Bondmaiden (21 page)

Some time later they reached the edge of a great forest. It was dark under the trees and the column slowed to a crawl, even after torches were lit to show the way. Despite the lack of progress the men’s spirits were high, for they were safe now and all knew it. They laughed and cursed their unseen pursuers and made extravagant boasts about how many they would kill when the reinforcements arrived and battle was joined.

As for Lia and the others, they were so worn out by the journey and the constant abuse they wanted nothing more than to crawl under the cart and sleep, and the instant the column halted they did just that, too weary even to wait for any scrap of food that might be tossed their way.

Lia woke to find herself being dragged out from under the cart by her ankle, and saw by the light of the fire that it was the sergeant. Without a word he rolled her onto her face and fucked her from behind, in her rear passage. It was vile and painful, but at least it was quick. He cursed her as he rammed against her buttocks, climaxing inside her, then withdrew lethargically and stood up. He gave her a kick in the ribs for no reason at all and left her lying in the dirt. She crawled back to Tilda’s side and snuggled close to her friend, seeking warmth as well as comfort, for the night air was chill.

Later she was awoken a second time by a metallic clatter from the cart above her head, and wondered if some thief was stealing the loot. Though she and Tilda would no doubt be punished if that was indeed the case, she was simply too spent to investigate, so she abandoned herself to fate and went to sleep again.

In the morning they learned that it was no thief who’d delved into the bundles, rather Hadwin and Tormod. Though there’d been no feast to celebrate their deliverance, and no game of forfeits, gambling had still taken place.

After breakfast the journey continued at a more leisurely pace, and Lia and Tilda were made to carry the loot once more. To judge by the diminished size of Tilda’s pack and the relative ease with which she lifted it onto her shoulder, Tormod hadn’t been lucky in the games of chance.

During the noon break the men played dice, and Tormod lost even more of his booty. Hadwin’s luck was better, and Lia’s burden grew heavier as Tilda’s grew lighter. As for Quinn, he won too, so that Lia wasn’t the only one to suffer.

‘They’ll play forfeits tonight, mark my word,’ Odetta said morosely. ‘They’ve got gambling fever good and proper. I’ve seen them like this before, after a raid, with all that shiny loot driving everyone crazy. They won’t stop till they’ve won a fortune or lost the lot.’

They camped on a strip of open ground bordering a river, and once the meal was over and the animals tended to, Lia saw the circles start to form. There were a dozen or more scattered throughout the encampment, and Hadwin, Tormod and Quinn joined the nearest circle with their slaves in tow. When every position had been filled a man, the stickman, Lia presumed, stepped into the circle, and she saw it was Captain Zelig.

‘Why are you here?’ he asked loudly.

‘To play,’ came the reply from multiple throats.

‘Then play,’ he said, and with no more ado handed the board Odetta had spoken of to the nearest man, who scooped up the bone dice, blew on his hand for luck, and let them fall. Spectators had gathered in considerable numbers, and those nearest now crowded around the man to see the result.

‘Four cocks,’ Zelig announced after studying the dice. He went back to the middle of the circle and pointed his stick at the player next to the one who’d thrown.

‘Declined,’ the man said, shaking his head.

The next three players each said the same thing, and the stickman turned to the spectators. Most of them promptly cupped their groin with their right hand, and Zelig pointed to four men who came into the circle, formed a line, and took out their cocks. The first player gave his slave a shove, and she staggered forward looking scared to death. Zelig told her she must suck the cocks of all four men and swallow their seed. If she spilt any in the process she would fail the forfeit and lose a life. So miserably she knelt down in front of the first man and began to suck him. Some of the spectators were talking in an animated fashion and slapping each other’s hands, and Lia realised that side bets were being placed on whether or not she would succeed. As the man she was sucking approached his climax Zelig reminded the woman to swallow, which she duly did, at which point the second man offered her his cock. She sucked the four, and when she’d swallowed the last one’s semen Zelig tapped her on the shoulder with his stick, whereupon she rose and went back to her place.

The board now passed to the next player, who rolled the dice. Spectators again peered over his shoulder, and an excited buzz went up.

