Orange Papers
Epilogue
Being in the town of Stenver was not somewhere Maude particularly liked to be. The town had grown up around the castle belonging to the family that the town had taken its name from. Now the family and all the occupants of the castle were gone, either dead or enslaved during the war that had destroyed Grent. The occupants of the town itself had fared no better, those that had not fled across the border and into Hillmartin had become victims of the Witch-Queens armies, the men killed and the women taken as slaves.
However, the town and the castle had not remained deserted, the priestesses of the Sisters of Torment, the predominant faction of the Church of the Dark Lady Siv, had claimed the castle and turned it into one of their convents. Along with the Sisters of Torment a detachment of The Order of the Black Sisters, the militant arm of the church, had also taken up residence in the convent.
Merchants, traders, armourers, blacksmiths and innkeepers had followed, reoccupying the town to take the opportunity of making a profit from the nearby convent, and especially from the soldiers who lived there. Stenver now had a population of perhaps one third of that it had boasted before the war, but the numbers were gradually growing as the rich fertile lands around the town were cultivated and the potential of lumber from nearby forests was exploited.
Stenver was one of the places in Elstrand that Maude disliked the most, anywhere that the Sisters of Torment had a religious centre, and there were many of them, was a place that Maude didn’t want to be. Not that she really had much choice about it.
Maude was a wine trader, Hillmartin wines were widely recognised in all of the Four Lands, and even in Elstrand, as being the finest available, and with her sample case constantly with her Maude made a very good living selling them. To those who dealt with her or met her Maude was simply a moderately attractive sixty-year-old woman who had been brave enough to expand her business into Elstrand. However, there was much more to Maude Althorn than met the eye.
Before the war and the fall of Grent, Maude had been an actress, a profession she chose because of a particular ability, Maude had an eidetic memory. The ability to learn parts with just one reading and the fact she could genuinely act meant that Maude had risen to the top of her profession, but with the end of the war that had all changed after one short visit.
Maude had come off stage to find her dressing room contained a visitor, an unremarkable looking man who would change her life.
The surprise and confusion at finding someone in her dressing room lasted only a few seconds, “May I ask what you are doing in here?” demanded Maude.
“I am here to offer you the role of your life so if you are willing to hear about it please close the door and sit down,” replied the man who Maude would learn was called Wilhelm Bernhard.
For a moment Maude had considered calling out and raising the alarm but the stranger’s calmness, and the words he had used intrigued her, “I will give you five minutes to convince me that what you say is true, if I find it isn’t I shall simply scream my lungs out,” said Maude.
The man nodded, “I accept your offer,” he said and began to talk.
An hour later Maude was sat back in her chair with a stunned look on her face, “So what you are basically asking me to do is to risk my life by becoming a spy for the Council of the Four Lands. But why me in particular?” she asked as she picked up a glass of tea in a lightly shaking hand.
“You have a particular gift that is well known to those you have worked with,” said Wilhelm Bernhard.
“And what would that be?” asked Maude sceptically.
“You have an eidetic memory, you remember everything you see, hear and read and you can recall those memories without effort. That is an incredibly useful tool in my line of work.”
“By line of work you mean being a spy.”
Wilhelm Bernhard smiled, the first time he had done so, “You could put it like that, but I prefer the term information gatherer.”
“So, you want me to be one of your... information gatherers, and why do you think I would be so eager to risk my life over a war that has already been lost?”
“Because of what you lost in the war, your husband killed in battle after he volunteered for the Grentian army, your niece and her husband vanishing when Grent fell, those I would think are adequate reasons.”
Maude had looked away to compose herself and suppress the memories that immediately rose in her mind, “My private losses are nothing to do with you,” she had said angrily.
Maude’s visitor had said nothing, merely waited patiently, “So what else do you think might convince me?” she had asked and once again her visitor had begun to talk. Half an hour later Wilhelm Bernhard had left but in his pocket were the papers that Maude had signed, the papers that made her an agent in the service of the Council of the Four Lands.
There was shock and many plaudits when, six weeks after Wilhelm Bernhard’s visit, Maude announced her retirement from the stage. Shortly afterwards she had left the capital of Hillmartin and set up home in a small town near the border with Elstrand, in an area renowned for its vineyards and wineries, here she established her wine trading business. Maude’s first trip into Elstrand did not happen until a year later when she had nervously crossed the border, her papers and visa totally and utterly genuine.
