Eliska Read online

  “To cleanse her?” I offered, trying not to sound sardonic.

  It was here that the Margravine intervened: “Graf von Mechtingen, you may be surprised at my severity. You see, we do not live in your sophisticated parts, although your revolts, massacres and destruction of abbeys and convents in the Black Forest, in Thuringia or wherever, are hardly reassuring. But here I demand the strictest possible discipline among my serfs and servants. Women must remain pure.” She paused and then added: “If they are serfs and servants.”

  It was Premsyl’s turn to enlighten me. “Yes, such women must be purified with the whip. This is done in the privacy of the castle, sir. We disagree entirely with public whippings; they are not exemplary and only offer the victim notoriety and sympathy, as well as exciting the uneducated onlooker to lust and depravity.”

  At that point Eliska rose to leave the hall and reiterated her invitation to me.

  “My lord, you saw a whore arrestedin flagrante delicto ” (I had to admire her Latin) “and she is to be prepared by my man tonight. I think it would be instructive of our methods if you were to witness this preparation as well as the actual sessions. Please feel free to wander through the dungeons and slave stalls. Apart from one or two rather special places, we have no secrets from you, my dear lord.”

  As she left the great hall with her lovers, I found myself confronted with the second serving girl who stood motionless before me. It was clear that she had been told to place herself at my service. As I have absolutely no desire to become entangled in the habits of this place, I dismissed the girl, but not before she made it plain to me in her local words that I could use her body in any way I wished and take the whip to her if that be my desire. I just hope that Hans is not being tempted in this sort of way!

  Greetings from this vale of tears!

  Huldrych

  Letter The Fifth

  My work proceeds far better than expected and I have found time to study the way the place is run. I begin to know the immense castle better: the library and music room, the bedrooms leading off the long corridor behind heavy tapestries, the dining hall, council room and countless other chambers.

  But so far I did not know the subterranean regions.

  Armed with the Margravine’s authority, I therefore decided to explore. Holding my candlestick above my head, I wandered through the maze of passages and galleries.

  “You no doubt seek the preparation chamber, my lord,” came the rough accent. Despite his cowl, I recognized Jakub and, glad of his company, walked with him. I took the opportunity of asking him if his current prisoners did not have names.

  His reply was straightforward. “The brothel whore is called Marja. She works her body hard and with profit. She was scourged in the vault during Vespers. Thirty-three lashes. She’s used to a thick whip, and even fucks well afterwards.”

  I pretended to ignore the language. “And the illicit whore?” I asked.

  “She is not from Zatoransky, sir. She’s called Maryska. She is about to be prepared for a full ceremony. After preparation she will join the other two - that is, the whore Marja and the slut Tereza - in the stalls and all three will be used by us and selected men deserving recompense for good service.”

  Jakub now unlocked a heavy door studded with nails and we entered an oval chamber lit by two candles in wall sconces. There, crouching naked on the flagstones, her arms bound behind her, knelt Maryska - I call her by her name now, for at least she is entitled to this if to nothing else. Her beautiful body glistened with oils as her breasts rose and fell rapidly with fear; yet she seemed totally resigned, submissive and docile as she waited.

  Then slowly in the hollow silence and in the odour of sweat and candle tallow, Sebastian entered. He was naked except for a pair of black velvet slippers, a leather belt round the waist and straps round each wrist. In his hand, as if it were his wand of office, he held a whip. He is certainly a magnificently handsome youth, muscular and well-built, his chest, belly and crotch covered with dark hair above a heavy set of genitals, momentarily dormant and swinging ponderously against his thighs as he walked.

  Jakub then delivered his charge to the young man.

  “By order of the gracious Margravine, this whore is to be prepared for the ceremony of the Three Sessions - pierced, ringed, manacled and chained. After preparation, the whore will be committed to the stalls for use. You will be informed of the time for her presentation for the first session. Proceed!”

  Jakub, his duty performed, bowed to me and departed, leaving me with the naked couple, each looking at the other in silence.

  The girl was now made to kneel before the man. This she did almost willingly as if she knew that any resistance was not only futile but dangerous for her body. I found myself wondering if she was not conscious of the power her nakedness exerted on the youth, and if she herself was not excited by the powerful nude man before her.

  As Sebastian looked down at the superb body kneeling obediently at his feet, his penis began to swell. Slowly it rose, the foreskin withdrawing gradually from the scarlet head, until it stood throbbing in full erection. The girl watched the growth in silence, passing her tongue now and then over her lips.

  The scene was suddenly disturbed by the arrival of no one less than Eliska. Her heels echoing in the chamber, she approached the couple and to my astonishment took hold of her servant’s erection; gently she ran her gloved hand from the tip to the base several times, looking attentively at her victim. What she said to her servant was more or less a repetition of Jakub’s order except that she insisted in having both - both, she repeated - both flanges of flesh on either side of the sex pierced and ringed together rather than just single lips.

  Her orders seemed to be routine. The man, flattered by the sliding hand on his prick, nodded. And then Eliska was gone as suddenly as she had appeared. She did not seem even to notice me.

