HOME | DD

Description

Here is a link to the story free on DA:
Avandon's Call Chapter 1Link to chapter 2:,AAvandons Call Chapter 2Link to chapter 1: Chapter 2 At the Cottage… Avandon’s CallCopyright 2022 by Amaluen (deviantart.com/amaluenunveiled)Cover art and interior art Copyright 2022 by AmaluenFour young woman, each with their own secret struggle, find friendship together in a distant land where females are by law required to be bound. This story is an emotional melodrama rather than erotica. While bondage and fetish are central to the plot, the descriptions and circumstances of the bondage are intentionally too soft-core and nonsexual to qualify as porn.Nonetheless, this story is intended for adults only.Characters depicted in this story are entirely fictional.Chapter 1The Train to Avandon…Umaya Palmer felt as insignificant and empty as her own cast shadow in the vastness of the Fresloe County Railroad Station, lonely and diminutive as she watched the swirling and eddying of the thin crowd on the platform about her. She swallowed painfully—a deep-rooted trepidation had left her mouth dry, and a lump like a walnut was rising in her throat. The steel beams of the station’s ceiling danced into a dizzying art déco lattice high above her, so high that it seemed the curvature might as well have been the sky, and the train to Avandon, musked with the aggregate sweat of its oil, stretched through the soft yellow light of the building like a massive, black, impenetrable wall, vaguely threatening and innately masculine.Many of the train-travelers milling about were boarding for other destinations than the eventual terminus of Avandon itself—bound for various towns and lesser cities along the way. Here and there amongst the crowd, however, Umaya’s widely spaced, dark eyes, black as two shining currants even against the lustrous ebony-umber of her skin, picked out those travelers headed to the strange country at the far end of the tracks. It was straightforward enough: all of the native females of that land, of Avandon, those of majority age at least, had their hands restrained behind their backs.Such was the law of Avandon—ancient, traditional, draconic and immutable—that the women of that country, at all times in public, must have their arms bound and unusable behind them. Strange indeed, but despite the archaic misogyny of the nation, the rest of the world took little enough notice, for Avandon was hardly more than a speck of a country, isolated on a winding thread of a fjord behind looming, sheer walls of cliffs, somewhere far away in the wastelands of the north. The country had no value to the outside world that might attract notice, and for its part, Avandon seemed disinclined to commerce and modern values in equal proportion.Here, though, accumulated in the railroad station, were its people. Umaya glanced between them, her eyes flickering from side to side. A tall, elegant lady with her arms bound in an elaborate brocade garment, like a corseted sleeve, supervised her children—she called out to them not to run. The children, as children everywhere will, ignored her. Her husband, his steadying left hand gently about her waist, gave a secret smile. Another woman scurried down the length of the tracks, her wrists tied with a crisscrossing knotwork of hemp rope wound through with bows of dusky ribbon. An elderly crone, supported by her gray but handsome, goateed husband, sported thick, filigreed cuffs upon her emaciated wrists with heavy links of rhinestoned chain between them.The bondage seemed to be as much a fashion statement as a concession to the archaic law. Umaya—Maya was her shortened name—fingered the hot pink, leopard print, faux-fur lined handcuffs she had bought at an adult bookstore the night before. She stooped over quickly and slid them into her luggage. Were they even appropriate? They were nothing like that statuesque lady’s elegant bondage garment. What was she doing, Maya thought, a liberated woman, a descendant of slaves, going to an oppressive place like Avandon?Nearby, a tall lady in a mousy gray business suit, smelling vaguely of peach perfume, held her briefcase awkwardly behind her, a pair of padlocked leather cuffs about her wrists. She looked about nervously. Another young woman, dressed in a rather goth-punk mode, stood stiffly with her arms locked behind her back in a veritable ladder of heavy steel cuffs. Her boyfriend dragged a teetering arrangement of luggage in her wake.Maya felt a sudden pang of jealousy. Not that her own boyfriend wasn’t attentive—Trevor was a constant gentleman, sometimes much to her annoyance—but he wasn’t there to assist her with her luggage. This would have been so much easier with him in tow, but his last geo-vulcanism exam had been several days previous, and he had been eager to return to his home. He would be waiting for her at the Avandon Station, at least. For now, though, Maya had to fend for herself.“May I help you, Ma’am?”Lost in her worries, Maya was startled by the polite voice beside her. It took her a moment to focus her eyes. The goth girl’s punk boyfriend stood two paces away from her.“Umm....” Maya temporized.“It’s no problem. You merely seemed a little overwhelmed. Is this your first time on a train? Are you going to Avandon?”“No. No, I’ve been on a train before…. It’s just… yes, I am going to Avandon.”“I am sure you have questions, then. How would you like to join me and my girlfriend and that nervous young lady,” he nodded towards the peach-scented lady in the business suit, “for the trip? We have a private compartment, and I am sure we can ease your concerns.”Maya looked to the goth girl, who met her gaze and acknowledged it with a nod and a natural, albeit multi-pierce-lipped, friendly smile. Goth was hardly her usual choice of acquaintances—Maya was more of a T-shirt and blue jeans sort of gal—but still….“Sure, it’d be good to have company.”The boyfriend grinned. “Then I’ll help you with your luggage. I’m Anton, by the way. And my girlfriend is Eulolia.”“That’s an unusual name. Isn’t the Queen of Avandon named something like that?”“Yes,” said Anton, “but it’s a traditional name, quite common in our country.” He took Maya’s rolling suitcase and dragged it behind him to his girlfriend’s pile.“I’m Luly.” said the goth girl in a high, perky, well-mannered voice, her lip-rings flashing, “but I see that my shithead boyfriend, Anton, already introduced me.”Anton looked at Maya and shrugged. “It’s the way the two of us talk to each other.” He turned to his girlfriend. “You gotta problem with that, wench?” he countered lightly.Luly grinned. “And you are?”“Well, umm, Umaya. I just go by Maya, though.” Maya looked from Luly to her boyfriend in amusement.