Great Rite

"Stand, slave."

I stood. I heard her knock three times of the door. The hinges creaked loudly as it was dragged open. I felt a tug on my leash. I shuffled forwards, stubbing my bare toes on the sill of the door. I swore under my breath. The tug was more insistent. I moved slowly, feeling with my feet as I moved. We stopped. The tension on the leash stopped and I felt it fall against my side. The door hinges creaked again before a resounding thud as the door closed. There were sounds from beyond the door of it being secured.

My leash was picked up and pulled again. Slowly I edged forwards. I tried to guess the distance. When the door had closed we must have been two yards beyond it. About ten yards further on there was another stop as a lighter door was closed and locked behind us. I was pulled forward again. I was beginning to panic because the thick cloth was really obstructing my access to air. I panted under the hood.

After another five yards we stopped for yet another door to be closed and locked. I hadn't known that the underground part of the temple was this large. I took five more short steps before the leash pulled me roughly to a stop.

"Kneel, Slave!" That voice was different, younger than the priestess.

I knelt. Fingers scrabbled at the knot securing the hood. It was wrenched off. I could breathe! A hand pushed my head down.

"Look at the ground, slave. Do not raise your head."

I continued to be grateful for the air I was breathing. There was a strong rancid smell of hot burning oil, the familiar scent of many oil lamps being used. All I could see was a smooth floor until a pair of feet came into view. They were very delicate bare feet.

"Kiss my feet!"

She reached out a hand to push my head down. Getting down towards her feet was difficult because the shackles and chains impeded my movements. I clanked and clattered as I brought my face close to her feet. I kissed one foot and then the other. I remained bent forward with my head close to her feet.

"Sisters?" the same voice asked, "Are you satisfied?"

"Yes," two voices said. Another said "I'd like my feet kissed too, but yes."

"He can kiss your feet anytime. That was a test and he passed it."

"Slave? Kneel and raise your head to look at your mistresses."

The shackles and chains shook again as I lifted myself to a kneeling position. The room was well lit for an underground chamber even if some of the lamps were smoking badly. Four women were standing in front of me. I recognised all four immediately. They were four of my Royal handmaidens, my servants as King. Thane Manfred must have sent them in response to Helena's request. I had kissed Edith's feet.

The four women were Edith, Bertha, Gudrun and Helga, all of them my handmaidens. Bertha was holding a small piece of parchment in her hand. Gudrun was holding a lamp to illuminate it.

"Slave," Edith said, "these are the rules set by the Chief Priestess for us to perform the Great Rite..."

"You can read?" I blurted out in surprise.

"Yes, slave. I can read. All four of us can. We know you can't. Listen!"

Edith read from the parchment.

"You are our slave. We are your mistresses, not just during the Great Rite but for the whole of your life. We have been chosen by the Goddess to help you. All four of us will continue to be your mistresses after the Great Rite has ended. The Goddess will choose one of us to be your wife and Queen but you will owe duty to all four. Understood so far, slave?"

I nodded.

"That's not enough. You must answer, slave."

"Yes, Mistress, I understand," I said.

"Good. While you are here you will address each of us as 'Mistress'. Only if you want to speak to one and there might otherwise be confusion will you use our names as Mistress Edith and so on. You have no name. You are 'slave'.

"Yes, Mistress." Edith had paused expecting an answer.

"Now you must be shown to the Goddess as a slave in chains. Bertha?"

Bertha walked to the end of the chamber beyond a heap of mattresses and furs piled in the centre of the floor. There was a large shape covered in a woven cloth.

"Forward, on your knees, slave, and kneel beside Bertha."

The chains clanked again as I crawled forwards past the mattresses.

"Flat on your face, slave!" Bertha ordered.

That was difficult. The chains impeded my movement. I had to lie on my side before turning face down. The women stood either side of me. Bertha pulled at the cloth which came down to cover me completely. It tightened around me as they stood on its edges. I felt them kneel because four legs were pressed against my sides. Two hands gently pushed my head against the stone floor.

All four women chanted something I recognised as Latin but I couldn't understand all the words. It seemed to be a plea to the Goddess.

The hands lifted from my head folding back the cloth to my shoulders.

"Look, slave, and adore," Bertha ordered.

