~CHAPTER 26~

Three days later…

Erienne was tired. They had started out with the rising sun and her new master was determined to make it to market in record time. He still allowed them water and small rest breaks but he was intent on covering ground. Easy for him, he sat on his ass all damn day, merely controlling where the horses pulled the wagon.

Her morning sickness had passed, her body more intent on hanging on to every morsel it got hold of, and she worried that she wasn't getting enough for both her and the baby. It was the heat that bothered her. She ached all over all the time. All she wanted to do was sleep. Instead she was expected to walk along beside the wagon in chains without a complaint.

Night was becoming harder and harder to deal with. She dreamed every night of Eomer when sleep would finally claim her. His beautiful smile. The look of love in his eyes whenever he touched her. He'd promised he'd come back to her. Where was he now, when she needed him the most? When their baby needed him. The last two nights she cried herself to sleep, longing for his arms to hold her, to hear his voice telling her everything would be all right.

Here at night, in the dark, chained with all the others around a tree, with no hope for anything better than what she had right now, she'd never felt so alone. She tried to convince herself not to think too much about the baby. Tried to tell herself if she tried hard enough she could convince herself that the baby was of no concern to her. Then it wouldn't be so hard for her when they took it away; she was already resigned to the fact that the traders would consider her baby a bonus. Two for the price of one.

Her child would be born directly into slavery. A child who, by blood, was the son or daughter of a future king.

Yes, her new master had made quite the bargain indeed, although he did not know it yet. Yet in the same thought of making herself not love the child she knew it was impossible. How could she not love her baby? How was she going to survive when it was sold away from her? Sleep claimed Erienne again and again her dreams were nightmares of no one to hold her, no one to love her and nothing to hold or love in her arms.

******

Erienne had no way to know that Eomer and company were gaining ground stopping in one town and then another, swapping out tired horses for fresh ones, paying with gold so that the horses would be waiting for him on the journey back. Each merchant would get his original horses back in addition to keeping the golden fee.

Aragorn had tossed aside the face of a king, falling well back into his ranger's ways. Watching the ground and wagon tracks, evaluating how much ground they were making up. Calculating how far ahead the traders still were. Aragorn could not deny the urgency, he could only imagine how he'd feel if it were Arwen who was in this situation.

Legolas kept forward watching, reaching out into the distance searching and seeking, hoping for a feeling that they would not be too late to prevent the utmost tragedy. Legolas would not let anything more concern him. He had feelings for Erienne, which if closely examined would reveal more than he wished to consider.

For all his gruff outward appearances, Gimli deep down was a soft touch and easily led to adoration and infatuation with the fair sex. Erienne was a sweet lass, and Gimli held a genuine affection for the girl. He'd already made the offer to Eomer that if Erienne and the child were not found safe and unharmed he would gladly do the honors in separating Reyna's head from the rest of her body.

******

Erienne awoke with a start, the sounds far too familiar. Far too much like the ones that she'd experienced a few too many times in her recent past. The sounds of violence. The trader was being attacked. She was terrified and helpless with her hands in shackles and behind her back. All of the slaves were.

There were only a dozen or so, mostly young women like herself and a few small boys. What was the intent of the late night intruders? Would they hurt the slaves, free them, or take them prisoner? It wasn't uncommon for slave traders to acquire their slaves through violent means.

The question was what kind of people were the attackers. Fear for her child rose again. She almost hoped they would take the trader's gold and leave them alone. But she wasn't thinking far enough ahead. If they left them chained like this they would all die. But what would become of her if they took her with them. What was going to happen next?

There was a shout, and a rattle. They had found the keys to the shackles. But what were they going to do with them?

There were four in men total. From this distance and by firelight all of them seemed to be rather young from what Erienne could see. But what kind of men they were wasn't so easy to determine. Erienne was in the middle of the long chain and there was little question what their intent was when they reached the first two women.

The men divided themselves into pairs each pair taking a woman. Erienne cringed in horror trying to shut out the sound of the other women being raped. The men did nothing to silence their terrified screams as they brutally took them, taking turns with vicious cruelty. So much for the hope of compassionate release.

And yet the flicker of rekindled hope could be found in the men's complete stupidity.

Then men were so involved in taking their pleasure they neglected to lock the chain back in place. The first this to notice was one of the boys. He eased the chain as quietly as possible from his own shackles.

Then by carefully extending his arms his was able to slide his shackles above his head. He took care to remain as still as possible as one by one the binding chain was slid out each set of shackles. Erienne was the first woman to find freedom and she slipped cautiously back around to the first boy as the other women sought their escape.

She looked around to find the shackle keys on the ground. Darkness would be their ally unless the stupid men thought to light torches. And since there were only four men it was unlikely that they would be able to recapture all of them.

She could easily have slipped away but instead, freed herself from the shackles and moved along freeing all the boys who slipped silently out into the darkness. She couldn't get to all the women, freeing only the next one of her shackles, when one of the men finally realized that their evening of twisted pleasure was slipping away into the night.

As soon as she heard the roar of protest she backed away and took off into the black night. She hadn't gone far when she was grabbed and yanked down behind a huge boulders. It was one of the older boys. "Shh, miss, or they'll hear us."

The last three women free of the binding chain, but not their shackles could be heard putting up a good fight. By the sounds of it they were using their chains to fight back. The one Erienne has completely freed had fled into the darkness away from Erienne. Erienne prayed she made it to safety somehow.

The small boys apparently had no fear after their vision adjusted to the darkness. They were small and quick, and the stones they threw hit their marks with remarkable accuracy.

It didn't take long for the men to decide enough was enough and they retreated, their breeches in some cases still around their ankles,as three determined women fought back, kicking and shouting; flinging their chains against half-dressed rapists and small boys hit them with rocks which seemed to fly out of the darkness on their own.

Through their own stupidity the men had lost their advantage and decided they would take their profits and leave. They took the merchant's gold and the horses from the wagon, but left the rest, fleeing into the darkness the same way they came. .