The Garden's End Pt 3

[marguerite_krux]

 Rating: PG, safe for the kiddies. Though I'm the youngest person that'll read this, probably.
Genre: Unwilling Captive.
Setting: Season 3, pre Sunday. Because I live in denial.
Summary: Elizabeth is taken prisoner. She's in no mood to play damsel in distress.

Disclaimer: No infringement intended. Stargate Atlantis the show differs drastically from the way I write about it in my fics. I have way more respect and affection for Elizabeth than they do. 

The Garden's End Pt 3

Four days ago:

Elizabeth wasn’t sure whether she had blacked out and lost time, or whether the Lord had a pressing schedule with matters more important than torturing someone into submission and had taken his leave when she wasn't looking. Absence was definitely not going to make the heart fonder. Either way, when she opened her eyes, he had disappeared and she could breathe properly again.

A low moan issued from between her lips, but she couldn’t manage to articulate the swear words crowding her mind. Probably for the best, as Sekara hazily shifted and swayed before her eyes. Elizabeth had to blink a few times before the multiple images resolved into one clear image of the woman. Wearing a new outfit. Must be a different day, then. Though the way her body ached, the torture was all too recent for it to have been long enough to become a bad memory just yet.

There was a strange look on Sekara’s face. Respect? Well, Elizabeth was feeling way too ill to be an authority on alien facial expressions right now. She could be imagining it.

“You are a surprise,” Sekara said slowly.

“That’s wonderful,” she answered, testing out her voice. Hoarse, as expected, and painful through her dry throat. Her tongue felt swollen, too, where she had bitten it when she was first shocked. “I was just thinking earlier that I’ve been a bit dull lately. Guess this is the way to liven up my image.” She licked her lips in discomfort.

“Here,” Sekara offered her a mug. “It will ease your throat.”

Elizabeth eyed her warily for a moment. The woman sighed. “Do you think I have not been in your position?” she exposed her throat, deliberately displaying her own choker. “Drink. You will feel better.”

“Did your ‘Lord’ put you up to this?” Elizabeth persisted. She wanted that drink, yes, but the thought of doing anything he wanted was abhorrent. She hadn’t gone through that horrifying experience just to accede to his wishes now.

Sekara shook her head. “Do you really think he cares for your comfort? You are more naïve than I thought, if so. Drink this.”

As Elizabeth gratefully sipped the hot drink, Sekara sat down on the bed beside her and studied her curiously. “You suffered a great deal unnecessarily. I advised you earlier that stilling your tongue and treating him reverently would prevent any undue punishment.”

“I’m new at this,” said Elizabeth in dry tones. “I’m bound to make a few mistake at first.”

“You do not intend to obey him, do you?”

She dropped the flippant act and looked at Sekara seriously. “I am not a slave. I am a person with rights and even if he doesn’t respect that, I have faith in my team and all I have to do is survive until they rescue me. Although on second thought, I think I’d prefer to make my own way out, rather than helplessly languishing about doing the damsel-in-distress routine.”

“Your friends will not be permitted to search here. The Lord has high status in our society. It would be offensive to even suggest he might be the one responsible for your disappearance, let alone authorize such an intrusion on his property. As for escape, it is so isolated here, the forest is extensive and a river winds around the perimeter…and besides, even if you could navigate your way without losing your way, the guards will hunt you down before you have a chance to make contact with your friends, or to escape through the portal. There is no hope of regaining your freedom.’

‘The fact that you have thought all this through tells me that you are not the compliant victim you’re trying to appear,’ Elizabeth said shrewdly. ‘You’ve given a great deal of thought to what an escape would involve. There is a way out of here and with your knowledge, we can both make it if-’

She stopped as the other woman’s expression shuttered all of a sudden, freezing up without warning. ‘I can’t,’ she said, regret raggedly piercing the two words.

‘Why not?’ she asked, willing the woman to open up, to trust her.

‘He has my son.’ Sekara tilted her head away from Elizabeth, as though trying to hide any hint of emotion in her eyes.

Elizabeth set down her mug and reached out to take the other woman’s hands in sympathy.

“I know you don’t believe me, but don’t let this man take away your hope. He thinks he has made you his slave, but you still think for yourself. It must be so hard to consider establishing your independence from him after being kept here however long he’s wrongly imprisoned you, but I am not giving up hope. And when I do manage to escape here, with or without your involvement, I promise you that I will bring help and free you and your son.”

Sekara squeezed her hands, then let go and stood up to go and fetch the dress that she had been carrying earlier. She shook it out for Elizabeth to see. “You must wear this dress, and,” said Sekara, forestalling her instinctive refusal, “once you appear to be docile and under his control, I will do my best to help you escape.”

Elizabeth blinked at how abruptly successful her pitch had been. She had thought for sure that Sekara would need more convincing, more incentive, definitely a lot more encouragement. “Why?” Though given her position, it wasn’t like she would be giving too much thought about whether or not to accept the woman’s help.

Sekara shrugged, trying to think how to explain the dramatic shift in attitude. Unwilling to leave her boy behind, she had given up on planning escape a long time ago. It was the thought of her son that motivated her to ally with Elizabeth, the desire to get him away from this grim, forbidding place to somewhere he could finally experience life as a child, not a prisoner. But there was another reason, something harder to explain. Looking into the other woman’s eyes, she had seen courage and compassion, a quiet conviction in her beliefs and her friends. In response, Sekara could feel the faint flickers of hope rekindling in her, something that seemed foreign to after living so long with despair.

“Mainly because of my son,” she said simply. “But also because you make me want to believe in you. And seeing the way you resisted him…” she shook her head disbelievingly. “I have seen many women come here and submit to him because they were afraid, because they were weak. A harsh assessment, but one that is true, even of myself. You have the spirit I displayed when I was first taken, and I do not wish to see it smothered and caged. Although what I witnessed before suggests to me that you would willingly die before becoming his servant. That you would bite out your own tongue before assuming our dutiful tones and addressing him as ‘my Lord’.”

Elizabeth winced, feeling her tongue throb. “It nearly came to that,” she said ruefully. At least she had been prepared the second time the Lord had triggered the shock and made sure her mouth was safely closed. There were stories about people who had literally bitten their tongues in half when electrocuted like this. It would be a bad joke to have a diplomat without a tongue. “Thank you for the drink, I feel a little better. And…let me see the dress,” she stretched out her arm and took hold of the sheer blue material, eyebrow arching as she studied its provocative design. “I hope your plan to help me escape is to be executed sooner, rather than later? I don’t think I could stand wearing this for too long, not to mention I’d probably catch a cold in it.”

“It will not be easy,” Sekara said warningly. “But it would be wise to move soon. He has been called back to the city on short notice, and he departs soon. When he is absent, that would be the best time to make your escape.”

“All right. I defer to your greater knowledge,” said Elizabeth with a conspiratorial smirk, then sighed and looked the outfit in her hands with disgust. “Hard to believe it all starts with this dress.”

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Part 1

Part 2