SQUIRE OF CARLOVAIN, CHAPTER 8
THE IMPRESSION SQUAD
By Tommyhawk1@AOL.COM
They stood a while on the banks of the spring, washing their clothing by dunking it into the water and wringing it dry, again and again. Done, they spread them on bushes to let them drip yet more of the water out of them, and then went to Adomeh, who was still sleeping.
Very soundly. Trevish shook Adomeh gently, then harder, calling to him again and again. Then he rose and looked at his big comrade. "He's a sound sleeper, and took more of the draught than I did. I felt it had a funny taste to it, and didn't drink overmuch. But he may yet be feeling some of the effects of it."
"What shall we do?" Andrew asked. "Tarry here longer?"
"Nay, I was serious about food, for they fed us not yesterday. I am enough of a soldier to tolerate it well enough, but I would like to find victuals of some kind soon. If we are not to join up with the troops ahead, then we should find a market nearby to buy supplies." Trevish grimaced. "And buy without funds, no less. Cursed soldiers, that ring I wore was a gift from my mother. I'll never be able to find it again when this is over."
"I have money." Andrew had rescued his own pouch, which he carried strung on the cord that also tied his trousers and thus kept tucked inside his clothing "It contains no gold, but there is nearly three gold pieces' worth of silver and copper inside. My life's savings." Garnered a copper or two at a time, tips from noblemen or prosperous commoners for caring for their horses.
"It shall suffice." Trevish said, smiled. "I wish now we'd taken your bet when we dueled, for now you'd be richer by three silver pieces and we could buy more food."
Adomeh turned and they looked down hopefully. But he had merely turned onto his back, and now his snores, which had been a low rumble, now resounded off the cliff and drowned out the water.
"We should awaken him now." Andrew said.
Trevish grinned. "He needs a bath anyway."
"Uh? Oh!" Andrew grinned in return.
They took Adomeh by a foot and hand each, and swung him between them like a large sack. Adomeh awoke as they were ferrying him the few steps. "Huh? What is this?"
"Are you ready?" Trevish said.
"Ready!" Andrew agreed.
"And a one!" they swung Adomeh between them.
"Put me down!" Adomeh said.
"And a two!"
"What do you think you are..."
"And go!"
"...doing, you, uh, uh, ahhh!" And Adomeh landed with a broad, widely-spraying splatter of water, flat into the pool. The water enclosed over him thoroughly, rushed back in and created a miniature geyser upwards, before he rose again like a monstrous fish from the deep, snorting and sputtering. He fought his way to his feet, not without falling downwards again and submerging his face briefly, but then he was erect and in control of his body again, and raked his hair back from his face. "You sons of serpents!" he fumed. "You bastards bred from a lonesome farmer's wife and a rutting boar! When I get my hands on you, I'll tear every limb from your body and throw them in separate garbage pits. I'll spit on your grandmothers and pull your grandfather's ears!"
"Now, now, Adomeh, calm yourself!" Trevish said, laughing heartily. "You needed a good bath after that rank pit they kept us in. Andrew and I have already had ours, so get to cleaning and we'll venture in search of breakfast!"
"And we could think of no other way to awaken you." Andrew chipped in.
"I am surrounded by pranksters." Adomeh grumbled.
"Toss over your clothes and we'll wash them out for you while you bathe." Trevish offered.
"Scant compensation for such a rude act." Adomeh grumbled, but he removed his tunic and tossed it to Andrew. "You, my comrade, may scour the pants, and be sure you wash out that stripe inside the back of it. My bowels must have been active overnight, for my buttocks feel sticky." He chunked out the pants towards Trevish, who caught them.
Trevish looked over at Andrew, who was blushing. "I won't tell him if you won't." he offered.
"My gratitude." Andrew accepted. "I doubt he would take it in good sport in his current mood."
"I doubt he would take it in good sport in any mood." Trevish said. Adomeh was under the waterfall and presumably insulated from hearing their talk.
