Only a tiny amount of the pre-dawn light managed to find its way past the shutters to illuminate the room dimly. When Ulrich awoke, he could just make out the rough stones of the wall a few inches away from his face. ‘That was the most weirdest dream I have ever had,’ he said to himself. ‘I definitely won’t be telling mother about this one.’
A sleepy moan came from directly behind him, and an arm wrapped about his chest tightened protectively as did a naked thigh resting upon his hip. Slowly he moved his hand down and gently traced the thigh back over his hip. It was bony and female. He moved his hand back and felt the curve of a hip, then up until he felt the material of the blouse that had risen and gathered around Peta's waist. Ulrich brought her hand back and covered Peta’s, which rested on her chest and softly squeezed it as tears fell from the corners of her eyes onto the rough material of the mattress.
‘Shush,’ Peta whispered, ‘Take it a minute at a time’
***
Miriam sat up; she did not know how long she had been unconscious. She looked around the antechamber, the door leading to the pit was still barred, thankfully. Nearby Galien sat slumped against the wall, a trickle of blood running from her nose. Miriam moved across to the woman and gently shook her shoulder. Galien moaned and opened her eyes.
‘It took so long,’ Galien said.
‘There were three,’ Miriam suggested.
‘How many were killed?’
‘I don’t know; the attack was so vicious and prolonged that I passed out.’
‘Open the door,’ Galien ordered.
‘But the others,’ Miriam protested.
‘We do not need to wait for them.’
Miriam had difficulty lifting the heavy oak beam, and Galien had to help her. Opening the door, she squinted against the bright sunlight and peered out. There was no one in sight. Miriam balked when she saw the neat piles of human remains nearby. The close proximity of the victim when she died probably intensified the sensations Miriam had experienced. She led Galien out to examine the heaps. As usual, there was one of entrails, another of bones and a third of torn material.
‘It always kills them in a different spot, I could never understand why,’ Galien said and then prodded the blood stained material with her toe, ‘We should chain them up undressed.’
Miriam looked at the woman in disbelief.
‘But what about their dignity, and the cold?’
‘Maybe the cold would numb them, make them sluggish and quicker to kill.’
‘We don’t know that, those taken away could still be alive.’
Galien gave her a reproachful look. ‘You will have to observe each sacrifice.’
‘But you promised,’ Miriam pleaded.
‘Things change, get used to it,’ Galien said and walked off, further into the pit. There was an edge to her voice that Miriam recognised. Despite her cold calculating manner, the situation was getting to Galien. Could it be that she cared about the women she sent to their deaths?
Miriam looked back down at the remains and saw bloody footprints. One of the other victims must have freed herself, walked near the remains and through some of the blood. Miriam followed the trail to the door. The girl had cowered by, or even pounded on the door, hoping someone would let her back in. Then the trail led away, but it faded after a few yards. Where had she gone? Miriam could only sense Galien’s mind in the pit, the Dragon must have taken the girl away after it had eaten the first victim.
The noise of the clean-up party arriving distracted Miriam’s attention. Cecilia led the party, which included Tilla.
‘Well?’ Cecilia asked.
‘Nothing,’ Miriam replied, ‘One was killed the others taken, and we know no more about why.’
Cecilia looked to where Galien was walking in the distance.
‘We had better tread carefully,’ she said, ‘she is going to be difficult to live with. If only that blonde girl she’s taken to, would put out. She needs someone to give her comfort.’
‘Idela?’ Miriam asked.
‘That’s the one. You saw the unrest in the Harem yesterday, it will only get worse if we continue to take three women a day. It might be an idea if you were to be allowed in there, you could move about and find out if anyone is thinking of causing trouble.’
‘That means more duties for me,’ Miriam pleaded in an attempt to hide her glee at the prospect of gaining access to the Harem.
‘I will speak with Galien to arrange it.’
***
When Ulrich next opened her eyes, it was morning proper, the sun’s rays were finding cracks in the shutters, and beams of light lit the dust floating in the air. Orinda got up from her makeshift bed. Ulrich rolled over and watched her as she started to get dressed.
‘How are you feeling?’ asked Orinda.
‘Alright; a bit frightened,’ Ulrich replied and climbed off the bed. She noticed that Orinda’s gaze hovered on her groin, before her shirt dropped down and hid it from view. She’s checking to see if she wasn’t dreaming, Ulrich thought.
‘Where’s Peta?’ Ulrich asked when she noticed the older woman’s absence.
‘I don’t know. Maybe she’s gone to check on the wounded. If we can get out before the others wake, we might be able to bathe somewhere,’ Orinda suggested. Quickly they pulled on their trousers, grabbed their possessions and went out into the village. They saw Dafied sitting outside the house that the men had taken over and they exchanged greetings.
