Lesbia Chronicles: Over Witch's Knee

by Ther Renard

  "What would you know?" Rogette snapped. "You don't even know how to say the word."

  "Rogette, stop," Kira cut in. "The time for bickering is long past. We are no longer protected by Ariadne. Or Ayla. This is a war zone. We are at war. Do you understand what that means?"

  Rogette gave Kira a long, slightly mischievous look. "Being really serious for no apparent reason?"

  Kira growled. "We three are alone in the middle of hostile lands. We have no healer. If we are wounded, we die."

  "Well pardon me," Rogette said. "I'll just curl up in a little ball and rock back and forth, shall I?"

  Thorberta looked at Kira with a somewhat mournful, somewhat perplexed expression that spoke volumes. Thorberta was prepared to follow the large strong one as far she she wanted to lead, but the destabilizing influence of Rogette's snark and sarcasm was making her most uncomfortable.

  "Cut it out, Rogette. I won't warn you again."

  Kira removed the rabbit from the fire, took out her knife and carved it into three portions. The first she gave to Thorberta, who fell upon it with great fervor. The second she gave to Rogette, who screwed up her nose.

  "Thorberta's piece was bigger."

  Kira's lip curled in irritation. "Shut up and eat it."

  "That's not very nice."

  "The time for nice is long over," Kira replied. "This is a unit. My unit. If you can't fall into line, I'll bring you into line - and I promise you it won't be pleasant."

  Rogette met Kira's stare with an insolent glare of her own. "You are not the boss of me, Kira," she said. "You are not worthy to..."

  There was a flash of movement and before Rogette knew what was happening, she was hauled bodily over Kira's lap for what soon proved to be a very hard, very fast thrashing. She squealed and kicked and flailed as Kira yanked down her britches and made free with the flesh of her bottom, beating it a bright red in short seconds.

  Whilst Kira was whipping her disobedient subordinate, and Rogette was shrieking her distaste for the entire affair, Thorberta made short work of every last piece of rabbit - and the carrots beside.

  Chapter Thirty Eight

  Back in the village at the end of Lesbia, a bruised and battered Atrocious bared her teeth at Ariadne in an expression of fierce aggression.

  "I don't even want to know what is wrong with you," she hissed as she got to her feet. "I am going to go and kill this Blood Witch. Then you can leave me alone. Forever."

  Ariadne gave her a pitying look. "Oh you won't kill the Blood Witch."

  "I won't? Isn't that the point?"

  Ariadne's expression grew dour. "Contrary to what that great brute of a warrior might have told you, matters of this magnitude are not settled by killing a single villain."

  "So I need to kill several?"

  "No," Ariadne replied. "You need to show the Blood Witch that the power to match hers exists in the world. The path to peace is through mutually assured destruction."

  "If that's true," Atrocious said, "then why is Ayla at the front? And where did you send the others?"

  "Ayla is at the front because she is a healer. She needs to heal. The others... they have their own battles to fight." Ariadne paused in her explanation, taking a moment just to feel pleased with herself. "There are many wars being waged under the Blood Witch. Some of them are quite useful. The Imperials will be much weakened by this conflict - which bodes well for the witches in their territory."

  Atrocious' expression grew quite furious. "What is it like," she asked "playing with people as if they were nothing but puppets?

  "Most amusing," Ariadne replied dryly. "Now, come. I have some clothing for you."

  "I don't want your clothing," Atrocious snapped at Ariadne's retreating back. "I am not Rogette, distracted by trinkets."

  Ariadne turned and sneered at Atrocious.

  "Do you wish to meet the Blood Witch as you are?"

  It was true that Atrocious was looking rather ragged. Her tunic was torn, her leggings were practically non-existent and her feet were only barely clad in wraps. Her hair was particularly bad, matted in tangled clumps against her head. She looked in worse condition than your average beggar.

  "Yes," Atrocious replied. "I will meet the Blood Witch as I am."

  "At least bathe," Ariadne suggested.

  "Bathing is for the weak - and the furry," Atrocious added, remembering Thorberta's fuzzy bath.

  "You resist me at every turn," Ariadne observed. "It is as if you have some sort of mental malady which makes you constantly defiant. Why can you not simply do as you are told?"

