Part 21:
The ridge was not a high one. Kirana's head was only a little above those of the tallest men in the crowd as she knelt before her stipes, arms and shoulders back, breasts bared, her platibulum on the scrubby ground before her. Waiting. There were hundreds of them, all crowding around her, screaming insults, mocking her, held just a few paces away by a squad of guards. She waited, her bruised ribs aching, her lacerated back burning. Brutus and his men had left her and were busy with something on the other side of the road. Who was Maximus?
Suddenly two men carrying crosses emerged from the throng before her, driven by more guards or soldiers. She hadn't noticed them until they appeared from the crowd. They wore only rough, dusty loincloths and the tituli around their necks. One was very young - probably not old enough to shave - and rather thin. There was frenzied terror in his wide eyes. The other was older, with gray in his beard, though his shoulder-length hair was still thick and mostly dark. His face was tanned and creased, and his stomach bulged just a little despite his muscular frame. He looked bitter and resigned. The younger was "Benjamin - Thief," and the older "Lemuel - Murderer."
They marched up the ridge right next to Kirana. Benjamin looked at her with scared eyes unchanged. Lemuel grimaced at her and let out a bitter snort.
"Did you bring this crowd to watch us?" he asked, and spat at her. She could only watch, half pitying them, half dreading her own fate. She had seen men hanging on the crosses, but she had never actually seen a man being nailed down.
"Uncle," whined Benjamin.
"Shut up, you little whelp!" the older man growled. The guards snickered, leading the two criminals to adjacent crosses with one cross between them and Kirana. They set down their platibula and were left standing in their loincloths for a moment.
"Uncle, I'm sorry..." whined Benjamin. An executioner came behind the boy and tugged his loincloth off his hips so that it fell to his ankles. He shuddered in his nakedness.
"You know, Ben," said Lemuel, as an executioner came behind him to strip him of his last garment, "I told your father you were too stupid to work with us." The loincloth fell, and he kicked it away, glaring at his nephew. "I knew you'd get us killed, and I was right."
The guards then shoved the older man to the ground and began binding his arms to the beam. Benjamin still stood with his legs together, his loincloth around his ankles. As an executioner approached him, he looked ready to cry with fright. "I need to pee," he squeaked.
"Oh?" said the executioner, smiling. Then he led the naked boy over to Kirana. "Pee on her," he ordered. With nothing in his wide eyes but fear and shame, Benjamin looked at the princess and let his urine flow to land on her naked chest. It stung her open wounds, and she looked up at him, unable to hate him, unable to believe the humiliation she was being made to endure.
"In her face, too," prodded the executioner, and the boy raised the stream to hit her forehead, her nose and eyes, and her soft cheeks. Kirana shook her head to avoid it, but with little effect other than to get it all over her. Then it was over, and she watched, urine dripping down her face, down her neck, down her chest, as Benjamin was led back to be tied to his cross. With her hands manacled behind her, she could only shake her head, squint her eyes, and blow through her lips and nose to minimize the discomfort of the dripping urine on her face.
Next she heard an unearthly roar from Lemuel, and realized they had just begun nailing him to his cross. She knew that having the nail driven through her wrist would be painful - probably more painful than anything she had ever experienced - but she was unprepared for such a desperate roar from such a strong, grown man. It sent shivers through her as she watched, albeit from some distance, as Lemuel's cross was on the other side of Benjamin's. Again came the roar, and again, each time weaker and more despairing. She could tell the man's body was bucking and twisting and kicking and writhing as they drove in the nails. Her heart pounded and her stomach flipped. Soon - very soon - she would be nailed in the same way to the beam lying before her in the dust and scrub.
Soon Benjamin was screaming and howling hysterically. How much would it hurt to be nailed to the wood? Is there a limit to pain? Would she howl and flip around like a fish, as these men did? Would she have any choice?
Kirana couldn't help but watch as the men were hoisted, screaming, onto their stipes.
Soon Brutus was before her again.
"Maximus is here!" he shouted eagerly in her urine-dripping face, gesturing eastward, up the road, away from the city.
(To be continued...)