Bandits and Blood. (656 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 2 on 12 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by helbling (View user info) at 2006-01-03 18:36:23 EST
Second in the Afina series - part one can be found here: http://www.ubersite.com/m/81634
The floor beneath me bucks and drops, leaving my stomach some two feet above my head, or so it feels like. Our crossing to the Imperial city has so far been far from smooth - I suspect that even if I was not chained below decks and was allowed to breathe fresh air I would still be thoroughly sea sick. As the situation stands, I currently feel like death warmed up to just above freezing.
Jel is beside me, sleeping fitfully with her head on my shoulder. She is dreaming of when Mattie died, I can tell, her eyes are moving under her closed eyelids and her head is twitching as if she wants to shake it in disbelief. Within the next half hour she will wake with a short, sharp cry that bursts out of her despite her efforts to hold it back, or maybe a quick gasp that makes her sit bolt upright, only to subside with a moan of despair when she realises that the nightmare is real.
I wonder if I give away the troubles in my past inadvertently when I sleep also - I shall have to suppress it if I do; there is no point in giving anybody extra grappling holds when they are trying to bring you down.
None of the crew is down here supervising us - I suppose they have realised that after four days, if none of us has found a way out of our shackles, none of us is going to. I am the only one awake and alert though, and truth be told, even when we are all awake Jel and I are the only ones that have any spark of life behind our eyes - and Jel's is fading. The rest are all born slaves, or have long accepted their fate; they have a dead acceptance and malleability that glazes their eyes and makes them look dull, as if the people they belong to are dolls moving on command, with no soul, no personality at all.
For all I know now how final death is, I would almost prefer it to ending up like that.
Jel twitches again, fitfully stirring, and the memory of Mattie's face as she died presses on my mind, battering at the makeshift wall I erected between myself and my emotions.
I hesitate - at this rate, the memory will win through, and the vision of her corpse will add itself to that of Mikal's in my vision when I sleep, but I don't think I can stop it, and if I give in to it now, I will at least have relative privacy when the pain comes.
I take a breath, and drop the wall. Unwillingly, I find my mind dragged back into seeing how she died; but I can feel the dread, the agony of knowing what is going to happen behind my eyes.
We were chained like cattle, the three of us and another four that the bandits had already had, and examined like they examine cattle too. The man they'd brought from the Guild pinched our waists and arms, checking for fat reserves, and prying our lips back to check our teeth. He also impersonally groped at our chests and between our legs, and we, too shocked to protest, stood dumbly like the cows they appeared to wish us to be.
At least Jel and I did. But Mattie was the first he went to look at, and as he leant over to look at her complexion, she said to him, in a low voice "Don't buy us - we aren't slaves. They murdered our families and brought us here - they're nothing but filthy bandits."
He looked at her, and gave a short nod, before carrying on as if nothing had happened. Jel and I exchanged a glance, eyes bright, hearts singing. We were getting help! Even in Nexus, the city that everyone had always told us was a hotbed of depravity, there were good people, who would do what was right.
We were stupid and naïve and anybody with an ounce of sense could have foretold what happened next.
The leader of the bandits - we had discerned this much from our time on the road - walked through the door with a grim look on his face, with another man that the other girls all went to great lengths to stay away from, who was wearing a nasty grin.
They looked at Mattie with a certainty that made our hearts drop. She began to shake, but still resisted, still fought when they unshackled her, dragged her to a spot in the centre of us, where we could all see, and tied her down again. The nasty one took out what looked like a pair of large metal pliers and started trying to pry her jaws apart, while the leader looked at the rest of us.
"Take good note of this now," he said, and though he was trying to look stern, I swear I saw a smirk behind his eyes. "Because I'm sure you won't want us to do it again - this is what happens to those who try and escape by using their tongue."
Behind him, the man had Mattie's mouth open, and was reaching inside it with what seemed to be a large pair of metal scissors, and Mattie started screaming -horrible, high, pained screams that spoke of agony - until they were broken by a hideous deep gurgle at the back of her throat, and dark scarlet blood began pouring out of her mouth and nose.
