The Adult Story Hub

It was not until well after King Beneficus' headache finally abated that he realized he had not seen Joy for some time since early that morning. Usually he would take this to be a good thing. He was always happy the less he had to actual accomplish while he was monarch. In his few, what made a King great was not what he did but what he did not do, especially when the Kingdom was already prosperous.
His reasoning was this: When a King does something, some will consider it good. Some will consider it bad. But there will always be a very small number that believe that his actions were so bad, they warrant a change in leadership, brought about by force if necessary. Now, if a King does nothing, this will cause most people to simply sit around in taverns grousing about how nothing ever gets done around this Kingdom, that things were really good back in the days of King Gratuicus, now there was a monarch that knew how to kick arse! But eventually someone will make a comment about how at least he's not like King Judicus, who's path to greatness included such things as attempting to convert to a lint-based economy and an ill-fated campaign of war against the invisible stalkers of the Shadow Wood (who did not exist), there will be a general nodding of heads, and the barkeep will refresh everyone's drink, and no talk of any of this revolution rot, not if you want someone worse in the palace than they had now.
Yet he had to maintain appearances, and the truth was, he was bored. So he wandered over to the small office that Joy used for her duties, only to find the angelic creature flat on her back in a dead faint, a slightly singed parchment next to her hand.
The King sighed and shook his head. He picked up the letter from the floor and opened it. As his eyes scanned the page, he picked up the water goblet on the desk and poured out the remainder of the contents over Joy's face.
Joy awoke with a start, coughing and sputtering as the King wandered a few steps ahead as he read the letter.
"Y-your Majesty!" Joy gasped as she struggled to her feet. "I have the most /horrible/ news for ... wait, it was around here somewhere ..."
The King waved the letter in the air. "So, this is another missive from our Dark Lord, eh?" he asked.
"Yes, your Majesty," Joy croaked.
He dropped his eyes to the letter. "Now, as to what the Dark Lord has for us today ..."
Joy gasped and raced over to him, clutching at the King's robes. "Your Majesty! Maybe you should not read it! It's ... it's too terrible to behold! ... oh, I may faint again ..."
She collapsed into the chair, fanning herself.
King Beneficus rolled his eyes. "I am confident my constitution is up to the task," he commented dryly. "Now let's see here ... hmm ... oh? ... heh, rather cheeky of him, that is ... oh yes, bet /that/ would sting a bit ... hrm ... yes."
He folded the letter and dropped it onto Joy's desk. She flinched and recoiled from it.
"Well, anyway ... anything else for me, Joy?"
Joy blinked and stared at him. "But ... b-but, your Majesty!" she cried.
"Yes?"
"The letter!"
"Yes, I read it."
"And?!"
"And ... what?"
Joy looked horrified. "We have to /do/ something!"
"We already did, this morning. We sent that Slidmar fellow ..."
"Smidlar," Joy corrected.
"Yes, him. Fancy he'll sort all that out."
"But your daughter is being tortured /now!!/"
The King's eyebrows rose. "Torture? Where did you see that?"
Joy stared at him and paled. "In the letter!" she cried.
The King gave her a humorless smirk. "Joy, do you remember that night last summer?" he asked. "When we found Sarah in the old jail cell near the lake, hmm?"
Joy's eyes widened, and she fanned herself faster. "A-are you trying to make me faint again, your Majesty?"
"So you do remember that?"
"Oh, gods, I wish I did not! The poor thing, tied to the bars like that ... and ... a-and that boy ... oh, the /horrible/ things he was doing to her! Her tortured cries of despair ..."
"Joy, those were most certainly not cries of despair."
Joy looked askance at him. "What do you mean?"
The King sighed. "Must I spell everything out for you? I believe she was enjoying it."
Joy looked positively scandalized. "/Enjoying it?/" she squeaked. "But that's i-impossible!"
"Then explain to me why she would not talk to me for a week after I stopped them?"
Joy opened her mouth, but then closed it without saying a word.
King Beneficus grinned. "You see? So you can forgive me if I'm not too worried about Sarah at the moment."
