Triple Tickle · Part 1 (1/2)
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The three halfling women standing in the courtroom were as different as three young halfling females could possibly be. They were all short, of course, with round faces; plump, big-breasted butterballs who were only the slightest bit over half the height of human women. They were all barefoot, with hair growing from the tops of their feet as thickly as from the tops of their heads. And they were all thirty-three or older, since only halflings who had ‘come of age’ were allowed in the predominantly human city of Gilderhaven.
But Heather Merryhill, on one end of the prisoners’ chain, had fair skin, wide eyes of pale blue, and wavy red-blonde hair on her head and feet. Her little turned-up nose seemed almost sharp, compared to those of the other two, and she wore a yellow dress-tunic of the plainest, cheapest cut.
Kimiko Nessonite, hands cuffed together at the center of the chain, had skin the color of honey and almond-shaped eyes of green-flecked brown. The black hair on her head fell straight as half a yard of rainwater, and an equally black mop of hair covered the tops of her feet. Her own dress-tunic was as plain and cheap as Heather’s, but dyed a dark gray.
Taletha Romar, locked in place on the other end of the chain, had hair as black as Kimiko’s, but curled in tight ringlets rather than falling straight. Her eyes were as black as her hair, her nut brown skin looked lighter only by comparison to her hair, and her face featured a broad and generous mouth beneath her flat little button of a nose. Her own cheap dress-tunic was a dull green.
“I find you guilty of attempted housebreaking,” the magistrate informed them after a very short trial. “You are sentenced to one week in the stocks, for five or fifty. Next case!” And the warder pulled on the chain, leading the three convicted prisoners away.
The next morning, Heather, Kimiko, and Taletha found themselves in a row once more, this time sitting on a bench with their ankles locked in heavy wooden stocks. Their hands were bound behind their backs with ropes, well-tied by the large and rather thuggish-looking Master of the Stocks. More ropes, wrapped around their torsos, secured them to the thick posts behind them and prevented them from falling over.
To one side sat a bucket, a half-dozen wooden utensils hanging from pegs, and a sandglass. The sandglass would run for ten minutes with each turning, providing the ‘five’ part of their sentence. Each day for a week, they’d be locked in the stocks, and any of the good citizens of Gilderhaven could pay five coppers, turn the glass, and tickle their helpless feet until the sand ran out. Halflings were uncommon in Gilderhaven, and Taletha knew from previous experience that they could later expect a crowd of humans eager for the experience of tickling three pairs of halfling feet.
Alternatively, a passer-by could pay fifty silver Guilders – the ‘fifty’ part of the sentence – and buy the captive’s indenture for a week. Normally this meant a week of drudgework, but it wasn’t unknown for an unscrupulous purchaser to take the captive from the city and reduce her to outright slavery. Being a halfling made this less likely, but it wasn’t impossible. Especially if the purchaser was someone like Baron von Federkeil.
Taletha brooded on these possibilities while listening to Heather worry about them – Heather always did her worrying aloud: “It’s a good thing Baron von Federkeil is off at his hunting lodge. His friends and his agents will all be there too. It was clever of Taletha to insist that we wait until they left, just in case we got caught like this. But do you think one of the citizens will buy our indenture, Kimiko?”
“I don’t know.” Kimiko, sitting in the middle, knew Heather as well as Taletha did – the three of them had been together for over a year now.
“It’s not very likely,” Heather said, and then let her voice fade unobtrusively. She wasn’t as ditzy as she sounded, and she had noticed the human woman approaching.
Taletha considered this woman, one of the few people present this early in the morning. She was thin, with a plain face half covered with large-lensed glasses. Her hair was long and brown, hanging in a braid down her back. Her skirt was a darker brown – common cloth – but her white blouse featured red embroidery.
“Wealthier than she looks,” Kimiko muttered.
“Look at her ring,” Heather whispered.
The woman came up to the stocks. Taletha’s feet felt suddenly vulnerable, as she remembered her previous experiences in the city’s stocks. She told herself to ignore that, and concentrated on getting a good look at the ring on the woman’s left hand. It was a heavy gold ring, a seal-ring of a Master of the Guild of Mechaniks. But how…?
