A Match for the el Maiens Ch. 21

~#~*~#~

Clair came into the kitchens with the lists of provisions. A clerk was trotting after him with a half-written copy of them which he must take to Lord el V'lair and Tenth Athagine as soon as he had been able to finish it.

Clair saw Vadya's man-servant Batren putting two plates of hot food with covers on them onto a tray. Batren's expression was that of a stuffed frog: the attempt to pretend nonchalance and suggest disapproval at war with his embarrassment and delight. Clair went laughing up to him. "What?" he exclaimed. "Are those two lazy pigs not going to get up for lunch?" Batren ducked his head shyly at Commander-Lord el Maien, his master's new brother by marriage.

Clair picked up a bottle Batren had been about to put on the tray with two wine bowls, looked at it and swung round to shout for his wine steward. "What is this rubbish!" he said indignantly. "What will Tashka give you for it if you send a miserable ten year old V'ta to him. Get me a bottle of Athagine from the H'thuriel vineyard, year of the Angel of Honour twenty-three ... oh, um, el V'lair's vineyard ... Bloody Angel of Baya, get me that Athagine, do you think I will send this vinegar to my brother on his wedding bed?"

~#~*~#~

Tashka was propped on all the pillows with Vadya lying between her legs, his head on her breast. Each of them held a bowl of wine and they drank dreamily of the thin warm red vintage Athagine. The wine smelt of long ago summers.

Cracks of sunlight were tracing a course from one closed shutter to the next, slowly crossing the floor, their discarded clothes, the bowls and plates full of dregs of coffee and food from their breakfast and lunch. Outside the room they sometimes heard a voice or a footfall on the wooden veranda.

They talked of their love for each other. One might describe how he had felt the first time he saw his Captain, how she swung off her horse with such an easy grace and turned a face to him that was so pretty, especially in the party clothes she had hurriedly thrown on in her haste to come and report to him, that his own face went hot with desire and embarrassment. How he had felt dismayed, sure that it was a trick Pava had played on him and that this sweet young thing before him would be running back to its mother in tears within a week. How his heart fluttered when she smiled shyly at him, her ardent admiration for his military reputation so evident in her dark blue eyes, so he was brusque with her and she immediately cooled to the perfect young officer: Yes sir, No Sir, It is done, sir. He walked to her Quarter with her, telling her with emphasis to come to him with any problems she had. That afternoon he went back to the Quarter, worried because he had not had any word from her. She was in immaculate H'las uniform with the troopers running about her like ants whose nest had been kicked.

The other might tell how she loved his hands: the big gentle fingers that were so famously capable on a horse's reins, which would rest firmly and confidently on her shoulder while she pointed out their route or brush her head in an affectionate acknowledgement of some cheeky tease. She might tell how the dark hairs and powerful taut muscles of his thighs excited her. How the little scar on his cheek made her heart turn over, and at last she might reveal why particularly that one.

They caressed every part of each other's body, some parts dearly familiar from their four years' companionship, other parts exhilaratingly unknown. They had always had an intimately affectionate friendship and when they brought a physical passion to that it was like exploring a much-loved place by starlight.

Tashka's hand was sliding across Vadya's shoulder, the fingers rubbing at his muscles as they went. He was looking at her eyes but her face was turned away to smile dreamily at the dim room. She turned her head down and met his gaze. He crawled up to his knees, took her wine-bowl and put it with his on the floor.

He put his arms around her, pressing his face into her stomach. He rolled over onto his back, dragging her over with him. She held herself up on her hands, looking back down at his face with a grin. She wriggled down in his arms until she was level with him and could feel his penis against the inside of her thigh. She carried on wriggling, smiling into his eyes. He had his lip between his teeth, he was catching his breath in little gasps.

She sat up in his arms, his arms fell loosely about her, he began to caress her buttocks and she giggled and wriggled and enjoyed it. She reached down to push his fingers to her arsehole and the fun spot between her hole and her vulva, grinning and making grunts of arousal as his fingertips danced about. She put her own fingers to the inside of his thigh, his balls, the peritoneum between his arsehole and cock, his cock. He was already thick and hard, his cock firm in her thin scarred fingers. She rubbed him up and down a couple of times just for the pleasure of seeing his face tense up with passion, feeling his body thrust up beneath hers. He was making those passionate grunting noises back in his nose and throat. She reached hurriedly for the basket of condoms which someone (probably Clair) had placed ostentatiously by the bed, scrabbled for a large one and unwrapped it.

