The Traitress of Nessanti

They nodded, and Bromm recalled Tahavi from his lookout perch. He counted off two more volleys from Tissarna's men and then signaled his own. There was still no sign of Boyas' attack from the far side.

Bromm and his men rushed across the open ground with axes and swords ready. They reached the wall unnoticed and quickly opened it with a few well-placed axe-blows. Sahat wrenched the damaged door open, and Bromm charged inside, musket at ready. He found himself in a well-stocked kitchen. A pig's carcass hung from the ceiling aboard a wide wooden table piled with spices. The wall was lined with large, open pots filled with fruits and nuts. The room was deserted, though the bloody knives beneath the carcass implied it had been abandoned recently. Bromm was suddenly hungry.

"That far door," Bromm ordered as the others flooded into the room behind him. "We've got to get to the foyer and the stairs."

"There may be a staircase nearby," Imre offered. "So the servants can bring food right to the second floor while it's hot."

"Good idea," Bromm replied. They pulled open the next door into a deserted hallway and found a narrow wooden stair leading up from there. Bromm took the lead, exchanging his musket for his saber in the cramped corridor. He padded quietly up the steps, hoping none of them creaked underfoot. He could hear shouts and shots echoing from somewhere upstairs.

"Remember," he whispered, pausing at the top, "Tissarna wants their leader alive." They nodded.

Bromm darted out into the hall and looked around. It was wooden paneled and roofed, with a long, narrow carpet running down the middle. Sunlight streamed through a large, many-paned window at either end. They crept along the hall, following the sound of the guns, until they came to a door left ajar. Bromm signaled to his friends for their readiness, and they nodded back. Sahat tore the door open, and they rushed in, swords flashing.

The room was a sitting room not unlike the one in the town hall, though more luxurious. The overstuffed couches were velvet with fine blackwood frames. A small crystal chandelier hung from the vaulted ceiling and a gilded mirror hung on the wall. Brilliantly colored tapestries and paintings covered the carved wooden paneling and a heavy, glass-fronted, drinks cabinet sat in front of tall and wide bay windows which looked out onto the front garden. At these windows stood five Amazons, three with bows, two with matchlocks. Another lay on the floor, tending to a wound in her shoulder. Acrid white smoke drifted throughout the room.

The wounded warrior was the first to notice and reached for a bow at her side. Tahavi fired his pistol and struck her in the chest. The gun's report drew the attention of the others, and they froze in shock. Imre wasted no time in rushing forward to strike down the closest warrior. Bromm followed his friends into sword range and steel rang upon steel. He became embattled with one of their archers, a tall, muscular woman in a hide cuirass and skirt of leather strips. She wore a polished copper diadem studded with a ruby around her head, and Bromm thought this might be the leader Tissarna was searching for.

She snared Bromm's saber blow with her bow and threw him from his feet as her companions battled his. Finding himself unexpectedly on the wooden floor, Bromm kicked her feet from underneath her and wrestled himself on top. She reached for a dagger in her waistband as Bromm fought to put her saber at her neck. He seized her dagger hand before she could draw it all the way and planted a knee on her chest. She cast aside her bow as she grasped at his sword hand, but Bromm retained enough control to place the sharp edge against her neck.

"Yield, or I will cut you open," he commanded in the Common tongue, hoping she was worldly enough to understand. She glared hatred at him, but ceased her struggling slowly. She removed her hand from the dagger and it slid out of its sheath to the floor.

"This one's down," Bromm announced, unwilling to take his eyes off her and look around. He heard the dying groan of one Amazon and saw, out of the corner of his eye, Tahavi throw another to the floor. "Got one!" Tahavi announced proudly. The final survivor was grappled from behind by Imre and wrestled to the floor with Sahat's shamshir at her neck.

"That's all of them," Imre crowed. "Tell Tissarna we've got them!"

Sahat stepped to the window and leaned out.

"We're in, Tissarna! And I think we've got their leader!" Turning back to Bromm, he said "Here she comes. Let's get these tied up for her."

The three prisoners were bound hand and foot before Tissarna arrived in the sitting room, along with Boyas.

"What took you so long?" Bromm mocked as he stood over his prisoners and the bodies of the slain.

"There were five more on our side," the pirate glowered, "Yvlas has taken a wound and Asmaran is dead."

"The battle is won," Tissarna said dismissively. "See to your looting but remember that everything here is mine before it is yours."

