Belly of the Beast

by Warren Thomas

  Now I know what a Goddess looks like, was all Tane could think of.

  “Be wary, boys, she’s a bloody priestess of Ashtar!” Sergeant Gareth declared with drunken bluster, reaching down into her bosom to lift up a silvery pendant of Ashtar, Goddess of War and Adventure.

  How appropriate, Tane thought, recalling the raven-maned, green-eyed beauty of Ashtar.

  She kicked out at the sergeant, forcing him to jump back and release the pendant. He glared at her, causing Tane to tense. Gareth wasn’t the type man Tane thought would take that from anyone, especially not from a raw recruit.

  “Spirited, isn’t she?” Gareth said, chuckling. “I reckon she knows more about swordplay than all of us, combined. She cleaned out a tavern earlier tonight, and the City Guard was so impressed with her they turned her over to the army for induction instead of hauling her off to jail.”

  Tane studied her with more interest. She was fully as tall as the sergeant. Though shapely, he saw only firm muscles and no excess fat anywhere. Of course, being as lean and strong as the woman appeared didn’t guarantee she could fight.

  Her eyes met his, holding them for a moment.

  In that instant he felt a shock wave shoot through him. And knew a moment of fear. Without a doubt in his mind, Tane knew she was a woman who had killed, and killed often. The sergeant was right, he felt she was the most dangerous person in that room.

  Sergeant Gareth will come to regret manhandling her, Tane thought, and felt a moment of pity for the drunken sergeant. If she really is a priestess of Ashtar, then the Goddess of War will surely damn his soul for all eternity for treating Her priestess so crudely.

  And Ashtar wasn’t one to forget slights, and neither were Her priests and priestesses.

  Ashtar’s priesthood was trained to expertly use every weapon known. Somehow, that thought cheered Tane enough to lay his head down and go back to sleep.

  But Tane’s rest was short lived, for Corporal Pendar grabbed the woman away from the sergeant. Gareth bellowed loudly, but Pendar was younger, stronger and sober. He also had right on his side.

  “The wench is my responsibility, Sarge,” Pendar said, starting to untie her wrists.

  Sergeant Gareth started to snarl a retort, but seemed to reconsider. Scowling, he shrugged and glared at the corporal.

  “My name is not ‘wench,’” she said. Suddenly growing haughty, “I am Raven!”

  “Go back to sleep,” Pendar said. “Wake up is only a couple of hours away.”

  The recruits began settling back into their bunks as Disa turned the lamp back down. Tane glanced around, realizing that there was only one empty bunk. The Swampman’s old bunk over his would be hers. He considered getting to his feet, to explain to her how everything worked.

  “We can’t have her falling out for first call dressed like that,” Corporal Disa said, looking the Tyrian over from head to toe. “She’ll look out of place, and you know how the First Sergeant hates that.”

  “But Sergeant Baugdan will rip us a new bunghole if we wake him this late,” Pendar said.

  “Who would you rather tick off, the First Sergeant or the Supply Sergeant?” Disa said.

  “Ah, point well taken,” Pendar said. “You go back to bed. She’s my problem. I’ll take her to supply and at least get her initial issue of clothes.”

  Corporal Disa grinned at him as she turned for their room, “But don’t take too long. You still haven’t shined my boots.”

  “Bandu Invincible, will you lay off on the boots?” he exclaimed.

  Tane lowered his head and closed his eyes as Pendar and Raven left, and Disa slipped into her room.

  Chapter 12

  Wake up was as loud and brutal as the first morning. If anything, Corporal Disa was more tenacious and demanding than Corporal Pendar. Her nasal voice quickly grew strident and grating on the nerves. Tane thought she understood that fact all too well, and went out of her way to aggravate them.

  Corporal Disa grinned from ear to ear, dark eyes a-sparkle, when she found the newest recruit, Raven, groggily sitting on the edge of her upper bunk, naked as the day she was born and rubbing her eyes long after the others had began making their bunks. Tane cursed himself for not keeping an eye out for the newcomer. It was her first morning, and he doubted she got more than two hours sleep, so it was doubtful she understood how they operated, if she even remembered where she was at. And she was bunking over him, so he considered her his responsibility.

