LORDOSIS (BOOK 1) (COMPLETE)

LORDOSIS Chapter 17

Days passed and no one entered the room. I was not given food, water and no one answered my calls begging for someone to come and let me apologise.

I tried to get out of the bathroom window but all the windows and doors were stuck, they wouldn't move and I realised she had cast a spell on the room to lock me in. It was silent. Deadly silent. I heard nothing other than my own breathing. I knew the outside world couldn't hear me either. She was punishing me so I would be grateful when I was finally released.

I was so thirsty then when I cried I caught my own tears so I could drink them. Just a moment of moisture but it was all I would get. I had started my bleed and had no way to clean myself other than to use a cover from the bed and strip it down to make padding for my under garments. The fire had died and there was no more wood so when the sun went down I had to wrap myself in blankets and shiver. Using the pillows as extra covering as I lay in a ball and prayed he would come and take me back to my father. I would prefer that to this.

Finally I heard a noise as a key turned in a lock. I looked towards the door and two guards entered. I did not know their faces and as they hauled me off the bed and down the hallway I knew it was to face his mother.

"Place her there," I heard her say but when I looked around the room she wasn't there. "You look disgraceful. It matches your behaviour," she said appearing from behind a painted screen.

I knelt quickly and tucked myself in as tight as I could ready for punishment.

"I am not going to beat you," she said as though reading my mind. "I take it you have learnt your lesson and will not take my sons hospitality and kindness for granted again?" she asked.

I nodded.

"I can't hear or see your actions when you are rolled up in a ball," she said. "Stand!" she ordered.

I stood, too quickly and as my head spun I fell over banging my head on the floor. I stood back up and held my hand to my head as I felt the blood start to trickle through it.

She tutted and sighed.

"You're just bleeding from everywhere aren't you? Vagina, heart and now head. Three is a good sign that you are learning your lesson," she said. "However, I would like to make sure. Go and stand in the garden ten steps from the door and do not move until I tell you too. Do not engage in any way with others or I will punish them too."

I waited to be excused.

"GO!" she yelled. "And take your hand away from your head the wound is not something you can die from."

I walked out to the garden and counted the steps. Stopping and standing still.

"Turn to face the house," she said.

I turned and hung my head.

"Head up, arms to the side and stand there for all to see what a disgrace you have made of yourself," she said.

I stood as instructed. Blood dropping down my face and the heat of the sun burning down on me for over an hour.

"I thought I would eat out here in the sunshine," his mother announced as she walked out into the garden with a maid. "Set it up over there and ask my sons to join me," she replied.

She proceeded to set up a breakfast table in the garden and had all the food and drink brought out to taunt me. I had not eaten or drank anything other than tears for days and now she was laying out a feast.

"We are eating out here," she announced. "Pay not attention to the new statue in the garden," she said referring to me as Kaylan and Layton joined her. I did not make eye contact with any of them but heard Layton curse under his breath.

My skin burnt in the sun as they ate and their mother talked and laughed. I paid no attention to what she was saying instead I daydreamed of what it would be like to run for the wall and dance in the town again as I had that first day I spent in the sun. I didn't realise I had fallen over until I heard her voice yelling at me to get up.

"STAND UP YOU INSOLENT CHILD!" she yelled.

I tried to stand but my head was swimming and I kept falling.

"Mother please," Layton reasoned. "She is burnt; the sun has punished her enough. Please let me take her out of your sight."

"Do it," she said with disgust and I felt myself being hauled up into Laytons arms. He rushed through hallways my head hanging back and so heavy I felt my brain would fall out.

"Endeya," he called.

"Tahira," I heard her cry with relief and run forward with some of the other women. "Oh look at her," she said and burst into tears.

"I have to go if I am any longer it will attract my mothers attention. Keep her quite and out of the way. No one use her name as it could anger my mother again. Hide her whenever possible but always have her answer Kaylans call," Layton said before placing me on a bed and rushing off.

"Strip her," Endeya said. "It's ok Tahira we are here for you," she said tears in her voice.

I faded in and out of consciousness as they stripped me and placed me in a bath. My wounds tended too. My burns treated with soothing balms and water, lots and lots of water poured down my throat. I choked but was grateful.

When I finally woke enough to be able to eat I was too emotionally distraught to face it. Endeya had reluctantly returned home to care for her husband and child but the others cared for me. My skin burnt and my head unable to move without causing me to bring up the water they had managed to get me to drink they helped me rest as best they could.

"How is she?" I heard Layton whisper.

"Tortured," one of my friends replied.

"Has she eaten?" he asked.

"No she has sun sickness," she replied.

"I will see what I can do for her," he replied.

"There is nothing you can do but allow her to heal," she replied.

I heard him leave before coming back and whispering in my ear "You are not alone," I knew then that he had experience the solitude punishment for himself. "Lay with Kaylan make a child and she will leave," he said. He left.

I would gather my strength; lay with Kaylan, produce a child and train until I was strong enough. Then I would hunt his mother down and kill her as I did her sister. I would watch her body burn!