Tamsin Beech Ch. 09: Edinburgh

At Fraser's side, McTavish murmured something to the Reekie leader. Asking him to postpone or even halt the combat? Tamsin had no way of knowing, but Fraser simply shook his head. Leonid edged his way backwards towards the hall's outer wall, watching Renton warily and being careful not to trip over the bones and Reekie belongings littering the floor.

Don't, thought Tamsin. If Renton managed to corner him - even given the Russian's superior speed and agility, it would soon be over. Tamsin had no doubt the Reekie could crush the life out of him with his bare hands.

But Leonid had other plans. He seized one of the few rusty swords that remained still mounted on the wall, then tossed the tomahawk to his Reekie opponent. Renton effortlessly snatched the weapon from the air and looked at it questioningly.

"I believe ... in a fair fight ... moy tovarishch," panted Leonid, smiling impishly despite his wound. He swung the sword in a wide figure of eight, testing the balance and weight of the blade.

"Fuck cothromach dhut filme Ruiseanach," Renton snarled, then charged.

Leonid raised his sword one handed, but an instant too slow. Renton's tomahawk clashed down against it, hooking the blade away as he continued forward ...

... straight into Leonid's other hand clutching Tamsin's Royal Marines Commando knife.

Realising the sword had been nothing but a cunning distraction, the Reekie's powerful body stiffened as he shoved Leonid up against the soot stained wall, his arms falling to his sides as his eyes widened in surprise.

Leonid twisted the knife.

The tomahawk clattered to the filthy floor.

"Mne ochen' zhal', moy drug," said the Russian, his voice tinged with genuine regret, "b-but today ... was not your day."

He firmly shoved the dying Reekie champion aside then dropped the sword.

"McTavish!" Tamsin screeched, "bring the med kit."

As her scout dutifully rifled through their bags, Tamsin hobbled as fast as she could to Leonid's side. Angry shouts, barks and exclamations of grudging admiration echoed off the beamed ceiling as Fraser called for quiet. There'd been no rules agreed on, so if the Reekies were honourable, they had their army. They could now march on Lindisfarne and put their plan into action.

Sure enough, Leonid's wound had been opened up by Renton's fearsome punches. He winced as Tamsin helped him to sit, "You crazy Russian twat! Where the fuck did you get my knife?"

"I ... had a f-feeling ... the Reekies might pull ... some-something like this," fresh blood trickled through Leonid's fingers as he pressed a hand to his wound, "didn't want you m-making an ass ... of yourself. So I took your knife."

Tamsin's eyes stung with tears as she leaned forward to kiss his forehead, "From now on I fight my own battles, understood?"

Leonid smirked, "Fr-from now on ... I think I'll let you."

Tamsin shook her head, "I love you Leonid Denisovich, but you're fucking impossible."

Through clenched teeth Leonid replied, "Vot pochemu ty lyubish' menya."

PART THREE: BANA-PHRIONNSA REEKIE

After helping clean and re-dress Leonid's wound, McTavish led Tamsin to one side of the hall, "Ye've both won Fraser's respect."

Tamsin gave the Reekie a sidelong glance, "So long as he doesn't find out who I really am. What now?"

McTavish lightly touched a hand to her bare arm, "Ye both need new markings. To show ye're part of Fraser's clan now."

Tamsin remembered with a shudder how the scout had touched her while applying the woad, awakening some primal yearning deep within. She'd let Leonid take her from behind, encouraged him even. But wondering throughout the episode how it would feel to have a feral creature like McTavish inside her.

What would it be like getting fucked not by an educated ex-soldier like Leonid Denisovich, but by a Reekie? Part of her felt thoroughly disgusted by the thought.

"And Leo?" she asked, "his wound's reopened. He's not going to be able to travel to Northumberland - much less fight, until it's healed."

McTavish shrugged, "His time'll come. Follow me."

After the day's events and marching all the way from Perth, Tamsin was bone tired. Exhausted. Despite the hungry looks of some of the Reekies close by she wanted nothing more than to lie down and fall fast asleep. But reluctantly she forced herself to her feet and followed the Reekie out of the hall.

Across Crown Square and past the Queen Anne barracks block, the Reekie led her across the cobbles, the night air now wet with a cold drizzle, "To create a level foundation fer the buildings here, there were hollow chambers built underneath. Vaults. Our wee 'uns live in part of them in case of attack. But that's not where I'm takin' ye."

