Part Twelve
The Rendezvous
Brunilda was a Centaur.
She had been Peter the Peddler’s tickle mate for quite some time now. And they had seen each other through better and worse and had emerged all the better from it all. After having freed her from Xavis’s dungeon by completing a contract, Peter had been on the run since from Xavis’s headhunters and avenger. It was only until now that she could finally spend some quality tickling time with her mate.
She was a Centaur who was more on the plump side with long curly golden locks and was endowed with a large and shapely bosom which she prided herself for. She had no feet to tickle, but she also prided herself for her incredibly ticklish torso which Peter loved to tickle.
They were in his magical peddling wagon and Peter had tied her wrists together and suspended them a hook tied to a beam at the top of the wagon. Peter would mount her and tickle her mercilessly usually, but today he only tickled lightly and almost disinterestedly. She twisted and jerked, but she did not enjoy it as much as she would if he were more enthusiastic.
“Why so glum, my love?” she asked looking back at the peddler with his dinosaur head slumped and looking downcast.
“I’m worried about the Manlings that I helped get into Xavis’s Palace,” he said sorrowfully. “They got in all right and that was the deal.” He gestured to a large chest of magic gems he had received in payment for the two slaves he had sold to Ela.
“But it just doesn’t feel right leaving them to their fate at the hands of that tyrant Xavis,” he said shaking his head.
“Peter the Peddler, the man who practically coined the phrase ‘business is business’, is feeling a bit guilty?” she asked as she stood up on her rear legs and unhooked her wrists. She sensed there would not be much tickling action today.
“I just feel I should have done more to help them so they would have a better chance against Xavis,” he said. “It would be better for business too if we could divert the Cat Clan’s attention from yours truly to the Tickle Scourge and that Tenderfoot Esmeralda.”
“Esmeralda?” Brunilda asked as the name caught her attention. “Is she a Tenderfoot spell caster with dark hair and green eyes?”
“Yes,” Peter replied. “He has quite some potential. How do you know her?”
“I don’t,” the centaur replied pacing within the wagon and thinking, “but her name was been whispered upon the wind and we centaurs are always alert as to the messages sent through the wind by our kinsfolk.”
“And?” Peter asked curiously.
“Esmeralda saved the princess Lauranis from a terrible fate in the Elfling King’s Dungeon,” Brunilda explained. “I am honor bound to aid her in her time of need.”
“Honor bound or not, there are no open wormholes and the magic dome prevents anything magical or otherwise to enter the Palace,” Peter observed.
“There must be another way to get around the magic,” she said pacing more urgently.
Peter cringed. When a centaur got an idea into his or her head regarding something honorable, there wasn’t much that would distract them until they reached their objective.
There was a knock on the door and Peter went to open it.
”We’re closed,” he said tersely to the robed stranger pointing to a hanging sign that read ‘CLOSED’. “Can’t you read the sign?”
“I have no interest in pills or peddling,” a female voice said drawing back her hood. “I want to help the Scourge and the Tenderfoot to succeed and to warn them of a terrible danger. I know you’ve helped them. I know you can help me.”
“You’ve come to the right place,” Peter said gesturing for his guest to come in.
“Make yourself at home… Danea, Keeper of the Academy.”
* * * * *
“There is something else we are here for, isn’t there, Patrisa?” Esmeralda asked her mentor as she adjusted the straps of her leather armor that Silk had so kindly woven. “It’s not just about evening a score.”
“It’s never about just evening a score,” the Tickle Scourge replied. There were still in the dark hall were hundreds of glass coffins containing ticklish slaves awaited their call to serve Lord Xavis.
“Are you going to tell me, or am I going to have to tickle it out of you?” Esmeralda threatened.
Patrisa laughed but there was a hint of doubt in her laughter. Esmeralda had grown in skill and daring and although it appeared to be an idle threat, she knew that no good would come from keeping her in the dark.
“Very well,” she said. “Madame Jordanna wants a special magical artifact that is in the possession of Lord Xavis. She wants it so bad, that if I recover it for her she will retire and leave the Academy to me.”
”What artifact is that?” Esmeralda asked.
“You’ve already seen it,” Patrisa replied. “You’ve actually sat on it, in fact.”
“That cursed throne?” Esmeralda asked.
“Not precisely,” Patrisa replied. “That fool Xavis has used the actual artifact to construct that toy of his. The actual artifact is the crystal gem at the top of the throne. It is called Melca’s Gem and it is a powerful magical artifact. Had I recognized the Gem when we were placed on the throne I might have made an effort to steal it at that very moment, but unfortunately we both were on the receiving end of its tickling hands by the time I realized it.”
“That’s all this quest is about then?” Esmeralda asked.
“Well, getting back at Ela or Xavis is a special bonus,” Patrisa admitted.
“I will help you,” Esmeralda said, “but on one condition.”
“Which is that, Tenderfoot?”
“That you stop calling me Tenderfoot and you stop keeping me out of the dark with these things,” Esmeralda said. “I’m not a Tenderfoot anymore.”
“Agreed,” Patrisa said smiling as a parent does when their child learns to tie her shoelaces. “But a word of warning, you might think you know much, but there is still a lot to learn.”
“Agreed,” Esmeralda said holding out her hand. “I just want to be treated as a partner and not a side kick.”
Patrisa took it and shook it firmly.
“Where do we begin then?” Esmeralda asked.
“Ela seems to know enough about that Cursed Seat and we can get even for that tickle torture session.”
“Where do we find her?” Esmeralda asked.
At that moment, heavy steps were heard approaching the door to the hall.
“This is our chance,” Patrisa said. “Hide behind the door as it opens.”
A key was inserted into the door and a lock was turned and the door opened. Esmeralda and Patrisa pressed their bodies against the wall behind the door.
Two large Animus guards- one with a Rhinoceros head and another with a Hippopotamus head- marched in the room on their iron shod boots.
“How many did Lady Ela request we bring?” asked the Hippopotamus headed guard who dragged a platform on wheels into the hall.
“Five,” replied the first raising an open hand indicating those five with his fingers.
“Five of these ticklish slaves would last me for life time,” the Hippopotamus headed one said wistfully. “I don’t know why Xavis needs three hundred or why he rotates a couple dozen every week.”
“Not for us to ask that kind of questions,” the Rhinoceros replied laconically looking at the rows and rows of glass coffins.
“Well? Which ones did Lady Ela request?” the other guard asked.
