Chapter 34: Thomas
It was slow going. Logan had to almost carry Jubilee out of the torture chamber;she was so weak fromhunger and thirstfrom her long imprisonment that moving was almost impossible. She sobbedin anguishand almost gave up, but Logan refused to let her go. "C'mon, Jubilee," he said coaxingly. "Look, I didn't come all the way here ta leave ya here now. I know you're exhausted…but ya gotta hang on till we're safe."
He took off the tunic he wore under the green surcoat of Gallas's knights, and pulled it over Jubilee's head. Then he took Gallas's broken sword and buckled it in its scabbard, slung it over his shoulder, and picked up the keys. "Gotta tell Richard Gallas is dead," he said grimly to her questioning look. "And I have ta be able ta prove it. The broken sword oughtta be enough." He slid an arm under her shoulders and helped her stand. "Come on. Step by step."
They paused outside the first cell, and Logan inserted the keys in the lock. "Gallas is dead," he said to the occupant inside. "So is the torturer. Yer free."
The sound of rattling keys carried down the entire row of cells, and heads appeared at the barred doors to the cells. "Please!" A multitude of hands began to stretch forth, begging for the keys to their particular cell. The man who came out of the first cell wordlessly took the ring of other keys Logan held out to him and started down the other row, turning the keys and setting the prisoners inside free. A good many of them started to head for the dungeon door, but a voice stopped them all.
"Wait!" It was the old man who had spoken to Logan earlier. "If you go that way you'll run into the guards at the top of the stairs. If you follow me, I can show you another way out."
"Another way out?" Logan's eyes narrowed as she swung the door to the old man's cell open. "Where?"
"In the torture chamber," the man said. 'There's a secret door there. It leads to the kitchens and the back gates. Gallas used to use that way to come and watch the torture of certain prisoners. If we go that way, I can talk the cook into letting us out by the back gates."
"My horse is in the stables," Logan said. "I'll need him to get where I'm going!" He gestured to Jubilee, who had slumped to the floor, clinging to consciousness by the barest thread. "She's in no condition to walk far."
The man nodded grimly. "I know, Sir Logan. If we can get her to the kitchen, the cook will help me, and we'll be able to get your girl to safety."
Logan narrowed his eyes in sudden suspicion. "See here," he said roughly, "How do I know you're not going to just hand us over ta the soldiers? They'll kill us fer sure when they find out I've killed their King."
"She has been kind to me," the man said quietly, ignoring Logan's glare and kneeling beside Jubilee. She raised her head wearily to look at him, then dropped it listlessly. "You will need somewhere safe to stay until she heals enough to travel. It's almost three days from here to the border, and a week from the border to your capital city. She won't make it, Sir Logan. She's going to need to stay somewhere until she recovers enough to travel." He met Logan's gaze with his own level one, and Logan knew he was speaking the truth. He decided to take a chance.
"Let's go, then," Logan said, grabbing Jubilee's arm and pulling it over his shoulder. "Show me this other way out."
The other prisoners followed the old man and Logan, carrying Jubilee, into the torture chamber. And they stared at the bodies; Gallas and Julian, dead from sword-thrusts to the heart; and the torturer, decapitated by the machine he'd used to amputate some of his victim's fingers and various other body parts. The man's head still lay where it had fallen, and it still had a mildly surprised look on its face. The prisoners broke into smiles, and Logan wondered if Jubilee felt as much satisfaction over the man's death as they did.
The old man went to the back of the room, to the large wooden bas-relief fresco that covered the back wall. It was, appropriately enough, a scene of torture; carved wooden bodies, both male and female, writhed in agony under the lash of a demonic-looking torturer.
The man reached out to a carving of a woman tied to a whipping post. She was having her eyes poked out by a pike; one eye was gone, leaving a gaping hole. The man grimaced briefly, but poked his index finger into the empty eye socket and his thumb into the open mouth, and wrenched sideways. A portion of the fresco panel slid aside, revealing a narrow dark stairway leading upwards. A cheer rose from the ragged assemblage of former prisoners, and they started up the stairs, one by one.
Logan waited until the other prisoners had gone first, then turned to Jubilee. She had sagged against him wearily until he was supporting all of her weight…and he didn't notice she had fainted until he turned and looked at her.
"Jubilee," he whispered gently, patting her pale, thin cheek. "Jubilee, come on, wake up, we're gettin' outta here. Come on, wake up." Her eyelids fluttered.
"So…tired," she whispered, her voice a reedy whisper. "Please…I hurt…just leave me alone…can't go any further…oh God, I hurt…" she slipped back into unconsciousness.