‘No forfeit,’ Zelig cried. ‘No forfeit here.’ The next man wasn’t so lucky, however, as Zelig’s announcement made clear. ‘The stone!’

Lia remembered what Odetta had said about the stone, and watched in trepidation as the stickman went to an upturned wicker basket and lifted it up. Straw fell out, and he pushed it aside with his foot to reveal a large round stone, grey in colour. The player’s slave approached, looking even more frightened than the first, and Zelig told her she must sit on it for a count of ten and not rise until he tapped her with the stick. At his command she rolled her skirts up to her waist and squatted over the stone.

‘Sit,’ he instructed. She did so, and promptly let out an anguished cry. Zelig started to count but got no further than two before the woman stood up again. The crowd yelled, some in triumph and some in dismay, with the woman’s master yelling loudest of all as he promised her a whipping. Dejectedly she went back to her place, and Zelig covered the stone with straw and placed the basket over the top to conserve the heat. The board moved on to the next player, Quinn, and Lia saw Odetta watching anxiously as her man rolled the dice.

‘Two thistles,’ Zelig said.

The next two players rose to their feet and came forward, as did Odetta. She began to take off her clothes, her face set, and whilst undressing the two men each picked up a long thistle from a pile of cut stalks. Odetta, naked now, raised her left leg and held it out to the side, and with her arms stretched out too she balanced somewhat precariously on one foot.

‘Begin,’ Zelig commanded.

The two men began to whip Odetta with the thistle stalks, one concentrating exclusively on her sex while the second moved around her, targeting her breasts, ribs, belly, buttocks and thighs. Zelig, who was again counting aloud, hadn’t explained the forfeit, but Lia deduced that the men were trying to make her lose her balance while she was desperately trying to keep it. Odetta did indeed come perilously close to putting her left foot down, and it was only by flailing frantically with her arms that she managed to stay upright.

‘Nine… ten!’ Zelig announced. He tapped Odetta on the back with his stick, and she toppled over with a cry of relief and sprawled on the ground, where she lay panting. The men dropped the thistles and resumed their places, and Odetta rose and went back to Quinn, who grinned and slapped her playfully on the rump.

Then the game continued until it was Hadwin’s turn, Lia’s heart thumping as she watched him roll the dice, and she peered anxiously over his shoulder as the pieces came to rest, though the symbols meant even less to her than they did to Odetta.

‘Cunt stretch.’

That sounded dreadful, and when Lia tried to move her legs refused to work. One of the spectators pushed her in the back so that she stumbled forward, and Zelig took her arm and led her to the centre of the circle where a post stuck up from the ground. It was a living sapling, Lia saw, the size of her forearm in diameter and chopped off at knee height. The tip had been shaped into a smooth cone, and smeared thickly with lard. Zelig told her what was required, and she squatted over the stump and lowered herself until the tip entered her vagina. She pushed down on the cone, feeling it expanding inside her, and came to a halt with her sex stretched.

‘Lower,’ Zelig said. ‘Much lower.’

She tried, squatting lower, but it was impossible. The pain was intense, and she whined through clenched teeth as she tried in vain to sink further onto the thing. ‘I… can’t!’ she gasped. ‘Can’t… do it!’

‘Fail,’ Zelig adjudged. ‘Go back to your place.’

She straightened, groaning with relief as the thing slid out of her, and went back to Hadwin. He said nothing, but his look told her she would be punished later, and punished severely.

Next to go was Tilda, and she was fortunate in that she had to suck two cocks only. The game continued in this same fashion, with the board going round and around and one female after another stepping forward to face the challenge set her. The stone proved impossible to endure, with all who sat on it rebelling immediately. The stump was almost as difficult, with both the cunt stretch that defeated Lia and the arse stretch proving the downfall of many. Sucking cocks was the easiest forfeit, though a plump young woman who had ten to suck failed after the eighth, and an older woman who had nine managed them all then promptly retched and voided the lot a split second before the stickman touched her to signal a success.

