Chapter III
The carriage door opened. A small, wrinkled face peered up.
“Hello, miss,” said a girly voice, incongruous with how old the speaker looked. “I’m your maiden servant, Goula. I am a goblin but I don’t eat children.”
The goblin servant let out a peal of sweet, girlish laughter. Lily blinked down at her, too astonished to speak. Goula stopped giggling and gave her a broad smile, revealing two rows of white, pointy teeth.
“I find that a joke sometimes helps young brides relax. But it must have not been very funny, yes? I apologize. Will you please follow me, young bride?”
Lily got out of the carriage and looked around. They were standing in a small courtyard, completely alone apart from the cloaked driver, who soon disappeared in one of the multiple doors leading inside the castle.
The doors intrigued Lily: some of them were tall, much too tall for humans; others reached only about two feet up from the ground.
Lily’s curiosity was now stronger than her fear and caution, so she threw her veil back to see better.
Goula looked at her, nodded once with satisfaction, and walked with tiny steps toward the tallest door. Lily followed.
The doors opened as if by magic. Maybe it was magic, for all Lily knew.
Or maybe someone invisible stood behind the doors, just waiting to open them for visitors.
Invisible. That would be magic, too, wouldn’t it?
She giggled. Then she stopped, angry at herself for letting her nerves have the upper hand. She shouldn’t titter like a silly girl.
The cool, wide corridor they entered was lit by torches in sconces high up on the walls. It seemed to be built for giants. Lily was too short to reach any of the torches, or even the doorknobs in the doors they passed.
“This is the main part of the castle. It’s the master’s dwelling,” chirped Goula.
Lily shivered. That would explain the size of everything. No master should be expected to bend in his own castle only to reach a doorknob.
“How tall is he?” she asked, after having let the question sit shyly on her tongue.
“Tall enough,” said Goula. “You’ll see soon. But not today.”
“No?” asked Lily, surprised. She thought she would be spending most of her time here with the monster trying to conceive a monster child. “What will I be doing today, then?”
Goula gave her a level look.
“Bathing.”
She led Lily to a huge room with a stone floor and walls covered in dark wood.
Windows, high up on the walls and out of her reach, had panes of colorful, frosted glass.
The light they let inside stained the bath blue, green, red, yellow.
A deep pool in the middle of the room was filled almost to the brim with water.
Apart from that, Lily could see tubs of various sizes, some filled with steaming water, others empty.
“Undress,” Goula said and left the room.
Lily gnashed her teeth, holding back an undisciplined sob. With precise movements, she slipped her dress over her head and stood naked, still alone in the vast room.
She didn’t know what to do. Should she just enter one of the tubs? But soon, she heard voices coming from the corridor. Female voices, which was a comfort, but still… She covered herself with her dress. The door opened and three women, who couldn’t possibly be human, walked inside.
Lily knew right away who they were. Previous brides couldn’t stop talking about them. Half-human, half-fairy. Too uncannily beautiful to ever fit in the human world. Too human to rise above the rank of a common servant in the monster world. But the King valued them and gave them a purpose.
They were fairy godmothers to every new bride. They helped, assisted, taught them everything they should know for their meeting with the king.
Lily watched open-mouthed, admiring how their greenish skin shimmered gold as they moved, how their long hair pulled into hundreds of tiny braids seemed to light up the room with glittering sunshine.
Those women were goddesses, and she couldn’t understand why the king hadn’t chosen them to be his wives.
Why would he want a human bride when he could have these magnificent fairies at his every beck and call?
They stopped in front of her and she nervously pressed her dress closer to her swarthy, imperfect body. Fairy godmothers assessed her, their lips pursed, a hint of laughter in their eyes.
“New meat,” said the tallest of the three, enunciating the words with exaggerated clarity. “Give me those rags.”
She stretched her glorious arm and reached for Lily’s dress. When Lily was too slow to obey, the fairy yanked the dress out of her grasp.
