Outlaw of Vulvar (Vulvarian Saga Book 3)

  J. K. Spenser

  Outlaw of Vulvar

  Vulvarian Saga Book 3

  First published by Sage Knight Press 2021

  Copyright © 2021 by J. K. Spenser

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

  This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

  J. K. Spenser asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

  J. K. Spenser has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

  Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book and on its cover are trade names, service marks, trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publishers and the book are not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. None of the companies referenced within the book have endorsed the book.

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  Contents

  1. Journal of Tobias Hart

  2. Ceadan, Captain of Idalium

  3. The Slavers

  4. The Road to Eyre

  5. Punishing Evil Deeds

  6. A Birds and Bees Discussion

  7. The Marshes of Mastoi

  8. Imperiled

  9. The City of Mastoi

  10. The Broker

  11. The Clinic Visit

  12. Big Trouble in Little Mastori

  13. We Acquire a Companion

  14. Argument With Emer

  15. Astonishing Revelation

  16. Traveling East

  17. The Journey Continues

  18. The Vard River Region

  19. A Brief Skirmish

  20. The City of Opus

  21. Cottage in the Forest

  22. Sybil the Seer

  23. The River Crossing

  24. A Prophecy Fulfilled

  25. The Dark Riders Come

  26. The Journey Delayed

  27. Angst

  About the Author

  Also by J. K. Spenser

  1

  Journal of Tobias Hart

  Inscribed near the City of Idalium, the twelfth day of Aun in the fifth year of the reign of Laena, Anax of Thiva, in year 609 after the Great War of Vulvar and the ascendancy of females to power.

  Two days have passed since I fled the City of Nisa with my companion Emer. It occurred to me to take the time to record the story of my present sojourn in this world called Vulvar. I know not whether I shall survive and someday return to my home on Earth. But if so, I intend to publish this journal for the benefit of the women and men of Earth.

  As I write this, they are presently unaware of a significant threat. The mysterious, reclusive divinities of this world, the Goddess Queens, routinely embark on what they call voyages of acquisition to planet Earth. Their purpose with those clandestine journeys is to harvest human males. They bear these male captives here to this strange, brutal world on their silver ships to enslave them and use them for breeding.

  Exposed to some toxic substance released into the atmosphere during the Great War of Vulvar, males here developed a genetic defect that renders most of them sterile. Somehow the Goddess Queens discovered Earth in its galaxy far distant from their own. They also learned that the males of Earth are suitable for breeding with Vulvarian females. To preserve the humanoid species of this world, the Goddess Queens employed their advanced intergalactic travel capabilities to initiate the voyages of acquisition, which they continue to this present day.

  Curiously, Vulvarian females, and I presume the Goddess Queens as well, view the customary human procreation rituals of Earth as abhorrent and misogynistic. Thus, the females here do not have intercourse, or as they say it here, copulate with the human males they transport here for their use as breeding stock. In fact, under the laws of Vulvar, a male who copulates with a Vulvarian female commits the most grave, heinous crime they can imagine. Any man who does this, they put to death in the vilest and most painful manner.

  Instead of intercourse, medical technicians harvest sperm from human males, which they directly insert into the uterus of those females the authorities choose for reproduction.

  During periods the medical technicians are not harvesting seminal fluid from a male, they affix to his genitals a shiny metal, phallic-shaped device they call the “tube.” They slip the device over the flaccid male member and then mate and lock the base of it to a steel ring encircling the male’s scrotum. Before attaching the tube, the technicians pierce the meaty tip of the male shaft and insert a steel ring. They connect the ring internally to the tube before mating it with the ring. Consequently, the male cannot remove the tube by force. The purpose of the tube is two-fold. The male cannot engage in self-pleasure, thereby discharging seminal fluid, which Vulvarians consider undesirable and wasteful. Also, the male cannot copulate with a Vulvarian female should he find one willing to do so, or attempt it by force.

  I know the things I’ve written here are accurate. Twice the Goddess Queens have brought me in their silver ships to this world from Earth. The first time, against my will, they brought me here as a captive for their breeding program. They enslaved me, and I wore the tube I’ve described. When they found another use for me, as a trained archaeologist from Earth, they sent me on a mission that I completed with some success. In appreciation for that service, they freed me and repatriated me to Earth.

  I voluntarily agreed to return to Vulvar this second time, five years later, when the Goddess Queens sent me an envoy with their request I return to perform a second mission on their behalf. An armed revolt by the male slaves broke out on this world that threatened matriarchal rule. The Goddess Queens wished me to infiltrate the rebels and capture the leader, a man of Earth named Russell Cooke.

  On the pretense I of was returning to undertake the mission of the Goddess Queens, I secretly did so for personal reasons. The envoy had informed me that Cooke and his rebels had captured the Vulvarian warrior Idril of Thiva, whom I loved. I returned so that I might affect her rescue.

