SCARLETS DOMAIN

I had encountered her only once, as a green young
warrior and I considered myself lucky to have lived to
tell the tale. If I had suffered the misfortune to
have faced her in battle, as many of my comrades and
mentors did, I know that I would have perished - as
they did. If I had to face her now, I would still
lose, as would Karelia and Gudrun - the three of us
together.

"So when can we expect them?" I asked.

Gregory smiled. "Not for a few days yet. We will have
to choose our ground and make preparations, but for
now..." a broad grin spread across his face, "...we
eat drink and be merry!"

"For tomorrow..." muttered Karelia.

"...we die." continued Gudrun.

We took our place at the tables, and began feasting
with the men who had so recently been our enemies.

"I saw you fighting," roared the man next to me, his
stinking breath washing over my face, "and you fight
like a girl!"

"Why thank you!" I smiled, "and your breath smells
like a dead ox!"

He threw his head back and laughed, then placed his
elbow on the table, his hand up and open. "Wrestle!"
he said.

So I put my arm up too, and we engaged, me pushing,
then him pushing. Of course he was stronger than me.
Of course I could feel my strength drain as he began
to force my arm back. And of course I won! That's why
women can be so effective in battle if they know what
to do.

A goblet was placed before me, and I barely noticed it
being filled.

"Drink of our finest, Antiope," a voice said, but I
hardly noticed.

I drank, of course, and the girl came to refill the
goblet, her face vaguely familiar, but I was beginning
to find my interest taken up more and more with the
man with stinking breath. In these times you have to
take what you can get, and good wine always makes one
less choosy anyway.

"Antiope, we need you."

I hardly heard the voice, and I'm sure no one else
did. I ignored it at first. In fact, as I felt the
mans rough fingers squeezing my breasts, I was
wondering how easy it would be simply to wrap my legs
around him, here and now, and impale myself on his
fleshy sword.

"You must come with us now."

The voice was insistent and irritating, and I knew I
had to do something about it. I looked around, but
could see no-one who might have owned it.

"Come, Antiope, come!"

I sighed, planted my lips on his and gave him the
wettest of kiss. I could feel the air cooling my damp
thighs.

"I'll be... back," I slurred, "call of nature."

And I got up from the table and staggered towards the
woods outside the village.

As I stumbled through the woods I seemed to stumble in
and out of consciousness. I didn't even know where I
was going or why, but I never thought to wonder.

The slap awoke me.

My hands were bound behind me, and I could feel the
rough bark of a tree at my back.

"So, the mighty warrior is helpless now," said the
young voice of the caped woman before me.

I cursed myself for allowing myself to be tricked so
easily, but as I glanced around, I saw two more
figures in the twilight, bound to trees as I was.
Karelia and Gudrun!

My heart sank. So this was to be how it would end for
us. Butchered because of too much drink. Our death
would be no better than that of any raddled whore who
lies in the gutter, her throat slit by an angry
customer. No better, in the end, than we deserved.

"Who are you?" I asked, though I had my suspicions.

The girl pushed her cape back, allowing her dark hair
to cascade about her shoulders.

"I am Alia, and this is my sister Aranxia. Do you not
recognise us?"

I caught site of the figure standing behind Alia for
the first time. Slowly recognition began to dawn.

"Alhambra's daughters!" I exclaimed.

"Yes, and you remember how you made us kill our mother
in the village square!" she hissed, her voice suddenly
dark.

"But I..."

"Enough! I don't want to hear pathetic excuses!"

"They will find you!" I said, "and you will be cut
down like dogs, left to bleed while the dogs feed on
your entrails!"

Alia laughed. "I trust they will find us!" she said.
"For that is the plan!"

As if prompted, I heard a voice in the distance.

"Antiope, Karelia, Gudrun! Where are you?"

It was Molly.

"Why don't you call to her? Tell her where you are?"

I remained silent, wondering what these girls were
planning.

"Molly! Over here! Quickly!"

It was my voice, I would have sworn it, but it came
from Alia's lips.

I heard Molly crashing through the undergrowth, and
she suddenly appeared in the clearing, bareheaded, but
wearing a short tunic and a heavy leather sword belt.
With her were two men - her new lover and another
comrade.

"Molly!" I said, "watch out for the two..."

I trailed off. Alia and Aranxia were nowhere to be
seen.

"Untie them!" cried Molly, and Molly's lover came to
me to loose my bonds, while Molly and the other man
tended to Gudrun and Karelia.

He was smiling confidently as he sawed at the ropes
with his knife, but that smile suddenly vanished and
he threw his head back, eyes popping, emitting a
horrible scream.

As he slumped to the ground, I saw Alia standing
behind him, smiling. In her hand she held his hacked
off genitals.

I watched with horror as she began to eat them.

Molly screamed as she saw her man fall, and came
running over, sword drawn. Behind her, the other man,
who was running with her, suddenly bucked and jerked,
his chest fountaining blood as Aranxia did her grisly
work.

Alia turned to face Molly who charged at her angrily,
her tunic flying over her thighs.

Steel clashed upon steel, and sparks shattered the
night. Molly was better than Alia, though, and having
looped her weapon around one of Alia's incompetent
thrusts, Molly drove her weapon into Alia's belly.

Or at least where Alia's belly should have been.

The suspicion had been growing, but now I knew for
certain who was at the bottom of this.

Streeth!

"Molly, look out!"

Molly moved aside quickly, but not before Aranxa's
sword sliced deeply into her upper arm. With a yelp,
Molly whirled, her sword arcing in the moonlight, down
towards Aranxias skull.

