The Captain

CHAPTER 29

“What is going on?” cried Flora.

She ran to the door of her cell.

The door at the end of the short corridor had been flung open and Flora saw some five slaves being thrust forward. All were in brief tunics. All were hooded. Their hands were cuffed behind their backs. They were on a common neck chain. She was sure that Renata was among them. Small, stifled noises came from some of the hoods. Doubtless, beneath the hoods, they were gagged.

The door to her cell was flung open.

“Stand! Hands behind you!” ordered a guard.

Two guards entered the cell.

Her hands were cuffed behind her back. A gag was fixed on her, making it impossible for her to speak. A hood was drawn over her head and buckled shut, about her neck. She was then thrust from the cell. In a moment she felt a collar locked on her neck, and the draw of a chain, before and behind. She then was forced along the passage, and down a sloping passage.

In a few moments she felt damp stone beneath her bared feet, and tiny puddles of water.

She was forced to her belly. Her head was forced down. She could feel the stone of the floor through the hood, on the left side of her face. She felt the collar removed from her neck, but, in a moment, another collar, a heavier one, snapped about her neck. A chain ran from this collar to a staple, fixed in the stone. She determined this, feeling it with the side of her face, through the hood.

She felt the dampness of the floor through her gown.

She did not know where she was.

She tried to call out, or inquire, but could utter no more than tiny, helpless sounds.

She then lay there, prone, somewhere, unable to speak, in the darkness of the hood, her hands cuffed behind her, chained.

The chain on her neck, running to the floor, was a short one, only some six inches in length. It would hold her head quite close to the staple. Somewhere, seemingly faraway, she heard gunfire.