It had been more than a month since my capture during the battle between our two provinces and my subsequent sale into slavery. Lady Athelnia’s twice weekly hunts had always ended in a similar fashion, with me being tracked down, captured and returned to captivity where she would administer a sound thrashing by way of her prize for success in the hunt. It was something that I quickly came to accept, a relatively small price to pay In exchange for not being used as a slave on one of the province’s plantations, the destination of all the other captured prisoners of war who were routinely auctioned off and used as labour.
Not that these punishments had been easy to take. My mistress derived great satisfaction from her position of supreme power and her use of the whips and canes displayed her expertise. She clearly enjoyed the total command that she enjoyed when we were together down in the depths of the old torture chamber, far beneath the castle. It was literally her domain, a place where she could exploit her authority to the full and where the other side of the coin, my total inability to control any aspect of our relationship, completed the power exchange circle to perfection. My cries of pain filled the dungeon, reverberating around the solid stone walls, heard only by the two of us, and clearly enjoyed by my mistress.
This period had given me ample opportunity for thought. Whilst before my capture my only concern when confronted by such an attractive woman would have been to have had my way with her, Lady Athelnia had sought to reeducate me in respect of these attitudes which she pointed out were responsible for the drawbacks in all patriarchal societies. I was forced to admit that the province that I found myself in had many advantages over my own.
However as an owned slave my own personal freedom was very much curtailed. I was confined within the castle and slept in a locked cell. My meals were taken in the company of my owner, although she fed me from a bowl on the floor at her feet. For the last month my genitals had been locked inside a metal cage that prevented any attempt at gaining sexual release, something that was now causing me considerably frustration. Despite all these curtailments of my freedom my respect for Lady Athelnia had grown inexorably over the weeks. I would even have characterised her as a fair woman, despite the fact that my body now permanently carried the evidence of her frequent use of whips and canes, the marks not fading before the aftermath of another hunt added to their number.
In our last hunt I had made it beyond the wooded area at the far end of the bay. The adjacent one was remarkably similar in topography. Another wide sweep of sand with a thick outcrop of forest in the distance. I knew this to be the border between our two provinces and that this piece of woodland was more of a forest than a simple copse. Once in this piece of heavily wooded ground I would be effectively home, the chances of finding me in there would be slim once daylight disappeared and all I would have to do would be to hide out until daybreak. My immediate problem however was how I could cover the distance in the time allotted. I calculated that I would need to make almost three leagues, a distance that a trotting horse might travel in half an hour. It was then that I had a piece of luck.
My mistress had decided that the time between my release and the start of her pursuit would be increased. I think that her motivation for this was the need to make the hunt more challenging for her. I calculated that this would allow me to cover more than half the distance before her pursuit began. The margins would be extremely tight but there was a chance that I might make the forested area bordering my own province before I was apprehended and recaptured. I had noticed that the tide would be just past it’s lowest point at exactly the time that the next hunt was due to begin, I had a further trick in mind to exploit this.
On the evening of the hunt a stiff breeze had got up and, quite fortuitously it was sweeping along the bay in the direction that I intended to travel. I was released from the castle at precisely half past the hour and immediately made my way down to the tideline. My thinking was that the incoming tide would serve to cover my footprints, and so it would prove to be. I had covered the first leg of the course and was passing the first promontory when I heard the three chimes of the castle clock. I reckoned that if I could make the mid point of the next bay before the turn of the hour then my chances were good. I didn’t hear the chimes for the hour as I was now too far away. What I didn’t know at this point was that Lady Athelnia had initially headed in the wrong direction. She quickly realised her error and turned her mount around, the hunt was on.
I was well past the half way point crossing the second bay when I turned to see the pale grey stallion pass the promontory. Lady Athelnia could now see me and it was a straight race to see if I could reach the forest before she caught me. I had possibly only a third of the distance to cover compared to my mistress and this gave me a second wind. As I progressed and the line of trees became closer my hopes that I would not be caught rose. The final stretch to the forest arrived and I began to climb towards the line of the trees. Once inside the chances of being caught would be virtually zero, it was a large wooded area, impossible to effectively sweep in the way that the smaller area was.