I raised my head. I was looking at a massive statue at a woman in the extreme of labour. Her pregnant belly loomed above me. Her head, almost touching the high ceiling, was thrown back, mouth open in a silent scream. Below her bump was a black skirt. Bertha and Edith lifted the lower edge of that skirt to show a gaping hole between the statue's legs. Helga and Gudrun dragged my body forward, lifted my head, and pushed it into the statue's vagina. I expected hard stone. I met soft yielding material smothering me as my head was pushed deeper.

My nose and mouth were obstructed by the soft material. I was suffocating again until the women pulled me out. They rolled me face up and carried me to the mattresses. Gudrun and Helga covered the Goddess' statue again. I panted like a landed fish as Edith stood above me.

"Slave, that is how criminals are executed as a sacrifice to the Goddess." Edith said. "They are lashed to a board from their shoulders to their feet before the priestesses sew them tightly inside their shroud leaving the head free. A cloth saturated in menstrual blood tightly covers the sacrifice's mouth and nose, and he is hooded as you were.

If the man is an ordinary criminal, the hood is covered with another hood followed by more and more hoods until he is struggling to breathe. He is pushed face up into the Goddess' vagina that is lined as it was for you. As he tries to breathe he swallows menstrual blood. Her vagina suffocates him. He is left with his head inside Her for an hour before his body is taken out of the temple for burial.

For traitors the method is different. A traitor is gagged with the blood soaked cloth over his whole face. His head is covered by a single hood. His head is pushed into the Goddess' bare vagina before her stone legs slowly move together and crush his skull. His futile attempts to scream mean that he too swallows menstrual blood. It takes at least an hour from the legs first touching the sides of his head to his death. The crushing continues even after death until the bones of his head are totally destroyed. The hood contains the blood and crushed bones. His body is then taken out of the temple. Your soldiers take the traitor's body and leave it for animals and birds to eat.

Criminals and traitors when they die piss and shit themselves. As they are already sewn into their shrouds they are left in their own mess.

But for you, slave, you were placed in the Goddess' vagina to show how helpless you are. We will not kill you. All we have done is to show that we could."

The four women were standing around me.

"Slave," Gudrun said, "you are our slave who has to obey us. You have become our slave by your own free will. It is your consent that has enslaved you, not any force. That consent means that we do not need the heavy shackles that bind you. You will obey us implicitly, won't you?"

"Yes, Mistress," I answered.

Their relief was obvious. All four of them knelt around me and their hands unfastened the shackles on my hands and wrists and removed the chain. The slave collar around my neck remained, as did the leash attached to it, but otherwise I had freedom of movement, or would have except that four pairs of hands were gently holding my arms and legs.

I was suddenly aware that I was naked, completely unclothed, and four attractive women were around me. My penis began to rise in salute. Helga noticed.

"That is homage to us, not to the Goddess. We welcome your homage and shortly we will acknowledge it. But now we will show you around our prison."

Our prison? My puzzlement must have showed.

"We are prisoners too, slave, until the Great Rite is completed," Gudrun said. "The outer door is sealed and we could not breach it without a battering ram. We have the keys to the locked inner doors but are not allowed to open them until the outer door is cleared. All five of us stay here until the end. But we do not have to stay underground in this stinking chamber. Come. Stand up!"

I needed Gudrun and Helga's help to stand. My limbs were stiff from the restraints.

"Over there," Helga pointed, "is where we wash and shit."

She was pointing to a doorway to the left of the Goddess' statue. I could see a hint of daylight from above.

"Upstairs," Helga said pulling on my leash, "we cook, eat and sleep. This chamber is reserved for the Great Rite."

She was pulling me towards a curtained doorway to the right of the Goddess. Through the curtain was a circular staircase leading upwards towards daylight. Helga went first pulling me behind her. Edith went round the Goddess' chamber extinguishing the oil lamps before the three others followed us. I wished that our masons could build as well as this staircase. It was longer than I had expected it to be.

At the top we emerged into a large room lit from stone latticework far above our heads. There were stone fur-covered benches along two sides. A stone table stood in the centre. Helga pulled me into a small room which had a fire pit with a tripod over it, a large cistern of water and shelves of pots crudely labelled with words I couldn't read.

