The Tattooed Woman Pt. 05

The archway was sealed by iron bars that ran from floor to ceiling forming a gaol of sorts. Within the two dark Elves could see a pair of young human women trying to comfort more than a dozen or so smaller forms, obviously children. The two Elves had moved silently and in the pitch darkness the night-blind humans were oblivious to their presence though they stood in front of the bars with only a few yards separating them.

However, the children...

More than a few of the children stirred and peered through the gloom, obviously aware of them, whimpering in fear at their approach. The two women fumbled blindly as they tried to wrap their arms protectively around the figures and one spoke, "Please, don't hurt them, I'll go. Y-y- you can take me, in their p-place."

Nyx looked at the Captain for a moment before drawing a small glass sphere from her pouch. She muttered a cantrip and the orb began to give off a soft glow. Even this small light proved painful to the eyes of those in the cell and they blinked in surprise as they regarded the two mail-clad dark Elves standing before them.

Ashunara muttered, "What price this I wonder?"

Nyx was typically blunt, "Who the fuck are you?"

One of the young women hid her face with a whimper of obvious terror, but the other, the one who had already spoken appeared to be made of somewhat sterner stuff, "We're novices, I'm Hildegard, she's Roseanne," the woman pointed to the hanging corpse, "that was Alicent."

"Why ain't you dead, poisoned like the rest?"

"We played a jest and were caught giggling. So, we were thrashed and put abed without supper."

Nyx shook her head in near amazement, "Lucky break for you I wager. Who are these children?"

"They are foundlings. Our order takes in foundlings. Women sometimes escape from Fae lands, sometimes they are with child. We, humans that is, are not kind to children with fae blood. They are... well they are seen by many as a sign of great shame or even wickedness in the mother. Some are smothered, some hidden, a few are left at temple doors as foundlings. Our order takes them in if we can. We are far enough from human cities in this remote place to go unnoticed, and..."

Ashunara nodded, "Close enough to our borders that the children can perhaps make it back into the Fae realm if they have a mind to one day mayhap?"

The novice nodded.

The Captain looked at the woman, "I'm sorry to say that your Order is no more girl, all but you have perished. Why did the creature not slay you as well I wonder?"

"He... It, said we would live so long as we kept the children quiet. Alicent refused, so he strangled her and hung her there as an... example. It... it shames me but I was frightened, so," her voice fell to a whisper as tears trickled down her face, "so I obeyed."

Nyx grunted, "No shame in wanting to live lass, besides it's not like you could have fought him. We're almost a dozen strong and armed to the teeth and the bastard still almost did for us."

The girl sobbed, "But he would come. He would come and take a child and... and we did nothing."

"I don't think there was anything you could have done to stop him, and if you had tried you'd both be dead, and these poor souls would have had nobody left. They would have still suffered, but they would have suffered alone."

Ashunara turned to Nyx with a sigh, "We're going to have to stay here for a bit, Tallis and Lashelle need a day before they can travel at any speed, and my fucking head is still ringing. From what I'm hearing the dormitory in this place should be clear of corpses. Everyone looks to have been killed at supper, in the infirmary, or upstairs in the temple. Take the Orcs and dump the bodies out of sight, we'll use the dormitory as a resting place tonight. We can hole up, get a fire started and the like. There should still be some apples and potatoes and whatnot still unrotted in the gardens and orchard outside, we can set Azure to hunting up some small game and make a broth, at least that way we'll know nothing is poisoned. We'll leave first thing on the morrow."

Nyx nodded back at the cell, "What about them?"

"That bears thinking on."

The Sergeant looked troubled, "If we take them with us our progress, which is already slower than I'd like, will be reduced to a bloody crawl."

"You'd have me leave them Nyx?"

"No. In truth I would not, but it's my job to point out annoying little details like the fact that taking them with us will almost certainly get us all killed."

"Fair enough, but what else can I do? If we leave them they die, if they flee they starve in the wilds or are taken by bandits, and if they somehow make our frontier they'll be enslaved by the border guard."

The young novice must have heard her muttering and came close to the bars, "Take us with you please! Don't leave us here I beg you."

Ashunara turned to her, "I'm a slaver lass, not some knight errant on shining steed here to rescue those in distress. I needs must consider the safety of mine own company as well."

"A slaver?"

"Aye, I'm afraid so."

