By the Manor Owned

by Phair

Disclaimer: Consider this Uber. The characters may have a physical resemblance to a late warrior and her bard but that is as far as it goes. No infringement is intended and no profit will be gained.

Warnings: Violence, sex (f/f, m/m, f/m), rape, bad language, nasty characters and angst driven situations. Basically, this is for adults only!

Feedback: p.phair@comcast.net and you can visit my web site at http://www.phair1.com

The End: After almost a year, this story is done. Thank you all for reading it.

Part 8

The primal beat of the pulsating music seemed to drive the rhythm of Rod’s thrusts into Tess’ warm, wet center. She grabbed hold of his bare ass in order to better guide him to her aching need. As long as she was forced to participate in the orgy, Tess decided to, at the very least, steal some small carnal pleasure from part of it. And Rod was well meaning enough to be enjoyable. And Tess was just drunk enough to enjoy him.

"There you go, that’s the spot," she moaned. "Harder, yes, harder, ohh kayy, you got it now, there you go, harder, make me come for you, ya, ya, like that, ya, ya…,"

Rod peaked in a rush after her climax. Tess let him buck against her until he finished dumping his seed. He tumbled forward, his weight pushing her further into the soft, satin pillows she was resting on. His head nestled against her shoulder as he began to snore softly. Tess chuckled to herself as she half expected Rod to start sucking his thumb.

"You’re really out of your league here, kid," she whispered against his head. "Not to worry. When I get you back to the Manor, I’ll have Stewie teach you the ropes. Literally. I’ll keep you safe," she muttered against his sweaty brow before giving him a gentle kiss. "Just like I keep everybody at the Manor safe."

Rod snuggled closer to her and Tess rubbed Rod’s back in return. She found herself wishing it was Jordan she was cuddling. Her body may have been satisfied by Rod’s passion but her heart longed for her own Jordan. Wishing to be on the way home, Tess did a quick scan of the orgy that was surging around her. The party appeared far from over. Tess choked back her groan of disappointment and tried to claim some rest.

***

Jordan huddled against the base of the whipping post in a fruitless effort to stay warm. She had been stripped bare and chained to the post. Quimby doused her with buckets of icy cold water before using the electric cattle prod on her. There was enough slack on the chain for her to try to dodge out of the way of the torturous device. In the end, she realized it was a useless waste of time and energy. If she would just lay still and let him punish her, it would end soon enough. But, her instincts to survive insisted she try to get away for the pain. Quimby kept zapping her until her body finally collapsed in exhaustion. He leveled several hard kicks to her legs and back. It was the kick to her face that knocked her out.

When Jordan regained consciousness she found herself praying for Quimby’s quick return. If he wouldn’t grant her mercy by putting her in the quarantine sheds for the night then maybe she could provoke him into kicking her in the head again. At the very least, a solid blow would send her back into the black depths of blissful unconsciousness. One way or the other, she would escape the cold and the pain of being chained naked and alone in the darkest hours of the night.

Sudden movement for the stables startled Jordan from her macabre revelry. A man struggling to carry a large barrel hurried toward her. A smaller figured, also burdened with a large bundle, trailed after him. In the darkness of a moonless night, Jordan could not make out their features until they were almost next to her.

"Vic?"

"Him and me too," Dinah said after she dropped the box she was carrying next to the barrel Vic positioned near the whipping post.

"What are you doing? If you get caught out here," Jordan couldn’t voice the horrible thought of what would happen to them at the hands of a man as brutal at Quimby.

"He left you to freeze out here, girl" Dinah pulled a blanket from the box and proceeded to tuck it around a shivering Jordan. "We’re not going to let that happen."

"He’ll hurt you," Jordan said even though she was already starting to warm. It was as much from their compassion as from the fleece surrounding her nearly frozen flesh.

"He’s dead drunk," Vic spoke quietly as he dumped the rest of the box’s contents into the barrel. "His slave boy is one of my guys. He’ll warn us if Quimby wakes before we finish our work. Not to worry, Miss Jordan, we’ll take very good care of you."

Vic pulled a bottle of his Slavehouse Brew from his pocket and poured it into the barrel. He followed that up with a match. The barrel contents ignited. Instantly, Jordan felt the warmth of the dancing flames as they caressed her abused body.

"Cory went to get L’tish. He’ll have you out of those chains in no time," Vic said.

"But," Jordan could not understand why so many slaves were risking their precious skin for her, "Quimby…,"

"He’s finished here," Dinah stated with confidence. "Togo may have encouraged this behavior but Master Tess won’t stand for him treating any of us this way. Never mind him hurting you. Out of all of us; hurting the Master’s hand picked sex slave can’t be tolerated. Master Tess won’t suffer his arrogance any longer."