“Three halflings,” the woman said, looking over the captives. “Perfect!” Taletha did not find her enthusiasm reassuring. Even less reassuring was the clink of coins as the woman dropped them into the bucket, and the confident way she selected a blunt-pronged wooden fork. “Have to be certain,” the human said, either to herself, or to the three halflings; Taletha couldn’t be sure which it was.
The woman first applied the fork to Heather’s right foot, making the fair-skinned halfling squeal and giggle. Then to her right foot, producing more laughter. Taletha waited in growing trepidation as the human shifted to apply her fork to Kimiko’s feet.
Halfling’s soles are tougher than those of most other people, but this does not make them less ticklish. It only requires that ticklers alter their techniques. Feathers and soft-bristled brushes don’t work all that well on halfling soles, but a stiffer implement, applied with the sort of firm stroke that a human would find soothing, or stinging, can produce unbearable tickle-sensations in halflings.
Kimiko writhed and made little squeaking noises, as the woman applied the fork with a casual grace. “Trying to hold it in just makes it worse, you know,” the human said, not unkindly. A clever twist of the fork made Kimiko gasp, and then the laughter started pouring out of her. “Better,” the human said as she ran the fork up and down one sole, and then the other. “Better.”
Then it was Taletha’s turn. Knowing what was to come made things worse. Not only did she have the immediate example of her two oath-sisters but she also had the memories of her previous times in the stocks. Once or twice the would-be ticklers had been inept, but most of the time the humans had been diabolically effective in figuring out just how to tickle her feet.
The human woman didn’t need to figure anything out, though. Taletha squealed as the wooden fork ran down her right sole, with just enough pressure to sent bolts of tickle-sensation shooting into her foot. Then the fork scrapped back and forth across her left sole, starting at the heel and working up toward the toes. Taletha giggled uncontrollably at what the woman was doing to her as she sat there, trapped and helpless.
“Perfect,” the human repeated. She hung the fork on its peg and then stepped purposefully off. Taletha craned her neck to watch.
“Now what?” Kimiko asked.
“It’s going to be a long day,” Heather said. “They usually don’t start this early. Where is she going, Taletha? Can you see?”
“It looks like… She’s speaking with the Master of the Stocks,” Taletha reported.
“Oh no,” Heather said. “We’re doomed. She’s going to buy our indenture.”
“A week of drudge-work or a week of tickling,” Kimiko said. “Flip a Guilder to see which is worse.” Taletha knew that the boredom in her voice was an act, but agreed with the truth of her statement.
A few minutes later, the three halfling women stood beside the stocks, their ankles released but their hands still tied behind their backs. They had also been leashed, with lines running from their bound wrists to the human woman’s hand.
“This is Mis- er Master Amanda,” the Stocks-Master corrected himself at a sharp glance from the woman. “Of the Guild of Mechaniks. She has bought your indenture, and she will have ways of making you regret it if you don’t behave for her.” He turned to the human woman, and managed to get her title out without stumbling, the second time around: “Master Amanda. These three wenches are Heather, Kimiko, and Taletha, convicted of attempted housebreaking. I hope you can get at least a little honest work from them.”
“I’ll manage,” Master Amanda smiled thinly. That smile, and the dry tone of voice, worried Taletha, but she and her two oath-sisters didn’t have any choice. Bound and leashed as they were, they had to go with the female mechanik-Master, and do as she commanded.
“Master Amanda wants you in the workroom now.” Will the apprentice was a beefy sort, a lad who had just reached his Score. At first, Taletha had though of him as a younger version of the thuggish Master of the Stocks. But the efficient way he had taken away their clothing for laundering and made them put on ankle-shackles in exchange had led her to suspect that a sharp mind lurked under his unhandsome exterior. Besides, Master Amanda was not the sort to tolerate stupidity in her apprentice. So when Kimiko looked a question at her, Taletha shook her head.
At least their cooperation had gained them a bucket of wash-water and a bowl of soup, Taletha thought as they walked slowly to the workroom, hobbled by their ankle-chains. Whatever drudgery they faced, they’d face without being muddy and hungry as well.
Will pointed them to a set of three wooden stools, and they sat. Master Amanda came up to them. “How do you intend to keep them there, Will?” she asked. The apprentice considered for a moment, and then went to a workbench, one of the half-dozen around the walls of the room. He came back with three hand-bells, giving one to each of the halflings. “Ring this once every two breaths,” he ordered.
