Taken by the Enemy

by Jennifer Bene

  Emmie couldn’t resist turning as much as she could to look at the strange community that looked as if it had sprung from the forest itself. The small shelters were formed from branches and animal skins, covered in fallen leaves and some even had flowers stuck into the gaps. It seemed impossible – these couldn’t be the raiders. The raiders were vicious animals, mindless murderers, thieves, rapists…

  Well, Emmie thought to herself, at least one of those categories seemed to fit.

  As he guided her, they moved farther and farther away from the bustling center and away into the trees. The shelters started to space themselves further apart, until finally the path came to an end at a slightly larger, older looking structure.

  “Lucian, you’re back! Get us anything to eat?” A man pushed himself up from the ground near the entrance and stepped forward with a broad smile. His hair was a long, reddish-brown, and his eyes roamed over her as his smile faded into a much different grin. “Well, you at least got something to feast on.”

  Emeline growled low. “Just try it, asshole.” She tried to jerk away from Lucian’s grip on her neck, but his fingers tightened viciously and held her in place.

  The man’s eyes widened, and he laughed, but Lucian’s dull nails just pressed into her skin, his mouth close to her ear. “What did I tell you about respect?”

  She spat at his feet and Lucian threw her forward onto the ground, barely able to catch herself on her shoulder instead of her face. “Shit!” Emmie groaned as the ache radiated up over her back.

  “You found a wild one!” the man shouted with laughter in his voice.

  “You have no idea. She did this to my nose.” Lucian gestured at his face as she sat up, and a smile spread over her lips. “But I already punished her for that.”

  Those words wiped the beginning smile off her face, but the man just glanced down at her. “I’m sure I could do a lot to help her understand the rules here.”

  A sick feeling filled her stomach at the hidden threat, the ache between her thighs pulsing in a reminder of just how precarious her position was.

  “That won’t be necessary tonight, Ben. I think this little bird has a lot to think about, just put her in with the others – but don’t take the rope off.”

  “They’re always feisty when we first bring them in,” Ben said, and then he asked, “Little bird?”

  Lucian shrugged, his heather gray eyes boring into her. “I’ll fill you in later. We did get a boar, it’s already being prepped for dinner. Come find me later when your shift is over.”

  “Sure.” Ben clasped hands with Lucian, and then her captor turned back down the path and Ben towered over her. “All right, into the stable with you.”

  He nudged her with his boot, and she kicked his leg away. In a moment his face changed, and he leaned down to grab her off the ground and toss her over his shoulder as she fought.

  “If you want to play it that way, that’s fine. You’re not the first one to show up with an attitude.” His palm landed in a hard swat across her already sore ass, and she yelped as he moved forward, throwing the animal skin aside that served as a door before he unceremoniously dumped her onto the earth inside. Her breath left her in a burst, and he pointed down at her. “Do not try to leave. I’m right outside, and based on what Lucian said, you already know what happens to girls who don’t follow the rules.”

  “Go to hell,” Emmie growled, and he rolled his eyes as he straightened.

  “You’ll learn.” Ben turned and ducked out the doorway, and she heard him settle on the ground outside.

  She was a prisoner.

  A prisoner of the raiders.

  Her situation settled over her like a dark cloud, and she twisted at the waist to sit up on the hard earth. Light filtered in through the gaps in the structure, but the interior was still dim, and her wrists were still bound, and she was still hopelessly trapped. A frustrated scream escaped her and she kicked at the dirt, digging furrows into the earth with the heels of her shoes, worrying the rope around her wrists with her struggles – but the pain just drove her onward. She let loose a torrent of curses, damning the man outside, Lucian, her situation, the world itself. Eventually her energy left her in a whoosh, and she felt tears burning her eyes, tracking down her cheeks until she rubbed her face against her shoulders and sniffled.

  The sound of a throat clearing quietly behind her made her jump, and she twisted to find another woman in the shadows. Emmie turned away from her, furiously rubbing her cheeks and nose against the fabric of her shirt until she felt more composed.

