(Continued from Ch 51, Leeched)

The Chronicles of Rapina
Chapter 52, A Night As Dark As Sable


The journey to her parents' home seemed a long one. She was carried to and deposited on the seat of the Norwit coach. Once underway she had felt every bump the wheels of the carriage had touched, and every one of them hurt her bruised body. The nebulous shooting pains and the blood she had seen in her urine in the days before the trip told her that some of her internal organs were damaged. She was very worried and wondered if she would ever fully recover. Nevertheless she tried to keep a tired eye on the countryside, and to listen to her mother, Eleanor Norwit trying to cheer her up.

Since she remembered nothing about herself she found her mother's chatter educational. Her family consisted of her parents and two brothers, Charles and Darren. She was supposedly sixteen, although somehow she had thought she was older. Charles, her senior by one year, was at a finishing school in Bristol. Darren, her fourteen-year-old brother had a tutor and was helping her father and their steward run the estate. He was already being groomed for a career in management.

Bellany found out that before her accident she had been active in the church of the vindicator, helping her mother with Sunday school and charity events. She was adept at needlepoint and backgammon. She read and wrote poetry, sang in the church choir and played the lyre and the lute. The only trouble was, she did not remember one wit of what her mother told her, yet both of her parents were absolutely certain that they recognized her as their daughter who had been abducted by orcs last year in the late summer.

Lawns, hayfields and farms surrounded keep Norwit but there was a small walled town about a mile south named Emmitsville. Both the keep and the town had suffered extensive damage from the attacks of giants and orcs. Only reinforcements from the East had saved them from utter destruction. Keep Norwit had been largely repaired. It consisted of a tower keep on a small hill that was attached to a walled courtyard. Built into the front wall of the courtyard were a gatehouse and a sturdy, fortified manor house. A carriage house and various other outbuildings were built against the other walls of the courtyard.

When at last she was carried to her bedroom within the manor house and put into her bed, Bellany slept like the dead waking up only on occasion because of internal pain and then drifting back to sleep. It was sometime the next day when she truly awakened. The heavy drapes had been drawn across her windows so that she could sleep but she could see there was light behind them. She looked around her room. She saw a fireplace containing a bed of glowing embers with a thick log atop them, a bookshelf, a desk, a bureau and a dressing table with a mirror. On the walls she saw a painting of an elaborate church of the vindicator and one of an old man and woman she did not know. There were three doors out of the room. The room did not look familiar. She wanted to walk around but after sitting up she decided she was just not up to it. There was a bell on the night table next to her bed. She picked it up and rang it. A woman perhaps ten years her senior entered the room.

"Yes milady Bellany?" the maid said.

Bellany blinked, "I am sorry, I really should remember you, but I cannot remember much since the spell, only bits and pieces that don't fit."

"It's all right Miss Bellany, My name's Grace and I'm the chamber maid. Lady Eleanor said you were in bad shape, includin' your memory.

Bellany nodded, "I really don't even know if I am Bellany Norwit. I don't recognize anyone. I don't even recognize myself when I look in the mirror. Lord and Lady Norwit say I look just like Bellany, only I've filled out some."

Aye, you are Bellany aright. I would know your face anywhere, even as black and blue as it is, and even if I didn't, I'd recognize the sound of your voice. I was your maid since I was a girl. You were just a baby then," Grace said.

"Thank you, it's comforting to know people remember me, even if I don't remember them, or even myself," Bellany said.

"Lord Norwit said ye ran afowl of an orc sorcerer," Grace said.

Bellany blinked as she remembered a mottled green creature without legs or arms affixed to a stand. It was troll, not an orc. "Er, yes, I think that's what happened, but I can't remember more than shreds that don't fit together."

"Perhaps in time ye'll put the pieces together, Missy," Grace said.

Bellany nodded, "I hope so. I wonder if you could tell me what time of day it is and when the next meal is coming?" Bellany asked.

Grace smiled, "Well I guess ye're ready to face the day then. That door there is your closet, the next one is your privy and the one I came through goes into the manor. It's an hour or two before supper, but the cook has orders to send you something mild to eat whenever ye've a mind for it."

Bellany nodded. "Yes, I would like something like a thin oatmeal gruel. I can't chew for long; it hurts too much. I mostly have to drink my meals." Bellany wrinkled her nose. Somehow I need to make it to the privy too, but it's difficult even for me to sit up..."

After a meal and a brief visit from her parents, Bellany went back to sleep. She woke up in the middle of the night in a sweat after dreaming of bedding a hoard of pirates. It was amazing how lifelike they all were too. Each had his own personality, and their leader, Red Jack, had quite a sense of humor. Bellany rolled her eyes, "My dreams are too crazy, she whispered to herself. The fire gave off only a faint glow. Did she see shadows? Her left hand went to the chain on her neck that was not there. The palm tickled strangely in the brief moment it was facing the room. "Did I once have a light?" she questioned herself. She blinked as her errant memory showed her a dark scene. She was climbing a ladder. She approached an illuminated crystal that hung from a metal grating above her. Bellany cocked her head, "Magic?" she whispered.

She found she could sit up as long as she could tolerate the pain of her bruises as she struggled to an upright position. Now that she had, had about a week and a half to recover, she was sure her head and chest were the least damaged parts of her body. Her right shoulder seemed fairly strong, but her left arm was still very hurt, especially the palm of her left hand. It felt dead yet ached at the same time. She guessed it was that ache that had awakened her. Her legs were too weak to hold her, yet she could not help but think they were not going to get stronger unless she used them. She wanted to light some candles and walk around, but she could not walk, it was too dark and she was too weak. She promised herself she would try to explore the room sometime tomorrow during daylight.

The next day Bellany awakened sometime around noon. She felt a little stronger and even better yet after breakfast. Nevertheless, she knew her strength would not last for many hours and the shooting pains she sometimes suffered frightened her. After seeing her mother, she pretended to be having trouble staying awake. Her mother left her so that she could take a nap.

Bellany really did doze for a few minutes, but then she woke up and turned her covers down, primarily with her right hand. She used the same hand to help swing her legs off the bed. The floor looked a long ways off even though it was less that a foot below her feet. Since the chair her mother always sat in was close to the bed, Bellany decided to make that her target. She turned over on her belly and slid off the bed until her feet touched the ground. Then she put as much weight on her legs as she could and fell backwards into the chair. She nearly missed and spilled herself on the floor but thanks to her right arm she managed to get the chair under her.

She put her right hand between her legs and grasped the chair, then scooted along over the rugs to the desk. She searched it finding ink, quills and parchment. There was one drawer that contained some scrap paper with bits of poems and various other writings on it that had not turned out. Bellany looked at the writing. Something did not seem right. She took a quill and began to copy a poem fragment right next to the fragment itself. Her heart sank when she saw the writing was not the same. She began to cry but instinctively held down her volume. She felt so vulnerable. "Surely I could not remember how to write but forget how to write like I used to," Bellany thought to herself. I cannot be Bellany Norwit, but if I am not then who am I?

