The Life Heroic Ch. 03

Flanking the pair were women who could not have made their status as guards more obvious without signage. A pair of brunettes in addition to the redhead I'd freed, they had the toned legs of distance riders and the scarred calves of experienced cavalry fighters. I could tell this as the trio had clearly agreed that their own clothes were a loss and claimed filthy tunics from the corpses of orcs. The fit was... inexact. What had been short sleeves on the orcs reached nearly to their elbows while what was knee-length on the bandy-legged greenskins reached barely halfway down the womens' thighs. Each of them was holding a jagged orcish blade and something about the way they held them suggested that the real difference between being nude and being clothed was, for them, the weapons. I couldn't help but respect that.

I stopped a few paces before the noblewoman and gave my heroic smile once more. "I am pleased to see that you are unharmed. Now that you have had a moment, might we begin our travels?" This time the handmaid was less overawed but all the same she received a clip on the ear from her mistress on her way to kneel before me. I appreciated that, but the scroll she withdrew from a reclaimed saddlebag seemed less promising.

"We thank you for your kindness, Sir Arum, and we thank you for your heroism upon the road to my Lady's blessed marriage. There is one matter to which I must first attend, with your permission, before we set out." The delivery was clearly practiced, despite the difficult conditions. She began to read from the scroll. "To you who have captured the Lady Misselyndra in battle, the house of von Aurebach commends your valor. The reward for her return awaits you in the fortress Athekos, where a feast shall be held in your honor while the gold of your reward is gathered."

So far, this sounded too good to be true, and I listened along carefully, wondering where the knife would be slipped in. Some say I have a nasty, suspicious mind. I am one of them. It's served me well thus far. Not that it really mattered in most cases; heroism isn't optional for me. She was hitting the right buttons, and I strongly suspected that I was about to find myself doing something I didn't want to in the names of Honor and Valor. Again.

"And in the names of the honor and valour with which the gods have blessed you, self-evident in your victory in battle, the lady shall of course be provided for as is proper to her station." There it was. Dread settled into the pit of my stomach. The scroll continued unrolling. Details began.

There were many. Of the food that would be expected, the service on hand and foot, the proper maintenance of her garments and property, and on and on and on. A glance at the noblewoman's triumphant expression made clear that I was being outplayed, but the awful thing was that I didn't see a way around it. Who, what I am demands that I act in accordance with Chivalrous ideals. As my treatment of commoners likely shows, that doesn't mean much for them, but chivalry is very clear on the proper treatment of nobles. I was rescued by the most unlikely source of all: inspiration.

During the details of proper hat storage and maintenance I reached out and gently shut the handmaid's mouth. That startled her enough to actually look up at me and I gave her a wink before speaking.

"Never would I sully your honour, nor my own, by violating so sacred a trust as that of captive and captor, Lady Misselyndra," I said solemnly. "Yet I am not, after all, your captor, but your rescuer, and thus, I fear, such conditions," I gently lifted the scroll from the crouching maid's hands, "are not for me." I crushed the parchment and the wooden dowel at its center in one hand and tossed it aside. My hands enveloped the maid's shoulders as I lifted her effortlessly to her feet and placed her to one side. A half step left me looming over the Lady Misselyndra, and though she did tilt her head up to look at me, she managed to make it look like she was turning up her nose in disdain. Impressive.

"But I shall of course treat you as you deserve, dear Lady, as is the rescuer's duty and right. Is that not so?" She managed a small, stiff nod. "And whatsoever I shall claim as my prize, such is my right, and by your consent, is that not so?"

"It is," She finally said in what turned out to be a quite pleasantly husky contralto. Her cheeks flushed and the heat filled her eyes. "Whatsoever you may choose." I took a small step back and clapped my hands briskly.

"Excellent! And thus is honor satisfied. You." I pointed at the leftmost of the brunette guards at random. "Your name?"

"Vilka," She said simply. I walked to her and drew the Griffin blade that I had slipped into the back of my belt, offering it hilt first.