But this was simply too much for the angelic soul to take. She shook her head and rose from her chair. "I know what you are trying to do, your Majesty, and I admire you for it."
"Er ... you do?"
"Yes. You are trying to look strong. You are pretending not to be concerned so you do not cause a panic at court. It is ... most noble of you. I am so proud to be your Right Hand, your Majesty!" she gushed, tears shimmering in her eyes.
"Uh ... well ... okay, yes, sure, that's it."
"Then I have your permission, your Majesty?"
"My ... for what?"
"To raise the army of course!"
"Er ... what army?"
"The army that will go and seek out the Dark Lord and destroy him in righteous revenge for this travesty!"
"Ah, /that/ army," King Beneficus said. "But what about Schmidlap?"
"/Smidlar/, your Majesty. He will take your daughter out of harm's way just before the army strikes."
"I thought the idea was to have the army here?"
"That has changed, your Majesty!" Joy cried. "These heinous actions of his means we must strike back! We must take the initiative! Merely defeating his army is not enough now, your Majesty, we must wipe his foul evil from the World once and for all!"
The King considered this. He had no intention of wanting to raise the Dark Lord's ire any more than it already was. At the same time, giving Joy something to do would keep her out of the way. "Will this require lowering the Barrier, Joy?" he asked.
"Oh, no, your Majesty, not until your daughter and the army return. The Barrier allows one-way travel, you see."
"Ah. Smashing. Go for it."
Joy beamed. "Thank you, your Majesty!" she cried.
Princess Sarah did not realize how truly helpless she was until her body contorted and twisted itself against the cold, hard dungeon wall, her wrists and ankles aching from the useless attempts to free them from the unforgiving thick iron of her bonds. Amidst her cries of anguish and screams of torment, her body did everything it could to get away from the sharp needles of pain that started in her womanhood and radiated out to the rest of her intimate regions. Agonusa applied the wand with an evil determination, her face twisted into a horribly malevolent sneer, her eyes glittering with cruel joy as the bright sparks from the tines of the wand seared the Princess' tender flesh. This time the devil creature was relentless, giving Sarah no more than a few seconds rest at any time, and even that was rare.
Yet even this could not distract the Princess from the lingering sensations around her nipples. As tortured as they had been, as much as they still hurt, she could still feel the soft throbbing sensations that had sparked so great a climax in her. The Princess had never felt so wondrous a release, and never before had she splashed at the start as she had that day. She had heard tales of women that could do such a thing, but she thought them only that, merely tales. Yet she had done it, and only when her desire had been driven to such insane heights by the presence of pain with her pleasure!
And now, pain once again entered her body, invading her at her at her most sensitive point near her most intimate portal. Agonusa slid her infernal device further between the Princess' legs, playing the agonizing energy of the wand along the two swollen guardians of her portal, inflaming them and making them glow red with hurt. The Princess screamed, but yet again, behind the pain throbbed a sensation that quivered like a cornered wild animal, ready to emerge and bound free once the right moment came.
Finally, Agonusa withdrew the wand. Princess Sarah panted, her breathing raspy from the rawness of her throat, her body going limp against the restraints. She looked at her torturer with glazed eyes. The lingering pain in her nether regions was constant, fading only very slowly. But then, after only this brief moment's rest, her sex began to tingle, escalating quickly, the dull throb she had felt before flaring into a pounding sensation, a burning need that quickened her breath again only just after having calmed.
Agonusa gave a sniff at the air, and then cast her glowing red gaze at Princess Sarah's triangle. "You ... you /cannot/ be excited!" she snarled, bearing her fangs. "By Hades' fires, you /cannot be!/"
She threw the wand aside and thrust her fingers into Princess Sarah's intimate folds.
Sarah gasped and her body shuddered violently, her eyes snapping open so wide that her eyes appeared as large coins. Agonusa began rubbing her womanhood very hard, sending bolts of pain through her. At the same time, as with her nipples, the skin had been so utterly sensitized that she rose as if launched from a catapult, her pain enhancing her pleasure. Agonusa moved her fingers back and forth as fast as she could, squishing loudly against the Princess' swollen flesh, the Princess' fluids copiously dripping from inside her portal. Sarah's eyes teared at the pain, her sexual pleasure mounting to a point of exquisite intensity before cresting over.
