A Courtesan and an Assassin

"Have you tried to escape?"

"I tried once, with one of the other girls, Erak, but they caught us as we were climbing down the mountain. We had drugged a guard with some aphrodisiac tablets we had on us, lured him into one of the cells, then made our way out of the dungeon, through the kitchens and out with the garbage. They took us back to the main hall where the Chapter Heads took it in turns to rape us then they made me cut Erak's throat with a sacrificial dagger whilst holding a gun to my head and fucking me at the same time. Fucking sick bastards. I want to tear their balls off for making me do that. I can't sleep because when I do all I can see is her face and her eyes saying it's ok, she forgives me for doing it. I can't forget nor forgive myself. Bastards."

Alysha couldn't see Cerise but could feel the pain in the voice of her next door cell-mate. She decided to change the direction of the conversation.

"Are there any other girls in the cells?"

"No. Just you and me sister. And soon it will be only you and your little tush to keep those animals at bay. I'm damaged goods now. They have nothing left to use me for, so they'll just kill me and get on to you."

Alysha sat back down on the floor of the cell, and was silent. So this was it. She was going to be kept as a sex slave, gang raped, abused and then killed. She wouldn't allow it. She would go down fighting. Rather die quickly than slowly and painfully and with them in control. She wouldn't let it happen. Where was the Assassin? Why couldn't he be here? He would think of something. Fuck.

Alysha held her head in her arms and thought back to her training in the Convent for Elite Courtesans, and the four trainees, she included, who had been hand-picked for advanced training in skills that were not related at all to courtesan specialties. They had been sworn to secrecy by their Rector and their home planet security services, and were shipped to an unknown destination where they were trained in every form of personal defense, un-armed killing techniques, sabotage, and escape and resist training. She hadn't told anyone. Their objective was a passive one, rather like a sleeper; if they happened to pop-up in the right situation, then they could carry-out their mission, which was highly specialized and highly targeted. Her mission that was engraved on her mind was handed her on the last day of the three month training course: terminate without hesitation any Chapter Member of the Providence. And here she was, in the heart of The Providence Chapter with access to all of their leaders. She had to take advantage of this -- and hold her promise to her father…to destroy the Providence in any way possible.

The door of the cell opened and the prison guard entered.

"Stand up and hold out your hands"

The guard pulled out some hand-cuffs, and snapped them onto Alysha's wrists.

"Follow me."

"Why?"

"You have an audience with the Chapter of The Providence. And don't ask any more questions or I'll make you regret it." said the guard.

Alysha stood up, and followed the guard out of the cell. Her legs were shaky and her head was numb still suffering from the after effects of the sedative she had been given. She followed the guard up a long flight of narrow circular stairs. The sound of their feet echoed off the hard stone floor as they passed two levels finally coming into a landing with a small oak door. The guard opened it and led her through.

She was in a large hall rather like a church with pews on either side, which were full of men in purple cloaks, the cloaks of The Providence; there must be at least one hundred of them. The men were silent, looking at her with interest, contempt, and barely controlled fury at the same time.

She was led up the hall between the pews towards a raised dais, where seven more men stood silently. These men wore tall purple hats with the cross of The Providence in gold embedded on them, and black solid masks hiding their faces and eyes, in addition to the purple cloaks. One of the seven, in the middle of the group, wore a gold mask. The guard brought her roughly to a stop in front of the lowest step of the dais and pushed her hard in the back forcing her to kneel in front of the seven. The guard's foot found the back of her neck pushing her head into the floor. She was now bowing, prostrate before them.

"Lady Alysha, from the Planet Hannover." said a voice "you are she?"

Alysha didn't answer. Don't show them you are frightened she thought. "When a prisoner you must give nothing for free. Make them force you to give them what you want. That way they will tip their hand." she thought as she recalled her interrogation and escape training. The foot on the back of her neck pushed down harder and her face started to squash into the floor.

"You will answer when spoken to!" repeated the voice more forcefully this time "You will do everything I tell you to or I cannot be responsible for the consequences."

