Constant

Chapter 5

(LYDIA)

I felt a hand at my waist and I knew that it was Orvil. I spun around raising my tied hands to hit him in the face. The men around him laughed because I denied his advances. Orvil easily dodged my hands so they harmlessly grazed past him. He slapped me across the face and I stumbled backwards from the impact. I raised my hands to catch my fall but I was unsuccessful. I fell to the ground and rolled to the side jumping back to my feet before he could do anything else. 

There was a commotion in the group and I knew that Kyle was making his way towards us. The men parted to let him through and Kyle stomped forward. He had a mean look on his face as he glanced at me seeing the red mark across my cheek. I knew that he wasn't worried about me. He was worried about the cargo. He wanted me to be in perfect condition when I was presented to Errit. We were just a few days away from Gareth and he wanted my old bruises to be gone by the time we got there. Anything less than perfection wouldn't be good enough for Errit. 

"What are you doing?!" Kyle demanded. "It's bad enough that the two women were lost due to incompetence, don't let anything happen to her!" He grumbled about the stupidity of his men then walked back up to his place in the front of the group. 

I had pieced together bits and pieces about the two women from earlier that he had mentioned. The two women were a gift for Errit. They had killed Errits beloved sister Grey when she left home to go see her betrothed to get married. Grey was attacked by a jealous woman and she was killed. Errit had vowed to seek his revenge on his sisters killer so he abducted the wife of Grey's betrothed. She had been taken with her handmaiden and the two of them started their journey to Gareth. Before they could make it to Gareth the women were taken by the Red Demon. Kyle took his men after the Red Demon but the stories of the men that the Red Demon had killed were too much for many of Kyle's men. Many men ran off in the night leaving Kyle about twenty five men under his control. With that few men it would be difficult to get the women back from the Red Demon. Kyle decided to find a new woman instead because Errit wouldn't know the difference anyway. 

I sighed as I fell into step with the men around me. I had been in the wrong place a the wrong time. Now I was going to be a gift for the leader of Gareth. Many of the men told me that I should be honored but I didn't feel honored. 

I walked for the rest of the day keeping pace with the men. It was getting darker and colder. I tried to wrap my arms around myself to keep warm but it didn't make much of a difference. Kyle stopped our march as he declared our location fit for the night. I was grateful for the news and I sunk down to the ground. Henrich was the man holding my rope. He looked at me where I was sitting and he rolled his eyes but he didn't make me move. Five fire pits were thrown together and soon there were warm fires crackling away. I watched from the end of my rope as the sparks flew up into the air. I was too far away to feel the heat and there wasn't any room for me to squeeze in between the men. I didn't want to get close to them anyways. I could imagine the crude comments and the lingering looks that would be sent my way. Even though I was cold I felt better where I was. 

I watched as a canteen was produced from thin air. The men laughed as it was passed around. Other fires around the camp had similar canteens that were being passed. I wondered where the limitless supply of alcohol came from. 

Each man took a long swig of the drink. I knew that it would be alcohol. The men loved their alcohol at night and they would regret it the next morning. I knew they would get slightly drunk and I dreaded the behavior that could come from the drink. I had already seen the behavior back home. I knew what it did to a man and the things that he could do. The next day would be full of tears and meaningless 'I'm sorrys'. I watched as one of the men leaned back against his bed roll with a sloppy smile on his face. His eyes were already closed. An idea started creeping into my mind as I watched the men slowly slip deeper into their drunken state.