A Match for the el Maiens Ch. 30

"No sir!" he said in excitement. "You shall have me then, my General." He put his head down and kissed her buttocks, his lips caressing the hard muscular curve of them.

He slipped an arm under her hips and pulled them up. She was so tired that she could barely move to raise herself to him. He knelt back and caught his breath up in a gasp. He knew she was desperate to get him into her before she succumbed to the extremes of exhaustion and fell asleep but the view he was getting was too wonderful for him not to pause to admire it.

Her strong small buttocks rose up above the crack in which lurked her arsehole and below it the bush of dark hair through which he could see glistening the rose-petal lips of her cunt. He started whimpering with anticipation of pleasure as he looked around for a condom - he found one in her breeches' pocket and hurried to get it on but his fingers were shaking with excitement so much now that he was fumbling it. He began to fear she might actually have fallen asleep. She was so still, there with her arse raised up for him. He began to think he might not care if she fell asleep, he might go into her all the same but he caught the flash of a stern blue eye, the military glare steadied his nerves and he managed to get the condom on.

Remembering that it had been some time and she would be unaccustomed, he put a finger to her wet cunt and eased it in. She was too tight to comfortably take his cannon of an organ so he eased the finger about to get her looser. She started to moan and spread her hips for him - now he was fearing she would go off into orgasm just for his finger and without him. Ordinarily this would just have been more exciting but he knew that if she went over, she would drop like a stone into sleep and he felt he could not bear not to go off inside her.

He leaned over her back, reaching round to grasp one small breast in his hand. His lip was caught up in his teeth in anxiety as he tried to judge it right, to get her excited enough for him to slide into her but not so much that she went over. He decided not to flick at her nipple. He grasped the small breast with a grunt of pleasure at the feel of the soft little mound of flesh in his hand, his finger pushing softly gently about in the sticky wet hole of her cunt.

"Tell it me," he gasped, "if it hurts!" but she only moaned as he drew out his finger. He knelt up, grasped his turgid rigid hard cock and lifted it to her, pressed the head hesitantly at her vulva. She gave a long groan, her hips spreading to him, he pushed and thrust deep in.

He gripped her at the hips as he thrust down but she was rising, her shoulders were rising up. He leaned over her back and pressed an arm on her shoulders, pushing her down into the bed as he was rarely able to do on the wrestling mats, pinning her down easily because she was so exhausted and he was above her and so much stronger than her after what she had been through.

Her head was twisted sideways, he saw she had her lip caught up in her teeth in a kind of snarl. He thrust deep down into her and her eyes screwed shut. He was worried he was hurting her but she had not said and he was desperate for her now. He pulled back and thrust again as gently as he could. She gave a long familiar husky groan. He relaxed into the rhythmic thrusts down into her unusually passive body.

He leaned over her, one arm pinning her to the bed, the other hand gripped on her thin bony hip. The feelings were buzzing about his loins. He was starting to grunt and groan with excitement, waiting for Tashka's scream. He could feel the orgasm coiling up in his buttocks and thighs. He thrust as gently as he could into her, trying to hold back the exquisite release.

Tashka felt the strength of his arm down across her shoulders and his hand gripping on her hip bone. She moaned as the ecstatic thrills rippled out through her body from his thrusting cock. As he shoved down into her she could feel his balls bouncing on her. It was hurting - a little, and his grip on her hip was too hard but in the mood she was in now she wanted that and most of all it was coming, the exhilarating rush of energy and dark life surging up in her. She could not control or resist it now, with his powerful arm pinning her into the softness of the bed, his strong muscular officer's body thrusting his big cock down into her thin exhausted body and hitting on the spot from which the feelings rippled out.

She bit her lip and closed her eyes against the tears. Her left hand gripped in a fist so hard that the short fingernails cut into her palm. Helpless to resist, she heard herself moaning then she heard him gasping and grunting. She knew he was cumming. The quicker uncontrolled thrusts he made tipped her over. She went herself. She started screaming under him with the sensations exploding in her muscles and the emotions rolling all through her body. She burst into tears, there was blood in her mouth where she had bitten her own lip. She lay sobbing in the bed under him.

He knew though. He was no soft sweetie who would lie there uselessly saying, What is it? and imagining it was anything to do with him. He too was a battle-hardened veteran of war. He was pulling himself hurriedly from her, coming to take her in his strong scarred arms. He was pulling her close to him and saying, "I am so sorry, so sorry. I miss them too: Flava and Petra, Iada who stood the internal guard to challenge me coming to seek your favour. I went to see their families, as you will have to do. I too wake sometimes in the night stricken with the memory of taking lives from young men and old men who will never smile again but in the memories of those who loved them." He was crying himself, pressing her head into his shoulder, pulling her naked body in against his naked body: her sworn Lord, her Commander, her husband.

~#~*~#~

There was a voice in the dim firelight saying timidly: "Sir! Sir! Thy time for my allegiance, sir!"

Vadya, still pressed close against Tashka's body, struggled up from the dark world of sleep into fury. He was about to open his mouth and pour a stream of invective on whoever this could be when Tashka's husky voice said by his ear: "I will hear you, Clathan."

"The defeated Sietter troops from the second line are arrived in the town, sir," the young voice said. "You asked us to be sure to tell you when they came."

"So I did," Tashka said in a dry tone of voice.

There was a long pause and then the Lieutenant whispered: "Tashka, will you come to see them?"

"No," Tashka said. "Go and tell Clair. I was going to talk to them ..." she paused.

"Sir?" the Lieutenant whispered.