“Maya! Perfect! And this is Eleanor, traveling on company coin to our secret little corner of the world.”The peach-scented woman in the gray business suit tossed her long, blonde hair out of her face. “I’m opening an outlet store for Elric’s Fashions in the Avandon Mall,” she explained.“Tell me—how do you keep your hair from falling into your eyes with your hands all locked up?”“Oh, I just chop it short,” shrugged Luly. “Lots of prettier girls, those who actually care about such things, keep it back in a bun though, or a braid, or a pony. If you like the look, that is. Do you? I have a scrunchie somewhere in my luggage. Do you need it?”“No. I simply need to get used to this rather inconvenient, kinky bondage thing,” Eleanor grunted. The lock on her cuffs jangled against its finding as she shifted her shoulders and stretched against the constriction.“It’s not so bad really,” Luly replied. “Everything in Avandon is designed with women in mind, and the men are trained at a young age to be idiotically gracious.”“Thanks, wench,” said Anton.“When do I need to put on my cuffs?” asked Maya, “I bought a pair last night, but….”“Don’t worry. Only when you’re ready, Maya, no sooner.”“It makes me feel weird. I am visiting my boyfriend for the summer, but I already feel like I’m out of place.”“Maya, with your black skin and black curls, I am afraid there is no way you are passing for a native. We’re all paler than ghosts in Avandon, but we’re all of us friendly, too. I am sure you’ll do fine. Knowing Trevor, he’ll take good care of you.”“You know my boyfriend?”Eulolia laughed. “And I’ve heard about you, that lovely, polished-ebony moon goddess of an architecture major the poor boy is so infatuated with. Avandon is a small country, I’m afraid. Everyone knows everyone. No secrets. Trevor and Anton and I were in the same high school class. Trevor asked me to the prom, actually, but I turned him down. He’s very romantic, but he’s not my type.”“And I was happy to step in and escort you,” added Anton.“Well, shithead, you have to admit that you are much more of a badass criminal than he is.” Luly turned back to Maya. “You do know that Trevor—”“Yes. Yes , I do,” Maya stopped her.“Not that I have a problem with that. It’s only—”Right then, the station attendants shouted for the crowd to board, interrupting her. Instead of finishing, Luly looked about. “Assistance!” she called out loudly, and within moments several young men were hauling their piles of luggage onto the train.“I could have done that, Eulolia,” grumped the boyfriend.“And deny these star-struck youngsters the pleasure of serving? Never. Come on, girlfriends, let’s find our compartment....”They headed off together toward the train.In the compartment, the first thing Umaya noticed was a long notch cut into the back of her seat with a metal ring at the top.“That’s where the arms go,” Luly explained. She sat down in her own seat with a smooth, practiced motion and demonstrated. “Some women like to have their arms locked to the ring, but it’s not legally required. Would you, shithead?”“For a sassy, disrespectful tart like you, of course.” Taking a ring of keys from his pocket he unlocked one of Luly’s ladder of cuffs, then used it to secure the topmost of them to the ring.Luly shifted from side to side to get comfortable.“How about you, Eleanor?”“No, thank you. One pair of cuffs is enough,” Eleanor demurred. She sat with a thump onto the cushioned seat.“Not yet,” said Maya, sliding into her own seat.Anton settled in beside his girlfriend. “So which of you is first with the questions: how do you go to the bathroom? how do you eat? We’ve heard them all before, and answered them. Nothing is too stupid.”Maya looked at Eleanor uncertainly, then spoke up. “So what happens if I don’t wear cuffs?”The goth girl shrugged. “Well, technically there’s a trial, and then the Queen throws you head-first into her dungeon. I doubt the Queen would be bothered, really. That dungeon hasn’t been used for a century-and-a-half, though I’ve heard it’s not such a bad place. A little dusty is all.”“My mom said she found the Queen hiding in there once,” added Anton, “when she was just a spoiled little brat princess, trying to avoid some unpleasant royal duty or something.”“Your mom is a fucking gossip. I am sure she’s the anonymous source for half of the trash that worthless Avandon Rag publishes.” Luly rolled her eyes. “The Avandon Flag. The local newspaper, you see,” she added. “Don’t read it. It’s full of shit.”“So how about the bathrooms and dining and getting places?” interrupted Eleanor.“Don’t worry,” Luly continued. “Like I said, everything is designed for women. You’ll figure it out. And there is always some man with a boner willing to help out.”“In the bathroom?”“Well, no. The women’s room is considered private, and it is always a place we girls can escape to when we need to. There’s usually some badly paid attendant who unlocks you at the door, or someone else—what’s the word?—altruistic. As for dining, someone—someone hopefully more dextrous than my boyfriend—either feeds you and you sip your drink from a straw, or there’s a private room available for that as well. And getting places? No problem. It’s all public transit in Avandon. We’re proud of the system.” Maya was suddenly aware of Luly’s gaze, and turned to look out the window at the passing landscape. Luly leaned forward and addressed Maya in a lower tone. “So how about we try out those cuffs of yours, girlfriend?”“My cuffs?” Maya felt herself blush, even if it wasn’t visible under her dark skin. “They’re… they’re sorta pink… and leopard print... and fuzzy….”Luly sat back, but she didn’t laugh; she simply smiled. “Don’t you worry, Maya. You don’t need to go all pimp style. I’ll lend you a pair of mine. Anton and me’ll make a proper Avandonian out of you in no time.”A few moments later, Maya found herself squirming in the thick steel cuffs Anton had selected for her.“Thicker is better,” he had said. “Less pressure on your wrists....”By an hour later, the flat farmland outside the window had risen into a wildland of summer-parched pine forests. Through fragmentary breaks in the forest, distant, snow-capped peaks flickered into view. Trevor, if he had been there, would have rambled on about Cretaceous igneous intrusions and sedimentary rock layers and plate tectonics, thought Maya. She was beginning to relax a little. Just breathe, Maya told herself. Think about something else.“Foreigners all panic their first time,” Luly had told her as the rings ratcheted shut on her wrists. “Don’t worry, you simply have to wait it out. Remember to breathe when it happens.”Anton had turned the key two clicks counterclockwise. “These double-lock so they won’t accidentally tighten,” he had explained.