A Tale of Ties and Binds - Chapter 24

Chapter 24. A Bane of Beasts

Still unable to escape her bonds or slip the gag from between her lips, Penelope crept alone through the winding walls of the labyrinth. She made sure to avoid destroying any rope trails she found and instead always remembered the nearest corner to hide behind. As long as the Minotaur was following some other girl's trail, he wouldn't be following Penelope and she could stay away from him and his eager bull-like meat.

She kept her eyes open to her surroundings. There must be some way to get out of here, she thought. A ladder, a gate, a hatch into an underground system, anything. But there wasn't anything like that and there wouldn't ever be, as the voice in the back of her head had been telling her from the start.

The architects of the labyrinth had been clever, Penelope realised early on. The high stone walls had been carved with rounded corners and the ground was nothing but grainy sand. There were no edged surfaces that a prisoner could use to slice open their bonds.

She knew she needed to find others. She'd heard many in the passages beside her own, though they were often running or crying or both. One had been gasping and Penelope thought she might be in pain until she heard a loud bleating from the same place. She'd only actually seen one woman and that was the girl who was being chased by the Minotaur when first Penelope had seen him.

Even so, it seemed the ropes keeping her bound and the cloth keeping her gagged were not coming undone without the assistance of someone else. Perhaps she'd be able to liberate and rally enough prisoners to mount a rebellion against the royal palace.

Penelope was still toying with the logistics of that plan when a figure appeared on the path before her.

It seemed the woman on the other end of the passageway was just as surprised by the encounter. Her hazel-coloured doe eyes widened with shock and suspicion. She held her ground and didn't instantly turn and run, though, so that was a good sign. The stranger had golden-brown hair in loose ringlets trailing down to a pair of small yet perky breasts, and was dressed in what had no doubt once been a beautiful blue gown but was now only a sand-stained and sun-bleached cloth torn to reveal her long bronze legs.

"Mmph?" Penelope asked, as if to say, "Friend or foe?"

The woman squinted suspiciously at Penelope before replying, "Mmph!" as if to say, "That depends."

Penelope turned her back to flash her hands. She pointed at her ropes and made gestures as if to say, "I'll untie you if you untie me."

The doe-eyed woman smiled around her gag and shook her head and mmphed some more, as if to say, "No, you untie me. Then I'll untie you."

Penelope looked around for someone else who might be more willing to help her. They were alone, however. There was only one option. The captain spun on her heel and started off back the way she came.

She'd only taken a few paces before the other woman mmphed loudly as if to get Penelope's attention. She faced her again and hoped this new conversation would be more productive than the last.

The doe-eyed woman seemed to be struggling with her own choices more than with the breast and crotch harness tied tightly around her. She chewed on her gag. "Mmph," she sighed, finally, as if to say, "Fine. Have it your way."

So Penelope grinned victoriously as she approached the woman and couldn't help but put a slightly girlish skip in her step. She turned her arms to face the knots towards the beautiful stranger and the stranger turned too to get at them with her fingers.

Penelope felt the ropes above and below her breasts loosen moments later and the woman mmphed again and refused to do more, as if to say, "My turn."

The captain wriggled her arms to test her bondage. She was still too strictly tied to release herself so there was little choice but to comply. Extending her fingers, Penelope began loosening one of the knots binding her newfound friend.

After several turns, and many more mmphs and suspicious glances, Penelope's final knot was released and her harness fell in a pile on the sand by her sandalled feet. She lifted her liberated hands to the gag and tore it out, licked her lips and stretched her jaw. "Ahh, that's better."

"Mmmmph!" the other woman growled, wiggling her bound hands.

"Of course." Penelope untied the stranger's final knot and released her from bondage.

The woman slipped the gag from her mouth and instantly launched towards Penelope, locking lips with her and sliding her tongue into her saviour's mouth. Penelope was too startled to offer any resistance and the woman had pulled away before Penelope could gather her thoughts.

"Thank you!" the woman shouted emphatically before doing a little dance. "I was afraid you'd leave me tied up."

Penelope tucked her left breast back into her bodice. It had somehow escaped during the surprise kiss. "Why would I do that? I wanted you to help me."

"That's just it. Everyone wants to be helped but nobody else wants to do the helping."

"That's just foolish," Penelope scoffed. "We're all stuck in here together so we may as well help each other get out."