“Oh, please,” another fairy sneered when Lily tried to cover herself with her hands. “We’ll have seen and touched it all before we’re done with you, juicy cut.”
Lily let her hands fall to her sides. The problem was, her shame wasn’t because of modesty. She had bathed in the lake with her sister and friends often enough to not be shy about her naked body.
She just couldn’t bear for these exquisite creatures to see all of her flawed humanity.
The fairies circled her slowly in silence.
Their dresses rustled as they walked around Lily, scrutinizing her body with what she thought was merciless attention.
Finally, the tallest stood directly in front of her, too close for comfort.
She put her hands on Lily’s shoulders and slowly slid them down her sides until they rested on her hips.
Then, she moved her hands to Lily’s butt.
“You’re pretty, human.”
A hot flush crept up Lily’s cheeks. She was confused, and the way the fairy looked into her eyes made her thoughts jumble. The fact that the beautiful bird of paradise touched her willingly, and so intimately, woke something inside Lily that she never suspected existed.
There was an odd hotness blazing up inside her body, the fire’s center low in her belly. She held her breath and forced her body to stay still, even though she wanted to squirm. She wanted to push her butt more firmly against the golden fairy hands.
The fairy smirked at her as though she could read her mind.
“Let’s wash you now,” she whispered and caught Lily’s hand.
She led her to one of the steaming tubs and helped her inside. When Lily was sitting up to her chin in the hot water smelling of cloves and mint, another fairy brought a soft sponge and gently washed Lily’s neck and shoulders.
The fairies talked in a melodious, strange tongue, and Lily listened, charmed and curious about what they were saying. Soon, the soft voices lulled her into a state approaching calm. For a moment, she let herself forget why she was here.
She closed her eyes and enjoyed the heat and the touch.
Someone set about unbraiding and combing her hair and it just felt so good to be touched.
Pampered. That’s the word the other brides had used.
The sponge now abandoned her shoulders and dipped under the surface of aromatic water.
It glided slowly over Lily’s collarbone, over the tops of her breasts…
Lily jerked as the soft material brushed against her nipple. The fairies didn’t seem to notice. They talked and laughed, and the sponge slowly circled Lily’s chest until it touched her other nipple.
Lily sucked in a shallow breath. The hotness in her belly lit up again. The sponge slid over her nipple, again, and again… A taut string of tension burned between Lily’s nipples and her core, and every touch drew the string a bit tighter until her center was throbbing.
Again, the sponge caressed her nipples, which were as hard as pebbles. Lily screwed her eyes shut, knowing that her face was red, refusing to admit how much she enjoyed this violating touch.
A splash of water, a wave enveloping her body.
Lily’s eyes flew open. One of the golden creatures was in the big tub with her, her hands searching under water until they clamped on Lily’s foot.
The fairy in the tub caressed Lily’s feet and calves under the water with another sponge, while the one behind her back teased her breasts.
Had it been the same for the other girls? Lily wondered. And suddenly everything was fine again. It had. Pampered. That’s what it was. She closed her eyes and leaned her head against the warm thighs behind her.
The sponge was discarded and now practiced, firm hands massaged her breasts, pinching her nipples until the throbbing between Lily’s legs became agonizing.
She felt needy and hot, and played with the thought of touching herself just to ease the tension.
But the fairies read her mind again. Her hands were lifted out of the water and held.
“No touching and no satisfaction for you until you meet the master,” said a chiding but sweet voice.
Lily whined but let them work her body, hoping for more.
Her nipples hurt from too much attention, but the hands massaging her legs were on her thighs, slowly creeping up to the center of Lily’s need.
A hand brushed against her lower lips, a small glittering moment of perfect touch. Then, it worked on her thighs again, making the moment seem like an accident.
But it wasn’t. Lily bit her lip to keep herself from moaning. The hand brushed against the gates to her pleasure. She arched her back and spread herself as open as the tub allowed. She kept her eyes tightly shut so nothing would distract her from her pleasure.