"Think, think think," Bellany muttered to herself. "I have to think and act like, like, like what? I have to think like someone who is objective, cold, and rational. Bellany's mind swam as she remembered talking to a naked warrior in a great iron cauldron bath, "He doesn't know if I am a queen or a pawn and that interferes with his chess game... I assure you I am the white queen. I have to think like a chess master, the chess master, but who is that and what is a white queen?"

"Never mind that, I need to think about now. I am sorely wounded. I need medical care and I need to put the pieces of my memory together. If I am not Bellany Norwit, I need to know who I really am and why I seem to be her. I need time, time to recover. First I need to know this is Bellany's writing and not the writing of one of her parents who gave her the parchment. The young woman searched through the drawer of scrap paper and did find some writing in different hands but none of it was hers. Finally she found an old note to "mother" signed Bellany in the same script as had been used to write the poem.

"Until I know who I am, I am Bellany Norwit. I am going to stay here with servants, parents, food, medical attention and a warm bed," Bellany assured herself. She began copying poem fragments, matching her writing to the writing on the page until she could write Bellany script without looking at an example. Her fingertips hurt even though she held the quill lightly, but she did not care. Her survival was at stake.

When she was done she carefully scooted her chair to the fire, and burned her practice sheets. She made sure every sheet of parchment was turned completely to ash and then she retraced her path to her bed, smoothing the rug with her feet as she scooted the chair along under her. She then managed to push herself up with her right hand and legs and flop onto the bed on her belly. Rolling the rest of the way onto the bed was an excruciating chore but she did it, and she got herself into bed. When she was done she was exhausted. She knew she would pay for her excursion, but she felt more secure knowing that even if she were somehow not Bellany, at least she could write like Bellany.

Being badly bruised and too weak to walk, Bellany was confined to her bedroom. She hated the confinement even more than being in pain. Thankfully she had guests, her pensive mother came to see her often, and her more bearable father usually appeared once or twice a day when he was home. Her brother Darren came to see her when she first got home and occasionally he came to visit along with Lord Norwit in the mornings. She could also sometimes get her maid Grace to talk to her, and more importantly, Grace would get her books from her shelf and help her with mundane things she could not yet do by herself.

Bellany had started on the top shelf and was very rapidly working her way down. She pretended to be browsing and skimming, but in truth she was reading and studying as best she could, given her condition. In spite of what would have seemed to others to be good progress, she felt so slow as if some essential vitality were missing from her mind.

On a Monday morning a few days after Bellany's arrival at Nowit Manor, Eleanor Norwit, Bellany's mother, was there in her daughter's room when there came a knocking at the door.

"Come in. Why Reverend Wright, it is so good to see you, and so considerate of you to come and see my poor Bellany," Eleanor Norwit said.

Bellany sat up and looked at the Reverend. He was a somewhat homely narrow-shouldered man whose arrow-straight brown hair threatened to obscure his fanatical brown eyes. She felt a tingle that somehow was not quite right. Even though there was something off about the tingle the Reverend gave her, it seemed like something that she sorely missed, something that she had half forgotten but that nevertheless filled her mind with whispers that she could not quite hear.

"Baby remember your modesty," Eleanor pushed Bellany's covers up, as though each of her fingers were a swarm of angry bees. "I am sorry Reverend Wright, Bellany's memory shattered from the stresses of her ordeal and the magic of an orc shaman. She does not seem to remember that others still can see.

"Don't worry Lady Norwit, the nightgown you have her in is as modest as most summer dresses. You needn't concern yourself about impropriety. Its Bellany's soul we all have to worry about, her body will mend as best it can, Vindicator willing. I only wish I were senior enough in my role as a priest that I could offer some healing, but alas, I have not yet been so blessed," Reverend Wright said.

Bellany somehow connected her mother's busy bee fingers with the Reverend's grasping after her soul. She could tell by the tone of Lady Eleanor's voice that her mother fawned over the young man's every word. Bellany decided she would have to pretend to like the Reverend, just as he was pretending to care about her. Bellany was not sure what it was he did care about, but she would find out.

"Since you missed Sunday's sermon, I told Lady Norwit I would come deliver it to you personally," Reverend Wright said.

"That is so kind of you Reverend, thank you." She could not say why, but there was something about the Reverend that bothered her. Her mother was a busy woman and she was called away in the middle of the sermon. She promised to return later. Bellany studied the man who spoke with such fanatical conviction, and decided he was here to make sure the vindicator still had her soul. Somehow she felt that if the vindicator had ever had it, he had lost it of late.

She sat up a little and was rewarded by a tingle, and by some happenstance of habit she did something within her mind and body to pull on that tingle. She was rewarded by another tingle. The tingle definitely seemed to come from Reverend Wright. She had felt the same thing when she had told the artist Mark Reins that she enjoyed company. There was no doubt that these tingles tied in with the aching need she felt in her loins.

Bellany smiled to herself and sat up more. She gazed raptly at the sermonizing Reverend pacing back and forth across the floor of her room and she pretended to be as stuck on the man as her mother while she played the tingle game with him to keep herself occupied. By the end of the sermon she could get Wright to send her a nose-tickling tingle at will. It gave her an odd sense of power even though she felt so beaten and powerless otherwise. When the sermon was done, the Reverend came to sit in the chair by her bed, the one usually occupied by her mother. He looked a little flushed.

"Have you any questions on the sermon, young Lady Norwit?" Reverend Wright asked.

Bellany wanted to tell the man what a phony he was. He pretended to care about her, but what he really cared about was harvesting her soul for the Vindicator. She found him intolerable, but she wanted him to rip her clothes off nevertheless. There was an aching hunger in her loins worse even than the throbbing dead pain in her left palm. She needed something he could give her so badly that it hurt. Bellany decided she would go along with his game and make him believe he was succeeding famously at stealing her soul for the Vindicator. Besides, if she resisted, she was sure he would probably just work all the harder and send her mother after her as well. Everyone seemed to pity her anyway; she decided to work from there.

"How can the Vindicator save my soul, Reverend Wright? I am bruised to the bone from the spell of an orc shaman. I think the orcs must have taken my virginity from me, but I have no way of knowing for sure that they did. No man will ever have me after what they probably did to me, and I will become an old, dried-up spinster," Bellany sniffled.

Reverend Wright wiped the tear from Bellany's face. Touching her made him ache with desire but he held firm. "Don't worry lady, your afflictions are severe but even while you were in the vile clutches of the orcs, the Vindicator made your body blossom like a rose. You were a girl when I saw you last; now you are a beautiful woman. If you could only see yourself now, you would know that even after all that has befallen you, the Vindicator will bring you a fine, forgiving husband. You must have faith," Reverend Wright said.

"Do you really think so, Reverend Wright?" Bellany asked.

