Alyssa

I wake up and go to the kitchen to start the fire in the fireplace and boil water. Kendy walks in and rubs her eyes then flashes me a smile.

“You’re the first to wake up this morning,” she says.

“I’m learning.”

Slim arms wrap around me from behind and Almast kisses my cheek. “Go have a bath and put a gown on.”

“We’re not celebrating anything today, are we?” I ask.

“You’re going to deliver his meals to his bedroom from today,” Kendy says. “And you will study.”

My stomach flutters. “What about my cleaning?”

“He brought one girl from the vineyards,” Almast says. “She’ll take over from you.”

Kohar walks into the kitchen. “Go have a bath, Alyssa.”

I want to ask her about Arnau, but she frowns and waves her hand furiously so I rush to my bedroom and prepare a bath for myself. Kohar helps me and chooses a gown for me.

“It’s very indecent,” I say as my eyes flick over the plunging neckline and the thigh split.

“He bought them for you so you have to wear them,” Kohar says in a matter-of-fact tone and helps me pull it on.

The pale green fabric matches my skin tone perfectly. There’s a white rosette on my right hip as emerald gems adorn the straps around my neck.

“Go,” Kohar says.

Vosgi grabs my hand and pulls me behind her.

“How is Arnau?” I ask.

Her eyes bore through me. “Don’t ask about him. Ever.”

I nod as she squeezes my hand in hers.

“It’s for your own good,” she says.

“I know.”

We hurry to Vahan’s kitchen. Vosgi piles two plates with food and puts them on a silver tray. She adds two mugs filled with hot herbal tea and two glasses filled with pink liquid and hands the tray to me.

I huff out. “Where—“

“Across the hall, through the burgundy door, and then along the corridor. The door with a curved golden punnica.”

I pull the tray to me and walk out of the kitchen. My knees feel like they’re made of sponge as my heart hammers in my chest. Coldness penetrates my naked feet.

It takes me about five minutes to reach the door adorned with a golden animal that looks like a cheetah.

I huff out again and the door creaks open. My heart stops beating.

“Come in,” Vahan says.

I notice droplets of moisture on his naked hairy chest. He has a pair of black satin pyjama pants on.

“I said come in,” he says impatiently. “I’m hungry.”

He takes the tray from my hands. I roll my fingers into fists and step in. My eyes roam over the interior. It’s not what I expected. It’s not a king’s bedroom. The crude simplicity of stone walls forms a perfect background for the oriental furniture. An enormous bed stands on some kind of platform with four steps. White tulle curtains rustle in the arched windows, bringing an impression of a ghost castle to my mind. Four thick candles burn on a bedside table, exuding a musky scent with hints of cherry and rhubarb.

Vahan puts the tray on the bed then moves closer to me and grabs my hand.

“Eat with me,” he says.

I suck in a breath then crawl onto his bed and sit on my heels. He settles himself opposite me with his legs stretched out, and he eases his weight onto his elbow.

“Eat, Alyssa.”

I hesitate. It’s as though I’m a rodent that’s held captive in a cage with a lion as my companion. My stomach tightens but Vahan’s dark glance urges me to obey him so I reach for a fruit that looks like an apple and bite into it. It’s a bit sour in taste.

“Yasen will start teaching you from today,” Vahan says.

“Thank you.”

“Do you need anything else?”

“I’d like a few pairs of trousers.”

“Trousers?”

I nod.

I need them in case I found a way to get out of here.

“I’ll order them for you,” he says. He bites into a piece of bread and washes it down with tea. “Drink.”

I hold a mug and sip my tea.

“Are you happy, Alyssa?”

“No.” It just pours out of me, and I stiffen.

People have something called a self-preservation instinct, which I don’t have apparently.

“Why not?” Vahan’s eyes flicker with anger. “I treat you well.”

My brain heats up. “I… I still don’t understand a lot of things. I was a student…”

He straightens and sits with his knee bent. “Are you educated?” He props his elbow on his knee.

“I just started my first year at law school.”

