Rogue The Serpent
By Loki Renard
Copyright 2010 Loki Renard
All Rights Reserved
Cover Image: Andrejs Pidjass, 2011, Bigstockphoto.com
Smashwords Edition
Chapter One
I am Rogue. Fourth child of Lord Ash, 65th in line to the throne of Aristolene, and outcast from society. Like all women, I have a master. Lord Drexler is 15th in line to the throne, which means we're related in some small way, but apparently not sufficiently for my father to withhold permission for him to take me into his fold.
I've known Drexler since we were children, well, since I was a child and he a young man. I would often see him come to visit my father for the serpent training only my father can impart. The spirit of the Serpent is one of the strongest battle totems a man can have, but it is difficult to attain, let alone master.
I remember the first time I knew that I hated Drexler. I was eighteen, he was a young man becoming acquainted with his future role as Lord and staying at our home on of his many training missions. Mother had warned me to stay away from my father and his trainees, but I have always had a way with the serpents, a quiet understanding. It is only natural, I think. I was raised with them. It is said that when I was but a babe, they found a jewel python in my crib, not feeding, not dead, but curled up around me. It was an omen that followed me all my life.
Drexler did not have a way with the serpents, not then at least. One day I sneaked out to the chamber of snakes and watched as my father tried to teach Drexler how to handle them without getting bitten. It was not working, Drexler was too clumsy, and with strike after strike he became more angry. He was lucky that the snakes my father used for training purposes were non venomous.
I remember how he looked that day, tall, broad and dark. His eyes have always had a hint of fire in them, a red tint that is said to hail from the royal line. It is stronger than usual in Drexler, sometimes his eyes look quite definitely red, such as when he is impassioned. On that day they blazed about viciously, inciting the snakes to violence.
As a python sunk its fangs into his arm for the tenth time, I laughed and came up behind him, took the snake from him and caressed it against my chest. As I touched it, it settled down into a watchful repose. Drexler's eyes flickered across my face, and I thought I saw a grudging appreciation for my abilities there.
“You are too fierce for the serpents,” I said with what no doubt would have been a cheeky grin.
“Leave us Rogue, we are training,” my father said.
It made me angry that he would not train me when I was so clearly more talented than Drexler.
“Why are you training him?” I spat rudely. “He is useless. Train me instead.”
They both stared at me as I continued to gently pet the snake's head and neck. Now Drexler looked just as angry as my father. Both of them burned with a silent humiliation born of their inadequacy.
“You are a woman, you cannot be trained,” my father said flatly.
“I can be trained, but you will not train me. You fear me.” I smirked as I said the words, for they were true. I had been training myself, watching when my father was unaware I was there. He was a fair Serpent Master, but he lacked the sensitivity I enjoyed. Few can hide in the presence of a Serpent Master, but I could always hide in his presence.
I was correct. He did fear me. A female with an empathy for the serpent totem is not a popular woman. It is far preferable for a woman to align herself with the cat, or at a stretch, the wolf. A woman aligned with the cat is said to be graceful and beautiful. Though sometimes cold in spirit, she will always seek out her master for comfort. A woman aligned with the wolf is less refined, but deeply loyal. It is nigh unheard of for a woman to be aligned with the serpent, and it is said that such women are dangerous. At eighteen, I knew well enough to exploit that danger for my own purposes. My father was a master of the serpents, yet he would not dare lay a finger on me for fear that I might stir up his snakes against him.
Drexler, on the other hand, was not afraid of me at all.
“You have a sharp tongue in your head, little maiden,” he said gruffly. “A forked tongue, I'll warrant.”
Perhaps I should have seen some kind of warning in his behavior, in the set of his shoulders, in the way he raised one thick, black eyebrow at me as I stood there, silently mocking the both of them, but I did not see what happened next coming at all.
“Better a forked tongue than clumsy hands,” I quipped in reply, then squealed in outrage as Drexler laid his hands upon me, dislodging my faithful serpent. My father caught the angry beast and returned it to its cage as Drexler manhandled me, kicking and screaming, over his raised knee.
Without my father's permission, and ignoring my threats, which I assure you were quite dire, he began to spank me. His hands may have been clumsy, but they were strong and hard and it hurt like the blazes. I had not been spanked before, and every blow seemed to hurt more than the last.
