A Fall of Ashes: Chapter V, Apprentice Healer
Ashes must face those who raped her.
Chapter 1, 2, 3, 4…6
Winter faded to spring, then early summer. All through those seasons Ashes worked, transforming that broken down old shed into a warm comfortable place to live.
Gazing at her home, she knew it was her home now more than any place she’d lived, and far better than her father’s place. Pride filled her. No drafts, and it had a door that fit, as well as a rag-stuffed bed. It was nearly a perfect place to live.
Did she spend too much time on it and not enough studying, as her mistress often hinted?
Ashes breathed out a sigh. Including her spell book, she possessed five books of her very own; four of them painstakingly copied from her mistress’s library. She didn’t care for reading; and copying books even less, but her mistress was right. If she wanted to be a sorceress instead of a slave, she needed to understand the material her mistress gave her.
She patted her spell book, a measly thing with only nine spells in it that fit in the oversized pocket of her robe. It was far different from her other books. One of the books she’d copied, the thickest, was a healing text. Every new spell since losing her slave collar, her mistress helped her create from the information in that one book. That healing book itself was not in the language she used to write magic, but in an older dialect of her native language.
Much of her lessons had been on how to take that information, translate it into the language of magic, and then create a spell out of it. She got that difficult, tedious work wrong often. More than once, this meant starting over, translating the text into magic language from the beginning.
She’d yet to grasp the full reason for it, but she was to destroy her translation once she had her spell in the spell book, then begin again when she was to create a new spell.
The healing book and healing spells had been her choice when told to choose what type of magic she wanted to start with. From what she understood, it was the least dangerous magic to study and learn.
Turning about, she headed for the tower and her morning apprentice tasks
**
Trying hard to keep her voice under control, Ashes said, “Mistress? The Lazy Stallion?”
“Case’s healer-mage is dead. Picked a fight with the wrong person. Case is offering one silver sovereign and a room and meals for three days to a mage to come in and treat his girls. You have learned the Mesta Col spell he needs. Three days of using your healing spells there will let you establish yourself as an apprentice and not a whore, as the people there still think of you. Healing also gives you a chance to earn coin to buy something besides that robe and slippers to wear. They’re becoming tattered. You need to buy more cloth and make yourself more robes, at least two more.”
She shuddered. “Case might try and make me one of his whores again.”
Her mistress gave her a hard look. “Unlikely. He knows only magic could have removed his brand and isn’t going to challenge that you’ve been freed. Trying to force you back into slavery puts him on the wrong side of the law. He isn’t well enough protected to risk that. Then there is the fact he needs a mage to come by every six months to cast those spells ten times more than he needs another whore. You work it out with him to be that mage as long as you are serving as my apprentice.”
“Yes, Mistress,” she said, sighing. She hated it, but knew full well her mistress wasn’t backing down on this from her tone.
“You go tomorrow after fixing breakfast for the two of us.”
Knowing she had no choice, she answered, “Yes, Mistress,” but could not keep another sigh out of her voice.
**
Ashes pounded on the closed back door of the Stallion, the midmorning sun at her back, it still being too early to be open for lunch.
It took a few minutes for the back door to open.
She froze, open-mouthed, stunned.
“Mother, how?” she said to the nude, collared woman standing in the open door.
“Your father. He sold everything, including his wife and daughters last fall, and left Oak Well. You didn’t know? It’s largely your fault he did it.”
“My fault! How?”
“Cold Fork judged you at fault for the money Case was out and he went to your father for it. He gave Case Pepper, since she wasn’t his, to pay for it while I was out. We had a fight that night, when I found out. I, and the other girls, were sold to Case the next day.”
“Pepper, not his?”
“No. Only you and your dead brother were his. He hasn’t touched me since your brother was born.”
A deep masculine voice Ashes remembered all too well came from inside. “He hasn’t touched you since he caught you with the blacksmith. If you are going to tell it, tell the truth. You were already a whore, and that is why he sold you.” Case stepped into the door. “Hello, Ashes. What brings you here banging on my door this early, if not to see your mother?”
Her eyes locked onto her mother’s for a moment before turning to him. “I am here to do the healing you say you need done. I’m no longer a slave, and have that much magic.” She pulled up her robe sleeve.
His eyebrows went up. “You’ve healed your brand?”
“No, that takes stronger magic than I have. When I moved up from her slave to being her apprentice, my teacher did it.” She had almost said mistress instead of teacher. That would not give the impression she needed to give.
Skepticism back in his voice, he said, “But you think you are good enough to cast the spells I need.”