The woman stared at the Captain and her voice was pleading, "Then take me as a slave! I'd go willingly to that fate if you'll but help the children. I'm young, I can work, I'll cause you no problems I swear, and I don't eat much. Mayhap Roseanne would agree also?"

At the back of the chamber, the more frightened woman stared down at her hands and wept, obviously terrified, but she nodded still.

Nyx looked back and forth between the woman and Ashunara, "Er Captain, a word if you please."

Walking a little away the veteran whispered, "You're not really going to enslave them after what's happened here, are you? I mean that's cold, even for us."

The Captain grinned, "Would it trouble you, Sergeant?"

"A bit."

Ashunara scratched a pointed ear and considered, "We'll sign them up as voluntary slaves for a couple of years or so. That gets them over the border safely, then we sell or just donate the contracts to the sisters at the Temple of All Gods back home. That's where we'll end up taking the children anyway, and they'll treat them kindly enough. For sure they'll work, sweeping the temple, feeding and administering charity to the poor and such, but I doubt it would be any different to what they do now. Then after a few years, they're free to do as they will."

Nyx grinned, "Never know, might just buy us a favour with the Gods, and damned if we're not going to need one to get home, and I'd bet a gold dragon that given the alternatives they stay after their indenture was over."

The Captain gave the veteran a wry grin, "Speaking of gold dragons, I heard a rumour that you gave one to that wee slave girl, the one Varonna struck?"

"Er... I may have, though I suspect she somehow thinks it's from you, and if anyone asks, I'll flat deny it."

Ashunara threw back her head and laughed, "You great big softy! Oh fear not Sergeant, your secret is safe with me for sure. Though one day I may need a favour and you wouldn't want me letting slip to the recruits that Sergeant Nyx actually has a heart after all would you?"

Nyx grumbled, "You can fuck right off, Sir. I'm away to get things organised."

Still chuckling the Captain turned back to the bars, "I accept your offer young one. You'll come with us. You'll wear a collar and go into service, but I won't be putting you on the auction block. I might have a gentler fate planned for you both. We can discuss it over supper. We're making some preparations upstairs so for now it's best you stay here for a while, just a while I promise. But there are... things best not seen by young eyes, and it will take a bit for us to conceal them, do you understand?"

The woman nodded fearfully, "B... but you will free us, yes?"

"You have my word on it. Here take this orb so you can at least have a little light to see by. I need to go and help, but I'll return as soon as I'm able, and then we'll get you out of that damned cage. You've both been very brave, just hold on for a little longer."

"P-p-please! You will come back?"

Ashunara reached to touch the woman's hand and stepped close to the bars so she could look her in the eye, "I may be a Dark Elf, and a slaver to boot, but I'd not leave anyone in this place, I promise."

Once the Dark Elf had gone Hildegard quickly began to shiver again as the fear of being left in this hellish place grew. She clutched the glowing little orb in her hand like it was a lifeline and wrapped an arm around her fellow Novice as she tried to comfort her as best she could.

Roseanne was a short chubby girl, with brown hair that framed red cheeks and a button nose. She had always been a timid sort, quiet and studious, but Hildegard knew she had a kindly heart. She had been some farmer's daughter in a family with too many mouths to feed, so she had been sent to the priory to serve. It was sadly not an uncommon tale in these troubled times.

Hildegard hugged her friend tightly as the girl trembled, "Hey now Rose, don't weep, we're going to get out of this."

The shorter woman whimpered, "B-but Dark Elves? Sister Superior said they were soulless demons who'd enslave us as whores for the pleasure of some dark God."

Hildegard giggled and wiped the girl's eyes, "I don't think so. I looked into the eyes of that one and while I don't think I would describe her as the kindliest soul I've ever seen I'm as convinced as I can be that she has one at least. Besides, evil or not I think I'd happily fuck a host of demons if it gets us out of this hellish place."

Roseanne giggled and blushed, "Hilde! You're so brazen," she squeezed her friend's hand and swallowed nervously, "what do you think it will be like being a slave? Will they beat us?"

"I doubt it will be much different to here, more hard work, and a birch rod for slacking I expect. But she promised to help the children at least, and I'll be damned before I let them down again!"

