Chapter One
Lena spoke in hushed, dramatic tones. The girls giggled around her.
“Father said a Dragon Master may show up to the Choosing Block, but I’m not to worry.”
She looked worried, though. She was the Lord’s daughter, so many attended to her preparation with extra care. Her skin was bathed in rich, sweet oil, and soft silks draped over her limbs.
I, nothing but a servant’s daughter, was surrounded by the same silks, riches that supposedly made me equal in rank to any other woman on the Choosing Block in the morning. But I could expect only the least of men to choose me; the phallus within me would give my rank away. Equality among women until the Choosing was mostly a theory. In practice, those who have are always set above those who do not have.
By tomorrow evening, the fabric that shone around me, the oil that silkened my skin, and the little girl pulling and tugging my hair would all be gone, leaving me to a life of squalor with some greasy man who wanted me only for my service to him and his house—shack, more like.
The girls attending us giggled and chattered. To them we were old, women of twenty years, grown and prepared to leave the Wise Women’s care. We were off to a whole new life, a whole new adventure.
I found I couldn’t share their excitement.
“A Dragon Master!” cried the girl braiding my hair. In her surprise, she tugged my hair so hard that tears burst into my eyes.
“Haya!” I snapped at her, taking my braid from her careless hands. “Dragon Masters are as rare as dragons. It’s highly unlikely one will come to our Choosing, out of all the Choosings tomorrow in all the land.”
Haya touched my shoulder in apology, the only attention she could manage me when confronted with stories of a Dragon Master. She turned back to Lena. “But how can you not worry? Dragon Masters have first pick!”
“Why?” asked the freckle-faced Jinn, only ten years old. “Why does he have first pick?”
I explained. “Because they protect our land from Outsiders, and—” I lowered my voice dramatically “—from the Night Wanderers.” After eliciting the gasps of the young ones, I continued. “Without Dragon Masters, the Lords would have no holdings.”
One of the older girls—but still too young for the Choosing—said, “They say they ride their women as hard as their dragons.” Several of the young girls went wide-eyed. All of those being chosen feigned nonchalance.
All the girls started talking at once. “They say that they ride their women to death.”
“That’s why they have so many!”
“I heard they take four and five women as their own, sometimes.”
“Sometimes they sell their wives as they do their dragons, for gold.”
“Or if a wife displeases, they cast her off into the wild, without even returning her to her father.”
Haya completely abandoned my hair and took a seat before Lena. “But have you ever seen one? I heard they were handsome.” She giggled. I smacked her shoulder, but more affectionately than reproachfully. I spent my years with the Wise Women annoyed that Haya constantly followed me, chirping questions incessantly. But after tomorrow, I’d never see her again. The thought made my throat sore and drew tears to my eyes, so I smacked her shoulder again, harder.
She settled down and leaned herself against me. I worked my fingers through her thick hair, trying to get through the knots so I could braid it, just as she liked.
“I’ve seen one,” said Daniella, quietly. She would be one of seven of us standing on the Choosing Block in the morning. She was poor, like me, but she possessed grace, with a face softened by a shy smile and sparkling eyes. Many men would overlook the wooden phallus seated within her tomorrow.
We all stopped and stared at her. She blushed a little at the attention, and busied her hands by braiding Lena’s hair.
“I’ve seen one,” she repeated in her soft, soothing voice. “Before I was sent here, when I was only six. I only remember he was big, tall, and angry. His dragon burnt our barn to the ground, and my father trembled, even as he tried to shield me from the Dragon Master.”
We all gulped, collectively.
Jin swung her head up, her braids knocking against her cheeks. “Why did he burn your barn down?”
Daniella shrugged, resumed her braiding as if she’d had enough of being the center of attention. “I never knew. We rebuilt the barn, and my father never spoke of it again.”
Lena spoke again, sadly. “I heard they have a heart that cannot love.”
Wise Woman Bella entered, with a scoff at Lena’s remark. All the young girls of Khys were schooled in the arts of seduction and housekeeping, trained from the age of six, away from their family, for one purpose only: to be a good wife. We were chosen on a block, with no room for notions of love.
But what girl doesn’t dream of love?
Love, however, was not included in the ritual of our Choosing. Tonight we would be “broken” for our future husbands, then lined up on the Choosing Block for selection by the men of age.
They chose in particular order: the richest of them chose first, and they usually chose the richest of girls, although the women were supposed to be equal on that day, without rank. The poorest were matched with the poorest, unless there was a particular beauty that catches a rich man’s eye.
My kindred spirit and the sister of my soul, Lena, hadn’t met my eyes all day. Did it matter? After the ceremony, she would be swept off to the high court, and I would be pushed down to the fields, destined to live my life working from dawn to dusk for food and shelter in a tiny hut. It was unlikely we would ever see each other again.
