Debtor's Promise

Neni grew stronger each day, picking up words in German, helping with the lighter chores. She still shied away from the men, never making eye contact, but she opened up to Tamas and I. She would hear nothing of returning to her blood kin, insisting that their land was cursed. She resolved to register her husband's losses in Vienna and hoped for some small compensation as his widow, but that was a slim hope.

"She said the raiders were monster's." Tamas went white as a ghost as he told Enzo. "She says that hungry ghosts turned the household against her family, beat them to hell, even... Jesus. She says they had teeth like wolves, that they ate the children."

Enzo's face was grim. He didn't question Tamas or Neni further.

The same day we returned, the black crusaders were given new orders. We joined the excise men combing the baronnies wringing every wheel of cheese, every sausage and sack of grain from the population, by imperial decree. Enzo was not happy to be glorified tax collector, but the new Hoffmeister knew what he was doing, and played to the strengths of his forces.

The regular army had been given a far worse job to do.

They gathered together every serf in and around the city, and forced them to tear down their own dwellings. The ramshackle hovel that had been my father's home was among the first to fall. The animals of all small folk had been taxed and slaughtered to feed the army. The few possessions people had left were bundled together, and they were lodged in the airless catacombs and sepulchres beneath the churches and priories.

Soldiers patrolled the wall. With a clear space of twelve feet inside the city, and space for a good arrow's flight outside, it was alien to me. There was a huge pile of green timber and broken houses burning away on the new battlefield, but the army had salvaged what they could to fortify the wall where it was weakest. This Hoffmeister was ruthless, pitiless, but wise.

In the evening, we returned to the barracks exhausted. Neni wasn't the only Magyar refugee in Vienna. The official orders were for the church to house and feed them at the Dominican priory, but Enzo commandeered Neni and half a dozen other women to cook for the crusaders. After all, the men that normally served the barracks were doing hard labour on the fortifications, and we were out all day. Already the women made their own easy conversation, eyeing me and my scruffy boy's outfit with disdain. I left them to their gossip and sat at Enzo's feet.

The younger men complained to each other, "This general Salmo wants to make a fat turkey of a berg into a fortress. Fat chance."

"And he will," Enzo whispered to me with a wry smile. "Young Tamas!" I flinched as he shouted, "See your aunt right tomorrow at first light, take this." He tossed the lad a sealed letter with a grin.

"My aunt? What?"

"There's a farm on a river three days' hard march into Royal Hungary that needs your name on it, and a widowed aunt of yours that needs a guardian."

The boy stared blankly at Enzo. I had to bite my tongue to keep it still.

Slowly it dawned on him. "Like, a whole farm? That whole farm? For me?"

"Yes lad. That ruin, that graveyard. You'll speak to Andreas at the registry office and tell him I sent you. For now, it's time the women were abed. See to it lad."

I had no idea what Enzo was playing at, conversation died right down around us, some men looked daggers at Tamas as he left. Then at Enzo

"Stiff little siege we'll have." He took a long pull on his pipe. "Then chaos, half the harvest up in smoke, the other half in the landsnecht's bellies. There will be hunger in the city. Mark my words, we will have our portion, and I'm not sitting here all winter with a target on my back."

After an awkward silence, one of the Frankish veterans spoke. "Styria is a safer bet, closer to home."

Enzo laughed, "go suck Salmo's old cock and retire to Styria. I don't want closer to home, I want to be close to the action."

The man spat. "I'm getting too old for this shit. Will we be merry highwaymen this winter then?"

A couple of the younger men cheered and banged their mugs on the table. They started up a song which shifted to catcalls and wolf whistles as some entertainment arrived. I flashed a smile at my half dressed sister but she ignored me.

I was still sore about that when Enzo pressed a mug of ale into my hands. As I sat on a little stool between his knees we watched the men make the most of the entertainment. I felt the nudge of his erection against the back of my neck, his hand heavy on my shoulder.

"Look at her," he breathed into my ear, "poor bitch."

An older woman was picked up and laid face up across a table. She shook her head, eyes wild with fear or excitement, but two men held her down. They opened her bodice and hauled up her skirt.

Reluctantly she spread her legs. She leaned back her head and protested as one of them roughly entered her, immediately she was silenced by another cock between her lips. A third man beat his fist on the table and laughed as she squealed like a pig around the thrusting meat.