  “Are you – um… are you okay?” It was a quiet whisper, and she heard the shuffling of the girl moving towards her.

  “Fine,” Emmie muttered.

  A figure entered her peripheral vision to her right, but she refused to face the other woman – too aware of the mess she probably was. The girl cleared her throat again. “I’m Alice. Did they get you today?”

  All Emmie wanted was to be left alone. She wanted to be back under the peaceful canopy of the trees, scrounging for another half-hearted salad, away from everyone, but if she couldn’t have that, she at least didn’t want to have to entertain someone else.

  The silence stretched, and then Alice shifted closer to her. “They found me a little over a week ago, so I understand—”

  “You don’t understand,” Emmie snapped, and the girl’s stunned expression as she turned towards her would have made her feel guilty if there had been enough room to feel more guilt on top of all the other sins weighing on her.

  “Okay, then why don’t you tell me what happened? Why were you exiled? How did they find you?” Alice’s voice was soft, incredibly quiet in the gloom.

  “No.”

  The girl sighed and crossed her legs. “Well, I was exiled for my debts. I wasn’t able to pay my rent, but I refused to move out and live in the streets. I still owed the woman teaching me to make clothes for my beginning materials, and she refused to take me on as a full apprentice. She just wanted me to work for her, learn from her, without any guarantees. When the guards arrived to drag me out of my room, that was the first I knew that she had reported me for theft of the materials. No one listened to me when I told them how many dresses, pants, and shirts I had crafted in her shop. My own landlord called me a squatter, and shunned me. Then the town council exiled me – I didn’t even get to speak at my own trial. They told me to be silent, and then threw me out of the gates.”

  Emmie stared at the ground, trying to block out the woman’s sob story, but she just kept talking.

  “By the time they found me I was so hungry I didn’t really fight when they tied me up and brought me back here.” Alice scooted a little closer to her, lowering her voice even further, “But the best part is I kept the needles the woman gave me.” The girl twisted, grabbing at the hem of her top. “See?”

  The dull metal caught the light, and Emmie recognized the shape of a needle. It was similar to the one she had practiced her needlepoint for hours with, crafting flowers and leaves and phrases. Alice grinned and turned again to embed it in the hem once more. “They took the bag I had with some scraps of fabric, but they never searched my actual clothes.”

  “What do you think you’re going to do with a needle?” Emmie turned on the girl and her eyes widened as she hissed, “Do you think that you’ll be able to do anything with a tiny thing like that? You’re a fool.”

  “I just…” the girl sputtered, dropping her head to allow a dull, brown braid to drop over her shoulder. “I just haven’t had a moment to tell anyone, I thought you might be—”

  “What?”

  “My friend,” Alice whispered and Emmie tried to pull back from the desperation the girl poured out, but it was difficult. It became impossible when the soft sniffling of the girl crying filled the space.

  Dammit.

  “I’m sorry,” Emmie whispered.

  “Huh?” She lifted her head and Emmie cringed at repeating herself.

  “I said I’m sorry, I did
n’t mean to hurt your feelings, I just—”

  “You’re having a really bad day.” Alice filled in the blank, wiping her cheeks, and Emeline had to agree with her. She was having a terrible day, a fucking horrible, bad day.

  “Yes.”

  “My mother always used to tell me that bad days exist so that we can recognize the good ones, and there are always good ones.” The girl’s voice sounded so confident that Emmie laughed a little and tried to think of her last good day. It was probably the day before she’d left the city, when she’d had a full belly, and had hugged her sister tight knowing it was for the last time – and with that thought, darkness overshadowed the memory.

  That wasn’t a good memory, it was guilt personified.

  Traitor. Weakling. Coward.

  Her own mind was against her, and Emmie couldn’t handle it, suddenly grateful for her empty stomach. “It seems all I’ve had are bad days recently.”

