The wizard saw a shadow emerge from the bricks of the wall. Immediately his gaze was drawn along the wall to the left, deflected by the magical disguise. As a wizard he was impressed. The mage who created this protection had done a thorough weaving. He did not know how this deflection had been created.
The sorcerer looked closely at the young woman who stood before him. She was ripe indeed, as his probing had elaborated. Long straight dark black/brown hair framed a tanned exquisite face. She was slender and her skin smooth and perfect. As far as he could guess, beneath the dress she wore, her body was slim and perfect, mildly muscular, enough to give her shape. She was indeed a great prize.
"I believe I have made a good bargain," he said, "But will you honour your side of it? You must be good to me and honour me otherwise your family place will be revealed!"
"I understand," she said. She did not have the look of someone who was easily controlled. He could see intelligence in those eyes. He did not need magic to see that she controlled her feelings and that her real opinion of him was not the one she revealed to him. He hoped she would give him the pleasures he craved. There was little likelihood she would fool and deny him because she needed to protect her family. She was of a race and people in these lands who were soft and easygoing. To them the pleasurable use of their bodies was not a prize to be fought over or defended like a crucial honour. They gave their charms away easily and generously. So he had heard and at times had experienced. They were a prized people. It was a pity that so many of the generous lives of these people were to be wasted by Guthelm's bloodlusts, and those of his servants, for they would make the most marvellous slaves.
The sorcerer was a big man, muscular arms, and a head of barbarian hair. He held a long whip, which he flourished without devoting full attention to it. She knew he could use it and he had a long range. She knew it would be difficult to run from this man if ever she needed to. And those muscles were not to be ignored either. He was ugly to her - a mature man with a body well used and overly weighty. His muscular arms were too large for her tastes, his hair, thin at the top, but long, was greasy and unkempt. He stank of sweat and foul odours. She knew his sorcery was powerful. How else could he have invaded Princil's carefully created mist. She was in despair of regaining her freedom. If she escaped her family would be betrayed.
The sorcerer Aribor approached, his whip hanging effortlessly in his right hand. A sorceror's hat sat on his head, battered and used. A long bristly moustache covered his upper lip and small beard. "Come with me young lady," he said in a voice that allowed no question or argument.
"Where?" she asked nervously.
"You will follow." He grabbed hold of her arm in a strong grip and led her through the streets away from the family she cared for; mother, brotherlover, secondmother, half sisters, and the life she had known, but would probably never be able to return to. She must serve this foul man for the sake of her family.
Aribor looked upon the young woman with the lust he had already felt in his magical search. The lust remained strong. She was beautiful, a face that many men would fight for. He knew he had one of the best prizes he had ever found. She would be sought after by others too. Best to get her into a house before he could be disturbed. Other sorcerors and warriors would be interested in this wench, and for this reason he did not wish to draw attention to her. He must safeguard her and keep her secret. He must remove her from the streets of this city of fear and chaos.
"You will come with me. You must please me, be kind and make love, as you would to your own husband. When I have had sufficient pleasure of you, on one or maybe 5 or 10 or more occasions, or perhaps many more, over two or three years, then you may go. When I decide I have had enough of you you can go. You may eventually return to your family if you can find them, or you may have opportunities to serve others in Guthelm's army. A woman as beauteous as you will find service I assure you."
And so Aribor made his pact with Remzain, a contract, in which she had little choice if she were not to lose all her family to the barbarian invaders. She would give him access to her deepest passages and crevices in return for safeguarding her family. In some respects, as a citizen of Cromilil in Shalirion, this was no difficult action for her to take. All the people of her land were noted for their liberality with their own bodies. Yet the loss of her past life and the freedom and pleasure of that life, into which she had still been growing until today, was immense. She hoped she might bear it and not be shattered by it.
"Where do we go?" she asked.
"There is an empty house nearby," said Aribor.
"You want to go there now?" she asked. "The city is in chaos. It is dangerous, for me, and for you also!"
"That is why I must have you now. I will of course look after you if you do my will, but those dangers do mean that it is sensible for us to share what I wish us to share before any other possibilities intrude."
He led her down an adjoining street of house walls and gradual steps, until they came to the house he had chosen.
"How do you know the house is empty?" she asked.
"I know that it is because I can see inside. My sorcery tells me that no people abide within those walls at the present moment. I sense no likelihood they will return."
He took her to the door and cast a quick spell over the door. It opened with no resistance to his touch, and he pushed her in. She did not resist.
The house was a family home, much like Remzain's own, except much smaller, evidently not belonging to such a wealthy family. They entered a gathering room, embellished with well crafted pottery and a collection of nude statues. There were four bedchambers. Two of them appeared to belong to young children, judging by the colours and the toys present.
Aribor led her by the arm into one of the adult bedrooms. Here lay the dead bodies of the family, a man and his wife or lover, naked, who would have been in the prime of life if it had not been for this calamity. The man was covered in his own blood, having been slashed in the neck, perhaps by a sword, and stabbed in other places on the body. His body had been discarded onto the floor. The woman had been fair of face, dark haired, and lay upon the bed, her arms slashed in the end. The bed smelled also of sexual excretion, whether male or female, or both. It took little imagination to assume that she had been raped and then cruelly bled until she lost consciousness and died.
This was the first Remzain had seen of death in her youthful life. The descriptions of Princil and the others in these last hours had partly prepared her for the ghastly scenes which she might find in her city. She had heard tales of the barbarians and their strange warlike ways before, but nothing could really prepare a young woman for the scene she now viewed. They had all felt themselves to be immortal, even if they were not, but this proved the opposite. Their lives would now be a daily fear of misfortune. She was terrified. If barbarians could do this, what of this wizard? Was he capable of such acts of brutality? Would she be as safe as he suggested? If they could do this could not the wizard do the same to her?
She wondered where the children had gone. Thankfully there was no sign of young bodies here. Perhaps, she wondered whether they had been gathered into Grumandor's 'army of orphans', which she had heard tales of from previous lands touched by Guthelm's conquering horde.
"Go into the other adult room," said the wizard, gesturing with his whip, back along the corridor. Obediently she led the way to the clean room, where there were thankfully no bodies, but a strong bed occupied one side of the room.
"What do you want me to do?" she asked the wizard , unsure of what he would demand. She was sure only that he wanted something sexual from her, and she was well aware that she had agreed to this for the sake of her family. She would do all that was within her to carry out her side of the bargain so that hopefully the black mage would honour his side of the deal. She just hoped none of his expectations of her would be too demanding or involve pain in any way.