"The reverend's eyes traced over the magnificent curve of her breasts. Your lines are exquisite, milady, your body is a work of art. Even after your ordeal, men will take notice of you. I promise," Reverend Wright said. 

Bellany's nipples rose to dent the fabric of her nightgown.

Wright inhaled deeply.

"I pray you are right Reverend, but I cannot go on wondering what the orcs did to me. I need someone to tell me if I am still a virgin, and if not whether I can ever be with a man after what they have done to me.

"I cannot do such a thing for you, Bellany. The vindicator demands celibacy of his priests. It is a great sacrifice. The church has been cracking down on errant priests of late, and besides, everyone knows if any man anywhere in Norwit dared to touch you, your father would have him hanged," Reverend Wright said.

"Please Reverend, I cannot trust anyone else to do it. My father will never know, I promise," Bellany said.

The reverend hesitated for a long moment. I am sorry lady, you must look for yourself when you are well enough, and you may feel inside if you are in doubt of your capacity for a man. If there is no membrane barring the way into the depths of you then surely the orcs have broken your purity, but true purity is of the soul. Give yourself to the vindicator and he will restore the purity of your soul," Reverend Wright said.

Bellany could see the reverend was too far-gone into the vindicator's fold to bring him between her folds. In a way she would have preferred if he were lecherous. At least she would still have been able to count him as a man. This reverend was not even a man. His soul had been stolen and he reveled in it. Bellany wondered at the finesse of the vindicator. How he must be envied by every silver-tongued demon that wished to possess the minds and souls of others. Who else could convince so many so easily that in giving up their souls they were found, but were they to leave their souls where nature had intended they would be lost?

Bellany blinked as her fragmented memory parted with another gem.

"I will give you potent magic, and more than mere dreams of lust. Simply open your mind to me, let me come into you and fill you with my power." It was the spirit of lust contained in a stone that had once tried to steal her soul for its own use talking. Had she succumbed? She wished she had other memories to add to it, but it was only a piece in a large, complex puzzle.

Bellany suddenly realized she needed to react to the real world and not her memories, "Oh yes, yes I will give myself to the vindicator, Reverend. I must be filled with his purity." Bellany crossed her fingers behind her back and pretended to be swept up in the moment.

"Let us pray..." Reverend Wright said.

Bellany prayed like a fanatic, and when her mother came in sometime later, Bellany was still praying with the reverend. She pretended to have been enraptured by the reverend's words. She was not sure which she felt more strongly compelled to do, to roll off the bed laugh-screaming or to throw up. Somehow she managed to uphold her ruse until both of them had left, and then she hid under the covers and shook herself with a mixture of revulsion and silent laughter. She did not know why she had such a strong negative reaction to the vindicator, but there certainly was no denying it.

----

Bellany had many dreams as she slept through the next few nights and napped through parts of the days. At night she was still uneasy. It seemed as if she could sometimes sense the presence of others in her room. To make matters worse, so many of her dreams and flashbacks would have curled her mother's hair. She wondered if she could have actually done even half the things she had dreamed of or "remembered." Her memories troubled her but not nearly so much as her injuries. The fragmentary memories and the dreams she had were all wrong for the innocent daughter of Eleanor Norwit. Somehow they were tied to the lust spirit of the stone. Her past was an illusive sorcery. Yet if she was not Bellany Norwit as she suspected, then who was she? Perhaps she was a doppelganger with amnesia? Surely she must be loosing her mind. For the moment she decided to remain the orc-abused daughter of a baronet.

----

Several mornings after her "consultation" with the reverend her father came to visit. Oddly, she felt much more comfortable with him than with her mother. Her mother had expectations that she would return to being the Bellany she always had been, and that she would take the same pleasure at loosing her soul that her mother did. Her father, on the other hand, was a man who had somehow retained his soul in spite of the presence of the vindicator in his household. He was a practical military man and the former Bellany had spent much less time with him than with her mother.

"Daddy, I don't understand one whit of it. Leech Fraksen said memories of doing would be more durable than memories of knowing. He said if I did the things I used to do I would pick them up rapidly if not instantly, and that they would help me remember things associated with them. Mother has told me what I used to enjoy. She was helping me to sing my formerly favorite hymns to the vindicator last night. I have been doing my best to humor her and the reverend, but just between you and I, religion just does not seem as practical as it once did. I guess mother thought I would be just fine after the reverend raised my spirits, but I'm not just fine. At least not the way she wants me to be just fine."

Darl smiled, "Bellany, your mother and I understand you have been through a lot even if you don't remember it. Spending most of a year as the slave of the orcs cannot help but have changed you. We can tell that. The way that you talk and the way that you act, everything has changed. The little girl you were is gone and we realize we can never get her back. Your mother and I just want you to get better, and she thinks religion is going to heal you. I am not sure what to think. I just wish I had done a better job keeping the orcs off the roads."

"I don't blame you, daddy. As a child your competent actions somehow managed to convince me that we were not living in a frontier battle zone. That means you must have been very effective at keeping the orcs at bay. Sooner or later they were bound to come up with something to throw you off your stride. At least you are hard at work keeping Norwit safe. Daddy, from the bits I remember I know I am a hundred times removed from being a virgin. Furthermore after nearly a year with the orcs I realize I cannot possibly be anything but barren if I did not bear a half-orc baby and I see no sign of a past pregnancy. I cannot be a pious vindicator wife. I may pretend to humor mother, but I can never be what she wants me to be. I need to learn to do something practical."

"Mother had been training me to be a dutiful wife and pious indoctrinator of the young, but it is likely that I will never bear children. What I used to do had little practical value. Do you have any books other than those religious tracts and books of poems?" Bellany wrinkled her nose. I am so tired of the old me. It seems such a sham in the face of what has become of me."

Baronet Norwit shook his head sadly, "Bellany you used to live for those things and now..."

Bellany sighed, "Those things seem so worthless to me now, daddy. I guess there is nothing like being a slave of the enemy to make you realize you are at war. I will do what I can to spare mother's feelings, but I have no interest in most of the things I used to do. I would like to try to re-learn music, but I just can't get interested in poems and those prayers and hymns to the vindicator. I went through the books on my shelf and found nothing meatier than a book on needlepoint techniques. Do you have any practical books like men read?"

"You mean books on how to kill orcs by the hundreds?" Baronet Norwit asked.

"Maybe just by the tens or twenties," Bellany smiled. "I don't want to get too ambitious."

Darl chuckled and shook his head, "I have plenty of books on warfare, but you used to avoid them like the plague. Not to mention your mother would not approve."

"I was a frivolous child who had no idea where she was living or what might happen if a few giants got past the forts in the north and brought their orcish side-kicks with them. If you pick out some books for me, I would like to look through them and read any that seem interesting. You can tell mother it is just some histories where our side wins instead of what happened in my case. Tell her that I am weak, bored and have a vendetta against the orcs," Bellany said.

