WARNING: This is a work of erotic fiction. It contains depictions of nudity and graphic sex. Author: A Strange Geek Title: The Pilfered Princess Summary: An evil sorcerer kidnaps a princess in his bid for conquest, but gets more than he bargained for. A humorous sendup of formula fantasy stories. Part: 1 of 5 Keywords: MF, M+F, FF, oral, nc, bon, tort, rough, magic, parody, humor Copyright A Strange Geek, 2006 Feedback welcome! Please email me at astraYOURngegeek@comMINDcast.net ( lose YOUR MIND to email me ) Or to send anonymous feedback, use the form at bottom of HTML version: http://www.asstr-mirror.org/files/Authors/A_Strange_Geek/www/novels/PilferedPrincess_temp/Part1.html --------------- On the cold stone floor of the dungeon cell, the half-curled form of the princess finally stirred. Sarah gave a low groan as she slowly became conscious. She lifted her head, one eye peeking out from behind disheveled locks of golden hair. She squinted at even the dim light in the cell, her temples throbbing until her vision started to clear. She blinked rapidly and tried to pick herself up, only to discover that her wrists were tied tightly behind her back. She uttered a short sigh and let her head drop back to the floor. She needed to wait until she had more of her strength back before she could try to sit up. Sarah thought back to the last thing she remembered. It took a few moments for the fuzziness in her head to clear. She remembered sneaking out of the castle so she could visit her secret lover, the squire's son, out by the stable. They had just finished making love when he offered her a goblet of wine. And then ... ... she woke up here. /That little scamp!/ Sarah thought in amusement. /I should have figured him for one of the Dark Lord's agents. No wonder he liked to tie me up before sex./ Sarah no longer gave the circumstances of her arrival any further thought. What matter now was where she was, not from where she had come. Feeling some more strength return to her body as the sleeping draught she had been slipped wore off, she grunted as she swung her legs out, only to discover that her ankles had been bound as well. /Oh, lovely,/ she thought. She felt a chill as she struggled to get her legs to bend at the knees and help push her into a more upright position, as her feet were bare, making her shiver. She could not help but utter a short laugh as she thought about how her lover would have been quite amused to see her struggle like this. She sometimes squirmed against the ropes he used on her just because she knew it got him excited to see it. After some effort, the princess managed to straighten herself out, roll onto her back, and then bring herself into a seated position. She shimmied her legs over so she could lean her back up against the wall. Sarah looked down at herself, surprised to discover that her dress was still very much intact, other then being a little wrinkled. /They had little old me all tied up and helpless and didn't help themselves?/ she thought with a snort. /Amateurs. Oh, wait a minute .../ She twisted her torso one way and then the other, then shook herself. Her petticoats felt loose, her breasts jiggling a bit. She smirked. /Okay, so someone had a little squeeze of the royal fruit,/ she thought with amusement. /Good, I thought I wasn't going to be appreciated here./ Sarah gave a wistful sigh as she leaned against the wall as she thought about what likely lay ahead of her now. Pressed up against her bosom tightly, her dress betrayed two prominent bumps that were her stiffening nipples. It was not entirely due to the cold. Above the dungeon where the poor princess lay helpless rose the terrifying Tower of Doom. Winding to its front gate was the Road to Ruin, ending just short of two enormous boulders that flanked the base of the Tower and right before the small "No Soliciting" sign on the gate. Those foolish enough to approach close enough to the gate (which, coincidentally, happened to be the distance one needed to be to read the sign) would be crushed to death by the two boulders. All rear and side approaches were protected by thick tangles of writhing vines that throttled anyone who came too close. The Tower thrust menacingly into the leaden gray sky, the clouds parting reluctantly for the swollen, skull-shaped Chamber of Horror that capped its enormous height. And within the Chamber, the Dark Lord Mallevelus, resplendent in his utterly black Robe of Impenetrable Darkness, holding the obsidian Scepter of Infernal Power, leapt up from his Throne of Foulest Evil and uttered his heartiest, most malevolent laugh, the skies answering with flashes of poisonous green lightning and cracks of despairing thunder. "I've done it, Inferno!" Mallevelus boomed, his coal-black eyes glittering. "I have captured the Princess Sarah!" "Yes, my Lord," Inferno said placidly. Inferno was an incubus, his flaming red skin the only thing in the room not rendered in shades of black. He was the Dark Lord's Right Hand of Terror, responsible for all manners of horror and torture at the Tower. At one time, the Dark Lord also had a Left Hand of Darkness, but this had annoyed Inferno to no end. Since the Left Hand of Darkness was /always/ dark, he could never see it, and thus the Right Hand could never know what the Left Hand was doing. "Now, the Kingdom of Light shall be mine at last!" "Of course, my Lord." Mallevelus let go with another round of diabolical laughter, causing the skies to thunder again. Inferno rolled his eyes. "And when I have it, I shall turn it into ... a Kingdom of /Darkness!/" Mallevelus cried. "Oh, now I hadn't thought about that, my Lord," Inferno said with a sardonic smile. "Positively smashing." Mallevelus stroked his goatee thoughtfully. "Oh, and you can forget about those unicorns in the Forest of Delight," he said. "Oh, no, that's straight out once I take over! I'll replace them all with Nightmares and turn it into the Forest of /Horrors!/" "Oh, how frightfully /original/ of you, my Lord," Inferno said with a dutifully respectful tone of voice. "Yes, Inferno! And then I shall take the ..." "Begging my most Foul and Evil Lord's pardon," Inferno spoke up. "Might I suggest something?" Mallevelus stopped. "Er, what?" "You might wish to first make your ransom demand to the King before you celebrate your conquest of the Kingdom," Inferno suggested delicately. "After all, you will need him to lower the Barrier of Purity so that you may gain entry to his Kingdom." "Oh, yes, I was getting to that," the Dark Lord Mallevelus said. He drew himself up to his full menacing height. "Bring her to me, my Right Hand of Terror, and I shall have her begging for my mercy! We shall then see how the fair King will stand up to me when he sees his fair and pure daughter cowering at my feet!" He gave another burst of evil laughter, the thunder again booming in response. "Oh, I do love that!" he said. /That makes one of us,/ Inferno thought. He also sincerely doubted the princess was "pure", considering what their agent had been doing with her prior to turning her over to the Dark Lord's minions. The princess looked up as she heard the door