Alysha tensed at these words. They were familiar to her. Not just the words, but the way they were said, and the voice. Yes. That was a voice she recognized as well. But from where, where?

"Yes I am Lady Alysha." Alysha said before her teeth were embedded in the wood in front of her.

There was a loud murmuring from the men in the pews behind her. The Man in the Gold Mask raised his hand forcing an abrupt silence from the pews.

"Do you know where you are?"

"Hell." Alysha replied

"Oh you might wish you were in Hell before we are finished with you, My Lady."

There was quiet laughter from some of men in the pews that was sinister and expectant.

"Stand Lady Alysha so that we may see in entirety the abomination, the whore of the future King of Marrakesh, the seducer of men's souls, the very personification of all that is evil in woman."

The guard pulled Alysha up roughly by her hair forcing her to stand. With a knife he slit her clothes all the way down the back and ripped them all off. She stood their naked in front of them. Alysha stood with her head held high, looking directly at the man in the golden mask.

"I know you." She said. "I don't know where from, but I know you."

""You will only speak when spoken to, you whore."

At the same time the guard took out a small stick and prodded her back. She felt an electric charge jolt her body, and she fell to the floor."

"That is at its minimum setting where it won't remain for long, if you speak without being spoken to or answer back, or for any other reason. And don't forget there are many more sensitive areas that we can shock other than your back."

Alysha stood back on her feet, and glared at the man in the gold mask. She had to show that she wasn't afraid. Where had she heard that voice before? She searched her memory -- It was a long time ago, a really long time ago, back on Planet Hannover. Surely not? It couldn't be? Psycho …or Jason as his parents had called him. Psycho -- my next door neighbor back on the planet Hannover who went to school with me, who came around to play when we were kids and who took my virginity one night when I was fifteen after getting me drunk on his dad's vodka.

The memory of that awful night slid into Alysha's brain. Jason, or Psycho, as his friends called him after several crazy stunts at school which bordered on the pathological, had invited Alysha around for a swim in his pool.

"Hey Alysha" said Jason leaning over the fence between the two houses. "Why don't you come around and have a swim." Alysha hesitated before replying. Jason had got weird on her the last few months -- looking at her strangely; turning up in odd places when she was with her friends; and she was certain she had caught him looking out into her bedroom at night waiting to catch a glimpse of her undressing before going to bed. But it was a hot day, and the pool did look inviting and Jason was mostly harmless. She regretted that thought forever.

"Thanks. Yes" she replied. "I'll just put my costume on."

Jason was already in the pool when she got there. He was doing some laps showing off his muscled physique, and his stamina. Not to be out done she dived in and started keeping pace with him. An unofficial race started and Alysha who was the better swimmer eased ahead. When Jason realized that he wasn't going to catch her he stopped, and waited for on the return lap. He grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her under water, holding her there. Alysha, already out of breath from the race, started squirming and kicking out as oxygen was deprived from her brain. After what seemed like an eternity, Jason let her go and she gasped for air.

"Got you worried didn't I." said Jason.

"Fuck you Jason, that wasn't funny. I very nearly passed out then."

Alysha got out of the pool and made to leave the garden and head back to her house.

"Don't go Alysha. I'm really sorry. I didn't realize that you were struggling so much. I don't know my own strength. Come on, let's raid my dad's drinks cupboard. I found out where he hides the key."

The temptation was too much for Alysha, and she followed Jason into the lounge next to the swimming pool. Jason produced a key, opened the drinks cupboard and pulled out a bottle of vodka, and poured two glasses adding coke. One hour later, Alysha woke up to find herself tied up in the basement of the house. There were no windows, just a bare electric light bulb that cast random shadows across her body. She was tied up to a makeshift mattress on the floor of the basement. She couldn't move an inch. Her legs were tied apart, with her hands above her head. She was naked.

She heard through her thumping headache a voice say

"You will do everything I tell you to or I cannot be responsible for the consequences. You whore"

"Jason, don't do this" she cried.