“She went to bathe and then retire to her quarters,” the Rhinoceros replied. “She said we could choose.”
“Which ones do we choose then?”
“Anyone, really,” he replied. “They wouldn’t be here if they weren’t ticklish and it’s not like they’re going to spoil or anything.”
“Wait! What was that?” the Hippopotamus headed guard said as he turned towards the door.
”What was what?” the Rhinoceros headed guard asked irritably.
“I heard something scurry out through the door.”
“Bah! Stop your slacking and help me load these coffins,” the Rhinoceros headed guard commanded. “If we’re late with the new slaves, Lord Xavis will through a fit and we’ll both be prey for his tickling pet.”
The Hippopotamus headed guard looked back at the door as if he felt something was out of place and then shrugged and helped load the glass cases onto the cart.
* * * * *
“You have some nerve just walking in here, Spellcaster.”
Orion was presented before Lord Xavis with Haydeen beside him. He had done exactly what he had told Haydeen. He strode right up to the front gate of the Palace and presented himself.
There was not a warm welcoming.
They were both restrained with heavy iron shackles on their wrists, their ankles and their necks. The cold iron neutralized their ability to cast spells.
Orion bowed.
“I come in peace and I come to offer you a deal you simply cannot refuse.”
They were presented not in Lord Xavis’s throne room but rather in a sort of outdoor arena. Xavis was seated on a throne on a high dais that overlooked the grounds of the arena. Save a few guards, there was no one else present in the arena.
“What could be better than sending you to my dungeon?” Lord Xavis said coolly. “What could be better sending you to suffer the rest of your days for your acts of infamy against my house?”
“I offer you something much better than myself,” Orion commented.
Xavis yawned.
”I grow bored of your tricks, master spell caster,” Xavis said. “Before I decide your fate, I insist we be entertained.”
Before Orion could protest, Xavis clapped his hands and sat back into his seat to see what was to happen. A gate opened on the arena floor and five young slaves were ushered by guards to the center of the arena floor. Three were animus, one was an Elfling and a third was a Tenderfoot. Orion’s eyes narrowed on the Tenderfoot, but she did not match the description of Esmeralda.
The guards left an armful of spears and other weapons on the ground and retired back through the gate which hastily closed.
“You slaves have wronged me!” Lord Xavis called out to the girls. “You have dared commit an unforgivable crime against me. You have dared to bore me.”
The girls threw themselves to the ground and begged for forgiveness.
Xavis held up a hand demanding their silence. They all grew quiet to hear what the Lord had to say.
”Let it not be said that I am not a forgiving and a fair liege,” he said. “I will forgive you and offer you a way to make up for your faults.” He held up a large hourglass so the slave girls could see. “If any of you are still standing when the sand from this hourglass runs out, I will allow you to return to the harem. Fail to entertain me again and you will meet your final fate.”
Xavis clapped once again.
Another gate opened and a huge creature stepped out.
It was a Tickle Beast.
Haydeen knew that it took dozens of Elfling guards to finally pacify the Tickle Beast that had escaped the Vault. The final count sent the total of tickled Elflings to more than one hundred until the creature was subdued.
This Tickle Beast was well fed. It was almost twice the size of the Elfling King’s beast and its tentacles were a dark green and almost black color.
The slave girls grasped weapons from the ground but really had no idea how to use the weapons. Haydeen felt sorry for them. There was no way any of them would outlast the hourglass’s falling sand.
The Tickle Beast charged the group and the first to fall was the unsuspecting Tenderfoot who watched on frozen with fear. The other girls scattered.
The Tickle Beast tentacles wrenched the spear out of her hands and tentacles wrapped around her wrists, her ankles, her neck and her torso. Slippers were cast away and tentacles eagerly went to greet her small bare feet. She began to laugh instantly. It was no question weather she was ticklish or not. Only the most ticklish girls among the Realms were taken as Slaves for Xavis’s Harem.
The Tenderfoot was laughing and the Beast did not pause. It simply sent it victim laughing and squirming to its back and then it focused on its other victims.
The Beast charged two Animus girls who had gathered some courage and held spears and daggers before them. The remaining Animus and Fae rushed in the opposite direction towards the gates.
The Beats pulled away their weapons with ease and in seconds they joined the Tenderfoot on the back of the huge beast laughing hysterically as the tentacles exploited any and all of their most ticklish spots.
The Tickle Beast breathed heavily as the laughter on its back grew in pitch and fervor. The last two slaves has abandoned their weapons and were climbing the gates as best they good with the hope of escaping the arena floor and the relentless Tickle Beast.
The Tickle Beast apparently had seen this technique before and it rushed the gate and crashed into it head first. The great gate trembled with an ominous boom and the slave girls totally unsuspecting of such a tactic lost their grip on the gate and fell. They fell not to the ground but into the waiting mass of tentacles of the Tickle Beast. Having captured all the available victims, the Tickle Beast strode over to the center of the arena floor.
Five slave victims laughed and screamed in sheer terror creating a melody of helpless and terrible laughter. For Xavis this was music to his ears. The Red Panther closed his eyes and relished every laugh and every scream as if he were tasting an exquisite wine.
The melody slowly died down as the girls were defeated by the tickling assault and one by one the Tickle Beast dropped the limp bodies of his victims to the ground. This was not without taking the magic gem from their third eye as each of them surrendered to the tickling assault.
As the last of the laughter disappeared and the last victim fell limply to the ground, Lord Xavis studied the hourglass and was not surprised to see that not even half the sand had run out.
The Tickle Beast, bigger and stronger, thanks to the magic it had tickled from the girls. It saw no more sense in staying around the area and retired to the gate where its lair was. The gate closed behind the Beast.
Haydeen was terrified, but Orion maintained a cold and indifferent composure.
“You’re not the only ruler of a Realm with a Tickle Beast,” Orion commented.
“True,” Xavis admitted. “But I have something unique. Something no other ruler in the Realm has.”
He clapped his hands and the gate where the guards came from and a spell caster followed by a couple guards entered the arena. The guards carried an ivory white throne of hands and arms to the center of the arena.
“I present you the Cursed Seat of Xavis,” he said gloating.
“Lucil!” he shouted to the spell caster, “show Orion why the seat is cursed.”
The spell caster obeyed and spoke some words of magic Orion could not hear.
The throne glowed and the arms and hands came to life. The arms reached and grasped at the motionless slaves and pulled them to the center of the throne where they disappeared among the array of ivory white arms. Suddenly some of the arms of the throne were flesh colored, but their color quickly faded until it was ivory white like the rest of the myriad of arms and hands on the cursed seat and it was impossible to distinguish the new arms and hands from the old.