She held his cock in place and positioned herself, watching his face with the glinting grin on her rose-petal mouth and in her exquisite blue eyes. She knelt over him, teasing him by holding him there to her soft warm sex. He tried to thrust up into her, moaning, his hands coming away from her buttocks and arsehole to grip on her hips and pull her towards him. His face was twisting with the agony of desire, she pressed down to slide herself around him.

Vadya made a guttural low throaty sound of pleasure, thrusting up to meet her. He reached out to her and she let herself gently down to lie on his chest. Now that he was in her, Vadya was content to lie still for her, she put her arm about his neck and leaned on the other elbow, her hips clenched and released. Vadya's arms were lying loosely on her back, his arm-muscles were tensed and hard. Tashka was enjoying the slow warm pulses that her movements raised up in her, she began to make small noises. Vadya lay taut and still beneath her, excited by her noises, her movements, her excitement. He stared into her face, saw the unfocussed splendour in her eyes, the soft wonder start to tense up in her face. He reached one hand to cup gently about her cheek and she was gone in his arms, murmuring to him in ecstasy, trembling with joy, her hips clenching about him, her face suddenly twisted up with pleasure.

She softened out and lay down on his chest, rested her head on his shoulder, his hand still cupped about her cheek. Vadya lay quite still, every part of his body thrilling to the feeling of Tashka, so relaxed after her orgasm against him. He turned his head and met the ecstatic sparkle of her clear blue eyes, smiled and saw her beautiful face lift in the smile back to him.

Then she began moving on him again, he laughed, stroking her cheek, grinning and rolling his head with the almost unbearable fun of it. Something in him was wanting to roll her over and take his pleasure but he was enjoying hers too much to give in to it. Tashka paused, holding herself in tight, and raised herself up on him to make the bigger movements that he would enjoy, he tried to pull her back down but she laughed and shook her head, carried on until he was arching his back beneath her, on the verge of orgasm, when she dropped back down on his chest. A long murmuring exclamation broke from him and he shook with passion, his eyes dark, his hair damp with sweat. She kissed his rough stubbly cheek, feeling him jerk with every movement of her body, building the feelings back in her own body, in his, until they came together in a strange small way that did not leave them quite satisfied, that was not the end to their love-making, more like a pause.

~#~*~#~

Clair stared meditatively through his telescope, watching the glinting line of the troop wind down the road out of the green and brown Sietter hills. In the fitful sunshine that broke through clouds blowing away to the West he could see the Fifth Sietter officers riding out to greet their comrades.

"Tashka had right," Pava said beside him. "That is Tenth Sietter."

"Yes," Clair answered. "There is that little flirt Vaie's banner, look," he handed his telescope to Pava. Pava and he both sniggered. Vaie had been a junior officer to both of them, Tashka's chosen companion in many pranks and misdemeanours, an honourable slut who had utilised his handsome body to full advantage when they all went out together of the nights.

"Should we let Tashka know that Vaie is here?" Pava asked, peering through the telescope.

"So you wish to die young, go to it," Tarra said with a laugh. Clair turned and grinned at him. He felt a lot more friendly to Tarra now he was in possession of all Tarra's worldly goods, especially that magnificent racehorse Stargazer which he intended to give to Tashka. He reached up to make the unusually heavy elaborate gold earring swing in his ear; he was only in a pair of breeches and a cardigan and would not normally have worn a jewel. Tarra looked at the earring with a rueful twist to his mouth.

"Angels, it is not easy to know what to do when the Captain and the Commander in charge of our strategy are lying together!" Clair sniggered. "How in Hell did Tashka know Tenth and Eighth were nearby?" He took his telescope back again and raised it to his eye, looking round to where Tenth Sietter were making camp, setting up their tents at the back of the castle.

"La," Pava said idly, "he is the best soldier the Angels ever dreamed of. Were't a fool not to offer him a troop instead of your favours, el V'lair. He might have gone to you for a Captaincy since ar't Clair's friend and it would have made a tie with Athagine."

