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1. Prison
Clara shuddered as she listened to the commotion downstairs. By the goddess, the guards had followed
her to Maria’s tavern. She could hear them shouting and Maria’s screamed response. At least Maria
had kept her word but Clara was concerned that her willingness to protect her friend could result in her
being dragged off to the Riverwake Tower and clapped in irons, or worse. The walled city of Irulan
was by no means a safe place, even for an experienced member of the thieves’ guild, but the notorious
Riverwake Tower, was a hellhole. Clara shuddered as she remembered her last stay there, five years
ago, before the subsequent whipping she received in the town square in front of the crowds. She did not
want Maria to suffer a similar fate, but neither did she want to end up there herself. Memories of the
foul, stinking cells, where prisoners were held naked, chained with ankle fetters to the wall, made her
flinch.
She could hear the guards coming upstairs now. Despite Maria’s best efforts, it was clear that she had
failed in her attempts to convince the night watch that no thieves of the guild were staying in her
isolated tavern this night. Clara backed away from the door and began to pull on her boots, slipping a
dagger into one and then making for the skylight in the roof of the garret room.
Doors were being kicked in along the corridor, accompanied by the myriad shouts and screams of
interrupted guests. She opened the skylight and jumped up, pulling herself lithely onto the roof, her
dark hair blown by the breeze outside, just as the door was kicked in and armed men began to enter.
Gasping, she pulled herself onto the roof as the point of a crossbow bolt was pushed into her neck.
“That’s far enough thief!” The sight of three crossbows, wielded by the men on the roof, was enough to
convince her to stay still…
***
Clara and Maria were pushed through the city streets. Clara still wore the blouse and leather trews and
boots, though her hands had been bound behind her back. Maria too had been bound, wearing only the
pale dress and sandals that she had worn in the tavern.
“They…They’re taking us to the Riverwake Tower,” Maria whispered, fearful, her brown hair
cascading around her face. Maria had seen her fortieth summer, around ten years older than Clara.
Shivering now in the night air, Clara could see that she dreaded being taken to the awful prison by the
city wall.
Clara tried to blank out the memories that filled her head as they were taken inside the gates of the
Riverwake.
“Maria,” she whispered. “They will have us stripped, put in ankle fetters in a stinking cell…but…I will
get us out…do you understand?”
Maria, shaking, nodded her understanding. The guards were rough, but knew their place, and had not
interfered overtly with the women on the way to the prison. That they would leave to the Captain of the
guard.
Clara stared at the large man behind the wooden desk, smelling the stench emanating from the spiral
staircase that led to the dungeons below. A scream pierced the gloom and Maria gasped. They both
stood in front of the professional looking officer, as he surveyed them.
“What have they done?”
“This one,” the guard said gruffly, pushing Clara, “…decided to put up a fight when we tried to arrest
her in a brawl. She ran to this one’s tavern,” he finished by pushing Maria, who grunted and almost
fell.
The Captain nodded, eyeing both of the women, rubbing the growth of dark stubble on his chin. He
pointed at Maria.
“Put this one in chains…she’ll probably get the whip…eighty lashes, Innkeep,” he nodded gruffly at
her as he spoke, taking little pleasure in his work. Maria’s gasp of horror was drowned out as he added
with a snarl, “Take her away!”
Maria was dragged toward the spiral staircase, realising that her protests would fall on deaf ears. Clara
could hear the sound of her dress being torn away and her subsequent screams.
Captain Lared looked at the remaining woman in front of him. He had served in the Duke’s army since
he had been a young man and had recently been given governance of the Riverwake.
“You show little fear woman!”
Clara stared at him. “I’ve been here before.”
Lared looked back. “I see…you bear a brand then?”
Clara nodded slowly.
“Strip her.”
Clara made no sound as the guards ripped away her blouse then undid her trousers. She was pushed to
the floor as her boots were removed, her loincloth ripped away.
She slowly stood up, shivering as the guards pulled her by her still bound wrists.
Her bare breasts rose and fell as she breathed, staring now at the Captain, as he in turn studied her large
breasts and the single branded letter that he saw there. He rose slowly and came toward her. Despite
her nakedness she remained defiant, gritting her teeth as she was inspected.
