Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience.
 
 A Dark and Stormy Knight - Part Three of Three - By Mack the Knife

   Gavin managed to slip the two of them out of town and deep into a patch
of woods to the west.  Nadia was horrified at how easily he knocked out the
gate guards with a simple word of the harsh speech, both men slumping to
the ground as if they had been struck with clubs.

   They traveled through the night and came to a small farmstead in the wee
hours.  Gavin spoke a few moments of killing the inhabitants and resting
here for a while.  However, he noted that there may well be more than he
could handle easily, and he wished to rest, not fight for now.

   He banged upon the door for a moment, and when a man answered the door
he bowed politely, giving Nadia a glare to which she responded by bowing as
well.

   "Good sir," said Gavin, his voice dripping with syrupy sweetness.  "My
companion and I need a place to stay for the night, and perhaps tomorrow
night, we are very weary."

   The man looked at them for a moment.  "I don't normally allow strangers
to take to my loft, friend," he said politely.  "I apologize." The farmer's
eyes focused upon Nadia's long, slender body for a long moment and Gavin
smiled.

   "Sir, I beg you reconsider," said Gavin.  "Please escort us to your
loft, and I am sure payment can be arranged."

   The farmer thought a moment, then stepped outside.  He held a
glass-enclosed candle to light the way.  They went into the barn and Gavin
let Nadia overtake him and leaned toward her.

   "Remove your clothes," he ordered her in a whisper.

   She looked at him only for the barest of moments, then saw his eyes
flashing with anger at even this slight hesitation.  She began stripping as
they walked along.  The farmer stopped and pointed up at the loft overhead.

   "I'm sure you can make yourselves comfortable up there," the farmer
said. "But if you have money, why don't you go to an inn?" he asked,
turning.  The last few words sort of tumbled out of his mouth
automatically.

   His wide eyes regarded her long, nude form.

   "Please show Nadia around up there, good sir, pardon her nakedness, she
is simply very eager to be bedded down," said Gavin with a sly smile.  "I
must visit the privy, I will return in a while."

   He kissed Nadia on the cheek.  "Betray me and I kill them all and I will
make you eat their hearts," he whispered.  "Give him whatever he desires of
you."

   Nadia nodded and whispered, "Yes, master," in return.

   Gavin went to the outhouse and relieved himself, that much had been
true. He then went back to the barn and stood outside the slatted walls. 
He heard the farmer stuttering inside.

   "I've never done anything like this, miss," he said.

   Nadia's voice seeped through the wooden walls.  "It's okay," she said.
"We would happily pay with money, if we had any.  Please accept my favors
instead."

   --

   Nadia knelt in front of the farmer.  He was a middle-aged man, with
graying hair and gray eyes.  A gentle looking man, really.  She liked him
immediately, which made her task easier, after a fashion.

   She unfastened his belt and lowered his pants to his ankles.  "Would you
like me to mouth you?" she asked, rolling her eyes upward and giving
herself a rather innocent, vulnerable aspect.

   The farmer nodded quietly, unable to actually voice such a forbidden
desire.  Nadia took the shaft of his cock in her hand and moved forward
onto it, her mouth opening wide and taking it almost to the root.

   He groaned and his hips bucked a little as she closed her lips down and
pressed her tongue to the underside of the head.

   She looked up at the blissful expression on his gentle face and smiled
inwardly herself.  She liked spreading happiness about, normally, and now
was doing so, but even more intensely.  Nadia took his hands and placed
them upon either side of her head.  A wide smile played on her mouth as she
pulled her lips from around his cock.

   "Mount my mouth," she said, her voice husky with desire.

   The farmer gave the barest of nods to her and pulled her head toward his
groin.  She took him into her again, feeling his cock slipping partway down
her throat.  After Gavin, this man was easily accommodated.  He began
pushing himself into her mouth, then pulling back to thrust again.  Each
inward thrust mashed her nose into his dense pubic hair and she felt his
testicles roll over her chin.

   After a few brief moments of this, he finally realized that Nadia would
accept him without trial, and he began pumping her head as if it were a
willing woman's cunt, growing rougher with each penetrating push.  She was
moaning with each thrust, as well, adding to the sensation for the farmer,
that he was indeed mounting a woman.

   It was but a brief moment before he rammed his swollen organ home into
her willing throat and held it there, pumping semen down her gullet.  When
he finally pulled forth his now much reduced cock, a long ribbon of the
milky fluid ran from the head to her soft lips.

   Nadia leaned forward, and delicately collected the ribbon up as she
moved, then licked it free of the tiny opening at the tip of the head.  The
farmer smiled gently down at her.  "By the One, that was wonderful," he
said, his eyes full of gratitude.  "You two may stay as long as you need."

   Nadia licked the shaft again.  "Come tomorrow, sir, and I will complete
payment with another of my openings," she said, smiling up at him
enticingly.

   The farmer nodded as he pulled up his pants and fastened them.  "I will,
lady," he said, quietly.  "I need to return to bed, though, plowing and
planting tomorrow and all."