“I’m fine. I’ll be fine,” Maya had muttered, mostly to reassure herself.“You most likely won’t be, but that’s okay,” Eleanor had tried to comfort her. “I panicked too, my first time, after the first couple of minutes. I’ve been practicing, you see. It takes discipline and focus to attain your goals. That’s what… that’s what my dad used to tell me.”“We Avandonians grow up with it,” Luly had noted. “On the playground the girls pretend to be tied up with string, and the boys feed them and everything like proper simpering adult men. It’s natural to us girls…. It’s simply the way it is for us, I suppose.”And right about then the panic had hit. It started with an itch on the tip of her nose. An irritated scrunching of her face. A squirm in her shoulders. Luly had watched Maya’s eye twitches with a wry crook of amusement to the corners of her mouth. Anton silently patted the keys in his pocket. Breathe. Just breathe. It hadn’t helped. Maya had shifted to the side and skritched her nose against the seat cushion. Her nose still itched. Damn!Everyone had been watching her, examining her so quietly. She shivered and closed her eyes tight as a spasm of cold splintered her calm. I’ll be fine, fine, she told herself again. But she wasn’t.“Okay... okay. Can you unlock me, please? I’ll try them again in a few minutes, I promise. That’s good enough.”Anton didn’t move.“Relax dear, you simply have to endure this,” said Luly.“No, really. I’ve had enough. Please let me out!”“You’re actually doing quite well,” encouraged Anton.Eleanor had ignored her, staring pointedly across the compartment at Luly. Anton sucked on his own lower lip, then leaned over and whispered something in his girlfriend’s ear.Now, an hour later, Maya was finally feeling more like her normal self. Think about it, she told herself repeatedly: bondage was just a state. A temporary state of being. There was always a release somewhere ahead, even in Avandon—you just had to be patient. Outside of the window, the shadows lengthened. Slivers of light flashed across Maya’s face. Her reflection in the window flickered in and out of existence.A knock on the compartment door presaged dinner service. “Do the ladies require any assistance?” the lanky, middle-aged steward asked Anton.“No, I intend to eat elsewhere, since I’m sure they could use some girl-time, and two of them aren’t used to being fed. If you don’t mind, my sweet little tart,” he added, turning toward Luly, “I’ll take my dinner in the main cabin with the rest of the riffraff.” The steward left their meals on fold-out tables while Anton went about unlocking them. It took a while to release his girlfriend from her numerous cuffs. “Adieu, ladies,” he nodded, then closed the door.Just a state. There’s always release. Maya closed her eyes, breathed freely, then opened them again.“Let’s see,” Luly said, “Chicken marsala or something that vaguely resembles it, rice, microwave-steamed veggies, and a brownie for dessert. Delicious!” She stretched her arms upward, cracked her knuckles, then dug into the brownie.“Tell us about Avandon,” said Eleanor between bites. “The rest of the place, not the Statute of Restriction thing.”“Oh? It’s a beautiful place. The waters of the fjord are famous for their stillness. They’re flat as a mirror, except for little ripples when the fishing boats set out to sea. We eat lots of fish…. I hope you aren’t allergic. There’s the Castle, the Mall, the Nunnery, and the Cathedral. The mountains rise straight out of the water, so there’s not much flat land for farming or buildings. Despite how small our population is, everything is crowded, at least in the city of Avandon itself.”“Does it get cold in winter?” asked Maya.“Very. Most of us young people just hide out in the Mall all winter. There’s not much else to do. But the summers are warm and sunny, with long, long days.” Luly looked from Eleanor to Maya. “What about you girls?” she asked, starting in on her chicken marsala.“You already seem to know a lot about me, Luly,” said Maya. “I’m an architecture major. I’m spending my summer with Trevor.”“The two of you are serious, then?” asked Eleanor.“Yeah. Pretty serious. And what about you, Eleanor?”“Oh, I’m opening a store for Elric’s. I was the only employee who wanted the job it seems, probably thanks to some eccentric local tradition. I have my own reasons for doing it, though. They expect me to be the store manager afterwards, I think.”“Any boyfriend?”Eleanor looked down. “No. I can’t say that I’m really a people person, and the male gender seems to avoid me.”Luly grinned between bites. “We’ll Just have to fix that then....”* * *The windows in their compartment had darkened to a lightless void when Anton returned. He locked Luly up first, then Eleanor, then Umaya. “You’ll do better now that you’ve had your first panic,” he comforted her, patting her on the shoulder. “Not too tight, are they?” He turned a dial by the door before sitting, and the lights in the cabin dimmed.“We have lots of myths and stories about our history in Avandon,” said Luly. “I’m a bit of a history buff, so I’ll tell you a ghost story of sorts.” She settled back in her seat, and, when she spoke again, it was in a lower voice.“Long ago—and this is one of our oldest myths—the valley was home to peaceful farmers and fisherman, just as today. The waters of the fjord were still as a mirror even then, reflecting the same great cliffs. Then one day the earth split, and the waters boiled and turned to blood, and Death rose from his home, deep within them. Every man and woman and child simply lay down where they were—and Death took them. The animals too, those of the wild and those of the farms—even the birds—fell asleep and died.”She paused briefly, then continued. “Only one shepherd survived. He had been tending his herd in the mountains, and saw from above as the waters boiled and turned to blood, and he was afraid to return to his village. When he did, he found everyone dead. So he left the valley and never returned. For many, many years, no man would set foot in Avandon, for people said the valley was cursed. Eventually, though, a few settlers returned. Still, the legend persists, and some day, they say, some day Death will once again rise from the waters and take what is due him.”Eleanor shivered and the lock on her cuffs jangled. “That’s not precisely a story you tell to attract tourists,” she observed. “Bad marketing.”Luly laughed. “It’s a good bedtime yarn, though,” she said in her normal voice. “My mother used to tell it to me to give me nightmares. The open waters of the fjord still scare me. Why don’t you turn out the lights, Anton? I’m tired, and it’ll be morning before we get there.”