A Match for the el Maiens Ch. 24

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The sky was a mass of dark and grey feathered clouds. A strong wind rolled rapidly over the crude greens and browns of the Sietter Hills. Tashka and Vadya rode over the brow of a hill, the wind whipping their cloaks against their faces and tearing at Tashka's blue cap and Vadya's brown hair. In the dull metallic light, they saw the weather-stained grey and fawn tents of Sixth H'las set out on a flat area of ground near a stream.

"Should we move the camp more that way?" Tashka said immediately. "That stream might flood."

Vadya, who had been smiling fondly at the sight of the familiar old tents, studied the terrain more carefully and nodded an agreement.

Behind them, Tenth Sietter were moving to make camp at a sufficient distance from Sixth H'las. There was still uneasiness between the H'las army and the two Sietter troops who had so far declared formally that they would side with Clair, Arianna and Tashka rather than Lord Pava. Vadya, Tashka and Dar had all been agreed that for Tenth Sietter and Sixth H'las to make camp together would lead to trouble.

There were arms waving from among the tents and the troop's banner-bearer was running to set up Vadya's banner. As they galloped into the camp, Petra was there to take Vadya's reins, Flava to take Tashka's. Tashka swung off Jewel and took Flava's arm in a warm firm shake then went on to take Hanya's arm. Hanya clasped her arm tightly and said: "W-what troop was that behind you?"

Tashka grinned into his face. "That is Tenth Sietter, you butterfly-wits," she said affectionately. "Can you not see Vaie's banner? I should have thought you would recognise his insignia by now!"

Hanya stared up the hillside to where the soldiers were wheeling into place with Dar's red and gold banner unfurling in the wind above them. He took a quick step in the direction of the Sietter troop then looked back at Tashka.

Tashka laughed. "Wait a bit," she said. "Let Dar arrange the dispositions of his troop. He will come to look for you, he told me so only six times while we were riding here!"

Hanya looked away up the stream, smiling and wriggling his shoulders and blushing. Tashka gave the puzzled Flava a wink and made a kissing pout, to indicate that yes it was a love affair. Flava laughed, handing Jewel's reins back to Tashka and going to give his fellow Lieutenant an affectionate buffet on the shoulder.

"We've enough to do ourselves," he said to Hanya, "with two Units each to move higher up the hillside away from the stream. I told Captain Araine how it would be as soon as the Captain arrived! but he would have it that if we camped nearer the stream it would be easier to water the horses."

"Lazy pig," Tashka scoffed, starting to walk towards Second Quarter. "Mada got away alright then?"

"There were a few tears," Flava said with a smile, "and he tried to say his father would be glad to support Lord Esha's cause but we put it to him that they were your expressed orders that he should go back to Soomara and asked if he wanted to face you in a courtmartial. We promised he can come back when the war is over."

Tashka smiled mechanically, there was a flicker in her mind that said, if it goes our way. They had taken the Maier Pass, they were holding papers which demonstrated that van Sietter had conspired with van Iarve to assassinate his daughter by marriage - just cause for Clair to go to war with him, but the King was under the influence of these two Privy Councillors. Clair had shaken his head when they asked, did this not mean the King might command van Sietter to withdraw his declaration of war. He said it should mean other regions, Iarve in particular, would be warned off taking van Sietter's side but that it was unlikely to give them more than that. Meanwhile, there was the problem of the chronic shortage of expensive arms for the H'las Generals' strategic staff to try to resolve.

As she led Jewel through the encampment, Tashka smiled at her troopers, pressed a hand here, gave a mock punch there. She enquired after the wellbeing of this or that trooper whom she gathered had suffered small injuries, she remembered in embarrassingly precise detail whose equipment ought to have had what done to it, telling them of it with an intent look that also said: And I will be round to check on it shortly.

She spent a busy couple of hours organising the removal of her Quarter's tents further up the hill. Once they were well underway with the re-setting of the tents and picket lines of horses and she had ensured that her own horses were being well cared for and that her kit was stowed in her tent ready to unpack, she strode off through the camp to find Vadya and get her orders from him. As she went, she met up with Fiotr Araine who said he would walk to Vadya's tent with her. She was glad of the chance to talk about tactics for how they might ensure the defence of the Maier Pass but not as pleased as she would have been six months earlier. She had been hoping for a surreptitious kiss with her husband.

