Chapter 13: The Hammer of Thor

After the ambush we made camp at Kannadi, taking over several deserted huts in the village. Under interrogation by Lieutenant LePater, the Headman of the village admitted the attack on the bullock cart had been made by the Thugs and dacoits who had taken over the village when Stead’s section was withdrawn a month earlier. It was obvious the villagers were innocent of any crime and had been closely supervised by their unwelcome guests so that no villager could raise the alarm. It also transpired that to maintain the acquiescence of the inhabitants all the young men of the village were being held hostage. The Headman did not know where but from what he told Lorne LePater it could well be the self-same place where N’reeta was held captive.

I surmised that the Thugs quartered in Kannadi had slaughtered the travellers discovered near Pananchery, and wondered if there were other villages in the neighbourhood hosting uninvited guests.

We brought all the corpses from the ambush site with us to Kannadi – Thugs, dacoits, and sepoys. All Hindus, good or bad, are cremated; the ritual presided over by a Brahmin. To my astonishment it was Havildar Chakhrabhati who conducted the ceremony. A pyre was built and doused in oil – palm oil, I was informed. The corpses were then stacked like firewood in a grate, with the bodies of the three sepoys resting atop of the heap.

After some chanting and praying led by Chakhrabhati the pyre was lit and the bodies consumed. I believe the ashes were collected later, but well before then I had taken myself off when the stench of burning flesh became too much for my European sensibilities to stomach.

“I thought only Brahmins were allowed to conduct cremations,” I said to LePater after the ceremony.

“The havildar is a Brahmin, “he replied, smiling at my amazed face. “All priests are Brahmins but not all Brahmins are priests, and there are many serving in the armies of the East India Company, most of them senior NCOs. A Brahmin can seek employment in any trade or profession he wishes. Similarly, not all Kshatriyas are in the army or ruling states. Many are traders and merchants. High can go lower for employment, but low cannot go higher.”

We burned the dead and bandaged the wounded, and I scoured the blood – none of it mine – from my face, arms, and hands. I was preparing to go to my solitary bed as my wife would be snuggled up with N’reeta, as she had been each night since leaving Alathur. I had removed my blood-soaked trousers preparatory to getting between the sheets when Mimi burst into the hut, seized me in a feverish embrace and bore me to the ground. She ripped my underdrawers off before mounting me on the bare earth floor.

She was like a wild animal.

Never before had I seen her in such a frenzy of ferocious lust. Her tongue ravaged my mouth, and her madge gripped and sucked a surprised, but thankfully fully erect, John Thomas. She ripped my back with her nails when she climaxed and sucked on my tongue, almost swallowing it in her debauched delirium. I was far from my release but it seemed Mimi’s appetite had not yet been assuaged. She bit my shoulders, sucked my neck, and continued to ram herself onto, and further into, me, moaning and grunting like a rabid sow. At first, I tried to restrain her but her animalistic carnality fired my own degenerate urges, and soon I was giving as good as I was receiving.

It was not making love, it was full-blooded gebumse.

We rolled around like rutting animals, first she on top, then me, using my strength to hold her to the floor as I impaled her, pistoning in and out of her grasping, gulping, gluttonous madge. We both screamed our release before collapsing exhausted, coated in sweat and completely sated.

“What brought that on, Mimi?” I asked some half-hour later when I had regained my senses and my breath.

“It was when you attacked those men who were bent on seizing the bullock cart,” she said softly. “I was filled with such an overwhelming lust for you that had I been wearing any drawers they would have been drenched, I was that wet for you. I have never felt such an urge to copulate in all my life. It was if I had been taken over by a nymphomaniac succubus. All I wanted was you thrusting powerfully inside me as I lay open, harpooned to the floor, dripping with juice,” she grinned in remembrance, “exactly as you have just done.”

She was pensive for a moment. “I acted like the whore I had been at the Golden Lion. You were like the Hammer of Thor as you chased down those men and butchered them. It was a primal feeling, seeing lumps of their flesh being hacked off by your sword and axe. I am your woman, a berserker’s woman, and I acted like a berserk whore!”

I kissed her gently. “What I have just experienced is something unforgettable, my love, but doubt I could handle too much of your berserking!” We got up from the floor and sat on the charpoy. “I suppose you are going back to N’reeta now you have had your will of me?”

She kissed me, soft and sweet like the Mimi I knew and loved.

“She can sleep by herself from now on, Jacques. N’reeta has regained her confidence and her self-respect.”

“How so?”

“When those men attacked the cart I handed her one of my pistols and told her to blow Masters’ nugs off if they reached us. He heard me and begged for his life. He was so terrified he soiled himself. N’reeta got her revenge on him, and now she does not need me as her mother but as her friend. She was happy for me to come to you tonight. N’reeta may be a young girl but she could recognise the desire and want I had for you.”

We spent the rest of the night wrapped in each other’s arms, except for an hour or so when we made sweet and tender love.

Three days after the ambush near Kannadi we arrived at Palakkad Fort.

“I gave no orders for Masters to concentrate his company at Alathur,” said an irate Lieutenant Colonel Rafe Sett. “What on earth was he thinking of, leaving checkpoints unmanned and giving free rein to any Thugee band in the vicinity?”

“I believe Masters was bribed to keep his men in camp to allow the Thugs to attack a party of merchants. The young African girl accompanying my wife was discovered in Masters’ bed – she was his reward.”

Colonel Sett shook his head in disbelief. “I cannot believe an officer of the Honourable East India Company would sink so low, although I admit Masters is known for his sexual appetite, especially for young, untapped, females, if you take my drift.”

“I gather that Masters was permitted to flout the standards of normal behaviour and indulge in his perversions because of the high position his father held?” I said.

“Yes, and God forgive me I am one of the many who turned a blind eye to his transgressions rather than offend his father by having Masters court martialled. Of course, with the death of his pater, he will now face the full measure of military law. As the senior officer in the Fort, I can convene a court martial but cannot serve on the court as the defendant is a member of my regiment. The court will comprise of five officers, all of the rank of major and above, but it will take some time to arrange. Major Rhodes, my second in command, is also barred from serving on the court although he may have to act as the defendant’s ‘friend’ and speak in his defence. The officers of the court will be drawn from senior officers of the Palakkad Garrison; which comprises of three companies of Madras Fusiliers, the Second Madras Native Infantry, and Fifth Madras Native Cavalry regiments.”