Champions of Serenity :Gathering the Circle

Chapter 34

She couldn’t breathe; the pain in her chest was so intense. She leaned against a tree in a forest somewhere far north of where she had left the others. Taking ragged breaths and trying to ease the pain, Tris didn’t realize her body was wracked with sobs. Her face began to itch and her nose filled with something that wouldn’t allow air to pass. Gasping, Tris wiped at her face and was surprised to find her fingers wet when there was no rain.

In the back of her mind, the part she had identified as Debra informed her she was crying. Tris’s denial of this was almost as strong as the tightness in her chest. Is this what emotion felt like? This pain? Why would anyone want this?

She had been accepted, she was part of them and they denied her, shut her out, and wouldn’t allow her to be what she was. She had such hopes, especially after Jehro had already accepted her. Tris hadn’t allowed herself to look at Jehro in those last few moments; she couldn’t have handled the betrayal on his face when she confirmed what he thought he knew.

Her body as it was couldn’t hold all the pain she was feeling. Her mind shifted through all the shapes she knew and took Debra’s advice and took the shape of a human girl. Dark brown hair and light brown eyes effectively hid her normal blond coloring. She reduced her height and added a few curves to her hips and breasts. Looking at herself in a still pond, she nodded, knowing that in this guise, no one would recognize her. Then she pushed all memories of who she was from her mind, blocking them with her will and putting the story of a girl named Dina into her mind and fixing it as truth. Now, even if they did find her, a scan by Jehro wouldn’t find Tris anywhere.

Tris, now called Dina, walked the few miles to the town of Savine. She was able to find a place to work and live in the largest of the town’s inns. The Giant’s Club was owned by Rolfe Janper and his wife Lizzie. They had need of a scrub girl and since Dina didn’t have anywhere else to go, they took her in.

Even though the memories were locked away, the grief and pain were still very strong in Dina. She didn’t talk much, mumbling when she had to answer, and for a while the other girls thought she might have been a dummy. That didn’t bother Dina in the slightest, she just wanted to do her work, earn her keep, and allow the pain to slowly fade.

Maryilee, one of the girls working there, took a special interest in Dina and did what she could to draw her out. After weeks of trying, she was able to coax a smile from Dina. They had been scrubbing the tables and for some reason, Dina kept seeing the face of a large, bear-like man holding a small piece of wood carving it. Maryilee was telling Kody and Jena about one of the local boys and his attempts to seduce her. With a grand gesture, she moved too wildly and slipped on some spilled soapy water on the floor and fell into Favla’s arms.

“Yes, that was the result he wanted, but he wasn’t going to get it, not with that old game.” Maryilee said after she thanked Favla for catching her. She was the only one who noticed the small smile that was almost a laugh on Dina’s face from her dramatic story. “Dina? Are you smiling?”

“No.” Dina said quickly, denying it. She bent to scrub the table twice as hard as if to make her point.

“Girls, I think that Dina here almost laughed. Now, was it at my fall or Lister’s attempt to woo me?” Maryilee joked, reaching over and taking the wash rag from Dina’s hand.

“Give me that. I need to finish the tables and then wash the front windows.” Dina said, trying to get it, once again serious.

“Don’t tease the child, Maryilee.” Favla said softly and handed the rag back to Dina. “She may have the body of a woman grown, but her mind is still locked in the age of dolls and pigtails.”

After that, the other girls went out of their way to try to get Dina to talk to them and after a few more weeks, she began to respond and even to make friends with them. She finally told them that she was grieving the loss of her family. They had been killed in a raid and the only reason she had escaped was she had hidden in the wood pile.

Dina worked up from being just a scrub girl to being able to help out in both the kitchen as a cook and in the common room as a serving girl. She made friends with the other girls and through them, some of the townsfolk. Two months after she had arrived and had given up hope that those she had once thought of as family would come and find her, Dreybrenic Greshinea came through town.

Jena and Favla had gone to the market for fresh vegetables that didn’t grow in the inn garden. They rushed back to inform Rolfe that Emperor Greshinea was in town and that he wanted to stay there. That name struck fear into everyone but Dina. Tris had made Dina forget all about him and as Dina was a true innocent she didn’t know to be afraid.

Rolfe sent his wife and young daughter into the forest to a special place where some of the town’s women gathered to hide from Greshinea and his men. He then had Dina take over the kitchen duties and told the other girls that whoever was chosen, he would take care of them.

Dina was confused and was even more so when Maryilee stood next to her and started to scrap the skins off of the potatoes. “Don’t worry, Dina, Rolfe will keep you in here and the Emperor don’t like me much, not after I accidentally spilt a drink on him last time he was through here. But Jena and Kody, they aren’t so lucky. He likes em with dark hair, he does.” Maryilee then patted Dina’s hand for comfort that Dina didn’t know she needed and left to join the other girls in the common room.

