[mention]rafeylovesbonds[/mention] [mention]Mineira1986[/mention] [mention]ninterz[/mention] [mention]Beaumains[/mention] [mention]Caesar73[/mention] [mention]potato[/mention] [mention]TimChimp[/mention] [mention]GreyLord[/mention] Thanks to everyone for the comments, Thanks for your comments, enjoy part fourteen!
GreyLord wrote: ↑10 months ago
I am caught up with the story, [mention]banshee[/mention]. I am enthusiastic about your characters, especially the dragon. He is most interesting. The heroes have work cut out for them. It seems likely that most of them will get tied up again and again before they succeed.
Good to know you like it.
Chapter 15
Bazzon thought that the princess’ bad mood was due to the confinement he had subjected her to. For all he knew, humans were creatures used to the sun and fresh air, not the type to happily accustom to life on a cave, and although the time he had spent there seemed short for him, he began to suspect that it hadn’t been such for Clementine.
When the dragon informed her that they were leaving for a trip outside Clementine surprised more than anything else. She really did not expect to see the light of day anytime soon, but soon enough she found herself outside, sitting on Bazzon’s loin, swimming out of the cave and onto the land.
After so long in the cave the sun was initially blinding, but Clementine did not miss the darkness and torchlight of the dragon’s lair and soon became accustomed to the sun again.
Bazzon made landfall on a rocky beach before venturing into the forest, where he made a stop on some overgrown ruins where he instructed the princess to come down.
“Why did you bring me here?” Clementine asked.
“I thought a change of scenery would help with your bad attitude” Bazzon replied.
He then set a small pile of wood ablaze to provide heat for the princess, who quickly got close to the fire in the middle of the ruins of what once was a lighthouse.
“I asked servants from the city to bring your food here” Bazzon said “Is it good?”
“It’s certainly better than the cave…” Clementine replied nonchalantly.
Bazzon was about to sigh, as it seemed like he had finally realized what made Clementine mad at him and how to stop it, but the princess sonly made it clear for him that such simple solutions did not exists.
“I’m still not forgetting that I’m your prisoner though” Clementine spoke as she notice the dragon calm down.
“Don’t think about it like that…” Bazzon replied.
“Then take me back home” Clementine quickly cut him off.
Bazzon fell silent as he realized that no matter how he spun it the princess was still right, and no matter how much he tried not to think of it he was still not very different from the queen when it came to what he was doing to the princess.
“Why do you want to go back so badly?” Bazzon asked with frustration.
“Because it’s my home?” Clementine asked rhetorically, as she could not comprehend how such a simple answer evaded a supposedly smart creature like Bazzon.
Bazzon growled lowly as he looked away, in the old day’s dragons like him would have been content with ransacking the island and eating its people just for the fun of it, and Clementine didn’t seem to realize how kind he was being by not doing that despite how much she got on her nerves.
“What if this was your home?” Bazzon asked with his gaze still on the horizon.
“It will never be…” Clementine said.
Bazzon rested his head on his paws as he let out a sigh of warm breath into the cold winter air.
“But it wouldn’t be bad if you tried” Clementine said half-jokingly.
---
Once again, queen Isa was bound in her, room, but she had employed slightly different methods this time. She hadn’t used rope, nor had she used any other type of conventional restraint, she had only used her magic.
With the aid of her powerful staff she had conjured a large stalactite which hung from the high ceiling of her room, and inside it she had caught her arms, which were fully extended behind her and frozen at the wrists, locking them in place.
She was kneeling above the room’s carpet; she had been so for a quite a while now. The only conventional restrain she had used on herself was white leather panel gag which she had tightly buckled behind her head, just below her braid.
“Mphghg” The queen let out a moan as she gave free rein to her fantasies.
The reason why she often used ice instead of regular restraints was simple, while she could always undo the restraints she tied on herself when she wanted, ice was different, ice would eventually melt, and magical ice would do so without leaving any water behind which was convenient, but in melted down at its own pace, a pace which was only dictated by how warm the queen’s room was, and even with the fireplace burning as much as it could, it still took a long time for it to completely melt and leave the queen free.
Being unable to escape when she wanted gave a whole new dimension to the queen’s selfbondage, to her, being tied up meant giving up control, which was hard to do when she knew she could untie herself when she wanted, but much easier when she was truly stuck and would remain so until nature dictated it.
