Authors note: Read and Review. It's going to be a nice change from the ordinary.
Disclaimer: The Black Jewel Trilogy and Gundam Wing does not belong to me
Darkness Within
Chapter One
***
Duo Maxwell, the Eyrien half-breed, watched the guards drag the sobbing man to the boat. He felt no sympathy for the condemned man who had led the aborted slave revolt. In the Territory called Pruul, sympathy was a luxury no slave could afford.
He had refused to participate in the revolt. The ringleaders were good men, but they didn't have the strength, the backbone, or the balls to do what was needed. They didn't enjoy seeing blood run.
He had not participated. Zuultah, the Queen of Pruul, had punished him anyway.
The heavy shackles around his neck and wrists had already rubbed his skin raw, and his back was a throbbing ache from the lash. He spread his dark, membranous wings, trying to ease the ache in his back.
A guard immediately prodded him with a club, then retreated, skittish, at his soft hiss of anger.
Unlike the other slaves who couldn't contain their misery or fear, there was no expression in Duo's violet eyes, no psychic scent of emotions for the guards to play with as they put the sobbing man into the old, one-man boat. No longer seaworthy, the boat showed gaping holes in its rotten wood that only added to its value now.
The condemned man was small and half-starved. It still took six guards to put him into the boat. Five guards held the man's head, arms, and legs. The last guard smeared bacon grease on the man's genitals before sliding a wooden cover into place. It fit snugly over the boat, with holes cut out for the head and hands. Once the man's hands were tied to iron rings on the outside of the boat, the cover was locked into place so that no one but the guards could remove it.
One guard studied the imprisoned man and shook his head in mock dismay. Turning to the others, he said, "He should have a last meal before being put to sea."
The guards laughed the man cried for help.
One by one the guards carefully shoved food into the man's mouth before herding the other slaves into the stables where they were quartered.
"You'll be entertained tonight, boys," a guard yelled, laughing. "Remember it the next time you decide to leave Lady Zuultah's service."
Duo looked over his shoulders, then looked away.
Drawn by the smell of food, the rats slipped into the gaping holes in the boat.
The man in the boat screamed.
***
Review and tell me what you think. Rate it from 1-10 if you have nothing to say please.