Boyas said nothing and leaned against the back wall. Tissarna crossed to the prisoners. They all knelt with heads downcast and arms bound behind them. Tissarna seized the first one by her hair and wrenched her face upwards to look at her. The prisoner's face was one of defiance and fear. Tissarna snarled in fury and drew a knife, which she plunged into the woman's neck.

"Take this refuse out and feed it to the birds," she commanded, and when no one moved to obey, she pointed the knife at Imre. "Was my order unclear?" Imre and Sahat quickly picked up the dying woman and carried her out of the room.

Tissarna looked into the next woman's eyes and moved on without a word. It was the third woman, the one wearing the diadem, that attracted her attention.

"Valya," she hissed, and the prisoner trembled with fear and fury. She snarled something back in the Amazonian tongue and Tissarna struck her across the face. Tissarna whispered something to herself in her mother tongue.

"This one might get us a tidy ransom, so I'd prefer her alive," Bromm offered boldly. Tissarna turned to him, her face a mask of fury.

"You have no claim on this prisoner," she responded.

"I captured her, she's mine by right, as is her ransom."

Tissarna strode forward to look Bromm in the eye. They were of nearly the same height, though Bromm was heavier. Yet he still thought poorly of his odds in a fight, especially with only Tahavi left to defend him and Boyas likely to take her side.

"You are a common sailor, Bromm," Tissarna said slowly. "You do not know what you are doing. This is my home. This woman here, Valya, this snake, this vulture! is my cousin. When I was exiled, my own kin came here to take command of my servants and live in my home. I will resolve this feud in my own way, and your ransom will not come into it. Is that clear?"

"Yes, Tissarna," Bromm replied, suddenly afraid he was in over his head. Whatever thoughts of the ransom were vanishing quickly from his mind. She went back to Valya and exchanged more words. The matriarch's continued defiance drew her another blow across the mouth. Tissarna stopped and considered herself for a moment.

"Boyas, Bromm, take that chandelier down," she commanded. They did as ordered and handed the crystal piece to Sahat, who set it aside. Maurias, one of Boyas' men, entered the room with a large sack over his shoulder.

"There's plenty of good looting to be done here," he crowed. "Look at this!" he hefted a mantle of brass, studded with rubies and emeralds. "This will get some money in Torvuls!"

"You there," Tissarna commanded, standing next to Valya with her knife drawn. "Come here," she commanded again and lowered the knife to Valya's neck. The bound woman began to cry.

"What do you need?" Maurias asked cautiously as he set down the sack.

"Hold her while I remove her bindings," Tissarna ordered, handing over the knife. Maurias did as ordered, and Boyas joined him at her command. They unbound the woman's hands and Tissarna began to strip her. She pulled off Valya's cuirass, letting his ample bosom spill out. Maurias crowed in delight and Boyas grabbed two handfuls of her breasts. Tissarna continued unperturbed, yanking off her cousin's skirt and boots to leave her completely naked in the hands of two pirates. Bromm could now see that the matriarch was tattooed, with a striking falcon on each shoulder and a brilliantly colored tattoo of a bird of paradise on her right thigh. Her other thigh was tattooed with what looked like a verse of song or poem, though the script was unfamiliar to Bromm. She was beautiful with all her muscles and curves. Her skin was fair and her hair a reddish-brown; she looked little like a cousin to the olive-skinned and dark-haired Tissarna.

"Now rebind her," the Amazon exile ordered, and her men obeyed. The other surviving Amazon tried to rise, but Tissarna struck her down. Pointing to Sahat, she snapped "Take this one away and put her with the other prisoners. She will accompany us to the ships when we are finished."

Sahat threw the other woman over his shoulder and left the room. Bromm plucked a pair of silver candlesticks from the drinks cabinet and headed to follow him out the door.

"Not you," Tissarna commanded, her gaze still fixed on her weeping cousin. "I have need of you."

Bromm stopped at the door, watching Sahat lead the captive Amazon away down the hall. Behind him, Tissarna had her cousin roped up and hung from the chandelier hook, so that she dangled in the middle of the room, naked, with her legs spread apart. Tissarna threw herself onto one of the couches and looked Valya in the eye as she slowly rotated in her bindings.

Tissarna said something to her and Valya screamed in helpless dread. She thrashed about in her bindings so furiously that Bromm thought she might tear herself off her hook. Tissarna laughed and slapped her across the face again. Turning to Boyas, she said "Well, what are you waiting for? You have a naked, captive woman before you."

