Barbarian Tales 1: Mistress of the Sword - Chapter 19

Chapter 19: The Siege

Another night of hard use in Velag's pavilion followed their bath in the stream, but at least Shailaja was now used only by Velag, so intent was he on insuring that she bore his children. For Hestia it was it was another night of torment. The Queen's cries of pain soon turned into sobs as she was taken by all three men.

It was not a surprising reaction. She had been used hard the day before and none of those who used her were gentle. Bekor in particular seemed to enjoy the moans of pain that passed her lips.

As for Shailaja, she reacted in her usual way, urging Velag to greater efforts and demanding to be used again when he was finished. For the most part he was happy to comply, but eventually she exhausted him, no mean accomplishment in a man she had found bore a remarkable resemblance to a bull in terms of stamina, desire, and physical dimensions.

However, this night there was a slight difference. Although Shailaja responded as eagerly, she found that her ardour flagged earlier than was usual, such that she was well satisfied and glad to sleep by the time Velag had taken her for the last time. Thinking she was still suffering from the intense use she had endured the previous day she hardly noticed the change, but it was the beginning of something that became more noticeable over the next few days.

In the meantime, the army was on the move again. Hestia and Shailaja were placed at the end of a wagon and forced to march in the wake of the army. Once again it was not a pleasant experience, but at least Shailaja was used to the routine. For Hestia it was brutality itself. She had not Shailaja's strength and size nor had she recovered from her savage initiation at the hands of her captors, but she made not a single complaint, placing one foot in front of the other in stolid determination; ignoring the torment that plagued her body.

Fortunately, she was not subjected to the same level of brutalization again, although she and Shailaja both faced the same nightly routine. It gave the Uvarian Queen a chance for slow recovery, and she gained strength each day as the army moved closer to the city she ruled.

"They will use me to force my people to surrender," Hestia whispered to Shailaja as they marched. "But I must not allow that to happen. I must die before we reach Uvar. If I cannot find the means to kill myself you must do it for me."

"Me?" Shailaja asked. "I kill only in battle."

"You are the only one who can do it," Hestia insisted, her dark eyes pleading. "You have the size, strength, and skill to do it quickly, and no one else is available."

"I will think on it," Shailaja answered. "But perhaps Marana will smile upon us before we reach Uvar."

"I hope Marana's smile comes quickly," Hestia answered. "We are only two days' march from Uvar."

Hestia's request left Shailaja quite unsettled. To be asked to kill someone she had come to look upon as a companion of sorts did not go well with her. She had no fear of retribution, caring not what Velag, Gorvag, or Bekor would make of it, but it went against her warrior code of honour. However, she could see what Hestia feared. To have her people surrender to Gorvag's horde in order to save their Queen or perhaps just as bad to see her cruelly tortured outside the walls of the city would be hard to bear. Shailaja resolved that if they reached the city without Marana's intervention she would do as Hestia asked.

Hestia saw it in Shailaja's eyes that night, and the slight nod she gave the Queen confirmed her commitment. If Marana decreed that they were to remain captives she would kill the Queen quickly and painlessly. It might mean her death as well, but Shailaja did not fear death. If Marana decreed that she was to die for her actions then so be it, but after the constant shaming at the hands of her captors she was beyond caring what happened to her.

As it happened Shailaja's reluctant commitment to murder Hestia and sacrifice herself was wasted. That night after the three leaders had once again shared in the pleasures of their bodies, Hestia was removed from the tent.

It happened while Shailaja was still occupied with Velag and by the time he had finished with her and she realized what was happening Hestia was gone. She could have done little in any case as Velag had decided that her use that night would be that much more interesting if her wrists were bound to her ankles. In this way Shailaja was able to satisfy Velag with her loins while Gorvag used her mouth. It kept her busy enough that it was with some surprise that she noted the absent of her companion.

Velag grinned at her bemusement. "You sleep alone from now on, barbarian. Prince Bekor has special plans for her."

Shailaja expected the news could have been worse; she might have been forced to sleep with Velag, but was not yet considered tamed enough for that honour; nor would she be if she had her way.

