To the market

”Wake up Highlander!”

Callum had managed to get a few hours of troubled sleep but was suddenly brought back by the sting of a cracking whip. A whole dozen of guards brought him down from his chains and shackled his hands behind his back before they shoved him out into the street.

Callum blinked in the blinding morning light, and as they led him to a waiting caged cart. Zoriah was already sitting in it, also shackled. Callum was brought down on the bench opposite her. A crack of a whip sent the vehicle moving, pulled by a sluggish ox.

The proud woman had been stripped of her elegant attire and was now barefoot and dressed in a simple and very short sackcloth dress. She looked humiliated, and Callum's heart sank when he saw her.

”Madame, how are you feeling?” he asked.

”I think it's former madame now”, said Zoriah and **** a smile. ”Well, it's been a rough night, but I've been around before and I did what I had to do. But it's kind of you to ask, Callum. Too kind after what I did to you.”

”So, any idea about where we are going?” asked Callum,

”They will take us to a **** auction”, Zoriah said. ”Probably the one at the docks. Vargo prefers to sell his slaves to foreign traders to get rid of the evidence. We will be bought, collared and branded and then shipped off to gods know where.”

Passers-by stopped and gawked at the sad equipage. Some pointed laughed and taunted them. Callum growled and grabbed the iron bars of the cage and pulled as hard as he could, but to no avail. They wouldn't budge an inch, and slowly the cart made its way to the market.

”We are almost there”, said Zoriah and added solemnly: ”And we will be sold separately, so this is the last we will ever see of one another.”

Zoriah then leant in and kissed Callum on the mouth, long, soft and salty from the tears that ran down her cheeks. ”This is all my fault, and I cannot expect you to forgive me”, she whispered. ”You're a good young man, don't ever let them change that.”

”I will come for you!” Callum said, feeling tears welling up in his eyes, ”I will come for you, and I will slay them all, I swear!”

Zoriah just shook her head, ”No, Callum, don't get yourself killed over me, I will not allow it.”

”But what is going to happen to you?”

”I will try to catch the eye of a good master. Don't worry about me, just look after yourself, and be brave. Be courageous and wise and stay alive.”

The cart rolled in at the market and Zoriah brought her lips to Callum's once again for one last kiss.