This story is part of Barbarian Tales One, and follows the story Rescued by the Barbarian.
* * *
If the fine young nobleman was before me today, I confess I would still have the desire to take him long and hard. He was a very fine young nobleman, who had whatever it is a man needs to have to make me want him enough to be foolish about it. And each time I had him he caused me a great deal of difficulty.
That first day I took him in his palanquin and then back to our camp, where I fucked him long and hard until I was spent and thought I had taken him to exhaustion also. But, no. He had awoken in the night and crept off to inspect the goods that had been his and that my companions had carried off. They now sat in a tent in the camp we had been living in for the previous half moon while we raided wealthy merchants and others traveling poorly guarded on the roads to the Great Mogul's palace.
It was a time when no poor man's lands were safe from the grasping hands of those above him. And Siri and Uran were both dispossessed farmers who had taken their complaints to court and found themselves laughed at and kicked out and warned not to return, so that now they had no other way to live and to keep their families fed than by stealing.
When the young nobleman went to examine those goods, which had been his but were now ours, he was caught by Siri, who was roughly honest with him about the future of what had once been his possessions. The fine young nobleman was sent away to sleep by the fire without any restraints and was in a rage, for he was always most concerned with his fine possessions.
In the morning I awoke and found him gone, along with our horses and the Grand General who had been left tied to the tree. It was too late to shout at Siri for his foolishness, and the signs showed that they had escaped some hours before. So, we took the smallest and most valuable of the loot we had collected and, tying it up in bundles that we slung across our backs, we abandoned the rest. We had no choice, and we set off at a trot toward the hills, where we could most easily get lost and evade armed and mounted pursuers.
But fortune was not with us, and we had not gone far when we heard the noise of pounding hoofs approaching . At least six horses. So, we broke into a run, knowing our chances were slim of making the rocky hill trail before the horses overran us. The bundles of treasure were holding us back, but the families in hiding would not survive without them, and Siri and Uran would not let theirs go.
I understood their situation, and knowing that I should not have brought the fine young nobleman to our camp and let him roam free, I threw them the bundle I carried and turned back, as they ran on.
I quickly scaled a spreading tree that overhung the trail and drew my sword and waited.
The first rider lost his head to my swinging blade and the next was knocked off his horse. The third was ready for me, and I had to dodge his blow but was able to fall on the fourth and use my knife to silence him before I slipped to the ground and drew my sword again and stood in the path of the last two riders.
"The general wants us to take him alive," one of the armored warriors cried out, and I stood there, my body loose, my breathing deep and steady, readying myself for whatever came next.
Meanwhile, the two warriors on their horses circled me, and the third recovered from his fall and caught a horse and remounted, so there were three of them, not knowing that all I was buying was time for my companions to reach safety.
Uran and Siri escaped, I know. But I was cornered and after tiring me, one of the circling warriors threw a net of weighted rope over me, and I was trapped like a wild animal. My sword was useless and torn from my hand, and my body was trussed up and bound, so that I could be slung on a pole between two horses and taken to the palace of the Great Mogul.
I had doubted I had long to live. But I regretted nothing. Since I became a man, I had lived wild and free, and it had been a good life. I had no regrets. I have none now.
I saw little until I was dumped into a cell deep in the palace dungeons. Then I struggled free of the net that had held me bound. And I waited. There was a small window in the door of my cell, and it opened often and faces looked in and voices muttered, but no one spoke to me, so I ignored them. Food—rough, tasteless food—was brought to me, and I ate it ravenously, I confess.
And then I slept. Another day passed during which I was fed and looked at, and again I slept. Then the next day the small window in the door had been opened, and a face looked in, and there was muttering outside, but the window wasn't closed and then, the lock on the door was turned, making a rough creaking sound. And the door opened a fraction. I stood waiting for I knew not what.
"I am coming in," a voice called out. "Know, though, that there are guards here with crossbows ready, and if you make any move to harm me, you shall be killed immediately. Do you understand me?"
"Yes," I said, and I did not doubt what he said. And I pondered if I might be wise to rush to my death now instead of rotting away in that hole, or worse, being taken from it and broken.
As I thought these thoughts, a young man slipped in to the opening and hesitated.
He was strong and muscular and dark haired. His body was naked above a pair of silken pantaloons and showed that he was no idle courtier, as not only was it a well-muscled body, but several scars lay across his shoulders as well. I knew him for a fighting man, and I always have some respect for fighting men.
He slowly entered the cell, and the door closed behind him with a heavy clang.