“Law school?” He tears the mug away from my hand. “Come with me.”

He jumps off the bed and pulls me behind him. We go towards a red curtain that obscures one of the niches and he pulls it away. I see a double door. Vahan opens it and coldness puffs onto my face. We immerse ourselves into the dark scented with dust and damp as thin streaks of the light filtering through the tiny holes in the wall mark our way.

Vahan opens another door and we start climbing a spiral metal staircase. Then he shoves me into a room filled with leather bound books and scrolls. They lie on the shelves of high bookcases and are scattered on the stone floor. An old man is sitting at the desk.

“Yasen,” Vahan says with excitement. “I have brought you an apprentice.”

Yasen raises his warm eyes to me. “Very tiny that apprentice of mine.”

“But very smart,” Vahan says. “She’s a lawyer. Teach her so she can take over two thirds of your duties.”

Yasen nods and waves his hand to me. “Come here.” He tips a glass to his lips and takes a sip.

Vahan smacks my ass and I shoot forward. “Learn, Alyssa.”

I look over my shoulder and he glances at me like he wants to hurt me and then he walks off.

I drop into the chair beside Yasen and a sense of peace and safety wafts through me. He reminds me of my grandpa who passed away a few years ago.

“We will study the alphabet first,” he says and shakes.

“Can I ask you about something?”

“Ask, dzie’ta.”

“How can I get out of this planet?”

He strokes my head. “You can’t.”

“But—“

“I tried and I couldn’t.” He grins at me, and something boyish flickers in his eyes.

“Are you a foreigner?”

“No, but my grandmother was. She told me stories. I was curious so I went to the mountains where they say the gate is, but I found only hunters.”

My heart flutters. “Teach me your language. Teach me your customs. Teach me your geography.”

I’ll fucking read all those books around me. I’ll find someone like me to help me. I’ll go to the mountains one day. I’ll escape from this hell one day.

Yasen spreads a piece of paper on the desk, hands me a pen and a bottle of ink and we start our lesson.

Vosgi delivers a meal for us later this afternoon. Yasen goes to have a nap on the sofa by the window and I explore the library. The dust gives me cold-like symptoms, but the knowledge in the books gives me strength and hope. Soon, that knowledge will be mine and I’ll regain my life and freedom.

Vahan

She hasn’t returned from the library yet so I go to check on her. She should study, but I don’t want her to get ill from exhaustion. I enter the library and see my little bird covered in ink and sleeping on the floor. Scrolls and books are piled around her like she’s a princess in a citadel.

I hear Yasen snoring from the farther end of the library. I go to check on him first. The smell of alcohol circles around him. I throw another blanket over him and correct the cushion under his head. Vosgi will have to prepare herbs for his hangover tomorrow.

Then I lean over Alyssa and scoop her up into my arms. She weighs nothing. Her eyes flutter and she sighs and wiggles as her glance meets mine.

“I’ll put you to bed,” I say.

I want to take her to my bed, but I know she’d hate me even more if I did.

She makes me soft.

This is my right to take her, but I want to see love in her eyes, not hatred.

I carry her out of the house and she shivers so I draw her closer to me. Her body is so fragile, so petite. So pleasantly soft to touch. She smells of jasmine and wind and ink. Of her own musk. Zaria’s women don’t smell like her.

Her cunt must smell even more delicious. It must taste divine. I imagine my tongue penetrating her, and licking her. My dick awakes at that thought.

I walk into the house, and Kohar greets me in the corridor. Her eyes sweep over Alyssa’s arms stained with ink.

“How am I going to remove all that ink?” she mutters and shakes her head.

“I don’t know, woman. That’s your job, not mine.”

I step into Alyssa’s bedroom and lay her on the bed. I kiss her forehead and walk out. The cool air scented with vanilia and roslis envelops me as more fantasies flash through my head. I’d have Alyssa on all fours. I’d fuck her virgin cunt then I’d fuck her in the ass. She’d whimper then she’d moan her ecstasy.

