Arroc was woken from a fitful sleep as Thomas suddenly jumped out of his sleeping blankets and leapt to his feet. The wizard gasped in pain and his hand flew to the wound in his side. “I know where they are!” he cried, making Arroc and Teasel stare at him in astonishment. “It just occurred to me!”

     “What did?” demanded the trog irritably.

     “Think about it!” said the wizard excitedly. “What’s a Shadowpatrol doing way out here, in the middle of nowhere? It must be to attack the Vale of Thorns garrison. What else could it be? There’s nothing else out here.”

     “So?” said Teasel. “We still don’t know if they were going to it or coming from it.”

     “Coming from it!” cried Arroc as he suddenly realised what the wizard had seen. “They only left two archers to deal with us. That means they’re low in strength and that means they’re coming from a battle. A battle at the Vale of Thorns!”

     “I don’t know,” said the nome doubtfully. “Seems rather a weak and shaky line of reasoning.”

     “It’s all we’ve got,” replied the wizard. “Which way is the Vale of Thorns? That way?”

     “Yes, but...”

     “Then they must have gone that way,” continued Thomas, pointing in the opposite direction. “Come on.”

     Arroc grabbed his arm, though. “Nay, lad. We can’t go rushing off into the redlight. If you’re wrong, we’d only end up getting hopelessly lost in the forest.”

     “We can’t just sit here!” protested the wizard. “You know what’s probably happening to them right this minute!”

     “Better than you,” agreed the trog. “I’ve seen people who were rescued from the Shads, but we won’t be helping them by getting ourselves lost in the forest.”

     “Let me go!” warned Thomas, and there was suddenly something in his voice that made the trog obey in surprise and a little alarm. Up until now, he’d seen Thomas only as a rather ordinary young man, albeit one who could cast magic spells. Mild mannered, even a little timid perhaps. The kind of man who would let himself get pushed around, up to a point, because he was afraid of confrontations.

     All of a sudden, though, there was a look in his eyes that hadn’t been there before. A dangerous look, and it occurred to the trog for the first time that this was a wizard he was accosting. A wizard! He stared at the young man as if seeing him for the first time, as if he was only just coming to realise the kind of person he was travelling with. A wizard!

     “I’ll go alone if I have to,” said the wizard angrily. “I won’t just sit here while Diana’s raped and Shaun’s tortured to death. Come or stay. It’s all the same to me.”

     He then turned and strode off into the forest without looking back, leaving Arroc and Teasel staring at each other in fearful astonishment. After a moment they followed him. There was nothing else they could do.

☆☆☆

     All rational thought had fled Diana’s mind as the rest of her clothes were stripped from her and the Shadowsoldiers fought over who would have her first. She struggled like a lunatic while two of the youngest, most junior Shadowsoldiers held her down, glad of the chance to lay their hands on her body and her thoughts were a single, continuous scream of terror. I’M NAKED! I’M TIED UP! I’M GOING TO BE RAPED! The Shadowsoldiers just laughed louder, though, almost drowning out the sounds of Shaun and Dennis’s screams.

     “Let’s let Paulus have her first,” said one of the biggest and strongest looking soldiers, a giant of a man with a bushy black beard and a bloodsoaked bandage tied around his head. One of the young men holding the cleric’s shoulders looked up in surprise. “He’s never had a girl before, an’ it’s about time he were introduced to the pleasures of women.”

     The others laughed in agreement, and soon the young man was also being stripped naked, although his reaction to the experience was precisely opposite that of the cleric. Diana’s terror made her oblivious to all this, but gradually a blessed calm began to drift over her, soothing her and allowing her to think coherently again. “Be at peace, Diana,” said a soft and gentle woman’s voice. “I am with you.”

     The cleric looked around in surprise, but could only see the grinning, slathering Shadowsoldiers. “Who are you?” she asked in confusion.

     “The name’s Paulus,” replied the young soldier, “and I’m gonna give you the best, hardest shag you’ve ever had in your life!”

     The other soldiers roared with laughter, but Diana heard only the voice of the strange woman. “You know who I am,” she said soothingly. “Have you not been worshipping me for many years now?”

     Diana was puzzled for a moment, but then she cried out with joy as realisation hit her. “My Lady!” she cried jubilantly. “My Lady, you’ve come to me! A waking visitation! Oh My Lady, why have You come? Why do You honour a wretched sinner like me?”

