The monks smiled and then resumed the beating. This time one of them resumed the assault on her quivering buttocks while the other cracked the cane across her shoulders and back. Mandy's body continued to writhe and her groans escalated into shrieks. But Zoe sympathised with the girl. She was experiencing real pain but was helpless to stop herself from experiencing real pleasure as well.
'So Mandy, tell me what you feel you have learnt,' the monk demanded when they at last seemed to have decided that she had suffered enough.
The poor girl held down across the bench sniffed back her tears and when she spoke her voice was choked with the conflicting emotions Zoe knew so well.
'I have learnt that I can still be a bad girl and I need to be punished.'
Zoe felt her stomach lurch. These were words that she herself had been made to repeat. One of many mantras the girls were made to recite as part of their training.
'And what else have you learnt?'
'That when you punish me I am glad because you help to teach me how bad I am,' Mandy answered.
'And?'
'And I wish to thank you with all my body.'
'Good girl Mandy. Well done. Now you may show your thanks.'
The monk walked around to the head of the bench.
Zoe knew these words too; she'd been forced to say them repeatedly after her own beatings and dreaded the day when she would say them with complete sincerity. The monk stood before the girl's face, lifted his cassock and stepped closer to her. Zoe watched as the girl eagerly began to lick and suck his displayed cock, which was already hard and soon began to jerk and twitch as her tongue bathed it adoringly with licks and kisses.
'Swallow like a good girl, slave.'
The young girl's lips close around the head of the shaft, the monk gave a contented smile and Zoe watched transfixed as Mandy gulped down his come devotedly.
'Now Mandy, what do you say?'
'Thank you. Please let me serve you again whenever you wish.'
The man patted her affectionately on the head then turned away.
'Tie her down on the bench and leave her like this for the rest of the day.'
Zoe shook her head in disbelief then to her alarm she saw the monk had happened just at that moment to glance in her direction.
'You don't think she should suffer for her wickedness, Zoe?' the monk, about to leave the kitchen, paused, one hand resting on the door handle which he was about to open and walk through.
'I... I... um...' Zoe stammered.
'Speak girl!'
'It's not fair! She's apologised and she's contrite. She should be forgiven! Don't you believe in forgiveness?'
The man nodded, seeming to digest Zoe's question. She held her breath, waiting for his answer, already a terrible sense of foreboding hanging over her.
'Then I shall reduce her suffering by a half as a measure of my kindness. She can be released mid-afternoon.'
'Thank you,' Zoe said.
'And,' the man pointed an accusing finger at Zoe, 'You can take the remainder of her punishment as your reward for daring to question my judgement!'
'No!'
'Take her and tie her down! She obviously needs to be taught a lesson!'
'No!' Zoe cried as several monks descended upon her and dragged her kicking and screaming across to another workbench.
'You must learn Zoe that you are here to worship us. You have no other choice but devotion to the brethren. Deviation will only bring you suffering. Do you want to suffer my child?'
'Go to hell...' Zoe swore, as she was held down on her stomach across a workbench. She twisted and fought like mad, fully aware of what was about to happen, yet strangely eager to experience what the other girl had just been put through. Her skirt was flicked up exposing her buttocks. She twisted and writhed and more hands clasped hold of her legs and arms to keep her still. Her heart was hammering, her body bathed in sweat, adrenaline rushing through her as she struggled against the men. She could smell their sweat as they battled to subdue her and thrashing her head from side to side she glimpsed their eager, lascivious gazes.
'Such a stubborn girl. Brother Michael, give her a dozen strokes of the cane to calm her down before we give her the rest.'
'No! This isn't fair! Let me go you bastards!'
Zoe knew she had no chance to escape and that resistance would only bring more punishment but something was driving her on to rebel. Was it a refusal to submit? Or was it a desire to have more punishment inflicted upon herself? Her mind was full of the memory of the last time she was whipped and how agonisingly sweet the pain had felt. How delicious the feeling of sexual arousal from suffering...
The hands grasping her ankles and wrists pulled her limbs harder until she was gasping with the discomfort of being held so tightly stretched. She looked up at the determined faces of the men around her. She was panting hard and her breasts ached from being pressed down against the tabletop. The muscles in her arms and legs were drawn so taut the pain needled through her body making her cry out for them to stop, even knowing that they wouldn't, not until they were finished and she'd been properly punished.