"I would be happy to pick a few out for you, although I am sure I will hear about it from your mother," Lord Norwit said.

"Mother is just going to have to accept the fact that her meek and faithful little girl was ruined by orcs. Since the legion of orcs never got me pregnant, she will have to forgive me if I think it is unlikely that I will ever be able to fill the role of childbearing wife and mother that she has chosen for me. I will have to find something else to do," Bellany said.

Lord Norwit grimaced and nodded, "Most women enslaved by the orcs bear child after child of mixed blood from the repeated rapes."

"Bellany nodded. I will never be able to please mother the way I used to. I have already accepted that," Bellany said.

Lord Norwit sighed, "I am sure this will disturb your mother to no end, but I understand. I must get on with my day. I will have someone bring you some practical books," Lord Norwit said.

Thank you daddy, Bellany gave Lord Norwit's hand a squeeze.

During the following week Bellany slept a great deal while her body was mending, yet as she reached a certain point of wellness her aches, including the one in her loins awakened her at odd times and kept her sleep shallow. To make matters worse, when she did awaken at night any stir or shadow startled her as though ghosts beset her. Thankfully she was given crutches and began practicing with them to supplement the weakness of her legs. During her waking hours she read as much as she could. Her father began making it a point to visit her early every morning, and during that time she would talk to him about what she had read.

"Good morning Bellany," Darl Norwit looked dubiously at the stack of volumes on Bellany's night table and the even larger stack on the floor just in front of it. I see Steward Brosk is taking his job a little too seriously," Norwit said.

"He is now. He brought me three books on the first day. That was hardly enough. I had to complain bitterly." Bellany smiled.

"It was?" The baronet looked a bit confused.

"Yes, he underestimated what I can do when I have a mind to. Especially when I spend so much of my time trapped in bed. Besides, I can't say I like all the books. Some I just browse through," Bellany stretched the truth for her father's benefit. She had found she could read even complex material quite rapidly as long as the shooting pains she sometimes got did not distract her. Evidently her training in reading poems and prayers had not been a total waste even if she could not remember any of them save the ones she had read after her ordeal.

"At first he brought me military histories. I read about a lot of battles, tactics and eeevil politics," Bellany rolled her eyes and grinned. Then I read this one Randal's Art of the Sword. It's a training manual. Unfortunately I am sure mom would as soon send me back to the orc tribe that snatched me as let me receive training at arms. Bellany grinned. Some of the exercises in it were interesting though. Today I am going to try the few I might be able to do in my condition. I am thinking I really will have to do something to get my strength back after being in bed for so long."

"You're contemplating exercises?" Darl Norwit raised an eyebrow.

Bellany nodded, "I'm sure mother would not approve, but why shouldn't I exercise? I have muscles don't I, and they have been weakened by my injuries. Maybe if I could have run faster I would have gotten away from the orcs. That reminds me, do we have horses daddy? It seems like we ought to."

"Yes we do for the cavalrymen and couriers," Norwit said.

"Did I used to ride them?" Bellany asked.

"You and your mother would occasionally ride to church in your finery," Norwit said.

"I was thinking maybe if I could have ridden a real horse real fast, I might have gotten away from the orcs," Bellany said.

"You seem a little obsessed with orcs, daughter. I wish there were something that I could have done to have spared you the ordeal..." Norwit said.

"I am not blaming you, daddy. I wish there were something I could have done to spare me that ordeal too. I think there were several things I could have done, and I aim to do them even if it means sneaking around behind mother's back. Daddy, what is the fastest horse you own?"

"Starstruck, my black Andalusian stallion. He's not as large as many of the cavalry horses, but he is faster than any of them. Most of my cavalry horses are gelded because that makes them more manageable in battle, but Star is far to valuable to be gelded. His characteristics improve my local stock immeasurably. Bellany...I really wish I could have prevented the orcs from... Lord Norwit cleared his throat and started over. You must not think of riding right now. You need to put everything into recovering."

Bellany nodded, reached out and squeezed her father's hand. "You work very hard to keep Norwit safe, daddy, to the point of sometimes having to neglect your own family. I approve. I am still very confused about what happened to me. My memory is just bits and pieces at best. I have to take the word of others on who I am. I don't even know I am really your daughter. The few bits I do remember would turn mother into a crying wreck so I am keeping them to myself.

"Bellany I admire your strength but... this is not like you," Norwit said.

"In my recent past the alternative to strength was death. Perhaps death is what really happened to Bellany at the hands of the orcs, daddy, and I am just some lost spirit possessing her body. In which case you should not tell me any grave secrets," Bellany cautioned. "I have to learn strength in spite of mother and the reverend. I know it is not going to be easy."

Darl Norwit looked genuinely troubled at his daughter's words, yet there was a part of him that was proud of her, even if she was going against propriety to the nth degree.

-----

Thane came into the abode's dining nook looking a bit preoccupied. He nodded a greeting to Rames, sat down and played with his oatmeal.

"I am sorry Guardian Thane, I am just not as creative with food as Rapina was."

"It's no matter Guardian Rames. I do not expect you to fill Rapina's shoes, anymore than I would expect you to dress in Argosian lingerie and tug on the strings of my lust while I was attempting to eat breakfast," Thane chuckled. I am preoccupied because I have been looking in on the Norwit girl periodically as I had promised. Perhaps more often than I had intended. You see, in spite of my not sleeping with Rapina, I find that I am feeling nearly as heartbroken as you seem to be. In a way I feel as though I cheated myself in not availing myself of what she so freely offered, but at the time I captured her I felt she needed a father figure more than yet another lover. Perhaps in providing her with a father figure, I inadvertently adopted her as my daughter and now I am feeling like a parent who has a missing child. It is hard to say. Even though I have so many more servitors than I once did. I feel...

"Bereft?" Rames nodded, "I understand, but any more talk like that is going to break my heart. Is there any good news, anything?"

"I did the ritual of communion with Mortaebius and was assured that Rapina is not among the dead, yet I cannot help but get the impression that our patron is being evasive about her whereabouts. I even tried locating her solely through non-clerical magical means using my mirror. One time I was sure I was on a roll, but when the image resolved it was Bellany Norwit. For lack of anything better to do I decided to look in on Ms Norwit more often."

"As you know, Ms Norwit did not remember whom she was when she awakened, thus complicating what should have been a simple test. Evidently the trauma had made a mess of her memory. Nevertheless, I have neither the time nor the magical resources to watch her for lengthy periods. The best I can do is a spot check now and again.

This morning I happened to look in on her and she was attempting to do exercises in spite of her rather grave condition. She is still very weak and after briefly attempting a few exercises, she had to give up. She is not bouncing back like Rapina would. I did see that she was reading a book on swordsmanship she had gleaned from her father's library, and the other books that had visible titles were military in nature, not the sort of thing I would expect a noblewoman to be reading. The problem is that if she were Rapina, her survival would depend on her seeming to be Bellany Norwit. If her memory were muddled she might lack the information to realize she ought to make an effort to give me a clue as to her identity."

