When I was little I had a best friend whose mother grew (unknowingly) opium poppies in the sand in her front garden every year. My they were pretty!
The Wager
Can I ever be the same? The words ran like a mantra through his head, dead, toneless words. Aran stared almost blindly before him, seeing yet unseeing. He no longer felt the weight of his chains, nor the desire to live in any more than the most rudimentary of ways. Since his loss in the ring something had crumbled within and had been replaced with something nameless and dark.
Aran had not been allowed from his cell since that following morning, when he had been taken by force from the horse and interred here. Life went on in the world just beyond his vision. Slaves were bought and sold, men died in desperate battles just feet from his cell on the hard earth. It did not matter to him, he did not care. He ate without tasting, he breathed because his body could, he spoke to no one.
*****
"I am most worried about him Sir." Keith was issuing his daily report of the goings on in the compound below to his Lord. Master Jacques stood as he often did on the stairs to his domicile looking out on to his kingdom built on the suffering of human trafficking. He was as always proud of what he saw.
"And you do not think a bout would shake him from his stupor?"
"No Sir I think he would only suicide Sir, and if not prove so dangerous we will have little choice but to shoot him. He's broken Sir, but not in the usual manner."
"Hum." Jacques twisted his mouth in consternation putting his thick fingered hand to his chin, scratching at his goatee thoughtfully. Pondering what was best in this unusual situation. "I had hoped for better from him, is he at all saleable?"
Keith was quiet for a time, he too was thinking carefully. "Not likely Sir, he might make a good beast of burden for someone, but I think he is far too dangerous to take from that cell."
"Do we not have anything to quiet him with?"
"There is opium Sir."
"Then I suggest you use it, when he is quiet I want to look at him myself."
"Very well Sir." The arena master strode away.
*****
Aran looked up dumbly, his eyes narrowed in the gloom, the chains on him clinked as he registered he was not alone. He had not been sleeping but merely dozing. Sleep was for those who had more comfort in their minds. He did not sleep nor dream.
The key grated in the lock, he sat unmoving, lulling the intruders into a sense of comfort only exploding into unbridled fury as the men drew near. They fell on him seeking to drag him down. He was hit with a heavy club and even a knout. It did not halt him, only serving to anger him more as the hardened rawhide stripped his flesh to blood.
Keith watched the struggle grimly, arms crossed from the doorway to the cell as the mass of men sought to drag the dangerous man to the floor. He should be humanely shot Keith thought. It would be kinder, the wretch has clearly lost his mind. However it was not his choice, it was Master Jacques decision.
Aran was finally secured in a hogtie, face down on the earthen floor. After the intense struggle he had become very vocal, wild eyed, and he spat at the men. Keith wondered idly if his Lord's champion could best this enraged man now? Likely not.
They grew the poppies here in the summer in lieu of the availability of other medications. They flourished in the orange sands, their beauteous pink blooms giving no hint of their deadly and addictive qualities. The sticky brownish resin proved most useful in many treatments and brought a high price when traded. Though this year the valuable crop could not be planted, it would if the weather persisted be a blow to his Lords usually most lucrative economy.
The arena master had carefully prepared the opium for administration, no easy task when a man had become as wild as this. He had been presented with two choices, he could try force him to inhale it, or administer it as a suppository. He had elected for the latter. It would take longer to calm the man but would be by far the safer proposition. It had been a long time since he had to do this but occasionally it was most necessary.