Ashes couldn’t help grinning. “If I am not, then it is magic more expensive than you can afford. Spells costing gold instead of silver.”
Pointing, he said, “Your mother has Viges. Cure it and then I will give you the room, money and let you do the other girls.”
Ashes knew what Viges was more from her books than seeing it. The minor rash to the nether regions was more painful to men than women, if the book was correct. If her mother had it, no man would want to touch her, and she wasn’t making Case much money.
Curing her mother so he could put her back out front didn’t sit well with Ashes. Yet that was exactly what her mistress sent her here to do. Of that, she had no doubt. Her mistress had known all about this when it happened and had not let Ashes know.
She took a deep breath. “Acceptable with a condition. Four today, including my mother, three tomorrow, two the day after. A quarter sovereign each, plus room and board. We can discuss whether I come back in six months at the end of the three days.” Maybe she could find some good reason not to come back. She looked at her mother. “I am sorry you are here. But only two of the nine kids are Dad’s? It explains his anger.”
Ashes pushed past Case and her mother and led both through the kitchen and into the front room. A shudder gripped her spine, seeing the spot they so badly used her, but it was the best spot for doing this so Case could see it clearly. “Mom, lay down here.”
She needed to stop saying ‘mom’ to her.
It was strange giving her mother an order like that and watching her obey.
The skin cleaning cantrip she called forth had been one of the first that her mistress helped her work out after removing the collar. When she ran her finger over part of her mother’s womanhood, it was clean of dirt and hair. Now she could prove to Case she had done it right.
She focused her mind on seeing those sores fading. “Mesta Col.”
The rash vanished within two breaths.
“Set, you have the job. I’ll throw in another half a silver sovereign a day if you remove the rest of the hair on her treasure and on all my other girls.”
Ashes considered it. Doing so would make her more tired by the end of the day, but only a little, and wouldn’t cost her spells. Nor did she like doing that to his girls. But they were slaves, and she did need that money if she was to get good cloth for her robes.
“A full silver sovereign.”
“Is it permanent?”
“No, hair starts growing back in three moons.”
“Set,” he said, nodding his agreement.
She kept the surprise out of her voice that he hadn’t made a lower counteroffer and answered, “Bring out the three girls you want done first. Then I’ll have my lunch, and you can have someone show me to my room.”
Her stomach clenched seeing her younger sisters, Pepper and Liz, as two of the three. Both sisters were more mature than she remembered, and men would not be frowned on for using either. Pepper wouldn’t even say a word to her. Ashes did the girl her own age that she didn’t know, first.
Then Pepper had her turn. She glared as Ashes touched her and made her womanhood bare, but said nothing.
Liz asked, when it was her turn, “You have money to buy me? I will serve you good if you do.”
Ashes had no doubt that she meant it. “I’m sorry, but I don’t. I won’t have any money until after this job, and it will be far too little.”
She felt sorry for Liz, who, like herself, took after her mother; very blond and very curved. Even at thirteen and a half, she was better built than Pepper, and would be more popular with Case’s customers.
With desperation filling her voice, Liz said, “Can I become an apprentice like you?”
Ashes closed her eyes and focused to look to see if the spark was there.
It was.
But disappointment followed excitement. It would take far too much work to bring it out, unlike herself, where it had been right on the surface, ready to burst out on its own. With a heavy sigh, she told her, “No, you can’t.” Her mistress would not buy a girl whose magic would stay dormant unless forced active. She cleaned and cured Liz.
Case grunted in satisfaction. “As soon as I get the doors open, I will see to your lunch. The table under the corner lamp is yours for seeing other customers from lunch to the evening meal.”
“I won’t need it that long today. I only have two healing spells left. I will need it tomorrow and the day after, though.”
At the table he had told her to use, the girl she healed but didn’t know set her lunch before her with a smile. She, at least, was glad her itch was gone.
As Ashes was eating, several men came in and took seats at the big central table. Once the men sat, Pepper came to take their order.
To Pepper’s humiliation, she had to stand there as they touched her newly bared womanhood, grinning at the change. Her eyes burned in fury as she locked them on Ashes.
Anger burned in Ashes too and she felt her own face flush, which only strengthened her own anger.
Why had her mistress put her in this position?
Why keep it as a surprise and not tell her last summer when it happened?
After touching Pepper, one man came up to her. “Mage healer?”
She cleared the anger from her face, gave the man a smile. It was so tempting to tell him, no, she just wore mage robes to piss off mages. “Apprentice. If it’s a minor problem only taking a bit of magic, I can do it, if the coin is right.”
“Viges?”