“You have been branded,” he whispered, cupping her right breast, tracing his finger around the letter
that indicated that she had been punished for thievery as she shuddered. “Were you whipped, or made
to ride the horse?”
“I…I was whipped.”
He smiled, then considered her naked form, serious once more.
“How many lashes?”
“Eighty,” she replied curtly.
“And yet you risk more punishment by fighting with the watch and no doubt, remaining with the
thieves’ guild here in Irulan?” He walked behind her now, tracing his hand across the whitening marks
of the lashes that she had received five years past. She writhed at his touch, held fast by the guards.
“It will be the galley for you this time!”
Clara swallowed nervously, betraying her fear for the first time.
“The…galley?”
“Yes. Condemned to row at the oar, amidst the filth and stench of the sweating women. Chained by the
ankles, under the whip.”
“Let…Let Maria go. It’s me you want.”
“Admirable…I’m sure, but she is guilty of harbouring you from the city watch, and will most likely be
whipped herself.”
Clara gasped at the thought that Maria might face the lash and tried to turn.
“I ...can persuade you to let her go.”
“Oh? How is that thief?”
Clara raised her arms, suggesting that she might be untied…
***
Maria jumped in fright as she heard another cry in the semi darkness. The smell of human waste and
filth in the long corridor that made up the dungeon was overpowering. The cells were divided by thick
walls, though only barred sections with doors faced the front. Guards could patrol up and down, simply
checking on the prisoners by looking inside. There was no privacy, indeed, as Clara had predicted, she
had been stripped completely naked by the guards, even her sandals and loincloth removed. Her ankles
had been locked into thick steel fetters, which although rusted, were strong enough to prevent her
escape. The filth and rust that now covered her hands stood testament to her attempt. She concentrated
on staying strong, on not weeping, as she stared across the cold stone floor.
She shivered against the cold, despite the warmth of the climate in Irulan. What straw there was, was
wet and covered with filth or human waste. She noted some piles of waste, where previous prisoners
had obviously, animal like, kept it in a single area. She despaired and feared how long she might have
to stay here. She thought as she shivered, that she could hear laughing upstairs. Perhaps they were
toying with Clara…or worse.
Her thoughts were interupted by the sound of footsteps on the staircase, boots and the padding of bare
feet. Clara!
Maria watched as a naked Clara was pushed along the corridor, trying not to slip on the slime and filth
of the cobbles. The cell door was unlocked and opened with a creak and Clara was pushed inside, only
to have her ankles similarly chained in heavy rusted steel fetters on the wall facing her. The guards left
without a sound. Clara made an attempt at a smile and shivered. covering her breasts with her arms as
she leant against the wall.
“What happened Clara? How long will we stay here? What will happen to us…to me?”
Clara winced as the steel grated at the flesh of her ankle.
“We will be free tomorrow Maria…I hope.”
“What? How?”
“I…I gave the Captain what he wanted,” Clara replied, spitting onto the filthy floor of the cell.
Maria winced.
“Your body?”
“And more. The price of freedom,” she whispered as she looked into Maria’s eyes. “Otherwise, I
would have seen the galley. I didn’t really want to be condemned to the oar for the rest of my life. And
you, would have been whipped. Did you want eighty lashes at the post?”
Maria gasped. “No…I…I’m sorry Clara.” Chains rattled as she moved by the wall. “I’m sorry.”
Neither of the women got used to the stench or the muffled screams in the night as they tried to sleep,
naked, shivering and chained as they were. Eventually, dawn spread its fingers of light through the
small, round barred window high in the wall. Clara watched as yellow stripes of light spread across
Maria curled legs, already grimed from lying even one night on the dank straw and filthy stone. Maria
slept lightly. Clara moved quietly, trying not to rattle the heavy chains as she began to move on her
hands and feet to the corner of the cell, as far as the restricting fetters would allow, in order to urinate
on the floor. She had no option but to let the warm liquid spread about her bare toes as she squatted.
She would have a bath later. At least, if the Captain held to his end of the bargain, they would only be
spending one night in the Riverwake Tower.
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