Chapter 4

Evanis awoke to semi-darkness. The faint hint of light off to the east told her it was early morning; the snoring, sacked out lumps told her the rest of her band were still asleep – hopefully with the exception of the sentry. She reached for her belt and grabbed her coin pouch off it. Opening the pouch, she searched and found the imperial copper coin was still inside. Evanis cursed herself for the relief she felt. Why did she feel relief? The question hung in her mind but she received no answer. Disconcerted, she returned the pouch to her belt. She chose new clothes for the day and took her bundle of toiletries; just a wash rag and a bar of soap, made of goat-sebum and wood ash. They had chosen a place close to a pond to camp. On her way to the pond, she looked down at the peacefully sleeping pair and kicked Jabbit in his side, non-too gently.

“Follow me,” she ordered and continued walking to the pond.

She laid her fresh clothes out on a stone, slipped out of her short tunic and waded into the shallow but rather cold water of the pond until it reached the midst of her calves. She had wetted her wash rag and rubbed the soap on it by the time Jabbit finally arrived.

“Undress and then come and wash my back,” she said.

Jabbit undressed as ordered and then joined Evanis. She handed him rag and soap and turned her back to him.

“The last time I told you about my history, today I want to know about yours,” Evanis demanded while Jabbit washed her back, starting at her shoulders.

“You said you don’t know your real name but what have you done since your birth?” She asked. “Or have you all of these years just been walking around naked in the woods, that little bundle in your hands? How old are you anyway, nineteen or twenty?”

He listened while watching the wetly glistening skin of Evanis’ back. He watched the suds sliding down on it, then across her buttocks and between them; further down along her strong thighs, to the hollow of her knees and the curve of her calves before they met the water and drifted away on the surface of the pond.

“I do not know how old I am, nor what I did the first years of my life,” Jabbit finally answered. “The bundle I got ten years ago. It is all I own and I want it back, my copper coin.”

Evanis turned her head and stared at him across her shoulder. “I won’t give it back!” She spat in anger.

He washed her lower back and then effectively manhandled her ample buttocks, to launder her ass. Evanis rose to her toes, her eyes widened and her back arched, as he boldly pried apart her buns. A hand squeezed in between the cheeks of her ass, and its fingers soaped and scrubbed the cleft and her asshole. Then he crouched and continued with her legs. Evanis relaxed but had certainly noticed his touches were different today.

“You’re a fast learner. Now do my front,” she ordered when he was done with her legs.

Standing in front of her, he looked into her eyes and asked, “The rag or my hands?”

Evanis’ gaze moved slowly down Jabbit’s body, carefully evaluating him. She had to admit he was prettier than most women with whom she had shared her bed but he was also obviously a man. Albeit a strangely unaroused man, a quick glance at his groin revealed. Evanis was not used to such a reaction, and it confused her; as if he wasn’t confusing enough already, the imbecile with his cuddle doll and his bundle of worthless treasures.

“Use your hands,” Evanis coolly replied but what she felt was defiance. She just wasn’t sure whom or what she defied.

He soaped and scrubbed her chest meticulously. Hefting the heavy orbs of her large breasts, he paid special attention to their sensitive undersides. Evanis’ areolas puckered and her dark pink nipples stiffened as they slid between his soapy fingers, again and again. The water is cold, she told herself and focused on her breathing to keep it calm. She looked up from her chest to watch his face but lowered her gaze again as she found his light gray eyes awaiting her green ones.

The muscles in her belly inadvertently tensed when the fingertips of one hand stroked the soft skin of her belly, and then her navel, moving further down that path. Evanis froze and held her breath when his wet fingers combed through the curly triangle of hair gracing her pubic mound. Two spread fingers slipped past her clit, rubbing the erect nub between them. Her halted breath escaped in form of a deep, long moan. Her thighs involuntary parted some more which made Evanis wobble slightly. She steadied herself by grabbing Jabbit’s shoulders. She moaned again when his fingers closed the space between them, pressuring her clit and the lips of her sex. The squishy sound when he repeated the motion a few more times let Evanis know that she needed a new excuse for her body’s response to his touch. She stopped troubling her mind with the search for an excuse as two fingers parted her puffy lips and pushed inside her while the heel of his hand rubbed her clit, massaging it. He increased the pace of his motions and the intensity increased as well. Evanis’ pussy noisily spattered fluids and a lot of it streamed down her thighs. Then the fingers curled inside her and tapped something - something very sensitive. Only a few moments later, Evanis screamed and her thighs snapped shut, clamping the hand between them. Her whole body was trembling uncontrollably and she sagged, her arms tightly wrapped around his neck.

After Evanis had recovered her stability, some recently cleaned places needed to be cleaned yet again. So they continued washing, in silence this time. Finally done, they emerged out of the pond and dressed, still silent. Jabbit was about to return to the camp when Evanis finally spoke again.

“You lied to me. Yesterday you told me you’d never even seen a naked woman before,” she stated, sitting on the stone where her fresh clothes had been laid out and was watching him intently.

“I have not lied,” he stopped and answered, then walked on. “You were right, I am a fast learner.”

Evanis sat on the stone and watched him leave, her brow in furrows. Suddenly she jumped up and loudly cursed! Then she ran, still cursing, and easily overhauled Jabbit on his way back to the camp.

Rhaseris immersed her body into the water till it reached her chin. As she washed, she warily watched her guard, while the man stood on the shore and leered at her. She washed her body cautiously because some parts felt unusually tetchy and sore today. Then she saw Evanis. The young woman was walking fast, her face flushed and a hand clenching her sheathed dagger’s hilt so tightly that her knuckles were white; she resembled an angry storm front about to break.

