Slaying that SeaTiger seemed like a good thing at the time, but the way things went down, especially Jona hurting his leg, brought all sorts of consequences.
Our morning sessions on deck were interrupted, for one thing. Carrying Jona wouldn't have been a big deal to me but he didn't want the men to see me doing it, and besides, a cripple on the deck of a working sailing ship is asking for trouble.
But beyond that, Jona's injury and the men's stories about me standing over the carcass of a SeaTiger got Lord Kriven's attention, which was a most unpleasant experience.
At first, it wasn't that bad. He sat in his chair with his pipe and had me tell him what happened, asking questions about all sorts of details I either didn't remember or didn't notice. Then, when I thought he was satisfied, he had me do it again. And then again. Needless to say, I filled in some of those pesky details I couldn't remember at first, and by the fourth time I told the story, I thought I had it all down, like in a bards tale.
Then the old man leaned forward in his chair and smiled as he spoke.
"Very good child. I've no doubt you've got the strength, speed and size to make one hell of a soldier, but you're far too raw and undisciplined, and that's dangerous. But I do like your spirit and the King would be most pleased if I brought you to him just a bit more suitable for training and ready to learn military discipline."
Then he put down his pipe and called for his aide before looking back at me.
"Ten lashes should do it, I think" he said with a sick twisted grin. "Enough for you to learn your lesson about lying to an officer, but not so severe as to really cause any permanent damage."
"Tell the men to assemble on deck in an hour," he said to the aide, "and then bring the girl from her quarters, along some of that salve. We don't want to scars on all that beautiful skin. Dismissed."
Now, you're probably asking yourself why I didn't get up and jump ship, but before you start down that path, I suppose I should mention, I'd never learned to swim. Plus I was young and used to obeying the orders of my elders.
They "let" me save my dress and strapped my hands, before while I stood there naked with the massive hard mast nestled between my bosoms, one of the men gave me all ten lashes.
The men started shouting when I took off my dress, but stopped when the whipping started. My eyes teared up, but I didn't cry out, because by that time, I realized that was probably what the old man wanted.
When the old man gave the order to stop, and broke the little rope tying me to the mast and stood there glaring at Kriven bare breasted, he smiled. Honestly, I might have killed him then, but something broke the spell and stopped the rage building inside me. The men cheered.
With seemingly no fear of touching my flesh, except for my bloody back, they surrounded me, and led me bodily back down to our quarters, gave me a bottle of whiskey and applied the salve to my wounds as I lay sprawled over the much too small cot.
Jona, who'd missed the lashing, limped in later, covered my bare bum with a blanket and told me I'd done everything right and wasn't to blame, squeezing my behind supportively, until I looked up and he realized what he'd been doing. I was the one who'd been whipped, but it was his face that got red.
I smiled and squeezed his hand before finishing the bottle of whiskey. It had been a horrible day, but the look on his face when I smiled at him made it not so bad.
No comments:
Post a Comment