"Then let us wash his clothes with all dispatch." Andrew said.
They did and Adomeh stepped from the water as they were wringing them dry for the final time. He scraped the water from his chest with his powerful hands, sending bright silver beads flashing in every direction, flinging his hands dry after each stroke. "Here, Andrew, take care of my back for me." he asked. "My clothes will dry quicker if they don't have to soak up my body's moisture first."
"Of course." Andrew agreed. He stepped behind Adomeh and ran his hands over the broad back, remembering now his own nakedness once again. To be unclothed while you dried from a swim was nothing unusual, but Andrew had until this time done so totally alone. Trevish was running his hands over Adomeh's arms.
"Better get his legs, too, Andrew." Trevish suggested.
Andrew knelt and ran his paired hands over the powerful thighs one at a time, feeling the water cascading down in the wake of his palms. Adomeh's hairs had trapped a good deal of water, he noticed. He himself was now nearly dry but for the hair on his head....
Adomeh turned and Andrew reached up to perform the same task, to reach as high as he could in order to scrape away the most water, all the way up to Adomeh's ballsac....
Adomeh had an erection. Andrew saw it now in the clear light of day, a wonderfully powerful prong to adorn a wonderfully powerful body. Thick and oval both in girth and in length, it weighed too much to be supported by the muscles at the base, it drooped over even in tumescence, still wet with the spring water, though with a gleam at its slit that spoke not of water but of virility.
Andrew was reminded of his dream, but this cock even though washed by its owner in the warm spring waters, retained its heavy musk, and as he took it into his mouth, it carried the taste of male flesh, pungent, strong, rich, but not unpleasant. Andrew drew the large prong deeply into himself, his mouth watering of its own accord. In these mere days, he had become nearly accustomed to the demands of sexual acts, his mouth generated the moisture needed to grease the way down his throat, and his throat accepted and made way for the wide intruder, taking it with the welcome of many guests into a small home, cramped but accommodating.
Andrew plied his tongue and lips over the pud as he released it again, drawing the foreskin with him as he pulled back, looked up to see Trevish's hands pinch Adomeh's nipples. Adomeh had his head back and was resting it on Trevish's shoulder, it was Trevish who looked down at him and smiled encouragement.
Adomeh's cock pulsed on Andrew's tongue like a living creature heaving and sighing in response to Andrew's ministrations, Andrew suckled the turgid pole as he sped up his movements, and Adomeh's rumbling moans of appreciation gained in volume as he did so. Adomeh was very much like a bear in his actions and movements, and it showed here even now, in the slow motions of his hips as he nearly-involuntarily pumped in time to Andrew's motions, turning the movements into a harmony of their bodies. Andrew used the lessened need for movement of his head and neck and the control that gave him to tighten his grip on Adomeh's shaft, feeling the hard, heated shaft roiling about inside the foreskin which was like a wrapping of a velvet blanket. Andrew wielded his tongue to lap at the shaft as it pulled out, then let his tongue ride back into his mouth for more moisture with each thrust into his throat, so that soon a long rope of saliva dangled from Adomeh's shaft, bound in two places, one at the base of Adomeh's hard cock, and the other at Andrew's lips, the gob of spit weaving downwards like a fat white spider at the end of its web-line until it connected to the grass below, leaving them still connected for Andrew added more moisture from his mouth with each stroke, so that more beads of saliva slid down the long white cord into the green, smooth grass.
Adomeh seemed to begin to lose the strength in his legs, for now he buckled at the knees and Andrew had a more upright clutch on Adomeh's wonderfully warm prod, he added yet more speed to his assault and Adomeh hunched upwards into his mouth. Now the coordinated movements were gone, now it had turned bestial, the rapid hunching of the male animal seeking release, and Andrew gave Adomeh this control over him, to let the big man grab his head and fuck at his face lustily, roughly, until Adomeh groaned and as Trevish's arms locked around Adomeh's waist and held him upright, Adomeh pumped his wads into Andrew's mouth, spewing a copious load into Andrew, heavy, slimy wads of jism that slid down his throat like so many creeping beetles, and he swallowed convulsively, and that blocked the flow and his mouth flooded, jizz leaked from both sides of his mouth and soiled his chin, and he swallowed yet again and twin blobs of come crawled below his chin to meet up on his under-jowls to reach down for their freedom, while Andrew kept the rest of the seed-packets hostage in his mouth until he could swallow.