  "Because I do not wish to do as I am told," Atrocious replied. "Because I have precious few years here and I do not wish to spend a single minute of them bending to the will of another. My life is mine and mine alone."

  "And you wish to live it in a stinking, fetid mess?"

  "If I do, it is none of your concern."

  "It is a wonder Ayla and Kira did not toss you off the edge of a cliff long ago," Ariadne said. "They are much more patient than I had imagined."

  Atrocious shrugged, feeling she was perhaps winning.

  She was not winning.

  Ariadne's eyes gleamed with cold threat and a frosty wind began to whip at Atrocious' ankles as she stared into the ever shifting dark matter of the high witch's face.

  "You will bathe, and you will change, or I will chain you to the top of the mountain and strike you with lightening bolts every day for the rest of your life."

  T'was a terrible threat, one which Atrocious was sure Ariadne would have made good on.

  "And if you do that, I will summon a daemon to consume this village," Atrocious replied. "Or, failing that, a large dog to pee my name into the grass every day until I am freed."

  The high witch and the peasant wretch glared into one another's faces until Ariadne's fury burst in an explosion of laughter.

  "By all the goddesses," she cackled. "The Blood Witch does not know what hell her way comes."

  Chapter Thirty Nine

  "Eustacia!" Normine put her hands on her hips and frowned down at her prone mirror image. "Where is your foot? Have you lost it again?"

  "I had it on," Eustacia said woefully. "Then it was gone. I think it walked away."

  Normine's face went all sharp and pointy with irritation. "Eustacia, you know very well one foot cannot walk anywhere. It can only be lost by a careless girl."

  "Stop lecturing me," Eustacia said, wrinkling her freckled nose. "It wasn't my fault."

  "Normine," Ayla interrupted, placing a calming hand on the soldier's shoulder. "Eustacia needs to rest. Leave her be."

  "She's lost another foot," Normine said as Ayla lead her away down the medicine tent, leaving Eustacia gratefully prone in her bed. "Another one! I even carved her name into it this time."

  "I am sure we will find it," Ayla said calmly.

  "We won't, you know," Normine replied. "We haven't found the other three. She's impossible. She doesn't deserve a foot!"

  "Really, Normine," Ayla said, a gentle smile playing about her elven lips. "Have some tea and calm yourself."

  "You've no idea how frustrating it is to have someone around who never does anything right," Normine said, blowing aggressively on the cup of tea Ayla handed to her.

  "I think I might have some idea," Ayla said mildly, returning to the business of creating potions and poultices.

  A cry of rage interrupted her work. She turned to see Normine brandishing one of Eustacia's wooden feet at a large, fat, round toad. A familiar large, fat, round toad.

  "He had it in his mouth," she said, glowering at the amphibian. "Shoo, you!"

  "He was almost shoed," Ayla said, smiling to herself as she returned to her potion.

  "You think this is funny."

  "It is nice to watch the pranks be pulled on someone else for a change," Ayla agreed. "Here, I will take it back to her, you watch the potion."

  Whilst Normine muttered into the potion, Ayla took the foot down to Eustacia. She crouched
down next to Eustacia's bed and looked into the dark green eyes gleaming with mischief.

  "We found your foot," she said, placing it on the bed next to Eustacia. "Mind telling me why you keep getting rid of these?"

  "They just get lost," Eustacia shrugged.

  "Do they now." Ayla gave Eustacia a firm look, not a stern look, for she was not in a stern mood, but a look that told the bedridden soldier that her story was not believed. "Are you sure about that? Or are you perhaps reluctant to get better and return to battle?"

  "Do you know what it's like killing a dead person?" Eustacia screwed up her face and made a gagging motion. "It's disgusting. They're all... droopy. Their faces don't fit right. And the sounds they make." She shuddered. "I'd rather not have a foot and stay nice and comfy in this bed than have a foot and go back to that."

  Ayla nodded and patted Eustacia's hand. "You get some more rest," she said. "But no more deliberately losing your feet, alright? If you do, you'll answer to me, young lady."