"What does it mean? That thing you said," Tamsin asked, hurrying to keep up with her twinging knee.

McTavish grunted ahead of her, "Wha' does what mean?"

"When you'd applied the clan markings, you said something in Gaelic."

McTavish sounded vaguely embarassed, "Bana-phrionnsa Reekie. It means 'Reekie princess'."

Tamsin smiled, "It's never been like you to come out with things like that McTavish. In fact ... in all the years I've known you I've never heard you talk so much," she winked, though in the darkness she guessed the gesture was wasted. It was surely well past midnight by now, "it used to be a struggle getting more than one word out of you."

"What good are a hundred words? When one or two will do."

. . .

McTavish led Tamsin down worn, torchlit stone steps and in through another solid oaken door. By the flickering light she noticed centuries old graffiti carved into the wood and stonework - some of it dating back as much as three hundred years, "The castle didnae get away completely unscathed when the volcano erupted," the Reekie told her in his low voice, "the foundations under the Vaults split open all the way down to the bedrock."

Tamsin was shocked, "So you had lava spewing up inside the castle?"

McTavish shook his head as he led the way, "No. Something far better."

Pushing a filthy canvas tarp to one side, McTavish showed Tamsin into the Vault's end chamber. Between moss covered stone walls and beneath sturdy beams adding support to the arched ceiling, a bowl shaped area of the floor had collapsed. At the bottom of which a black crevasse dropped away into the bowels of the Earth. But over forty years, the Reekies had cleared away any loose rubble leaving a wide, shallow, crystal clear pool of bubbling hot water fed by a geothermal vent and underground spring. The humid air smelt faintly sulphurous.

Candles, hundreds upon hundreds of candles, made from animal fat sat on every available flat surface, twinkling like stars in the eyes of the assembled Reekies. Both men and women lounged naked in and out of the water, bathing, talking or just cuddling.

Tamsin was astounded at how different they looked clean. Even with the woad washed off however their wiry bodies were still stained from years of being covered in the blue dye. In a social gathering like this she could almost believe the Reekies weren't such complete savages after all. They were survivors, who'd adapted in desperate times and merely sourced food from wherever it became available.

"This is incredible," as Tamsin gazed around, she spotted Fraser himself undressing on the far side. He nodded a greeting. The pool had to be almost thirty feet wide but no more than a couple of feet deep away from the crevasse at its centre, "but ... why have you brought me here?"

McTavish begun to unfasten his kilt, "To become one of us."

Tamsin was taken aback, "Wh-what? What d'you mean?"

"Leig a corp a ghlanadh. Let her body be cleansed," intoned another Reekie - an ancient bald individual stained blue from head to foot. Several others stepped forward obediently. Possibly all women. With the woad and long dreadlocks on both sexes, in the strange half-light it was difficult to tell.

Unresisting lest she inadvertently offend her hosts, Tamsin allowed herself to be blindfolded with a strip of thick black material, tightly as she felt many hands begin to remove her clothes. Hadn't a duel to the death been enough to get Fraser's warriors on their side? How much more did she and Leonid have to endure?

Her body was rigid, trembling with fear, as the filthy rags McTavish had clothed her with were taken away. Her boots and socks were carefully removed next as the Reekies supported her weight, "McTavish? Wh-what the fuck is happening?"

"The cleansing is the symbolic removal of all past loyalties," she heard McTavish call from some distance away, "by washing aff yer clan markings."

After all that effort painting them on ...

Fair enough, thought Tamsin. Getting bathed didn't sound too strenuous. Warm water was sponged softly across her neck and throat, making her jump. Trickles of it ran ticklingly between her shoulder blades, coursed down between her breasts, tracing the lines of her ribs and abdomen. Despite her fear, Tamsin shuddered from the sheer pleasure of it, "What then?"

"Then ye become one wi' the rest o' Fraser's clan and get new markings," McTavish explained in a matter of fact tone.

Simple, thought Tamsin.

But then she began to wonder ...

What exactly did that entail?

After the water, came hands. Strong hands, gentle hands, soft hands, smoothing the water along each of her limbs, massaging, moulding the pert globes of her breasts, teasing out the pink flesh of her nipples. Tamsin drew in long, deep breaths and let them out in sighing gasps. Were they women's hands? Men's? Tempted as she was to tear off the blindfold she let the Reekies continue as she was led forward into the bubbling waters of the pool.

