Chapter 7
This happened in the last chapter: For their first day as slaves in Hadrian's domus, Jack and Sam have been working hard but were well treated and able to look around for technology in the house and stables. Sam is eager to start working at the temple and find out more.
Glossary: Patrician: nobleman
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But days passed and Sam had still not left the domain. About a week after their arrival, a party was given at the domus for the respectable citizens of Herapolis. Sam had been assigned to the kitchen to help and prepare the meal, while Jack was paired with Priam to carry the heavy dishes and serve the guests. As they were returning to the kitchen with their dish empty, a strong-looking guest hailed Jack.
"Hey! You! Yes, you, the new one. Come here" he said. As they approached, Priam whispered "Jason! Bow!" Jack bowed reluctantly.
"Closer!" the guest growled impatiently. As Jack humored him, he felt the man drying the sauce from his hands on his hair. He wanted to jump backward and yell, but he was still holding the heavy dish and couldn't drop it without risking hurting Priam.
"You can go" the man said when he was finished. As they reached the kitchen, Jack let his frustration explode.
"What was that?"
"It doesn't happen often, but Palma is a swine. It amuses him to plague the slaves"
"And we are supposed to accept it?"
"We are here to do whatever they want. Don't you know that?"
"Doesn't that bother you, people using your hair to dry their hands?" Jack asked, trying to clean himself with a rag. Priam shrugged.
"You'll wash your hair tomorrow. It's only a little sauce"
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After the episode, Jack avoided the area where Palma was lying with his friends, and when he had to come closer, he put on his black-ops mask to remain impassible in the best Teal'c-fashion. Toward the end of the evening, most of the guests were satiated, less slaves were required in the kitchen so Sam was sent to the main room to serve wine and take care of those who were already so drunk that they needed assistance to find the latrine or get back up on their couch. As she left the kitchen, Jack warned her about Palma and she did her best to stay out of his sight, but the patrician had an eye for beautiful women and it didn't take much time before he noticed her. When he sent another slave to fetch her, she had no choice but walk up to him.
"How may I help you?" she humbly asked. Palma stood up, a smile on his lips and started examining her.
"Incredible!" he taunted "She isn't a cripple! This is a surprise in these parts... What does Hadrian Anthonius want with a beautiful, whole slave?!" he laughed.
"Maybe he's finally discovered how to have fun!"one of his friends suggested. "Hey! Maybe she is weak-minded?"
"That's the least of my worries, with such a body she can be as clever as a cockroach, for what I want to do with her she doesn't need brains!" Palma joyfully declared as his hands were roaming Sam's backside suggestively, eliciting a roaring laughter from his drunken friends.
"I will buy her!" he decided. "You! Come here with a torch!" Fighting the rage building up in his chest, Jack grabbed the nearest torch and approached Palma, who was inspecting Sam's teeth.
"Nice... very nice" Palma commented appreciatively. He grabbed her hair and forced her to his greedy mouth while she struggled. Jack was ready to snap. Releasing her, Palma protested that she has too much clothes on and that beautiful slaves were supposed to serve naked. He ripped her tunic off and began to grope her breasts, Sam doing her best to escape his iron grip. At that point, Jack snapped and shoved the torch in Palma's neck, right under his ear. The man brawled as his skin sizzled and the grease soiling his tunic took fire. In the tumult, Jack grabbed Sam's hand and ran, but they were soon caught. Sam managed to slip into the kitchen where the other slaves wrapped her up in a sheet but Jack was brought back to kneel in front of his victim, both arms forced up his back and four guards pointing their spears at him. People were fussing around Palma who was lying on a couch, his neck covered with a wet cloth that Jack recognized as Sam's tunic. Finally, holding the cloth to his wound, Palma stood up and paced several times in front of Jack, suddenly kicking him hard in the ribs. He resumed his pacing, building up his anger, then walked menacingly up to Jack and snarled "You dog! I will skin you alive! Slowly..." With a wicked smile, he reached for the dagger hanging at his belt, but Hadrian intervened.
"You will not kill my slave Palma!"
"He attacked and burned me! I crave his life!" Palma yelled, removing the cloth for all to see his wound.
"No. I need him for the service of Hera. Furthermore, you were molesting another of my slaves, he defended my property as his duty dictates, and although his attack on a citizen of Herapolis is unacceptable, your behavior was unworthy of a patrician!"
Palma was furious to be dressed down in front of the other guests on the account of some filthy slaves. But Hadrian was a rich and powerful notable, Palma was clever enough to back off.
"Fine. I will not kill your precious slave. However, I am entitled to punish him" Hadrian's chest tightened. He could not protect Jack any further. He nodded and sat back on his couch, worried as to what Palma was about to inflict his slave. The white sticks could be very painful if used a certain way... And Palma was known for being harsh and taking pleasure in others' suffering.
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Satisfied, Palma returned to his couch, a sick smile on his lips as he watched Jack, crouched on the floor with spears on his neck. Enjoying the attention he now had from all the guests waiting for his sentence, he scanned the assembly, his eyes lingering sadistically on Sam at the kitchen's door before returning to the slave at his feet.