And then the pain started as he forced himself on her in every way possible - an angry animalistic savagery that went on and on and on. Alysha passed out from the pain many times, waking hours later to find Jason asleep on the floor next to her. Somehow, and she never remembers how, she managed to loosen a hand and then another, then her feet and escape the cellar. She ran back to her house and called the police. The police came. Jason had gone. And was never found.

Alysha had buried these memories ever since, never having had the chance to get revenge, see her rapist put away, or even better chemically castrated. Christ, how she hated him for what he did to her, and now he was standing in front of her looking at her naked body again, and once again she was in his power. She had to do something. Now it was personal.

Back in the hall Jason, or Prior Zephid as he had renamed himself, started talking again. The other six on the altar were now sitting. He was standing in front of her listing her sins.

"Alysha, whore of the Convent of Elite Courtesans, future wife of the King of the pagan planet of Marrakesh, daughter of the Governor of the Planet Hannover you are the personification of evil. With your body that is so perfect you seduce men and take their very souls, devouring them of their very existence. You turn men away from the righteous path. You entrap other women to idolize you and follow you in your evil profession. You are guilty of every blasphemy that we hold sacred in The Providence and for that you must die."

" Die, die, die, die, die…. 'chanted the one hundred men.

"But before we execute you, we need to cleanse you. We need to purify you, so you can go to the other side free of evil. Tomorrow night you will be brought back to the Providence Chapel where you will be given the sacrament of purification. This is not a pleasant sacrament and you will beg to die during it; but only after you have been purified, will we take you to the North Face of the castle and throw you off into the abyss below."

"Now to see what you will face tomorrow, so you have time to reflect on your sins, we will give you a little preview tonight."

Alysha tried not to show that she was scared, but a shiver passed through her body and she couldn't help try and grasp her body with her hands to protect herself from whatever was about to happen to her. The gold mask came close to her face and whispered "Not tonight you whore. Tonight you just have to watch."

"I see Jason, you haven't changed at all. You are still powerless in front of women, you fucking Psycho." Alysha replied ever so softly.

The back of Jason's hand hit her full in the face. The fury in his eyes was absolutely terrifying. She could only imagine the expression on the rest of his face. Good she had de-stabilized him. He didn't expect her to recognize him so quickly. As long as she had pre-empted her death in the process, she now knew he could be made to do irrational things.

"You will regret that for as long as you live, which won't be for very long" sneered Jason "but not tonight, tonight you are a guest, but because of your impudence the punishment will be neither short, nor swift."

"Guard, bring the prisoner Cerise to the Dais."

Cerise was brought into the chapel by another guard. She wore a white cloak over a clearly beautiful dark body. She was tall, and athletically built and had a handsome noble face, that looked tired and in pain. She moved gingerly towards the dais, as if she knew what to do. She lay down on the low stone altar on the dais.

"See how submissive she is, bitch. Tomorrow you will be the same. I can guarantee it." whispered Jason who was standing next to Alysha.

Jason moved away towards the altar. Cerise caught Alysha's eyes and appeared to be begging her to do something. But what could she do. She was handcuffed and naked and the guard held an electric prod only centimeters away from her skin.

A voice announced from the pulpit that Prior Zephid would now perform the beginning of the purification ceremony. Cerise was strapped down to the altar by her legs and arms. Prior Zephid then pulled out a long ornamental dagger and cut away the robe leaving Cerise naked on the altar -- legs and arms apart, trembling not with cold but with sheer fear.

He pulled out slowly from under the altar a small pot of oil which he then poured over Cerise's body,

"Child of Satan. Harbinger of evil. Today we witness your rebirth into the light. With the anointment of our holy oil, the purity of the semen of the Chapter of The Providence, and an ultimate cleansing by fire, you will be reborn into a world on the other side without sin."

For the next three hours Alysha watched as every man in the Chapel forced himself on Cerise. She never screamed. She stopped crying after the tenth man, just lying there accepting it, and not moving. Alysha tried to avert her eyes, but the guard moved her head back so she was forced to watch every time. At one point they turned her over so they could sodomize her. Alysha cried in sympathy for the fellow prisoner that she only met that day.

