Trying to pull myself together was worse than opening my eyes had been. The more vague my thoughts and perceptions were, the less it hurt; the converse leaned on me and poked with flaming needles until I nearly gave up. I was going to have to open my mind wide to be at all effective, but that damned storm was ripping me up and throwing me away, making me shiver and sweat and hurt and cringe. I moaned and moved feebly on the jagged stone I was tied to, fighting for any corner of control I could reach, and the reason for all that madness moved into my line of sight from the right. My first thought was a hope that I was still dreaming, but unfortunately I knew I wasn’t. The man was absolutely unbelievable, both in size and in appearance; larger than Tammad and Dallan by more than a little, completely naked, and dark-haired! I know I stared with my mouth open while he stood and gazed casually at his two hanging victims, then flinched involuntarily when he turned to look at me. His mind was as cold and emotionless as the barbarian’s was usually calm, something that was reflected in his soulless green eyes. I didn’t have to probe to reach the cold lack of emotion, and that made me shiver even through my pain.
“So you have awakened,” he said in a very deep voice, obviously addressing me. “From the fear I see in your eyes, you had not thought to meet a man of our land here, in the place of these puny weaklings of darayse. It is a fortunate thing for the honor of our people that I lost my way during the last storms and took shelter in these caverns. Had I not, our honor might never have been restored. ”
“What honor do you speak of?” I whispered, fighting to get the words out over the pain I felt. “What people do you speak of? I do not know you, nor do I know your land. Why have you done this to us?”
“Do you think me blind, that you deny our common heritage?” he snorted, his cold eyes growing even colder. “Our numbers are as yet too few, yet are they large enough for me to know you as one of our own. Though you are young and have not yet attained your full growth, you are not so young that you are ignorant of our law. It is forbidden for one of our women to give herself to these pale non-men, and yet you have done so. You must all be punished, you for having broken the law, they for having dared profane one of ours. Their punishment has already been begun; yours is yet to come.”
“You are insane!” I husked, trying to put some strength and conviction into my voice. “I am not one of those you claim as your own, nor have I ever been! Should it be beyond you to believe this, do as you will with me—but you must release my companions. They are guiltless, and you cannot harm them further! ”
“Guiltless!” He snorted again, still without a trace of humor. “They have had you, have they not? They have humored and used your disgusting female urges to squirm, and have put you beneath them, have they not? You could not bear to obey the law and await your full growth before seeking manhood to ease you, therefore did you flee to those who would aid you in disobeying yet a further and greater law. As you were so eager for that which you were not yet to have, I shall now give you that which you are ill-equipped to receive.”
It was so difficult following the twisting of his warped arguments, that for a moment I didn’t understand what he meant. My main difficulty with him was that he was insane, a pathologically disturbed personality that my mind cringed back from in pain and fear. Just as a healthy person would cringe back from touching the body of someone stricken with a flesh-rotting disease, so did my mind recoil from touching the sickness that rotted away his rationality and humanity. The storm flared and crashed outside, jarring me to my teeth; Dallan and Tammad fought inside themselves to throw off their pain and break free from their restraints, and all of it just made me dizzy and weak. When the monster started walking toward me I didn’t understand what he intended doing, and that was undoubtedly a kindness. Once he reached me and tore away most of my shortened gown with a single, savage pull, I understood more than I cared to.
Since the first day I’d met the barbarian on Central, I’d had a lot of use from the men of Rimilia, willing or otherwise, and usually otherwise. I’d called their use rape more often than I could recall, glibly tagging the actions with the entire title when all I’d known had been a small and not all that terrible corner of the reality. That dark-haired monster taught me the full meaning of the word, his mind grimly satisfied all the while, his body as uncaring about what he did as the stones of the walls around us. If I really had been an ungrown female of his people, he probably would have damaged me so badly that I might not have survived; as it was, I screamed when he forced his way into me, understanding how outrageously outsized he was only after he had done so. He brought me nothing but pain, seeking pleasure not even for himself, hurting me deliberately as a part of his twisted concept of punishment. I closed my shield tight as I screamed, fighting to keep from being overwhelmed by that savage addition to what pain I already felt, but I couldn’t block out the roars and cursing from Dallan and Tammad. They twisted where they hung, straining to break free, desperately trying to pull the monster away from me by insults and challenges. The monster ignored them as he completed his task, jarring down into me with his body, twisting and pulling at my flesh with his fingers, until he was thoroughly done and had released the strength of his need. Then he withdrew as uncaringly as he’d entered, and turned to look at his two other captives.
“You dare to attempt interference when a man disciplines a woman of his own people?” he demanded of them, his deep voice nearly a rumbling growl. “As you wished for my attention, so shall you now have it.”
He strode out of my line of vision but was back immediately carrying a heavy, braided whip of a sort I’d never seen before. The leather braiding of the whip was stained with reddish brown, and I didn’t have to wonder where the stains came from. All I wanted to do right then was curl up and hide, but I forced myself, through waves of pain, to watch what was happening. I didn’t understand how I could have opened my shield in the midst of all that was going on around me, but to my distant, confused surprised that was exactly what I had done. Watching for me involved more than just eyesight, and something in me knew that and insisted on it.
The flare of lightning and crash of thunder hid whatever sound there was as the monster released the coils of the heavy whip to snake out behind him, but they didn’t hide the various reactions coming at me. Dallan was so furious he was nearly frothing, but he hadn’t been able to free himself of the leather on his wrists, nor had he been able to ignore the pain he felt. He watched the whip with helpless rage, aching with the pain already given him, knowing there was no avoiding another dose of it. Tammad, too, was filled with rage, a towering rage so strong and wide there was room in his mind for nothing else. Pain, worry, were gone beneath the weight of it, buried and forgotten as though they had never been, as though they would never be again. His mighty body strained against the leather which bound him, unable to brace itself to pull effectively yet continuing to strain, as though will alone would part the leather. The monster looked at both of them, seeing Dallan’s fury but nothing of Tammad’s rage, and satisfaction briefly touched his mind. He had decided which of them he would hurt again first, and in his madness believed his decision logical. His muscles bunched as his arm brought the whip cracking forward, and Dallan twisted in the leather he hung by, agony exploding in his mind in the same way that the storm exploded outside. The double crash, one outer and one inner, blinded and deafened me, and when the thunder faded the monster was speaking again.