Chapter Seventeen: The Power of the King

Elphaba sat in their bedroom staring out the window in the cushioned window seat of the tower their bedroom occupied. It was a beautiful day, although it was slightly warm. She was only wearing a thin nightgown that she hadn't put on until that morning when Fiyero had gotten up to go do his hunting lessons – something Elphaba found incredibly distasteful, but his father required him to do it. One of the elder tribesmen was teaching him and occasionally his father would assist.

There was a noise in the doorway of the room and she looked up, hoping Fiyero had somehow managed to get out of his stupid lessons early. That was not the case, unfortunately, and Elphaba forced a smile at Fiyero's father. "Did you need something?"

"No. I was just wandering the halls." Pulino stepped into the room. "Elphaba, I'd like to speak with you for a moment."

She didn't leave the window seat and simply gestured for him to sit at the chair in the desk near where she was. "What is it?"

"I understand that we don't see eye to eye on most things. I'm aware you think the way I live and believe is sick. But you don't quite get it." He snapped his fingers and four male servants came in. "Tie her to the bed, face down."

Elphaba's eyes widened and she stammered as the four servants slowly came towards her, "What are you doing? Fiyero…"

"Fiyero doesn't quite get it, either, my dear child. A son shares with his father."

"Don't you dare! He'll never forgive you." Elphaba struggled against the men, but it was useless. After half a minute of fighting, she was tied to the bed on her stomach. She stopped thrashing and calmly worked with one hand to free herself, but the knots didn't seem to want to come loose.

"Eventually, you see, he'll thank me." Pulino dismissed the servants and took out a pocketknife. "The practice of cutting out a woman's voice box was long ago dismissed, but I think it can be used appropriately in the right situations." He brought the knife towards her and not towards her throat. Her gown was sliced off in an instant.

Elphaba shuddered. Her legs had been tied apart to each bedpost. She tried with much difficulty to stay calm. "If you touch me one more time, I swear to you Fiyero and I will leave here."

"It won't matter," Pulino said calmly, undressing while still holding the knife in one hand. "Did you know, even longer ago," he lowered the knife, "it was customary to cut off certain little muscles between a woman's legs so she couldn't feel pleasure?"

The effort to keep from showing too much fear was failing. "You wouldn't."

"I will when I'm done." Pulino put the knife down on the bedside table. "But I don't have to worry about you enjoying this, since it's going to hurt very badly, unless I'm wrong and Fiyero has, indeed, broken you in," his fingers traveled between her buttocks and Elphaba bit down on her cheeks. "I didn't think so, but I had to check. And I won't cut out your voice box yet because I want to hear you scream."

"You bastard," she snarled, using the hand she had freed to shove him away and then grab for the knife. Within an instant, she had cut away the ropes on her other hand and ankles. He reached to grab her and she stabbed him roughly in the shoulder. Pulino shouted and there was a commotion in the hallway.

Several of the servants who Pulino had told to tie Elphaba to the bed rushed in, but so did Fiyero. "What the hell is going on in here?"

Elphaba dropped the knife and collapsed on the bed in tears.

Fiyero looked at the torn nightgown, the remnants of the ropes, the small amount of blood on his father's fingers and Elphaba's behind that couldn't have come from the knife wound and felt sick. He turned to the servants, "Take him downstairs and have his wound cleaned. Don't pamper him."

"Fiyero," his father begged, "she should be killed. A woman can never injure a man of higher status then her, and normally not a man of equal status."

Fiyero watched the servants lift his father. "Only if her husband says so. I'm afraid I don't agree. If you touch her again, I will…" He clenched his fists and turned away, hearing the door close and the servants got his father into the hall. Before turning to Elphaba, he called out the door, "For Oz's sake, he was only stabbed in the shoulder. He can walk for himself."

Elphaba gazed up at Fiyero fearfully as he came towards her. "I didn't mean to hurt anyone."

"I know," he said comfortingly. Fiyero sat beside her on the bed. "Before we talk about this, why don't you clean up and get dressed?"

She nodded and stood up. Elphaba knelt and opened the drawer on the bedside table for her oils.

Fiyero grimaced at the slight blood on the blanket. He was pretty sure she'd stopped bleeding, so he moved to the closet and grabbed the extra blanket that he knew the maid kept there and remade the bed.

