Post by Liliana Campbell on Nov 12, 2009 16:50:42 GMT -5
the power to undo the past.
_________________________
_________________________
The Beginning
Defiant chocolate eyes stared at the crowd, the woman's dark visage showing only anger. Her body, stripped of its clothing, did not shake with fear and she did not cry in humiliation. Instead she stood there, her wrists and ankles chained to a pillar, and stared at her captors. These men who had so needlessly attacked the caravan and killed most of the gypsies. A majority had escaped, those who were not cut down, but then there were the ones who did not escape or die...the captives. And that was what she, Maeri, was. A captive to these cruel men.
She was chained for display, her copper skinned body open to inspection and her long ebony hair loosely hanging around her shoulders. They had not removed her three Amavinan braids, and if she was free she would add yet three more. Her two baby sisters, both barely twelve, and her husband of 3 years had been cut down during the attack. She had not had the chance to grieve for them, and refused to weep in front of these men who would accept it gleefully as a sign of weakness. The only other member of her family they had captured was her daughter. Her beautiful baby girl of a year, Liliana.
That was the reason she had not fought her captors. They had succeeded at getting ahold of Liliana, threatening to kill her if she did not surrender...and so she had. Now she waited for them to decide her fate. She had heard several mention selling her as a slave and that seemed to be the idea that was taking hold, but she bore the cruel, perverse words courageously. For her daughter.
2 weeks later
As the sun lowered in the sky, night descending quickly, Maeri found herself being unchained. A man, dressed in a simple gray tunic and black breeches, lifted her into his arms and carried her off to a tent. She was too tired, her body dehydrated from the treatment of the past two weeks, to fight. Laid down on a pallet, she was given water. And soon found herself regaining some of her strength. The man was gentle and kind, covering her nude figure and making sure she was warm enough as the nights cold approached.
"Who...are you?" She asked, her voice coming out as a harsh croak from not using it in so long. She spoke in their tongue instead of her own, knowing the man would not understand her language, a language she had learned quickly in the past two weeks.
The man smiled gently, sitting down beside the pallet, and passing her another skin of water, " Christopher Marston, Lord Blackstones' merchant." He waited until she was finished with the skin of water before taking it and sitting it next to him. "And what is your name?"
"...Maeri Adira Marishka." She answered, deciding it best not to refuse the man who was helping her. She waited, sensing that he had something dire to tell her.
And she was right, for Christopher gave a gentle smile as he watched her with sympathy in his emerald eyes. He spoke in a soothing voice, trying to break the news to her as calmly as possible, " I have news, Maeri. Lord Blackstone has decided your fate..." He halted, then forced himself to continue, " He has decided that you will be killed as an example to those who continue to resist the rule of the King. On the morrow you will be taken to the square....beaten and beheaded." He stopped then, not able to go on. It was cruel that the gypsy would be killed and he did not agree with it, but he was only a commoner.
"What of my daughter?" Maeri asked worriedly, having accepted her death. She knew that nothing would change the decree or her fate, but she did not want her daughter to die.
Christopher stood then, moving to the far side of the tent, and with his back to her spoke, "Lord Blackstone has decided that I will raise the child. That is why I unchained you." He turned to watch her as he continued, "I need to know all I can about her, so that she may remember where she came from. Yet, I can only learn this with your cooperation Maeri."
"Her name is Liliana Elena Marishka. She was born on the 21st day of July, just as the morning dawned. Her father, Lee, and I were blessed the day she was born. She is only a year old now, but our greatest treasure..." And as the night continued so did Maeri.
She spoke of her family and her husbands family. About the gypsy heritage. She continued well into the morning, and only stopped when the guards came for her. Maeri did not fight as they shackled her wrists and ankles, a chain connecting them, and then unceremoniously dragged her out into the square. Her figure was again devoid of covering and this time she had to fight tears, for there seated on the lap of the man Lord Blackstone was her precious Liliana. Her daughter cried when she spotted her, reaching her tiny arms out to be held, and it broke Maeri's heart.
Maeri forced herself not to look away, only doing so when she saw the man Christopher take Liliana into his arms. Pushed to her knees, her head still defiantly lifted to stare at Lord Blackstone, Maeri felt the first sting of the whip.
She suffered the beating for three hours, her body a mass of cuts. Blood covered her body, glistened on her skin as the sun climbed higher into the sky. As her head was pushed down onto the wooden block, Maeri gave one last loving look at Liliana, and then after one sharp pain the world went black.
