Tales of Ancient Rome: Salidia and Lydia Chapter 5

In a few months of laughing and joking with the women on the training ground, the men became so fond of them that any of the men would have died to protect them. The laughing together had moved the women into the men's hearts.

And in less then a year, when Lydia walked in among the slaves, she could kill any one of them in a blink of the eye, and she knew it.

And when she stood with the slaves, she always stood with her right hand resting on the hilt of her dagger. She had become Mars, the taker of men's lives. And her eyes spoke that to the slaves she talked to.

That first day with Salidia in the torture room, Lydia tried to be so good. She waited to do anything Salidia might ask of her, and she paid attention to everything Salidia said and did.

"You're a big, bad Goth warrior, aren't you. No little women is going to scare you, are they," Salidia asked the Goth.

"Well, my big tough man, when you leave here, you're going to a bit less of a man. Every time you come here, you're going to be a little bit smaller, until you're no longer a man." Salidia stood directly in front of the Goth as she said this, looking straight into his eyes.

"And when you go back to the stable, when you look at your comrades, they are going to remind you of what the little lady did to make you a little bit less of a man," she said, leaning in closer to him.

She put her knife tip in his nostril, and pulled up, slitting the nostril open. "Oh, you're so tough! You didn't show any pain. If I do it again, will you still be so tough?" She put the knife in the other nostril, and sliced that one open also. "Oh, still so tough!"

"Well, I don't want you worrying about scars on your nose that will make you look ugly. No one will see anything on that nose of yours. You see, I have this little trick to remember how many times you've been in this room. Every time you come here, I'm going to make a little mark so I know if you've been here one, two, ....three....times."

"Now the first time you're here, I take your nose, the next time an ear, then the other ear, then eyebrows and it keeps going. I'll have some of your fingers and toes. And when I'm finished with you, your cock and balls too. I let rats do that. They'll eat your cock and balls while you watch their little stomachs get bigger and bigger."

As she said this, she began to slice off the tip of his nose.

At first the man tried to act bravely and he resisted screaming or groaning or moaning, but as the torture went on he eventually started to moan under the pain. When he babbled in his agony, Salidia continued to talk to him as if everything was alright. "When you go back to the stable, you can look at your companions, and they will remind you what I did because they won't have any noses either. When you see them, I want you to remember you're just like them: without a nose. And each time you or your friends come here, you're going to be a little less of the man than the man who walked in here. Ears and eye brows, and fingers and toes will go. And in the end you won't even be a man because you won't have a cock or balls anymore. You'll just be a thing without a face or sex. And when you're back in the stable and you and your friends look at each other, you can remind each other of what the little Lady does to you here in this room."

As she said that, she started to take off another slice of nose, starting at the bridge of the nose and going down.

"Of course, your nose isn't the end of your visit here. We're going to do more things for you today. After the nose we have some red hot needles to shove into your cock and balls. And after that, we're going to cut a little skin off the top of your head. And after that, a little fire. One thing after another until you pass out."

At this point she was cutting the nose off flush with the cheeks.

Salidia stopped, and said, "Lydia, see that brazier over there. Bring it over here and light it. Be careful, there are needles in it. Don't spill the needles out." Salidia leaned back against a table to rest and sipped some wine, expecting the brazier to take a little time to get hot and the needles to glow red in the fire. That's not what happened to Lydia, as they waited for the needles to glow red.

Lydia and Salidia were two different women. Salidia enjoyed the power and control she exercised over the slaves, which she could coolly plot and plan to achieve. She was coldly calculating. That's not what Lydia was like: Lydia was filled with rage and could be impulsive, explosive.

As Lydia watched the Goth being tortured for the first time, it didn't satisfying her and slake her rage. Each time the Goth grimaced in pain she was provoked more; it reminder her of a wish she had ten yrs. ago, a wish she had nine yrs. ago, a wish she had eight yrs. ago, seven yrs., six yrs,.........she had thirteen years worth of rage stored in her, each year filled with hundreds of wishes to see the Goths suffer for each of the hundreds of crimes they committed against her. As she watched the Goth, more and more wishes to punish them, and anger against them, filled her. "Good! That's the way you should feel! Hurt, you bastard, hurt! Suffer! Good! Hurt him some more, Mistress! Make him hurt worse," she thought as she watched Salidia with the Goth. As she watched the Goth, she became more and more enraged at him. "Hurt him! Hurt him,color="red">" she screamed in her mind.

As Salidia tortured him, the Goth sort of rocked back and forth, his body shaking as he tried to control the pain, making inarticulate sounds as he struggled to control his screams. When Salidia stopped, he slumped forward, exhausted from his tense and struggling body. As time passed as they waited for the brazier to heat, he began to recover, and raised his head up and he looked angrily at the women.