A caress inside her lower lips. A spasm of pleasure passing through Lily’s body.
Now, very light, almost feathery gliding touches on her inner lips, circling the tiny nub of pleasure, teasing at her opening, playfully dancing across her back hole.
There was no holding back her moans now, so Lily keened, wordlessly asking for more.
A small, slippery finger darted inside her opening and she jerked, shocked at the intrusion. But it retreated as fast as it had come.
“Everything in order,” said a voice sounding like honey. “She’s pure.”
Lily opened her eyes, the golden glow of desire seeping from her body.
“Was it just… a test? You could have asked!” she said, her cheeks burning with outrage.
The fairy sitting in the tub with her smiled and Lily’s anger melted away.
“She speaks! Don’t be so affronted, pretty human. We made it as bearable and pleasant as we could, didn’t we?”
“You did,” said Lily. “But you could have asked. Or at least warned me. What’s going to happen now?”
“Now you can just relax, honey cake. You can soak in hot water until your pretty human body gets all wrinkly, and we’ll be here to help out if you need anything,” said one of the fairies.
“Do you have names? I’d like to know what to call you if we’re going to spend more time together,” said Lily. She needed to show them she wasn’t the shy, confused little human they expected her to be.
A sudden noise, like nails scraping against wood, made Lily jump.
She looked at one of the windows. Through the red, milky glass, she discerned an outline of a massive head with two horns jutting up in even arcs.
The dark shadow against the red glass loomed monstrous and demonic. A blink… and it was gone.
“You’ll meet him properly tomorrow. And I’m Zamiza,” said the tallest fairy.
“Has he been watching… all the time?” asked Lily.
Zamiza laughed but didn’t answer. Lily bit the inside of her cheek, wondering how much the king had seen and why he was even watching. After all, she was to him just a sow to be inseminated. And he could do with her whatever he wished. Why bother spying?
She learned the other fairies were called Eula and Fayla.
They were twin sisters. She asked her three companions about the castle and its various inhabitants, and they answered merrily while brushing her hair, soaping up her body, spraying her with hot and cold water.
When Lily’s stomach rumbled, Eula brought her a plate of juicy ham, hot white buns, and apricots. The food was, indeed, excellent.
After a day of soaking in tubs of aromatic water, Lily wanted nothing more than to go to bed. She hadn’t slept the previous night, and now all the worry and fatigue was taking its toll.
When Goula came inside the bathing room with a set of heavenly soft periwinkle robes, she put them on her still moist body and followed the goblin servant through the tall corridors of the monster’s castle. The reddish light of torches made the stone walls alive with flickering movement.
“Goula?” she asked, stopping. “Goblins don’t eat human children. They never have.”
It was a statement, not a question, but Goula nodded anyway.
“There are some creatures who relish young human meat,” she said. “But not in these parts. Our master dealt with them.”
“But your folk still get the blame,” pressed Lily. “It’s not fair.”
Goula said nothing. She was looking thoughtfully high above Lily’s head. Why there?
Then Lily felt it. A living heat behind her back.
A rustle of breath. She looked at the floor at her feet and there it was: a dancing, distorted shadow of a massive horned head set on top of broad, muscular shoulders.
She froze, her heart beating frantically, her breath caught in her throat.
When she turned slowly to look behind her, he was already gone.
“Master takes interest,” muttered Goula. “That’s a first.”
“What do you mean?” asked Lily, her voice too loud and shrill.
But Goula only shook her head. She led Lily to her room, a spacious bedroom with tall windows, beautifully sculpted furniture, and a tall, huge bed. She had to climb on top of it using a small ladder. It wasn’t a bed made for humans, oh no.
All of Lily’s peace of mind was gone, and when Goula snuffed the lanterns, Lily tossed and turned, crumpling the soft sheets.
The room felt too hot, the bed too comfortable, the sheets too soft. She was used to coarser sleeping conditions. When Lily finally fell asleep, she fell head first into a nightmare.