"I believe this will continue to serve you well, Vilka." She took the sword and pressed it to her forehead, kissing the blade with what looked like genuine relief. "You will ride ahead to inform the Duke of the delay along the road. Tell him that we will arrive there in no more than four days." I turned to Misselyndra. "Given the fate of your horses, we are all afoot save yourself and your maid, Lady, but no more than a few days should be required to arrive. I anticipate a most pleasant journey, and I guarantee your safe conduct under my protection." Smiling to myself, I moved to gather up my own pack and supplies, enjoying her furious stare on my shoulders. Within minutes, Vilka had left at a canter with the third of the horses, and with the Lady and her as-yet nameless maid seated upon the other two, their bridles held by the guards, we departed the former Orcish camp.

I had not, to this point, yet heard the voice of the Lady Misselyndra, That was not to remain the case. As it turned out, the voice of the Lady was both potent and penetrating, and her stream of complaints was quite impressive in its variety and thoroughness. Within a few hundred paces of leaving the battleground I had heard as much as I believed I could handle and instructed the pair of guards, who I had learned were named Terni and Fassine, on how to reach our destination before moving off into the woods to "scout." In truth, it was quite convenient; I could keep a safe eye our for any threats that might be stalking nearby and the endless litany of Misselyndra's dislikes kept the party pinpointed perfectly. I strongly suspect that one reason we encountered no further issues on the way to my own camp is that even a Goblin war party would think better than to approach the Lady in such a mood.

Evening

The sun was hanging low and heavy in the west, and night was falling faster under the thick canopy, when we reached our destination. I appeared from the forest, causing Terni to nearly spit me on her blade, and guided them to a clearing a few dozen paces from the road. Without a word I led the party between the tall iron frames that stood in the center of the clearing and to a trio of huts on the far side. I approached the Lady, who had fallen silent since my reappearance, and bowed.

"Here we are, Lady, your lodgings for the night. I apologize for their crudeness, but there are, at least, some benefits." I gestured over to a barely-visible lump in the twilight. "The well-water is pure and plentiful, for one, and fires are easily built. Would my lady care for a bath this evening?" I offered a hand to help her dismount. She paused for a moment, clearly considering the implications of my offer, before she deigned to take hold and lower herself to the ground. Ignored, Fassine helped the handmaiden down and they began opening saddlebags.

"A bath would be acceptable," she said reluctantly. "Lissa, you may have it drawn, though I cannot imagine to where," she said over her shoulder, not fully turning from me. The handmaid bobbed a curtsy and scurried out of sight, blankets pulled from saddlebags over her shoulder. I kissed the lady's knuckles chivalrously before releasing her hand and drawing open the flap of leather that acted as a door for the nearest, and largest, hut. It was perhaps a dozen paces across, the ceiling barely higher than the top of my head, but opposite the piled furs that served as a bed was the prize: a bathing tub, standing on clawed bronze feet. The smell of the herbs that had kept the furs from being devoured by moths wafted out, stuffy but not unpleasant.

"I would advise allowing it to air for a few moments, Lady. And now, if you will excuse me, I must prepare the fires to warm your bathwater," I said, bowing and moving past her. She looked uncertain for a moment but recovered expertly, placing one hand on my shoulder as I went to pass her.

"We have a piece of business that must first be discussed, sir knight," she said. I turned, raising an eyebrow. "As you have said, as my rescuer, you hold the right to claim... whatsoever you would," and I could not help but notice the rising flush in her cheeks, the way her tongue darted out to wet her lips as she stumbled over her words. "I would know the prize that you choose." I smiled broadly and shifted closer.

"My prize, lady, is a true answer, given from your lips." Her brows knotted together.

"What answer?" She asked.

"What do you most truly desire?" I replied simply. She stared, and her mouth opened, but no sound emerged. "Enjoy your bath, Lady, and I will then meet you at the clearing's center at full moonrise to collect my prize."

The wood I had left months earlier was still intact and within a candle's span I had two lively fires burning in stone-lined pits, each with its own cauldron above it, and the guards had begun making trips back and forth with pails of the heated water to fill the tub within the Lady's hut. During one such trip, having used the pretense of adding more wood to the fire to approach her, I drew Terni aside.

