Two more tedious days

By the morning of the second day in the tiny room, Mika thought she was going to lose her mind. Removing the expensive silk wrap so as not to ruin it with her sweat, she did countless sets of sit-ups, push-ups and lunges. Still completely naked, she worked through as many of the Chevalier hand-to-hand training sequences as she could in the limited space of the floor. During the morning hours the establishment was fairly quiet and Mika had to be careful not to 'thump' too loudly and alert someone of her presence.

Twice during her stay, she heard the sounds of hobnobbed boots stomping down the hallway and the second time one of the men even entered the linen closet that concealed this tiny chamber. It was a tense few minutes as she held her breath clutching at the vial of poison provided for her quick release. Mika didn't know what the fate of an assassin who tried and failed to take the life of the High Priest might be, but she was sure that it would be horrific. Thankfully, the soldier in the adjoining room closed the door to the closet after only the most cursory of looks and Mika was able to breathe again.

Each evening, the Hook-line-and-sinker would come alive, and Mika no longer had to worry about making noise. In her hidden hide-a-way, Mika could clearly hear the music from the common rooms and all the other sounds one might expect from a whorehouse. Moans and grunts accompanied by loud cries of pleasure and the slapping of bare flesh on flesh. When she listened carefully, she could even make out some of the words Madam Wanda's girls used to urge on their customers. The night before as she lay on the narrow bed, Mika listened to almost a dozen different encounters from the rooms just below her on the third floor of the old building.

Most were fairly tame; the young women moaned joyfully at how large and masterful their Johns were as the men grunted away. One was a little more disturbing as the woman in question kept referring to her client as 'Daddy' even when she was being spanked for her naughtiness, and in the loudest bit, the young woman screamed and begged for mercy. It sounded like the man in her room was a stranger taking her by ****. It was a little unclear, but perhaps the young woman in question was pretending to be one of Xelta's many servants sworn to chastity and service to the church, and she was being defiled by the lust-filled client. Mika wondered for a second if the robes that had been taken from her were now being pulled off the struggling prostitute's body as she struggled futilely to defend her innocence.

Perhaps because of her recent brief assignment as an initiate of Xelta, Mika was disturbed by the violent and licentious nature of the encounter that she was unexpectedly privy to. She knew that it could not be real, and that more men than not probably fantasied about having his way with the pretty acolytes that were sworn to the Church, but it was disturbing in many different ways. That kind of brutal deflowering might very well have been Winlay's fate if Mika had not convinced her friend to swap places with her. In fact, it is still a very possible outcome for both her and Winlay if Madam Wanda isn't able to find some way to smuggle her out to Carlan's boat.

It was during the slow period in the mid-morning when Mika heard the knock on the door and her heart started racing once again.