"Has she been chasing men? If that is Rapina and she is wounded, you know she'd need it in the worst way," Rames said.

Thane smiled, "I suppose you are right, unfortunately until recently she has been unable to stray far from her bed. She now uses crutches to walk since her legs and her left arm are weak. Even had she wanted to chase men, there would have been no opportunity. Now that she can get around on crutches I shall try to look in on her at various times of day to see if she does have any interactions with males. The keep is garrisoned, but I imagine Lord Norwit would string up any man who was a big enough fool to bed his daughter."

Rames shook his head, "That would be a desperate situation for Rapina."

Thane nodded, "You realize this is a long shot. I should not even be doing it, yet since I have promised myself I would practice skrying every chance I got, there is no reason why I cannot make Ms Norwit one of the people I apply my practice sessions to."

Rames nodded, "Until we get a better lead, it's at least something."

"Agreed, and even if I am merely spinning my wheels, it feels good to be doing something."

-----------

It felt good to be able to move around even if it was on crutches and even if it sometimes caused her to hurt inside. She could not yet negotiate stairs but had promised herself she would learn. Bellany started trying to sleep after dinner each night, but got up at the crack of dawn every morning because that was the time her father could always visit her when he was home, and she actually enjoyed seeing him. She did not have to put on near as much of an act for him as she did for her mother.

She was rapidly devouring the books he and Steward Brosk brought her and she enjoyed talking some of them over with her father whose military knowledge was appreciable, and who had the kind of experience that went beyond mere book knowledge. Even though she was determined to get her strength back, she still spent a lot of time in bed and most of that time she spent reading.

Currently she was in one of the back bedrooms of the manor looking out the window into the courtyard. Down below she could see her father and lieutenant Florin reviewing the garrison troops. Soon they would start weapons practice.

Three days ago she had discovered weapons practice when lieutenant Florin and sergeant Lime had demonstrated some swordsmanship with live steel. Bellany had heard and had watched from a window at the end of the corridor that led past her bedroom. Since then she had not missed a day. She sat and ate part of her breakfast as she raptly watched two score of men practice at arms. Her finger had a habit of straying under her nightgown as she watched. She did not know why, but her female parts seemed to be better off than much of the rest of her as if some natural flow pattern of energy had diverted a certain amount of the power that had restored the patch just under her breasts down to her loins.

One of the younger men's practice swords clattered off his opponent's low parry and then thwacked his opponent's instep. Bellany's mouth opened as she daydreamed a scene...

"First off we're gonna do is run ye 'round Red Jack's Isle ta see how tough ye are... I don't cater ta wimps here, and' this trainin' is oriented ta survival o' the fittest. She could see them running too, a whole bunch of boys. She got the impression they were pirates. She remembered bedding the same pirates from her dream. She shook her head. She came up with the wildest stories in her head. Obviously she had dreamed that one up before her accident for the same reason her finger was nudging her nub. "Honestly, I really must have needed a man when I dreamed those stories up. I suppose it was because daddy would hang anyone who touched me. Pirate ships, sweating recruits... Bellany saw the image of a naked Norsemen, blonde and bigger than life. She grinned, "and pike-bearing Norsemen. Being a noblewoman is like being in a golden cage in a way. I wonder if I was always this crazy for men?"

------

The next day began with her mother's voice.

Bellany! Wake up dear we have to get you ready for church!

Bellany groaned quietly. She had to wake up and put on her vindicator act for the benefit of her mother. She managed it and in not too long a time her mother and Grace had her cleaned up. They had made some alterations to one of her Sunday dresses and she now fit into it nicely. She smiled at sergeant Lime and the tingles he provoked as he and her father bore her down stairs on a litter. She ate breakfast with her family in the great hall and then was rushed off to a carriage.

The church was in Emittsville. It was fairly large and looked to have been built within the last ten years. There were lots of people there and everyone was eager to greet her father the baron who evidently did not make it to church very often. After greeting her parents they invariably welcomed Bellany home. From many of the men she felt the same nose and spine tickling feeling as she had from the reverend and sergeant Lime. She suddenly realized she was feeling their lust and it made her ache for a lover all the more. After addressing the baron, Reverend Wright greeted her with open arms, and told her how glad he was to see her back in church and then he rushed off to the pulpit to start the service.

"Before I start the service I would like you all to welcome Lady Bellany Norwit back into the fold," Wright announced. "We are sure she had many harrowing experiences after being taken slave by the orcs. As she courageously helped the adventurers who rescued her in their battle against the most powerful of the orcs, she was hit by the foul sorcery of an orc shaman and nearly killed. Yet the vindicator sometimes tips his hand to the faithful.

Her rescuers won the day and took her to the office of Leech Fraksen in the north. In spite of horrible damage that goes right through her mortal body miraculously, her eyes were unharmed and she pulled through. It has taken her some time but she is walking again with the aid of crutches. Her memory was severely traumatized so don't take offense if she does not remember you. She did not remember her own name when she was found and has taken the word of friends and family as to whom she is. Please welcome Lady Bellany Norwit.

The parishioners applauded and several of them called out greetings and welcomes.

Bellany waved and smiled to everyone, and then settled in to listen to the reverend as he sermonized. She tried not to let her mouth twitch too much during the sermon. There was something that deeply bothered her about the vindicator, but she could not say why she felt that way. After the service she stood near the back of the church and most of the congregation greeted her and gave their condolences that she had, had to endure so much.

"I am so glad you could be with us this morning, Baron Norwit as we welcomed Bellany back into the fold", Reverend Wright said. "How is your memory coming, Bellany, does the church look familiar? You and your mother have spent many fine hours here."

"Thank you reverend," Bellany said. "So far I really don't remember anything other than a few horrors at the hands of the orcs. It seems like I should remember the church, but nothing I have seen yet has rung a bell. I have no idea where anything is."

"We will just have to remedy that Lady Bellany. I enjoy showing off this house of the vindicator. Let me offer you my arm and I'll give you the royal tour," Reverend Wright said. 

"Thank you reverend," Bellany curtsied and grimaced as her legs protested.

"It looks like you could use the arms of two men," Reverend Wright said. 

"Allow me," Lord Norwit said.

"Thank you daddy," Bellany said. 

The baronet and the reverend took Bellany through the church but nothing looked familiar at first. There was a hall on one side of the sanctuary where the arts and crafts of various children and parishioners were displayed. One of the displays was different and read, "Enemies of the Church and the Marquisate. Bellany stopped suddenly as she saw one of the faces.

"Ho there," reverend Wright said as Bellany brought him to an abrupt stop. Do you recognize this display?"

Bellany blinked and tried to seem a lot less disturbed than she was, "I don't think so, but I wanted to look at the faces since I've just come back from being among the orcs and outlaws. Do you know anything about these people?"