Adomeh finished at last, and fell to his knees before Andrew, and they were face to face before Adomeh, exhausted, fell on backwards to the soft grass, his massive chest heaving as he recovered.
Trevish grinned down at Andrew and, seeing Andrew's face shining with the escaping jism, knelt in his own turn to catch the large blob about to break loose on his tongue and then rose up to kiss the rest of Andrew's face clean.
"Ah, lad, you were terrific!" Adomeh praised him. "Would that I could obtain this service every morning."
"It's not my fault you generally sleep too late." Trevish riposted. "Andrew and I have been awake for a good half-hour now."
"We were thinking of breakfast, and where to obtain it." Andrew said.
"Yes, my intrepid leader, shall we brave the forces of Marcus Dentremon?"
"Nay, I think not." Adomeh said. "Not for another week, when we can be sure that our King is safely away. For now, we must remain incognito."
Andrew almost started to say that the King had already left Carlovain by now, but a dream was no evidence to present. "How shall we obtain word of his escape?"
"We must trust that he has, until we get good word one way or the other." Adomeh said. "Our three blades will not sway the balance of power greatly, and our secret is more important for now."
"So we do not journey to Castle Tiresval?" Trevish asked.
"Not yet." Adomeh said.
"Then where shall we journey?"
"I say we head further east." Adomeh said. "Beyond Lord Dentremon's lands lies the harbor of Fediresta, and there last I heard were kept some five of the King's best naval ships. If we can seize control of those ships by some strategem, then we can take them for the King's use."
"Fediresta is governed by Count Ratisbon." Trevish pointed out. "His son is married to Montaigne's eldest daughter."
"But Ratisbon himself took to wife the Lady Minorella, who is of pure Neresterii blood." Adomeh responded.
"Which one shall win out, the French blood or the Neresterii?" Trevish asked.
"We shall have to travel there and discover that. As I said, I will not forego stooping to thievery to win those ships for the King's use."
"First, then, to a village." Trevish pointed out. "If we are to travel through the Carlovain Hills to get to Fediresta, then we'll need supplies for the journey."
"Let us return to the road and find a village, then." Adomeh agreed.
There was, of course, a town in the valley below, the large circle of lights they had seen the previous night turned out to center on this town. It was still mid-morning when they arrived and rode through the walls of the village. Possessing some forty buildings, it was a fair-sized town for the largely agrarian Carlovain. And it possessed as well, in its center, a marketplace.
"Where are your wares, good woman?" Trevish called to one stall-keeper who had from all appearances run a bakery, but whose shelves, which should be burdened with her baked wares, were empty still. She was running her arms strongly through a massive roll of bread-dough.
"Gobbled up by the forces that rode through here last night." she called back. "I am baking more bread now, but it'll be nearly noon before I can offer any for sale."
"Save us a good half-dozen loaves and we'll return." Trevish called back to her. "We have our own traveling to do."
"All the stalls appear to have been plucked clean by locusts." Andrew observed.
"We seem to be at a loss for our meal." Adomeh said.
"And I have not enough coins to pay for our meal at an inn, not and pay for provisions as well." Andrew said.
"I have coins." Adomeh said.
"You do? From where?" Trevish asked.
"I plucked them from the guards as we made our escape." Adomeh mentioned. "With you and Andrew doing the slashing, I had no room and chose instead to make myself useful. A good leader plans ahead, and I knew money would be needed. So I robbed our captors without shame."
