Chapter 4

Lilly tried not to gasp as the salt was rubbed roughly into her torn back. In front of the crowd and with Marina watching she had been able to keep herself from crying out under the cruel lashes. But here, in the infirmary, it was a different matter. She was unable to suppress the odd gasp. In the ring she had been terribly hurt plenty of times and had fought bravely on, but the helplessness of being secured and unable to do other than receive whatever pain the flogger cared to dish out to her, had tested her in a different way.

Then the head jailer came and ordered the medic out of the room.

"You leave in five minutes, Lilly. You were very silly to run away. But sensible to give yourself up. If you had been caught you would have been killed. Good luck with the rock-breaking! At least those hands of yours are used to a bit of rough usage. Although the palms aren't as hardened as the knuckles! You'll adjust soon enough. And, as I said, We'll have you back with us in a few months. Just work hard and be a good girl. I shall miss you, Lilly while you're away!"

"I will work hard. I have learned my lesson. Goodbye, Karl!"

Lilly would miss him. He had always been fair to her. And she knew he would done anything to spare her from the whipping. It was the filthy bastard Hargreaves who had insisted on that particular punishment. In another life she would have fancied Karl! But even when her wounds had healed it was unlikely he would fancy her! She was doomed to be scarred for life, and she could have been on her way out of this stinking hell-hole of a country!

She did not regret her choice. Giving herself up was at least a step in the right direction along a very long road that might lead to redemption. She suspected that the sacrifice of her own life might be required to complete the journey. She was not afraid to die. Lilly had come to see that a life's worth was not to measured by its length but by the way it was lived.

Her legs were chained together at the ankle. No clothing was given her and she was glad of this because her back was terribly sore and she doubted she could bear for it to be touched by even the lightest garment. She would have been happy for her womanhood to be covered, though. But this was unlikely ever again.

Outside the prison she was made to get on an open truck and was driven slowly through the crowded streets where had to endure rubbish being thrown at her by the mob. Long before the truck reached open country she was covered with stinking refuse both solid and liquid. She prayed that her still bleeding back would not become septic. But the salt stopped any infection, although she was to stink for days to come. In fact she was not to smell all that sweet ever again. Water was only for drinking in the penal settlements and there wasn't too much even for that! She had heard that thirst was the lot of all the poor overworked women with whom she was to spend the rest of her life.

Marina was on her way to her protector's house when she heard a commotion. She went in the general direction of the noise and saw an open truck approaching, going at less than walking pace. On it was Lilly, standing straight and tall and proud. People were throwing rubbish at her and she was hit several times. Her face was already bruised. With horror she saw the stinking contents of more than one chamber pot emptied on to her from some upper windows.

Looking around her she saw nothing but sympathy on almost every face in that crowd. These people were here to witness Lilly's continuing agony because they had been ordered on to the street. The filth was being thrown at her, not by willing citizens, but by members of the secret police and folk too scared to disobey.

This was not a bad country or a bad people. Marina saw that it was only brute force and fear that kept the regime in power. That and Anglo American help behind the scenes. She swore she would personally kill Hargreaves if she had the chance. She guessed that Lilly, whose calm dignity in the face of her continuing torment was causing more than a few in the crowd to weep for pity and collective shame, would be happy to reserve that particular pleasure for herself! Either way, the bastard deserved to die, and very slowly and unpleasantly at that!

"I hear we may have something to hope for, Marina" said Mr Marcelinus when she reached his home, letting herself in at the rear entrance and making sure she was not being watched. She was getting good at being a spy these days!

"Yes. A girl called Lilly, the great fighter, escaped. But she agreed to go back and pass a message to Angelina. Angelina will agree to fight again and be brought back to this town. Then we might have a chance of rescuing her!"

The old man nodded. If he could do anything to help his old friend's great niece, then he would.

"And what about Lilly?" he asked sadly.

"No hope, I fear. She'll still be there in thirty years time. Unless the people rise up and chuck this government out."

"They are too cowed for that, Marina. Bravery does not come naturally to my people as it does to yours. Poor Lilly! And heroic Lilly!"

Marina was not so sure. You can push even the most peaceful and compliant people too far. She had seen great anger in many faces today. It would only take one man - a leader - to rally the populace and topple this gang of criminal lunatics. But where would he come from? Apparently most of the better class of people had been purged years and years ago. But good men and women were to be found in all classes. Some day a man would come and rescue this people from the horror they lived in. But when would that day be? Too late for poor Lilly, perhaps. She touched her bosom and the plain cross the monk had given her and prayed for Lilly.

By the time she reached the work camp, Lilly was more dead than alive. She still stood up at the rear of the truck, but she was swaying and ready to collapse long before she arrived. The heat was appalling and it got worse and worse the farther north she went. The country was bare and flat, with not a single piece of vegetation to be seen for miles. Nobody could get far in this hellish desert without dying of thirst and nobody could be undetected for long. She saw more than one helicopter patrolling the desert on her journey. And she would be here for ever!