"Take her other arm," the old man said. "We'll have to get her up to the kitchens. A cup of strong wine will help her revive enough for us to get her on your horse, and I know a safe place you can stay until she can travel. My daughter and her husband live in a village only a short distance from here, and she'll be able to hide you until the girl is well enough to travel."
Logan slipped an arm under Jubilee's knees and scooped her up in his arms. She didn't weigh much before Julian had kidnapped them; she weighed even less now. Her slight weight was no burden on him. "Lead on," he told the man, standing.
The man darted up the stairs, and Logan followed, carrying Jubilee. At the top of the steps there was a door open, and he gave a huge sigh of relief when he smelled the unmistakable odor of bread baking for the morning meal.
The old man was speaking in low, urgent tones to a woman in a billowing white apron. The other prisoners were hungrily eating the leftover food from the evening meal that the serving maids were putting out on the table, and some other women were digging through piles of clean laundry to find tunics, leggings, and other pieces of clothing for those prisoners who wore nothing.
"So this is the little squire," the cook came up to Logan, her voice soft as she looked at the sleeping girl in Logan's arms. "Ah, poor lass. Heard them soldiers talk about her for a month now, I have. Ever since that traitor knight took her up to his room to torture her."
"What?" Logan blinked.
The woman didn't seem to notice his startled reaction. "Aye, poor thing. Kept her chained to his bedpost, used her body whenever he felt like it—and she was a virgin before he touched her, I'll wager, from the sounds she made. Beat her mercilessly, too."
Logan stared at Jubilee, heartsick. And all that time, he'd thought Jubilee had been sleeping voluntarily with Julian—he'd thought she had betrayed him. "I'm sorry, Jubilee," he murmured, setting her carefully down in a chair and propping her upright so the cook could hold a cup of wine to her lips. Jubilee moaned as the woman tilted the cup, tipping a little of the wine into her mouth. She swallowed reflexively…and came awake, gasping and spluttering, as the strong alcohol burned her throat all the way down to her stomach. "No," she said weakly, trying to push the cup away. "Ugh…disgusting stuff…tastes awful…"
"Drink it," the woman said firmly. "You need to wake up, girl, just long enough for Thomas to get you out to his daughter's. Here. If you're feeling better, see if you can stand up. One of the maids went off to find a dress for you, let's get you changed…" Her voice trailed off as she led Jubilee into the laundry room and closed the door. Logan tuned to say something to Thomas, but the man was already disappearing out the door.
Moments later, both of them came out, Jubilee now dressed in plain homespun. She had lost too much weight, and the dress was extremely loose on her body, but at least she was decently covered. She fell back onto the chair with a sigh, and the kind cook pressed a small roll of soft bread into her hand. 'Eat a little," she said. Jubilee wearily raised the bread to her lips and bit into it.
Only a few minutes later, Thomas came back into the kitchen. "I have your horse saddled and waiting in the courtyard," he said. "The guard at the side gate will let us out."
Logan narrowed his eyes. "How'd ya get him to cooperate?" he growled.
Thomas said quietly, "Gallas wasn't well-liked by his subjects, Sir Logan. Not by a long shot. He was a very brutal king. The guard who's waiting for us, James, had a friend, also in the guard. They grew up together, in the same village.
"About a year ago, Gallas went hunting with an entourage of guards, including James's friend. When they stopped for a noon meal at an inn Gallas took a liking to the serving girl and tried to rape her right there. She resisted. James's friend distracted Gallas until the girl could escape, thereby saving her life. In anger, Gallas had the man hung for treason. I told the guard who you were, and I told him you had killed Gallas. He agreed to help us leave the castle, before the other guards and everyone else finds out Gallas is dead. The word is probably spreading like wildfire among the servants, so it won't be long until the regular guard finds out. We have to get out of the castle, and quickly."
Logan took Jubilee's arm and pulled her to a standing position. "Come on," he said. "Jubilee, he's got somewhere we can go so ya can recover a bit before we head back to the castle. All ya have ta do is get out ta the yard an' get on a horse. My horse. I'll ride behind ya, and hold ya on. Can ya do that?"
Jubilee struggled out of her chair, moaning a little as her swollen feet touched the floor. Logan carried her out the door to where his horse waited, then wrapped his hands around her waist and tried to hoist her into the saddle. She gasped out as she sat in the saddle, biting her lip to stifle her moan of pain, but she didn't offer Logan an explanation. He swung up into the saddle behind her, slipping an arm around her waist to keep her upright as he gripped the reins in his hand. "All right, hang on," he said. He turned the horse toward the gate as Thomas swung onto his own horse. The guard at the gate simply opened the door and waved them through without a word, and moments later they were galloping down the dark road. It was night, but the moon was full, and illuminated the road ahead. Logan concentrated on keeping Jubilee on the horse in front of him. She was gasping with each step the horse took, trying to muffle her sobs, and Logan bit his lip. His horse was a warhorse, not a palfrey, and his gait was rough. He could only imagine how much the jarring was hurting Jubilee, but they had no choice.