  Eustacia grinned and practically shivered with glee at the thought. "Yes, Ms Witch ma'am."

  “Let's put it on, shall we? Come on, sit up.”

  Soon Eustacia's eyes were creasing with the force of her frown as Ayla knelt before her, fastening the leather straps that held the wooden foot in place.

  "I don't like it."

  Ayla brushed long strands of silk gold hair out of her face and looked up at Eustacia. "Is it not comfortable?"

  "It has an attitude," Eustacia said. "I don't like it."

  "It has an attitude," Ayla repeated. "That makes no sense, Eustacia. It's a wooden foot."

  "It's snarky," Eustacia complained. "It looks like it's sneering at me."

  Ayla patted Eustacia's knee gently. "I know you don't like practicing with the foot," she said. "But you have to. The Leg Maker has gone out of her way to make you the very best foot. She tells me she has used metal springs in this design. It will make you faster once you get used to it."

  Eustacia lifted her leg and glared at the offending apparatus. It gleamed with oil and fresh stain. It looked almost like the real thing, if the real thing was shiny and made a hollow sound when you knocked on it. Which it wasn't. And didn't. Her scowl grew deeper. She reached down and began undoing the straps that Ayla had only just finished fastening.

  "Eustacia, stop." Ayla placed a hand over Eustacia's. "It's time to get used to this. Let's go for a little walk."

  "No," Eustacia refused stubbornly. "I'm not going for any walks."

  Normine approached the bed, her leather armor gleaming, her long, powerful body presented in full soldierly glory.

  "Come on Eusty," she said. "Let's get out of here."

  "No," Eustacia said firmly. "I'm staying in bed."

  "No you're not," Normine snapped with sisterly irritation. "It's been ages. Your stump is totally healed. So we're going for a walk. Or we're going for a drag."

  "A drag?" Ayla asked the question.

  "Yeah," Normine said. "I'm going to drag her out of here until she walks."

  "No, you're not," Ayla said, rising to her full height. "Normine, I think you're too close to this. I think you should return to patrolling the camp. I'll help Eustacia get on her feet."

  "She's not going to," Normine said as Ayla put a hand on her shoulder and guided her away from the rebellious Eustacia. "I know my sister and she won't do it unless you make her. She can be so stubborn."

  "Trust me," Ayla said. "Eustacia will have taken at least a dozen steps by sundown today."

  "No, she won't," Normine replied. "She's digging her heel in."

  Ayla sighed. Normine had a talent for being flippant and serious all at the same time, but sometimes it was plain inappropriate. "I think there have been enough foot jokes, Normine."

  "No," Normine said. "I mean she's digging with the heel. I think she's going to bury it."

  Ayla turned and saw that Normine was correct. Eustacia had her foot off and was busy digging a hole in the dirt under her bed.

  "Please," she sighed to Normine. "Let me deal with this."

  "I'll let you deal with it on one condition," Normine said, a smile creeping back over her sweet lips. "If Eustacia doesn't take those steps by sundown, you get another spanking."

  Ayla raised a slow brow at Normine. "I think you're forgetting who is in charge here, Miss Imp."

  Normine's brow went up too, but it was matched with a grin. "Scared?"

  "I'll take your bet," Ayla said. "One one condition. If she does take those steps before sundown, you'll be the one getting spanked."

  "Deal," Normine agreed, shaking Ayla's hand. "Good luck. You're going to need it."

  Having made the bet with Normine, Ayla resolved to have Eustacia up and walking before the mid day meal.

  The goal was stymied almost immediately.

  Eustacia was no longer in her bed.