  I traveled to the City of Nisa, which Cooke and his men had captured, and where they held Idril and some of her sister warriors. Posing as an escaped slave from Thiva, I infiltrated the rebels. For a time, they trained me as a rebel warrior. But at the first opportunity, I left the training cohort and rescued my beloved Idril and her companions. My present companion, Emer, a warrior of Nisa at the time, was among the captives. We immediately struck up a friendship. Sometime later, after the rescue, I attempted to complete the task the Goddess Queens had given me. But I found it impossible to capture Cooke. Instead, I slew him in defense of my own life.

  Before my confrontation with Cooke, something else, which bears heavily on this story occurred. While escorting Idril and her companions from Nisa to Thiva, I encountered on the road, an arrogant captain of the Thivan cavalry named Tiaaira. She sought to treat me as a common slave. That day I defied her orders, orders that I, a free man, considered unlawful. Thus I ma
de for myself a most dangerous enemy.

  Some days later, Tiarrira arrested me and confined me in a military prison, intending to execute me to avenge her wounded pride. But my friend Emer flew to my rescue. In the course of freeing me from the prison, Emer slew Tiarrira. We both fled the city.

  The authorities in Thiva hold me accountable for the murder of Tiarrira. I am now a wanted man, an outlaw with no city. Having no city on Vulvar, of itself, makes one a criminal. If warriors of Thiva should capture me, I fully expect the High Council of Thiva will order me put to death.

  I am now on a journey to reach Mount Volz, the remote dwelling place of the Goddess Queens. I dream of the day when I will stand before the bronze gate in the palisades that encircle the holy mountain.

  Though at substantial risk to my life, I twice faithfully served them by undertaking missions on their behalf, the Goddess Queens have betrayed me and treated me disrespectfully. They have cursed me by taking from me the woman I loved, my city, and fellowship with my mother, Laena, Anax of Thiva. In return for my allegiance and service, they have repaid me with suffering, hardship, and peril. Even though they themselves made me free, they have done nothing to persuade the rulers of this world to respect their will in my regard. For that reason, I journey to their habitation and demand an audience where I will present my complaints. If I succeed in doing so, I will have answers from them that satisfy me, or else I will do my best to take vengeance upon those deities who recklessly impose their inscrutable wills upon the inhabitants of this accursed planet.

  They say it on Vulvar that no mortal looks upon the Goddess Queens and lives. My former teacher, Amanuensis of Thiva, once told me that many mortals have, in times past, attempted to travel to the dwelling place of the Goddess Queens to seek an audience. No one, he told me, ever saw them again. He, like most Vulvarians, believed they perished. To seek the Goddess Queens, Amanuensis told me, was to seek certain death.

  Perhaps my old teacher was correct and that I will surely die. If that be so, it does not dissuade me. My beloved Idril has perished, killed in battle. My heart remains heavy with grief and feelings of incurable loss. I have no city and am an outlaw in this world where all but a few friends here would gladly kill me. I am a free man in the eyes of deities of this planet, but it is not a distinction that the mortal authorities and rulers give any credence. Here on Vulvar, females rule, and males serve their every whim as slaves. There is no reason I’m aware of to believe the Goddess Queens intend to return me to my home planet. For one who has lost all and has nothing more to lose, the cold embrace of death holds no terror.

  2

  Ceadan, Captain of Idalium

  Putting my journal aside, I turned my attention to the tin pot of water boiling on the campfire. I removed the pot from the fire and set it on a stone. Then, I poured ground kola from a small cloth bag into the scalding water. A habitual coffee drinker on Earth, I preferred to start my mornings on Vulvar with a hot, caffeinated beverage. While coffee does not exist on Vulvar, kola was an acceptable substitute for my morning ritual.

  Kola is a caffeinated beverage served hot, which is similar to coffee on Earth. It is a drink Vulvarians make using the endivia plant’s roots, which they roast, grind, and brew. Kola tastes somewhat like coffee, but it has more of a slightly woody and nutty flavor to me. Still, it adequately served my purpose.

  I had used the last of the water from our jug to fill the pot. Emer had gone to a nearby stream to refill it after bathing. Bathing was Emer’s morning habit, even when tramping through the wilderness.

  You must sprinkle a little cold water into the hot kola when brewing it to encourage the grinds to settle to the bottom of the pot before filling your cup. I hoped Emer would return with the water jug before the kola cooled. Otherwise, I’d have to start the process over. Reheated kola is much too bitter for drinking. So focused was I on the kola I craved, I heard nothing until a twig snapped behind me. I sprang to my feet, turned to the sound, and gasped in astonishment.

  With one sound, two rakir blades sprang from their sheaths, that of an officer and a warrior beside her. The warrior would engage me first if it proved necessary. To my right was another warrior with her shield and a lifted spear, ready to cast it upon the order of the officer. All wore the light armor of Vulvarian warriors and purple tunics, which revealed they were of Idalium, a city some three legas north of our campsite. Emer and I had planned to stop there to buy the warm cloaks preferred by Vulvarian travelers. The early evenings and nights had grown cold.