“Sure.”“Night, girlfriends. G’night, shithead.”But Umaya couldn’t get comfortable. She sat in her seat, watching Luly snore lightly against the shoulder of her boyfriend. Eleanor had managed to hit the lever to lean her seat back. She reclined on her side with her face shadowed by a pillow.Eventually, the discomfort of Maya’s body surrendered to the exhaustion of her mind, but still the rumble of the train tumbled Maya in and out of sleep. She would drift off, then all of a sudden awaken with her shoulders straining against the cuffs. Only half-aware, she tried to lean against the cold glass of the window to relieve the stress.At some point, though, she did cascade into a deep tranquility. It was not Death who arose from those still, dark waters into her dreams, however, but a beautiful young maiden glowing white in a flowing white dress, her hands bound behind her back in a rough-tanned leather sleeve. A faint perfume of roses surrounded her. She nodded once to Maya, then led her up a steep path along a narrow ledge, high above the fjord. At the end of the path, the ledge turned a sharp corner into the narrow V of a hanging valley overgrown with wild briar roses. A thin waterfall ribboned into a shallow pool that filled the little valley with mist and steam. The entrance to a small cave opened in the far wall.The lady paused there at the entrance to the cave, turning and waiting for Maya to make her way through the thorn bushes to catch up. Maya reached the entrance and slumped over for a moment to catch her breath before she looked up. The lady nodded once more, then led Maya into the cave.Inside was a sword. It floated in the pitch darkness, blade upward, itself like the slender lady, glowing. Not a fancy, bejeweled, ceremonial sword, but a functional thing, feminine in its very being, straight and elegant.......A flicker of sunlight awakened Maya. A new day—they would be pulling into the station soon. Umaya smiled and let the sunlight roll over her, thinking of her boyfriend, of Trevor, waiting at the station. Without thinking, she tried to stretch, only to find that her wrists were still cuffed behind her.When they arrived in Avandon, it came as a revelation. The train entered a long tunnel, rising upward through a darkness seared only by the passing neon green streaks of emergency lights. Ten minutes or more, they rushed blindly through the clatter of their own echoes from the closed-in walls. And then they emerged back into stunning daylight, tottering high on a cliff face, edging down a steep, dynamite-carved grade above a steel-blue fjord—and not a wave to be seen upon the reflective waters. Leaning at an angle against the glass, Maya could see the City of Avandon itself, hardly more than a village by her measure, with the Cathedral spire rising almost equal to the base of the Castle, stooped upon its massive black outcrop of jagged rocks.Anton, anticipating their arrival, had unlocked Luly from the ring in the seat back. She rose gracefully, arching her back and stretching, as the train careened down the final grade and slowed. “It’s good to be home,” she said. “I’ve had enough of condescending, business-suited foreigners for a while, present company excluded.”Before long, they rumbled and screeched into an open-air station that was little more than a metal-roofed shelter beside the tracks.“Welcome to Avandon,” said Anton.“Yeah,” agreed Luly.There was suddenly much bustling. Women had to be unlocked from their seats and helped down onto the platform. Men swarmed to carry luggage and assist with a steadying hand. The bright sunlight and clean, salt-scented air that greeted Maya as she, in her own turn, stumbled down onto the firm cement landing, shocked and refreshed her senses. This was a new place, a new adventure, full of new possibilities.“Careful there,” laughed Luly. “We can’t have you tripping and falling and breaking your arms first thing in our country. I’m sure the medical clinic is not on your list of must-see attractions.”“It’s hard to do all this without hands for balance,” Maya complained.“Nonsense. It just takes a lifetime of practice. The customs booth is this way.” Luly tossed her head in the general direction, then spun and headed off toward a middle-aged man occupying the booth, sitting behind a folding table. Eleanor stepped up to him first.“I see you are already restricted,” he began. “Thank you for respecting our laws and customs. Do you have your passport?”“It’s in my briefcase.” she apologized.“That is not a problem,” he replied, “If I may open your briefcase for you….”“Of course.”He retrieved the document, looked down and then up at her with a somewhat exaggerated scrutiny.“Name?”“Eleanor Hattenfelter.”Luly’s eyes widened, then narrowed as her brow furrowed in thought.“And your business in Avandon?”“I’m opening an outlet for Elric’s Fashions in the Mall.”“Do you have any items to declare?”“I don’t think so.”The customs inspector went back to examining her passport for the slightest of detectable flaws. Luly rolled her eyes. “She’s with me, Vero, she’s fine. And so is Maya here. Umaya Palmer. She’s right there on the passenger manifest in front of you, so skip the bullshit, please.”Vero started, then swallowed and quickly stamped the passport.Anton shrugged to Vero in sympathetic bemusement.“Of course… of course, your Highness,” Vero whispered, and gave a little bow towards Luly.Your Highness?Both Maya and Eleanor gawped.“You’re… you’re the Qu… Qu... Qu….” Maya stuttered.“Thank you, Vero,” said Queen Eulolia sweetly, her lip-rings flashing. “Now come on, girls. Eleanor, Maya. Let’s go find that love-besotted, head-over-ass boyfriend of yours and see what ridiculous, hackneyed, lovey-dovey, romantic gesture he has planned. I bet it’s flowers....”

This is the cover for my new novel, Avandon’s Call, now published on Amazon! Here’s a link to it:

www.amazon.com/dp/B0BP2QNB71

Avandon Calls

In the Kingdom of Avandon, all women of majority age are required to have their hands bound behind their backs in public—and yet the women of Avandon are far from oppressed. Maya, an architecture student staying for the summer with her boyfriend in this strange northern land, is understandably nervous, but finds herself bonding with a small group of other women… socially challenged Greidel, secret-concealing Eleanor, and the rebellious, foul-mouthed Queen. All the while, strange, persistent dreams of a medieval lady and a sword wrapped in briar roses call to her from the past.

Filled with humor and emotion, this novel features extensive fetishistic themes in its world-building—but the story itself is less erotica than character-centric drama.