“Clever,” Heather muttered as she rang her bell. Taletha had to agree. If she or her oath-sisters did anything other than sit and ring their bells, the two humans would know at once. Sneaking off, or even attempting to pick the locks on their shackles, would be impossible, Taletha thought gloomily. Apparently, Master Amanda agreed with this assessment, since she gave a satisfied nod and led her apprentice to the… machine in the center of the workroom.
This device was roughly triangular, three yards on each side and two yards high. It had a framework of metal bars, to which were attached gears and toothed ratchets. Standing up on top of the mechanism were three dials The thing also had attachments to let it be powered by the spinning pulleys and belts that hung from the ceiling, and cables to let it be controlled by the levers set on the one workbench-free wall.
“So what does it do?” Heather asked quietly between rings of her bell.
“Don’t know,” Kimiko answered after giving her own bell a ring. Taletha shrugged as well, but a horrible suspicion started to rise inside her as she watched the two humans work.
They were attaching brushes, strips of fur, and feathers to the various moving parts, and fastening buckled straps to the fixed framework. “Oh no,” Taletha whispered as her suspicion grew into a certainty.
“Oh no,” Kimiko echoed her, as she reached the same conclusion.
“It’s a tickle device,” Heather whispered. “We’re doomed.”
The two humans finished their work. Master Amanda then sent her apprentice off on errands. “I need you to go check the laundry and to fetch a quintal of oil,” she told him. “And ask the smithy if the new buckles are ready yet.”
“Yes, Master Amanda.” Will almost succeeded in keeping the disappointment from his voice. After he left the room, Amanda smiled and crooked a finger at Taletha. The dark halfling set down her hand bell, stood up, and hobbled over. Eyes closed, she allowed herself to be strapped down on a leather bench – one of three – set in the nest of machinery.
Taletha whimpered, as Master Amanda tightened the last strap and fastened the buckle.” It won’t kill you. It won’t even hurt.” the human woman chided.
“I know. Can’t you give us some scut cleaning work to do, instead?”
Master Amanda snorted softly, and Taletha heard her step away. The dusky-skinned halfling opened her eyes again to see the human woman lead Kimiko into the machine and strap her onto the second bench. Then Heather. As the buckles were fastened, the blonde halfling asked in her best innocent-ignorant voice: “Master Amanda, what does all this do?”
“Don’t play the fool; you know very well what this is,” Master Amanda told her. Then under Heather’s wide blue-eyed stare, she relented. “It’s a half-scale tickle-device. I have a commission to build a three-place Device for Baron von Federkeil, and this is my working scale model. I hadn’t expected to be able to test it with actual subjects in place, but you three are unlucky enough to be just the right size.”
“Thank you, Master Amanda, for taking the time to explain,” Heather said politely, keeping up her pretence of innocent cuteness. Kimiko and Taletha stayed carefully silent. They had both seen Heather wheedle out of some amazing fixes, through her pretended empty-headedness, and they didn’t want to queer her efforts here.
Not that it helped. Master Amanda shook her head in wry amusement. “You’re welcome,” she told the fair-skinned halfling. Then she looked over at the olive-complexioned Kimiko and the ebony Taletha. “You three do make a set. Prepare yourselves.” She left the Device, and Taletha watched her through gaps in the machinery as she walked to the control levers. She was suddenly aware of the brushes, feathers, and other tickle-implements hovering just a handspan away from her naked skin.
Master Amanda pulled a lever, and Taletha heard the creak and whir of the belts, pulleys, and gears of the Device, and saw the wheeled tickle-brushes begin to rotate. They came closer and closer. She heard Heather giggle, and Kimiko squeak with suppressed laughter as the tickle implements made contact against her oath sisters. Glancing over, she saw stiff-bristled brushes sawing against the soles of their feet. Heather laughed unselfconsciously, while Kimiko had her eyes screwed shut losing the fight to keep from giggling herself. Neither of the two seemed to notice the feathered belts moving in to brush against their sides.
Then Taletha squealed herself as a strip of fur ran briskly over the dark skin of her exposed and vulnerable belly. Laughter began to pour out of her as the fur pivoted away to make room for a pair of yarn puffballs. A pair of wooden forks ran up her soles, starting at her heels and moving swiftly to her toes before repeating the stroke. Again and again, sending the most diabolical tickle-sensations into her bare feet.
