The Book of Sofia - Chapter 2

The air was humid. Almost choking.

Or is it blood? It certainly did smell of copper.

Claus opened his right eye. His left eye was so swollen that he couldn’t even feel it anymore. The goddamn Hidzaps had tied him and hung him from a hook. Like some pig or cow, waiting to be butchered. The putrid mixture of sweat, blood and urine trickled down his naked body, forming a disgusting puddle on the marble floor.

The nightmare began the night Visius captured Claus. Visius tricked Claus to ride home by sending him a false message that Leonelle was held hostage in his own residence. Claus would not hesitate to ride home that very night, even if he knew Visius was waiting for him. But what had become of his Leonelle?

Was she threatened? There must be a reason.

Visius was eager to show the world his new prize. He did not hesitate to boast his pride. Claus had been paraded from the gates of Bacharik to this captured castle. He was hung on the hook and tortured. Claus lost count of days and night. He was whipped, beaten, branded by hot metal, and starved for days before being forced fed with boiling rich food. But Visius kept him alive.

“Beg me to kill you,” Visius had once whispered in his ears.

Never.

He would not give this savage his satisfaction. He would rather suffer a long painful death from a festered wound than let Visius have the satisfaction of hearing him beg for mercy. He would not yield. He would not be broken.

A chain rattled. The oaken doors of the hall swung open, admitting Lord Visius in his golden robes. Lady Leonelle followed behind him. Claus saw that she had forgone the Rafeh’s royal fashion and took up the Hidzap fashion. Her long golden locks were braided and wound around her head. She looked like she was wearing a hat made of her own hair. She wore a blue Hidzap gown, bringing the colours out from her eyes.

The love of my life, he thought.

The woman who betrayed me.

“Dear Lord Claus, how is your stay here so far?” Lord Visius strode to the centre of the hall, with his entourage of guards and his new mistress.

“I hope you are enjoying my hospitality as much as I enjoyed it.”

Claus spitted at Visius. It missed narrowly.

“What a pity you missed. Does my guard not feed you enough for spittle? Or did you retch all the food leaving you nothing to spit? Should I have my cook boil you more something nice and warm?” Visius laughed. He grabbed Leonelle and kissed her.

Take your filthy mouth off her. He wanted to scream at them, beat Visius bloody with his bare hands. His throat was dry and hoarse, his body was weak from the torture but his eyes harden with hatred.

“Leonelle here is a fine piece of work. I can see why you gave up your kingdom for her. I would love to tell you about the deeds she had done in my bed. But that wouldn’t be fair to you, would it?”

Visius tore the thin silk holding up Leonelle’s breasts, spilling them into his hands. She was surprised but she whimpered when Visius cupped her breasts. Then he fondled her, pinched her nipples hard and slid his hand down her back. Leonelle arched her head back and moaned with pleasure.

“Last night, as I was… enjoying the company of your wife, I thought of how useless my guards are at torturing you. But then I realized… I have not used the most powerful tool I possessed to break you,” Visius forced Leonelle on her knees and closed his eyes while she took him into her mouth.

Claus thrashed and kicked against the chains that held him. He felt his fingernails clawing into the iron chains. His entire body was on fire. He screamed with his dry throat and felt the sand burning in his lungs.

Gods be good, let me die before he touches Leonelle.

Visius was pleased at the sight of a warrior, calmed in the face of pain and death, yet thrashing like a mad dog as he took his woman. Visius bunched Leonelle’s gown up to her waist, exposing her willing wetness. He loved how Claus growled at the sight of Visius slipping his fingers into the whore’s wet cunt. Then he took her, right in the middle of the hall, with Claus’ painful eyes watching them.

Claus felt the pain stabbed into his heart with every thrust Visius pounded into Leonelle. Yet, she moaned with pleasure, swaying her hips with his rhythm, her eyes staring at Claus, with no sign of remorse.

How could she?

When Visius was done with her, Claus was a broken man. Leonelle had broken his soul into a thousand pieces. Claus did not want to live anymore. Not with the love of his life giving him away to his enemies.

“Well, Lord Claus, I have never seen a man so broken. Like a wild stallion being broken into a tame filly!” Visius snickered.

Kill me please, Claus screamed silently.