Description

Here is a link to the story free on DA:
Avandon's Call Chapter 1Link to chapter 2:,AAvandons Call Chapter 2Link to chapter 1: Chapter 2 At the Cottage… Avandon’s CallCopyright 2022 by Amaluen (deviantart.com/amaluenunveiled)Cover art and interior art Copyright 2022 by AmaluenFour young woman, each with their own secret struggle, find friendship together in a distant land where females are by law required to be bound. This story is an emotional melodrama rather than erotica. While bondage and fetish are central to the plot, the descriptions and circumstances of the bondage are intentionally too soft-core and nonsexual to qualify as porn.Nonetheless, this story is intended for adults only.Characters depicted in this story are entirely fictional.Chapter 1The Train to Avandon…Umaya Palmer felt as insignificant and empty as her own cast shadow in the vastness of the Fresloe County Railroad Station, lonely and diminutive as she watched the swirling and eddying of the thin crowd on the platform about her. She swallowed painfully—a deep-rooted trepidation had left her mouth dry, and a lump like a walnut was rising in her throat. The steel beams of the station’s ceiling danced into a dizzying art déco lattice high above her, so high that it seemed the curvature might as well have been the sky, and the train to Avandon, musked with the aggregate sweat of its oil, stretched through the soft yellow light of the building like a massive, black, impenetrable wall, vaguely threatening and innately masculine.Many of the train-travelers milling about were boarding for other destinations than the eventual terminus of Avandon itself—bound for various towns and lesser cities along the way. Here and there amongst the crowd, however, Umaya’s widely spaced, dark eyes, black as two shining currants even against the lustrous ebony-umber of her skin, picked out those travelers headed to the strange country at the far end of the tracks. It was straightforward enough: all of the native females of that land, of Avandon, those of majority age at least, had their hands restrained behind their backs.Such was the law of Avandon—ancient, traditional, draconic and immutable—that the women of that country, at all times in public, must have their arms bound and unusable behind them. Strange indeed, but despite the archaic misogyny of the nation, the rest of the world took little enough notice, for Avandon was hardly more than a speck of a country, isolated on a winding thread of a fjord behind looming, sheer walls of cliffs, somewhere far away in the wastelands of the north. The country had no value to the outside world that might attract notice, and for its part, Avandon seemed disinclined to commerce and modern values in equal proportion.Here, though, accumulated in the railroad station, were its people. Umaya glanced between them, her eyes flickering from side to side. A tall, elegant lady with her arms bound in an elaborate brocade garment, like a corseted sleeve, supervised her children—she called out to them not to run. The children, as children everywhere will, ignored her. Her husband, his steadying left hand gently about her waist, gave a secret smile. Another woman scurried down the length of the tracks, her wrists tied with a crisscrossing knotwork of hemp rope wound through with bows of dusky ribbon. An elderly crone, supported by her gray but handsome, goateed husband, sported thick, filigreed cuffs upon her emaciated wrists with heavy links of rhinestoned chain between them.The bondage seemed to be as much a fashion statement as a concession to the archaic law. Umaya—Maya was her shortened name—fingered the hot pink, leopard print, faux-fur lined handcuffs she had bought at an adult bookstore the night before. She stooped over quickly and slid them into her luggage. Were they even appropriate? They were nothing like that statuesque lady’s elegant bondage garment. What was she doing, Maya thought, a liberated woman, a descendant of slaves, going to an oppressive place like Avandon?Nearby, a tall lady in a mousy gray business suit, smelling vaguely of peach perfume, held her briefcase awkwardly behind her, a pair of padlocked leather cuffs about her wrists. She looked about nervously. Another young woman, dressed in a rather goth-punk mode, stood stiffly with her arms locked behind her back in a veritable ladder of heavy steel cuffs. Her boyfriend dragged a teetering arrangement of luggage in her wake.Maya felt a sudden pang of jealousy. Not that her own boyfriend wasn’t attentive—Trevor was a constant gentleman, sometimes much to her annoyance—but he wasn’t there to assist her with her luggage. This would have been so much easier with him in tow, but his last geo-vulcanism exam had been several days previous, and he had been eager to return to his home. He would be waiting for her at the Avandon Station, at least. For now, though, Maya had to fend for herself.“May I help you, Ma’am?”Lost in her worries, Maya was startled by the polite voice beside her. It took her a moment to focus her eyes. The goth girl’s punk boyfriend stood two paces away from her.“Umm....” Maya temporized.“It’s no problem. You merely seemed a little overwhelmed. Is this your first time on a train? Are you going to Avandon?”“No. No, I’ve been on a train before…. It’s just… yes, I am going to Avandon.”“I am sure you have questions, then. How would you like to join me and my girlfriend and that nervous young lady,” he nodded towards the peach-scented lady in the business suit, “for the trip? We have a private compartment, and I am sure we can ease your concerns.”Maya looked to the goth girl, who met her gaze and acknowledged it with a nod and a natural, albeit multi-pierce-lipped, friendly smile. Goth was hardly her usual choice of acquaintances—Maya was more of a T-shirt and blue jeans sort of gal—but still….“Sure, it’d be good to have company.”The boyfriend grinned. “Then I’ll help you with your luggage. I’m Anton, by the way. And my girlfriend is Eulolia.”“That’s an unusual name. Isn’t the Queen of Avandon named something like that?”“Yes,” said Anton, “but it’s a traditional name, quite common in our country.” He took Maya’s rolling suitcase and dragged it behind him to his girlfriend’s pile.“I’m Luly.” said the goth girl in a high, perky, well-mannered voice, her lip-rings flashing, “but I see that my shithead boyfriend, Anton, already introduced me.”Anton looked at Maya and shrugged. “It’s the way the two of us talk to each other.” He turned to his girlfriend. “You gotta problem with that, wench?” he countered lightly.Luly grinned. “And you are?”“Well, umm, Umaya. I just go by Maya, though.” Maya looked from Luly to her boyfriend in amusement.