@rafeylovesbonds @Mineira1986 @ninterz @Beaumains @Caesar73 @potato @TimChimp @GreyLord Thanks to everyone for the comments, Thanks for your comments, enjoy part seventeen!
Chapter 17
Clemntine quickly got used to her new life as the reluctant princess of some freezing forgotten island in the middle of the sea of frosvoll. It was far from the same she had been doing in Beroux, a much more illustrious land if one many say so, but she couldn’t help but see that she was having a positive impact in the land.
With her mediation the inhabitants of the island found that compromising with their draconian overlord was far easier and much better on their part. Clementine was able to find clever solutions to save peasants from predatory taxation and to exempt some merchants from the excessive tariffs their ships had to pay in port.
But even still there was something that hung over the heads of everyone in the island like a sword ready to fall at any moment, and that was the still undisputed lordship the so called ice queen still held over the island.
Because even though the people of the island, even clementine, had come to think of the dragon as not so bad they could not allow themselves to forget that the ice queen only allowed him to rule over the island as her vassal, and that if things should call for her, she would certainly come and remind everyone of her presence with a blizzard strong enough to ruin the island completely.
This was what prevented Clementine from doing what she always wanted to do as a ruler, even though she could ease the taxing and repression, while the island remained under the authority of queen Isa she would not be allowed to release the peasants, to redistribute the land or anything that closely resembled an opposition to the order the legacy of ice kings and queens had created.
And Bazzon was always quick to remind her of that, that even though her allowed her to serve as princess, she was still just that, a princess while he was the king of the island.
It was then when Clementine began to put in action the next step of her plan. She had gone from prisoner to princess in a very short span of time, and now that she was so close to grasping true power she didn’t want her rise to power to be stopped until she had her revenge on the woman who had put her there.
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When Ann woke up she quickly realized that she was tied to some sort of contraption. Her arms were extended horizontally to her sides, shackled in place at the wrists and elbows to the frame behind her. A metal plate pinned her body to the frame at the waist, and her legs were shackled slightly separately at the ankles.
Ann looked around and only got a better image of how she was tied up when she caught a glimpse of Bryla, who was tied up just like her at her right. They were both bound to an iron frame which mimicked the shape of their bodies, it was roughly shaped like a T, but it had room at the bottom to accommodate the bound feet and a small piece on top to accommodate the head, but it was still far from comfortable. It forced the captives to remain standing in an awkward position and quickly tired them out.
After catching a good glimpse of how exactly they had been bound Ann tried to talk to her, but something interrupted her.
“Mpghg!” Was all that came out of Ann’s mouth.
She was still gagged, just like the queen had left her. Bryla was gagged too, with the same bit gag that Ann had already seen on her mouth when she saw her being displayed at the party, but thankfully for her, her clothes had gone back to normal.
“Mpghg…” Bryla grunted in response as she idly struggled against the shackles holding her to the metal frame, knowing very well that it was futile.
The room where they were in was cylindrical and crowned in a cupule, all made out of cold gray stone like the rest of the castle, but they had never seen this room before, which wasn’t saying much considering that both of them had been mostly confined to their cells until that moment.
Before them and in the middle of the room was something covered by a large cloth sheet, its form couldn’t be discerned through the cloth covering it, but it was large, by far the largest object in the room, albeit the only other two which it could be compared to were the iron frames to which the captives were bound.
“Greetings my prisoners” Isa announced upon entering the room though a door which sat right between the two captives “Are you ready to finally submit to me?”
“Mpghgh!” Bryla grunted without hesitation.
“That’s what I expected, at least from you that’s it” The queen turned to look at Ann “What I’m actually curious about is seeing what sort of response I will get from my favorite prisoner”
Isa tried to caress Ann’s cheek but Ann moved her face away, even though the queen could have done it anyway she caught the hint and merely chuckled at the sight of Ann showing resistance.
“Very well, time for an explanation” The queen said as she removed the blanked from above the large object in the middle of the room.
Upon being removed, the blanket revealed a large perfectly smooth crystal sphere of dark blue color, even though it seemed transparent the of Ann and Bryla was quickly lost inside it upon looking at it. They had seen something similar before, it was just like the sphere Ferine had taken from Kluzelda’s ship, but only much, much larger.