She went into his tent first and he looked up from where he was crouched over his box-desk and smiled widely and warmly at her. He was still in civilian clothes: tight-fitting hose and a warm jumper. He had carelessly kicked off his boots which were lying to the side, his big feet were comfortably clad just in his socks. She was already in her felt winter uniform, her highly polished black thigh-length army boots. The H'las colours had always suited her, the severity of the black emphasising her powerful tall lean physique, the blue details picking up the blue of her eyes. She smiled down at him and he grinned back, his cock giving an excited hopeful quiver in the tight hose. Then Fiotr came in and he said: "Oh! Er, yes, your orders. Yes, well, I am glad you two are come together. Very glad. We must talk about replacing your Lieutenants: el Darien, el Vaie and el Farin, who have all had to go back to their own regions."

Batren was unpacking Vadya's clothes-chest and hanging his clothes on his clothes-rail at the back of the tent. Vadya's boots were already arranged below the rail and his mail on its stand. Batren came forward now and said to Tashka: "Have you unpacked your gear?"

"No," Tashka said, chucking herself onto Vadya's bedding and looking away from Batren out of the tent. She lounged long and hard-muscled in the cushions of the bedding, leaning on one elbow. Vadya glared at Batren, who looked back at them with puzzled hurt eyes.

"You can come back and finish that later," Vadya said in an unusually cross voice.

"Well then I'll go and unpack Lord Tashka's ..."

"No you will not," Vadya hissed. "Go and get me ... some biscuits."

Batren stared at him in a very obvious and hurt way then looked at Tashka. She made a face and a shooing motion at him with her fingers and he backed out of the tent. Fortunately the whole business completely passed Fiotr by, he only wanted to get into a heavy discussion of the brilliance of Tashka's strategy in escaping a siege and capturing the Maier Pass in one fell swoop.

"Let us talk of that in a minute," Vadya said firmly. "In your orders you will find the names of those currently put up for Lieutenancies from the H'las region. Fiotr, we will explain it to you in full some other time but we must rely only on H'las for this war. H'las and the two Sietter troops who are with us, that is," he added hurriedly as Tashka's blue eyes swung round towards him in a frown. "And, er, Ninth Vail." Fiotr gave a grin at the mention of young van Vail's play-troop but even Vadya frowned at him for that, after having to witness what the two Quarters of Ninth Vail had been through.

"I have two troopers myself I would like to bring up from the line into the ranks," Fiotr said. He ran briskly through the respective merits of his reliable troopers. Dull, dull, dull, Tashka thought as he described their maturity, level-headedness and the respect they commanded from their fellow troopers. She half-closed her eyes, looking as if she were intently concentrating on what Fiotr was saying. Actually she was thinking how sexy Vadya's leg looked. He was crouched down on a stool by his box-desk and his thigh muscles swelled tightly in the close-fitting hose Batren had dressed him in that day. The hose was so tight that she could even see the defining line running down his thigh, she thought vaguely about running her tongue down it. Perhaps while caressing his bollocks.

She always picked out smart rising stars for her junior officers. She had the skill to train them on, the patience to manage their high-strung intelligence, they clamoured for any empty places in her Quarter. She was too demanding to put up with the solid steady reliable Lieutenants such as the other Captains tried to get. That was part of the reason the Generals had started saying she ought to go up to the strategic staff.

"...well, el Maien?" Vadya was saying.

"What?" she said blankly, sitting hurriedly upright and looking sheepishly at him.

Vadya's brows drew together in a frown. Her heart clutched up, she felt suddenly guilt-stricken.

"Do you have anyone in mind for your vacant Lieutenancies?" Vadya said in that firm patient voice that meant he really was quite cross with you.

"Um, yes," she said. "There is a Sietter Knight I want: Diodr Clathan. He is currently commissioned in Second Sietter but will have to desert because his father has been declared a traitor for loaning us a few cannon." She grinned at Fiotr, who started laughing then caught sight of Vadya's cross face and turned it into a cough.

"Sietter!" Fiotr remarked scornfully. "I know that some Sietter are going to join us in this war but they are ..."

"Fio," Tashka said in a warning voice, sitting upright and glaring at him.

"Araine, as I wrote you, you must try to remember that Tashka's full title is Captain-Lord el Maien van Sietter," Vadya said firmly, putting a hand out to make sure Tashka did not start reaching for her glove. He blushed, remembering that in fact her title was now van H'las.