She winced as she tried to clean herself and reached her backside. Fiyero made to help her but she shook her head. "I'm fine. I'm not bleeding anymore, it just stings. I can't imagine how I would've been bleeding had I not untied myself on time, though."

He watched as she pulled on her day clothes and sat beside him. "Tell me what I happened. I can guess, but I want to know it all."

"I was sitting in the window in my nightgown when he came in. He said he just wanted to talk to me. But then he mentioned something about how I don't get it or something and suddenly four of the servants were in here tying me to the bed."

"They helped him?"

"Yeah. They tied me down on my stomach and then he dismissed them and took out that knife. He talked about cutting out my voice box and cutting off…" Elphaba shivered madly.

Fiyero hugged her close. "It's okay, Fae. I'm here now. What did he say?"

"He said he was going to cut off… like, something about how the parts between a woman's legs that helped her feel pleasure can be removed and how he was going to do that when he was done."

Fiyero's face went pale.

"I kept saying you'd never forgive him, that we'd leave here, but he said it wouldn't matter and you'd thank him later. He wondered if you had 'broken me in', and put his fingers right into my… bottom… and it hurt and by this point I'd untied one of the knots and he didn't know, so I shoved him, grabbed the knife and freed myself. Then he came towards me again and I did what I had to in order to defend myself."

"That's it!" Fiyero stood up. "Are you okay with walking?"

"Yeah. I'm fine."

"Come with me," he grabbed her wrist and strode towards his mother's room. "Mom!"

Elphaba shrank back behind Fiyero; she wasn't sure if the woman would even care what had happened or if she'd be sympathetic to the situation at all.

Benita looked up at her son, confused at the distraught look on his face and the fearful look on Elphaba's face. "What is it?"

"Elphaba, would you please tell my mother what just happened?" Fiyero asked gently.

Elphaba shook her head and buried her face in her hands.

He sighed heavily and held her close to him. Looking at his mother over Elphaba's head, he said, "Dad had four servants tie her to the bed on her stomach. He had a knife. He was going to sodomize her and then cut out her voice as well as the intimate parts of her that allow her to feel pleasure. She stabbed him in self-defense. He's fine. I think she's the one who's more hurt, when it comes down to it."

Benita blinked slowly and her face clouded over. "Is this true?" She was looking at Elphaba to answer.

"Yes. He even shoved his fingers…"

Fiyero made a hand gesture when Elphaba couldn't continue talking.

Benita got up and went to Elphaba, hugging her. "I'm sorry."

Elphaba pulled away and stared at Benita in disbelief. "What?"

"Elphaba, you'll never understand why I've behaved the way I have towards you. I don't agree with the way things work around here, either, and I made sure Fiyero would grow up to be different. But when it came to the point where he was finally going to be married, I didn't like what I'd done, selfishly. I could do nothing to help me, and so I tried to take it back. But I was wrong to do that and I'm sorry."

Fiyero cocked his head and looked at his mother. "You wanted me to see that the way we treat women out here is wrong?"

"Exactly."

Elphaba suddenly hugged Benita. "Thank you."

"For what?"

Elphaba smiled at Fiyero. "Him."

Benita laughed. "I do apologize for everything I've said."

"What are we going to do about Dad?" Fiyero asked.

Benita took a deep breath. "Look, I don't know if we can do anything. The law is worded in such a way that what he did is not punishable."

Elphaba blanched. "So it's perfectly fine for a man to attempt to rape his daughter-in-law up the ass?"

"If he's the king, he can very well do whatever the hell he wants." Benita lowered her head.

Elphaba groaned and Fiyero wrapped his arms about her waist as she leaned into him. "How can we go on living here?"

"We won't," Fiyero said.

Both Benita and Elphaba turned towards Fiyero and stared at him. "What?"

"I can't risk this happening again. If the servants obey him, he could do anything to her on whim. I'm sorry, Mom," Fiyero said sadly.

"You can't just leave," his mother protested, "please. I can't stay here, with him… Fiyero, when you turn twenty-two, you're given full reign. You just have to get through this summer. Don't come home for the holidays. When you return after graduation, the servants are yours to command, not his. You can protect her."

Elphaba interrupted, "Can we stop that asshole from screwing the servant girls, then?"

"I'm not sure. But we can make his life much more difficult."

"He'll take it out on you," Elphaba realized.

"Not if I can help it."