Fic: Chain of events 1/6 - Hercules:The legendary journeys
Title - Chain of events 1/6 - Captured
Fandom: Hercules: The legendary journeys
Author: Ceindreadh
Genre: Drama, Hurt/comfort
Characters/Pairing: Hercules/Iolaus
Rating: M
Summary: Iolaus tries to rescue some captives but ends up joining their number
Notes: Set post season 6 HTLJ, but ignoring anything that may have happened in subsequent Xena episodes. Many thanks to Tina for all her help.
Word count: ~ 2,800 /23,000
Warnings: Threat of non-con, a threat which may or may not be carried out
Disclaimer. I don’t own the characters, I’m only borrowing them, no copyright infringement is intended.
Iolaus was still half dazed from the blow to his head as he was dragged into the clearing. He was forced to his knees, head down, and a pair of well cut boots appeared in his field of vision. A hand grabbed his chin and roughly forced his gaze upwards. "So this is the attacker who managed to take down three of my best men?" There was a note of disbelief in the man’s voice.
"If those were your best men," said Iolaus, "You might want to rethink your recruitment policy!" The man laughed harshly before backhanding Iolaus and sending him sprawling in the dirt. Head spinning, Iolaus could hear a discussion going on above him even as he worked away at the ropes binding his hands behind him.
"Was he alone? How many did we lose?" This from the man who had hit him and who appeared to be the leader of the gang of bandits that Iolaus had encountered while on his way to Corinth to meet up with Hercules.
------------------
They’d parted company barely a week earlier. Iphicles had sent a messenger to Hercules requesting his presence in Corinth.
“A justice symposium?” said Iolaus, ducking under Hercules’s arm to read the message he was holding. “What in Tartarus is a justice symposium?”
Hercules rolled up the scroll and tucked it in his belt. “Iphicles is gathering together representatives from all the neighboring kingdoms. He wants to try and agree a consistent legal system under all the different rulers.”
“You mean he wants his laws applied,” said Iolaus. “And he wants you to knock a few heads together until they agree with him.”
“Iphicles is open to reasonable ideas and suggestions. He just wants me there as a symbol of honesty and fairness. I really can’t refuse.”
“Yes you can,” said Iolaus. “Just write on the scroll ‘gone fishing’ and send it back with the messenger. Better yet, give him a couple of denarii and have him tell Iphicles he couldn’t find us.”
“I can’t let Iphicles down,” said Hercules, “I was the one who suggested a symposium in the first place. Besides, it’ll only be for a few weeks.”
“Well you can go and listen to a bunch of people argue boring legal stuff for a couple of weeks,” said Iolaus, grabbing his bag. “I’ll take the scenic route, get in a bit of fishing or hunting, and I’ll meet you in Corinth afterwards.”
Hercules knew there was no arguing with Iolaus, but he tried one last time just before they parted company later that day. “You know you’d be more than welcome,” he said, as he wrapped his arms around Iolaus for a final hug.
“I know,” said Iolaus, head resting against Hercules’s chest. “But I’ll meet you in Corinth in say two weeks time and if the symposium isn’t finished by then I’ll break down the doors and rescue you.” He felt Hercules laugh, and grinned up at him. “Go on, I’ll be fine.” Iolaus could feel Hercules’s hand on the small of his back, his thumb tracing a circle at the base of his spine.
“If you insist.” Hercules gave Iolaus one final kiss before pulling away reluctantly. “Two weeks from today. Try and stay out of trouble until then!”
But trouble, as always, had had a way of finding him, thought Iolaus. He’d spent a few days fishing and hunting as planned, some days more successfully than others. But somehow it hadn’t been as enjoyable as he had hoped, and eventually he had decided to make his way to Corinth earlier than planned.
A few days later Iolaus had come across signs of travel on the trail ahead of him. The tracks told him of a large number of people, horses and carts, a surprisingly large group Iolaus had thought for such an out of the way route. Curious, he had decided to follow the tracks at least for a while. It had taken him half a day to catch up with the group, and he had scouted around that night to see what they were up to. He’d thought maybe a gang of bandits or a warlord on the move, but to his shock, Iolaus had found a number of prisoners with them, who he soon discovered had been taken with the intent of selling them to slavers at the first opportunity.