  “I understand,” Alice whispered. They sat there in silence for a moment until Emmie felt an itching on her cheek, strands of her hair stuck to the damp skin from the crying. She tried to brush the hair away with her shoulder, and when that didn’t work, she blew at it uselessly. The girl inched closer, shifting onto her knees. “Would you, um, would you like me to pull your hair back? I’ve found it’s not as difficult when it’s out of your face.”

  “Thank you, yes,” Emmie mumbled and shifted back to sit on her sore ass. A hiss escaped between her teeth and Alice let out an empathetic sound as she moved behind her.

  “He punished you, didn’t he? I couldn’t help but hear…” The girl slid her hands towards the tie buried in the mess of her hair, and Emmie nodded. “Did Lucian himself punish you?”

  Emeline rolled her shoulders, trying her best to ignore their ache as she nodded again. “Yes, he did.”

  “Wow.” The young woman’s voice sounded surprised, her deft fingers working at the knots in her hair. “I thought Lucian didn’t touch any of the women. Honestly, I’d begun to think he preferred men – not that it would be particularly strange, just odd for a man in his position.”

  “His position?” Emmie turned slightly towards the girl, but Alice pushed her head forward again to continue removing the tangles.

  “He’s the leader. Of all of them. Of this place.” She blew out a breath. “That’s a big deal.”

  “What do you mean?” Emmie winced as Alice caught a particularly stubborn tangle and tore it free.

  “Well, from what I’ve been told, he’s never taken one of the new captives. Even for a punishment.” Alice started to draw her fingers through her hair, pulling it back and over Emmie’s shoulders, and the sensation was soothing, but her words were creating a new tension under her skin. “He just doesn’t take any of the women for himself.”

  Emeline opened her mouth to tell the girl what had happened, how he had pressed her down over the log, spanked her until she was pleading, and had taken her. Been the first man to have her – but the cover over the doorway fluttered open and a woman with dirty blonde hair stormed in, huffing and puffing.

  “Alice! Did you hear—” The woman stopped short, bent over under the low roof of the structure. “There’s a new girl...”

  She met the woman’s blue eyes as she stared for a moment and then moved towards the back of the space. A moment later, she returned with a shallow bowl, sipping at it. Alice answered her quietly. “Yes. She’s nice, Clara, she just had a bad day today.”

  “A bad day?” Clara huffed and sat down, taking another drink from the bowl. “Haven’t we all? Years of bad days. Talk to me about bad days when you’ve dealt with them as long as I have.”

  “There’s no need for that,” Alice mumbled, and Clara scoffed.

  “She looks fine to me, and trust me, being here is better than being out there where everything is trying to kill you – or back in the damn city where those sons of bitches —”

  “Clara!” Alice tugged Emmie’s hair sharply as she chastised the other woman, and Clara finally seemed to calm down a little.

  “Fine.” She rolled her eyes. “So, what did you do to end up out here with the rest of the riffraff?”

  “Nothing.” Emmie went still, ignoring the gentle tugging of Alice’s hands as they worked to tether her unruly hair into a braid.

  “Don’t pull that innocent victim routine with me, no one gets exiled without reason. All I did was hit some asshole over the head when he refused to pay me for services rendered, and suddenly I’m the criminal, I’m getting kicked out of the city, I’m some whore.” Clara snorted. “As if half the town council had never been to that brothel before. Bunch of hypocritical, lying—”

  “Shut up!” Emmie snapped, and both of them went still. Her own reaction had surprised her, and she did her best to suppress the surge of anger inside her. Answer, her mind urged her, but she had never even thought up a reason as to why she’d be outside the city walls. In all her preparations, she had never expected to be thrust into the company of the enemies of the city, but now she was effectively surrounded – and she needed an answer. Her mind whirled, trying to dredge her memories of previous offenses that had resulted in exile, but she’d never paid much attention to it. It was a footnote in the gossip she’d been surrounded by, and suddenly it was the most important information to her.

  Great.

  Clara stared at her with an eyebrow neatly raised, her bowl held in the air like an offering, and even Alice was peeking around her to listen.