No more was said about the matter, nor did Shailaja ask, but she did not see Hestia the next day as she was placed in her customary station behind the last wagon. She kept her eyes open for some sign of the Queen, but her position was not the best for observing anything in the procession.

The situation remained that way for the next two days as the army slowly closed on Uvar until, on the afternoon of the third day the city came into sight.

---

It was unchanged from the time Shailaja had visited it some thirteen moons before. It was a city of some three thousand souls and was located on a slight rise that elevated it above the plain. It was surrounded by a stone wall some five yards high and almost two yards thick at the base. Twenty towers of varying heights reinforced the defences. By the standards of many cities she had seen Uvar was neither imposing not particularly well protected, however, it was typical of many cities of the Arkanian Plain and if properly defended it would have presented the small army commanded by Gorvag and his allied with some challenges.

However, with their Queen a captive, and many of their best soldiers dead, Shailaja suspected the defence might not be particularly well led. By now Gorvag's forces numbered some seven hundred men, including Velag's one hundred Belusendran Warriors, and Bekor's one hundred and fifty foot soldiers and crossbowmen. Of these Velag's force, along a few of Gorvag's men who had trained under Den, were by far the best soldiers. If they could somehow get over the wall it would be all over for the defenders of the city.

But getting over the wall was the trick. For that ladders and other siege equipment was needed, along with men brave enough to rush the ladders to the walls and then climb them in the face of the defenders.

Gorvag's combined force was large enough to successfully mount such an attack, however, there would almost certainly be casualties and since the best troops would be needed to lead the attack it meant that a number of Velag's men along with Bekor's would be lost.

Shailaja knew all of this from the discussions the three leaders had conducted during their nightly sessions in Velag's pavilion, and she also knew that both Velag and Bekor had no desire to see their elite troops sacrificed in an attack on Uvar's walls. As a result they had decided on tactics of intimidation. They would surround the city and then systematically lay waste to the surrounding countryside, hoping to force surrender. Bekor also had his own special plan involving his captive, but Shailaja was not to know about that until later.

Camp was quickly set up and the siege established. Velag's men were critical in cutting off the city as they were entirely mounted and could engage in wide ranging patrols that would intercept anyone attempting to reach the city. The patrols were less effective at night but it was not thought that much in the way of supplies could be smuggled in after sundown.

There was one other aspect to Gorvag's strategy and that was the continuing recruiting of additional rabble to serve as arrow fodder. If it became necessary to storm the city these would be the first soldiers sent against the walls, probably as a diversion while Velag's more highly trained men tackled another part of the city's walls.

It would not be a quick conquest the way Gorvag and his allies had planned it, but it would keep casualties to a minimum. Shailaja had little use for such a strategy. Had she been in charge of the siege matters would have occurred differently. But then she could never see any point in camping for months outside the wall of a city when a quick assault would see her army over them. This looked to her to be a long drawn out process and she had little but contempt for Gorvag and his allies. That contempt was magnified by Bekor's actions.

Interestingly, Bekor and Shailaja were of a like mind about one thing, and that was that a lengthy siege was not in his interest. It was Bekor who tried to end the siege quickly, but not by any means that required risk to him or his men.

On the second day of the siege the Prince of Cebar appeared with his prize in tow. In full sight of the walls of the city he paraded the helpless and hapless form of its Queen. Hestia's wrists were bound behind her back, and her hair was unbound. However, to anyone with an eye there was no mistaking who she was. Even stripped and reduced to the status of a powerless captive, there was something regal about Hestia. It had something to do with the way she held her body and the way she walked. From the walls of the city cries of outrage were heard as the Uvarians witnessed the humiliation of their Queen.

It was hoped that the sight of Hestia's degradation would so enrage the Uvarians that it would draw them out in a rash attack to rescue her. With that in mind Velag had his entire force mounted in the hope that the gates would open and he would be able to mount a charge that would see the city in his hands. In order to further encourage the Uvarians to attack Bekor paraded Hestia before the walls just out of the range of a powerful crossbow. He led her on a length of rope that was tied about her neck while he rode his horse.