   "Good night," she said, sitting back on her heels, "and pleasant
dreams."

   He clambered down the ladder as Gavin opened the large door of the barn.
"Good night, sir," the farmer said.  "I hope you find the loft
comfortable."

   Gavin smiled winningly and nodded.  "I'm sure we will," he said.  "Good
night, sir."

   The farmer left, pushing the door shut behind him.  Gavin climbed into
the loft and sat down, pulling off his boots.

   "Well, whore, did you enjoy that?" he asked, looking at her by the tiny
flickering candle's light.

   Nadia barely hesitated at all.  "Yes, master," she said.  "Very much."

   He nodded.  "Good," he said.  "You'll be paying my way with your body
for the near future." Gavin chuckled.  "Pray I need nothing expensive."

   In the dark recesses of her mind, Nadia screamed out.  Her lips turned
up in a smile, almost defiantly naughty.  "I pray you wish to buy a horse,
master," she said huskily.

   He grinned again.  "Damn," he said, shaking his head, causing his golden
hair to sparkle by the candlelight.  "You are a wanton slut, aren't you?"

   She nodded.  As he stood, she moved to kneel before him.  "No, Nadia,"
he said, looking down into her disappointed eyes.  "I will not be using you
again tonight.  Put your hands behind your back."

   Nadia stood and turned about and put her wrists together behind her
back. He tied her with a length of rope he found in the barn somewhere,
tightening the cords painfully.  He then tied it around her waist to keep
her hands totally immobile behind her.

   "Go to sleep," he said, lying on a small pile of hay.  "We will be here
a couple of days."

   She moved to a corner of the loft and curled up on the floor, a maneuver
made more difficult by her tied hands.  As she thought on the eventful day,
she started crying.  She would soon displease him and he would kill her. 
Her soul felt dead already.

   --

   In the morning, she was dragged to her feet by her hair, painfully
smashing into consciousness as Gavin lifted her.  "Wake up." He said, his
voice cold and unfeeling.

   She took to her unsteady feet, his fingers still twined into her
disheveled hair.  "Yes, master," she said, reflexively.

   He cut the bindings to her wrists with a short knife, slicing her skin
slightly in doing so.  She managed to stifle the whimper from the pain of
the cut.

   He threw her down on a pile of hay upon her face and stomach.  "Hike
your ass and spread yourself open," he ordered.

   She did as told, and he noted not even a half second of hesitation in
her movements with a broad smile.  Her tightly puckered anus was probably
still somewhat painful from yesterday.  He moved down above her, squatting
over her well-shaped ass and spit down upon her butt, letting the saliva
coat her crevasse.

   "Wet my cock with your bile," he said, moving around to her head.  "Take
it to the root."

   She did her level best to accommodate that command, gagging several
times as inch after inch of his huge cock was forced by her frantic motions
down her throat.

   Her neck, with each attempt, stretching her throat outward.  "You're
worse than useless," he said callously.  "Take it all now, or I will slice
your back open and fuck the hole.

   She grunted as he said that and pushed harder.  Driving his massive cock
down her throat and gagging.  She suppressed the gag and pushed harder,
feeling it pressing into her tight throat.  It was as if there was a
barrier.  Once the head of his organ passed that point, it slipped in
almost effortlessly, spearing her throat for its full length.

   "Good, good," he commented, ramming himself into her a few times before
pulling back out and looking upon the glistening bile of her throat coating
his shaft.  He moved behind her again and pressed the now very slick head
against her rear entrance.

   "Beg for my attention, whore," he said, pushing his cock only an inch
into her.  "Beg me to fuck you."

   She groaned and said.  "Please, master, take me, use me for your
pleasure," she said.

   She screamed out as he rocked forward and rammed his cock into her tight
opening.  After he had entered her for the first time, he started thrusting
into her violated sphincter with long, smooth motions.  Nadia grunted with
each thrust, clawing at the hay on the floor with her hands as his pole
spread her ass with its huge girth and length.

   Her face was a mask of pain, and the muscles of her neck and back showed
her tension.  She could not come this way and it was frustrating.  She
started whimpering, groaning that she could not climax.

   Gavin slapped her in the back of the head, hard enough for her face to
strike the wooden floor.  "Bitch!" he yelled.  "You serve for my pleasure.
Do you understand me?"

   Nadia cried, tears running down her cheeks.  "Yes, master," she
whimpered.

   "I may pleasure you some time, but not when you wish it," he said,
grabbing a handful of her long hair and pulling it.

   He lifted her upper body from the floor and yanked her head back to
where he could get to her neck.  Once in position, he bit her neck, blood
flowed from the torn flesh of her throat and he lapped at it.

   "You serve me in all ways, yes?" he taunted.

   "Yes, master," said Nadia, gritting her teeth through the pain of his
bite.  "I serve you all ways." These words were interspersed with grunts as
he continued to pound his cock into her ass.

   She sighed as he pulled his pole out of her stretched backside and used
her hair to pull her head to his cock again.  "Clean me of your stink,
slut." He said and she obliged, though she found no distasteful matter upon
him.

