Quercus finally gets to Lesbania. He is intrigued that he will be crucifying a woman. He has never done one before. He talks it over with Penus Humongius. “I’ve never crucified a woman before but I guess the cross will do its deed as well on one as it would a man.”
“Once she’s nailed to it and hanging from it, her ass is mine. And she’ll lool better than a guy hanging from it. It will lift her tits instead of some bastard’s limp cock hanging between his legs” Penus says enthusiastically.
“For sure” Quercus says “but I don’t think she should carry her cross to the hill. She has a nice body but she might get worn out toting the cross.”
“So what? I am putting her to death” Penus says.
“But if she’s dead quick she won’t suffer as long. You won’t make a point if she only lasts part of a day” Quercus says. “Skip having her carry it. She’ll put on a better show if she is fresh when the cross is raised.”
Penus is disappointed Scarlett doesn’t carry the cross to the hill but she arrives fresh and only a bit sweaty.
Scarlett stands on the hilltop naked as she was born. She glares at Penus and says “So what happens now?”
“M’lady, we nail you to the cross and hang you from it until you die” Penus snarls.
Scarlett has heard of crucifixions before but had no idea what it would feel like. The thought
she would be nailed to the wood and raised to hang from it sounded totally barbaric. She was quite right about that.
A pair of soldiers grab Scarlett’s arms to take her to the cross.
Both soldiers had seen men crucified before but never had seen a woman suffer the ordeal. One of the soldiers apologized to Scarlett saying he had to crucify her. The thought of doing so was making him ill.
Scarlett, trying to salvage what bit of nobility she had let insisted she could place herself on the cross. She asked several times for directions before she was positioned on the cross. She looked up from the cross and said the wood was terribly rough.
Quercus instructed his assistants Archer and Bull to grab her arms and legs. Scarlett protested saying “That is not necessary! I will hold still.”
Quercus repeated his order and once they held her he raised the mallet and drove the first spike through her wrist.
For such a small person, it took all the effort Archer and Bull had to hold her on the cross. It did not take long to nail her. Ropes were attached to the crossbeam of the cross and they lifted the cross with Scarlett spiked to it.
As the cross neared vertical, its stipe slid into its mounting hole, jarring hard when it reached the bottom. If Scarlett thought the wood was rough when she was laying on it, it was amplified when her back slid down the stipe.
The only thing that distracted her from wood tearing into her flesh was the searing pain from the spiked as they ripped into the holes in her wrists and feet. Scarlett bucked and twisted in the confines of the spikes that displayed her on the cross.
A few minutes later, Scarlett got her breath back and in a panting voice asked “What have you done to me?”
Quercus wiped his brow and said “Crucified you. Like the view?”
“It is the only thing that will change while you are on the cross.”
One thing Quercus had found over the years he had crucified people is the condemned people have few true friends once they are hanging from the cross. Criminals condemned to the cross had usually spent any goodwill anyone might have felt towards them. Slaves that were crucified were definitely deserving of such a horrific execution. And he had found the rulers he had crucified had few loyal friends. After all, they were defeated and dying. It was time to put loyalties with the powers that put them on the cross.
Scarlett was the first woman Quercus had crucified or had even seen crucified. In Rome, women slaves were disposed of privately and swiftly, usually beheaded which was cheaper and kept with the norms of the time. Bur Scarlett was the first woman condemned to death on the cross. She hanged from the face of the cross displayed naked for all to see as she suffered the cross’ torture.
Quercus had ordered a platoon of soldiers to stand guard so no one would try to rescue her. As had happened with all the other rulers he had crucified, the crowd had little interest in saving Queen Vagina from the cross. Hanging naked from the cross, her natural beauty was prominently displayed. Certainly she deserved such a cruel execution. And hanging naked on the cross she wore none of the trappings of her royalty. It was not long the soldiers on guard were protecting her from the zealous crowd that came to gawk at the naked woman being tortured to death nailed lewdly to the cross.
Being crucified is as brutal way to kill a person. By late afternoon, Scarlett had forgotten her royal upbring and the pampered life she had led. Every joint she hanged from screamed to her the agony they were in. Tears that had filled her eyes had dried and fine dust stuck to her face, blurring her vision. She could no longer feel or move her hands. And every breath was a labor of life.
Sometime during the night, death mercifully paid Scarlett a visit to end her torture. Quercus arrived on the hill early the next morning. He looked over Scarlett’s body both pleased she had died and annoyed her suffering end so soon.
He paid some of the locals a few gold coins to take her down and discretely bury her body. They worked quickly to remove their late queen. Quercus had paid them more than they made in months of work.
Quercus was rewarded for his efforts and was made the governor of Sicily. The Romans had a joke the island was being ‘kicked’ from the main land but Quercus didn’t mind. He found being a governor came with a great deal of perks. Besides, it relieved him of his service in the army that he was not that good at and had tired of its nomadic life.
But Quercus would soon learn being a governor came responsibilities. How he handled them were greatly influenced by his background in the army…