"Of course I offered him a Quarter of Tenth," Tarra laughed. "We spent a week together, it is more than I have spent with any other woman before or since! We rode out and he chose the wine in the tavern for us and we lay in baths in the bath-house together. And, er, at night I taught her a few ... er, things - to make it up to her that I took her virgin favour using a scummy trick.

"I tried to talk to her of gossip and clothes and whatnot like I would to any woman. He talked to me about the disposition of this troop and that troop and the structure of the command in the Athagine army. Before the Angels, when I heard what he had to say of the structure of the command of my own army, I nearly fell out of the bed. I wanted his military mind even more than that sweet young body.

"But he was very young. I knew that Clair would not let him go so young, even if you were willing to let such a tip-top strategic mind go to another region, my friend. Stariel had set up a training regime for him second to none and I had forced his favours, he turned my offer of a Captain's sword aside scornfully. He thought I was offering it just to get his body in my bed, although I tried to assure him not. All I could give him was a ring from my ear. He had already skinned me of what cash I had at cards. He had to pay for the tavern in the end of it, with the money he had won off me! Stupidly I sent him some other jewels but I got them back, not even a note with them, then I knew I would have grief off him some day."

He looked into Clair's narrowed slanted grey eyes. "You would not have bestowed her on me," he said softly. "We quarrelled enough over Lallia! never mind what you would have done to me if it were your own baby brother, coming unwilling. I knew your father would be glad to throw her to me. I thought of it but ... she is so free-minded and I ... like it in her. I ... I went to the Halls intending to get my father to ask for her hand. They had just chained him a fresh Girl. All morning I heard the screaming and when it stopped and I went to his room they were carrying her down the corridor. The stupid wench must have taken against it, he never likes it if they resist. You know what it means to be a van Athagine woman, the women belong to us absolutely. I did not care for it, to chain someone I ... like, in Athagine."

Clair did not say anything, he merely turned back to look at the troops around them through his telescope. Tarra looked at his unresponsive back in the scruffy old warm cardigan and then at Pava. Pava's round green eyes glinted back at him. "The country is littered with the broken hearts of those who were not worthy the hand of the honourable Captain-Lady Anastelle el Maien van Sietter," he murmured mockingly. "el Gaiel does not know how lucky he is."

"Oh I think he does," Clair said drily without turning round.

~#~*~#~

It was drawing in to evening and the room was getting dark. Outside Vadya could hear birds twittering and the servants' voices as they moved about getting the bedrooms ready. There was an autumn hush in the air, it was chilly. He and Tashka had huddled up close together under the sheets and quilts and were lying in the warmth of each other's arms, staring into each other's eyes.

Someone tried to open the door and then knocked softly. Vadya lay still for a moment longer, got up and put his shirt on before going to unfasten the lock and hold the door open for Batren with their supper. Batren was followed by a servant with candles and firewood. He put the supper down on the table near the fire, took the wood and candles and began building up the fire.

Vadya sat down in a chair, looking to one side. He felt embarrassed to go and lie by his new bride with Batren in the room. Tashka lolled about in the bedclothes and pillows and winked when she caught Batren's eye, making him giggle, blush and look furtively at Vadya. Vadya looked up, startled by Batren's incongruous giggle. Their eyes met and they grinned sheepishly.

"Shall I bring fresh nightshirts?" Batren asked Tashka. Vadya was astonished at the low tender tone his rough old manservant achieved in his voice.

"What for?" Tashka laughed her smuttiest laugh, back in her nose. It was hours since she or Vadya had felt the need to speak and her voice came out with a sexy rasp to it, "but ask Clair for some more large size condoms will you? and, hey," she jerked her head and he went over to the bed. Tashka muttered something to him. Batren gave her a quizzical look then went to pick up the clothes they had left scattered over the floor.

"Do you wish for baths?" he asked.

"Not I," Tashka replied, stretching and yawning in the bedclothes. "el Gaiel, do you wish for a bath?"

"No," he said. He got up and crossed over to lounge on the bed across her legs. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Batren freeze at the sight of the long tear across the back of his shirt. Then Batren's face eased into a tolerant smile, he lit the candles he had set on the table, spread their supper out and kicked up the fire into a blaze. He put the remains of their breakfast and lunch on his tray and left.

"What did you tell him?" Vadya asked. He was not quite sure he wanted to know.

"I said if he asked about the condoms in front of Tarra I would give him a tip on the Vail flat races," Tashka sniggered.

