Tortured: A Tale of Camelot
Alanna was having the same thoughts about Galahad. He was so kind in my dream, she thought. Now I want to rip his throat out. Even through the haze of hate she couldn't help but notice how handsome he was. She even liked the cocky way he held himself, his chest puffed out and taking a stance that made him look like he could take on the whole world. I Shit I can't like the enemy…. Living here is going to be Hell/I
Without warning the world in front of her spun and she blacked out.
"One," shouted a voice across a city square. Alanna felt the lash bite into her back. She bit back a scream by biting her lower lip and clenching her hands tighter around the leather thongs that held her up.
"Two!" The voice said. Again the cat-o'-nine-tails fell upon her unprotected flesh. Alanna could feel every one of the nine strands that hit. Small pieces of glass and terra cotta were tied into the deadly leather straps and they were tearing through the skin.
"Three." Alanna was trying not to think. Not to respond. "Four!" She could feel the blood trickling down her back. A crowd had gathered and they were screaming for blood. I I think they might find me more interesting than the current gladiator match. /I Alanna thought sardonically. She was going to yell out the insolent retort, but again the Roman torture device whisked across her back. She was so caught up in her thoughts she didn't notice the next few strikes.
"Seven!" Alanna's back was on fire. An acute throbbing had set in and tears were silently flowing down her cheeks. Still she did not cry out.
"Ten!" After the fire and after the throbbing numbness set in, Alanna felt detached from her body. As if she was watching the beating being inflicted on her instead of experiencing it.
"Twenty-Seven!" A black haze was covering her vision. Alanna was beginning to lose the fight to stay conscious.
"Twenty-Eight!" Alanna was so far gone she did notice the whip had stopped. Rough hands grabbed her bloodstained wrists and hacked at the leather that was holding her in place. The unfeeling torturers didn't break her fall when she collapsed to the ground. All her strength was gone. Her consciousness was almost gone. And her will to live and exist on the earth was overcome with agony. For once her fight to remain free was gone from her mind, and in its place was the wish to die.
Galahad saw Alanna twisting and turning on the bed, but he didn't know what to do didn't know what to say. Guinevere had left with strict instructions not to wake her, but now….. Galahad didn't know how to handle a nightmare. Quietly he walked over to the bed. Not wanting to wake her, not wanting for her to stay asleep.
"It is going to be all right, Alanna," he whispered stroking her back. "Just calm down…" After running his hand one or two times dwon her back, she began to quiet. That was also when Galahad noticed there was something sticky on his hands.
"Guinevere," Galahad gasped out. She shot up in bed. A groaning Artur was burying himself back under the covers.
"What is it Galahad?" She asked trying to remain calm. Having a full-grown knight burst into her room was not a regular nightly occurance.
"She's bleeding, Gwen. She is bleeding all over." Gwen looked at Galahad's outspread hands. They were covered in blood.
It took no time for Guinevere, Galahad, and Arthur to make it back to Galahad's room. (Arthur had immediately come awake at the mention of blood.) When they breached the doorway and lit a candle they all saw Alanna writhing in pain and the twisted red stripes that ran across her back.
"Bloody hell! What happened to her?" Arthur said shocked.
"I don't know." Galahad whispered. Guinevere wasted not time and woke her sister up.
"Alanna….Alanna!" Guinevere was shaking her, but still she did not wake.
"Get off me you goddamn son of a bitch!"
"Alanna wake up!" In the second that it takes to blink Alanna's held a shiny blade, and in the next it was pushed up against Guinevere's neck. Arthur took one look at the knife and knew that this girl was an expert. "Alanna it is me…Guinevere!"
"Gwen?" She moaned out groggily. Slowly the blade came off Gwen's neck.
"You were having a nightmare, Lanna. Everything is going to be all right." A tear leaked out of the scared girl's eyes. "Everything is going to be all right." While Guinevere ran her hand's over Alanna's silky hair, her little sister drifted off to sleep.
"Arthur go get some hot water and bandages from the healers, and bring a healer with you!" Knowing how determined Gwen could be the king left with out a word. Guinevere pried the knife out of the star entwined hand. "Turn her over, Galahad."
Reverently he placed his hand on either side of her and flipped her onto her stomach. As Gwen turned lit more candles the evidence of cruelty could be seen all down Alanna's back. Wounds crisscrossed over and under each other. Some were almost scarred over and the others, most, were bleeding. Galahad pulled her honey colored hair out of the sticky blood. Who would do such a thing? What could she do to earn this type of punishment?Galahad had never done this to a foe, let alone a woman!
