Ta'o commanded the center of the stone circle at the back of the castle grounds. He was surrounded by conscripts; the log-benches were all filled up, and several more men stood behind them.
"Now," he instructed them. "Bullshit, is xayufipiga."
They repeated in unison. "Ha-yoo-fee-pee-ga."
He clarified. "It's actually sour penis, but that's how we say bullshit."
Some of the men moved aside for a woman to step through. She was the sekɪwa who'd fought the goatherd on this same circle the other night, the same one who'd thrown her laundry at me when I first came through here. She was short and muscular like all the others, dressed in a beige silk loincloth with gold embroidery draped over her arse. Her white hair was pulled taut into a single, thick braid that hung all the way down her back.
She looked around the men, flitting her eyes from one to another before settling on a man sitting in the front row. Haron. The same man who'd cursed me out at the shit pit earlier.
"You." She pointed. "tave teɣose damʌðe damʌ?"
All the men looked at Ta'o. He grinned. The sekɪwa faced Ta'o as well, cocking her head in Haron's direction.
"Um…" Ta'o rubbed his chin. "So… she's asking if you're afraid to 'man a woman.' That means…"
"I know what that means." Haron stood with a smug grin. He'd dressed in a cotton loincloth like the one I wore. Across his muscular chest were four lines of scar from a bear paw, and on his right shoulder was a brand in the shape of Cougar with His jaws open in a roar. "And no, I'm not afraid."
He took her hand, and as they walked off together he glanced in my direction. "And I'll take my sweet time with it, too."
The rest of the recruits looked flabbergasted at one another. Ta'o glanced at me briefly and turned back to his students. "We'll continue tomorrow."
As the rest of the men dispersed, I approached him. "Cultural orientation?"
The swelling where Dax clobbered him had gone down since morning. He flashed that winning smile at me. "Yeah, bro!"
"What did I miss?"
Ta'o chuckled lightly. His white hair fell to the small of his back. "Nothing Miyani hasn't already taught you."
"Speaking of which…"
"Nope!" he held up one hand to block my words. "I promised her I wouldn't say anything. She wants to be the one to talk to you."
"I see. Well in that case, I have another favor to ask of you."
"Anything."
"I have to go give Commander Gaedi a briefing."
"So give her one."
"I've never done this before; I don't know what to say to her."
"Oh," he grinned wide and slapped his hand on my shoulder. "She's cool, bro, nothing to be nervous about. Loves to be on top, though."
It took a second for his words to register. "I don't know how useful that is."
Ta'o laughed. "How's this? You're my captain, how about I give you a briefing, and let's see how it goes?"
"Alright."
"Wait here." He walked off.
I stood in the middle of the stone circle. To my left by the stacked mud huts, two women bathed each other, inspecting one another's feet. Behind me, children—mostly mixed with Herali fathers—chased each other by the laundry. An old woman yelled at them, and they ran off. A cluster of men loitered on one of the log benches, and above them, the waning sunlight cast a shadow from the crenelations on the ramparts above onto the opposite wall, like giant, square shadow teeth devouring the light. It was still warm and muggy, but bearable.
Ta'o stepped up to me with his chest high, his chin up, and his face serious. He raised his right fist to his left shoulder like a proper Imperial soldier. "Captain! I am here to report!"
I couldn't help but giggle.
I fought that off and tried to keep a straight face, so I raised my right fist to my left shoulder as well, and he lowered his arms to his side. I stood up straight and held my hands behind my back. "Let us hear the report."
"Bilal has organized the recruits so that each man has three shifts: one chore, one training, and one flexible. On the chore side, Siddik says that the mold damage in the barracks was extensive, and that structural repairs will be needed. Most of the beds have been liberated, and while the sleeping situation should improve from tonight, two men were arguing over one of the bunks, and one of them is in the medical ward with a knife wound to the gut. Another fight broke out in the laundry; the loser asked to be reassigned."
"Did you get the name of the winner?"
Ta'o laughed.
"Listen. Remember why we're here; we need to pick out nine of these men to join our team."
"Yeah, well I don't want anyone on my team who uses a knife to resolve simple arguments. That guy's name is Segay; he's off my list completely. The one from the laundry, his name is Orel, but I'm told it was him and a couple other guys against one, so that doesn't count."
"Fair enough. Where are we with training?"
We both sat down on the edge of the stone circle; it was exhausting being all stiff like that. He propped his elbows on his knees, and I stretched out my legs onto the grass matt covering the ground below. It was looking torn up in this area, too. "Alright. So Miyani is very frustrated. She says the men in her class were more interested in coming on to her and were not receptive to anything she tried to teach them."
I sat up straight and looked at him with my face hard. "Which men?"