Dina kept to her work in preparing the meal for the night. As she cut the mutton into cubes for a stew, she thought about a time when she didn’t eat meat. She wondered about that, wondering how anyone could survive without eating something so basic.

Putting down the knife and wiping her hands on the towel, Dina went into the common room when she heard Rolfe call her. She didn’t notice that the other girls were lined up in front of the fireplace and that three men stood looking at them. All she saw was Rolfe standing to one side and the worry on his face.

“Join the other girls, Dina….” He started and then stopped when another voice interrupted him.

“That’s the one.” He was tall with blue black hair and black eyes. His skin was very pale and he wore black leather and velvet riding clothes. He walked over and touched a strand of heat curled hair next to Dina’s cheek and smiled. “Yes, this is the one, Janper. Have her in my rooms tonight and every night that I stay here.” He then turned on his heels and he and the two men with him left.

Dina looked at Rolfe in confusion. “What did he mean, Rolfe? Why am I to go to his rooms? Do they need cleaned?”

A log in the fireplace fell with a shower of sparks and everyone jumped, breaking the shocked spell her simple questions had cast on her friends and boss. Rolfe rested his hands on her shoulders and looked into her eyes.

“Dina, have you ever shared a man’s bed before?” He closed his eyes in a pain as profound as if it had been his own daughter he held in his arms. “Gods have mercy on us. Had I known, I would have sent you with Lizzie and Kaylyn. It’s too late now.” He looked back into Dina’s eyes, tears in his own. “I promise you this, Dina, when this is over I will do all in my power to protect you from this ever happening again. Girls, help her get ready.” He then left her with the others as he went into the kitchen.

“Maryilee?” Dina asked, now afraid as well as confused.

Jena took Dina’s hand and led her from the common room up the back stairs and to their private rooms. She made Dina sit on one of the beds and held both of her hands.

“Dina, do you know anything about the games of man and maid?” Jena’s voice was soft, tender, teaching. When Dina shook her head, she shared a look with the other girls and took a deep breath.

“Gods, the Lord Emperor isn’t the one to teach a virgin in the arts, he isn’t even the one to take an experienced woman to bed without leaving scars.” Favla whispered, her voice trembling.

“Look, Dina, tonight and for the rest of the time the Lord Emperor is here in Savine, it will be your only job to please him. You do what he tells you and don’t fight him, which only makes it worse. It won’t be easy, Dina, and it’s going to hurt. But when he’s gone and you have healed, I will make sure you know what true loving is, not what that monster calls loving. Do you understand any of this?” Jena said.

Dina nodded and then shook her head. She was supposed to please this man and she didn’t know how. It wasn’t going to be something she should look forward to. And it scared Rolfe and the girls enough so that Rolfe cried and the girls were on the brink of tears themselves.

“You should bathe, Dina, and I’ll give you something to wear. Then you need to go and wait in the large bedchamber in the front. Maybe this once, he will show mercy.” Jena said and then helped Dina get ready.

The bath water had been scented with violets and Jena had helped Dina put on a crisp white blouse with a billowing crimson skirt. Favla had brushed Dina’s hair and threaded baby’s breath and forget-me-nots through the damp curls. As they helped her get ready, they tried to tell her about what to expect, about how men and women took pleasure in each other. Maryilee and Kody were doing the kitchen duties with Dina’s assignment to please Dreybrenic.

All activity stopped as they listened to the voices below them in the common room. Then the heavy steps of Greshinea sounded on the main stairs, each falling like the beat of the hangman’s drum. The girls heard his door open, but not close.

“It is time, Dina. Don’t make him wait or it will be much worse for you.” Jena whispered, then kissed Dina’s cheek and sent her on her way.

Dina closed the door behind her, silently praying to the gods and goddesses to protect her as she went to face some unknown horror. She stopped at the threshold of Dreybrenic’s door and knocked.

“Shægnek!” Chaos’s voice filled the entire library as he yelled for the goddess. His face was almost purple with the rage that blazed through him. “Serenity!” he called again.

Serenity glided through the door a few moments later and rested her hand on Chaos’s shoulder. “What is it, Brother?” Her voice sounded calm, as usual, but slightly annoyed, which wasn’t usual.

’Do you see this? Are you going to allow it to happen?” Chaos demanded.

Serenity looked through the window; a single tear fell from her eye and slid down her cheek. “Yes, Chaos, I am going to allow it to happen. If I show my hand now, your servant will take his retribution in all those innocents in that town. I cannot allow that to happen. Yours is the only hand that can stop it, but if you do, what will he think? Will you be able to control him if he thinks you have suddenly developed a soft side?” Serenity then made herself watch. She may not be able to stop it, but she could share it and help her daughter heal when it was over.

