The Wheel

Chapter 14: The Wheel

Vasanta was marched from Chalgaz's quarters back to the main corridor.  Then they took a left through another set of doors to a stairway.  Bound and helpless she still took in her surroundings, alert for any chance of escape.  But her captors took no chances as they walked her through the castle.  Two men kept a tight grip on her arms while a third led the way and still one more followed.  

She expected to be taken down the stairs to some sort of dungeon, but instead was taken up.  It appeared that "The Wheel" or whatever it was not in some dank dungeon.  However, it would not be much easier to escape from the top of the castle.  

They did not stop at just one flight of stairs, but went up several and eventually it became obvious to Vasanta that they were climbing to one of the towers.  The stairway narrowed as they got closer to the top and Vasanta's guard dropped to just one on her right side, but with her arms tightly bound and with two men behind her and one still in front there was not the slightest opportunity for escape.  

The stairway finally ended at a large wooden door.  Vasanta noted that it was barred on the outside.  If this is where she was to stay it would be impossible to open it from inside.  

The door was unbarred and thrown back and Vasanta was forced roughly into the room.  There she got her first view of the Wheel and got some inkling of what awaited her.

Centred in the room was what looked like a gigantic drum.  Its rim was almost a yard across and was set with studs to which a person's hands and feet could be tethered.  In diameter it measured at least two yards and the entire contraption was set on an axle that held it almost a yard above the floor so that it could be rotated with the aid of large handles that radiated from it like spokes.  

Vasanta saw at once how it was to be used, but she was helpless to prevent her four escorts from securing her to it.  The fact that they had to untie her wrists made not the slightest difference as all four men kept a tight hold on her as they secured her wrists by means of leather straps to each side of the wheel.  She was left with her body following the curve of the wheel with her feet dangling a foot off the floor.  

Her escort had restrained themselves up to this point, but now one of them could not resist running his hands over her body.  "Chalgaz said not to touch her, Grob," cautioned one of the other guards.  

Grob shrugged.  "I expect he intends to keep her for himself.  But there is no reason why I cannot have a little fun until he arrives."

"If you value your head stand back," the first man warned.

"You may be right, Domaz," Grob argued, "but I think Chalgaz should put her up for division.  She is part of the spoils of war and we have as much right to her as he does."

"But Chalgaz is king now.  Perhaps division no longer applies."

"Our blades gained him the kingship.  If he wants to take her as part of his share then something else should be offered to us.  Besides he already has the Silver Queen."

"In name only," Domaz countered.  "The queen has yet to let him between the sheets."

The argument over what to do with Vasanta ended when the door opened and Chalgaz strode into the room.  "You have her ready," he observed, taking in Vasanta's helpless from.  "Good, we will begin."

The men stood back.  Clearly whatever they thought of Chalgaz's division of the spoils, so far as Vasanta was concerned they were willing to let him have his way.

Vasanta stared back at Chalgaz as he stood watching her, or at least as defiantly as she could in her helpless situation.  Not surprisingly Chalgaz was not the least bit intimidated.  "See how she glares," he chortled.  "No frightened maiden here.  She will be a challenge to break, but then I have never backed away from a challenge."

Vasanta said nothing.  What could she have said in such a hopeless predicament?  She knew that eventually Chalgaz would get tired of talking and then turn to doing whatever he had in mind for her.  That she was going to be raped and tortured was almost certain, and the helplessness of the situation terrified her.  

A trickle of sweat ran down her chest and between her breasts.  She swallowed, trying to remain calm.  Protests, threats, or begging for mercy would get her nothing.  All she could do was act like the warrior she was and face what the gods had decreed.  

She swallowed again, even though her mouth was dry as Chalgaz removed his belt and sword and then began to undo the laces on his codpiece.  She saw as he revealed himself that he was fully erect, and even though he was not the largest male she had ever seen he was more than large enough to strike fear into her.  

"Frightened, princess?" Chalgaz taunted.  "You're panting like a virgin about to be sacrificed."

Chalgaz's words were a most apt description for the way that Vasanta felt.  But she was not about to let him intimidate her.  

"Do what you want," she panted.  "You may rape and torture me, but a princess of Nahn cannot be broken by filth like you."

Her defiance was somewhat spoiled by her helpless and undignified position as well as the beads of sweat that glittered on her body.  Chalgaz laughed.  "Let's find out, shall we?  I expect a few moments of riding my shaft will have you begging for mercy."

