The Rapier

Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

I opened one eye to the dark low ceiling of a dungeon jail, the other too swollen to even blink.

It was obvious from the stone and mortar of the cell around that I was in the keep. I could hear the constant dripping of water from the ever present tide that rose and fell in pools beneath the building's foundation. Nature had started to eat away at the structure even while people lived inside it. It was a damp and cold place, too dark to see even your own hand in front of your face at first, until your eyes had adjusted to the darkness.

When finally I heard the sounds of voices echoing down to where I was, I wasn't exactly sure how long it had been. It felt like hours but it could have only been a few minutes. I squinted as the light from a torch illuminated my cell.

"De Saviola, you're coming with us," said a gruff soldier, armed with a pistol. I hated guns.

The men unlocked my cell and pulled me out, clapping a pair of cuffs on my wrists. The chain between them was heavy and rusted, and could easily be broken under the right type of pressure. The men marched me up a flight of corroding stairs up into a basement level of stone, and then into the first floor of the keep, where sunlight actually shone through windows. They led me into an open room where a dining table and several tall backed chairs were occupied by the babbling governor of Oporto, Don Cabrillo and, to my surprise, Elena.

She looked as beautiful as ever, dressed now in the dress that I had bought for her at the market, the sea green a perfect match for her eyes. She looked at me with half a smile and a raised eyebrow, one of the flowers I had left her tucked away neatly into her hair. She was still angry.

"Ah, De Saviola," said Don Cabrillo from his chair when he noticed Elena had stopped paying attention to his story. He pushed his seat out and stood up from the table with a flourish of his hand and a little mocking bow. "How good of you to join us," he spoke, in heavily accented Spanish. "I was beginning to wonder when you would wake up."

"Governer," I half growled, pushing the guards off me. My rapier was sitting on the table between the two of them, no doubt Don Cabrillo had wanted to throw it in my face that he had it. I shook the curls out of my eyes. "My Lady," I bowed my head to Elena with a wink. She was a countess, after all.

"This is her," was Elena's only response, and that she made to Don Cabrillo. She set down her knife and fork primly. "This is the pirate who kidnapped me."

Don Cabrillo turned from Elena to me, a look of disgust spreading across his features. He regarded me with his close set eyes, squinting. "The Countess has told me of all the troubles you have caused her, De Saviola," Don Cabrillo began. I listened eagerly, as it was all news to me. "Pillaging her town, killing her household, mortally wounding her husband-"

I snapped my head up to meet Elena's eyes with one of my own. She would not look at me. "I never meant to kill him," I blurted out.

"Kidnapping a noble lady, raping her!" Don Cabrillo continued on, each accusation stinging more then the last. I would never have kidnapped her, nor forced myself upon her. What reason would she have to lie, unless her husband truly had been killed, and Elena and I were at the end of our little game? Don Cabrillo back handed me across the face when he saw I was not listening. Elena gasped audibly at my pain.

I lifted my eyes to meet the governor's gaze with my lip bloodied and bruised eyes pounding. "Is that all?" I spat, too angry and rebellious not to answer with fire.

"For your crimes against the state you shall be beheaded," Don Cabrillo announced. He placed a hand on Elena's arm from across the table. "What more would you have me do with her, my lady?"