I watched her grasp the clothing of the one fucking her face with a white knuckle grip in a futile effort to slow him down. The laughing man leaned forward and began to suckle her exposed breasts. His hand slid down to her plundered cunt to briskly rub her off. The whore gave in at last, her own hands exploring the bodies of her tormentors.

Enzo's hand slipped around my throat. "I will have you tonight."

"Master," I whispered. I wanted to turn and look at him, but he held me fast.

"Touch yourself." He said, as he rubbed his hard on against me.

My face flushed with shame as I obeyed, but no one was watching us. I found my hard nipples and rubbed and fondled them. Little shocks of pleasure shot down into my cunt as he squeezed my throat.

"Is it true Sparrow? No man has touched you?"

"Only you, master Enzo."

He cupped my sex through my breeches and the little moan that escaped my mouth made him chuckle.

"Please not out here," I breathed in horror, "not like that!"

"No little one. Not like that."

I shuddered as he kissed the damp skin of my neck, fear and excitement warring inside me. I reached back to stroke his thick curls and he swept me up into his arms. It was dizzying, that helpless feeling, my breath caught in my throat as I looked up at his face. He carried me up into a little loft, more of a balcony, curtained from the chaos below. There was no bed, it was a space for armour and weapons, the ceiling too low to stand up.

We could still hear everything. The sultry air was thick with the smell of smoke and soldiers. Below us, the sounds of passion built, but Enzo slowed the pace right back down. He sat against the wall and held me still.

"Shh..." he kissed my lips, and I opened myself to him, savouring his gentleness as he explored the taste of me. "Are you afraid?"

"Should I be, master?"

"Games, sparrow. Answer me."

"Yes," my cheeks flushed with shame, "of course I'm..."

He smirked, "No you're not. I've told you before about lying."

"Please fuck me master Enzo. Don't make me wait another minute, I need it so much."

"Little bird," he breathed into my mouth, "afraid I might stop?"

"Please don't..."

"One day, when we've done with war I might fill your little belly with life, just as I fill your eyes with tears tonight."

He began to strip my clothes, folding each item and setting it aside.

"Tears, master?" I shivered again.

"Yes little bird. And we'll hear your sweet song."

He was twice my size, twice my age and more than twice as strong. Though I feared the worst, I closed my eyes and prayed that he'd simply have his way with me. My body begged for relief but my mind railed against the danger.

When he had me stripped to the skin, he slipped a loop of something around my left ankle, and fastened it to the low ceiling. Like a goat about to have its throat cut. I kicked my free leg wildly until he bent my knee and fastened his belt around it. I could just about rest my body on the floor, but my hips dangled, legs wide open. When he began to bind my hands behind me, my eyes were already blurring with tears.

"Don't you trust your master?" He stroked out my hair, freeing the curls from their tight braids.

I gave a little sob as his hand came to rest on my throat again. "Trust is for children, please don't kill me Enzo, I'm begging you."

He lay beside me on the rough wooden boards, face to face I could see no malice in his eye, merely a sadistic amusement. I yelped as he brought his open palm against my sex with a wet slap.

"At least it knows what it wants." He stroked between my splayed nether lips with his rough fingers, picking up moisture, working it in tight little circles around the sweetest spot.

"Nnn... naaa..."

"Having trouble, sparrow? Is this better?"

He slid a single finger into the tight heat of me and I bucked helplessly in my bonds.

"Yes! Yes! Take me!"

He held his finger still, I throbbed and ached for something more but I hadn't the words to tell him. He leaned forward and kissed me tenderly. My mouth, he owned entirely already. I kissed him back just as I always did, I suckled his tongue, I needed his prick and he knew. Somehow he knew.

He began to finger me deep and slow, "Your pleasure is all about this cunt." Suddenly it was too much. He slipped in another finger or two, and the pressure became excruciating.

I clenched my teeth as my tears fell, his eyes never left mine. "Good girl. My sweet sparrow, it hurts, doesn't it?"

"Yyyesss, p... please master, I c... can't..."

"It was so tight and wet for me, such a good girl." He never changed the pace, patiently rubbing out all the pain and resistance in my cunt until the sloppy sounds of him finger fucking me left me wondering if it would ever close up again. The heat building between my legs was unbearable.

"Uh! Oh! Fuck!" A spray of liquid shot out through his fingers and my whole body tensed, toes clawing at the air and the splintered wood. "I'm dying! Shit, help meee!"

