The Chronicles of Rapina, Chapters 44-46

The Best Laid Plans
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[Rapina]044 The Best Laid Plans
[Rapina]045 An Unfriendly Wager
[Rapina]046 With A Little Bit of Hluk


[Rapina]044 The Best Laid Plans

Spring had brought with it the prospect of new battles
between Avengene and the orcs, and with it renewed
forays to collect bodies.  Already Rapina had been on
two collection missions, one of which had necessitated
a run through the shadow plain to reach the
destination.  Thane's new spell had been quite handy,
allowing the group to reach the location of the battle,
consecrate a graveyard and then use it to bring in
skeletal horses and body-collecting skeletal soldiers
via the graveyard mists spell.

By this time Rapina had mastered a small repertoire of
cantrips and a relatively long-lasting mage-sight spell
called "first sight" that let her see magical
emanations.  She had also attained a certain degree of
adeptness with her energy draining and channeling spell
variations.  The last of these that she was able to
perfect was the mouth-full version of her channeling
spell.  Thanks to her new channeling spell, if her
lover came in her mouth, she swallowed more than his
cum.

It was late afternoon, morning for Rapina.  She had
risen a bit early, made breakfast, put it on to warm,
then disrobed to give Uhler his morning wash.  She was
now practicing her channeling spell.  Moans, suckles
and smacks came from her mouth as she swallowed a great
portion of Uhler's cock and rode her mouth and throat
up and down.  She was hungry and she could feel the
energy in him building and building.  She began the
sequence of sounds and caressed his backside to shape
the minor magic she was weaving.  Rapina shuddered as
more than the shaman's cum bolted down her throat.  His
energy surged down into her loins then back up her
spine, into her heart and from thence it radiated into
her breasts to join her reserves.

Thane poked his death-masked head into the lab.  "Did
you get something out of that?"

Still kneeling before the shaman, Rapina turned her
head and smiled.  Just a bit of cum dribbled over her
full lips. She had swallowed the rest.  "Yes, I took a
segment from the drain spell, and I now use it to
channel the natural energy of my lovers to hit just the
right spot.  It's the only cantrip I can do with my
mouth full.  The entire drain spell is too difficult
for me to shape with something in my mouth.  Would you
like me to demonstrate my new channel spell on you?"
Rapina grinned lustily.

"That won't be necessary," said.

Rapina giggled and shook her head.  She stood up,
giving Uhler an affectionate rub under the chin.  I
can't imagine how you stand to do without sex, Kroz.  I
suppose it's time for breakfast and our lesson.  Rapina
grabbed the deep purple panties and bustier she had
chosen for this morning's breakfast service, and put
them on.  Then she joined Thane as he walked back
towards the lounge.

"Your choice of fashion certainly doesn't make celibacy
any easier, my dear," Thane said.

Rapina grinned, "Maybe not, but I enjoy your lust and
Rames as it tingles through me, besides it's not like
I'm just teasing you.  Since I have two regular lovers,
I have much better control and a channeling spell and
variations that give me more flexibility than I ever
used to have.  I need not take any more than a man
gives naturally if that's what worries you, and I won't
try to bend your mind anymore than it's already bent."

Thane gave Rapina's full moon a swat, "You're saying my
mind is already bent, Vixen?"

Rapina squealed and danced to the other side of the
necromancer at which time she grabbed his skeletal left
hand from behind and pressed the fingers into the right
cheek of her derriere.

Thane stiffened involuntarily.

"Well you are a little undead, and a necromancer,"
Rapina said.

"You have no idea what that feels like to that hand,"
Thane said.

"I can imagine, though," Rapina said. "I'll bet it
feels like a flood of life force, something your hand
lacks but craves.  Yet if you killed me as most undeads
seem to be wont to do, you would get only a brief
moment where you felt more life force, and then
nothing.  It's so sad.  Skeletons would really be
better off just giving friendly little squeezes.  You
could immerse your bone in my flesh."

Thane groaned at Rapina's play on words.

"Do you avoid sex because you fear you would kill me
because of your undead hand or because you might loose
your objective perspective?  If it's your perspective
you think you would loose, is it really fully objective
where I'm concerned anymore?"

"Are you saying I am in love with you?" Thane asked.

"Not exactly.  You react to my body, but that's just
lust and you dismiss it as meaningless.  Your fondness
stems from your appreciation of my budding intellect,
not from other budding things.  That's really very
impressive.  Most women would think you a rare gem
because you did not just see them as an object of
desire.  I think it's sweet too, but I also appreciate
men who think of me as an object of desire more than
most women do, for obvious reasons."

"This fondness you think I have, do you see it in the
cold light of your own ability to see men as little
more than food?" Thane asked.

"Oh come now, you are attributing a cold, calculating
manner to me.  It is true I can think that way.  I have
a good teacher, but I happen to be quite fond of the
men I make love with, all of them, especially those I
see on a regular basis.  Just because I get something
out of our liaisons, doesn't make it a cold business
transaction, anymore than a man's getting something out
of it necessarily causes the same attitude.  Perhaps I
am just projecting my fondness of you as a great wit
and fine teacher to reflect back on me.  Maybe you
really have no feeling for me at all, chess master,"
Rapina said.

"Thane chuckled, "The matter is academic.  I am a
mortancer.  Whether I am fond of you or not is
immaterial.  I must do what is best for the cause
whether I like it or not.  The future of our church and
hundreds, even thousands of lives rest on my shoulders,
and to serve their needs I must retain a great deal of
objectivity.

Consider Daelrath, what are the odds that such a man
would side with a mortancer?  True we offer him a
vastly better deal than Avengene, but our methods run
against the man's grain.  Without you, my dear,
Daelrath would be in Avengene's pocket.  The Order
knows that full well, and that is exactly why you are
now a full member."

"I see your point.  Perhaps since you are my teacher I
think of you as superhuman.  I have always thought of
your objective judgment as something that you would
exercise no matter what.  If I would warp your judgment
too much, I guess it's just as well you don't get too
close to me," Rapina said.

"You are also young enough to be my daughter, perhaps
even my granddaughter if I stretched it," Thane said.

Rapina grinned. "True, but that seldom stops a man."

Thane swatted Rapina's rump again as they entered the
kitchen nook.  Rames was already there serving himself
up a bowl of oatmeal.

"Good morning-afternoon, naughty."  Rames held aside
his bowl of oatmeal while he embraced Rapina with his
other arm.  Good morning Guardian Thane, is this wench
giving you trouble?" Rames grinned.

Thane took his death mask off and smiled, "She is a
creature of lust, as ever," Thane said.

"Oh, she's wondering why she can't have you the two or
three nights of the week that she makes me rest up,"
Rames said.

"Indeed," Thane replied.

Rames chuckled. "I'm not even going to touch that one.
If you were a soldier I'd rib you good, but your role
is different, so I figure you must have your reasons."

"Yes," Thane said.

Rapina set Thane's oatmeal down in front of him, Then
took the omelet out of the warm oven where she had
hidden it and set it out on a platter.  She gave each
person a plate and sat down.

"You know you are a quite a vixen, Rapina, but I cannot
complain about your work or your cooking.  For a
moment, I thought we would simply have oatmeal, but I
should have known better.  You always feed us better
than we would feed ourselves, and serve us in the
finest lingerie fashions of Argos."

"There's nothing like Rapina in Argosian fashions to
get your heart started." Rames grinned saltily."

"At least we know we living men," Thane smiled.  "Tell
me, how are things going with your bestowal spell?"

Rapina sighed. "I can practically do the prescribed
syllables and gestures in my sleep, but I have not been
able to get it to work."

"Hmm, show me your technique after breakfast and I will
give you some things to try so that you can narrow it
down.  I believe your knowledge and command of the
drain spell is more than sufficient, but bestowal is
something a little new for you, and it requires more
power than what you are used to mustering.  I do
believe it within your capability now.  We simply need
another breakthrough," Thane said.

A few hours later as dusk approached, Thane found his
living servitors as they came in from weapons practice.

"I have been doing my daily skrying, and there is a
battle going on at one of the half-reconstructed forts
in Avengene.  The orcs appear to be winning.   Wash up,
a few hours after dark when things settle down we must
prepare to make a run through the shadow plane from the
nearest graveyard.  Presently we do not have a
graveyard near enough to this fort."

A few hours later the shadowy forms of Thane, Rames,
Rapina, Elizabetta, and two reaving skeletons arrived
at the scene of the battle.

"That is odd," Thane's shadowy voice echoed.  "There
are some recent dead here but just before we left
tonight, I checked my magic pool and the orcs were busy
looting."

"It could be cavalry arrived more recently.  There are
a few dead mounts," Rames said.

"Indeed, it might be that the Avengenes sent out a
rider at the very beginning of the battle and received
cavalry reinforcements at the very end of the battle,
yet there is no one on the battle site.  I suspect the
Avengenes would have held this fort if they had won,
but the orcs may have left the scene," Thane said.

"The cavalry men have been stripped of loot, so I would
say the orcs must have weathered the reinforcements.
Perhaps they fled for fear of further reinforcements,"
Rames said.

"I concur.  We must search in a wide circle around the
fort before we come out of the shadow plain.  I have no
desire to be set upon by more Avengene reinforcements
or orcs, although I wonder if sane men would try to
fight orcs at night, since the orcs can see in the dark
and they cannot.  It could be that both sides have
camped.  The humans because they cannot see, and the
orcs because they are licking their wounds from a tough
battle.   We must see if we can filch the bodies before
either group decides to check out the fort.  Let us
first scout."

From the plain of shadow, the group was able to cover a
great deal of ground rapidly.  They found no one near
the ruins of the fort.

"Let us make our graveyard here.  We are only two
hundred yards from the fort, yet the foliage is thick
between it and us.  Here, however we have a more open
area where our train of skeletal horses could move
easily," Thane said.

"Elizabetta, you will be perimeter sentry.  Reavers you
will be guarding our immediate area.  Rames, and Rapina
you will dig the graves and plant the bagged skeletons.
I will cast darkness on each of us as a precaution.
Let us hustle, we do not want to encounter scouts
without the full complement of guards we normally have
when using the graveyard mists spell for transport.
Thane pronounced the syllables to end the shadow spell
for each of his servitors.

Rames handed short swords from his pack to the two
reaving skeletons and then took up a small shovel he
had hanging on the side of the pack.

As soon as she was corporeal again, Rapina drew a small
shovel from her back and began digging furiously, as
did Rames.

Thane cast a darkness spell on Elizabetta, and then did
vision in darkness on himself and his living servitors
before casting darkness on them as well.

After getting the darkness spell cast on her,
Elizabetta took her weapons belts from Thane's
shoulders.  Since she had no aura, the necromancer had
to carry her things while they were in the shadow
plane.

When he completed the casting, Thane drew a bagged
skeleton from his pack and tossed it into Rames' first
finished hole.  Because the bagged skeletons were so
compact, the graves were small, only about a foot in
diameter and two feet deep.   Thane drew a second
skeleton from Rames' pack and tossed it into the
warrior's second hole at about the same time as Rapina
drew a bagged skeleton from her pack and tossed it into
her first finished hole.

Rapina had just started digging when Rames came over to
displace her.  She knew he was the faster digger so she
went to the other holes and quickly began to bury the
skeletons Thane had planted.  Rapina was kitty-corner
from Rames and Thane when she heard it, the sound of
rapidly approaching hoof-beats.  "A horse," Rapina
whispered.

"We must take no chances.  Rames, you will serve as our
beachhead in the shadow plain.  Stand here where the
moonlight filters through the trees.  If there is time
we will consecrate, if not we will make a clean
escape," Thane said.

Thane pronounced the words of the shadow gate spell.
Rames stepped back and disappeared.  At about that
moment, Elizabetta entered the clearing.

An orc galloped past not twenty yards from Rapina, his
horse bearing the blood-splattered tack of the Avengene
cavalry.

"Elizabetta, you must remain on the perimeter to run
interference if need be.  Should we get separated,
preserve yourself and I shall pick you up when I can.
Reavers, get behind that tree and guard me only if I am
about to be attacked," Thane ordered.

Elizabetta moved into the trees.

Rapina had already buried two of the holes, and she
could hear more horses coming.

Thane hid behind a thick tree and motioned Rapina away
from the holes to do likewise.

Nine cavalrymen galloped by in the direction of the
orc.

Thane waited for a minute as the hoof-beats receded
into the distance.  "Quickly," he whispered.

Rapina burried the second last hole while Thane buried
the last, pushing the dirt in with his feet.  She had
just finished when Thane started with the consecration.

"Hail Mortaebius guardian of the dead, we the dead who
lie here entreat thee, hallow this ground that we may
rest," Thane intoned.

Rapina had never heard the first prayer of consecration
said quite so rapidly or so softly.  "Hail Mortaebius,
keeper of the deceased, we the living entreat thee,
hallow this ground that the dead be held in thy
embrace, to rise only in the direst need."

"Hearken, ye buried and departed, to the power of
Mortaebius coursing through thy rotting flesh and
bones," Thane intoned.

"Hearken, ye living to the call of thy ancestors in
Mortaebius' embrace, and know his power will preserve
thee, until death takes life's grace," Rapina
whispered.

"And thus we close the circle, life and death, the
cycle is complete." Thane and Rapina completed the
consecration.

Rapina heard a twig snap, a whisper in the wind and
then suddenly she was blinded by bright light.  She
drew her blades and backed towards the nearest tree
blinking as she did.  She could hear men coming from
all sides.  By the time she could see anything they
were practically on top of her.  She had missed the
nearest tree and was actually behind and beside it.
There were two men coming across the graveyard from the
front and two coming through the trees from her flanks.


Thane had retreated behind a tree on the other side of
the graveyard.  He took his light enspelled cape,
balled it up and tossed it towards the enemy casters as
he put a tree between them and him.  The cape had been
illuminated by the second of two light spells that had
hit him.  The first had dispelled his darkness spell
and the second had left a spot on his cape glowing
brightly.