"We cook here," Helga said unnecessarily, pointing at the stacks of wood for the fire. She tugged on the leash to pull me back into the main room.

"Here we sleep and," She pulled me through another doorway, "here we can look out to see if the Great Rite has succeeded."

The last small room had the stone latticework down to waist level. We could see along two sides of the temple. The rooms were above the main roof and concealed in the detail of the portico. I could see beyond the fort's surrounding wall. We must be at the highest point within the fort except for the roof of the Royal Hall, invisible from here. I sighed, looking at our parched fields devoid of the smallest sign of green shoots.

"No one can see us up here," Gudrun said. "We can see but from below these rooms appear to be just part of the decoration of the temple. The smoke from the fire pit comes out where smoke rises from the sacrifices. Did you know this was here, slave?"

"No. I rarely went beyond the anteroom of the temple because a man should not enter..."

"Unless he is the sacrifice," Helga interrupted, "and you are that sacrifice. You have sacrificed your freedom to the Goddess and to us."

We went back into the larger room.

"Sit there, slave," Helga said, dropping my leash and pointing at a bench. I sat down. The four women sat on the other bench facing me across the stone table. Edith pulled the piece of parchment from her waist rope and consulted again before speaking.

"Slave," she said, "the Great Rite is very simple. You, the King, have become a slave to the Goddess. As part of that slavery you have accepted we four women as your mistresses for life and for one of us to be your Queen. The next part is also simple. You, prone before the Goddess, must be ridden by each of us in turn until both of us have reached sexual satisfaction. Look at how we are dressed."

I hadn't noticed before in the dimness of the underground chamber. Each of them was wearing a white floor length robe with a different coloured woven woollen rope around their waists. The rope fell at the front almost to the ground and ended in a tuft.

"We are dressed both as temporary priestesses of the Goddess and as brides, your brides. After each successful coupling we will pull a strand of coloured wool from the end of our girdles and tie it around your slave collar. When the next woman has achieved satisfaction she will add her own marker and so on until the Goddess grants sufficient rain. When that happens, whichever woman's marker was last placed on your collar will be your wife and Queen. Understood, slave?"

"Yes, mistress, but what is sufficient rain? Can you tell me?"

"Chief Priestess Helena has placed a cup on the roof of the temple. When that cup is full and overflowing, sufficient rain will have fallen and the Great Rite will have ended successfully. The size of the cup is traditional. If it is filled then enough rain will have fallen to produce the crops we need. That could be today, tomorrow or in a week or two? Only the Goddess knows. After two weeks the Great Rite will be assumed to have failed, and so will our crops. Helena and her priestesses will be praying to the Goddess all day every day until the rain comes. We hope that their prayers will be successful..."

"So do I. We need that rain," I said.

"Edith and the others," Helga said, "will prepare our evening meal while you and I return to the Goddess for your first experience of sex. Helena drew lots before the Goddess. I was chosen to be the first. Edith will light the beeswax candles for us, and then..."

"Then you get fucked, slave." Gudrun said crudely.

Edith went downstairs. She returned a couple of minutes later. Helga picked up the end of my leash. I followed her downstairs. The beeswax candles were much brighter than the previous oil lamps and the smell of burnt oil was reduced. I, as King, was slightly concerned at the use of candles. They were so difficult to produce. But I wasn't here as King.

"Down on your back, slave," Helga ordered.

Once I was on the heap of mattresses and furs she attached shackles to my ankles and a chain connected them to rings set in the floor.

"Your hands will be free," Helga announced. "You will need them. You must kiss me -- there."

She pointed at her dress where the fork in her legs would be.

"But first, I too must be naked before the Goddess."

Helga stripped off her white dress, deliberately walked astride my body from my feet to beyond my head. I looked up to see her breasts bouncing and the hair between her legs. She knelt before the shrouded Goddess for a few seconds. Silently I prayed to the Goddess that my ordeal would be bearable.

Helga came back to stand with her feet either side of my head and lowered herself. She spread her legs as she came down. She pulled her lower lips apart as they met my mouth. I kissed. She pressed down harder.

"Tongue, slave!" Helga ordered.

