Chapter#211

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.