     “She’s lost her mind,” said the oldest Shadowsoldier, nodding his head wisely. “I’ve seen it before. Never mind, it’s not her mind we’re interested in, eh lads?” The others laughed their agreement.

     “Speak only in your mind, my beloved,” the Goddess said. “Our words are not for the ears of such as these.”

     Diana was so jubilant with wonder and adoration that she completely forgot the situation she was in. “But why have You come, My Lady?” she asked, speaking only in her mind as Caroli had instructed. “Why honour me in this way? Won't we be meeting in person very soon now?”

     “You still have work to do in the mortal world,” the Goddess replied. “You have done my work well, but I have other tasks which you must undertake. It is my intention that you free yourself from these beasts and escape.”

     “You’ve come to rescue me?” asked Diana in wonder and disbelief.

     “You know better than that,” replied Caroli, and although Diana could not see the Goddess, she sensed that She was smiling a sad little smile. “Like all the Gods, I have no power in this world except that which I channel through my clerics. I have come to tell you that you are not as helpless as you think you are. Your hands are bound, but your voice is not. Use the gifts I have given you and freedom may be within your grasp.”

     “I don’t understand!” cried the cleric out loud as she remembered what was happening to her. “What can I do?”

     “You don’t need to do anything,” said Paulus as he stroked her body. “Just lie still and I’ll do everything that needs to be done.”

     “You must stall him,” the Goddess replied patiently. “Your friends are coming, but they will not be in time unless you can stall him. Use the powers I have granted you.”

     “But what if I can’t stall him?” demanded Diana tearfully. “What if I can’t?”

     “Then I shall be with you throughout your ordeal and we shall share it together. You shall not suffer it alone.”

     “No!” cried the cleric in horror and outrage. “You can’t! You mustn’t!” The idea of her Goddess, whom she worshipped and adored with all her soul, sharing the experience of being raped tore her heart out. “No My Lady!”

     “Yes, Diana,” replied the Goddess compassionately. “Do you think you are the first of my clerics to suffer this outrage? It happens with terrible regularity, and I am with all of them, sharing it with them, just as I shall share it with you. But it need not be if you use my gifts well. Stall him, my beloved. You shall be saving not only yourself, but Me as well.”

     That decided it. Diana accepted that Caroli knew what it was to be raped, and that She had shared the experience with her clerics many, many times, but she was damned if she was going to be the cause of Her experiencing it again. She opened her eyes, therefore, and looked right into the eyes of the young soldier as he was climbing onto her. By the Gods! she thought in astonishment. He’s nothing more than a boy! I doubt he’s even fifteen!

     Fifteen was old enough, though, and Diana had no doubt that he could abuse her as effectively as a man twice his age. He was ready to get down to business now, and the cleric knew she’d come out of her hysteria not a moment too soon.

     “Hey, Paulus!” the cleric said, making him look at her in surprise. He had sandy blonde hair, she saw, and his eyes were a light shade of brown, speckled with green. In another situation, she might have found him good looking. She forced herself to keep looking him in the eye and to speak with a calm, confident voice. “Don’t you know you’re supposed to get a lady in the mood before you go charging in like a bull at a gate?”

     The boy was astounded. The idea of a rape victim needing to be ‘in the mood’ was not one that had occurred to him before. “What do you mean?” he asked uncertainly.

     “Try being gentle with me,” advised the cleric, forcing a desperate smile. “Be thoughtful and considerate. You’ll enjoy it a lot more if I’m enjoying it as well.”

     She carried on speaking, talking nonsense for the most part but that didn’t matter. It was the sound of her voice that was important. The soothing voice of a cleric of Caroli is a powerful thing, able to take the edge off the strongest passions and turn them into milder emotions. It could turn a raging fury into a mild annoyance, for instance, or the uttermost terror into controllable fear or the most intense jealousy into an admiring envy, and it could turn naked, driving lust into... well, she didn’t really know. She’d never had to use it to cool a man’s lust before, always having had her brothers around to protect her. This was when she’d find out.

     All the same, though, her soothing words weren’t the same as a wizard’s enchantment, and if the boy, or any of the other soldiers, figured out what she was doing, all the soothing words in the world wouldn’t save her. Already the other soldiers were growing impatient as the boy failed to proceed with the rape. “Come on, ya runt!” growled one of them. “You’re supposed to shag ‘em, not talk with ‘em!”