   She was glad for that small mercy.  Nadia reminded herself that she
needed to keep her bowels emptied, else she would end up doing things more
odious yet that she had been spared so far.

   "I've not spent yet, whore, so be prepared to service me further,
later." Gavin said.  "I go now to get some food for us.  Pray I find
sufficient, else I will begin to eat you."

   Nadia had no doubt he was serious.  She managed to descend the ladder to
the lower level of the barn and half crawled, half walked to a long
watering trough in the corner of the massive barn.

   With a long sigh.  She slid over the lip of the trough and into the
stale water within.  Her rump seemed to sizzle like red steel as she
settled into the water and she enjoyed the cooling embrace on her violated
anus.  A long moment passed, and she feared she might fall asleep.  She
crawled out of the water, much soothed, but still in pain.

   Gavin entered the barn just a moment later.  "Good, keep yourself in
good shape for my use," he said approvingly.  Nadia automatically smiled at
the praise.

   "The farmer said he would come collect the remainder of the 'rent' from
you in a few minutes," said Gavin, chuckling.  "Be sure to do what he
asks."

   "Yes, master," replied Nadia, almost instinctively.  "I will do as you
say."

   The half-elf reached out a soft, slender hand and stroked her cheek. 
"Very good," he said, petting her.  "I may end up keeping you longer, yet,
than a few days.  You're so damn well-broken."

   She rubbed her face upon the proffered hand, glad that it was not
hurting her right now.  She even kissed a fingertip with a soft, delicate
motion.

   "I did manage some bread," said Gavin, producing a loaf from behind his
back.

   Nadia's mouth started watering profusely; she had not eaten in almost a
full day.

   "Beg for some," said Gavin callously.

   Nadia did not hesitate.  "Please, master, a bit to eat," she whined. 
"Just a morsel.  So that I can remain strong enough for your kind
attentions."

   "Oh?" said Gavin, widening his eyes.  "A very good reason to feed you,
indeed." He tore the loaf in half and handed her a piece.  "Enjoy, slut,
next I may drench in my piss to flavor it for you."

   The bread did not last long.  Like an animal, Nadia tore into the loaf,
ripping off great hunks and chewing them twice, then swallowing them in
such gulps that Gavin half feared she would choke.  That would be
interesting, he thought.

   She did not, however, and finished the loaf in under a minute, washing
down the dry bread with great gulps of the stagnant trough water.

   "You eat bread like you eat cock, slut," commented Gavin.  "Anything
going into that mouth had best beware, no?"

   She shook her head emphatically.  "I would never hurt your magnificent
manhood, master," she said, smiling.  "It deserves my worship."

   "So it does," he said.  "I am going for a walk to allow you and the
farmer to have a bit of privacy.  Perhaps he'll fuck you and give you that
release you desire."

   Gavin left the barn, and she heard his footsteps crunching upon the
gravel of the path outside the door.  Nadia patiently awaited the farmer's
arrival.  She soon heard footsteps approaching the door and stood up.

   The farmer came in, smiling.  "Hello again," he said.

   "Hello," replied Nadia, then her eyes widened at the sight of a second
man with the first, younger, and much broader-shouldered.  "And to you,
sir," she said to the second man.

   The second man seemed nervous.  "Hello, miss," he said.  "You are really
as pretty as Charnen said."

   A wide smile spread across Nadia's face.  "Why, thank you," she said,
feeling a slight warmth flow into her cheeks.  She was not even aware of
her nudity now, and stood unselfconsciously before the two men.

   "This is my nephew, Roddic," the farmer said.  "I thought since.. . ."

   Nadia interrupted him.  "Of course, I can pleasure him as well," she
said.  "It would be MY pleasure."

   They soon had their pants off and Nadia lying atop an old water barrel.
Charnen was pumping his cock furiously into her cunt, while Roddic fed his
organ into her willing mouth.  She felt a climax approaching quickly, and
grabbed Charnen by his waist, pulling him into herself with more force.

   Nadia screamed a muffled release, hampered by the long organ pushing its
way down her throat.  Soon after, she felt her mouth fill with Roddic's
seed.  She swallowed it handily and waited for Charnen to spend.

   She did not have to wait long, soon he grunted out in satisfaction and
she felt his warm seed fill her insides.  "Damn, that's good," he said,
praising her.

   Nadia's mouth broke into a wide smile.  "Thank you," she said, her hand
came up and idly wiped away a small dribble of semen from her lower lip. 
"That was very nice," she added, sliding off the barrel and helping the two
men put their pants back on.

   They both left quietly, Roddic slipped her a tenth-mark coin as he
passed.  "Thank you," he said quietly.  "That was my first time with a
lady's mouth." He added, winking.

   Nadia nodded and smiled.  "You're most welcome," she said, politely,
palming the coin.

   She cleaned herself in the trough again, using her fingers to slide up
into her cunt and clean herself inside as far as she could reach.  Nadia
once again crawled out of the water and waited patiently, for her master to
return.

   It was almost two hours before he opened the door and regarded her.  "I
trust you enjoyed your little playtime," he said.