"Dio, I have changed my mind," she said. Her fingers came creeping round to caress Vadya's ear. "It is for van Sietter to talk to them now. Go tell it him they have arrived."

"Sir," whispered the Lieutenant. "It is done."

~#~*~#~

Tashka was to hand the command of Sixth H'las back to Vadya and had taken a day out from her work as General in charge of their occupation of Arventa to do so. Hanya, who had been acting Commander in her absence, offered to take on the organisation of the troop for their inspection parade and the writing up of the presentation details but Tashka smiled innocently and said that she thought she could manage it.

She strode down among Sixth H'las, immaculate in her beautifully pressed black and blue parade silks and gleaming black boots. A torrent of foul language poured about their ears, she was scathing about the state of their shining arms and mail, their polished harnesses, their curried and brushed horses. She burrowed in their packs and disclosed torn undergarments. She poked in corners of their bedding rolls and unearthed caches of drink and smut that her Captains looked at in astonishment and annoyance.

Finally they were drawn up before their tents for the parade. The spring sunshine danced on gleaming weapons, on stirrups and bridle irons. Every horse's coat shone with a gloss as bright as the shine on the infantry's boots. The soldiers were neatly lined up. Off to the side, those who were still too badly injured to take part sat in wheelchairs and on benches, leaning round to each other and gossiping, laughing at their comrades - a bit enviously, also smartly dressed with their weaponry gleaming.

Vadya stood a step behind Tashka as the junior officer does and listened to her husky familiar voice cry out the commands. What was left of each Quarter's cavalry mounted in its turn, the soldiers of each Unit all together swinging into the saddle. The infantry made a complicated step which took them to the back of the cavalry. The cavalry jingled forward, the sun glancing off their helmets, a breeze fluttering up their black and blue surcoats so that sunshine sparkled off their mailcoats.

Tashka's husky words were echoed in ringing tones by the Captains, the Lieutenants. The hundreds of cavalry horses were wheeling around them, lances were raised high in the warm spring sunshine, the tense faces of the soldiers concentrated. The infantry moved in amongst them at a rapid march, stepping, stopping, their boots clicking and turning.

They were all ranged to one side of Vadya, Tashka and their wounded comrades and now they were stepping forwards. The horses' hooves lifted high, the feathers on their fetlocks freshly washed and fluffy in the spring air. Each soldier swung to face his Commander and his General as he passed, his fighting hand raised to his helmet. Vadya and Tashka stood with their fighting hands raised in salute. The sun danced on the General's ring on Tashka's right hand. The wounded raised a ragged cheer.

The officers were dismounting and handing their reins to a trooper each. They came marching forward and went on one knee to Vadya, pressing his left hand to their foreheads and swearing their vows. The sun shone off his wedding ring as they did so.

Vadya and Tashka strolled at leisure up the rank and file, Vadya one step behind Tashka and the Captains one step behind him. They threaded through the neatly ordered tents. Tashka's slanted blue eyes smiled at the soldiers with pride, Vadya could not find a fault anywhere, even when he looked for faults.

They came back round in front of the troop and Tashka handed Vadya the presentation report. He went on one knee and pressed her thin fingers with his rings on them to his forehead, swearing she would be his days and his life and his fight. She took him as her honour and her care but she stuttered to call him her victory, looking at the empty places in the line with her eyes suddenly hard. Vadya pressed her fingers as he stood up and saluted her. As he did the ritual formal dance of steps that brought him about and one step behind her, he managed to flick her buttock and make her snort with that filthy give-away laugh.

The banner-bearer stepped forward with her banner folded in his hands. His face was twisted between smiles and tears. He did not want to see Tashka go but he had carried Vadya's banner for years too. Tashka smiled, saying to him: "We never lost it." It was a great source of pride to both of them that she had never suffered a defeat, even in Finia Woods when they had to retreat they had not been defeated so she had never had to give her banner to the enemy and have it replaced. The banner-bearer brightened up and she watched him march back into line with Vadya's banner draped around his shoulder, her face regretful. Her mind had always yearned towards the Generals' strategic staff but she had not expected to have to give up action in the field so young. 'Still, I might get to sneak out on manoeuvres now and then with my junior if I pretend I am only doing it to secure the succession,' she thought with a snigger.

Vadya led the troop in three long loud huzzas. They broke up and the four Captains came over, breathing sighs of relief that it had passed off so well.

"Will you read my report?" Tashka enquired.

"Of course," Vadya answered but he did not break the seal as yet. "Let us all have a drink," he suggested, moving off towards his tent where the banner-bearer was setting his banner up in the sunshine.

"Mm, I will buy you all drinks later," Tashka said evasively. "I am going back to the Palladia. For a rest."

"I thought you had taken the whole afternoon," he said in surprise.

"Yes I have," she answered, looking direct into his eyes with those clear slanted dark blue eyes. "I am a bit tired. I want to ... lie down."

He shrugged with a smile. He knew it was not easy to give up your troop, perhaps she wanted time alone. He watched her strolling off up the hillside with the light limp in that sexy el Maien roll to her black silk and leather clad hips. He turned and casually cracked the seal on her presentation report.

Tashka limped lazily towards the Palladia, her hands stuck in her swordbelt, grinning to herself. Presently she heard Vadya shouting her name and running after her. She swung round to face him, raising one arrogant enquiring eyebrow at him.

His face was lit with laughter and desire. He ran up and shook the report at her in an agony of embarrassment and hilarity. "I cannot file this!" he cried.

She grinned and pretended to examine it, and in particular the careful description of what the commanding officers would be wearing: formal parade silks, and for the officer handing over the Command: black and gold lace camisole and knickers embroidered with hearts and flowers.