"Your mistress is bathing, and she is then to come to me for the claiming of my prize," I said haughtily. Terni shifted her feet and nodded. I took her wrist and placed the blue glass bottle I had been given that morning at the apothecary in it. "I would not have her smell of road dust when she does. Three drops of this perfume are to be added to her bath, and you will return the remainder to me. Do you understand?" She blushed furiously and nodded again, eyes locked on the potion. "Then go."

I smiled at her departing back. I was quite looking forward to the coming night.

Moonrise

The moon rose over the treetops, full and lush in a clear sky. The night had grown chill, but where I sat waiting under an iron frame between the banked fires it could not reach. Draughts of warm air pushed the ropes hanging from the frame in gentle movement as I worked the edge of my belt knife along a whetstone. The pale starlight perfectly illuminated the opening of the hut as the Lady Misselyndra emerged, a blanket around her shoulders, flanked by her guards and with her maid close at her heels.

The light of the fires underlit the approaching group in primal red as they drew near. I sheathed my knife and pushed away from the metal of the frame where I'd been leaning to stand opposite them.

"Well met once more, Lady." She nodded formally, lips set. "And have you come to offer me the prize I choose?"

"I object," she said, chin held high, but I saw the flush that had crept up her pale throat. "It is not a request in keeping with my station." I rubbed my chin thoughtfully.

"Is it not?" I asked. I took a step closer to her, looking down in consideration. "I can think of no edict of the code of chivalry which it violates. I ask for something as precious as a single flawless diamond: a glimpse at the deepest desire of the Lady whom I have rescued from peril most dire."

"And if I cannot bear to provide that which you ask? Will you not ask a prize more immediate?" She toyed at the hem of her blanket, and the artlessness with which she revealed the pale cleavage beneath had its own charm.

"I will not. And though I would never do you harm, lady fair, I shall endeavor to coax the answer from your lips, as is permissible under law and code." She glared. Her mouth opened and closed twice without any words. At last the blush crept up past the curve of her jaw and flooded her cheeks with heat.

"So be it," She said at last and shrugged the blanket from her shoulders, standing before me in nothing but a thin linen shift that did nothing to hide her every curve. I took half a heartbeat to simply enjoy the sight before I took her by the hand and led her into the iron frame in which I'd been waiting. It rose above us in a span like a bridge made of a single thick pole dotted with rings on its inner side, five paces from one base to the other, one of a dozen scattered through the abandoned camp's center.

I turned her to one side and lifted her hands together to patiently wend a rope that hung from above around and between her wrists. She looked at me with what I can only describe as belligerent puzzlement. "You can do me harm under the code, and we will continue to where my betrothal awaits, to arrive in no more than a few days. If you would ravish me," and she looked at the finished binding around her hands as I pulled the rope's end to hold them above her head. "Then do so, sir knight, you will not frighten me into obedience."

"Perish the thought," I said, not looking away from my work as I tied off the ropes above. "I have told you my wish. Yet so long as you refuse me my reward, your noble self, and your servants, are mine to command, lovely one. But for now, as we begin your coaxing, I think I shall tell you a story." Another coil of rope, this one starting at the pinch of her hourglass waist, folding inward and around and again, building into a spiderweb spreading up her stomach, sides and back, snug against her skin. I did spare a glance to see that the lady's guards and servant were standing silently, watching and listening, then paused to catch her eyes, that she might see my sincerity. "But before that: I give my oath that there will be not a mark upon you when you arrive at the castle of the prince. This is the only mercy I promise you. Do you accept this or will you tell me what I wish?"

"I ask for no mercy beyond that which is required by code and law," she said through gritted teeth. "And I shall say nothing more." I nodded again and turned back to my work.

"We shall see. My tale is about this very place; the frames here were used to hold slaves for the market the greenskins ran. It was the largest one for month's walk, preying on the nearby settlements, acting as a base for their raiders. Three hundred or so of the greenskinned filth, far too many for me to slay by myself." The web of ropes reached around and between her breasts, pushing them up and outward before the whole assemblage was tied off between her should blades. A rope slipped through the loops I had made down her back before I ran it through another of the heavy iron rings that dotted the frame above. "So I didn't." Two more passes through the loops, two more passes through iron rings on the frame before it was ready to be tied off. Another coil of rope, this one starting at her ankle, building the web anew.