Once Gwen got a look of her sister's back she almost threw up. She had seen battles and decapitated corpses and a whole number of grisly sights, but nothing prepared her for seeing it done to her sister. I have been tortured, but not this bad. Not like this. My captors were playing with my mind…. Hers… hers were trying to break her. Liking every drop of blood that they spilled….
The coppery scent of blood filled the air, and just then Arthur rushed in with the bandages and the healer. Blood was spread over Galahad's bed and hands.
Alanna was still tossing and turning on the bed, but Galahad was smoothing her hair and Guinevere was slowly slitting the top that Alanna was wearing off her back. When Alanna was topless, Guinevere motioned for the healer to come over. She shoved the bandages into Guinevere's hands and fled the room leaving her with her mouth open staring at the cloth in her palms.
"Come back!" Screamed Arthur at the doorway. But it was all to no avail; the only person who could "fix" Alanna was gone.
"Shh, Arthur. We can do this. We can heal her, and by all that is holy we will!" A moan came from the bed. "Now let's hurry before it is too late. I can't believe we didn't notice the wounds before!" Now shoving the white clothes in Arthur's hands she knelt next to her sister, surveyed the damage, and began to pour hot water on Alanna's back.
Galahad sat on the bed next to Alanna. The white bandages on her back rose and fell with each steady breath. Still stroking her hair he just sat there. The honey hair was fanned out around her face and black lashes were long and thick against her pale skin. That was the only thing that showed she was sick, other than the bandages. The deathly hue of white made her look like wax, but Galahad knew she was, thankfully, alive.
Placing one of her limp hands in his he ran his thumbs over the back of her palms. When he saw the scars and stars on her wrist he, again wondered who had done this to her. I I wish I could take away all her pain. All the suffering… /I Just then she began to whimper again. A flush was in her cheeks and fear was in her features.
"It is all right, star girl. Everything is going to be fine. No one is going to hurt you." With that he put his stomach up against her back, fitting his body with hers, and fell asleep.
Galahad blinked the sun from his eyes. His face was buried in a mass of silken hair, and all he wanted to do was fall back asleep. Then he realized whose silken hair he had put his face in. I am in bed with Gwen's sister. I am in bed with Alanna. The woman I "hate". He jumped off the mattress, acting as if Alanna was a scalding hot piece of iron. He glanced down at her.
Hair gleaming gold in the rays of the sun she looked healthy, although there were bandages all along her torso, and bruises were still spattered all over her exposed body. Galahad didn't know if he had ever seen a prettier woman. The way she was sprawled on the bed to the way the breath escaped from her lips made Galahad want to stay with her. Even if it was just to sit by her and hold her hand.
Gwen watched Galahad from the doorway. After waking up two hours ago she had come into the room to find her baby sister and Galahad snuggled together on the bed. Alanna had looked serene and Galahad so content that she did not have the heart to wake them. It will save me hours of their fighting. Guinevere had mentally chuckled.
She had never seen Galahad act this way. Never had she seen him be so rude to a lady, or seen him look so scared when he had blood on his hands. It was well known through out those based at Camelot that Galahad rarely killed for fun. He was not afraid to fight nor was he afraid of blood, and that was what baffled Guinevere. The absolute look of loss on his face had made Gwen want to cry. How can he miss what he hates, she had wondered. And know she knew. Deep down Galahad had feelings for Alanna. Why he was afraid to show them, Gwen didn't know, but the fact that the uncatchable knight had been caught in less than a few moments frightened Gwen.
"How long have you been standing there?" asked the knight in question. Gwen gave Galahad a startled blink.
"What?"
"I asked how long you have been standing there." Galahad repeated.
"Only a couple of seconds," Gwen managed to say. Not letting on that in fact she had been there for more than a half an hour. "You did not hear me come to the door, and I did not want to frighten you. So I waited until you came out for that trance." The queen took a few steps into the room, as Galahad turned his eyes back to Alanna.
"She will be all right," she whispered assuringly, laying her hand on his shoulder.
"Why would I care?"
"I don't know," Gwen said trying not to be offended by his sharp tone. "You just looked like you needed to hear it. That's all."
"Well, I don't care," and with that remark he stormed out of the room. Gwen watched the retreating figure. Something had just happened, and even though she had been watching she had completely missed it.