"Caleb," he held up a finger. "This is not your culture. She and I already had a long conversation about topics I should cover for cultural orientation, and we're dealing with it."
I huffed. I didn't need to be told what it was about, either. She told everyone I'd lasted a second with her, and they all understood that as an invitation to offer a better performance. And no matter what Ta'o said about his culture, this was mine, and I needed to make an example out of someone over this.
Ta'o grew silent.
He wasn't looking at me. His eyes were forward and he didn't move.
Immediately I looked around to see if anyone else noticed.
The men by the log benches were half engaged in their own conversation and half paying attention to the women bathing across the way. Some had gone, and one of them sat with a dasegwa, strumming through chords and tuning the pegs. Men paced up on the ramparts, but mostly kept watch outside the castle. Some children chased each other nearby, shouting and laughing. Maybe a third were Na'uhui.
Ta'o looked blankly ahead. His body didn't move. His eyes didn't move. He barely breathed.
Thankfully, he wasn't rolling on the floor screaming.
Sometimes this works. Sometimes. I knelt in front of him, placing my eyes directly in front of his. It took careful calibration, making sure his eyes pointed at mine, not my nose, or my ear. Then, I looked directly into each of his deep-amber eyes at the same time.
This was the hard part. With Sarina, I used to look back and forth between her eyes, try to stare at the bridge of her nose, and that didn't work. I had to spread my eyes apart so that each of mine was looking directly into hers. It strained a different set of muscles.
Ta'o blinked and lifted his head.
"I win," I said.
Ta'o looked around, disoriented. Then he shook his head vigorously and came back to me.
"You blinked," I said. "I win."
"Oh, was that," he looked around. The shadow of teeth on the eastern wall closed its jaws on the rampart above, where a man kept one eye on the outside and his other on the women bathing each other.
"Did I just… ?"
"No one noticed," I assured him. "You forget I'm not new at this."
He took a deep breath and let it out. Then he sat up and took a moment before his face grew terrified. "I'm not sure about all this anymore."
"You'll be fine," I assured him. "Let's just lie down for a minute."
So we lay our backs onto the stone and together we looked up into the sky, a blue shade of amber through a lattice of heavy clouds high above. I let him breathe for a moment before asking. "Where'd you go?"
He sat up and furrowed his brow.
"I'm sorry. We used to ask Sarina that whenever she came back. Father Yewan got so mad every time we did that. I guess it wasn't…"
"It's alright," he shook his head again. "Yeah, so um… you need to talk to gædi."
"You alright?"
"Yeah," he lowered his eyes. "I just need to rest. Go on, I'll be fine."
Then as I walked off he called back to me. "Caleb?"
"Yeah?"
"It was a lot of people. I was inside a big building, a lot of people, and… there's… pain everywhere." He closed his eyes and thought for a moment. "That's all I got."
Two years ago, Sarina had one where she felt like she was being burned alive. She'd said she could feel the heat and smell her own flesh being charred. That one… that was bad.
While he went off to rest, I had to find the Commander. She didn't say where I was supposed to meet her, so I thought to look in the oversized, empty room I'd seen her in the other day. If she wasn't there, perhaps someone else would know where I could find her. So I climbed the staircase above the laundry and went down the narrow hallway.
The wide, open archway was filled with muted late-afternoon shade from one wall that wasn't so much windows as a few columns that held up the floor above with openness between them. On the far right corner beside the stone shelf looking out over the castle grounds, gædi sat on a plush bag chair with a ceramic cup in her hands. She had an unusually deep and velvety voice for a woman, especially considering how small she was. "So you know about Ta'o."
Maybe she meant something else. "Know about…"
"And you still recruited him." She was pureblooded Na'uhui, dark-green skin and amber-yellow eyes, and her silver-white hair was tied into a single braid wrapped around her crown. She had the same build as Miyani—petite and muscular, with a black silk loincloth spread out over her lap.
I shrugged.
She put her cup down and stood. This commander barely came up to my chest; she was the same height as Miyani, and I couldn't get over that voice. "Let me ask you this. What happens if he does that… out there?"
"Then we deal with it."
She closed her eyes and shook her head with a slow exhale.
"He's not a liability."
At that, she looked up into my face. Her deep-amber eyes darted back and forth between mine. "Come. Let's walk."
She led me through a wooden door opposite the oversized room, down a dark passage and up one of those irregular staircases. While she raced up the steps, I had to climb extra carefully to avoid smashing my knee on the floor again. Or my hands. Or my face this time.
She waited for me in a circular room with tall, narrow slits all around. To one side, she stood beside an open archway leading out to a narrow, stone walkway between crenelations of the outer wall. "I've known Ta'o for a long time. I am curious what made you want him on your team. I'm even more curious what you told the Princess for her to allow that."
"The deal was that if I wanted Ta'o, I had to also take Bilal."