The only step forward in this direction the queen’s games could take would be to allow herself to be tied up by someone else, which would mean not only giving up control but also giving it to somebody else, and sadly for her there were not many people to which she would feel confident doing that with.
Occasionally it was her sister, but when it was with her the queen really didn’t felt what she expected to feel. Even though she was giving up control she knew that her sister would release her any time she asked for it, not to mention that her sister strictly limited herself to just tying her up, and the queen felt like being tied up by somebody else should have some follow up after her would be captor is done tying her up.
But those thoughts remained in the realm of fantasies.
The queen’s fantasies ended up outlasting the ice binding her, which upon melting let the queen fall abruptly to the floor. Slightly disappointed to have the session ended but too tired to go for another one, the queen began to unbuckle the gag.
“Is everything alright sister?” Alessia asked, alarmed by the noise of her sister’s fall she had entered the room.
“Yeah, everything fine” Isa answered tiredly after removing her gag.
Alessia nodded, she was used to her sister’s game so she didn’t give it much thought, but before she could leave the room again she was interrupted by the queen.
“Sister, are you really okay with this?” Isa asked as she looked at her sister, who stopped on her tracks upon hearing her “You know, my secret liking for getting tied up”
“I’ve never gone against you sister, and this will not be the exception” Alessia replied “I only have one question to ask you about it”
“Go ahead” Isa said as she sat on the bed and rubbed her wrists.
“I have noticed that the intensity of your sessions has increased” Alessia said as she looked at the ice slowly banishing on the floor “You used to be okay with doing this only once every few days, and restraining yourself with ice you barely did it once a month, but you have been doing it more and more often lately, do you mind telling me why?”
Isa blushed slightly she, had not expected her sister to be so perceptive about what she had been doing, but she soon realized she had underestimated her sister, after all she was her second in command and spent nearly all day with her, it hadn’t been really smart of Isa not to expect her to find out.
“What do you think?” Isa muttered as she looked away from her sister.
“Well, if I had to make a guess I would say that this increase in the intensity of your slelfbondage is due to our new prisoner” Alessia guessed “Ann”
Isa sighed, her sister had found out seemingly without an effort, so she had no other thing to say other than to confirm her suspicions.
“You don’t mind it right?” Isa asked after confirming her sister’s suspicions.
“As long as you keep it to the realm of fantasy, no, I do not mind” Alessia replied.
Isa wanted to ask her sister something else, but she left the room before she had time to articulate any question.
---
“So, is that all you know?” Ferine asked to a bound and tired Kluzelda.
“I swear, its all” The bound pirate replied.
“Why should I believe you” Ferine said as she stared down at Kluzelda.
“I may have a troubled history with you but I’ve never lied to you” Kluzelda argued “I’m an amazon after all, lying isn’t one of my tactics”
Ferine still looked at Kluzelda with doubt, but Eyiel stood up from the sidelines and intervened.
“She’s telling the truth” She said “After all, considering how strict she has pretended to be with amazon laws until now I want to have some faith in her conviction and give her a chance”
“Alright” Ferine said after staring down at Kluzelda for some time more “I’ll go bring Herifa”
“I hope you don’t make me regret this” Eyiel said to Kluzelda.
“I won’t” The pirate quickly replied “Thanks for believing in me”
Even though Eyiel found it weird to hear Kluzelda thank her, she remained silent and went back to the sidelines with Rhys.
“So, is the prisoner ready to talk?” Herifa asked after entering the tent.
“At least she says so” Ferine answered as she entered behind her.
Herifa stood in front of Kluzelda, even when bound to the post and with her chest exposed as she was she was still intimidating, not someone Herifa would like to see if she was not restrained like she was, but Herifa made sure not to show her fear.
“Start by telling us where they have my sister and her friend” Herifa said.
“They are in the castle in Jokulsa, in the dungeons below to be precise” Kluzelda answered quickly, with her words being met with a doubtful stare by her captors “That’s all I can tell you! I would tell you on which cell they are if I could”
“Fine, we’ll believe you” Herifa sighed “Tell us how we can break them free from that place then”
Kluzelda remained silent for a few seconds she knew the place she was talking about which meant that she knew that there pretty much wasn’t a satisfactory answer to what she had been asked, but in her situation, she felt like she wasn’t in a place to give unsatisfactory answers.