  Unfortunately, he couldn’t look at her like that. He’d seen nude women many times in his life. But she was different. Tyrian. She was highly sexual in nature. And she scared him. He couldn’t even look at her, much less look her in the eye.

  In a baby voice, Corporal Disa said, “Poor baby. Is my little princess still sleepy?”

  “Yes,” Raven said with a sleep raspy voice. She stretched sensuously, shamelessly displaying her spectacular nude body for all to see. The sight made Tane start to shake. “It took almost two hours to get my uniform.”

  Tane’s mouth went instantly dry at the sight of her. He felt his body starting to heat up, especially his face. He looked away, trying to find something to do, something to occupy his mind, but he just couldn’t look away. He didn’t see how anyone could expect him to ever get any sleep from now on knowing that she was sleeping above him.

  “Are you going to make it, sweetie? Would you like a few more minutes of sleep?” Disa said, a cruel note starting to Taint her voice.

  Tane felt his shoulder muscles tighten. Raven didn’t seem awake enough to realize the menace in the corporal’s every word and move. He wanted desperately to warn her, to help her get started so the terrible soldier would leave them all alone. But Disa wasn’t about to release her chosen prey so easily, of that Tane was certain.

  “I’m fine. Really,” Raven said. “Just give me a moment to get my bearings.”

  “What I’ll give you is one second to get out of bed!” Corporal Disa barked, grabbing an ankle and jerking Raven off the bunk.

  To Tane’s surprise, and Disa’s too, the beautiful Tyrian hit the floor and rolled promptly to her feet as if expecting the move. Emerald green eyes blazed, her fists clenching and unclenching with rage. Tane backed out of striking distance of the two women. He noticed others in the bay looking on with eager eyes.

  Raven was taller and stronger looking. Disa appeared crueler and more like a brawler. Tane understood that Raven’s temple training ensured she was an expert in weaponless fighting, but he couldn’t count rangy Disa out either. It would be a good fight.

  But before anything unfortunate happened, Raven said tightly, “Thank you for your help, Corporal Disa. I will try to do better in the future.”

  Taken aback, and more than a little wary, Corporal Disa accepted her apology and brusquely ordered her to hurry. After a muttered threat of horse-whippings for everyone if anyone was late for first call, Disa departed. A moment later they heard her muffled voice through the thin walls deriding Pendar’s efforts at spit-shining her boots.

  “That was close,” Tane said. He looked her straight in the eye, afraid to look down. “She’s a mean one, that Corporal Disa. I’m Tane.”

  “I’m Raven,” she mumbled, though managed a half-hearted smile his way as stepped past him to start making her bunk.

  He nodded, but her chosen name struck him as odd. Oh, lots of warriors had animal names. Usually predators. Tyrians even had what they called “Warrior Names” which were frequently an animal. But she was a priestess of Ashtar, and the Goddess’s animal manifestation was the raven. Tane thought it smacked of sacrilege to go by the name Raven.

  Not that he would say anything.

  Raven’s grumbling while making her bunk caught his attention. Tane saw she was doing a sloppy job, and nowhere close to what the corporals taught him and the others the day before. Stepping up and apologizing for his rudeness, he quickly tore apart her bed linens and remade her bed, pointing out what the corporals would be looking for. She eyed hi
m sharply at first, but softened once she realized he was only trying to help.

  “Thank you,” she said.

  Tane wanted to say more, but she turned her back on him and started dressing. Her tunic and trousers were considerably oversized for her, even though she was almost as tall as him, with the tunic falling to her knees. He didn’t say anything when she sat on his bunk to tie up her boots, but did point out how the corporals wanted the boots laced up. She listened quietly, and followed his instructions, but said nothing. She didn’t seem like she wanted to speak to anyone. He just waited for her to finish and head for the chamber pots before going back and smoothing out the wrinkles and tightening his bunk up again.

  “You keep jumping out of your butt to wait on her, and she’ll have you so firmly wrapped around her little finger by noon, you’ll start to think you’re a pinky ring,” Joelle warned none too quietly as she slipped past Tane. “If Raven can’t pull her weight, we don’t need her.”