“A lady does not speak in the way you just did,” he lectured me as his hand burned across my behind. I was outraged and very sore, my cries filled the chamber of snakes, and I writhed and wriggled as best I could, just like a young serpent escaping a predator, but it was to no avail. I was not a young serpent, and all my writhing did nothing but cause his hard hand to land soundly on my upper thighs, which unlike my bottom, were not covered by the short tunic I wore.
It was the most humiliating experience I had ever endured. My tunic was not thick, and rode up as I thrashed about, allowing him to spank me on my thin bloomers. I was sure that his hands and his fiery eyes were setting my bottom ablaze. When he finished spanking me, I was incredibly sore, and more angry than I had ever been in my life. He stood me up, tears of rage running down my cheeks, tears which he must have confused as a sign of contrition, and kissed my forehead. “Now run along and behave yourself,” he said, no doubt trying to be kind.
I did run along. Actually, I ran away. For two weeks I did not return home, not until I saw that he had left my parents' home. They sent out search parties looking for me, but like a snake, I can hide almost anywhere. It's a trick that serves me well to this very day. I hid under their very noses, doing small mischief wherever I could, spiteful tricks to get back at Drexler for the shameful way he had treated me.
I was a difficult teenager to be sure, and an even more difficult woman. As soon as I came of age, attempts were made to find me an appropriate master. I frightened them all away simply by secreting a small adder in my bosom. A man soon loses interest in a lady when a snake's head creeps out between her alabaster cleavage. I had hoped to be allowed to become a spinster, perhaps even become a free woman, but my parents were not having it.
“I have found you a master,” my father announced one evening.
“Father, you know no man will take me. I am the Lady of the Serpents, and my reputation goes before me,” I laughed.
Instead of becoming angry as he often did when I flaunted my abilities, he laughed at me, an ill omen indeed.
“Your new master does not fear you in the slightest,” he replied, a slight sneer about his mouth. I believe he was pleased to see the back of me, the daughter who had never lived up to his expectations, the daughter who insisted that she was the equal of a man.
“Oh, and who is this fool?” I countered.
“Lord Drexler,” he replied with the air of a man who has played the ace in the pack and knows it.
“No father! Please! Do not make me be his!” I was reduced to pleading, but it did not work. Though it had been nigh on six years since I had laid eyes on Drexler and he had laid his hands on my behind, at the mention of his name, the pain and the humiliation returned in full force. I would never forgive him for the indignities he had made me suffer when he had spanked me, and I would certainly never be his.
The next morning I was sent off in a carriage to Lord Drexler, and that afternoon, just a few hours into the long journey, I escaped and began my life alone.
Chapter Two
It is said that our lands are dangerous for a woman traveling alone, but I found that they are fairly safe as long as one takes care to stay away from brigands and their ilk. When one has the Totem of the Serpent to draw on, life is much easier. I hide almost in plain sight, blending into the environment so that those around me barely notice me. It's not so much a matter of magic, though some slight illusion may be involved, as much as it is a matter of simply being part of the background of life. People spend much of their time trying to be extraordinary, even the plainest milk maid takes care to do her hair and splash water on her face. If one decides instead, to be plain, one avoids a great deal of unwanted attention.
As soon as possible, I ditched the fine silk dress my mother had insisted on dressing me in and stole a farm-hand's shirt and pants that had been drying on a line. I left a few pieces of silver to make up for my thievery to assuage my conscience, then took off to a wooded part of the forest to change. It was the work of but a few minutes to stuff my fine silk dress under some muddy tree roots and to don the rough pants and shirt. In my new clothes, I felt a freedom that I had not felt in a very long time. Gone were the tight corsets that cinched my waist in like a wasp, gone were the tight little shoes that pinched my toes, gone was the facade of civilization that mother always tried so hard to instill in me.