Princess Sarah shrieked. Hot liquid splashed over the devil's fingers.
"Curse you, girl!" Agonusa spat as she yanked her hand back.
But the Princess barely heard her. Her sex did not throb, it pounded. And with each one, pain was subsumed into pleasure, driving her into an insensible frenzy of sensual delight. It was almost too much for her, body writhing frantically. It was almost a mercy when it started to fade.
"I will break you!" Agonusa shouted. "So help me, I will break you!"
She reached into the pouch at her hip and withdrew another wand. This one was far thicker than the other had been, and had been fashioned into the shape of a rather long and thick manhood. Princess Sarah barely had a chance to recognized what it was before the devil creature plunged it into her, pushing past her swollen lips, penetrating her intimate portal and sinking it into her completely with a slick, slippery sound. It rubbed mercilessly against her womanhood as it entered her, both pain and pleasure flaring anew. Princess Sarah gasped loudly at how full her depths felt with this obscene instrument inside her. The pressure of it against the tip of her most sensitive spot at the top of her parted sex made her rise again, and she began to pant as her lust overcame her yet again.
"And now, my precious Princess," Agonusa growled, fangs flashing. "Now you will suffer. Now you will truly descend into the utter depths of torment from which I will offer you no escape, and /no mercy!/"
Agonusa touched the wand, and bright sparks of electrical energy coruscated through the evil object, crackling loudly with sharp snaps and hisses, rippling up the shaft and into the deepest and, until now, the most protected of her intimate regions. Without pity or mercy, it pricked at the sides of her portal and up her intimate tunnel..
The cry that threatened to rise up from within Princess Sarah stopped before she could open her mouth, for at that very moment, she climaxed.
And climaxed.
And /climaxed/..
Wave after wave of sexual delight crashed over her, consuming her pain, obliterating all thought of her predicament, of her torment. When her mouth did open, she uttered cry after cry of purest ecstasy.
"Stop it!" Agonusa screamed. "/Stop enjoying it!/"
But the Princess was not listening. All that filled her consciousness was the throbbing, exquisite pleasure from her sex.
At that moment, the door opened, and Inferno stepped into the room.
Agonusa uttered a most dark and obscene curse and stomped over to the Princess. She grabbed the wand and yanked it from the Princess' sex. Princess Sarah moaned loudly as her spectacular climax abruptly began to fade. Even as the lingering pain of her torture now reasserted itself, a very small smile formed on her lips as her head lolled to one side.
Agonusa started to snarl, turned, and was startled to see the incubus standing there. "Oh, um, Inferno, I, uh ... didn't hear you come in."
"Obviously," Inferno said sourly. He looked at the Princess, whose eyes now gazed back at him. The smile had disappeared, and in it's place was the anguish of the pain throbbing in her nipples and her sex.
Inferno narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
"Your timing is quite good," Agonusa said. "I have just, ah, finished with her."
"Have you, Agonusa?" Inferno said in a flat voice.
"Um, yes, I have."
"Did you break her?"
"Ah ... just about."
Inferno raised an eyebrow.
"Um, well," the torturer stammered. "Close enough. Just a little more and she'll go right over the edge straight away."
"Indeed," Inferno said with a humorless smirk.
"Her very insides are afire with pain," Agonusa declared. "The least touch will cause her unspeakable torment."
"How much torment?"
"Ah ... well ... I did say unspeakable, Inferno, so it would be impossible to enumerate."
"How convenient," Inferno snorted. "So ... just a little more, you say?"
"Oh, indeed. Perhaps if you would see your way clear to raping ..."
Inferno gave her a murderous look. A fly that was unfortunate enough to be flitting through the air across the line of his gaze abruptly dropped out of the air, stone cold dead.
"Um, that is, to having your /guards/ rape her," Agonusa swiftly corrected herself.
Inferno gave the Dark Lord's torturer a withering look. He sighed. "Guards!"
