by Faith Eden
‘Any problems, my little assassin?’ Alanna asked.
Jekka grunted and shook her head. ‘None at all, lady,’ she replied. ‘Nor you, either, I presume. But what of our neophyte? Have you seen anything of her yet?’
‘She was in the group next to mine,’ Alanna replied. ‘I’ve sent her across to where I think Savatch’s wagon now is, while I came for you. I saw you move earlier and thought I should let you know where we both were.’
‘You saw me?’ Jekka grunted again. ‘Lucky for me then that none of these Vorsan bastards has Valkyr eyes, for I must be slipping more than even I had thought. Perhaps, when all this is over, I shall go away for a few months and just rest. I can take the girl with me for company.’
‘Just the girl?’ Alanna chuckled. ‘Why not take your young soldier friend with you too? I think you could both use some peace and quiet and after this little lot there’s no one would deny you haven’t both earned it.’
Savatch recognised the low signal hoot immediately and turned to head towards it. As they approached one of the larger supply wagons, a shadowy figure half emerged from behind its tailboard and the hoot came again.
‘The other two are over there, my lord,’ Opal whispered, pointing. ‘Lady Alanna sent me to find you and to fetch weapons.’
‘I have knives under this cape,’ Savatch said. He reached inside the billowing cloth and produced two daggers, which he handed to the youngster. ‘Ceth here will give you his dagger, too. Go carefully now and tell Jekka that her cart is along there, at the end of that second row. She’ll find a bow and two of her fire bottles there, but she’ll need to find a lantern for herself from which to light them.’
‘But not until we have found the two for whom we came?’ Opal said.
‘Indeed not,’ Savatch agreed, ‘but then you need hardly remind her of that, I promise you. Now, Ceth and I will search down this way and the three of you can take the area by that line of trees. We’ll all meet back at the wagon in about half an hour, whether we’ve found what we seek or not.
‘If we haven’t,’ he added, ‘then our task is going to be more difficult than even we thought, for it means they must have them over there, right in the middle of their main troop camp, and the sight of three pony slaves running around without escort will attract more than just a passing interest, I’m sure.’
The second Vorsan took less than half the time of the first to satisfy himself, and even as his hot seed spurted into Dorothea she could feel his shaft beginning to go soft within her. The trooper grunted, slumped against her back and then, after a few moments, slid out of her, much to the amusement of his two companions.
‘I’m too damned weary to care,’ he protested. ‘I’d rather have a drink and get me some sleep. Enjoy her arse, Sitrim - I’m off to find another bottle.’
Dorothea closed her eyes in shame and frustration at his words, and tears began to trickle down her cheeks, but the third soldier was already moving into position. She felt his hands upon her hips, sliding around over her mound and then working upwards, over the thick leather of her girth until they rested upon her breasts. Between her buttocks she could feel the hardness of his erection and moaned quietly into her gag as she realised that he was far better endowed than either of his companions, and intent on buggering her with that weapon.
‘At least your tits are still nice and firm, pony cunt,’ he rasped, his mouth close to her right ear, his breath hot and fetid on her face. ‘And I’ll bet you haven’t had it up the - agghhhh!’ His taunting words tailed off into what sounded like a soft sigh and suddenly his weight was no longer pressing against her, his cock no longer thrusting between her nates. His hands slipped from her bosom and Dorothea tensed, waiting for the coming assault, but instead another voice spoke, a female voice, close to her ear on the other side of her head.
‘Say nothing, my lady,’ it hissed. ‘Make no sound and don’t try to run when I cut your arms free. Keep them close to your sides if anyone comes along and try to act like you have just been left to wander by one or other of these drunken ruffians. It’s probably better if we leave your damned bit in for the moment, too.’
Dorothea was both too exhausted and too numb to register her surprise at this sudden intervention. A dark figure reached past her and she felt the cord go slack between her wrist cuffs, but she still clung to the tree for support and it needed other hands to help her stand back and turn around. She saw that there were three of them, unrecognisable in the darkness except that they seemed to be attired as she was and had the same long manes that all the other pony slaves, save she, had.