“It is better than a dungeon or tickling them to death,” Xavis said with satisfaction. “This way they continue to serve even if they have failed to hold my interest.”
“Your power and might is most impressive Lord Xavis,” Orion said in a cool and level voice. “I come in peace and bear a token of my friendship,” Orion said.
“What would that be?” Xavis asked.
“I offer you the Elfling King’s Chief Interrogator, your former Interrogator, to be voluntarily tickled at your whim so long as she is not harmed.”
Lord Xavis laughed and Haydeen turned white in shock.
“You offer me what I could easily take,” Xavis said.
“Yet you have never taken such privilege when she was your Interrogator,” Orion countered and Haydeen nudged him angrily. “She is the Elfling King’s Chief Interrogator and if any harm befalls her there would be consequences. Wars have ignited for much lesser offenses.
“But I am required by the Elfling King to exact a certain punishment from Chief Interrogator Haydeen. I decide that her punishment is to be tickled at your hands with full sanction from the Elfling King provided no harm befalls her.”
Haydeen was shocked. First at Orion suggesting such a thing and second at Xavis for considering it.
“Agreed,” Xavis said. “Come here, Haydeen.”
Haydeen reluctantly obeyed. Her punishment for the fiasco at the Elfing King’s Dungeon was to be dealt out by Orion. She had no say in the matter and to refuse would be to fail once again her liege. An Interrogator without a liege cannot get far in this world. So she simply nodded and climbed the dais with her head hung.
“You know I am not an unreasonable person,” Xavis said. “I will give you an opportunity to avoid the worst of this punishment.”
Haydeen knew from experience that Xavis was anything but reasonable, but she dared not antagonize him.
“Hold on to this bar,” he said referring to a beam of the roof that hung over the edge of the dais and over the arena floor. Far below she could see a large pile of hay and it quickly dawned on Haydeen what the Red Panther had in mind and what purpose served the bar and the hay.
She grasped the bar with her wrists and ankles still in shackles and hung on. They had not taken her bandolier believing that the cold iron shackles were sufficient to hold her. She felt the presence of her tools comforting.
“Excellent!” Xavis said as he turned the hourglass and put it on the edge of the dais. “The sand will drop for only five minutes. When the sand ends, your punishment will end also.”
Xavis had long desired to tickle Haydeen. But as his Interrogator and Ela’s protégé his sister would not allow it. Now he would have his chance.
He pulled off her slippers and tickled her feet. Haydeen resisted the tickling by biting her lip and containing her laughter. She thrashed a bit, but managed to maintain her composure.
Xavis seemed a bit frustrated and he went for her rib cage tickling viciously. Haydeen could not resist laughing, but she still held on to bar tightly. It had been ages since she had been tickled, but Xavis was no where near being a skilled tickler. He had been spoiled by ticklish slaves who at the merest touch dissolved into helpless and hopeless laughter. She would not give Xavis that satisfaction.
Xavis gave up on the tummy and ribs and began to tickle Haydeen underarms. Haydeen laughed still more intensely, but her grip on the bar was firm and the minutes on the hourglass sped away.
The Red Panther grunted and growled in frustration and Haydeen smiled a smile that had nothing to do with tickling.
“Lucil!” Xavis hissed.
The spell caster approached behind her master and spoke some words of magic.
Rubn, yabb, rubn, she said quietly as she discreetly touched the bar.
Haydeen felt the bar begin to grow warm and then become hot and then finally become burning hot. Xavis continued his mediocre tickling, but when Haydeen finally released the bar it was because it was scalding hot and not because of Xavis’s skill at tickling.
Haydeen fell into the pile of hay which broke her fall. She heard the gate open at the other end of the arena and knew what was going to come out from that gate.
The Tickle Beast sensed magic. It had no other reason to exist but to prey upon magic. This new victim was different from the rest. Her magic was stronger. Her poise was more confident.
It mattered not. It wanted that magic. Its hunger for magic would never be satisfied.
The Beast charged.
Haydeen was not trying to fool anyone. She knew she was not a tickle warrior. But she refused to run away from the Tickle Beast. She stood there motionless until the beast crashed into her and the tentacles made short work of her tickle spots.
Xavis was a poor tickler.
The Tickle Beast was not.
The tentacles all seemed to have different texture and the Beast would tickle with different tentacles until the desired effect of each tickle spot was exacted. Course tentacles were attacking her feet while soft squirming tentacles went after her belly, and firm finger-like tentacles went after her underarms. She could not keep track of the rest of the tentacles and their cruel assault. She laughed and screamed as she was tossed back and forth over the back of the tickle beast like a rag doll.
“The sand in the hourglass has run out,” Orion observed convinced that Haydeen had paid already for her negligence ten fold.
“What sand?” Xavis asked as brushed the hourglass over the edge of the dais to the ground of the arena in an act of mock carelessness. The hourglass shattered into pieces.
Haydeen resisted, but being a skilled interrogator she knew that there was no resisting such perfect and such opportune tickling.
When the tickling was simply too much, she sighed softly and went limp and a tentacle quick took the red magic gem from her forehead.
The Tickle Beast devoured the gem and having taken what it desired, it simply cast Haydeen’s limp body to the ground. It turned back and returned slowly to its lair.
“That was entertaining,” Xavis admitted with a smile.
“Quite,” Orion said frowning.
“Well, what is it the great Shade can offer me that I don’t already have?” Xavis asked. “What can you offer me that would persuade me from not throwing you to the Tickle Beast below?”
“I offer you what almost all of the rulers of the Realms would desire,” Orion said making his pitch fully conscious that his life and Haydeen’s hanged in balance. “I offer you what would make you the envy of all rulers of the Realms.”
“I am the envy of all the rulers of the Realms,” Xavis insisted adjusting his gold crown on his panther head.
“Really?” Orion said having anticipated the answer. “Are you the envy of say… the Elfling King?”
Xavis did not answer.
The Red Panther paused and growled to himself in frustration.
“What is it you have come to offer?” he asked reluctantly.
Orion waited for this moment to create suspense and finally told him.
“Why nothing more and nothing less than the Tickle Scourge!”
* * * * * *
Ela was tired.
Screening new tickle slaves was always an arduous job. She had gathered quite an additional stock of slaves over that past few months, but Xavis’s capricious nature was depleting the slaves quickly. Just today she had heard from his own lips that he had grown tired of another five slaves and wished to have them replaced.
