Zardoz
CHAPTER FOUR GALINDA
Galinda was the oldest of our sisters and the kookiest. She was a recluse; living nearly like a hermit in her forbidding northern castle with her dour servants. She literally spent twelve or more hours a day locked in a room with her precious magic mirror doing who knows what strange and perverted things in there by herself - believe me there were rumors. At least she was not a threat like Ravenna or a tiresome, whorish burden like dear Theodora; she kept to herself and stayed out of the affairs of other witches. So I was surprised when we were welcomed so quickly and politely by her guards and taken into her private sitting room where we had tea. She was not at all surprised to see us or Culane whose presence should have caused quite a stir.
"I was appraised that you were coming and bringing a man," by our dear sister Ravenna, she said in her slow, soft drawling voice as she sat primly on the couch with her tea cup in her lap. She wore a loose voluminous dress of light blue satin with a string of pearls around her neck; her blonde hair was done up as usual in one of her fantastic styles piled high on her head all ribbons and curls and loops with jewels set in it; her sensuous mouth was painted deep red and her eyes lids were thick with shadow of the same color as her dress. She seemed very subdued even for her, and very sad, she seemed to be making a great effort not to break down in tears.
"Ravenna knows already?" I asked startled and worried.
"Oh yes. The bitch broke my mirror. She entered it somehow last night and I found myself staring at her ugly vindictive face instead of my own beautiful visage. She warned me that a man had come to take over Oz and had already seduced the two of you, had made you give up your vows and now would be coming for me. She demanded that I raise my troops at once and march against you from the north while she marches from the south; when I refused she let out a hideous scream which cracked my darling mirror in several places and made it go as dark as lead."
I glared at Culane and Theodora; I was already very mad at them since I had discovered that he was wasting his precious man juice on her slutty little cunny when it could be put to better use making gold, and now there was this. As I expected Ravenna was already on to us and would make us all pay for threatening her. "Do you see what you have brought upon us?" I shouted.
Galinda ignored my outburst, her tearful eyes were focused inwards on her own grief. "Now I have nothing," she lamented, "that mirror was the most precious thing in the world to me, it filled my time, gave me company. What am I to do with myself now? How am I going to live?"
Obviously she was going to be of no use to us, and Ravenna would crush us; I began to think of how quickly I could abandon these fools and join Ravenna, trying to calculate what price she would extract from me for my actions so far, but the trickster Culane was not alarmed at all. "I can fix your mirror," he said simply.
Galinda stopped weeping and looked at him; "That is not possible, it is a work of great craft and magic built long ago and infused with my spirit."
"Of course I would need your help, that would be essential, but the mechanical problem, I can handle. I apprenticed as a magic mirror maker in my youth in Eire, we make some very fine articles there. With your help I have no doubt that I can do it, and I can make it so that Ravenna can never get inside it again," he said confidently.
Galinda looked at us for guidance her lips parted with hope showing the bottom of her two top front teeth, a little overbite which was said to be so attractive. Theodora, who was draped over Culane, fawning on him said brightly, "If Culane says he can do something, then he can do it; he has never failed has he Evenora?"
I was half way out of my chair about to lash out at them with anger when her words gave me pause. It was true. I realized that Culane knew what he was doing, he did not make idle boasts, so I sat back down, uncertain now if this was a completely lost cause, but also troubled by the fact that everything Culane needed to happen always fell in to place. "It is true," I said cautiously, "if he says he can fix your mirror I believe he can." I turned and glared at the smiling soldier, "and he had better be quick about it too."
Galinda wiped the tears from her eyes daintily with the edge of her scented handkerchief and turned all of her sultry charm on Culane, speaking in a husky voice, batting her long dark lashes, practically wiggling her pert little up-turned nose. "If you can truly restore my beloved mirror I will grant you anything you wish," she said.
"Will you join our cause and see Theodora restored to her lands?" he asked
'Of course, and more, much more, you only need ask," with eyes locked they had both stood up while talking; "Will you fight Ravenna?" he asked.
