Chapter 5

Roberta - Hanging Around

It was all right for Paula! Of course Roberta still loved the little girl It was just that she was somewhat jealous of her right now. Here poor old Roberta was, in yet another fine old mess, and Paula was OK - as per usual! These days it always seemed to be alright for Paula! There was lucky old Paula sitting in a nice warm cave being befriended by the bandit leader while she languished in the bitter freezing cold. How did that girl do it? Why was it always she, Roberta, who seemed to draw the short straw? Not that Roberta wasn't capable of enduring hardship, pain and danger. She was more than capable of enduring her present discomfort and a lot more besides, and for as long as necessary. Roberta was as tough as ever - tougher, even. But it would just be so nice to have a rest from these things once in a while!

Roberta had been hanging upside down for ten days now, with her hands tied behind her and about thirty feet up in the air, lowered once a day to be fed and watered. She hoped and prayed that the rope which held her was strong and would not break! In all that long period of suspension she had not seen Paula more than half a dozen times. The little girl always smiled up at her when she did pass underneath. She would give Paula credit for that much. Her friend had not forgotten her - quite.

According to the withered old crone who sat in the innermost recesses of the cave, mouthing unintelligible imprecations and throwing disgusting looking stuff into a foully smelling cauldron, in two days time it would be the New Moon. The New Moon was apparently something pretty special to this venerable old woman and its advent might or might not see the end of Roberta's present predicament.

For some reason quite beyond Roberta's comprehension, the bandits showed great respect to the old hag, but Roberta wouldn't give her the time of day! Roberta was a dyed in the wool rationalist and disliked superstition. The only power our heroine believed in was the power of the sword and of her own wonderful body.

Speaking of that wonderful body, at least Roberta wasn't wearing those degrading and uncomfortable clothes any longer! Dressing had been a terrible experience for her after all her years of proud nudity. Once more she was bare arse naked just like a true Golden Guard should be! This almost made up for her present parlous situation up in the trees among the birds!

Perhaps the phrase "thirty feet up in the air" is misleading. Roberta was certainly thirty feet off the ground, swaying somewhat in the chill breeze. But the height above sea level was more like five thousand feet. Even the hardy Roberta felt the chill these days! Not that she couldn't take it, of course! Roberta could take anything!

Directly under her was what looked like a primitive fireplace. but was actually an altar. On the day of the full moon a sacrifice was to be made. The said sacrifice was going to involve a great deal more pain for the much abused Roberta. Paula had explained in great detail what the crazy old sorceress had decreed.

What they were going to do to her was not that bad. Some people might be dreading it and pissing themselves with fear, but not Roberta! What was in store for her was just a routine bit of torture - the kind of thing she'd gone through plenty of times already! What got to her was the waiting and hanging around! Roberta was Action Woman personified and this enforced idleness was really beginning to piss her off!

The couple's plan to make for the Palace and a confrontation with those who had framed Roberta, and whose treachery still posed a threat to the King, had come adrift very quickly. Roberta's hard won liberty had lasted less than two days.

Roberta had been far more badly affected by her severe whipping followed by that seemingly interminable swim ashore than either girl realised. They had not gone more than a couple of miles before Roberta had fainted from loss of blood and total exhaustion.

Paula had dragged her off the main highway and managed to fashion a sort of shelter for the two of them before she herself had fallen asleep. When the two awoke they had been prisoners. Twenty fearsome looking ruffians were surrounding them and Roberta was quickly overcome, although not before giving a few of them some bruises they would sport for days to come.

Soon enough, though, even the warrior woman Roberta had been knocked unconscious and trussed to a pole to which she was tied hand and foot. Paula had been allowed to walk with them. They had no fear that such a tiny girl would get far if she ran for it.

After three days marching through the increasingly deserted countryside the party of brigands had paused to rest. It had been then, when they had released the trussed Roberta that they had discovered that she was not the lusty youth they had taken her for, but a woman.

"How does a woman get to be so strong?" the leader had asked. "It took six of us to knock you out!"

"I am one of the King's Golden Guard!" replied Roberta. "I am unjustly accused of betraying the King whom I vowed to serve. I was on my way to clear my name when your people surprised us."

"You must be the famous Roberta!" said the leader. He sounded greatly impressed and asked if he might have the privilege of looking at her bare back. He knew what he saw there would tell him that she was indeed the famous fugitive.

"Please take these clothes off me, altogether. I am so terribly ashamed to be dressed. I deserve a long and hard whipping for abandoning my nudity - no matter for what reason. I will get one in any case whether I clear my name or not!"