“Leave!” She shouted at the man guarding the princess.

Evanis stared at Rhaseris until the man had gone.

“Come out,” was her next command.

Rhaseris looked past Evanis at the bundle of her clothes on the ground.

“I’m a woman, I’ve seen tits and cunts before,” Evanis impatiently ground out.

Rhaseris haltingly rose, covering her breasts with an arm and a hand, while her other hand hid her sex. Slowly she waded out of the water, warier of the warrioress than she had been of her guard. She had almost passed Evanis on her way to her clothes when the woman’s hand on her shoulder stopped her progress. Evanis violently grabbed the princess’ wrist and pulled her hand off her sex, and then replaced Rhaseris’ hand with her own. The younger woman had been wary of Evanis but she was still surprised as a finger rudely penetrated her and her squeak expressed it.

“By all my mother’s strumpets!” Evanis shouted. “Even the Queen of Whores herself couldn’t have been any faster spreading her legs. You are a Royal Princess chosen to become a priestess. Two nights! Only two nights and you let that village idiot fuck away your virginity? Don’t even try telling me he forced you!”

“I’m so sorry. I guess without my precious virginity, I’m of a lesser value to the people who hired you to abduct me,” Rhaseris calmly answered as she took her clothes and dressed.

Evanis glared furiously at the Princess as she put on her garments.

“Your life no longer has any value to me at all! You didn’t just fuck away your virginity, you also fucked away four-hundred gold pieces. MY GOLD PIECES!” Evanis screamed and drew her dagger.

Rhaseris glanced at Evanis but continued getting dressed. “Put your dagger away. I know you won’t harm me,” she said, still as calm as before.

“And why not? I’ve killed people I liked much more than you, you stupid cunt, and for far less gold than you’ve cost me!” Evanis hissed in response.

“You were right. When I left my home, I was a virgin princess, chosen to become a priestess,” Rhaseris answered as she finished getting dressed. “What you don’t understand is that last night I became a priestess. I devoted my virginity and life to my god and my god will protect me,” she said. Then she smiled, her gaze directed past Evanis.

Evanis spun around and saw Jabbit.

“That’s your god?” She barked out a laugh. “You think he can protect you? He can’t even protect himself. I’ll kill the both of you, the retarded god and his cockeyed priestess,” Evanis spat.

“I could buy her life from you and then you will have to kill only me,” Jabbit evenly replied.

Evanis furiously glared at Jabbit and pointed with her dagger at his face. The muscles in her arm were strained and the hand, too tightly clasping the dagger’s hilt, slightly trembled.

“YOU will pay me five-hundred pieces of gold?” Evanis asked, fighting to stay calm. “Because that’s what was offered for the virgin princess.”

“I have no gold but you could keep the copper coin you took from me as your payment for her life,” Jabbit answered.

Evanis stared at him and her mouth opened, but no words came out of it and she closed it again. Suddenly she threw her head back and screamed at the sunny sky, loud and long. Then she stormed off in direction of the camp.

Rhaseris whispered some words as she watched Evanis leaving.

Taught the worth of a life by a trader of death.

They traveled all day and only met a few peasants from villages situated along the road. No one bothered them and they, in turn, didn’t bother Evanis. She was silent throughout the day and exuded an aura of hostility. Even when they camped for the night and had taken their evening meal, she still had not said a single word to anyone. She sat alone, stared into the flames of the campfire and absently turned a copper coin over and over between her nimble fingers. Finally, as dusk neared, a shadow fell upon her as a big man sat down by her side.

“Ate someone else the last sweet treat? What’s wrong with you today, Eva?” Kuwasi asked.

“I lost five-hundred gold pieces and gained a copper coin; that’s what’s wrong,” Evanis answered, not turning her gaze away from the fire.

“By Oshurie’s wrinkly little dinkle!” Kuwasi spat and the volume of his voice was rising as he continued. “Are you talking about the gold King Mandorak proffered to pay us for the Princess?”

“Shhh!” Evanis hissed. “Keep your voice down. I made a mistake and I’ll pay for it. You and the others, you will get what I promised you,” she calmly stated, still staring at the flames.

Kuwasi watched Evanis, the brow of his big, bald head contorted in wrinkles.

“I know you, Eva, there is more than you’re telling me,” he surmised, his voice low now. “I’ve been your friend since you came to the Forsaken Army - a little girl carrying an iron falcata she hardly could lift. It’s the boy, isn’t it?”

“Tomorrow we’ll reach the Ewu,” she replied, her voice as emotionless as her face. “We’ll either travel north to Isostres and hand over the not-so-virginal Princess, or we’ll travel south to Katerra. If it’s Katerra, I’ll then have to save my sister and mother from King Mandorak’s revenge for my betrayal.”

“Why, Eva? Why would you betray the King?” He asked. “Let’s give him the Princess and you can do with the boy whatever you want. Or just kill them both and tell the King it was an accident. I will do it for you if you feel something for either of them,” Kuwasi suggested.

Evanis sighed and pried her gaze from the fire to look at her friend.

“If you try to kill the boy or the Princess, I’ll have to kill you to protect them, Kuwasi,” she whispered staring in his eyes. “I got paid for it,” she added and laughed, bitterly, looking at the copper coin in her hand.

Kuwasi shook his head. “The boy is strange. I knew it the moment I saw him. But is he dangerous? More dangerous than King Mandorak?”