“Since this is a kingdom of islands, and of islands which sit far north where storms are cruel and travel is difficult, out people long ago devised a solution to keep the different islands of the kingdom under control” The queen explained “The crystal spheres, allowing us to communicate between islands without needing to bother traveling”
While Ann was still trying to catch where the queen was going with her explanation, Bryla already knew it. The information she had revealed to Alessia was catching up with her, there was no way that what the queen was saying didn’t had anything to do with what she had told Alessia about the crystal ball Ferine had stolen.
“I’ve been informed by my sister that one of your allies stole one of these, the one which I had left for the island of Ormsa and my admiral Kluzelda” The queen continued “So what do you say about giving them a call?”
It was the dead of night in Ormsa when Herifa was woken up by a subtle but impossible to ignore humming which came from right inside her tent, the tent she once shared with her sister.
When she opened her eyes it became clear to Herifa from where the sound was coming, as a bright light came from within a cloth bag, the same cloth bag in which Ferine had brought the crystal ball in.
This could only mean one thing, someone was trying to communicate with their crystal ball, and there was only one which could remotely activate the lesser ones like the one they had, the master orb, the one held in the kingdom’s capital. Which could only mean one thing, someone from the queen’s palace was trying to communicate with them and Herifa doubted they were friends.
In a hurry, Herifa woke up Ferine, Eyiel and Rhys, who quickly incorporated themselves in the situation once Herifa told them as fast as they could the gravity of the situation.
“What should we do then?” Eyiel asked “Can’t we just not answer?”
“If they are remotely activating this one I’m pretty sure they know we have it” Herifa answered “After all, the must have noticed its absence alongside Kluzelda’s when the retook the city”.
“Should we answer then?” Ferine asked “If so, what should we expect from whoever is calling us?”
“I don’t know…” Herifa muttered “I hate to be so useless, but I really don’t know”
“Here goes nothing then” Eyiel sighed as she removed the cloth from above the sphere.
The initially blinding light which came from inside the sphere quickly took shape, and it wasn’t the shape of something the onlookers liked to see.
The queen was standing right in front of the sphere while behind them Ann and Bryla were chained to some weird contraptions which held their bodies in place while gags had been placed inside her mouth to keep them quiet
“Took you long enough huh?” The queen said as she smirked.
“We answered, what do you want?” Herifa answered trying to hide the fear in her voice.
“Well, before we get to that, I’d like to remind you of something” The queen said as she took a step towards Bryla and grabbed her by the jaw, forcing her to stare at the crystal sphere “As you can see I still hold your big sister captive”
“Leave her alone!” Herifa screamed with impotence from her side of the vision.
“No need to be so alarmed, as you can see I’ve gone to great lengths not harm her or your friend” The queen said as she walked towards Ann, filling the impotent onlookers with even more rage “But If this situation keeps going, I can’t confirm that this current affair will last much longer”
“What!?” Eyiel asked as she grabbed the sphere with both hands.
“Just like you heard it amazon, if you remain as a thorn on the boot of my reign, I will have to start taking out my frustrations on these two lovely things, and it would be a shame if that happened don’t you think?”
“Hey, don’t forget we have a prisoner of your own too!” Ferine barged in.
“Oh, right, Kluzelda” The queen replied “About her, why don’t you surrender to her and allow her to take you to me?”
“You can’t be serious…” Eyiel grunted.
“Oh I am very serious” The queen replied “You can try what you want with her, I don’t care, but if you are not on the way to my dungeons by tomorrow morning, your friends will pay the price”
There was not a single one of them who was not filled with impotence and the rage it brought with it, Ann and Bryla had to watch helpessly as they were made into damsels in distress, hostages to win over the surrender of their friends.
On the other side, Herifa, Ferine, Eyiel and Rhys had to watch as that despicable woman who the queen threatened their friends without them being able to do anything, practically forcing them to obey her despite not even being there.
“What should we do?” Herifa asked.
“I think the answer is pretty clear, unless you want to see these two pay the price of course” The queen interjected before anyone else could answer.
“I hate to admit it but she’s right” Ferine spoke lowly “We can’t risk her hurting our friends, and the only way we seemingly have to stop her is by surrendering”
“And how do we know that she can be trusted!?” Eyiel argued, unable to believe what she was going to have to do.