"She has no choice but to go along with Quimby," Jordan realized the flaw in the slaves’ logic. "Master Tess has to keep Quimby here. The governor ordered his presence. Quimby can do as he wants with any us or Master Tess, for that matter. She can’t save us. Please, believe me and save yourselves. Go now before he catches you," she hated to send them away but she did not want them to be punished for her, "protect yourselves and your children. Vic, you have a daughter. Dinah, think about Kacia."

"I thought the governor had some hand in Quimby’s sudden arrival after all these years," Dinah nodded. "Not to worry girl, we got a back up plan."

L’tish and Cory arrived before Jordan could argue any further. It only took the blacksmith a few seconds to release the chains around Jordan’s wrists. He gathered her trembling body in his arms in order to carry her back to the house.

"I can probably walk," Jordan whispered.

"Don’t argue with the man, he’s got his hands full," Vic said with a grin on his face. "Leaves you with an unfair advantage to get your point across. And you don’t need any more advantage than you have already."

L’tish smiled and winked at the woman in his arms as he made his way up the Manor’s front stairs. Stewie opened the door for them. They made a silent procession to the bedroom behind the kitchen. Jordan was surprised the group brought her to Dinah’s room instead of the Master’s bedroom.

"Oookay, I sent a voice mmmessage to the Mmmaster. Vic, your guy’s gonna let us know when Qqquimby wakes up, right?" Stewie stuttered but did not appear to be nervous.

"We got more trouble," Dinah spoke up as she began to help Mia tend the angry red burns on Jordan’s body. "Quimby is the governor’s man. Master Tess can’t touch him. We’ve got to go to the back up plan."

L’tish began to sign wildly.

"Cory, what’s he saying," Vic did not understand the hand movements L’tish was making.

"He says, he’ll kill Quimby before the overseer’s drunk wears off. L’tish will make it look like an accident. A riding accident. Broken neck," Cory nodded in agreement with the additional clarification.

"No, L’tish, you can’t kill the man," Jordan gasped as she struggled against Mia and Dinah to sit up.

"Girl, he tortures you and you want to save him?" Dinah sighed in disbelief wrapping a blanket around Jordan’s bare shoulders.

"No, L’tish can’t do it. He’s a free man who use to be a slave. If he gets caught," Jordan swallowed back the fear rising in her throat, "it is worse than execution. He’ll suffer. They’ll impale him. I’ve seen it before. It is too brutal. L’tish, don’t to it. The wealth of the Manor of Westerly is not worth even a moment of that agony."

"It is a risk worth taking to save you," Cory smiled broadly as he translated L’tish’s signs.

"Besides, we’re in this together," Stewie announced. "We’ll stand and die here, together, if we have to," his voice was confident for the first time in many years.

"Let’s hope Master Tess will be with us when she returns," Mia said. "It will be so much easier if she stands with us."

The room remained silent as they considered the consequences should the Master of Westerly stand against them.

***

Tess’ drunk was starting to wear off. The pounding in her head was catching up to the throbbing between her legs. A sweet, little red head was nestled face down in Tess’ sex. Rod, laying under her, was firmly planted in Tess’ ass and pushing ever deeper.

"I’m not gonna be able to walk tomorrow," Tess thought idly as her body surrendered to the slaves efforts.

Her world was spinning out of control. Between the ramming she was enduring and the tongue lashing she was relishing, Tess was about to have the greatest orgasm of her life. Sweat poured off her body as she surged toward her body’s invaders with a raw lust.

"Tess of Westerly Manor! Westerly Manor paging TESS!" The voice bellowed over the intercom. "Emergency: Westerly Manor."

"SHIT!" Tess pulled herself off and away from the slaves pleasuring her. "PHONELINE, NOW!" Her shout rose above the music.

She snatched the hand held terminal away from the approaching slave girl as soon as it was within reach. Tess hit a series of numbers to get her to her voice bank. Sorting the messages by signature, Tess found the X that was the prearranged mark of a trusted Manor slave.

"Master, bad, b b b bad thing. J j j , dan, she need you, hurry. Come home."

Tess felt her heart lurch at the tone of Stewie’s message. Something terrible was happening. She needed to get home.

"Slave, tell the governor I had an emergency and needed to leave," Tess ignored the growing paleness in the red head’s checks. "Rod, you’re with me. Let’s get going."

