunted in frustration, as his ear kept wiggling while she tried to mend it. Finally, she had to take her boob away to get the job done, which made him grumble and stir in his sleep, until she put him back on the teat.

  “Men are men, no matter what kind, sweet Lapis. I understand why you don’t love them, but they do have certain charms.” The old witch cooed, while stroking the chief’s hair, a smile of pure pleasure and satisfaction on her face. “I ran dry some time ago, but here we are, still.”

  /

  In my dreams, I ran across a vast field of wildflowers, among vine draped standing stones, chasing a red-haired pale woman with hips that jingled and sang with her every twirling, dancing step.

  She fled, giggling and mocking me with words I couldn’t hear, as she led me through an orchard bearing fruits of every kind. Faceless figures greeted us, forms and shapes I knew well and loved, but couldn’t recognize. Just the same way, music swelled and fell all around, tunes unfamiliar, but I knew them by heart, folk songs and dirty ditties I’d never heard on earth, but knew well.

  I flickered and flitted through fragmentary visions of the sunlit world I’d lived in and lost. I wallowed in the pain of it; tasting the bittersweet sorrow again and again as I wandered, lost in broken memories of a life I couldn’t remember.

  “Papa?” It was Saphie’s voice, small, high and sweet, and very close. “Papa, wake up… I snuck in to see you, so quit sleepin!” A tiny hand tried to shake me, without success. She was still so tiny, but so clever! I scooped her against my chest and rolled over, falling back to sleep while she struggled and squirmed in my arms.

  “And he wouldn’t let go!” Saphie complained to her mother, while Sarafina tried to pry my daughter free from my sleepy grasp. “Nub my fault! I was gonna sneak away before you caught me. Dumb papa!”

  “Foolish daughter, he might have hurt you by accident!” Beryl scolded the little green cherub fiercely. “And nub getting caught is nub the same as obeying rules!”

  With a grunt of pain and a loud crack as my jaw popped into place, I sat up holding on to my daughter the way a drowning man holds a rope.

  “Mmm! Princess should wakes her papa…” I grunted around a huge ball of rage, shame, humiliation, embarrassment and several emotions that didn’t have proper names, welled up and choked my throat. I squished the warm, wriggly little darling against me for a few heartbeats longer, before I was willing to let her go.

  “Gahh! Papa’s mean!” She complained, before darting away with a merry giggle. Thera squatted by the bower entrance, just inside. She took Saphie’s little hand and they left together, blinding me briefly as they passed through the flap. I flopped back down on my nest, chilled, exhausted and too weak to even cover myself with a fur.

  Sarafina, who looked as tired as I felt, tucked me in, with herself beside me. She felt terribly cold and frail in my arms, but only responded to my gentle, questioning grunt with a kiss and a closer embrace.

  Emmie and Alba were under my furs when I woke next, feeling weak and desperately thirsty. A familiar clay jug sat beside the nest in a neat hollow dug to hold it, just where I would have put it. I drank my mint tea in silence for a while, just watching Emmie’s sleeping face; her green apple cheeks and pink dimples on display as she smiled in her dreams.

  She and Saphie were counting on me, so I had to get my shit together… Which was really easy to think, harder to put into action.

  A crushing weight of something more profound than simple fear pressed me down in my nest. I had been used again and again, while my traitorous body gleefully complied and even helped! The burden of that shame could press a granite mountain into sand.

  “Humility, my chief.” Sarafina whispered from the shadows, behind Alba’s sleeping form. “Humility is the sovereign cure for humiliation. You have faced the truth of this world, how will you face the truth of yourself?”

  She crawled into the light, over the sleeping girl and sat at my feet, looking very tired. “You killed a girl with your babystick, my king. I tell you now, before you find out from another.”

  Her leathery hand reached out and swatted my cheek gently a few times. “Yes, a young girl died, ruptured inside by that thing you bear. That you were being taken by force only compounds the awfulness of what has happened. Now we must go and face the conclave of witches, who are a fractious and unruly lot.”

  Sara grasped my shoulder and gave me a shake. “Wake your wives. We must go and scold some high and mighty witches.”

  “Wives?” I asked, pleased that I managed to get out a single word.

  “Alba has chosen you, chief. Just as Emmie has. What that will become is anyone’s guess, but she has chosen you. Now master your emotions as best you can and come with me. Our night and a day has ended with sunset, we must attend conclave.”