They had her completely at their mercy now; all she could do was shout and beg and they could easily prevent her from doing that too. She had only to start raising her voice in protest and she knew they'd gag her. What with, she wondered? The memory of her head being restrained, cloth or the hard rubber of a ball-gag being insinuated into between her jaws was fresh and vivid. She knew she needed that to complete the feeling of helplessness.
'Let me go! Damn you! Stop it!'
It took only a second for them to respond. A hand clasped her tousled hair and drew her head firmly back. An apple was jammed into her mouth. Zoe tried to thrash her head but there was a hand under her chin and her head was held forcibly still. The sash from around her breasts was removed and drawn across her mouth, covering the apple. As she shook her head in objection the sash was knotted at her nape.
Ropes were looped and bound her wrists and ankles and secured to the wooden legs of the bench.
'Now Zoe, it's time for you to enjoy the purifying pain of the cane... you will feel so much better when this is over... We know you want to be a good girl and we'll help you. All you need to do to is to nod when you realise how bad you have been and that you want to thank us by giving us your body.'
The man stepped back as Zoe glared at him then the cane came down with a hiss across her buttocks, making her jerk against the ropes that held her spread-eagled. Again and again the cane snapped down across her legs or back. After a dozen strokes there came the respite of a pause. The monk directing the punishment looked down at her, a cruel smile twisting his face.
'Feeling contrite, Zoe?'
Zoe knew this was her chance for the caning to stop. Her body felt awash with pain but now she was deeply, helplessly aroused and she found herself glaring defiantly at him, knowing full well that she was courting more punishment.
'Very well, since you show no sign of remorse Zoe, the punishment must continue.'
Again the cane came down against her rump making her jerk against the ropes that held her down. Zoe pulled her arms down against the ropes around her wrists and felt the tightness in her muscles increase. She pressed her hips against the wood and felt the hardness of the bench against her aching sex. Again the bamboo of the cane struck her making her whole body jerk. She shook her head as the pain washed over her.
'So Zoe, you regret your outburst now then? Would you like to say how sorry you are?'
She looked up at the monk, blinking back more tears, her back and bottom throbbing madly. She was panting hard through the gag and she knew she was very close to having an orgasm. She glared up and shook her head in defiance.
'Very well...'
The cane cracked down over the back of her thighs making her whole body quiver. Again it struck her. She dragged her arms down and oblivious to how she must seem, she tried to thrust her arse back and up to meet the next blow. As if in answer to her prayers it was delivered just above where the fronds of her sex protruded between the globes of her buttocks and she felt the cane lick against her tips of her pussy lips like a tongue of fire.
Closing her eyes and groaning through the gag, Zoe came, her body bucking against the ropes.
'Enough, Brother Michael. Untie her and take her to the dormitory. I can think of a better way for us to teach her a lesson!'
Chapter Eleven
The pirates held Vanessa on board Auda's yacht for four days before sailing back to Rouassa. Both Vanessa and the pirates had imagined Auda would have been searching for them but to her dismay she discovered that Auda had fled the very day that Zoe had been auctioned. Only hours after the auctioned girls had been shipped out, three military helicopters had swept over the slave trader's fortress and pandemonium had broken loose. Leaflets were dropped warning Delgardo to hand over Auda bin Yasel and the British Secret Agent Zoe Farquerson or to face the consequences. Whilst Delgardo was deliberating, Auda fled on foot into the jungle.
The contingent of British Marines was too small to assault the fortress but Delgardo played the diplomat anyway and told them that Auda had made a run for it already and alas the girl had been sold and was gone, he knew not where.
So the pirates brought Vanessa to Delgardo and a sum was agreed. They quickly left on Auda's luxury yacht only to cover a few miles before one of the three military helicopters spotted them. By lunchtime the next day the Head of the British Secret Service was brought up to date with the turn of events. The Marines had captured Auda's yacht. Auda had vanished into the jungle. Zoe Farquerson was still missing, whereabouts unknown.
Vanessa had only been held at Karunga a couple of days when two men arrived with payment for her and she was handed over to them.