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Five
For two weeks, the broken Lena slumped in a damp and lightless cell, her arms chained above her head, her joints swollen and aching, her body weakened from her ordeal upon the rack. No-one but the rats kept her company, save the once-a-day visit by the jailer to feed her stale bread and a few sips of water.
But on the fifteenth day, the door opened, and Captain Arkan entered cautiously. Once dignified and beautiful, the muscular Amazon now looked filthy, her magnificent body langishing against the wall, wrists locked in chains, her hair lank, her eyes hollow.
Arkan knelt alongside Lena, and offered her the strips of roasted meat he had smuggled into the dungeon. Her dark eyes showed gratitude, and she ate weakly, drawing herself a little higher in her chains.
"Why?" she asked, when she had eaten. "Why are you so kind to me?"
"Because I do not believe the Amazons fight for the sake of it, only for a cause."
"We do fight for a cause," Lena agreed. "We survive by hunting, but your so-called ‘nobility’ takes sport from killing wild animals and leaving their carcasses to rot, and every year we get closer to starvation because of it. We have no choice, but to drive you away."
Arkan nodded. "Then let me help you. I do not want to see my people die, but nor do I want to see your sisters starve. What can I do?"
Lena straightened. "Take them a message for me. Ride for two days, south, through the forest: they will find you. Don’t worry, they will not kill a lone man."
"And the message?" Arkan asked.
Lena told him.
At the end of the third week, the guards came for Lena. They freed her hands from the shackles over her head, and bound them, instead, behind her body. Naked, she was led up the long, winding stairs to the palace, and escorted in to the King’s court.
There were several hundred people gathered. Lena blinked against the brilliant daylight flooding through high windows as she was taken to stand before the King’s throne. All eyes were upon her, for, despite the filth on her body, she was beautiful.
The Amazon clung to the tattered remnants of her dignity, finding strength in the tight bonds about her wrists, the affect her body had on the men gathered. Even the King crossed his legs as she neared.
"Kneel." It was Roth. This time, Lena knelt before the king without hesitation, her eyes lowered in submission.
"The Amazon Lena," the King announced in a loud voice. "I have broken you!"
Lena hung her head in shame, knowing it to be true.
"In addition, whore, you have been found guilty of crimes against our people!"
"Guilty?" Lena’s head lifted, confusion in her eyes. "But there was no trial!"
"Silence!" Roth barked.
"Your punishment is death: in two days, you will be burned at the stake as an example to all those who would wage war against us!"
"No!" Horror filled the Amazon’s eyes. The guards hauled her to her feet. "Have mercy upon me! Please!"
"Take her away!" Roth shouted.
For a moment, Lena let the guards lead her away. Then, twisting her powerful body, she wrenched free of their grasp. With arms still bound behind her, she ran for the dais upon with Roth stood, leaping up with the speed of a panther. Roth went for his dagger, but before it was fully drawn, the Amazon’s forehead slammed into his nose with a sound like smashing wood, driving an agonised scream from his lungs. He dropped at once, blood streaming down his face.
The guards were closing in, so Lena placed her bare foot between Roth’s legs, trapping one testicle against the floor. Roth’s pain-filled eyes took on a look of horror. Lena smiled.
"This is how I shall kill you," she said.
The guards caught her arms, but they were too late to prevent her foot’s descent: with a crack! that could be heard at the back of the court, Roth’s testicle was split and crushed like an olive, and he screamed insanely with agony.
They quickly took Lena away, leaving Roth writhing and vomiting on the floor.
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