Ballad Of Saymon

Even for a demon of his stature and intellect, moving through the crowds of the market in any chosen direction posed a problem. But Kyichi was not to be dissuaded. He stepped down from the platform and into the flow of bodies, his serpentine eyes scouring the sea of creatures in an attempt to find the girl’s owner.

Failing this, he became to make a circuit around the platform; owners were never far from their merchandise.

As he moving awkwardly through the throng, the demon went over what she had told him.
Her name was Lila. There were two men who promised to buy her, the brutish Sulteen and her owner’s son Nomare. Sulteen was violent in nature, but a coward at heart, and Nomare had not told his father about his intentions to buy the girl. Why else would she still be up for sale?

That meant that Nomare wasn’t certain that he would win her by asking.
His brain continued to tick away as he moved towards what looked to be her owner’s stand.

She was sleep deprived and very weak from starvation. She was shy and seemed to have an unusual fear of physical contact. Or, at the very least, physical contact with other demons. She had trouble speaking, but could understand spoken words very well. To the best of his knowledge she neither spoke nor understood human language.

He guessed and thought that she must have been a slave her whole life, from the age and number of the scars on her back. Her behavior supported this, but it did not support why she feared touch. In time other slaves would just relent to it, as if they’d constructed another world that they escaped to when contact was made against their will.

Kyichi silenced his thoughts as he came up to the wooden stand, its top strewn with thick burgundy fabric that gave the weak illusion of a harem. The stand was made up of four wooden boards that were stood up so that they were about waist high on an average human man, and placed at one another’s edges so that they formed at sort of topless cube. From two corners of this structure came tall wooden planks that reached up to about Kyichi’s height. Between these two another plank had been placed, and it was from here that the cloth spilled down onto the board that jutted from the original structure.

Behind this stood a man who looked to be in the beginning of middle age. He was red in the face, with fading black hair atop his tall browed head and a strong, straight nose. The latter of these features was mimicked in the face of the youth who stood beside him, although the effect of the trait was lessened by its diminished size. The youth also sported straight black hair, but this too was unlike his companion’s in its unruliness
and in the gloss it favored.

The older man, his red face turning from something near the platform to Kyichi, smiled in a way that made only his big cheeks and lips move. His eyes kept a fixed distrust in them.

“Hello, hello! How can I help you today?” The man’s voice was typical of humans, a noise you could hear in so many other throats that you disregard it almost out of instinct.

However, Kyichi did listen, and noted the absence of the normal formalities sellers used when speaking with buyers.

“Yes, I believe you have something I would like to buy, a girl.” Kyichi focused on his words, making them as clear as he could over the excess noise of the market.

“Ah yes! They sell so fast, I have a hard time remembering them all, the prettier the faster. Is it her?” The man pointed a fat hand to the platform, indicating a young girl, still at the threshold of childhood. A large part of Kyichi was repulsed by the thought that he would buy such a young creature for the purposes her owner clearly expected, but he forced himself to forget this aspersion and keep in the polite vein in which he had started.

“No, no, not that one. A demoness, I believe her name is ‘Shevain.’”

The youth’s eyes lit up for a moment and he was quick to speak.

“Excuse me for saying so, sir, but are you sure you want to buy that one?” This was a fresh voice, new as if had only just settled into its depth. Kyichi followed the changes in pitch and the flow of the words, and it occurred to him that this lad had quite a gift for quick and simple words.

“Yes, right, she’s bad, that one.” The boy’s elder added.

“How?”

“Shaky, she is, and weak in the limbs. She can barely pick herself up.” The boy nodded as the red-faced man spoke.

“She keeps quiet, sir.”

“Her one saving grace, I never heard a word, foul or good, from her.”

“Is that all?” Kyichi felt his patience begin to spill with the two humans.

The older man looked surprised at the demon’s bluntness, but the lad nodded amiably. To save himself from loosing the sale, Kyichi spoke again in a smooth and easy voice; “She can be taught to break those habits. Name your price.”

The youth looked to the older man, who smiled again and began to chatter about what a good choice Kyichi had made. The demon listened to very little of this, and instead watched the boy, whose hand tapped thin fingers against the surface of the stand, drumming out an awkward, rhythmless tune. He saw the blue of the boy’s eyes flick in several directions, and his jaw work beneath his skin in small biting motions. He was nervous.

“Well sir,” the girl’s owner sounded very final now, and Kyichi turned his attention back to the human. “I’d say she was worth, oh, four hundred…no, five hundred pieces.”

Kyichi noted a pause between the numbers of the price. Humans had no objection to charging their less-than-holy counterparts more when it came to sales of anything.