So Roberta was completely stripped, making her very happy, and the robber chief examined her back, running his finger along some of the more prominent scars.

"You are indeed the much whipped Roberta for whom the King's men were looking. There is not a back in all the Golden Guard to be compared to yours! I am proud to have seen it and touched it! But you are a wanted woman these days and although we are bandits here and with a price on our heads, but we are not scurvy rebels. We should hand you over to the Law. But first we must consult Philippa."

Roberta gave a solemn promise not to try to escape and was allowed to walk with the bandits. They accepted her offer to assist with the equipment, carrying on her strong back an enormous pack which seemed not to cause her the slightest distress. Mile after mile she strode, barefoot and naked, until the men had to ask her to slow down!

Paula revealed that she was an auxiliary Golden Guard and was permitted to remove her clothes. She felt more than slightly nervous as she felt twenty pairs of eyes boring into her miniaturised perfection. The buttocks that had so charmed the King were working their sensual magic on the twenty hardened rogues! But the chief told his men to keep their hands off her.

One of the brigands, though, a tall and powerfully built scoundrel, seemed disinclined to obey his leader. On the night before they were due to move on to their remote mountain lair, the dastardly ruffian burst in upon the petrified Paula and would have had his evil way with her, were it not that Roberta heard a scream and dashed into Paula's tent. The massively strong Roberta stood between his aroused manhood and the sweet innocent object of his base and lewdly primitive desires.

"Keep your distance, you bastard! And my friend will not surrender her virginity for such a one as you! Call that pitiful thing a dick?! Put it away you pathetic arsehole before I die laughing! Ye gods! My clit's almost as big as that!"

Before the situation could develop further the leader, a man called Rodolfo, came into the tent and ordered the would-be rapist Bernard back to his quarters. But the situation remained ugly. Roberta, her eyes blazing with a horrible fury, swore that no roughly lascivious hands should touch her Paula unless it were over her dead body!

"That's not a bad suggestion, Golden Guard Roberta!" laughed the jovial Rodolfo. "If we hand you over to his Majesty in return for a free pardon, you'll soon enough be dead meat in any case. No more banishment to Hell Island for an escapee! It's the chop for you next time! After a long session in the Torture Chamber with my good cousin the Chief Torturer! You'll be begging to die long before the end! So we'll be extremely kind to you and give you a quick exit! That's the sort of decent chap I am! All heart!

This is how it's going to be, my brave girl! In the morning you fight Bernard to the death and if you lose then Paula is his! Take her back to her tent, men!"

"I am happy to die fighting for Paula's honour. The dawn cannot come soon enough! That swine will never see another!"

"Gung-ho bitch, your friend!" said an admiring Rodolfo to Paula as Roberta was led away to await her coming ordeal by battle.

"She's a Golden Guard, Rodolfo! All her life she's been trained to fight and fight hard. Point her in the direction of the enemy and the said enemy's history! Call off the fight! Call it off unless you can spare Bernard and won't really miss having him around! Roberta will eat him for breakfast! Roberta doesn't take prisoners, Rodolfo!"

"She fights with no weapons save her bare hands, Paula! No flashy swordsmanship tomorrow. No well aimed arrow. Just her bare hands! Something tells me she won't like that too much!"

"She'll still win! No one alive - neither man nor woman - can defeat Roberta!"

"We shall see soon enough, Paula. Try and get some sleep. You won't be disturbed again!"

Paula tried to get back to sleep, but excitement at the coming fight kept making her wake up. She couldn't wait to see her darling Roberta in action!

The two antagonists were led out to fight each other at dawn. All the bandits gathered in a circle to watch. A rudimentary ring was already in place, having been prepared overnight while the two fighters were resting and preparing themselves. Roberta was naked as usual and greatly impressive with it! There was a gasp of awed admiration as she stepped into the arena. But Bernard wore clothes, including heavy boots. Rodolfo, in order to be fair to both contestants, ordered Bernard to take off his footwear. He stripped off his shirt at the same time and displayed his massive hairy chest.

Bernard looked more angry than Paula could remember any person ever looking before. If any man was totally pissed off and ready to kick arse, it was Bernard on this crisp cold morning! Roberta had better be in good form today! She looked at her face, but as usual saw nothing other than the customary impassive and beautiful mask. The eyes were hard, though. Every bit as cold and hard as the eyes that had appraised her more than a year ago when the two had first seen each other by the roadside.