Two of the brutes poked their heads into the room.
"Take the Princess back to her room and rape her."
The guards smiled lasciviously as they stepped into the room and began to free the Princess from the wall. Princess Sarah whimpered, a few soft sobs issuing from her mouth as her stiffened muscles hurt, adding to the pain from her breasts and sex.
Inferno cast a dubious look at the princess as she was hauled out of the room.
At the very edge of the Kingdom, just within sight of the glowing white wall that was the Barrier of Purity, sat Ye Olde Rusty Tavern. In days long past, this quaint establishment was a common gathering place for knights and adventurers, who would spin wonderful tales of their great exploits of bravery and derring-do to pretty young damsels who hung on their every word, greeting the conclusions of their tales with sighs of admiration, each one hoping that someday one of these young men would ask for her hand in marriage. Above the tavern, these bold explorers would be lodged for the night before setting out on their latest adventure. Here a self-styled hero could find a stalwart band of men to accompany him into glory, returning with yet more tales to entertain the ladies.
With the creation of the Barrier of Purity, once hailed as the greatest accomplishment of the King's wizard, times changed. Gone were the bold explorers and brave adventurers of old. Now the tavern was occupied by local farmers, merchants, and peasants. The tales of great quests were replaced by gossip, grousing, and grumbling. Instead of a place to gather for grand adventure, it was an excuse to get away from work and nagging wives. Gone, too, were the lovely, demure young women, replaced by the brazen Ladies of Lesser Virtue, who plied their trade amongst the men, and could be seen sharing a drink with them in their tight dresses that pushed up their bosoms in a most unlady-like way, or whispering quite inappropriately in a man's ear, or, shockingly, sitting in his lap. It would not be long after before they retired upstairs, the former inn now a brothel.
This day was like any other. The general din of idle conversation filled the somewhat stagnant air, which smelled of cheap ale, sweat, and dirt, occasionally mixed with the cloying sweetness of the Ladies' perfume as they wandered among the tables, wiggling their hips and jiggling their bosoms to catch the men's eyes.
/BANG!/
Silence abruptly descended on the tavern as all eyes shifted towards the door, which had been dramatically thrown open by the broad-shouldered, golden-haired young man that now stood in its frame. The man smiled broadly and marched through the stale air, everyone watching him with looks of annoyance and confusion. He slapped his hands on the bar and hauled himself up onto it in one single flex of his powerful arms.
"Oh, bloody hell, what do you think you're ..." the barkeep began to protest.
But by this time he had already risen to his feet on the bar and turned towards the tavern patrons. "Greetings to you all!" he boomed. "I am here to inform you that I, Smidlar the Brave, has been chosen by His Most Royal Majesty, King Beneficus, to embark upon an important quest, a quest of such danger that I was forced to earn this honor via a most difficult trial. I rose to that challenge, and now, here I am, about to set upon this wondrous adventure beyond the great Barrier!"
Several of the men smirked to each other.
"Damn fool thing to do if you ask me," one muttered.
"Won't catch me doin' some fool thing like that," muttered another.
"And what, you ask, is this quest?" Smidlar continued. "It is nothing less to rescue her fair and pure daughter ..."
Someone coughed.
" ... the Princess Sarah, from the evil and most foul clutches of the Dark Lord Mallevelus, who now holds the poor damsel captive in his unspeakably terrifying Tower of Doom!"
"Huh, the Princess is kidnapped?" commented one.
"Blimey, that's a damn shame," said another.
"Good lookin' bird, aye wot?"
"Heh, especially in the all-together."
"Yep, there was a girl that really knew how to do the naughty, if you know what I mean."
More general mumbling of laments rumbled through the men. The Ladies, however, glanced at each other with faces of unmistakable glee. They had wondered why their business had suddenly picked up again in the last day or two.
"I, Smidlar the Brave, will journey to the foul sorcerer's edifice of evil and save the Princess, bringing her safely back to the Kingdom!"
The smiles on the Ladies' faces faded.
