Part 13:
Rego dismounted before the stone platform and led his captive up the stone steps to the whipping posts. Yupar was held back by the soldiers in the column. Rego shoved Kirana to the post on the left, with her back to it, so that she faced him and the grinning Brutus with a glare that almost masked the dread in her big, dark eyes. Rego, silent and solemn, was being rough. He cut her bonds, only to force her hands behind the post and tie her there. Then he removed the signboard and the rope around her neck, and without any pause suddenly tore her gown down the middle, from the neckline to the girdle. Kirana knew that she would be stripped, but she was nonetheless unprepared for the suddenness and savageness of it, and at Rego's hand! When she finally came somewhat to terms with the exposure of her shoulders, breasts, and belly, Rego had finished tugging the fabric down so that, while her sleeves still clung uselessly to her wrists behind her, her entire torso was bare above her girdle. She searched Rego's face earnestly for some sign of warmth, but he was utterly inscrutable.
Then he turned to Brutus. "Brutus Vorcus," he said, "I have brought this enemy of the empire all the way from Amunia so that she may suffer at your hand. Crucify this woman, that she may learn what it is to defy Rome!" The crowd cheered wildly, and Rego ceremonially transferred the princess into Brutus' hands with a dramatic wave of his arm. Kirana's legs were trembling, and she was glad they were still covered by her gown. Meanwhile she was very aware of the thousands of eyes trained on her bare breasts and dark nipples, and the cool April air filtering over them. It was not difficult to see that the skin of her breasts and torso was whiter than the olive tones of her arms and face. She almost wished for the beating to begin, so that she could lose her gnawing shame in an ocean of pain.
There were several buckets of what appeared to be water sitting on the platform a little way from Kirana, and Brutus dipped a small clay bowl into one of them and offered it to her. She was skeptical, and at first did not take it, but Brutus turned to look knowingly at Yupar below, then back to Kirana, and she obeyed, drinking the liquid. It was not unpleasant, and Kirana recognized at once the taste of one of the herbs in it - lalath they called it in Amunia. It was one of the herbs she had used to treat Rego's wound the first night she had seen him. She guessed she knew Brutus' secret to "duration."
"Good!" said Brutus, when she had finished. "Now Princess," he said, taking up a thick wooden rod, almost as big around as a man's fist, and pacing in front of her "I'm going to strike you with this rod." Kirana swallowed and worked her clenched lips, trying to prepare herself. "But I don't know where you'd like to be struck!" The crowd laughed, and he turned for a moment to laugh with them. "So tell me each time if you would like a blow high, low, left, right, or middle. You can do that, can't you? It will help us form a collaborative relationship as we go through the day." Again, laughter. Kirana glared hard. Perhaps if she glared hard enough her muscles would stop quivering. "Good! Let's begin!" And he looked to her for instruction.
"Left," she said through her teeth. Brutus had already wound up for a terrific blow, and the rod landed with a sickening thud against Kirana's left ribs. She winced and jerked to the right, suppressing her urge to cry out in pain.
"Hurry!" said Brutus, immediately after.
"Right."
Whoosh - THUD! Her mouth and eyes flew open with shock as she jerked back to the left, but she did not cry, and her involuntary whimper was too quiet for the crowd to hear.
"Middle!" she shouted, to conquer the tears burning behind her eyes.
The blow landed with a softer thud, just below her sternum, and she doubled over, unable to breath.
"Hurry!" Brutus coaxed her with glee, and her mouth, gaping like that of a fish out of water, formed the shapes for "left," but her voice would not come. "Very well," said the executioner, "if you don't want to tell me, we'll give your maid a turn!" She tried to protest, but her voice was still gone.
Yupar was brought to the platform and tied to the second whipping post, though she was not stripped.
"Left," Kirana finally managed to croak.
"Left it is!" crowed Brutus, then landed a brutal blow to Yupar's left side, causing her to groan and come to tears like a little girl. Kirana could hardly bear to see it.
"Well?" Brutus was looking to Kirana. She closed her eyes in despair and rolled her head from side to side, realizing that she must now dictate the next blow to Yupar.
"Right," she said finally. THUD - and Yupar's cry. This went on for six more blows before Brutus returned to the princess.
"I suppose now I'll find you more collaborative," he said. "Where shall we begin?" Kirana's face was drifting toward despair, though plenty of the determined glare remained.
"High." WHACK - across her nipples. She inhaled the urge to scream, robbing it almost completely if sound.
"Left." THUD!
"Right." THUD!
And so it went on, until Brutus was satisfied. "Good! I hope you've enjoyed this as much as I have!" he said, then swung again, striking her especially hard in her exposed belly, where she had not directed him since the first time. Again she doubled over, gasping, unable to breathe. "Well, now that we've given you your massage," the crowd laughed, interrupting him, "let's tie you up properly and have you flogged! This can't all be fun and games, you know. This is a crucifixion, after all. You're going to have to take some pain."
Yupar was unbound and returned to her place with the soldiers as Brutus' assistants untied her, then positioned her between the two posts, tying one wrist to each, above her head. Her bare feet, though free, could barely touch the stone below her. She felt doubly exposed and vulnerable this way, with her arms spread wide above her and nothing but cool air both in front and behind her. Her bruised breasts and chest throbbed, bare before the crowd. Her back tingled, awaiting the whip. She thought of Grontus' whipping. She almost panicked. She could not see Yupar. She didn't know where Rego was. She didn't know what Brutus and his assistants were doing behind her, or when the first lash would slice through her soft skin. She could only wait.
(To be continued...)
Great tension.