   "Yes, master, I did," she replied, "and one gave me this." She held up
the silver tenth-mark coin and offered it out to him.

   "I am most stunned," said Gavin, after a moment.  "You are a very good
slave.  And you say one gave it.  There were more?"

   "Yes, master, two of them," replied Nadia, nodding.  "One took me by my
maidenhood, the other, my mouth."

   "Very nice indeed." He flipped the coin into the air and caught it, then
secreted it in his belt pouch, a small leather pouch she had made for him
only three days ago.

   Shaking his head, Gavin idly unfastened his codpiece.  "Such loyalty
deserves a reward," he said.  "Lie down and I'll fuck you properly."

   She did as he said, lying upon her back and spreading her long, slender
legs and revealing her well used and waiting cunt.

   His massive cock stood out from him as he lowered himself onto her. 
Even with its amazing girth, she had no pain at his entry, she was now
accustomed to him.

   He was soon pounding his pole into her with wild abandon, with her
meeting each thrust into her with one upward of her own.  She squealed in
delight as a massive release gripped her, her thighs locked into place and
she lifted her body from the floor, raising Gavin as well, arching her
strong back and screaming her orgasm out.

   She then fell limp to the floor again.  Gavin smiled down at her.  "Do
you now feel better?" he asked.

   "Very much so, master," replied Nadia.  "Thank you."

   "Let no one say I am a total cad, hmm?" said Gavin, grinning.

   "You are a good master," she said.  "I worship you and your cock."

   "Now, stop that, whore," said Gavin.  "You're going to make me fall in
love with you, and we don't want that," he added.  "I should have to kill
you immediately, then."

   "Yes, master." Then he began thrusting into her again, cutting off
speech from her as she grunted in time with his deep thrusts.

   He soon pulled his organ from her wet cunt and grabbed her hair.  She
automatically opened her mouth and engulfed his swollen pole and moaned as
he gripped her with both hands and finished himself by ramming the huge
cock down her throat.  She tasted his semen flood her mouth and then more.
She gulped it down, knowing, somehow, he would be vexed with her if she
spilled his seed.

   He soon stopped feeding her semen and his organ pulled from her mouth.
"You've done well, Nadia," he said, again stroking her cheek.  "Now, wash
me up and put my organ away."

   She lapped her cunt-juices from his flaccid cock, still larger, even in
softness, than most men.  Then her tongue cleaned among his pubic hairs and
his balls.

   "Oh, but you do that well," sighed Gavin.  "You may just make me hard
again."

   She smiled at this very kind compliment.  "Thank you, master," she said.

   "What would you like?" he asked.  "I feel generous with my affection
this day."

   She thought a moment.  "My backside, master," she said, trying to name
what she felt he would want most.

   "Ah, your lovely backside," he said, stroking her hair.  "You would
indeed like that?" he asked.  "I would have thought it painful."

   "It is, master," said Nadia.  "But it is that which I desire most."

   "No," he said.  "I think we will try something else first.  Put your
hand up your cunt."

   She blinked at him a moment.  It was sufficient to sour his good mood
instantly.  "Bitch!" he screamed as he backhanded her.

   Her head twisted around and a small fan of blood flew from her lips as
she landed upon the floor with a thump.  When she looked back, through a
curtain of her hair, she saw he was slipping a dagger form its sheath.

   "You will do as you are told, and without hesitation." He slashed her
arm with the dagger, drawing a small flood of bright red blood.  "Next,
this will be used to cut your loose cunt from your body," he said, lowering
his face to just before hers.  "Now, ram your fucking hand up your cunt, to
the wrist."

   She laid back and began working her slender fingers into herself.  Soon,
she had all four, and folded her thumb against her palm.  She pushed inward
with the hand, at a rather awkward angle.  There was quite a lot
resistance, but she pushed again, then used her other hand to push, as
well. With a gasp, she felt it slid in, filling her completely, width wise.
She felt her hand, and realized she still hand two fingers width to go to
her wrist.

   With a last desperate grunt, she rammed the hand home, it felt as if her
insides were being gouged out of her, but it went, she gasped for air as
she felt the muscles of her opening contract around her wrist.

   Gavin stepped forward and placed a booted foot upon her wrist.  "More."
He said, pushing down with his foot.

   Another bit of hand and wrist went into her stretched cunt.  She cried
out from the pain that lanced through her body as her vaginal passage was
stretched by her knuckles, and the lining scored by her long nails.  Tears
ran down her cheeks again as she cried in self loathing.

   "Master, I am not worthy of your time," she cried.  "Kill me now," she
begged.

   "You're right," he said.  "You're not worth it, but you're all I have
for now." Gavin's face showed a brief flicker of something else as he said
this.  Something soft.

   Nadia blinked, wondering if she had imagined it.

   He knelt down, grabbing her wrist.  He pulled it slowly out of her,
gently, and almost tenderly.  It made a soft slurping sound as it came
free, coated with her juices.

   "Rest now," he said, his voice distant.  Was the old, gentle Gavin still
there?  Did she wish him back?

