Keira's Fire

Chapter 26

I was disappointed when we rejoined the men only to learn that the fighting was at an end. The ambassador's forces that remained realized that they had no chance of resisting our numbers, and surrendered.

My biggest regret was that I didn't get to witness the ambassador's capture. I heard, though, that once his forces abandoned him, he fell to the ground, weeping and begging for mercy. The coward.

I was trying not to be angry that it was a capture and not a kill. Considering all the things he was responsible for, he deserved to die. But being the king's brother, he was sentenced to a life in prison instead. Of course, after I thought about it, I guessed that once he had a taste of living the way we had, he'd find himself wishing that they'd killed him. Which was quite a bit more satisfying than if they actually had.

By the end of the battle, the captain and all those vile officers who were just like him were dead, whether they surrendered or not, and I could finally begin to put my anger and hatred aside.

Just as General Graham promised, we were all granted pardons from the king and the men were offered a place in his army. Many of them jumped at the opportunity, not knowing any other type of life than the one we'd been living for the past several years. It was more informal, but basically the same type of life they could expect in the army. Jeremy was among those who accepted and I wasn't a bit surprised. He was born for the military.

I had to laugh when I noticed Stephen sizing up the available women. He would want to get on with his plans for a normal life and family now. He'd be only too happy to be finished with fighting for good.

I couldn't decide whether I was upset that I wasn't offered a position in the military like the men were. I suppose it was just too far fetched for them to think of a woman in that capacity, but I wouldn't have taken it anyway. It was one thing, submitting to my brother's orders on occasion. I could never volunteer to being controlled on that sort of scale. Besides, the acceptance of the men in our small group had been out of necessity and was still extremely unusual. I wouldn't find that sort of cooperation again. It didn't matter that I could best most of them with a sword or bow. I was a woman and to most men, that's all that mattered.

Although, I was torn between outrage and laughter that those sissies would never be subjected to the kind of torture I'd endured in the last few hours. It was all at the hands of Bertha, a large woman with graying hair and a limp. She was supposedly the best at making extreme cases like me beautiful, but I could swear she was trying to kill me.

She practically drowned me in a tub of freezing water before scrubbing off what felt like several layers of skin. After which, she smeared all sorts of concoctions over my face. Apparently, she deemed freckles to be along the lines of warts and wanted them gone. I didn't like them either, but I also gave up caring about my appearance for the most part, a long time ago. Something that was unheard of and deplorable to this woman.

My experiences hadn't given me any sort of preparation in dealing with Bertha and my protests fell on deaf ears. She was surprisingly strong as she wrestled me into submission again and again, only to devise some new form of torture each time she succeeded.

"There." She stood over me with her hands on her hips and a stern look on her face. "You're as close to perfect as you're going to get. Don't touch anything."

Touch anything? I could barely move. In preparation for this event the king was hosting, Bertha forced me into a corset that was two sizes too small and a green dress that must weigh fifty pounds all on it's own. Even if the shoes that were jammed onto my feet had fit, I didn't understand how anyone could stand in them. Let alone walk!

Bertha had just finished nearly ripping the hair from my head in her efforts to force it into submission. I didn't have a mirror, but it felt much too high. I wore stockings and paint on my face, and if this woman thought I was going anywhere like this, she was insane.