Rapina realized the side of her cloak hood had a
brightly glowing spot on it.  The men across the open
area had cast light spells.  Originally there had been
four, now one was part of the advance, three remained;
she could hear the droning of their voices. She hopped
quickly to her left and turned, putting a tree between
them and her, cutting off their line of sight.   Rapina
knew there were too many of them.  She would have to
draw them so Thane would have time to escape.  She
began repeating the words to the drain spell and waving
her blades appropriately.  She knew she could not cast
the spell without her fingers shaping the power, but
perhaps they did not.

"Caster over here!" a soldier of Avengene shouted.

A man came from the forward right and another directly
from the right. The reavers met the two men and blade
rang on blade.

"Undead!" A cavalryman hollered as one of the reavers
engaged him.

Thane heard the casters running to draw a bead on
Rapina, whose apparent spell-casting was just loud
enough for them to hear.  The necromancer jumped
forward and to the right, skirting the battle between
the reavers and two of the Avengenes.  There was a tree
on the right side of the graveyard.  The light from his
tossed-off cape was hitting it so it cast a deep
shadow.   With his back to that shadow, Thane began
casting.

Rapina dove forward between two men about to surround
her.   She came up standing and ran.  She could hear a
caster droning and both warriors chasing her.  She
tried to put trees between them and her.
Unfortunately, the warriors were right on her heals.

From the corner of his eye, Thane realized that one of
the casters had held himself in reserve.  He had moved
towards Rapina's side of the graveyard but he had not
actually run forward to intercept her, as the other two
had.  He pointed at Thane and drew in his breath.
Thane held to his iron discipline and continued
casting.  If the man had a quicker spell, Thane must
suffer the consequences.

The priest of the vindicator raised his hands and in
the commanding voice of a word of power shouted d--.  A
crosbow bolt transfixed his throat from behind,
sundering his Adams apple and ruining his spell.  He
choked on his own blood and collapsed.

Thane took a step backwards into the plain of shadow.

Reverend Juston slowed the shaping of his spell, trying
to time the release for when the enemy appeared briefly
between trees.  He saw the runner and loosed.

Rapina squawked, as her feet seemed to stick to the
ground.  She could not lift them, but she could slide
them enough to twist, although it was not easy. She
wanted to remove a packet of dust of disenchantment
from her belt pouch, but she could hear that she would
have no time.  She half turned, have twisted. One of
the pursuing warriors was about to run her through,
This is going to hurt, Rapina told herself as she
crossed her blades and deflected the warrior's sword
over her head.  She might have blocked it aside, but
that would have risked the other warrior running her
through.  This way the first one served as a shield.
"Uuu! she groaned as the man bashed into her and landed
her on her back.

"The rogue is held, lieutenant Harms!"

"I yield," Rapina groaned as loud as she could,
considering she had no wind left in her belly after
having been crashed into.

Harms rolled off the enemy and quickly got to his feet.
The soldier's voice was not at all what he had
expected, and the feel when he crashed into the man had
been peculiar.  He looked at the enemy's breastplate.
"It is a woman. Drop your weapons and keep your hands
where I can see them," Harms said.

Rapina sat up and dropped her blades.

"Herald Bode, keep a blade on that one," Lieutenant
Harms ordered.

The first soldier ran towards the battle with the
reaving skeletons, as did the other men of Avengene.
She could hear the priests casting.  One of the priests
stopped and fell headlong.

"Sniper!  Reverend Deam is down!  The lieutenant
whistled loudly, "Let's get the horses back.  If we
can't find that sniper we are in trouble, but the men
should be here soon.  I see a spot of darkness over
there I think."

Rapina saw bits of the battle through the trees.
Lieutenant Harms was fighting as he yelled comments and
orders.  He was obviously good at what he did.  He and
a man in leather armor brought a reaver down, but the
other reaver killed a mailed soldier before the
lieutenant and his partner were able to come to the
soldier's aid.

Reverend Rhymes started casting but then stopped, "The
spot of darkness is gone."

"We've got one of your people, desist or we shall slay
her!" Harms hollered, and then he spoke to his partner
at arms; "You take the skeleton warrior's back,
Parkman, and we will have him down in no time."

The reverend Juston droned a spell and then accented
the last words, "and SMITE thee in the name of the
vindicator!"

Rapina saw the reaver stagger as blast of force hit it,
but it kept fighting.  She heard the sound of
hoofbeats.  A single rider pulled a string of nine
horses.  Reverend Rhymes was casting a spell that
sounded suspiciously like the one that reverend Juston,
who had immobilized her, had just cast against the
reaver.  Had it not been for the Harold's blade at her
throat she would have used the dust of disenchantment
in her belt pouch to free herself, but she was stuck.

"... and SM--Aagh.  The reverend fell over with a bolt
sticking from the base of his skull.

While the lieutenant held his own against the reaver,
he enabled the scout behind the monster to carve it to
pieces.  Rapina saw the man push his helmet back and
wipe the sweat off his brow when the battle was done.

"Reverend Juston, get in among the horses!" Harms
ordered. "I think the sniper is after the priests.  Has
anyone seen reverend Clemont?"

Rapina saw the light on the lieutenant's helmet
directed towards where the priests had cast their first
volley of light spells.

"Damned sniper got Clemont!"  Scout Parkman, gather up
that cape as a light and use the shovel there.   I want
to know what's in those holes.  Maybe it will tell me
who the hell these rogues are."

Rapina heard the sound of men marching, several dozen
men by the sounds of it, and they were close.  "So much
for being rescued by Elizabetta," she brooded.

"Is there any reason I shouldn't kill you, witch, to
make good on my threat?" Lieutenant Harms asked.

Rapina shrugged. "I cannot command it to stop it's
assassinations, if that's what you're asking.  The real
power left with the one who vanished.  If you knew more
about spell-casting, you would have known it was
impossible for a warrior with blades in her hands to
cast spells."

Harms frowned as he realized he'd fallen for the
witch's misdirection, "It?"

Rapina nodded, "A monster similar to the warriors you
just fought, but an assassin."

"Mayhap my superiors will want to question you."  Harms
picked up Rapina's blades and made her give him her
equipment belt.  He strode back to the horses to stow
her gear and threw some manacles from his saddlebags to
the Harold who put them on Rapina's ankles and on her
hands behind her back.  Reverend Juston poked his head
out from behind cover to release her from his spell,
and then she was marched into the midst of the
infantrymen who had just arrived.  They poked, prodded,
punched and kicked her forward in an attempt to make
her keep up with the double-time march in spite of her
manacles.  She kept falling down.

"This stupid woman keeps falling down!" a soldier
growled.

Harms rode into the midst of the men.  "Toss her over
my saddle.  We don't have all night, we have a fort to
rescue."

A burly soldier threw Rapina over the lieutenant's
saddle like a sack of potatoes.  Now she would not
fall, at least not if she didn't slide off the horse.
Of course, she could not help sliding, but maybe that
wasn't so bad.

Harms reached down and placed a hand on the woman's
rump to keep her from sliding.  He could tell she had a
nice set even through the black bear fur cloak she
wore.  "They sure are building better witches these
days," he thought sourly.

Rapina could feel the officer's lust.  It was not too
bad for a man of the vindicator.  The priests were
usually more twisted.  She tugged at it ever so subtly
as the infantry approached the ruined fort.

"Too late!  Look at this mess! Harms said. "It looks
like the cavalry got here, but they were not enough.
Another hour, maybe two faster and we'd have saved the
day."

The fort only had two stone walls and one was only
three feet tall except near where it joined the other.
There it was six feet tall.  The better stone wall was
about ten feet tall.  The wooden stockades that had
served as temporary walls had burned to the ground.

Put my command post in the corner!  Get a detail
together and cut some trees!  We need four walls not
two!  Reverend Juston, can you get us some more light?
Parkman, where is that sorcerer's cape with the light
on it? Waste not, want not.  Sims, give me your cloak.
This witch has one about your size, with a spot of
light on the side of the hood from our priests.  You
can trade her for as long as it lasts.   The lieutenant
dismounted, pulled Rapina down and stepped on the chain
between her ankles.  He unchained Rapina's wrists from
behind and traded her cloak for a soldier's, and then
he re-manacled her wrists behind her and spun her
around to button the new cloak.  Harms raised his
eyebrows.  The witch's breastplate was custom formed,
but it had more chest room than she probably needed.

Harms hoisted Rapina back over his horse and rode
around barking orders, "Make me a tripod of steaks,
nice and broad-based, with a crotch we can stick a big
rock in."  The lieutenant squeezed Rapina's rump.  "See
that big rock by the wall, reverend, it's mostly white.
Give me as much light on it as you can, especially in a
ring around the middle.   I want to put it in the
tripod up on top of the highest wall as a beacon.  If
there are still any orcs around here, I want to be able
to see them."

Rapina saw why Rames respected Avengene's military
machine.  With officers like Harms, it was no wonder he
had been so successful against the orcs.  In a few
minutes, a man on the wall hoisted a large tripod of
stout wooden steaks up onto the highest corner of the
wall.  Rapina watched as reverend Juston cast a couple
of light spells on the large white rock, and then
walked to the wall and handed it to a soldier who
handed it up to another soldier on the higher wall.
The soldier put the rock in the stand and began to
climb down from the wall.  Suddenly the light flickered
out and reverend Juston stiffened as a black crossbow
bolt transfixed his skull.  Dust wafted down from the
wall on Rapina's side as Elizabetta hit the ground on
the opposite side of the finished wall.  Somehow the
assassin had snuck up there, and hid just below the rim
of the wall.  Once the soldier had put the rock in
place and left, she had sprinkled the dust of
disenchantment and brought her bow to bear on the
caster of the light spells.

"Shit!" Harms slapped Rapina's butt hard.  "What is
that thing?"

"Ow! It's an undead assassin, and I think it decided
the priests were the ones most dangerous to it.  Its
master told it to, 'run interference if necessary.'  It
was a very vague order, so it is hard to say what it
will do.  I'm sorry you didn't just miss us.  No one
would have died if you had."

"Well that takes care of that, we don't have any
fucking priests left!  Harms trotted around the wall to
see if there was any sign of the assassin."

"Damn priest had a see magic spell running, saw some
magic shadows, and you turned out to be in them.  How
old are you anyway?" Harms asked.

"Seventeen," Rapina said.

"Have you been a witch for your whole li-"
----------------------

[Rapina]045 An Unfriendly Wager


Rapina heard a scream from the edge of the forest where
the men were cutting wood.

"Orcs!" an infantryman shouted.

"Retreat!  How in hell did that assassin quench the
light on the rock?  Harms galloped back to the walls as
enemy archery fire began.

He tossed her to the ground in the corner made by the
two remaining stone walls.  "I've got work to do.  Just
keep low and in that corner.  If you want to try to
escape, go ahead.  The orcs will shoot you down."

"Yes, I'm sure they would," Rapina said.

Harms' men stacked what timbers they had up in front of
the inside corner made by the existing stone walls.  It
was a much smaller fort than they had originally
intended.

Rapina literally lied down on the cold ground.  She
heard arrows and the screams of the men.  A soldier
named Sims came staggering over the timbers the others
were putting in place, took a few more steps and fell.
There was an arrow stuck deep in his chest.

"Damned orcs know we can't see a bloody thing.  The
assassin has cut off our light!"

"Aaah!" Rapina screamed as an arrow buried itself in
her calf.  Rapina knew she was doomed unless she found
a shield.  Men were falling everywhere.  Only the one's
right up near the piled timbers were safe from orcs
firing from the direction where the missing walls
should have stood.  Rapina crept forward.  She was
luckier than some.  There was a dead man lying on the
ground not far in front of her.  She rolled him on his
side and wedged herself under him. She felt the wound
in her calf and snapped the arrowhead off, then pulled
the shaft out the other side.  The pain was terrific
but, once she had removed the arrow, she could direct
the energies she had stored within her breasts to heal
it.

She cowered under the dead man as volley after volley
struck all around her.  On several occasions, she was
wounded by arrows that transfixed the corpse or grazed
her less well-protected legs, but she received no
wounds as bad as the initial wound to her calf had
been.  She knew that there was no one living this far
back, and that she was receiving only the stray shots
but there were plenty of those.  She slowly wriggled
and pulled her dead man shield back into the corner
formed by the stone walls so that she would catch fewer
of the stray shots.

"They're using our own damn arrows against us!  They
looted these from the garrison stores," Harms threw one
of the orc arrows he had pulled out of a man aside.

The arrows positively rained down and then Rapina heard
it, the sounds of firebombs landing on the men.  The
orcs were tossing them over the walls from behind, the
opposite direction from whence the archery fire
originated.  It was a route and a massacre.  Some of
the men ran and were cut down by arrows, others staid
and burned, and a very lucky few remained untouched
between the fires.  After the fires had died down,
Rapina noticed the sky had begun to lighten. The day
was dawning.

---

Rames paced back and forth in front of the door to
Thane's chambers.

"Come in guardian Rames.  I assume you are worried
about Rapina," Thane said.

"I feel bad about not trying to rescue her," Rames
said.

Thane nodded, "I realize that this is trying for you,
but we must do what is right for the church.  We might
have tried to rescue the girl, but with the number of
Avengene priests and soldiers, the odds were very good
that we would only have succeeded in getting ourselves
captured as well.  As it was, Rapina's decoy spell
casting was half the reason I was able to get away.
The other half, being Elizabetta's fine marksmanship.
I am aware of Rapina's value, and I will do my utmost
to retrieve her, but I will not attempt a half-baked
plan.  Dawn is near and we have little power in the
light of day."

Rames paced, "I know, I know, but I'm a soldier,  I
want to do something!"

"I have been working very hard on scrying during the
past year, and this sort of situation was precisely the
reason for that work.  I have guardedly good news.  I
was able to locate Elizabetta using my pool, and then
switch to my mirror so that I could cast an audible
illusion and clairaudience through the mirror," Thane
said.

"You mean you spoke with her?" Rames asked.

"Indeed," Thane replied.

"What happened after we left?" Rames asked.