Fiotr sat with his mouth open and his eyes glazed over, still feebly trying to say something about Sietter people while his brain suggested he gave it the go-by. "Oh," he said flatly.

"Fiotr has some reason behind his objections," Vadya said to Tashka. "There will be prejudice against a Sietter Lieutenant in your Quarter. You yourself have been with us long enough for us to learn to love you," Tashka raised a mocking eyebrow at him and he blushed again, "but Diodr Clathan may struggle." He gave Tashka such a grim look that she cast her eyes down and nearly burst into tears.

"Well?" Vadya asked, after an uncomfortable pause.

"I have heard," Tashka said in a cool voice, her head still down, the unringed fingers of her left hand fiddling with the seam on the heel of her boot. It made her feel worse to see her bare hand on which she had been so proud to wear Vadya's rings.

"I am asking your thoughts on the matter," Vadya growled. "We are talking without favour here."

"Oh," Tashka could not resist saying. "Without favour." She heard Vadya's teeth grind and saw Fiotr give her a narrow-eyed glance. "Um, er, I think Clathan can survive it," she said, sitting up again and glaring defiantly back at Vadya. "He will have me to support him. And Hanya Lein is not prejudiced against Sietter men." She tried out a grin. Vadya was still looking furious, she put her head back down again.

Fiotr watched her with a tolerant smile. Maien - el Maien, always took it hard if Commander-Lord el Gaiel was in a temper with them. "Why take a man from Sietter, who will probably look to go back there for his Captain's sword," he said, attempting by rabbiting on to cover over the awkward mood between his fellow Captain and their Commander. "There are sufficient rising stars in the H'las army for you to choose from, are there not? Besides, the Commander will be going up to the strategic staff soon and it will be you they give the banner to. Will you not give Trait his Captain's sword then? How will Trait manage, as a new Captain with all these rising stars from wherever under his eye."

Tashka flashed him a grateful look and sat up again, saying: "I want Dio. I owe it his father, who has risked his life and lands many times for my brother and myself and who has always asked me to take Dio as my junior. Dio is like a brother to me, he will give his life for me an' I ask it already, even before he has vowed it to me. Trait is no fool, he will have me to support him and when he goes up to take his sword I will give him one of your reliable troopers to Lieutenant, Araine. We must take Diodr Clathan because it will make a stronger tie with Sietter. My Quarter is the only one where he will not get prejudice."

"The Commander has married an el Maien van Sietter," Fiotr pointed out. "Is that not tie enough? Oh, must be your sister Maien, er, el Maien."

Tashka looked away at the back of the tent, Vadya looked away out of the front of it. Fiotr felt embarrassed, evidently they did not wish to discuss their closer relationship for some reason. He supposed he would feel strange about it if one of his wife's brothers came to be his junior officer. He concentrated extremely hard on supposing that this was the reason why Maien - el Maien - and the Commander were not keen to talk about his marriage to el Maien's sister.

"Yes, indeed," Vadya said coldly. "We ... we already have you, Tashka, er, el Maien. We do not want to be the only troop in H'las with Sietter ties."

"I thought Sietter ties pleased you," Tashka said innocently. Fiotr snorted with suppressed laughter. The blush rose up in Vadya's cheek yet again. "I cannot take someone completely raw," Tashka went on, switching unnervingly to a completely serious and focussed tone of voice. "We are to ride to war now. And if I take two of the rising stars out of the army when I already have Trait and Lein, whom you well know others have tried to poach from us, someone will say I am being favoured. Give me Clathan, I know he will be well-loved by the men once they have had a chance to work with him. Give me too that one in First who is looking for a transfer, Alaara Shaada."

"He is from the West," Fiotr said. "You will have two Lieutenants who are not H'las boys - oh and there is yourself but I think we know now that your heart lies in H'las."

For some reason this made el Maien bite an upper lip and look away as if repressing a huge giggle and the Commander suddenly dropped a set of papers the other side of his desk and had to bend right over to pick them up again.

"No no," Tashka said in a stifled voice. "Shaada's parents are from Soomara but he himself was born and brought up in H'las. He is like the Commander, you have your van Soomara grandmother's looks but you are H'las itself." Fiotr grinned at this piece of wit, shaking his fingers in appreciation. "Hear me, my Commander, ask Uncle Mada, er I mean First H'las for me if they will let me take Shaada."