‘Quiet now,’ the voice said again. ‘Just lean on Opal there and follow me, Lady Dorothea.’ Dorothea gave a sudden squeak of recognition, but a hand clamped firmly over her bitted mouth.
‘Shush now, you silly bitch!’ a second voice cautioned. ‘Yes, it is Jekka and Alanna and our friend here is Opal. We are here to rescue you and Lady Corinna, but if you make another sound, I swear I’ll slit your stupid throat and tell little Moxie we could find no sign of you here!’
‘I wish we knew what was happening over there.’ Moxie stamped her foot in frustration and turned to Pecon, who sat astride his horse just behind her. The pair had come to within less than half a mile of Fulgrim’s camp, but between the edge of the trees where they now were and the lights of the encampment itself, there was now virtually no cover and, as Pecon had pointed out, there would probably be roving pickets patrolling well out from the main concentration.
‘Take it easy, little maid,’ Pecon drawled. ‘Your friends are as likely a band as I have ever met before and if anyone can succeed in this mad venture, then I’m sure it is they.’
‘Yes, I do know that,’ Moxie retorted. ‘But it’s easy for you to say when it’s not your friends who are risking their lives. You could have gone with them but chose not to - I wanted to go and they would not let me.’
‘I know,’ Pecon said. He eased himself down from the saddle and led his mount across to where Moxie’s horse stood passively grazing at a clump of lush grass. ‘The truth is,’ he said, as he turned to walk back to her side, ‘that this is not really my fight. I’m only involved in this because I tried to help that girl and then everything turned on its head and... well, I’m here and I’ll do what I can, but I’m not so stupid as to put my head into that hornet’s nest.’
‘And what if they all die?’ Moxie looked scornfully at him. ‘You think maybe there’s a profit to be had even then, I think.’ She shook her head and looked away from him again. ‘You think I’m just a silly girl who likes to play games, I know, but I’ve seen the way you’ve been looking at me.’ She spun around again and confronted him angrily.
‘Yes!’ she stormed, ‘I’ve got tits that you could sell for a good price and don’t think I don’t know that. These... these things have been a burden to me in more ways than one since the day I first started to get them. Men!’ she snapped. ‘You’re all disgusting bullies and none of you think above the level of your balls.’
‘Actually, little maid,’ Pecon said quietly, ‘you do me a disservice. Yes, you do have a fine set of lungs there, but there is more to you than that. I’ve listened to the others and what they’ve been saying and I give you my word now. If your friends perish in this venture, I shall make it my business to see you safely to wherever it is you choose to go.’
‘You will?’ Moxie stared at him in disbelief. ‘Why?’
‘Because,’ Pecon replied, ‘I admire true courage when I see it.’
‘Oh, ha-ha sir!’ Moxie retorted. ‘Please - do me the favour of not mocking me.’
Pecon began to chuckle. ‘That’s exactly what I mean,’ he said. ‘You have no true idea of your own value, young lady. Yes, I know you are really only a maid and that garb you wear is, well... let’s say it’s what you wear and be done with it. However,’ he continued, ‘though you may have started out playing games
, you have since come a good many miles and not just the miles you have ridden. You have great courage, Moxie, great courage indeed.’
‘See!’ Moxie exclaimed. ‘You mock me still, sir. I have no courage and we both know that. I am so scared that I am close to wetting myself and if I ever had to draw this sword in earnest—’
‘Then you would draw it, Moxie,’ Pecon said, cutting her short. ‘You would draw it and try to use it, even if you thought it would be your last act in this world. Yes, you know you are no trained warrior, but still you would do it and that is true courage. True courage, my dear little buxom friend, is doing a thing even though you are frightened beyond belief, when lesser mortals would turn and run. Some would call that foolishness, I know, but only those who would be among the first to run when confronted with danger anyway.
‘No, Moxie,’ he sighed, ‘you are a true little heroine, as courageous as your Valkyr friends, as worthy as Lord Savatch and certainly far more worthy than I could now ever hope to be.’ He scratched his ear and then his chin. ‘If I had a glass here with me now,’ he said, ‘I’d raise it in a toast to you, my brave little maid, and I’ll fight with you or for you and be proud to call you friend.’
