bridlpth.txt

    As soon as abeauty opened her eyes from sleep, she could feel a new
excitement in the castle.  torches everywhere brilliantly illuminated the
slaves' hall, and all about her Prines and Princesses were receiving
elaborate preparation.. The hair of the Princesses was beign combed and
studded with flowers.  The Princes were being polished with oil, their
stiff curls combed jus as carefully as those of the young women.  But
Beauty was hastily taken from bed by Leon who seemed uncommonly excited.
    "It's Festival Night, Beauty," he said, "and I've allowed you to sleep
a long time.  We must hurry."
    "Festival night," she whispered.  But she was already being placed on
the table for gooming.  At once he parted her hair and started to braid it.
She felt the air on her naeck and hated it, and she realized he had started
the braids very high on her head so she would look even more girlish than
Lady Juliana.  A long black leather thong was braided into the hair on both
sides, and knotted around the ends with a little bras bell affixed to it.
When Leon dropped the braids they were heavy against Beauty's breasts and
her neck was exposed as wel as all of her face.
    "Charming, charming," Leon mused with his usual air of satisfaction.
"but now your boots."
    And slipping her into a pair of high black leather boots he told her to
stand in them while he bent to lace them tightly to her knees and then
smooth the leather around her ankles until it was cleaving lake a glove
there.  Not until Beauty lifted her foot did she realize each boot was
fitted at toe and hell with a horseshoe.  And the tops were hard and strong
so that nothing could hurt her toes.
    "But what is happening, what is the Bridle Path?" she asked in a great
fluster.
    "Shhhh..." Leon said, pinching and prodding her breasts to give them as
he said, "some color"."
    He then glossed Beauty's eyelids and eyelashes with oil and smoothed a
little rouge into her lips and into her nipples.  Beauty drew back
instinctively but his touch was sure and quick and he took no notice of
her.  But what bothered her most was that her body feld cool and
vulnerable.  She could feel the sheathing of leather against her calves,
and all the rest of her felt worse than naked.  It was more terrible than
any of the samller adornments.
    "What is going to take place?" she asked again, but Leon had thrust her
over the end of the table and now oiled her buttocks vigorously.  "well
Healed," he said.  "The Prince must have guessed last night you would run
tonight and he spared you."
    Beauty felt his strong fingers plying her flesh and a dread came over
her.  So they would spank her, but they always did.  Only it would be in
the presence of many others?
    Every Humiliationg spank she had received before the eyes of others had
cost her dearly, though she knew now shw would suffer any amount of
paddling for the Prince, but she had not really been given a hard, thorough
spanking for the pleasure of others since the Inn on the road where the
Innkeeper's daughter had spanked her for the soldiers and the common people
at the windows.
    "But it must come," she thought.  And a vision of the Court watching it
as some ritual caused her to feel an undeniable curiousity that soon enough
gave way to panic.  "My Lord, please tell me.."
    Amid the crowd about her, she saw other girls with braided hair and
boots.  So she was not alone.  And there were Princes being fitted with
boots also.  Through it all there moved a handful of young Princes on their
hands and knees polishing boots as quickly as they could, their own
buttocks raw, their necks encircled by a little cord of leather to which
was attached a sign that Beauty could not read.
    But now as Leon brough her up standing again and gave some finishing
touches to her lips and eyelashes, one of these Princes was now buffing her
boots though he was weeping.  His buttocks were as red as it could have
been.  And she was the sign about his neck said, "I am in Disgrace," in
small letters.  A Page approached and gave the Prince a sound crack with a
belt to hurry him on to another.
    But Beauty had no time to think of it.  Leon had affixed the accursed
little brass bells to her nipples.  She shuddered almost instinctively but
they were firmly attached, and he told her to fold her arms behind her back
tightly.
    "Now forward, only you are to bend your knees slightly and to march,
lifting each knee high," he told her.
    She started, awkwardly, reluctant to obey, but then she saw all about
her other Princesses marching in an almost sprightly mannor, their breats
bouncing gracefully as they moved into the corridor.