While slavery had long since been outlawed in Corinth, Iolaus knew that some of the neighbouring provinces weren't so forward thinking.
Knowing that any attempt to seek reinforcements could result in the gang escaping, Iolaus had settled for plan B, a stealth attack to free the prisoners and *then* return with reinforcements. Unfortunately the plan hadn't worked as well as expected. The guards had discovered him before he'd managed to free more than half the captives and he'd been forced to fight in order to allow at least some of their number a chance to escape.
---------------------
"About a dozen were freed, Belchor. But we recaptured some. There can't be more than five or six who got away". There was a growl of anger from Belchor. He barked out an order and Iolaus was hauled to his feet in front of him. "Do you have any idea how much money you have cost me, little man?"
Iolaus shrugged "Can't you count that high?" He braced himself for a blow but it didn't come. Instead Belchor moved around him, eyeing him up and down as if he was a prize piece of meat. A bad feeling started to grow in Iolaus as Belchor squeezed his bound arms. Iolaus flinched involuntarily as Belchor pulled down on his vest, trapping his arms further and exposing him completely. He didn’t like the look in Belchor’s eyes as the man poked and prodded at his bare skin. Iolaus bit down on his impulse to resist knowing that there was a time and a place for escape attempts, and hands bound behind him, surrounded by close to a dozen heavily armed men was not going to be the best time.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Belchor stepped away and addressed his second in command. "You say he took down Agenor and Cleto?" he asked.
"Yes," the man replied. "And broke Dion's arm."
"Fighters fetch a better price than laborers," said Belchor. He turned back to Iolaus, putting a hand on his chin to tilt his head up, “And if there’s nobody looking for fighters…well, I can think of a few buyers catering for ‘other’ tastes that might welcome him.” He let go of Iolaus and turned back to his second. “Break camp immediately,” he ordered. “We move out at first light. We’re already days behind schedule. As for this one, chain him with the others, and keep an eye on him, I have a feeling he’ll be trouble.”
Iolaus struggled as he was grabbed from behind, but to no avail. The bandits had clearly learned from their comrades experiences and there were enough of them to make any attempt at resistance useless. Not that that stopped Iolaus from trying, but soon enough he was shackled hand and foot and thrown into the makeshift pen with the rest of the captives.
-------------------------
The next few days passed painfully slow. By day, Iolaus kept his eyes and ears open, listening in on whatever of his captors conversations that he could, and gathering as much information as possible from his fellow captives. He soon found out that Belchor was leading his party to a pre-arranged meeting at a port a few weeks travel away. The journey was taking so long because Belchor - knowing the local feeling about slave trading - had planned the route so as to avoid any major centers of population, instead sending his scouts on periodic journeys to source provisions for himself and his ‘merchandise’.
By night, Iolaus plotted his escape. That is, not just his own escape, but that of every captive. If it had been just himself, it would have been easy. He’d already managed to acquire a knife to use as a lock pick. Cleto, one of the guards he’d beaten on that first night, had been assigned guard duty as a punishment and Iolaus had deliberately provoked the man into attacking him. A few punches later, Iolaus was flat on the ground, carefully concealing the knife he’d lifted from Cleto’s belt. Not that the knife had proven to be much use as a weapon. The edge was so dull it would barely have cut butter, and Iolaus had no way to sharpen it unobserved. But the metal was hard and there was enough of a point on the tip for Iolaus to use it to open his shackles. He’d carefully closed them again, as he thought about his options. Given enough time, Iolaus was sure that he’d be able to free himself and all the others from their chains, but that wasn’t enough. On his own, he could easily cover enough ground and knew enough hunters’ tricks to hide himself from any pursuit. But with a few dozen people, men and women, he needed a proper plan to save them all.
The only thing Iolaus could think of was to delay the bandits as much as possible. To that end, at night, he used the knife to free himself and then snuck out of the holding pen to cause as much damage as he could get away with.