to her cell rattle. "It's about bloody time," she muttered. She cleared her throat and put on a sufficiently innocent look. The door opened with a loud creaking noise. Sarah's eyes widened at the thickly muscled guard as he struggled to open the heavy iron door, his arms and chest bare, much of his head hidden by a large helmet. She licked her lips, her gaze flickering down to the simple leather loincloth that he wore and the prominent bulge under it. The next moment, however, he stepped out of her line of sight, and into the cell stepped the bright red form of the Incubus. Sarah gasped loudly, her eyes growing as wide as saucers, her heart leaping into her mouth. He towered over her, standing nearly six feet. His skin was the color of fire, and she could feel his heat radiating from him even from across the cell. Two leathery wings lay folded against his back. Two large horns curled from his forehead above two bright yellow eyes. But what riveted her horrified attention was his large, erect phallus, leading him by a nearly a foot, pulsing obscenely with infernal, perverted sexual power. Inferno glowered at her, then carefully curled his lips into the most wicked smile he could do. It was his signature look. He once made an entire field of milkmaids faint at the sight of it. Oh, those /were/ the days. "Now, my sweet," Inferno spoke, using his most lascivious voice possible, a voice that would make even the wickedest tramp turn away in revulsion. He failed to notice that Sarah neither fainted nor turned away. "Can you tell me where you are?" Sarah's heart pounded in her chest, her gaze jumping from his face to his phallus and back. "I'm ... I'm in a dungeon ..." she said breathlessly. "Yes, my dear princess, a dungeon," Inferno said silkily. "Now ... can you tell me who's dungeon?" "The Dark Lord Mallevelus?" "Yes, Princess Sarah! The Dark Lord Mallevelus! And you shall be brought into his most foul presence forthwith!" Sarah's eyes again dropped to his phallus. "Are ... a-are you ... " "Yeeees?" "A-are you going to ... t-to ... " She swallowed again, trembling. " ... to r-rape me?" Inferno threw his head back and laughed. He grasped the base of his enormous penis with one clawed hand and knelt by her side. Sarah drew in her breath sharply as his heat came over her in a suffocating wave, making her pant. "Do you mean to ask, princess," he said in a disgustingly lustful voice, his eyes glowing wickedly, "if I intend to take this and slide it up into the hot, tight depths of your most intimate nether regions, and mercilessly violate the flower of your womanhood by pounding it into you so hard you will scream for mercy until you feel the searing hot spray of my foul seed inside you, then yes, indeed, Princess, /I intend to do just that!/" Sarah gasped, cringing. Inferno gave her a toothy grin. "But ... not now." "Not now?" Sarah asked. "Yes, princess. Not now." "Oh." Inferno paused. Something was not right. "Er ... did you hear what I said, princess?" Sarah nodded. "Yes, I heard you. You said not now." "Yes ... but sometime, sometime perhaps quite soon, I shall do /exactly as I have said!/" "Okay," she said. Inferno blinked. "Okay?" he repeated, confused. Sarah nodded. "Er ... but ..." "Oh, wait!" the princess said quickly, realizing her error. She paused a moment, then let loose with a strident shriek. "/No, please, don't touch me you .../uh/ .../ you/ fiend,/ you!" "Ah, that's better!" He frowned. It still wasn't quite right. "Uh ... I think ..." "Aren't you supposed to be taking me somewhere?" Sarah asked. "Huh? Oh, yes." He stood awkwardly. "Guard!" The bare-chested muscular hulk reentered the room, his dull yet purposeful beady eyes the only visible part of his face from under his helmet. "Cut the ropes around her ankles and get her to her feet!" Sarah placidly extended her ankles before her as the brute grunted and whipped out a small but wickedly serrated knife. The ropes around her ankles fell away with a single swipe. He grabbed an arm with a beefy hand and hauled her to her feet. She tossed her head to get some of her hair our of her eyes. "And now, Princess," Inferno snarled. "You will be taken before the most /horrible/, the most /terrifying/, the most /evil/ presence in all of the land, his most Foul and Infernal Lord Mallevelus!" Sarah nodded. "Okay, let's go," she said. Inferno made a face. This was not going the way he expected. "Uh ... you heard all that, right?" he asked. "About him being horrible and terrible and all that rot, right?" "You forgot evil, foul, and infernal." "Er ... yes ... /take her away!/" Inferno ordered with a sweep of his arm. Inferno fell in step behind her as they marched out of the dungeons, the tip of his phallus only inches from her behind. Her forehead broke out into a sweat. It was not entirely from the heat. As he waited for the return of his loyal minion, the Dark Lord happily busied himself readying an Orb of Messaging. He placed the crystal message orb atop the obsidian black stand, took a step back from it, cleared his throat, and intoned, "/Record/". /Bink/. A small red glow emanated from inside the orb. "Testing, testing, one two three. Now is the time for all good men to grovel before the Dark Lord. /Stop/. /Playback/." A three-dimensional flickering image of the Dark Lord appeared in miniature off to the side, repeating back the lines he had just spoken. "/Stop/. /Rewind to start/. /Erase/. Perfect," the Dark Lord grinned. Behind him, the door to his sepulchral chamber opened, and the princess was pushed roughly inside by the guard, causing her to stumble and nearly fall. The guard grabbed her by the arm and righted her, only to just shove her forward again and this time really cause her to fall. "Oh, now, my dear, dear princess," Mallevelus said in his most oily voice, a wicked grin playing across his face. "No need to bow before me so soon. At least allow me the intense pleasure of breaking you first." Princess Sarah paused in her struggles to stand up again to look up at the Dark Lord and drew her breath in sharply at the sight of him, the next second tilting her head to one side and furrowing her brow. /This is the Dark Lord Mallevelus?/ she thought in disbelief. For one thing, he did not look nearly as tall as people made him out to be. A "towering edifice of evil" was what they called him (or was that the Tower? She could never remember). This man looked barely six-foot-three. And he did not even look all that evil. Unless that was what all this black was supposed to be. To her that just meant the man had no fashion sense. Yet this was the all powerful Lord of Evil and Chaos, the Foul One, the Lord of Darkness. /Well, he's got the darkness down pat, I'll give him that,/ she thought, straining to see in the dimness of the chamber, lighted by only a single feeble lantern off to the side of the Throne. Mallevelus issued an evil chuckle. "So, Princess Sarah, already you are so frightened at my mere visage that you are struck speechless, are you not?" Sarah managed to rise to her feet as she felt the warmth of the incubus beside her again. She stole a glance at his phallus again, a very brief smile touching her lips, before looking back to the Dark Lord. "No," she replied simply. The Dark Lord started laughing maniacally, thunder shaking the rafters. "She said 'no', my Lord," Inferno said loudly. Mallevelus abruptly stopped, the thunder stopping in mid-crack. "She said what?" "She said 'no', my Lord," Inferno repeated patiently. "No?" "Yes, my Lord." "So she did say 'yes'! Hah!" "No, my Lord, she said 'no'." "She said 'no'?" "Yes." "But you just said she said 'no'!" Mallevelus thundered. "Make up your mind!" Inferno paused and counted to ten. /I gave up a life on the fifth level of Hell for this?