She sent her bodyguards to select the slaves. All the slaves were extremely ticklish and any of them would satisfy his needs. At least for a while.
She bathed in the hot springs under the Palace. She so desired a massage for her aching body but she did not dare request it. She was so ticklish that the mere touch would send her giggling and laughing to the ground. She had searched for the finest masseuse among the Realms and was completely disappointed because no matter how she was touched she would break down into hysterical laughter.
She realized that she would be an excellent candidate for her brother’s harem!
The only massage that did not tickle was the Truthsaying massage. Haydeen during her training had put her into trance with the technique and it was the only time anyone had touched her feet without her releasing a shrill scream. She missed Haydeen and reproached her brother often for his gambling habit that had sent her into the service of the hated Elfling King.
She had other trainees, but there was no one who compared to Haydeen in tickling skill.
She entered her room and prepared to rest for the night when she suddenly felt an invisible cobweb touch her face. She tried to brush it away and discovered that the cob web was bigger than it should be. It was also stronger since she could not break the web. She struggled and struggled more and as she did she became more and more tangled in the web.
A gag was placed over her mouth before she could scream for help and she realized that she was completely helpless. Two figures stepped out in front of her.
She did not recognize them.
“You don’t know us exactly, but we certainly know you,” the tall blonde manling woman in leather armor mentioned.
”Brother, adviser and truthsayer to Lord Xavis,” the second woman said. She was a spell caster with dark hair and dark green robes and eyes.
”I need information from you,” the blonde woman said.
Ela shooker her head in refusal.
“I thought as much,” the blonde woman said. “In case we don’t get a chance for introductions later I am the Tickle Scourge and I have brought my own sort of Truthsayer, the young Tenderfoot Esmeralda.”
The spell caster did not cast a spell. She simply reached her fingers into Ela’s robes and tickled her body mercilessly. She had a hard and athletic body which could fight and withstand punishment of all sorts. But with her ticklishness, her taut body provided no additional benefit save stamina.
She screamed into the gag as Esmeralda raked her fingers skillfully up and down her rib cage and occasionally stabbing a bold finger into her deep bellybutton to catch her off guard.
The Scourge, that terrible woman, began to scratch the soles of her bare feet. She did so skillfully and without mercy. Her feet would kick and thrash if she were free, but the web held her tight and in place. The Scourge tickled slowly and deliberately studying her reactions and concentrating between the toes as she discovered that to be her most ticklish spot.
Was this what all Xavis’s slaves felt? Is that the torture that she and her Truthsayers had put so many prisoners and victims through? She could not imagine anyone as ticklish as herself volunteering for such torture.
The two ticklers were cautious not to tickle her over the edge and the varied the tickling any time she came close to climaxing. They would wear her down. Her stamina which she prided herself for would run out eventually and when it did she would tell them all they wanted to hear.
This was the old school of Truthsaying. This was the way great ticklers squeezed information from their victims.
She already felt the desire to tell them anything they wanted to know. To speak and then be tickled to oblivion. But that would not happen.
They would break her spirit first completely. What other way to be certain that what was spoken was the truth?
She would speak. She cursed herself for her ticklishness and cursed her enemies for their skill.
She would tell them all they wanted to know.
* * * * *
Ela sang.
She answered all of Patrisa and Esmeralda’s questions regarding the palace, the Cursed Seat of Xavis, Melca’s Gem, and other information the two Manling’s required.
“I told you those of the Cat Clan were ticklish,” Patrisa said holding up the unconscious red panther head of Ela. The woman’s body was drenched in sweat from the tickling interrogation.
Silk made quick work of Ela encasing her in a cocoon of webbing that would keep her out of the way until their work was done.
“Let’s hope Lord Xavis is just as ticklish,” Esmeralda said as the mechanical spider returned to her hand and hid in the depths of her robes.
“It is rumored that he is the most ticklish of his clan,” Patrisa said. “I hope we get the opportunity to shed some light on that rumor.”
“Are you going to tell me how you managed to tickle three hundred harem slave girls in one single evening? That is quite a rumor in itself,” Esmeralda said with a smile.
“That is a secret you will most definitely have to tickle out of me,” Patrisa replied coyly. “Until then, let’s go after the Melca’s Gem and get out of here.”
* * * * *
Ela had commented that Xavis was rotating his tickle slaves even as they spoke. A Tickle Beast in his central arena was tickling the girls and a spell caster was using the Cursed Seat which was powered by Melca’s Gem to absorb the bodies and souls of the subdued tickle slaves adding to the countless pairs of ivory arms and hands.
She mentioned that the Cursed Seat would be kept there until the next day when it would be used for screening new ticklish slaves.
Esmeralda and Patrisa stealthily maneuvered through the Palace evading guards and courtiers following Ela’s instructions on the best way to reach the arena.
When they reached the arena it was totally dark. The only light was the light of the stars on the clear night and the faint glow of the magic shield that surrounded the Palace. At the very center of the dusty arena sat the ivory colored throne with its hands fanning as a backrest with the Gem of Melca glowing faintly between the palms of the top pair of hands.
Patrisa and Esmeralda silently approached the throne, and Patrisa studied the Gem intently to make sure it was indeed the Gem of Melca.
“This is it,” Patrisa whispered.
In dramatic contrast of volume, words of magic were shouted into the air.
Neshi ryou gliht no em!
A huge sphere of light appeared above the center of the arena illuminating the entire area.
“I know that voice,” Patrisa said searching for the source. “Lucil!”
There was a loud marching sound as the sides of the arena above the floor were flooded with guards with Rhinoceros, Hippopotamus and Wild Boar heads. All were fully armored and bore long heavy pole axes that their kind preferred. They numbered more than a score.
Esmeralda spied on the floor of the arena Chief Interrogator Haydeen in shackles and hunched against the wall of the arena. She seemed exhausted and fully spent.
Far above the arena floor on a high dais was Lord Xavis accompanied by Lucil on one side and by a shackled Orion on the other.
“Welcome, Tickle Scourge,” Lord Xavis announced with a bright and warm smile. “I am so pleased to finally make your acquaintance.”
Esmeralda and Patrisa exchanged knowing glances. They were in serious trouble.
“Welcome,” Lord Xavis said once more his smile twisting into a sneer of total contempt.
“Welcome to your doom!”
To be continued….
NEXT: Hostile Takeover!
