Ch 5: Humiliation is worse

"There must be something! Anything! For godsake, she is the princess ! How does she not know anything about her own kingdom? Has she never even asked her father about the army?"

Gajeel looked at the Dark mage as he paced around in front of him. He understood the mage, but there was no way the princess knew anything valuable.

"Forgive me Exalted One, but you must realise it's a girl. If the king had a son , he probably would've trained him to fight.A prince would have known how to use the army, how big the army is. She only knew her personal guards. A princess is only good to marry off to a prince, to expand the kingdom. She probably had nothing to worry about , other than what dress to wear."

Th Dark mage stopped in front of him with his arms crossed.

"Yes, you might be right, but she's the only heir. I can't believe Jude didn't tell her anything."

"If you ask me, it's a miracle he didn't lock her has magic, and the spirits may take me if he doesn't know that. Marrying her off is the best way to get rid of her, and gain him something in the process, but if it wasn't of any use to him, she would've spend her life in the tower."

The Dark mage grunted. He was obviously aggitated and annoyed.

"You are sure?"

"With all due respect, master. If I torture her any more, I will kill her. She knows nothing. I even let Cobra join me to read her thoughts as I was cutting her up. There is nothing there that we can use. The only interesting thing was that of those mountains. The water and fire thing. I'm sure there's something there."

"The only interesting thing is that it's a perfect place for an ambush. You've been spending too much time listening to the stories of that bookworm you enjoy yourself with. You're starting to believe her nonsense. I'll take my leave. Contact me if anything really interesting happens. The girl is yours. Do to her as you please."

The Mage dissapeared in a black cloud of smoke, that quickly vanished into thin air, leaving Gajel alone in his room. He got up from the kneeling position he had been in, and walked out the door.

"Cobra."

Cobra emerged from the darkness of one of the caves, playing with a snake he kept as a pet. He raised his eyebrows at Gajeel, waiting for orders.

"Come with me."

Gajeel turned right, walked down the cave corridor, and ended up in a large cave. His entire band of robbers was gathered there, drinking, playing cards, amusing themselves with the whores. Some of the smaller caves that were in the walls, had closed curtains in front of them, making it clear some of the whores were giving a few of his men a good time.
He crossed the cave with quick, large steps, passed Levy, who was know wearing something that barely covered her body, and grabbed her wrist.

"Come."

Without protest she went with him, trying to keep up with his big steps. When he noticed she was almost running while he held her by her wrist, he let her go and slowed down his pace. Cobra sped up, untill he walked on Gajeels other side, and glanced at him sideways.

"Torturing the princess twice today?"

"No. I'm letting her out. She knows nothing anyway. I can make better use of her outside her cell."

Gajeel noticed Levy's shock but ignored it, and kept going trough the caves and corridors, untill they came to the rocky steps, leading to what he proudly called dungeons. After a few turns in the corridors, they finally arrived at the prisoners cell.

Levy gasped and let out a soft sob at the sight of the Princess's exhausted and damaged body. Blood was dripping from several deep cuts, her clothes were torn so much, the rags barely covered her body, and her head hung, her hair a curtain in front of her face. The skin that was not covered with blood, was pale and dirty. At the sound of Levy's sob, Lucy slowly lifted her head. Her face, unlike the rest of her body, was intact, but bruised. She had dark circles around her eyes, and her eyes were red from crying.

"Lucy..."

"Shut up wench."

Levy immediately bit her lip to keep quiet, looking at Lucy's face. Lucy looked back, but her eyes didn't seem to see her. Didn't seem to recognise her. Even Cobra stared at Lucy with shock.

"Fuck, Gajeel, you might have gone too far with this one."

"The Lord demanded it."

Cobra whistled, the same way he had done in the forest, and Lucy's eyes popped open in horror as she looked at him. She started to cry, and she softly whispered something, but her voice was too hoarse to be heared. Gajeel looked at Cobra with a frown.

"She's begging for mercy. I scare her more than you do, even though you hurt her."

"Don't you think it's the whistling that triggered this?"

Cobra looked at Gajeel with a thoughtfull look and grinned.

"You're right, I did that at the meadow too, to signal you. The memory might be too much for our precious little princess."

Gajeel sighed in annoyance over Cobra's glee, raised his hands and removed the bars completely. Lucy's begging became louder, and her whimpering turned into loud whails. Gajeel stepped towards her and signed Cobra to step closer.

"Hold her."

"No, no, no. Please. No more. "

Finally aggrivated with her whimpering and whining, Gajeel snapped at her.

"Quiet princess! Or I will leave you here to rot! You should be glad I decided to get you out of here."