Vasanta kicked out at Chalgaz as he moved toward her, but he was well prepared for such a move.  He caught each of her ankles and as she continued to kick wildly he forced her legs apart and moved between them.  Desperately Vasanta tried to bend her knees to prevent what was going to happen, but nothing she did prevented Chalgaz from gripping her thighs and then thrusting forward.  

His shaft parted her petals and buried itself half within her in a single thrust.  Vasanta bit back a scream of pain as he entered her.  Chalgaz grunted with satisfaction, pulled back slightly and then drove forward again.  

The pain and humiliation were terrible.  Chalgaz's men cheered him on as he penetrated her.  Vasanta's entire body shuddered with each thrust.  "By the gods she's tight," Chalgaz remarked.  "It's like fucking a temple virgin."

His comment drew a number of ribald replies all of which Vasanta was too preoccupied to appreciate.  He was deep within her, moving now in the smooth rhythm she had come so much to fear, each thrust taking him deeper, and she could not hold back a cry of pain as he bit down on the nipple of her left breast.  She cried out again as his powerful hands mauled her breasts and moaned as he continued to drive into her.  

It was as ugly and savage an ordeal as she had ever experienced.  Chalgaz pounded her mercilessly while he pinched, bit, and otherwise mauled her breasts and buttocks.  Vasanta's body bucked under the ordeal and into her mind flashed a vision of Shailaja undergoing the same brutal treatment at the hands of Torgon.  But it was an image that was altered from the manner in which she previously had viewed the Kaltaran warrior; an image in which she had thought of Shailaja as a lascivious whore who probably enjoyed what was done to her.  Now she knew that her hatred of the woman who had killed her brother had blinded to the fact that rape was every bit as much a nightmare to Shailaja as it was to her.  And it was a nightmare that never seemed to end even though it could not have lasted much longer than a quarter turn of the glass before Chalgaz seeded her womb.  As he cried out in pleasure and stepped back from her she slumped on the wheel her loins burning and utterly shamed.  But she was far from broken and her dark eyes glared defiance.

However, Chalgaz was far from through with her.  As he wiped himself clean he spoke to his men.  "Secure her ankles and ready the wheel.  It's time to begin the breaking process."

"Should we not have a turn between her thighs?" Grob asked  "Surely this one is part of the spoils and should be shared equally."

"You may have her when I am finished with her," Chalgaz growled.  "Until then her cunt and ass belong to me."

Chalgaz's meaning was clear enough and the way he said it silenced all opposition.  But Vasanta's relief that she had escaped gang rape was short lived.  Chalgaz himself tended to the wheel snugging it up until she was stretched tight against it.

Vasanta gasped as the tension on her limbs increased.  The brutal rape she had just suffered had left her physically and spiritually exhausted, and now she was faced with pain piled on top of pain.  She gritted her teeth and prepared for a brutal ordeal.

She was not disappointed, if disappointed was the right word.  As Chalgaz increased the tension her limbs were drawn out to their limit and then beyond.  Vasanta had heard of such machines, but had never seen one until now.  And she had certainly never expected to be strapped into such a device much less experience the excruciating pain one of them was capable of generating.  Despite the fact that Chalgaz had not even used a fraction of the power of the wheel, her joints screamed in agonized protest.  The sweat rolled off her body in rivulets and a harsh cry forced its way from her throat.  And then, just when she was certain her arms would be torn from their sockets Chalgaz eased the tension.  

"That was well fought," he commented.  "I have seen few who can brave the wheel without screaming; and no woman has ever done so.  But the wheel always wins as you will quickly learn."  As he finished speaking he once again turned the wheel, restoring the agonizing tension to Vasanta's limbs.  

This time Vasanta lasted only a few hundred heartbeats.  As Chalgaz had promised, the wheel had won and her scream of pain gave full proof of that.  He increased the tension until Vasanta heard her ligaments pop and she almost wept from the pain.  But she had no intention of surrendering, not even if her limbs were completely torn off.  

Once again her agonized thoughts swung to Shailaja.  The redheaded warrior had also been tortured; Vasanta had heard the screams, but she had not surrendered and she could do no less than to continue to defy Chalgaz regardless of the cost.  And then her memories went even farther back to the first time she had seen Shailaja.  To her shame she had contemplated putting the Kaltaran to a degrading and painful death.  She also remembered that Shailaja's body bore the same marks it bore now; the marks of a severe flogging.  She had never thought that many moons later she would suddenly recall that the woman who now regarded her as a sister had suffered torture on more than one occasion.