“The only thing I can think of is through the castle sewers” She replied “The dungeons are a safely guarded place, but if they have a blind spot it is there”
“It makes sense” Ferine said “We can’t expect her to tell us something impossible, in fact, the fact that she’s saying that breaking our friends out will be hard might mean that she’s telling the truth, after all she could easily set a trap for us by telling us to just show up there”
“What should we ask next?” Herifa asked awkwardly to Ferine.
“That ‘ice queen’, who is holding our friend’s captive, does she have any type of weakness we can exploit?” Ferine asked herself.
Kluzelda gulped, she knew the answer but giving it would be dangerous if someone ever found out that she had spoked, but she wasn’t given much time to consider her already slim set of options.
She felt Ferine’s hand on her sides, touching her ribs and dangerously close to her armpit, which made her squirm and yelp before immediately speaking without any thought put in her words.
“Her staff, its in her staff!” Kluzelda shouted.
Herifa and her other captors looked at the amazon with confusion, she had spoken out but her words didn’t really made much sense.
“Without her staff Isa is just a mage, a powerful mage but one that can easily be dealt with if you know what to do” Klzuelda explained “But with her staff she’s, well, the ice queen”
“I’m guessing we could snatch out her staff if we get the chance” Ferine mused out loud “I’m sure that without it she would be more willing to negotiate”
“Do I have to answer anything else” Kluzelda asked, with many of her muscles already aching because of the strenuous position she was bound in.
“You do” Herifa replied “But if you agree on staying cooperative, we can arrange for your restraints to be changed into something more… comfortable”
---
Back on the castle dungeons in Jokulsa, Bryla was forced to do the same Kluzelda was forced to do by her sister. After hours and many dips in freezing cold water Bryla ceded to her captress and told Alessia all that she could tell, hoping that her sister would react faster than Alessia could reach her.
But the detail to which Alessia paid more attention was that which Ferine had brought from from the fortress at Ormsa, which seemed like enough information for Alessia to end the torture for a reason Bryla did not know of.
Meanwhile Ann’s high and luxurious cell received a visit, it was the queen who had not visited since she yesterday came into the room to feed Ann and then tie her spread eagle to the bed once again, and she found her just like she had left her.
By the time the queen showed up Ann was already awake and wait for something to happen, since she had already decided to thinking of how to escape in her current situation wasn’t of much use, so she remained on the idea of trying to use the queen to give her an opportunity to do so.
“So, how is my favorite prisoner doing?” The queen asked as she sat besides Ann and caressed one of her legs, a gesture which was not welcomed by Ann, but to which she offered to resistance in hopes of getting the queen’s guard down.
“What do you want?” Ann asked.
“In a few moments my maids will be here to feed you, but first I must prepare you for that, you know what that means right?” The queen asked as she showed her staff to Ann.
“You don’t have to do that” Ann replied, knowing what the queen was referring to “I will behave”
“Oh, that’s a nice change of attitude” The queen replied “But how can I know that you’re telling the truth?”
“I have no means of escape and I didn’t have the best night of sleep, fighting you here would be hopeless even if I somehow manage to defeat you” Ann explained “I have no reasons to pose any resistance to you”
The queen pondered Ann’s words for a few seconds, had her sister been there she would have quickly shut off Ann’s request but it made sense to Isa, although the fact that Ann was her favorite prisoner probably helped Ann’s cause.
Ann actually had all of the will in the world to fight, but much like she had told her captress she had realized that it would be a hopeless fight, so begrudgingly she had to allow the queen to untie her from the bed and tie her up again to one of the room’s chairs.
Ann had her legs bound together at the ankles, knees and thighs, with her lap pinned to the seat and her ankles tied to railing on the bottom of the chair, leaving just the tip of her feet touching the ground. Her arms were draped over the chair’s back and tied together at the wrists and elbows, and even though Ann could touch her elbows the queen decided to be merciful and don’t do that to Ann.
Her torso was tied to the backrest at the waist and above and below the breasts, but not to tightly since the queen was considerate enough to take in account that eating with too much pressure on her abdomen wouldn’t be exactly comfortable.
“Before my maids come to feed you, I’d like to share some news with you” Isa said as she opened one of the room’s drawers, which were usually locked, and retrieved from inside it a pale blue dress.
