The Tattooed Princess

The Kingdom in Turmoil

        Back in her chamber alone for two days and nights, Zaria could only anticipate  what Sharvur's next move would be to punish her. Although it was the dead of winter in those frozen climes, and a blizzard had struck the Payzryk tribe, covering the tented cities in snow, the king had ordered a party of fifty soldiers with five of his best generals to go out into the oblivion to try and locate the Amazons. It was rumored that he had offered a lifetime room in the palace for any man who brought back Aella to Sharvur for his revenge.

            For Zaria this was no relief from what she expected to soon be her next night in Sharvurs bed chamber, and with it the horrors of what the eager general Arpada had to offer her. The humiliation and disgust she had experienced at the king's commands and under the physical assault of his new weapon of torture, made Zaria want Sharvur dead more than at any other time in her tenure as his slave and princess. She was at  that point uncertain as to whether he had totally given up his belief in the power of her virginity—something he had wholeheartedly believed in until Aella's brutal assault upon his manhood. Whether he still believed in Zaria's apotropaic powers for his kingdom or not, she now feared the worst. This would certainly mean her next encounter with Arpada on the new makeshift bed below Sharvur's own. And this could only be a painfully brutal and even more humiliating demise for her.

            That next evening as Zaria lay on her bed, trying to imagine being safely in the arms of Tsudros, the guards allowed Branka in to see her fellow slave, however briefly.

            "They say you were raped by the one they call Sharvur's bull, Zaria. Is that true dear sister?"

            "No . . . I was not. Thankfully, he did not finish with me. Sharvur stopped him. . . just before."

            "Do you think that means he . . . still believes in you?"

            "I don't know what it means, Branka. Since the king has been so injured, he is not himself. No one can guess what he will do next. But I fear if I go back to his bedroom tonight  my virginity will be taken . . .harshly and for his own entertainment. And then he will have no other reason to keep me alive."

            "I too fear his wrath, Zaria. Perhaps as much as you. For once he finishes this cruel game with you, he will ask for me . . . each night to entertain him with . . .that monster whom they say has the equipment of a real bull."

            "Yes. He is big. But this is a pain we can endure, Branka. It is our lives I fear for now."

            "I have heard that Svetlana and Murka sleep together now . . . each night again. Even though she is with child." A slight smile came over her face.

            Zaria tried to smile as well. "Murka is a man cut from a different cloth, my sister. Svetlana will have a life both of us will envy. As long . . . or as short, as we shall live."

            "But I am happy for her," Branka beamed.

            "Perhaps you will find such a life yourself . . . with Moshtok, now that his sister has found a mate. And if you are able to . . ."

            "Escape?"

            "Yes. Escape."

            "Moshtok has already pledged he will help me with this freedom. And accompany me back to our people. He knows the language and he grew up there. As a boy. We had planned to run away in the spring. When the Stepp is passable and he can secretly arrange for two horses and suplies. But now, with Sharvur like this . . . I would gladly take my chances into the snow. Even tonight if it were possible to escape."