WARNING: This is a violent story. Please do not read any further if bad language, rape, torture, and nasty characters upset you. Be 18 or be gone.

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THE RIDDED

by Phair

Part 13

Reuben reclined on several cushions near the low dining table. He was pretending to be enjoying his aunt’s hospitality. The food and wine provided was extraordinary fare. After moons of army food he should have been enraptured with Pia’s extravagance. Instead, he was watching Becca as she cautiously served the evening meal to the General, Lady Pia, and himself. He was dismayed at how broken Becca appeared. The girl seemed positively terrified.

"…I’m telling you, Reuben, this is a one shot chance. A once in a lifetime opportunity to make your fortune young," the General blustered, a little more drunk than he usually got.

"So you’ve said," Reuben smiled as he turned his attention to his uncle, "several times, in fact."

"Please Felix, stop badgering the boy about a military career," Pia asked sweetly.

"I’m trying to help him. Is that such a bad thing?" The General questioned.

"Husband, the boy can’t think. Take a good look at his face. You must see it. A hunger is upon him. Don’t tell me it’s been so long that you’re blind to youthful lust," Pia laughed to take the edge off her words.

"Ah, then any reasonable conversation is at an end," Felix resigned himself to his wife’s assessment of their nephew’s mood.

Pia cooed, "Reuben, you been too far from home for far too long. I think, you’re longing for the softer blessings from Waur."

Pia cocked her head toward Becca and raised an eyebrow with her silent question. Reuben nodded agreement. He blushed slightly when Felix snickered and winked.

"At least your like me in the important way, right boy?" The General bellowed his question.

"If you don’t mind, I’d like to take a walk before bed. Get a bit of fresh air," Reuben cleared his throat.

"Need a bit of a stretch, lad?" Felix continued to chuckle.

"Well, if you don’t mind, may I borrow your slave to attend me with the wine?" Reuben pointed to Becca so there would be no confusion who he wanted.

"Of course, darling," Pia would indulge their only nephew anything. "You, slave, go with the First Lineman. See to all his needs. And do so happily or you’ll answer to me."

Reuben stood and walked out into the garden. He knew Becca had no choice but to follow him. The cool night air was a welcome relief from the heated dinner conversation. Pia and Felix were quite the conniving pair. They were working very hard to groom Reuben. To get him to renounce his birthright and let them claim him as their heir. It was something he was never going to allow. He heard Becca’s footsteps and slowed his pace to allow her to catch up. The girl remained just a step or two behind him and to his left.

"Becca, come here," he stopped walking near an overgrown tree and motioned for the girl to join him in the shadows. "Are you well? Are you alright?"

Becca’s head snapped up with the questions. She glared but she held back her bitter reply. Reuben was a little relieved to see some of her old fire still burning close to the surface.

"Sorry, of course you’re not alright. How could you be given your situation?" He muttered as an apology.

"No, I’m sorry. Please forgive me. I got to control myself better. I’ve got to learn not to react or…,"

"…my aunt will skin you alive," Reuben finished the thought for her.

"Reuben, I heard what your aunt said, and," Becca swallowed hard before asking, "I saw you looking at me, and I’ll do what you want but after could you buy me? Get me away from her. I promise to be no trouble for you and I’ll find someway to repay your expenses. Please, you might be my only hope of survival."

"I can’t." Reuben took firm hold of her slumping shoulders and pulled her into a hug. "Soldiers can not own slaves until they’ve served at least six years or have their own command. Waur doesn’t want us distracted from our duties with private endeavors."

Becca let her tears soak the front of Reuben’s tunic. All the hope she felt when he entered the Villa was washing away. She let him guide her back into the garden, back under the moonlight. Part of her worried he would take her in front of Pia and Felix and the other part of her didn’t care anymore what any of them did to her. Becca believed she was as good as dead.

"Hush, now. Look, out to the river. See the shack on the right," Reuben tipped her head up as he whispered in her ear. "There, out in front, you have to look very hard. See, there’s a prisoner chained to the hitching post out front. Can you see her?"