     Paulus and Diana both ignored him. Diana continued to speak, just saying whatever happened to come into her head, and Paulus continued to listen. Then, the boy lowered his face to hers and kissed her, slowly and gently...

☆☆☆

     Naomi, meanwhile, had been raped once already, but unlike Diana she had done everything in her power to increase the man's passion, to drive him to such heights of desire that he’d lose all control over himself. So far it was working, and the unsuspecting man was now lying, panting, on top of her, his sweat mingling with hers.

     “You enjoyed that,” the felisian whispered into his ear. “So did I, but that was nothing compared to the pleasures you could have.”

     The man looked interested, and Naomi breathed a sigh of relief. She’d been afraid he might have spent himself completely that first time and just hand her over to somebody else. That wouldn’t do at all. Instead, though, he looked down into her brilliant, emerald green eyes, and the lust flared up again even more powerfully than before. He touched one of her eyelids with the tip of his thumb, pressing gently at first, then more firmly, and Naomi felt his pulse racing and his breath growing rapid and excited. The pressure on her eyeball increased further and the felisian knew that the man was excited by her helplessness. Aroused by the knowledge that he could gouge out her eyes and that there was nothing she could do to stop him.

     “Pleasures you can't begin to imagine!” said the felisian hurriedly. The pain of the tight leather cords biting into her wrists made her feel terrifyingly vulnerable, even more so as he continued to stroke her eyelids thoughtfully. “More pleasure than you ever thought was possible! You’ll forget every other woman you ever lay with, and no other woman will ever be able to satisfy you again!” She was babbling now, her terror growing to the point where she was beginning to lose control of herself.

     “How?” asked the man suddenly.

     Naomi breathed a desperate sigh of relief. “Untie me,” she said in her most seductive voice. “Let me use my hands on you and I’ll give you a night you’ll remember for the rest of your life.”

     The Shadowsoldier laughed. “You think I’m stupid?” he spat into her face. “You just want to escape.”

     “No I don’t,” replied the felisian. “I know there’s no escape for me. You can do anything you want to me and there’s nothing I can do about it, so I might as well relax and enjoy it. But I don’t want to die. I know you sometimes keep a woman alive to serve your pleasures and that’s what I want to do. Spare my life and I’ll be yours willingly. I’ll do everything I can to give you more pleasure than you ever had in your life. Untie me and I’ll prove it to you. Let me show you what I can do.”

     The man still looked doubtful, and Naomi began to grow exasperated. Nearby, she could hear Shaun and Dennis screaming and she felt a terrible urgency racing through her body. A sense that they had very little time. “Come on, what are you afraid of?” she cried. “You’re twice my size and much stronger than I am. You don’t need me tied up to control me, especially with all your friends around.”

     The man thought a little more. “All right,” he said at last, “but if you try anything it’ll be the last thing you ever do. Understand?”

     She nodded and he rolled off her, turning her over onto her stomach. She gasped in relief as the weight was taken off her bound wrists, and she wriggled her fingers gratefully. Across from her, less than a dozen feet away, she could hear Diana talking softly to the young man sitting astride her, and she marveled that the cleric was managing to remain so calm.

     Must be her faith, she thought as the Shadowsoldier fumbled with the knots in the length of tough leather binding her. Faith was something she didn’t really understand, despite pretending to be a cleric of the entirely fictitious God Abixis. She didn’t need faith to endure this, though. Sex was something she was good at, something she could use for her own purposes. She’d had a great many lovers, some of whom had been far more brutal and demanding than the Shadowsoldier and whose company she’d endured only for what they could give her, usually information. Sex with a human was nothing, was as trivial as a peck on the cheek.

     The soldier was still fumbling with her wrists and Naomi grew even more anxious and impatient. “Your knife, fool!” she hissed. “Use your knife!”

     The soldier got up and went over to where he’d left his clothes, coming back with a beautifully carved trog dagger with an ivory handle. A moment later she was free. She almost cried out in relief as the blood flowed back into her hands and feeling began to return. The Shadowsoldier then threw her roughly onto her back and climbed back on top of her.

     “Alright, you beautiful blacktail,” he hissed into her face. “Let’s see what you can do.”

     “Certainly,” replied the felisian, and she changed.