The Rendezvous
Brunilda was a Centaur.
She had been Peter the Peddler’s tickle mate for quite some time now. And they had seen each other through better and worse and had emerged all the better from it all. After having freed her from Xavis’s dungeon by completing a contract, Peter had been on the run since from Xavis’s headhunters and avenger. It was only until now that she could finally spend some quality tickling time with her mate.
She was a Centaur who was more on the plump side with long curly golden locks and was endowed with a large and shapely bosom which she prided herself for. She had no feet to tickle, but she also prided herself for her incredibly ticklish torso which Peter loved to tickle.
They were in his magical peddling wagon and Peter had tied her wrists together and suspended them a hook tied to a beam at the top of the wagon. Peter would mount her and tickle her mercilessly usually, but today he only tickled lightly and almost disinterestedly. She twisted and jerked, but she did not enjoy it as much as she would if he were more enthusiastic.
“Why so glum, my love?” she asked looking back at the peddler with his dinosaur head slumped and looking downcast.
“I’m worried about the Manlings that I helped get into Xavis’s Palace,” he said sorrowfully. “They got in all right and that was the deal.” He gestured to a large chest of magic gems he had received in payment for the two slaves he had sold to Ela.
“But it just doesn’t feel right leaving them to their fate at the hands of that tyrant Xavis,” he said shaking his head.
“Peter the Peddler, the man who practically coined the phrase ‘business is business’, is feeling a bit guilty?” she asked as she stood up on her rear legs and unhooked her wrists. She sensed there would not be much tickling action today.
“I just feel I should have done more to help them so they would have a better chance against Xavis,” he said. “It would be better for business too if we could divert the Cat Clan’s attention from yours truly to the Tickle Scourge and that Tenderfoot Esmeralda.”
“Esmeralda?” Brunilda asked as the name caught her attention. “Is she a Tenderfoot spell caster with dark hair and green eyes?”
“Yes,” Peter replied. “He has quite some potential. How do you know her?”
“I don’t,” the centaur replied pacing within the wagon and thinking, “but her name was been whispered upon the wind and we centaurs are always alert as to the messages sent through the wind by our kinsfolk.”
“And?” Peter asked curiously.
“Esmeralda saved the princess Lauranis from a terrible fate in the Elfling King’s Dungeon,” Brunilda explained. “I am honor bound to aid her in her time of need.”
“Honor bound or not, there are no open wormholes and the magic dome prevents anything magical or otherwise to enter the Palace,” Peter observed.
“There must be another way to get around the magic,” she said pacing more urgently.
Peter cringed. When a centaur got an idea into his or her head regarding something honorable, there wasn’t much that would distract them until they reached their objective.
There was a knock on the door and Peter went to open it.
”We’re closed,” he said tersely to the robed stranger pointing to a hanging sign that read ‘CLOSED’. “Can’t you read the sign?”
“I have no interest in pills or peddling,” a female voice said drawing back her hood. “I want to help the Scourge and the Tenderfoot to succeed and to warn them of a terrible danger. I know you’ve helped them. I know you can help me.”
“You’ve come to the right place,” Peter said gesturing for his guest to come in.
“Make yourself at home… Danea, Keeper of the Academy.”
* * * * *
“There is something else we are here for, isn’t there, Patrisa?” Esmeralda asked her mentor as she adjusted the straps of her leather armor that Silk had so kindly woven. “It’s not just about evening a score.”
“It’s never about just evening a score,” the Tickle Scourge replied. There were still in the dark hall were hundreds of glass coffins containing ticklish slaves awaited their call to serve Lord Xavis.
“Are you going to tell me, or am I going to have to tickle it out of you?” Esmeralda threatened.
Patrisa laughed but there was a hint of doubt in her laughter. Esmeralda had grown in skill and daring and although it appeared to be an idle threat, she knew that no good would come from keeping her in the dark.
“Very well,” she said. “Madame Jordanna wants a special magical artifact that is in the possession of Lord Xavis. She wants it so bad, that if I recover it for her she will retire and leave the Academy to me.”
”What artifact is that?” Esmeralda asked.
“You’ve already seen it,” Patrisa replied. “You’ve actually sat on it, in fact.”
“That cursed throne?” Esmeralda asked.
“Not precisely,” Patrisa replied. “That fool Xavis has used the actual artifact to construct that toy of his. The actual artifact is the crystal gem at the top of the throne. It is called Melca’s Gem and it is a powerful magical artifact. Had I recognized the Gem when we were placed on the throne I might have made an effort to steal it at that very moment, but unfortunately we both were on the receiving end of its tickling hands by the time I realized it.”
“That’s all this quest is about then?” Esmeralda asked.
“Well, getting back at Ela or Xavis is a special bonus,” Patrisa admitted.
“I will help you,” Esmeralda said, “but on one condition.”
“Which is that, Tenderfoot?”
“That you stop calling me Tenderfoot and you stop keeping me out of the dark with these things,” Esmeralda said. “I’m not a Tenderfoot anymore.”
“Agreed,” Patrisa said smiling as a parent does when their child learns to tie her shoelaces. “But a word of warning, you might think you know much, but there is still a lot to learn.”
“Agreed,” Esmeralda said holding out her hand. “I just want to be treated as a partner and not a side kick.”
Patrisa took it and shook it firmly.
“Where do we begin then?” Esmeralda asked.
“Ela seems to know enough about that Cursed Seat and we can get even for that tickle torture session.”
“Where do we find her?” Esmeralda asked.
At that moment, heavy steps were heard approaching the door to the hall.
“This is our chance,” Patrisa said. “Hide behind the door as it opens.”
A key was inserted into the door and a lock was turned and the door opened. Esmeralda and Patrisa pressed their bodies against the wall behind the door.
Two large Animus guards- one with a Rhinoceros head and another with a Hippopotamus head- marched in the room on their iron shod boots.
“How many did Lady Ela request we bring?” asked the Hippopotamus headed guard who dragged a platform on wheels into the hall.
“Five,” replied the first raising an open hand indicating those five with his fingers.
“Five of these ticklish slaves would last me for life time,” the Hippopotamus headed one said wistfully. “I don’t know why Xavis needs three hundred or why he rotates a couple dozen every week.”
“Not for us to ask that kind of questions,” the Rhinoceros replied laconically looking at the rows and rows of glass coffins.
“Well? Which ones did Lady Ela request?” the other guard asked.