    She hurried, the heavy boots difficult for her to lift with any
decorum, but soon she had fallen into a rhythm and Leon was walking beside
her.
    "Now, darling," he said "the first time is always difficult.  Gestival
NIght is frightening.  I had thought some easier duty would be yours this
first time, but the Queen has ordered you especially for the Bridle Path,
and the Lady Juliana will drive you."
    "ah, but what..."
    "Shhh, or I shall have to gag you and that will very much displease the
Queen as well as make your mouth quite ugly."
    All the girls were now in a long room and through narrow windows on one
wall, Beauty could see the garden.  Torches flared in the dark trees,
throwing an uneven glare on the leafy boughs above them.  The line of girls
formed right beside these windows, and Beauty was now able to see more of
what lay beyond them.
    There was a great roar as of many people conversing, laughing.  And
then to her shock Beauty saw slaves all through the garden positioned in
various ways for their torment.
    On high stakes here and there were strapped Princes and Princesses
painfully contored, their ankles bound to the stakes, their shoulders bent
over the tops of them.  They seemed no more than ornaments, the torchlight
causing their twisted limbs to glow, the hair of the Princesses falling
free in the air behind them.  Surely they could see only the sky above,
through all could see their miserable contortions.
    And everywhere benieath were the Lords and Ladies, the light falling
upon a long embrodered cloak here, a pointed hat there with a veil trailing
airily from it.  There were hundreds in the garden, these tables placed far
back into the trees, as far as Beauty could see in all directions.
    Beautifully adorned slaves moved about, pitchers in hand, little gold
chains fixed to their breasts, the Princes adorned with gold rings on their
erect organs.  They hurried to fill the goblets, pass the platters of food,
and as in the great hall there was music.
    The line of girls before Beauty grew restless.  Beauty could hear one
girl crying as her groom tried to comfort her, but most of the others were
obedient.  Here and there a groom rubbed more oil into plump buttocks or
whispered in a Princess's ear, and Beauty's sense of apprehension deepened.
    She did not want to look into the yard; it frightened her too much, but
she could not prevent herself.  And each time she saw some new horror.  A
great wall to the left, was adorned with spread-eagled slaves, and on a
huge serving cart she saw slaves fixed to the giant wheels, turned upside
down over and over as the cart was moved forward.
    "But what will happen to us?" Beauty whispered.  The girl in line
before her who could not be quieted was now hanging by her ankle from the
hand of a strong Page who punished her swiftly.  Beauty gasped to see her
spanked, her braids fallin to the floor beneath her.
    "Shhh, it is best for her,"Leon said, "it will exhaust her fear and
drain her slightly.  And she will be all the more free on the Bridle Path."
    "But tell me...."
    "You must be still.  You will see the others first and understand, and
as we draw nearer to your turn I shall instruct you.  Remeember this is a
specail night of high festivity, but the Queen will be watching.  And the
Prince will be furious if you fail him."
    Beauty's eyes returned to the garden.  The great cart of steaming food
had moved along, and for the first time she saw the distand fountain.  Here
too were bound slaves, their arms linked as they stood knee deep in the
water, surrounding the central pillar, its sparkling flow pouring down over
them.  Their bodies glistened under the water.
    The groom beside the girl in front of Beauty laugyhed softly adn said
that someone was miserable to be missing Festival Night but it was her own
fault.
    "Surely," Leaon agreed when the groom glanced back to him.  "they are
talking about Princess Lizetta," he told Beauty, "who is still in the Hall
of Punishemtns, and cursing no doubt to miss the excitement."
    To miss the excitement!  But in spite of her fear, Beauty nodded at
this as if it were perfectly natural.  A calm descended upon her in which
she heard her own heart and felt her body as if there were limitless time
in which to know it.  She felt the sheathing of the leather boots, the
click of her horseshoes on the stones, the air on her neck, her belly.  And
she thought, "Yes, this is what I am, so I should not wish to miss it
either.  Yet I rebel iin my soul; why do I rebel?"