Lucy's sobbing was abruptly stopped as she looked at him. She flinched when Cobra lifted her legs, put one arm under her knees, and the other behind her back, but she made no more sounds. Gajeel put his hands on her cuffs, removing them without a word, and her full weight ended up in Cobra's arms. Around his neck was a big, purple snake, hissing at her, but otherwise motionless. She didn't like that at all, but she almost clung to Cobra when Gajeel reached out for her. With a grunt he took her from Cobra's arms.

"Order Kinana to sedate her. I don't want her to get too familiar with these caves. She might find the way out."

Cobra frowned, but didn't argue, and petted the snake on the head, rubbing his cheek to it's skin. The snake reacted to words unspoken, seemed to kiss Cobra's face, and slithered down his stretched out arm, towards Lucy. Levy nervously bit her nails.

"Master do you really have to? We can blindfold her."

"Quiet."

The snake slid down over Lucy's arm, that Cobra now held firmly, because she tried to pull her arm back. Not that she had the strength for that, but she still tried.

"If you move your arm, Kinana might hit a wrong vein, or give you an overdose, and you'll die. Keep still, and just take a nap."

Cobra's words made her freeze in Gajeel's arms, and the snake bit her wrist, injecting her with a small amount of venom. She whimpered softly at the pain, but the throbbing pain quickly faded. She saw the snake slither back to Cobra's neck, and then her head dropped back, her eyelids feeling heavy. The last thing she saw was Gajeel's calm and serious face.

"Goodnight, princess."

Did he just sound worried?

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Lucy opened her eyes, but immediately closed them again. It was so bright in here. She wasn't used to light anymore. Where was she? She slowly opened her eyes just a little bit, so she could peak around. This was an actual room. And she was lying on a bed. With pillows. And blankets.
She slowly let her eyes adjust to the light, and looked at the source of the light. A window! There were bars in front of them, but it was definitely a window. She carefully inhaled, breathing in the fresh air. So good.

A soft noise to her left made her turn her head. Levy was washing some cloths in a bowl with steaming water. It seemed like they had blood on them. Did she just refresh bandages or something. Who's? Lucy looked down at her arms. There were clean bandages around her arms, suggesting Levy had just refreshed her bandages before Lucy woke up. Moving her legs ever so slightly, she felt bandages there too. And she felt clean. Well, cleaner anyway.

"Levy?"

Her voice sounded crooked and hoarse, but it was loud enough for Levy to hear. Levy quickly got up, and sat by her side on the bed, tears welling in her eyes as she looked at Lucy.

"Lucy. I'm so sorry. I should've tried to save you earlier."

Lucy shook her head, but quickly stopped when that made her dizzy. Levy noticed, and immediately stopped crying, her hand touching Lucy's forehead.

"At least you don't have a fever anymore. How do you feel?"

"Weak."

"Ofcourse you do. You've been sleeping for three days without eating."

Gajeels voice startled both of them, and they looked at the doorway, where he was leaning against the post with his arms crossed. He came towards the bed, motioned Levy to move, and when she got up, he sat down on the bed, his back towards Lucy.

"I thought you might want to know, you've officialy been reported missing. The entire kingdom is looking for you. But it seems like Tartarus is behind it, and your fiancee's father thinks it's a set up to keep you from marrying his son. There might be a war at hands."

Gajeel softly chuckled and looked over his shoulder to see Lucy's face.

"They will never find us here. They wil not even know where to look for you. In the meantime, you work for me. Just like Levy, you'll be on of my personal maids. Be happy about that, because that means, for now, my men will not lay their hands on you. It also means you will do as you're told. If not, you will get punished, and I think Levy will have plenty of time to explain what that means."

He got up from the bed and looked at Levy.

"Make sure she eats, and take care that she gets out of bed as soon as she's strong enough. Give her that dress I brought in for her. If she does not do exactly what I want, I will hold you responsible."

He smirked at Lucy, knowing she would obey because she wouldn't want Levy to get in trouble, and left the room. Lucy looked at Levy in distress.

"Levy, what does it mean to be his personal maid?"

Levy sighed with a sad expression.

"You hand him his food, pour him his wine. When he asks you to dance, you dance. When he orders you to sit in his lap, you pretend to enjoy it. When he orders you to wash his back, you wash his back. When he demands your body...you let him have it. You do anything and everything he tells you to do."

"And the punishment?"

Levy sighed again.

"He will either take your body with force, humiliate you in front of his men, or he will let one of his men do that for him. As if you're a toy. You mean nothing here."

Lucy looked at Levy's sad face in horror, and sobbed softly.

"I rather would've died in that cell."

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A/N: Ahh, she's finally out of that cell. Next chapter will show a little of the things leading up to the main events, introducing one of my favorite characters. Slowly getting there, please be patient with me.

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