Becca scanned the yard to find a figure huddled on the ground. She shrugged her shoulders to signal Reuben she saw the prisoner.

"That, Becca, would be Dayne. Your lover is here as a Prisoner of Waur and under the General’s protection," Reuben grinned.

"Dayne," the word alone made her heart soar. "She’s here? Can, could I, we, go talk to her?"

"Not tonight. It wouldn’t be safe for her or you. I’ll try to arrange a meeting but you must bide your time, girl. Do not annoy my aunt," Reuben warned, "or my uncle, for that matter. Stay out of trouble. I’ll do what I can to get you a visit."

Becca buried her face in Reuben’s tunic sobbing her thanks as he gently rocked her.

* * *

Dayne strained to turn the crank wheel one more notch. Sweat soaked her clothes but it was not from the difficult work. She was frightened.

"Sir, please, the wood, it’ll snap, we need to warm it before we bend it," Dayne gritted her teeth as the lashes bit into her back.

"Silence!" Maximos screamed as he laid down two more strikes with the six lash cat. "You’ll learn to follow my command the first time or I’ll beat you raw."

The pair had spent the last five days working to build an arrow launcher for the General. Dayne explained the process of warming the wood so it would bend easily for the bow. Maximos laughed at her. He told her the only way he know to bend wood was with the force of the crank. When she argued the point, the weapons’ master beat her to silence.

"Turn the crank again," he shouted.

Maximos strode away from Dayne as she struggled with the crank. He moved in front of the trembling wood. He would hold it there for the night and allow it to take on the shape. His hand reached out to caress the tortured plank just as a horrible snapping sound filled the air. Wood splintered in every direction.

Dayne covered her head in reflex. However, the wood shards exploded away from her, toward the bend in the wood. A shrill cry followed the sickening crack. Dayne lifted her head to find Maximos flat on the ground with blood spurting skyward.

She hurried from the crank to Maximos’ side nearly tripping over her chained ankles. Grabbing his lash and knife, Dayne cut two lengths of leather. She quickly tied the leather above the wound. The blood slowed to a steady trickle.

"Got to get you to the main house," Dayne panted as she hoisted Maximos to his feet.

His pain filled scream did nothing to draw help.

"Come on, lean on me, here we go," she stumbled forward dragging the old soldier and her chains. "Well, this could be easier if you move the other leg, help me, come on, get going, don’t die."

"Help me, help, please help," Maximos cried with every step Dayne took. "By Waur, it hurts!"

"Move, move, move, you’re gonna bleed to death if you don’t keep moving, move, move," Dayne gasped as she pulled the man up a small incline in the yard. "GENERAL!" Dayne managed to shout. "GENERAL!"

Soldiers and servants came spilling from the Villa as Dayne lowered Maximos to the stone walkway of the garden. A small group gathered and more than one man had his hand on his knife.

"What goes here?" General Felix stormed into the garden completely naked.

"General, Maximos is injured and in need of immediate attention. He has pierced a main bleeder in his leg. It must be burned closed," Dayne spoke as she put pressure on the wound.

"Abel, you men, get him inside and call my wife. She’ll either save him or kill him," the General laughed as they carted the weeping man away. "And, you! What happened? Trying to kill old Maximos?"

Dayne was so frightened she missed the humor in the General’s tone, "No, sir. We were working, the wood shattered, too much pressure, I would never…, never raise a hand to an Elosian."

"On your feet," Felix pulled her up by a fistful of hair.

Before Dayne could beg for her life, Maximos screamed in agony from inside the Villa.

"Sounds like my wife killed him," the General and remaining group laughed.

"Oh, god," Dayne, believing the comment, thought she would be sick. "Please Sir, I didn’t hurt Maximos. Tried to help him."

Dayne’s world started to spin before her eyes. Her vision grew blurry. She could see the General was speaking but the ringing in her ears drowned out all other sounds. Dayne realized her knees were buckling as the General’s grasp on her became more fierce. She promptly passed out.