Since that day Maude had regularly crossed into Elstrand, confining her visits to the areas near the border rather than the vast areas of land that made up the rest of the country. It had been explained to Maude that the main fear of the Council was that the Witch-Queen would launch an attack for which they were unprepared and unable to defend against. So, Maude sold her wines and remembered all she saw, all she heard and all she read and with no papers to smuggle through the border, no hidden compartments in her sample cases, no secret pockets in her garments she passed through easily and without worry that anything would be discovered.
On this visit, the first in over four months, she had been instructed to sell her wares in Stenver so that she could assess the strength of the garrison of Black Sisters stationed there, to report whether there were any signs of a build-up in numbers or an increase in activity. After three days of selling to the more upper-class wine shops, inns and hotels she knew that no extra activity was happening and could report this.
Maude was waiting for a coach to take her back to the border so that she could cross back into Hillmartin and get as far away from this detestable place as possible. Bread, cheese and fruit sat on a platter on the table where she waited in front of the coaching inn, beside the platter was a goblet of her own red wine. Both the food and the wine had been provided for free by the inn’s owner because of the more than generous deal that had been struck. There was still nearly an hour to wait before the coach departed, but Maude just wanted to leave Stenver.
The sound of laughter and raised voices made Maude look from her meal and up the low hill towards the castle that overlooked the town. The noises came from a group of women walking down the road towards the inn that, regrettably as far as Maude was concerned, was the closest to convent. Maude knew she was going to have spend the remainder of her time in Stenver surrounded by women she particularly disliked.
Three of the women were dressed identically in black suede trousers, low heeled black knee-high boots, black silk blouses buttoned to the neck and black suede, wrist length gloves. The clothing identified the three women if nothing else did, what they were wearing were the off-duty uniforms of officers of The Order of the Black Sisters. Behind the three women, led by chain link leashes attached to collars around their necks, walked five women in varied styles of black leather. Maude wanted to groan but kept quiet, the three officers had brought their sex-slaves with them.
Please keep going thought Maude to herself but it didn’t happen, the three officers sat down at a table near Maude, their human pets settling themselves on thick cushions quickly organised by the inn’s owner.
“So, if I recall correctly it’s your round major, after all you can afford it now you’ve been promoted,” laughed one of the female officers as she removed her gloves.
“Well, well captain, as your superior officer perhaps I should order you to buy the wine,” came the mock serious reply, then the newly promoted major also laughed.
“Bring us wine, two bottles of the best red you have and yes, I’ll pay,” she said as she grinned at her friend.
Maude had no recollection of seeing the three women before which made her wonder why three new officers should be posted here. Perhaps it was simply a rotation of personnel but there was a possibility it was a secretive build-up of troops in preparation for something that would affect other countries. So Maude listened, but as she did her eyes were inexorably drawn to the five sex-slaves lounging erotically on the cushions behind their owners.
As she looked at the five sex-slaves, the steel link leashes attached to their collars were secured to hooks on their mistresses’ chairs, the questions that always surfaced in her mind did so once again. Who had these leather clothed, physically altered and mind wiped women been, whose mothers, wives, sisters or daughters were they before they had been enslaved.
The officer who had spoken first had a single sex-slave behind her, the slave had pitch black hair in a classic slave’s braid that hung down to the small of the woman’s back and wore a black leather suit that include gloves and high heeled boots as part of it. There was only one part of the slave’s body that was not covered by the form-fitting leather, the slaves hairless and pierced pubes were left exposed. To complete its outfit the slave wore a tightly laced leather hood that left its mouth and eyes uncovered, while around its neck was a plain leather collar with a nametag hanging from the same d-ring that the leash was attached to.
Sitting next to captain, laughing and joking as she drank, was a younger woman, the insignia embroidered into the silk of her left forearm sleeve identifying her as bearing the rank of lieutenant. Behind the lieutenant, two blonde sex-slaves lay contentedly caressing each other with leather gloved hands. The two slaves wore soft and supple black leather masks that left only their eyes uncovered, black leather corsets with buckles down the front that radically reduced their waists covered their breasts and ended just above their thong covered pubes. A dozen suspenders fitted to the bottom edge of the corsets were fastened to the top of long black, thigh high boots with seven-inch stiletto heels and a platform sole, their hands and arms were encased in tight opera length black kid leather gloves.
