Chapter 82 Portents of Punishment
When Chiang Chan signaled to his men to seize her, Ming-tsu let go of the
rings and made another bolt for freedom, taking one or two quick strides toward
a column, hoping to lay her hands on one of the torches again. But, somewhat
encumbered by the panties around her upper thighs, she was not quick enough and
almost instantly she felt the crushing force of the Ox's mighty plet across her
back.
"Get her!"
The ravishing dark-haired concubine staggered under the blow, and then
tried to right herself, just in time to feel Lin's many-tongued whip searing her
right shoulderblade. Fighting off the pain, she staggered bravely forward only
to be confronted by an ominous gaptoothed figure who had stepped forward to
block her path . The gaptoothed Scorpion growled, "Not this time, whore!" and
swung his knotted scourge at her chest.
"Aaaiiiiaahh!" Ming-tsu cried out as she raised her arms defensively, just
managing to protect her breasts, but allowing the lower tails of the flogger to
rake across her arms and midriff, burning her amber-gold flesh from ribcage to
ribcage.
In the brief moment that she had hesitated, Lin dropped his whip and
grabbed her by the left arm. She turned toward the leering teenager and kicked
out at him wildly, only to feel the strands of Dao's whip wrap around her right
side, its punishing knots straining to reach the soft outer curve of her right
breast but falling just short. Then the Ox grabbed her by the other wrist and,
holding it at arm's length from her beautiful body, twisted it painfully while
Lin tightened his grip on her other arm.
Ming-tsu struggled desperately to extricate herself from the clutches of
the pair of Scorpions, but she was no match for their strength, and soon they
had jerked her around so that she faced the one whom she feared the most.
Dao, his lip curled back in a frightful sneer, drew back his punishing whip
again; with his comrades holding her wrists, Ming-tsu's beautifully-nippled
breasts were defenseless.
Correctly divining Dao's malevolent design, the raven-haired concubine
frantically threw her body forward and downward, falling to her knees and
lowering her head in an attempt to cheat Dao of his luscious targets.
"Hold still, whore!" the thuggish Scorpion cursed. Dao bent down and
seized a rich handful of Ming-tsu's ebony tresses, hoping to lift her head and
give her sweat-sheened love-globes, still untouched by the whip, their first
taste of the lash.
But at the last moment Chiang Chan put his hand on his arm. "Patience, my
friend. Does not the proverb teach us that with time and patience the mulberry
leaf becomes a silken gown?"
Dow, frustrated but obedient even in his surliness, reluctantly lowered his
whip while Chiang continued. "Patience is a bitter plant, but it bears sweet
fruit."
The heir to the House of Chan doubled up his coiled whip and slid it down
between the kneeling courtesan's shuddering breasts, gently tapping their inner
curves. "Sweet fruits indeed," he said in a voice that made Ming-tzu's blood
run cold. Chiang's amorous gaze drank in the nakedness of his kneeling
prisoner; he understood Dao's lust; his own manhood throbbed with dark desire.
"But the longer we defer our hunger, my friend, the sweeter the fruit shall
taste."
"I promise you," Chiang added as he glanced meaningfully toward Dao's Dao's
dreadful knotted whip and then at Ming-tsu's dark-nippled pleasure-globes, "that
you shall enjoy those fruits to your heart's content before the day is done."
A wolfish leer of exultation crossed Dao's face as he winked at the Ox,
whose massive erection seemed to swell at the thought, and then at the grinning
face of Lin the Drooler.
"Do you hear that, sweetie?" Lin taunted his helpless captive. "Honey, me
and the boys are going to have us a real party today!" He wiped hastily at the
corner of his mouth. "And you're going to be guest of honor!"
Ming-tsu's heart sank upon hearing Chiang Chan's portentous words.
Meanwhile, towering above her, Chiang returned his gaze to the beautiful,
fiery-eyed courtesan at his feet, coiling up his whip as he did so. "So you are
still intent on escaping your devoted admirers," he sneered mockingly. "You fell
to your knees in less time than it takes the emperor to clap his hands,
Ming-tsu; it must have taken much practice to master such a maneuver." Chiang
Chan smiled sardonically down at his father's lover. "How many times have you
fallen to your knees for my father, wench?"
Ming-tsu fired dark-eyed daggers of fury at her lover's son.
"On your feet, wench! There'll be plenty of time for you to be on your
knees later."
The Ox and the Drooler jerked Ming-tsu joltingly back to her feet as Chiang
Chan continued. "Lin, why don't you remove those ridiculous-looking panties?"
The black wisp of silk did indeed look ludicrous, Dao thought, bunched as
it was like a confused belt around Ming-tsu's satiny-soft upper thighs. Lin
fell to his knees in front of her, studying every detail of Ming-tsu's enticing
pussy, intoxicated by the scent of orange blossom that seemed to envelop her
femininity.
The captive courtesan felt the boy's adolescent hot and ragged breath
between her legs, as he slowly eased the garment down her smooth legs, his
slender fingers tracing sensuous outlines along her thighs. When he reached a
point just above her knees, the panties slipped through his hands and fell to
her ankles like a wounded bird.
Ming-tsu stepped out of the garment, her last link to normalcy, with the
defiant resignation of one who has taken the final step away from a civilized
world and has entered a barbaric realm, nude, helpless, and alone. A dark,
cruel world in which mercy is unknown and which knows no north, no south, no
east, no west. A world in which the directions at every crossroads point only to
slavery, bondage, torture, or rape.
"Ming-tsu, your foolish attempt to escape tells me that I have been far
too lenient with you, leaving you unbound as I have." Chiang Chan reached
forward, and using his sturdy whip-stock, placed it against the jade-colored
hilt of the needle that Dao had plunged into the inner curve of her breast.
Chiang Chan's brow furrowed for a moment and Ming-tsu detected a subtle
tightening in his jaw a split-second before he tapped the improvised mallet
against the needle-hilt, causing a fresh lancet of pain to shoot through her
tender breast.
"Aah! Aiiihh!" Ming-tsu moaned miserably as Chiang Chan struck the
sparkling green pinhead a second and then a third time.
"Since you clearly do not appreciate freedom, we shall see how you enjoy
restraint. Take her to the pedestal, Zheng," Chiang Chan said, indicating a
U-shaped pedestal situated midway between a pair of pillars on the other side of
the dungeon.
As the Ox muscled Ming-tsu around, Dao scolded her, "Be quick about it,
girl!" as he lashed the dark-eyed beauty across the backs of her legs, thus
driving her in the desired direction.