"Well, at least she didn’t vomit all over you," Pia teased when the Felix carried the prisoner into the dining area.

Felix chuckled as he set the girl down on the soft cushions, "I should have known laughing at you would come back to haunt me. You are Waur’s favorite. How’s Maximos?"

"Such crybabies, your soldiers are! Shrieked like a woman in labor when I sealed the wound," Pia was exasperated. "He’ll survive, leg and all. How’s this one?"

"Fainted," the two of them laughed.

Pia reached out and caressed her husband’s penis, "You have the same effect on me. Come back to bed. Maximos will sleep for hours and Abel can wake her up and send her back to work."

Felix pulled his wife in front of him and parted her blood smeared robe. As he suspected, she was naked beneath. His body instantly responded to the heat between her thighs.

"Sending the prisoner back to work is less than a reward for saving Maximos’ life," Felix mumbled while suckling Pia’s neck. He would bruise her just enough to remind her of her place; beneath him.

Pia giggled, "Should one be rewarded for saving an old goat like Maximos?"

"Well, you’re about to be rewarded for it," Felix grunted as he lifted Pia onto his erection. "Fair’s fair."

* * *

Dayne’s head was throbbing. Her body shivered against cool cloth. Her naked body shivered.

"What the…," Dayne bolted to her feet only to be overcome by dizziness and forced to sit back down, hard. "Ouch," she muttered cradling her aching head.

"Hurt yourself?" A woman’s cultured voice broke through the pounding in Dayne’s brow.

"Head hurts, back too," Dayne frantically wiped at her half closed eyes trying to force them open.

"You need water and sleep. Drink this," the woman had moved closer and was pushing a mug into Dayne’s hands.

The water was beautifully cold against her throat. Dayne wanted to gulp the contents but the woman would not let her. She guided the sips and Dayne could do nothing but relax under her control.

"Thank you," Dayne managed to open her eyes and saw the woman. She immediately realized this was no serving girl. The Lady of the Villa was kneeling next to her, "I’m sorry, ma’am, I didn’t know it was you. Hard to see. I’ll get out of your way, just need to go, get back to work…,"

Dayne’s second attempt to stand failed as badly as the first. Pia’s laughter gave Dayne some small hope the Lady was not terribly angry with her. Perhaps, she would not be punished too much.

"Easy, don’t go undoing my work. I don’t like to re-healing old wounds or repeating myself. Tell me, how did you know how to tie of the wound on Maximos’ leg," Pia leaned forward, eager for the reply.

Dayne struggled to find her voice, "It comes to me, ma’am. Like Waur’s toys come to me."

"Toys?" Pia frowned at the word.

"Weapons but he calls them toys in my dreams," Dayne was quick to explain. "I know how to heal injuries the same way."

"You expect me to believe Waur whispers in your ear?" Pia could not keep the indignation from her voice, "Our god, speaking to a half blooded girl. You talk heresy."

Dayne shrugged and yawned, "He’s a god. I guess he does what he wants."

Pia’s features switched from anger to amusement. She actually laughed at Dayne’s remark.

"Maybe he does, at that. Tell me girl, who do you belong to?" Pia eased Dayne’s head back down on the sleeping blankets. "Whose your father or husband or Master?"

"Half bloods have no father. Villagers don’t let my kind marry so no husband. The man who raised me ended up disowning me. He kept me on as a slave. So, I guess, Senecos was my Master. But, then the army arrested me so I’m your husband’s prisoner, Waur’s prisoner," Dayne yawned again and realized the water she drank must have been drugged. "Are you gonna kill me?"

"What would make you say that?" Pia shuddered slightly. It was as if the girl accused her of a past crime instead of future action. "I gave you something to help you sleep. After all, I would think you have a lot of work to catch up on tomorrow."

Pia rose and went to Dayne’s feet. She tugged on the chains to make sure they were secured to the post in the floor.

"Can’t let you run away when you possess so many much needed talents, now can I?" Pia asked with a wink.

Dayne was too exhausted to answer and drifted off to sleep.

TBC

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