Blood Rebellion

"Warrior," the tallest of the three bowed respectfully to Dragon.

"Warrior," Dragon nodded to her.

"We wish to join your company," the woman said.

"Will your company not be offended?" Dragon wore the usual scowl on his face. At least it wasn’t the deep frown—that could scare children and small animals.

"Our company will not care," the woman replied.

"Who leads your group? If he verifies your request, I will consider it," Dragon replied.

"As you say," the woman bowed again and walked off. She was nearly six feet in height and muscles rippled in her arms, which were bare. A white eagle with black-tipped feathers was tattooed on one arm, but I could see no other tattoos. The two women who followed her also had the same eagle on their arms. The eagle’s black-tipped feathers made it different from any eagle I’d ever seen—except for one. That Eagle was a giant Eagle—a member of the Saa Thalarr.

We were almost finished with our breakfast and I was about to go clean my teeth when the three women came back, accompanied by a male. It was the same man who’d brushed past us on the first day, asking why the women hadn’t stayed home. Now I knew why these three wanted to get away from him.

"If you’re fool enough to allow these three into your company, you may take them with my blessing," the man grunted and stalked off. I realized then that I hadn’t seen that many women among the Warlord’s army, but then I hadn’t seen much of it, yet. There had to be twenty thousand troops or so, divided into groups, each with an accompanying set of supply wagons. Our group was made up of the add-ins—the ones who weren’t regular army, I guess. I figured that the Warlord had pulled in as many extras as he could, since the enemy was organized, now.

"Your names?" Dragon asked, as soon as the man was out of hearing.

"Tava," the tall one introduced herself. She had the black hair and Asian features of most of the Falchani I’d seen. The next one was five-eight or so, had dark-brown hair, didn’t look completely Asian and gave her name as Hart. The third one was the shortest—perhaps five-five or five-six, also with black hair and dark eyes and identified herself as Nima. They’d brought their clothing with them, plus a rolled up tent and a few other belongings. Their horses had been left outside the breakfast tent, already loaded and ready to go.

"Have you had breakfast?" Crane asked, first thing.

"We have," Tava nodded.

"We will expect you to keep in shape and spar with the others when we stop in the evenings," Crane went on.

"We would welcome that," Tava bowed slightly, as did the other two.

Dragon lined us up in three rows of five after that and Crane, Caylon, Devin, Pheran Tiger and Turtle now rode in the first row behind him, then Veykan, Dragon Taylor, Crane Trevor, Rik and Drake followed in the second row, leaving Drew, Tava, Hart, Nima and me in the last row. I rode next to Drew; the other three women were riding at my side.

"How long have you been a warrior?" Tava, who rode next to me asked after a while. Crane had introduced all of us to the three women when we saddled up to continue our journey.

"That depends," I said. "If you’re asking how long I’ve been fighting with blades, not long at all. I’ve fought before that, though."

"Crane will test you tonight," Drew got in on the conversation. "He will see what you have."

"Then we will thank him and offer to do for him," Tava nodded.

"He will not expect that," Drew replied while I sat there on my horse, wondering what do for meant. "He merely wants to know what your level is, so he can teach you if necessary."

"If he expects no more than that, then we are most relieved," Tava smiled. I think that was the first smile I’d seen on her face. That made me go Looking, although I didn’t like doing that very much—it felt like prying. Those three women had been expected to prostitute themselves for whatever they could learn from the men of their company. I thought I might have a stroke when I got that information.

Lissa, calm yourself, Drew sent. Drake’s mental voice wasn’t far behind. I got mindspeech from Dragon, too, trying to calm me down. I was about to go give the ass-whoopin’ to the man who deserved it.

We cannot interfere in that way, Dragon informed me. That is the Warlord’s business and he is ignoring things of that nature at the moment. We cannot get involved.

Then maybe the Warlord needs the ass-whoopin’, I snapped back mentally. Drew frowned at me. Yeah, I was being grumpy with dad-in-law.

We reached the river shortly after nightfall—the Warlord wanted to keep pushing until we reached it. I had no argument with that decision; I wanted a bath in the worst possible way. The horses were cared for first, the tents went up and then we all trooped down to the river, where a horde was already bathing communally.

At least the bathing was taking place past the point where the drinking water was dipped out and the horses drank. What freaked me out most was that everybody was naked and cleaning up and doing laundry at the same time. I backed up when we reached the riverbank—it was mostly men bathing and I’d never seen that many penises in my life.

"Come along, shy little flower," Drake laughed at me as he and Drew each grabbed an arm and hauled me along. Tava, Hart and Nima were already undressing to go into the water. Devin didn’t like the circumstances either and was getting the same treatment from Dragon and Crane.

"You know those guys are farting in there, don’t you," I hissed as Drew unlaced my leather vest.

"Or worse," Drew nodded as he worked on my laces.

"You could have kept that to yourself," I muttered.

"Come on, the current is carrying it away," Drake said in his best don’t be a wuss voice.

"Unbelievable," I said, as Drake pulled my leather pants off and hauled me over his shoulder. Yeah, the twins were already naked. I noticed that we got space when Drake hauled me into the water. Well, hauled is the wrong word—it was a big leap off the bank, dunking us under as we went in. Drew jumped in right beside us. I learned why we got plenty of space, too. Anybody with a full complement of tattoos got respect. They didn’t get the tattoos unless they’d earned them and most of the guys around us only had a few. I hadn’t seen Devin’s tattoo before, either—she had a red dragon tattooed on her back left shoulder. It was really nice and about eight or nine inches long.

"Want a tattoo?" Drake whispered in my ear.

"Nope. You guys have enough for several people," I smacked his chest. "Are we getting clean or what?" I tried to get the soap away from Drew, who grinned and held it over my head. I was scrubbed. By both of them. Of course, they expected help getting their hair washed and combed out.