“That’s the worst part” Ferine muttered “We can’t”
“Oh, you have my word” The queen said from the other side of the sphere “As much as that’s worth to you”
The four looked at each other regretfully, knowing very well what they had to do next but desperately wanting not to do it.
“Fine, we’ll comply with your terms…” Herifa spoke in a regretful voice “What do you want us to do”
“Well, like I said, I want all three of Ann’s friends to be on the way to Jokulsa by tomorrow morning, tell them to surrender to Kluzelda and have her take them to Ormsa to be shipped here”
All four of the girls were quick to notice one large omission in what the queen was saying.
“What about me?” Herifa asked.
“Oh, you can surrender yourself too if you want, but I don’t care” The queen replied “Your sister has already been broken”
Before Herifa could even ask what the queen meant the sphere turned black again leaving them in the darkness.
On the other side, the queen looked smugly at her enraged captives, who were fiercely glaring at her from their secure place in their restraints.
“Oh don’t worry, you didn’t think I’d really hurt didn’t you” Isa asked as she moved to stand in front of Ann “Cheer up dear, soon you will be I company of your friends”
Back on the rebels’ tent Herifa lit up a candle and looked at the regretful faces of her allies once again before asking the question.
“So, we do what she asked us?” She asked.
“I guess we have no choice” Ferine sighed “But don’t worry, we’ll find a way to escape”
“Hey don’t you think this is the exact moment when we should think of plan!?” Rhys asked with uncharacteristic determination “We still have plenty of time before morning, Kluzelda is still asleep and the queen even told us that Herifa can remain here! Come on, we can’t just give up like this!”
“I also don’t want to give up but, what plan can we even think of? The queen has already told us what will happen if we don’t comply” Eyiel replied.
“Oh, we are going to comply” Rhys replied with a grin on her face “In fact, our plan will come into fruition when she least expects it, when she thinks she has already won!”
“Well, we’re all ears then” Ferine said as she sat comfortably “What do you suggest?”
“You just listen”
In the following hours Rhys made show of what her role in the group was, she knew she was the weakest of her friends, that her shy and awkward demeanor alongside side with her almost natural submissiveness didn’t made her into a charismatic leader, but there was something that she hid very well beneath that façade of a shy defenseless elf girl, and it was her intelligence.
In a matter of hours she thought of plan that could let them save her friends and escape with them in a way that almost seemed too perfect to be real, but at the same time had no flaws anyone could point out, so they ended up agreeing with it.
A few hours later when the sun began to shyly shine on the horizon Herifa entered Kluzelda’s room. The amazon was sitting against a post to which she was tied to a with her hands behind it and her torso bound at the waist, with her legs tied to at the ankles and knees. On her mouth was a cloth cleave gag without stuffing but enough thickness to muffle her speech.
“Wake up, you have a trip to make” Herifa said as she began to untie Kluzelda from the post.
Almosta immediately after she opened her eyes, Kluzedla was plunged back into darkness by Herifa putting a black blindfold over her eyes.
“Mpghg…” Kluzelda grunted.
“Oh don’t worry, we’re not going to kill you” Herifa said as she secured the amazon’s restraints, in fact, we’re sending you back home, and with a prize on top of that!”
“Mpgh?” kluzelda tried to ask.
After a long walk through lands Kluzelda could not know of her blindfold was removed and she found herself on the far outskirts of the city, at the edge of the forest which divided those land controlled by the queen and those controlled by her rebel enemies.
“Let me tell you what’s going to happen Kluzelda” Herifa spoke as she stood right in front of the pirate “Your queen has won, she has offered me a deal that I can’t deny, and it’s a deal with two parts”
Kluzelda looked around and caught a glimpse of those three girls she had captured not so long ago inside her ship, they were standing on the distance, but she could clearly see them.
“We have to release you, and on top of that you must take those three as prisoners to the queen” Herifa spoke regretfully “Don’t worry, we have already talked this through and they won’t resist”
Kluzelda did not give credit to what she was hearing, it sounded far too good to be true.
“I’ll untie you know, and you’ll have to deliver a small message to the queen” Herifa said before getting to work with the pirate’s restraints.
After being unbound, Kluzeda rubber her sore wrists which were criss crossed by red marks of ropes and only then addressed Herifa.
“What is the meaning of this?” She asked.
