Council War - There Will Be Dragons - Council War - There will be Dragons Part 39
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Council War - There will be Dragons Part 39

Herzer looked at the crowd and had to admit that itwas the vast majority of the town.

"If wehurry ?" Shilan continued in a questioning tone.

"Okay," Herzer replied, then paused. "Don't baths . . ." he started then cleared his throat. "Don't the baths make you feel uncomfortable?" he finally said in an absolutely neutral tone.

"Yes," she said. "But it would be less so if you were along."

Herzer started to smile, then an alarm bell went off in his head.

"Shilan, uhm . . . Cruz . . .""Cruz doesn't have me staked out," she replied, tartly. "I'm not planning on bedding you, Herzer.

The operative term here is 'bath.' "

"I'm aware of that," Herzer said, not sure if he was aware of it or not. "And you're aware of that.

That the operative term is 'bath,' I mean. But Cruz's feelingsare going to be hurt if we go wandering off."

Herzer suddenly realized, by the expression on Shilan's face among other things, that he was in a situation where hewas going to pisssomeone off, either Cruz or Shilan or, possibly, both. Shilan was not taking his careful hints and Cruz was not going to accept his explanation.Look, buddy, it was either have her all pissed off at me or you all pissed off at me. All it was was a bath.Okay, so I saw your girlfriend nekkid and you haven't yet. Big deal!Nope. Definitely wouldn't work. And this image of an axe or a mallet descending upon his sleeping head, wielded by either Cruz or Shilan, kept flashing through his mind. Eenie, meenie, minie, moe. He finally came to the conclusion that if he was going to get bludgeoned to deathanyway, he might as well see Shilan, who after all was a comely wench, naked before he died.

All of this flashed through his brain in well under a half a second, hardly a pause. He had just opened his mouth to seal his fate when he saw Rachel coming through the crowd.

"Hang on a second, there's a friend of mine," he said to Shilan, waving his arm. "Hi, Rachel!

How've you been doing?"

"Hello, Herzer," she said, walking over with a slightly abstracted frown. "How are the hands?"

"They're fine," Herzer said, holding them up, palms outward to show the heavy calluses. "I think you guys have met, but I don't think you've met, met," he continued. "Hsu Shilan, Rachel Ghorbani.

Rachel, Shilan."

"We met when you came out to the camp and gave us a briefing on . . . uhm . . ." Shilan said then paused.

"Mother has dredged up the ancient term 'feminine hygiene,' " Rachel said with a smile.

"Oh, Lord, you're not going to start talking about that, are you?" Herzer chuckled.

"I certainly hope not," Rachel replied. "What are you guys doing?"

"We were just headed over to the baths," Herzer said then paused awkwardly.

Rachel looked at both of them in the pause until Shilan chuckled.

"I think what he is avoiding saying is 'would you like to come along?' " Shilan explained.

"Well, two's company and three's a crowd," Rachel replied dryly. "And if it's just more company, I'mtruly not interested."

"It's not like that . . ." Herzer started to say.

"What Herzer would be saying if he could get his foot out of his mouth is that he would appreciate a chaperone," Shilan said, pursing her lips.

"It's not like that either!" Herzer said desperately.'

"So, whatis it like?" Rachel asked, putting her hands on her hips. "First you go trotting off with Bast, then you're rolling around in the woods with one of the serving girls and next you're going to the baths withtwo women!"

"Hmmm, since you put it that way," Shilan said, standing up and putting her hands on her own hips.

She gave Herzer a mock scowl. "Would you care to explain yourself?"

"Oh for pity's sake!" Herzer said, throwing his hands in the air. "How did I get myself into this?"

"I lured you into it if you'll remember," Shilan finally relented. "Come on, Rachel, it will be fun. And Herzer really would prefer someone else along. He's got this weirdthing about me and Cruz."

"Who's Cruz?" Rachel asked.

"I'll tell you when we're up to our necks in hot water," Shilan said.

"Oh, all right," Rachel replied. "And I'll tell you all of Herzer's dirty little secrets."

"Deal," Shilan said, sticking out her hand.

