The Great Escape Chapter 8, Part 7 of 9

The Great Escape
Chapter 8, Part 7 of 9

"Don't tell him!" Devon said. "He's with Kalyndra. He's on their side."

"Kalyndra is with me, which is a different thing, and I'm on nobody's side, at least not until I know what the two factions are fighting about."

"Come on, Calliope," Devon repeated, but Calliope stayed.

"What do you know about the factions?" she asked him.

"There are two factions, with Ferne and you as the leaders. I don't know anymore, but Belena maintains her rule by playing one faction against another."

"Well, you're right about Belena and the two factions. Ferne is a leader of the larger group.

Belena gives them the best jobs, but things can change. Belena's constantly maneuvering to keep on top. Someday, she may favor our faction. It's not the factions that are the problem. It's her tyranny."

"She doesn't seem like a tyrant to me. She seems kind and thoughtful."

"Yes, she seems so." This was Devon, her voice bitter and sarcastic. Ezra ignored the sarcasm.

"Is that why you meet at night: so your plot won't be discovered?"

"Yes."

"So what's the danger? She knows you're a faction."

"Oh yes, she set up the factions herself by collecting Ferne's group together and favoring them. We meet in secret for a different reason."

"Don't tell him!" Devon said.

"Don't tell me what?"

"It's Thalassa," Calliope said, ignoring Devon, who raised her arms in despair. "Belena wants her."

"Wants her for what?" Ezra naively asked, to which Devon exclaimed, "Oh, God! She hasn't gone, has she?"

"Belena has demanded her as a bedmate," Calliope patiently explained to Ezra, then to Devon: "No, she's to go to her tomorrow night, after dark. I've told her not to go, but I fear she'll go anyway to keep the peace. She dreads what will happen to us if Belena is thwarted."
"But is it so bad, being Belena's bedmate?" Ezra asked.

"You don't understand!" Devon exclaimed scornfully. "Belena is going to rape her!"

"Good God!"

Through Devon's anger, Ezra could hear a catch in her voice.

"All right, Devon," Calliope said, holding her friend. "Why don't you tell Ezra the whole story?

Tell him what Belena is like so he can understand."

Devon sat on the edge of the bed, but the moment of weakness had passed, and she sat up straight. She spoke clearly and boldly.

"Four years ago, when I was just eighteen, my mother, Beatrice, was the leader of the divers.

That's our faction because we dive for sponges and oysters. It's the worst job because it ages you quickly, and older adults get pains in their joints. The other faction is the salters, which is easy work anyone can do. We both fish."

"My mother wanted the good and bad jobs shared out equally, but there was a big row, and our faction threatened to leave. It was an empty threat. Where would we go? What would we do? There were only seven of us, including two children at that time. Thalassa was only fourteen, insufficient for us to sustain ourselves."

"Anyway, Belena called our bluff, threatening us by saying she would hire the Herders to fetch us back. She's friends with the Herder chief, and they're good at tracking people. We can't outrun horses. So, we gave up and stayed; Belena still wanted to punish my mother, so she took me to her boat. I was tied down on the bed, and she abused me."

"Belena has a whip the Herders gave her and some wooden paddles and a leather thing, like your penis, but bigger. She straps it onto herself, and then she fucks you with it."

Ezra could hear the pain, not in her voice but in her effort to keep it neutral.

"I'm so sorry," he said. She shrugged off his concern.

"She hurt me then and again a few times since. She has fucked almost all of us, but she hurts only those who disobey or whom she wants to teach a lesson. Now she likes virgins. I won't let her have Thalassa."

"Nor will I," Ezra vowed.

"What can you do?" Devon demanded. She was scornful again.

"I don't know yet. I have to think, but I will end this tyranny, even if I have to beat the woman to a pulp."

"No!" Calliope exclaimed.

"Why not?" It was Devon who asked.

"Because there will never be an end to it. When Ezra goes away, Belena will still be in charge and will take it out on us who stay. We need to unite the tribe against Belena. That's the only way."

Ezra had a question:

"I don't understand why you can't join another tribe. Can't you join the Woodlanders?"

