Swords with Souls: Madame Swan B15

Madame Swan

(Swords with Souls)

Cover by Darren Joy

Dark Fantasy Fiction

(Adult content)

She takes out another board and carefully writes down the current cost of potatoes, peas, wheat, eggs, and wine. Girls come to the brothel from all over with all shades of skin, and hair colour and styles. Some have round eyes, other slightly bulging eyes, and others with slanted or almond shaped eyes. Some are curvy, busty, flat chested, and in-between. The more exotic the girls look, the more business they attract. However, the differences were becoming blurred as people got used to the foreign girls. If they had children the difference became even less inconspicuous. Above all, attitude brings patrons back. A patron wants to feel special. Some of the foreign girls told her of their own country’s ideas of sexual fantasies. Some of these she encouraged, others she found debaucherous and forbid. Patrons who liked to belittle, degrade, or strangle girls were quickly removed and never allowed back.

A few years ago, a girl from the Black Forest, where the canopy is so thick that light rarely reaches the ground, was captured and sexually abused by some of the king’s own soldiers. This continued until a ranger named Crimthann, an uncle of Sir Oliver, found her tied and locked in a makeshift cage. He brought her to the brothel. When she saw him, she gasped. His hands and forearms were covered in bite marks, and there were scratches all around his eyes. The girl’s hands and feet were bound and her mouth gagged. ‘Didn’t know where else to take her,’ he said in a desperate voice. ‘She needs somewhere safe to go and she’s been terribly abused. Didn’t want to tie her up but she was insisted on attacking me,’ he finished in a tone mixed with frustration and rage.

She and the other girls spent two days feeding, and speaking gently to the girl before she began to trust them. Crimthann had re-bandaged the arrow hole in the girl’s right thigh and left arm as best he could. Whoever the soldiers were, they had shot her than yanked the arrows out. The wounds were just beginning to fester, so they must have used alcohol initially. But Crimthann didn’t believe the bandages had been changed since they captured her. Her wrists and ankles were full of sores from where they tied her to the cage’s bars. Initially, she could hardly walk from what the soldiers had done to her. For a week the chamber pot she used had blood in it. After a full moon cycle of changing bandages and coating the wounds with poultices, the girl pointed at her chest and called herself Endellion. Using an oak staff, the girl forced herself to walk again.

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Swords with Souls: Madame Swan B14

Madame Swan

(Swords with Souls)

Cover by Darren Joy

Dark Fantasy Fiction

(Adult content)

The only thing keeping the brothel going was that patrons know the girls are experts in the art of pleasure. Before she took over the brothel, the original madame made it clear any man with a phallus that was warty, discolored, or had any other sign of sickness, would be turned away. Madame Raven, so named for her beady eyes, suspicious demeanor, and slick black hair had her two sons work as sentries. Rumours said that their father was a nobleman, and would not claim his bastard sons but paid for their training and weapons.

She smiles at the memory. Devon and Hank’s sons, Carl and Richard, were now her sentries. It was Devon and Hank who gave her the moniker Madame Swan. It started when she lay with one or the other. Devon first called her Lady Swan but that name would be an afront to the nobility, so she told him not to. Stroking her bare thigh, he had whispered with a knowing smile, ‘My Swan. Tall and sensuous.’ He must have told his brother for Hank started calling her ‘My Swan’ as well. Every time one of them said it to her it made her giggle shyly. Once she took over the brothel from the failing Madame Raven, both brothers started calling her Madame Swan.

She glances down at the wooden board she uses as a ledger. Taking up a piece of chalk she draws a penis and beside the image writes ten X’s side-by-side. Underneath, she draws the image of a lamb with a capital C beside it. A hundred lambskin condoms should be enough for a fortnight. She would also need Queen Anne’s Lace for the girls who didn’t like the feel of the condoms or the patrons who wouldn’t wear them but promised to pull out. Since the population was decimated by the plague aborting a pregnancy was punishable by death.

Places of worship were being used now for schools to teach children how to read and write along with addition and subtraction. She wishes she could have gone to a school. However, she also heard the main function of the school was to indoctrinate the students. Every day, before they started school they were to chant: “The King is great; the King is noble; the noblest of all. The King is wise; the wisest of all. We must obey the King; we want to obey the King; the King is our salvation from all that is vile.” She had covered her face with her hands as she rolled her eyes after one of the patrons told her. It was important to never outwardly show disrespect to the nobility, especially the king.

