I woke crying and as soon as I realized it was me, I choked back the tears and attempted to pull myself from under his nakedness. I succeeded in shifting my torso out from under him and dried blood on me and the sheets crackled. My entire body was on fire, I could feel each separate pain as one massive pulse of agony that made me breathe in short sips, bite my lips to hold in the mewling cries. He groaned and rolled over, leaving me free from his oppressive weight and presence.
Every bone, muscle and inch of flesh on my body screamed at me to find a hole to fall in, to reach for a knife and cut my throat. Instead, I made my body fall slowly off the bed and inch by agonizing inch, pulled myself over to the privy pot under the screened chair in the closet. I threw up dry heaves and faint tinges of blood and when my hand tried to hold my dick to pee, the strain was nearly as bad as when he had rammed his prick into my dry hole. Little came out but bloody mucus and I couldn’t bear the thought of sitting on anything, let alone crapping. Besides, I hadn’t eaten anything in a while so there was nothing to come out.
Turning on the water from the sink, it gushed out smelling of faint rust and hot. I drank, not caring that it was near scalding and when my thirst was quenched, reached for the stack of linen and towels on the counter. Laid them in the sink soaking them and dragged them onto the floor so I could lay on them. The heat felt good and I stared up at the rough stone of the ceiling in a semi-lucid daze. Talked to myself, resigned myself to a life where I had no freedom, no rights, was a sadistic man’s slave-whore who could not be killed. I no longer cared about the green lady, the Queen or the manservant, all I could focus on was how to please the Master so he would make my life that little bit easier.
“Corbel? Where are you?” His voice was sharp, panicky coming from the other room.
“In the privy, Master,” I replied.
Presently, he stood in the doorway staring down at me, his eyes heavy lidded but gentle. “Do you need help, Corbel?”
“No, Master. No need to soil your hands.”
“Corbel, your blood is royal and powerful, it holds no dirt or taint.” Tenderly, he took a cloth and washed me, handling my privates as a lover, the rest of my body with great care. He opened the closet, searching for something, knelt atop me and applied medicines that cooled the fire in my back. I could not stop crying.
“Am I hurting you, Corbel?” he asked softly but not stopping.
“No, Master. Because you are taking care of me.”
“You see that I love you, my Blackbird?”
“Why, Master? I am scarred and ugly, stupid and slow to learn, in constant need of your attention and discipline. I need to be punished frequently to do things correctly,” I offered.
“You are as I have trained you, Corbel. Shut up and let me take care of you.”
“Yes, Master.” I closed my eyes and kept as still as a corpse while he bathed me with warm rags and water. When he was done, I made to crawl back to the bed but he picked me up and carried me where he arranged me to his liking. I fell asleep from sheer exhaustion and the smell of roasting food roused me as no other stimulus could have.
A table was laid with linen and beef cuts, vegetables, potatoes, rolls and a beautiful cut crystal of Cognac. The firelight made prisms of flame through the glass. The Master was busily stuffing his face, wiping his mouth on his sleeve. A timid young girl served him from the snifter. He looked over at me. “Corbel, you awake?” Without waiting for my reply, he threw his gnawed bones onto my chest which hit with a greasy thud. “Are you hungry?”
“No, Master.” I was naked before the serving maid and she stared frankly at my bloodied and scarred back.
“My gods,” she murmured. “The flesh is nearly gone from his entire back. Shall I bring the Healer, my Lord? And some pain draughts?”
“Corbel?” he asked, holding aloft a rib bone covered in meat and juices.
“No, Master. You enjoy it more when I am in pain.” I closed my eyes, deluding myself that if I could not see her, she could not see me.
“Bring me clothing from the stores for him. In the blue chest the men brought in last night. Send the Captain of the Guards and the Barons, General Devial and the Magic Division Handlers.”
“Yes, my Lord.” She curtsied.
“Are there any more maids such as you in the Palisades?”
She hesitated. “No, my lord. The village women fled as soon as news of your arrival came.”
“Why are you still here?”
“Six of us drew the short straw and I was not married, engaged or pure.”
His eyes ravaged her and she explained. “I had given myself to a passing soldier, got with child and lost it so no man would take me for wife. I am available for anyone who wishes.”
“Corbel, would you like to fuck this maid?”
I opened my eyes and looked at her. Seventeen or eighteen, tall and cleanly made with long yellow hair bound into a kerchief. Large blue eyes of a steady, honest nature. Pleasing to the eye with high, small breasts, tight waist and sturdy thighs.
“No, Master.” I turned away.
“Why not, Corbel?” His voice was soft and dangerous. To deny a gift from the Master was to ask for punishment.
“I do not think my prick will harden. I am too sore and tired,” I answered carefully. “I do not feel lust for her.”
“For me, then?”
“My life is to please you, Master.”
“It would please me if you take this whore.”
I struggled to my side, rolled off the bed and attempted to stand. She came over and helped me, her grip on those few places I did not hurt. “It will be alright,” she whispered. “Are you one of those that enjoy men only? I know how to pleasure them, too.”
“No,” I said so only she could hear me. “Once, I think I loved a girl but it was long ago and far away in a dream.”
Her hands were skilled but my desires were dead and nothing she did could bring me to a state where I could perform. The Master pulled me away and took her instead. Used her so harshly that she cried out in pain and fought him. He beat her until her blood pooled in a cloud around her head and rear. Sated, he collapsed on the bed while I remained on the floor.
“Is she dead, Corbel?”
My fingers found the spot on her neck where the great vein pulsed and there was nothing. “Yes, Master.” I stared at her face, I didn’t even know her name.
“Are you sorry now you did not have a piece of her?”
“I did, Master.”
“You mean, ‘you are’,” he corrected.
“Yes, Master.” She had given me a piece of her compassion, a gift worth far more than a dalliance with her body.
“Go do what I told her,” he ordered.
“Yes, Master.” Slowly, I rose to my feet and using the wall and whatever was in my reach, stumbled towards the chamber’s doorway.
“Corbel, don’t you think you ought to put something on?” he asked lazily.
“I have nothing, Master,” I said humbly, trembling lest he beat me, too.
“Oh very well,” he spoke a short spell and I was abruptly cloaked in my cape of dust and shadows. I stroked the familiar fabric and opened the door into the hallway. Guards stood there and one roughly grabbed my arm, staring at my bare feet.
“Here, where are you going, slave?”
“The Master sends me on errands,” I said simply. His fingers dug painfully into my muscles. I said nothing.
“Rinlon, is that you?” the Master called from inside the room.
“Yes, My Lord Webster. Is it your wish that this slave leave?”
“Go with Corbel and see that he completes his tasks for me. I have doubts that he will make it without falling.”
“Yes, Lord Webster.” He closed the door and demanded, “well?”
“Clothing from the blue trunk in the Great Hall. I’m to bring it up to the Master’s room. First. Send the Captain of the Guards up. The Master wants to see the Barons, General Devial and the Magic Division Handlers.”
“Where’s the maid, Lilli?”
“The Master raped and killed her. Send someone to remove her body, also.” I furrowed my brow, wondering if I was supposed to take care of that or if he preferred the sight of the broken female. The guard stared at me.
“Are you still human? Do you have a soul, any grief or anger?” he burst out.
“All I have is fear and pain,” I returned wearily. “Show me the way to the Barons.”
“Send a messenger.”
“The Master told me to do it, that means I have to take the message.”
“Can you walk that far?”
“We shall see.”