"Some of them I have heard stories about," the reverend said.

Bellany pointed, "Who is this Captain Red Jack?"

"He's the foulest reaver on the Augustana River. For years he and his pirates terrorized river settlements. A couple of years ago he and his men were nearly destroyed out east on Grand Lake by a man as foul as them, a sorcerer-priest of Mortaebius..." Reverend Wright said.

Bellany's vision swam as her memory conjured a torch-lit scene. "Blood an' bones!" hollered the now-familiar muscle-bound Norseman from Bellany's dreams. This time he was fighting walking skeletons and ordering pirates to stand firm. "Hold yer ground an' drive these bags a bones back t' the hells they came from!"

The reverend was continuing his story, "...Red Jack was captured and sent to Turnmoor to be executed, but some of his allies and a few crewmen who had fled the battle with the sorcerer helped the captain escape at the last minute. Lord Heinrich Li Yeiraun hunted Red Jack down and would have defeated him but for the intervention of a powerful necromancer that had allied himself with the filthy pirate."

"Is the vindicator at war with this death god Mortaebius? The one whose priest captured Red Jack?" Bellany asked.

"Well in a matter of speaking yes. The forces of the vindicator drove the evil minions of Mortaebius out of the Marquisate and burned his temples. We will fight those ghouls any way we can!" the reverend exclaimed.

The reverend cleared his throat, "Anyway the necromancer also raided the magic from Lord Li'Yieraun's keep and angered Nordula, Lord Li'Yieraun's mage."

In her mind, an old grizzled sergeant opened the heavy door into a large keep before her.

"Oi, who's the' girl?" asked the sergeant.

"Got her down at Agnes.' Damn pretty, isn't she?" the officer whose arm she held replied.

Reverend Wright continued,"...Knowing the vindicator despised necromancers and the death god they worship, Lord Li'Yieraun and Lord Avengene realized they had something in common and struck up a fine alliance. Li 'Yeiraun's mage and our priests were responsible for vanquishing the threat of the giants. Our ally Lord Li 'Yeiraun has also sent us stonemasons from the south to help with our massive rebuilding effort. Why I believe your father has one employed at keep Norwit. I am sure that one day we will catch up with Red Jack again. These other posters are of some of Jack's wicked crewmen, Arzeal, Drake, Brackston, Pike, and Skitch are officers, and some of these others are just notable pillagers."

Bellany put her hand over her mouth as she stared at the poster depicting Pike. She had seen that very same Norseman in her daydreams. Somehow it was all real; her dreams were memories.

"Goodness that one looks like he could tear a woman limb from limb," Bellany said to disguise her reaction.

"I have no doubt he could; yet these pirates are as cowardly as they are dangerous. When the heat of the law became too great for Captain Red Jack down along the Augustana River southwest of Avengene, he fled east along the river and then he sailed north through the elven forest and began terrorizing the eastern provinces of Avengene. He was most active last year when the forces of the vindicator had their hands full with the giants and orcs, but even now he is a notorious raider. We don't know when he will strike next," the reverend said gravely.

Bellany nodded and began to walk forward, and then near the end of the display she stopped dead again and gaped at a poster.

Wanted for the murder of Reverend Evangeline Avengene, Brianna Barter, a.k.a. Valkura.

"She looks younger than me, how was it she killed an Avengene? Aren't they battle trained like daddy?"

"She was a fell sorceress from a line of witches, and even at the age of fifteen, she bewitched Evangeline and killed him in his bed."

Bellany leveled a dubious glare at the Reverend that just about withered him where he stood, "And he was found fully clothed in an unsoiled bed, no doubt."

Reverend Wright cleared his throat uncomfortably.

"Baron Daelrath and I have shared a few heated words over that one. In any case, daughter, we owe our allegiance to Marquis Avengene. You are to keep your opinion about that young woman to yourself," Lord Norwit said.

"Yes father," Bellany said in a stilted tone.

"I think it is time we got Bellany home. Thank you for your hospitality Reverend, and my apologies for my daughter's scornful look. I hope you understand she is sensitive about matters surrounding the violation of young women," Baronet Norwit said.

Reverend Wright cleared his throat once again, "Of course milord; I understand."

-----

That afternoon Bellany had a lute lesson with an old musician who played at the church. She kept the conversation away from religion and tried to learn as much about music as she could in spite of the aches in her sides and her left palm. Her debility made her feel as though her mind were smothered in molasses. Her teacher thought she was "re-learning" her music at an appreciable pace, but she felt like a snail. Something was missing. She felt like such a lump and shooting pains often ruined her best musical efforts in mid song. Her mind somehow lacked the energy to really shine and her loins were driving her batty.

That evening in bed Bellany stared up at the ceiling. She had been avoiding thinking about the rogue's gallery at the church and the things she had remembered. It was down right scary. Brianna Barter had seemed so familiar, even the name haunted her. Had she known her? Bellany could not imagine where she might have met her. After all Bellany was only with the orcs for under a year. Perhaps the orcs had taken Brianna too. She was no doubt on the run from the law. Even if Brianna had been a fellow slave, that did not explain Bellany knowing Red Jack and his officers. Bellany groaned. It was the same frustrating game. She had more pieces to the puzzle but they still did not exactly fit together, or did they?

If the sorcerer of Mortaebius had nearly destroyed Red Jack she had originally been with Red Jack's men, then what had happened to her when the sorcerer caught her? The boys in her memory had seemed like pirate recruits. Maybe she had been a recruit with them. It just did not make sense. Norwit was too far away from the river for pirates to have taken her. That and she did not know how long ago Red Jack's men had run into the sorcerer. It seemed that if Jack were raiding while the giants were destroying forts in Avengene then he would have been raiding Avengene during the year's period she was a slave to the orcs. She would have to have known Jack after his run-in with the sorcerer, but her memories seemed to say that she had known him before that. Yet that would have to have been before she was abducted by orcs last summer. Bellany's head spun.

"Wait a minute," Her writing had been all wrong when she had arrived. She might not be Bellany Norwit, yet she looked like Bellany Norwit and there was and is a holy war between the vindicator and Mortaebius." Bellany decided to forget herself for a moment and just try to put her dreams or memories together to see if they made sense in and of themselves. Her last memories seemed to start with the dreamstone priest and end with Red Jack, why? She could not say. Then after Jack what little bits she remembered did not yet fit together at all. If the priest of Mortaebius had captured her with Jack, and Jack was sent to Turnmoor for execution, what had become of her?

Perhaps she was in league with the sorcerer. Had he put her in touch with some secret order working for the church of Mortaebius against the Church of the vindicator? Maybe he had made a deal with Jack. That would explain why Jack started raiding Avengene. In addition it would explain why the things of the vindicator sat so badly with her. There was an internal logic to it, but it did not fit with Bellany's life and abduction by the orcs. The two made sense apart but not together. It was as if she were two people. Or maybe she really was a demoness who had possessed the body of Bellany Norwit.