‘We’d like to bathe, do you think it’s safe?’ Ulrich asked.
‘They were up late and had plenty to drink so I think you should be safe for the next hour at least. If you go down out of the village, you’ll find a well-worn path that goes up the valley. Follow it through the small wood and you’ll come to the pool.’
Waving, they left him in the direction indicated. The path crossed the battlefield of the day before, which now seemed an age ago. Soon the path ran along the bank of the river; they followed it to the little wood. They could hear the sound of falling water as they entered it. After a short distance, they found a small waterfall with a plunge-pool that could just allow three to bathe. It was not big enough or deep enough for swimming.
‘It’s not what I was expecting,’ Ulrich observed. ‘One of us should keep a look out whilst the other bathes.’
‘You’d better go first, you’ve less chance of being found, if anyone decides to take a dip to wash away the effects of last night.’
Orinda disappeared back down the path and Ulrich quickly disrobed. She would to have liked to dived in, but the shallow water forced her to step into the rocky pool. The water was refreshingly cold and she lowered herself down. She had to sit on the bottom for the water to cover her shoulders. She quickly scrubbed the dust and dirt from her skin then dipped her head under the water and washed the grime from her hair.
Ideally, she would have lain down under the sun to dry off; instead, she rummaged in her pack and used her clean shirt to dry her body. Dry she put her trousers back on, but carried her boots, shirt and pack down the path to where Orinda was waiting.
‘Your turn,’ she chirped and the older woman turned round and stood.
Orinda looked at Ulrich’s naked chest.
‘If anyone comes you had better put your shirt on, those will never pass as overdeveloped muscles anymore.’ She walked barefoot up the path, fresh clothes over her shoulder, just before she disappeared from view, she reached up and started to unplait her hair.
Ulrich draped her damp shirt over a low branch in the sun to dry then lay down on the ground next to Orinda’s kit.
She did not fall asleep but when she heard Orinda returning she jumped up in surprise. She quickly grabbed her shirt and pulled it over her head. She saw Orinda strolling into the sun. The blancher started to hang the clothes she had rinsed out to dry on branches. Ulrich thought that she should have washed her dirty clothes as well. She could not help but notice how Orinda’s shirt clung to her damp body strategically as she moved. Orinda saw Ulrich’s gaze, looked down at her own body, and saw what was attracting the young girl’s attention.
‘Don’t look at me like that, you’re giving me goosebumps,’ she teased.
The two girls lay down to soak up the sun, Orinda spreading her wet hair out to dry. Ulrich pondered Peta's word about believing she was truly a girl. She had seen enough of Peta and Orinda's bodies to know that hers was the same. She wondered what Orinda must have thought about her when she had mistaken Duncan's todger for a bit of gut.
Peta had spent several hours the previous night explaining how men's and women's bodied fitted together to produce a baby. She went into great detail about why the act was so pleasurable, although childbirth was mostly not. She had even allowed Ulrich to feel her breasts so the young girl could understand what was muscle and what was mammary on her own body. Still the idea of letting a man to... Ulrich couldn't bring herself to think about that part of a man's body. The thought of letting a man that close to her body was revolting enough, but let him put that horrid thing inside her made her retch.
She glanced across at the resting woman, whose shirt, still wet, clung to her form. How could anyone be revolted by the thought of caressing a woman.
Ulrich realised where such thoughts were leading her and decided to think about something else.
‘You seem to know a lot about dragons?’ she asked.
‘They’ve had an important role my family’s past,’ Orinda replied. ‘My great grandmother escaped a dragon, your dragon.’
‘She wouldn’t be Serilda by any chance?’ Ulrich interrupted.
‘Yes, you know the story?’
‘Uncle Dafied met her son during the war and he told me her story.’
‘It was probably the romanticised version. I got a firsthand account from Great Granny herself when I was a little girl. Like your mother, she doted on her daughter, her only child, so much so that she couldn’t see that she had created a spoiled brat. She had brought Orella up on her own, after her husband fell over in a drunken stupor and drowned in a ditch.
‘She survived by taking in other people’s clothes to mend. Then she met a merchant who would pass through on a regular basis, and they came to an arrangement where she would give him physical gratification and he would contribute something towards the rent.
‘Meanwhile Orella grew up and became quite a little madam but Serilda couldn’t see it. The girl would flirt with the local men leading them on but letting them nowhere, by the time the men gave up their wives were accusing them of sleeping with her.
‘One day Serilda asked Orella to look after her mother who also lived with them. Of course, her daughter wanted to go out to meet a man and refused. During the afternoon, some armed men in red uniforms knocked on the door. They had come from the Selector’s office stating that Orella had been selected to be sacrificed to the Dragon.