"Apparently the men we faced were the scouts and
outriders for a unit of infantry about four dozen
strong.  They arrived shortly after we escaped.  Rapina
attempted to run away after I made my escape, but a
priest's spell rooted her to the ground.  While the
Avengenes were fighting the reavers and snagging
Rapina, Elizabetta did a fine job of assassinating
three of the four priests.  Had the priest not
enspelled Rapina, and had the infantry not arrived when
they did, Elizabetta might actually have been able to
rescue the girl."

"Damn!" Rames snapped.

"Indeed, but all is not lost," Thane said. "It was a
mistake that the Avengenes decided to attack us, for in
so doing they allowed the orc scout to get away.  The
scout alerted the orcs.  Evidently, they decided to
attack while it was still dark and their night vision
would give them the advantage.  Just before the start
of the orc attack, Elizabetta was able to sneak up onto
one of the stone walls and accomplish two things.  She
killed the Avengene's last priest, and she used dust of
disenchantment to kill the light spells cast on a
beacon atop the wall so that the Avengenes were stuck
with poor illumination.

Currently Rapina has taken cover beneath the body of a
dead Avengene.  The orcs are doing devastating damage
with arrows.  They are standing in the dark just out of
the visual range of the humans.  The overcast night is
winning the battle for them.

Elizabetta will attempt to secure the bodies of the
priests for me before any more Avengenes arrive.  She
has garnered a number of cloaks to protect herself from
the light and is waiting for the orcs to leave.  We
must sleep soon.  I will watch a little longer, but
there is nothing I can do for Rapina at this time,"
Thane said.

"But the orcs, if they catch her they'll..." Rames'
voice trailed off.

"Rape her?" Thane chuckled. "I am more concerned about
them eating her.  Her skills between the sheets could
save her life."

---


Rapina heard arrows from the direction of the lower of
the two stone walls.  Orc archers were somehow poking
their heads over the wall, perhaps on the shoulders of
their compatriots.  There were very few Avengenes left
to oppose them, and almost none when the orcs had
finished.  A minute later, a frontal assault was led by
a huge orc in mismatched plate armor bristling with
spikes.

The orcs seemed to range in size somewhat more than
humans did.  There were orcs only as tall as a petite
woman, and orcs who were something over seven feet
tall.  On the average they seemed to be relatively
broad, or it could have been that they simply tended to
carry extra weight.  Their skin was usually some tint
of gray, beige or brown with pink areas such as the
tips of their porcine noses.  Their jaws stuck out
farther than those of humans, but were not as
pronounced as the snouts of animals.  Their hair was
coarse and ranged in color from white to beige, brown
or black. They had small tusk-like teeth that stuck up
from the bottom of their jaws and protruded outside
their lips.  Their armor and weapons were a hodge-podge
of pieces that looked to have been salvaged from the
soldiers of Avengene.

Harms was in the front corner of his makeshift fort,
nearly covered with his dead men.  He stood, yelling,
"Culach!"

"Ahahaha!," The orc leader laughed.  "Culach?  botn
mal?"

"Uh," Harms pointed to his blade.

"Bah!" the orc chief replied.

Rapina peered out from under the dead man's shoulder
trying to see what the lieutenant was up to.

Harms Rushed over to Rapina and poised his blade at her
throat.  "Push that body off you, lady.  I am
challenging this orc to a duel and need you as a
wager."  He held up the keys to Rapina's manacles and
pointed at her, nnn iskar squchuchuchuchuch.

"Mal?"  The orc said as he kicked the dead body, aside
with his foot and looked at Rapina.  "Heheheh, goo?"

"Goooooo," Lieutenant Harms replied.

"Culach!"  The orc gesticulated with his arms.  The
orcs who had been busily stabbing the wounded and
apparently dead to make sure they were dead, tossed
bodies aside to make room.

"I have successfully challenged this orc chief to a
duel.  It is customary to bet something that will then
belong to the victor rather than the dead man's clan.
The blade of a desperate human was not enough, but he
knew I could kill you instantly, so you were," Harms
chuckled.  "If I win, his clan cannot hunt me because
he agreed to the duel, and if they cannot hunt me, I
will walk out of here unscathed."

"Jool," One of the orc guards said noticing Rapina's
jeweled silver choker.

"Goooo!  Culach!" the chief bellowed.

Rapina had seen Harms fight the reavers, and he was
good, but the orc was head and shoulders taller than
the man, and broad.  Rapina doubted it was all muscle,
but enough of it certainly was.  The combatants
circled, trading feints.  Rapina looked at the orc's
armor.  It was probably made from parts salvaged from a
dozen different warriors, and there were rivets in many
places where it had been patched.  It had to weigh a
ton.  Harms' chainmail was certainly lighter.  He
seemed a little faster, but the orc's reach was longer,
both because of the length of his blade and the length
of his arms.

After a feint flew by, Harms stepped in and swung.

Clang!  Rapina watched as Harms' blade struck the side
of the orc chief's helmet.  The sound must have been
deafening.  The orc had ducked forward, not far enough
to avoid the blow, but far enough to catch it on the
boss around his ear.  The helm was creased and a bit of
blood flowed.  The orc was stunned, but not so stunned
that he failed to take advantage of Harms' open left
side

"Ahh!"  Harms jumped back, a grizzly wound where his
pristine left shoulder had been.

Harms had certainly hit a more lethal spot, but Gluud
was so strong that the chainmail Harms was wearing gave
only as much protection as leather would have given
against a normal man.  The warriors continued.  Harms
managed to glance a blow off the orc's chest as the orc
struck at a patch of air above his head.
Unfortunately, the lieutenant had failed to take
advantage of the staggering power of his head blow
because of the chief's timely hit to his shoulder.
Harms' skill and speed, however, allowed him to move
more freely than his opponent did.

Wang!  The lieutenant's blade took the orc's visor
right off and creased his chin.  The orc raised a
bracer against the lieutenant's back swing and struck
forcefully, the point of his sword opening a deep rent
just below the officer's right knee.

"Vermin!" Harms shouted.  He knew he was in trouble
now.  His best advantage had been his speed, now his
leg was a mess and he could not put his full weight on
it.  It felt spindly as if something were broken but
was not yet hurting as much as it soon would.  Harms
knew it was now or never.  The orc's belly was not made
for human armor.  several bands of dead men's
breastplates had been used to cover it.  The quality of
the workmanship was poor.  Harms ran under the orc's
swing and pushed his blade up under a plate.

Chief Gluud squealed like a wounded pig as the
lieutenant's blade entered his belly and slid up
through his vitals.  The chief swung like a crazed boar
as Harms gutted him, but the lieutenant hopped forward
and avoided the orc chief's last stroke.  The jump
brought a sickening crunch from his leg.

Harms sat down on top of the fallen chief's body and
tossed the keys to Rapina's shackles to her.  "Take off
the leg irons.  I don't think they will give me a horse
so we will need to walk fast and I will have to lean on
you.  Take your cloak if you like.  Sims only has a few
arrows in him, and most are in the front.   Harms
removed Rapina's cloak from Sims' body and began
ripping strips of cloth from a Sim's breeches.  He
would need a splint for his leg.

Rapina grimaced.  Harms had won; that meant the orcs
could not challenge him, and it probably also meant
that she would still belong to the lieutenant.  She was
glad to be rescued from the orcs.  She kind of liked
admired Harms' efficiency, but she had no doubt he
would keep her in chains and drag her right into
Avengene's court where she would conveniently be
relieved of her head.

There was a possibility she could use the charm
generated by her climax to get him to let her go, but
she wondered if it would be strong enough to go against
the man's training and unquestioning loyalty to
Avengene.  Not only that, but she did not know if she
could get him to stop to bed her if he was intent on
making it to the nearest fort to send reinforcements
against the enemies he had outwitted.  On the other
hand, dealing with one half-lame man, good warrior or
not, would be a whole lot easier than dealing with a
whole tribe of hostile orcs.

The orcs were also missing a chief, making their
political situation very volatile.  She could see that
several of the chief's retainers were eyeing each
other.  A few of the orcs were grouping around certain
of the more powerful-looking warriors.  Although she
could not understand what they were saying, there were
some tones of protest coming from various orcs.
Fingers were being pointed at the lieutenant.  Rapina
relocked the empty shackles as she took them off.  By
the time she had her cloak on, Harms had a makeshift
splint on his leg and was standing up.

"Come on, let's get out of here," Lieutenant Harms
said.

Rapina helped serve as a right-hand crutch for the
lieutenant.  They headed straight for the nearest
folliage.  Rapina realized that she was not the only
one to have heard the voices of dissension from amongst
the orcs.  As soon there were a few trees between the
two of them and the orcs, the lieutenant spoke up.

"Give me the keys to the shackles you've got slung over
your shoulders," Harms said.

"You took my belt," Rapina replied.

"What's that got to do with it?" Harms asked.

"I had no pouches, so I stuffed them into my pants,"
Rapina said.

Harms checked the shackles, they were locked so he
could not put them on her without having the keys.
"Damn it wench, I ought to cut you down where you
stand," Harms said.

"Except you need me as a crutch." Rapina smiled.

The lieutenant shook his head, "Come along.  It is not
safe for either of us near the orcs.  Their tribal
custom says that they cannot harm the winner of culach,
but they were a sorry lot with many wounded.  Had it
not been for the arrows they had stolen from the fort,
and the fact that it was night and your assassin
stripped us of our priests and light, we would have
held.  At dawn we would have cut them down.  They
believe that, with my bad leg, I will not be able to
find reinforcements to turn their butts into bacon
before they can get their sorry asses into the Northern
mountains, but I aim to prove them wrong."  After Harms
put some more distance between himself and the orcs, he
put his fingers to his lips and whistled.   "Hold up,
we will rest here for a minute."  After a brief wait,
Rapina heard the galloping hooves of a horse.  "Hahah,
Rascal you are the greatest!"

Harms mounted up and reached down to hoist Rapina from
the ground.  He placed her on the saddle in front of
him and got the horse moving right away.

Rapina heard hoofbeats behind them.  The orcs were
screaming something, and she could hear arrows.

"They're calling me a horse thief for taking my own
horse!" Lieutenant Harms said.

Rascal squealed and limped as an arrow buried itself in
his hock.

"Shit!"  Harms pulled up behind some trees but the orcs
quickly came up and surrounded them.

The lieutenant dismounted and held his horse's head as
he spoke to the orc in charge of the little band.  A
heated argument in orcish followed.

"Who Hchil?  Culach!  Culach!" Harms said.

"You're trying to duel them for your horse?" Rapina
asked.

"Nevermind, there are some medical supplies in the
saddlebag.  See to the horse's wound if you know how."

Rapina opened the saddlebag.  There was a pouch of
first aid supplies, but that wasn't all.  Rapina slid
off the horse and took out the pouch, and her equipment
belt and blades.   She put her belt on and went to the
rear of the horse.  She gave it a wide berth until she
had made it around to the right side.   "The arrow's
gone through right above the hock joint.  Steady him
and I'll break it off and take it out."  Once the
lieutenant had a firm hold of the horse's head, Rapina
quickly snapped the arrow from the side and pulled it
out.  She washed the wound out with some water from her
canteen and applied herbs and bandages from the first
aid kit.

In the meantime more orcs had arrived.  Rapina had a
bad feeling about the situation.  The lieutenant had
waited until he was well away from the fort before
calling his mount.  It was obvious the orcs had been
following him all along, or at very least they had
followed the whistle at the same time as the horse.
-------------------------------

[Rapina]046 With A Little Bit of Hluk

Rapina recognized Hluk, one of the strong orc warriors
who some of the other orcs had grouped around earlier.
He was riding a roan gelding that he dismounted from as
he arrived.  His skin was beige and his coarse hair was
a deep chocolate brown.  He had a fierce look about him
and his tusks were relatively white.  She guessed that
meant he was much younger than the chief had been.  He
was as tall as the former chief was, but not nearly so
wide.  By human standards, he was still quite solid.

"Culach!"  Hluk pointed to his horse and to Rapina.

Rapina realized that the orc was taking quite a gamble
but with potentially great benefits.  If he beat the
lieutenant, he would have defeated the man who beat the
former chief, possibly making him a likely candidate as
successor.  In addition he would be saving his people
from the reinforcements the lieutenant was sure to
bring down on them, which would satisfy those who had
been murmuring and pointing at the lieutenant.  By
offering a new deal on a fresh horse, he was skirting
the issue as to whether or not the lieutenant could
claim his own horse as his or whether it belonged to
the orc tribe by right of conquest.

"Goo!" Lieutenant Harms replied.

At first, Rapina was sure the lieutenant was committing
suicide.  Then he turned aside the orc's blade and
opened a gash across the foolish young buck's chest
that went right through his chainmail.  Had it not been
for the orc's speedy spin left, he would have died in
that instant as the lieutenant nearly pushed the blade
through the breech and into his heart.  After that
first blow, the bleeding orc attacked with much less
bravado and much greater caution.  He kept moving as
though trying to find the direction the lieutenant
found it most difficult to follow.  His sword opened a
few rings on the lieutenant's mail a number of times,
but Harms' blade invariably turned Hluk's aside.

After a number of ineffectual blows the two swung hard
and locked blades.  Rapina could see the orc's muscles
bulge under his chainmail.  The lieutenant was a strong
man, but the orc was stronger.  Both combatants threw
each other savagely backwards and swung.  The
lieutenant opened a breech that bloodied the orc's
thigh.  Rapina grimaced as she saw what the orc's
longer reach had done to the lieutenant's good leg.
Like his chief before him, he had opened one of the
lieutenant's legs, but this time the blade had gone
clean through the bone.


"Yal wal buruk no Avengenes dunt gaw unt kahlorc!" Hluk
shouted.

"I will bring no Avengenes down on your tribe?  I'm not
dead yet you orc scum!" Harms replied.

Rapina never had a chance to put the roll of bandages
away and it was just as well.  Someone would need
medical attention.  The orc was bleeding badly from his
chest and thigh, but his wounds were dry in comparison
with the torrent of blood fountaining from the
lieutenant's left leg.  Rapina could see the young
orc's strategy.  From here on out he simply kept moving
and taunting the downed lieutenant with his blade.