"Most certainly Culane, she is a cruel bitch and needs to be punished and put in her place."
Theodora clapped her hands; "We are going to win!" she cried happily, the poor girl oblivious to just what kind of "assistance" Culane would be requiring from Galinda.
Galinda smiled down at us as she placed her arm in Culane's, "Of course this is a matter of great privacy to me," she said, "My servants will see to all your needs, and perhaps your crystal ball might come in handy now."
Smug Culane smiled at us; Theodora blew him a kiss and I glared at him.
"How long are you going to be?" I asked acidly.
"Many hours at least; it is a complicated and delicate operation, but we should be ready by daybreak. Perhaps you might want to return to Emerald City and prepare your troops for the march," he said as they strolled off arm in arm towards her private tower.
"Oh Course when I said that I would give you anything you asked that includes any of the dirty, wicked, rough, nasty things that men do to witches," Galinda said to me in her soft, slow, almost breathless way as she leaned against me. She was the oldest of the witches and the most feminine, in her five-inch heels she stood equal height with me, but had to move with very slow measured steps. Her hair was an intricate fantasy that must have taken her servants hours to put together; her mouth and eyes were elaborately made up. With high cheekbones, fat lips, and an amazing little pert nose, up turned at the end, tilted blue eyes, and big tits, she was the complete trembling fuck package.
"You know about men?" I asked.
'Oh my yes, they were still some of them around when I was a girl," she looked at me with an expression of mock terror, "I remember the panic that used to run through everyone when word came that the men were raiding. They left the munchkins and the manchkins alone, it was the witches they were after, and it was the witches that they wanted to seize and use to satisfy their lust. We heard stories of course, from survivors, they said that they were ruined forever afterwards for the wizards and spent the rest of their lives pining away for a man. My very own mother was ravaged by Rory O'More and then ran off with him, she refused to leave his side and died with him in the last siege of Nevermoor." She continued to speak, leaning heavily on me, pressing close, as we worked our way through the elaborate halls of her tower until we came to her most private chambers. "So, of course I expect to be roughly handled by you Culane, I know that you can't help your nature."
We came at last to the mirror room behind a solid oak door. It was not a very large room consisting of one ten-foot wall hung with dark curtains in front of which stood the mirror. It was a large oval eight feet high and four feel wide at its widest part held in a golden frame at least another foot wide all around that was finely carved with erotic figures. Out of the bottom of the frame extending out a couple of feet and then rising up in a natural curve was a well-proportioned golden cock, but not particularly impressive one other than it was made of solid gold, it was only about six inches long and not even half as thick as mine. "That is the purest gold," Galinda said following my gaze, "Very soft and malleable especially when heated," she said. A thick, soft woven tapestry covered an area of the floor about four feet wide and six long. About six feet from the mirror was an old fashioned box seat type wooden chair with thick leather upholstering and wide padded arms, and behind that was a sort of long fairly wide upholstered bench about six feet long, four feet wide and three feet high. About three feet behind that, the walls were hung with long, heavy, dark curtains. On either side of the carpet the floor was polished marble.
There was a narrow crack running down the center of the mirror and branching out at the middle in both directions to the edge, and as she had said, the whole surface had gone dull and non-reflective. I crouched down and pretended to study it closely, rubbing my chin in thought. "Can you fix it?" she asked nervously.
"With your help, yes, it can be done."
"What do you need, can we begin at once?"
"I will need a basin with about two cups of warm water, can you get that?"
"Of course."
"And a thin brush, about the width of the crack, oh and tweezers?" I said.
She crouched down beside me, leaning against my shoulder as I studied the crack. "Yes, I have make-up brushes like that. I'll get them." There were two doors leading out of the room, one she told me, was to her library and the other to her large wardrobe, dressing and sewing room. She left and I stood up, "And what about something to drink?" I called out.