Ann looked as the queen laid the piece of clothing on the bed, it seemed like a rather normal dress, of a simple plain sky blue color and seemingly silky texture. The only thing Ann found odd was the unusual and seemingly disproportionate length of the sleeves and the apparent tightness of the upper part of the skirt.
“Tonight I’ll host a party to celebrate our victory over your rebel friends” Isa explained “And I want you to be my guest of honor”
“What? You can’t expect me to want to attend that!” Ann replied almost out of instinct.
“You may be on a good path Ann, but you still have a lot to learn” Isa replied as she walked towards Ann until she was right in front of her, where she laid her hands on her bound thighs and looked at her in the eye “What you want isn’t my concern, you will be my guest of honor whether you want it or not”
Although Ann had much to say she decided that if she really wanted to use her leverage over the queen to accept she’ll have to bite down this one and accept, after all, if she refused to strongly she was sure that the queen was capable of taking her to that party in chains.
“As you wish your majesty” Ann muttered begrudgingly.
“Good, I knew you were a fast learner” Isa replied “You’ll have to wear that dress to the party, it has a few unique quirks but you’ll find out about them when you put it on”
Ann ate the breakfast that the curious maids served her with a lot of guilt, since she was sure that Bryla and any other prisoners didn’t had the luxury of starting the day with freshly baked pastry or warm drinks, but she was hungry, and knowing that she had to end the day with a probably long party she silenced her complaints and ate the food she was given.
Ann spent the rest of the day tied to that very chair the queen had tied her to in the morning. It probably was the longest time she had spent tied up in a long while, but it never got easier, it was still just as boring as the first time it happened. The only thing which could somewhat calm her mind was that her friends were still out there, and as long as that stayed true she could at least rest part of her hopes on them.
Ann received occasional visits by the same maids which had came to feed her, tend to the fire and give her water, the fact they those were the people tending to her and not regular jailers also told Ann a lot about how much the queen liked her above the rest of the prisoners.
The only odd visitor she received was Alessia, who at the moment she only knew from having seen her at Ormsa when she was first captured.
“I came here to untie you for your mandatory bathroom visit, make it quick and don’t try anything” Alessia announced after she entered the room.
Ann quickly got the picture that Alessia was very unlike her sister, she took no nonsense and had no interest in speaking a word to Ann and she didn’t seem to want to be spoken to.
By the time Ann was over Alessia instructed her to sit on the chair again, where she tied just like her sister had done hours before, but more tightly around not only the chest but all of her body, barely shying away from tying her elbows together. And on top of that she dedicded that it was a good idea to add a gag, which was a simple handkerchief tied around her head and forced between her teeth. The fact that it wasn’t very effective at silencing her told Ann two things, firstly, and much like she suspected, nobody could hear her there, and besides that, it told her that Alessia probably thought of the gag as more of a power display than like an instrument to her bondage.
With her ever growing boredom which was slowly but surely pain was added, the pain casued by the strain of her muscles being forced in such an unnatural position by the ropes for so long, the day went by. From her cell Ann could see the sun go down, which was the only way she had to know that time was passing by, until its light began to turn orange, telling her that the day was ending.
A few hours, or maybe minutes since Ann’s perception of time was considerably slowed down, her retainers came back into the room, but they came with the company of their queen, who stood behind the four maids to address Ann.
“The party will take place shortly, so I came here to prepare you” She explained “Since I can’t yet trust you to behave around your retainers I’ve come with them to ensure their safety, and, you know, enjoy the show”
Ann didn’t knew which ‘show’ Isa was talking about when she first said it, but she found out eventually. With great effort the four maids undid the restraints holding Ann to the chair, the queen then ordered Ann to stand up, to which Ann then felt the buttons behinds her back which kept her tight full bodied gambeson on.
“Hey!” Ann screamed as she stood away from the maids, scaring the greatly.
“Calm down Ann, I’ve only ordered them to do that so we can shower you and wash those clothes of yours” Isa explained from the chair she was sitting on in front of Ann “So calm down and let my maids do their job right? After all you already know fighting is futile”
Ann stood still, pressing her lips together and closing her eyes to somehow take herself out of this humiliation, and by the time the maids were done she was standing half naked in front of the queen, wearing nothing but her underwear.
The queen ogled at Ann’s half naked body and some of the maids did too for a few moments, after all it was undeniably impressive, above average height, toned muscles, flat abdomen and thick thighs, it was easy to envy her.