“Yes. That I can fix.” Did he get it from her mom? Or give it to her? Or one of the other girls here? “Cost you a silver sovereign.”
“That is a lot.”
“I can only do so many. Others will pay me that much to use my talents for them.”
He pulled a coin from his pouch. “That they will. I need it done, as the itch is driving me nuts.”
She held out her hand and when the coin was in it, she pictured sores closing over and healing. “Mesta Col.”
Ashes took a deep breath. “There now,” she said. “You’re all cured,” she finished, sure it had worked despite not being able to see it.
His pulling down his trews right there to check didn’t surprise her.
“Gone, what a relief. I’ll get my wife. She has it too.”
“I can only do one more today. It looks like the man behind you wants it. Have her here when they open for lunch tomorrow.”
“I’ll do that.”
The man behind him had the same problem. How widespread was it?
Last healing spell for the day gone, Ashes stood. She could not take watching these men paw Pepper and Liz any longer.
Standing brought over her mother. “This way to your room.”
Ashes walked behind her up a steep stair and to the back room in the hall. The room had a small wooden bunk covered in old straw. It stunk of sex.
“You can have it alone, or it comes with a girl of your choice after Case locks up, if you go that way, Case said to tell you. At night, you get dinner and a small ale. You can have it in the main room or the kitchen.” She paused. “Case was partly right. This is as much my fault as yours. But you taking your clothes off for the Hammer boy is what convinced him all my girls are whores, and he sold us.”
She stood in the door a moment more before saying more. “If she thinks she can get away with it, Pepper will kill you. She hates you that much. Don’t let it happen. Case would kill her for it.” That said, her mother turned and walked out if the room, closing the door.
Ashes noticed her mother had not said she would regret it if Ashes was dead.
It wasn’t long before she heard a girl entertaining a man in the next room. The sounds of his grunting and pumping her, making that bunk squeak, filled Ashes’ room.
Throughout that afternoon and into the evening, her anger and discomfort grew. Case had nine girls working in his main room. All took turns using one of the five other rooms on that hall.
“Thank you for coming up here with me,” she heard Pepper tell one man in a tone only family would know that she was lying.
That Case had succeeded in training them to convince men they enjoyed being used made her blood boil.
Her mistress, the focus of Ashes’ anger, didn’t do things just to be cruel, but she didn’t care how much something might bother her apprentice, either. Ashes felt there was more to it than that, more to it than her earning enough coin to buy material for a robe or to cure the outbreak of Viges. She was here to learn something. That was how her mistress did things.
At nightfall, steeling herself, she opened her door to go down and get dinner. And froze in the open door. Liz was there, leading a man by the hand to a room.
Her sister showed no shame being nude and leading him as she gave Ashes a tired smile that said, this is what I do now just before they entered that room, and she closed the door.
Ashes made it down the steps before another ascended.
The main room had far more people in it that she expected.
She froze, crossing the floor. A face she remembered raping her looked at her. Looking about, her blood thundering in her ears, she saw other men who had raped her.
Continuing on, she found an empty place to sit that had no face she remembered from that night sitting near. That is not to say none of them had had her. But if they had, they had left far less impression on her than the others.
Her dinner small ale was set before her almost as soon as she sat. She looked up at her mother’s face, but her mother turned away.
With an effort, Ashes forced herself to eat her dinner, watching the girls work, each trying to entice a man upstairs to meet their quotas as they delivered food and drink. The place was busier than she thought it would be, and so were the girls. Unless the quotas were outrageous, they should have no problem meeting them.
Watching a girl she didn’t know lead a man upstairs, she whispered to no one but herself, “That was almost me.”
A shudder went through her at how very close to living that life she had come.
Downing the last bit of ale in the mug, she went back upstairs. Was that the lesson her mistress wanted her to learn in coming here?
No, that didn’t seem right.
***
A knock woke Ashes. Her mother’s voice came through muffled. “Door opens in half an hour.”
Waking, she had more understanding of why she was here. It had been difficult in the extreme to put aside her anger and to ignore all that was going on outside her door and study her spell book.
But she’d succeeded. She could feel all seven spells inside her ready for her to call them forth, but she had managed it only with a lot of effort. This, she feared, was the start of her mistress putting her in positions that made memorizing spells difficult, to force her to develop the skills to do so anywhere.
One of the few branded girls, one she didn’t know, brought her a bowl of stew and a piece of bread as soon as she took her seat.
“I remember the night they raped you in here. I am glad you got your freedom back.”
Startled, Ashes looked the naked girl over. She didn’t remember her being there. “Thanks. I don’t think the others are glad I got my freedom.”
