Chapter 21. Going to the mattresses

The trip to Moscar from Alcatia would take weeks, and involved navigating across two major mountain chains, along with numerous river crossings.  The preparations had started long ago,  lodgings for the Princess had been arranged wherever possible, and I understood that even the majority of her belongings had been sent on ahead.  Nevertheless, transporting the Princess and her two attendants still required a caravan of some 5 wagons, the Princess' carriage and about twenty soldiers, in addition to wagon drivers, cooks, servants etc.  Needless to say, even in smooth terrain, we moved slowly, and I'm pleased to say that I didn't regret declining the offer of a mount.  I'd had very minimal instruction on horseback, and while I'd been told that my weight wouldn't be a problem for most horses, I was more than happy to walk alongside the Princess' carriage.

The first week or so was fairly uneventful as we passed through civilized Alcatian lands, and more often than not stayed with local nobles. Once we crossed the Lorn River, though, we often had to pitch tents, and I found myself chafing at sleeping on the ground inside with Effie and the girls.  The idea of including me in their slumber parties was well intended, but even then I had more in common with the other soldiers than the girls.  I also grew really tired of their gossiping about the soldiers.  They were good men, doing their jobs, and Effie's schemes to tease them with her attendants were only mildly amusing at best.

Bandits were a real threat in the Causian foothills.  Two of the men scouted ahead on horseback, and one afternoon one of them came galloping back, yelling for us to stop.  I wasn't privy to the details, since I immediately took my station beside the princess' carriage, but we stopped, and about a half an hour later, a band of men walked up and started negotiating with the Captain.

It looked like he did pay them off, but one of the men warned me that these sort of men had little honor and we'd do well to expect trouble.

That night, trouble came about midnight, when we heard shouting.  I stepped out of the tent, and sure enough, we were under attack.  One man had already taken an arrow, and the Captain was busily working at checking the defensive positioning of his relatively small force.  A few moments later, he gave me instructions on evacuating the girls if he gave the signal.

An hour later, he did, and a scout led the girls and I on foot out of camp, in hopes of finding shelter in a cave nearby before the bandits attacked.  We didn't make it, of course, since the bandits weren't stupid enough to leave us a clear escape route.

But even as the shouting behind us revealed the main attack, three bandits tried to hold us up.  Three swords against two might seem like decent odds, but I was one of the two, and it took me only seconds to dispatch them.  After that, we moved as quickly as we could, with the scout in front and myself in the rear.  I  killed two more   before we started up the cliff.

We stayed in the cave until dawn. I had to give it to Effie and the girls.  They'd more or less allowed us to protect them and move them about without a fuss, and for the most part had been pretty quiet, especially after witnessing the elimination of three would be attackers at close quarters.  In fact, Emmie and Panda even seemed a little scared of me, while Effie seemed to be quietly observing it all.

Until, that is, she stepped over to the mouth of the cave where I was sitting.  She stared at me with those big blue eyes for a moment, with sort of a half smile before she spoke.

"I've never seen anything like that" she said, "the way you moved.  The way you killed.  They were grown, armed men and you cut them down like they were nothing."

I wasn't quite sure what to say to that.  It wasn't like I was a veteran killer, but the fact was, fighting and killing came terribly easy to me physically and, I suppose emotionally, at least when the men I slew would have done the same to me if I'd given them a chance.  Afterwards, was another story, and at that moment, Effie had just tugged at those strings.  Should I have let any of them live?  I was just beginning to realize how good I was, and back then, I'd really never tried to hold back in a real fight, but I sort of knew I could, at least not have finished off some of them.

"I like that" Effie said as she sat down next to me and put her hand on my knee.  I blinked and she quickly added.

"I mean to say, I like that you  did do it for me, not that, uh, well, I'm not being terribly honest with you now, am I.  I also like that you can, that you're, like a ... a demon or a goddess with a blade.  Its, um, sexy."

As she said it, Effie leaned forward, and just to confuse me a bit more, reached out and touched my left breast. For a moment, I thought she was going to kiss me, but she smiled and then stroked my cheek.

It sounds foolish to me now, the way I sat there dumbstruck while Effie slid her hand inside my tunic, but I really was confused and a bit addled.  For one thing, I'd just killed, and human approval of any sort was welcome, although a hug would have been better than being fingered in that department.  I was feeling quite monstrous and any kind of touching was a good thing.

Beyond that, I was confused.  It wasnt that I didn't find Effie attractive.  She was exquisite, and she was also smart and charming.  I was only beginning to understand my sexuality then, and really had yet to figure out how I felt about women, but even that wasnt what perplexed me most.  Effie was a princess, a girl so far above me in status and sophistication, it was just shocking to me that she found me appealing. 

" Your Hi... Effie" I said finally, "I'm not sure where you're going with this, but..."

Effie put a finger to my lips and shook her head.

"Don't worry, sweet Fiona, I'm just playing is all.  I know you're doing your job, but that doesn't mean it can't have perks."

Resting her head on my chest, Effie sighed.

"Just think about it, Fi" Effie said softly.