“Done already?” Ann asked with her eyes still closed.
“Yes…” Isa replied, and only continued talking after another long uncomfortable minute passed by “Now Ann, can I trust you to take the shower alone?”
“What?” Ann asked as she shyly opened her eyes to see the scene unfolding in front of her.
“You know, I can’t take you as my guest of honor in this state, so you need to bathe, can I trust you do that by yourself?” Isa asked again “If not, I’d be more than happy to enter the bath with you and lend you hand…”
“It won’t be necessary; I can do it on my own” Ann quickly replied.
Not so slightly disappointed the queen took Ann to the bath her cell had already built in, where a large tub sat aside the toilet which the maids had preemptively filled with steaming hot water. Besides it was a small table where soaps and perfumes had been laid out for her.
Ann took her time in the bath, after all, if the queen was right on something it was on the fact that she was dirty, so she made sure to leave the bathroom as clean as possible, with her pale skin shimmering below the candle lights of the room and her hair as soft as it could be.
After she dried herself up Ann put on the white underwear that it had been left for her and shyly left the room to be meet with the gazes of the four maids, and the worst of them, the one of the queen.
“You won’t take me there like this will you?” Ann asked as she tried her best to cover up her exposed body with her arms.
“Don’t be silly, I gave you a dress remember?” Isa said as the maids picked up the dress from the bed.
Feeling slightly ashamed because she had forgotten, Ann took a step forward towards the maids and opened her arms, already knowing how the routine of being put on a dress went.
First, the maids put on a pair of tights on Ann, after all, even though the castle was constantly warmed up by countless fireplaces which were regularly tended to, it was still a stone structure in the coast of a snowy island and besides an icy ocean, it was still too cold to go around with her legs exposed, so Ann welcomed the tights.
Then came the dress which was a perfect fit for her, or at least it felt like it initially because Ann quickly noticed that the upper half of the skirt was so tight that she could barely walk, and that after the maids were done putting on the dress the sleeves still had room for another whole arm.
“You can leave now; I will take care of the rest” The queen spoke as Ann inspected the odd details of her clothes.
The maids did as instruct and left the room while the queen stood up from the chair and walked behind Ann.
“I told you this dress had a few quirks remember?” She asked Ann as she grabbed the long oversized sleeves of her dress “Well, as you may have already noticed, the skirt is too tight for you to attempt any type of escape on foot, and these sleeves…”
The queen forced both of Ann’s arms behind her back and using the excess cloth in her sleeves she began to tightly tie them together, putting them on a strict boxtie of which she had no hopes of escaping with her hands rendered into useless stumps while trapped in the sleeves and then she tied what was left of the sleeves around Ann’s waits, effectively pinning her arms to her body.
“And this is to take care of those strong arms of yours” The queen explained once she was done “Now lets get to the details”
While Ann remained standing still the queen took two more pieces of clothing from an until then locked wardrobe. One was a long silky but warm scarf, which she put around Ann’s exposed neck and clavicle, the other one was a blue winter cloak with furs around the neck, which she draped over Ann like it was a blanket.
“That should be it, now for one last detail of which I will ask your opinion about” Isa said as she grabbed Ann by her bound silk encased arms “You will have to wear heels to the party, but as you can image there’s a long way downstairs from here which wouldn’t be really comfortable when walked with heels and your legs encased in that dress”
“Do I have any other options aside from that?” Ann asked.
“Well, you can always do the walk downstairs barefoot, but keep in mind, the cold stairs won’t be exactly kind with your feet” Isa replied.
Being used to heels almost as much as she was used to high leather travel boots Ann took upon the first option she was given, and she was then painstakingly walked down the stairs by Isa, for whom the task was incredibly easier.
Eventually and after a walk which seemed even longer to Ann and her pain ridden legs, they arrived at the main hall where the party was being hosted. They entered through the queen’s door, so they appeared at the end of the large room, standing above an elevated stand with an exclusive table laid in front of them.
Ann was forcibly sat down on a chair by the queen’s sister almost as soon as she came into the room with the queen while Isa took a step forward and cleared her throat before speaking.
“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome!” The queen addressed her large audience “Tonight we’re here to celebrate our definitive victory over the rebel scum which has for so long been a thorn in our peaceful reign”
The queen’s words were met with cheers, apparently, the sympathy Bryla’s group enjoyed in Ormsa did not extend itself to the high spheres of Jokulsa, which wasn’t really unexpected.