Wise Woman Bella strutted over to me and rapped the top of my head sharply. “You call this preparation?” She took a seat behind me and pulled a small piece of my hair until tears rushed in me eyes. “Sierra! Sit up!” she tugged more sharply. “If you are not pretty in the morning, who will have you? No man will claim you, and you will be left to a life working laundry from sunrise to sunset.”
The girls disbanded to their duties when she sent them a sharp glance.
I sighed. “I’m already condemned to such a life. What’s the difference between the laundry and the fields? Work, work, work.”
“How will they know you are a servant’s daughter?” she demanded. “They will see your pretty figure, pretty eyes, and what man won’t forget the phallus you wear?”
I sighed. “Any man will take one look and move on.” Rarely, if ever, did a rich man choose a poor woman. I would be no different, I knew. I am not, by any means, pretty. I am blessed in that I am not ugly, but I am not so fair as to attract a man ranked higher than me.
She laughed her old laugh. “What is that you want, Sierra? A man with lands to call his own? A Lord, perhaps?”
I gestured towards the giggling girls who were young enough to think Choosing Day was the most fun day of the whole year. “When I was their age, I thought life would be full of so many different possibilities. I believed in the hope and ‘equality’ of Choosing, where anything can happen. Now here I am, on the eve of all that I had dreamed of, and I realize I am only taking the first step into a life that will be the same, day after day after day.”
I finally met Lena’s eyes across the room. She smiled sadly, but she looked lovely. They’d already finished with her hair, and she looked regal in her long cream silks and golden jewelry.
With another painful tug, the Wise Woman finished with my hair.
***
By sundown, the younger girls had gone to bed, and the seven of us were lined up for the Lord’s inspection. Like a horse, we were to be ‘broken’ that night, in preparation for our husbands. As his right, the Lord was allowed to break any of us. They told us it would be better to be broken by him than by our phalluses.
If that were true, why were all of us trembling?
Except, that is, Lena, whose eyes lit up when the Lord entered.
“Father!” she cried. She jumped out of line and ran to him, wrapping her arms around him.
He beamed at her. “Walk with me, daughter.”
We stayed in position, lined up in much the same way we would be lined up in the morning. I wondered what the Breaking would be like. They’d told us it was a rite of passage, something to look forward to, even though it might hurt a little.
I wasn’t looking forward to any of it. Life with the Wise Women was far better than the hunger I remembered with my Father and Mother. Even though I’d only been six when I left, I remembered the wrinkles etched on their faces, the sad, drawn lines of hardship and toil. How could I look forward to a return to that life?
A few started whispering while we waited for the Lord’s return. Wise Woman Bella walked in front of our line, a switch in her hand.
“If you bear the welts of the switch tomorrow, no man will choose you. They will see your disobedience, and you will be left Unchosen, doomed to work the Laundry—”
I interrupted with a scoff. The threat of a life in the Laundry had worn off when I was sixteen. I would go eagerly, if never to hear about the supposed horrors of the Laundry again.
She glared at me. “There’s always one,” she said. “Turn around.”
While I had no fear of the Laundry, I did fear her switch. My throat constricted and my eyes filled up, even before she lifted my silks and snapped the switch across my bottom.
The silks were dropped, and I was pushed back in line before I even had a chance to whimper. I struggled not to make a sound, and not to give her the reward of a tear. For all my words, I hadn’t wanted to stand on the Choosing Block with the shame of a welt, for all to see.
It was unlikely my Father or Mother would come, as they had never been to see me since they left me with the Wise Women. For all I knew, they were dead. More likely, their Lord would not allow them the travel. I had hoped to see them, but now I hoped they would not come to see my shame.
The Lord returned, and Lena took her place in line once more. She was the only one of us who seemed excited about tomorrow.
The Lord turned to all of us, smoothing his goatee. He walked to the end of the line, inspecting each of us individually. When he stopped in front of me, he frowned.
“You are distinctively unremarkable. It almost makes you pretty.”
I bowed my head, “Thank you, milord.”
He frowned at the next girl, then at the next, and stopped at Daniella.
She trembled so visibly, my heart broke. He turned her this way and that. “Remove your silks, young sprite.” Big tears bubbled over and slid down her cheeks.
I stepped forward. “No, milord! Leave her be. Take me instead.”
At his murderous glare, I stepped back. “Please,” I added in a tiny, trembling voice.
Wise Woman Bella stepped forward, switch in hand.
“No!” he commanded. He turned towards me curiously. “Are you jealous, plain one?”
I stuck my chin up to counteract my fear. “No, milord.”
“You want sent to live out your days working in the laundry, until your hands are shriveled into cracked, aching appendages that hurt so bad you want to cut them off?”