The first night, Iolaus made his way to where the horses were tethered, loosening a few ropes just enough so that several of Belchor’s men spent half the hours of darkness trying to catch them. Another night, Iolaus broke into the wagon holding the food stores, bringing extra provisions back to the prisoner’s pen, while carefully making it look like wild animals had been responsible. He loosened shoes on the horses, caused tents to collapse, and in general made the camp as unpleasant as possible a place to be.
----------------------
Iolaus waited for the guard on duty to make his usual round of the pen. Once he was out of sight, Iolaus did his usual trick with the knife and quickly removed his chains.
“Be careful, Iolaus,” said Keti, one of the captives, as she helped him arrange the threadbare blankets, into a shape that almost looked like a sleeping prisoner.
“I’ll be back before you know it,” promised Iolaus. “You just sleep and if anybody comes looking, you don’t know a thing about it.” Tonight was going to be his most ambitious act of sabotage so far. Most of the things Iolaus had done had caused delays of but a few hours at most. Tonight he planned to weaken the axle on the stores wagon so that it would break under the weight as they travelled. Fixing it would lose them a day’s travel at least, maybe more if they hadn’t the stores to replace it. Iolaus hoped it would work; he was starting to run out of ideas to slow down the party. He knew that if Belchor made it to the port, there would be plenty of buyers there who wouldn’t care about the provenance of their slaves, wouldn’t care that they’d been free people only weeks earlier. Iolaus swore to himself that he wouldn’t let that happen. Just as soon as he could find a way to get everybody out, he’d make his move.
--------------------
It took longer than Iolaus expected to weaken the axle properly. Too much damage and it would be immediately obvious and easily repairable, too little damage and the wagon would still be drivable. But now it was done and with luck he had bought them a little more time.
Keeping a lookout for the guard, Iolaus made his way back to the other captives. He waited for the moon to go behind a cloud before crawling back to his blanket. Groping around for his discarded chains, he heard a noise behind him and turned quickly.
“Looking for these?” said Belchor, holding the chains up. Behind him were several of his men, one of them holding Keti, a knife to her throat.
“Ah,” said Iolaus, “You know I *knew* they were somewhere around. I’ve just spent ages looking for them.”
“I think it’s time that you and I had a chat,” said Belchor. “Bring him,” he said to his men before throwing the chains on the ground and walking off.
-----------------------
“So, Iolaus,” said Belchor. “What am I going to do with you?” He walked around Iolaus who was standing before him, wrists chained to a tree branch over his head.
“You could just let me go,” said Iolaus, twisting in the chains so as to keep Belchor where he could see him. He jumped involuntarily as he felt Belchor’s hand running down his spine.
“Unfortunately for you, that’s not an option.” Belchor’s hand moved further down Iolaus’s back. “What is an option though. My men, sometimes as one of the ‘perks’ of the job, get to play with the merchandise before it’s sold. They’re not always that gentle though.” His hand moved downwards again and clasped Iolaus on the ass. “Sometimes when they’re finished having fun, well they’re not worth selling any more. And so far on this trip, they haven’t had a lot of fun. What do you think Iolaus?” Belchor grabbed Iolaus by the chin and forced his head up roughly. “Do you think that my men deserve a little perk after all you’ve put them through?”
Iolaus kept his voice steady and forced a smile on his face as he replied, “Sure…if you want your ‘merchandise’ damaged. But hey, I’m sure you can swallow the loss of what I’d make you.”
“Oh you misunderstand, Iolaus,” said Belchor, a smile on his face that made Iolaus’s blood run cold. “I have no intention of reducing *your* value. On the other hand, there are plenty of others to choose from. Your friend Keti for instance, the one who tried to pretend you were asleep under the blanket when I went looking for you tonight. I think my men would be most pleased to play with her.”
Iolaus couldn’t help himself as he lunged at Belchor. “Any of your men lay a hand on her and I’ll..!”
Belchor laughed as he stepped back, “Her continued well being, in fact that of all of my stock, is in your hands. You cause any more trouble and their blood will be on your hands. Behave yourself, do as you are told or they’ll be the ones to face the consequences.”
