Crispin's Army
Chapter 5

Elizabeth’s eyes fluttered open. Dappled sunlight flashed at her through a canopy of leaves and she blinked. The sound of fast-flowing water was close by, and a deeper rushing was to be heard not far away.

She turned her head and took in her surroundings. Her head was pillowed on soft grass between the roots of a tree. Close beside her was Tana’s undershirt, which was wet. She picked it up and wiped her flushed face, her neck, and her chest where her clothing had been opened to her cleavage. The cool cloth was a wonderful relief.

Just beyond the tree was a fireplace in which a small fire had been lit, its orange flames tickling the ribs of a rabbit on a spit. The woodsmoke and the smell of roasting meat had her salivating.

She looked further. Beyond the shade, a bank of soft grass rolled down to the edge of a stream. The stream wound away behind a low mound and was lost to view, but that way was the sound of the river in its gorge, and it was not difficult to imagine the stream spilling from a great height to add to that unseen torrent below.

Out of the corner of her eye, Elizabeth glimpsed a movement, and turned her head to take in the view further up the stream. She saw Tana emerge from the water, spectacularly naked, her raven’s wing hair spread in a shining fan across her back, her skin glistening in the sun. ’s pulse quickened.

Through half closed eyes she saw Tana pull her clothes off a bush where they had been drying, and bend to pick up her boots, belt and blaster. feigned sleep as Tana ambled across the grass towards her and laid her burdens down. She picked up the wet undershirt from ’s side, pausing a moment to look at the recumbent woman, and then stretched out on her back in the sun and closed her eyes.

Elizabeth’s eyes feasted on Tana’s outstretched form, the gentle rise and fall of her breasts, the soft undulations of her stomach, her silky thighs, and that other raven dark hair.

She sighed at the injustice: she had had lovers aplenty, as sister to the Leader, career-minded women had been delighted to share her bed, but none had been so superb in body or as charming in guilelessness as this Tana whose political beliefs made her Elizabeth’s sworn enemy. felt a yearning, and could not conceive why something as simple as ideology should interfere with a relationship. She determined that she would take Tana back to the city, take up the reins of power once more, and make Tana her official consort. She would make her happy, even make a few token concessions to the Underground if she wished. But she would make Tana forget all that...

She edged silently towards where Tana lay, creeping on hands and knees. If she touched her gently, she might not wake. Perhaps she might gradually warm to ’s touch. She extended her arm, stretched her fingers until they were hovering, poised over Tana’s sex.

The hand clutching the blaster came up in a blur, bowling Elizabeth over. Speechless, she lay on her back, the muzzle of the weapon a centimetre from her nose, as Tana glared down at her, a volcano of resentment.

“Two can play at the game of pretending to be asleep,” Tana grinned. “But it’s hard to fake the breathing properly. Now, back to your place.”

Submissively, Elizabeth crept from beneath the blaster and resumed her place under the tree.

There was a long silence, the two women eyeing each other.

“How did we get here?” said at last. “All I remember is the rock going over.”

“How do you think we got here?” Tana retorted. “I carried you on my back. Maybe two kilometres.”

Elizabeth was aghast. “You carried me? Two kilometres?”

Tana nodded. “Oh, I stopped to rest pretty frequently.”

Elizabeth looked at her incredulously. They had trekked all day, then undertaken the herculean labour of shifting the rock. And Tana had still had the strength to carry her.

Tana read her thoughts. “We’re tough stuff, we country girls,” she smiled. “We have to be. No fancy machines to do our work for us.”

Elizabeth glanced at her watch. It was a little before ten in the morning. It was almost three full days since they had left the city.

“Have I slept all night?” she asked.

“Like a baby,” Tana smiled. She tore a hind leg off the rabbit.“Here, have something to eat. There are two more little bunnies hanging up behind the tree.”

Elizabeth sniffed the gamey flesh. In spite of the unfamiliarity of meat, she was mortified with hunger, and she devoured a large portion of the rabbit.

Tana polished off what was left, skewered another rabbit and put it on the spit, then stretched out on her stomach to let the sun dry her back. She rested her head on her arms and watched as she slowly turned the spit.

By the time they had cooked and eaten the second rabbit and satisfied their raging thirst at the stream, the sun was close to the zenith.

They dozed for another hour or so. Then Tana got up and dressed, then trotted off across the grass to where she had laid out the rabbit skins to dry, weighted at the corners with stones. She rolled them up and presented them to .

“Here,” she said. “Put these in your belt.”

Elizabeth looked at the bundle in Tana’s hand with repugnance, but said nothing. She tucked the skins under her belt in the small of her back, where she would be least conscious of them.