  Emmie wouldn’t wake up without a kiss, or so she claimed… She squinched her eyes closed and pretended to sleep so furiously, her cheeks turned red until I gave in and gave her tonsils a tickling.

  Alba blushed a bright pink, as she made the same demand, if much less forcefully.

  “Nub-nub… gotta be fair, me too.” She whispered softly, her face mostly under the furs.

  Maybe I was still in shock… maybe I was sublimating, distracting myself or any number of possibilities, but the genuine warmth, compassion and care I felt for and from these three made me feel almost whole inside.

  When I crawled over to Alba and leaned down, she hid even farther under the furs with a soft squeak of dismay and a tiny giggle.

  Slowly, I leaned down and licked her across her eyeballs, leaving a string of drool hanging off my tongue when I finished. “Okie, get up.”

  “Hey! Was nub like what Emmie got!” Alba whined at me. “Gross!”

  “Emmie gets lotsa things different from you.” I grunted gently. “Emmie does lotsa things you don’t.” While Alba chewed on that, I turned to my grinning little darling “Emmie, tie Ghnash up good, just like at home.”

  “Silly chief! Nub time for play now!” She giggled merrily, even while she swiftly plaited a ‘rope’ of grasses from our nest, like she did so often at home.

  /

  In the lodge of the elders, tensions were running high as the sun went down and night gathered in the shadows under the trees.

  “My honor and that poor gobb have suffered enough indignities.” Mother Violet cast a waxwood twig onto the coals of the speaking fire with a grunt of displeasure. “When that burns to ash, I will go find Sarafina and demand my prey, or a duel.”

  “Your honor has suffered too much already, mother Violet.” Sarafina croaked from the entrance, with three figures behind her. “We have come to answer your claim and lay our own.”

  “Your apprentices can wait outside, Sarafina. You know the law.” Jereel grumbled at the latecomers, until she halted, mid-sneer in shock.

  Silence ruled the lodge, even the fire seemed to still, as a large marsh goblin man ducked into the lodge and sat by the fire, like an actual person would.

  “I am Ghnash Whar’rgh, goblin king.” It said, as if that were anything but utter madness. “I has… complaints.” He growled, low and menacingly. “Who… is Violet?”

  The flurry of outbursts I expected never came, just a few very tense whispers and a lot of nervous shifting about. All eyes fell on the bound, still figure by the fire, waiting for it to explode in violence.

  Sarafina dropped her hand on the monster’s shoulder and patted him gently. “I will speak for the king, as he is… less than cordial at the moment.” Sara announced sweetly.

  “Mother Violet, you wished to make a claim on my chief’s person. He invites you to seize your prey, or surrender your claim now.”

  A long silence fell, as nine witches and several apprentices watched the awful thing that squatted by the fire, awaiting the inevitable.

  “Mother Violet seems unwilling to take control of her prey.” Sarafina cackled gleefully after a long and dreadful wait. “Thus, she has no further claim on chief Ghnash.”

  “A male cannot be here… Sarafina, are you mad? He’s not even properly bound!” Violet sputtered, unable to bear the shame of it all. “This is an affront against the law itself!”

  “There is no law forbidding men from conclave.” Sarafina remarked calmly, a wide, evil smile on her face.

  “There is no law against releasing deadly scorpions in the lodge either! Are you mad?” Hessen sputtered from her furs. “Since it’s here, I do have a claim! It slew one of mine!” Mother Hessen barked from her furs. “Give it to me to pay for its crime!”

  “You must come take him, Hessen. With your two hands, if you dare.” Sarafina hissed angrily. “You have gone too far and gone unpunished for too-too long. We have heard and now seen, what depths you have fallen to!” The old dame barked at her colleague.

  “Torture play is a thing for wicked gobbs, human slavers and such filth! You break taboos with impunity, but invoke the law to further your filthy blood-lust!”

  With a shrill screech, Hessen reared up from her furs snarling incoherently. After her outburst, she spoke soft and low, almost a whisper. “Insults and accusations. We settle this with a duel, here and now.”

  “So be it.” Sarafina replied with a smile. “I speak with the king’s voice, but he will answer your call for a duel. Good luck with that, honored sister.” She patted her pet’s shoulder again and smiled. “Come along now Ghnash. We have a duel!” Placidly, the creature stood, tore the ropes from its wrists, cast them into the fire and left.

  Nine witches sat still and quiet in the lodge, watching a handful of twisted straw burn to ash.

  “Fuck!” Hessen whispered, breaking the spell.