Except that, like her sister, Aranxia was nowhere to
be seen any longer.

"Fight fair, you bitches!" screamed Karelia.

Alia appeared before her. "Like you fought our mother
fairly?" she snarled.

Molly was on her, her sword thrusting at her back, but
Aranxia deflected her blade at the last moment. Molly
screamed in frustrated anger, and slashed at Aranxia,
who barely managed to parry in time before riposting
with her own attack.

Molly swept the blade aside almost contemptuously, and
then screamed with sudden pain as Alia's sword thrust
into her side.

The blow wasn't deep, but it seemed to sap Molly's
spirit. She backed away, beads of sweat forming on
her brow, breathing heavily. She glanced at me, and I
could see her death in her eyes.

At times like this it is futile to offer words of
empty encouragement. A dying warrior only feels more
alone.

"Die well, brave warrior," I whispered, tears stinging
my eyes.

She took some heart, nodded, and attacked the
advancing sisters with a scream that shook the night.

Poor Molly. She had so much spirit, and such a brave
heart, but those bitches took all that away from her
before they took her life. First they were there, and
then they were not. Whenever Molly outmanoeuvred them,
they came back, inflicting a cruel jab in her thigh,
or in her belly - not enough to kill, but enough to
hurt.

Molly's cries of frustration eventually turned to
whimpers of fear, and finally she fell to the ground,
lying on her back, her breasts rising and falling with
her laboured breathing.

"Finish me," she whispered, "for pities sake end
this!"

I became aware that there were three figures now
pacing around Molly's helpless form. One of them knelt
down beside her, hands caressing her body. She looked
up briefly, and I recognised those deadly eyes that
glowed red in the dark.

Streeth, the witch!

"Leave her be!" I yelled, choking back my sobs.

My cries were met with cruel laughter.

Molly's thighs were parted, and her tunic and belt cut
away to reveal her white moonlit nakedness. Streeth
stroked her belly, her fingers moving down to her
crotch. the two girls knelt beside her, each caressing
Streeth, as she caressed Molly. They opened her robe,
squeezing her nipples and kneading her breasts, while
she moaned softly and bent forward to nip Molly's
nipple, then suck.

Molly writhed as if to escape, but I could see the
moonlight glistening on her crotch.

"See," whispered Alia, "we have brought you the virgin
Molpadia as you desired.

"Dear Alia," murmured Streeth, "I fear you are TOO
LATE!"

Alia and Aranxia gasped, falling back in fear. Streeth
ran her finger down the centre of Molly's abdomen,
from ribcage to crotch, leaving a thin red line.

As I watch the red line seemed to widen, then it burst
suddenly, her skin splitting, leaving her intestines
to slither free as she screamed in horror.

After that Molly's death was fairly quick, but that
was all that could be said of it. She shuddered and
convulsed, before lying still, the stench of her guts
carrying to our nostrils on the night air.

Karelia, Gudrun and I wept, and we swore silently that
Streeth and her evil henchwomen would die equally
horrible deaths at our hands if and when we got the
chance.

I pulled at my bonds. Molly's man had managed to
loosen them before he died. Perhaps our revenge would
be sooner than we might have thought!

"Mistress," said Alia, summoning up her courage, "What
are we to do with these three?"

Streeth scowled at them. "What would you like to do?"
she growled.

"Well," said Alia, glancing at her sister, "it's just
that we have a little unfinished business to attend
to."

Streeth shrugged. "Well, I could do with some
entertainment," she said.

Alia walked over to Karelia, swinging her sword from
side to side. Karelia eyed her defiantly, but her
position was hopeless, and her nervousness showed.

"Remember how you made my mother suffer!" gritted
Alia.

"It was because..."

"Silence!" screamed Alia. "I don't want to hear your
excuses!"

She approached raising the sword horizontally to
breast height.

"A quick slice and..." she brought the sword suddenly
across.

There was a flash of blue light.

Karelia's eyes widened in shock as Alia staggered
back, her own breasts sliced open. Aranxia screamed.

"Poor child," muttered Streeth as she approached.

Alia looked up at her questioningly.

"They are protected by my curse, little sweet thing!"

"Y...your curse?" stammered Alia as she clutched at
her bleeding breasts.

"Does she love you? No, of course not. Should she love
you? Well, you're about to kill her! Would she love
you? One of my ... assistants? I wouldn't allow it!"

"I... I don't understand." sobbed Alia, sinking to her
knees.

"That is my curse, pretty one. Since they will die at
the hands of someone who loves, should love, or would
love, it follows that they cannot be killed by anyone
else!"

Alia fell to the ground, moaning, as pink fat slipped
through her fingers. Streeth knelt beside her,
stroking her hair.

"You failed me. I asked you to bring the virgin
Amazon Molpadia, but all you could manage was to bring
me the Amazon Molpadia - without her virgin purity. I
need a virgin, and I didn't get one. But you, my
pretty, you are a virgin!"

"P...please... nooo!" said Alia weakly.

Streeth knelt down and licked at her bloody breasts.

"Mmmm, delicious," she said, "but all this fat is bad
for my heart!"

Her hand snaked down Alia's belly to her loin cloth,
and pushed its way underneath like a snake. Alia's
eyes widened and she gave a brief shriek as blood
suddenly soaked the garment. She lay there shaking for
a moment as Streeth withdrew her hand, holding Alias
virgin womb.

She began to eat.

Will continue in chapter 4...