    "O, I despise that miserable Lord Gerhardt, why must he drive me?"
asked the girl before her in a low voice.  The groom said something that
made her laugh. "But he's so slow," she said, "savoring every moment.  And
I like to run!"  The groom laughed at her.  She went on, "and what do I get
out of it?-the most miserable spanking.  I could take the spanking if I
could only cut loose and run..."
    "you want everything!" said the groom.
    "And what do you want?  Don't tell me you don't like it when I'm
covered with welts and almost blistered!"
    The groom laughed.  He had a cheerfull face, and was small of build
keeping his hands clasped behind his back, though his chestnut hair fell
down over his eyes slightly.
    "My dear, I love everything about you," he said "And so does Lord
Gerhardt.  Now say something to comfort Leon's little pet, she's so
frightened."
    The girl turned and Beauty saw her pert face, eyes slanting at the ends
somewhat like the eyes of the Queens, but they were smaller, with no
cruelty.  She smiled with full little red lips.  "don't be frightened,
Beauty," she said, "but you have no need for comfort from me.  You have the
Prince.  I have only Lord Gerhardt."
    A great current of laughter passed through the darden.  The musicians
were playing loudly, with much strumming of their lutes and tapping of the
tambourines, and then Beauty quite distictly heard the thunder of hooves
approaching.  A rider shot past the windows, his cape flying out behind
him, his horse bridled in silver and gold which made a streak oflight as he
rushed forward.
    "O, at last, at last," said the girl in fron of Beauty.  Other riders
were coming, and they were making a line all along the wall that almost
blocked Beauty's view of the garden.  She could not bear to look up at
themj, but she did and saw they were splendid Ladies and Lords, and each
hel the reins of the horse in his or her left hand, and in the right a long
rectangular black paddle.
    "Now, into the room," said Lord Gregory, and the slaves who had waited
in a long line were ushered into the next chamber where they stood
directlyu facing the arched door to the garden.  Beauty could see now that
a young Prince 2was first in line, and she saw that mounted Lord, his horse
pawing the dirt before the archway.
    Leon moved Beauty a little to the side. "Now you can see better," he
said.  And she saw the Prince clasp his hands behind his neck and step
farward.
    A trumpet sounded, catching Beauty off guard so she gasped.  And a cry
rose from the crowd behind the archway.  The young slave was forced out and
at once greeted by the black leather paddle of the Lord on horseback.
    Immediately the slave commenced to run.
    The mounted Lord rode right beside him, and the sound of the paddle
came loud and distinct as the murmur of the crowd seemed to rise and mingle
itself with the faint ripples of laugher.
    Beauty was aghast as she saw the two figures disappear down the path
together.  "I cannot do it, I cannot," she thought. "I cannot be made to
run.  I will fall.  I will fall to the ground and cover myself.  To be
tied, to be bound in fron of so many was dreadful enough, but this is
impossible..."
    But another rider was already in place, and a youn Princess was forced
suddenly forward.  The paddle found its mark, the Princess let out a little
cry and was immediately running desperately fast along the Bridle Path, the
rider after her, spanking her fiercely.
    Before Beauty could take her eyes off them, another slave was on the
way, and her eyes blurred as shw saw far ahead a dim line of torches
outlining the path that seemed to go on and on through the trees, past an
endless vista a feasting Lords and Ladies.
    "Now, Beauty, you see what is required, and don't cry.  If you're
crying it will be harder.  You must put your mind on running fast, kieeping
your hands on your neck.  Here, place them there now.  And y9ou must lift
your knees high, and try not  to squirm to escape the paddle.  It will
catch you no matter what you do, but I warn you, no matter how many times I
tell you that, you will find yourself trying to run away from it.  That is
the tr4ick, but remain graceful."
    Another slave was running, and then another.
    And the young girl who had crided earlier was upended again, dangling,
as she was spanked.