Iolaus struggled furiously against the chains, but to no avail. Finally he slumped against his bonds, only looking up when Belchor stepped forward again to ask, “Do we have an agreement?”
“Yes,” said Iolaus through gritted teeth.
“Good,” said Belchor. “I’m glad we understand each other.”
--------------------------
For the next few days, Iolaus kept to his word.
Belchor may have thought he had an iron-clad deal, but he was clearly taking no chances. By day, Iolaus was kept chained to the stores wagon, in full view, and separated from the other captives. By night, hands chained behind his back, ankles chained close together, he was guarded separately from the others. This guard duty was clearly not popular with Belchor’s men, and more than one had taken their aggravation out on Iolaus in the form of ‘accidental’ pushes and shoves as he walked along. In fairness, thought Iolaus, he had provoked them somewhat, secure in the knowledge that they couldn’t raise a hand to him, and always making sure that Belchor was out of earshot.
Cleto had been the worst, having suffered punishment from Belchor when his knife had been found in Iolaus’s possession. “Belchor docked my pay cause of you, Shorty,” he had said, while aiming a kick at Iolaus’s ribs. “You’re gonna pay for that. And don’t think I can’t mark you where it won’t show.”
Iolaus had managed to roll out of the way of another kick, coming up against a rock behind him. He’d quickly maneuvered himself onto his knees and rested his head against the stone. “Come near me again and I’ll smash my face into this rock. Try explaining *that* to Belchor!” The bluff had worked and Cleto hadn’t dared try to hurt him again.
The other guards had been content to make Iolaus’s life as uncomfortable as possible. His collar and chains were the heaviest of the restraints available. At night, his limbs were bound so tightly he could barely move, and the guards made a point of waking him every few hours “Just to see you haven’t escaped yet.”
The lack of sleep was starting to wear Iolaus down, but far worse was the effective isolation. Belchor allowed Keti to bring Iolaus his meager rations morning and evening, but there was always a guard in place to ensure no communications beyond a whispered ‘good morning’ or ‘thank you’ between them.
Iolaus thought that things really couldn’t get much worse, and then one day they did.
To be continued
Chain of Events 02
Fandom: Hercules: The legendary journeys
Author: Ceindreadh
Genre: Drama, Hurt/comfort
Characters/Pairing: Hercules/Iolaus
Rating: M
Summary: Iolaus tries to rescue some captives but ends up joining their number
Notes: Set post season 6 HTLJ, but ignoring anything that may have happened in subsequent Xena episodes. Many thanks to Tina for all her help.
Word count: ~ 2,800 /23,000
Warnings: Threat of non-con, a threat which may or may not be carried out
Disclaimer. I don’t own the characters, I’m only borrowing them, no copyright infringement is intended.
Iolaus was still half dazed from the blow to his head as he was dragged into the clearing. He was forced to his knees, head down, and a pair of well cut boots appeared in his field of vision. A hand grabbed his chin and roughly forced his gaze upwards. "So this is the attacker who managed to take down three of my best men?" There was a note of disbelief in the man’s voice.
"If those were your best men," said Iolaus, "You might want to rethink your recruitment policy!" The man laughed harshly before backhanding Iolaus and sending him sprawling in the dirt. Head spinning, Iolaus could hear a discussion going on above him even as he worked away at the ropes binding his hands behind him.
"Was he alone? How many did we lose?" This from the man who had hit him and who appeared to be the leader of the gang of bandits that Iolaus had encountered while on his way to Corinth to meet up with Hercules.
------------------
They’d parted company barely a week earlier. Iphicles had sent a messenger to Hercules requesting his presence in Corinth.
“A justice symposium?” said Iolaus, ducking under Hercules’s arm to read the message he was holding. “What in Tartarus is a justice symposium?”
Hercules rolled up the scroll and tucked it in his belt. “Iphicles is gathering together representatives from all the neighboring kingdoms. He wants to try and agree a consistent legal system under all the different rulers.”
“You mean he wants his laws applied,” said Iolaus. “And he wants you to knock a few heads together until they agree with him.”
“Iphicles is open to reasonable ideas and suggestions. He just wants me there as a symbol of honesty and fairness. I really can’t refuse.”