“She went to bathe and then retire to her quarters,” the Rhinoceros replied. “She said we could choose.”
“Which ones do we choose then?”
“Anyone, really,” he replied. “They wouldn’t be here if they weren’t ticklish and it’s not like they’re going to spoil or anything.”
“Wait! What was that?” the Hippopotamus headed guard said as he turned towards the door.
”What was what?” the Rhinoceros headed guard asked irritably.
“I heard something scurry out through the door.”
“Bah! Stop your slacking and help me load these coffins,” the Rhinoceros headed guard commanded. “If we’re late with the new slaves, Lord Xavis will through a fit and we’ll both be prey for his tickling pet.”
The Hippopotamus headed guard looked back at the door as if he felt something was out of place and then shrugged and helped load the glass cases onto the cart.
* * * * *
“You have some nerve just walking in here, Spellcaster.”
Orion was presented before Lord Xavis with Haydeen beside him. He had done exactly what he had told Haydeen. He strode right up to the front gate of the Palace and presented himself.
There was not a warm welcoming.
They were both restrained with heavy iron shackles on their wrists, their ankles and their necks. The cold iron neutralized their ability to cast spells.
Orion bowed.
“I come in peace and I come to offer you a deal you simply cannot refuse.”
They were presented not in Lord Xavis’s throne room but rather in a sort of outdoor arena. Xavis was seated on a throne on a high dais that overlooked the grounds of the arena. Save a few guards, there was no one else present in the arena.
“What could be better than sending you to my dungeon?” Lord Xavis said coolly. “What could be better sending you to suffer the rest of your days for your acts of infamy against my house?”
“I offer you something much better than myself,” Orion commented.
Xavis yawned.
”I grow bored of your tricks, master spell caster,” Xavis said. “Before I decide your fate, I insist we be entertained.”
Before Orion could protest, Xavis clapped his hands and sat back into his seat to see what was to happen. A gate opened on the arena floor and five young slaves were ushered by guards to the center of the arena floor. Three were animus, one was an Elfling and a third was a Tenderfoot. Orion’s eyes narrowed on the Tenderfoot, but she did not match the description of Esmeralda.
The guards left an armful of spears and other weapons on the ground and retired back through the gate which hastily closed.
“You slaves have wronged me!” Lord Xavis called out to the girls. “You have dared commit an unforgivable crime against me. You have dared to bore me.”
The girls threw themselves to the ground and begged for forgiveness.
Xavis held up a hand demanding their silence. They all grew quiet to hear what the Lord had to say.
”Let it not be said that I am not a forgiving and a fair liege,” he said. “I will forgive you and offer you a way to make up for your faults.” He held up a large hourglass so the slave girls could see. “If any of you are still standing when the sand from this hourglass runs out, I will allow you to return to the harem. Fail to entertain me again and you will meet your final fate.”
Xavis clapped once again.
Another gate opened and a huge creature stepped out.
It was a Tickle Beast.
Haydeen knew that it took dozens of Elfling guards to finally pacify the Tickle Beast that had escaped the Vault. The final count sent the total of tickled Elflings to more than one hundred until the creature was subdued.
This Tickle Beast was well fed. It was almost twice the size of the Elfling King’s beast and its tentacles were a dark green and almost black color.
The slave girls grasped weapons from the ground but really had no idea how to use the weapons. Haydeen felt sorry for them. There was no way any of them would outlast the hourglass’s falling sand.
The Tickle Beast charged the group and the first to fall was the unsuspecting Tenderfoot who watched on frozen with fear. The other girls scattered.
The Tickle Beast tentacles wrenched the spear out of her hands and tentacles wrapped around her wrists, her ankles, her neck and her torso. Slippers were cast away and tentacles eagerly went to greet her small bare feet. She began to laugh instantly. It was no question weather she was ticklish or not. Only the most ticklish girls among the Realms were taken as Slaves for Xavis’s Harem.
The Tenderfoot was laughing and the Beast did not pause. It simply sent it victim laughing and squirming to its back and then it focused on its other victims.
The Beast charged two Animus girls who had gathered some courage and held spears and daggers before them. The remaining Animus and Fae rushed in the opposite direction towards the gates.
The Beats pulled away their weapons with ease and in seconds they joined the Tenderfoot on the back of the huge beast laughing hysterically as the tentacles exploited any and all of their most ticklish spots.
The Tickle Beast breathed heavily as the laughter on its back grew in pitch and fervor. The last two slaves has abandoned their weapons and were climbing the gates as best they good with the hope of escaping the arena floor and the relentless Tickle Beast.
The Tickle Beast apparently had seen this technique before and it rushed the gate and crashed into it head first. The great gate trembled with an ominous boom and the slave girls totally unsuspecting of such a tactic lost their grip on the gate and fell. They fell not to the ground but into the waiting mass of tentacles of the Tickle Beast. Having captured all the available victims, the Tickle Beast strode over to the center of the arena floor.
Five slave victims laughed and screamed in sheer terror creating a melody of helpless and terrible laughter. For Xavis this was music to his ears. The Red Panther closed his eyes and relished every laugh and every scream as if he were tasting an exquisite wine.
The melody slowly died down as the girls were defeated by the tickling assault and one by one the Tickle Beast dropped the limp bodies of his victims to the ground. This was not without taking the magic gem from their third eye as each of them surrendered to the tickling assault.
As the last of the laughter disappeared and the last victim fell limply to the ground, Lord Xavis studied the hourglass and was not surprised to see that not even half the sand had run out.
The Tickle Beast, bigger and stronger, thanks to the magic it had tickled from the girls. It saw no more sense in staying around the area and retired to the gate where its lair was. The gate closed behind the Beast.
Haydeen was terrified, but Orion maintained a cold and indifferent composure.
“You’re not the only ruler of a Realm with a Tickle Beast,” Orion commented.
“True,” Xavis admitted. “But I have something unique. Something no other ruler in the Realm has.”
He clapped his hands and the gate where the guards came from and a spell caster followed by a couple guards entered the arena. The guards carried an ivory white throne of hands and arms to the center of the arena.
“I present you the Cursed Seat of Xavis,” he said gloating.
“Lucil!” he shouted to the spell caster, “show Orion why the seat is cursed.”
The spell caster obeyed and spoke some words of magic Orion could not hear.
The throne glowed and the arms and hands came to life. The arms reached and grasped at the motionless slaves and pulled them to the center of the throne where they disappeared among the array of ivory white arms. Suddenly some of the arms of the throne were flesh colored, but their color quickly faded until it was ivory white like the rest of the myriad of arms and hands on the cursed seat and it was impossible to distinguish the new arms and hands from the old.