Roseanne looked up at her friend and squeezed her hand again as she spoke gently, "There was nothing you could do Hilde, except die uselessly. I thought Alicent was the bravest girl I knew, and she stood up to that thing, but at the end of the day, and love her even as I did, all she could do was leave us here alone. You're hurting, I know, but sometimes... sometimes I think it takes greater courage to endure and live, than to yield to pride and die for nothing."

It took more than an hour but eventually, the bodies were hidden, though there were many ominous black stains and drag marks left to mark their passing. The dormitory was a long bleak chamber of cheerless cubbyholes each with a simple rough bed and little else. The chamber had a small grange and fireplace that was unlikely to provide much warmth, and there was a communal bathing area at the far end where a hand pump provided a flow of icy water. One bedchamber was slightly larger than the others, with a curtain for privacy and a small private fireplace of its own, but other than a holy symbol fixed to the wall above the doorway it was as spartan as the rest. Nyx had thought to put the Captain there but she'd settled for a place on the floor by the fire and given the bed to Tallis and Lashelle.

Ashunara grinned, "What a shithole," she looked at Nyx, "think I've changed my mind. I've decided not to become a nun after all."

Nyx laughed and shook her head, "Like they'd fucking have ye, and if'n they did like as not you'd burn the place to the ground out of sheer boredom by weeks end."

Soon enough fires and lamps were lit, providing some warmth, and illumination for the night-blind humans. During her exploration Azure had discovered a small herd of goats in a pen to the rear of the priory and now an extremely large, and very well-scrubbed, pot had been filled with a heartening goatmeat and vegetable stew, with apples and berries aplenty for dessert. A sealed keg of cider provided a little good cheer and there was goat's milk for the children.

Hildegard and Roseanne sat huddled on a bed looking at the bowls of hot food they'd been given as Ashunara sat on the floor by the door with her back to a wall chewing an apple as she watched the two young women. The children were abed and sleeping in an exhausted and traumatised slumber.

The Dark Elf had pressed mugs filled with hot spiced cider into the hands of the two novices and she watched them keenly as she sipped from a mug of her own.

Hildegard regarded the brew, "We can drink this? T'is usually served only on festival days."

Ashunara chuckled as she stretched her legs out in front of her with a sigh, "It's not coming with us so drink your fill if you like. Get as shit-faced as you fancy, as long as you're fit to travel in the morning."

Roseanne sipped nervously and then drank the whole thing down before wiping her mouth with her sleeve and looking up. The Captain laughed and pushed the jug across to her, "That's better! Here lass, refill your tankard. You've more than earned it I'd say."

Hildegard stared at the Dark Elf openly and Ashunara grinned, "This one has guts. I wonder if I'd be so brave in her place?"

"Captain, don't think me ungrateful for what you've done, but what's to happen to us?"

The Dark Elf looked into her mug and pursed her lips, "Well human, you've agreed to enter our service in exchange for protection for you and the children. I've accepted, so now you're to be a slave of the Dark Elves. Ours to do with as we wish."

Roseanne's hands trembled at the words as she refilled her tankard, and Hildegard swallowed nervously before she spoke, "A deal's a deal Captain. I swore to cause you no problems, and I won't. I was not always a sister, I'm... I'm not unfamiliar with rough use, but Roseanne is a gentle soul, can I as least beg for some kindness for her?"

Ashunara smiled, "We are not a kindly people Hildegard, but I'll not be selling you to some cruel mistress if that's what you fear. We have a religious order of sorts, not entirely unlike your own, I suppose. They tend to the 'Temple of All Gods' and administer to the poor and the lost, as well as looking after orphans and the like until such time as they can be adopted by another of our houses, either as servants, or family. I will be taking your children to them, and I thought to leave you in the charge of the sisters there. They always have a need for a willing pair of hands."

"What would we do?"

"You'd work of course, until such time as they deemed our bargain complete, and then you'd be freed to do as you will."

"Could we still pray to our own Gods?"

Ashunara refilled the tankards, "The sisters recognise all Gods, known and unknown, Human, Eldar and Fae alike. As long as it does not interfere with your work, I imagine you could pray to your heart's content if you had a mind to."

Roseanne peeked up from under her fringe, "I didn't think Dark Elves prayed."

"We don't. We acknowledge the existence of the Gods and respect their power, but we ask nothing of them, Dark Elves do not beg for favours. But the sisters of the temple are well respected, nonetheless. You could learn many skills from them if you fancied. In truth you might be best served to speak to Lashelle, she was an orphan and raised by the sisters until the army bought her."

