Oh my Gawd! You don't know how thankful I am that my previous reviewers didn't desrt me! You also don't know how long I've had those three chapters on my compy...just waiting to be read! Does anyone know how lond it's been since I've updated? If somone could tell me I'd be delighted! Uh...sorta...lol, well hope you guys like this chap! I'm trying to get my whole...terrifying drama experience up-to-date with this one...oh I've talked to much! Toodles! This WILL be a VERY long chap...hopefully...
Chp. 13: Delicate shades.
Rin gasped as her gaze rested on each and every torture device she had ever heard of, seeming as if the very room itself thrived off of the malice, dread, and pain that seemed to strangle the very air from her body.
Racks, Iron maidens, thumbscrews, manacles, and even a seldom, if ever used, Scavenger's Daughter. As her gaze swept over even more devices, her mind again began to man the ones she knew.
The boot, a cunning device made by the scotts that ensured the wearer maximum agony, a couple of Caspicaws, which were iron like frames to hold a leg. These were worn as hose and described a form of torture where the victim had their legs soacked, wetting the parchment which bound the frame. They were then placed next to a roaring hot fire or braiser. As the fabric shrunk the ensuing pain was agonising. Foot roasting described a particularly nasty torture when the victims legs were immobilized in stocks and the soles of the feet were smeared with fat and boiled over red-hot coals.
A piquet adorned a corner near the rear and she studiously tried to keep the definition from her mind but failed. A piquet was used in the days of the British Empire, when the British Army regiments were stationed in the outposts often living in tented camps. Judicial punishments were barbaric judged by today's standards but extremely effective in the field. One form of torment meted out to unruly privates was called piquet or picket. A long post was driven into the ground and the soldier left to stand on a stool beside it. His right hand was attached to a hook at the top of the post. A short length of timber was driven into the ground near the stool, with its upper end rounded to a blunt point. The soldier had to rest one heel on the stake when the stool was removed. Suspended from one wrist his body mass pressed against the spike through his bare heel. His position was changed every fifteen minutes.
A bucket and bench caught her eye then and she didn't immediately reconize the strange form of water torture. A bizarre torture practised in Medieval France called for the victim to be tied to a bench and their feet bathed in salt water. A goat was brought to the poor unfortunate prisoner and allowed to lick their feet. The rough tongue against the sensitive soles with the fear of being bitten, soon brought a confession. Trenchfoot (and Immersion foot) although not a torture per se were none the less a painful experience for soldiers and prisoners of war exposed to prolonged and extreme weather conditions. Without shoes and socks to protect their feet they were at the mercy of the elements.
"Rin, look at that!" Sesshomaru's voice called from her side, startiling her as she looked from his face following his gaze to rest on a glass case in the very center of the room. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Sesshomaru step forward. "Wait! It could be dangerous!" She said, hoping the worry in her voice was mistaken as fear.
Sesshomaru looked back at her, an oddly devilish gleam in his amber eyes. "Rin, don't you know what that is?" One of his arms extended and she looked back towards the pedestal with it's glass covering. Inside sat an ornately carved dagger sheath in the shape of a snake. It's golden scales glimmered along with the green emralds that made it's eyes.
Rin shook her head, totally poleaxed. She had no clue what it was, and didn't think she wanted to know. Slowly Sesshoamru drew foreward, casting a glance in her direction before he lifted a hand to divest the sheath if it's glass casing. His long fingers traced the outline of the dagger before lifting it from it's resting place on a pad of black velvet.
"Come closer, it won't bite."Sesshoamru called to her, his voice low and oddly seductive in such a horrifying place. Rin took a tentave step forward, fortifying herself as she advanced slowly. As she did Sesshoamru explained the knife's purpose for being in this place of torture.
"It's called the "Serpent's eye." He began, his gaze locked onto the foot-long dagger sheath. "It was lost in the early in the begining of the eighteenth century after barely even a decade of use." Rin siddeled closer to his side, watching as he drew his thumb over the serpent's glittering head. "It was a most popular item in the seventeeth century," He explained as his eyes came to rest on her face. Rin refused to meet his heated look, so instead she watched him finger the firey emeralds in the snake's head.
"Yes, a most popular item for deflowering heretical nuns late into that century, if I'm correct." Rin's gaze shot to his face, searching for some joking laughter, but he had turned his profile to her and his jaw was set. "I also heard that it's..." His sentence trailed btu his bodywent into immediate action, a sheathing the dagger and hitting the glass lid in one fluid motion.
Rin stood a few moments, staring at the glass case as it slid into two equal, and totally smooth halves. Rin's mouth dropped into a perfect little "O" as Sesshomaru flicked the blade into the sunlight filtering from a crack in the ceiling. "A very useful weapon in battle, the Serpent's eye is the sharpest dagger known to man, one backward stroke the wrong way and..." He made a slicing motion across his throat to emphasize his point.
"Very good, very good indeed. I would clap to your knowledge...but that would be a tad immpossible..." The purring voice echoed around the room and Sesshomaru whirled and looked up towards "Lucifer's cradle" to find it was no longer abandoned. A large black cat sprawled across the seat and arms, seeming to injoy the fact it's perch was used to torture hundreds of souls over the years.
The cat slowly eased it's coal back claws in and out of it's paw while it's fire bright green eyes watched every move Sesshomaru made. Sesshomaru scanned the room once to fing Rin hadn't move from her spot a foot or so away from him. Unfortunately, the cat caught his look and directed his evil stare on Rin who promptly gasped bringing a sort of twisted, sick humored smile to the beast's face. "So the Carpathian dog found himself a new bitch eh?" Sesshomaru made a sound low in his throat, a growl of sorts, making the Cat's green eyes come to rast on him once more.
"Touchy aren't we?" The cat sneered the cruel grin back in place. "You're not fit to talk about her or even to glance her way! You will die if you come down from your perch or anywhere near her!" The cat's grin slipped and then was replaced by a merciless laugh. "Oh yes I will delight in eating her flesh! Knowing how much she means to you...it would make her all the sweeter." Slowly the cat sat up making the chair-like torture device swing.
"You should have held your toung you mongrel," It sneered, baring long white teeth and sharp black claws. "Now your life-mate will die before your very eyes!" The animal jumped and landed on the ground a mere foot from the frozen Rin. Time stood still for the barest of moments as the cat screamed out in high pitched tones, "And you will greive for all eternity!"
Well...sorry I didn't have time for a somewhere else part...but I will warn you the next chap might be late in coming...this one took a while to reasearch...sorry also that I'm not good at scaring people...or with the suspence...sighs heavily Please R&R!