"That's a good girl." He stopped thrusting, savouring the pulsing throb of my tight cunt on his hand. His thumb stroked my pearl, it was too intense, so sensitive, I wept for mercy. "Shhh, sweet little bird, let it happen."

I screamed as a second climax tore through me, the muscles in my bound calf burned as I writhed on his hand. He pulled out of my cunt, it's heat lingered on his fingers as he teased my poor clitoris, pinching and pulling as I pissed and screamed for him.

"Lots and lots of noise for such a little bird," he whispered in my ear.

"Oh god, it's too much, master, please!"

"Let's see." He kissed the end of my nose, and pulled his fingers away at last. He lifted them up to my mouth, and I suckled the moisture, sweet with my arousal, spiced with my virgin blood.

He spun me around from my hanging ankle, and gently separated my bruised lips. He gave a low whistle of appreciation.

"Is it bad?" I whimpered.

"It's beautiful," he said. "It's so hot and broken now, best keep these legs open."

He soothed me, rubbing my thighs as we listened to the sounds from below. I could hear a woman begging to be fucked, just as I had begged.

"M... master? I want to give you pleasure, please..."

"All in good time." He patted my thigh, and stood, bent over in the narrow space. "I know Tamas has a big mouth. He underestimates you. I know that you were made for this."

The fever of orgasm had left a sheen of sweat on my skin, and it chilled as I hung there, bound to his whim. I no longer believed he would kill me, but there was still a lump in my throat. I didn't say a word but I knew he would bugger me. I knew he needed it so I held my peace. I was so very afraid.

People were not the prudes you imagine in the old days, we expected men and women to dally with each other, unplanned pregnancy and forced marriage were common. This kind of sodomy was not. You could be burned alive, at least pilloried for flouting the law like this.

I expected an ordeal, I expected it to hurt like the devil's own lance. When his wet tongue circled my tight hole I whimpered. When his well oiled finger slid inside I gasped. It didn't hurt, it just felt so wrong.

"Oh! Oh master!"

"I will take such good care of you. Squeeze. Don't be embarrassed, little love, squeeze me, hard as you can, I won't break."

"Mmm..."

"Now breathe, stay with me."

"I'm with you... oh... please! I need you!"

He shifted his grip and spun me around, his finger still up my poor innocent arse. Eye to eye again, tears of terrified shame running down my cheeks as I beheld his naked lust.

He finger fucked my little hole, all the while he held me tight, kissed my hair called me his good girl. And it didn't hurt, but it never felt good. Never. I tried to enjoy it, I tried to think of his pleasure before my own, but it was my shit hole. My damned shit hole. I wanted to love it as much as I loved his fingers in my cunt, but it felt dirty, it felt wrong. That was the very moment I became his whore. I imagined the warm bed we would cuddle up in later that night, the fresh bread and butter I would break my fast with in the morning. I breathed a shallow little sigh of pleasure and hoped he might believe it.

He took his time working me open, greased his fingers again before trying two inside me. I squirmed as he walked his two fingers back and forth and added a third. The sound of my open arse easily receiving him made me heave.

"It was so tight." He smiled and kissed me gently, "Dirty sparrow. You're wide open now." He turned me away from him again and gave me a playful little smack. "Ready?"

I nodded frantically, praying that all this foreplay would make him come quickly.

I hung limp as a doll as he sheathed his thick cock deep in my shit hole from behind, his balls tapped against my battered pussy as we fucked. I grunted in time as he slapped into me at a punishing pace, I moaned his name in relief as I felt the hot splash of him spilling his seed in my bowels. He didn't stop fucking, until his flacid prick slithered out of me.

Out of breath he lay beside me, "Poor baby," he said, "you didn't spend. Here." He touched my pearl again, and with expert gentleness, frigged me until my body gave up another thrill for him. I felt battered and used. He casually fingered my torn cunt and smiled as I squealed in protest. "Tell me your cunt has had enough."

"Oh! I have! Please stop," I wept.

"I'll untie you, little one. Lie on your belly for me."

My muscles screamed their relief as I moved my legs at last. "Like this?" I rested my head on my folded arms as I prostrated myself on the rough deck.

"Hands by your sides, legs open," he said firmly.