  “I was just being nice,” Tane said. “She’s new, and hasn’t been taught the same things we have.”

  “Let her learn the hard way, like we did,” Joelle shot back. “That’s the only way to get through to the likes of her. Tyrians are the most pig-headed, most opportunistic bunch in creation.”

  “Totally amoral,” Armin said.

  The same has been said about the Vikon, Tane thought.

  The Vikon were Tyrians driven from the Tyr Mountains centuries past, and forced to roam the world, the open road now their only home. Aside from their renown as witches, they still behaved much like their Tyrian cousins.

  Suddenly, with much bellowing and cursing, another Tyrian custom claimed everyone’s attention. Everard Boarsbane’s beloved beard had to go.

  Tane saw Quinn urgently trying to talk some reason into the man, but Everard would have none of it. His beard was his mark of manhood. To shave it was to admit he wasn’t a “real man.”

  “My friend,” Raven said. She was holding her hair protectively in both hands, then she pursed her lips in thought. “I understand. These Godsforsaken Lelts have no honor. They try to belittle and shame the very people they desperately need to save them from certain doom.”

  “Yes!” Everard said, eyes blazing.

  “But, we have sworn an oath to obey, and that would be a greater dishonor to break,” Raven said. She grimaced. “My blood runs cold to think about it, Everard, but you have to shave your beard.”

  Sergeant Gareth and the corporals stepped out of their rooms to see what the problem was at that moment. Everyone was deathly silent as they looked back and forth between Everard and the soldiers.

  “It would be worse if it was forcibly shaven off by others,” Raven said, turning scathing eyes on the three noncommissioned officers. “I’m here for you if you need me.”

  “I’ll have my vengeance,” he said.

  Everard turned back to the mirror, though sullen and growling under his breath. He took the straight razor from his army issued kit and turned to the mirror. Once he began to shave, everyone returned to what they had been doing. Tane breathed a sigh of relief as he watched Quinn begin to shave as well. Tane didn’t need to shave himself, making him painfully aware of his own youth. By Everard, and probably Raven’s, reckoning, he wasn’t a man yet.

  “Do you have a comb, Tane?” Raven asked, surprising him out of his reverie. She was running her fingers through her long hair, and not looking the least bit happy at its tousled state, either.

  “Huh? I...I mean, no,” he stammered, suddenly self-conscious of his own tangled mop of brown hair. “I forgot to pack one before I came to Kestsax.”

  Tane felt his face burning as she gave him a curious look. Her emerald eyes bore into him a long moment, then lost interest. She shrugged and headed for Joelle. He winced when Joelle ignored her request for a comb or brush, and pushed a mop into her hands instead.

  Tane and Quinn fetched buckets of water while Raven and Joelle mopped their half of the bay. Armin cleaned out the chamber pots with a member of Corporal Disa’s squad. All went reasonably well, allowing them to make formation with time to spare.

  Chapter 13

  Corporal Pendar met them at formation, and seemed in a worse mood than the day before. Now that they had two women, instead of one, he changed the way they formed up. Quinn remained in the middle, with Raven to his left and Joelle to his right. Armin took up a position next to Joelle, and Pendar allowed it, though not looking like he particularly liked the idea. Tane took the other end, next to Raven. In battle formation, Tane understood that he’d be next to Sergeant Gareth, with Corporal Pendar beside Armin and Disa’s squad on the other side of the sergeant.

  The middle of the action, he thought with a strange thrill. Cousin Jessy would be green with envy when she learned that he was in the army she longed so dearly to join, and of his position in the line of battle. Of course, Quinn held the real place of honor in the squad, halfway between the sergeant and corporal.

  Tane was surprised to hear three reports of missing recruits, and of one missing corporal, given to the company First Sergeant. First Sergeant Dangan took the reports grimly, then promised everyone that the deserters would be hunted down and hanged, if not drawn and quartered.