  “I—” She started to speak, but her mind was empty. Empty of any valid excuse that would ring true, and suddenly a partial truth left her lips unbidden. “I refused a man who wanted me.”

  “Let me guess, the asshole claimed you stole from him?” Clara huffed.

  “Something like that,” Emmie mumbled, turning away to hide the hot flush in her cheeks.

  “That’s terrible!” Alice piped up, returning to the braid until it was finished, before tying it off once more – only this time Emmie could tell it was much straighter, more confined, and probably a lot prettier than she’d been able to manage on her own.

  “Men are dogs. All of them.” Clara raised her voice. “ALL men, even the mutt outside this place!”

  Alice made a sound of distress, shifting until Emmie could more easily see both of them. “Clara, please, don’t make them angry.”

  She just laughed. “Listen to me, Alice is still new, but you’ll figure out pretty quickly that there’s a short list of what they can do to you. Once you know that, you’ll feel a lot better. Just don’t run, and you’ll be fine – hey, what did you say your name was?”

  Their eyes bored into her, and she relented. “Emmie.”

  “That’s pretty!” Alice chimed, and Clara shrugged.

  “Well, hello, Emmie. Welcome to the rest of your pathetic life, however long that is.”

  “Why do you have to be like that?” Alice asked, turning towards Clara with a frown.

  “Because I’m not an idiot.” The blonde muttered under her breath for a moment, and then she held out the bowl casually. “Are you thirsty?”

  The question immediately drew Emmie’s attention to the dryness in her throat, and she nodded. Alice took the shallow bowl and brought it to her lips, but Emmie pulled back. “Can’t you untie me?”

  Clara laughed, but Alice just looked apologetic. “No, Emmie, I’m sorry. We’ll all be punished if we untie you, you’ll have to earn that right.”

  The girl moved the water towards her lips again, and although she was thirsty, Emmie turned away from it again. “How? How do I earn that?”

  Alice sighed, lowering the bowl. “You have to obey. Behave. Don’t run.”

  “Right!” Clara laughed. “What happens when you run, Alice?”

  The girl fumed, the first anger she’d seen in the mousy brunette. “They catch you.”

  “And then?” Clara prompted.

  “They punish you,” Alice finished. With a deep breath, the girl composed herself and raised
the bowl again. “Here. Take a drink, you’ll feel better. They’ll feed us something soon.”

  The lukewarm water passed Emmie’s lips and she almost moaned at how good it felt, but the bowl was empty too soon. Alice nodded at her as she moved to refill it from some place at the back of the structure, but Clara just grinned at her.

  “You don’t get anything here without earning it, Emmie. Remember that.” The words sounded like a threat, but she didn’t have the energy to think it through and greedily drank the next bowl of water that Alice lifted to her lips.

  There would be plenty of time to figure out the rules, and figure out a plan to escape. Regardless of what the other women thought – there was always a way out.

  She just had to find it, and take it.

  Chapter Four

  It was a couple of hours later when a different man moved the animal skin aside and beckoned for them. “Come on. It’s time to eat.”

  “Going to make the girl get up on her own, Theo? That’s rude,” Clara commented as she stood up in the low space, keeping her back bent so she didn’t brush the ceiling.

  “Be quiet, Clara.” The man moved forward, his head shaved close so that there was only the barest beginnings of hair across his scalp. He gripped Emmie’s arm and helped her to her feet, supporting her as they all moved back out onto the path. “Don’t run. Don’t try to escape. I promise we’ll find you, and the punishment will be worse than whatever you’ve experienced.”

  “She won’t run. Will you, Emmie?” Alice appeared to her left and she just nodded.

  “Fine, let’s just go eat. I’m starving.” Theo kept a firm grip on her arm as the other girls led the way down the path, and steadily the sound of people filled the forest around them. Light from fires danced across the trunks of trees, laughter echoed among the branches, and Emeline once again felt like an intruder. Only this time no one paid attention as they stepped into the broad center of the village – a large cleared space with a huge pit dug for roasting the boar. Several fires fought back the cool air of the night, with people gathered around them talking.