It was when I was close enough to smell the forest that something strange happened. Just for a moment the thought crossed my mind as to whether escape was what I wanted. There were some good reasons why I should want to, not least that my mistress had kept me locked inside her cruel little chastity device without the possibility of release for more than a month. But now that she was close enough for me to see, dressed in her black leather hunting outfit, booted and spurred a strange desire entered my mind. I suddenly realised that the power and control that Lady Athelnia held over me generated a strange desire all of it’s own. I stood against the trunk of the first tree that I reached, ready to slip inside the forest and disappear within it’s densely wooded cover. She was only seconds away now, but quite long enough to make good the final stage of my escape by slipping into the forest. What I did next was unfathomable. I faced the oncoming stallion, dropped to my knees and placed my hands behind my back.
I looked up into her face. I thought that I saw the hint of a smile as her green eyes bore into me. She slipped down from the saddle and stood before me, the lowering evening sun behind her reflected in mobile pools on the leather. For a brief moment it seemed as if she was lost for words at the outcome of the latest hunt. She had clearly realised that I had been in a position to complete my escape, but had chosen not to do so. She came and stood immediately in front of where I knelt. She was so close that I could hear her breathing, could smell the aroma of her leather and see the smooth patina of her riding boots.
” I assume that this means that you wish to stay as my slave.”
I swallowed, fully aware now of the commitment that I was about to make.
” Yes mistress, I do.”
Lady Athelnia flexed her riding crop between outstretched gloved hands.
” What if I was to tell you that from this point on that your punishments will become much harsher, that your surrender to me today will buy you no mercy whatsoever and that you will live to rue the day that you failed to take your opportunity to escape my clutches?”
There was a short pause during which she tapped her open palm with the tip of her crop.
” And now if I tell you that you have a moment to consider your situation, a moment in which you are at liberty to walk off into the forest and make your way home.”
She turned and walked back to her stallion as I watched. The thought occurred to me to accept her offer but as immediately as it came into my mind it disappeared. She was unbuckling her saddle bag and taking out some coils of rope. Purposefully she strode back to where I still knelt and moved behind me. Very soon my wrists were tightly bound, the rope wound and then cinched tight.
Our journey back to the castle was long and arduous. I was at least spared the added ordeal of the heavy iron shackles, merely being led by the rope tied to my collar, but being forced to jog to avoid the risk of being outpaced by the horse. Nevertheless it was almost dusk by the time we made our way back up the gulley that led from the beach to the castle gate. Unlike previous hunts when I had been taken directly to the dungeon I was taken to the cell where I normally slept. Had I any notion that my unexpected surrender would buy me some kind of latitude in our relationship however it would be dispelled the very next morning.
At breakfast Lady Athelnia wore the latest creation of her personal couturier. Crafted of the very finest leather that was imported from Italy expressly for her, the halter necked bodysuit was cut to perfection. Beneath the bodice instead of being belted at the waist a panel with silver buckles created a short corset that drew her already slim waist in tightly to emphasise her hips and her breasts. Cutaway sides exposed her long milk white thighs and unlike the riding boots that she wore for the hunts the pair she wore today featured the long, tapered heels that served to boost her height, their leather polished to a high sheen. Lacing from instep to knee ensured that the boots moulded themselves to her long, slim legs.
But what really caught my attention was not her suit or her boots. Her long auburn hair that either hung almost to her waist or was tied high on her head for the hunts had undergone a transformation. Now cut very much shorter it neatly framed her head in a bob style that I had never seen worn before. It lent her a more severe appearance, commensurate with her statement of the previous night that I should expect absolutely no let up in her punishments of me. When I considered what she had actually said when I knelt before her the thought chilled me to the bone, our relationship was about to enter a new phase.