Maybe when the Wise Women threatened such things, I rolled my eyes. When the Lord of Khys threatened it, I could hardly breathe. I dropped my gaze to his feet. “No, milord.”
“Father!” Lena stepped forward, her eyes bright with tears and worry. “Sierra is my friend.” She bit her lip. “Please, father, she is nervous. We’re all nervous.”
For the first time, he frowned at his daughter. He passed his gaze over all of us, and without a word, he pivoted on his heel and left.
We breathed a sigh of relief, even though we didn’t even know what we had escaped.
A minute later, fourteen servants came in, carrying our phalluses and silk ties. The Wise Woman ordered us to our beds, to spread our legs and be quiet. Two servants took up post at the foot of my bed, one holding strips of silk cloth, and the other holding the phallus my father had made for me. Plain and wooden, it would only be removed by my husband when he saw fit.
“Anyone caught riding their pillows will be switched with marks to humiliate you on the Choosing Block.”
We all just gaped at her. Why would we ride a pillow?
I looked around the room, and eyed the other phalluses. Even Daniella’s phallus, though wooden, was decorated with fancy carving and stained with pretty colors. Lena’s phallus was better than all of ours, made of ivory with a jeweled base. Long, flowing threads of golden silk stretched out the end, with more jewels sewed into the fabric.
Then it all went very fast. The two servants assigned to me spread my legs, then tied them apart to the bedposts. Within seconds, the Wise Woman stood before me. I tried to sit up, but servants held me down.
“Relax,” she said. “Better for it to hurt now, than when your husband beds you.”
She dropped a thick glop of slippery liquid between my legs, then spread more of it on my phallus. “This will keep the wood from drying out, at least for the next day or so. I’d make certain your husband removes it as soon as you return to his home, or it will be a painful extraction.”
I only gulped, and tried not to shame myself by crying out. I couldn’t keep from trembling, though. I had hoped someone else would be first, so I could know what to expect.
When she leaned down between my legs, I held my breath. When I felt the coolness of the phallus touch my exposed cavity, I cried out.
“Stop fighting it!” she said, rapping my inner thigh sharply. “I’ve not the time.” Then she pushed it in a little, and pulled it out. Tears ran down my face as she lined it up for a second intrusion.
“Better quickly and over with,” she said. With a single push, she seated it all the way in. I cried from a sharp pain that ripped my insides in two. She secured it with more silk, tying the cloths tightly around my thighs, waist, and between my legs as I struggled against the pain.
I just cried, and hardly heard the other girls endure their own ordeals, so fixed was I on my own pain.
After awhile, the pain lost its bite, gentled to a hot soreness.
The Wise Woman, finished with the last of us, dragged in one of the servant girls. “Sit up!” she commanded to us, sharply.
“You touch yourselves, you will be switched as I am switching Minsy, here. You will stand on the block with fresh marks, and all the men will know you are disobedient and willful, good for nothing but a life working the Laundry!”
I have no idea if Minsy had done anything wrong or if she was just being used as an example, but the Wise Woman lifted her skirt and snapped the switch across her small, trembling bottom. Not a few times, but many times, striping her from her ankles to her waist.
Minsy sobbed with abandon, and we watched, stunned. Just yesterday, life had been one predictable routine, day after day, with one predictable routine.
Now, even the Wise Women were behaving strangely.
Minsy ran sobbing from the room as soon as the Wise Woman was finished. She frowned at each of us in turn, then blew out all the candles but two.
As she finally left us, something in me relaxed and grew warm. The air seemed hotter for the darkness, and no one was sleeping. None of us spoke, and none of us slept. We could hear each other breathing, could feel the way the very air moved across our skin.
It became a labor to breathe normally. By morning, we were all flushed and hot.
We were untied, and the Wise Woman Bella inspected us, one by one. She parted my silks and inspected my bottom. “It seems,” she said kindly, “that the welt I gave you last night has faded. See that you don’t earn another one.”
Tears rushed to my eyes and a sob burst up from my throat. I scrunched my eyes shut but it was no use. I started crying.
The Wise Woman clucked, gathered me in her arms. “Peace there, child. We have taught you to love service and to love keeping order. It will not matter the man that chooses you. The joy will be the same.”
I whispered, “I will miss you, Wise Woman.”
***
It was hard not to get excited as we walked through town. Men and women clapped and cheered, and young children threw flowers at our feet. Some girls even ran along side us as we made our way to the block, pointing and admiring us all the way.
A huge crowd gathered in front of the Block, their faces lively and happy. Even I was smiling, though I didn’t know why. The Priest of the gods stood and spoke for a short while, talking of partnerships and marriage and long lives and such. I scanned the crowd, both looking for my parents and wondering which of the men were here to choose us.