She did not really feel like a demoness, but something about her past and her present just did not jibe. She decided she would just have to wait until she could remember more pieces. For the moment she would try to recuperate. Tomorrow she wanted to learn to take the stairs on her crutches. Ideally she wanted to do away with the crutches entirely but she was so weak and the damage seemed to have affected more than her skin, muscles and bone. Her internal organs were not right; although the spot near her heart seemed to be healed. Perhaps her heart and lungs were doing better than the rest of her, just as her eyes were.

The next day Bellany learned to negotiate stairs. She rose very early and dressed in a pastel pink dress, one of the few outfits that had been altered to fit her. Most of her clothes were too tight in the bust. Her first flight of stairs consisted of three steps that lead from the second floor of the manor house where her room was to the curtain wall around the courtyard. She took them slowly without mishap and then She hobbled along on the wall to a good spot and sat between two of the crenellations. Bellany waved down to the men assembled for weapons practice, "Hi Daddy, hello Sergeant Lime and everyone." The men looked up at her. A herd of tiny tingles tickled her nose and ran down her spine. "It can't be normal for a woman to feel lust like this," Bellany thought to herself. Nevertheless she noted which of the young men seemed to have the strongest reaction.

By Wednesday Bellany was getting around pretty well considering her debility. It hurt to move, sometimes things inside her protested, but she found being caged in her room intolerable. She felt a need in her loins that was so strong it was driving her right out of her mind. Her skin was clearing but at a snail's pace. It was still noticeably yellow and blue. Her legs had become only a little stronger but since her left arm was a wreck, the added strength was very welcome. Her left crutch had never done much more than steady her. Her left arm was so damaged she was glad it was not a delicate internal organ. The palm of her left hand still ached dully as if it were dead. At first she explored the manor, then she began to explore the courtyard and some of the side buildings, the brewhouse, the bakehouse, the granary, the smithy, the servant's quarters and the barracks. The reactions she got from the men were always the same. They noticed her even in her current condition, but none of them was willing to touch her with a ten-foot pole. Her daddy had schooled them well.
---------------

This morning she had decided to take a look at the stables or the carriage house as her mother called it. The pungent aroma of horse manure assaulted her nostrils as she entered. She recognized one of the young men from the garrison hard at work mucking out a stall. "Dorety!"

"The young man bowed. Good morning Lady Bellany."

It seemed after he greeted her that he could only look at her feet. Bellany bent at the waist and lowered herself down her right crutch a ways. From there she looked up into the young man's face and waved with one of her fingers.

Dorety grinned, "Uh, Lady Bellany, what are ye doing down there?"

"My feet seemed to be the only thing you'd look at," Bellany said.

"Er because I'm just a commoner, ma'am," Dorety said.

"Before my abduction, was I just a little high and haughty?" Bellany asked.

"Er yes ma'am; in a manner of speakin' you were," Dorety affirmed.

"I suppose I had a chaste reputation to uphold, moral purity, a lady's pride and all that," Bellany said. 

"Yes ma'am," Dorety said.

"It's a shame Dorety but let's be realistic, after a hundred orcs bed a woman by force -chaste reputation gone, moral purity gone, pride gone. It is just Bellany now. Currently people only call me 'Lady' because my father is a baronet. Before they had more traditional reasons," Bellany said. 

"Ya took a fall," Dorety said.

"I took a hard fall. Now I'm Lady Damaged Goods. I doubt any nobleman would seriously consider marrying me. It would be hard on a nobleman's pride. For one thing he would think he was getting seconds after an orc tribe, and for another his prospects of getting children if a year of orcs produced none would be nill. Lady Damaged Goods is barren and has been ill used." Bellany remained bent over and realized she was not going to be able to haul herself up her crutch as easily as she had lowered herself down. Dorety finished the stall he was working on and opened the next one. She wanted to turn to look at Dorety in his new location but instead she merely craned her neck and looked behind her.

The black stallion in the newly opened stall trumpeted, lipped the air, surged forward and nipped Bellany on the rump.

"Ouch!" Bellany squealed as she looked up behind her and inadvertently gazed between the forelegs of the prancing stallion. She caught a glimpse of his underside and the enormous hose that was drawing down from its sheath in front of a pair of peach-sized balls. Heat radiated through her. She had been working to see a man's equipment for several days and had gotten absolutely nowhere. What she had just seen was ponderously male. It made her grimace as if one of her pains had struck her.

Dorety was trying his darndest not to laugh as he turned the horse and half dragged him into the finished stall.

Bellany stared open-mouthed at the animal, fully realizing the significance of the phrase, "Hung like a stallion."

Dorety got the horse in the stall but he started laughing and try as he might he could not stop. "I am so sorry HAHAHUHAA, Lady Belan-HEHEHAHAAW, Starstruck isn't usually a biter. He only nips mares in season before he studs'em. HEHEHE I think he's in love! HAAWHAHAHEHE!"

"First orcs, and now the only male that appreciates me nips and clops around on hooves?" Bellany groaned in exasperation. "I've taken a fall alright. Just then one of her pains did hit her and she doubled over all the more and screwed up her face against it."

Sorry Lady, I should have known bein' bent over was going to hurt you. Dorety got his laughter under control. "Here, let me help you up."

"Thank you," Bellany said, pulling on the young man's lust as he pulled her up.

"Oooooo, you are a pretty Lady Belly; you really grew up nice while ye were a slave girl. I'd be havin' about the same reaction as Starstruck right now except bein' a man I'm smart enough ta know Lord Norwit would flay me alive even if he caught me with his new un-chaste-ed daughter. You may know your reputation is shot, but I get the feeling your daddy thinks people ought not to count the orcs again' you since it wasn't yer fault for bein' abducted. I guess that means ye've got the worst of both worlds."

"Oh wonderful! It just isn't fair," Bellany said.

"Sometimes things in life just go from bad to worse, Lady," Dorety agreed.

Bellany swore like a pirate in her mind as she crossed Dorety off her short list. She was going to go mad for sure and Dorety had been the last man on her short list. She had already tried the mason from Li'Yeiraun, and several boys from the garrison. There had to be some fool man at Keep Norwit who would bed her now and think about the consequences later. Bellany grimaced. Was it really fair for her to seduce someone because she was crazy for a man? She was not thinking straight. All she would get was a moment's pleasure, but any man she bedded was risking his life. Yet, something was gnawing at her memory, something very important.

Bellany wandered to the bake house. Chef Dower was a middle-aged man who, along with his wife, saw to all of the cooking at Keep Norwit. He liked bread making best.

"Good day, Chef Dower. Did I ever cook before the accident?" Bellany asked.

"Mmmph, no milady, methinks you spent most of yer time at the church with your mother," Dower said.

"I'm bored. Would you teach me how you make bread today?" Bellany asked.