  “Do not move, slave,” the officer hissed.

  I had left my weapons too far away to reach them. If I attempted to do so, I knew the warrior with the spear would skewer me.

  “Raise the hem of your tunic, slave,” the officer commanded. “I wish to inspect you.”

  My blood ran cold. I knew what the officer wished to determine with her inspection. But it would do me no service to disobey her order. Reluctantly, I lifted the hem of the tunic, exposing my male parts.

  “As I suspected,” the officer smirked. “You wear no tube, and yet I’m certain you are of Earth. The piercing says you are a breeder. Also, you wear no collar, and it seems you are here alone in these woods unattended by any master. I believe you are a rebel.”

  “It is not so,” I said. “I am not a rebel.”

  “I do not believe you, slave,” the officer said. “I am Ceadan, Captain of Idalium. I command you to submit.”

  With no realistic access to my weapons, I had no choice but to comply. When any warrior or any free woman commanded an unattended male on Vulvar to submit, the law permitted the woman to slay him immediately if he refused.”

  I dropped to my knees and extended my arms above my head with wrists crossed to permit the officer to bind or shackle me easily. The warrior to my left sheathed her rakir, dropped her shield to the ground beside her spear, and approached me. She withdrew a length of brown cord from her sword belt.

  “Hail, warriors!” shouted a female voice from the rear of the warriors. The warrior approaching me froze before turning her head slowly toward the sound of the voice.

  I observed Emer, partly concealed behind a tree trunk. She held her Vulvarian bow with an arrow notched and drawn. The officer and the warrior with the raised spear had also turned to regard her.

  “Who are you?” the officer said to Emer.

  “Clearly, the one with the advantage here, I decline to answer your questions, captain,” Emer said. “Instead, perhaps you will answer mine. Why do you molest my slave?”

  “I am Ceadan, Captain of Idalium,” the officer said, though her voice lacked its earlier arrogant tone. “The slave wears no collar or tube. If truly you are his mistress, you are violating the laws of Idalium. I can arrest you.”

  “The walls of your city are distant,” Emer said. “Along with the authority of your laws, captain.”

  “I do not believe this male is your slave in any case,” the captain said. “What woman travels with a slave alone in the wilderness. I demand you to identify yourself and to submit to my authority.”

  “I demand you lay down your weapon and instruct your warriors to lay down their arms as well,” Emer said resolutely. “I don’t wish to kill you, but if you do not submit to the authority of my bow, I shall send this arrow through your throat.”

  Without warning, the warrior with the raised spear hurled it at Emer. Before the bladed tip had buried itself into the tree trunk, an arrow passed through the warrior’s exposed throat and then lost itself in the wood behind her. She dropped like a stone. Emer had already notched and drawn a second arrow before the officer or the remaining warrior could react.

  “Unless you wish to travel to the Nethersphere with your foolish warrior, I suggest you lay down your arms,” Emer said. “I will not ask you again to do so.”

  The officer angrily flung her rakir on the ground.

  “Lay down your arms for the moment, warrior,” Ceadan hissed. “We are at a temporary disadvantage.”


  The warrior dropped her shield to the ground. She carefully drew her rakir from its sheath and dropped it beside the shield. She had left her spear, where she had stood before approaching me. I scrambled to my feet, hurried to my sword belt where I’d left it, and drew my katana.

  Captain Ceadan slowly turned her head to regard me.

  “A slave who brandishes a weapon commits a serious offense,” Ceadan said uncertainly. “As does one who arms him.”

  I held the sword before in both hands. I wriggled the pointed tip. “Both of you walk to the side, please,” I said courteously.

  Ceadan shrugged and took several steps in the direction I had indicated. The warrior joined her. One by one, I picked up the short swords and threw them into the trees. I then retrieved the spear from where the warrior had dropped it earlier and cast it after the swords. Emer lowered the bow and stepped closer.

  “For a slave who is not a rebel, you seem skilled with the spear,” Ceadan observed.

  “Be glad I chose not to demonstrate just how skilled I am with it, captain,” I said. “We mean you no harm. We are simple traveling folk, my mistress, and I. But we have no desire to travel with you to a dungeon in Idalium. You must yield the road.”

  In her brown eyes, regarding me from behind the Y-post of her helmet, I saw Ceadan had a new respect for me now, which meant she would be more dangerous had she a weapon. She turned to Emer.

  “Let us talk,” she said.

  Emer nodded. She squatted on her heels regarding the officer. I lowered the katana.

  Ceadan was a large woman, big-boned and muscular. A tiny wisp of dark brown hair extended out from beneath her helmet and lay against the cheek of her attractive oval-shaped face.

  “You slew my warrior and have interfered with our duties,” Ceadan said evenly. “And you have armed you, slave, assuming for a moment he is so. I require you to surrender your weapons and to accompany us to our city. You may state your case before the Firana, Anax of Idalium.”