   She sat back and licked her hand clean, as she knew he would like.  But
he was already descending the ladder, to her dismay.  This alarmed her more
than his cruel attentions.  He was ignoring her.

   "Master?" asked Nadia.

   "Rest," said Gavin, though there was no force behind it, he was not even
trying to sound masterful.

   "Yes, master," she whispered.  Nadia slinked to the corner and curled
up.

   Her mind was awhirl with confusing images.  Gavin, in the armor, and the
tattoo on his chest.  Him running the man through in the cellar of the
Boar. She shook her head.  Which man was Gavin?  Why did she wish to be his
slave so badly?  Just for his magnificent cock?  She shook her head.  "No,"
she said.

   Something deep inside her mind flared its wings and launched itself
outward.  "No more, no more, no more," said Nadia, repeating the mantra
over and over.  She rose to a crawl and looked about the loft for a weapon.
Finally, her hands came to rest upon a long shovel handle, broken off where
the head would have attached.  It will do nicely, she thought.

   A long while passed as she waited, crouched where she could jump out and
swing the handle at the level of someone's head as they came over rim of
the floor on the ladder.

   Gavin entered the barn again.  "Get yourself dressed," he said happily.
"We have been invited into the farmhouse to sup with the family."

   He climbed up the ladder when she failed to respond.  "Why you lazy
little whore, still asleep are you?" he said as he climbed.  "Well, I shall
have to wa.. . ."

   His words were cut off when the shovel handle hit him square in the
face, bodily lifted him from the ladder, and spun him out into space.  He
landed on the floor with an audible snap of one of his extremities and lay
still.

   Nadia climbed down the ladder, hindered by the shovel handle, which she
refused to let go of.  She walked over to Gavin's unconscious form, her
eyes alert.  His right arm was broken, bent under his back at a very
peculiar angle.

   He groaned and started to move, bringing his left hand up toward his
face, where a nasty wound ran across it at an angle, and had broken his
narrow nose.

   Nadia brought the handle down again, this time on his left forearm. 
There was a horrible crunch as the narrow bones of the forearm snapped
under the impact.  Gavin screamed out in agony, unable to comfort himself
with either arm now.  He attempted to roll away from his attacker, but she
hooked his leg and rolled him back onto his back, placing one booted foot
on his groin.

   "Shut up, you fucking animal!" she screamed.  "I am a huntress, or did
you forget that as handily as the fact that you were a beast?  I kill
animals for a living!"

   Gavin whimpered and sobbed, jerking his head back and forth.  "Mercy,"
he said.  "Please."

   She pressed down with her foot on his crotch.  "I should kill you now,
just to avoid confusion," she said, her voice lowering to a growl.

   "Mercy," repeated Gavin.

   She pushed herself away from the foul man lying on the floor before her,
using her foot as a lever and delivering one last painful squeeze to his
scrotum.

   "I will be merciful, for I'm not a beast," she said.  "You'll be tried
for your crimes, against me and against that man in the basement.  That is,
assuming you're not found to have committed others, which I'm confident you
have."

   He rolled over again and tried to crawl for the barn doors.  The one
door opened and the farmer was standing there, with a long knife drawn.  He
looked down at the broken man upon the floor, dragging himself by one
elbow.

   Nadia raised the shovel handle.  "This man is my prisoner," she said
clearly.  "He's a villain and a murderer."

   The farmer's face registered shock and fear.  "What?" he asked.  "But, I
thought you two were.. . ."

   She looked down at Gavin.  "He was raping me and making me do things
against my will to provide for his needs," she said, diplomatically leaving
off her own use by the farmer in front of his wife.

   The middle-aged woman gasped.  "Oh, you poor dear," she gasped, covering
her mouth with both hands.

   "You have proof of this, miss?" the farmer asked, quite ready to believe
her if given any decent cause.

   "I have my word as a huntsman of Morrovale, and even in this county,
that should bear some weight," she snapped.  At that same time, she pulled
her allotment marker from her pocket.

   "Good enough," said the farmer, nodding.  "I've dealt with your fellow
huntsmen before, miss.  They always did fair by me.  Shall I send one of my
lads out for a warden?"

   "No," she said.  "He started his crimes in the Duchy of Morrovale, and I
would have him punished there, as well.  Can you help me with a ride to the
border?"

   "It is not far by the road," he said.

   They spent five minutes trussing up Gavin and dragging him into the back
of the farmer's decrepit buckboard.  He attached a single rather run-down
looking horse to it, an old gelding that seemed to have one foot in the
glue pot.  Nadia sat upon the bench facing backward and watched over Gavin
as he laid on the floor wincing at the pain as he was jounced around and
glowering at her when he had the will and ability.

   As they trundled onto the road, almost a mile from the farmer's home, he
turned to her.  "I thank you for not saying nothing in front of my wife,"
he said.

   "You couldn't know I was being coerced to 'reward' you for your
kindness," said Nadia.

   "No, I certainly did not," the farmer said emphatically.  "I would have
never if I had thought - well you know."