Shailaja survived this and I will as well.  But it was oh so very hard to hold onto that vow when her arms were being almost ripped from their sockets.

Suddenly the tension eased.  This time completely as Chalgaz stepped away from the wheel.  It appeared that there was to be a respite in her savage ordeal.  But her relief was short lived as Chalgaz once again began to loosen the laces on his codpiece.  "I always find the screams of a pretty woman to be most arousing and you have aroused me more than most."

Incredibly Vasanta found the voice to respond.  "I expect it is the only way you can rouse your member; sadly it achieves so small a result."

The snickers from the watching guards told Vasanta her jibe had hit the mark as did the look of anger that flashed across Chalgaz's face.  "You're stronger than expected, a real challenge, but one I will enjoy winning.  And as for the size of my staff; you seemed to find it more than large enough the last time I used it."

Vasanta's words had used up most of what was left of her strength and she made no reply as Chalgaz advanced on her.  Now fully erect, he plunged into deep into her, parting her petals and burying himself almost fully within Selene's Grotto.  To her shame Vasanta gasped and then moaned in pain as the shaft she had so recently derided penetrated her.  

"That big enough for you, princess?  Perhaps you'd like a little more."  Vasanta would not have believed that Chalgaz had much in reserve, given the pain and discomfort, but he proved her wrong as he drove relentlessly into her.  Sore and bruised from the first time he had taken her, Vasanta first moaned and then cried out in pain.  Chalgaz punished her severely, forcing her to deeply regret the impulse that had led her to insult his male equipment.  

This time he took much longer, drawing out his use of her body to fully experience the pleasure she offered as well as to give her a painful reminder of her helplessness.  When he was finished she was so exhausted she was barely conscious.  But Chalgaz was not content to let her off with only two sessions of rape and two of torture.  As Vasanta's ravaged body hung limply from the wheel Chalgaz increased the tension once again.

This time Vasanta barely had the strength to scream.  But Chalgaz seemed not to mind.  He ratcheted up the tension while Vasanta screamed until her voice cracked.  Only when she went silent did Chalgaz relent.  "It would not do to use you up too soon," he commented.  "There is still tomorrow and the day after that.  I will break you - provided you live long enough."

Barely conscious, Vasanta was removed from the wheel.  However, she was not taken from the room.  Instead she was carried to an iron cage and placed within it.  The cage measured less than her body length and was too low for her to stand up.  She crouched shivering on the stone floor, more from the shock of what had been done to her than because it was particularly cold.  

"Until tomorrow, Princess," Chalgaz sneered.  "I'll have you crawling at my feet before another threeday has passed."  

Vasanta reflected that he could have had her crawling at his feet right now if he had wished.  She could not possibly have stood on her own and she was in such agony that she wondered if she might be permanently crippled.  She lay where the guards had heaved her, naked except for a woollen blanket that had been tossed into the cage after her.  For a long time she did not even move to cover herself.  By now the shafts of light falling through the narrow windows of the tower had dimmed telling her that it was early evening.  Slowly she chanced a movement and almost screamed again at the pain.  Her joints from her shoulders to her wrists were so swollen she could barely move her arms.  Gritting her teeth she pulled the blanket around her and then fell back too exhausted to do more than lie where she was.  

She must have slept as the next thing she knew was the glare of light in her eyes.  She closed her eyes again, blinded by the flaring torch.  "Feeding time, Princess, although I'd rather do something else to you first."  

Vasanta recognized the voice as that of the guard called Grob, and as her vision cleared she saw that he had a leather water skin slung over his shoulder and a bowl of something in the other.  There was an opening just large enough to fit what he had brought into the cage, and setting the torch in a wall bracket he passed the water skin through the bars.

He held the bowl to his nose and sniffed the contents.  The sniff was followed by his finger.  Sticking it into the bowl he held it too his mouth and then licked it off.  "Not bad.  I could eat this myself.  But Chalgaz might be a bit miffed if I starved you.  He wants you strong for tomorrow so eat up."