The lieutenant could not possibly stand.  He had to
roll and spin around on the ground to block what the
orc sent at him.  Every roll and spin kept his leg
bleeding like a hose.  In a few minutes the orc looked
unsteady on his feet, but the lieutenant's eyes were
glazed and he could barely hold up his sword.  The
lieutenant's blade wavered and sunk.  It looked as
though the orc was about to move in for the coup but at
the last second he redirected his swing and slammed his
sword into the lieutenant's blade.

The lieutenant's hand went up to plunge his sword into
the orc's chest in the instant before he was
decapitated, but the orc had changed his strategy, and
the lieutenant realized there was no longer a blade in
his hand.  The orc had not gone for his neck, but had
instead hit his sword and knocked it out of his grasp.
"Uhh!"  The lieutenant said as the orc plunged his
sword into Harms' chest and fell to his knees.

Rapina rushed in with her bandages before the cheer
that rose from the throats of the orcs had even died.
It was quickly apparent that the orc's chest wound was
even worse than it had looked.  one of his ribs was
actually cut in two.  Had the angle of the lieutenant's
sword been slightly different, he might have sliced
between the ribs and killed the orc instantly.  The
orc's movement or the way his mail broke apart might
have made the difference that saved him from a fatal
wound.  In any case he had been very lucky.  Some of
the orc's friends helped her get his mail hauberk off.
Rapina cleaned the wound, applied herbs and bandaged
his chest expertly, but she knew he was bleeding
inside.

She was just finishing with the thigh wound when the
orc leech and wise man arrived to inspect her work.  He
was not old as Rapina would have expected.  He looked
much like the warriors but colored beads and feathers
decorated his armor.  He was short by orc standards,
slightly shorter than Rapina herself, but his coloring
lent itself to his profession.  His skin was a very
light beige, nearly white, his nose was pink, and his
hair was black as jet.

"How bad?" The leech asked in heavily accented common.

Rapina pointed to the chest wound, "Very deep, one rib
is cut in two. He is still bleeding some inside.  He
has lost a lot of blood.  Do you have magic to fix it?"

"Me have rituals, but they slow, and not work too good.
Oagmak's chont, Oagmak's magic not so good.  You
healer?  Me see you know how use bandage."

Rapina nodded, "I know how to bandage the wounded and
use herbs.  My magic is not so good either.  I can only
do cantrips.  I have studied the spell he needs, but I
have never got it to work, and my reserves of power are
too low to cast it even if I could make it work."

"No time for ritual of power.  Even with dis lieutenant
gone, Avengene know we here.  He send more soldier.  We
put Hluk on stretcher, we must hurry go now."

---


Rapina knew orcs did not usually go abroad during the
day. The fact that the entire clan seemed to be in a
great hurry to march North, even though they had no
formal chief, could only mean that they firmly believed
Avengene would send still more reinforcements.
Somehow, Rapina felt they were right.  Had it not been
for the commandeered Avengene mounts, many of the
wounded could not have kept up the pace.  As it was,
the horses were a bit overloaded and some wounded
switched off between riding and walking.  It was
evident that the orcs had sustained few losses from the
battle with Harms' forces, but in the original battle
over the fort, they had lost more.

Since she was relatively uninjured, she was obliged to
walk.  Her quick medical treatment had earned her a
shred of respect from the orcs.  Chontral Oagmak, the
leech and wise man of the orc tribe had been using her
as an assistant.  An orc named Thalis, evidently Hluk's
best friend had taken Rapina's blades and as much of
her clothing and equipment as he could argue the other
orcs out of.  He tried to return the Avengene shackles
to her ankles, but she protested she could not walk
fast in them.

Chontral Oagmak had said something on her behalf
causing Thalis to fasten the shackles just above her
knees instead of on her ankles.  She was Hluk's slave,
but Hluk was in no condition to order her around so it
fell to Thalis.  She stayed by Oagmak's side and
assisted him with the wounded.  There were many
wounded, and both they and the able-bodied were being
forced to walk when they normally would have been
sleeping.  Orcs were nocturnal.  When they were not
otherwise involved in seeing to the walking wounded,
the leech, Oagmak, talked to her.

"How you become Avengene slave?" Chontral Oagmak asked.

Rapina found it best to talk in short sentences,
pausing to try to determine if the shaman had grasped
the meaning of each.  If not, she supplemented with
gestures and mimes until the shaman grasped the meaning
before going on to the next sentence, "I am not a
slave.  You see I am a warrior. the Avengenes captured
me as they arrived at the fort.

"What you name?  You come to loot?  We loot already,"
Chontral Oagmak said.

"My name is Melina," Rapina made up still another
alias.  One day she knew she would not be able to keep
track of them all. "My master needed a few bodies for
his laboratory, his chont rooms."

"Who your master?" Oagmak asked

"Kroz, a necromancer," Rapina said.

"Necromancer?" Chontral Oagmak asked.

"A mage of the dead," Rapina said.

"Dead magician," Oagmak asked.

"His magic works on the dead," Rapina said.

"Oh, me understand." Oagmak nodded

I became prisoner of the Avengenes just before you
attacked.  I was near the fort.  I was with friends. I
was with my master the magician, or chontral as you
say.   The Avengenes rode up.  They chased an orc
scout.  My friends and I hid in magic darkness.  The
Avengene priest of the vindicator saw our magic
darkness.  The Avengenes came back stealthily.   Their
vindicator priests cast light spells, and other spells.
They fought us.  My teacher escaped.  The Avenenes
captured me.  They put chains on me."

"You human, Avengene human, why they not like you?"
Chontral Oagmak asked.

Avengenes worship the vindicator.  My friends worship
Mortaebius.

"What worship?" Oagmak asked.

"Do you know what a priest is?" Rapina asked.

Oagmak priest.  Priest have chont.  Priest have magic.

"Yes, do you know what a god is?  Vindicator,
Moraebius..." Rapina named every god she could think
of, including the troll god.

Great being, greater than greatest chief.  Gods give
chont to their servants.  Me know gods.  Me serve orc
god of raiding rage.  He called GzishGthup.

"My master serves Mortaebius, the god of the dead."

"You serve dead god?" Oagmak asked.

"No, Mortaebius is not dead.  He is lord of the dead.
He is the god of death," Rapina said.

"Oh, he death god, lord over dieing and dead.  That
kind of like GzishGthup, lord over killing and battle
rage."

Rapina nodded, "They are a little different, but both
deal with death some way," Rapina said.

"Me understand," Oagmak said.

"Do you know Avengene's god?" Rapina asked.

"Da bindicader." Chontral Oagmak replied.

"Yes, the vindicator.  Mortaebius and the vindicator
are enemies," Rapina said.

"Oh, nnn that why lieutenant make you prisoner.  It
like chontral-priest clan feud," Chontral Oagmak said.

"Yes," Rapina said.

"Me understand," Chontral Oagmak said.

"You are Avengene's enemy to the North; we are
Avengene's Enemy to the South and East, but not
everyone South and East worships Mortaebius," Rapina
said.

"Some he feuds with South and East, but not all?"
Chontral Oagmak asked.

"Yes," Rapina said.

"Where your chontral master, what you call?" Chontral
Oagmak asked.

"My master is called Kroz.  I am not sure where he
went.  He escaped the Avengenes," Rapina said.

---


"Thane wiped the sweat from his brow.  I must sleep
now, Rames.  I am sorry.  I have been watching the orcs
through my pool since it is less taxing to me than
using the mirror.  The mirror, however, does allow me
to cast the spells I need to communicate.  Elizabetta
has entombed herself in a ground hog burrow some
distance from the fort.  The orcs won the battle
easily, thanks to Elizabetta and their own rather
cowardly tactics.

Actually, I believe they were beat up from taking the
fort in the fist place and did not want to compromise
their ability to leave any further than it was already
compromised.  They did well, but the Avengene officer
survived and cleverly talked the orc chief into a duel
using Rapina as his wager.  He won, and I was very
worried that he would bring news of us to Avengene.
Shortly after he left, however, the orcs stopped him
for stealing his own horse, and an orc warrior
challenged him to a duel.  He bet Rapina for a fresh
horse this time," Thane said.

"Who won?" Rames asked.

"The orc, by a nose, but he was badly injured.  Rapina
has ingratiated the orcs to her somewhat by seeing to
his wounds.  Their leech has adopted her as an
assistant for the moment, but the tribe is in a
terrible hurry to get to the northern mountains before
Avengene catches up with them.  We must rest now.  For
the moment, we do not have to worry about Avengene
getting wind of us.  I realize we can hardly think of
Rapina as safe with the orcs, but at least she does not
appear to be in immediate danger.  The orcs are much
too busy getting out of the area to be accosting their
new prisoner.  She appears to be speaking with the
tribal shaman as they march Northward as rapidly as
they are able."

---

When at last the day was over, Rapina was horribly
tired.  Her only consolation was that she had learned
many orcish words from Chontral Oagmak as a way of
passing the time during the interminable walk.  She had
also managed to get the Chontral to chain her to him
during the march rather than slowing her with chains on
her legs.  The orcs stopped for three hours of sleep,
but Rapina got only an hour and a half because she was
obliged to help the leech with his duties.  There were
many wounded and too many were doing poorly.  Had it
not been for Hluk's friends bearing him on a litter, he
would surely have perished.  As it was he was conscious
about half the time, and Rapina made sure he drank
plenty of fluids.

After traveling most of the night, the orcs entered the
rough terrain of the mountains and took up residence in
a small cavern they knew about.  They posted many
sentries, but most of the orcs staid inside the cavern.
Finally, Rapina would be able to get some sleep.  She
was in a small low-ceilinged cavern room near Hluk and
his friends.  She had her mage light, but she was
afraid one of the orcs might take it if she revealed it
for what it was.   Instead she put it in one of her
belt pouches and conjured a tiny globe of blue light
using a cantrip she knew.  The orcs were amazed and
Chontral Oagmak was impressed.  Everyone was exhausted,
everyone except an orc named Barne.

"Barne thuch wooman."

"Barne ahlee Hluk?" Rapina asked Algorn, one of Hluk's
friends, if Barne was Hluk's friend.

"No," Algorn said.

"Mal Barne neen?" Rapina asked what Barne wanted as she
backpedalled.

"Barne neen thuch Melina," The orc moved his hips in a
maner that left little to the imagination.

Rapina was still getting used to her latest alias,
Melina. Yet, it was enough like Rapina that she had
taken to it easily enough.  "Melina Hluk nnn Hluk ahlee
squch.  No ahlee Hluk, no thuch Melina," Rapina
explained in broken orcish that she was Hluk's woman,
and that she would bed only friends of Hluk's.

"Barne thuch!"

Rapina backed up so that Barne would practically have
to stand on Algorn to reach her.

"Talus," Algorn waved Barne away.

"No!"

"Culahil?" Algorn asked if Barne wanted to have a
little duel, an unarmed duel that lasted until someone
yielded or was knocked out.

"Bah!" Barne stormed off.

"Bah," Algorn rolled over.

"Thalis thuch Melina."

Rapina froze for a second as lust tingled through her
tired body.  She knew Thalis was one of Hluk's friends
and roughly his second in command.  Rapina recovered
herself as the realization of how important Thalis
really was dawned on her.  Thanks to Barne for
suggesting the idea in the first place, Rapina had
managed to catch herself in her own web, athough she
had successfully repulsed her first orc suitor.
Thalis' was advancing forcefully.  His skin was a dark
brownish gray and was actually darker than the orc's
coarse light chocolate-colored hair. The tip of Thalis'
nose was not pink as was so often the case, but rather
a lighter shade of gray than the rest of him.

Rapina was at a loss as to how to repulse a friend of
Hluk's now that she had said she was his woman.  If she
thought she could have got away with it, she would have
claimed her freedom, but she knew that she was Harms'
wager in the duel that he had fought with Hluk.  With
Thalis rapidly bearing down on her, she needed to
salvage the situation.  Rather than obeying her
instinct and taking flight, Rapina redirected it and
rushed towards Thalis.

Rapina tugged at Thalis' lust, "Thalis goo-oo ahlee
Hluk.  Melina thuckuckuck!" she enthusiastically
remarked that Thalis was a fine ally of Hluk's and that
she would bed him well.  Rapina took advantage of his
moment of surprise to unbuckle the strap at her crotch
with one hand and undo Thalis' belt with the other.
Thalis partly snapped out of his surprise and began
removing his armor.   Rapina unbuttoned the left side
of her breastplate.  She lifted her breastplate off
over her head and tossed it next to Thalis' bed roll.
She used it as a trunk of sorts.  Next she stuffed her
tunic and long underwear top into it, and then she
stuffed her equipment belt, boots, socks, pants and
panties in as well.  Since it was spring, She had not
bothered to wear her long underwear bottoms.  All that
remained was her green silk bustier, and she would need
Thalis' help to unlace that if he wanted it off.

She looked up at Thalis.  His scent was strong in her
nostrils.  He had removed his Avengene chain mail.
Idly she wondered if orcs had only a long corkscrew for
a penis like a pig.  She guessed she would soon find
out, because the warrior was removing his tunic and his
breeches would be next to go.  The tunic was a little
short on him which didn't surprise Rapina since he was
taller than most men. The tunic had no doubt been
salvaged from an enemy soldier.   His pants were
likewise too short, and he wore no underwear.  As he
removed his pants, a wave of scent like the great
unwashed hit Rapina's nose.  Had it not been for the
musk that was part of it, Rapina would have been
totally repulsed, but the male scent was something that
put fire into her hunger.

Thalis' balls were appreciably larger than a man's
were, and his growing shaft was half contained in a
sheath of thick flesh like a foreskin that went all the
way down to his base.  The half of his shaft that was
out was glistening pinkly.   His erection was a bit
larger than the average man's was, but Rapina had known
men who were endowed with as much or even more.  Its
shape was not a corkscrew exactly, but it looked as
though, in the womb, it might have started development
as one.  It was as if the corkscrew had thickened to
the point that there was no open area inside the
spiral, so that it had then fused.  It was thus a shaft
with a rounded ridge of flesh that spiraled around and
around and up its entire length to the rather pointed
pink tip.  Rapina found it rather fascinating.  She
wondered how the spiral ribbing would feel inside her.
The orcs around her started laughing, and she realized
she was staring.