Kyichi nodded and reached into his cloak, pulling out a cloth bag that held thick metal coins. He pulled the drawstrings open and withdrew a few of the coins, holding them in the palm of one hand with the tips of his free fingers. When the bag and the girl held the same value, he tied it up again and set it on the table.

Now the boy’s eyes were completely occupied by the bag, and his staring held an unhealthy gleam to it.

The owner took up the bag and opened it again, peeking one eye inside. When he was satisfied that everything was in order, he smiled again at Kyichi.

“Thank you, you can come for her in two days time.”

Kyichi’s politeness was overtaken by surprise, and he stared at the human with his hard eyes weighting down on the man’s brow.

“What do you mean?”

“You may come and fetch her three days from now. She’s got to be readied for you.”
This was, all three knew, a lie. But Kyichi risked too much by refusing, both she and his money were at stake.

“Of course, I see. Where should I find her?”

The human thought about this for a moment, his eyes moving from Kyichi to the platform to something off in the distance.

“You may get her from at my home, it’s not far from here. Look, a ways down from here, to the east. It’s near the eastern passage to the Uppercity, in fact. At the very base of the tower. You can ask anyone near there. The ‘Kilwan’ household.” Kyichi ran over everything the human said again in his mind, committing the name to memory. He nodded and said he understood, thanking the girl’s owner as he turned from the stand.

It was with long steps that he moved away from the stand, and he gave into the inertia of the crowd. Several minutes of thoughtlessness pasted him before he heard the youth’s voice behind him.

“Sir! Sir!”

Kyichi turned to face the boy, who hurried to him and smiled handsomely when the distance between them was closed.

“Sir, I need to speak to you.”

“About what?”

“The girl, Shevain. She is, well, let me not be rude. I am Nomare, her owner’s son.”

“What is your concern, Nomare?”

“Well, sir, Shevain and I have… an understanding, you see. And we’ve agreed that when I come of age I will buy her from my father.”

“I’m afraid your father doesn’t seem to agree to that arrangement.”

“Yes, well, he doesn’t know about it. It was her request that I not tell him, you see.” Kyichi almost believed this. Almost.

“Well I think it’s a bit too late to tell him now.”

“That’s why I’ve come to you, sir. If I may make you an offer? Any of the other slaves, you may take your pick, just let Shevain stay with me.” Another smile accompanied this.

“And how would that other slave be paid for?”

“With the money you just paid my father, and if the slave is selling for less you may keep the difference.”

Kyichi ran over the proposition in his mind; trade the girl he wanted for one of lesser beauty, and stay at a loss of four hundred and fifty pieces for it, for there was no chance of the price lessening after the money had changed hands. He enjoyed the absurdity of the boy’s plan.

“Sorry to disappoint you, Nomare, but I’ll have to turn you down.”

The boy smattered for another offer.

“Ta-two then. Two, any of them, for the money you already paid, and I keep Shevain.”

Kyichi leaned down to look the boy in the eyes.

“Listen now, boy. I’ve made my choice and I’ve paid for her. The deal is done. I’ve no interest in any of the others. Now go back to your father and help him peddle more flesh.”

Nomare’s face flicked through expression of anger and awe, his jaw moving as he tried to come up with a more tempting offer.

“But sir,”

“Good day, Nomare.” Kyichi turned and moved away into the crowd. There were preparations to be made, and Nomare’s call of ‘sir! sir!’ couldn’t keep the demon’s mind from the prospects of owning Lila.


For the next two days Lila was confined to the small room where all of the slaves were kept at night. She visited twice, once by her former master, and once by Nomare. The boy’s father had her suck off of him, saying things about missing her and what a shame it was that she was leaving. His tone had been much different when she had first looked up at him, her silver eyes revealing the fear that pierced through her chest. But so long as her eyes were shut and her mouth was full, he liked having her in his possession.

Nomare, who visited her in a strange and lonesome mood, spoke with her for a time. Lila could understand humans, so long as their words were simple, but she could not learn the language, so she merely nodded as he talked. He too said what a shame it was that she had been sold, but he added ‘I love you’s and other sweet words that gave Lila’s stomach a sicker feeling than the one it had been cultivating. When he finally ran out of words, they made love at his request. In hindsight, she realized how urgent his body had been against hers, how he had seemed worried and dissatisfied when he pulled out of her. She realized that this may have been linked to his inability to ejaculate while she had twisted below him.

The rest of the time she passed in sleep, and when that failed her she relied on her own thoughts and worries. There were plenty of rumors about demons, some of them ridiculous and some of them very close to being real.