"They bought her! Is she a slave?"

"No, but it was expected that she repay the sisters for her upkeep as a child so she was indentured into army life until that debt was paid. To willfully shirk such a burden would have been a shameful thing. The army paid the sisters and Lashelle paid the army through years of hard work and loyal service. She is long free of the burden now though, her honour more than satisfied."

"Are you Dark Elven soldiers then?"

"Yes and no young one. In truth, we have all served in the army, some of us for centuries, but we are a free company now, sellswords I suppose you'd call us. But still loyal to our kind, and our banner would answer if the Crown or our houses called us to arms."

Hildegard looked thoughtful, "I think I'm beginning to understand. Everything is seen as a transaction of sorts by your kind, is this not so?"

"Clever girl. In great part at least that is true, but we also have a tendency to think that "might is right" I suppose, and so we sometimes take what we can from those too weak to stop us."

"Like slaves?"

Ashunara sipped her drink and raised the tankard as if toasting the girl, "Exactly so."

The little mousey novice spoke up again, "What skills could I learn? I didn't have much schooling, I was raised in the nunnery, and I got taught my letters here, I can cook and clean and sister Agathea was to teach me how to tend the sick and mix poultices and the like. Would I... could I still learn such things, if maybe I worked hard?"

"I don't see why not. Many sisters are skilled doctors, midwives, herbalists and apothecaries, and it would be a useful craft. I doubt they'd object to teaching you."

Roseanne looked up, "Doctors? Women cannot be doctors. Nurses and midwives surely, but not doctors, t'is only men that can be such. Is that not what the scriptures say?"

This time the Captain couldn't help but laugh and Roseanne blushed, "Oh dear Gods I'll never tire of humans! Some of our finest surgeons learned their craft with the sisters, they blend healing magic, alchemy and medical knowledge, and can damn near raise a woman from the dead!"

"But surely I couldn't learn such things, I barely have my letters and I'm a slave now to boot."

"Perhaps not the magic, but you never know. As for the rest, why not? All it takes is time, hard work, and a willingness to learn. But remember, as Hildegard says, with us, it's a transaction. If they teach you such skills, you'd be expected to pay them back, probably by serving as some surgeons' apprentice, or perhaps as an army nurse. Depending on what you'd learned that might take a decade or more. You would not be entirely free, though not quite a slave, but you would serve until your discharge."

The Captain took another sip of her drink, "What of you Hildegard? What would make your new life easier for you?"

The tall woman looked across at the Dark Elf and grinned, "My life has never been easy Captain, and I don't doubt it will remain thus. When I was barely out of my teens my father sold me to a brothel in lieu of debt. Then, when the church came, despite servicing more than a few priests in my time I was taken to the gaol where the jailers had their way with me. Afterwards, I was offered a choice: to be branded on the cheek with a hot iron by the hangman and then whipped from the town square to the edge of the shire and there cast out to starve, or I could join the church as a novice. It seemed a simple enough decision."

"Did they treat you well here?"

"In truth, I was treated no worse than others, I'll give them that. Sister Superior was a dour humourless bitch, but she was the same to all. We were fed, had a roof over our heads and other than the occasional beating for laughing too loudly or whatever, we were not misused. It could have been worse."

Ashunara laughed, "And now it is eh?"

The nun grinned, "As you say, Captain."

"Damned, if I'm not beginning to like you human. At least you have a sense of humour. You seem to like children no?"

Hildegard smiled, "I suppose..."

"Would you ever consider bearing an Elven child of your own?"

"WHAT?"

The Captain stirred her drink, "We, my kind that is, we have very few offspring and no male children of our own. We do not know why but it has been thus for more than a millennium. Since the end of the Morrigan's War, I think. It is surmised by those of our kind who consider such things that it is a curse placed upon us, but in truth, nobody really has an answer. But we have learned that our kind can mate with humans, sometimes the offspring are near fully human, sometimes what you might call "half-elven", and sometimes fully Dark-Elven. But more importantly, such a child has a chance of being male. Any woman who bore a male Dark Elf, slave or no, would be greatly honoured. The great houses would almost fight to adopt her and her offspring, and if a slave she would be instantly freed.