“I know some still have doubts about our victory, but I can assure you, it is definitive and I can prove it” Isa continued after the cheers had calmed down “If you do not believe me, just look!”
The queen extended her open hand towards the opposite end of the room, and as soon as she did that gesture the curtains covering what Ann had assumed to be windows opened and showed something much worse.
Behind the curtains was another elevated stone platform, and on top of it was Bryla. She was wearing nothing but a comedic ‘bikini armor’, made out of iron scales which she wore over cloth and leather underwear, leaving the rest of her body exposed. And exposed it was, considering that she had been bound spread eagled between two columns, with chains and shackles holding apart her legs by the ankles and her arms above her head and extended toward each column.
Of course many ogled at the sight of the captured and humiliated rebel leader, who struggled fiercely in her chains while she grunted and moaned through the bit gag which she was fiercely biting down on, leather covered stick tied tightly around her head with rope.
“Feel free to gloat over our defeated enemy, but don’t bother her much, after all she still has much to tell us about her friends” The queen explained.
Ann wanted to do something for Bryla, but she couldn’t, she was captured just like her, maybe in a less humiliating position, but still unable of helping her nonetheless.
“Regarding my other captive, Ann” Isa explained as she gestured towards the bound knight “She’s also my guest of honor, so despite her history as an ally of the rebels treat her as such, she’s my favorite prisoner after all”
Ann was less than pleased with all of the looks that fell on her the moment Isa directed the party’s attention towards her, but they were quickly short lived since Isa soon gave start to the party.
Food and music were brought to the room, and unlike Bryla, who just had to stand there and watch and be watched by everyone, Ann had the ‘luxury’ of being fed by the queen, of whom she was sitting to the left of, while her sister was sitting to the right.
“Remember Ann, you’re my guest of honor, so you’re free to roam as you like, because of your condition nobody would dare lay a finger on you so don’t fear because you’re restrained” The queen explained between bites of her food “But if you cause a scene I won’t hesitate to punish you, understood?”
“Understood your majesty” Ann forced herself to reply.
Ann shyly stood up and began walking along the large ballroom, trying her best to avoid meeting her gaze with the many others which were indiscreetly looking at her.
“Are you sure about this sister?” Alessia asked after Ann had left “About turning one of our enemies into your ‘pet’?
“Don’t worry sister, I have her under control” Isa replied carelessly.
“How can you be so sure?” Alessia asked “Don’t you think it could be dangerous, or that it could be a bad image for you as a queen?”
“Are you questioning me sister?” Isa replied, her sharp response slightly enabled by alcohol in her bloodstream “You know I appreciate your advice when I ask for it, but I don’t remember asking you how you felt about my new ‘pet’, as you called her”
“I’m sorry your majesty” Alessia replied as she silently went back to her plate.
Ann wanted to reach the opposite end of the ballroom where Bryla was displayed on, after all, she was the only one there Ann could really relate to, so she wanted to least have a brief ‘yes or no’ conversation with her friend who due to her gag wouldn’t be much more for a conversation.
But as she walked across the room Ann also inspected it for possible escape rooutes, after all, trying to persuade the queen was proving harder that she had expected, it was mostly hard on her pride, but it was still more than Ann wanted to bare, so if she could make an escape then and there when she was not bound inside a cell meters above the ground, she thought it’d be for the better.
Slowly and carefully Ann walked up the small set of stairs which lead to the platform where Bryla was tied on, she stood beside her trying to drive the least attention to her she could while standing atop a stage, which was easier than expected since a lot of the attendants were either drunk or concerned with other matters at the moment.
“Bryla’ are you okay?” Ann asked.
“Mpghgh mphh?” Bryla replied in grunts to her back.
“I guess not” Ann replied “I’m sorry about this, but I’m sure your sister and my friends will find a way to save us”
“Mpgh…” Bryla sighed as she was reminded of all she had been forced to tell Alessia, which made her doubt that what Ann was saying was true.
At the opposite end of the ballroom, queen Isa kept on drinking while her sister tried her best to prevent the queen from making a scandal, but while she tried to keep on her throne she caught a glimpse of something which was inadmissible.