What now? Though my weary body dreaded it, it wasn't so bad. I still tell myself that even now. He put something into me. I couldn't see what it was, but it sat there like a rock hard turd between my cheeks. "You mustn't touch it." He stroked my thighs and kneaded my buttocks. "It takes time to open you out so it won't hurt in the morning."

"B... but how will I... what if someone... if I need..." I couldn't believe what he was asking. Then with a chill, I realized he wasn't asking.

"You will have to wear breeches just in case, but if you walk like a lady, move carefully, it will stay put. You will be ready for me."

The thought of it made me giddy. Part of me wanted that, to always be ready, give everything to him.

"Please may I kiss him, master?"

He allowed me to nuzzle and lick his soft manhood. The scent of it was not foul, in fact the sweet oil he'd used tasted pleasant. I comforted myself with this familiar ritual, kneeling for him, sucking him off, and he delighted in it. He carried me in his arms to bed.

I barely slept that night, the physical pain was the least of it. Tamas would get control of Neni and her assets. The crusaders would use her place as a hide out this winter to avoid the coming famine. I believed Enzo about the siege being short, his business was war after all. What should I do? As I lay beside the snoring Enzo with his perverted toy up my arse, I felt truly disgusted with myself. There must be another way.

I shifted away from him, pulled on my clothes and made my way out into the common room. A couple of men were still awake, and they nodded to me as I passed. I stepped out into the street, and watched the clouds scurry across the face of the moon. I had half a dozen shillings squirrelled away, pennies I had saved, found and been gifted. Was that enough to buy my freedom? Enough to make me a true citizen? Probably not. But it was enough to start thinking about it. Marriage to some steady boring man was already looking like a far more attractive option than being Enzo's pet.

Was I afraid of him? Certainly. I'd seen him flog men bloody, I'd watched him end a fight with a single punch. I returned to sleep beside him after all.

He woke me up before dawn by rolling me onto my belly and stringing my wrists together. Then he pulled the thing out of my bottom and sat watching me. My poor hole still gaped open like a fish's mouth. He tickled inside with a finger as he told me that. Next he had me stand astride a chair as he buggered me, one hand clamped over my mouth, one frigging my clit. I came again, he forced me to. My empty cunt throbbed and clenched on nothing. He slowed down, and maneuvered us around until he sat in the chair.

I squatted awkwardly, naked, shivering, arse still impaled on his relentless cock. My humiliation only grew as he let me stand there, despite my near perfect stillness I felt him swell harder in me as I suffered.

"Master please no more. Please..."

"Squeeze," he encouraged me, "bounce and squeeze." He held my bound hands to steady me as I degraded myself beyond shame. The tears stopped in minutes but he did not. My little tits jiggled as I sodomized myself. "That's my girl," he said as I groaned in frustration, "fuck me like you need it."

"Hurry up and come!" I begged, "It hurts!" That was a lie. I felt sick but I was wide open for his cock.

He shot his load and my fuck hole was now so loose that it spilled around his cock with a vile squelch.

He guided me face down onto the bed, hands still bound. "Oh no!" I sobbed. I thought he was about to beat me, or put the uncomfortable wooden stopper back in my bottom. I didn't imagine for a second what he was about to do.

When I felt his thick fingers grind up where his cock had just been, I held my breath. His fingers first, then his palm, and his thumb, until he was stuffing me with his closed fist.

I lay in stunned silence as he played in the mess he'd made of me. I swear, it had never occurred to me that such a thing was possible.

I grunted softly as he thrust deeper, then at last I pressed my face into the bed and screamed. I was overwhelmed with the horror of it. You wouldn't abuse a criminal like this. You wouldn't do this to your worst enemy.

I shrieked as two fingers of his other hand hooked into my cunt, then I babbled nonsense as my abused body rewarded him, twitching, spasmodic helpless. I was impaled on him, horrified, and still I came, and it was wild, running down my legs like piss. I was hysterical by then, overwhelmed.

"That's it, little cocksucker, scream for me. You were made for this."

He didn't remove the hand or fingers but did stop thrusting into my bowels. "Beautiful." He forced my cunt open until his fourth finger popped in.

I felt removed from myself at last. I observed in wonder as my body accepted the awful intrusion of both his hands, grunting like an animal at every hard won inch of progress. I felt nothing any more, until my bloody sex tore again with an agonizing jolt. I lay twitching, helpless as a grounded salmon as his hands slithered out of me at last.