“It’s nothing more than what it seems” Herifa replied “Here, tell this to the queen”
As she said that Herifa showed the crystal sphere to Kluzelda, who laid a hand on her and saw the other side lit up, showing the room of the crystal sphere with two contraptions which were now empty and a seemingly bored guard standing in front of the door.
“Huh.. hello?” Kluzelda asked as she took a closer glimpse into the sphere.
The guard sprang into action, seemingly spooked by Kluzelda’s voice coming from nothing, but he quickly caught wind of what was happening.
“Tell the queen I already have the three captives, and that I’m on my way to Jokulsa”
The guard hastily left the room, most likely to delivered that message to his queen.
“Now tell me little rebel” Kluzelda said “Now that I have the chance, why shouldn’t I take you too with my crystal sphere”
“The queen didn’t asked for us” Herifa calmly replied “You wouldn’t want to disobey her orders would you?”
“Fine, I’ll come back for you one day on my own then” Kluzelda said “And make you pay for what you did to me”
“All at its due time, for now focus on the task the queen gave you” Herifa said as she handed Kluzelda a large amount of coils of rope “Good luck”
The rebel leader walked away from Kluzelda and into the woods while Ferine, Eyiel and Rhys regretfully did the opposite, although not as regretfully as they had expected. If someone was still incredibly mad about having to surrender it was Eyiel, who would never welcome being bound no matter the circumstances, Ferine was now careless about it, after all it wouldn’t be first time she got captured, and Rhys was far more thrilled than she wanted to show or admit.
“So, I get to take you back to my ship then huh?” Kluzelda asked as the three stood in front of her.
“Just be quick about it” Eyiel muttered.
“Oh don’t worry my fellow amazon” Kluzelda said as she began to wrap rope above Eyiel’s breasts “I will take my time”” She continued as she tightened the ropes.
Ferine and Rhys watched still and silently as Kluzelda restrained their friend, they watched her tie a chest harness which framed her breasts and pinned her upper arms to her back, tie her wrists together in a tight boxtie and bind her legs together at the knees. And her friends watched knowing very well that they will be next.
Ferine was tied next, much like with Eyiel her chest was framed in a tight secure harness which prevented most upper body movement, but her hands were tied straight and parallel behind her back, with her elbows bound too, something that Kluzelda could get away with thanks to Ferine’s smaller back. And just like with Eyiel, Ferine’s legs were tied at the knees.
Lastly was Rhys, who was shyly waiting for her turn. She saw Kluzelda uncoil more of the rope Herifa had given her while she mustered up the courage to speak up the first part of the plan she had deviced.
“You know I’m a mage right…” She spoke shyly “So… I thought that as a show of out complete surrender I should provide you with this”
Rhys extended her hands towards Kluzelda and showed a particular instrument, a hollow ball of wood covered by soft leather with two leather harnesses coming from its opposite sides which ended in a buckle.
“These ballgags are made to keep mages like us from casting spells, since I have no intention of disturbing your mission I thought I should provide with means to ensure that” Rhys spoke with her legs nearly shaking because of the nerves.
“Thanks, I’ll use this shortly” Kluzelda replied as she patted Rhys on the head.
Out of the three Rhys was the least strictly bound, all the ropes Kluzelda tied around her amounted to just her wrists bound crossed behind her back, a small set of ropes encircling her chest below her small breasts and pinning her arms to her back and her legs tied at the knees, restraints so tame that they made the much more strictly bound Eyiel and Ferine envious of their elf friend.
But if there was one thing they were not envious of was the gag that she had applied on her mouth. Locked behind her teeth and tightly buckled behind her head, catching many of her red hairs in the way, it made them envy her friend just a bit less.
“I assume you didn’t bring one too” Kluzelda asked as she looked at her other two captives.
“What do you think?” Ferine asked tauntingly.
“I’ll have to make do then” Kluzelda sighed “Much like you did with me”
Kluzlda ripped two pieces of cloth from the bottom of Rhys’ robes, she then put one inside Ferine’s mouth, and then she tied a rope around her head that went between her teeth and kept the cloth inside. The same that they had done with her the first time they gagged her, and the same she shortly did with Eyiel shortly after.
And when they though Kluzelda was done she added just one more detail to their already strenuous bondage. She tied a rope to each of the prisoners’ chest harness, attaching them to each other leaving some slack for her to grab.
