Disclaimer: Not mine, just borrowing them.

Sura's story

CK

The light hurt my eyes as I opened them. It wasn't a lot of light, just slices of it through wooden boards. I could hear the sounds of people above me and the roar of the sea. My heart cried out at the thought of being so far from my love.

"Are you ok?" I heard whispered to me from the darkest corner.

I opened my mouth and found no voice at first. I cleared my throat and found it sore and scratchy, raw and painful. "I'm not sure." My voice was no more than a whisper.

"You've been sleepin' for sometime." The small voice spoke softly. "There is some water… and a bit of food."

"Thank you." I managed, watching as she moved out of the shadows to where I could see the young blonde. She couldn't be more than fourteen.

She handed me a small chunk of bread and a battered tin cup of water. "Tisn't much."

"It's enough." I managed after a slow drink of the cool liquid.

"I've tended your wounds and you since they brung you here." She now sat beside me. "I'm Terrek."

"Sura." I again spoke after drinking.

"Sura." The small young woman echoed. "We are the only ones left." She hung her head. "No one would buy me and you are a new purchase."

"New purchase?" I tried to be slow with my eating.

"Yes," The girl looked oddly at me. "We are slaves."

My eyes widened. "I am no slave. I am a warrior's wife and lover." As the words left my mouth, the memories of the last few moments with him and those agonizing hours after, washed over me like the water over the bow.

I felt the hands of those Roman soldiers on my body, pulling my love from me and me from him. I heard him call out to me and then he was gone and I was taken a few meters from where we had lay.

The tears fell from my eyes as I remembered the hands on my breast, not in love but cruelly, they were between my legs, their bodies against me…

The next thing I knew I was bent over throwing up what little food I had taken in. Tears streamed down my cheeks and I felt as though I couldn't breathe. Then I felt a small hand softly rubbing my back.

"Did they kill him? You're lover?" Her voice was small again.

I lifted my head to face her. "No. He still lives." I brought my hand to my heart. "I feel it."

Two

I next awoke to the sounds of the men above yelling and stomping about. I reached out and touched the leg of my new companion. "What is happening?"

"We are readying to make port. We will be taken to the market and shown; they will buy new girls and a few young boys." She yawned. "Nothing unusual."

I glanced up at the odd shadows and light from between those ever present slates of wood. "How long will it take to make port?"

"Not long. The longest is standing in the slave market waiting." Terrek stretched like a large cat I had seen many moons before. "But if we are good and really show ourselves, they will bless us with a bit of food and drink midday."

"Show ourselves?" I found it difficult to understand what she said.

"Yes, show the customers that we are the best." She shrugged and reached for the hard bread. "It's not hard."

"I need to escape, find my husband." My dreams were of him always now. Some good, some bad.

Terrek laughed. "There is no escape. We are slaves."

I turned and looked at her, my eyes flashed with anger. "I am no one's slave. I am the wife and lover of a warrior."

There was deep laughter from the opening. A tall thin dark man stood before us. "You might have been those things, but now you are a slave." He stepped towards me and I cringed as his eyes moved over my barely covered body. "And keep in mind, Slave that you are here because your warrior was unable or unwilling to save you." He laughed again.

I lunged at him in pure hatred. He had no right to speak of my love as such. And as quick as I was, his hand was quicker. I heard and felt the crack of the back of his hand as it struck my face.

I landed on the floor, the side of my face on fire with pain; tears fell against my will as I tasted blood from my lip and cheek. "Next time it won't be so pleasant." He growled.

Terrek spoke quickly. "There will not be a next time, sir." She knelt before him. "A lesson was learned for her, sir."

He glanced at her and then me. "Good. I would hate to damage such delicate goods." And with that he turned and left us in the dark.

Terrek tended my face, all the while telling me how I needed to adhere to the rules of the slave class. I closed my eyes and though of my husband. I knew I would get to him some way. And that while I would never give up, nor would he.