   "I know.  You're a good man, Charnen," she said.

   "Yeah, so good he fucked you for a stable loft for a night," said Gavin,
his voice bitter with sarcasm.  "He knew you were doing my bidding.  Don't
let the bastard fool you."

   Charnen's face blushed slightly.  "I'm terrible sorry, miss, but I did
know that.  I just thought you were with him of your own will, as it were,"
he said.

   Nadia smiled again.  "I forgive you, and I understand," she replied. 
"As for you." she poked Gavin in the groin with the shovel handle. 
"Another word and I break your damn jaw."

   Gavin simply glowered at her in silence.

   The wagon trundled into the night, which was, luckily for them, one of a
moon nearing full.  They had passed the border two hours before, and Nadia
had asked why he kept going.

   "I must make amends to the One for my transgressions, against my wife
and against you," he said simply.

   Nadia patted his broad shoulder.  "You are a good man, Charnen," she
said.

   The sun was beginning to peek over the horizon as they rolled into
Morrovale, having passed two sleeping hamlets in the wee hours.  The
streets were just starting to have some foot traffic, some of the village's
farmers heading forth to tend their fields.  Few, if any, noted the
trundling wagon or its unusual cargo.  The guards took no notice of the
wagon as it rattled past, both huddled next to a burning brazier of coals,
warming their hands.

   Nadia noted that the streets themselves were decorated with long banners
of many colors and that there were a few horses tethered to storefronts
that were much overdressed for Morrovale's streets.  Then it came back to
her.

   "The duke's grand faire," she said in a hushed tone.

   Charnen looked at her oddly.  "Pardon?" he asked.

   "That's why there are decorations up and nobles' horses about," she
explained.  "The duke is having his grand faire in two days."

   "Pity I need to get back to my farm, then," said Charnen, looking about.
"I've never been to Morrovale before."

   "It's a nice town, you should visit with your family," she advised.

   "I might could do that one spring, after planting," said Charnen.

   Nadia trundled the wagon up to the Pierced Boar.  If anyone knew what to
do with this cur, it would be Tammer.  She clambered off the wagon even
before the farmer could bring it to a complete stop, and was banging on the
door to the tavern as Charnen stepped down to the cobbles, keeping a wary
eye upon their bound prisoner.

   Tammer eventually answered, dressed in a night shirt complete with a
ludicrous little floppy cap.  This caused Nadia to blink a few times, and
smile broadly.

   The old barkeep's patience, however, was not at its high point at early
hours.  He looked at her with bleary eyes for a moment, grumbling, before
realizing who it was.  When it finally sank in, Tammer's eyes flipped open
like a signal lamp's shutters.  "By the One, you're alive!" he yelled,
rushing forward to embrace her.

   Nadia giggled to receive such a warm welcome, even if from a rather bony
old man.

   "There's still a score of huntsmen out looking for you, lass," explained
Tammer as he clutched her to him.  "You know you're something of a mascot,
being our only huntress and all."

   Nadia smiled even more broadly.  "Well, I have brought back a prize,"
she said, pointing toward the wagon.  "A short-tailed hill cad."

   Tammer peered over the sideboards of the wagon and looked down at the
broken half elf within.  "Well, sonny, you look like hammered shit," said
Tammer, grinning.  "I suppose you never crossed a Morrovalian before?" He
looked back at Nadia.  "You broke BOTH his arms?  Damn, remind me not to
cross you," the old huntsman added in a respectful tone.

   A long moment passed in silence, as Tammer and Charnen dragged the
half-elf from the back of the wagon and bundled him into the tavern.  They
may have been noticed, but strange goings-on at the Boar were routine and
Tammer doubted that anyone would comment.

   After an initial and very abbreviated debriefing, Tammer sent Charnen up
to one of his three guest rooms.  He sat Nadia down and poured a strong tea
for her.  "His friends are still in town." said Tammer, taking a seat
across from her.

   "I thought as much," she replied, staring at her tea as it steamed and
swirled, reflecting her mind quite nicely.  "They still insist it's not
really him?"

   "They say he's been brainwashed to act as he is now, so that he could do
something very, very important," explained Tammer.  "They got really
loose-tongued after he slew their wizard, and we threatened to turn the
whole lot of them over to the duke."

   "Why haven't you?" asked Nadia, looking at him curiously.

   "I believe the woman who says she's his wife," said Tammer.  "She is
very adamant about it, and I cannot believe that she would be so if he were
truly as he appears." He looked over at the half-elf, still lying at the
base of the bar.  "You're lucky, you sack of dung.  Someone vouched for
your life, or there would be an unfortunate accident within this hour."
Gavin just glowered at them, his eyes spitting hate and death.

   Nadia looked at Tammer hard.  "You're sure of this?" she asked.  "I
don't want him escaping again."

   The low rumble of a chuckle escaped Tammer's lips.  "Somehow, I don't
think our lad there will be doing much escaping today," he said.  "You sort
of made his sword wielding rather problematic.  But it is good that you
bound his wrists anyway, I hear he is a very capable wizard himself, as
well as knight.  We would not wish him to heal himself or something equally
discomfiting."