"A whip!" he said, loud and clear. He snapped his fingers toward his personal guards. One of them immediately hurried outside to the carts to fetch a whip. The guests were both startled and excited, Hadrian's family and servants horrified. Slaves were usually punished with white sticks, they were painful but the effects were short-lasting and they didn't bruise the skin. Whips were seldom used, and it had never happened in Hadrian's domus. Jack was dragged up and made to stand in front of the patrician. The room was silent as the first lash fell on Jack's back. This was not his first rodeo and he had known what to expect, but there was no way to brace oneself against the long, burning pain spreading where the lash had bruised the skin. As he jumped forward in a defense reflex, the guards shoved their spears toward his throat, forcing him to return to his spot and take the next lash. From the kitchen's door, Sam was watching the scene with the other slaves, Hephaestus holding her firmly by the arms as she tried to free herself.
"We have to stop him!" she protested.
"Anything you try would turn against Jason or you, you are better off accepting the punishment and be done with it" Hephaestus growled.
"You don't know that!" the Air Force Major protested.
"I know. Palma was my first dominus"
All blood left Sam's face. She stopped struggling and turned to face Hephaestus. Her eyes went from his face, searching for any sign that he was lying, to his abused limb. Fear was creeping its way to her heart as she realized the danger they were into.
Jack had remained silent at first, but as the sixth lash fell on his already bruised shoulders he could not refrain a grunt. Palma smiled viciously and Sam twisted her hands in despair, but Jack stubbornly straightened and kept his burning glare on the sadistic man, mobilizing his anger to keep his focus from the pain, ignoring the treacherous tears running down his face. However, as lashes were falling again and again, he wavered and the guards had to put him back on his feet several times. Hadrian couldn't stand it anymore, he jumped from his seat and with his most authoritative voice, he stopped the whip.
"Enough!" he said.
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The guard holding the whip was unsure what to do next. His arm ready to strike again, he was searching his dominus' eyes, but Hadrian was holding his glare on Palma, daring him to counter his order. Slowly, Palma nodded and the guard lowered his arm. Priam and Hector hasted forward to support Jack, who was unable to put one foot in front of the other anymore. They took him under the arms to drag him out of the room and the feast resumed as if nothing had happened.
Sam, tears rolling freely on her cheeks now, set to follow them but at the sight of the pulp her CO's back had been reduced to, she felt sick and had to run outside to throw up.
Her stomach finally empty from its contents, she felt a presence behind her and jumped, ready to defend herself, finding only Penelope who was holding a cup of water for her.
"Here, you'll feel better" she said with a empathetic smile.
"Thanks" Sam gratefully answered, taking the cup to rinse her mouth. "I have to go" she said, giving the cup back.
"They took him down to the slaves quarters" Penelope told her before returning to the kitchen. Sam was desperate, she had no idea how to dress such wounds and had no modern equipment nor medicine. Not even a very needed pain-killer! As she reached the bottom of the stairs, she found her CO stretched out on a bench as slaves were proceeding to dry the blood from his back. He couldn't help but flinch and grunt at the careful ministrations.
"This will stop the bleeding and help you heal Jason, but it will sting" Daphne said, producing a pot with a dark liquid. "Atalante, you will sit at his head and hold him. Hector and Priam please, secure his legs. Horatius, help me"
Reluctant to see the poor man suffer even more, Sam sat at the end of the bench and nearly jumped away when he grabbed her, his hand fiercely holding her calve and his other arm reaching around her bottom to dig his fingers into her hip. In doing so, his head was almost on her lap and she automatically began to stroke his hair as he jerked under Horatius and Daphne's first application of the dark liquid.
"God! What's that?! Take it away!" he cried.
"It will help you heal" Daphne soothed, calmly continuing to apply the liquid with a cloth on his wounds.
"I don't care! Stop! Stop! Aaah!" he cried again, his body jerking as she touched a very deep cut.
"I'm sorry Sir, I'm so sorry" Sam said again and again, stroking his hair and holding the hand on her hip. Her lap was wet from their joined tears and her heart was breaking apart at each cry and whimper he made.
"God! Oh God! Carter! Make them stop! Please! Make them stop!" he said in a sob. Suddenly he jerked again then his body went limp and Sam felt her heart instantly freeze with terror.
"Sir?! Sir!"
"He passed out, darling" Daphne reassured her "This is the best that could happen. We will be able to dress his wounds without causing him any more pain" she smiled softly without stopping her work. Taking advantage of the situation, she smeared the dark, viscous unguent all over his back and checked his ribs.
"This doesn't seem to be broken, it will heal itself if bruised. You will stay with Jason for the night. Dry the blood from his back and smear more of this on any bleeding wound" she told Sam, handing her the pot as she was done.
"What is it?" Sam asked.
"Mostly styptic powder, vinegar and cobwebs" the woman answered before returning to her duties in the kitchen. Dumbfounded, Sam let her jaw hang for a while, her eyes going from the stairs where Daphne had disappeared to the pot still in her hand.
"Vinegar!?" she mumbled "They are dressing open wounds with vinegar!?" She secured the pot under the bench and resumed her stroking of her CO's hair. She had to admit the unguent had stopped the worst of the bleeding but she was not sure she would have the heart to submit the Colonel to such torture again.