A little green grass snake slithered up and wrapped itself affectionately around my ankle. I was pleased. I missed my father's snakes, his impressively large pythons, glistening blue and gold. The little green snake wound its way up my leg until I put my hand down and allowed it to wrap itself around my fingers. Even the tiniest of serpents share the beauty and majesty of their larger cousins, and this little fellow was no exception. His scales gleamed deep green, and his eyes flared red under little hoods. That startled me. Snakes do not normally have red eyes, but this fellow, his eyes were a deep burning red, a red that reminded me of the look in Drexler's eyes when I had displeased him so many years ago. He arched towards the breast pocket of my shirt and I allowed him to slither inside and curl up against the warmth of my body. There was precious little warmth in that forest, he was no doubt cold.
The elation of my freedom was still running through my veins as I made my way to the village nearby. With any luck, I could find an unused bed to sleep in for the night.
I entered the local tavern without drawing a single glance in my direction and slipped up the stairs in my bare feet. There were several rooms upstairs, used by travelers who found themselves weary and in need of shelter for the evening. Though they were simple, the beds looked comfortable.
I slipped into the farthest little room down the hall. It had been recently attended to, but it contained no belongings, a good indication that it was not in use. A lovely brown skin coverlet covered the bed and I gratefully lowered my body onto it. I was not used to physical exertion, and the effort of slipping out of the carriage and then running for the forest had taken its toll. I quickly slipped into a light sleep, my senses alert for any sign of trouble.
Trouble came many hours later. When I awoke to the sound of pounding boots, there was barely sufficient time to roll off the bed and take refuge under it before the door was thrown open and heavy chain covered boots entered the room, along with a hearty laugh.
“Come on wench, let's be having ye!”
My heart stopped. How could this man know I was here? I was the very essence of stealth, I was not even remotely in sight. How could he know? Then I heard a small, pitiful wail of a woman, and I realized that the rough voice was not intended for me, but for her.
“Please, Sir, please, no...” She was pleading with him with a note of desperation in her voice that went through my heart like a knife.
“Don't play coy with me, I saw you down there, begging for it. You want this as much as I do.” He laughed again, and the scent of beer soaked breath eked its way down to assail my sensitive nostrils.
“Sir, I am betrothed, please, do not do this.”
There was a sound of faint scuffling, she was clearly trying to fight the oaf off, but I could see from her small feet and his large ones that she was likely no physical match for him. A scream rent the air and the bed sagged towards me as he threw her onto it, then sagged further, nigh pinning me to the floor as he threw himself atop the poor maiden.
Crawling upon my belly, I inched forward. His feet were still on the floor and I sunk my fangs into his exposed lower calf. His cry as the long teeth either side of my canines pierced his flesh was terrible but short. He lurched up from the bed, sought to find what had caused him such pain, then crashed to the floor, quite dead.
The poison sacks were an idea I'd come up with long ago. Two small metal canisters sat inside my mouth, filled with venom. If they were activated through being pushed forward with my tongue and drained with a forceful enough bite, the venom they excreted was enough to down an elephant.
I withdrew under the bed once more. The woman screamed loudly at the sight of the dead man, gathered her torn clothing about herself and rushed out of the room, wailing all the way. I hoped she would not be silly enough to make good her escape and not tell of what had happened, but she was one of those women silly enough to bandy about in a bar with her bosom flashing about the place, so I did not have high hopes for her keeping quiet.
I could see the dead man quite clearly from under the bed. His eyes were wide open, staring in shocked surprise. Had he seen me before he died? It didn't matter really. What did matter, I realized with a sinking heart, was the fact that he wore the insignia of a lord. Lord Drexler, to be precise.
I had killed a man in Drexler's guard. That meant that Drexler had his forces already around the town. Was he looking for me? Could he know already that I had escaped? It seemed unlikely. The journey to his hold took four days by carriage, and it had not yet been a day since I escaped.
A feeling of woe settled in my breast. It had not been a full day since my father had told me that Drexler had claimed me, and already I had committed two completely unforgivable sins. It would be best if I made my way out of the town and into the fields. Soldiers often patrolled highways, the fields would be safer.
As cries of 'snake' began to echo in the tavern below, punctuated with the blubbering of the stupid woman whose honor I had most certainly temporarily saved, I made my exit out of the window. It was not my preferred method, falling from high places tends to attract attention, but most of the attention of the townsfolk seemed to be focused on the door of the tavern. As I made my exit into the fields, three men with flaming torches ran into the tavern, shouting “Kill it with fire!” People so rarely understand serpents.