/ he thought violently. "Master, if she had been able to speak /at all/, this would tend to refute the claim that she was too scared to speak, regardless of what she said," Inferno said. Mallevelus appeared to consider this for a moment, then frowned and stepped up to Princess Sarah, looming over her, casting two eyes of intense malevolence down at her. "Do not trifle with me, Princess," he said in a deadly voice. "You will find my wrath terrible to behold." He raised a single hand into the air in an almost leisurely manner. Sarah gasped and staggered back from him as she felt her chest seized in a viselike grip. It forced some of the air from her lungs, and when she tried to breathe in, she could take no more than a shallow breath, intolerable pressure preventing her from drawing any more air than that. She gave several wheezing coughs, her breathing reduced to a shallow pant as her legs went weak and she fell to her knees again. "I ... can't ... /breathe!/" she rasped, her heart pounding in terror for the first time since she arrived. "And see how the enemies of the Dark Lord die before me!" Mallevelus cried triumphantly. "Er ... we /do/ need her alive, my Lord," Inferno said gently. "Oh? Oh, yes, quite right!" He whipped his hand away. Sarah drew in a loud, gasping breath as the pressure abruptly vanished. She took a few moments to catch her breath. /So they need me alive, do they?/ she thought, some of her panic abating. /Okay, maybe this Dark Lord is the real deal. Fair enough. I just have to play along and ... maybe I can get some of what I want as well./ "But now I am sure that our fair and pure ..." Inferno coughed. " ... princess here will treat me with more respect," Mallevelus concluded. He grinned at her. "Won't you, my dear?" Princess Sarah looked up at him, lip trembling. Her fear was not entirely faked. "Y-yes," she said quietly. "Yes ... /what?/" He flicked a finger in the air. Her diaphragm spasmed. "/Yes, my Lord!/" Sarah said quickly. "And will you, Princess, do as I say from here on in?" "Yes, my Lord!" she repeated. There was less fear to it now. "And if I wish it that you should beg for my mercy, nay, for your very life ... would you do that as well?" "Yes, my Lord," Sarah replied. A small smile touched the corners of her mouth. "And if I were to wish it that you kiss my very feet, would you do it?" "Oh, yes, my Lord," she said, licking her lips. Now there was genuine enthusiasm in her voice. Inferno looked oddly at the Princess. No, this was not right at all. This was not in the script at all. "And if I were to ask ..." "Begging my most Fiendish and Terrible Lord's pardon," Inferno said loudly, "But do you not have a message orb to send? To the King?" Sarah blinked at this. At this point she was able to see more clearly in the dark, and now she caught sight of the orb sitting in its stand just past Mallevelus. "Yes, quite right, Inferno." Mallevelus looked down at the Princess. "On your feet, the Dark Lord commands you." He waved a hand, and the ropes binding Princess Sarah's wrists abruptly snapped and unraveled. She rose quickly to her feet, rubbing the indentations made by the ropes in her flesh. She looked almost disappointed. Mallevelus walked over towards the orb. "Bring her," he said casually. The guard shoved her hard in the back even as she started walking under her own power towards a spot next to Mallevelus. The Dark Lord grinned wickedly at her. "You see here a simple message orb, my dear," he said to her. "This small device is but a small cog in the great machine that is my plan." /Oh, dear, he's monologuing,/ Inferno thought with a sigh. /Oh, good, he's monologuing,/ the princess thought. /I need to listen to this./ "It is but the only thing I need. Oh, except perhaps for one thing, and that thing, my dear, is you!" Mallevelus said. "Yes, Princess. You are the last cog in the great machine, delivered to me by my loyal minion, the squire's son, for whom you showed such an ardent affection. Little did you know that your unladylike lust for a man you believed beneath your station would come to such grievous ends!" /Grievous ends?/ she thought with a slight, sardonic smile. /He obviously did not see the size of this boy's cock. Wow! I think I came three times./ She took a glance over her shoulder, eying Inferno's ever-erect phallus again. "Little did you know, nor did your father the King know, that I have a huge network of spies all over the court!" Mallevelus laughed. "They tell me everything that happens in your Kingdom. You may think your Barrier of Purity can keep me and my armies out, but I had long before placed my minions in your father's midst, and that will be the downfall of your father's precious Kingdom of Light!" Inferno frowned. Where were the princess' gasps of surprise? He looks of despair at her father's attempt to defend the kingdom coming to naught? Her pleas to spare her good people who mean him no harm? He snapped his fingers. A set of parchments appeared in them. Quickly he flipped through the pages, upon which he had inscribed the predictive runes that he had cast before the Dark Lord had set his latest scheme in motion (traditionally called the "script") in order to see what the outcome would be. As he scanned the runes, it was clear that what was happening was simply not in the script anywhere. The Dark Lord appeared to see nothing of this, and instead gestured towards the message orb. "And now, Princess, stand where you are, so your father will be able to see you, to see what I have of his, what he will not get back until I get what I want!" Princess Sarah finally showed some reaction at this point, giving a small gasp and looking at the Dark Lord with wide eyes, her hand on her breast. "And ... what is it ... what is it you want, my Lord?" she asked in a breathless voice. The Dark Lord's lips curled into a sly smile. "Why, I thought that would be obvious, Princess," he said in a low voice. Sarah swallowed and took a deep breath, feeling herself tremble. "Please, tell me, my Lord," she said in a husky voice, stepping closer to him. "What I want, my lady, is for your father to lower the Barrier so that my armies will finally face his in battle, and allow me to conquer his Kingdom once and for all!" "Oh," Princess Sarah said, sounding crestfallen. She glanced to the side and caught the incubus giving her an odd look over some parchments. "Er, I mean ... oh, no, my Lord! Anything but that! Not the Barrier! Please, no!" The Dark Lord appeared pleased. Inferno narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "Yes, Princess, the Barrier!" Mallevelus shouted with a sweep of an arm towards his Farseeing Mirror. The interior glass swirled in mist, resolving itself into a large, glowing white field of energy suspended above a river, the magical energy barrier that barred the way to the Kingdom of Light from the forces of evil. "With that Barrier out of my way, I shall conquer your pitiful Kingdom and rule the world!" He opened both arms and let loose with more diabolical laughter, the thunder returning again in kind. "/The message orb/, my Lord!" Inferno said impatiently. "Yes, I'm getting to that!" Mallevelus snapped. "Now, Princess, your part is about to be played." He paused. Inferno looked at the Princess expectantly. "Uh ... oh, I'll never help you, never!" Princess Sarah said shrilly. "You cannot make me betray my father and my kingdom!" "Hrm," Inferno murmured, making the parchments disappear in a puff of fire and smoke. "But that is the beauty of it, my dear! You need to do nothing but listen as I record this message!" the Dark Lord exclaimed triumphantly. /Bink./ The red light came on as he said the word "record". "What the ... no, I didn't mean start recording yet! /Stop!/" he shouted. "/Rewind to start! Erase!/ Now ... /Record/." /Bink/. The Dark Lord put on his most evil and conversation-drying sneer. "Greetings, my Good King Beneficus," he said with a twist in lips at the word "Good". "I assume you recognize me. I am the Dark Lord Mallevelus, the Foul One. But regardless of whether you recognize me or not, surely you recognize your own daughter, Princess Sarah!" He said, gesturing to Sarah with a flourish, who simply gave the orb a neutral look. /Hells' Bells, the girl is supposed to be teary-eyed with despair right now!/ Inferno thought in frustration. "Yes, my Good King, your own daughter, with me here now. And here she shall remain until you do one thing for me. One thing, and your daughter will be returned to you safely. You need only to lower the Barrier of Purity at the edge of your Kingdom!" And now the Dark Lord's face twisted into a most evil and lascivious grin. Inferno stepped closer. He kept a wary eye on the Princess. "And do not delay, my King. For every day that you delay, every day that goes by where you do not lower the barrier, your lovely daughter here will suffer for it." Princess Sarah whirled around in shock and looked at the Dark Lord, hand going to her breast. She felt icy fear creep up her spine. /Better/, Inferno thought, nodding slightly. Mallevelus chuckled. "Yes, Princess, that's right. /You/ will suffer for your father's foolishness." He turned back towards the orb. "Here this, O King! Every day that passes, if the Barrier is not lowered by sunset, at dawn the next day, your daughter will suffer the most unspeakable, the most degrading, the most vile, the most foul, the most humiliating violations of her body that I can conjure in my most evil mind!" The Princess' gasped. Inferno raised an eyebrow. As the Dark Lord's Right Hand of Terror, he was schooled in every manner of negative emotion that could be instigated in a human being. And what he had just heard was most certainly not a gasp of fear or revulsion. "That is right, my Good King!" Mallevelus shouted. "Your own daughter, your own child, this innocent flower of womanhood ..." Inferno rolled his eyes. " ... she will be innocent no more! Her most intimate regions will be violated, her own body helpless to stop it, restrained in all manner of undignified ways!" Princess Sarah took a deep breath to calm herself, her heart pounding. Two raised bumps appeared on the bosom of her dress. The Dark Lord gestured triumphantly towards Sarah. "See how she cowers at hearing this! See how she cringes before me! See how she begs to ... to ..." He stopped. He stared at Sarah. Sarah blinked and looked back at the Dark Lord. "Huh?" "/Stop!/" The Dark Lord shouted. /Bink/. The red glow in the orb died. He glowered at Sarah. "/Why are you not cowering?!/" he thundered. "Cowering ...? Oh!" Sarah dropped to her knees and clasped her hands together. "No, my Lord, please! No!" "Arrgh! It's too late now, we're not record__" /Bink/. "__ing! What is ... /STOP!/" he bellowed at the orb. /Bink/. The Dark Lord took a deep breath. "What is with you, girl?!" he demanded. "I'm sorry, my Lord!" Sarah said. "I ... uh ... missed my cue." "Missed your cue?! I'm standing here telling your king you're going to be held prisoner! You're going to be stripped naked! You're going to be chained! Your nether regions are going to be touched, rubbed, poked, prodded, penetrated, tortured! You're going to be raped over and over again with phalluses that will make you feel you are about to explode! /Why do you need a bloody 'cue'?!"/ Sarah's mind raced. "Uh ... um ... because ... because I'm too awed by your presence?" Mallevelus paused. He smiled. "Really, now? So awed that you cannot even cower before me?" "Yes, exactly, my Lord!" Sarah said with relief. "You were so ... so terrifying that I could not even think! I was petrified!" "Oh, my, am I /that/ good?" "Indeed, my Lord." "You know, I /do/ try. I practice all the time on my minions." "My Lord," Inferno said, a sour look on his face. "So what was it, actually? My intimidating bearing? Or perhaps my commanding voice? Or ..." "/My Lord!/" Inferno shouted. The Dark Lord blinked. "Huh?" "Should we not finish this rec ... this /message/, my Lord?" "But she cannot cower," Mallevelus said. "You heard her." Inferno made a face and cast a dubious look at the princess. "Then do it without it," he said. The Dark Lord frowned. "I suppose I shall have to. I guess I can rewind to the start ..." /Bink/. " ... of her part, then ..." "My Lord, wait!" Inferno cried as he glanced at the orb. " ... and just erase ..." /Bink/. " ... over that ... no, I can just record ..." /Bink/. Inferno covered his eyes with his hand. "... over it, then I can ..." the Dark Lord's eyes swept over to the orb. "No, no, you stupid orb! /Stop! STOP!/ What?! It erased everything! /ARRGGHH!!/" /CRACK!!/ The Princess ducked as the orb exploded into a million pieces from a bolt of green lightning from the tip of the Scepter of Infernal Power. Inferno sighed. "Get me another orb," the Dark Lord ordered. "We have no more, my Lord," Inferno said. "/Then get out a sodding parchment!!