They trust him

"Don't worry about it boys." Quintus reasures them, "I've arranged everything." He smirks evilly "Negotiated our rent, so to speak. As long as we stay where we belong we're fine." The stairway leads down into a hallway whose rounded walls and doorways confirmed your fears. You've never been in the catacombs, but you've heard enough about them to recognize that this is part of the cursed undercity. It takes two trips for all of you to carry down the plundered loot, and three of the guards watch over you as Quintus and one of the others head back up the stairs to conceal the passageway again.

Once again you consider your odds. Not good. Lykaios the veteran well equipped guard and two short-haired men, (you name them 'Silent Guy' and 'Scarface') all are wearing boiled leather breastplates, and studded leather straps that protect their loins and upper thighs. Each of the men carry swords in their belts and the two short haired guards are holding thrusting spears as well.

You had hoped to find time to free your blade, but the guards are watching you attentively. Not because they suspect any resistance, but in anticipation of the pleasures that expect to enjoy. All four women huddle together, an odd group you can't help think. A prostitute, a thief and two wealthy sisters who have all been suddenly thrown together by the fates. Until now you have had little in common, but by the circumstances of the past few hours you have bonded into your own little sisterhood.

You feel worst for Airlia, she is a budding beauty whose curves are just starting to develop. Not that you were much older than her when you first let an apprentice baker take you in the alley in exchange for a burnt loaf of bread, but this young teen has been so sheltered she has only the slightest sense of her fate. As it turns out none of you knew what her fate would be, certainly it was worse than you had imagined.

When Quintus finally rejoins you covered in dust and rubble the first thing he does is drag Airlia from her sister's embrace.

"You pig!" Iola hisses at him, "I thought you were going to take me!" One of the other guards, Scarface, a short-haired man with a thick white scar on his chin has to hold Iola to keep her from attacking Quintus.

Quintus just laughs at her "I will baby, just like I promised." By now he was near the end of the hall. "But first I've got to pay the rent." He drags Airlia into the next room and chains her wrists through a thick iron ring fastened high on a pillar in the center of the smaller room. You feel sick as you watch Quintus take the time to straighten the modest nightgown that covers the young teen's newly blossoming body. He even loops a long strand of pearls several times around her neck admiring the way the ivory spheres glimmered as they lay on her fair skin.

"Don't you look fine." He laughs "If you're still here tomorrow I might just have to come back and take you myself." Airlia finally realizes what Quintus is intending. She cries out in panic pleading with her captor for mercy in Athena's name.

"By the Goddess, you can't do this!" Next to you Iola is screaming obscenities at Quintus until the guard finally covers her mouth with his rough hand muffling her words. In the sudden silence you can her Quintus clearly:

"I say Fuck any Goddess that lets her city be plundered by an army of maggots." Quintus speaks the words loudly as a challenge, "I'd fuck her myself if I had the chance." With those chilling words he swings the heavy door shut locking Airlia in the darkness of the catacombs. Looking meaningfully at his men he warns them.

"Nobody opens that door. Got it?" The men agree but appear shaken by the young leader's ruthlessness; not one of them meets Quintus' eyes as he returns to the rest of you. "Why so glum?" Quintus asks with a **** laugh as he unrolls the bedding in the center of the floor. "We're going to have a us a party!"