But it was the two slaves that lay on cushions behind the major that made Maude want to shudder in disgusted horror. They were dressed in black leather suites with built in corsets that left their pierced breasts and pubes exposed but covered their arms underneath elbow length gloves. The boots that reached to their knees were ballet boots, the three-inch wide collars around each slave’s neck was covered in inch long silver spikes and their faces were covered by masks that were identical to the slaves of the young lieutenant. However, it was the physical look of the slaves that revolted Maude.
Maude had no doubt that the two slaves had once been perfectly normal women but that was no longer the case. The braided hair of the two slaves was platinum blonde and reached to their buttocks with strips of black leather wound into the braid, their hair contrasting starkly with their black clothing. But it was their figures that caused the greatest shock, both slave’s breasts were enormous and contrasted sharply with their strictly corseted waist which then flared out into rounded buttocks.
“I see you’ve been tinkering with your pets again,” said the woman who had spoken first as she glanced at the major’s two sex-slaves, “What are they now 40-20-36?”
“No Jess, they’re actually 42-20-36,” she said with satisfaction.
“You always did have a liking for the extreme,” said Jess, then she turned to a passing slave dressed in a brown leather smock, “Bring water and fruit for our pets,” she ordered, “And bring us two more bottles of wine.”
“Yes madam,” said the slave and bowed.
“You’re right, I do like to tinker with them, but I’ve decided their figures are now just right as is the platinum blonde hair which is also going to be permanent,” replied the major.
Two slaves, middle aged women in brown leather smocks, came towards the soldier’s table, they placed bowls of water and sliced fruit beside the slaves and bottles of wine on the table then bowed and left. Reaching down the major and the captain undid the leather masks that covered their slave’s faces, the major stroked the hair of her two pets, “Eat, drink and play,” she commanded then turned her attention back to her friends.
The captain also smiled indulgently down at her slaves, “After you’ve drank and ate you may kiss and caress but no fucking, do you understand?”
“Yes, Mistress,” said the two slaves as they gazed up with adoration at their owner.
“Good pets,” said the captain the she too turned back to her friends.
Maude looked at the captain’s two slaves, despite the gold rings through their lower lips, nostrils and the corner of each eyebrow as well as the dozen gold studs pierced through each ear, they looked familiar. Maude thought for a moment then the memory surfaced.
Maude remembered six months earlier standing in line to enter Elstrand, she remembered a woman on a horse. A woman called Kendra Berkenstein who had two female captives in riding clothes being forced to follow her. The two women had been gagged and were being led by the long chains attached to their bound wrists and then to the saddle of Kendra Berkenstein’s horse. There was one more item that Maude remembered; Kendra Berkenstein had said that the two women were mother and daughter. The captain’s leather clad slaves, lying on the cushions and feeding each other with slices of fruit, were those two women.
Maude knew that the two slaves would mercifully have no idea that they were mother and daughter, those personalities and memories would have been wiped from the slaves minds long ago. However, it still made Maude shudder with revulsion as she watched the younger slave take its older companion in its gloved arms and kissed it passionately.
Maude looked away, unwilling to watch, but as she did her eyes fell on the major’s two slaves as they lay contentedly behind their owner and her heart fell. One of the major’s slaves was unknown to her, but at a guess Maude would have said that she had been a woman in her late twenties or early thirties before she had been transformed into what she was now. But despite the fact that she had been radically altered Maude instantly recognised who the other slave had been.
Before being transformed into a slave, the major’s pet had been the young woman she had met at the gate to Elstrand, the young woman she had travelled with to Trennis, the young woman she had warned to be careful; the slave had been Claudia Anderson.
Claudia had been changed radically from the attractive young woman Maude had met, not only were her breasts massively enlarged they looked even larger because of her stringently corseted waist which also accentuated her rounded buttocks. The major had altered the young woman to suit her perverted tastes.