She chuckled. "I'd say you got a bargain!"
We stepped out onto the ramparts. To my left, down below, three men sat in the middle of the stone circle playing music while others gathered around, and the smoke of happy cabbage reached its fingers up to where we were. To my right, the lake was still. The red sun was shrouded in mist inches above the horizon. "What do you know about Ta'o?"
She smirked. "He loved being on the bottom."
That made me laugh. "I'll tell him you said that."
gædi gazed up at me for a moment. "Please don't; I have a husband. Knowing Ta'o, he won't take that lying down."
Right.
She stopped to rest her hands on the stone ledge between crenelations and look out over the lake. Hiding beneath the trees to one side was a huge alligator, had to be at least five yards in length with its tail, body, and snout peeking above the mud. "In case it's not obvious," she said, "I'm new at this whole commander thing. I forget your people don't like to talk about sex so openly."
"So wait," I said. "Your culture just… talks about it like it's no big deal."
"Should it be? It's a perfectly natural part of life. Why hide it?"
"I guess."
She smirked and cast her amber eyes up at me. "You're asking about Miyani."
"I mean," I scratched my wrist. A light breeze toyed at the hair over my back. "She said she wanted to be the one to explain it to me."
"That's nice. Your first time with a woman, you're supposed to be so excited to be with her that you can't control yourself. In our culture, if it's your first time with her and you just keep going, she'll understand that you're not serious about her."
"So…"
"She was very proud to bring you to that point so quickly."
"Seriously?"
She nodded. "Listen, my first time with Ta'o, he kept me up all night. And you see, I married someone else."
"I see. But I'm supposed to give you a briefing."
"Yes," she nodded and turned to hop up and sit on the ledge, holding herself steady between stone crenelations on both sides. The front flap of her black silk yithi had gold embroidery like a building on fire with rays of sunlight coming down from the sky. "Who won your archery tournament?"
"Sadly, it was not me. Kid named Hereim. Falcon Clan."
"Now here's something." She hopped down, and we walked together towards another tower along the wall. "This is merely an observation, but it seems like the vast majority of men who come through here are from Falcon, Cougar, and Orca clans."
"OK?"
She shook her head. "You and my husband! Look. Who lives in Heralia? Demographics?"
I stopped and leaned my back against the stone archway leading into the next tower. "According to the last census, there are seven and a half million people in Heralia, roughly eighty percent ethnic Herali. Our duchy has the highest GDP per capita in the Empire."
"I'm talking about the clans."
"There are thirty-one clans in all. The biggest ones are Bear and Orca. The Duke is Bear Clan, and Orca is Kyoen; that place is massive."
"And Cougar and Falcon?"
"Falcon's not in the top five. We're mountain people, no big cities. Cougar is the same. Ulum is big, but a lot of the people there are immigrants."
"Not big clans."
"Population wise, no."
She fixed her face at me with all seriousness. "I'd guess about half of these recruits are Falcon."
"Speaking of which," I said. "Tomorrow, Miyani and I are taking some men out to train them in the jungle."
gædi smirked and peeked through a narrow slit in the stone at the darkening purple wall of the Terbulin mountains beyond. "I was wondering if you were going to tell me about that. Listen, that's the sort of thing I need to be in on. If she's hunting you with practice arrows, I need to put someone else on watch in case someone who doesn't belong here gets curious."
"Oh, sorry."
"Tomorrow's fine, but in the future, I need you to coordinate with me, first."
"I can do that."
Then she smiled. "Who are you taking out?"
"We're going to talk about it this evening, and I'd love your input if you can think of anyone. In the morning we're going to choose from whoever shows up ready to go."
"May I make a suggestion?"
"Sure?"
"Observe. Don't lead them. Have them choose their own captain, and then just try to remain invisible."
"That's good!"
"As for names," she raised an eyebrow and gazed at me for a moment. "There's my husband's cousin. Whether you want him or not is up to you."
"What can you tell me about him?"
"His name's Jorven of Sayenne. I haven't had any problems. On the quiet side. He has eyes for Shoyi, that's for sure."
"Shoyi…?"
"The nice young lady who recruited that one Cougar man earlier. But anyway, Jorven's fine if you need someone who doesn't create problems. I'm sure you heard of Faris?"
"No?"
"He creates problems. Those two guys who climbed the outer wall the other day? He's the one who survived. He also won a drinking contest. He also won a contest to see how quickly he can stab the table between his fingers—right after he won the drinking contest."
The sun dipped into the horizon, warm air filled the castle, and dusk settled into early twilight.
That evening, Miyani and I sat together in the soft, brown, shredded-coconut-husk bedding of the stalls beside the courtyard. Blue lay across the open end of the stall with something brown and furry trapped under his forelimbs. Most of the flesh had been ripped off already; he was nibbling at some strips that still clung to the bone. The whole area beneath was saturated in blood and scraps.