The governor watched, with a sad grin, Tess take her phone message and make a hasty departure. His hand never missed a stroke as he jacked off the leather clad, bound slave laying next to him. The slave whimpered as he came seconds before the timer sounded.

"Premature again, Tosca. Tssk, Tssk, what’s a master to do with such a willful slave?"

"Please Master, I’ll do better next time," Tosca sobbed out of a real concern his beloved Master would bore with him.

"Perhaps, it’s in your blood. Your sister just ran out of here before the party officially ends. And you, you spew all over my hand. What is a Master to do?" His tone was deathly serious.

"You must use discipline, Master," Tosca murmured as his heart drummed in fear and excitement.

"Yes, that’s it. What should I do to Tess?" The governor asked before flipping Tosca face down and tearing open the leather pants protecting the slave’s ass.

"Expose her," Tosca hummed when the room’s air cooled his uncovered but overheated ass. "Tell the world she’s the bastard daughter of humping slaves and a slave herself."

"Did you figure that out on your own or did you have help?" The governor asked as he smacked the bare cheeks before him.

"You just settled my only doubt on the matter," Tosca’s erection returned with a stinging reply across his bottom. "Thank you, Master. Please, punish me long and hard."

"BRING ME THE HOUND!" The governor shrieked. "Be careful what you ask for, slave. You just might get what you didn’t know you wanted. As for your sister, I’m revoking her parole and committing her to the slavery that is her birthright. And, you get to be fucked up the ass by the best hung slave I’ve ever seen," the governor chuckled in Tosca’s ear.

The Hound was brought to the governor’s reviewing stand by several guards holding restraining chains. He stood six foot, five inches, and weighed three hundred pounds. Some claimed his erection was fifteen inches but it was too dangerous to get close enough to precisely measure him.

"Oh, Master, thank you," cried Tosca as the Hound forced his engorged penis into Tosca’s darkness.

***

Quimby could hear the slaves plotting just outside his windows. Pushing himself to his feet from the bed that he passed out on, he staggered across the empty room. He grabbed his shotgun and two boxes of bullets from the fireplace mantle. He stumbled back to stand in front of the door. When the knob turned, he pulled the trigger. Reloading was an automatic function for him even in a drunken state. He stepped one pace forward and then pulled the trigger again. There was screaming on the other side of the blasted wood but Quimby just reloaded, took one pace forward, and fired. He would either shoot his way out of the Manor or die trying. Reload. Step forward. Fire.

***

Tess barely let the transport come to a stop when she leapt out the door. Dawn was breaking but all the Manor lights were still burning. She took the steps two at a time leaving the naked Rod scrambling to keep up.

"What’s happened? Where is she?"

"Master, she’s in my room," Dinah tried to block the way, "but you must listen to us first."

"Later," Tess shoved the woman aside.

Tess stopped in her tracks at the threshold of Dinah’s room. Jordan lay on the bed as pale as the sheet covering her. The gentle rise and fall of her chest was the only movement in the room.

"Tess?" Jordan mumbled in her pain induced delirium.

"I’m here," Tess tried to hold her tears back as she went to the bedside. "What did he do to you?" There was no question in her mind Quimby was responsible.

Jordan didn’t answer. She grabbed Tess’ shirt and pulled herself into her Master’s arms. It took a few heartbeats before she felt safe enough to release her cry. Even then it was only soft sobs.

"I didn’t think I’d last till you got back. It hurt so much, so cold, all alone…, Jordan rambled as Tess gently rocked her.

"I’m here now," Tess whispered in Jordan’s ear. "And this all ends tonight."

Without another word, Tess unbuckled Jordan’s collar and threw it across the room.

"Master, Master," Cory’s panicked voice broke the stunned silence as he raced into the room. "L’tish is dead and Quimby got away!"

"Got away?" Tess questioned.

"Master, I, we," Dinah spoke with defeat in her voice, "plotted to kill Quimby tonight for what he did to Jordan and what he’s doin’ to you. L’tish wanted to make it look like an accident but it seems things didn’t go as planned."

"If the governor finds out about your little rebellion then there will be mass executions," Tess responded coldly.

"And he will find out from Quimby," Jordan murmured allowing her cold lips to caress the warm skin at Tess’ neck.

"Is Quimby on horseback or transport?" Tess asked over her shoulder.

"Horseback," Cory replied.

"We have six to eight hours tops," Tess’ inclusive words caused Dinah to grin. "Gather what you can and spread the word. You are free people now. You must run or fight for your freedom. I suggest you head for the Westlands. Take the fishing boats across the river. Start a new tribe, join an old one; but run as far west as there is land to sustain you. GO! Leave this place, NOW!" Tess roared as she stood; tearing herself away from Jordan’s grasp. "Take what you want because in five hours I’m burning the whole Manor to the ground! Run! Run while you can!"