  Sebastian guided the girl into an adjoining chamber. This is a far larger room, also lit by large candles that threw grotesque shadows on the walls. The furnishings startled me. Two massive oak frames stood at one end, loaded with instruments and implements: whips and scourges of many sorts, plaited thongs with braided tips, coils of leather ending in waxed cords, thin flat lengths of horse leather, riding crops, bunches of short slender ropes. Suspended among them from the crossbars were iron tongs, shafts in the form of a penis and an array of iron spheres on lengths of chain similar to our infamous Morgensterns used as flailing maces in battle, each spike honed to a glittering point.

  In front to this stood a heavy bench, such as those used by carpenters; at an angle on its surface was bolted a stout rod bound in leather. As if aware of what was required of her, Maryska lifted herself on to the bench and, belly down, edged towards the shaft until it was grazing her sex. With a sharp thrust on the buttocks, Sebastian drove the loins downwards and, with a gasp that filled the chamber, Maryska was impaled.

  As the rod slid into her, her breasts crushed down on to the bench, the head hanging over the end. The wrists were still bound and obviously no additional bondage was required while Sebastian buckled broad manacles of black, well-used leather to the wrists and ankles, each strap armed with several rings.

  This done, the man spent a long moment examining the superb curves of the raised rump, passing his hands over the flesh, between the cheeks and down the tensed thighs. When satisfied, he urged the girl off the spigot and made her kneel to receive the studded neck strap and a purple band of velvet tied over the eyes. As Ladislav had put it earlier when describing how they desired to have slaves presented, the girl from now on would be blind, attacked by unseen forces, invisible scourges and anonymous hands and sexes which took pains to purge her body of its lust and sin.

  Next the girl was dragged to a crossbar where she was hauled aloft by the ankles to a beam overhead, limbs parted and wrists secured below. The breasts were then lifted and
placed on the bar. At that moment an elderly woman entered carrying a tray of pots. This was Radka. Slowly and deliberately she anointed the sex and the nipples, rubbing unguents into the tender, supple flesh; later I learned she concocts these herself from herbs and they are powerful enough to render the organs insensible, dulling the pain and disinfecting. What strange and wise measures these monsters take in their cruelty!

  After a long smearing of her potions, the old hag fingered one of the girl’s nipples and the sex lips, after which she nodded to Sebastian that the victim was ready. I do not wish to dismay you with a description of the piercing and the insertion and clipping of the shining metal rings, but in the process Radka smeared more preparations over the breasts and genitals while Maryska only groaned, hardly moving in her bondage.

  Then, gathering her jars and pots, the old woman left without a word but with almost exaggerated politeness, bowed to me in passing. All is ceremony here - even in the dungeons! May God help us.

  The body now glinted with the five bright rings firmly embedded in the large nipples, the rich labia and the fold of the clitoris hood among the auburn hairs of the crotch.

  I thought the preparation was over but this was not to be. Far from it. The man released Maryska and dragged her, swaying unsteadily after the shock of her suspension and piercing, to a huge sloping beam of timber to which he bound her, arms above the head, legs drawn backwards. Just as in the vault, the body was revealed in all its perfection, the belly concave from the projecting ridge of the ribs down to the bulge of the pubic mound, below which the sex was splayed wide open. It was into this now that Sebastian thrust a stout smooth wooden shaft, probably, I thought, to ready it for his own. Then he throttled the breasts at the root with straps, making them swell to their utmost volume and the nipples protrude upwards with their new rings. Armed with a hook, he then tested each nipple-ring, tugging steadily to ensure it was securely embedded. Here for the first time Maryska tossed her head and filled the chamber with a hoarse cry as the organs distended.

  Content with his work, the man stood back to contemplate the beauty who lay in his total power; after caressing his sex for a long, luxurious moment he released the breasts and removed the shaft from the vagina.

  Seated in a chair I had found in the shadows, I instinctively felt that the moment of the man’s reward or recompense had come. And indeed I was right. He straddled over the body where it lay, still bound to the beam, and drove his erection deep into it. Maryska sucked in her breath with a long hiss and almost immediately her loins began to writhe and heave as the oldest act of all was performed. Very soon she was thumping her rump violently against the timber, thrashing her head from side to side and moaning and, after several minutes of being rammed and battered, she shrieked and came.

  Sebastian remained within her for as long as the orgasm and its aftermath lasted. He withdrew slowly, unbound the body and dragged the limp girl to the side of the beam, binding her wrists behind her and seating himself on the upper end of the timber. The woman went to her knees at once and, guided by a throat chain, sought the erection as if desperate to satisfy her all-powerful master. The fellatio was fierce and long with Maryska sucking and licking with animal avidity until the vein-ribbed prick sprang from the lips to splash its turbid jets of boiling grey semen in lumps over Maryska’s face and neck. The man emptied the shaft with the grip of his fist, groaning with contentment.

  It was then that I left, amazed that the girl could orgasm so soon after piercing but relieved that she had been pleasured. I had had my first experience of the Zatoransky dungeons. On my way back to my solitary chamber, a gust of night air blew out my candle and, as your dear mother used to say, that is never a good omen. I fell asleep to the sound of croaking frogs and the nightjars and dreamt of nothing I can recall. A good omen?