The girl gave her another smile. “Don’t worry about it. Some are jealous. Others blame you for what someone else did to them. Case would likely have made that offer to your father even if you had still been his slave. He offered to buy my sisters. Most likely your father would have taken him up on it, and your mother and sisters would still be here.”
The dark-haired girl, Ashes guessed her to be twenty now that she was looking her over, left and Case opened the door.
Eight people entered, two women and six men, all there to see her, all there to get Viges cured.
Pointing to the four youngest men, she said, “Come back tomorrow. I don’t have sufficient magic to do all of you today.”
The men leaving with no bickering surprised her. “I’ll get to you in a few minutes, but others go first,” she told the remaining.
Ashes took note that unlike her sisters, all three girls she did, including that one who gave her lunch, were glad to have the inch gone and didn’t mind her removing the hair from their womanhood.
She turned her attention next to the paying customers.
Good. Not one of them seemed to resent her doing the whores first. One by one she healed them. Just like the first yesterday, all four paying customers pulled down their trousers or pulled up their skirts right there to inspect her healing.
Magic exhausted, and now having some coins, Ashes got out of there.
A huge crowd filling the market square stopped her. It was three times what she expected. A festival?
So that was why the Lazy Stallion was so busy.
It also explained people giving her so little argument over the silver sovereign fee.
She smiled.
A festival also meant that higher quality fabrics would be more easily found.
* * *
Putting the green material she had just bought into her pack to go with the orange she bought yesterday, she addressed Case, “I will give you one more chance. If I don’t get a clean room and bed, plus better food in six months when I come back, I won’t be back after that.”
“Just send word a few days ahead and the room will be spotless. Better food is available, provided you are not here during a festival.”
Ashes nodded, hefted her pack, and stepped out the door and into the long shadows. With luck, she would make her mistress’s home not long after sunset.
On the trail, at the place she lost her virginity, Corrin and his brother startled her, stepping from the shadows, blocking her path.
“Hello, whore,” he said, his tone mocking. “You shouldn’t have clothes on.”
Her blood again thundered in her ears. “Damn you, Corin.” The way he stood left no doubt in her mind he meant to correct that. She had used up every one of her spells already, not that she had a single combat spell in her spell book.
The ring?
No. He wasn’t going to kill her. Risking the Imp for anything less than death with her level of skill would be worse than anything he was likely to do.
“I said you shouldn’t have clothes on, whore,” his tone now carrying a threat.
A cough came from behind.
She had no choice. Fury filling her, she dropped her package and unbelted her robe. That was all it took for it to slip from her shoulders and drop to the ground, leaving her naked in front of him, again.
“Ah, much better,” he continued to mock. “Glad you haven’t totally forgotten what you really are.”
Hands pulled her arms behind her back.
Corin’s brother stepped forward and shoved a wad of cloth into her mouth, as the two men behind her wrapped her hands in cloth, then tied them behind her
These guys were not taking any chances she might cast a spell.
Who did he plan to sell her to? Case wouldn’t buy her. Nor would anyone local.
Once more, he made her ride him. Then passed her to the next.
She hated herself for responding to being forced with lust.
Late into the night, others showed up as two of her original captors left, two of the newcomers, people she’d healed.
Torches were lit.
Throughout the night, the men came, took a turn and left, and her pain grew.
She was in agony by the time everyone left but Corin as the soon to rise sun began turning the sky pink.
“Now, you may or may not escape before I get you to Casin and have you branded again. You are crafty. But I am going to make you a deal. I don’t try to brand you, and you don’t ever seek revenge on me or anyone else involved for raping you, and I let you go. You have to give me your oath, bound with your name and magic.”
She saw the hook he put in his offer. The vow he wanted would prevent her from seeking revenge when he raped her again, as he planned to do. But she gave herself less than a coin toss chance of escaping before she was branded and sold to another tavern, if he didn’t just kill her for refusing his deal.
She nodded.
“Good.” He removed her gag.
She swore the oath exactly as he stated. Because she was a mage, it had more power than an ordinary oath.
To prove his point, he made her please him again now that she was untied with both mouth and womanhood.
“Such a shame. You should be a whore, not a mage,” he said, handing her her robe as she knelt there after he finished.
Ashes vowed to never again be without magic and to add combat spells to her spells book next.
She would not be helpless again.
Bitter, and knowing her mistress had known what was going on and chose not to intervene, Ashes dressed. She was certain her mistress knew everything that happened in the gorge or along its borders.
But had she set Ashes up to be raped to teach her a lesson?