Crown of the Gods - A Healer's Tale (HIATUS)

Chapter Three - Torture and Familiarity

     All around me, I heard whispers as I walked towards the platform.
     Teivel had decided that I would have a public caning, and he would decide on what else to do with me afterwards.  That is, if the man caning me didn't decide to beat me to death.  It wasn't like he had a limit.  Of course, after what I did to that poor guard, I deserved every hit I was going to take.
"Free the prince!" a woman shouted, and others soon joined her. They began to throw things at the guards — rocks, fruit, sticks, anything they could get their hands on.
Teivel, who was walking ahead of me, stepped onto the platform to address the crowd. "That's enough, all of you. Don't you get it? Your beloved prince is a traitor and a murderer."
I looked down at my hands — the same hands that had killed that guard — and was so overwhelmed by guilt and grief that I fell to my knees.
     Teivel turned to glare at the guards.  "Bring him up here."
     The guards dragged me up to the platform and forced me to my knees.
     "Bijon, you have been found guilty of murder and treason," Teivel said, as if I didn't already know it.  "For your crimes, you will face a decade in the dungeons, along with caning and other torture as I see fit."  Though I didn't raise my head to look at him, I could practically sense him motioning to the torturer.
Behind me, I heard the sound of the cane cutting through the air, and a moment later, I registered a horrible burning sensation in my back. I looked up as the cane came down a second time, and my eyes were drawn to a brown-haired man near the platform. Just like Seraphina, he had a sort of familiarity to him, but I couldn't figure it out.
The cane came down a third time, and Teivel shoved me so that I was lying face-down on the platform. I looked down at the man. He seemed very stoic, apathetic to my suffering.
I felt the fourth strike, but just barely. Everything seemed so distant to me now — the blood trickling down my back, the screaming commoners, Teivel's cocky laugh. My vision began to get darker. It almost began to sound like I was underwater. Still, I kept my eyes on the man in front of me.
The man looked me in the eyes. "May the gods save you from your pain, young prince."
I felt another strike, and that was enough. My arms gave out from underneath me, and my vision went completely black.

~~~

"Wake up, bastard."
I opened my eyes, my attention immediately going to the burning pain in my back.
"It's about time," Teivel grumbled. "I hope you enjoyed that rest. It's the last you'll be getting for a while."
I sat up and winced. "How many strikes?"
Teivel pulled out a leather collar with two prongs on the top, along with two on the bottom. "Eighteen." He put the collar around my neck, the prongs going under my chin and above my chest, holding my head up high. "There, that'll shut you up, won't it?" He turned around. "I wouldn't move your head. It'll kill you." Then he left, leaving me alone.
"You've been out for a while," Seraphina sighed. "My execution is tomorrow, by the way. They're burning me at the stake. Teivel said it was the slowest, most painful death he could think of." She crossed her arms. "They used that thing on me, too, to get me to confess. I don't want you to talk to anyone who works for Teivel, no matter how tired you are or what they offer you."
I looked at her children, and I tried to say something — anything — but I couldn't move my jaw.
Seraphina sat down on her cot. "Look, Bijon, I'm sorry. Really, I am. I should've done something. I could've done something." She sat up and took my hand in her own. "You're so much stronger than you know, Bijon. Now, channeling that strength... Perhaps you can't do that yet, but you're getting there." She squeezed my hand. "May the gods bless you."

...

I didn't sleep that night, and not because of my concern for Seraphina, though I'm sure that helped.
That thing Teivel had put on me made sleep impossible, and every time I started to drift off, I felt a sharp pain in my chin, and it woke me up again. The hours seemed to blend together.
I wasn't sure what time it was when they took Seraphina away, but I watched in silence as she cursed out the two guards who dragged her away, her four children watching in horror.

...

Teivel walked into my cell, but I couldn't recall seeing him enter the dungeons. Just like everything else, it didn't make sense.
To my relief, he took the collar off of me. "Now, do you want this to stay off?"
I nodded as the prongs were moved away from me. "I mean... Yeah..." I slouched in my chair and began to drift off, but Teivel shook his head.
"Tell me where Lorelei went," he demanded.
I closed my eyes. "I dunno... Must've gone somewhere... Don't know where... Ran off..."
"Well, I'm sure you know her well enough to at least have an idea of where she is." He put a hand on my shoulder and shook me gently. "Come on, Bijon. You can tell me, can't you? I'm your brother."
"Not a clue..." I mumbled. "Sorry..."
Teivel helped me over to my cot. "You can rest after you at least tell me where you think she went." He threw a thin blanket over me once I laid down. "And maybe, if you're right, I'll pardon you. Then you can go back to your own bed, and you can get as much sleep as you want. All you have to do for me is this one little thing."
"I would tell you... if I knew," I sighed. "Please, Teivel... I've never... really... left this place."
Teivel forced me into a sitting position, and I felt the cold, sharp prongs on my skin once more.

...

     I heard my cell door unlock, and it was everything I could do to open my eyes.
     It was Lorelei, along with a dark-haired girl who I just barely recognized as Adira, my betrothed.
     Lorelei rushed up to me and took the collar off.  "Bijon!" she cried as she threw the collar to the ground.  "Are you all right?  What did he do to you?  How long has he had that on you?"
     "A... week?" I mumbled.  "Get... the children.  They come... first.  Not me."
     Adira looked at the kids, tapping her foot impatiently.  "Bijon, you idiot, we can't take them.  They'll slow us down."
     "Then I... won't go."  I closed my eyes and sighed.  "Night."
     "We have to take them," said Lorelei.  "He might be weak after all this, but he's just as stubborn as ever."
"Fine," Adira groaned.  "Go wake up the kids, then help me carry Bijon.  There's no way he'll be able to walk, so I'm not even gonna try to make him."
     The last thing I was aware of was being lifted off of my chair.

...

When I woke up, I was still being carried by Lorelei and Adira, with the four children trailing behind.
"You could've gotten me sooner," said Adira as they carried me into a building.
"Well, you were celebrating that crazy amount of money your last client gave you, and I didn't wanna bug you," Lorelei sighed.
They set me down, and Adira grabbed Lorelei by the shoulders. "You know I love you, but that is the dumbest thing that's ever come out of your mouth."
     Lorelei looked down at me.  "He's awake."
     Adira crossed her arms and rolled her eyes.  "It's about damn time."
     I sat up, wincing as I did so.
     "Shit," Lorelei whispered.  "What do we do about his back?"
     "Find some bandages or something, I guess," Adira sighed.
     Lorelei knelt beside me.  "Can you?  I just wanna check on him real quick."
Adira looked around her, and I heard the floorboards creaking.
"I thought you said this place was abandoned!" Lorelei gasped.
"I thought it was!" Adira whispered.
The door swung open, revealing the man I had seen at the caning. He stumbled towards us, beer mug in hand.
"I've been expecting you, Your Highness," he muttered.