When Lydia saw him recovering and the angry look in his face, she flew into a rage. She rushed at him, threw her arms on his shoulder. and started kneeing him in the balls, shouting, "You bastard, You bastard, You bastard......." The attack was so ferocious, blood started to fly about as his balls and cock were caught between her knee and the bones of his pelvis. The Goth moaned under the attack.

Salidia was caught by surprise and in shock over what was happening. The sheer athleticism behind the girl's fury was incredible. She was amazed Lydia didn't fall to the floor in exhaustion. Wide eyed and opened mouthed, she thought, "How long can she do this????" First, it was the rapidity of the kicks. She didn't think anyone could kick that fast. It was almost like something Talig could do. Second, it was the endurance. She couldn't believe anyone could keep up that pace for so long. She thought, "I bet that girl could run to town and back again as fast as I could do it on a horse." The girl was obliviously athletically talented.

What Salidia saw was the result of Lydia being in fights with men almost every day of her life as she tried to fight back against her abusers on the farm where she had lived; it had fostered the skills and abilities Lydia needed to fight. Lydia had been in physical fights with her abusers most of her life, and she fought like a wildcat. She learned that if she fought hard enough to hurt the man, he would just beat her, but be too sore to rape her. So she had learned to fight as best she could. She just continued on and on in a frenzy with the Goth, kicking and kicking. Finally she stopped in exhaustion, bent over, her hands resting on her knees, her body heaving, trying to catch her breath.

Lydia as slowly recovered and her senses returned to her. she noticed the brazier beside her. She screamed "Ahhhaa", and grabbed the Goth's balls with one hand, and one of the foot long needles with the other and started stabbing the balls in another frenzy. The Goth was screaming. This didn't last as long; she was already exhausted when she started. Soon she dropped the needle and stood bent over again, gasping for air, trying to catch her breath. The Goth slumped over, uttering low moans.

As Lydia slowly caught her breath a second time, she saw the bull whip which was before her hanging on the wall. Again, she screamed "AAAhhhhaaa," and ran to grab the bull whip. In her excitement, she grabbed the whip by the wrong end, by the tip rather than the handle. She raced back and started to flail at the Goth, holding the tip of the whip with the handle crashing into the Goth, uttering grunts with every swing. The Goth was going, "Ohhhahh," with every impact. Eventually, the handle crashed into his head, and he slumped forward unconscious. When he passed out, Lydia's shoulders slumped forward and her head sagged to her chest. She stood there heaving for breath.

The Mistress became the maid and Salidia attended the girl. She pulled a chair up behind the girl, and guided her back into it. Salidia stroked the girl forehead, pulling hair from the girls face.

"There, girl. It's all right. It's all over. Just relax and rest"

"Talig!"

Five men rushed into the room, swords drawn, eyes flashing around the room for danger. They saw Salidia with the girl slumped in a chair, with her head forward against her chest, half unconscious from exhaustion; and they feared for the little (compared to them) girl. They looked at Salidia with anxious eyes, wanting instructions.

"Get him out of here. Get me water and some towels."

Two men pulled the Goth down and dragged him out. Not very nicely. Two raced for water and towels. Talig stood there, in case he was needed, anxious for the young girl, but not knowing what else to do. When all 4 men returned they put the water and towels by Salidia and stood behind Talig. The rest of the men had gathered around the door. Talig motioned them all out. He backed up to the door, and hovered there until he saw the girl was beginning to recover and that she was alright. Knowing he was superfluous, he backed out the door and left. The men were all gathered outside, and Talig said, "She's alright." The tension left the group, and they all reluctantly went back to what they were doing. He left one man stationed outside the door to listen for any summons. Later, when the girl came out and approached Talig to get a dagger, they all stopped what they were doing and watched her to make sure she was alright. Talig stared at her a long time, making sure she didn't look hurt or injured.

There is a camaraderie among people who face the same dangers, and the girl had been swept under it's mantle when she entered the room with the Goth. When she was a scullery maid they didn't pay much attention to her, just another one of the slave girls who worked all around the farm. But when she was in the room with the Goth she became one of them, and they all closed ranks around her. From that day forward all the men felt protective of her.

Salidia wiped the girl's face with a wet towel.

"I'm so sorry, Mistress, I just got so angry. I feel so ashamed. Don't send me away, Please, don't send me away. I'm so sorry."

"It alright, girl. They can't hurt you any more. I've been to the north with the soldiers. The soldiers killed all the Goths from your valley. They can't hurt you anymore. The few alive were sent to the Colosseum in Rome last week, and they will all be dead by now. These here are the last of the men from your village and valley. They are all chained up, and Talig and his men are standing guard over them. You can kill every one of them with your own hand if you wish."

The girl broke down crying. Salidia held her. Lydia kept saying she was sorry and ashamed, but instead of her actions alienating her from the others, what happened opened the hearts of all to the girl.

No matter what happened outside or inside the villa, the people who lived in the villa were a tight knit group loyal to each other.