"And now, my friends, I have only one thing to do before I go, and that is to form a stalwart band of fellow adventurers to assist me in this great quest, a collection of brave men wishing to share the glory of this wondrous task! Join me, and your names will be spoken far and wide throughout the lands for many years to come!"
One man snorted. "Yeah, sure, as the most daft men who ever lived," he quipped.
"Heh, it was a great roll in the hay, but not /that/ great," commented another.
"Hmm, I don't know," said one clean-shaven young man. "It sounds like it might be bit of a fun lark to ... /hey!/"
One of the Ladies had upended a mug of ale over his head.
"Aw, no girl deserves that," said another. "Maybe I should ... /ow!/"
Another of the Ladies had kicked him in the shin.
No one else said anything, as they were either not interested, or had one of the Ladies of Lesser Virtue hovering dangerously over him.
"Oh, come now!" Smidlar called out. "Surely one of you wishes to join me? Surely one of you wants to experience the sheer thrill of facing danger at every turn, the pure rush at the idea of certain death awaiting those that are not strong enough to face the challenge?"
"Oh, well, you didn't say anything about danger, now," said the one who was now mopping bad ale from his hair.
"And you didn't mention any of that certain death rot, either," said the other that was rubbing his bruised shin.
"Come, come, now!" Smidlar said crossly. "You will be well rewarded for your troubles. I am quite sure that the Dark Lord has an immense horde of gold and pilfered treasures just waiting to be taken!"
This managed to spark some interest in a few, until they met the unyielding glares of the Ladies, at which point they simply turned back to their drinks. "I heard he was broke after buying that sodding Tower of his anyway," someone muttered.
"Very well, then," Smidlar said with a frown, jumping down from the bar. "I shall reap all the glory myself, especially when I take the Princess as my wife as a reward!"
One the Ladies gasped, a shocked look on her face.
Smidlar turned away from the others. "Barkeep!" he shouted, pounding his fist on the bar. "Your best ale to fortify me before my arduous journey!"
"Psst!" the Lady hissed, gesturing urgently to her cohorts, who immediately gathered around her. "'ere now! This bloke intends t' make the Princess his bloody woife!"
"Like that li'l twat'd settle for one man!" scoffed a second Lady of Lesser Virtue.
"She won't, and that's th' problem that is!" piped a third.
"Aye, wot do y' mean by that?" demanded the second.
The third Lady snorted. "You try stayin' more than five minutes wi' tha' great pillock! She'll be playin' th' field again inside a fortnight, she will. And where will that leave us, aye?"
"Leave that t' me, Ladies."
The three of them turned towards the fourth. The flaming redhead, her dark green eyes filled with evil mischief, curled her ruby-red lips into a sly smile.
"An' wot d'ya suppose t' do about it?" demanded the first Lady.
"Are y' f'gettin' the little, ah ... artifact our generous benefactor gave us?" the redhead asked. She reached towards a thin chain that hung from her neck, the ends plunging between her large, pushed-up breasts. She tugged on them and plucked a small pendant from between her fleshy mounds. It was a sapphire stone with a flaw in the center that made it look like a cat's eye.
"Ooo, aye, I f'got," the first Lady said.
"Here now, 'e said use that only in an 'mergency, 'e did!" the second cried.
"This /is/ an 'mergency," growled the third. "When I can't bring in enough to pay the bloody barkeep /and/ the Dark ..."
"Shhhh!" the other Ladies all hissed at once. "Don't say you-know-who's name out loud, y' dumb git!" the first whisper-shouted.
"Here, now, just wait right 'ere an' I'll take care of it," the redhead said with a smug grin.
She turned away from the others, dropping the pendant between her mounds again, giving them a jiggle to settle the pendant between them. She straightened her dress, heaved up her bosom one more time, and sauntered over to where Smidlar stood by the bar. She slid into place next to him, leaning nonchalantly on the bar, and flashing him her best smile. "Well, 'ello guvnor!" she said in a bright voice. "Fancyin' yerself some last remainin' luxuries b'fore headin' out on yer grand adventure, aye?"
Smidlar smiled ingratiatingly at her. "Ah, yes, you would be one of the Ladies of Lesser Virtue, would you not?"