Every inch of Tamsin's tired body became sensitised by a myriad different touches, as strong fingers moved up the delicate flesh of her inner thighs, wakening goosepimples on her back and shoulders. Soft palms cupped her breasts, lifting them and pressing them together. Her swollen nipples were trapped by someone's warm palms, making her shiver and moan. The soothing water and uncountable number of exploring hands were systematically removing every speck of woad, dust and sweat from her. Cleansing.

Behind the blindfold, Tamsin's eyes were closed. But she guessed the slow heave and undulation of her body might betray her arousal. She stood helpless, loving every second of it as her whole body awakened to it.

Then all of a sudden, soft fingers traced spidery patterns down Tamsin's throat and on to her breasts, found her nipples and pinched them. She gasped, her body tensing as she sensed the presence of others, crowding closer. Was Leonid going to have to endure this too once he was recovered? He might enjoy it ...

She drew deep breaths and smiled as every part of her body, every inch of her damp skin, was teased and caressed further by unseen hands. Her breasts and the peaks of her nipples rose to the touch of questing fingers, and between her legs a delicious tingling warmth spread. Tamsin arched her back, thrusting her breasts forward, as her fists clenched and opened spasmodically. Her open lips let out a helpless moan. But it seemed the Reekies had all backed away.

"A bheil thu deiseil airson a bhith nad aon againn?" asked a male voice. The bald one? Tamsin honestly couldn't tell.

"A bheil thu deiseil airson a bhith nad aon againn?" the voice repeated.

"He asks are ye ready to become one of us?" whispered McTavish close to her ear. Tamsin swallowed hard. It was no secret the Reekies were cannibals. If they expected her to consume human flesh the entire deal was off. The resistance would have to find other allies to storm Lindisfarne.

"A bheil thu deiseil airson a bhith nad aon againn?" the old man asked a third time.

But where from? Who apart from the Reivers had sufficient numbers to take on Volk and his army?

"Yes," Tamsin shouted impatiently, "for fuck's sake, yes."

At once Tamsin was surrounded once more. She gasped as she was seized on every side, then lifted out of the water and laid on her back beside the pool, "Wait! What's happening? McTavish?"

Tamsin heaved and writhed half heartedly against the hands restraining her, imagining the worst but wanting it all the same. A scalding blush of shame burned her cheeks as she guessed what might be about to happen. She was the leader of the resistance for fuck's sake. How could she allow herself to give in to her basest desires like this?

Aloud she whispered, "I can't do this."

"Feumaidh tu," responded the bald Reekie's voice, "you must."

Was he some kind of priest? Without warning, strong fingers delved between Tamsin's thighs and slid all the way up into her. She cried out at the intrusion and tried to pull away, but it was too late. With two fingers buried deep inside, moving in and out, she moaned, "Ohfuck ..."

Tamsin's vagina clenched helplessly around the invading hand, and all her unspoken protests died as something brushed against the taut bud of her clitoris. The fingers reached for her mouth and touched her parted lips, stroking the tip of her tongue so she could experience the taste of her arousal on someone else's hand, "Yes," she whispered. She couldn't stop herself as she licked at the fingers, relishing the salty sweetness of her own juices.

Tamsin tensed, hoping, wondering where the hands might touch her next. She wasn't disappointed. A hand between her closed thighs gently forced her legs apart. The bald, blue priest guy? Fraser himself? McTavish? Tamsin moaned as fingers stroked along her dewy labia, drawing slick moisture from her for lubrication. Then moved further back and probed at the puckered entrance of her anus.

Was this all actually part of the Reekie's ceremony? Or had she just walked into an impromptu orgy? How many of them were actually pleasuring her? The questions flitted through Tamsin's lust adled mind and were gone. It really didn't matter. The fingers pressed steadily until they opened the tight little sphincter, then gently, determinedly, slipped inside.

"Ohfuck," Tamsin groaned helplessly, squirming as the unseen Reekie's fingers penetrated deep into her tight anus, thrusting expertly as if relishing her cries of pleasure and the writhing of her pale limbs. She barely felt them withdraw again.

For a moment there was silence. An expectant quiet pause as if the most important part of the ritual was about to occur. Tamsin sensed the Reekies watching her, her whole body now trembling with arousal. She had been on the brink of orgasm, and now all she desired was to reach it. Would Leonid ever find out about this so called ceremony? She hoped not but was really past caring.

What were they waiting for, an invitation?

"Take me," she said quietly. She leant back, meaning to stretch her body out on the warm stone.

