Chapter 38
Before the sun had risen to burn off the morning dew, he was back with the man I had met before – the doctor for the Governor and his staff, not the barber used for the enlisted men. He told me his name and truth be known, I had forgotten it other than Tony.
“Tony Anson Ainslie, Viscount Armitage,” he said and gently pulled the chain out of the way. He pushed over the sofa and told me to sit on it so the doctor could look at me. He touched my skin, remarked how much colder it was than a normal man. His eyes widened as he removed my coveralls, cutting them off when he pulled them down to my hands. They stared at the roadmap of bruises, scars and abuse evident on my body and were full of questions over the ebony collar.
Armitage snatched his fingers back as he encountered the electric surface of the metal. “It shocked me!”
“Don’t touch it,” the doctor warned. “Does it shock you, Toby?”
“It is a torture I would kill to avoid,” I said with paralyzing certainty. “An instant of disobedience brings me such agony I would rather die than suffer it again. And no, only removing my head will remove the collar.”
“How can we help you?” They asked.
“You can’t and should you try, I will be compelled to speak to my master and report you,” I said wearily. “If he bade you heal me, fine. If not, you will only bring me more punishment if you continue.”
The doctor ignored me. “Tony, bring me that green bottle – the one with the glass stopper.”
Armitage left the room, returning in minutes with the requested item. Carefully, the doctor opened it, pouring a thin stream onto the links to the floor. Smoke hissed as the liquid touched the table and made pit marks on the metal. Yet, the links did not weaken and the collar warmed warning me of the torment to come.
I snatched the chain from his grasp and rolled back to the corner, bearing my teeth and threatening them like a wild animal. I screamed for them to go away and my hands tore at the collar trying to lift it away from contact with my skin.
The pain grew until it filled my whole world and my body thrashed against the floor. It went on for too long and when it finally ceased, the two were gone and I had left gaping holes in the wall and gouges in the wooden parquet tile boards. Chunks of fireplace brick were smashed and missing yet the chain and the pin it was attached to looked brand new and untouched.
I was unclothed, sweat and tears stained my skin and I had voided everything making the corner where I lay into a veritable cesspit. I had no shame left in me and existed only as a beaten worm in a puddle of mud. I wanted only to please the wizard Blackfin in every conceivable way so that never again would he punish me for any reason, real or imagined. What I did not know was that no such condition existed; he lived only to see me wallow in misery, humiliation and despair.
The minute the two entered the room, I heard their exclamation of disgust at the stench I had made. The second thing I was aware of was the sharp sting in my arm as the doctor injected me with something. Both men backed up and watched as I fought whatever drug he had given me. It worked in moments, dragging me back down to a lethargy I couldn’t fight in the Viscount dragged me back onto the couch where the doctor had access to my body.
He explored the collar and wrapped it carefully in a strange cloth that was made of spun glass fibers and then, they experimented on the chain, the pin and the collar itself. It was weird, I could feel the collar trying to punish me but its effects were absorbed by whatever magic heat wrapped around it.
“What are you doing?” I managed to ask. Whatever they attempted was in vain for no sooner had they begun to attack the chain, a servant brought news through the closed door that the Lord Blake was returning. In a panic, both men cleaned up their tinkerings leaving the wrapping on my slave collar.
“It won’t come off,” Tony said frantically. “It’s melted or bonded to the collar!”
“Can you see it?” The doctor returned.
“No. It’s like a clear shellac over the metal. Shiny.”
“Leave it.” Both of them raced to finish clearing the room. “Toby, you have friends in the capital. Not all is lost, say nothing, we were not here.”
They left me and somehow, the memory of their visit was forgotten, so when the wizard found me on his couch, I had no explanation for him. Strangely, he did not punish me, he only ordered servants in to clean up the mess. For the first time in ages, I was washed in a copper tub of heated water and scrubbed with soft bristle brushes until my skin blushed pink. Even the heat of the water barely registered on my cold skin, but it did soothe my aching muscles. Lord Blake scrubbed my back and my hair, digging hard on those places that were turning black and blue. I barely felt them; the drug the doctor had given me masked most of my reactions. He did not notice the new shine to the collar.
“Did you miss me, Toby?” He nuzzled my neck and when I responded, he seemed disappointed somehow. “There is no fight, no challenge left, no fear in your eyes. You are no more than a submissive dog.”
“Master?” I asked plaintively and that made him drop the sponge and order me to finish the bath, dress and get ready to leave for the trip across the Great Sea. I obeyed him.