  Angered by the desertions, the First Sergeant ran his company twice as hard as the previous day. Sick and exhausted men and women littered their passage through the night-shrouded streets, with furious sergeants and corporals verbally abusing them for their weakness and demanding they continue running, or else. Tane was glad, and more than a little proud, to see every member of his squad finish the run. Of course, seeing a very hung-over Sergeant Gareth empty his guts once the run was over, then stagger back to the barracks, made Tane just as happy.

  Like the previous day, Quinn looked the least affected by the run. Tane felt just as tired, but nowhere near as ill as the day before. Both Vikon still looked just as ill. Their newest member was red-faced and huffing furiously, but showed no signs of feeling ill. Tane was grateful, for he understood that women that looked like her attracted undue attention, and animosity, from superiors and other women alike. Any sign of weakness would be jumped upon instantly, and with relish.

  Breakfast went just as fast as the previous day, and all too soon Tane found himself back on the parade ground with a wooden shortsword in hand. They were paired off again for sparring. Tane sparred with Armin, while Quinn took on Joelle. The corporal took Raven aside to test her skill, which proved more than he could handle.

  “What are you grinning at, boy?” Corporal Pendar said, still rubbing the knot on his head that Raven left from her morning drill. She had made it a point to keep hitting the corporal on the same spot, over and over. “You think it’s funny? You and the Tyrian bitch, then. Have at each other.”

  To Tane’s surprise, Raven never hesitated. With a cry of “Ashtar!” that rattled him, she threw herself at Tane. Nothing he could do came close to blocking her thrusts and slices. If they had been using edged weapons, Tane realized with a cold lump that he would’ve died in the first seconds of the fight. Twice she kicked his feet out from under him, and stepped on his neck to hold him down while she gloated over her victory.

  “Let me have at her,” Quinn said.

  He was furious, and Tane wasn’t sure it was wise to allow him to spar with her. He was an elf, and many times faster and stronger than a mere human. But Corporal Pendar thought it a splendid idea, and so ordered it.

  To everyone’s surprise, Raven handled Quinn almost as easily. True, he parried most of the thrusts and cuts Tane had never seen coming, but he never once broke past her defenses. Indeed, Raven’s attack was so tenacious and intense, Quinn rarely had the luxury of mounting any short-lived attacks.

  After ten minutes or so, Corporal Pendar ordered Joelle to go against Raven. She didn’t fare any better than Quinn, and suffered a busted lip in the ordeal as well. When Armin took his turn, there was blood in his eyes.

  “No one bloodies my wife and gets away
with it, woman,” he threatened.

  Tane, though still embarrassed at his sorry showing against her, felt a moment’s panic. Raven was clearly winded, her long hair plastered to her neck and her tunic soaked through. Armin was fresh, and had the added strength and stamina of an enraged man. He pounded on her weakening defenses mercilessly until he finally broke through after fifteen minutes.

  Blood erupted from Raven’s nose as she fell back with a wail. Tane tensed to move in to protect her from the Vikon, but Quinn threw an arm up to block him. He watched in horror as Armin pounded in half a dozen kicks into her rib cage, then snatched her up by the hair. It sickened Tane to see the tears flooding down her face, but now both Joelle and Quinn were restraining him. After Armin rammed a final fist into her belly, curling her up on the hard-packed ground, the elf and Vikon released Tane.

  “What was that for!” Tane screamed, near tears himself. “We’re supposed to be a team!” Turning accusing eyes on the corporal, “You’re supposed to be our leader, building a feeling of comradeship among us. But all you are is a sadistic bully, too weak to humble the woman by yourself, so using all of us to do it for you. You make me sick, all of you!”

  Corporal Pendar’s eyes blazed a moment, then he smiled cruelly. “Thanks for volunteering, Tane. Quinn, have at Tane. The rest of you stand ready.”

  Where Raven had lasted over an hour, Tane barely lasted the twenty minutes it took to throw Quinn, Joelle, and Armin against him. They all came at him with the same intensity they attacked Raven with.

  While laying on the ground and wondering if it was possible to die from such a beating, he watched as Quinn became the object of everyone’s attacks. Raven had recovered enough to step to the end of the line and finish the elf off, leaving him bleeding and groaning on the ground while Tane limped into line behind Raven.