Rapina could tell Thalis was about to push her down and
mount her roughly.  She knelt and took hold of his
balls and sheath.  His intention to push her to the
ground evaporated the moment she got hold of his balls.
An orc behind her took it upon himself to unlace
Rapina's bustier, but she was too busy examining
Thalis' anatomy to care.  Rapina pulled at Thalis' lust
"Goo-oo jool," Rapina said lifting Thalis' balls.
"Goo-oo thuck ahlee," she said as she pulled his sheath
down.  The orc behind her finished loosening her
bustier and pulled it up.  Rapina raised her arms
briefly as he took it from her.

Thalis watched as Rapina's firm breasts bounced free of
her bustier and grinned. "Goo-oooo udds," he said
pulling her up to stand and fondling her breasts.

Rapina smiled and tugged at his lust.

Thalis reached behind her and caressed her rump saying,
"Goooo," once again.  He felt down the cleavage between
her cheeks until his hand was between her legs.  He
lifted his fingers to his eyes and saw they were wet.
This seemed to surprise him "Goooo.  Melina squchuch."


Rapina laid down on Thalis' bedroll her long legs
slightly apart.  She looked up at him coyly.

Suddenly he jumped onto her and pushed violently
between her legs, his tip missing and jabbing the flesh
beside her opening.

"Ow," Rapina said as she reached under her raised knees
and guided him in.

Thalis looked almost shocked, as if no woman had ever
put him in before.

Rapina giggled, the orc was plunging like a madman.
Rapina wrapped her legs around his waist and squeezed
him inside her as she pulled on his energy.   She
squeezed his shoulders in time to his rhythm and
gradually slowed him down.  Rapina met his thrusts with
her own, moaning as his ridged cock teased her labia.
She suspected that if orcs were less smelly, ugly and
frightening, they would surely be in high demand among
women.

At first Rapina thought Thalis was coming but since his
energy was not quite gushing as a man's did in orgasm,
she guessed the little squirts were more like precum.
She was so juicy inside she could hold a squeeze and
feel his ridges dancing up and down her tunnel.  His
feel was exquisite, unfortunately he only lasted a few
minutes before he grunted, bucked into her and squealed
with a rising pitch as Rapina pulled his energy into
her.  She took about what she usually took from Rames.
She did not want to cause alarm, but she did need what
he had to give.

Thalis collapsed atop her with an open mouth.  He could
not remember ever having had a more intense orgasm, nor
had he ever done it with a wetter, more willing woman
in his life as a raider.  "Goooooo, squchuchuchuchuch,"
he said massaging Rapina's flushed breasts.  He had
never noticed that any woman had squeezed him inside
her either.  He wondered if that was because the women
had never been willing.  The feel was incredible, so
incredible that after a few post-climax minutes of it
he felt himself growing hard all over again.  As he
hardened he began to thrust and soon he was moving
heatedly.

Rapina clutched hotly, she wanted release and given the
situation, she desperately needed to use her charm
power to gain allies among the brutal orcs quickly.
She knew it would be a race to the finish as the orc
warrior plunged into her again and again, driving her
closer and closer to the breathless, moaning brink.
Suddenly she was coming and he was gushing energy into
her like a fountain in the same moment.  Her ecstasy
was so intense with his energy pouring into her as she
came that she nearly missed touching his mind.  At the
last second, she touched it with great power, sending
feelings of staunch alliance like the ones she had
noticed he seemed to feel for Hluk.  After his orgasm,
the orc went positively limp.  His exhaustion had
claimed him.  Lust tickled Rapina's nose.  Algorn, who
had apparently wanted nothing better than to fall
asleep when Barnes had been near, now seemed to have
other ideas.

"Melina thuch Algorn!" He ordered.

Rapina smiled greedily.  She put her bustier inside her
breastplate, then went to Algorn's bedroll and slid her
warm body next to his.  Algorn had brown skin, a pink
nose and bristly beige hair.  He got to his knees,
pulled her to her hands and knees and entered her from
behind.   After only a few minutes, Rapina's back
arched, her soft moan accompanied the delicious rush of
energy she pulled from the second orc's long, intense
orgasm.  Rapina could feel the various small wounds she
had received from arrowheads and the like, begin to
mend.  As in her pirate days, she healed the deepest
layers of the wounds and left her outer skin relatively
untouched.  Algorn seemed to want to do more, but he
was just too tired.  Rapina felt kind of sorry for him,
as she was feeling better and better.

"Melina," Elfar whispered lifting his blanket.  His
orcish cock was a little smaller than the others she
had seen were, but still deliciously hard.  She guessed
the average orc might be about the same as the average
man, but it was hard to say having only seen three orcs
so far.  Rapina went to him and straddled him in an
instant.  She rode him until he spent a flood of energy
into her hungry, clutching wetness.

Mindful that Thalis was the one orc whose mind she had
touched, Rapina put on her long underwear top, and
snuggled into his bedroll for a bit of sleep.

The troop awakened at dusk after their first real
night's sleep.  Rapina was awake, partly dressed and
doing her magical exercises when the others started
stirring.   Hluk was still alive but not doing as well
as she would have liked.  She and Oagmak changed his
dressings and spoke about his condition.  Rapina cast
her first sight spell and tried a few of the variations
on the bestowal spell that Thane had suggested the day
before they had left on the ill-fated mission.  She was
unsuccessful, but she had a few ideas about what to try
next.  Her study of spell research techniques had
prepared her well for attempting to tweak a spell that
was not yet working for her.

During the last part of the day, a sentry had spotted
far-off campfires, most likely the fires of a company
of Avengene's men bedding down for the night.  The orcs
waited until it was dark and then marched into the
mountains.  Thankfully, the night was relatively clear,
so she was able to stumble along between Chontral
Oagmak and Thalis in spite of her lack of night vision.
The young orc warrior seemed very enthusiastic about
having Rapina learn orcish.  He and Oagmak talked to
her and listened to her attempts at speech for the
entire night.  She memorized a good core vocabulary of
a couple hundred words, but her grasp of the syntax to
use in order to string them together correctly still
needed work.  On the other hand, she did recognize the
words she knew in the conversations of the orcs and
could often piece together approximately what they were
saying.

---

Rames looked down into the scarab pit.  The body of
lieutenant Harms had been down there since last night
and the insects now had it nearly clean.  He was glad
he and Thane had been able to extract Elizabetta and
the bodies of the four priests of the Vindicator she
had hidden.  This was in spite of the fact that a force
of soldiers of Avengene had arrived during the
afternoon after the night of the debacle in which they
had lost Rapina.  The Avengenes had been far too
worried about orcs to venture far from the fort in the
darkness of the night that followed the day of their
arrival. Thus, Elizabetta had removed the dead priests
to a safe distance.

This time the consecration of a graveyard had gone
smoothly.  Thane had been able to use the graveyard
mists spell to take them back to the Order's central
transport point and thence back to the abode.  They had
discovered the lieutenant's corpse while scouting the
area around the fort from the shadow plain.  Thane had
recognized the man, and felt he could make something of
his corpse.  Since the Avengenes appeared to be
creating a mass grave for their dead soldiers and
another for the dead orcs, Thane had left Kent and a
contingent of ghouls behind to tunnel into it and
pillage the corpses.

Thane walked into the necromantic laboratories with a
smile on his face.

"Did you find her?" Rames asked.

"Indeed I did.  She is still with the orcs and she has
her armor and equipment belt, but not her pack.  She is
chained to the orc shaman, and is not wearing her
blades, but considering she is a slave on a forced
march, I believe she is doing very well.  The orcs are
in the mountains.  They are trying to outdistance a
company of soldiers from Avengene.  The terrain they
are in will not make tracking easy."

"Have they..." Rames voice trailed off.

"Not that I have seen, but they are on a grueling
forced march.  I suspect their lusts will not flower
until they get somewhere they can relax and consume
large quantities of ale.  Rapina is learning orcish at
a pace only she could pull off.  Her mind is clear and
sharp, so it may be that she has already found herself
on the receiving end of some orcish lust.  I cannot
watch her every minute.  Skrying is a somewhat taxing
magical feat.  I check in periodically for a minute or
two and only continue watching if there is reason to do
so."

"Have you contacted her?" Rames asked.

"There is no reason to.  I have nothing to tell her.
We are unable to extract her at this time. Also, I do
not wish the orcs to overhear and realize that they are
being watched.  The orcs are moving at night, which
means unless we know both their planned route and of a
graveyard nearby, we cannot intercept them," Thane
said.

"What about using the shadow plane?" Rames asked.

"We could get to them, but we can hardly ask them for
Rapina without forces to back us up.  After all, they
might just decide they needed extra provisions and that
we looked to be a good snack," Thane chuckled.

Rames grimaced.

"You can prepare our forces to be ready to leave as
soon as I find the orcs camped and drinking so that it
looks as though they will stay in one place for a full
night.  If the orcs ever stay put long enough for me to
engage in negotiations with them, I shall not take you
along.  If they were to see your face, even if the
chances of that are small, you might be recognized from
your former days as an orc-slayer."

"But..." Rames said.

"I know you wish to rescue Rapina, but you have to
admit that your face is a liability.  The orcs are not
worrying about Rapina yet, but my guess is that once
they are less fatigued, questions will be raised and
politics will rear its ugly head.  They might wonder
such things as whether Rapina is actually a spy for
Avengene, for instance.  Considering the lieutenant
fought two duels and nearly won his freedom and
Rapina's it is unlikely that a sane man would think the
Avengenes wanted to plant her in that group of orcs.
On the other hand, some individuals are suspicious no
matter what.  What normally happens to humans among the
orcs?" Thane asked.

"They are usually put to work as slaves, and if they
fail to perform they find themselves in the stew pot.
Women are preferred slaves since they are often easier
to intimidate.  They are usually set to hard labor for
their masters, and impregnated by frequent rapes,"
Rames said.

"I assume most are taken in raids.  Have you any idea
how booty is divided?" Thane asked.

"As a chaplain in the early days, I did have occasion
to talk with some rescued slaves at length.  I even
know a bit of orcish.  I thought it might come in
useful for spying, negotiations and interrogations.
Most of the more ambitious officers try to learn some
orcish.  It looks good on a soldier's record.
Unfortunately, the slaves I talked to had no clear idea
as to how they wound up as a certain orc's slave.
Somehow, they are just assigned a master.  I do know
they can be loaned, sold, gambled away, won and so on.
They are property," Rames said.

Thane nodded, "Even when I expend the power to cast a
spell of clairaudience, I have found it is not very
rewarding since I do not understand what they are
saying.  If I catch something extremely important, I
may expend the power to create an illusion that you can
see and hear so that you can tell me what is being
said.   Nordula's stone would be very helpful for this
situation, since his kettle takes care of
clairaudience, but Rapina does not have the stone on
her as she did at Dealrath, since this was not to be a
spying mission."

---


Near the end of the night, the orcs entered another
cavern system.  This one was very like a maze.  Rapina
was obliged to conjure her tiny ball of blue light so
she could see perhaps three feet in front of her.  She
tried to count the number of left and right turns but
could not see when they were passing an intersection.
She realized if the Avengenes followed the orcs into
this complex, they might easily become lost forever.
Many of the byways were half-flooded with cold water
and by the time they camped for the day, Rapina's legs
and feet were chilled to the bone.  Her wax-boiled
boots were waterproof, but that did not keep water from
pouring in when she waded too deep.  When the orcs
camped, they were still deep within the system of
caverns.  Hluk's friends camped around a low ledge
where they could put their wounded friend.

The orc leech spoke quietly to Hluk's followers, "Hluk
is dieing.  The wound was deep, and so much of his
blood spilled on the ground and inside him.  Disease is
growing in him.  He is slipping away from us."

Thanks to her ally, Thalis, and the fact that the orcs
knew Rapina could never find her way out of the cavern,
she had been given a tiny amount of freedom to bathe
and wash her clothes.  Rapina refilled her canteen and
washed her clothes in a nearby cavern stream.  Hluk was
doing poorly, and his friends seemed quite worried.
She managed to find some dry stalagmites on the ledge
not far from Hluk to hang her clothes over.  She went
back to the stream and washed her hair and body as best
she could.  Even after using her hands as a squeegee,
she was damp and very cold.  She was so cold that she
was shaking and her teeth were chattering as she walked
the thirty yards or so back to the area staked out by
Hluk's followers.

When she arrived, she saw that Thalis had lit a candle
he had so she could see.  An orc she did not know was
there with a tattered backpack.  Flanking him were four
other warriors.  They turned and a shiver of lust was
added atop her many other shivers of coldness.  Her
nostrils flared as the scent of their lust tickled her.
The orc named Jmal was explaining that he had a
backpack, and that Hluk's orcs could make her, Melina,
carry things if they had a backpack for her.   Rapina
sat down in Thalis' lap and shivered against his chest.
She tipped her head back and whispered in his ear in
broken orcish,  "Someone has Melina's black backpack.
It is like Melina's black boots and Melina's black
breastplate.  Let him bring Melina's backpack if he
wants to barter.  He is trying to pass off a poor
backpack instead."

The other followers of Hluk seemed to think the deal
was good.  They would get a backpack for Melina so she
could carry their things for them, and she would pay
for it by entertaining Jmal and his friends, but then
Thalis spoke up.

Thalis smiled. "Good try Jmal.  You try to keep
Melina's black backpack for yourself, and give us an
old tattered pack.  You want a ride with Melina, you
bring her black pack.  She worth it."

The others looked at Thalis in surprise.  What they
thought would be a great deal, he made out to be a
scam.  Some sided with him; others were still content
with the original deal.  The fact that Rapina was in
Thalis' lap and not someone else's put him in a
slightly better position to negotiate, not to mention
to play with her breasts.

Rapina snuggled against Thalis and while pretending to
ignore Jmal, she relentlessly tugged at Jmal's lust.
His dark gray skin revealed nothing, but the tip of his
nose seemed pinker than it had been moments before.
Rapina tugged at the lust of his friends a bit while
she was at it, but concentrated most of her clandestine
attentions on Jmal.  After a few minutes of haggling
with Thalis' faction, and trying to swell the faction
of Hluk's followers that embraced the original deal,
Jmal started looking a bit uncomfortable.  It affected
his negotiating ability, and soon he was loosing
ground.  Finally, he gave up.  In a few minutes, he
returned with Rapina's pack.  Thalis had been right!