She shivered as her mind replayed the way he had spoken to her. What was it that scared her so? He hadn’t insulted her, or threatened her, only answered what she asked and otherwise he had only the simplest of demands. But his voice. Dear God, his voice. It rumbled through her mind, his words twisting until she imagined what he would sound like when she was his. Her mind created the sounds, his voice growing colder and so quiet that the words she thought of were no more than faded sounds in the wind. As her mind continued, she wondered what his hands would feel like. They had been warm, as if the smooth pieces of muscle and scale had been hung facing a fire before they lay on her. It had been so strange, the wide palms spread over her shoulder, her jaw, her neck, while the long fingers reached down, the tips sinking gently into her skin until he had a grip on her.

Lila always forced herself to stop there. She wouldn’t let her mind wonder what the rest of him felt like. She prayed to whoever might’ve been listening; please don’t let him touch me. Please don’t leave me alone with him. Please don’t make him think of me.

When, finally, dawn broke on the third day, and the other slaves were walked out to take their places on the platform, two human women came for Lila. They were both disagreeable of face, and covered their hair in the manner of servants.

They had her stand from where she had sat in a fetal position for the night, and when she stood she had to arch her back to keep from looking down at them. The women scowled at this, but said nothing to her and tied a thick piece of rope around both of her wrists, binding them together.

Then, with one of the woman holding the end of the rope, the progression moved through the halls of her former master’s house. The women led the way, their pace and stride a mirror image of the other’s, and Lila followed about three feet back, bent double.

As they walked, the women began to talk to one another. Lila tried not to listen, but
her ears could not avoid eavesdropping.

“Another one. In our house. Disgusting, the lot of ‘em.”

“Very. Very disgusting, a dose of holy water would fix ‘em up.”

“And then this one comes in and buys another, like he’s a right to.”

“Very disgusting. Shouldn’t have a right to anything. If he was meant a right God wouldn’t have cursed him.”

“Yes. Did you hear what happened to the last one that was sold to one of him?”

“No, what, who?”

“One of Bellford’s. A boy. Sold to this great hulking one. Said thing had three
eyes and these huge teeth. The boy was sold, and before the week was out he’d been torn to pieces.”

Lila’s blood ran cold.

“Ugh. Horrid, the lot of ‘em.”

“Very horrid. Bellford said that wasn’t the worst he’d heard and—oy! What’d you suppose you’re doing?!” the woman speaking, the one who held her rope, turned on her.

Lila tried to look as though she hadn’t been listening, but the human had seen, and with one thick hand clipped her across the face. The woman yelled and spoke in anger, but Lila’s thoughts drowned out the noise as she was backhanded and cursed. ‘Torn to pieces. Not the worst.’

She shuddered in pain as she wondered yet again what her fate was to be in the demon’s house. Her mind reeled as she was hit again, but the only thing she could think of was the way he had touched her. She shivered and opened her eyes as the woman’s hand left her skin.

She bent lower and bit back a whimper. The human stopped her assault, satisfying her rage by spitting at Lila and then turning back to her companion.

“Disgusting creatures.”

“Very disgusting.”

Lila shut out all sound now, and only followed. In time she was led to a pair of large doors, which she knew lead to the foyer that then led to the front entrance.

There the women left her, a steely-faced man taking her lead now. She stood and waited, feeling the man’s eyes on her exposed breasts. He said nothing, and just stood with her in the silence. Her eyes looked for anything to distract herself, and for a time she examined the creases in the stone walls and floor. The lines between the blocks of hard earth were thin, and in a simple pattern of every other row being the same.

It must have been hours until the doors were opened, for her legs and feet hurt badly, and her eyes were dry and tired from staring.

As the twin doors opened, Lila saw the strange sight of the foyer. Only a few times had she seen this room, which was long and blank. But now, as if this were all some sort of ceremony, the whole of the house was gathered into the room. She spotted her former owner, his wife, the head servant, the cook, the head maid, and Nomare all within the room. Then, as her eyes traveled from one face to another, she saw her new master standing opposite her, his tall form cutting a parallel against the human shapes around him.

She swallowed spit and fear as the steel-faced man began to walk her into the foyer. The demon stood directly across the room from her, and as she watched she saw that his large eyes held a cold anger within their amber centers.

Lila’s heart was pounding in her chest, each throb making her feel sick.

Of all the days to be given to a demon, why did it have to be the day he was angry?

The distance between the two grew smaller. Lila walked silently past the head maid and servant, the chef, her former master and his wife, and her sweet Nomare. She started to shake as she drew closer to the demon, her feet growing clumsy as she walked. But they found the ground, and when the steel-faced man stopped and held out her lead to the demon, she stopped as well and her footing grew firmer as she paused in her trek across the room.

