Tjikko - Continued
Story continued from the previous post - Back Story 4/2
Tjikko did not let her eyes fall from his.
He didn’t speak; he just slipped behind a rack. She quickly pulled her dusting rag from her apron and grabbed a bottle of wine. The cellar door crashed inward sending small pieces of wood tumbling down the stairs and splinters flying through the air. She cringed at the destruction, but kept her wits about her. As the guards rushed down the stairs she froze and gave her best “what’s going on” look, keeping her eyes focused on the floor.
“How long have you been down here?” The taller of two men spoke, she recognized him as the Captain of the Guard. The other man and a woman stood on either side of him and leered at her.
“I have been here since breakfast, I am almost done, please, I am sorry if I have taken too long.” She dropped to her knees and stifled a cry.
“No one else is here? You have not seen anyone in the last hour?” The captain placed the point of his sword on her shoulder.
Tjikko cried in manufactured fear. “No, please don’t hurt me. I am alone. Only the Matron and the Lord have a key. Please!”
The shorter man impatiently turned to leave. “We are wasting our time with this slave.”
The woman laughed and spoke up. “Hey Cap, sounds to me like she’s begging you for something.”
“You know, I think your right. Take her to the barracks and then search the grounds one more time, we’ll finish up in the mansion.”
The men went back up the stairs. The woman grabbed Tjikko by the hair, dragging her up the stairs as well.
The plan didn’t work, at least not for her. The son would get away and his mother would be safe, but now she had to fight for her own life. She fought to get away but the female guard was too strong and Tjikko had no weapon. The last thing she heard before stumbling, hitting her head, and losing consciousness was the captain laughing as he boasted. “No one touches this little spit fire until I get there. When I’m done, you can have a go at what’s left.”
Tjikko regained consciousness in the Captain’s quarters about twenty minutes before the he entered, locking the door behind him. When she woke up, she tried to move but quickly discovered her wrists and ankles were tied to the bed. Only a thin sheet covered her. The female guard had removed everything but Tjikko’s under clothes. Presumably, leaving something for the Captain to rip off.
As the Captain removed his armor and laid his long sword on the dresser he spoke. His tone was that used for a slave who wasn’t worth the dirt he walked on. “We found the old assassin in the cellar, where you said you were alone.” His tone changed. The words became soft as if he were talking to a favorite pet. “I’m choosing to believe he crawled in there to die after we left. If I believed otherwise, I would have to turn you over to the Lord for questioning and miss out on all my fun.”
Tied up as she was, Tjikko was not going to be able to stop the horror he body was about to endure. She prepared to be somewhere else in her mind, focusing on the warm breeze coming through the open window.
“Oh, don’t close your eyes little one.” He removed her gag. “That’s better; I want to hear you scream.”
She didn’t smell liquor on him. The man was naturally evil; he didn’t need chemicals in his system to do what he wanted to do.
She felt his teeth in her neck and couldn’t keep her eyes closed as she screamed. In that instant a shadow came through the window. It was so fast, so smooth, that she felt the warm blood of the Captain flowing across her skin before she recognized the son from the cellar standing in the room. He used his father’s blade to cut her binds and then pulled the lifeless body to the floor.
She ripped a curtain from the window and used the ropes that had bound her to keep it wrapped around her body. Looking at the young Dunmer, their eyes met briefly and he turned go back out the window. “Wait.”
He stopped and looked at her, but did not speak.
“Why did you spill the blood of your kind to save a Bosmer slave?”
That look of pain and anger she had seen in the cellar was still present when he answered. “You saved my life. I will always be your friend.” He turned and was half way out the window when he spoke again. “Let’s go.”
When the filthy skooma addicts ambushed Mkhai in the hideout earlier that afternoon, Tjikko was not there to assist. He had been badly beaten and she had to cast a restoration spell after she released him.
Together they took care of the interlopers. As she was about to dispatch the last of the pathetic creatures, he asked, spitting the words out in disgust and hatred.
“Why do you make blood flow for that Dunmer scum?”
She answered without hesitation before ending his addiction permanently. “He saved my life and I will always be his friend.”