Like a serpent, I spent the rest of the night laying low in the grass. I traveled as far as I physically could away from the little town, then dropped down to sleep under the stars. It was pleasant there, so quiet that you could hear a cricket chirping from what seemed to be a mile away. As I lay there on my back, the little green snake uncoiled itself from my breast pocket and slipped down to curl around my fingers.
It was a strange little snake. I had thought that I had known all there was to know about snakes, but this little fellow broke all the rules. I thought that he was a grass snake at first, but perhaps he was not, his eyes, they were too strange for him to be a common grass snake. Perhaps he was a hybrid of some kind? I fell asleep pondering this as he grasped my fingers with his body, as if he wanted nothing more than to hold my hand.
Chapter Three
The punishment for a woman who flees from her master is a harsh one. I had heard tales of women being put to death for the crime, but better to die and have experienced freedom than to go meekly to Drexler and allow him to add me to his harem, control every aspect of my life, and no doubt subject me to humiliating physical punishments as he saw fit.
As I traveled, I saw that Drexler's soldiers were everywhere. Whether they were looking for me or not, I could not know, but I thought it important that I found out. If they were not looking for me, then all was well, I could go about my business and find some remote settlement where I could ply a trade as a supplier of potions and poisons. Not all snake venom must be used for evil purposes, though the beneficial venoms, and indeed, anti-venoms must be cultivated with care. I had a skill few others could master. I could make my way in the world. I did not need a man to assure my safety, not even one as powerful as Drexler. But to assure my future, I needed to secure my present. So I sneaked up to some soldiers I came across on a lonely road and lay still in some tall grass, listening quietly as soldiers talked a few feet away from me.
“He wants her alive,” a soldier laughed and my heart sank. They had to be talking about me, which meant that my freedom remained in jeopardy.
“Alive and unharmed. Let's pray she's not taken by someone else before he lays his hands on her, he will not be well pleased,” his comrade agreed.
“I tire of this assignment. It has been weeks and no sign of her. He sends us ever closer to her, but she escapes before we lay eyes on her. I signed up to defend the lands, not to chase around after some disobedient woman.”
Their frustration made me smile. I had done well indeed to maintain my freedom for so long, I'd even surprised myself. I'd fantasied about being free since I was a child, but the notion had scared me too. The reality was harsh, but not harsher than I could handle, and I was proud of myself for that.
“Someone should stripe the hide off her when she is found. She has cost Lord Drexler hundreds of gold, if not more.”
Typical men with their typical egos, believing women should be punished if they did not obey.
“If she was mine, she would not be sitting for months, I can assure you of that.”
“I do not think she will be sitting for months and worse. Drexler does not take kindly to disobedience from his women. Do you remember what he did to that disobedient lass from Kenarth? She refused to follow the laws of his hold, called them barbaric. He had her whipped, bare assed in front of the entire court, soldiers and all.”
The men laughed at the story, but my blood boiled. So Drexler was still every inch the monster I had known him to be that day he had laid hands on me.
As I lay there silently fuming, the little grass snake that had become my fast companion curled around my wrist, its tail swishing across my hand as if to pat it comfortingly. If I did not know better, I might have said that little snake was part human. Its red jewel eyes continued to befuddle me, but I did not have time to dwell on snake classification at that moment. I needed to obtain my freedom. It was time to show these soldiers exactly what they sought.
I rose from the grass and pushed my fangs forward. When I opened my mouth, they hung there menacingly, and when I called on the spirit of the Serpent, my eyes became slitted and golden. Mother had caught me that way once and fainted. When she awoke, she made me promise to never call upon the spirit of the Serpent again, she said it made me demonic. It did not make me demonic, it made me powerful.
I felt that power race through me as I slid silently up behind those two soldiers and tapped one of them on the back of the shoulder. He turned, and then set up a cry of fear as he saw my visage, as did his comrade.
“Beast! Daemon beast!” They howled, drawing their swords. One slashed by my ear, but like a serpent, I slid by it, grinning wickedly.
“No, I am Rogue, the one you seek. Tell me, do you ssseek me now?” I made my words hiss as they took several steps back. They were terrified, and their terror made me strong.