"They would send us back. They wouldn't risk starting a fight with the Mariners and the Herders together. None of the tribes can survive without trade, the Woodlanders least of all."
Ezra was unconvinced, yet he understood why they didn't want to leave their home.

"Do you need to unite the whole tribe against Belena? Could you succeed if you become the stronger faction?" he asked.

"We need not become the stronger faction, just strong enough to stand up to Belena. It's what our meetings have been about. We're trying to recruit more women. Belena has heard or suspected us and will use the threat against Thalassa to keep us in line. Or she wants Thalassa for her sick pleasure."

So much now made sense to Ezra. Now, he knew the monstrous thing that Mirselene suspected about Belena. Mirselene had seen Calliope thrust her daughter forward as a hostage when Urulla was injured. It was to get her out of Belena's clutches, and now she was nearly eighteen. That was why, at their meeting in the forest, Belena demanded Thalassa back. Perhaps it was why Calliope had seemed disappointed in him when he hadn't chosen.

Thalassa as his bedmate, though he thought he had done so for her sake.

Belena's sexual tyranny explained why Devon was not a virgin. It doubtless explained why Devon wanted sex in her way, presumably not in any of the ways Belena had abused her.

Ezra thought of Kalyndra. She hadn't been a virgin either, or her repertoire of sexual teases beyond anything the Woodlanders practiced was designed to excite a man, not another woman. Belena was a sadistic and predatory dominatrix with masculine sexual characteristics and a preference for the younger Mariners.

Ezra had been silent for some minutes while thinking this. He thought he knew what he could do to help.

"What if I got Kalyndra to join your faction?"

Devon scoffed, but Calliope answered patiently:

"Her mother, Ferne, wouldn't allow it, even if Kalyndra herself could be persuaded. But why would she leave the stronger faction for the weaker?"

"I am pretty sure Kalyndra can be persuaded, and maybe she will persuade her mother. At least let me try. If I understand, I have until tomorrow night. If I cannot get Kalyndra on your side, I will prevent Belena from taking Thalassa. I think I know how, so don't worry; I won't use force. Do you trust me?"

"I do," Calliope said.

"I don't," Devon said.

"You will after I get Kalyndra on your side."

"How will you do that?" Devon demanded.

"Like I said, Kalyndra is with me."

This would be a good test to see if Kalyndra was honest in her submission to him and her vow at his trial always to follow him.

Calliope left by the secret entrance when the rain stopped, and Ezra and Devon returned to bed. He assumed she was angry with him, and though he felt the urge to comfort her after revealing such painful secrets, he tried to keep his distance, but she was clearly of a different mind. Once in bed, Devon lay on him, put her hands in his unruly beard, and kissed him deeply, using her tongue. He held her off.

"What is this? You were arguing with me just five minutes ago!"

"So what? The argument is an argument, but sex is sex."

"I like your attitude."

"You like my pussy."

"True enough. Come here then."

They kissed again, and after a while, he grabbed her firmly by her thin waist and pulled her up so he could taste her tits. They were small and firm, jutting out of her sleek muscular body like little dunes; less than a mouthful each, but succulent and responsive. She gasped as he sucked, but her hard little nipples were sensitive, and after a few minutes, she asked him to stop. He let her wriggle back down his body.

She was pleased to feel his hard cock against her thigh and knew she was wet enough already, but she wanted to try something else first. She kept wriggling down his body until her face was by his cock. She began with her hands, stroking his pubic hair down to his stiff rod and wrinkly ball sack.

He liked this, and she heeded his warning to treat his balls carefully.

Whatever Belena did to her that put her off some sexual positions, there was something possible only with a man, and she meant to do it. She put her head between his legs and began to lick his balls. It was like paradise for him. He lay back, his eyes shut, breathing heavily, groaning in appreciation.

First, she flicked her tongue across his balls, and then she basted each one with long, loving strokes. Finally, she sucked a ball gently into her mouth and rubbed it with her tongue.

"Oh, God! That's beautiful, Darling. It's perfect. You're perfect."