"You might think so, but I've come across girls like us who were lying hogtied on the ground. They didn't just magically hogtie themselves. And the Minotaur certainly didn't tie them up like that, I can tell you. They most likely happened across some other girl who conned them into untying her. Once the girl was freed, the naïve saviour would be bound even tighter by the treacherous harpy and left to be found by the Minotaur. They learn the hard way not to trust anyone. Very hard. Everyone I've met runs away when they see me."

It's no wonder she was slow to trust me and insisted on taking it in turns. And there goes any hope of forming a rebellion. "Well, you can trust me. We'll never achieve anything here by ourselves. My name is... Penelope."

"Mine is Peitho. They both start with P. We're like sisters."

I just hope you're more trustworthy than my real sister turned out to be. "You look to have been in here much longer than me. Have you come across any ladders, doors, hatches, anything like that?"

Peitho pursed her lips as if to give another kiss as she tried to remember. "No, I don't think so. But I have a better idea. I've found a crack in the outer wall. It was covered in berry bushes that must have split the stones apart."

"A crack?" Penelope asked sceptically. "What use is that, even with our hands free?"

"It's a large crack. And I think we can knock it down."

Is this girl insane? "With what? Are you hiding a battering ram under your gown?"

"There'll be enough time for you to look at what's hiding under my gown once we escape, Penelope. My plan requires one other. We may not have a ram, but we do have a bull."

---

Peitho wasn't lying. The outer wall was indeed half decayed already. All it needed was a good push and it would crumble.

The two prisoners laid their trap. They carved lines in the sand using their ropes from as far away as they dared, forming a web of tracks all leading into a long corridor that led directly to the cracked outer wall.

Penelope's task was the perilous one. She was the bait. Peitho wrapped ropes around Penelope's torso, above and below her breasts and down between her legs, and the captain coiled the remainder around her wrists behind her back. She could shrug them loose at a moment's notice, and she would probably have less time than that.

The plan was simple. The Minotaur would be lured towards them and follow the tracks in the sand. He'd eventually spot Penelope standing in the corridor and mistake her to be his next victim. Then he'd charge her, she'd run towards the outer wall and turn the corner at the end. This was where the two prisoners had laid their trap, for a rope had been buried beneath the sand under that junction. Penelope would duck down behind one corner, opposite Peitho, and the two would hoist the rope trap as the Minotaur tried to turn the corner. He'd trip up and fly head-first into the wall, hopefully breaching it and opening up a chance to escape.

As Peitho took her position behind the corner, Penelope began shouting. "Help! Help! I'm so vulnerable right now! I hope a big, handsome beast doesn't try to have sex with me! I wouldn't be able to resist as he ravished me again and again and again! I'd only be able to struggle in his grip and try not to moan with pleasure!"

It wasn't long before the Minotaur replied with a loud bleat echoing through the labyrinth's passageways.

What an udder fool. "Oh no!" Penelope cried. "He's found me! The big, strong Minotaur has found me! I so hope he doesn't tear off my clothes and fondle my naked breasts! I couldn't possibly withhold my passionate screams! I'm likely to absolutely explode in climax at the mere touch of those rough hands!"

The Minotaur bleated again, closer than before, and even randier. This is what happens when you always give a beast its prey, Penelope thought. It never learns to be suspicious; never fears becoming the hunted.

He appeared at the opposite end of the corridor with his bull's head iron helm lowered to the path as he traced the rope's line in the sand. The phallic-shaped horns glistened in the light and the dense rug of fur on his chest and groin shone with the day's sweat.

He lifted his head and paused when he spotted Penelope standing there, supposedly helpless. He kicked at the sand, his hoof-shaped greaves snapping at the cobblestone underneath.

Then he charged.

And Penelope ran.

Even without the use of her arms, she was still faster than him. He didn't need to be quick. His prey could run but couldn't hide - not in his labyrinth. The sand would reveal their path sooner or later and he'd have his way in the end.

But not today. Today he faced a Greek named Penelope from the Household of the Scylla, Slaver of Slavers and soon-to-be Bane of Beasts.

She could hear him pounding after her, not twenty paces between them. Failure was not an option. She let go of the ropes in her hand and allowed them to loosen from her wrists, then her elbows, then her breasts.

Penelope was still sprinting when she reached the cracked outer wall and ducked down behind the corner. She shrugged the ropes from her shoulders and let them fall into her lap.