  The toad was. And once again, it had the foot in its mouth.

  ~~~

  After doing battle with a recalcitrant amphibian, Ayla and the foot found Eustacia curled up behind the tent, her head in her hands, dark hair covering her face. Small sobs were clearly audible, though she tried her best to stifle them when she sensed Ayla drawing near.

  "What is wrong?"

  "I'm scared," Eustacia sniffed.

  "Of your foot?" Ayla crouched down beside the young soldier, resting her hand on Eustacia's shoulder.

  "Of everything," Eustacia clarified.

  "Everything? Surely not."

  Eustacia hid her face. "You don't understand," she said. "You're like Normine. You're not afraid of anything. You don't know what it's like."

  "Tell me."

  "It's not something I can explain," Eustacia said mournfully. "Please, just leave me alone."

  "I can't do that, Eustacia. You have to use your foot today."

  "I don't," Eustacia said firmly, displaying the stubbornness Normine had warned Ayla about. "Go tend to the other patients. They need you more."

  "No, they don't," Ayla said firmly. She produced the foot and made to attach it to Eustacia's leg.

  Eustacia was having none of it. She curled her lower legs up under her body and gave Ayla a wicked green look.

  "No," she said firmly, speaking slowly, as if Ayla did not speak the same language as she. "I am rejecting your offer of foot."

  "It's not an offer so much as an order," Ayla said, keeping her tone mild.

  "I reject your order too," Eustacia replied, unphased.

  At that moment, Normine happened to make an appearance, her patrol route having taken her around the rear of the tents.

  "Are you giving Ayla trouble?" She asked her younger by all of a minute sister. "Do I have to glue that thing to your stump?"

  Eustacia scowled, then turned to Ayla. "Maybe I've been silly," she said. "Maybe I'll just put it on..."

  She put out her hand, and Ayla handed her the foot.

  Eustacia promptly threw it at Normine. It bounced off Normine's breast plate and landed on the ground, where the ever so sneaky lurking toad pounced upon it, took it in its mouth and hopped away at full speed.

  "Well," Eustacia said smugly. "That solves that then."

  Tiring of the hijinks, Ayla made a gesture with her hand and in an instant the toad was back between her feet. She bent down, swept the foot out of its mouth and proceeded to scowl at both Eustacia and her amphibian friend.

  "Magic isn't playing fair," Eustacia complained. "You don't see me using magic, do you?"

  "I see you sitting on the ground, refusing to rejoin the world."

  "The world is terrible and I want no part of it," Eustacia replied.

  Normine snorted and looked at Ayla with an 'I told you so' expression. "Good luck," she said. "I'll see you in the forest tonight."

  "Yes," Ayla said, raising her brow at Normine in a way that was intended to indicate her victory was still assured. "You will."

  Normine resumed her patrol and the toad hopped away with a mildly offended look on its face. Ayla was
left with the reluctant soldier, who was now sitting with her arms and legs crossed, no doubt getting her bandage thoroughly filthy.

  "I should warn you, I have no intention of letting you get out of this," Ayla said. "One way or another, you will start walking today."

  Eustacia's eyes narrowed with glittering green rebellion. "No I won't," she said. "And there is no way you can make me." She stuck her nose in the air, the impish lines of her face conspiring to make her look simultaneously haughty and adorable.

  Ayla made another motion with her hand. Nothing happened. She repeated the motion. Still nothing happened.

  "We're part Imp," Eustacia reminded her. "We're naturally immune to magic. So unless you're conducting an invisible choir right now, you're wasting your time."

  "Of course," Ayla said. "That's why your foot could not be saved."

  "My foot could not be saved because one of those double dead things ate it. I chopped off the head and slit it open," she said, miming the chopping and slitting actions with both hands, "but my foot was all mangled by the time I found it. You know they have acid inside them?"

  Ayla's lips twisted as she listened to Eustacia recount the tale. "I think Kira would like you."

  "Yeah? That's nice. Whoever she is. Anyway. I'm not walking. Not now, not ever."

  "Maybe a warm bottom would change your mind," Ayla suggested mildly.

  "Maybe a sock in the nose would teach you to stay away from me," Eustacia replied, screwing her face up with freckled fierceness and baring teeth that were surprisingly sharp. "I know you and Normine have some sort of little bet. Why don't you two just ride each other'sponies and leave me alone?"

  "Ride each other's..." Ayla trailed off, quite befuddled. She drew herself tall and crossed her arms over her chest, looking down at Eustacia with the full force of her personality. "This is not about a bet. This is about you learning to walk again."

  "I don't want to. I won't," Eustacia replied. "Hey.. lemme go!"

  Ayla had reached down and drawn her up to a standing position. Eustacia, being of the tall inclination, found it easy to glare into the witch's face.