‘The large tent in the middle has got to be Fulgrim’s,’ Jekka said.
Savatch, crouching against the wheel of a wagon, nodded his agreement. ‘It’s well guarded, too,’ he observed. ‘I count ten, maybe twelve of them outside and who can say how many more inside?’
‘If we knew for certain that Lady Corinna was not inside,’ Jekka growled, ‘I could fry the Vorsan bastard with just one of my fire bottles, guards or no guards.’
‘I know that, Marisjekka,’ Savatch said. ‘And you may still get the chance, but how we find out for certain is the big question.’ He let out a sigh of annoyance that was like the autumn wind running through dry grass. ‘We cannot afford to take chances, not while there is even the smallest chance that Corinna is in there.’
‘There is a way, I think,’ Jekka said, slowly. ‘They say there is no smoke without fire, my lord, but then they also say a lot of other things that are total nonsense.’
‘Ah!’ Savatch exclaimed. ‘Yes, I see what you mean, but then we need to get inside that tent, or at least very close, if you mean what I think you mean.’
‘Well,’ Jekka said, ‘perhaps Lord Fulgrim could use an extra pony slave for the evening. I’m almost certain I can hear him giving the order for one of his officers to go and find him one.’
Opal crouched beneath the wagon, peering out into the darkness. Behind her the line of horses snuffled and grunted, hooves shifting uneasily in the grass, recognising instinctively the presence of the unexplained, a presence that, mercifully, the two guards who lounged at the end of their picket had failed to sense.
Above the young Valkyr, the wagon rocked and groaned and her eyes widened as the muffled and unmistakeably female squeals grew louder and louder and the masculine grunting rose with it. She gripped the hilt of the sword she had taken off the Vorsan sentry whose body now lay beneath the next wagon in the line and tried to judge the distance between her hiding place and the dying fire around which half a dozen sleeping troopers lay.
Jekka had explained to her how to use the fire bottle, but she still needed something with which to ignite the oil-soaked rag that hung from its neck, and those embers offered her best opportunity. The six slumbering forms presented no problem at all, she knew, but now was not yet the time and she could see that the fire had but a few minutes of active life remaining.
She drew back further beneath the wagon, unsure of what she should do now. Unlike the others, she had no idea of what their quarry looked like; the Lady Corinna could have walked straight into her arms and she would not have known her. Opal felt completely at a loss.
Confusion, Jekka had told her. In the darkness the fire and smoke would spread terror and confusion, the Vorsans tired and drunk, mostly asleep, so that the flames and billowing clouds would seem like the very gates of hell to them, at least for the few minutes that would give them the advantage they needed. It would only be a few minutes, probably, but...
And then she saw the obvious answer, something that even the meticulous Jekka had apparently not even considered. With a satisfied smirk, Opal placed the fire bottle carefully against the inside of one of the wagon’s rear wheels, checked it could not topple and then began to crawl towards the two shadowy silhouettes at the far end of the line of horses...
Fulgrim paced up and down the full length of his tent, his features twisted and dark with rage. The faces of the officers and soldiers who lined the inside of the canvas walls were apprehensive.
‘We are already more than a full day behind our original schedule!’ he stormed, rounding on them when he reached the end nearest the entrance flap. ‘You, Zandrim!’ he bellowed, jabbing a finger at one fellow who wore the crest of a sub-captain. ‘You were the one who said we could make it easily within the time I said. You were the one who said to use the scabby girls to carry most of the equipment.’
Zandrim, sandy-haired and pallid of complexion, looked terrified. ‘I had no idea that the weather would be so hot at this time of the year, my lord,’ he countered defensively. ‘All the reports I had showed that the high summer should have finished at least two weeks since.’