“It is better than a dungeon or tickling them to death,” Xavis said with satisfaction. “This way they continue to serve even if they have failed to hold my interest.”
“Your power and might is most impressive Lord Xavis,” Orion said in a cool and level voice. “I come in peace and bear a token of my friendship,” Orion said.
“What would that be?” Xavis asked.
“I offer you the Elfling King’s Chief Interrogator, your former Interrogator, to be voluntarily tickled at your whim so long as she is not harmed.”
Lord Xavis laughed and Haydeen turned white in shock.
“You offer me what I could easily take,” Xavis said.
“Yet you have never taken such privilege when she was your Interrogator,” Orion countered and Haydeen nudged him angrily. “She is the Elfling King’s Chief Interrogator and if any harm befalls her there would be consequences. Wars have ignited for much lesser offenses.
“But I am required by the Elfling King to exact a certain punishment from Chief Interrogator Haydeen. I decide that her punishment is to be tickled at your hands with full sanction from the Elfling King provided no harm befalls her.”
Haydeen was shocked. First at Orion suggesting such a thing and second at Xavis for considering it.
“Agreed,” Xavis said. “Come here, Haydeen.”
Haydeen reluctantly obeyed. Her punishment for the fiasco at the Elfing King’s Dungeon was to be dealt out by Orion. She had no say in the matter and to refuse would be to fail once again her liege. An Interrogator without a liege cannot get far in this world. So she simply nodded and climbed the dais with her head hung.
“You know I am not an unreasonable person,” Xavis said. “I will give you an opportunity to avoid the worst of this punishment.”
Haydeen knew from experience that Xavis was anything but reasonable, but she dared not antagonize him.
“Hold on to this bar,” he said referring to a beam of the roof that hung over the edge of the dais and over the arena floor. Far below she could see a large pile of hay and it quickly dawned on Haydeen what the Red Panther had in mind and what purpose served the bar and the hay.
She grasped the bar with her wrists and ankles still in shackles and hung on. They had not taken her bandolier believing that the cold iron shackles were sufficient to hold her. She felt the presence of her tools comforting.
“Excellent!” Xavis said as he turned the hourglass and put it on the edge of the dais. “The sand will drop for only five minutes. When the sand ends, your punishment will end also.”
Xavis had long desired to tickle Haydeen. But as his Interrogator and Ela’s protégé his sister would not allow it. Now he would have his chance.
He pulled off her slippers and tickled her feet. Haydeen resisted the tickling by biting her lip and containing her laughter. She thrashed a bit, but managed to maintain her composure.
Xavis seemed a bit frustrated and he went for her rib cage tickling viciously. Haydeen could not resist laughing, but she still held on to bar tightly. It had been ages since she had been tickled, but Xavis was no where near being a skilled tickler. He had been spoiled by ticklish slaves who at the merest touch dissolved into helpless and hopeless laughter. She would not give Xavis that satisfaction.
Xavis gave up on the tummy and ribs and began to tickle Haydeen underarms. Haydeen laughed still more intensely, but her grip on the bar was firm and the minutes on the hourglass sped away.
The Red Panther grunted and growled in frustration and Haydeen smiled a smile that had nothing to do with tickling.
“Lucil!” Xavis hissed.
The spell caster approached behind her master and spoke some words of magic.
Rubn, yabb, rubn, she said quietly as she discreetly touched the bar.
Haydeen felt the bar begin to grow warm and then become hot and then finally become burning hot. Xavis continued his mediocre tickling, but when Haydeen finally released the bar it was because it was scalding hot and not because of Xavis’s skill at tickling.
Haydeen fell into the pile of hay which broke her fall. She heard the gate open at the other end of the arena and knew what was going to come out from that gate.
The Tickle Beast sensed magic. It had no other reason to exist but to prey upon magic. This new victim was different from the rest. Her magic was stronger. Her poise was more confident.
It mattered not. It wanted that magic. Its hunger for magic would never be satisfied.
The Beast charged.
Haydeen was not trying to fool anyone. She knew she was not a tickle warrior. But she refused to run away from the Tickle Beast. She stood there motionless until the beast crashed into her and the tentacles made short work of her tickle spots.
Xavis was a poor tickler.
The Tickle Beast was not.
The tentacles all seemed to have different texture and the Beast would tickle with different tentacles until the desired effect of each tickle spot was exacted. Course tentacles were attacking her feet while soft squirming tentacles went after her belly, and firm finger-like tentacles went after her underarms. She could not keep track of the rest of the tentacles and their cruel assault. She laughed and screamed as she was tossed back and forth over the back of the tickle beast like a rag doll.
“The sand in the hourglass has run out,” Orion observed convinced that Haydeen had paid already for her negligence ten fold.
“What sand?” Xavis asked as brushed the hourglass over the edge of the dais to the ground of the arena in an act of mock carelessness. The hourglass shattered into pieces.
Haydeen resisted, but being a skilled interrogator she knew that there was no resisting such perfect and such opportune tickling.
When the tickling was simply too much, she sighed softly and went limp and a tentacle quick took the red magic gem from her forehead.
The Tickle Beast devoured the gem and having taken what it desired, it simply cast Haydeen’s limp body to the ground. It turned back and returned slowly to its lair.
“That was entertaining,” Xavis admitted with a smile.
“Quite,” Orion said frowning.
“Well, what is it the great Shade can offer me that I don’t already have?” Xavis asked. “What can you offer me that would persuade me from not throwing you to the Tickle Beast below?”
“I offer you what almost all of the rulers of the Realms would desire,” Orion said making his pitch fully conscious that his life and Haydeen’s hanged in balance. “I offer you what would make you the envy of all rulers of the Realms.”
“I am the envy of all the rulers of the Realms,” Xavis insisted adjusting his gold crown on his panther head.
“Really?” Orion said having anticipated the answer. “Are you the envy of say… the Elfling King?”
Xavis did not answer.
The Red Panther paused and growled to himself in frustration.
“What is it you have come to offer?” he asked reluctantly.
Orion waited for this moment to create suspense and finally told him.
“Why nothing more and nothing less than the Tickle Scourge!”
* * * * * *
Ela was tired.
Screening new tickle slaves was always an arduous job. She had gathered quite an additional stock of slaves over that past few months, but Xavis’s capricious nature was depleting the slaves quickly. Just today she had heard from his own lips that he had grown tired of another five slaves and wished to have them replaced.