    "Dreadufl of her," said the Princess in front of Beauty.  "She'll be
spanked hard enough in a moment."
    Suddenly there were only three slaves before Beauty and the archway.
    "O, but I can't..." she cried to Leon.
    "Nonsense, my darling, follow the path.  It will unwind slowly before
you, you will see its turns well in advance, and stop only if you see the
slave before you stopped.  Now and then the line is stopped, for as the
slaves come before the Queen, they must stop for praise or condemnation.
She is on a great pavilion to your right, but don't glance at her when you
step out or the paddle will catch you off guard."
    "O, please, I shall faint, I can't, I can't..."
    "Beauty,m Beauty," said the pretty Princess in front of her, "just
follow my example."
    And Beauty realized with horror there was no one left but this girl.
But then that one who had just been spanked was placed before her, and
ushered out to the waiting paddle.  The girl was frantic, sobbing, but she
kept her hands on her neck, and soon she was running besider her laughing
rider, a tall young Lord who lifted his arm wasy back as he spanked her.
    Suddenly another rider appeared, the elderly Lord Gerhardt, and as
Beauty watched in terror, the pretty Princess ran out to receive the first
blows and run with graceful lifts of her knees beside him.  But for all her
complaints, the Lord's horse seemed to move terribly fast and the paddle
was loud and merciless.
    Beauty was forced to the threshold of the garden.  For the first time
she stared at the true immensity of the Court, the dozens upon dozens of
tables that sprawled out on the green and appeared in great numbers in the
forest beyond it.  Everywhere were servants and naked slaves.  It was
perhaps three times the size she had judged from the windows.
    She felt tine, insignificant, for all her terror.  Lost and without a
name or a sould suddenly.  "what am i now," she might have thought, but she
could not think.  And as if in nightmare, she saw all the faces of those at
the nearest tables, Lords and Ladies twisted to see the Bridle Path, and
far to her right loomed the pavilion of the Queen, canopied and festooned
with flowers.
    She was gasping for breath, and when she looked up and saw the splendid
mounted figure of Lady Juliana, her eyes filled with tears of gratitude
that is was she, though she knew Lady Juliana would spank her perhaps all
the harder to do her duty.
    The lovely Lady's braids were done with the same silver that threaded
her shapely gown.  She seemed made for the sidesaddle in which she sat and
the handle of her paddle was laced to her wrist. She was smiling.
    There was no time to see more, to think more.  Beauty was running
forward, feeling the crunch of the Bridle Path under her horseshoes,
hearing the stomp of hooves beside her.
    And though she thought it was not possible to endure such degradation,
she felt the first cracking blow to her naked buttocks.  It was so foreful
it almost knocked her off balance.  The stinging pain spread out from it
lie a warm fire and Beauty realized she was rushing forward.
    The stomp of hooves deafened her.  And the paddle caught her again and
again, almost lifting her and forcing her forward.  She realized she was
crying out loud through her clenched teeth, her tears making ablur of the
torches that clearly defined the path before her.  ASnd she was running,
running fast towards the enclosing trees, though she could not escape the
paddle.
    It was as Leon had warned her; it caught her over and over and each
time there was some hideous surprise because she was trying to outrun it.
She could smell the horse, and when she widened her eyes and gasped for
breath, she saw everywhere on either side of her those torchlit and
abundantly decked supper tables.  Lords and Ladies drank, supped, laughed,
turned to glance at her perhaps, she did not know, she was sobbing and
running frantically from the blow, shich came harder and harder.
    "O, please, please, Lady Juliana," she wanted to cry out, but she did
not dare to ask for mercy.  The path had turned and she was following it
only to see more and more Nobles banqueting and dimly before her the figure
of the other rider and slave who had greatly out distanced her.
    Her throat was buring as much as her sore flesh
    "Faster, Beauty, faster, and lift your legs hight," Lady Juliana sang
out over the sind. "ah, yes, better, my darling."  And there came another
shock of pain, and another.  The paddle found her thighs with a hard
uplifting slap, and then seemed to scoop up her buttocks.