My mistress finished her meal and stood to leave her table. She picked up her gloves and pulled them on. I watched as she wriggled her long, slim fingers and smoothed the leather. She turned on the pointed heel of her boot. ” Follow me, slave.”
She walked from the great hall with me trailing behind her. I knew our destination, I was about to receive the deferred punishment from the previous night’s hunt. This may not have been fair given the circumstances, but this was not about fairness. It was only about my mistress’ pleasure and that pleasure was derived from inflicting pain on me. I had come to accept that situation and also to acknowledge that, having paid a thousand Reals for me at auction, that was her right.
What I saw on entering the dungeon chamber however struck fear into me in a way nothing that had gone before had come close to. The stone ceiling curved away upwards in a vaulted arch and suspended from the highest point an iron hook hung on a chain connected to pulley wheels. The sight had significance to me because in my youth I had worked for a butcher who had possessed a similar device that had been used to slaughter animals. My blood ran cold as she ordered me to sit on the floor directly beneath it. I have no idea whether it was intentional but from what I have come to know of my mistress since I think that it probably was. She possesses a streak of ruthlessness not seen in any other woman I have ever known. After allowing me to contemplate it for a minute, and clearly seeing my fear she spoke.
” Oh, don’t worry, I have no intention of slitting the throat of a thousand Real slave.”
She paused before continuing. “Actually forget the bit about not worrying, by the time I have finished with you that might not seem like a bad option.”
A cruel smile played on her lips briefly. She crossed to the oak table where what looked like a some heavy leather straps lay. She picked one up.
” I had my saddler make these little devices for me, I think that they should be most effective.”
She buckled my ankles into the wide leather cuffs. Others ran at right angles beneath the soles of my feet rather like stirrups and these had metal loops attached. A steel bar was soon fitted to the hook that dangled from the ceiling and my ankles linked to it. There was a rattle of chains as my mistress began the process of lifting me from the floor. I felt myself being hauled higher and higher until eventually my head rose clear of the floor and my whole body was suspended in mid air, slowly twisting to and fro. I was quite used to being strapped to the cross but this conveyed a feeling of even greater helplessness. A wide leather belt was strapped around my waist with cuffs attached into which my wrists were quickly securely bound. I took in this picture of a strangely upside down world. Her boots appeared briefly in front of my face and I felt the steel harness that had corseted and restrained my cock for more than a month being unlocked and removed allowing my swollen and erect organ to stand freely out from my body. I groaned with a mixture of pleasure and frustration as her leather fingers caressed the shaft and danced briefly across the head. Her laughter rang out briefly.
” I suppose you would like me to allow you to cum?”
Again the touch of leather against the most sensitive parts, running gently across the head of my cock, teasing and stroking me until I thought it inevitable that a thick skein of gooey seed would spurt like an erupting geyser from me, spilling my hot white cum liberally.
” But that isn’t why we are here today.”
Her touch ceased as quickly as it had started. I watched her boots recede across the dungeon to where a small iron brazier that I had assumed had the purpose of dispelling the chill of the subterranean atmosphere stood. My mistress appeared to be poking it. Then I saw it in her hand, the end glowing a deep, fiery red. An “A” contained within a circle of metal, the tip of a branding iron just like those used to mark cattle. The boots came closer again and then I felt the heat as the iron hovered close enough to my skin to make me flinch.
” Your actions last night showed your willingness to accept my authority over you. Despite having the opportunity to take your freedom you chose to remain as my slave. Your reward for taking that decision will be this. You will forever carry the mark of my ownership on your body.”
My screams filled the dungeon, reverberating around the stone walls as the red hot iron seared it’s way through the skin. Lady Athelnia maintained the pressure, keeping the sizzling iron pressed to my body for several seconds until the brand had burnt the symbol of her possession permanently and irrevocably deep into the flesh of my buttock. The chains rattled as my body rocked involuntarily in the throes of my agony and the dungeon air carried the sweet aroma of roasting meat, the only sound now my low rhythmic sobs.