/" he bellowed. As the incubus conjured up a parchment and a quill, the Princess carefully stepped around the broken shards of the orb so she did not cut her feet until she arrived back where the guard stood and hoped he did not think it was time to push her again. "Take this down!" the Dark Lord shouted, fuming. "Dear King: I have your sodding daughter! Bring down the bloody Barrier and fight my armies, you great pillock! Each day you don't, your precious daughter gets buggered at dawn!" Princess Sarah just watched and blinked innocently. At the same time, she could not suppress the small smile that played at the corners of her lips. "Send that immediately!" Mallevelus commanded. He turned to the Princess with a sneer. "And as for the princess that's too /awed/ to cower before me ..." /Oh-oh, he's angry with me again./ Sarah stumbled back a step from him, but the guard behind her grabbed her arm and held her fast. /Great,/ now/ he picks the time to hold instead of push,/ she lamented. The Dark Lord looked down upon her. "Perhaps the reality of your predicament has not yet penetrated your mind," he said darkly. "Perhaps I can show you the seriousness of your situation." Inferno finished sealing the letter and sent it traveling to the King's throne room with a wave of a talon. It vanished in a puff of smoke. "Your letter is sent, my Lord," he said. "Excellent, Inferno. Now ... take Princess Sarah here back to the dungeons. Have her stripped naked ..." Sarah looked up expectantly. " ... have her chained to her cot ..." Sarah started to smile. " ... and leave her to contemplate her fate." Sarah sighed. /Bloody hell/, she thought. "At once, my Lord," Inferno said, happy to be rid of the princess for awhile. He gestured to the guard. The guard yanked on Sarah's arm hard and started dragging her towards the door. /Damn, I'll catch my death of cold in a naked in a dank dungeon cell!/ Sarah thought. "Wait! Wait! My Lord!" she called out. "Be silent!" Inferno snarled. "You had your chance to beg for mercy, now ..." "Beg for mercy?" the Dark Lord suddenly called out with interest. "Wait! Is she begging for mercy already?" "No, my Lord," Inferno said. "She ..." "Yes! Yes, my Lord, I am!" Sarah cried. She wrenched herself from the guard's grip, and stumbled to a kneeling position before the Dark Lord. She clasped her hands together and held them in a supplicating gesture. "Please, my Lord! Have mercy on my delicate body!" Inferno snorted. "Do not consign me to the cold, dank dungeons! I beg of you! Show mercy on me! Show me some small scrap of dignity, some tiny acknowledgment of my station!" /Oh, what a ham,/ Inferno thought sourly. /Surely not even the Dark Lord can fall for .../ The Dark Lord chuckled evilly. "So, Princess, you finally come to realize what terrible fate has come to pass for you? Most excellent." "Yes, my Lord!" Sarah cried. "Oh, great gods, I am helplessly in your power! I am no match for your fiendishness! My life is in your hands, my Lord! My very ... my very womanhood is yours to command, my Lord!" Her voice grew husky towards the end, and now she was panting lightly again, the telltale bumps returning to the bosom of her dress. Mallevelus grinned, basking in the praise. "Oh, this is most excellent, Princess," he said. "Yes, perhaps you do understand. Perhaps you have, indeed. This shall make your suffering twice as great, Princess Sarah, for now you know what you have to look forward to! And I suppose, in light of that, I can show a small bit of mercy ..." Inferno's jaw dropped. "Oh, now hang about ..." he began in protest. "Let it not be said that the Dark Lord Mallevelus does not at least acknowledge royalty!" he declared. "Inferno! Take her to one of the Tower staterooms." "The what?! But she's a prisoner, not an honored guest!" "That is my wish, Inferno!" the Dark Lord thundered. "You will do as I command!" Inferno fumed. Which for an incubus meant steam pouring from his ears, making quite a sight. "Then ... then make her pay for the privilege!" he exclaimed. Princess Sarah looked over to him. Her eyes glanced down briefly to his prominent phallus again. Inferno glared back. Which was also no small feat, since this mean flames shooting a brief distance from his eyes. "Make her suffer her first indignity tonight, at dusk, if the King does not lower the barrier!" he cried. "Have her guard rape her!" Sarah gasped. She glanced at the guard still holding her, then at the bulge in his loincloth. She felt her heart race. "But I have already said I would do it at dawn the next day!" the Dark Lord protested. "Then do it at dawn!" Inferno cried. "And do it at dusk tonight as well!" "Why?" "Because you're /evil/, my Lord," Inferno said, exasperated. "And that's what evil people /do/." Mallevelus considered. "Yes ..." His lips slowly curled into a wicked grin. "Yes! Of course! Excellent idea, Inferno, my Right Hand of Terror! Make it so, and give a nasty surprise to the King if he thinks he can take the chance on one day of delay!" He lifted his arms to the ceiling and let go with more diabolic laughter, lightning and thunder raging around the top of the Tower of Doom. Inferno sneered at the princess. "Do not think you can get anything out of us without paying a price!" he snapped at her. Princess Sarah nodded quickly, then broke out into a smile. "Okay." Inferno blinked, then snarled to the guard, "/Take her away!/" Many leagues away, on the other side of the World, lay the wondrous Kingdom of Light. This land of beautiful, sun-drenched meadows and lush, enchanted forests, lay nestled between the twin Mountains of Delight (or rather, they used to be mountains, but many millennia of erosion had turned them into two rather rounded mounds), and was ruled from the glittering Palace of Bliss. The Palace rose invitingly from atop a low mound, the gates at the entrance of the Palace grounds open to all comers. Those who make the trek to these lovely grounds enter through the gate, moving between two curving lines of orchards that yield the finest, tastiest fruit of all the lands of the World. Near the center of the path is the opening to the fabled Well of Good Fortune. It is said that any that choose to drink from this well will enjoy all the pleasures of life for all of their remaining days. Past the well, at the top of the Palace grounds, rose the King's castle, a very unassuming rounded nub of a building that nonetheless held the King's court. And this day, as any day in a Kingdom perpetually blessed by bountiful harvests, gorgeous weather, and buxom women (who would not give you anything other than a good time if you slept with them), the Good King Beneficus was doing what any Good King would do in a situation like this: throw a party. And thus did the wine flow, and the fine food feasted upon, and then did the wine flow once more, and soon the King was the life of the party, belting out terribly banal jokes for the benefit of his court, who would laugh even though he told the same jokes at every party he threw, so long as the wine did continue to flow. Yet, despite all of this jocularity, some semblance of work must be done, and that fell to the Good King's faithful guardian angel Joy, also know as his Right Hand of Virtue. Joy was there to insure both the King's safety and the perpetuation of goodness throughout the Kingdom. At the same time, she handled some lesser tasks that the King was too busy to handle herself. Such as his correspondence. Thus when she received the smoking parchment from the Foul One, she gasped and nearly fainted from the noxious evil that surrounded the missive itself. She fanned herself with an incomplete memo she was about to fire off to the Guild of Merchants, so that they would /please/ try and stop peddling "Ladies of Lesser Virtue" when the King wasn't looking, and read the message, her cheeks blushing a bright red at the terribly vulgar language, contrasting