Tales of Erogenia
Episode 1: The Snow Princess
Chapter 11:
Chained
“Barbarian!” The cry
rang out from a dozen throats as Zenaria revealed herself, along with other
less complementary terms. Zenaria
ignored them, focusing on the hedge of swords and spears surrounding her. With her back to the wall of pottery jars
there was no where for her to go, but at least her foe could not come at her
from behind. They came at her in a
semi-circle, most exercising caution – most but not all.
“She’s just a woman,” exclaimed one man moving
to the front. He stood out from the
others, his black robes trimmed with gold, and like Tren carrying two swords
which he wielded with authority. He
stepped forward, licking his lips. “Surrender,
barbarian whore. Surrender and I will
keep you for myself. Force me to defeat
you and I will let the Guard have you first.”
“The Guard.”
Zenaria supposed that he was referring to the men ranged behind
him. However, she had no intention of
repeating the humiliation of being taken prisoner. She would either escape or she would
die. She spat at the Sandak warrior’s
feet. It was her only reply. She did not argue with fools.
“Whore.
You will pay for that.” Without
further comment the warrior attacked, whirling his twin blades with blinding
speed.
The two swords gave him a decided advantage
against Zenaria’s single blade, but she remedied the situation within
seconds. As the Sandak came in, she
swung her sword in a vicious arc and then in an impressive demonstration of her
strength and control, turned the blade in mid-swing and changed its direction
ninety degrees. There was a dull thunk
as the blade made contact and then the clang of the Sandak’s sword falling to
the ground along with his right hand.
For a moment the warrior simply stood there, blood pulsing from his
stump, and then he let out a scream, and gripping his arm, fled shrieking into
the ranks of his men.
The remaining guards took a full two steps back
from her, but that was as far as they went.
They still outnumbered her thirty to one and they were not about to let
her escape. “Get an archer,” shouted one
of them. “We’ll fill the bitch full of
arrows.”
Zenaria attacked. If she was going to die, she might as well
die fighting rather than waiting to be cut down by an arrow. Surprisingly her attack caught the
surrounding Sandak guards unprepared.
She went through them like a scythe through grain, each cut of her sword
bringing screams of pain and cries of rage and alarm. Only when she had cut into the ranks of the
guards so deeply that they were beginning to close in behind her did she
retreat, leaving three men writhing on the ground and two lying very still. Several more nursed bloody wounds where her sword
had made contact, but not cut deeply enough to inflict a mortal would. Zenaria sported several nasty cuts that would
probably heal into honourable scars provided she lived long enough.
She was now backed up against the storage jars
once more, her body gleaming in the torchlight as once again her foe pressed
forward. She was breathing hard from
exertion, but far from finished.
However, it was obvious that her situation was hopeless. She had killed and disabled a dozen or more
men, but their ranks had swelled by several score more. They hemmed her in, those at the back pushing
forward to get a look at the wild barbarian trapped by their fellows.
“Kill her!”
“Cut the barbarian bitch down!”
“Gut her!”
The shouts from those at the back had no affect
on those at the front. They had seen
what the cornered barbarian could do.
Now they waited for a safer way of bringing her down.
Zenaria caught the movement at the last
second. She stepped to one side just as
an arrow rattled against the pots behind her.
It passed so close that its flights caressed her shoulder. She had dodged one arrow, but others would
come. She relaxed, waiting for the right
moment and when it came twisted her body and raised her blade.
“She’s a witch!” shouted one of the Sandak
guards as Zenaria actually caught the arrow a foot from her body, deflecting it
harmlessly aside.
“Another bowman,” Someone else yelled. “She can’t dodge two arrows at once.”
Zenaria detected movement on the edge of the
crowd. Her position was lit by the
torches carried by the guards although she could see only shadows, but she knew
that there were at least two archers drawing a bead on her.
It turned out that there were three. The twanging of the bowstrings reached her
just before the arrows did. She twirled
her blade in an intricate pattern, while once again stepping to the side. She was rewarded by the sound of an arrow
whistling by her head, and the sharp “ping” as one deflected off her blade. But there was an agonizing rush of pain from
the arrow that pierced her thigh.
She staggered and almost fell. Although she made no sound other than a
grunt, the pain in her thigh almost made her faint, but she fought for control,
forcing the pain away from her mind, and looked down. A yard long feathered shaft had struck the
fleshy part of her thigh, missing the bone, but penetrating until the iron
arrowhead emerged from the other side.
It was a crippling injury, taking away her mobility, but still her foes
hesitated to attack. Instead they stood
back to let the archers finish her. And
this time, Zenaria knew, she would not be able to avoid them. She raised her blade and prepared to die,
whispering a quick prayer to the Moon.
“Take me Silver Queen; your warrior dies with honour.”
“Hold! I
want her alive! I’ll flay the man who
kills her.”
Zenaria peered into the darkness beyond the
circle of men, but she could see nothing of the speaker. However, it was a voice heavy with authority
and no arrows came. And then the crowd
parted to allow a red-robed figure to stride into view. He wore no hood, instead a circlet of gold
proclaimed him to be someone of rank. In
his right hand he held a staff bound with gold and with an ornate crystal at the
top. He was the tallest Sandak she had
yet seen, standing several inches taller than her and he was strikingly
handsome. He appeared to be in his early
thirties with dark hair and even darker eyes that seemed to pierce right
through her. A hooked nose added an
eagle-like element to his striking features, but it was spoiled by a
down-curving mouth that was cruelly expressive.