My dick is so hard I want to go back to Alyssa and fuck her raw, but I don’t.

As I enter my bedroom, I can’t recall my way. I pull my shirt over my head and toss it onto the floor then I lower my trousers and hold my throbbing cock.

“I can help.” This is Dardana.

I raise my eyes and see that she’s sitting on my bed.

“I bet you can.” I stroke myself as she crawls from the bed and saunters towards me.

She kneels in front of me and flashes me a flirty smile.

I pull her hair together on the back of her neck and hold her in place as she opens her mouth eagerly and crosses her wrists behind her back.

“Get out,” I say. “If you enter my bedroom without my permission once more, I’ll serve you to the mountain hienasas as their dinner.”

She looks at me like I have just put a dagger into her heart and she storms off.

The door of the bedroom slams shut. I stroke my cock up and down, thinking of my precious little gem.

Her name rolls off my tongue as I cum violently and sway.

Soon I’ll have Alyssa’s mouth wrapped around my dick.

Soon.

Alyssa

I deliver his breakfast to his bedroom; we eat and I go to the library. Yasen teaches me the numbers then I study the maps. All of them feature a continent that resembles Europe and Asia. I was good at geography at high school. My finding both intrigues me and scares me. I need to learn more. I need to learn faster. A crazy theory sprouts in my head. What if this is another dimension; what if this is something like multiple universes. Multiple Earths but each of them in a different stage of development. Theoretically, you can travel between the universes.

I’m shaky.

I’m frightened.

I’m determined to figure this out.

Later, Yasen shows me an account book, and I learn about taxes. I even catch an error in his calculations. I hesitate to tell him about it, but finally I spill it. He is so excited with my discovery that he pours us two glasses of wine. He smacks his lips and pats my shoulder.

“Now, this is your responsibility,” he says.

“But—“

“You’re a perfect accountant.”

He disappears behind the bookcase and soon I hear him snore.

Vahan comes in the evening and walks me to the house.

“Yasen is very clever,” I start.

“He’s very old. He should retire at last.”

Well, apparently he just did. He’s only interested in drinking wine and reading poetry books.

I take a deep breath. “Why won’t you employ someone else?” My tutor thinks I know everything I should know, but the truth is, I know nothing. Vahan needs a professional to work for him.

“I just did.” His arm shoots to me, and he wraps it around my back, pulling me to him.

His mouth touches the top of my head.

“I will go through all the account books,” I say as my voice stirs.

“Alright.”

“I learned something about taxes when I was at high school. Maybe you do this in a similar way.”

“Alright.”

I have the impression that he’s not listening to me at all.

I enter the house, and he follows me to my bedroom. His back rests against my chest as his arms encircle my waist. I feel his hot mouth on the back of my neck.

I yelp as he moves me forward and we bend over the desk. His hips rest against my ass and I feel his massive erection.

He grunts into my ear. “Alyssa, my little flower.”

I feel his hand gathering the hem of my gown up and he massages my naked ass cheek.

My heart jumps up to my throat. Almast said he’d ask whether I want him or not. I don’t think he will. And I don’t think I can refuse.

“Vahan,” Kohar says in a sharp voice behind us.

Vahan straightens. “Not now.”

I slip out of his embrace and pull my gown down. My thighs quiver. My heart pounds in my chest.

“Are you going to break your own rules?” Kohar puts her hands on her hips.

Vahan raises his finger at her then shakes his head and waves his hands in a warding gesture. “You’re always right, woman.”

He backs up, disappearing behind the door as I fall into Kohar’s embrace and sob.

“Why are you crying?” Kohar grips my arms and pushes me gently away.

“He…” I gasp. “He…”

Kohar strokes my head. “Go to bed. You’ll smile tomorrow, you’ll see.”

“He…”

“He’s good to you.”

“I—“

“Go to bed, dzie’ta.”

I nod at her even though I want to run out of the house and vanish.

I make myself ready for bed and dive under the duvet.

I’m his whore. I should make peace with that at last.