   Gavin said something in the guttural and vile speech he had last used in
the basement.  It hurt the ears, it did, and felt like steel dragged down
stone in one's mind.

   "No one here speaks your foul tongue, Templar," said Tammer.  "And your
pitiful magics will not bend my will.  Pray to your fell god that your
friends can cure you, or I will simply put down another rabid beast.  It
would not be the first." The cold expression in Tammer's eyes rather
frightened Nadia, even.

   It was well after sunup that half a dozen huntsmen had trickled into the
bar and hung about, helping to keep an eye upon the half-elf.  Nadia was
lying upon a long bench napping when Gavin's 'friends' were escorted in by
Trevir and two other huntsmen.

   Nasina ran across the room and to the prone man.  "By the One, what have
you done to him?" she said loudly, waking Nadia, who sat up blinking.

   "What did I do to him?" screeched Nadia, coming up off the bench in a
doeskinned blur.  "Ask my backside that, as he used it plentifully, and my
maidenhood!" She stomped across the room, her fists clenched.  "Your
precious husband raped me several times in the last day and a half.  Be
glad he's still breathing."

   "I apologize," said Nasina.  "Perdan did not expect him to revert to the
newer personality first.  Perhaps we should have taken more precaution
against that event."

   "Can you undo it now?" asked Tammer.  "Without the mage?"

   Again, Nasina nodded.  "I can do it.  I also know the arts, though I was
not a match for Perdan's skills," she said.  "Can we lay him upon a table?"

   Tammer nodded and watched as the two large men lifted Gavin and sat him
with distasteful gentleness upon the table.  Gavin was still spewing forth
the foul words of the grating language as they moved him and Nasina sat the
golden ring upon his brow.  This last required the assistance of one of the
large men, holding Gavin's head still for it.

   He spat curses and vileness dripped from each syllable.

   Nasina stood placidly by his head, unrolling the blood-stained scroll
and she began to read.  These words were similar to the foul ones he used,
but gentler, more melodic.  As she spoke, the ring about his skull began to
glow with a blueish light, then pulse.  Gavin's eyes rolled to the back of
his head and he began to chant a litany, one of disgusting words, that made
the skin crawl.  He was fighting it.

   Nasina stopped reading from the scroll and started over, speaking more
strongly and firmly.  The torc once again lit up and began to pulse more
fiercely.  Gavin's chant became more pronounced as well, but there was an
undercurrent this time, of fear and concern.

   There was an almost audible crack, as if a whip had snapped in the air
over Gavin's form.

   He had twisted the arm broken in the upper half hard enough to break one
of the lower bones, he moved back and forth, screaming his lungs out, and
still cursing in the guttural, foul tongue.

   Then the torc flashed.  Gavin went limp in that moment, and his
breathing slowed.  Nasina collapsed into the arms of one of the large men,
her eyes fluttering shut as the golden ring about Gavin's head lost its
glow.

   The large woman stepped forward, prying one of Gavin's eyes open with
her thumb.  "He lives," she said, speaking to Nasina, who was trying to
regain her feet.

   "But is he Arviel?" asked Nasina looking down at him.

   The man lying upon the table groaned in agony as he slowly regained
consciousness.  His eyes opened, revealing a mask of pain and torment. 
"Nasina?" he asked.

   The slight woman smiled.  "Yes," she said, "but we cannot yet be sure
you are Arviel."

   "I know, ask," he said in an ultimately tired voice.

   Nadia felt her heart twisting in her chest.  Why do I care anymore? 
This man abused me and even if well now, he is that woman's husband.  Her
thoughts filled with images that were both enticing and terrifying.  She
shook her head, to clear them from her mind.

   Nasina said, "When we met, you stole something from me, what?"

   Arviel smiled broadly through the pain.  "Your maidenhood," he said,
chuckling hollowly.

   Nasina frowned at him.  "Smart ass!" she said.  "That's partial proof
right there, however that is not correct," she chided.  "Now speak plainly,
else these good huntsmen may just run you up a tree somewhere and let you
dangle."

   Arviel turned and regarded the near dozen hostile faces around him. 
"Oh, my," he said quietly.  "It was your bracelet, that your father gave
you.  You wear it now, but you wear it in your hair."

   Nasina reached behind her head and pulled the ring binding her hair in a
tail from it.  She held out a small bracelet, much to small for her to wear
in long years.  "It was one I have had since early childhood, and does no
longer fit," she explained.  "Arviel and I met long ago, when I was a
child."

   "Now," the large woman said, stepping forward.  "We must know what you
found out."

   "Of course," said Arviel, nodding.  "But I don't know where the papers
went."

   "I have them here," he said, pulling a stack of parchments from behind
the bar.  "What of them?"

   "They have much information that could harm the Black Theocracy
greatly," said Arviel "Including plans about an imminent attack upon your
good duke." He grinned.  "It comes back fully now.  "They have a person
infiltrated into his bloodline, and wish to supplant him with their own
man, thereby making Morrovale into an outpost, as some other realms in this
region already are.