He waited a few heartbeats and when Vasanta made no effort to move he shrugged and picked up the torch.  Heading for the door he stropped and gave her one last look.  "Until tomorrow, Princess.  With any luck maybe Chalgaz will give us a turn at you.  The Dread Wolves share everything evenly.  And unless Chalgaz wants to buy you off you're something I can hardly wait to try."

He turned and left, leaving Vasanta in the darkness.  She lay there for a number of heartbeats and then the smell of the food forced her to move.  Exhausted as she was, she was also hungry and thirsty and she needed food to keep up her strength.  

As Grob had said the stew was good.  She consumed the entire bowl and wiped her finger around the inside and licked them off to get all of it.  Then she drank the water and curled up in the blanket.  Exhaustion overcame her pain and she slept, not awakening until the door to the tower opened once more.  

To her chagrin she found that she could not move.  While she slept her joints had responded to their treatment on the wheel and she was so badly swollen that even the slightest movement was sheer agony.  She could do nothing but lie where she was as Chalgaz and several of his soldiers strode into the room.  

Her semi-paralysed state, however, did not excuse her from further abuse.  Grob and one of the other soldiers dragged her from the cage.  If anything the pain seemed worse than it was the day before and she could not hold back a scream.  But the men that held her were not interested in sparing her pain.  They marched her to the door and out into the stairwell.  At first she supposed she was being taken somewhere else, but it turned out to be a bit more mundane than that.  She was taken over to an alcove in the tower.  Her nostrils identified its use before her eyes did.  It was a garderobe overhanging the outer courtyard.  

"Here you be, princess," Grob jeered.  "We don't want you pissing yourself in the tower so do what you have to."

It was humiliating to be so helpless that she had to be held up while she did as Grob asked.  Fortunately, in the close confines of the military camps she had become quite used to the fact that bodily functions had to be done in front of others and she was not the least shamed about what she was required to do.  What did shame her was the fact that she could not stand unaided.  Just a few turns of the glass on the wheel had crippled her so badly she wondered if she would ever be able to move her arms and legs properly again.  

However, her captors showed her no mercy.  Once she had finished they dragged her back to the tower room.  Upon entering the room she found one important change.  The wheel had been raised so that a large bathtub-like basin had been moved beneath it.  The wheel had then been lowered into position so that the next time it turned the bottom two feet of the wheel it would turn within the basin.  She wondered at the purpose of this arrangement, but her question was answered almost immediately.

Following her through the doorway of the tower room came a procession of servants each one carrying a yoke supporting two full buckets of water.  One after the other they splashed their load into the basin until it was filled nearly to the brim.  She was not the least surprised that when the last bucket of water had been dumped she was moved toward the wheel.  Once again she was arched over it, but this time her ankles were secured to the wheel as well as her wrists.  

The process of binding her to the wheel was incredibly painful, placing her weight fully on the tormented joints of the shoulders and hips.  It revived all of the agony she had suffered the previous day.  But she knew that what she was suffering now was going to be minor compared to what Chalgaz had planned for her.  

"After yesterday you need a bath don't you think?" Chalgaz asked, as his hand went to one of the spokes controlling the wheel.  "Quite frankly you stink, and I like my women clean.  And I can guarantee you'll be more than clean after today."

He turned the wheel slowly lowering her feet first into the water.  It was shockingly cold and she gasped as her body was lowered deeper and deeper into the basin.  By the time it reached her nipples she was panting hard and then the water approached her chin.  

"Take a deep breath, princess," Chalgaz taunted, and then her head went under.  

Vasanta had already done what Chalgaz suggested.  She could feel the wheel continue to turn and then it stopped.  Grimly she held on, drowning being her only other choice.  She counted her heartbeats, wondering how long Chalgaz would keep her under.  That he would return her to the surface she had no doubt.  She knew that he did not want her dead, but that did not mean that he might mistake her powers of endurance.  She was a strong woman, and she had excellent control of her breathing, but she had already endured one day of torture and had been seriously weakened.  If Chalgaz's miscalculated she could easily drown.  

She reached a hundred heartbeats before she felt the wheel begin to move once more.  And there were a further thirty before her head broke the surface and she was able to expel her breath and suck in a lungful of air.  The wheel continued to turn until she was fully clear of the water, but Chalgaz had turned the wheel only in one direction and she now hung upside down, her long hair trailing down into the water.