Lives were lost steadily, and one by one the women started to drop out. Following her initial failure Lia’s performance improved, and she survived a four-man thistle-whipping, much to her astonishment for she was certain she’d fail, then successfully sucked three cocks, then six. Her good fortune continued with a ‘no forfeit’ throw by Hadwin, but after that luck seemed to abandon her, for on his next turn he threw the ‘stone’. Lia knew it would be bad for no one had yet succeeded, but she wasn’t prepared for the sheer heat that scorched her buttocks when she sat on the thing. She lasted for a count of four but the pain was simply too great, and to the obvious disappointment of the crowd she jumped up with a cry.

On the next turn Hadwin rolled ‘arse stretch’, and the moment Zelig announced it Lia knew she was out of the game. She gave it her all nevertheless, squatting on the sapling determinedly, but once again it got the better of her.

Tilda had dropped out in the previous round, and they stood with their masters, no more than spectators now, and watched the concluding rounds. The eventual winner was Quinn, for Odetta failed only one forfeit and that was the stone. Lia and Tilda were then taken back to the cart while Quinn took Odetta off in search of another game of forfeits.

‘They need some hard training, these two,’ Hadwin said to Tormod as they fastened the chains around their slaves’ waists once more.

‘Aye,’ the other agreed, ‘we’ve been too soft with ’em, but we’ll remedy that tomorrow.’

On that dire note he went off to find a dice game, saying he thought his luck must surely change for the better, while Hadwin stayed with them and demanded they both give him something by way of an apology for their feeble efforts. He lay propped up against the cartwheel and had the two girls kneel on either side and lick his cock simultaneously. Lia’s tongue inevitably came into contact with Tilda’s, a sensation she found secretly pleasurable. Tilda seemed to enjoy it too, and what started out as an accident soon became intentional. Hadwin noticed but didn’t complain. Indeed, he seemed fascinated by it, and insisted they kiss properly. Lia loved the sensation of Tilda’s tongue probing inside her mouth, and felt passion stirring in her loins. She ventured to stroke Tilda’s breasts, feeling the nipples harden to her touch.

‘Lay her down,’ Hadwin growled. ‘Lick her cunt.’ It wasn’t immediately clear who he was talking to, but Lia took the initiative and was soon licking Tilda’s sex lips hungrily, while Tilda moaned deliriously as she lay squirming on the ground. Hadwin watched in silence for some time, then took a more active role, kneeling behind Lia and squeezing his cock into her bottom. Thanks to the stretching she’d received from the stump it didn’t hurt as much as usual, and she was able to concentrate on pleasing Tilda, using all the skills she learned as Elfrida’s bondmaiden. Tilda’s climax was astonishing, judging by how loudly and for how long she gasped. Hadwin came soon after, then disappeared without a word, leaving the two young women to their own devices. They lay curled in each other’s arms, with Tilda murmuring contentedly and promising she would return the favour after she’d had a sleep, for she was just so tired…

They woke to find Odetta shaking them. She seemed agitated as they sat up and rubbed their eyes. It was late and the camp was quiet, everyone having settled down to sleep.

‘Quinn told me something,’ Odetta said. ‘It’s about you, Tilda. Tormod’s sold you.’

‘Sold me?’ Tilda said faintly. ‘Why would he… who’s he sold me to?’

‘A captain from a cavalry company,’ Odetta said. ‘Tormod kept gambling even after he lost all his loot, and now he’s had to sell you to pay off his debts. This captain’s coming for you first thing in the morning, Quinn said.’

Tilda and Lia looked at each other, at a loss for words. Lia thought she couldn’t bear to be parted from her good friend, and from the forlorn look on Tilda’s face she was feeling the same. They’d always helped each other and drawn strength from each other, and for them to be separated now was just too cruel.

But cruel or not the captain arrived at dawn just as Odetta said he would, a big man in plate armour riding a big black horse. Tormod led Tilda forward, and the man frowned.

‘Cover her,’ he said, taking off his cloak and throwing it none too gently at Tormod, who hastily did as he was told, wrapping the cloak about Tilda’s shoulders and fastening the clasp. ‘Give me your hand, girl,’ the big man said. He reached down and grasped Tilda’s outstretched arm and swung her up behind him.