Suddenly it was over. They cut Cerise free, she was only semi-conscious after the battering she had received and made no attempt to protest. They carried her out of the chapel up some stairs and out onto a platform overlooking the cliff that led directly to the valley floor thousands of meters below. They doused her again in oil while strapping her with thin fabric straps over the void below, and put her in the position of the Providence Cross.

"Take this torch sister of this whore and set her free" said Prior Zephid handing Alysha the lit torch

"I won't do that" she replied.

The guard gave her a jolt between her shoulder blades with the prod. Alysha screamed nearly dropping the torch as she doubled up. Cerise opened her eyes, and looked at Alysha. "Please." she said. "Please. The pain…" and then shut her eyes again.

Alysha took a deep breath and threw the torch at Cerise. The oil caught instantly, forcing a solitary painful scream from Cerise's burning lungs. For a moment Cerise was The Cross of The Providence, until the fabric attaching Cerise to the circular frame burnt through and she fell silently into the dark below.

Alysha retched and fell to her knees.

She wouldn't let them do that to her. She had to escape. She just had to escape. The guard pulled her up onto her feet and led her back to her cell where she cried until she fell into a shallow restless sleep.

Chapter 14 : A courtesan and an Assassin -- A Memory

I couldn't feel my legs. They were numb. I could only breathe through one nostril. And even then it was exhausting as the weight of the stones was pushing down on my chest, and to get any air into my lungs I had to push up when taking each breath. How long had I been unconscious, I had no idea. There was silence. No gunships were hovering outside. I couldn't hear a thing. I tried moving my head but it was twisted to the left and was wedged in place with a rock. Shit. Not only was I going to die, but nobody would even find me. Where I lay was my tomb. I had never told anyone, but the one thing I feared above all else was to be buried alive, and here I was just facing that.

No death in battle for me. No old age. No children. Nothing! And was Alysha dead? I had no idea. I presume she was dead in the antechamber to the cave. I felt something in my right leg, some feeling and tried to move it, but it was held fast. I closed my eyes and tried to breathe steadily, putting of the inevitable when I would either die from the weight on my chest forcing a last breath out of me or of dehydration. I think I would prefer the former, it would be faster. I drifted off to sleep trying to picture Alysha with her perfect body and to-die-for arse to keep away the pain and the desperation of the situation I was in.

What was that? I was sure I heard something above me. A hovering sound and a cutting sound. I tried to shout, but all that came out of my mouth was "Grrragh" and barely audible that nobody could have heard it. I used the last of my strength to expand my chest, push up the stones and take in a deeper breath.

"Help, I'm here" I let out, louder this time and then coughed and spluttered as I tried to take in another breath.

"I know you're there. Just don't kill yourself before I can get you out."

It wasn't. It couldn't be. But he was dead or 'lights-out' or whatever you called androids when they copped it. Araka-san! But only he talked to me like that. I kept still and didn't talk, but felt the weight of stones getting lighter until a few minutes later I looked up into the blackened steel body of the grumpy droid.

"Well I never thought I would see you again" I said "I thought you had gone to the land of rusty gadgets. But I must admit I am pleased to see you."

"I wish I could say the same Assassin. Where's the elite courtesan?"

"You haven't found her body?"

'No I haven't or I wouldn't be asking that question would I?"

I explained what had happened since we had left the shuttle, ending with the gunships attacking the Pygmies and then zeroing on us in the cave.

'How did you get here?" I asked

"The shuttle fell to the jungle floor and in the process threw me close to the engine unit of the shuttle. I hadn't run out of all power earlier. I had just shut-down to preserve a small amount of power to keep my sub-systems going. I used the kinetic energy from the fall to move me closer to the fuel cells and I rigged them up and charged me back up again. Apart from the blackened case I am as good as new, which is a lot more than I can say for you. You have two fractures in your left leg, one in your right leg, three broken ribs, and some pretty serious internal bruising if my scans are correct. Stay still while I fix your organic mess."

I lay there whilst Araka-san used a green force field to lift me into the air and hold me in position whilst he used other force fields of different colours to enter my body at various points and join and seal my bones, and stem any bleeding I had internally. Seconds later he flipped me onto my feet.