“Fifty men,” he sneered. “Fifty men and just one barbarian woman. I want her taken and I want her taken
alive. I will personally carve off the
flesh of any man who holds back. Take
her now!”
Zenaria swung her blade, hacking down the
attacking Sandakar like a farmer cutting down nettles, but they came at her in
a great swarm, fearing the wrath of the Sandak thuski more than they feared
death. And this time she was hampered by
the burning wound in her thigh. Forced
to balance on one leg, she took down the first few men who came at her, but by
sheer weight of numbers they forced her back and once she took one step, she stumbled
and went down under a wave of attackers.
Although they had orders not to kill her, it
was impossible for them not to strike at the barbarian who had killed and
wounded so many of them. She avoid a
spear thrust to the face, but the same warrior who had tried to impale her
swept the haft of his spear around and struck her over her left ear. Stunned, she dropped her sword and then a
dozen fists struck at her, slamming into her head and torso and driving her to
the ground.
“Hold I said,” the thuski roared. He forced his way into the melee, laying
about him with his staff, until the men pummelling the barely conscious
barbarian fell back from her. “This one
I want alive. It will be most gratifying
when I bind her to my will. Bring up
chains. I want no chance of her
escaping.”
Zenaria managed to get to her knees. The arrow that had pierced her thigh had
snapped off when she had fallen, leaving just a stub of the shaft protruding
from her leg on one side and the barbed arrowhead on the other. As the gods would have it, the arrow had
missed the femoral artery and there was only a small amount of bleeding, but
now the pain pulsed through her thigh as if someone was twisting a red hot
knife in the wound. It was so intense
that for a few seconds her senses reeled and she thought she was going to
faint, but she fought her way back to consciousness and faced her captor.
It might have been better if she had passed
out. The she would have been spared the
pain and humiliation of what came next.
She was kept on her knees; two men twisting her arms behind her, while a
third stripped her of the rest of her clothing and weapons. They held her there while the thuski stood
over her gloating at her capture.
“Who would have thought that I would capture a
pale-skinned barbarian?” he asked as he stepped up to her. Seizing her long braid he pulled her head
back so that she was forced to look up at him.
“What are you doing in the city?
Are you a spy?” When Zenaria did
not answer he laughed. “No matter. I will have it out of you. I have broken many an Erogenian bitch to my
will.”
Zenaria clenched her teeth, fearful of
appearing weak in front of her arrogant captor.
Breathing heavily as she fought the pain and degradation of being
stripped and pinioned before her enemies.
She met his gaze without blinking, but it took all of her willpower not
to look away from that sardonic gaze.
The men holding her arms held her tightly, twisting them painfully
behind her and forcing her wrists high on her back. It made it very difficult to breathe and she
gasped for air, the shock of her injury adding to her shortness of breath.
The clank of chains alerted her to the next
stage of her degradation. The horror of
her enslavement by the Sandakar slavers came back to her like a blow to the
stomach. For a few seconds she thought
she might further dishonour herself by being sick, but she managed to fight
down the nausea, as the chains were shackled to her body.
Zenaria in Chains. Illustration courtesy of J.E. Draft
http://barbarianprincess.com/
A chain ran from a metal collar around her neck
to her manacled wrists. From there another chain linked her wrists and ankles. Each
length of chain was kept so short that she could not straighten her body. The
thuski attached the final chain himself, a ten foot leash that allowed him to
lead her from horseback. Jerking her forward he forced her to stagger behind
him, barely able to walk due to the arrow in her thigh.
Every step was agony as he paraded her through
the market under an escort of over fifty guards. Zenaria’s flight through the
market and the climactic battle that had led to her capture had attracted the
attention of hundreds, and they crowded the street on either side of her as she
limped forward.
“Barbarian bitch. Take her to the punishment
square. Forty lashes should reach her proper behaviour.”
“Brand her. Put the mark of Aroo upon the
heathen whore.”
“Throw her into the punishment pits. Let the
scum there have their way with her.”
Most of the more savage suggestions came from
the merchants whose goods Zenaria had inadvertently destroyed in her wild
flight from the city guards. Others came from those who simply wanted a good
show. Bent double, Zenaria was forced to stagger through the streets like a
penitent, her every step sheer agony. The thuski rode without paying her the
least attention as if confident she would follow in spite of the fact that she
could hardly walk. To add to her humiliation some among the crowd decided that
it would be good fun to pelt her with ripe fruit and rotting vegetables. Only
then did the thuski turn in his saddle. “Guards, clear a path through this
rabble.”
The guards obeyed, forcing back the crowd and
forming a cordon around their captive, an action that probably enabled Zenaria
to complete her agonizing journey. In too much pain to do more than concentrate
on each step she took, Zenaria paid no attention to the route they took. She
only knew that she eventually found herself in a courtyard. Most of her escort
remained outside, no longer needed. As she was herded through a doorway she
stumbled and fell, her injured leg finally giving out. The guards on either
side of her picked her up under the elbows and without bothering to help her to
her feet, dragged her down a dim hallway to a door at the end. The door was
thrown back and she was dumped unceremoniously onto a dirt floor. The thuski
looked in on her. “Your new home, barbarian. Enjoy your life as a slave.”
Zenaria did not answer. Her strength had failed her at last and she lay like
one dead. She did not even hear the door slam or the sound of the heavy bolt
being shot home.
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