‘Well it’s true that Great Granny was a very beautiful woman and that she and Orella could pass for sisters. She felt that the loss of her daughter would leave her nothing, so she decided that she might as well take her child’s place and give the girl her life. Her mother was going senile so vouched that Serilda was in fact her granddaughter, and signed the piece of paper put in front of her. Whilst she did this, Serilda wrote a quick note for Orella to find, explaining what had happened.
‘The ordeal wasn’t over quickly, most people think that the victim is taken to some lonely spot, tied to a stake and left for the Dragon. There’s a whole industry around the Dragon. There are too many vested interests for anyone to organise an army to take on the creature. More girls are selected than the Dragon can eat.
‘Roughly every one in two girls get sacrificed. A prison has been built in the form of a citadel that guards the entrance to the sacrificial pit. The only way into the pit is through the citadel. The only way into the citadel is over a bridge across a deep dry moat. Only girls are allowed to cross the bridge, the Selector’s men kill any that try to return and their bodies are dumped into the moat. The Selector himself is exempted from these rules and can cross backwards and forwards freely.
‘The girls are taken into the prison and there they live. Whilst there, they live a life of leisure. There are gardens, pools and games to play, but every morning there is a secondary selection where a girl is selected for sacrifice the following night.
‘To keep order a corps was formed. This is a band of girls who are in charge and administer punishments, select the sacrifices, run the kitchens and keep the place in order. In return for service in the corps, they are exempt from sacrifice, so as you can imagine, getting into the corps is quite popular.
‘Unfortunately, there are only a limited number of places, and vacancies only occur when one of their number dies. When this happens, members of the Harem can nominate themselves and quite a few do. So the girls have to fight each other, the victor joins the corps, but sometimes the fights are to the death.
‘There are a few women who have been quite lucky and have reached a ripe old age. My great grandmother told me that a girl arrived to find her mother’s elder sister there. The family had assumed, as everyone does, that she had been killed within days of being taken from her family.
‘My great grandmother said that life in the prison was very pleasant as the corps carried out most of the work. Sometime in the past, the inmates had named this part of the prison the Harem, because of the luxury and absence of men.
‘Serilda decided against trying to join the corps, take her chances in the secondary selections, and have a pampered life. It was over a year before her name was drawn from the lot.
‘Early on the eve of the New Year, the Harem was gathered together for the drawing of the lots; the first name out belonged to a young girl who had only been at the citadel for a few weeks. Then the second name was drawn; it was Serilda’s. She and the first girl were promptly taken to the holding cells. They had one each, in which there was a simple bed. They were kept in these cells for the rest of the day, receiving lunch and later an evening meal after which they fell asleep.
‘It was in the darkest of the night that they were awoken and given heavy capes to put over their clothes. They were led through a series of heavy wooden doors to the pit itself. This was an old disused quarry. The citadel had been built across the entrance blocking it off. The only other way in or out is up the sheer walls of the pit, but these have been chiselled smooth.
‘They were manacled then led across the pit floor to some wooden posts and the manacles were hooked into metal spikes sticking out of the poles above their heads. The Guards then left them on their own with the pit dimly lit by a couple of torches left nearby.
‘Being winter it was several hours before dawn and they had to stand in the cold with their hands manacled above their heads. To keep their spirits up they told each other stories and sang songs. Serilda was glad that she was being sacrificed on a holy day as she had some company. She thought of the majority of victims who had to endure the wait in solitude.
‘Suddenly the other girl commented that she could see better and they realised that it would be dawn soon. Not long after they could hear the screeches of the Dragon as it flew towards them. They looked up but it did not appear for some time, but they could hear it flying round the pit. Suddenly Serilda’s companion gasped and she looked up and just caught sight of a large dark shape as it passed over the pit.
‘Several more minutes passed before the Dragon appeared again hovering above them. It was huge it must have been over a hundred feet from its beak to the tip if its tail. Its skin was a light grey colour and my great grandmother could see the scales along its sides.
‘It landed quite gently in front of the two girls, the younger one was quite frightened and was breathing very fast, my great grandmother said she seemed to have the opposite problem and had to force herself to breath. It stepped towards her and lowered its head. Soon its beak was almost touching her skirt. It sniffed her over then used its beak to unhook the manacles, so that she was no longer chained to the post.
‘She ran towards the door to the citadel. Glancing back, she saw that the Dragon just stood there watching her. She sprinted as fast as she could, hampered by her skirt, but she reached the heavy door. It was locked solid and she banged and screamed for help. Of course, no one was coming to help her. She turned to see the Dragon release the other girl, who quickly ran towards the boulders.