"Aye, if ya like. If ye've got the stamina fer it, by the end of the day perhaps ye'll be learned enough to make the muffins for yer family's dinner. Wash up yer hands and then we'll get to work," Dower said.

Bellany passed the day learning to make bread and trying not to think about where she was going to find a man to bed her.

At dinner that night, Chef Dower made an announcement.

"Lady Bellany was bored today and wanted to learn to make bread. I taught her a few things and she picked 'em right up. By the end of the day she was doing so well, she made tonight's muffins. I dare say I figured I'd have to walk her through it, but I hardly needed to do a thing." The chef bowed and the maids served dinner.

"I had no idea you were interested in cooking, Bellany. I thought you felt domestic chores were beneath you." Lady Norwit said.

Bellany shrugged. "There is art to cooking, I think, mother. Besides, I don't imagine I'll be marrying a baron anymore. I might need to have some skills."

Eleanor Norwit looked distinctly uncomfortable for a moment, "I suppose it would not hurt. You did very well, honey. The muffins are delicious."

"Thank you mother," Bellany said.

Bellany was confined to Keep Norwit by her infirmity. Her life felt so dreary. She was learning music, and she spent some of her afternoons baking bread with Chef Dower. Sometimes her innards kept her twitching around in pain for hours and she did nothing at all. Lately those times seemed to come more often. She had tried to stop attempting to seduce men but had not entirely succeeded, but where she had failed, they had passed with flying colors. None of them would get close. The men her father kept at his keep were loyal to him to a fault. The ache between her legs was consuming, and no matter how many times she teased herself off with her fingers, her need did not diminish one whit. If anything, it grew stronger.

Early Saturday night she tossed uncomfortably in bed more asleep than awake. She flashed back into the dreamy realm of memory. She was dancing in front of a hoard of pirates. Lust was buzzing through her body like a swarm of crazed honeybees. Her need was so deep, so powerful. The pirates had aroused her to a fever pitch. Bellany woke with a start. Her body was bathed in sweat. The screaming need she felt in her loins was driving her mad.

----

In a large master suite nearby, Lord Darl Norwit settled into bed next to his wife, "Did you talk to Grace today Eleanor?"

"Yes, dear. It was not good news. Bellany has more blood in her urine. It's been getting worse ever since church or before. I guess getting her back to what had been her joy has been a disaster. She remembered nothing and snapped at the reverend. I know being cooped up in her bedroom drives her to distraction, but it seems all this moving around has raised her spirits but damaged her within. I am not sure what to do, Darl," Eleanor said.

Darl shook his head, "I am sorry Bellany snapped at the reverend. The case of Brianna Barter must have struck a chord after the abuse she suffered at the hands of the orcs. I feel badly about it since arguing with Baron Dealrath on the subject. The Avengenes have forbidden me to deviate from their official story, but there were... rumors about Evangeline's excesses for years before he died. I should have done more to follow up on them. What little checking I did do never turned up any hard evidence. There was a young woman named Brenda Dawes who went to the trouble of seeking an audience, but she was crippled in a bad fall shortly before she was to appear and had to cancel her appointment."

"Darl, don't agonize over Evangeline. Whatever his sins, he has passed on and your allegiance is to Avengene. It is no wonder Bellany snapped at Reverend Wright after her ordeal with the orcs and what with her health slipping so dangerously. Grace said she was passing an alarming amount of blood in her urine. I am very worried," Eleanor said.

"It is horrible she is getting worse after she has already suffered so much, but we knew it might happen. Leech Fraksen feared extensive internal damage. The strange thing is that sergeant Lime came to me with a disturbing report about Bellany today. I could hardly believe it, but after questioning the men involved and recalling the way I saw her look at the men as she watched them practice, I realized it must be true," Darl Norwit said.

"What is it, dear?" Eleanor inquired pensively.

"Bellany has been trying to get friendly with some of my men," Darl said.

"No," Eleanor replied incredulously.

Baronet Norwit nodded, "I board my finest here at the keep, and they watch out for each other. They all had essentially the same concern. They would not have said anything but they were worried that Bellany has become a beautiful young woman and that eventually one of them might slip up. The others would feel as though they were partially responsible for the man's hanging if they had failed to report the earlier incidents to their superiors. Thankfully she has done nothing particularly untoward, just leading remarks and meaningful expressions, but when five men come forward, I am inclined to believe them."

"I cannot believe that as bruised as she is she can still be overcome with desire." Eleanor shook her head. Yet, five of your handpicked men would not lie about such a thing. I do not know what the orcs did to her, but perhaps she associates sex with survival."

Darl cleared his throat. "Yes I could see how that might happen since she was a slave of the orcs."

"Darl, whether it upsets her or not, I think you had better take her crutches. She needs to recover, and this mischief she has been getting into has not been helping," Eleanor said.

Darl nodded, "I will pick them up when I visit her in the morning."

"Thank you dear. I think it's the right thing to do," Eleanor said.

------


Bellany's sleep was fitful; pain did not allow her to rest easy, but the pain was not as bad as the hunger. She was positively ravenous for a man and she did not understand why but her lust was even harder to sleep with than the pain. While Bellany looked at the ceiling, her fingers strayed to caress her breasts and to stroke her mound. She was afraid. Whether she liked to admit it or not, she was well aware of the increasing blood in her urine and of the fact that her kidneys seemed to be falling apart. The increasing pain she felt from some of her internal organs scared her. She might not be able to move much longer. If a kidney failed, she could be bedridden again or much, much worse. She plunged a finger into her heat. She needed a man but her mobility was limited to the keep and might be even more severely limited by her condition if she got any worse.

When she realized she was fantasizing about hoards of pirates, she stopped herself. "I really should have been romanticizing about the perfect man to bed and eventually marry," she though. A second finger slid into her heat to join the first. Bellany looked out the window at the blackness.

"He would be sweet, strong, and somehow noble but not necessarily in the sense of being an aristocrat, and he'd have to be fearless or foolhardy, or down right dim-witted since daddy would hang him high if he bedded me. There I go ruining my perfect man," Bellany groaned. She slipped a third finger in to join the other two. Maybe he could be a high priest or a mage or someone with healing powers. I am sure there are plenty mages and high priests running around Keep Norwit at this hour," Bellany sighed.

She had hit rock bottom. She was dieing and there was not a soul out there who could help her. Maybe she could not prevent her death, but she needed a man, an orc or even the troll shaman from her dreams. She was so desperate she did not even care. She had to have someone before she died or she would take her own life to stop the wicked gnawing of her lust. The darkness of the heavens mirrored her fait. A cool breath of wind shifted Bellany's hair. She smiled, her eyes wet with tears. The clouds had shifted and between them shown a single bright star. A fourth finger deliberately stretched her wider. She realized who her man must be. She would go to him tonight or die trying.
-------

This ends, A Night As Dark As Sable, chapter 52 of The Chronicles of Rapina.
The story continues in chapter 53, Summertime.

Copyright 2001 by Rapina