“Maya! Perfect! And this is Eleanor, traveling on company coin to our secret little corner of the world.”The peach-scented woman in the gray business suit tossed her long, blonde hair out of her face. “I’m opening an outlet store for Elric’s Fashions in the Avandon Mall,” she explained.“Tell me—how do you keep your hair from falling into your eyes with your hands all locked up?”“Oh, I just chop it short,” shrugged Luly. “Lots of prettier girls, those who actually care about such things, keep it back in a bun though, or a braid, or a pony. If you like the look, that is. Do you? I have a scrunchie somewhere in my luggage. Do you need it?”“No. I simply need to get used to this rather inconvenient, kinky bondage thing,” Eleanor grunted. The lock on her cuffs jangled against its finding as she shifted her shoulders and stretched against the constriction.“It’s not so bad really,” Luly replied. “Everything in Avandon is designed with women in mind, and the men are trained at a young age to be idiotically gracious.”“Thanks, wench,” said Anton.“When do I need to put on my cuffs?” asked Maya, “I bought a pair last night, but….”“Don’t worry. Only when you’re ready, Maya, no sooner.”“It makes me feel weird. I am visiting my boyfriend for the summer, but I already feel like I’m out of place.”“Maya, with your black skin and black curls, I am afraid there is no way you are passing for a native. We’re all paler than ghosts in Avandon, but we’re all of us friendly, too. I am sure you’ll do fine. Knowing Trevor, he’ll take good care of you.”“You know my boyfriend?”Eulolia laughed. “And I’ve heard about you, that lovely, polished-ebony moon goddess of an architecture major the poor boy is so infatuated with. Avandon is a small country, I’m afraid. Everyone knows everyone. No secrets. Trevor and Anton and I were in the same high school class. Trevor asked me to the prom, actually, but I turned him down. He’s very romantic, but he’s not my type.”“And I was happy to step in and escort you,” added Anton.“Well, shithead, you have to admit that you are much more of a badass criminal than he is.” Luly turned back to Maya. “You do know that Trevor—”“Yes. Yes , I do,” Maya stopped her.“Not that I have a problem with that. It’s only—”Right then, the station attendants shouted for the crowd to board, interrupting her. Instead of finishing, Luly looked about. “Assistance!” she called out loudly, and within moments several young men were hauling their piles of luggage onto the train.“I could have done that, Eulolia,” grumped the boyfriend.“And deny these star-struck youngsters the pleasure of serving? Never. Come on, girlfriends, let’s find our compartment....”They headed off together toward the train.In the compartment, the first thing Umaya noticed was a long notch cut into the back of her seat with a metal ring at the top.“That’s where the arms go,” Luly explained. She sat down in her own seat with a smooth, practiced motion and demonstrated. “Some women like to have their arms locked to the ring, but it’s not legally required. Would you, shithead?”“For a sassy, disrespectful tart like you, of course.” Taking a ring of keys from his pocket he unlocked one of Luly’s ladder of cuffs, then used it to secure the topmost of them to the ring.Luly shifted from side to side to get comfortable.“How about you, Eleanor?”“No, thank you. One pair of cuffs is enough,” Eleanor demurred. She sat with a thump onto the cushioned seat.“Not yet,” said Maya, sliding into her own seat.Anton settled in beside his girlfriend. “So which of you is first with the questions: how do you go to the bathroom? how do you eat? We’ve heard them all before, and answered them. Nothing is too stupid.”Maya looked at Eleanor uncertainly, then spoke up. “So what happens if I don’t wear cuffs?”The goth girl shrugged. “Well, technically there’s a trial, and then the Queen throws you head-first into her dungeon. I doubt the Queen would be bothered, really. That dungeon hasn’t been used for a century-and-a-half, though I’ve heard it’s not such a bad place. A little dusty is all.”“My mom said she found the Queen hiding in there once,” added Anton, “when she was just a spoiled little brat princess, trying to avoid some unpleasant royal duty or something.”“Your mom is a fucking gossip. I am sure she’s the anonymous source for half of the trash that worthless Avandon Rag publishes.” Luly rolled her eyes. “The Avandon Flag. The local newspaper, you see,” she added. “Don’t read it. It’s full of shit.”“So how about the bathrooms and dining and getting places?” interrupted Eleanor.“Don’t worry,” Luly continued. “Like I said, everything is designed for women. You’ll figure it out. And there is always some man with a boner willing to help out.”“In the bathroom?”“Well, no. The women’s room is considered private, and it is always a place we girls can escape to when we need to. There’s usually some badly paid attendant who unlocks you at the door, or someone else—what’s the word?—altruistic. As for dining, someone—someone hopefully more dextrous than my boyfriend—either feeds you and you sip your drink from a straw, or there’s a private room available for that as well. And getting places? No problem. It’s all public transit in Avandon. We’re proud of the system.” Maya was suddenly aware of Luly’s gaze, and turned to look out the window at the passing landscape. Luly leaned forward and addressed Maya in a lower tone. “So how about we try out those cuffs of yours, girlfriend?”“My cuffs?” Maya felt herself blush, even if it wasn’t visible under her dark skin. “They’re… they’re sorta pink… and leopard print... and fuzzy….”Luly sat back, but she didn’t laugh; she simply smiled. “Don’t you worry, Maya. You don’t need to go all pimp style. I’ll lend you a pair of mine. Anton and me’ll make a proper Avandonian out of you in no time.”A few moments later, Maya found herself squirming in the thick steel cuffs Anton had selected for her.“Thicker is better,” he had said. “Less pressure on your wrists....”By an hour later, the flat farmland outside the window had risen into a wildland of summer-parched pine forests. Through fragmentary breaks in the forest, distant, snow-capped peaks flickered into view. Trevor, if he had been there, would have rambled on about Cretaceous igneous intrusions and sedimentary rock layers and plate tectonics, thought Maya. She was beginning to relax a little. Just breathe, Maya told herself. Think about something else.“Foreigners all panic their first time,” Luly had told her as the rings ratcheted shut on her wrists. “Don’t worry, you simply have to wait it out. Remember to breathe when it happens.”Anton had turned the key two clicks counterclockwise. “These double-lock so they won’t accidentally tighten,” he had explained.