Thalis gave the other followers of Hluk an "I told you
so" grin as he took the pack.

Rapina gently nibbled the tip of Thalis' ear, and then
stood up and padded over to Jmal.  She put her hands up
his mail coat.  The orc was actually shaking.  She slid
her hands down as she pulled his lust, "I cold, Jmal
warm Melina?"

Jmal lifted the flaps of his mail hauberk and attacked
the buttons on his breeches.

Rapina motioned to Jmal's followers.  "Please help with
mail.  He no get good thuch if Melina no touch him.
You protect him while he work."

Jmal got out of his armor and got his pants down.

Rapina took his erection and unsheathed it.  Precum
already oozed and squirted from its tip as Rapina
caressed Jmal's balls and licked the tip.  "Jmal not
bring bed?"

Jmal shook his head.

Rapina turned her rump to him, bent over and grabbed
her ankles.  She felt a jab, and then reached back to
guide him in.  The orc pulled her hips into him as he
thrust forward, driving himself in to the hilt and
thrusting wildly.  Rapina squeezed and held, squeezed
and held as he pistoned in and out of her well of
pleasure.  She tugged at his energy until he squealed
and exploded in a long, quaking orgasm.

Jmal could not seem to blink as he pumped and pumped
his cum into the new human girl.  The pleasure was so
intense he squealed like a child, but he did not care.
When it was over, he could still hardly blink. His eyes
were so wide open.  He stared dumbly and started
getting his clothes back on.

"Goo?" A'oot, one of Jmal's followers asked.

"Goooooooouchuchuchuch!  Jmal said. "Next time I bring
bed."

A'oof tossed his armor down and took hold of Melina.
She was very pretty, the prettiest human girl he had
seen, and her breasts were big like she was full of
milk but she was not.  He tossed his surcoat on the
floor and before he could push her she was on her back
on it looking at him with heat in her eyes.  A'oof got
between her pretty, long legs and pumped into her tight
cavern.  She felt so good he wanted to go on forever.
He held back until he could hardly stand it.  The girl
moaned as if she was coming.  A'oof had seldom seen
this happen; he was proud he had made her come and he
felt like she was an ally now.  She could trust him.
He would protect her and she would make him feel so
good, and he did feel so good but he really could hold
back no longer.  He hollered so loud that it echoed all
around the cavern.  It seemed like he came forever.
Then he fell on top of her as if a giant had bonked his
head with a club.

Rapina could tell she was getting into one of her
crazed moods now, as if she had been a starving woman
who was on the first course of a five-course banquet.
She wondered if it was some sort of self-preservation
mechanism she had inherited from the lust spirit.  When
times were uncertain and stress was heavy, she seemed
to get very lustful.  She hoped her eyes had not turned
red or anything.  Allok took her next; he was rough.
He just pushed her down, jumped on her, and started
bucking her against the stone floor.  She snarled like
a troll and when he came, she drew on him twice as hard
as she had the others.

"Yaaaaaaah!"  Allok screamed for an eternity as his
orgasm nearly crushed his small mind.  When he got up
from her, Allok looked at the woman with a little fear
in his eyes.  He had come like ten orcs.  The pleasure
had been like a range of mountains.  She was magic.  He
feared her magic, but he knew he would come back.  He
would have to have her again.

Rapina wrinkled her nose.  She really should not have
drawn so hard on Allok.  Somehow, his brutality had
brought out the same frantic urge to draw the life out
of him that Evangeline's horrors had when she was
younger.   Yet now she was more adept at drawing from a
man and that made it all the more important that she
did not loose her control.

The last of Jmal's followers was Hrune.  He looked as
though he was always the last to get anything.  His
tiny cock did not fit his robust measure.  He had tan
skin, black hair, and his nose was dark gray on the tip
instead of the usual pink.  He was gentle, uncommonly
gentle for an orc.  Rapina had to do most of the work.
She did it warmly, thrusting her hips firmly against
his loins and squeezing him rhythmically.  It was
impossible to squeeze the crazed, fast orcs properly,
but she was able to massage Hrune to a fever pitch and
he soon came within her, long and smooth, filling her
with his seed.

Rapina thought she was finished, but she had only just
begun.  Seeing Jmal's followers had enjoyed her, Hluk's
followers felt that they should certainly have her.
After all, she was their girl.  Thalis started it, and
when Rapina had finished with him, Elfar with the
unusual light beige nose tip called her over to his
bedroll.

"You have fun?" Elfar asked.

Rapina grinned hugely.

"I give you fun."  Elfar dove between Rapina's long
legs and rooted around with his nose, and then he
started eating her.  She squirmed and moaned as he
tongued her nub over and over until the orc had her
bucking near the brink.  Then he jumped onto her and
rammed his ribbed cock home.  He thrust mercilessly
until Rapina's back arched against the bedroll and she
gasped as orgasm cascaded through her mind.  In that
instant, she gained another ally in Elfar as she
floated down from her peak.  Minutes later, Elfar
grunted long and loud while he filled her with his
orcseed.

Rapina whispered in Elfar's ear, "Elfar goooooo."

"Me, me too Melina," Algorn said.

She hopped over to Algorn's bedroll, laid down and
unsheathed the orc's spiral ribbed wonder.  She smiled
greedily and put him into her before she could cool
down from Elfar.

"You like orc? Algorn asked as he thrust heatedly."

"Melina love the way orcs are shaped between the legs,"
Rapina panted and thrust back. "Uhahh!" she moaned as
Algorn drove her over the brink.

Algorn was amazed at how hard the woman came.  She was
the best thuck he had ever heard of.  She squeezed an
orc.  She made him feel good.  He knew now that he
would be her friend and ally even though he had not
thought much of her a moment before.  He liked her now.
She seemed very greedy for orcs.  He wondered if she
could thuck the whole camp.  Algorn wondered if she was
crazy.  He had never heard of such a thing.  Algorn
gasped and grunted and he came so long and hard he
could see lights behind his eyes.  Melina was the
greatest thuck.  She was chont thuck.

Rapina looked around.  She was sure her eyes were red
now.  She felt Algorn start to shrink and looked around
almost frantically.  Her emerald eyes lit on Furuk,
another of Hluk's followers.  He was a gray-skined
black-haired orc with a pink nose.  She also looked on
B'dar, a very cute orc she thought, with beige skin,
black hair and a light beige nearly white nose tip.  He
motioned her over.  She was there in a flash.

"B'dar thuck Melina?" He asked.

Rapina rolled her eyes back into her head as he entered
her, his spiral caressing her labia.  "Mmm," she
moaned.  "Melina like orcs.  Lots and lots of orcs.
B'dar looked like she could have knocked him over with
a spoon.  Rapina giggled.   Just the same he was
panting and thrusting like an orc possessed, and before
long he squealed as Rapina pulled his sweet power and
seed into her womb.

Furuk was there as soon as B'dar was spent.  It was as
if the two of them had been one longer lasting orc.
Rapina came and ushered Furuk into her fold.  With so
many allies among Hluk's orcs, Rapina at last felt safe
enough to shift the slider of her mage light to
illuminate the room in red.  Before she had been afraid
that someone would take the light from her, and she
desperately needed it to see.

Rapina was not sure whom she bedded next.  It seemed
that new groups of orcs from the fragmented tribe
wandered in from other nearby cavern rooms to barter
with one of Hluk's men for Rapina's favors.  Followers
of Hluk sometimes bedded her again after getting a
little sleep.  Rapina did not sleep.  She was not
tired; she was wet.  Since they knew they were safe,
the orcs had decided to stay an additional night and
day in the caverns to rest up and lick their wounds.
Rapina was busy until nearly a few hours before dusk
the next day.  By that time she had been given her own
bedroll and various other items including everything
she had lost to the Avengenes, and she had made many
allies within the tribe.

---

Thane walked from his rooms shaking his head.  He found
Rames in the lounge eating oatmeal and looking worried.

"Any news?" Rames asked.

"None.  I have attempted off an on, but the last time I
saw Rapina was two nights ago with the orcs in the
mountains.  Now I cannot find any of them.  It is as if
they had disappeared from the face of Ifreanne."

Rames grimaced. "Nothing at all?"

"Only some soldiers of Avengene wandering through the
valleys.  I believe the orcs have given us all the
slip.  I will watch the soldiers to see if their
trackers can do any better than I."

---


Rapina had lost track of time, but when the last orc
fell asleep beside her, she looked for another, but
there were none this time.  She was crazed, she
fingered herself to three heated orgasms before she
finally began to come down from her frenzy of
lovemaking.

She rolled her head back and sighed, "Rapina, what were
you thinking?  She looked at the aftermath.  There were
spent orcs everywhere.  Many of the more lusty groups
had moved closer.  Now Hluk's group was Mecca, and
there were many other groups sprawled nearby.  She had
completely forgotten herself.  Every wound on her body
was healed.  Her skin glowed with health.  He breasts
were enlarged and over-firm.  Energy was ricocheting
around her mind like a thousand swarms of ecstatic
bees. She was packed to excess.  She went to the stream
and washed, using some gravely sand from the bottom as
cleanser.   When she was done she did not even shiver.
Her skin showed the cold for a minute, but she was so
aglow with energy she hardly noticed.

She dressed, but she did not even try to put her
bustier on.  She knew it would not fit.  Instead, she
put her long underwear top and tunic on.  Both were a
bit strained around her chest.  Rapina wiped some cum
from her labia.  She knew that after that bout she
would not stop dribbling for quite sometime.  She did
not bother with pants.  They would just get slimed at
the crotch.  "Damn it Rapina, what were you thinking?
How am I going to explain gaining two cup sizes, and
the fullness, the redness, and my nipples will not
relax.  She fiddled with her breasts.  They moved but
not as they had earlier.  It was as though she were
stuffed and swollen.   She could feel the excess energy
zinging around her body as if she were not quite
adequate to hold it.  She needed to release some
somehow.  It was the perfect time to practice her
bestowal spell.  The energy was so packed within her
that if she got something even half-right life force
was bound to leak out of her like water from a hole in
a very tall dike.

She sat down next to Hluk, her benefactor, the orc who
owned her but was seldom conscious and in no shape to
tell her what to do, thanks to the late lieutenant
Harms.  Rapina removed the dressings from Hluk's chest
wound and cast her first sight spell so that she could
see any sputters of magic.  She tried all of the
variations Thane had suggested.  She could see minor
effects from two of them, but they certainly did not
work to any appreciable extent.

She thought about how she could send her energy to any
part of her body.  In a way, the wounds pulled the
energy.  They lacked life force and she just let it
flow.  Wounds might be seen as deficiencies of life
force.  She just needed to open a channel from her
reserves to the wound in question. Within herself, she
did that naturally but she had learned to control it by
restricting the flow from her reserves to a wound so
that she could heal only part of it.  The bestowal
spell was designed to rip life force from a normal
spell caster, and then bestow it on another.  In a way
it was two spells, energy drain from the caster
herself, and then bestowal.

If there were some way she could bridge the gap between
her flesh, and the flesh of another that she touched,
then she would be able to heal him.  With the energy
zinging around in her the way it was, Rapina thought
perhaps she could skip the energy drain part of the
spell, and just work on the part that directed the
energy just drained to the other person.  It was really
very like her channeling spell for directing the energy
of a man's orgasm from an odd part of her body to her
hungry vagina.  The direction of flow, however was
reversed.  She formulated endless sets of variations,
and even cut and healed her fingers a few different
ways in an attempted to gain insight into the way her
own energies flowed.  She came up with variations and
incorporated those that seemed to help.  She changed
emotional sets to one of greater empathy and love.  It
helped, but she was still stumped.

She had tried endless variations and reinterpretations
of the spell and could not achieve anything more than a
few sparkles of life force at her fingertips in spite
of the energy that was zinging through her.   She also
scoured her mind to see if she could think of some
component she was leaving out from the classic spell
when she formulated her simpler channeling variation.
Suddenly she realized there was something missing.  She
was missing a stupid transitional element.  She was not
sure how the transition should work in the short
channeling only version of her spell, but she had a few
ideas and tried them.  On the third casting, she got
something.  She was definitely onto something.  She
tried it again but she was still missing an important
twist.  As she cast she thrust her mind into the
energy, over the gap and into Hluk's wound, making it a
part of her.  Rapina shuddered as a power surged from
her reserves.

"Uhh," Hluk cried out

Rapina yiped as B'dar grabbed her hair and held a blade
to the throat.

"What you do to Hluk," B'dar snarled.

"Look at the wound," Rapina squeaked.

B'dar took a quick glance at the wound.  He noticed
Hluk's eyes were opened and he had the strangest
expression on his face.  B'dar's jaw dropped, as did
the blade from Rapina's throat.

"Great medicine!"

Thalis awakened and rushed to Rapina's side, then he
too saw the wound.  It was healing so rapidly he could
see the flesh move. The wound was not fully healed When
it stopped, but the flesh had turned to a healthier
color, and the wound was smaller and shallower.

"What Melina do?" Thalis asked.

"I have been trying to get my healing spell to work for
hours.  I did it.  Rapina dug through her things and
found the small traveling book of spells and cantrips
that had been in a pocket in her cloak for easy
reference.  She took it out.  I need a quill and ink to
write down what I did so I do not forget it," Rapina
said.

B'dar ran off and returned with Chontral Oagmak who
gave Rapina a quill and ink, then examined Hluk's
wound.

"B'dar say you get heal spell working," Oagmak said.

Rapina nodded as she scribbled down some notes.  "Yes,"
she said and then was silent as she wrote frantically.

The wise man examined the wound and raised an eyebrow
and pronounced: "Melina has saved Hluk's life with her
chont, her magic."

The few orcs that were awake praised Rapina's medicine.


Oagmak looked around and sniffed the air.  Why you
thuck so many orc soldier?  Oagmak think human women
not like orc."

