2 1. The Only Rule that Matters is Mine

After some time I vaguely became aware of light filtering into the room. That was the first thing that pulled out from the comforting black of sleep and shock. Then, the sway of the boat and finally the vague sound of men's voices came to my ears.

"You're crazy Egil. That girl would be worth a fortune, with hair and skin like that, there isn't a single patron that wouldn't pay the top price for her. We ought to sell her. Those weren't poor folk we took her from. I'd lay odds that within the day there's a fleet set sail for her." The other man, I never did quite catch his name argued.

Curiosity getting the better of me, I crawled to the doorway and opened it silently as I could to see who these men were. The one pock-faced and apoplectic looking stood hands on his hips glaring the other. Egil, that's what the man had called him. I tested the name on my tongue and somehow it came out sounding more like "eagle" than what this man was calling him. That was the man who held me the previous night when my world had been turned upside down.

He spoke now swearing in a crude language I could not fathom as a tankard slammed onto the table. "Enough. I will not be questioned on my own ship unless you wish to declare mutiny. The girl is mine. The rest you may do with as you please." At first, it took a moment for the words to register, they were a jarring sound to my ears so thick was his accent. And as I watched the other man blanched. And stuttering made for his reply, "But Egil, good gods man what of the authorities?"

There was a brief pause then. A strained silence between the two and it seemed the more agitated the one called Egil became, the thicker the accent became so his next sentence was almost hard to understand.

" I doubt these authorities you worry about will find me. We've already put a good distance between us and land and by the time they come searching we'll be long gone. Now enough. Leave me to what is mine, and I will worry about these men you so fear."

There was a jarring silence after that, the other man much smaller in stature and truly silenced slunk off somewhere, I'm assuming to visit with the other girls. I dared not think much on it as shortly after his departure there came another set of footsteps in the adjoining room, this time they were drawing nearer by the second to mine. Slinking back into the shadows I hid, sinking into a corner as though I could disappear into the very wall behind me.

It seemed like seconds later he entered and I dared not meet his eyes. He knelt before me and before I could flinch away or run, his hand like lightning came and reached for my chin, holding it squarely in a delicate yet firm grasp as he tilted my head from side to side. Inspecting me. As though I were some prize he had won. His accent when we spoke next though hardly audible, stood out in the silence of the room. "I've no doubt that scoundrel Demetri is right. You'd fetch a pretty price at any of the establishments we visit. You'd better be well worth the trouble I risk in keeping you." He said, leaving a dress, if you could call it that on the bunk in my room, then turning to look at me he simply stated "you'll wear this in the presence of the men on this ship. For your safety, only. Once we're on land you'll do as you're told." With that, he was gone.

I sat there in my corner, my heart sinking deeper by the moment. What could he possibly mean by that statement? I dared not think on it long. Rising gingerly I walked to the bunk in my bare feet to examine the item he left behind. It was a shift. If you could call it that. It was thin and white and held to the light-exposed everything. I shuddered. I couldn't possibly wear this in the presence of other people. It's not something I'd wear even in the privacy of my own chamber. It was humiliating.

I stood there sometime warring with my pride when he re-entered the room, staring down glumly at the thing in hands shuddering at the prospect of it. I felt his hands in my hair before I had the chance to register its presence in entirety and was startled a soft yelp falling from my lips as he pulled my head back.

"I see you've found the gift I've left for you. It would be in your best interest princess to think of it that way as well, there are worse fates for those who chose to cross me. Do you understand.?"

I could barely speak through the tears spilling from my eyes. I couldn't say whether they fell shame of this moment or more for the pain that was slowing burning its way into my consciousness. The fog of shock of slowly lifting and I was beginning to realize the true state of my affairs. Slowly, through the tears and the pain, my voice seemed to emerge almost a whisper as he stared down at me. "Yes, sir." It was all I could manage. It seemed I hung there in his grasp moments later as he gazed at me, I could feel his eyes boring through what was left of my clothing and began to weep anew even as skin burned red beneath his gaze. Finally, he spoke. "There's a start now lass, you have but a small window of time now. When I return next you will be ready, if not, you will wear nothing. You'll learn soon enough, the only rule that truly matters is mine."

Shaking as he left the room I crumbled to the floor sobbing as I reached for the thing with my hands, and shaking as I unfastened the laces on my nighty. The moments in which I changed seemed to stretch forever. When I was done the thing sat on my frame, soft and airy, as I shivered with the cold. It clung to my curves and I found myself clutching at it in an attempt to at least bring it to the length of my knees before giving up entirely, and curling myself into a tighter ball for warmth.

I thought I fell asleep for sometime later there was a bright light entering the cabin as a man with a limp entered and to my surprise snapped a metal ring around my neck and the attaching the chain to the ring, I was pulled numbly, to my feet. I swallowed against the cold hard steel, it seared against my skin. Making me colder. A fresh blanket of gooseflesh arose on my skin and I shivered as I was pulled unceremoniously from the room. The man would not look at me. Truly, if this man were so afraid of my keeper, this Egil, then I did not want to disobey him either.

I was brought into the mess hall, the room in which the crew took their meals with their captain, and brought to a kneel at his feet. Unacknowledged while they sat and drank in their revelry. Shivering and hungry, I was forced to take food from my captive's hands and made to fight the urge to flinch away. It was his voice that brought the silence, and a sharp tug brought me again to attention, as I was hauled to my feet and made to stand before twenty some leering men. Each of them stripping me with their gaze, causing me to shudder and oddly seek refuge behind the man I feared the most. It wasn't to be though as I was put forward and held in place. "These men are my men. And you, as well, are mine. None here will harm you unless I so allow it, and should they approach you without my order, their life is forfeit." This was the law laid down that night. His territory marked as though I were a piece of furniture or property and had no say. With that I was made to serve the men, from that point forward, some of them reaching out grasp my through the cloth, squeezing my flesh, touching me here and there where they could, and this much they were allowed. And he watched my captor, with a keen eye to every reaction and humiliation I suffered at the hands of his crew. The night stretched on like this forever, interminably, until exhausted I was returned to my cabin and collapsed once again in my corner.