That will have to be cleaned up later.
Over his body, waning sunlight bathed the jungle mist in deep yellow, and the tail end of the Terbulin mountains vanished in the distance through the stone archway of the main gate. One man was in the gatehouse about to lift the drawbridge for the night. On the other side of the lizard chewing on a tendon, the important-looking woman stood beside the storehouse while several of the recruits helped empty the corner where the stinky thing was.
Meyisi. Sorry. She was the quartermaster's wife, her name was Meyisi. I had to remember that.
"I talk, you listen," Miyani pleaded with me. She sat on her knees and leaned into me. Those fucking legs, my God. She wore a white silk yithi that was narrower and longer than most, that fell to her knees teasing me with the inside muscle in her thighs, trailing off into darkness.
She sat close. She lifted her hand to my knee, only to pull back and sit up straight. I loved her breasts. From her chiseled stomach up to her perfectly toned chest, she was perfect.
Her white-yellow eyes trembled and she gazed at me. "Caleb, I no want hurt…"
I stopped her. "Gaedi already explained everything. I understand."
"Gaedi?" she scrunched her brow. "Why she say this? I ask at her not say this…"
"Can we go again?"
Miyani faced me. She tilted her head, her eyes went wide at me, and her perfect lips cracked open.
"It's just…" I squirmed. I didn't know how she would react with me being direct like that. "I'd like to, uh…"
She launched herself at me, and we were on the ground. My lips found hers as soon as they could, and I reached down to pull my loincloth to the side. I was ready.
Miyani sat up and giggled, pressing one finger to my lips. "You wait."
She stood. Her body had the most amazing curves. Thick muscle added to her generous hips, and I sat up.
"No, no," she shook her finger at me. I lay back down, and she undid a hidden buckle in her belt. She took off the only thing she wore and straddled me, bringing my shaft to the base of her mound. The sensation of her hair on the skin of my cock nearly sent me over the edge, and she leaned forward.
Then she showed me the inside silk flap of her garment, where a faint yellow outline clung to the fabric.
"No more stain," she giggled. "Is OK."
And she tossed it aside.
She allowed me one brief kiss before she sat up straight, lifted one knee, took hold of my cock, and put me in place. She locked her eyes upon me and lowered herself, bringing me into her.
That feeling. Like smooth, slippery velvet gripping my shaft and swallowing me whole, there was nothing like that. Anywhere.
Ever.
"Look at me," she whispered.
I tried. I focused on her gorgeous delicious face with that sensation taking over me, and I exploded. With her wet pussy gripping me from every side and sliding further and further down my shaft, I filled her.
I touched God.
Miyani brought herself back up, slid back down over me, and warm slime saturated our skin on one side. Then she lifted up again and settled back down, pulling me deep inside her again and again.
But I'd already finished.
The sensation had muted. I didn't know how long we had before I would lose my erection, but I wanted more than anything to give her this moment. I had to focus.
Watching her bounce up and down over me, I sent my fingers to explore. I traced the muscles in her thighs, saturating my senses with the movement of her muscles shifting up and down. I held her hips. Strong, powerful muscle beneath my fingers twitched every time she bounced.
Miyani pulled her knees forward to rest her full weight on my hips, bringing me so deep inside her I could feel her lips stretch out over the base of my cock all the way to my balls. There, she rolled around in a circle, shifting me about in every which way, all the while keeping her eyes locked onto mine. God, she was pretty. She had a round face with wide lips and wide eyes, and I loved the way her cheeks flushed with every exhale.
I moved my fingers up to her nipples and played around, brushing them with my fingers, cupping her breasts in my palms, letting them glide between my fingers and rolling them around with my thumbs.
Miyani started rocking back and forth with her hips, still with my dick buried deep in her pussy. She steadied herself with her hands on my knees and allowed her glorious body to rest in my hips, still rocking back and forth. Back and forth.
So I pinched her nipples. She jumped lightly and allowed her thighs to fall back to my sides, and continued to rock back and forth.
With the skin of my cock floundering in the depths of her pussy, the sensation of her squeezing all over my shaft, that tingling sensation crept back.
And so I joined her. She leaned in some and let her thighs fall to my sides, allowing me to wrap my hands over her lush, muscular arse, and we kept eye contact the whole time. Her quiet exhalations grew into that sweet music of moaning.
I lifted my hips some, then back down, still with her grinding back and forth and keeping me buried deep inside her. I lifted enough to pull back and thrust in hard, and her eyelashes fluttered.
I rammed into her. Then I rammed into her again.
She arched her back and shifted her hips, and I kept at it, slamming up and into her while she sang my favorite song.
I could keep this up for hours.