Dreybrenic looked up and smiled at the timid knock on his door. “Ah yes, the girl I’ve been waiting for. Please, come in, my dear. Close and lock the door behind you.”

Dina moved to obey him, wondering why his voice reminded her of oil and fine silk. When she turned to face him, he had poured out two glasses of a scarlet liquid into clear glasses.

“Come, girl, share a drink with me and tell me your name.” Dina didn’t see how sharing a drink and talking would be that hard and if that was all this man wanted, why were the others so afraid for her? This was nothing like what they had tried to tell her about as they helped her bathe and dress.

“I’m Dina, My Lord.” She said, taking the glass he handed her and taking a sip of it. “This is very good, what fruit is it made of?”

Her openness and simple acceptance of what was happening brought a smile to Dreybrenic’s lips. He had the impression that she might be an innocent and if that was the case, he was really going to enjoy this. But he had to be sure.

He probed her mind, dragging from what he thought was the depths of the girl’s memories, images of her family being slaughtered by the raiders and of her living day to day as she wandered around lost until she found her way here to Savine. He saw the other girls trying to coax her into the timid friendship they now shared. And he saw that she was, in fact, innocent. He silently thanked Chaos for this unlooked for pleasure as he wrapped his arm around Dina’s shoulder and made her finish the wine.

He carefully wove a spell around her that would bind her to his will and when she shed her virgin blood for him, it would seal it on her. She would no more be able to resist his wishes than she could resist breathing.

Dina gasped when he picked her up and carried her to the large bed. She tried to sit up, but he forced her back against the pillows, holding both of her small wrists above her head with one hand. She struggled, not liking the sudden roughness and starting to fear with a reason now this man who was pinning her to the bed.

He kissed her, tasting the fear and innocence in that kiss and slipping his tongue between her lips and caressing her mouth. With his free hand, he caressed her body, grabbing at her firm breasts and squeezing them. Delighting in the salty tears of pain his grip caused.

Sitting on her stomach, he slowly took off his shirt, looking with avid greed into her fear filled eyes. He then used his shirt to bind her hands to the headboard of the bed. Standing, he ran his hands along her body and then with a sharp jerk, tore the skirt from her body and ripped it into two pieces. He used those pieces to then tie her legs to the posts at the foot of the bed. With a single jerk, he ripped the blouse from her, leaving her naked before him.

His spell bound her voice, so although she screamed and twisted and fought as she could, no sound was made. His hands roamed over her skin at will, tormenting and teasing her, giving her pleasure and then pain. He would kiss her skin, only to bite it and draw blood and then kiss it again.

Tears streamed down Dina’s face as Dreybrenic used her for his pleasure. Her entire body screamed and arched as he mounted her; impaling her with his savagery.

Dreybrenic’s pleasure in the warm blood spilling around him and down between their legs was second only to the sudden release of his seed into the hot moisture of the girl’s waiting womb. For a moment, a memory teased him of another time and another virgin in another place. He had slipped through a small window opened by Chaos and possessed the body of a man. He had taken a woman as he had just taken this girl and just as brutally. The memory made his blood boil again and the warm flesh of the girl beneath him stirred him to action.

The spell settled into place and Dina’s eyes flew open in surprise. Dreybrenic’s face was hidden from her as he was busy biting her inner thigh. It was a green rage that tinged her sight and Tris that stared through the brown eyes of the barmaid. The spell had removed the barrier Tris had built to hide herself from the world, but it had also trapped her in the Dina guise. Dreybrenic would never know what he had done until it was too late, for the spell also kept him from ever knowing who it was in his power at this moment.

As he took pleasure in her body, Dina plotted with the mind of Tris. It all hinged on being able to find the others again and having them help her break the spell. Once free, Dreybrenic Greshinea would know what it was to fear.

This was the pattern for the next few days, the duration of Greshinea’s stay in Savine. What he did during the day, Dina didn’t know. All she knew was that from the late afternoon until mid-morning her life was hell as he kept her dancing to his tune of pain, pleasure, torment, desire, humiliation and fulfillment.

“Why was that necessary, Serenity? Why?” Chaos demanded with angry tears on his face.

“Tris was flawed, Chaos. As she had been, she never would have been able to understand the common people, the ones she is supposed to protect. Now, she understands. She knows what it’s like to be helpless and in the power of something you can’t control. She knows what emotions feel like, the only demon or elf to ever learn what it was to feel human emotion. This will make her stronger; this will make her a better leader.” Serenity turned to look at Chaos, her own face wet with tears. “I didn’t like it any more than you did. Now, we can do what we can to help the others find her and free her.”