“I’m fine. I’ll be fine,” Maya had muttered, mostly to reassure herself.“You most likely won’t be, but that’s okay,” Eleanor had tried to comfort her. “I panicked too, my first time, after the first couple of minutes. I’ve been practicing, you see. It takes discipline and focus to attain your goals. That’s what… that’s what my dad used to tell me.”“We Avandonians grow up with it,” Luly had noted. “On the playground the girls pretend to be tied up with string, and the boys feed them and everything like proper simpering adult men. It’s natural to us girls…. It’s simply the way it is for us, I suppose.”And right about then the panic had hit. It started with an itch on the tip of her nose. An irritated scrunching of her face. A squirm in her shoulders. Luly had watched Maya’s eye twitches with a wry crook of amusement to the corners of her mouth. Anton silently patted the keys in his pocket. Breathe. Just breathe. It hadn’t helped. Maya had shifted to the side and skritched her nose against the seat cushion. Her nose still itched. Damn!Everyone had been watching her, examining her so quietly. She shivered and closed her eyes tight as a spasm of cold splintered her calm. I’ll be fine, fine, she told herself again. But she wasn’t.“Okay... okay. Can you unlock me, please? I’ll try them again in a few minutes, I promise. That’s good enough.”Anton didn’t move.“Relax dear, you simply have to endure this,” said Luly.“No, really. I’ve had enough. Please let me out!”“You’re actually doing quite well,” encouraged Anton.Eleanor had ignored her, staring pointedly across the compartment at Luly. Anton sucked on his own lower lip, then leaned over and whispered something in his girlfriend’s ear.Now, an hour later, Maya was finally feeling more like her normal self. Think about it, she told herself repeatedly: bondage was just a state. A temporary state of being. There was always a release somewhere ahead, even in Avandon—you just had to be patient. Outside of the window, the shadows lengthened. Slivers of light flashed across Maya’s face. Her reflection in the window flickered in and out of existence.A knock on the compartment door presaged dinner service. “Do the ladies require any assistance?” the lanky, middle-aged steward asked Anton.“No, I intend to eat elsewhere, since I’m sure they could use some girl-time, and two of them aren’t used to being fed. If you don’t mind, my sweet little tart,” he added, turning toward Luly, “I’ll take my dinner in the main cabin with the rest of the riffraff.” The steward left their meals on fold-out tables while Anton went about unlocking them. It took a while to release his girlfriend from her numerous cuffs. “Adieu, ladies,” he nodded, then closed the door.Just a state. There’s always release. Maya closed her eyes, breathed freely, then opened them again.“Let’s see,” Luly said, “Chicken marsala or something that vaguely resembles it, rice, microwave-steamed veggies, and a brownie for dessert. Delicious!” She stretched her arms upward, cracked her knuckles, then dug into the brownie.“Tell us about Avandon,” said Eleanor between bites. “The rest of the place, not the Statute of Restriction thing.”“Oh? It’s a beautiful place. The waters of the fjord are famous for their stillness. They’re flat as a mirror, except for little ripples when the fishing boats set out to sea. We eat lots of fish…. I hope you aren’t allergic. There’s the Castle, the Mall, the Nunnery, and the Cathedral. The mountains rise straight out of the water, so there’s not much flat land for farming or buildings. Despite how small our population is, everything is crowded, at least in the city of Avandon itself.”“Does it get cold in winter?” asked Maya.“Very. Most of us young people just hide out in the Mall all winter. There’s not much else to do. But the summers are warm and sunny, with long, long days.” Luly looked from Eleanor to Maya. “What about you girls?” she asked, starting in on her chicken marsala.“You already seem to know a lot about me, Luly,” said Maya. “I’m an architecture major. I’m spending my summer with Trevor.”“The two of you are serious, then?” asked Eleanor.“Yeah. Pretty serious. And what about you, Eleanor?”“Oh, I’m opening a store for Elric’s. I was the only employee who wanted the job it seems, probably thanks to some eccentric local tradition. I have my own reasons for doing it, though. They expect me to be the store manager afterwards, I think.”“Any boyfriend?”Eleanor looked down. “No. I can’t say that I’m really a people person, and the male gender seems to avoid me.”Luly grinned between bites. “We’ll Just have to fix that then....”* * *The windows in their compartment had darkened to a lightless void when Anton returned. He locked Luly up first, then Eleanor, then Umaya. “You’ll do better now that you’ve had your first panic,” he comforted her, patting her on the shoulder. “Not too tight, are they?” He turned a dial by the door before sitting, and the lights in the cabin dimmed.“We have lots of myths and stories about our history in Avandon,” said Luly. “I’m a bit of a history buff, so I’ll tell you a ghost story of sorts.” She settled back in her seat, and, when she spoke again, it was in a lower voice.“Long ago—and this is one of our oldest myths—the valley was home to peaceful farmers and fisherman, just as today. The waters of the fjord were still as a mirror even then, reflecting the same great cliffs. Then one day the earth split, and the waters boiled and turned to blood, and Death rose from his home, deep within them. Every man and woman and child simply lay down where they were—and Death took them. The animals too, those of the wild and those of the farms—even the birds—fell asleep and died.”She paused briefly, then continued. “Only one shepherd survived. He had been tending his herd in the mountains, and saw from above as the waters boiled and turned to blood, and he was afraid to return to his village. When he did, he found everyone dead. So he left the valley and never returned. For many, many years, no man would set foot in Avandon, for people said the valley was cursed. Eventually, though, a few settlers returned. Still, the legend persists, and some day, they say, some day Death will once again rise from the waters and take what is due him.”Eleanor shivered and the lock on her cuffs jangled. “That’s not precisely a story you tell to attract tourists,” she observed. “Bad marketing.”Luly laughed. “It’s a good bedtime yarn, though,” she said in her normal voice. “My mother used to tell it to me to give me nightmares. The open waters of the fjord still scare me. Why don’t you turn out the lights, Anton? I’m tired, and it’ll be morning before we get there.”