The Master coughed. He detested tears. "On account of your recent performance in my chambers, I have exceptionally decided to spare you the customary whipping of your open crotch and also suspension by the breasts." He marked a short pause. "I cannot exempt you further nor spare you from whatever may be inflicted on you in the Black Dungeon. You will now discharge your debt of slavery. Let the session commence."

He rang the silver bell he held delicately in his gloved fingers.

Vasa seized the girl, drawing the slack hood of leather over the skull, forcing the huge gag into the mouth and buckling the straps tight.

The experience of Claudia's Inquisitor's mask at the Quai d'Anjou fell far short of the smothering cowl; it blocked the ears, pressing into the eye sockets and gouging into the mouth. Deprived of her other senses, all that remained in her dumb, deaf blindness was the smell of sweated leather and the enhanced sense of feeling, a sense the slave was now to exercise to the full.

Gerda and Roscoff let down the chains as Vasa forced the body, face downwards, on the flagstones of the stage. The four chains, clipped to the legs and wrists, rattled over the pulleys, the far extremities descending down the side walls to the ratchets and drums. With slow turns, the warder and valet cranked up the beautiful nakedness until it extended, spread and curved, in full tension. Marina was wrenched apart to the uttermost reach of her limbs, the flesh weights tugging on the tender nipples and sex. At the walls, the suspension chains were smartly cleated off.

Below the superb arch of nudity the iron spheres swayed; blue veins stood out over the stretched breasts; the holes pierced through the labia and nipples became clearly visible and the stress began.

Gerda then stepped between the splayed legs to bore into the anus with a ridged plug; the dildo sank in deep to ensure the orifice would be satisfactorily dilated to receive the male erections later. Content with the dildo's hold in the sphincter, Gerda dragged her spiked palm over the length of the sweating curves to stimulate the victim to the apex of readiness; she left fine scarlet lines from shoulders to calves. Marina lurched, thrashing her head; then she relaxed, saving her strength.

The silver bell chimed again for the four flagellators to take their stand, two on each side of the body.

The bell rang out again and the scourging began.

Claudia watched as Lalaniere, his great cock swinging, lashed the back, using a thin six-thonged whip, from the armpits to the coccyx. She watched as Roscoff slashed the left thigh and Gerda dealt with the right from the buttock crease to the knee, ensuring the tip of her thong bit into the soft underside of the perineum and distended labia. As was her habit - and privilege - Vasa reserved the white buttock meat for herself, beating the quivering mounds that clenched under each descent of what she always referred to as her 'hot whore-humbler'. Vasa scourged with her usual truculent vigour, each shock of the curtailed sjambok summoning up mauve bruises over the twin cheeks.

Claudia had admired Mikhail - and her own lithe body reflected in the wall mirrors - as thrashings were administered in Paris but here professionals were at work. The lunges of the overseers' bodies and the thud of the whips exhilarated her; it was of unearthly beauty and it was her own slave jerking in frenzy... Claudia leaned voluptuously back in her chair, sensing her viscous secretions pouring from her vagina. The flagellation was beyond her wildest fantasies. Rising to straddle her lover, she closed her eyes and let Mikhail in.

The silver bell rang only when Marina's haunches and rump were running with blood. The slave hung motionless. The sight made Claudia come twice in succession and then she held herself back. She wondered if Marina had fainted and what would happen next.

The sequence that followed entailed first the two male overseers after Gerda had peeled off the lower portion of the hood and extracted the gag. Marina's mouth was agape as if locked open. But she was ready. Roscoff lifted the head and thrust into the throat.

Gerda withdrew the anal plug with a wrench, making the slave heave and again Claudia saw that the body was ready. Lalaniere stepped over the chained leg and plunged in. With weird, revitalized energy, the flogged girl rode the double entry. After several minutes, Marina began to tighten her muscles. She came with a shudder, delivering to her torturers a fantastic orgasm without end. Then she took what was offered to her, swallowing as best she could Roscoff's sperm and jerking as Lalaniere moved to the anus to release his load of boiling cream into the entrails that had been scoured out to receive just that.

It was then Vasa's turn to demand the attention of the mouth. To Claudia's astonishment, her blonde submissive used her tongue with fury on the female genitals that crushed against her face. Finally Gerda, the junior, had her moment of pleasure on the same weary lips, grunting with lust as her orgasm filled the Hall.

Only then did the bell ring again. Claudia, refreshed, noticed that a reckless orgy was in progress among the guests, each using a male or female slave. To her bewilderment she saw that Verena had managed to remain glued to Ashley throughout the session, possibly on account of the presence of Ashley's owners.