Hungry smiles crossed their faces and Boyas undid his belt quickly. Valya continued to fight, to no avail. Bromm crept closer to the exit, but caught Tissarna's eye.

"Come here, Bromm. Sit with me and watch," she commanded, indicating a spot on her couch. Boyas was the first to get his cock hard, and shoved himself inside Valya with little preparation. She cried out in pain and disgust, fighting hard against her bonds. Boyas fucked her with the hungry fury of a sailor long at sea, the loud clapping of his hips against hers echoing throughout the house, where they caught the attention of other pirates in their looting. Valya's desperate cries and protests brought no mercy, only more tormentors.

They appeared at the door to the sitting room, looking in with great interest. Tissarna welcomed them all, encouraging them to strip down and join in her torment. She herself was watching with great interest, her eyes devouring the sight of cocks in action.

"Fuck her harder," Tissarna ordered, wielding a discarded and unstrung bowstave like an officer's baton. She struck Maurias on the calves as he fucked her cousin, ordering him to put his back into the effort. Valya's despairing cries provoked another bout of fury from her exiled cousin and left her with red marks on her fleshy buttocks. Valya's helpless wails droned on as Maurias came inside her and passed his spot to the next man. The cries cut off as one man shoved his fat cock into her mouth.

Tissarna looked around at the assembled men. With a satisfied expression on her face, she turned to Bromm.

"Follow me," she commanded, and pulled him from the couch. Relieved, he followed her into the next room. The room was a bedroom, with a large, canopied, feather bed in the middle. A thick rug went around the edges of the bed, and tall cabinets lined the edges of the room. The windows here looked out into the gardens and the fields beyond them. The view was magnificent, and Bromm far preferred it to the torture inflicted in the other room.

"This used to be my bedroom," Tissarna said quietly as she walked the edge of the room. "This was all mine."

Bromm was somewhat taken aback. It was the first time since their arrival that she acknowledged that she did not currently own all of this.

"We will take what we can carry and carve a bloody condemnation of my exile into this island, but none of it will reverse what it done," she mourned. "I will forever live among the men and likely never see my home again except as a pillager."

"Why were you exiled?" Bromm asked quietly.

"I will not speak of it. It was monstrously unfair and done on false pretenses, but there is nothing to undo it now. I will live the live fate has given me, and I will live it well." She dropped her bowstave by the bed and ran her hand over the sheet.

"That carrion feeder even kept my sheets," she mused with a sneer. She picked at her belt, and it dropped to the floor with a loud crash. Bromm looked on in mild confusion. "I always loved this bed," Tissarna continued, her hands going to the straps of her cuirass.

"Do you need a moment?" Bromm asked, though he did not like the thought of going back out into the sitting room.

"What I need, Bromm, is a cock," Tissarna said. Her cuirass fell away and she briskly stripped off her undershirt to bare her full breasts. "Now get naked and get on this bed." She pointed to the sheets with one hand as the other undid her leather skirts. Bromm was speechless. I have dreamt of this since I laid eyes on her, but the dream is different from the reality. Do I really want to get into bed with a vengeful Amazon? And what about Gonnsar?

"Why do you disobey my command?" Tissarna demanded, now standing naked by the bed. Her sex was shaven, and her warm olive skin shone in the light of the afternoon sun streaming through the windows. "Does my appearance displease you? Are you afraid to bed a woman is not a dockside whore or a cringing townswoman?"

"I..." Bromm stammered, "But, Gonnsar..." he trailed off helplessly. Tissarna waved her hands dismissively.

"He has no claim to me. I fuck him for amusement and he does the same. I'm sure he will find another diversion among the prisoners he has taken."

"He won't be jealous?" Bromm asked and Tissarna shrugged.

"Perhaps, but I can handle it."

"It's not you I'm worried about," Bromm replied. Tissarna just laughed.

"What is life without a little danger? Now come on, I'm growing impatient."

Bromm had never been able to say no to a beautiful woman. He knew it to be his greatest curse and so it surprised him little when he found himself stripping down and laying himself out on Tissarna's bed with his cock in his hands.

Smiling with her conquest, Tissarna mounted the bed and straddled him. Taking his cock in her own hands, she stroked him roughly.