“Take care of her, I have something to take care of” Alessia told the queen’s retainers as she stood walked out of the podium.
“Mpghg!” Bryla told Ann as she nodded towards Alessia, who was rapidly walking towards them.
Ann quickly caught the hint, she shouldn’t be there, so she tried her best to leave, but by the time she had walked down the stairs at the slow pace her heels and dressed forced her to Alessia was already standing in front of her, with her arms crossed below her breasts and an angry look in her eyes.
The first thing Alessia did was turn Ann’s scarf into a gag, tightly tying around her mouth and below her chin to the point where Ann’s mouth was forcibly shut, to this Ann couldn’t really offer any resistance, and neither could her equally bound friend help her. This time Ann couldn’t avoid crossing looks with the many people staring at her as Alessia not so kidney dragged her towards the opposite end of the room, where she thrower her back onto the chair at the left of her drunk sister.
“Seems like your pet sill has a lot to learn” Alessia reprimanded her sister.
“Yeah don’t worry I’ll teach her at its due time” Isa replied “Now it’s time to celebrate!”
“Sister you’re causing a scene” Alessia angrily replied “Please let me take this prisoner back to her cell before she causes any other distraction”
“No way I’ll let you do that, she’s the reason I’m celebrating after all”
Isa draped an arm over Ann’s shoulder and pulled her towards her, which Ann did not welcome but couldn’t resist.
“If you don’t believe my ‘pet’ is tamed, just watch” Isa said as she pulled Ann even closer towards her.
To Ann it was very clear what the queen was trying to do, she was trying to kiss her, and this was where Ann drew the line, she could subject herself to humiliation to escape, but this was the limit. Before the queen’s lips could touch Ann’s gagged lips she kicked the queen’s throne from below, making the queen nosily fall on her back and draw all the attention towards her.
Taking advantage of this, Ann kicked off her heels and with all of the strength her legs could muster she tore apart the dress’ skirt allowing her to run out of there. She knocked open the exclusive door through which she had entered and ran as fast as she could.
“Don’t let her escape!” Ann heard the queen scream behind her as she kept on running.
Ann took as many twist and turns in the dark hallways to confuse the guards as much as she could, and when she finally stopped hearing the metallic steps of the armored guards chasing her down she stopped running and made a stop on one of the castle balconies, which she had deemed to be out of the way enough for the guards not to search it for now.
With difficulty Ann began catching her breath through her nose, since breathing through her gagged moth was proving itself to be a difficult feat. Even though the night winds coming from the sea were freezing, Ann’s run had warmed her up enough not to care that much about that.
As she tried to lean against the walls to get some rest Ann found something that could be of use. One of the gargoyles sculpted on the castle stone was holding a sword, of course it was a dump, stone sword which had never been intended to cut anything, but the ice which had grown on the stone edge of the sculpted weapon gave it all of the sharpness Ann needed.
Ann began to rub her bound silk encased arms against the icy edge of the stone sword until she finally managed to cut herself free. Once her arms were unbound she rolled back the incredibly long sleeves and with her hands being useful again she pulled down her gag and took a deep breath,
Ann looked down the balcony, still unbothered by freezing cold winds. It was tall but not as tall as she had expected, and even though it was near the sea the stones on which the castle sat upon gave Ann enough room to land in, that was if she could manage to land safely.
Even though the question of how to get down seemed daunting at first, Ann quickly found a way. She removed her gag-scarf and cut out her long sleeves, then she tied them into a large silky rope which she could then tie to one of the gargoyles and use to get down. Even though she would still have a considerable fall once she ran out of rope it was nothing she could manage.
The question of what she should do next didn’t crossed her mind at the moment, she was sure that she could figure something out once she was out of the castle and could think more calmly, so she tied the silky rope around one of the gargoyle’s necks and prepared herself to escape.
But just when she was dune with her knot the few lights she could see went out, and the last thing she felt was a sharp pain on the back of her head.
When Ann woke up she was shivering, it was freezing cold and she was laying on even colder ground. The body heat she had amassed when running had long ago ran out and she was now freezing.
She tried to move but found herself chained, her ankles were hobbled together and chained to a wall while her arms were shackled together behind he back at the wrists. All she could do was sit up and inspect what surrounded her.