The Priest walked up on the Block, and finally called out to the crowd. “Let all who would Choose today, step forward!”
We were supposed to look out at the trees, not at the men. We were told we were not to study them as if they were on the Block, but I couldn’t help several peeks. Only four men stepped forward, and they ordered themselves by rank.
One man, rich and ugly. Another, clean and big, but not rich. Two more, clearly from the fields.
Only four. Three of us would be sent to the Laundry today. My hope died.
Then it got worse.
The air in front of the men rippled and steamed. Everyone gasped and stepped back. A second later, a great beast ripped the air, landing with a flash of fire. A Dragon Master jumped from its back.
His eyes flashed black and fiery as he strode up the platform. “I will choose one, today.”
His voice thundered over us, and it was all we could do not to run. He didn’t even bow his head to the Priest, or wait for his blessing.
The great beast shuddered as it inhaled its own fire. All seven of us drew back, trembling. The Master’s boots seemed to shake the platform as he walked in front of us.
By law, Dragon Masters were given first pick amongst the women, but it was no honor to be chosen. A life spent serving a dragon master was one spent in harsh servitude. Some said they rode their women as they rode their dragons, and what woman could survive that?
He ordered us all to turn around, and not a single one of us—not even Lena—dared defy him. One by one, he lifted our skirts and bent us over, studying the protruding bases of our phalluses. I expected nothing but scorn. Only daughters of servants and slaves were broken with wood, and the poorest of them were broken with plain wood.
A dragon master would not pick me, thank the gods, but I still held my breath when he lifted my skirt. The phallus shifted within me as he brought his hand between my legs. He made a slight “pfft” sound as he brushed my skirt down again, as if that mere second of dealing with me had been a waste of his time.
As soon as he came to Lena, he pulled her out of the line. Turning her towards us, he ordered her, “Pick one to be your servant.” She trembled all over, her eyes searching for mine, looking for comfort. I don’t even think she heard him. Her gaze fixed on me, her expression one of desperation and fear.
But I couldn’t save her from the Dragon Master. No one could.
He followed her gaze. “You,” he said, pointing at me. “You will come.”
Lena made a squeaking sound, her head shaking back and forth in denial. “Not Sierra!” she cried, but the Dragon Master ignored her.
He held her upper arm as he half-guided, half-dragged her back to his Dragon. The spirit of celebration just drained from the crowd, and everyone stared in silent fear and shock. Most people went an entire lifetime without ever seeing a Dragon Master and his beast.
He led us to his beast, a massive, scaly, muddy green that looked as that stood the height of two men. Its scaly, hard, crusty exterior creaked as it breathed.
I stopped just behind him, afraid.
He turned. “Up you go,” he commanded, with a harsh slap to my shoulder.
I reached out towards the beast, touching my finger to its thick scales. I gasped at the coldness of the dragon’s skin. With the way it glimmered in the sunlight, I’d expected it to scald my fingers.
“They say that even the Dragon Masters have been killed by their dragons.” I looked up at him, hoping for a kind word. Just then, the dragon creaked its head around to peer at me. His eyes were as big as my fist, his head half as big as me. I starting running backwards, and squealed when I hit the Master’s hard chest.
He picked me up and set me away from him. He watched me tremble, without caring at all for my fear. “A dragon is very much like a woman.” And then he gave me a push toward the dragon, followed by a smack on the bottom to motivate me to get on the awful beast.
The dragon still eyed me, its thick nostrils widening a little with each breath it took. Its eyes were a silvery black, and all I could think of was Daniella’s story about the dragon who burnt her barn to the ground.
It took me a moment to decide who to fear the most: this frightening beast, or the man who commanded such a beast? I chose to fear the man, and scurried up the rope ladder hanging off the saddle.
I trembled all the way, and feared I’d throw up. I threw my legs astride over the third seat in the creaking leather saddle, the phallus within me shifting dry and painful. I gripped the handles for dear life.
I alone was seated on the beast. If he took off now, I would be alone with the Dragon. Its breathing rocked the saddle slightly, and I had to grip with my legs to keep my balance. Lena followed me up the makeshift ladder, and the Dragon Master strapped her in with some leather contraption.
I waited for a similar comfort, but he tapped my chin harshly.
“I have only one harness. If you let go, you’ll fall and die.” He said it as if he didn’t care, as if it were only a simple decision I had to make and not a feat of will, an ordeal of terror. I looked to the ground. It was already a bruising fall, but soon we would be flying high above the trees.
I swallowed and nodded, tears running down my cheeks. I gripped the handles even tighter as he took the first seat in the long saddle and picked up the reins. With one great, jarring heave, the beast lurched up into the air, its wings reaching wide to flap us away, to a world of horrors we couldn’t even imagine.
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