Rapina smiled. "Melina think orcs beautiful between the
legs.  Melina love thuchthuchthuch.  Melina's best
chont is thuck.  Melina thought she get strong chont
from thuckthuckthuchthuck, maybe it give her so much
chont she get heal spell to work," Rapina said in
broken orcish.

"Melina chontral thuck, Melina sex magician?" Oagmak
asked in both common and orcish.

"Melina has small chont many kinds.  Melina best chont
thuck," Rapina said.

"Ahhh, it is good we have so many orc warriors.  Orc
warriors helped Melina save Hluk," Oagmak said.

"Orc warrior help Melina learn heal spell, make spell
more easy; she have so much thuck chont she dizzy,"
Rapina replied in broken orcish.

Oagmak chuckled.

"Melina try help Hluk more now," Rapina said in broken
orcish and then she began weaving the magic.  After a
few moments she released another surge of energy into
Hluk's chest.

"Uhhhh, Melena makes me tingle wildly when she does
that, and my cock grows stiff," Hluk groaned.

The wise orc propped Hluk's head up.  "I saw death all
around you, and in your eyes.  You were dead in one,
maybe two days.  Behold the power."

Hluk's mouth opened as he saw the wound shrinking
before his eyes, "Great chont!"

"Melina only beginner chontral.  Melina is an
apprentice.  This Melina best spell ever," Rapina said
in broken orcish.  "I rest a minute, then more chont."
After a period of rest, Rapina stood back up.  The orcs
were stirring, and she could feel the lust of the
awakened ones trickling up her spine.  She realized
that she had no breeches on and that some of the
awakened orcs had been sleeping for quite some time.
The third casting of her simplified bestow energy spell
sealed Hluk's chest wound leaving a long pinkish line
across his chest where the wound had been.  Her next
casting rendered Hluk's thigh wound inconsequential.

"Melina is chontral.  Melina saved your life, Hluk.
Would you keep her as a slave girl when the tribe has
need of her?" Chontral Oagmak asked.

"I will think about entrusting her to you and the
tribe, Chontral Oagmak, but for now we are not a tribe
but factions.  We cannot make her a woman of the tribe
without a tribe.  She is a chantral, all factions would
want her, and some might kill her just so the other
factions would not get her.  If she is a slave, the orc
that hurts her hurts me, and my allies can help protect
her.  Some factions might start fights and kill my
woman to remove certain competitors from the
competition.  You may make use of her skills, but she
will heal here in my presence and I will refuse
troublemakers.  I hope we have the trials soon.  The
warriors are recovering from the march, and will soon
become restless," Hluk said.

"I will cast the bones to see if GzishGthup gives us
his favor to select a new chief.  Now that we have such
medicine, if you will allow it, all competitors can be
healed and we need not wait for all to be well before
the competition.  A fragmented tribe in Jooldig might
fall to treachery.  It is wise we have a leader before
we sell," Chontral Oagmak said.

"You are wise Chontral Oagmak.  Let us act on your
wisdom then," Hluk said.

---


"I am sorry Rames, but we can do nothing until I can
find her.  I have communed with Mortaebius and I was
assured that Rapina was not among the deceased.   I
have spent considerable power watching the Avengenes,
but their trackers are stumped.  I have been very hard
on myself of late for being unable to locate her.  Too
hard, I suspect.  It appears that the chess mistress
was correct.  I am fond of her, and now that she may be
lost to us forever, I have lingering doubts about never
having taken her up on one of her many offers.  On the
other hand, I see what a mess you are these days and I
think perhaps that I was wise to do what I did. Until I
realize that I feel much as you do, but at least you
have richer memories.

Rames nodded, "She added life to this place.  It seems
so dead without her."

"Indeed, I sincerely hope the orcs simply went
underground as a way to insure that the Avengenes would
not find them, but I have no way of knowing," Thane
said. "I have combed the area around where I last saw
them, but as yet have found nothing.  I will look for a
cavern entrance.  I have that advantage over Avengene's
men.  I know I should be able to locate her with her
collar or my pool, and since I cannot, it is likely she
has delved beneath the surface of Ifreanne.   I assure
you that I will continue a daily search for caverns,
but there are other things we must do.  I have spells
to learn and advanced animations to create.  Avengene
has rendered the giants impotent against his larger
forts, and has secured aid from Li'Yieraun to help
rebuild those forts that were destroyed.  Obviously he
has deep pockets, for he is also advertising in other
baronies for soldiers."

"Since our morning magic lesson only seems to remind us
of Rapina's absence, I have decided to send you to
Argos to train under an armorer.   Your skills have
been more than adequate to repair those suits of chain
mail we have been able to glean from the dead of
Avengene that were not stripped by orcs.  Yet, I wish
you to have more experience with repairing plate
armors, forging and customizing.   I believe if we are
to have a chance against Avengene, we cannot rely on
the stereotypic army of rotting undead with decaying
weapons and armor.   Avengene's soldiers are too well
trained and too zealous for that.  Our army must have
more than a frightening appearance.  It must be truly
formidable so that the fear will be well deserved."

---

In the light of five candles, Oagmak squinted at the
bones he had thrown. "Such a tangled stack," he sighed.
"Why could they not have rolled out loosely?"  The
shaman stared at the bones for a time.  The bone of
fait had fallen nearest the shaman, but the bone of
death was tangled with it.  The bone of treachery
formed a trine with the bone of the shaman, and the
bone of death and fait formed a line with the bone of
the shaman.  This line was square with the line of the
bone of the tribe and chief, yet the bone of good
fortune formed a trine with the line of the bone of
tribe and chief.  The more he looked at it, the more
the divination made little sense, yet fait had fallen
first, so his course of action was clear, but what it
set in motion was inscrutable.

---

In a way Rapina was glad that Hluk had not set her
free.  So much posturing and bargaining was going on.
The orcs had become very aggressive with one another,
and this seemed to be a prelude to numerous duels.
Already several small groups had pledged their loyalty
to Hluk by loosing it to him in unarmed duels with
wagers of loyalty against services rendered, which
usually wound up being Rapina's favors.  She got the
feeling that some of the smaller groups with little
political clout had joined simply to be allies with
Hluk.  That way they would have relatively unrestricted
rights to see her once the tribe had decided on a new
chief.  Rapina dared not even go take a bath in the
stream without taking an armed group.  Threats and
slights that lead to duels and unarmed duels were
becoming increasingly commonplace as a prelude to the
announcement of the formal duels that would decide on
the new chief.

Jmal and his ten warriors came strutting into Hluk's
camp.  "You whore-sellers are weak!"

"If we are so weak, why do you even bother coming?"
Hluck asked.

"To taunt you, to offer a wager to pass the time," Jmal
said.

"What wager?" Hluk asked.

"Two Avengene horses, and these three jools against
your woman.  Allok against Thalis," Jmal said.

"You think I would bet my woman against money?  She
saved my life.  She is nearly an ally.  She is beyond
money," Hluk said, making a show of being insulted.

"I will bet three horses, and these six jools too
against your woman, Allok against Thalis," Jmal
enriched the offer.

"Bah, you do not have enough money to balance the scale
on Melina," Hluk said. "She is more valuable than the
lot of you.  Do you think I value my life so little
that I would bet one who saved it in a fight I had no
part in?  It is obvious why you say I am weak, you
think I am weak in the mind, but I am not so big a fool
as you think."

"We are worth more than your woman.  Ten warriors and I
who could best you in the chief's duel," Jmal said.

"Then bet loyalties not jools and horses," Hluk said.

"I could face you in the chief duels.  They will be
announced soon I hear, and afterwards we may not wager
our loyalties," Jmal said.

"Fight me now or later as you please, but wager
loyalty.  What use do I have for booty, when I may not
live to spend it?" Hluk said.

Jmal saw Chontral Oagmak emerging from his tent, "Then
I wager an alliance between us and our warriors, the
leader of the whole group to be decided by combat
between us."

"Armed and deadly?" Hluk asked.

"To death or yield, but the loser will be the second to
the winner," Jmal said.

"You would decide your second thusly and not as custom
dictates?" Hluk asked.

"Then offer a counter," Jmal said.

"The looser is a hchil, a sergeant and can compete for
higher posts just as any hchil," Hluk said.

"Done, but choice of weapons will be decided by
culahil, an unarmed duel between Allok and Thalis,"
Jmal said.

"Bah, Allok is your best.  Weapon choice should be
decided by the least among us," Hluk said.

"Done, but least as determined by the other group
leader," Jmal said.

"Done," Hluk agreed.

Chontral Oagmak raised his hands as if to speak.

Before Oagmak could open his mouth, Hluk and Jmal
hollered, "Culach! Culach! to death or yield for
loyalty and alliance, between us!

"And afterwards a great announcement," Chontral Oagmak
added.

Rapina smirked.  Both of the young leaders looked
relieved they had come to an agreement before Oagmak
could make his announcement.

"Who do you say is least in my group?" Jmal asked of
Hluk.

"You think I will say Hrune, but no, without weapons
the least among you is Bargl.  What weapons would you
use if Bargl wins?" Hluk asked.

"Cavalry flail and shield," Jmal said.

Hluk grimaced, it was obvious he was not good with
small flails.  "Who do you choose as least among us?"
Hluk asked.

"Melina," Jmal replied, grinning with self
satisfaction.

"Melina is not a warrior of Hluk!" Hluk sputtered.

You said yourself, "'Weapon to be decided by the least
among us.'  You did not say least warrior among us.  Is
that not so Chontral Oagmak?" Jmal asked.

"I heard, 'least among us to be decided by the other
leader.' Jmal has trapped you well, Hluk," Oagmak said.

Hluk cussed under his breath.

"What weapon would you choose if Melina wins?" Jmal

"Great club, bare of spikes." Hluk said.

"Uch!  Let us form a circle then.  Armor must be even
for the culahil," Jmal said.

"No armor will fit Melina right.  They fight with no
armor at all," Hluk said.

"Collar only, Melina has the jool with no clasp," Jmal
said.

"Done, but you must find a slim collar for Bargl," Hluk
said.

"I have one that will do."  Jmal had Hrune fetch him a
slave collar that he put on Bargl.

Hluk addressed Rapina and Bargl, "This is culahil, a
fight to yield or knockout.  Deliberate killing is
against the rules, and either leader may demand culach
with the breaker of the rules as is our custom."

Jmal nodded, "Go!"

Rapina could not imagine why Hluk had selected Bargl as
the least in unarmed combat.  He was huge.  If he were
no good at unarmed then it had to be due to speed,
because it certainly could not have been due to
strength or reach.  Rapina did not have time for an
elaborate plan.  The huge beige-skined orc stuck his
jaw forward and charged like a bull.  She fell before
him in a sacrifice throw.  The orc sailed over her head
squealing.  Rapina was up in an instant.   The orc
landed on his back.  Before he could get his head two
feet above the ground Rapina was off the ground with a
double kick to the side of his head.

Bargle blinked and staggered as the woman kicked him.
He would pound her with his fists!  He threw the one-
two punch. One missed and the other glanced off beneath
her breast.  If the woman could kick, then so could he.
He launched a meaty foot at the woman's belly.

Rapina went into a back flip, but the orc's foot caught
her on the fly.  As she landed, she tried desperately
to keep her coughing and gasping to a minimum.  Bargl
was not so slow as she had hoped, and he was definitely
not weak.

Bargle charged.  His meaty arms deflected the woman's
kick, but his right arm tingled with pain.  She
deflected his slow punch and he fell as the she swept
his legs from beneath him.  This time he got up faster.
She kicked him in the head only once.

As the large orc rose, Rapina's boot lanced out and
struck the nerve on the inside of his thigh.

Bargle's leg was tingly and useless; he was unbalanced
and falling.

Rapina saw the look of confusion on his face as the orc
bagan to topple.  She spun a round-house kick into the
back of Bargle's head.  The huge orc dropped like a
felled tree.  She held her boot heel above his neck and
poised for a deadly kick.  "Yield?" she coughed in
orcish.

"He yields." Jmal said.

Rapina walked away coughing, blood spattered the floor
beneath her mouth.  She gathered her wits and let her
held-back magic flood into her wounded belly.  She
straightened and let the damage heal completely.
Thankfully, she had kept some reserves for herself
after healing several of the chief contenders for
Chontral Oagmak.  Hluk was being more careful about
whom he let in her bed, but she was still steadily
seeing orcs interested in her favors, albeit under the
watchful eye of several armed guards.  It was a lucky
thing too, because it seemed as though whenever she got
reserves ahead, there was someone who needed healing.

Hluk chuckled, "Jmal you tricked me, but the gods have
tripped you up with your own wits.  Melina is a warrior
woman."

"Melina is an enemy of our enemy.  Melina is a chont
thuck, the best our warriors have ever had.  Melina has
saved Hluk's life.  Melina has healed the contenders.
Melina has won culahil for Hluk." Chontral Oagmak
grinned.

Hluk seemed to squirm a bit, but said nothing.

Jmal took a great club from Algorn.  Although he swung
the weapon distastefully, he flexed and strutted
nonetheless.

Hluk smiled and winked at Rapina while brandishing his
great club.

"Go!" Algorn said.

As the warriors began to circle each other, Hluk's
expression became serious, yet Jmal seemed filled with
an easy bravado.  The first blow came quickly.  Hluk
slammed Jmal's club down with his own then bashed
Jmal's calf with a bounce of a back swing.

Jmal limped a little.  "You're going to have to do
better than cheap swings to beat me, Hluk," Jmal said.

Hluk smiled briefly eclipsing the look of concentration
on his face, "I pound your head into the floor soon
enough, Jmal," Hluk said.

"Bah!"  Jmal lunged and managed a glancing blow off
Hluk's forehead.

Hluk staggered wildly and left an opening.

Jmal swung at the half-ducked head of his staggering
opponent.

As soon as Jmal had committed to the swing, Hluk,
jumped forward and rammed his club into Jmal's temple.

Jmal realized too late that he had let his bravado fool
him into believing he had landed a better blow than he
really had.  Hluk had been pretending to be staggering
but it was a trap!   Slam!  Jmal saw a constellation of
stars as he paid the price for his overconfidence.