I extended my tongue. Her taste was like nothing I had experienced before, nice but different. She writhed above me. Slowly her body moved down mine. Her breasts swung above my face. One by one she pushed each erect nipple into my mouth. I sucked. Helga moaned as I sucked hard.

She moved lower, extending a hand to grasp my erection that she eased into her warm cleft. As I slid inside her the sensation was exquisite. I knew instinctively that I had to hold back but that was so difficult. I had penetrated a woman for the first time in my life. My head thrashed from side to side as I tried to stop my erection from ejaculation.

I barely heard Helga say "Well done, slave, hang on."

Her body became warmer where it was touching mine. She began to moan quietly until she rammed her hips downwards. I gasped as I shuddered into emission. I panted as Helga continued to pound up and down on my diminishing hardness until she collapsed against my chest. Her head snuggled under my chin as a hand stroked the side of my face. I wrapped my arms around her upper body and hugged her.

"Well done," Helga said faintly. "For a first time, that was brilliantly done."

Helga's voice trailed off. She was almost asleep. If this was what sex was like, I wanted more. I would get more. Three more women wanted me and they would ride me again and again until the rain comes. I prayed to the Goddess this time to thank her. This had been no ordeal but a wonderful experience.

I began to doze very aware that I had a woman on my body and in my arms. I seemed to hear the Goddess speaking to me in my head:

"Silly boy," She said, "You were surrounded by women who loved you. They wanted to show you that worshipping them and Me was enjoyable. Now sleep. Three more of my women need you."

Did the Goddess brush her lips across my forehead? It felt as if She had.

+++

Helga stirred. She climbed off my body, dressed herself and removed the shackles from my ankles. She playfully slapped my naked chest.

"Up, slave!" She ordered. "Time to eat."

I followed Helga upstairs. She hadn't taken the end of my leash. The three women looked expectantly at us.

"Our slave knows what to do," Helga announced, "and for a beginner..."

She turned around, grabbed me and kissed me on the lips.

"...he's great!" she finished.

"You haven't put your marker on his collar," Edith observed.

"I haven't? I forgot. I'll do it now."

Helga pulled a length of blue wool from the end of her girdle. She looped it through my slave collar and knotted it. She kissed me again.

"You're wearing my badge, slave." She kissed me again.

We sat at the stone table to eat and drink. We had stew, bread and wine. Edith put her hand over my goblet before the wine was poured. She looked fiercely at me.

"No more than half this measure, slave. We need you to perform tonight. Too much wine would harm your performance. Be careful."

I filled the goblet only a quarter full and showed it to Edith. She nodded.

The four of them drank several goblets of wine each. I know our wine is weak but I had never seen women drink so much of it. After a couple of hours as the sun was setting they became more talkative and giggled a lot.

Gudrun raised her goblet.

"To our slave. May he perform well for all of us."

The other three raised their goblets too, turned towards me, and drank.

"Now, priestesses, for that's what we apparently are," Gudrun said, "let's show him in the last of the daylight what he is to endure. Strip for the Goddess!"

Bertha seemed slightly reluctant but as the other three eagerly threw their clothes off she stripped too.

Gudrun persuaded them to sit along one of the benches with their legs spread apart.

"Slave," she ordered, "worship each of your mistresses, there!"

She pointed at the hairy cleft between her legs. I knelt before her and kissed. Her legs lightly scissored around my head and a hand pushed me closer in. She was reluctant to let me move on to worship Edith, and Edith wanted my tongue. Gudrun had to tell Edith to let me go on to Bertha. Bertha was initially reluctant but started squealing loudly as I kissed and licked. Helga was much fiercer. She grabbed my hair and clamped me hard against her. She had to loosen her grip so I could breathe. She tasted as wonderful as she had in the Goddess' chamber. All four of them had slightly different tastes. I wasn't sure that I could identify any of them from the taste alone. The colour of their bushes and the taste might be enough.

After Helga I had to start again with Gudrun. By the time I was back between the legs of Helga my erection was becoming painful. I was relieved when Gudrun grabbed my leash and pulled me towards the stairs. Helga went before us to relight the candles. I was surprised when the other two followed us. Gudrun's naked body was ahead of me. Edith and Bertha, still naked, were following us. All four had taken their girdles, carrying them in their hands.