“Yes you can,” said Iolaus. “Just write on the scroll ‘gone fishing’ and send it back with the messenger. Better yet, give him a couple of denarii and have him tell Iphicles he couldn’t find us.”
“I can’t let Iphicles down,” said Hercules, “I was the one who suggested a symposium in the first place. Besides, it’ll only be for a few weeks.”
“Well you can go and listen to a bunch of people argue boring legal stuff for a couple of weeks,” said Iolaus, grabbing his bag. “I’ll take the scenic route, get in a bit of fishing or hunting, and I’ll meet you in Corinth afterwards.”
Hercules knew there was no arguing with Iolaus, but he tried one last time just before they parted company later that day. “You know you’d be more than welcome,” he said, as he wrapped his arms around Iolaus for a final hug.
“I know,” said Iolaus, head resting against Hercules’s chest. “But I’ll meet you in Corinth in say two weeks time and if the symposium isn’t finished by then I’ll break down the doors and rescue you.” He felt Hercules laugh, and grinned up at him. “Go on, I’ll be fine.” Iolaus could feel Hercules’s hand on the small of his back, his thumb tracing a circle at the base of his spine.
“If you insist.” Hercules gave Iolaus one final kiss before pulling away reluctantly. “Two weeks from today. Try and stay out of trouble until then!”
But trouble, as always, had had a way of finding him, thought Iolaus. He’d spent a few days fishing and hunting as planned, some days more successfully than others. But somehow it hadn’t been as enjoyable as he had hoped, and eventually he had decided to make his way to Corinth earlier than planned.
A few days later Iolaus had come across signs of travel on the trail ahead of him. The tracks told him of a large number of people, horses and carts, a surprisingly large group Iolaus had thought for such an out of the way route. Curious, he had decided to follow the tracks at least for a while. It had taken him half a day to catch up with the group, and he had scouted around that night to see what they were up to. He’d thought maybe a gang of bandits or a warlord on the move, but to his shock, Iolaus had found a number of prisoners with them, who he soon discovered had been taken with the intent of selling them to slavers at the first opportunity.
While slavery had long since been outlawed in Corinth, Iolaus knew that some of the neighbouring provinces weren't so forward thinking.
Knowing that any attempt to seek reinforcements could result in the gang escaping, Iolaus had settled for plan B, a stealth attack to free the prisoners and *then* return with reinforcements. Unfortunately the plan hadn't worked as well as expected. The guards had discovered him before he'd managed to free more than half the captives and he'd been forced to fight in order to allow at least some of their number a chance to escape.
---------------------
"About a dozen were freed, Belchor. But we recaptured some. There can't be more than five or six who got away". There was a growl of anger from Belchor. He barked out an order and Iolaus was hauled to his feet in front of him. "Do you have any idea how much money you have cost me, little man?"
Iolaus shrugged "Can't you count that high?" He braced himself for a blow but it didn't come. Instead Belchor moved around him, eyeing him up and down as if he was a prize piece of meat. A bad feeling started to grow in Iolaus as Belchor squeezed his bound arms. Iolaus flinched involuntarily as Belchor pulled down on his vest, trapping his arms further and exposing him completely. He didn’t like the look in Belchor’s eyes as the man poked and prodded at his bare skin. Iolaus bit down on his impulse to resist knowing that there was a time and a place for escape attempts, and hands bound behind him, surrounded by close to a dozen heavily armed men was not going to be the best time.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Belchor stepped away and addressed his second in command. "You say he took down Agenor and Cleto?" he asked.
"Yes," the man replied. "And broke Dion's arm."
"Fighters fetch a better price than laborers," said Belchor. He turned back to Iolaus, putting a hand on his chin to tilt his head up, “And if there’s nobody looking for fighters…well, I can think of a few buyers catering for ‘other’ tastes that might welcome him.” He let go of Iolaus and turned back to his second. “Break camp immediately,” he ordered. “We move out at first light. We’re already days behind schedule. As for this one, chain him with the others, and keep an eye on him, I have a feeling he’ll be trouble.”