sharply with her brilliant white robes and swan-like wings. "Oh my goodness!" Joy breathed as she put the letter down with a shaking hand. "This is terrible! Most terrible! I must warn the King! I must!" She leapt from her chair and reluctantly took the letter in hand again, holding it at arm's length, her nose wrinkling at the stench of evil from it. She rushed through the halls, her robe billowing out behind her, until she enter the reception area, where the King was surrounded by members of the court, staring at him in rapt wonder as he told his latest joke. " ... and after the dwarf ran away, the monk says to the friar, 'Bet that was worth breaking a vow, aye wot?'" the King boomed. His court erupted into raucous laughter and then a hearty round of applause. The King smiled and beamed at them, lifting his goblet for another drink. "You majesty!" Joy cried, panting from her run through the castle. "Your majesty! I must speak with you at once!" The King rolled his eyes once before turning his corpulent frame towards his Right Hand of Virtue, flashing her an ingratiating smile. "Can this wait, Joy?" he asked in a low voice. "I was just about to tell the one about the milkmaid and the watermelon merchant. Aye, that one's a rib-tickler, eh?" He said with a laugh, jabbing her in the ribs with an elbow. "Really, your majesty!" Joy said, blushing. "You must refrain from such ... /titillating/ tales." "Oh, don't be such a prude, now." Joy sighed. She sometimes had to remind him that she was his Right Hand of /Virtue/. "Really, your majesty, I must speak with you. I have terrible news! I ..." "Shhh!" the King hissed. He turned to his court, some of which had heard part of the conversation and were eager to hear something other than yet another lackluster joke from their monarch. "Ah, yes, yes! If you will excuse me for a moment, I must tend to some business. Amuse yourselves for a bit, hmm?" They did so, mostly by checking to see if the wine was still flowing freely. To their relief, it was indeed. "Now, Joy, what is this all about?" King Beneficus said with a sigh. "It's your daughter, your majesty!" Joy said with a horrified look. The King sighed and rolled his eyes. "Oh, great gods, what has that infernal girl done this time?" "Your majesty, brace yourself ..." "Oh, no, is it that bad? All right, give it to me straight. Who do I need to pay and how much gold will it cost to keep it quiet?" "No, no, he doesn't want gold! Oh, my, I feel I will faint ..." /What a drama queen,/ the King thought sourly. He caught sight of the letter in her hand and plucked it from her failing grasp. "Is this the tally of damages, hmm?" "No, it's ... it's ..." But the King had already opened the letter and was reading it. His brow furrowed deeply. He looked at her. "Is this a /joke/, Joy?" he demanded. "I wish it were, your majesty!" Joy croaked. "But your daughter ... your own flesh and blood ... is the prisoner of the /Foul One!/" She nearly choked on the final words. "And you are sure of this?" the King asked. "Yes, your majesty. The letter reeks of the foul evil of this Dark Lord!" "Ah, yes, of course," the King said dubiously, giving the parchment a sniff and finding nothing of interest. He often wondered how people like Joy could actually smell evil. Unless all evil overlords suffered from a severe BO problem, which he doubted, since the Dark Lord at least seemed neatly groomed the last time the King had seen him. "Well, then! There is only one thing we must do!" "Yes, your majesty!" Joy said, starting to give a smile of hope. "We must call for more wine and more food! This is indeed a reason to celebrate!" Joy blinked. Her smile faltered. "What??" "Ah, no more court sex scandals," he mused with a wide smile. "No more bogus claims of nobility from every vagabond who thinks he can cop some easy gold just because the foolish girl chose to sleep with him. No more angry parchments from the Ladies of Lesser Virtue complaining about her taking away their business ..." "/Your majesty!/" Joy cried, horrified. "Er ... well, never mind that," the King said quickly. "The point is, what's done is done, there's no point in getting upset over it." "But ... b-but ... do we not need to raise the armies in defense of the Kingdom?" Joy asked in a small voice. "Whatever for?" "So when you lower the Barrier of Purity to ..." "Lower the Barrier!" King Beneficus bellowed. "Why would I do a bloody daft thing like that?" "To get your daughter back!" Joy shouted, exasperated. "That is how it works! You lower the Barrier. He gives you your daughter back. He comes in, thinking he's won, and then your mighty armies defeat him in battle. Good triumphs over Evil!" The King gave her an ingratiating smile. "And why, my dear, would I wish to do that when it is so much easier to leave the Barrier right where it is and keep his ruddy army out of our Kingdom in the first place?" Joy goggled at him. "But ... b-but ... " she sputtered. "Your daughter!" "I am not all that worried about Sarah." "But ... you read the letter ... what h-he was going t-to do to her ..." Joy paled at the thought. King Beneficus snorted. "And you seriously believe she will care, considering her, ah, propensities?" "But she ... but you ... I ... the Dark Lord ... " she stammered. The King smiled sympathetically. "All this good versus evil rot is important to your kind, isn't it?" "I should say so, your Majesty!" "Then, by all means, figure out some way of returning her to me," the King said, trying not to wince. "But it must be without lowering the Barrier." Joy bit her lip as she thought. Then she gasped as the perfect idea came to her. "I know! A Champion!" "Er ... a what?" "A Champion, your majesty!" Joy cried joyously. "A Hero! A dashing and brave young man to rescue the fair and pure King's daughter from the evil clutches of the Foul One!" "Well, fair, anyway," the King muttered. "And even that's stretching it." "Oh, I will get started on that at once!" Joy said excitedly. "Ah ... does it have to be at once?" "Oh, yes, your majesty! You read what utterly unspeakable things he will do to her if we do not make haste!" /Good gods, he only said she would be buggered,/ the King thought. /Not like that's the end of the World for her./ "My only regret, your majesty, is that we cannot move fast enough to stop him from doing it once to her," Joy said, shivering. "I am sure she will muddle through somehow." "And, your majesty, we absolutely must promise the Champion that rescues her a payment befitting the task. And that can only be ... her hand in marriage." The King raised a dubious eyebrow. "You do not agree?" Joy asked. "I thought we were attempting to /reward/ him." Joy blinked confusingly at him. "Ah, never mind. Yes, Joy, go ahead and get started on that at once." "At once, your majesty!" Joy cried happily, turning away with a twirl of her robe and flutter of her wings. The King sighed and shook his head. "Like any bloke in this Kingdom needs to marry her to get into her petticoats," he muttered as he turned to rejoin his guests. The dying rays of the crimson sun faded from view as the last sliver of its