"And if you think this is bad," continued the leader, with disgusting casualness as if the man behind him was plucking a chicken, not removing the remains of Mattie's tongue from her mouth with the scissors while he smiled and she screamed through her own blood, "think about what we'd do if you tried to escape on your feet."
He still smirking, and the other still smiling, they left.
Jel and I lunged forward, but the chains that held us were too short to allow us to reach her. That didn't stop Jel from crying her twin's name and reaching still though. Mattie reached back, and although they were able to brush fingertips, they could do no more.
She lived to see the sunset, that day, and even through the midnight hour, but not to see the sunrise again. The whole time, Jel and I were on our knees at the limits of our chains, talking to her, comforting as we could, as much as it possible in that situation, and her blood, which had spread to cover most of the floor, soaked into our skirts and we didn't care.
Mattie never stopped crying from the pain that whole time.
She threw us loving smiles, sorrowful looks, and other grimaces that I think were her trying to comfort us. But everything was done through sobs, and the occasional cry, all of which was smothered somewhat by the gurgling of her blood pouring down her throat.
One day, I will make my enemies give me that sound.
Slowly, slowly, her eyes closed, and she struggled against the flow of liquid no more, then, finally, to Jel's anguished cry, breathed her last.
They unlocked us the next morning before they removed her corpse. Jel immediately threw herself on her twin's body, and although she was dragged off nearly immediately and thrown into the wagon in which we were to be confined for the journey to the sea, she managed to snatch a handful of hair from her sister's head.
She has not worn the resulting bracelet, but keeps it clutched tightly in her hand, or rubs it against her cheek, like a keepsake. I guess it could be called that, for all it is slightly grisly - hair taken from a corpse. I do not begrudge her it - I would have done the same with Mikal if I'd been able.
The other girls - fearful, quiet now, throwing us cautious glances as they were afraid that our bad fortune was contagious, were ushered into a different cart - apparently Jel and I were the only ones bound for the Imperial city.
The hatch above us opens, allowing light to stream in, paining my eyes. From outside I can hear the faint cry of gulls, and a sailor comes around to make sure we are all still breathing, and gives us a ladle full of water from a small barrel. His movements wake Jel, and she huddles even closer to me, attempting to share body heat.
The man across from Jel and I is dead - choked on his own vomit apparently. I never even heard him gasp or jerk - he must have gone willingly into Death's waiting embrace, so much must he have wanted escape.
I swear to myself I shall never give up like that. That I shall fight to the end, and I shall make them pay.
User Reviews
Submitted by Amontillado (user info) at 2007-05-19 19:49:51 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Fey (user info) at 2007-05-19 18:45:45 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
What Snark said. And what thecaes said.
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2006-01-17 19:51:19 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Again, very well done. You're setting your narrator up to be a vengeful ass-kicker, and I'm a sucker for that. But you're also making the narrator very human and plausible. The death of Mattie was heartbreaking.
Submitted by Benny (user info) at 2006-01-14 03:46:54 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I think its nearly Charles Bronson time.
Submitted by Hirilnara (user info) at 2006-01-10 18:25:28 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment Needed
Submitted by ruthless (user info) at 2006-01-05 19:23:03 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Horrifying.
Submitted by Magicaddict (user info) at 2006-01-04 16:57:31 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Oh. Hell. Yeah. Again.
Submitted by simple_catalyst (user info) at 2006-01-04 12:05:45 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
sure, sure.
Submitted by LadyPlural (user info) at 2006-01-04 11:39:10 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
This is shaping up to be an awesome series.
Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (user info) at 2006-01-04 10:40:11 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Nicely done. Keep it up.
Submitted by Jeanneee (user info) at 2006-01-03 20:47:06 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
keep em coming
Submitted by Snark (user info) at 2006-01-03 20:05:32 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
A little awkward compared to part 1 but still more than worthy of a full ass kicking 2.