Iolaus struggled as he was grabbed from behind, but to no avail. The bandits had clearly learned from their comrades experiences and there were enough of them to make any attempt at resistance useless. Not that that stopped Iolaus from trying, but soon enough he was shackled hand and foot and thrown into the makeshift pen with the rest of the captives.
-------------------------
The next few days passed painfully slow. By day, Iolaus kept his eyes and ears open, listening in on whatever of his captors conversations that he could, and gathering as much information as possible from his fellow captives. He soon found out that Belchor was leading his party to a pre-arranged meeting at a port a few weeks travel away. The journey was taking so long because Belchor - knowing the local feeling about slave trading - had planned the route so as to avoid any major centers of population, instead sending his scouts on periodic journeys to source provisions for himself and his ‘merchandise’.
By night, Iolaus plotted his escape. That is, not just his own escape, but that of every captive. If it had been just himself, it would have been easy. He’d already managed to acquire a knife to use as a lock pick. Cleto, one of the guards he’d beaten on that first night, had been assigned guard duty as a punishment and Iolaus had deliberately provoked the man into attacking him. A few punches later, Iolaus was flat on the ground, carefully concealing the knife he’d lifted from Cleto’s belt. Not that the knife had proven to be much use as a weapon. The edge was so dull it would barely have cut butter, and Iolaus had no way to sharpen it unobserved. But the metal was hard and there was enough of a point on the tip for Iolaus to use it to open his shackles. He’d carefully closed them again, as he thought about his options. Given enough time, Iolaus was sure that he’d be able to free himself and all the others from their chains, but that wasn’t enough. On his own, he could easily cover enough ground and knew enough hunters’ tricks to hide himself from any pursuit. But with a few dozen people, men and women, he needed a proper plan to save them all.
The only thing Iolaus could think of was to delay the bandits as much as possible. To that end, at night, he used the knife to free himself and then snuck out of the holding pen to cause as much damage as he could get away with.
The first night, Iolaus made his way to where the horses were tethered, loosening a few ropes just enough so that several of Belchor’s men spent half the hours of darkness trying to catch them. Another night, Iolaus broke into the wagon holding the food stores, bringing extra provisions back to the prisoner’s pen, while carefully making it look like wild animals had been responsible. He loosened shoes on the horses, caused tents to collapse, and in general made the camp as unpleasant as possible a place to be.
----------------------
Iolaus waited for the guard on duty to make his usual round of the pen. Once he was out of sight, Iolaus did his usual trick with the knife and quickly removed his chains.
“Be careful, Iolaus,” said Keti, one of the captives, as she helped him arrange the threadbare blankets, into a shape that almost looked like a sleeping prisoner.
“I’ll be back before you know it,” promised Iolaus. “You just sleep and if anybody comes looking, you don’t know a thing about it.” Tonight was going to be his most ambitious act of sabotage so far. Most of the things Iolaus had done had caused delays of but a few hours at most. Tonight he planned to weaken the axle on the stores wagon so that it would break under the weight as they travelled. Fixing it would lose them a day’s travel at least, maybe more if they hadn’t the stores to replace it. Iolaus hoped it would work; he was starting to run out of ideas to slow down the party. He knew that if Belchor made it to the port, there would be plenty of buyers there who wouldn’t care about the provenance of their slaves, wouldn’t care that they’d been free people only weeks earlier. Iolaus swore to himself that he wouldn’t let that happen. Just as soon as he could find a way to get everybody out, he’d make his move.
--------------------
It took longer than Iolaus expected to weaken the axle properly. Too much damage and it would be immediately obvious and easily repairable, too little damage and the wagon would still be drivable. But now it was done and with luck he had bought them a little more time.
Keeping a lookout for the guard, Iolaus made his way back to the other captives. He waited for the moon to go behind a cloud before crawling back to his blanket. Groping around for his discarded chains, he heard a noise behind him and turned quickly.
“Looking for these?” said Belchor, holding the chains up. Behind him were several of his men, one of them holding Keti, a knife to her throat.
“Ah,” said Iolaus, “You know I *knew* they were somewhere around. I’ve just spent ages looking for them.”