‘Then you should have checked for yourself!’ Fulgrim bellowed. He smashed one fist into its opposite palm. ‘By tomorrow evening we should have been almost in sight of Garassotta and the day after Corinna would have danced on her pedestal for all her soldiers to see.’ He half turned and, seeing the stand upon which Corinna had already once been mounted, uttered a stream of Vorsan invective that blanched the faces of even the most hardened soldiers in the company.
‘Tomorrow,’ he said, turning back to them, his voice taking on an icy note, ‘you will lighten all the loads from the carts and give every man a bundle to carry - officers included. We will make ten miles more than we did today, or else you Zandrim will spend tomorrow evening on there!’ He pointed back to the wooden stand.
‘That cock will fit your arse as well as it fits a girl’s cunt, even if I have to hammer it home!’ Fulgrim threatened, and Zangrim’s cheeks went an awful grey colour. ‘And if you need any reminding of what you’ll look like, you can have it now. Bennodick,’ he snapped, addressing one of the younger officers, ‘go and fetch the delightful Flix and we’ll give her another taste of what’s to come. She’ll be with Halit in his wagon, as like as not.
‘And you, Mexos, go and find that fat bastard Ingrim. This counsel was for all officers, not just the ones without a pair of pale-eyed little maids to fuck! And while you’re at it, bring his maids along too. An hour or so each on the princess’s throne will spoil them for Ingrim’s pitiful cock afterwards and might make him think twice before disobeying an order in the future.’
Jekka pressed herself flat against the ground as the tent flap opened and two figures emerged, silhouetted against the light of the lamps within. They had managed to approach to within fifty or so paces now, close enough to hear what they guessed correctly was Fulgrim’s tirade, but not quite close enough to make out what he was saying.
‘He doesn’t sound best pleased,’ she murmured.
Alongside her, Savatch narrowed his eyes. ‘We must find out whether she’s in there with him,’ he whispered. He looked back over his shoulder to where Ceth and a second trooper had settled down around the lantern, slouched over in an attitude that would persuade anyone who approached them that they were simply exhausted soldiers sharing a last drink before sleeping.
‘Get a couple of bows, my lord,’ Jekka suggested, ‘and we could simply rush them. If Fulgrim’s there and we know he is, I could plant a bolt between his pig eyes before any of those fools realised what was happening. That would end this once and for all.’
‘And end us all with it,’ Savatch muttered. ‘Killing Fulgrim might we
ll end the invasion, until another Fulgrim steps forward to take his place, that is, but it won’t destroy this force and a headless chicken runs madly about for a while at times. They’ll kill us for certain and then, without proper leadership, they’ll end up pillaging the entire countryside on their way back home. Nowhere will be safe, and who’s to say what else they might attempt?’
‘At least the immediate threat to Illeum will have been removed,’ Jekka said.
Savatch grunted. ‘Fuck Illeum,’ he said. ‘What about the immediate threat to Corinna?’
‘Ever the patriot, my lord,’ Jekka chuckled. She rubbed at the bridge of her nose, thinking. ‘Maybe not a direct assault on Fulgrim just yet,’ she whispered, after a few seconds. ‘Maybe a little diversion to spread confusion and then we take him. But we keep him alive, I think.’
‘And use him as hostage to get Corinna?’ Savatch sniffed. ‘Maybe, but what if he refuses to give her up?’
‘This is Fulgrim we’re talking about,’ Jekka snickered. ‘He’ll give up anything before he gives up his own life and I’d stake my life on that.’
‘And that’s exactly what you will be doing,’ Savatch pointed out. ‘As are we all, I think.’
Corinna was dozing, but not asleep when she heard the first whooshing explosion. Her eyes flew open instantly and she shook Halit awake next to her as she saw the curious orange-red glow through the canvas of the wagon.
‘Wh-what is it?’ Halit demanded, still not fully conscious. He blinked, sat up and saw the flickering light for himself, just as another exploded even closer. ‘By the gods!’ he exclaimed, reaching for his breeches. ‘Fire! But how—?’ He didn’t finish the question, for he suddenly realised he was trying to put both feet into the same leg of his breeches. Corinna crawled past him and lifted the rear canvas flap cautiously.