“Tell your Master if he wishes me, he must find me himself. If I see another soldier searching for me, I will kill that soldier and all those with him. Do you understand?” My words were ice cold, and though I did not truly mean them, this was my life on the line. My future depended on securing my freedom now. Drexler would not come for me himself, I was sure of that.
“Go, go and tell your Massster!” I cried at them. Their frozen terror transformed into action and they both turned on their heel and ran into the night. I would later learn that the brief incident spawned a myriad of tales of my demonic nature, made me a hero for some, and a deadly threat to others. In the moment however, my triumph soon turned to despair.
“You think you are so strong, don't you?” A calm, clear male voice cut through the night somewhere behind me. I whirled about, fangs bared, slitted eyes blazing. In the moonlight I could see the silhouette of a large man, broad and tall with a military bearing. His eyes gleamed red, jewel red, and I knew that I was looking at Drexler.
“How did you find me?” I cried in despair.
He laughed. “I have not left your side since you stuffed your dress under those tree roots and killed one of my soldiers,” he said.
I realized then that the little green grass snake that had been with me the whole way was gone. Drexler had been the snake, he had been there all along, he knew everything. “By the gods,” I whispered to myself. When last I had seen him, he was clumsy and inept, now he had mastered the Serpent Totem in ways I could not hope to imagine. He did not clumsily emulate a snake as I did, he could become a snake himself.
He looked at me with something like pity in his eyes. “Rogue, you did not need to run, though I imagined you might.”
“Why did you do this then?” I cried. “Why did you allow me to roam free for weeks, why did you allow me to escape your soldiers time and time again?”
“I wanted to understand you. I wanted to know how you work. I cannot master that which I do not know, Rogue, and I knew you would hide from me. I knew you would run from me. Allowing you to do so was the only way to know you.”
At that moment, I missed the comforting touch of the little grass snake with the red eyes. Though I knew he stood before me, I felt like I had lost a friend.
“I see,” I said, defeated. “And what will you do with me now? Will you send me into your harem to be caged for the rest of my days? If so, kill me now, for I will never stop trying to escape. There will not be a single day that you will be able to rest without knowing that I am lying in wait.”
He came closer. I did not shrink away from him, I would not shrink away from him. I turned my head as he gently brushed a strand of hair from my face.
“I will not cage you Rogue, you are too precious for that.”
“Precious? How so?” I was confused.
“You are a lady of the Serpent. One in a million. Rogue, you are a rare creature and I will have you for my own, but I will not be unkind, nor cage you away unless you force me to do so.”
In spite of myself, I felt a little pleased at his words. Drexler was the first man to ever appreciate my talents rather than fear them.
I looked up under my eyelashes at him. “And what the soldiers were saying, of your treatment of women? Will you attempt such foolishness with me?”
He laughed again. He seemed amused by me. “I will treat you as you deserve to be treated,” he said. His hand descended upon my lower back and he ushered me into the road, where he pursed his lips and emitted a piercing whistle. In a moment or two, the sound of horses' hooves could be heard as a black carriage slid up out of the night's shadows.
“Now, my lady, will you come to your new home, or would you rather run about in the wilderness?” He said the words as if I had a choice, but I knew that I truly had no choice. He had come for me, he had never left my side. I climbed into the carriage without a word and curled up in a corner, watching him silently.
He let me be as the carriage started its journey, and I watched him discretely. He had grown more muscular in the intervening years since I had last seen him. His hands were strong and large, and his thick fingers were now wrapped in the rings of high office. I shuddered to think about how much more pain they could inflict now than when he was a young man.
“Are you going to punish me for running?” The question blurted out of my mouth before I could stop it.
He opened his eyes and smiled at me languidly. “I am going to punish you for a great many things, my dear Rogue,” he said calmly.
With that, I opened the door of the carriage and jumped out.
The carriage was moving at a fair clip as I fell, and though I tried to tuck and roll, I hit the stony ground hard, bruising my poor bones. I had barely stumbled to my feet as the carriage pulled to a frantic halt and Drexler ran towards me, his face a mask of disbelief and anger.
“What are you doing?” he yelled as I tried to run, and he caught me up in his arms, swinging my feet off the ground to remove all avenues of escape.
“I will not let you punish me!” I cried.