The redhead giggled. "Oh, a keen eye y' have, guvnor!" she bubbled. "Guilty as charged."
"I should tell you now, my dear," Smidlar said in a righteous voice. "I am not interested in what you have to offer me, for I am intending to save myself for the fair Princess Sarah."
"Oh, wot a most noble notion, soir!" the redhead gushed. /And a bloody daft one as well,/ she added in her mind. "Far be it fer me t' be soilin' yer, ah, purity, soir."
"I'm glad you understand," Smidlar said with a small, forced smile.
"Oh, but if I could embark on such a noble cause, guvnor, and lift me position in the woild!" she said with a dramatic drape of one hand across her forehead. "But, alas, it is not meant t' be fer the likes o' me."
"My dear, you only need to give up all this," Smidlar said, turning and sweeping his arm across the tavern. "If you wish to better yourself."
"Y' truly are a great one, if y' can see that in me!" the redheaded Lady gushed. "Oh, I do wish you luck on yer journey, guvnor!"
Smidlar gave her a smarmy smile. "Luck has nothing to do with it, ma'am," he said with a smug grin. "I shall triumph over my enemy because I am smarter than him, because I am strong and brave, and because, most of all, good always triumphs over evil."
"Too roight!" the redhead declared. "But ... sometimes, a li'l luck never hurt anyone. Here ..." A smile touched her lips as she tugged her pendant from between her bounteous breasts. She reached behind her neck and unclasped it. "I want ya t' have this."
Smidlar glanced with curiosity at the object as it was dropped into his hand. "It looks like an eye," he commented.
"Yes, soir, an eye of luck," she said with a sly gleam in her own eyes. "It will, ah, watch over ya in yer journey and keep ya safe an' sound."
"Why, I am quite touched, ma'am," Smidlar said with a smile. He immediately put the pendant on. The redheaded Lady's smile widened. "I shall wear it on my entire journey, if for no other reason than as a reminder of your faith in me."
"That would be perfect," the redhead said in a low, satisfied voice. "Ah, I mean, that is most kind of ya, guvnor, most kind!"
She turned away from the bar, smiling smugly and winking at her fellow Ladies. The other Ladies grinned conspiratorially in return.
Princess Sarah lay helpless on her bed, her wrists having been chained again to the headboard. Her arms were stretched painfully above her head, the chain pulled tight, the unyielding metal of the chains biting into her wrists. She had been pulled towards the foot of the bed by the hulking brute of a guard that now seized her calves in his iron grip, separating her legs and shamelessly exposing her tender sex. He speared her with his massive manhood, pounding it into her intimate portal with a vengeance, making her body bounce with each thrust. The second guard loomed over her on the bed, a knee on either side of her, his manhood forced into the Princess mouth.
Sarah gave muffled, nasal cries of painful pleasure as the firm, rock-hard flesh in her nether regions slid past raw, tortured flesh, while at the same time, paroxysms of unimaginably exquisite pleasure radiated from her sensitized womanhood. Her cries were often interrupted, as the hot, excited man-flesh in her mouth thrust its swollen head towards the back of her throat. Her hair lay entangled in the guard's fingers, forcing her head to move as he desired it.
The Princess' body shuddered violently as her first climax overcame her, throbbing powerfully, making her hips buck against the manhood continuing to assault her helpless sex. She moaned loudly through her nose, her tongue and lips tightening around the manhood that filled her mouth. Her own lust fired her excitement, and soon her head moved under its own in the same rhythm as the guard's ruthlessly guiding hand.
Two more strong climaxes wracked her tormented and violated body. Her moans and cries were abruptly cut off, however, when her head was shoved hard against the phallus in her mouth. The guard uttered a guttural groan as his manhood began to throb unrelentingly in her mouth, shooting steaming hot streams of his seed onto her tongue. The Princess closed her eyes tightly and clamped down on his manhood tightly, trying desperately not to choke on him, his heat filling her mouth and spilling out around the corners of her lips. Moments later, the other guard began erupting inside her, each throb sending a new twinge of pain against the sides of her tunnel, triggering yet one more wrenching climax.