They rode for most of the night. Logan had to wake Jubilee several times, to keep her from falling off the horse, and her soft sobs made him wince. At least there were no pursuers, so he didn't have to spur the horse into a gallop; that would have hurt worse.
He was concentrating on keeping her on, so he barely noticed the route they took. When Thomas, up ahead of him, stopped his horse, Logan stopped too. He walked back to Logan's horse, and reached up to Jubilee. She was almost unconscious, and Logan had to slide her off the saddle and into Thomas's arms before he could dismount himself, then he took Jubilee back into his arms and followed Thomas to the front door of the small house.
When it opened he stared in astonishment for a long moment before he found his voice. "Mistress Mary?" he finally asked, surprised.
"Sir Logan?" she asked him, equally surprised. "Father…"
Thomas was looking from one to the other, surprised. "You know each other?"
"Mistress Mary gave me shelter after I escaped the first time," Logan said, still surprised. "She's yer daughter?"
"Yes," Thomas said. "Come on. The guards will almost certainly be looking for you, and we have to get the horses off the street and into a stable before someone recognizes them or notices them."
Logan looked down at the girl in his arms, then at his horse. He should take care of his horse first…but Jubilee needed help too.
Mary solved the problem for him. "Bring her in here, and put her in the bedroom you were in the last time," she said. "Once she's there, go on out to the stables and take care of your horse. I'll take care of her."
Logan walked into the house, found the small bedroom he'd occupied the last time he was there, and laid Jubilee out on the bed. Mary lit the candle on the table, and the soft gray of the pre-dawn light gave way to a bright golden glow.
She drew a sharp breath, and Logan stepped back, squeezing his eyes shut. Jubilee looked even worse in the bright light than she had looked back at the dungeon; the hollows in her cheeks, above her collarbones, and above her elbows and knees were more sharply defined, her thinness more noticeable. And the dark stains on the skirt between her legs were now visible too. No wonder she had cried out when he'd put her on the saddle. "Please…Mistress Mary, please do what ya can ta save her," he choked out. "It's my fault…I shouldn't'a left her there…she wouldn't look like this if it wasn't for me…" Unable to bear the sight of Jubilee's battered body any longer, he fled the room, heading for the stable.
Thomas had led Logan's horse and his own into the small stable, and started untacking his own. Logan joined him and started to unsaddle and unbridle the horse. "I'm sorry," Logan choked out, finally. "I didn't know…"
"Know what?"
"The cook…told me Jubilee was bein' kept a prisoner fer Julian in his own room…an' all the time I thought she'd decided ta sleep with him just so she could get out o' the dungeons…I never once thought that maybe she was doing it unwillingly…"
"We knew," Thomas said gently. "That first day he took her from the cell and put her in the torture chamber…he beat her with an iron bar, bruising her lower back. He told her he wouldn't stop until she told him she would sleep with him, and finally she did, because she was in so much pain. Two of the kitchen maids bathed her and dressed her, and took her up to Julian's room. He raped her that night. I was passing in the hall, on my way up to talk to Gallas about the condition of one of his favorite horses, and I heard her screaming. Every day for a week, when I went to give Gallas a report on that horse I heard her crying or screaming. The gossip around the kitchens, with the kitchen maids, was that he was keeping her chained to his bedpost, and beating her every night before he raped her. It was a cruel, brutal thing he'd done to her, and even though she was bathed (the traitor knight didn't like her smelling of sweat and blood in his bed) she was worse off in his rooms than she was in the dungeons.
"After you escaped Gallas's rage was terrible. He was furious. He ordered Jubilee taken out of Sir Julian's room, and returned to the dungeon, and she spent three days in the chamber before she broke. She went mad there for a while, I think. She would sing, or say things that made no sense. They left her alone for a while, a week, and then Gallas ordered her death by starvation. The guards would tease her, offering her food and water and then taking it away before she could eat.. We could all hear her begging them to stop, to give her water or leave her alone, but they didn't. Gallas and Julian came down a few times to beat her, we all heard her begging them to let her die. She was still in there when you came."
Logan closed his eyes, trying to shut out the image of Jubilee lyingin the torture room dying slowly by starvation and thirst.Jubilee had been forced to endure that, for an entireweek, because he had been too angry with her to listen to her. And he'd been too afraid of getting caught again to go back for her when he'd had the chance. Coward. He'd been a coward, and a fragile young girl had paid the price. Would she ever forgive him?