PRETTY MAIDS ALL IN A ROW

(Contains: sorcery, non-consensual hanging, wet panties)

by C.

Now was the final showdown. In the main hall of Fortress Arkan, Evil, in the guise of Syldav the Sorcerer, met Good, in the form of mild-mannered Noam, part-time bookstore clerk and full-time history student. Noam had so far defeated the Sorcerer's every spell; but now they were face to face. Now the evil Mage raised his Wand of Power, with which he hoped to atomize this impudent intruder. The next few moments would spell victory for one, destruction for the other.

Huddling against one wall were the Sorcerer's five buxom minions: beautiful, full-bodied young witches dressed in the livery of Castle Arkan: white chemises, white panties, white pumps. Right now they were trying to make themselves as inconspicuous as girls with D cups could be. They sensed that a victory for Noam would mean doom for them, and the contest so far had gone against their master.

All were in an agony of suspense: their pulses were racing, their breath came in short gasps, they kept clutching reflexively at their ample cleavage. A strange tingling had started in each girl's groin and was slowly spreading through the rest of her body. Don't fail us, Master, they silently begged.

"Prepare to die, presumptuous boy!" shouted the Sorcerer. And with that he pointed the Wand straight at Noam's head. A burst of ectoplasmic energy shot forth. Surely Noam was finished.

But no! At the last possible moment, Noam dropped to his knees and pulled a small mirror from his pocket. The ectoplasm glanced off the glass surface, then hit a highly polished suit of armor in one of the corners. This reflected a good bit of the metaphysical magma right at Syldav. "Hunh?" he said, just before his head was obliterated by eldritch energy.

The five witches wet their panties and shrieked in dismay, then darted off as fast as their high heels could carry them. Noam ran to Syldav's diminished corpse and snatched up the Wand of Power. He drew a circle with it in the air. The circle hung there and became a silvery window, through which he could perceive shifting images. "Show me," he said. "Show me where they've gone!"

As the women ran, it occurred to one of them that they still had Cerberus. "Let's go to the kennel!" she said. "He'll protect us!" So that's where they went.

Noam saw them change course. The silver window told him where they were going and what they hoped to gain. He made a few intricate passes with the Wand and said: "Snare five pretty birds with their own stratagem! Turn their hopes to tears!" Then he set out, at a leisurely pace, for the kennel.

Deep in the roots of the castle, Noam found the kennel door ajar. From behind it he could hear high-pitched screams and pleas for mercy. Before he entered, he knew what he would see, but confronting it in the flesh still left him thunderstruck. Almost filling the room was what must be the largest dog in the world, easily twenty feet long and six or seven feet high at the shoulder. He had three massive heads, each more or less bulldoggish in shape, but far uglier than the head of a mere bulldog and bristling with several rows of dagger teeth. His tail was segmented and ended in a scorpion sting, now pointed menacingly forward above his ridged back.

In their panic, the witches had forgotten that whoever wielded the Wand was the dog's master. When they'd come dashing into the kennel, Cerberus had wasted no time herding them into a corner, and now held them at bay. Any effort to escape was cut off with a snap of the monster's tail. Knowing its venom meant sure and hurtful death, the witches soon gave up their efforts to flee and just clung to each other--screaming, crying, and begging Cerberus to remember they were friends.

"The beast obeys me now," said Noam. "Should I just give you to him?" In answer they wailed: "No, no, no!" "Then you'll have to let me tie your wrists." As he said this, he interposed himself between the monster and his cowering catch. He took rope from his knapsack, cut five lengths of the stuff, and bound each trembling girl's hands tightly behind her back. (Witches must obey every command of the one who binds them; there would be no more mad dashes tonight.) "Good work," he said to the dog. "Now it's off to your corner for a well-earned rest." The three faces gazed at him with reproachful disappointment, but the beast did as he was told.

One of the witches, an achingly ripe blonde, found her voice and said: "You've done us all a great service, young master. Syldav enslaved us years ago and made us do unspeakable things for him. We're really . . . ."

"Good try," he interrupted, "but I know you were his willing servants. And I know you were joining your power with his in an effort to kill me less than an hour ago. The Wand unmasks every lie; would you care to repeat your story with its business end pointed right at you?" The girl just looked sullen and said nothing.