The room was still as the demon accepted the rope from the servant, and looked upon the others. He nodded, his mouth a tight line and his eyes hard with an anger that couldn’t be acted upon. The girl’s former owner nodded back, and with that the demon turned and began towards the door that stood opposite the one she had entered through.

His steps were long and although they seemed slow, he soon lead her to the door.

Two servants opened the paneled, whitewashed door, and as the demon moved out into the darkness of the market, Lila looked back at Nomare. The youth stood by his father, his eyes on his shoes.

“Come on, girl.” The demon’s voice shattered her thoughts, and her head whipped around at the sound. As she looked back upon him, his eyes were on her, and the coldness still held dominion over them.

She continued to walk, standing not two feet behind him as they passed over the threshold of the house and into the noise and movement of the market.

Lila bit her lip to keep from crying, and hung her head to hide what tears escaped from her. She walked after her new master in a silence that was different from his own, more broken and feeble.

When the doors of her former home closed behind them, she couldn’t choke down a whimper. She closed her eyes and walked forward, until she felt one of his smooth hands press against her exposed stomach. Lila jumped at the sudden touch and drew back, her still tired eyes looking up between their lids to meet him. He had stopped in the shadow of the tall stone tower that lead to the world above, and his gem-like eyes stood out from the darkness cast across the rest of his face. They still held their rage, but now the anger licked at them like dying flames, being held back by the hand of a much greater force. She felt hot tears still streaking down her cheeks and moved to wipe them away with her bound hands, but he took a hold of them and held the thin digits out to him.

His other hand, for one held her thin fingers in his own, reached behind him, and Lila watched as he drew a thin hunting knife from within his cloak. Her mouth fell open and she tried to speak, but before she could find her tongue he held the edge of the knife to her wrist and silenced her with a simple, “Hold still.”

She closed her eyes as she felt the cold of the blade move underneath the rope and press against her palm. Her mind wondered what that meant, for the dulled side of the blade pressed against her skin. His hand moved from her fingers to hold her just above her bent elbow, and she felt the ropes that bound her tug and then fall limp. The cold of the knife vanished as the rope started to slip from its purchase and fell to the crook of her arm.

Lila opened her eyes to see her master returning the knife to the darkness within his garment, and she looked at her wrists. The rope had been cut clean through, just so that both of the knots that held her hands together would be undone. Now only red marks were left to show that she had been bound, for the rope had fallen to the dirt below.

She looked up at her master, expecting him to bring out new, more humiliating binds, but he only looked back at her and spoke in a calm voice.

“Let’s go.”

His hand took hold of the juncture between her neck and shoulder, and he stood behind her. “Just follow my lead.” And he began to lead her, from behind, into the still awakening marketplace.

They walked deep into the market, the front of her former home growing further away as he led her through the crowds. She tried not to notice the heat that bled into her from his palm, and instead tried to guess where he was taking her.

Lila tried to think of what a demon’s home would look like, but she stopped when the images grew to be too gruesome for her. From there she just closed her eyes and following the direction his hand pushed in.

After many noises and steps, his hold on her tightened and she stopped. Now she looked up, and saw the back of a carriage before her. The whole thing was made of a strong, glossy metal that was as black as the deepest of shadows. At the top and bottom the metal had been twisted and curved into patterned spirals and strange leafless vines.

Her master stepped forward now, and as soon as he did so she could think only of running. Lila turned slowly from him as his long hands began to search for something on the face of the metal. Her heart was pounding now, her mind racing in two different directions. If she didn’t run now she would never see Nomare again. If she did run her master would come looking for her, and surly find her.

A hand folded loosely over her neck, pulling just enough to bring her a step back.

Her heart thundered inside her as she saw how deserted the lane they were in was. His hand withdrew and he told her to turn around. With hesitate, shaking motions she complied. She could feel his eyes on her as she looked into this new part of the carriage. There was now a blank compartment before her, half concealed by the glossy metal that had stood over the entrance only moments before. Inside she saw there was almost enough room for her to stand, and at the far end there were several pillows.

“Get in,” His tone was simple and so close that she feared to disobey. She turned to face him. His eyes repeated his statement. She stepped up to the carriage, her legs aching from the trek from her room to the demon’s coach. Her gauzy shirt spilled around her hips as she set one foot onto the cold metal of the entrance and pulled herself in.

She crouched down and looked back to him, fully expecting him to climb in after her and press her down to the small pillows. But he only nodded.

“Get some rest.” He added, pulling the panel of metal over the entrance to the compartment. Lila stood waiting a moment longer, then sat down with her back against one of the cold walls of metal. In the darkness that enveloped her, she could think only of Nomare. She pulled her knees up to her chest, rested her brow against her kneecaps, and let herself cry.