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Souls with Swords: Madame Swan B13

Madame Swan

(Swords with Souls)

Cover by Darren Joy

Dark Fantasy Fiction

(Adult content)

Within a year she had arrived at the kingdom of Damp Wind. The current king’s father ruled then. She remembers the first time she saw King Charles. Very tall and gangly. Unhappy, it seems with marrying one of his noble born cousins, he had married a merchant’s daughter named Catherine instead. Whereas, King Charles was simple and preferred to hunt and rut rather than rule, Catherine was shrewd and manipulative. While the old king visited the brothel, she found herself working for, Catherine had forests cut down to make gardens, open lawns, and roads for merchants and travelers. Queen Catherine argued that open lawns and vast gardens allowed guards to easily see approaching enemies.

She had lain with the old king a few times. He was always inebriated and complaining how his wife let him enter her only until she gave birth. The present king, Leopold, most certainly took after his mother when it came to shrewdness. He also came to the brothel when he was of age but stopped when he fell head over heels for the current queen.

Over the years she had learned to read people’s expressions and actions. And how society would react to certain events; such as Prince Williams right hand being lopped off by Sir Ganbold.

She desperately wanted some Camomile tea to relax her nerves but her supplies were dwindling and she didn’t know when the merchants would cross the sea to bring more. Money was getting short. With so many men dead from the latest king’s wars and having to guard the borders, women were now competing to mate with the healthier men. The brothel, a place where women of questionable character worked, was being replaced by willing women seeking a fertile lover.

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Swords with Souls: Madame Swan B12

Madame Swan

(Swords with Souls)

Cover by Darren Joy

Dark Fantasy Fiction

(Adult content)

Her father, a cobbler died when she was around nine and her younger brother barely six. Their mother was tall and attractive. Soon after, a man started coming round. At first, he seemed nice. A burly man with a thick crop of brown hair and thick black eyebrows. He was a tanner by trade. Their mother married him soon after. Almost the next day he made sure their mother knew that her brats were to keep quiet and more-or-less be invisible. By law, he took over the house, land, and their mother.

When she reached twelve, town folks said she was the spitting image of her mother. Her brother also had long eyelashes, and when their stepfather decided to visit her when he thought their mother was asleep, she worried he would do the same to her brother. She didn’t put up a fuss to keep him from turning his attention to her brother. Shortly afterwards, the first wave of the pox came over the land. It took her brother and her mother. The next day her stepfather decided that he would share her with other men for a price. After a week she stole his money and ran. He did give her one thing, a talent that was always sought after. It was the only thing she knew how to do in order to survive. How she lasted so long without getting a disease or pregnant is a miracle.

In time, she came across a caravan of people known as the Romani, with their colorful outfits and numerous skills. She tried to seduce one of the middle-aged men, named Damian. Phoebe was a beautiful name she had heard another girl called. In a sweet, sensuous voice she told him that was her name. He had held her back at arm lengths and began to weep. In his broken English he told her she reminded him of the daughters he had lost to the plague. He denied her touch but gave her something else. The understanding of money and more. For three years she helped sell clothing, shoes, and curved knives that these people either made or bartered for. Damian let her keep some money, which she stored in an inside pocket she had sewn herself, and the necklace his eldest daughter had once worn.

One of the ladies named Alifair taught her how to sew and the secrets of mixing herbs, including a contraceptive. Damian had just begun to teach her the art of knife fighting and the cross-bow when the caravan was attacked. He had her hide in a pile of clothing as he took out a small cross-bow. Later, she found his corpse between two of the wagons. He had been gutted by a spear. The caravan had fought off the attackers but there was hardly anyone left. Alifair was also lost to her. She saw the survivors hurry with their goods into a nearby woods.  She took Damian’s curved warrior’s knife, shoulder satchel of coins, and a bag filled with salted fish before fleeing herself.

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Swords with Souls: Madame Swan B11

Madame Swan

(Swords with Souls)

Cover by Darren Joy

Dark Fantasy Fiction

(Adult content)

For how many years had she been doing this? She believes she is in her late forties. Perhaps ten years younger than the old king whose calendar years she based her own age on. Royal birthdays are the only ones that are publicly observed. People often gloat that their birthday is the same day as a particular nobles’, or that they were born so many days before or after.  

She knows from the familiar stares of the patrons that she’s still attractive. Her voice is a little deeper, and her face, with only a few wrinkles around the eyes and mouth, can still enchant. Not bad considering her lifetime of experiences so far. Her bosom, always looking as if it’s about to fall out of her dress, either draws jealousy or lust. The jewellery she wears around her neck is strategically placed to draw the eyes to the mysterious of what her dress does cover. The slit up the right side of the dresses she often wears isn’t just for easier movement. And the scented oils she buys from Celima, the Perfumery, are just the right strength to draw people closer. She loves wearing earrings that highlight her sparkling sky-blue eyes. Someday, she might have to just manage, but not while she can get aroused and use decades of years of experience to arouse. Though she has to admit to herself, nowadays it’s less about personal satisfaction, and more about teasing out another’s pleasure.

