Chapter 9:
What seemed like an eternity passed before Arius turned to Arthur and spoke.
"Arthur, I would like to speak with you about some matters at hand." After a brief pause, he added "alone" to his request.
"I keep no secrets from my men." Came the predictable reply. Lancelot noted Arius' uneasiness, so he addressed his fellow knights at the women who were present.
"Come, let's leave Roman business to Romans." Everyone was more than eager to get away from Arius, especially K'tanya who probably wouldn't have been able to walk out of the room had it not been for Dagonet's strong arm holding her up.
Once everyone let the Table Room, everyone divided into groups or pairs and went their own ways. K'tanya and Tristan ended up together and the latter wasted no time in burying his hand in her hair and engulfing her in his arms.
"I can't believe he's here." She whispered in a choked voice. K'tanya swore, or at least believed, that she was never going to see Arius again. So much for a false reality.
"Come, let me take you to your room." K'tanya merely nodded before Tristan led her to her quarters never once releasing the hold he had on her. He led her to her room and stood patiently outside the door until she was settled in bed before he made his move to leave.
"Will you stay with me?" the question was accompanied by a delicate hand being wrapped around his wrist. Tristan stared down at the wrist that was so heavily scarred and couldn't believe that a hand that had killed only a short while ago could be so gentle and helpless in the blink of an eye.
"Please? Normally I wouldn't ask, but since Arius is at the fort and-" she didn't get the chance to finish as Tristan removed his boots, vest, and assorted collection of weapons before sliding into bed next to her. Her head was instantly resting upon his chest and his arms wrapped about her protectively.
"Sleep." He whispered in her ear and she nodded slowly. Tristan remained completely still until he heard her breathing even out and he knew she fell asleep. Once that happened, he adjusted himself slightly so he was facing the door with a knife in his hand just to be safe. No one was going to hurt the woman in his arms.
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The next day went by with no sign of Arius and for that K'tanya was immensely thankful. Due to the fact that Arius was at the fort, Vanora had forced K'tanya to come to the tavern so she and the knights could keep a close eye on her. Like K'tanya would want to be anywhere else.
"So who is this Arius fellow, hmm? Some past lover?" inquired Lancelot of the woman sitting across from him at a regular tavern table. K'tanya cocked an eyebrow at him and smiled.
"Lancelot, why is it that when some man shows up you instantly assume he is here searching for some past lover? Afraid one of your wenches is a married woman?" Roars of laughter came from the table and K'tanya couldn't help but laugh along as Lancelot turned beat red.
"I like this girl." Proclaimed Bors in a slightly drunk voice. "We keep this girl." Dagonet placed a large hand on K'tanya's shoulder and nodded with a smile.
"Of course we have to keep her. We have to protect her too or else Tristan will have our heads." Stated Gawain in good humor. K'tanya felt a warmth growing up the back of her neck at the mention of Tristan and the only one who noticed was Dagonet, good thing too.
"But really, who is he?" asked Lancelot getting back to the matter at hand.
"He's just a man from my past." Came the simple answer.
"The one who took you from Sarmatia." Galahad said filling in some blanks. K'tanya merely nodded.
"What tribe are you from?" wondered Dagonet and K'tanya rolled up her sleeve to show them the tattoo and in the process, her scars.
"She's from the Aoni tribe." Tristan's quick answer received everyone's attention as he took his seat beside K'tanya.
"You see these scars?" she asked the rhetorical while showing everyone the scars on her arm. Everyone nodded.
"There are marks like this all over my body, Arius is the one who made the majority of them." Upon this statement, K'tanya found her arm being examined by Dagonet. His fingers trailed over some scars, but came to a halt at a very interesting looking wound.
"Was this cauterized?" he asked and K'tanya nodded.
"Arius would heat a knife and then cut me, cauterizing the wound in the process." She didn't miss the slight shake that a few of the knights were prone to feeling at the thought of such a thing being done.
"Did you scream?" inquired Gawain who had anger building inside his being. K'tanya shook her head, but then nodded.
"The first couple of times yes, but after that I started to tune the pain out. He wasn't torturing me for the sake of seeing my body broke, he was torturing me because hearing my screams was what pleased him- so I took that away." Every knight at the table now had a very high respect for the lady before them, even if she was keeping some things hidden.
Hands came about her waist and yanked her back with such a force she swore that her head would topple from her neck. The knights were instantly on their feet grabbing weapons and preparing to kill anyone who got in their way.
"Let me go!" K'tanya exclaimed as she tried to wriggle out of her captor's grasp. He was a Roman, she could tell that, and a sober one at that. She repeated her demanded as she dug her elbow into his cut. The man doubled over and she made a move to run to the safety of the knights, but the fell of cold steel on her throat made her stop.
"Arius, what are you doing!" demanded Arthur who had just entered the tavern. K'tanya watched as Arius stepped before her and grinned like a Cheshire cat.
"Taking back what is mine." At this statement, protest arose from the knights were look rather intimidating from K'tanya's point of view.