But someone caught her hand, holding her up, "There are lots of us," a familiar voice whispered. It was McTavish, "and we all want to welcome ye to our clan, Tamsin. One at a time will ne'er do ..."

"Then how?"

"Trust me."

Shivering with anticipation, she waited as she felt McTavish moving to one side. She guessed to lay down on the floor next to her, "Get on top," he growled.

"I need to see," she reached up and impatiently tore off the blindfold, astounded to see a circle of Reekies edging nearer, both men and women, some standing in the hot waters of the pool, others on the stone floor surrounding it.

McTavish's cock lay flat against his belly, stiff and blue but for the oozing pink glans. Tamsin had seen it many, many times hanging down from under his tatty kilt. But never once fully erect. She licked her lips then eagerly straddled him and took hold of it, slowly guiding it into her.

"Fuck, that feels so good," she sighed as he slid up inside her.

"Now," whispered McTavish, "lean forward, Tamsin.

She couldn't recall him ever using her given name before, and for a moment didn't understand. Then she felt the warmth of another Reekie kneeling behind her, parting her buttocks and sliding his erection down the crease of her ass. At first she was startled. But if a cock in one hole could bring such pleasure, then surely two at once would be even better?

So she leant forward and groaned with renewed pleasure as the unfamiliar cock pressed against her anus and slowly, deliciously, eased its way within.

"Good," McTavish hissed beneath her. He lifted his hips, thrusting himself deeply up into her, and as he did so the Reekie behind also began to thrust. Tamsin cried out, astonished by the new sensations that seized her. Then her cry turned to a gasp as hands caught her by her long red hair and pulled back her head.

Another Reekie stood before her, offering his erection to her open mouth. Tamsin whimpered and parted her lips, then moaned with pleasure as he pushed his cock into her mouth. All three Reekies moved at once, sliding themselves at will into her. From the corner of her eye she spotted other groups of three or more moving off into the shadowy corners of the Vaults to have their own revels.

Tamsin closed her eyes and just let the moment wash over, envelop and drown her. Every part of her was filled, aching with bliss. Other Reekies' cocks pushed against her clutching hands, begging for her attention, and without even looking she grasped them and slid her fingers up and down, up and down. There were soon hands knotted in her hair, cocks wrapped in the thick red locks, fingers at her breasts and teasing her tight nipples.

The Reekie fucking her anus cried out and clutched at her buttocks as he ejaculated, then withdrew for his place to be taken by another. Tamsin writhed with delight and ground herself down upon McTavish. She arched her back and he lifted his hands to grasp her breasts.

She knew she was about to orgasm a fraction of a second before it burst within her, radiating from her loins like an explosion. Her belly jolted and shuddered, but she was held in place by the three Reekie cocks that penetrated her. They began to move faster, driving into her rigid body with deliberate force, making her cum over and over again, until at last she slumped forward in the fainting aftermath of it all.

After her first immensely powerful climax, Tamsin didn't fully recover her senses. Her body was soft and pliant in the hands of the Reekies. They turned her one way and another at their whim, each position more lewd than the last, and one by one took her, sliding their cocks into every orifice.

Her skin, her vulva, mouth and hair were soon wet and sticky with congealing semen. Hot liquid caught in her eyelashes and slithered down her cheeks, wetting her panting lips. But after a while they simply laid her down and the Reekie women licked her clean with their mouths. They lapped at her nipples and dragged their tongues lovingly over her breasts and belly. One of them glided her face between Tamsin's legs and began to suck her there, caressing her clitoris with full lips while her tongue burrowed deep into the moist well of Tamsin's vagina.

The unseen Reekie woman seemed to relish Tamsin's taste, and when the others pulled her upright and parted her buttocks so that another of the men could sodomise her, she stayed where she was, her face pressed to Tamsin's thighs, lapping steadily at her clitoris.

Two more Reekie women sucked at Tamsin's swollen breasts while another of them kissed her, thrusting her tongue into her mouth and biting her lips. Tamsin forgot everything she knew about the Reekie's diet and cried out in helpless ecstacy, and as the Reekie behind her grunted and thrust his cock harder and harder into her bruised and tender asshole, she convulsed again in the throes of an orgasm more powerful than the first.

Tamsin was hardly aware when they had finally finished with her and laid her slumped and panting beside the pool. Every part of her ached, as if she had been beaten, but with pleasure, not pain. She moaned and stirred faintly for a moment, then lay still.