light disappeared beneath the distant ocean, the waters deepening to wine-dark indigo. From the window that looked out from the room in which the Princess had been imprisoned, she could have seen the fiery orange beauty of the sky above the horizon, or the sublime purple majesty of the wispy clouds that hung just above it. Or rather, she would have seen it, had she not been busy screaming. Princess Sarah lay trapped on the bed, both by the heavy chain that bound her wrists to the brass headboard above her head, and by the heavy, hulking form of the guard that lay atop her. As promised, she was quite naked, her clothes, and hence her remaining dignity, having been ripped from her and callously thrown away like so many rags by Inferno. Her legs lay splayed far apart, unable to close even slightly against the huge form that lay between them. On the floor lay the guard's loincloth, the massively thick manhood that had been hidden behind it now fully employed in its wicked work within her tender nether regions, invading her innocent folds with its brutal intrusion. Sarah raised her hands more fully above her head, gripping the top of the headboard tightly, clenching her teeth as she gasped, her eyes tightly closed. The guard pounded his body against hers, relentlessly and mercilessly, brutally stretching her intimate opening as he continued with single-minded purpose. Sarah opened her mouth and screamed again, her shrill voice echoing out the open door of the chamber, into the hall, and up and down the stairs that ran the length of the Tower of Doom. "/Oh, have mercy on me!/" Sarah cried. She squirmed under him, as if trying to find some means of escape, as if trying to relieve herself of violation of her innocent flower of womanhood. "Oh gods, please, no! No! No more!! I beg of you!" The guard grunted as he paused, as if for a moment, miraculously, he was to heed her cries of terror and take pity on her. But then, panting, he pushing himself up with his hands so that his chest hovered above her, freeing her breasts to roll free, the look on his face still one of stark lust and lasciviousness. He happened to shift his hips just every so slightly forward just before resuming his pitiless rape of the helpless princess. Sarah's mouth opened into a wide "O" and drew in her breath in a sudden, shuddering gasp. His great thickness slammed into her once more, but closer to the sensitive nub of the very center of her womanhood. What had just been a frustratingly fleeting touch was now a firm, unyielding stroke. She felt as if bolts of lightning had struck her inner being, radiating from the point where she and her bestial guard lay joined in bastardized union, overwhelming her senses. /Gods, about bloody time,/ Sarah thought. /This oaf doesn't know the first thing about sex./ Sarah angled her own hips now, as she was finally able to move, and forced herself into even more contact with him. Now as he hammered down into her, she was ready to receive him, and as the stiff flesh of his manhood rammed into her over and over, her body rocked in time to it, her cries rising as she did, rising with the intensity of the forbidden pleasures that now stoked the fires of her own lust, burning inside of her with shocking power. "Oh gods ..." Sarah murmured, her voice breathless as she panted like an animal in heat. Perspiration broke out on her body. The fleshy orbs of her bosom bounced brazenly on her chest as her whole body moved under her, his thrusts so hard that his body slapped loudly against hers. "Ohhh!" Sarah cried as pleasure escalated, soaring upwards, gasping at the suddenness of it. Her body felt on fire, her mind drenched in the slippery, liquid thoughts of her raw desire. Every bit of her in contact with him fueled the rising carnal energy. Finally, it reached its peak. She shuddered and threw back her head, and let out a long, loud scream, her thighs drawing her legs around him, her hips bucking, the center of her womanhood throbbing powerfully. As if in mockery of her climax, the guard never relented, never paused, his mind focused selfishly on his own illicit pleasure, his slightly louder grunting the only outward sign that he was rising to his own crescendo of perverted pleasure. Then, even as her climax was still fading, her body responded to him again, hot spikes of renewed pleasure striking at her from her tender folds, even as the guard's movements became more frenzied and less coordinated. This mattered not to the Princess, for now she thrust her own hips to him in a parody of his rape of her, moaning loudly and desperately, her wanton lust rekindled, her desire so intense it made her slam her own hips to his body as hard he was coming down to her. The surprised guard had no time to react to this, to keep extending his torturous rape of her as he had been instructed. With a mighty shudder his manhood trembled inside her and throbbed mightily inside her tightly confined space. Sarah let go with one last ululating scream as her nether regions once again throbbed in intense delight. The guard panted hard as he spilled his seed into her, groaning until he finished his task. Pulling his now finally withering member from her, he gave a small, sinister chuckle as the Princess went limp on the bed, panting laboriously, her head lolling to one side. The guard put on his loincloth and left. The heavy door slammed shut with a resounding clang. Sarah moaned, the throbbing in her intimate reaches only now fading, replaced by the ache of abused skin and violated folds. /Oh gods ... oh merciful gods .../ she thought /... that was the best fuck I've had in months!/ A wide smile slowly came to her face. An evil and twisted smile stole across the Dark Lord's face as he sat upon his Throne of Foulest Evil, the sounds of the Princess' screams echoing with perfect fidelity up the Tower of Doom and through the open door into the chamber. He had specifically designed the Tower in this manner, so that no matter where his prisoners were, even in the deepest bowels of the dungeons, he could enjoy their torment at all times. "It has been too long, Inferno," Mallevelus said. "Far too long since I have last heard a helpless girl's shrieks of raw terror!" Inferno, who was having his doubts that the Princess was experiencing anything close to terror, said with a touch of sarcasm in his voice, "Indeed, my Lord, and perhaps some day we shall hear them." The Dark Lord had been listening too intently to the shrill cries of his prisoner to hear his Right Hand of Terror at first. He finally glanced at him and uttered, "Hmm? I didn't catch that." "Ah, nothing, my Lord," Inferno mumbled. He cast a dubious look towards the stairs again. "Oh, yes, Inferno, I shall quite delight in telling the Good King Beneficus that I chose to punish her early!" Inferno rolled his eyes. /He chose to punish her?/ he thought vehemently. /Not until after I suggested it!