She was inside a cell, a dark, cold cell made of stone only adorned with few patched of hay on which she sat on to avoid sitting on the cold stone. Light only came into the room through two places, one was a small barred window high above a wall through which it came the pale and dim light of the moon, telling Ann that it was still nighttime.
The other one came from below the cell’s door, a thin strip of the orange light of torch fire that filtered itself beneath the bottom end of the door.
As Ann’s sense of hearing went back to normal and the high pitched noise riddling her ears since she had been knocked unconscious faded, she began to hear someone talking on the other side of the voice.
She didn’t recognize most of the voices, and it was clear that they were trying to keep a low tone, but there was someone Ann could recognize. It was Alessia, the queen’s sister.
“You’ve seen what she did on the party, my sister is not fit to be a queen!?” Ann heard Alessia say.
“I can agree on that but what do you suggest?” Someone asked.
“She’s still the ice queen after all, and we’re alreadt risking too much by being here on the first place!” Someone else argued.
“The only thing I’ve already asked of you” Alessia replied “Trust me, I’m the queen’s sister, I know all of her weakness I need to know to take her down, the only thing I need is your support after I do it”
Silence followed Alessia’s words, Ann did not give credit to what she heard and she was still processing the information transmitted by those words when the silence was broken.
“Do I have your support?”
“You do, queen Alessia” Someone answered, with his words being quickly echoed by the rest of people standing outside the cell.
“Great, I can assure you that you have made the right choice” Alessia said.
Ann remained silent and still, not only because of what she had heard but also because of the cold, and she was only brought out of that cold induced trance when she heard the door’s lock being turned. She crawled away from the door as far as she could and she saw Alessia enter the room.
“So, I guess you’ve not heard anything, haven’t you?”
Ann was too stunned to give any response, she tried to shake he head but she found out that she couldn’t even do that.
“I hope you didn’t, but just in case…”
“Ann!” Isa’s voice echoed through the dungeons, interrupting Alessia from showing whatever she wanted to do.
The queen ran into the cell and knelt beside the freezing Ann, she caressed her face and was surprised by how cold she was.
“Why didn’t you tell me this!?” She asked angrily to her sister “I told you to bring her to me after you captured her!”
“I’m sorry I…”
“You better be!” Isa replied before her sister could finish her begrudging apology.
Isa draped her long warm cape over Ann and unchained her from the wall with a quick spell.
“Take her to her cell” She ordered her sister “I can’t leave her here”
The queen walked out of the room and Alessia forced herself to obey her orders, scooping up Ann and carrying her on her arms all the way up the high tower atop which the cell her sister had designated for her sat on.
Under her sister’s instructions Alessia laid Ann in front of the fire and was then expelled from the room by her sister. Ann, who was already nearly asleep, was awoken by the fire’s warmth and crackling noise.
“Ann, look at what you’ve brought upon yourself!” Isa reprimanded her favorite prisoner with a softness unfit for a captor.
Ann was too tired to reply, so she merely laid on the floor, crawling closer to the fire with her hands and feet still shackled together and the cape covering her almost completely.
Seeing how Ann was ignoring her, the queen grabbed Ann and forced her to sit up for a moment, Ann was mostly limp until she felt a glass with water against her lips, which quickly awoke her as her dried mouth craved water since she had ran away from that ballroom.
“Easy now…” The queen said as she helped Ann drink, which she couldn’t really do without assistance sine her hands were still bound behind her.
Ann gladly finished the large glass of water and sighed, with her mouth no longer dry and no longer freezing because of the cold Ann felt like she was ready to sleep for ages, there atop the room’s carpet and in front of its fire, covered by the queen’s cape and with her hands and feet still bound, she was too tired to care.
“I should punish yourself for this you know…” Isa sighed “But you seem too tired now, I guess your punishment can’t wait”
Isa stood up and grabbed a cushion from the couch, which she then put beneath Ann’s head to make her sleep more comfortable.
“Just don’t do this again right?” Isa said as she prepared herself to leave.
“Your sister…” Ann managed to speak while barely opening her mouth.
“What’s the deal with my sister?” Isa asked as she stopped midway towards leaving the room.
“She will betray you…” Ann said tiredly “I heard her, on the dungeons…”
“Seems like you’re too tired” Isa sighed “Don’t worry, we can talk tomorrow”
Ann wanted to say more, or at least her mind wanted to, because all of her body wanted was to rest, and in that contests between body and mind the body was quick to win.