"Mumm!" she replied, the hum in her throat adding to the lovely sensation in his balls.

She sucked the other ball and then licked her way gently up to his cock, flicking her tongue side-to-side as she ascended the shaft. She grazed his cock with her teeth when she took him in her mouth, and he groaned a warning. She understood and was more careful. She sucked well, loving the taste and feel of his pole. He caressed her hair while she bobbed her head.

Then, it was time.

"I'm nearly there," he said in a grating voice, breathing heavily.

He helped her climb up him and guide herself onto his rigid cock. She sank, enveloping him, and began thrusting, her wet pussy squelching, her firm thighs effortlessly maintaining the rhythm. She leaned back, putting her hand on his raised knees while he rubbed his thumb on her clitoris. Her moans reverberated off the wooden walls. Their hot breaths were in unison, condensing into mist in the cold night air.

She felt the orgasm start in her clitoris and shut her eyes, savoring the joy. Her breath caught, and she hunched as she came. She leaned forward on him, her arms outstretched, supporting herself on his shoulders, thrusting even faster. The heat spread out from her pussy, and she came again, her legs shaking. She collapsed and lay flat, warm and fulfilled. He gave her a few seconds, then he pushed her knees back to lift her pelvis and, supporting her by the waist, thrust up into her until he also had the hot joy of climax, groaning and gripping her waist even tighter in involuntary spasms.

With the last sweet surge of cum planted in her hard body, he held her tightly to him, and she slept on him for an hour until they moved in their sleep, like a coordinated couple, to lie side-by-side, his arm over her naked belly, keeping each other warm.

Early the following day, it was an hour or so trek to the forest across the plain at its narrowest point. All the tribe's women went, except the very oldest and youngest, so Ezra had no immediate chance to get Kalyndra alone to talk. He was shocked when they arrived at the forest edge and saw the devastation the Mariners had wrought on the trees. He had been a Woodlander only seven months, but all his tribal sensibilities were outraged.

They'd hacked randomly at the nearest trees, clearing a swathe like a barbarian horde, leaving some trees like wounded soldiers, legless or armless. One tree, a lone survivor too old and hard to be felled appropriately, stood in the middle of the clearing, an ugly chunk gouged out of its trunk, crudely dismembered of its lower branches.

"This isn't right, Kali. Come on, ladies, Kalyndra, and I will show you how to do it properly."

They led the women into the forest to collect firewood the Woodlander way. Kalyndra and he singled out thin, fast-growing soft-wood trees, about one in every ten, and chopped deep marks in each, telling the Mariners:

"These are the ones to cut down, then chop the branches and trunks into logs."

The tribe set to work, and soon, their axe blows shocked the pigeons from their rest in the treetops and sent the smaller birds fluttering away.

Meanwhile, Ezra told Kalyndra, "Come with me," and led her deeper into the forest.

They found a good-sized hardwood tree with low-hanging branches to trim for building material. Using an excellent axe, they took turns lopping off two branches.

When he stopped for a breather, he checked there was no one around to hear him and said:

"Kali, I have something to ask you."

"Go on."

"I want you to join the diver faction so they can stand up against Belena."

She stopped trimming the branch and stared at him to check she'd correctly heard.

"Do you know what you're asking?"

"I think so. You'll also be going up against your mother unless you can persuade Ferne to join us."

"Us?"

"I am on Calliope's side."

"What did Devon tell you?"

"She told me Belena's a tyrant. I know she favors your faction at the expense of the divers."

"Belena can be aggressive and unfair sometimes, but she's good to the entire tribe. She represents us well to the Cloners and has made a perfect treaty with the Herders. Now, she has been generous to the Woodlanders. The Mariners have managed pretty well since things became difficult between the tribes."

"Kali, she's a rapist."

"So are you."

"Yes, but at your invitation. Kali, Belena's a monster. She preys on virgins."

"It's not that bad. It would hurt the first time with anyone, even you. For me, it was like an initiation ceremony."

"She's demanded Thalassa."

Kalyndra was silent.

"You were friends in the forest," he continued. "I think you like her."


To be continued