“Sure.”“Night, girlfriends. G’night, shithead.”But Umaya couldn’t get comfortable. She sat in her seat, watching Luly snore lightly against the shoulder of her boyfriend. Eleanor had managed to hit the lever to lean her seat back. She reclined on her side with her face shadowed by a pillow.Eventually, the discomfort of Maya’s body surrendered to the exhaustion of her mind, but still the rumble of the train tumbled Maya in and out of sleep. She would drift off, then all of a sudden awaken with her shoulders straining against the cuffs. Only half-aware, she tried to lean against the cold glass of the window to relieve the stress.At some point, though, she did cascade into a deep tranquility. It was not Death who arose from those still, dark waters into her dreams, however, but a beautiful young maiden glowing white in a flowing white dress, her hands bound behind her back in a rough-tanned leather sleeve. A faint perfume of roses surrounded her. She nodded once to Maya, then led her up a steep path along a narrow ledge, high above the fjord. At the end of the path, the ledge turned a sharp corner into the narrow V of a hanging valley overgrown with wild briar roses. A thin waterfall ribboned into a shallow pool that filled the little valley with mist and steam. The entrance to a small cave opened in the far wall.The lady paused there at the entrance to the cave, turning and waiting for Maya to make her way through the thorn bushes to catch up. Maya reached the entrance and slumped over for a moment to catch her breath before she looked up. The lady nodded once more, then led Maya into the cave.Inside was a sword. It floated in the pitch darkness, blade upward, itself like the slender lady, glowing. Not a fancy, bejeweled, ceremonial sword, but a functional thing, feminine in its very being, straight and elegant.......A flicker of sunlight awakened Maya. A new day—they would be pulling into the station soon. Umaya smiled and let the sunlight roll over her, thinking of her boyfriend, of Trevor, waiting at the station. Without thinking, she tried to stretch, only to find that her wrists were still cuffed behind her.When they arrived in Avandon, it came as a revelation. The train entered a long tunnel, rising upward through a darkness seared only by the passing neon green streaks of emergency lights. Ten minutes or more, they rushed blindly through the clatter of their own echoes from the closed-in walls. And then they emerged back into stunning daylight, tottering high on a cliff face, edging down a steep, dynamite-carved grade above a steel-blue fjord—and not a wave to be seen upon the reflective waters. Leaning at an angle against the glass, Maya could see the City of Avandon itself, hardly more than a village by her measure, with the Cathedral spire rising almost equal to the base of the Castle, stooped upon its massive black outcrop of jagged rocks.Anton, anticipating their arrival, had unlocked Luly from the ring in the seat back. She rose gracefully, arching her back and stretching, as the train careened down the final grade and slowed. “It’s good to be home,” she said. “I’ve had enough of condescending, business-suited foreigners for a while, present company excluded.”Before long, they rumbled and screeched into an open-air station that was little more than a metal-roofed shelter beside the tracks.“Welcome to Avandon,” said Anton.“Yeah,” agreed Luly.There was suddenly much bustling. Women had to be unlocked from their seats and helped down onto the platform. Men swarmed to carry luggage and assist with a steadying hand. The bright sunlight and clean, salt-scented air that greeted Maya as she, in her own turn, stumbled down onto the firm cement landing, shocked and refreshed her senses. This was a new place, a new adventure, full of new possibilities.“Careful there,” laughed Luly. “We can’t have you tripping and falling and breaking your arms first thing in our country. I’m sure the medical clinic is not on your list of must-see attractions.”“It’s hard to do all this without hands for balance,” Maya complained.“Nonsense. It just takes a lifetime of practice. The customs booth is this way.” Luly tossed her head in the general direction, then spun and headed off toward a middle-aged man occupying the booth, sitting behind a folding table. Eleanor stepped up to him first.“I see you are already restricted,” he began. “Thank you for respecting our laws and customs. Do you have your passport?”“It’s in my briefcase.” she apologized.“That is not a problem,” he replied, “If I may open your briefcase for you….”“Of course.”He retrieved the document, looked down and then up at her with a somewhat exaggerated scrutiny.“Name?”“Eleanor Hattenfelter.”Luly’s eyes widened, then narrowed as her brow furrowed in thought.“And your business in Avandon?”“I’m opening an outlet for Elric’s Fashions in the Mall.”“Do you have any items to declare?”“I don’t think so.”The customs inspector went back to examining her passport for the slightest of detectable flaws. Luly rolled her eyes. “She’s with me, Vero, she’s fine. And so is Maya here. Umaya Palmer. She’s right there on the passenger manifest in front of you, so skip the bullshit, please.”Vero started, then swallowed and quickly stamped the passport.Anton shrugged to Vero in sympathetic bemusement.“Of course… of course, your Highness,” Vero whispered, and gave a little bow towards Luly.Your Highness?Both Maya and Eleanor gawped.“You’re… you’re the Qu… Qu... Qu….” Maya stuttered.“Thank you, Vero,” said Queen Eulolia sweetly, her lip-rings flashing. “Now come on, girls. Eleanor, Maya. Let’s go find that love-besotted, head-over-ass boyfriend of yours and see what ridiculous, hackneyed, lovey-dovey, romantic gesture he has planned. I bet it’s flowers....”

This is the cover for my new novel, Avandon’s Call, now published on Amazon! Here’s a link to it:

www.amazon.com/dp/B0BP2QNB71

Avandon Calls

In the Kingdom of Avandon, all women of majority age are required to have their hands bound behind their backs in public—and yet the women of Avandon are far from oppressed. Maya, an architecture student staying for the summer with her boyfriend in this strange northern land, is understandably nervous, but finds herself bonding with a small group of other women… socially challenged Greidel, secret-concealing Eleanor, and the rebellious, foul-mouthed Queen. All the while, strange, persistent dreams of a medieval lady and a sword wrapped in briar roses call to her from the past.

Filled with humor and emotion, this novel features extensive fetishistic themes in its world-building—but the story itself is less erotica than character-centric drama.