    Beauty gave an open-mouthed cry because she could not stop it, and soon
she heard her own wordless pleas as clearly as the horse's hooves pounding
the cinders.
    er throat constricted, even the soles of her feet burned, but nothing
hurt as much as the quick, strong paddling.
    Lady Juliana seemd possessed of some evel genius, catching Beauty from
one angle and then another, lifting her up again with the blows, smacking
her hard and then three or four times in rapid succession.
    The path had made another turn, and far ahead Beauty saw the walls of
the castle.  They were returning now.  They would soon reach the Queen's
canopied pavilion.
    Beauty felt as if all the breath had gone out of her, yet mercifully
Lady Juliana slowed her pace as did the riders before her.   Beauty ran
more slowly, knees high, and felt a great relaxation course through her.
She could hear her own choking sobs, and feel the tears slipping down her
face, and yet a puzzling sensation was passsing over her.
    She felt suddenly calmed in some way.  She did not comprehend it.  She
felt no rebellion suddenly, though the obligation to rebel prodded her.
Perhaps she was only exhausted.  But she knew only that she was a naked
slave of the Court and anyting might be done to her.  Hundres of Loards and
Lakies watched her with amusement.  It was noghing to them, as she was only
one of many, and it had all been done a thousand times, and would be done
again, and she must do her best to take her place tethered to that beam in
the hall of punishemtns suffering for the amusement of no one.
    "Lift your knees, my precious darling," Lady Juliana said to her as
they wer moving slowly now.  "And o, if you could only see how exquisite
you are, you have done splendidly."
    Beauty tossed her head.  She felt the heavy braids fall against her
back, and suddenly when the paddle struck her she felt herself move so
languidly with it.  It was as if this strange relaxation were softening her
all over.  Is that what they had meant when they said the the pain would
soften her?  Yet she feared this relaxation, this despair....was it
despair?  She did not know.  She had no dignity in this moment.  She saw
herself as Lady Juliana must surely have seen her, and it seemed sh almost
preened as she imagined this, tossing her head again, pushing her breats
out proudly.
    "That's it, lovely, lovely," Lady Juliana called out.  THe other rider
had disappeared.
    The horse picked up its pace; the paddle struck Beauty violently again
and drover her throught the clustered tables as the crowd grew thicker, the
castle coming closer, and suddenly they had stopped before the pavilion.
    Lady Juliana turned her mount the the side, and with small prodding
spanks brought Beauty beside her to attention.
    Beauty did not look up but she could see the long garlands of flowers,
the dim white vision of the canopy ballooning gently in the breeze, and a
host of figures seated behind the festooned railing fo the pavilion.
    Her body seemed consumed with fire.  She could not catch her breath,
and then she could hear the conversation above, the Queen's pure icy voice
and others laughing.  Her throat was raw, her buttocks pulsing with pain,
and now Lady Juliana whispered:
    "She's pleased with you, Beauty, now kss my boot quickly and drop down
on your knees and kiss the grass before the pavilion.  Do it with spirit,
my girl."
    Beauty obeyed without hesitation, and as if it were water washing
through her, she fel again the calm, that sense of what was it? Release?
Resignation?
    "Nothing can save me," she thought.  All the sounds about her mingled
in a din.  Her buttocks seemed to glow with pain, and she imagined a great
light emanating from them.
    And then she was back on her feet, and another hard blow sent her
crying into the dark cellar chamber of the castle.
    Slaves everywhere were thrown over barrels, their sore bodies being
washed quickly with cool water.  Beauty felt its flow over her abraded
flesh, and then the soft toweling.
    At once, Leon had her on her feet. "You've pleased the Queen
marvelously.  Your form was magnificent.  You were born the the Bridle
Path."
    "But the Prince..." Beauty whispered.  And she felt dizzy, and
mistakenly envisioned Prince Alexi.
    "Not tonight for you, lovely one, he is quite busy with a thousand
amusements.  And you must be plced where you can serve and rest, as the
    exertion of the Bridle Path is quite enough in one night for a novice."