   "If you speak lies, Templar, I'll gut you and make a vest of your hide,"
said Tammer.  "Someone get a leech here and get those arms set," he said,
and two huntsmen left the tavern at a run.

   Nasina and Arviel, and the large woman sat in a knot, speaking and the
two women holding documents before him for him to read, as his arms were
pretty much useless.  He spoke quickly and replied to questions put to him.
Nasina spoke to Tammer at length after about half an hour.  Tammer then
spoke to one of the two-dozen huntsmen gathered by that hour.  Half of them
left immediately.

   "They go to warn the duke," Tammer told Nadia.  "He was planning a hunt
in the morning, tomorrow, I remember hearing other nobles speaking of it.
The assassins from the Black Theocracy planned to kill him then, along with
anyone else that was near to him." Tammer chuckled.  "It seems that his
hunt will be pushed up a day on the schedule and his game will be much more
satisfying.  Arviel relayed where they are encamped."

   Nadia nodded, and gave a smile, but inside she was rather confused. 
"Tammer, I think I loved him," she whispered to the old huntsman.  "Even
after he abused me."

   Tammer put an arm around her shoulders.  "I understand, it does like
that sometimes," he said.  "But who you loved was not who he is, that man
is gone now, both of them were not real, neither the blank man who you fell
in love with, nor the evil man who bent your mind to his will."

   "I suppose that they are both dead," she said, rising from the chair. 
"If they were ever real."

   Tammer patted her arm.  "They were real, just not permanent," he said.

   "I'm lonely," said Nadia and left the Tavern.  --

   The next several hours were a blur of activity.

   Tammer attempted to pay the farmer, Charnen, for his time, but the man
oddly refused payment and actually acted as if he felt guilty of something.
He left about noon, begging that he needed to return to his farmstead.  He
was sent off with thanks by several huntsmen for bringing their own home.

   Nadia was not to be found in town, or her home.  People assumed that she
wished to be alone for a while.  They could not blame her, from what was
heard of her ordeal.

   Duke Anasper immediately called forth his finest cavalry and led them to
the location of the Black Templar encampment half a day's walk north west
of Morrovale.  They utterly surprised the vile host and none of that foul
group escaped.  The duke, himself, was said to have slain the leader,
though some murmured that he did not, but that he had fought quite bravely
and well, nonetheless.

   Arviel was collected by the Ducal Guard after a few hours and brought to
the duke's home 'Ironwall,' for observation and further debriefing.  It was
revealed to those who needed to know to buy their silence, that the duke
and several other Windir bordering realms had been working out this scheme
to get someone into the Black Theocracy for some years now, and it had
finally born fruit.  And from the volume of documents that Arviel had with
him, that harvest was plentiful.

   --

   It was two days later.  Nadia finally had returned to the Pierced Boar.
She did not divulge her location the missing days.

   "Well, lass, from what I hear, things have worked out, more or less,"
said Tammer, setting a mug of mead before her.

   Nadia smiled wanly.  "So I hear, as well," she responded.

   "I know it isn't justice, Nadia," he said, a look of displeasure on his
face.  "It's not even close to fair.  You deserve someone be punished for
what befell you."

   "What befell me was, in large part, because of my own foolishness," she
said.  "I should have known that he was not to be fully trusted as I did."

   Tammer laid his hand upon her shoulder.  "Guilty of caring is a charge I
would gladly face, Nadia," he said.

   Her smile changed to one of somehow almost beatific softness.  "It is
one you are guilty of many times over, old man," she said quietly, patting
his hand.  "I suppose that you got burned more than once in your dealings."

   The old man chuckled.  "Indeed I have, but I don't think the scorches
from those burns were nearly so painful as yours, lass," said Tammer.  "I
feel horrible about what happened."

   A quick look at him from her somewhat haunted eyes told Tammer he could
never know the pain she had felt at the cruel hands of the villainous
Arviel.  He simply squeezed her shoulder and let her think a moment.

   "I think, Master Tammer," she began, "I loved him, even when he turned
evil.  In my heart, I felt secure knowing he would tell me what I needed to
do, like a slave."

   Tammer grunted a noncommital sound, and his head shook.  "It's no way
for a freewoman to be," he said.

   "Oh, I know," she nodded emphatically, "and eventually, I remembered
that."

   He reclaimed his hand, using it to pick up a greasy rag and wipe
ineffectually at the counter top of his bar.  "If you need to speak to
someone of it, I could pass word to the Lady Hyandai.. . ."

   "No," said Nadia.  "She does not wish to relive her pain, either." She
rose from her stool, smiling, and swallowed the last of the mead.  "I will
cope.  As we huntsmen do."

   Tammer grinned after her as she walked out of the tavern, her head level
and her gait proud.  Two other huntsmen, sitting at tables, eating, turned
to watch her shapely backside in her doeskin pants.  They glanced at one
another, then at Tammer, to ensure that they had not violated a taboo. 
Tammer grinned at them and winked.  "She'll be fine," he said.