"Uvarians," Bekor shouted. "See your Queen. She is mine to do with as I wish. Spare her further punishment and throw down your arms. Those who do so will be spared and free to leave the city. Refuse and she will be subjected to further degradation."

Shailaja knew, as did those in the city, that Bekor had no intention of honouring any of his words, except the part about further degrading Hestia, but it must have been soul-destroying for the soldiers and citizens manning the walls to see their Queen so brutalized, and it was about to get much worse.

Bekor rode completely about the city, shouting his message to all four walls before returning to where he had begun. Hestia was hauled barefoot and naked behind him, her feet bloody before the circuit was completed. But with no response from the people of Uvar he proceeded to the next stage of his plan.

To no one's surprise, least of all the people of Uvar, Hestia was subjected to a brutal humiliation before the walls of the city; and it was in the form of Bekor's favourite sort of punishment.

One of Gorvag's scum was selected; a man by the name of Mogan. One of Gorvag's more recent recruits, he was especially suited to the spectacle Bekor wished to present. He stood a full head taller than Shailaja and was massively muscled. He was also terrifying in appearance, at least so far as most who saw him were concerned. His body was covered in ritualistic scars into which ink had been rubbed. Shailaja later discovered that he hailed from a part of Vedra called Chalsyn in which such marks were common and indicated clan membership and status, but she had never seen such markings before and neither had the people of Uvar.

"Behold your Queen," Bekor shouted. "Taken by a mountain barbarian."

The Uvarians were not to know that Hestia had already been defiled more times than she could have counted. They saw only that their Queen was being subjected to a savage and violent degradation.

Shailaja watched from just yards away as Hestia was taken. As usual Velag had taken the usual precautions and had chained her wrists, this time so that her hands were in front of her. However, she was flanked by two guards who kept a strong hold on her arms to make sure that she did not attempt anything rash.

To make her humiliation even more degrading Hestia was also held by two of Gorvag's men. The Queen struggled frantically as Mogon lifted her legs, parted them and stepped between her thighs.

Hestia's violation presented a savage spectacle as she fought desperately to stave off the inevitable. Struggling to break free, her full, firm breasts shuddered and jiggled as she heaved her body. But it was all to no avail. Mogon forced her legs apart, positioned his powerful body, and thrust into her.

Hestia screamed at his first thrust and then cried even louder as he drove deep within her. It was hideous and shameful to witness such an ordeal and be helpless to do anything about it, but Shailaja could not tear her gaze away. This time, however, she felt no rising excitement within her; instead she was filled with rage so intense that her vision clouded and she had to look away from the bestial spectacle.

Hestia's screams lasted a good turn of the glass before Mogon was finished with the sobbing Queen. But still Uvar did not open its gates, either to surrender or to stage a desperate rescue. Shailaja fully expected Hestia to be ravished again as an example to the town, but it appeared that Bekor had something else planned, as with a final warning to the town, he ordered the weeping Queen to be returned to the camp.

The Queen did not pass close enough to Shailaja in order for her to carry out her promise. She was ready enough now after what had been done to her. Surely any warrior would prefer death to such dishonour, but she had not the opportunity and could only watch helplessly as Hestia was led away.

After that Shailaja was returned to Velag's tent for the remainder of the day. She expected that for now that was all there would be to Hestia's humiliation, but once again she was proven wrong, although she did not realize it until morning.

That night neither Bekor nor Gorvag put in an appearance, and Velag had her to himself. He took her long and hard and took special care to remind her of her new status as a vessel for his seed.

"I will have children from you," he panted as he thrust deep within her. "They will make strong warriors and if there are daughters they will serve my captains well as their wives and concubines."

There was nothing Shailaja could say to that. As Velag's captive he could use her any way he wished. So far he had been successful in keeping her helpless. But one day he would fail, and when he did she would take full advantage of his carelessness and her vengeance would be terrible.

Continued in Chapter 20

---