"K'tanya does not belong to you." Argued Tristan as he spun his scimitar expertly in his hand. Arius turned to the man, gave him a malicious grin before turning back to K'tanya.
"Why of course she does, she was branded as my property." Arius nodded to the man who was holding the knife to her neck and he began to roll up her other tunic sleeve.
"She was so used to closing her eyes and tuning out all the pain that she didn't notice that I had branded her." Arius turned and faced Arthur now and gave him another sick grin. "I came to the fort to retrieve the skin I branded and leave." At this, something inside K'tanya snapped and Tristan watched as the lethal woman emerged from the delicate being everyone saw.
In movements so quick you could not blink unless you wished to miss them, K'tanya had disarmed the guard, stole his knife, and rolled her sleeve up the rest of the way to reveal a gruesome looking brand. Arius smiled at her and signaled for his other guards.
"I see some spark has returned to you over the years. Hopefully now you'll be a bit more lively in bed." Yet another crime against their Sarmatian sister was revealed to the knights and they stepped forth to intercept the advancing guards.
K'tanya, on the other hand, took the knife she had taken and dug it into her flesh like a carpenter with his tools. People in the tavern watched as she slowly traced the outline of the brand and with a flick of her wrist, that area of skin was removed and fell into her open hand drenched in her own blood. Taking a deep breath as blood flowed from the wound, she walked towards Arius with a look that said, "I dare you to move." Arius, was not one who would take that dare. She grasped his hand and shoved the branded skin into his palm before closing his fingers about it.
"There's your branded skin." She stated with hatred in her voice. "Now leave." She released his hand and headed towards the exit of the tavern when a mumbled voice saying, "whore", reached her ears.
In one fluid motion, she spun about and threw the knife in her hand with deadly accuracy and watched as it lodged itself in Arius' boot, right between his toes. She swooned on her feet slightly, before turning again and disappearing while Arthur and the knights made certain that Arius left the fort as quick as possible.
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"Why didn't you tell me?" Tristan demanded as he sat beside K'tanya and ran a hand lightly over her bandaged arm.
"I didn't want you to think of me as worthless and leave." she replied ashamed. Tristan placed his arm about her as well as a kiss to her temple. She leaned into him and let out a sigh sensing he wanted the full tale.
"It was 13 years ago, just after the boys had been taken to serve Rome. A Roman infantry was making its' way to some place I can't remember the name of." She let out a small laugh at this before continuing. "They wanted woman, woman to be their little playthings." At this statement, there was a swear word uttered from the doorway and K'tanya noticed all the knights standing at her bedroom door.
"You can all come in." she stated and with no need to be told twice, all the knights and Arthur came in and made themselves comfortable as she continued her tale.
"No one wanted to go with them or give up their children, so they took who they could. I just happened to be the only girl out of five who made it through the first night. All the other girls died of fear."
"How old were you?" questioned Dagonet from his spot by the fireplace.
"I was 13. I had just received my tattoo the day they came and took me away. I was made into their sex slave, their toy that they could do whatever with. Arius was the one with me the most since he was the commander of that band of men. During the day I was forced to do the jobs no one wanted to do, I did the work of a soldier. And at night I was the little toy that was passed from tent to tent where there were no rules on what happened to me." Tristan's arm tightened about her and a small tear ran down her cheek.
"When I was 23, they attacked a band of Woads and took a couple young girls to be their new toys. Arius had some men dump me in a ditch after a very bad beating and they left me for dead. I lied there for three days until a man came by and found me. His name was Kay de la Fleur, a Gaul who was traveling from Hadrian's wall. He took care of me, helped me relearn how to fight and gave me a new name to start a new life with. So I stopped being K'tanya of Sarmatia, or Tani as those Roman dogs called me, and I became K'tanya de la Etalon. I learned to speak the language of the Gauls and I became one myself. Three years later I'm here at Hadrian's wall with all of you." The tears had now stopped flowing and she heaved a sigh as she leaned deeper into Tristan's embrace.
"Any questions?" came the sleepy inquire and all the knights shook their heads. They all stood and filed out of the room quietly leaving Tristan to place her in her bed.
"Stay." Came the mumbled demand and Tristan obliged. His arms sought their way about K'tanya and she smiled against his chest.
"Thank you for telling me." He whispered in her ear. K'tanya nodded sluggishly as sleep began to come over her.
"I trust you completely." She managed to say before sleep came and over took her.
Tristan watched her sleep in his arms and he couldn't help but to be amazed by her. Just the other night she had been screaming in terror about some man who had harmed her and now tonight, she had dealt with said man and told her tale only with a few tears being shed. She truly was an amazing woman, and Tristan wasn't going to give her up at all.
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a.n: A big thanks to everyone who keeps reviewing and huge thanks to the lovely person who reviews and sends me a message. You don't have to do that, but I want to thank you for doing it because it makes me feel really happy. Anyways, the story shall start rolling a bit more since I just had to get this little part out of the way. So now you know about her past and now you get to review and tell me what you thought. Loves.
-Changer