"A hundred heartbeats," Chalgaz commented. "Well done.  I thought you might be too weak to last that long, but then if you had drowned it would be the gods' way of showing me that you are not worthy of serving me."

The gods?  What did the gods have to do with what Chalgaz was doing to her?  The man was a coward who raped and tortured helpless prisoners.  He would never have dared face her with a sword.  And it hadn't been a hundred heartbeats, but a hundred and thirty.  But, of course, Chalgaz's cowardly heart was probably beating much more slowly than hers.  After all, he hadn't been lowered into a vat of water that was so cold it had turned her nipples as hard as thimbles, an occurrence he had already noted.

Chalgaz ran his hand over her nipples savouring their erect hardness.  "You find the water cold, princess?  It should be.  I made sure it came from the deepest well in the castle."  

There was nothing Vasanta could say to that.  She couldn't challenge him because she knew he would simply laugh at her.  He was not interested in a fair fight; only in breaking her spirit and turning her into his obedient slave.  She couldn't even ask for death as that would be a sign of weakness and she had no intention of debasing herself any further than she already had by allowing herself to be taken prisoner.  

And now the wheel was turning once more, rotating back the way it had come and taking her back down into the water.  She gulped air once again just as her head entered the water.  It seemed much longer this time, and perhaps it was.  She didn't bother to count; but just held on as the cold seeped into her flesh and her lungs threatened to explode.  Her chest heaved spasmodically and her senses dulled and then just as darkness pressed against her mind she broke water once again.  

This time she had been rotated back to her starting point.  She was kept there only long enough for Chalgaz to taunt her once again and catch her breath and then she was turned down into the water once again.  And so it went, time after time until her body was so chilled she shivered uncontrollably and her lungs were so strained she gasped like a fish each time she rose from the water.  It was then that Chalgaz locked the wheel in place, an action Vasanta hardly noticed.

What she did notice was that he was suddenly standing in front of her and more to the point had stripped off all of his clothing.  She later learned that his men had placed a board across the top of the basin so that he could stand above the water.  "You seem to need warming up, princess.  And I am willing to carry out that task."

As he spoke he leaned into her, pressing his body against her.  "By the gods you're cold.  But you'll soon be warm enough."

She could hardly believe the pain as he thrust into her.  She had thought it could not have been worse than the day before.  She was wrong, and she remembered that time in the desert several moons ago when she had been betrayed and taken by the band of mercenaries she had foolishly hired.

She had been well aware of the fact that she could not trust them; but she had been careless; allowing them to catch her unawares.  They had bound her, torn off her clothing, beaten her and then brutally raped her.  It had been the first time she had been used by any man and it was an experience that had been burned into her consciousness, so much so that she doubted she could ever have a proper relationship with a man.  

As was the case with Chalgaz she had been repeatedly raped by her captors and then taken again the next day.  The pain the second time had been much worse and this time the experience was repeated as Chalgaz forced himself on her bruised and swollen body.  Too weak to scream, she moaned as the mercenary leader enjoyed her, heaving his muscular body against hers.  It did achieve one thing.  Warmth returned to her body to the point that she dripped sweat, but it was a brutal way to be revived and she was almost weeping as Chalgaz finished with her.

Having finished with her, she was once again returned to the cage.  Squatting on the floor she was too beaten and exhausted to do more than huddle in her blanket until she once again fell into an exhausted sleep.  

The next day followed the pattern of the first two.  She was bound to the wheel; Chalgaz used her hard and then the wheel was turned again.  But this time she was not stretched or half drowned.  Instead the basin was layered with hot coals and the wheel turned down into them.  The heat as her body passed within a few hands-breadth's of the coal was frightening and would probably have ignited her hair had Chalgaz not had it tied up and then soaked it in water before rotating the wheel.  

She was not exposed to the hot coals for very long as Chalgaz kept the wheel moving, but during the few heartbeats she spent above the coals it felt like the pits of the Underworld.  The coals hissed as her sweat dripped onto them and she had to hold her breath against the stifling hot air.  As she was rotated to the top of the wheel she was doused with a bucket of cold water.  Had she not been her skin would surely have blistered on the next pass.  Even so the heat seemed much worse on the next turn of the wheel.  Sweat streamed from her body and the coals spat with a sound that reminded her of frying bacon.  Again she was doused with water and again the wheel was turned in a cycle of heat and cold that continued until the coals finally began to lose their heat.  