"And I'll buy," Herzer added, heaving himself to his feet. "That way I can brag about getting twowomen in the bath with me with a straight face."

"If you do you will rue the day," Rachel warned.

The baths, while not deserted, were not overrun either. Having stored their gear and collected their receipts, they worked their way through the stations. Herzer was as careful as possible about keeping his eyes in his head but he had to admit that both of the girls were extremely pretty, with or without clothes.

Shilan was long and cool with high pert breasts and carefully sculpted hips and bottom. There was just enough rounding there to draw the male eye, but it was understated enough to be fashionable. Rachel on the other hand was very near his ideal of the female form: high, firm, well-rounded breasts with just enough sag to really accentuate their shape, lovely ribcage, narrow but not tiny waist, rounded hips, not wide but definitely flaring out from the waist and the most perfectly rounded bottom he had ever seen.

Not for the first time he wondered how much of his liking for the form was early canalization; he had had a crush on Rachel since before he knew what to do about it. Almost all of his "heroines" to be rescued had looked somewhat like Rachel, complete to the red hair and blue eyes.

He was very cautious not to let them catch him glancing and was even more cautious to control the natural male reaction to the situation. As he turned around to finish rinsing off he started to recite the names of all the Spartans at Thermopylae. When that, initially, was insufficient, he started at the end and worked his way back. The mental attention to details other than perky breasts, pertly rounded bottoms and mons venus worked and by the time he had a towel wrapped around him it wasn't clear that he was evincing any interest at all. Then, of course, the sight of Rachel in a nearly transparent bath sheet caused him to start reciting again. The fact that the towel barely made it to the top of her thighs while being tugged down far enough to show a tremendous amount of cleavage, required that he concentrate on doing so in the order and nature of their deaths.

"Herzer, what are you muttering," Rachel asked.

"Military history," he said in an only slightly strained voice. "You first."

Looking at anything but the two girls who preceded him, he followed Rachel to a tub that was unoccupied. There were about ten people in the room scattered around in groups and more than one of the males watched the two girls with a healthy amount of interest.

"This is why I hate coming in here," Rachel said, turning around to sweep the other bathers with a glare. "I hate to be ogled." She waited until she was sure no one was looking and shifted the skimpy towel around so that she could use it as a shield as she lowered herself into the bath.

Herzer thought it was quite the most erotic thing he had ever seen.

"Well I don't ogle you," he said, primly.

"Well, of course not," she snorted. She lowered herself until everything from the neck down was submerged in water and let out a sigh. "We've known each other since we were kids; of course you don't look."

"Well, yeah," Herzer said, taking a covert deep breath and willing himself to utter flaccidity. Once he was sure he was under control he flipped the towel off with becoming modesty and lowered himself into the bath quickly.

"What about me?" Shilan asked, raising one eyebrow and smiling in what could be taken as invitation.

"You're a friend," Herzer replied with a shrug.Down boy! Down! Bad boy!

Shilan wrinkled her eyebrows and peered at him as if attempting to divine what his real answer was.

"Shilan," Herzer sighed. "Do youwant to go to bed? Or more precisely, do you want to go to bed to have sex?" When her face closed down he nodded. "Even if Iwas interested, it would take a real son of a bitch to press you right now, right?"

"Yes," she said quietly.

"I am many things. Well . . . Ican be a son of a bitch. But in this, I'm not willing to be."

She wrinkled a brow again and then nodded, accepting the statement but still puzzled."Herzer," Rachel said dryly, but looking at him in a very searching way, "always the paladin."

"Not . . . always," Herzer corrected with a grin. "Paladins don't get laid much."

Shilan laughed delightedly and even Rachel had to smile.

"Can anyone join this party or are only young folk allowed?"

The man who addressed them was small and wiry with a graying beard and bright blue eyes.

"Hello, Augustus," Rachel said. "Of course you can join us."

The man whipped off his towel immodestly and hopped into the water like a frog.

"These were a grand idea," he said, ducking his head under the water and coming back up blowing.

"I'd prefer a leathern tun, but we haven't enough leather to make a decent shoe!"