She sent her bodyguards to select the slaves. All the slaves were extremely ticklish and any of them would satisfy his needs. At least for a while.
She bathed in the hot springs under the Palace. She so desired a massage for her aching body but she did not dare request it. She was so ticklish that the mere touch would send her giggling and laughing to the ground. She had searched for the finest masseuse among the Realms and was completely disappointed because no matter how she was touched she would break down into hysterical laughter.
She realized that she would be an excellent candidate for her brother’s harem!
The only massage that did not tickle was the Truthsaying massage. Haydeen during her training had put her into trance with the technique and it was the only time anyone had touched her feet without her releasing a shrill scream. She missed Haydeen and reproached her brother often for his gambling habit that had sent her into the service of the hated Elfling King.
She had other trainees, but there was no one who compared to Haydeen in tickling skill.
She entered her room and prepared to rest for the night when she suddenly felt an invisible cobweb touch her face. She tried to brush it away and discovered that the cob web was bigger than it should be. It was also stronger since she could not break the web. She struggled and struggled more and as she did she became more and more tangled in the web.
A gag was placed over her mouth before she could scream for help and she realized that she was completely helpless. Two figures stepped out in front of her.
She did not recognize them.
“You don’t know us exactly, but we certainly know you,” the tall blonde manling woman in leather armor mentioned.
”Brother, adviser and truthsayer to Lord Xavis,” the second woman said. She was a spell caster with dark hair and dark green robes and eyes.
”I need information from you,” the blonde woman said.
Ela shooker her head in refusal.
“I thought as much,” the blonde woman said. “In case we don’t get a chance for introductions later I am the Tickle Scourge and I have brought my own sort of Truthsayer, the young Tenderfoot Esmeralda.”
The spell caster did not cast a spell. She simply reached her fingers into Ela’s robes and tickled her body mercilessly. She had a hard and athletic body which could fight and withstand punishment of all sorts. But with her ticklishness, her taut body provided no additional benefit save stamina.
She screamed into the gag as Esmeralda raked her fingers skillfully up and down her rib cage and occasionally stabbing a bold finger into her deep bellybutton to catch her off guard.
The Scourge, that terrible woman, began to scratch the soles of her bare feet. She did so skillfully and without mercy. Her feet would kick and thrash if she were free, but the web held her tight and in place. The Scourge tickled slowly and deliberately studying her reactions and concentrating between the toes as she discovered that to be her most ticklish spot.
Was this what all Xavis’s slaves felt? Is that the torture that she and her Truthsayers had put so many prisoners and victims through? She could not imagine anyone as ticklish as herself volunteering for such torture.
The two ticklers were cautious not to tickle her over the edge and the varied the tickling any time she came close to climaxing. They would wear her down. Her stamina which she prided herself for would run out eventually and when it did she would tell them all they wanted to hear.
This was the old school of Truthsaying. This was the way great ticklers squeezed information from their victims.
She already felt the desire to tell them anything they wanted to know. To speak and then be tickled to oblivion. But that would not happen.
They would break her spirit first completely. What other way to be certain that what was spoken was the truth?
She would speak. She cursed herself for her ticklishness and cursed her enemies for their skill.
She would tell them all they wanted to know.
* * * * *
Ela sang.
She answered all of Patrisa and Esmeralda’s questions regarding the palace, the Cursed Seat of Xavis, Melca’s Gem, and other information the two Manling’s required.
“I told you those of the Cat Clan were ticklish,” Patrisa said holding up the unconscious red panther head of Ela. The woman’s body was drenched in sweat from the tickling interrogation.
Silk made quick work of Ela encasing her in a cocoon of webbing that would keep her out of the way until their work was done.
“Let’s hope Lord Xavis is just as ticklish,” Esmeralda said as the mechanical spider returned to her hand and hid in the depths of her robes.
“It is rumored that he is the most ticklish of his clan,” Patrisa said. “I hope we get the opportunity to shed some light on that rumor.”
“Are you going to tell me how you managed to tickle three hundred harem slave girls in one single evening? That is quite a rumor in itself,” Esmeralda said with a smile.
“That is a secret you will most definitely have to tickle out of me,” Patrisa replied coyly. “Until then, let’s go after the Melca’s Gem and get out of here.”
* * * * *
Ela had commented that Xavis was rotating his tickle slaves even as they spoke. A Tickle Beast in his central arena was tickling the girls and a spell caster was using the Cursed Seat which was powered by Melca’s Gem to absorb the bodies and souls of the subdued tickle slaves adding to the countless pairs of ivory arms and hands.
She mentioned that the Cursed Seat would be kept there until the next day when it would be used for screening new ticklish slaves.
Esmeralda and Patrisa stealthily maneuvered through the Palace evading guards and courtiers following Ela’s instructions on the best way to reach the arena.
When they reached the arena it was totally dark. The only light was the light of the stars on the clear night and the faint glow of the magic shield that surrounded the Palace. At the very center of the dusty arena sat the ivory colored throne with its hands fanning as a backrest with the Gem of Melca glowing faintly between the palms of the top pair of hands.
Patrisa and Esmeralda silently approached the throne, and Patrisa studied the Gem intently to make sure it was indeed the Gem of Melca.
“This is it,” Patrisa whispered.
In dramatic contrast of volume, words of magic were shouted into the air.
Neshi ryou gliht no em!
A huge sphere of light appeared above the center of the arena illuminating the entire area.
“I know that voice,” Patrisa said searching for the source. “Lucil!”
There was a loud marching sound as the sides of the arena above the floor were flooded with guards with Rhinoceros, Hippopotamus and Wild Boar heads. All were fully armored and bore long heavy pole axes that their kind preferred. They numbered more than a score.
Esmeralda spied on the floor of the arena Chief Interrogator Haydeen in shackles and hunched against the wall of the arena. She seemed exhausted and fully spent.
Far above the arena floor on a high dais was Lord Xavis accompanied by Lucil on one side and by a shackled Orion on the other.
“Welcome, Tickle Scourge,” Lord Xavis announced with a bright and warm smile. “I am so pleased to finally make your acquaintance.”
Esmeralda and Patrisa exchanged knowing glances. They were in serious trouble.
“Welcome,” Lord Xavis said once more his smile twisting into a sneer of total contempt.
“Welcome to your doom!”
To be continued….
NEXT: Hostile Takeover!