  I send you my blessings. Embrace you mother for me. It is no use your writing, even by Imperial messenger, if you could get one, for letters will not reach me here before my departure which will be, God willing, in about a month from now.

  And then home.

  Huldrych, your loving uncle.

  Letter The Sixth

  (Several pages of this letter are lost. The text takes up at the third page)

  ...and so the work advances slowly. The cooperation has been better than I anticipated except for the local convents where the Mothers Superior seem reluctant to help. I shall seek the Margravine’s advice. The visits to the priories, on the other hand, have been fruitful. I have now two despatches ready for my masters in Nuremberg.

  If I am not out riding and visiting with Hans and the guards, I work in my room where I frequently dine alone, pleading my labours. My meals are brought to me by a delicious, dark-haired serf girl, naked, as usual, down to the edge of her pubic hair, which is the required dress. This one is the replacement for Tereza and is full of smiles. I wonder how long she will last? And thinking back to Tereza, now and then when I am in the courtyard, taking the night air, I can catch the muffled sound of screams from the vault below and the hiss and crack of the scourge on flesh as some miserable wench is flogged for some terrible crime - like slamming a door or talking during Vespers...

  The same evening, after a stroll among the fragrant boxwood hedges in the castle garden, I decided to explore more of the underworld. There are some thirty steps down which give an idea of the depth of some of the cellars. At one point I saw a great iron-hinged door, firmly locked, which I deduced was the fateful dungeon where the sex-torture - as they sometimes term it - takes place. To the right stretched a dark corridor which I took, following my instinct of direction (which you yourself admired in me when we got lost in the back streets of Heidelberg one night!). Thus I happened on what they call the slave stalls themselves.

  These are a series of rough wooden partitions not unlike a stable except that no animal could be kept down here; each stall has a stone slab across its width. You can imagine my surprise, although I half expected it, to find three of the stalls occupied by females, naked and chained. In the first, the beautiful Tereza was hanging by the ankles, legs apart, her arms bound behind her, so that her head hung at the level of a man’s loins, which was to be shown a moment later.

  The girl was breathing rapidly on account of the suspension she was enduring. Yet she had not been put to the whip - at least, not yet - for her skin was pristine and free of lash welts. I felt relieved on her account, this little spiller of wine.

  In the adjacent stall, her buttocks perched on the extremity of the ledge, the whore Marja was stretched by a chain from the neck to a large ring in the wall behind. Her thighs were wide open, chained to the base of the partitions on each side and purple whip marks over her hips bore testimony to the flagellation she had received in the vault. She sat motionless, her eyes closed, her fair hair cascading down her back.

  To my further surprise, I recognized immediately the third female from her blindfold and body rings. Maryska’s legs were chained to the metal circles in her sex labia, causing her to sit in cruel tension. I noticed that each partition post had a slender whip hooked to it, ready for instant use on recalcitrant flesh or to satisfy a sudden whim.

  As I advanced further with my candle, I heard footsteps approaching and I withdrew into the shadows as Bohumil entered. Without taking note of my presence or feigning to ignore me, he approached Tereza’s nudity, entirely at his disposal.

  He caressed her body from top to bottom - the belly, buttocks, inner thighs and then the sex - and all at once opened his codpiece and brought out a pulsating erection. He thrust the head into the girl’s mouth and, as her lips encircled the pole obediently, lunged in deep. Tereza gagged at each penetration but managed to perform a superb fellatio, despite her position. After some minutes I thought one or both must orgasm - particularly when the man rubbed his rough cowl against the open labia and clitoris.

  But Bohumil withdrew, leaving Tereza panting, g
asping. He moved to Marja. Here he plunged directly into her sex, butting her body against the wall. It was she, experienced prostitute that she is, who accelerated the rhythm, seeking the man’s discharge and possibly her own.

  But she too was left craving. Restraining himself, the man shifted over to Maryska where he relieved the distended sex of the leg chains, lifted the thighs round his waist and took her violently, wrenching the labia rings apart as he penetrated. This copulation was different. Bohumil thumped into Maryska with savage lust; I could hear the bodies slapping together as the man plundered the loins relentlessly. After what seemed like an eternity, Maryska let out a long, hoarse cry, arching herself backwards as if to drag the penis into her. She orgasmed uncontrollably. The man continued until he too was ready. The powerful pulses of hot rich sperm sluiced over the girl’s belly and ribs as Bohumil withdrew and spent madly from his clenched hand.

  Fully satisfied, Bohumil fastened his codpiece, unchained Maryska and, taking his lantern, led her to the far door of the chamber. The girl looked magnificent as she walked, her body shining with the scented oil over which the opaque semen slid slowly down towards the pubis. The chamber was pungent with odours: sweat, sperm, leather and tallow. Leaving the two other nudes, the couple quit the stalls and I concluded that the girl was now being taken to her cell where she would dwell for her weeks of ‘cleansing’.

  What perplexed me in watching the scene just enacted was the total subservience of the women and their apparent readiness, even eagerness, to cooperate sexually with their gaolers despite the bondage imposed. Also the fact that the bailiff must have been aware of my presence and yet performed without hesitation before me.