She fumbled for the end of the rope trap hidden in the sand. On the other side of the intersection, Peitho was anxiously fondling the end of the rope trap as she peered around the corner.

Then her fingers graced something fibrous. She grabbed it.

Peitho dug her heels into the sand. "NOW!"

Penelope pulled with all her strength and the rope stretched taut. It snagged the Minotaur just above his ankles and sent him flying.

There was a loud crash of metal on stone as the iron bull's head helm slammed into the wall. The force of the impact caused the cracked stones to split even further and crumble down on top of him, burying the Minotaur in a pile of shattered stones. Only his hoof-shaped bronze greaves  were left outside the rubble, his feet kicking frantically at the sand.

"The wall!" Peitho screamed. "It's breached!"

"Congratulations. Your plan worked," Penelope said with a sigh of relief. She picked up a rope and began binding the Minotaur's feet together.

"I'm so happy I could kiss you!"

"Maybe later?" Penelope quadruple tied the knot just to be sure. She climbed into the breach and coned her hands around her mouth. "FREEDOM! NORTH WALL!"

"What was that for?" Peitho asked as she joined Penelope on the rubble.

"To make Queen Adrianne's life a little harder," the captain smiled. And every moment the queen of cows spent looking for her escaped prisoners was a moment not spent looking for Penelope.

The two escapees ran through the trees surrounding the labyrinth and eventually came across a road that brought them back to the city. The sun was straddling the western horizon by then. Crowds of whores were flooding the streets by the dozens and just as many women with purses of gold were looking for some nocturnal companionship; an easy crowd in which to go unnoticed.

Penelope took Peitho by the arm. "There is a chance my ship may still be docked at the harbour. If you're willing, I'd be happy for you to join my crew. There are eight of us in total and I'm sure you-mph"

Peitho's lips curled into a pout as she softly pressed a finger to Penelope's lips. "I fear I must decline. My friends are surely worried sick about me and I need to find them so we can return home. It's been my pleasure, Penelope."

Before the captain could speak another word, Peitho swooped in to steal that promised kiss. Her tongue was adventurous and flexible, and her hands wondered freely over Penelope's bust and heart-shaped arse. Penelope allowed herself to fall into it, closing her eyes and cupping Peitho's face in her hands. Time itself seemed to slow.

Then suddenly the tongue was gone, leaving behind only a sweet taste. Penelope opened her eyes again and Peitho was nowhere to be seen.

---

The Mermaid's Revenge was still moored where Penelope had left it. A few torches had been lit aboard the forecastle so it seemed the ship was still occupied. Penelope approached suspiciously. She'd hate to have to escape from another prison so soon after the last. Not until she climbed on board and found Daphne oiling her whip while the buxom Serena was knelt licking her crotch did the captain finally relax.

"I escaped," she said proudly.

The redhead looked up from her whip but kept her fingers still firmly locked in the tangle of Serena's golden-hair. "Do the whorehouses barricade their doors now?"

"What? No, I was captured by the queen. There was a messenger, and I was Alexis the Binder, and then she didn't give me the key. Then there was a huge maze as far as the eye could see and a Minotaur with bronze phalluses. And the queen was a massive cow the entire time."

Daphne looked confused. "How much wine have you had? Ooh, right there, Serena. Deeper. Mm-hmm, perfect."

She doesn't believe me! "I haven't had any wine!"

"You didn't get the wine?" Ellisia asked as she emerged from below deck. "But you've been gone for nearly two days."

"I think she drank all the wine," said Daphne sympathetically between convulses. "You can forget how much you've had when you're with whorrressss. Oh, praise Hera."

I shouldn't have mentioned the Minotaur. "Just forget about all that. I'm back now and we need to set sail again for Lacedaemonia as soon as possible."

Serena lifted her head from Daphne's lap as the redhead took a few moments to catch her breath. "Lacedaemonia? What business do you have with the Spartans?"

"Do you remember when we rose against you in the Histri village? We defeated you in a mud wrestle and I swore to return to Thessaly, reclaim my right as the matriarch of my household and take revenge against your older sister?"

Serena tensed. "... How could I forget? That menace Adara stole my armour."

"And before you were abruptly gagged, you were about to ask 'You and what army?'"

"... Yes."

"Well... Sparta has an army."

Continued in Chapter 25

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