Chalgaz enjoyed her once more, but by that time being used by the mercenary chief was almost a relief compared to the torment of being half roasted.  Having once again satisfied his urges Chalgaz had her returned to the cage where she once again fell into an exhausted sleep.

But even in sleep her torment did not end.  She was plagued by hideous dreams in which he was captured and tortured and ravished over and over again.  Several times she awoke with a scream on her lips and discovered to her horror that what she had dreamed was in fact the truth.  That dismal revelation almost had her in tears and she would have wept had it not been for the presence of guards.  

I've got to survive this, she thought.  Although to what end she could not imagine.  She doubted that help would come.  The walls of a town and a fortress stood between her and any rescue, and she had told no one where she had gone.  It was very likely that no one even knew where she was except her captors and that she would die on the wheel before Shailaja or Guered even knew that she had been taken.  With that depressing thought in mind sleep took her once more.

Morning was a return to the torment of the wheel.  Chalgaz seemed infinitely skilled in finding variations in its use.  Once again she was strapped in place and once again she was subjected to Chalgaz's sexual predations.  He used her hard and when he was finished produced another instrument of torture.  It was a whip consisting of thin strands of leather which he used to great effect in marking her body.  It was nothing like the much heavier whip Torgon had used on Shailaja, but it served to open hundreds of thin red welts over most of her body.  She had been strapped face up on the wheel so that her breasts were offered as special targets and Chalgaz made sure that he struck them repeatedly.  

He spared only her face and by the time he was finished her body was covered with a red spiderweb.  It hurt abominably, but was not nearly as painful as some things she had already endured.  In her weakened condition, however, Vasanta barely survived the flogging, and had to grit her teeth hard to keep from screaming.  

The flogging, however, turned out to only be the prelude to the real torture, one that once again made use of the wheel.  Chalgaz did not turn it himself this time, but he watched as the wheel began its upward rotation.  Still gasping from the sting of the whip Vasanta was completely unprepared for the sudden and intense increase in pain.  Something wet splashed upon her body and every part of her it touched turned to fire.  

She grunted, biting back the scream that tried to force its way past her lips, but the fiery trail continued down the length of her body as the wheel slowly turned.  Then the pain passed leaving a burning ribbon of skin that extended from her shoulders to her toes.  Only as the wheel moved through a complete turn and began to rise again did she realize what had happened.  Above the wheel was a large leather bucket through which a small hole had been cut.  A thin stream of water dripped from the hole landing on the wheel as it moved and then landing on her as the wheel took her beneath it.  It wasn't much, but everywhere the salt laden water touched her skin it felt as if she was being set on fire, and it got worse with every turn of the wheel, more and more of her lacerated skin being exposed to the burning solution.

Eventually the effect Chalgaz sought was achieved.  No part of Vasanta's body escaped the burning drip.  The raw wounds on her body burned like fire and her screams once again echoed through the tower.  She screamed until her voice broke and darkness swept over her.  

When she awoke again she was back in the cage.  A single torch burned in the room, enough for her to find the food and water that had been left for her.  She found the strength to drink and although she had little appetite she forced herself to eat.  It seemed that every inch of her body burned even though most of the welts inflicted by the whip had scabbed over.  

Chalgaz was not there to gloat over her but as she lay in the semi-darkness she came to a stark conclusion.  She was not yet broken, but she knew that she could not withstand another session on the wheel.  Chalgaz would break her and when he did she would be his completely.  If he does break me I am doomed.  I will not have the strength or the courage to escape.  

It was a devastatingly depressing thought to realize that in order to have the faintest chance of escape she would have to submit completely to her captor.  It would have been better if I had been killed.  Then at least I would be spared this utter humiliation.  But she had no choice.  Continued resistance meant Chalgaz would continue to use the wheel; and she was smart enough to understand that her torturer had not come close to testing the limits of her body on the brutal device.  Would it do her any good to have her body so broken that escape was impossible?  She would have to submit; even if doing so would bring her eternal shame.

She thought about it all night long; and when Chalgaz stepped into the room sometime round mid-morning she had made up her mind as to what she had to do; and she would much rather have died.  

The mercenary leader; the man who now called himself King of Dendera, approached the cage and Vasanta bowed her head before him, hiding the tears of shame and rage.  "Please," she begged.  "I can take no more.  I will do what you want."