Vadya expostulated, blushing softly. He reached out to caress Tashka's grinning face. Behind them, bowls of soup steamed gently by the covered dishes of food. Clair had sent them two bottles of wine and there was a box of chocolates. Vadya went to look, it had Pava's seal on it. He smiled to think of laughing lovely Pava el Jien who had sent him Tashka four years before and had understood the nature of their love for each other long before they had.

"Come and eat," he said.

She sprang out of bed and came to sit by his side at the table, the warmth of the flames washing about their bodies. It felt strange to them to be separate beings eating, they stopped often to caress each other or say something about the food they were sharing and the fabulous wine Clair had sent them.

"He is hoping to get us out of our heads," Tashka laughed, "to prevent me from having a child!"

Vadya choked on his wine and said, "Angels! you'll ride to war in a few days, he must surely know I would not put you at such risk."

"Ah, he knows he can rely on me," Tashka said, tossing a chocolate in the air and catching it in her mouth. "Since he brought me up a soldier he can be confident I will be able to deliver on a proper strategy for my wedding night," she laughed affectionately.

But darker thoughts crept into his mind. He remembered the coming war and sat turning his wine-bowl sombrely round in his hands.

She said hesitantly: "What is it?" He raised his head and looked at her warm blue eyes in her lean tanned face, at the cut down her cheek, at the scar on her leg which she got in battle riding out of the rocky defile in V'ta to save his troop and his life, at the old scar on one arm where she had been speared by a Vilandian while she rode in and out their ranks with Pava's banner to take Ninth Vail to safety once when they were attacked on manoeuvres on the border.

"Oh my Captain and my wife," he said softly. "You'll ride away to war, to danger, to the risk of death. I will be left with the Generals and strategic staff. Every night I will wonder what has become of you. Every minute of every day I will fear for your life. I do not know if I can bear it, Tashka. I do not know if I can risk the losing you."

"You'll not be with us?" her voice shook and she stared in sudden consternation into his face. "No of course not," she said, glancing aside. "Fool that I am, I had forgot. After the last war they promoted you to be seconded to the strategic staff if there should be war again."

Her face stared unseeing into the shadowed room. He was so glad to see how much she wanted to be with him, he blurted out: "And you can stay behind with me," in a happy eager voice.

There was a long awful silence. She turned her head slowly to meet his eyes. Her eyes were regretful but determined. He bit his lip, he felt as if someone had stabbed him to the heart. "Tashka!" he pleaded. She shook her head. "But you are so fine a military mind! You would be invaluable on the strategic staff. We would both be Commanders, equals, making the strategies together as we have always done!" he cried.

She got hurriedly out of her chair and crossed to the fire to lean on the mantelpiece and stare into the flames. He saw her straight muscular back, he saw the old and new scars: short and long, criss-crossed about her spine; that one she got in the duel in Thiel, this one from some scum at court. Twelve times she had flung her glove in a man's face and had confronted death. She had skirmished all over the country with hostile armies.

"Tashka," he pleaded.

"You know it well," she said gravely, "one of us must stay out in the field. You have been called up to the Generals' offices and you have not secured the succession. Clair cannot be asked to suffer standing in the field. The Generals will have to send me."

"Do you think I will take some brood-mare to my bed if any thing happens to you!" he cried. "Am I to skulk in safety behind the lines while my troop goes to war under your banner?"

She turned startled blue eyes on him. "We will be under Fiotr's banner, is it not?" she said.

He struck his flat hand on the table and glared at her. "el Maien, for sweet Hell's sake," he said. "Fiotr does deserve to be promoted but I would be a fool indeed to make any but you acting Commander while I am gone."

"Oh my sweet Angels!" she breathed, staring wide-eyed over her shoulder at him. "I will be acting Commander of Sixth H'las? Heaven and Hell!"

He stared at her. The pride and joy in her eyes made him dumb with grief. He felt jealous, he felt frightened. He could see that behind her flaming ambition her heart was torn at the thought of leaving him behind and that she was scared of taking control without him there to guide her but still the bitter sense of loss surged darkly about his soul. He would lose his troop and he might lose his lover. It was not that he wanted the silly semblance of convention but he did want his wife by him during the war, not leading his troop away. He knew it was stupid and unreasonable to ask such a thing of Captain-Lord Tashka el Maien van H'las but he wanted it.