"That's a good sailor," she whispered. Bromm felt his heart pound in his chest. Tissarna was right, he had never before bedded a woman like her, a warrior. Having borne terrible witness to her brutality, he found himself intimidated. She was unconcerned for her part. Straddling him, she continued to stroke his cock in one hand as she fingered herself with the other. Bromm thought to ask for Nystra's Kiss, but he had heard from sailors before that Amazons considered it beneath them. Men in the Amazon Isles pleasured women, not the other way round.

Looking up at Tissarna, Bromm found himself thinking that the sculpting of her cuirass was an uncannily accurate representation of her real bust, and then he wondered if the sculptor had been acquainted with Tissarna's bare chest?

Satisfied with her wetness, Tissarna raised her sex over his cock and settled herself down on it. Bromm inhaled sharply as her purse welcomed his hard cock. Tissarna gasped only slightly at the sensation and began to move her hips up and down on him. She leaned forward and pinned his hands to the bed with her own. Her hips gained pace quickly, her head craned back to look at herself in the bedroom's mirror.

She moved her hand from his wrist to his throat, squeezing him as she fucked. Bromm soon found himself fighting for breath and wrenched her hand away. She smiled cruelly at him, slamming her hips down on his cock over and over again. Bromm put his free hand on her breast, clutching at the rare soft bits of her.

Against all his intentions, he found himself wondering how Gonnsar fucked her. Moreover, he wondered why she fucked the famously ugly pirate. Shaking off the thought, Bromm fought his other hand free and grabbed Tissarna's hips in both hands. He thrust up into her welcoming wet sex, matching the rhythm of her riding. Tissarna wrapped both hands around his neck and smiled hungrily at him.

"Fuck me harder, boy," she commanded, tightening her grip around his neck. Bromm could breathe now, but the grip on his neck was no less iron. He did as she commanded, fucking her with all the vigor he could muster. The Amazon threw her head back and cried out in delight, her full breasts bouncing on her toned chest. Bromm sat up to kiss them, burying his face between them as he did. He flicked her big brown nipples about his mouth with his tongue, drawing a delighted giggle from Tissarna's red lips. She released her hold on his neck and clasped him to her chest, threatening to suffocate him between her tits.

"Kiss me, worship me," she commanded breathlessly. "Harder! Fuck me harder! Oh, Nystra's Tits, just like that!"

Bromm gathered her up in his arms, fucking himself into her as hard as he could. She screamed and wrapped herself tighter around him. From outside, he could hear the others cheer, though for him or themselves he was not sure. With her nearly in his arms, he swung himself from a laying position to a sitting position. He was not as acrobatic as he hoped, and his cock slid out of her as he did.

Tissarna seized his cock in one hand and tried to thrust it back inside her. As she did, Bromm turned her around and lay her on her back, with himself on top. Tissarna pulled his head down and kissed him on the mouth, her warm lips working against his. Bromm entered her again, driving his hips against hers as they bounced on her soft feather bed. He put his hands on her breasts again, squeezing them as he kissed her upraised nipples. Tissarna wrapped her arms around him and rolled him over, climbing on top once again.

They teetered on the edge of the bed, and her forceful riding made him afraid they would slide off and fall to the floor. Lost in the passion of the moment, Tissarna slapped him across the face. Stunned, he saw stars in eyes, dancing around her head as she laughed at him. Bromm slapped her round ass in retaliation. For a moment, he lost his rhythm and stopped thrusting his hard cock into her. Tissarna leaned low to taunt him to his face.

"Where's the bold warrior I brought to my bed now? A little blow to the face is all that it takes to bring you down?"

Regaining his control, Bromm threw her off, and she fell to her side and rolled over, her back to him. He grabbed and entered her from behind, looking over her shoulder, into her dark brown eyes as he fucked. He wormed an arm under her to clutch at her breasts from below even as the other arm raised her leg to allow his cock to penetrate deeper into her purse.

Anyone who comes through that door will be treated to quite a view, Bromm thought as he kissed Tissarna's neck. Her nude body was on full display facing the door, with his thick, hard cock ramming in and out of her as fast as he could. He had seen couples fucking in this position in the brothels and theaters but had never dared to do it himself until now. A part of him hoped someone would come in and see him fucking an Amazon.

Tissarna's upraised leg was waving about in the air as they fucked, something that looked delightfully silly to Bromm. He watched it wave about until he caught Tissarna watching him. She smiled at him, and they both broke out laughing.