Slowly, the two guards disengaged from her. They roughly shoved her into the middle of the bed and reattached the chain to her collar before releasing her wrists. Princess Sarah uttered a pitiful groan and turned over into her side, curling her body up, her breath ragged and short. The guards grunted and grinned amongst themselves in a dim-witted self-satisfaction before leaving the room, shutting and locking the door.
Princess Sarah lay sill, her sides rising and falling quickly, and then more slowly as she caught her breath. Lingering dull throbs rippled in her nether regions. A stickiness lingered between her thighs and in her mouth. Yet despite all of this, despite the torment that her body had experienced, despite the raw, inflamed flesh, all she could think of was how she had never in her life come to such a great number of sexual climaxes in a single day, nor had she ever experienced climaxes of such mind-numbing power.
As she closed her eyes and let her now exhausted body fall into much-needed sleep, her lips slowly curled into a smile.

As the last golden rays of sunset turned flaming red just before the sun bid goodbye to another day, Inferno muttered darkly to himself as he climbed the staircase to the Dark Lord's chamber. He had just come from checking on the Princess. To no surprise on his part, Princess Sarah was sound asleep, the small smile of sexual contentment still visible on her face. It had taken much of his willpower not to strike the girl dead at that moment.
When he entered the chamber, he found the Dark Lord staring into his Farseeing Mirror. Within it, the Barrier of Purity continued to glow brightly and undisturbed.
"Oh, bloody hell," Inferno grumbled when he saw this. "Has the King not yet lowered the Barrier?"
"Indeed not, Inferno!" the Dark Lord said, smiling evilly as he turned to face his Right Hand of Terror. "And do you know why?"
Many answers flitted through his head, none of which were very flattering towards the King or his heritage. "No, my Lord, I do not," Inferno answered.
"Because of this."
Mallevelus stepped to the side and gestured with a flourish at the mirror. Mists swirled and the image of the Barrier faded, to be replaced with the image of a golden-haired man tearing across the duty land on horseback.
Inferno raised an eyebrow.
"Meet the King's Champion, Inferno," the Dark Lord said. "Smidlar the Brave, sent by the King to rescue the Princess."
Inferno sighed. The last thing he needed now was to have to deal with someone trying to break into the Tower of Doom.
"Little does he know that one of my spies in the Kingdom of Light has given to him what he believes to be a simple trinket of good fortune, yet in reality is a magical Eye of Tracking, allowing me to see wherever he is and whatever he is doing!"
"Ah, smashing," Inferno said, seeing a ray of hope. "Then you shall destroy him before he gets anywhere near the Tower, of course."
The Dark Lord rubbed his hands and gave Inferno an evil look. "Oh, no, I intend to let him come to me, Inferno."
The ray of hope was extinguished. "Uh ... why, my Lord?"
"Because I wish to see the expression on his face when I snatch away his victory at the last possible moment," Mallevelus said with a wicked gleam in his eyes. "I want the very last thing he sees to be the battered and broken Princess, so that he knows that not only did he fail in his task, he was too late even from the very start! I want his defeat to be total and humiliating!"
The Dark Lord raised his arms and laughed maniacally, thunder booming through the chamber.
Inferno sighed and waited for the Dark Lord to finish. "Begging my most Horrible and Evil Lord's pardon," he said in a voice of forced calm. "But would that not mean we would be forced to keep the Princess here longer?"
"And why is that a bad thing, Inferno?" Mallevelus said as he swept across the room and sat in his Throne of Foulest Evil. "Do we not enjoy the Princess' screams of torment?"
"I am sure we would, my Lord, if we heard them."
The Dark Lord paused. "I am sure I heard her scream many times today, Inferno," he pointed out.
"Indeed you did, my Lord. Yet they were not entirely screams of torment."
The Dark Lord laughed. "Next thing you'll be telling me that she enjoyed it," he said with a mocking laugh.
"I am, my Lord."
Mallevelus stopped laughing. "You cannot be serious, Inferno."
"I am always serious, my Lord."
"Hmm ... I supposed I did tell you to go easy on her, perhaps ..."
