Page 32 of Seduction

Rob slipped back in, blending into the shadows so that he was almost invisible in his gray robe.

“The streets are deserted. Everyone seems to be at a huge bonfire in the plaza at the center of town, drinking and carousing. There’s a big wooden platform at one end of the plaza with an empty throne on it. I saw a whole line of naked people kneeling along the front of the platform, hands tied behind their backs, roped together around their necks. Mostly women, but there are some men too. All young. Some from off-world, but there are Tabun among them.”

Haldor nodded. “Slaves. They’ll be given to the crowd tonight then sacrificed and tossed into the bonfire before sunrise.”

David looked shocked. “They’ll do that to their own people? What kind of monsters are they?”

“Tabun females are property. Daughters are sold as brides, or as slaves if their fathers need money and there’s no bridegroom available. As for the sons, they’re owned as well. Selling off a rebellious one is a common way to assure obedience by the others.”

They headed down the deserted streets with their heads bowed, hoods drawn up to shield their faces. The sound of drumbeats grew as they neared the center of town, swelled and pulsed like the heartbeat of a gigantic living creature.

In the plaza, a hundred drummers circled the great bonfire, beating in unison on animal skins laced tightly over hollow logs. Dressed only in loincloths, their broad chests dripped with sweat. They had no leader Haldor could see, yet they drummed as one.

The beat rose and fell, morphing seamlessly from one haunting cadence to another. He felt its savage power. Surging up through the very ground he walked on through the soles of his feet, traveling up his spine, thudding against his eardrums. Making its way into his very brain until it devoured all thought.

The Tabun danced. Whirled and twirled, stomped and gyrated, uttering wild shrieks. The men naked, their stubby penises swollen and purple, hips thrusting obscenely against the nearest dancer, male or female. The women wore animal skins tied around their waists, barely long enough to cover wiry masses of dark pubic hair. Everywhere, people tossed their heads back and poured streams of green liquid down their throats, never ceasing their frantic motions. Haldor’s head swam just from inhaling the vapors from the qaxa.

Along one side of the plaza, dozens of wild beasts howled and roared. Trapped in wooden pens to be sacrificed and then cast into the fire as well, they tossed their heads, ripped each other’s flesh with razor-sharp horns in their frenzy to escape. The smell of fresh blood only increased their fury.

Haldor and his men hovered on the edge of the crowd, ignored in the turmoil. The drums beat faster and faster, until the arms of the drummers were a blur. Though he tried to resist its hypnotic spell, his heart kept pace with the rhythm, pounding in his chest until he feared it would explode. The sound built, became one unending wave with no beginning and no end. Impossible to sustain. His eardrums were bursting. Impossible to bear…

Silence.

At first, he thought he’d gone deaf, hearing finally destroyed. Then he looked around. The drummers had all ceased, stilled as though each one truly was part of some giant unseen beast. The dancers were as motionless as statues. Everyone’s eyes were on the platform.

Haldor followed their gaze – and a surge of animal rage poured over him. Only David’s heavy hand on his shoulder kept him from lunging through the crowd and vaulting onto the stage.

Balam, that filthy slime, strode to the center of the platform in front of the empty throne. In his arms, he held the limp body of a young Tabun male. And at his feet, being dragged along on her knees with a rope around her neck like a dog, was a naked female.

Selena.

Chapter Eighteen

It was Hell, straight from a canvas painted by a master from the Middle Ages.

Selena nearly fainted from terror. Grotesque figures danced naked around an enormous bonfire to the savage pounding of a hundred drums. Dozens of horned beasts staked in pens along one side reared and pawed at the ground, driven mad by the sound. A row of bound and trussed slaves, both male and female, knelt on the platform, trembling, waiting to be tossed into the crowd like hunks of raw meat.

The drumbeats reached a deafening crescendo then ceased.

Balam strode to the front of the platform, dragging her by a rope around her neck tied to the hammered gold belt circling his waist. She had no choice but to crawl along at his heels, naked, or be strangled.

He wore only the gold belt, an animal skin slung around his hips, and a floor-length cloak of huge feathers in shocking red and purple, iridescent blue and dazzling emerald green. Around his neck hung an elaborate necklace of gold links strung with fangs and claws and other severed bits of creatures, not all of them from the animal kingdom. In his arms he carried the limp body of a young man, cradling him like a child sound asleep.

He stopped and raised the corpse high above his head.

“My people! Behold the body of my only son, Lord Atun. He will journey tonight through this fire to the underworld, along with these beasts, food enough to host all the gods who dwell there to a royal feast. He will not go alone. These twenty-four slaves will accompany him, to see to his every need in the afterlife.

“My son can never take his rightful place before you. The gods have stolen him from me. Atun will never be your lord. Though you cannot serve him in life, he is my son, and I command you to serve him this night in death.”

He paused. “The slaves you see before you are unfit to accompany him. They are untrained in the ways of satisfying a Tabun master. Tonight, I give them to you. Use them. Fill all their holes. Teach them submission before I send them on their way. Prepare them to serve their lord Atun for all eternity.”

The crowd roared, surged forward. Ten men stepped in front of the platform, blocking their way, each blowing an ominous low note on a massive animal horn. The Tabun halted in their tracks, obviously well trained by Balam.

He laid his son’s body on the platform.

Then he yanked on the rope around Selena’s neck, pulled her upright on her knees. “Behold this evil sorceress! She holds the power to breathe life back into Atun. But she showed him no mercy. She refused. Condemned him to the underworld.”

He raised his voice. “Before I can mourn my son, I must avenge his death. I call upon gods and mortals alike – witness here the wrath of Lord Balam! I will impale this wicked creature before you, that all may watch her cry out in shame and agony as I plunge my mighty rod into her over and over without mercy. Then I will bind her to my son’s empty throne and whip her before I cast her into the fire with him while her heart still beats.”

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