"I watched the camp for a week, learning who was who. The leader of the camp turned out to be a goblin that called itself Hackitt. It stayed in charge of its larger cousins in the worst possible way: it was clever." The net around her ankle was complete and I pulled it through another of the rings, this one around her own shoulder-height. She had remained silent throughout, but she gave a startled squeak as her ankle was lifted upward and behind, pulling her off-balance and forward. The ropes anchored at her back took her weight, leaving her hanging, one foot's toes scraping along the ground, ropes holding her tight, her shift pulled up and over her hips. She snapped her mouth shut but her blush grew hotter still. I tied off the rope and took a step back to examine my work and gave a satisfied nod.

"Very good. But where was I? Hackitt, yes, the goblin lord. Its great stroke of genius had been to divide its forces into three and split the leadership among the three largest, most vicious Orcs in his tribe, who then spent their time squabbling with each other, leaving Hackitt unchallenged." The leather satchel with which I traveled, in which I had earlier kept the potion, was propped to the side of the frame and it was to there that I went and began drawing out the instruments with which I intended to coax out the truth. The lady craned her neck but I knew that I was well outside of her sight.

"The largest of the three lieutenants, a brute called Grock, was both the largest and most ambitious, hampered only by also being, by far, the stupidest of them." I made my choices from the satchel and walked to stand behind her, a small flogger swaying from my hand.

"And so Grock began to have a string of good luck. Patrols began vanishing, stores catching fire, slaves freed, but never under Grock's watch, never Grock's patrols, never Grock's supplies. The other were suspicious, of course, but as Grock was genuinely innocent there was rather little that they could do, and so it just kept happening, little... by... little..." The swaying flogger licked out with a crisp smack on one soft cheek of her ass, then the other. "None of them mattered much." Another tiny smack, one to each side. The Lady Misselyndra made a wordless sound of indignation. I pointed to the handmaiden.

"You there. Your name?"

"Alissabet, sir knight," she said in a trembling voice and bobbed a hesitant curtsy. Her eyes were locked on the sight of her lady bound and helpless, lips and eyes shining and wet. So.

"Come here, Alissabet," I said firmly to ensure she would notice. She came to me as though in a waking dream and I drew her around to stand behind her mistress, where I placed the flogger in her unresisting hand and took hold of her wrist. Holding her tight against me with the other hand, I guided her arm through the proper form to bring the flogger down on her lady's backside with a firm snap, yet little force. "Fifty times per side, sweet one," I whispered into her ear. "And you will tell me when your task is complete. Fassine. Terni. To me," I said, raising my voice and gesturing now at the pair of guards. They approached warily, yet their expressions suggested that they were not immune to the scene being set.

"Your mistress appears most warm," I said, stepped between them and turned to take firm grips on the tight-tied ponytail that each wore. I walked them to their mistress and drew them down to their knees, pressing their faces against their mistress's thighs. "Let your tongues cool her, though you will not touch her most private place. Hands behind your backs." They nodded mutely in unison and first Terni, then Fassine began dragging her tongue along her mistress's thighs, replacing the sweat beaded their with saliva. I stood back once more to observe, arms folded across my chest. Misselyndra was still trying to stare her defiance at me, but her eyes kept going faraway and her hips were making tiny movements to the rhythm of the smacking flogger.

"But to return to my story. Soon enough Grock had grown in stature and arrogance; Hackitt, the clever little scum, even tried to assassinate the fool to stop its rise, but although Grock slept like a log, somehow the assassins never made it. By the second week Grock knew it was chosen by its gods. Halfway through the third week it finally tried to seize power. The revolt was sloppy, disorganized and bloody. I took the opportunity to put arrows through both Grock and Hackitt, which kept things interesting." I noticed that the sound of leather on skin had stopped and looked askance as Alissabet.

"Fifty, sir knight," she said hesitantly. Her eyes kept darting back to where she had been working and I walked around to join her and saw that she had done her work very well indeed. Her mistress's full, round ass was now a near-uniform shade of pink, and placing my hand close I could feel the heat rising from it. I gave a quick spank to each side to enjoy watch the bound woman try to jump and stepped behind the handmaid's back.