"And, Lord knows, we've got wood," Herzer said, shaking his head ruefully.

"Augustus, this is Herzer Herrick and . . . Hsu Shilan. They're in one of the apprenticeship programs. Herzer, Shilan, Augustus Scharpf. He's one of the reenactors who's started an industry since the Fall, in his case, tanning. You'll probably be working with him sometime soon."

"And you've been cutting wood, have you?" Augustus asked, peering at them dubiously. He seemed to like what he saw for after a moment he nodded at them approvingly. "It's good that you've gotten experience in the woods, you'll be needing it!"

"Why?" Shilan asked. "I mean, we don't have any idea what we're going to be doing. I might never go into the woods again. I understand most people who were in period didn't."

"Well, there's period and period," Augustus said. "We're more early industrial pioneer than High Middle Ages. And I meant for the Great Hunt, lassie."

"The Great Hunt?" Herzer asked.

"Gee, ye hadn't heard," Augustus replied with a wink. "It'll be grand bonny fun."

Herzer contemplated Augustus' appearing and disappearing brogue for a moment the shrugged.

"Anyone going to tell us what it is?"

"My father's brilliant idea to give Mother and me more work," Rachel replied.

"Ah, you know better than that, lassie," Augustus corrected. "T'was not Edmund, t'was Myron that had the idea."

"Point," Rachel admitted. "Okay,Myron's great idea to give us more work!"

"I said before that we had no leather," the tanner said, ignoring the change. "The point is we've few enough slaughter animals as it is; the hunters have been bringing some in, but not enough. We need meat, bones, hooves, everything that you get from slaughter animals. And skin of course.

"Okay," he said, splashing water on his face and grimacing. "I was a huckster before the Fall, one of the people who could make things to sell at the Faire. I made leather goods, custom order, all very nice, hand stitched and tooled. A hobby, really, but they were all hobbies, weren't they, I pick up a few energy credits, who cares?" he added with a grimace. "But the point is, I can go from a raw skin to tooled leather.If I've got the skins! Do you know what the hunters brought in all of last week?"

"No," Herzer said, fascinated by the diatribe.

"Two feral cattle, we're eating them now, six boar, five deer, a mess of furs, three turkeys and an emu. That's not enoughmeat for three thousand people and it's definitely not enough leather."

"Not to mention the other things," Shilan added with a smile.

"Ack! Aye!" Augustus replied, winking at her. "The hooves for the glue! The bones for the tools and the fertilizer! And a fine mess of brawn for a pretty lady?"

"Brawn?" Shilan asked.

"Pig brains," Herzer replied without thinking. "Usually served in gravy."

"Yuck!"

"So we need more animals," Herzer said. "The Great Hunt."

"Yes, and . . ." Rachel replied. "There are people who are already lining up to be farmers. Onething that makes farming easier is if you've got animals as part of your farm. There are ferals in the woods so the idea is to gather some of those at the same time."

"And as my former . . ." Herzer paused for a moment. "Lady-friend pointed out there are also tigers in the woods."

"Aye!" Augustus said, winking madly. "Un thet's were it sta'ts to getinterestin' !"

"Ooo," Shilan said. "Now I begin to understand the comment about work for the doctors."

"Oh forget the tigers," Rachel shrugged, sitting up so her breasts were just under the water. Herzer tried very hard not to notice the interesting ripple effect from the shrug. "They're out there, but there are feral pigs all over the place.

"Pigs?" Shilan asked, wrinkling her brow. "What's the problem with pigs?"

"Oh, sure," Rachel said acidly. "Squeak, squeak, see the funny little pig, ah-hah-hah. Pretty and pink and fluffy. Wait 'til you see these things."

"Oh, I haven't seen them but I've heard of them," Herzer laughed. "Four hundred kilos of bristle and tusk. This is gonna beso much fun. When are they planning this? I think I'm going to have a broken leg."

"If you've got a broken leg, they put you onskinning duty," Rachel said.

"Broken arm?"

"Carrying buckets of slop."

"Agh! I've seen videos of a skinning out. No thank you. Yuck!"