Taletha pulled against the straps holding her, but escape was impossible. Nor could she predict where the brushes and feathers and other lightly-stroking tickle-implements would strike next: On her legs, behind her knees, along her arms, down her sides… Stiffer implements scrubbed the tougher skin on the soles of her feet, sending in their own barrage of tickle-sensations.
Taletha heard the giggles of her two oath-sisters mix with her own laughter. From those sounds, she knew that Heather’s fair hide and Kimiko’s golden skin were both experiencing the same tickle treatment as her own dark body. The tickle-implements were colorblind, as they touched here and stroked there, and forced laughter from all three of the captive halflings.
Hearing the laughter of the other two only served to break down Taletha’s resistance to her own tickle-torment. She could tell, by the change in their laughter, when the round-pronged wooden forks ran especially rapidly over Heather’s soles, or when the soft-bristled brushes moved up and down the sides of Kimiko’s torso. And the sounds of that laughter served to draw Taletha’s attention back to her own tickle-treatment.
Then, after only a few minutes of activity, the Device grunched to a sudden stop. “Damn,” Master Amanda said into the silence. She pulled back three levers, and the various tickle-mechanisms pulled back from the three helpless halflings and locked into place. Taletha, shivering from the abrupt end of the tickling, saw the human enter the Device with a basket of tools and start to apply wrenches, files, and a hammer to the stubbornly stuck pieces of machinery.
Taletha found herself hoping that Master Amanda would hurry up and finish her repairs, and hastily took back that wish as foolish. Crazy, even. Still, she had to admit it was a big shock for the tickling to end with such startling suddenness. At last, however, Master Amanda gathered her tools again and returned to the control levers. The tickling started up, once more –
– and abruptly stopped, a few minutes later as the Device again grunched to a sudden halt. “Damn,” Master Amanda repeated. Taletha heard whimpers from Heather and Kimiko, and from herself, as well.
Kimiko finally gave up on the padlock and slipped her improvised lockpicks back into their hiding place. She wanted to blame her failure on the agonizing tickling that she and her oath-sisters had been through for the past four hours. But it hadn’t really been the tickling that had been so agonizing; it had been the sudden unexpected stops as the Device broke down. Besides, the padlock, like the locks on their ankle-shackles, were Guild Class One designs, and Kimiko might not have been able to pick them even under the best of conditions.
The three halflings were in an emptied storeroom. Will the apprentice had returned in time to bring them here, and to supply them with bedding, smocks, and a lunch of bread and cheese. He had also refastened the shackles on their ankles – and had run another long chain between their legs, fastening the ends with a padlock to a ring set in the floor. A skylight loomed invitingly overhead, but although they might manage to climb the walls, the chain would still stop them before they reached the ceiling.
“Giving up?” Taletha asked, from where she lay on a straw mat.
“Yes,” Kimiko admitted. “Do you want to give it a try?”
“No. As much as I hate to admit it, you’re better at locks and traps than I am. And as much I hat to admit it, that apprentice had a point when he told us to rest and recover for the next ‘testing’ session.”
“Why should we listen to him?” Heather asked from her own mat. “First, he’s male. Second, he’s human. And third, he’s serving Master Amanda. At least she’s female, but she’s also the one keeping up locked up.”
“What else can we do?” Taletha answered with a question of her own. “I can’t climb and sneak us out of here while wearing these,” she shifted her legs, making the chains clink. “Kimiko can’t open that padlock, and you can’t sweet-talk anyone when they’re not here. So we rest and recover and wait for our chance.”
Kimiko lay down on her own mat. After a time she said: “It wouldn’t be so bad if their demon-cursed Device worked. I mean, getting tickled in the stocks is just a hazard of being a Crafty Taker. But this…” She trailed off.
“It’s a shock and an agony when the damn thing suddenly stops.” Heather completed the thought. “It’s not even on purpose. The thing tickles, and it tickles very well.” Kimiko saw her shiver at the memory. “But the torment when it stops is an accident. I don’t think Master Amanda wants it; she’s not an Inquisitor. She’s trying to make it work without the sudden stops.”
“So she doesn’t mean to be mean,” Kimiko said. “What good does that do us?”
Triple Tickle · Part 1 (1/2)
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