“By all the gods woman, punishment is not worth killing yourself to avoid,” he exclaimed in return, carrying me back to the carriage and securing me inside it with cloth ties around my ankles and wrists. I thrashed about, trying to stop him as he bound me, but he paid me no mind, grimly ensuring that the ties were secure enough to hold, but not so tight that they hurt me.
Laid on the carriage seat trussed up like a chicken bound for the cooking pot, I was at last, entirely helpless. The feeling made tears spring to my eyes. All my efforts had been wasted. I was now entirely at his mercy.
“Rogue, stop this pointless rebellion before you hurt yourself,” he said firmly as I squirmed, seeking a way out of my bonds.
“It is not pointless. It is my only point. You will not punish me,” I replied, sniffing back tears.
He tilted his head and looked at me as the carriage gathered speed once more. “Why do you fear discipline so much? Were you treated harshly at your father's house?”
I shook my head. “No, they never laid a finger on me.”
“I see, so you have been spoiled,” he said. “I will break you of that Rogue, and you will thank me for it.”
“I will never thank you for it, you foul cur! You have no business taking me or laying a hand on me, I am my own woman and you will rue the day you allowed my father to trick you into taking me into your fold!”
Drexler covered his eyes with his hand and shook his head. “I may already be ruing the day, my dear,” he said, reaching for another cloth tie and securing it around my mouth. “Let us hush this harsh tongue you have before it gets you into more trouble.”
Unable to speak and unable to move, the rest of the journey was spent glaring at Drexler until I eventually fell asleep with the rocking motion of the carriage.
Chapter Four
I awoke, free to move and free to talk in the softest bed I have ever been in in my life.
“You're awake! Good, don't try to move too much, you're bruised black and blue along your shoulders.” A warm woman's voice floated to me. She needn't have bothered telling me not to move. I had no intention of going anywhere, I was far too comfortable, and it had been a long time since I was comfortable.
I opened my eyes and a smiling face beamed down at me as a tall woman bustled about fluffing my pillows up and bringing me something to sup on. “Where am I?” I asked. I assumed Drexler had brought me home, but where in his home, that mattered a great deal.
“You are in the women's quarters of Lord Drexler's hold,” the woman told me. “The Lord has given very firm instructions that you are not to be allowed out of them, so don't waste your time trying, missy.”
I frowned at her and realized that under her nurses' hood, the woman was not as old as I had first imagined. No, this woman was vital and broad, powerful. If she had been a man, she would have been a warrior.
“And who are you?” I asked boldly, fixing her with a look that I hoped imparted the fact that I would not be intimidated by her less than subtle threats.
“I am Matron Mari. I am responsible for the women of Lord Drexler's hold, including you, Miss Rogue, so take care to keep a civil tongue in your head, I do not tolerate sass.”
I spluttered, outraged, then regained enough composure to reply to her formally. “Mrs Mari, I am far too old to be spoken to in that manner, and you certainly have no authority over me. I am my own woman. I thank you for the pains you have taken to make me comfortable here, but please refrain from threats you will not make good on.”
Matron Mari's eyes twinkled with delight at my little speech. “Lord Drexler mentioned how averse you are to discipline, he has asked me to see to it that you are not spared the rod.”
It was all too much. Weeks of running free only to find that I had never been free, a desperate bid for escape only to find myself more securely caught than ever. “Fuck Lord Drexler, damn him to hell!” I screamed, overcome with a fit of rage. How dare these people believe that they controlled my fate so thoroughly, that they had the right to lay their hands on me.
The look on her face grew grim. “It seems that you will be receiving a dose of discipline sooner than I had anticipated,” she said.
“No, I won't be. You will not touch me. I will fucking kill you!” I snarled the words, baring my fangs, feeling my eyes become slitted like the serpent. The woman was unaffected by my display.
“I have seen little boys be more fearsome than that,” she said briskly, stripping the blankets off the top of the bed and flipping me onto my front with a practiced hand. I did not have time to lash out before her strong arm was laid across my lower back, and her palm was applied to my bare ass. They had put me to bed naked, and now her hand struck my exposed cheeks soundly again and again. As much as I thrashed about and cried, she did not stop, instead she slapped me harder still.