“I think it’s time that you and I had a chat,” said Belchor. “Bring him,” he said to his men before throwing the chains on the ground and walking off.
-----------------------
“So, Iolaus,” said Belchor. “What am I going to do with you?” He walked around Iolaus who was standing before him, wrists chained to a tree branch over his head.
“You could just let me go,” said Iolaus, twisting in the chains so as to keep Belchor where he could see him. He jumped involuntarily as he felt Belchor’s hand running down his spine.
“Unfortunately for you, that’s not an option.” Belchor’s hand moved further down Iolaus’s back. “What is an option though. My men, sometimes as one of the ‘perks’ of the job, get to play with the merchandise before it’s sold. They’re not always that gentle though.” His hand moved downwards again and clasped Iolaus on the ass. “Sometimes when they’re finished having fun, well they’re not worth selling any more. And so far on this trip, they haven’t had a lot of fun. What do you think Iolaus?” Belchor grabbed Iolaus by the chin and forced his head up roughly. “Do you think that my men deserve a little perk after all you’ve put them through?”
Iolaus kept his voice steady and forced a smile on his face as he replied, “Sure…if you want your ‘merchandise’ damaged. But hey, I’m sure you can swallow the loss of what I’d make you.”
“Oh you misunderstand, Iolaus,” said Belchor, a smile on his face that made Iolaus’s blood run cold. “I have no intention of reducing *your* value. On the other hand, there are plenty of others to choose from. Your friend Keti for instance, the one who tried to pretend you were asleep under the blanket when I went looking for you tonight. I think my men would be most pleased to play with her.”
Iolaus couldn’t help himself as he lunged at Belchor. “Any of your men lay a hand on her and I’ll..!”
Belchor laughed as he stepped back, “Her continued well being, in fact that of all of my stock, is in your hands. You cause any more trouble and their blood will be on your hands. Behave yourself, do as you are told or they’ll be the ones to face the consequences.”
Iolaus struggled furiously against the chains, but to no avail. Finally he slumped against his bonds, only looking up when Belchor stepped forward again to ask, “Do we have an agreement?”
“Yes,” said Iolaus through gritted teeth.
“Good,” said Belchor. “I’m glad we understand each other.”
--------------------------
For the next few days, Iolaus kept to his word.
Belchor may have thought he had an iron-clad deal, but he was clearly taking no chances. By day, Iolaus was kept chained to the stores wagon, in full view, and separated from the other captives. By night, hands chained behind his back, ankles chained close together, he was guarded separately from the others. This guard duty was clearly not popular with Belchor’s men, and more than one had taken their aggravation out on Iolaus in the form of ‘accidental’ pushes and shoves as he walked along. In fairness, thought Iolaus, he had provoked them somewhat, secure in the knowledge that they couldn’t raise a hand to him, and always making sure that Belchor was out of earshot.
Cleto had been the worst, having suffered punishment from Belchor when his knife had been found in Iolaus’s possession. “Belchor docked my pay cause of you, Shorty,” he had said, while aiming a kick at Iolaus’s ribs. “You’re gonna pay for that. And don’t think I can’t mark you where it won’t show.”
Iolaus had managed to roll out of the way of another kick, coming up against a rock behind him. He’d quickly maneuvered himself onto his knees and rested his head against the stone. “Come near me again and I’ll smash my face into this rock. Try explaining *that* to Belchor!” The bluff had worked and Cleto hadn’t dared try to hurt him again.
The other guards had been content to make Iolaus’s life as uncomfortable as possible. His collar and chains were the heaviest of the restraints available. At night, his limbs were bound so tightly he could barely move, and the guards made a point of waking him every few hours “Just to see you haven’t escaped yet.”
The lack of sleep was starting to wear Iolaus down, but far worse was the effective isolation. Belchor allowed Keti to bring Iolaus his meager rations morning and evening, but there was always a guard in place to ensure no communications beyond a whispered ‘good morning’ or ‘thank you’ between them.
Iolaus thought that things really couldn’t get much worse, and then one day they did.
To be continued
Chain of Events 02