Paula wondered for a few heart stopping moments whether her confidence in Roberta might not have been somewhat disastrously misplaced, as the fight got under way! To start with, Bernard, clearly angered at Roberta's disdainful appraisal of his prized and nobly proportioned penis, opened the proceedings by sending Roberta flying with a prodigious blow of his mighty fist to her mouth. Blood seemed to be everywhere and Roberta looked stunned for a second. But only a second!

Paula need not have worried. It took Roberta a while, and she was to receive a stupendous amount of punishment over the next twenty minutes, but she came right back from that opening setback by blasting Bernard with a mighty kick to his chest. Roberta's arms pushed her body off the ground and her leg came up like a giant spring right into her opponent's body. He never saw it coming until too late. It was a magnificently delivered blow that audibly broke a couple of ribs. Bernard grunted in pain and Roberta, upright in a flash, stared at him for a split second with those cold blue eyes. There was death in that stare!

In retrospect, Paula could see that it was downhill all the way for Bernard after that. He fought like a tiger, using every dirty trick in the book, kicking and kneeing Roberta's crotch, stomach and breasts many times in a vain effort to slow her down. Roberta was, as ever, completely impervious to pain and gradually overcame Bernard, absorbing all his blows and contemptuously shrugging them off as if they had been delivered by a baby rather than a grown and powerfully built man.

There was something terrifying about Roberta that morning as she tamed her hapless opponent. She gave a demonstration to them all of what a magnificent and highly trained animal she was as Bernard was worn down and softened up for the kill.

Finally Bernard had no more to offer and stood bleeding and defeated, ashamed to have been defeated by a woman and with no more will to fight. Roberta launched herself at her antagonist, put her hands around his throat and squeezed the life out of him.

There was a round of applause for the brave Golden Guard, who wiped the blood off her mouth and put her pack on her back, preparatory to moving out for the last stage of the journey to the mountain hide out.

"I see what you meant last night, Paula!" said the Leader as they walked the final few miles. "Roberta is invincible! There can be no one who can prevail against her. What a magnificent, brave and beautiful woman! I desire her, Paula. I worship that girl! But if Philippa deems her to be a traitor we shall have no choice but to hand her over to His Majesty for torture and execution. It will break my heart but I will do it!"

"Roberta will never belong to any man, Rodolfo! All the Golden Guards are the same. They can be aroused to passion only by the sweet and firm young bodies of other women. I too am that way. Roberta and I are lovers - or were before she was arrested a year ago."

"You are a lucky girl, Paula! With Roberta to protect you, you need fear no one. But we will take her from you and hand her to His Majesty's tender mercies if we judge her to be guilty. All will be revealed in time. Truth will prevail and justice will be served. Philippa will see to that!"

Roberta and Paula were taken to see Philippa as soon as the brigand band arrived. Roberta was not impressed! This old lady stank like a pile of rotting fish! What a stench. She almost threw up! Paula, too, looked a bit pale about the gills.

"We must wait until the new moon before we know your innocence or guilt." wheezed the old hag. "Take her away and hang her by her feet from the Altar Tree high enough to keep the birds company. Feed her daily but do not release her bonds until the day of trial."

It was a relief to be out in the fresh air again after being so close to that horrible unwashed hag! The disgusting old woman stank out the entire cave. What were Rodolfo and Company doing by allowing her to be in such a dirty state?

After ten days, though, Roberta's relief was a thing of the past. She had been skilfully enough tied so as not to impede her circulation, which was pretty smart of these rough brigands considering that the circulation of the blood had not yet been discovered!

But she was bored and she was cold. And she was worried about Paula. The thought of any of that bunch of ruffians laying a hand on her virginal purity enraged her. Roberta wanted that virginal purity for herself and she was a very possessive woman! She struggled again to free herself, but it was hopeless.

Paula had come out one morning, as Roberta was being lowered for feeding, and explained to her tethered friend the nature of the test to which Philippa was to subject her. There was excitement in her voice as she told the hanging Roberta about her impending fate!

"On the day of the New Moon, Roberta, you are to be lowered to a couple of feet from the ground and whipped. I have seen the whip they will use and it is a good one, well worthy of you! Your blood will be collected in a ceremonial bowl and used by Philippa to see if you are innocent or not. It won't be a very big bowl, Roberta, and as soon as it is full to the brim they will stop whipping you and raise you up again. Philippa will sleep on her thoughts overnight and pronounce sentence in the morning. It shouldn't hurt too much, darling - not like that last terrible flogging on the Hell Island"

Roberta had been less than impressed by all this mumbo jumbo. Whatever happened to psychological interrogation? Where was the science in all this?