"Why is he seeking a transfer?" Vadya asked, he was carefully concentrating on re-arranging the papers he had dropped, not looking at either of them. "If he is a rising star, why will First be willing to let him come to you?"

"Oh ... I know not," Tashka said with a vague shrug. "Just ask them for me, they might let me have him."

"el Maien," Vadya said firmly. "Tell me why."

"He is a bit bright," Tashka admitted. "He plays the cards rather high and they caught him smuggling a woman into the barracks one night. In fact, you may as well know, they have had to discipline him so often for chasing skirt that he is oftener on night sentry duty than off it! Which of course makes it a lot easier for him to smuggle them in," she and Fiotr burst out laughing at the idea of a Captain giving his bright Lieutenant such a convenient punishment.

"We are not a bright troop!" Vadya said crossly. "We are not First, stamping around on the parade ground looking pretty for the ladies. I do not want a bright officer in Sixth."

"He is only like it out of boredom," Tashka said, lolling back on his bedding again and kicking one boot lightly against the side of the other. She raised her blue eyes to look at him through those gorgeous long lashes; he felt his cock start swelling only to see her smile winningly about some bloody junior she wanted, Angels of Hell! and in this tight hose, Araine was looking politely out of the tent now. He cursed the huge size of his equipment which up till now he had been delighted to pleasure his bride with so thoroughly. "He will not have time to be bright in my Quarter, el Gaiel, you know that. Let him come, he has come to me in person to beg it of me." She continued to look smilingly on him through those lashes, he knew she would get her way in the end, he could deny her nothing.

He started to smile himself, to Fiotr's relief, saying: "How did he come to be chatting to you then, do you mean while we were at Castle Sietter and First H'las were there with my father?"

"Um, er, yes," she said. "While ... while we were having that picnic." He looked at her in sudden suspicion. She smiled innocently at him then finally admitted: "Well, we did have a little game of cards now and then, down there in First."

"And just who is 'we'?" Vadya demanded to Fiotr's surprise, his brows suddenly drawing thunderously together.

"Um, er, well, Shaada and me and Commander Stanies, and, er, your father," Tashka admitted.

"Oh Angels!" Vadya moaned, putting his head in his hands. "I have warned him so often about playing cards with you! What has he lost now?"

"You really will not mind this," Tashka said consolingly. "We played very low stakes. I lent him some money and let him put up rooms in Castle H'las for stakes since he is a bit short of cash at the moment. It means I have to pay the maintenance on them too so he is well out of it." She suddenly remembered that Fiotr was listening to this conversation with his mouth open in astonishment, she straightened up on the bedding and said: "Commander Stanies asked me particular to take Shaada if I should get an opening, he said the boy will be ruined if he stays in First where the Captains do not understand how to manage him. I prithou, my Commander, let me have Clathan and Shaada."

"It will be nothing but a packet of trouble," Vadya grumbled, still evidently brooding on his father's gambling losses. "Very well. So Araine, you are going to take Caja Levair up to Lieutenant and you may speak privily with Pava Dorian if you wish, to tell him he will get his chance when Trait gets his Captain's sword. I will write to First to ask for Shaada. I can hardly write to Second Sietter to ask for their Lieutenant! so if he can get away without being hung to wipe out the stain of his father's treachery, you can make the arrangements, el Maien."

"Sir," she said smartly, sitting up straight-backed on the bedding. Her head went high and stiff on her neck. He noticed the edge of a red mark just inside the collar of her black felt tunic and felt the warm blush start to creep up his cheek - yet again. She had grumbled a lot about it when she realised he had sucked so hard on her neck under her ear in an excess of excitement while fucking her from behind with her breasts gripped in his hands that he had left a visible mark.

"Thy time for my allegiance!" it was one of Fiotr's Lieutenants come to look for him. Vadya held out Fiotr's papers without looking in his eyes, Tashka rose to go with Fiotr but Vadya said: "Um, just a minute, el Maien."

Taska turned and laughed silently down at him as Fiotr left the tent.

As soon as Fiotr had let the entrance flap drop, she sprang on Vadya and dragged him off his stool and over to the bedding with her strong muscular arms. He went very willingly, crying out as he fell into the bedding with her: "Pig! you cheeked me in front of Fio! Sweet Hell! I have never blushed so much in my life! You torment, you flea, you pig!"