Building an Empire [M/M]

Chapter Seventeen

Alexander

Fuck.

Damn it all!

I stared out the window as I let the anger freely flow through me. Yesterday still sat like an ambolt in my chest. No, more like my whole body head been covered in lead. It was like there was a pressure inside me that just kept building.

After we'd found the woman, Siobhan had laid her over the horse and we'd gone back to the castle as quickly as possible. People had stared at us incredulously as we rushed by, but we'd not taken any heed of them. When we finally arrived at what turned out to be the castle infirmary they'd not been happy. Treating the townsfolk wasn't allowed unless they were family of one of the important workers.

***

"Please, she's been violated against her will. Can you not make room for her?" Siobhan pleaded the rigid healer, who remained cold and unfeeling towards our request. "Perhaps you do not understand. We are not allowed to take in every riff-raff we see. Take her to her family or something." Siobhan's eyes narrowed dangerously and his hands curled into fists. "I'm begging you, write her down as my niece or something." His voice was barely polite anymore, the controlled anger in his voice all too apparent.

"As I'v alre-"

"Oh for fucks sake!" I yelled, "she could be dying and you're just going to stand by and do nothing?!" The healer spared me a glance and then dismissed me, redirecting his attention back to Siobhan. "The infirmary is no place for either of these... women. Now get out or I shall call the guards!" The look on Siobhan's face was one of pure murder as he carried the woman back outside.

"Wait here, I have an idea." Not bothering to stay for the reply I ran as fast as I could. My heart was beating like a drum in my ears and I could feel my legs getting heavy, but the thought of the woman spurred me on. First I ran to the training courtyard, then to my room, and finally I went to one of the small gardens I'd been allowed into. There I found who I was looking for.

"Lady Alexander!" Mercus rushed over from where he'd been sitting with a book and took me in his arms, searching my face. "Y-you have to c-come to," I heaved in a breath, "the infirmary." As Mercus immediately started walking I couldn't have been more grateful. "What's going on?" he asked, keeping up the pace and supporting me as we went. "A woman in the city was raped, we found her but the healers at the infirmary refuse to help her. Please, I need your help."

"I will," he looked me in the eye, then let go off me, "you take the time you need, I'm going to run ahead." Nodding, was all I could do, my lungs having given up on me.

The infirmary was strangely quiet when I finally got there. Mercus was standing off to the side next to Siobhan. The woman was nowhere to be seen. Siobhan was the first to spot me and made as if to come help me, but I waved him back and joined them instead. "Is she...?" Mercus nodded. "I spoke to the head healer and got him to accept her. They've promised to care for her as long as is needed, but I'm staying a bit longer just to be on the safe side. I'll also make sure to drop by every day until she's fine. After that though..." Mercus sighed and dropped his head back against the wall he was leaning on. "What will happen to her?" The way Siobhan's lips tightened into a white line and the pain on his face had a rock of dread drop into my stomach. "What will happen, Siobhan?"

"She's unmarried," was all he said. So fucking what? Apparently what I was thinking showed on my face because Mercus continued for Siobhan. "It means that now she probably never will be. She's been sullied, even if it was against her wishes. Had the man who did it been alive he would have been forced to marry her, to make up for it."

"Are you crazy?! Marrying your own rapist? That's... that's fucking horrible. No, that doesn't even begin to cover it!" Mercus nodded in agreement. "Had she been married, her husband would have been able to demand the violator to pay for the damage. But as it stands..." Mercus trailed off and sighed again. Meanwhile I was shocked into silence. What kind of fucked up civilization had people marrying their rapist? That treated a violation of such a magnitude as something you could solve with a fine! The disbelief and utter disgust I felt in that moment were all-consuming. Of course I'd heard that laws about rape had been shite in the old days - and still were some places - but knowing it and really knowing it, living it, was completely different. The woman's dead eyes flashed before me. She knew. She knew that her future was fucking destroyed.