‘The Dragon turned towards Serilda, it quickly crossed the distance to where she cowered. It lunged at her with its beak, but she ducked under it. It lunged again and she ducked and twisted out of the way. The Dragon turned to face her again; she had her back against the citadel wall. Again, the Dragon lunged and again she dodged, but this time she sprinted away from the citadel towards the back of the pit.
‘As she ran, she heard a whooshing noise and a shadow passed over her, then the Dragon landed directly in front of her. She changed direction and tried to skirt round the Dragon, but it blocked her way with its beak. She turned round and ran back the other way to find that the Dragon had hopped across and again barred her escape. This time she ducked down and ran under the Dragon, between its legs and out behind it.
‘She ran towards the pit wall on the far side, looking for somewhere to hide. Suddenly she felt a jab in her back and she fell forward, but before she could react she felt her self being lifted by her skirt. She heard it starting to tear and then the Dragon tossed her upwards. She fell back to the ground stunned.
‘When she recovered her senses, she saw that the Dragon had left her and was looking for the other girl. She was puzzled as to why it had not finished her off. Then it struck her, it had been playing with her like a cat with a mouse. Serilda heard the girl whimper when she realised that dragon was looking for her. She had found a gap between two boulders where she hoped the Dragon would not be able to get at her.
‘The Dragon walked round the pile of rocks looking for the girl. It probed here and there in an attempt to flush her out. After a while it stretched up and flames shot out its mouth and down onto the rocks. The girl ran out screaming as the flames filled the spaces between the boulders.
‘The Dragon started to chase her and, as with my great grandmother, played with her. This lasted for several minutes then the girl tripped and exhausted stumbled when she tried to stand up. The Dragon picked her up by her ankle using its beak.
‘It turned its head upside down to look at the girl as she dangled screaming. Then it shut its beak completely, severing the foot. The girl fell to the ground now unable to stand she started to crawl away. The Dragon grabbed her arm close to the shoulder and bit through it. The girl screamed in agony and tried to crawl, one armed, away from her tormentor, but the Dragon didn’t follow, instead it used its beak, with precision, to snip away the sleeve on the severed arm. Then it bit off small pieces of flesh that it swallowed. Meanwhile the girl had lost so much blood that she lost consciousness.
‘The Dragon took over an hour too consume the girl’s body. Serilda thought that it was quite a fastidious eater and it cut the meat from the bones in tiny pieces that it swallowed and the parts it didn’t like, such as the entrails it piled neatly to one side.
‘Of course great grandmother didn’t just stand and watch she tried to find an escape from the pit but there was none. Realising that she could run more easily, now that her skirts were torn. She tore them off all together but kept hold of them to try keeping herself warm. Something made her keep going even though she knew no one survived the Dragon.
‘When the Dragon finished its meal it turned its attention back to Serilda. It must have been sated because it wasn’t quite as agile, or keen. When it made a half-hearted attempt of a lunge at her, she waved the skirts in its face. It flew up into the air then swooped back down and grabbed her around the waist with its talons, and carried her up out of the pit. It got higher and higher which terrified my poor great grandmother. However, she discovered that hitting the Dragon with the chain of her manacles had an effect upon it. At one point, a link caught under some scales and pulled them off, this hurt the Dragon and its flight grew erratic. It tried to drop her, but she wrapped the chain around its talon.
‘The Dragon flew lower to land and just before it did, great grandmother untangled the chain and dropped the short distance to the ground. She jumped up and started to sprint towards a nearby wood. The Dragon flew up and away for a distance then turned towards her and flew at her fast and low. She increased her speed; she heard a whooshing noise and turned to see the Dragon almost upon her. She threw up the skirts, which landed on the Dragon’s head blinding it, and she dodged as it flew onwards. It clipped the ground and came down hard rolling over. Great Grandmother didn’t waste any time and continued her dash. She reached the wood in time to see the Dragon finally throw off the skirts and take to the air.
‘The Dragon circled the wood for the rest of the morning, by afternoon it was getting angry and started to breath fire but being winter the wood was too damp to ignite. It retreated to its cave in the evening and Serilda used the cover of darkness to make her escape.’
Orinda’s tale of Serilda’s escape took most of the morning and the sun was now at its highest. Ulrich sat up and saw that people were moving about the village, she quickly jumped up and donned her shirt. ‘Where did she go then?’ she asked.
‘She made her way back to her home village. Remember it had been over a year since she was taken away, and she arrived home to find her daughter, Orella in bed with her merchant. Obviously, they were both shocked to see her alive, but they all realised that she and Orella must leave the kingdom. Once it was found out that she had survived the selection the Selector’s men would be after her. So, they moved to Lahbland where my grandfather was born, Orella’s half brother. The Selector must have realised that true or not the story showed that someone could take the place of someone else, so he introduced the system of marking each maiden at birth. Come on it’s time to eat.’ They gathered their things and headed towards the village.
