SCARLETS DOMAIN

"You know it's futile," said Gudrun, when we were
alone. "We can never train them to defend themselves
before the marauders come again."

"Of course not," I said, "but they will not be
defending their village, they will be helping us."

"We don't need the help of a gaggle of flabby
panicking girls!" sneered Karelia.

"We will need all the help we can get while you
persist in this fantasy of joining the Amazons!" I
barked.

Karelia roared suddenly and charged at me, eyes
blazing with sudden insane fire. Her sword slashed
fit to split me open, and she would have done, if
Gudrun had not intervened, knocking Karelia's sword
aside with her own.

"Stay, Silurian," she said. "We cannot hope to find
them without her, and... well maybe there is danger
there."

Karelia glared at Gudrun, and for an instant her mad
eyes registered nothing and it seemed that she would
have slaughtered Gudrun too, but after a deadly pause,
she sheathed her sword reluctantly.

We turned in for the night, and the following day we
spent checking the surrounding geography, looking for
points of attack that the invaders would exploit, and
also for suitable training areas.

Evening found us in the centre of the village,
awaiting our rendezvous with our new army.

They came one by one and in small groups, bearing the
weapons and armour of their dead kin and their
enemies. By the time they stopped coming I could count
fifty women and girls who, by their presence, had
shown themselves ready to give their lives. How many,
I wondered, were ready to take lives?

I was about to address them when there was a
commotion. I recognised the woman I had seen with her
daughters in the hut the previous day, push her way
forward.

"What do you want from us!" she screamed. "This is not
a place for women. We should not be made to rob our
dead just so that you can shed more of our blood!"

Karelia stepped forward, eyeing the woman
malevolently.

"Seize her!" she barked suddenly.

There was an uncertain muttering as Karelia glared at
the group. Amongst them I could see her two daughters,
beautiful girls of 16 summers.

"I gave you an order!" shouted Karelia. "Obey, or run
back to your huts like the snivelling vermin you are!"

They did not need telling again. Two women stepped
from the group and pinioned the protesters arms. She
struggled angrily.

"Let me go! Can't you see what these bitches are
doing?"

Karelia walked up to the woman.

"They are mine now," she whispered.

There was a subtle change in the woman's demeanour. As
she looked into Karelia's savage face, fear began to
replace anger.

Karelia stepped back suddenly.

"I need an executioner," she said, a chill in her
voice.

My heart skipped a beat, thrilled and horrified at the
same time by Karelia's casual cruelty. I should have
stepped in, but I wanted the tableau to play out.
After all, these women would need to know how to kill.

"Nooo!" The woman's two daughters cried out in unison,
pushing their way forward.

Karelia drew her sword, raising the point to the face
of the nearest and oldest, a dark haired beauty with
full firm breasts. Tears were streaming down her face.

"P...please!", she whimpered, "she is our mother, she
doesn't know what she's saying!"

A cruel smile twisted Karelia's lips.

"I think we have a volunteer," she said.

The girls eyes widened, and the spark of defiance
grew. "Never! You'll have to kill me!"

"So be it!"

"No!" I stepped forward, my sward sweeping Karelia's
aside.

With a guttural roar, Karelia turned on me, eyes
blazing, sword swinging.

"You've crossed me once too often, Scythian bitch!"
she screamed hoarsely, "now you die!"

Was this the tie to experience sweet death? A part of
me hoped so, yet the warrior in me insisted in
fighting. I had to fight the woman I had adored -
still adored. If only....

Karelia's sword came crashing down on mine as I lifted
it to protect my skull. I would have counter attacked,
but crippling pain shooting from my crotch as her knee
drove between my legs, prevented both defence and
attack.

I knew she would kill me now.

The passionate union of steel and flesh never came,
and as I slowly recovered I saw Karelia on all fours,
shaking her head. Gudrun stood over her, sheathing her
sword, having knocked her cold with its hilt.

Quickly I kicked Karelia's sword away from her, and
pressed the point of my own against the nape of her
neck.

"Stay still Silurian," I said, "for you will lose your
head if you try anything!"

There was just a chance that she cared.

I pushed and she obediently pressed herself to the
ground while I placed my foot between her
shoulderblades. I breathed a sigh of relief, then
squatted beside her.

"Making daughters kill their own mother, is bad for
discipline," I murmured. Then, looking up and around
me, I caught sight of the two girls grateful faces.

My expression hardened, as I addressed them and their
comrades. "But, in war sacrifices have to be made,
lessons learnt. She must still die!"

It was an excuse, as much as anything. My sick spirit
needed feeding and I wanted to see death. My loins
craved it.

Their friends, at least understood that there was no
choice in the matter. They restrained and comforted
the two distraught girls.

I became aware of Xanthe standing over me.

"Let me learn this first lesson," she said.

On the face of it, her act seemed one of bravery, yet
there was a hunger concealed in her gaze, a hunger I
recognised. It would not be long before she was as I
am now.

The woman was babbling with terror now.

"Nnn..no! Pll.. P... P.. Please! You can have
anything!"

The front of her peasants shift clung to her thighs
with her urine.

"Xanthe... Sh.. show mercy... for.. p... pity's
sake... Aaah!"

Xanthe ripped the top half of her shift exposing full
quivering breasts, breasts which had suckled her
daughters, and which they had inherited.

She then raised a thin sharp sword, but hesitated.

My heart was in my mouth. My head was pounding. Kill!
Kill! the words seemed to thump into my brain with
every beat of my black heart. I knew that my thighs
were glistening with my lust.

Xanthe struck, driving her sword into the woman's
stomach just below her rib cage. She screamed,
throwing her head back as she bent forward, her torso
heaving.

It was not a fatal blow, and Xanthe looked at me with
distress as the woman moaned.

"Finish her," I said, mustering as much authority as I
could through my lust.

Xanthe slashed, this time, but she had her eyes
closed. The point of the sword cut deep across her
left breast, splitting it open and exposing gobbets of
pink fat, while she howled horribly.

It was the best I could do to keep my hands by my
side.

"I... I can't!" whimpered Xanthe, tears streaming down
her face. She glanced at the two daughters, her face
distraught in apology. At this, the younger one broke
away, seizing a sword. She lunged at her mother,
striking her clean and true through the heart.

The woman slumped lifeless to the ground, and the girl
ran to her, cradling her head in her arms, sobbing all
the while.

"Forgive me! I had to do it! Forgive me! I couldn't
bear your suffering."

Her sister came up behind her, putting her arm around
her shoulders. Then they looked up at us.

"Will you allow us time to mourn her please?"

I nodded. They would be let off the first days
training, but from what I could see of the younger
daughter, she at least probably wouldn't need it.

"Tomorrow at dawn, the training begins," I told them.
"Go now. Rest, and think on this evenings events. If
you would become warriors, understand that
indiscipline will be punished in the harshest way, as
you have seen. If not, then you may return to your
ways for as long as your enemy allows you."

Will continue in chapter 10...