"Whatever the rights or wrongs of it," said another girl, a delicious brunette, "you have us now. Can't we, um, be of some service to you? We have no small power, and a host of talents we'd love to put at the disposal of a young up-and-coming sorcerer like you. Not to mention a young, handsome sorcerer." At this, each girl contrived a dazzling smile.

Noam felt his trousers tightening, but he had to be strong. "You're all murderesses," he said. "You've all practiced the darkest arts and made love to demons. I've vanquished other witches before you, and there weren't any negotiations, any new arrangements. As beautiful as they were, they all paid the ultimate price for their wickedness, and so will you."

The girls shuddered at this, and one or two looked ready to cry; but the brunette kept her nerve. "You must be joking," she said. "You have five beautiful women at your disposal, ready to perform any supernatural assignment. You'd have to be mad not to spare us!"

Noam waved the Wand in front of his face and said: "Look into my eyes now; you won't doubt the truth of what you see." So they looked, and they saw: first, a young boy, his parents killed by evil sorcerers; next, a youthful crusader, sworn to rid the world of witchery; next, several captured witches, all beautiful, all dissolved in tears, their breasts and lower lips trembling, their wrists bound behind them, each girl imploring her stern young captor for mercy. Finally, they saw the young man curtly shake his head and tell their hapless predecessors "No." They understood now that they would not be spared, and they understood why.

But still they begged, falling to their knees: "Please, please, please! I don't want to die! I don't want to die! Oh, please! Oh God, oh dear God, please! Anything, anything at all, dear God!" Their litany went on like this for some time.

Finally, Noam said "Enough," and the entreaties stopped, replaced by convulsive little whimpers. "Get up," he ordered, and they did. Next he told them to move to the center of the room and stand there in a line. With bitter reluctance, they obeyed. He made a darting motion with the Wand, and five large blocks of wood appeared in front of them. "Stand on those," he commanded. Each girl raised a shapely leg and with some awkwardness climbed up onto a block. Another dart of the Wand, and five nooses dropped down from the kennel ceiling, one in front of each witch. Their eyes widened with terror. They shook their heads: no, no, no, no, no. They clearly wanted to scream, but Noam wouldn't permit it. He found a chair and used it to climb up behind each block in turn. He slipped nooses around every pretty neck and pulled them tight. Then he went back and stood in front of the doomed women.

"I sentence you to death," he said. "Is there anything you want to say?"

The brunette, who hadn't lost her haughtiness even now, said in a low voice, suffused with rage: "Enjoy yourself while you can, boy. Soon we'll be back from the Underworld for our revenge."

"Ah, a threatened return from the Underworld!" he laughed. "I've consulted the Encyclopaedia Maleficarum regarding vengeful revenants (we had it on our remainder table at work). It says: > To prevent a witch's return from Hell, first strip her, then dishonor her. Having done so, you may kill her with complete peace of mind. = " With these words, Noam strode over to the brunette and yanked her cold, soaked panties down to her trembling knees. Then he held her rear tightly with his left hand, while with his right he forced the Wand into her cunt as far as it would go.

One of Syldav's crueler customs was to renew his female servants' virginity every night, so that he could have the pleasure of breaking them over and over again. The brunette was as tight as a drumhead, and she screamed pitiably when her hymen was torn for the last time. Four more pairs of panties came down; four more shrill screams echoed in the kennel.

The condemned women said nothing more; they just stood there, their heads down, and wept with abandon. Noam stepped behind them once again and this time tipped over the blocks, one by one. Five lovely faces contorted in agony. Five lovely pairs of legs kicked and writhed, struggling for a foothold forever out of reach. The girls did their final bit of magic: the Multi-Orgasmic-Death-Spell. It took the better part of an hour, but at last they were through.

After he made sure that justice had been done, Noam looked slowly around him. "I'm master of all I survey," he said. No one answered. He ran his hands through his hair, then whistled a tune. That done, he paced back and forth for a time. Then he sighed: once, twice, thrice. For a while he pondered. "Damn it all to hell!" he shouted at last, and tapped the Wand five times against the nearest wall. In an instant, five beautiful young women appeared, kneeling in front of him, dressed in a new livery: blue shifts, blue panties, blue heels.

"How may we serve you, Lord?" asked one of them, a slender redhead with bright green eyes. Noam pointed to the hanged girls and said: "Dispose of them. They displeased me; mind you don't do the same." The redhead and her companions shuddered, but they obeyed.

THE END