/ "But I will not tell him at once, oh no!" the Dark Lord cackled. "I'll wait. I'll wait until after he's lowered the Barrier and my armies come charging through! And then I will tell him loud enough so that his own fighting men will hear! And do you know what they will do, Inferno? Hmm? Do you?" Inferno was tempted to say "applaud", but held his tongue. "What, my Lord?" he asked instead. "They will become so demoralized, my armies will utterly destroy them, that's what!" Mallevelus thundered, and he opened his mouth as if to issue another diabolical laugh. "If I might be so bold, my Lord," Inferno said loudly, interrupting him. "Might I suggest you consider what to do with our prisoner at dawn?" The Dark Lord was about to reply but then paused as the last and loudest of the Princess' screams issued forth from below, stretching out like a twisted version of a singer's note, fading only slowly, dissolving away to despairing coda of low moans until mercifully silenced by the loud clang of the door to her cell. Inferno bristled and sneered. The Dark Lord chuckled wickedly. "And now the precious princess has her first taste of what lies in store for her the longer her father delays in giving me what I want!" he cried triumphantly. "Whatever we do to her tomorrow, my Lord," Inferno said with a voice that was almost a snarl. "It must be ten times worse that what we have done to her tonight!" "I admire your enthusiasm, Inferno, but there is no need to rush things. This is something to be savored, to be enjoyed like a fine wine." "Begging my Master's pardon while he is waxing poetic," Inferno said in a voice of exaggerated politeness. "But might I suggest that we deliver her to your torturer upon daybreak, my Lord?" "Oh, now that is a bit much right on the first day, isn't it?" "But it's what we said we would do, my Lord," Inferno continued, forcing himself to remain patient. "We would make her suffering worse until ..." "Yes, yes, yes, I know all that! But how much use would she be to us, Inferno, if we broke her too early and she no longer responded with such gusto to her torment as she did this evening?" Inferno sighed. Whatever she was responding to with gusto in that last scream, it was certainly /not/ torment. "Besides," the Dark Lord said, giving a self-satisfied little smile. "She was already in such /awe/ of me she could not dare to speak." Inferno stared at his master for a moment in disbelief, then slapped his hand against his forehead and shook his head. /Satan's tail,/ he thought. /The Dark Lord is smitten with her./ "So, let's not rush things. Have her raped again tomorrow morning, Inferno." "Raped? Again? But ...!" "And this time, make it two guards at the same time!" Mallevelus said, his eyes narrowing to predatory slits, a lascivious smile on his face. "Oh, yes, that shall be her treat for tomorrow morning! A fine way to wake her up, wouldn't you say?" "But, my Lord, the Princess ..." "And have them spend a long, long time at it! Draw out her pain, her terror!" "My Lord, I must tell you, I don't think ..." "Oh, wait! I have a better idea!" the Dark Lord cried, jumping out of his throne. "Have them make her come to them! Have them make her service them on pain of death!" "I really don't think that would ..." "And when we shall not only hear her screams of unrelenting horror, but her whimperings and cries of utter humiliation as she is forced to endure the wanton lust of ..." "/The Princess was enjoying it, you stupid git!/" Inferno bellowed. Utter and deafening silence fell. The Dark Lord cast his deadliest look at the incubus. "What did you just say to me?" Inferno forced himself to speak in a calmer voice. "With all due respect to your Foulness, my Lord, I suspect that the princess may not have been quite as terrified by her, ah, brutal rape as you wished." The Dark Lord frowned. He looked from him to the still open door and back again. "Is this a /joke/, Inferno?" "No, Master, is it not." "Because if it is, I am /not/ laughing." "The lack of lightning and thunder would appear to bear this out, my Lord." Mallevelus again looked back to the door. He stepped over to it and peered down the spiral stairwell, as if expecting this to tell him what he wanted to know. He looked back to Inferno. "Are you quite sure of this?" "Yes, my Lord. Every time you laugh, the ..." "I mean the princess, you fool!" the Dark Lord shouted. "Are you seriously telling me that she, that a daughter of a King, that a refined ..." Inferno coughed. " ... pure ..." Inferno coughed again. " ... and delicate ..." And yet again. The Dark Lord stopped. "Are you catching cold, Inferno?" "Ah, no, my Lord. Please continue." "Er, yes, right. Anyway, that this young girl such as her, lay chained upon a bed, inside the most evil of places in the World, captured by the Foul One himself, having been stripped of all her clothing, and then raped mercilessly by her guard, and you're telling me that she /enjoyed it?/" "Yes, my Lord." The Dark Lord looked perplexed. "Unless ... he doesn't know how to rape properly," he mused. "No, my Lord, he is quite accomplished at it. All the guards are, it's a job requirement." "Or his manhood was not ungodly thick enough ..." "No, it was not that," said the incubus. "I check each one of them myself, my Lord." The Dark Lord blinked. "You do?" "Do what, my Lord?" "Check each ... each one? Yourself? Personally?" "Of course I do!" Inferno said. "How else are we to maintain proper quality among the guards?" "And ... uh ... what do you check for?" "Well, proper thickness, like you said. And length. It must be long enough to make her feel like she's being impaled. And firmness, of course. It must feel like a rock in her." The Dark Lord narrowed his eyes. "You're not ... you're not ..." Inferno raised an eyebrow. "... /gay/, are you?" Inferno recoiled. "Certainly not!" he cried indignantly. "I mean ... not that I'd object to that sort of thing," Mallevelus said quickly. "After all, I'd like to think I'm a modern sorcerer, that I'm with the times, you know?" "My Lord, I don't care if ..." "I mean, as long as you do the job well, why should it matter to me what your orientation is ..." "/I AM NOT GAY!!/" the incubus bellowed. "I do not test their /equipment/ in that manner! Can we /please/ get back to the subject at hand, my Lord?!" "Um, yes, right." Mallevelus said. He drew himself up to his full height. He paused. "Um ... what were we talking about again?" Inferno slapped his forehead again. "The Princess, my Lord," he spat through clenched teeth. "And that she enjoyed her so-called rape." "So why did that happen?" "That is not important!" Inferno exclaimed, exasperated. "What matters is that we do something to her that is far more torturous to her than merely have a guard forcibly bed her." "Ah, I know!" the Dark Lord said, smiling evilly. "Turn her over to my torturer!" "Yes, my Lord, why didn't /I/ think of that?" Inferno said dryly. "And make sure she is served a decent meal before that, Inferno," Mallevelus ordered. Inferno sighed. He should have seen that one coming. "Any particular reason /why/, my Lord?" he asked sardonically. "Well ... she /is/ a princess after all," the Dark Lord said with a small smile. Inferno gave in. He had what he wanted, an appointment for her with the Dark Lord's torturer. He would concede this one. "Yes, my Lord," he said simply.