“Come on, let’s get walking”
With Eyiel in front, Ferine in the middle and Rhys on the back, the three were walked towards and into the city, which was still rebuilding after the battle that had taken place there. Even though the reparations were keeping busy most of the people few of them ignored the arrival of Kluzelda and her three captives.
Some just took a brief glimpse and went back to what they were doing, others ogled at them for as long as they could, which could mean until they left their sight or until someone brought them out of their trance.
The first one to interrupt Kluzelda and her procession of prisoners was someone who Eyiel recognized from the time when she was exposed in front of a set of pirates, so it was needless to say that Eyiel wanted to never see them again or at least not in this condition.
“Kluzelda, you’re alive!” The other pirate said.
“I am, and I came back with a prize” Kluzelda answered as she pointed behind her with her thumb.
“That’s great, what are you going to do with them?” The pirate asked.
“Oh, I have a mission to take them to the queen” Kluzelda answered “Is my ship ready for travel? It took some nasty wounds the last time I sailed”
“It’s as good as new Kluzelda, and has been eagerly awaiting your return since your departure”
And so the three were taken aboard Kluzelda’s ship once again, there Kluzelda was greeted cheerfully by her crew, who quicly suggesting dying the captives to the mast where they could be displayed for everyone to see, but surprising for both the crew and her captives she decided against that and simply ordered to have them taken to the much more discrete lower deck cells.
There they were untied from each other and thrown together inside the room which functioned as a cell, Rhys and Eyiel, who had already spent an awfully long time on that ship, breathed a sigh of relief when they saw that Kluzelda apparently hadn’t prepared any special treatment for them again.
A few minutes after being left alone Eyiel and Ferine started to try to remove each other’s gags by laying their heads at the height of each other’s hands in hopes of having the other catch wind of how the knot had been tied.
Rhys was out of the question not because of her unique gag which in fact would be easier to remove, but because part of the plan consisted in keeping her gagged.
“Mpghg mpghg” Rhys tried to get her friends attention.
By the time both Ferine and Eyiel managed to assume a normal sitting position again Kluzelda had already entered the room and was standing at the door, looking at them with the dim light that came through the door behind her.
“I can remove your gags if you want, as long as you stay put and don’t ungag your other friend” Kluzelda said as she moved to rest against a wall and allowed more light to fill the room.
That gesture sure came as surprising for the captives, especially for Rhys and Eyiel who remembered Kluzelda as a much crueler captive.
“Let me help you with that” Kluzelda said as she walked towards the prisoners to remove their gags.
She untied Ferine’s and Eyiel’s gag, allowing them to spit out the cloth muffling her sounds and making their speech unintelligible.
“Just remember, don’t take this as me giving you chance to try anything funny, you’re still captives on my ship remember?” Kluzelda said as she moved to leave the room.
But before she could stand out of the room she was stopped by Eyiel’s voice, asking her a question that she didn’t really wanted to answer, but one that she had seen coming already.
“Why the sudden change in attitude?” Eyiel asked “I’m not eager to be tied to the prow again, but why the change?”
Kluzelda sighed and faced her prisoner again, whether she liked what a her sincere response would be or not did not matter, it was not in the amazon code to lie not to dodge questions.
“Well, I ended up getting some respect for you during the time you kept me captive” Kluzelda spoke “It was strangely humbling to be put through the torture I usually subject my prisoners to, and so it was to be tied up by someone weaker than I” She said as she looked at Rhys, making her blush.
“So, we’ve convinced you to change your methods?” Ferine asked.
“Maybe, but for now rest assured that I no longer believe you to be deserving of any punishment” Kluzelda replied “Hell, your friend and that elf may have convinced me about love between amazons and not amazons being possible”
Kluzelda grabbed the door to close it, but she spoke a few last words before leaving.
“It’s a shame It won’t amount to much now” She said.
Too ashamed to keep talking about what she had found out about herself during her time as a captive Kluzelda left the room, leaving her captives alone again and with great surprise after seeing that change of heart in her captress.
Even though Ferine and Eyiel briefly discussed using this newly discovered facet of the pirate to their advantage Rhys made sure to remind them, through struggling and moaning, that trying anything at this point was out of the question. If they didn’t arrive at Jokulsa as captives Ann would suffer the consequences, and for their plan to work they had to arrive as captives, so all talk about trying anything between the thief and the amazon was cut short.