Had it not been for that dream, that vivid dream, Andrew may have scowled at Adomeh's actions. But they had been robbed themselves, and probably came out the poorer for the mutual robbery. Where was the right? It resides within the heart, as does honor. They had needed the money as they had needed swords, if they were to be of any use to the King. Adomeh had done the right thing, he told himself. But it still didn't feel right.
"Then let's find a place. Ho, good sir, where is a tavern where three travelers may quench their thirst and break the morning fast?"
"That building over there." the man pointed to a building with a sign on it, no words, just a picture of a dog at the end of a chain, apparently trying to burst free and attack something.
"Wonderful." Trevish said.
They went in and Andrew found it odd, to be the one being served at an inn rather than doing the serving. As it was, he found the Guard Dog Inn (so he chose to think of it to himself) to be a dirty place with lackluster servants. The young lad who served them hadn't bathed in days from the smell of him. But the food smelled and looked all right, and he was happy to dig in, as were his friends who had done without food for far longer than he.
"Where are your other customers?" Trevish asked as the innkeeper came to pour him another round of ale. Trevish seemed unconcerned about how much money they had with them, and was behaving as if his pockets bulged with cash overall.
"Hiding, those who did not travel north with Young Lord Dentremon." the innkeeper said. He sighed. "This village shall be traveled through by forces on both sides time and again until this rebellion is settled. We have a town meeting tonight, and I intend to vote to close the town until the leadership of Carlovain is resolved. Otherwise, we'll be stripped of everything we possess. Soldiers are paying for their things now, but soon enough they'll be taking instead of paying."
The sound of hooves came towards them. Many hooves.
"That will be more soldiers." the innkeeper said.
"They are the Count's house troops." the boy said.
He said "Count", not "Lord", Andrew noted. They had traveled beyond Lord Dentremon's holdings, apparently.
"You'd best all hide." the innkeeper said. "And you, too, lad. They'll be ready to impress young men into their forces, and unless I miss my guess, it won't be the King's side you'll be impressed to fight for."
Andrew was nervous, he had heard of peasants being impressed into service. He had even expected it from Lord Montaigne, but here.... "Even outside our own liege's lands?" he asked.
"Do you think they'll stop and ask you where you're from?" Trevish said, scowling at Andrew. "Aye, we'd better hide, and soon. Do you have a place, innkeeper?"
"Nay, but there is a back door you can try." The innkeeper pointed.
"Thank you." Adomeh dropped some coins onto the table in payment and they went out the back. Andrew wondered how they'd retrieve their horses under these conditions.
He didn't have long to think about it. They walked out into the blades of three soldiers, who had been stationed there. A fourth held the young lad squirming in his arms. "Welcome to the Count's service." the ranking soldier present said. "You have been chosen to join Count Ratisbon's troops. The Count is outfitting the ships in his harbor. It'll be a sailor's life for you three."
Adomeh must have thought fast, realized that this would be both travel among people who did not know the secret they held, and toward his own destination of Fediresta. What he said, pulling his sword, was, "A good thing, for we had intended to travel and offer the Count our services. Now be a good soldier and let that boy go, he's too young for impression."
"We won't need him now that we have you." the soldier gestured, and the boy was released.
"We, sir, are mercenaries." Adomeh said. "You don't impress us. You pay us."
"You can discuss that with Count Ratisbon, later." the soldier said. "Now, either draw your sword and fight, or come along with us."
Adomeh seemed to consider it. "We'll travel with you for now. You obviously have no rank to negotiate our terms in any event. Our horses are out in front of the inn."
The soldier scowled, but he escorted them around to the front of the inn.
"Well, Andrew, look on the bright side." Trevish said. "This way, we don't have to pay for our supplies for the travel."
Trevish seemed unconcerned, as did Adomeh. Andrew tried to do the same, but his stomach fluttered.
Impression. The taking of young men to fill the ranks of a noble's army of conquest. Ill-fed, ill-equipped and untrained, it was the fate of many such to die ignobly on the field of battle.
And he had just been impressed.