Hluk pulled his club back and repeated his move, this
time knocking Jmal to the floor.

Jmal rolled and stood, then fell back down again.  He
could not see entirely straight but he was not about to
go down now.  He would use Hluk's own trick and act as
though he was within an inch of his life.  He left an
opening, but he was clumsy because he really was
staggering.  His club met Hluks in a wrist-numbing
collision.  Both orcs held on and used the bounce for a
murderous second try.  Each orc nearly brained the
other.

Hluk reeled and staggered, but smiled as he saw Jmal
hit the cavern floor with blood running from his nose.
"M-mlunina," Hluk pointed at Jmal; "Heal J-jmal."  Hluk
leaned on his club and wavered.

Rapina tried her new spell on Jmal, but her reserves
were meager after having healed her belly and various
orcs earlier in the day.  The spell did little, if
anything.  "Chont small, too many heals.  Melina neen
thuck chont," Rapina grabbed her own crotch and
squeezed as she spoke in orcish.  Lust tingled up her
spine and tickled her nose as the orcs assembled around
her realized her need.  Rapina's greedy emerald eyes
swept over the crowd as she sniffed out the lustiest
orc present.  Maron and two orcs who had recently
flocked to Hluk's banner were currently the most
overcome with need for her.

Rapina realized that her mode of dress would have to
change in the orc tribe because her legs got too cold,
yet her cunny was nearly always hot.  Half the time it
seemed she was bent over or on her back with her legs
wrapped around some grunting orc. To complicate
matters, both her breastplate and her bustier seemed to
fit only after she had cast many healing spells.  Her
father would absolutely have died if he had seen how
shamelessly wanton she was with the orc warriors.  Then
again, he probably believed she was nothing more than a
murderous witch after the clergy of the vindicator had
moved in to whitewash what Evangeline had really been.
Rapina supposed only her friends Evangeline had raped
still esteemed her; the others, no doubt, believed as
they were told.

"Me thuck you good, Melina, make your belly grow,"
Maron smiled as he pulled his glistening pink erection
from his pants.

Rapina put her fingers over her mouth for a second in
surprise.  Then she shrugged and embraced Maron who
lifted her hips, found her heated lips and began to
grunt as he thrust his erection through them and into
her lively tunnel.  If she were not hotly squeezing
Maron's erection, she might have been very worried.
She had not had her contraceptive herbs in four days
and she was awash in orcseed.  The next orc warrior
took her from behind and then a third threw her down on
the stone floor and took her roughly.  She knew she
ought to have been terrified of the orcs, but in
unarmed combat, she had learned how to fall properly,
and if an orc treated her roughly, she drew on him
heavily.  It was as simple as that.  Rapina thrived in
an environment that would have quickly driven another
woman to the insane depths of despair.  Her wanton
resilience impressed the orcs and earned her a kind of
surprised respect.  A respect she could greatly build
on whenever she climaxed and could use her charm power.

A fourth orc wanted her to suck him.  It was a bit of a
challenge to keep her teeth out of the way, but the
spiral ridges were fun.  Their texture was so exotic,
and the volume of the orc's pre-cum was enough that it
often ran down her chin.  He came rapidly, but Rapina
was prepared.  She caressed his rear just so and
channeled his energy to her loins.  It was good
practice with her channeling spell and the orc was
happy as well.  After satisfying ten of Hluk's
warriors, she used the power she had gleaned to heal
Jmal's head.  "I must rest now, then I will try Hluk's
head or maybe I will need more orc warriors to help
first.  We will see," Rapina said.

While resting between castings of her healing spell,
Rapina took a moment to think about how she might
prevent involuntary motherhood.  Normally she used one
herb to keep her from conceiving, and she had another
that would return her menses if she suspected she was
pregnant.  In the caverns no herbs were available.  She
was not even sure lust spirits could get pregnant.
Then again she was a woman too, at least that was what
her late Aunt had told her in the dream she had, had
right after Rapina had inadvertently killed reverend
Evangeline.

Rapina knew there was life force in the seed of males,
she had sensed it many times.  One thing she felt she
could do was to make sure she drew not only on the flow
of energy from a climaxing man's body, but also on his
seed itself.  She felt if she were sure to be thorough,
she might render the seed of the orcs lifeless, and
make pregnancy less likely.  The other thing she
decided she would have to do was to develop a drain
spell that centered in her womb.  She felt she could
use the spell in place of the back-up herb to cleanse
her womb before any seed got started growing there.
She could already drain using several parts of her
body; thus, the new variation would not be a difficult
adaptation.

---

Thane swept into the kitchen with a self-satisfied grin
on his face.

Rames stood up. "Did you find her?"

"No."  Thane paused dramatically. "But I believe the
trackers of Avengene have given me an invaluable clue.
They found the entrance to a hidden cavern."

"Have you searched it?" Rames asked.

"Not extensively, but I can tell you one thing, the
cavern is vast and deep, and the Avengenes would need a
sizable army to find the orcs in it.  I have attempted
to find a path but the deeper I go the fuzzier the
image gets until I loose it altogether.  It appears
that I will not be able to track Rapina via remote
viewing.  On the other hand, the cavern explains why I
am not able to find her, and why the ring I have that
is linked to her collar just shows an arrow going
around and around.  There is a good possibility that
she is too deep to track via the magic I have at my
disposal," Thane said.

"But." Rames stammered.

"All is not lost.  At least now we may know where she
probably is, even if we cannot reach her via remote
viewing," Thane said.

"Can you track the Avengenes?" Rames asked.

"They do not appear to be delving any deeper than the
surface caverns.  From their point of view, it is
impossible to say if the orcs went into the cavern.
They lack the manpower to search it even if they were
as convinced as I am that, that is indeed where the
orcs went," Thane said.

"There could be a dozen entrances and exits from those
caverns.  Will we ever find her before the orcs have
her for supper? Rames asked.

"We are not helpless in this.  I have better servitors
than I once did, and we have the ability to use the
shadow plain.  I realize she is with a tribe of orcs,
Guardian Rames, but we cannot underestimate her
resourcefulness," Thane said.

---

The word for tribe and chief were the same in Orcish.
Both were Kahl, and the contests that would determine
the Kahl of Kahl Rageblood had been telling on Hluk.
He was a good warrior, but he was young and not quite
as seasoned as a few of the other contenders.  His
speed, endurance and cautious audacity had delivered
him through the first combats.  Some had gone more
smoothly than others had.  The final bout was between
him and a filthy middle-aged orc named Scrag.  Going
into the battle, Hluk was in better shape than Scrag,
for Rapina had clandestinely healed Hluk after each
previous bout.

Early in the battle, Hluck had scored two telling
blows, one on Scrag's foot, and the other on Scrag's
opposite leg.  Just when Rapina thought the battle was
won, Scrag had put a deep slash across Hluk's still
tender chest and another one across his thigh.  As the
two fought, Rapina knew it was going to be a close.
Whoever made the first mistake would likely loose.
Neither could move perfectly because of their leg
wounds.  Hluk seemingly had a slight advantage in this
regard, but he had previously had a better advantage
and it had done him no good.

Hluk knew it must end quickly.  He would have to press
for victory, to exploit any appreciable error in
Scrag's technique, but no.  Scrag must be thinking the
same thing.  Scrag must be thinking, "One more blow, I
am on a roll and so close to victory."  Hluk knew what
he must do.  His thigh was hurt and Scrag knew it, but
Scrag's legs were also hurt, and he had used that
against Hluk.  Scrag had used brief victories over his
own pain to inflict wounds on Hluk that should not have
been possible considering Scrag's condition.

Rather than waiting for the orc that made the first
mistake to fall, Hluk would make a mistake, and use it.
The arm that held his buckler already ached, and the
tiny shield had taken too many blows to be counted on,
but it had to serve.  As Scrag changed direction, Hluk
turned crossing one leg over the other, closing his
stance like a fool.  He could hear the reply to his
error whisper through the air.  Scrag was crouched and
the attack went against Hluk's errant thighs, the one
part Scrag was assured Hluk could never dodge away from
his swing in time.  Hluk held his buckler behind him at
the ready; he brought it forward to protect his thigh
while nearly snapping his wrist with one short but
lightning swing to a swath of skin between Scrag's
gorget and his helmet.

Both orcs roared with pain as they wounded one another.
Hluk's buckler was destroyed and his forearm was a ruin
in spite of his bracer.  Scrag had had the right stance
and timing for a powerful swing, and it looked bad for
Hluk.  His arm was bleeding profusely and it was easy
to see that the hand was not working, for the bones of
his forearm had been broken.  Hluck dropped his sword
and hollered in agony as he held his bleeding left arm
trying to keep all of his blood from leaving him.
Scrag stood up, his buckler fowled against his helmet
as he tried to get to the wound in his neck.  It was
up, almost under the edge of his helmet.  Scrag's hand
never reached the wound but was sprayed red
nonetheless.

"No!"   Scrag bellowed.  He charged at Hluk like a
wounded boar, his sword aimed for Hluk's gut.

Hluk forgot his pain and jumped as high as he could.
The sword tore at his calf rather than his belly as he
went up over the top of the charging juggernaut.  Hluk
let go of his bleeding arm.  Both orcs struggled to
their feet.  Hluck wavered but limped sideways, holding
his bleeding left forearm under the armpit of his right
arm so he could draw a dagger and keep the dagger
trained on Scrag.

Even with his neck wound, Scrag got his bearings and
prepared for another charge, but the whelp he was
fighting kept moving sideways and up and around.  Scrag
blinked, his vision was swimming.

Rapina blinked as a jet of fluid wet a line across her
face.  She brought her hand back and it was red with
blood, but whose was it?

Hluck turned Scrag's next lunge aside with his dagger,
but was again knocked across the cavern.  By the time
he stood up, Scrag was charging again.  Ting! Uf!
Hluck parried the bullish warrior's sword aside with
his dagger and kicked Scrag in the face.  Hluk fell a
split second after landing the swift kick; his bad leg
had buckled beneath him.  He fell to the floor and the
dagger left his grasp and clattered against the floor.


Reeling from Hluk's kick, Scrag fell on top of Hluck.
He was determined to gut the stripling beneath him, He
tried to struggle to his feet but instead wound up
sitting on Hluk's abdomen.  He raised the sword.

Hluk groped for the dagger.  He had heard it land; he
squirmed trying to grasp it but he knew it might be
just out of reach.

Scrag was about to impale the stripling's chest when he
heard a crunch and saw the boy's fist against his
nose... It was a good punch but he hardly felt it.
There was something else though, but he was only
vaguely aware of it.

It looked to Rapina as though the tribe would have no
chief, by virtue of both candidates slaughtering one
another, but when Scrag's sword came down, there was no
crunch.  Only the point penetrated Hluk's breastplate
before the older orc fell to the side, the hilt of
Hluck's dagger stood out from Scrag's porcine nose.
Hluck had found his dagger in the last second.  What
Scrag had thought was a punch was also a stab.

Rapina was up in a flash.  She grabbed Hluk's arm and
at the elbow and just above the wrist and jerked.

Hluck screamed as the bones of his arm snapped back
into place.  Rapina let Chantral Oagmak take the arm
and began casting.  After two spells she was so spent
she could not go on, but she felt certain the arm was
saved.  Oagmak patched Hluk up as best he could while
Rapina rested.  Rapina smiled wanly.  She knew she
could count on the orcs to flood her with the power to
heal their new chief.  Hluk was a good warrior, but not
the best.  Some of the best orc warriors lacked the
charisma to attract a group of supporters, but instead
had given their loyalty to the orc who possessed the
woman who had the tribal warriors spellbound between
her thighs.

Chantral Oagmak spoke, "The Rageblood tribe has a new
Kahl.  First, let us hear him speak, then perhaps he
will lead us to a place where ale can be had for
celebration!"

The orc warriors cheered and hollered in affirmation of
what their shaman said.

Shaken by the ferocious bout with Scrag, but proud of
his victory, Hluk stood up on a formation of rock and
gave his first address to the tribe.

"Brothers, warriors of the Rageblood, I am proud to
stand before you as your chief!"

The assembled orcs yelled battle cries and stamped
their feet.

"I am young, but wise enough to know there are still
things my elders can teach me.  I promise to bring
vitality and guile to the chief's tent and to look out
for our tribe to insure our continued survival and
success!"

The orc warriors again cheered for their new chief.

"As you see, I am not a bad warrior, but I know I am
not the very best warrior of the Rageblood.  I hold the
prowess of Farge, Stang, and a few others above my own.
Thankfully, Farge is too ornery and Strang too ugly to
want to be chief!

The Ragbloods laughed.

"Nevertheless, I am grateful for their support.  A
tribe needs senior warriors who can spend their time
training, and demonstrating their abilities to less
gifted warriors to keep the Kahl Rageblood strong.  A
chief seldom has the luxury to help train even gifted
youths.   As our senior warriors know, I am also not
the smartest among us.  On my shoulders will fall all
the tribal details these warriors who might have beaten
me have had the sense to avoid."

"I care about my brothers, and I promise that we will
fight when we can, and run when we must.  But more than
that, I promise that the hordes of the Avengene who
usurps our lands and kills our people will feel our
rage written in the blood of countless fallen
soldiers!"

The Rageblood orcs yelled battle cries and stamped
their feet.

"In honor of my victory, I am putting my slave girl
Melina in trust for the tribe for as long as I am Kahl
of Kahl Rageblood.  She is an enemy of our enemy.  She
has saved my life more than once, and she has done
great service for the Kahl.  She is to have the same
measure of freedom and respect that a young orc shaman
might.  Her master at work will be Chontral Oagmak, for
her chont is uncommonly strong, and our wounded
warriors can make good use of her charms."

Squck! Squck! Squck! Melinaaah!  The warriors hollered
making innumerable noises and gestures that would have
whitened the hair of most any woman who had grown up in
Rapina's hometown.

Rapina basked in the collective lust of her orc tribe,
her own hunger pulling at theirs.

"Enough of speeches, this is a time for celebration.
Let us strike camp and make for Jooldig!"

The story continues in [Rapina]047 Jooldig

copyright 2001-2002 by Rapina