    He unfastened her braids and brushed out her hair in ripples.  She was
breathing deeply and evenly now and bent her forehead against his chest.
    "Was I truely graceful?"
    "Pricelessly beautiful," he whipspered ,"and Lady Juliana is thoroughly
in love with you."
    But now he ordered her down on her knees and told her to follow him.
    She was suddenly out in the night again, on the warm grass with the
noisy crowd all about her.  She saw the table legs, the gathered gowns,
hands moving in the shadows.  There was a shriek of laughter nearby and
then she saw before her a long banquest table covered with sweets, fruit
and pastries.  Two Princes attended it and decorative pillars stood at both
ends to which slave girls were affixed, their hands above their heads,
their feet chaned slightly apart at the bottom.
    One of these was removed as Beauty approached and she was quickly
fastened in the girl's place, standing firmly, her head and swollen
buttocks pressed back against the pillar.
    She could see the whole feast around her, even with her lids lowered,
and she felt herself quite firmly bound in place, unable to move, and it
did not matter.  The worst was over.
    Even when a passing Lord stopped to smile at her and pinch her nipples,
she did not care.  She was amazed to see the little brass bells had been
taken away.  She was so wweary she hadn't noticed.
    Leon was still nearby, at her ear, and she was about to murmur some
question as to how long she would be here, when quite distinctly in fron of
her she saw Prince Alexi.
    He was as beautiful as she had remembered, his auburn brown hair
curling against the hollows of his handsome face, his soft brown eyes fixed
on her.  His lips spread easily in a smile though he drew up to the table
and gae his pitcher to be filled to one of those in attendance.
    Beauty stared furtively out of the corner of her eye.  She saw his
thick hard sex and the lush hair around it.   The vision of the Page,
Felix, sucking it filled her with sudden passion.
    She must have moaned or stirred because Prince Alexi, glancing up at
the distant pavilion before he bent over the table to gather some sweet,
suddenly kissed her on the ear, brushing Leon aside as if he were nothing.
    "You behave yourself, you wicked Prince," said Leon, but it was not
playful.
    "I shall see you tomorrow night, my dearest," Prince Alexi shispered
with a smile.  "And don't be frightened of the Queen for I shall be with
you."
    Beauty's mouth quivered on the verge of a cry, but he was gone, and now
Leon had drawn up to her ear again, cuppin his hand as he shispered:
    "you're to see the Queen tomorrow night for a few hours in her
Quarters."
    "O, no, no.." Beauty wailed, tossing her head from side to side.
    "Don't be foolish.  This is very good.  You could not wish for better,"
and as he spoke, he slipped his hand between her legs and pinched her lips
gently.
    She felt he4rself grow warm there.
    "I was on the pavilion while you were running.  The Queen was impressed
in spite of herself," he went on, "and the Prince said you had always
showwn such form and spirit.  And again, he pleaded for you, and that the
Queen should not censure his passion.  He agreed then not see you tonight
but to have a dozen or so new Princesses paraded before him..."
    "Don't tell me any more!" Beauty cried softly
    "No, but don't you see, the Queen was enthralled with you and he knew
it.  She watched you closely as you ran, impatient for you to come to the
pavilion.  And it was she who said perhaps she should taste your charms
herself to see if you were not as spoilt and vain as she had supposed.  She
will have you in her Quarters tomorrow night after supper."
    Beauty cried softly, too spiritless to answer.
    "But, Beauty, this is a great privilege.  There are slaves here who
serve years without ever being noticed by the Queen.  You shall have your
full opportunity to enchant her.  And you shall, my dea, you shall, you
cannot fail to do so.  And the Prince has been clever for once.  He has not
worn his heart for all to see it."
    "But what will she do to me!" Beauty whimpered. "and Prince Alexi, will
he see all of it? O, what will she do?"
    "O, she shall only make a plaything of you, of course.  And you shall
try to please her.