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Swords with Souls: Madame Swan B10

Madame Swan

(Swords with Souls)

Cover by Darren Joy

Dark Fantasy Fiction

(Adult content)

Madame Swan is sitting in the backroom of her brothel, Savory Moments, counting coins when Delphia bursts into the room. Madame Swan looks up and asks, “What’s wrong?”

“Everyone is talking about it!” Delphia blurts out. “Sir Ganbold cut off Prince James’ hand. He also killed Baron Rupert!”

Madame Swan brushes past Delphia and pulls back the blinds from the main hall window. She peers out and sees a crowd gathering in the street. For a moment she sees Sir Oisin on his horse in the midst of the crowd before he forces his way through. King Leopold will be in a rage but nothing compared to the Queen. She tries to picture Sir Ganbold’s face. He has never entered her brothel. She remembers his hair was black and so were his eyes, as if all he had was one large pupil and no iris. His skin was tanned and creased with weather wrinkles. A northeasterner from across the sea. She turns to Delphia, “Tell Erdenechimeg to go to the farm, now!”

She tries to think if there any other of the girls who might look like a female version of Sir Ganbold. There isn’t much time. Patrons would start arriving during the twilight. Always hooded, with their horses stabled somewhere else. Some would be soldiers or officers of the court.

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Swords with Souls: The Infiltrator B9

The Infiltrator

(Swords with Souls)

Cover by Darren Joy

Dark Fantasy Fiction

(Adult content)

They expect him to be as fertile as Baron Rupert. But they would be disappointed. As an exceptionally rare half breed it was unlikely he would ever plant a life inside them. His story about being abducted and tortured as a child was a lie. The desiccation of the top of his ears was a choice.

He splashes water infused with lavender from a wash bucket over his naked body to clean off the scent of sweat and sex. As he wipes himself off with what he hopes is a clean towel, he glances out the second storey window of the tavern. There’s great deal of chatter going on. He dresses and kisses the girls once more before hurrying down the stairs. Other women are on the main floor touching his arm to get his attention. He grins and apologizes that he must go but assures them he will be back. There will be other men willing to resolve their obsessive need to have babies. Sadly, the pox had stolen many of the men’s ability to have children.

His intention was to leave this very day. His ten years of observation were finally over.

As he enters the stable to collect his only real friend, Ronnin, an unusually large hackney horse, he hears talk of the prince spitting on Sir Ganbold’s face and losing his sword hand for it. He learns that the queen has demanded Sir Ganbold be brought in alive so he can have his hands severed while he watches the beheading of his wife and children. Then locked in a cell with the heads of his family on stakes just out of reach. His wife’s dead face staring at him while his children’s are turned away to show disgust at their heathen father. He also learns the king has proclaimed Sir Ganbold the murder of the king’s cousin, Baron Rupert.

What a mess he thinks as leaps onto Ronnin’s back. As he rides up to the castle’s gates, he forms a plan.

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Swords with Souls: The Infiltrator B8

The Infiltrator

(Swords with Souls)

Cover by Darren Joy

Dark Fantasy Fiction

(Adult content)

Sir Oisin pushes himself up until his bare back is against the bed’s headboard. The women on either side of him cuddle closer to him both reaching up to lay a hand on his chest. He strokes the soft hair of the auburn-haired girl to his right and simultaneously the blonde hair of the girl to his left. Neither are married. Married women have offered themselves to him but with much praising of their beauty and desirability he honorably refuses to lay with them. The angry scowl on their faces suggests there might be repercussions for his denial but better that than the wraith of their possessive husbands. He strokes the pox scarred face of the girl with auburn hair. He leans over and kisses her mouth before giving her a dazzling smile. Then he turns and does the same to the blonde-haired girl. He knows the real reason so many women want to share his bed. The former king’s wars against other nations have made the ratio of women to men ten to three.

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 [DW1]

Swords with Souls: The Sword Master B7

The Sword Master

(Swords with Souls)

Cover by Darren Joy

Dark Fantasy Fiction

(Adult content)

“The prince has baptized you, Sir Ganbold,” the king says with a nervous laugh.

He is confused by what happens next. Blood splatters his face and others. He has a vague awareness of Sir Ganbold rapidly marching out of the hall.

There is absolute silence in the hall until the prince screams out, “My sword hand!”

He instinctively draws out his sword as he wipes the blood from his face. Sir Olaf draws his sword and steps before the king. Sir Afamefuna rushes to the prince. In one sweeping movement he cuts off a section of his tunic, places his sword on the floor, and wraps the prince’s stump.

From the middle of the room, he hears the queen wailing, and to sum everything up, the king, looking pale and shocked says, “What just happened?”

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