Maude felt sick, this was the second time she had seen something like this happen. Six months ago, and although she had done her best to dissuade them before they entered the buffer zone between Hillmartin and Elstrand but to no avail, she had seen a mother and her two daughters cross into Elstrand. Refugees who had escaped to Hillmartin, returning to what had been Grent to try to find the woman’s husband, mother and father. Maude had thought she wouldn’t see the three women again, but she had unfortunately been wrong.
The route Maude had taken through Elstrand was longer than her normal ones and, at the request of Wilhelm Bernhard, included a stop in the large industrial and mining town of Krensa. Maude had been provided with information about her new and the location of the most expensive hotel in the town, a place that could afford and appreciate the wines she sold.
The hotel was on the edge of the town square and had a rather grand but slightly careworn frontage that had obviously not been refurbished since the war. With her sample case over her shoulder, Maude had walked into the reception and began to approach the main desk of the hotel with its three liveried receptionists, but then she’d stopped in her tracks.
On the left side of the reception room was a cage constructed from steel bars, wood and leather with a lock on the door. There were four figures inside the cage but the lock on the cage wasn’t to prevent escape, that was not necessary, it was to prevent the contents of the cage from being stolen.
The four figures inside the barred cage were beautiful blondes and all four were dressed in skin-tight red leather suits, red kid leather gloves and knee-high ballet-heeled boots. All four had identical figures with large breasts and narrow waists and their blonde hair, tightly braided, was the same shade. Around each of their necks was a red leather collar, locked closed at the back and with a chain locked to the ring on the front, the chain that led to each collar a part of the structure of the cage that held the four women.
That the four women were sex-slaves was more than obvious but what dismayed Maude was that despite the fact all four were blondes, she recognised three of them, they were the brunette mother and her two daughters that Maude had tried to convince not to enter Elstrand. Maude’s worst fears had been realised, the mother and her daughters had been enslaved and physically altered and were now the property of the hotel.
Maude watched for a moment as the four sex-slaves caressed each other with their red-leather gloved hands and kissed passionately, then her eyes caught sight of something else. Above the cage was a printed sign, a sign that only made things worse.
‘These slaves are available for rent by guests of the hotel at the following rates:
Rent of 1 slave per hour 10 gold / per night 50 gold
Rent of 2 slaves per hour 18 gold / per night 90 gold
Rent of 3 slaves per hour 25 gold / per night 110 gold
Rent of 4 slaves per hour 30 gold / per night 150 gold
Please enquire at reception for availability and bookings’
Without looking back Maude had turned and left the hotel, never returning to it again.
On her return to Hillmartin, Maude had vented her fury at a stoic Wilhelm Bernhard demanding to know what could be done to prevent it happening again. The answer was simple, very little, if refugees and desperate relatives wanted to try and find those left behind in what had been Grent it was almost impossible to stop them. But what could be stopped was the trade in visa’s and identity documents which gave desperate people the belief they could cross into Elstrand.
Maude had believed that the sale of visa had been stopped, but it was apparent to her now that this was not the case. She felt anger rising inside her and stood, at first to storm over to the officers and their pets but then the danger crystallised through the red mist and she resisted the desire. Turning, Maude quickly made her way into the inn to wait for her coach to the border.
The fury inside Maude was not reflected on her face and in her posture as her acting skills took over to protect her. She would return to Hillmartin and she would personally root out those selling the documents and Gods help the sellers when she found them.
From where it lay next to its Mistress, what had been Claudia but was now a sex-slave called leather noticed the old woman that was staring at it. For a moment the sex-slave wondered if the old woman wanted it to eat her pussy and that was why she was looking at it, something the sex-slave would happily do if its owner gave permission. Then the old woman stood up and after a moment walked into the inn.
Leather immediately forgot about the woman, other than when obeying its Mistress or fucking, leather’s attention span was as limited as its intelligence. It turned and looked at satin, its Mistresses other sex-slave, as satin lasciviously licked its lips with its pierced tongue.
Leather smiled, it knew that tongue would be buried deep in its cunt when they returned to their Mistresses rooms. Taking hold of satin in its leather gloved arms, leather began to passionately kiss its fellow slave, thoughts of sex, pleasure and perversion filling its mind, no memory of Claudia Anderson remaining.