Beyond the Keep - The Raiders
Her name was Xo. She was older than the other women, and had an odd scar on her arm, and another deep scar around her wrist. She had admitted to Cyan that she used to work at the Black Raven when she was younger, which was probably why she was one of the few women not looking down on Cyan for so readily submitting to the raider's demands. Xo must have been able to tell that Cyan had something to tell her, because she leaned towards Cyan as much as she could, being tied to a tree. Cyan checked to make sure no raiders were looking, leaned towards her and whispered.
"Xo, they mean to kill us!"
"Well.. I was thinking they would eventually. You'll notice that there are less of us than we started out with." Xo said.
Cyan shook her head. Her shoulders ached as she pulled on the rope to get closer. "Not like that, they're talking about deliberately slitting our throats because we're slowing them down."
"Oh." Xo said.
"What can we do?" Cyan felt eyes on her so she sat back against her tree and looked at the other captive women, ragged and battered, also tied to trees or on a line like horses. Before she could get reply from Xo one of the men came over. Cyan knew him, she was a favorite of his. He was at least 50, overweight and hairy.
"Hey, leave that girl alone." Cyan heard Xo call. "I actually know what I'm doing."
He ignored Xo and untied the rope holding Cyan to the tree but kept her hands bound behind her back. He helped her to her feet and held the rope binding her wrists together as he led her away.
"Please don't hurt me." Cyan felt the soft flutters deep in her belly, the only reason why she didn't fight and make them kill her. Don't fight. Do what he tells you to. Coop would understand.
He brought her to a flat rock next to a river and had her lie down.
"Could you untie my hands, please?" Cyan asked. "My shoulders really hurt."
He drew his knife and made Cyan lay face down on the rock. He tugged on the rope for a moment, as if he was going to cut the rope, but instead pressed the knife to her throat. He was playing one of his 'jokes'. Cyan tried to keep herself calm as she pulled her head back to keep the knife from cutting her any more than it already had. He lay on top of her.
"You women are too slow. We should have gotten home by now." He said casually as discussing the weather.
"I'm sorry... I'll try to walk faster... Please don't hurt me." Cyan whispered.
"We are thinking about cutting you whores' throats, but might spare a few." He dropped the knife and grasped Cyan's upper arms, putting his weight on them. Cyan felt like her shoulders and arms were on fire, her hands were almost numb but she thought she could feel the rope cutting into her wrists and making them bleed. "I like the idea of keeping a mistress in my home, my wife has let herself go these past couple years, especially after giving me my son, so I really do need a woman close by."
It hurt! Cyan fought tears, she felt like her arms and shoulders were being torn apart. She reminded herself that what he was doing would not hurt the baby, to keep quiet and pretend it didn't hurt or he would not stop if he knew how much it hurt. It was hard to breath.
"I'll do whatever you want me to." Cyan gasped. "Just please don't hurt me."
He laughed. "If I found you a couple years ago, before you whored yourself, I'd have smothered my old bag of a wife with a pillow and took you as my bride."
Cyan told herself it would not be long but it felt like hours. Finally he let go of Cyan's arms and got off her.
Cyan slowly sat up, the pain fading even more slowly. She might live longer than the other women, but she knew this was not a long term solution. She was not showing yet, but she would begin to show eventually. She heard what the raiders did to pregnant women before that cold midwife examined her. There was a rumor among the captives that the raiders wanted to impregnate the women themselves. If she were to become this dirty old man's mistress she was only buying herself a few months, when he found out she was pregnant he would kill the baby, and probably kill her too. The only reason Cyan had endured this abuse was to save her baby, Coop's baby, the only thing she had left of him.
He got Cyan back to her feet, but before he could lead her back to the other captives a man walked over to the river. Cyan knew him too, he was in his late twenties, with black hair and cruel eyes.
"Good I was hoping you were done with her. My turn." The cruel-eyed man said.
The old hairy man smiled too and patted his shoulder. "Save me from having to tie her up. Enjoy yourself, son." And he left.
"Please don't hurt me." Cyan said to Cruel Eyes, awkwardly laying down on the rock, knowing he was not above shoving her down and making her bang her head on the stone.
Cruel eyes wasted no time. He tore at her already ragged and torn dress and kissed her hard on the mouth. Cyan's hands were still tied under herself. She felt something sharp cut her hand. She realized it was the hairy old man's knife.
I should tell him that he left his knife and he'll let me move. Cyan thought at first, then got another idea. No, it's too dangerous... He'll hurt me... No, he's already hurting me! Indeed, he was biting her shoulder, it would not hurt the baby but it really hurt her.
Cyan cut her hands a few more times, but she managed to cut through the rope binding her wrists. She wrapped her bloody fingers around the blade. He was still biting her shoulder, drawing blood with his teeth and chuckling. Cyan made herself act before she could lose courage. She pulled the knife from under herself and stabbed at him. He stopped biting and moved away with a yell so Cyan did not cut him deep, just slashed his arm, but it got him off her. Cyan stood up. The knife handle felt slippery in her bleeding hand.
"How did you get a knife?" He asked in disbelief. "Oh you have blown it, you might have been kept as a mistress but now you're going to die with the rest, today."
"I'm going to live." Cyan said determinedly, but did not know how. She had a knife but so did this man and every other raider, and he was bigger than her. She needed to escape. She could hear others coming. She had been quiet for days as she let these men use her, now she had enough. "All I asked was for you not to hurt me, but you did." A couple men appeared from the trees. "All of you did." Cyan was backed towards the river. "After all you have done to me and made me do can't you just leave me alone now?"
"Drop the knife, whore." The hairy old man said. "If you don't drop it we will have to do more than hurt you. We'll have to kill you."
"You don't even know my name- that's all I am to you!" Cyan could feel river water running against her heels. "I was not a whore! I was married to a good man. He was the only man I ever wanted to be with. But you murdered him and took me!"
"If you want to be my mistress drop that knife now and put your hands on your head." The old man ordered, approaching her.
Cyan shook her head. "I don't want to be your mistress. I never wanted to be a whore either. You're going to kill me eventually even if I do every thing you want me to." Cyan backed up another couple of steps, the water was halfway up her knees.
The baby, how do I save my baby? Oh Coop, help me! Cyan took another step back and her foot could not reach bottom- Cyan fell backwards into the water and went under.
She resurfaced quickly but there was such a current she found herself being pulled downriver. She saw the shocked expressions on the faces of all the men on shore. They probably thought she was about to drown. The cruel eyed man acted quickly, grabbed a large bough and held it across the river for her to grab on to. Cyan only considered it for half a second. She could swim and this current would take her downstream much faster than these men could run, even if they got horses they could not keep up. Cyan raised her hands in a sign summing up what she thought of all of them and ducked under the bough.
The men were yelling but Cyan was not going to give them a second look, she was getting away from them. She remembered learning how to swim as a child with Coop. He was a wonderful swimmer but Cyan was almost as good at swimming as he was. They would have races swimming upstream and downstream. When the race was upstream Cyan always lost, but when the race was downstream Cyan beat Coop every time. It was not physical strength so much as using the currents. She tried to teach Coop how to use the currents but he never caught on.
Soon the raider's shouts were nothing but distant cries.