Tana took the remaining rabbit and fitted it under her own belt. She thoroughly smothered the fire, and they set off along the edge of the gorge, back to where the boulder was wedged.

Elizabeth tried telling herself that they weren’t really going to get onto that precariously lodged rock in order to cross the gorge. There was sure to be some other way, something infinitely less foolhardy.

The walk to the spot seemed to take next to no time. When they arrived, sighed with relief. The rock was stuck some three metres below the edge of the precipice. The cliff walls were sheer. Even if they could get down onto the rock without dislodging it, there was no way they could climb up again on the other side. They would have to simply follow the gorge to its egress.

“You see that young pine over there?” said Tana, pointing across the gorge with the barrel of her blaster. “Watch this.”

Blaster fire slammed into the trunk of the slender tree close to the ground. It creaked, leaned, toppled gracefully into the abyss, its branches crunching as they hit the top of the boulder. It lay there, the severed trunk resting on the edge of the gorge, sloping down into it.

“How’s that?” said Tana.

Elizabeth stared in disbelief, first at the tree and then at Tana. “You can’t be serious!” she gasped. “You can’t be!”

“Do you have a better idea?” said Tana coolly.

“Yes!” said . “We can stay here and stay alive!”

“Sorry,” said Tana. “Not good enough.”

“I’m not doing it,” said Elizabeth firmly. “I’m not going across there.”

Tana looked at her coldly and levelled the blaster at her. “Over here.”

Elizabeth looked at the blaster, then at Tana. “You’re mad,” she shrieked, verging on hysteria. “You’ll be the death of both of us.”

“Not if we keep calm,” said Tana. “Now, do as I say. Come and stand in front of me, facing me.”

Elizabeth obeyed, positioning herself with her back to the gorge. She was quivering with fear.

“Lie face down,” Tana commanded. prostrated herself submissively at Tana’s feet. Tana squatted down in front of her. “Give me your hands.”

Elizabeth reached out her hands. Tana took them firmly in her own. “Now,” she said. “Slide backwards slowly. And whatever you do, don’t look down. Just keep looking into my eyes.”

Elizabeth wondered if she was harbouring some kind of subconscious death wish. Otherwise why would she be doing this? She looked into Tana’s warm brown eyes and felt trust for her. She slipped from horizontal to vertical, dangling, still looking into those eyes.

“I’m going to let you go now,” Tana said softly.

No!

Elizabeth dropped, landed awkwardly on the boulder and sat, howling and clutching her right ankle.

“Is it broken?” Tana called. “Try to move the foot.”

Elizabeth wiggled her foot.

“Just a sprain,” Tana announced. “But you’ll have to be careful climbing the tree.”

Elizabeth gave her a forlorn look, tears of mingled fear and pain streaming down her face. She hobbled across the rock, pushing through the branches of the pine till she reached the inverted trunk. She looked up at the edge of the cliff, a seemingly impossible distance above her. “I can’t do it,” she moaned.

“Of course you can,” Tana cooed. “Didn’t you ever climb trees as a kid?”

“No,” whimpered Elizabeth. “There were no trees, and besides, it would have been far too unladylike.”

“Well,” said Tana with irritation, “no one’s going to worry here about you being unladylike, so up you go.”

Elizabeth leant forward and grasped the trunk, put her good foot on it and began to climb. The trunk bowed slightly under her weight. Hesitantly she crept upward, wincing as she leaned on her injured ankle. With the speed of a sloth but without its grace, she progressed along the trunk until she reached the safety of terra firma. All the while she was blissfully unaware that Tana had the blaster trained upon her back.

As soon as she had both feet on solid rock, she glanced carelessly over her shoulder, her mouth open and her hand half raised to bid farewell, when she saw the weapon aimed at her.

“It would be very tedious to have to stun you again,” said Tana. “You would be out till this evening, and then we would have wasted the entire day just getting across here.”

It had been tempting to Elizabeth, but spraining her ankle would have stymied any attempt at flight. And where would she go?

“I will stay here,” said Elizabeth. “I promise.”

“I don’t entirely trust you,” Tana announced. “Sit down with your legs over the edge.” She waved the blaster menacingly.

Elizabeth sighed. She had crossed the abyss, and wanted to have no more to do with it. But she followed Tana’s instructions.

“Hands on your head,” said Tana. put her hands on her head and stared in front of her, trying to ignore the gaping void at her feet. “Now stay like that.”

When Tana was sure that Elizabeth would stay put, she shoved the blaster back into her belt and sprang catlike from the clifftop onto the rock. Her heart skipped a beat as the rock shifted slightly under her. With lithe, graceful movements, she shinned up the tree onto the cliff on the opposite side of the gorge.

“Okay,” she smiled, as she helped Elizabeth get to her feet, “let’s go.”

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