I cuff you soundly in the teeth. You ARE trouble, aren't you?As they drag my bleeding body across the gravel and toss me onto the cart,
I say 'thankyou' to the guards - they're only doing their job,
and not being made to stagger along the road on my tortured legs is some mercy.
I croak softly to Barbaria, you've a good spirit, slavegirl,
dead right not to let them use me as a hostage to change your mind.
Whatever the truth about your sister, keep resisting -
we're just meat for tonight's torture-feast,
they're going to get us writhing on our crosses no matter what you tell them,
so don't tell them a thing!
I grab one of the lictors' whips, take aim, and sting your delicate crotch. You're supposed to be on your feet in that cart, slave girl! Pick up your cross and show yourself to this crowd!Eul and I have both been tossed on the cart now, and the procession has started. The cart lurches on it's crude axles and rumbles over the cobbles. We slide and slide about, the floor of the cart made slippery with our blood. I reach out at one point to wipe her mouth, which is bleeding after he cuffed her in the teeth. Gasping for breath, weak and shivering from shock and exhaustion, we make our solemn pact to divulge nothing of use to them ... we will see this through together ... noble woman and commoner ... and show no weakness.
I grab one of the lictors' whips, take aim, and sting your delicate crotch. You're supposed to be on your feet in that cart, slave girl! Pick up your cross and show yourself to this crowd!
Legs spread a bit wider, please!Owww... I grab the cross and struggle to my feet, holding on to the cart's railings for support. We make our way through boisterous throngs, turned out in their thousands, excited about a day's entertainment at the expense of the two unfortunates in the cart. Some are throwing things. I am struck repeatedly, mostly by rotten produce of various kinds. The taunts and jeers, the insults just keep coming. Eul sprawls at my feet. I take the abuse to allow her a chance to regroup.
Get out of there and pick up your cross! That's right, bend over to pick it up. No, stay bent over and pull that loincloth down. I've got a cane for you! (When I'm done you can cover up again with the loincloth.)I am unable to maintain my footing in this lurching, shaking cart, and fall ... letting go of my cross and falling against Eul who has hauled herself to her knees. Together we go down in a heap of quivering flesh, sweat and blood. Slowly we untangle ourselves, taking several rude lashes from our handlers, and struggle back to our knees. My cross slides off the back of the cart and clatters to the cobbled road, just as the shadow of the great gate passes over us. In the sunshine on the other side, alongside the road is the place of execution with its sinister array of gibbets, platforms, wheels and crosses. A crowd has already gathered, stretching out in all directions, with only a single break ... the one through which our cart now rumbles, taking us to the place where we will together suffer a long and agonizing death.
So you want to die out there? Not in the busy market square?I am unable to maintain my footing in this lurching, shaking cart, and fall ... letting go of my cross and toppling over against Eul who has hauled herself to her knees. Together we go down in a heap of quivering flesh, sweat and blood. Slowly we untangle ourselves, taking several rude lashes from our handlers, and struggle back to our knees. My cross slides off the back of the cart and clatters to the cobbled road, just as the shadow of the great gate passes over us. In the sunshine on the other side, alongside the road is the place of execution with its sinister array of gibbets, platforms, wheels and crosses. A crowd has already gathered, stretching out in all directions, with only a single break ... the one through which our cart now rumbles, taking us to the place where we will together suffer a long and agonizing death.
Oh, that's what Eulalia tells you, is it? How much experience does a noblewoman like her have hanging on a cross?All the grabbing and pawing is shameful and repulsive, but if a noblewoman like Eul can take, so can I. I flinch, though, every time one to these ruffians gets hold of one of my nipples, and shudder with revulsion whenever one of them succeeds in grabbing my crotch or rudely probes my sex. The guards finally offer them a bargain ... and the molesting ceases ... as we are dragged toward our waiting crosses, Eul tells me its good ... once we are naked and nailed, we will have bigger things to worry about than invasive hands.