"I did not have Madam Agonusa go easy on her, my Lord."
A pause. "You disobeyed my orders, Inferno?" Mallevelus said darkly.
"Indeed, I did, my Lord."
"You disobeyed me, knowing full well that I have declared that death shall come to those who ..."
"It is a moot point, my Lord," Inferno said impatiently, refusing to be distracted by a point of protocol. "The fact of the matter is that despite not having gone easy on her, the end result was that she enjoyed it."
"You had her most sensitive and intimate areas tortured, did you not?"
"Indeed, my Lord."
"And she was thoroughly raped afterward, was she not?"
"Quite thoroughly, my Lord."
The Dark Lord paused. "And you are quite sure she tortured the right areas?"
"There are a limited number of sensitive areas associated with sex on a woman's body, my Lord," Inferno said with forced patience. "One would assume that Madam Agonusa, herself female, would know exactly where they were located. One would also assume that such places, once having been properly identified, would be difficult to actually miss, especially considering that the Princess was rendered quite immobile by her shackles at the time, thus preventing Madam Agonusa from having to deal with a moving target."
"Perhaps Madam Agonusa needs spectacles?" the Dark Lord mused.
"She doesn't need bloody spectacles!" Inferno shouted. He took a deep breath and calmed himself. "And once again, the guards knew how to rape her and had the proper, uh, equipment to do so."
"Yes, and you would know that, wouldn't you?" Mallevelus said with a small smile. "Since you inspect them yourself."
"Yes, I inspect them. Visually. /From a discrete distance,/" Inferno growled through clenched teeth.
"And still she enjoyed it," the Dark Lord mused. "You know, Inferno, as much as she has the blood of my most mortal enemy coursing through her veins, she is proving to be a rather fascinating young woman. You know, perhaps I should take a more personal role in her torture."
Inferno blinked. "Uh ... what?"
"After all, she is already so in awe of me that it would be child's play for me to break her."
/Oh dear,/ Inferno thought desperately. /He's gone from smitten to enamored./ "My Lord, if I may be so bold, I believe that is not a prudent idea."
"Oh?"
"Realize that you must devote much of your time to preparing the army for your attack on the King's lands."
The Dark Lord waved a dismissive hand. "They already know what to do, Inferno, I have but to give the command."
"But then there is the matter of what to do with his lands once you ..."
"I already have all that worked out as well. I have planned for this day for a long time."
Inferno's mind raced. "Uh ... your speeches, my Lord!" he finally blurted out.
Mallevelus paused. "What about my speeches?" he asked warily.
"Well, you said yourself, nothing should be left to chance," Inferno said.
"I already have my speech written for when I defeat him, Inferno," the Dark Lord pointed out.
"Ah, yes, my Lord, but what about your speech to the masses you are about to grind under your thumb? What about your speech to the King's court when you put them to horribly painful deaths? What about your speech about how you have so, uh, soiled the King's fair and pure daughter?"
"Good gods, Inferno, you're right!" Mallevelus cried, jumping out of his Throne. "How foolish of me! There will be a ton of opportunities to remind the Kingdom of their coming millennia of relentless despair under my most malevolent reign! I simply must have the right words to say. Oh, I must get started on that straight away!"
"Indeed, my Lord," Inferno said, relaxing. "And I will handle the Princess for you."
"Yes, of course. I put her fate completely in your hands, Inferno."
Inferno's lips curled into a wicked grin. "Thank you, my Lord."
"But do see that she gets a bite to eat before retiring," the Dark Lord said as he conjured up a blank parchment and a quill. "You do want her to have some of her strength, after all, or she will not be able to scream properly."
Inferno no longer cared if the Princess was fed properly, so he had no objection to this. Instead, his mind was racing with ideas on how to finally break the girl's will. The Dark Lord's torturer was of no further use to him, since pain was ineffective. Instead, he would have to try something different, something unusual, something so thoroughly shocking and revolting to her, something so thoroughly overwhelming that it would shatter her very mind and render her utterly mad.
His grin became a most evil smile. He had just the thing in mind.