Slaves raced every which way leaving Jordan and Tess alone.

"Lay with me," Jordan tugged on Tess’ hand.

Tess stripped off her clothes and carefully climbed into bed with Jordan. She let her strong, warm body cradle Jordan’s cold and battered flesh.

"I may not survive the night," Tess whispered in Jordan’s ear.

"We, my love, we," Jordan gently corrected her. "We’re in this together."

Tess would not argue with her. They had very little time left. She would not lose out on one more moment loving her woman.

"Together, then," Tess kissed Jordan and began to ease her lover’s hurts.

***

Tess eased Jordan down the last of the Manor’s steps. The court yard was mass confusion. Men, women, and children carrying off anything of value. Dinah stood with Kacia waiting for Stewie and Rod to finish packing a wagon full of supplies.

"Why aren’t you heading for the boats?" Tess asked.

"We’re making a stand in the free village," Dinah replied with confidence. "We have family and friends there and won’t leave them to fight this battle alone."

"Be safe," Tess shook the cook’s hand.

"Oh, we’ll be anything but safe," Mia called as she hurried down the steps, "but, at least, we’ll be free. Thank you." She gave the backpack she was carrying to Tess before kissing Jordan on each cheek. "There’s food enough for a few days."

"We’d better hurry," Stewie spoke up.

"Kacia," Dinah pushed the girl toward Jordan, "you help Miss Jordan down to the river and the boats."

"But," the girl tried to cling to the older woman.

"She’s right, Kacia. Jordan and I need your help," Tess smiled when she held her hand out to the girl.

Gun fire in the distance frightened the young girl into taking Tess’ hand. Panic took hold as a battled began somewhere in the distance. Tess picked up Kacia, took Jordan’s hand, and started for the river.

"They won’t make it will they," Jordan asked sadly.

"No but you will," Tess squeezed Jordan’s hand.

"We will, right?"

Tess did not answer as she pushed through the crowds converging on the river banks. Vic was organizing the departures. He and his boys were enforcing calm as boats were loaded.

"Miss Jordan, come this way," he pushed the crowd back. "Move out the way, folks. Let the wounded up front."

"Vic, how’s it going?" Tess asked

"We got ten boats. My boys are steering. Three trips back and forth so far. We’ll keep it going as long as we can."

"Thank you for staying and helping," Tess was touched by his commitment.

"We need as many backs on the other side as we can get, Master," Vic nodded. "It’ll be a damn tough winter on the run."

"Will you see Jordan and Kacia get on a boat," Tess could not finish her sentence before Jordan grabbed her arm.

"Where are you going?"

"I’ve got to go back and create a diversion. It should slow the army down a bit," Tess took Jordan’s hand and kissed the palm. "I’ll hurry. I promise to make the last boat."

"Tessa," Jordan wanted to cry.

"Take care of Kacia," Tess pulled away and ran back toward the Manor.

She raced back up the embankment against the flow of escaping slaves. The sound of gun fire was growing closer. There was very little time left.

"I’ll miss you Jordan," Tess thought to herself when she realized there would be no way for her to get back to the boats in time.

Running to the side of the now empty stables, Tess was relieved to see her truck was still there. The horses were taken because they were easier to maneuver in this terrain than the ancient truck. It started on the first crank. Tess recklessly back it across the court yard to the propane tanks behind the Manor.

"Let’s see if this still works," Tess popped the dash board lighter into heat.

Tess ripped off part of her shirt tail and stuffed it in the gas tank while she waited. A snap later and she was staring at the red coils of the lighter. It took four tries and one reheating to get a flame.

"Burn baby," Tess broke into a mad dash back toward the river in an effort to get away from the blast.

The gas tank blew first but Tess kept her footing. The combined force of the propane tanks exploding knocked her into a forward roll. Tess lay still on the cold earth for a moment trying to catch her breath. The sound of the battle drew closer as flames engulfed the Manor. She had been shaken by the blast and her body was slow to respond. They would find her before she could get a steady foot under her. Looking around for a place to hide, she realized that she had been tossed to the crest of the embankment. By crawling a few more inches, Tess would be able to see Jordan getting safely away. That suddenly became much more important than hiding.

She struggled to pull her battered body up on her elbows. The boats were all away from the banks. Some slaves left behind were trying to swim across while some started heading up river. Others just sat and waited to see what fate would do to them.

"Be safe, my love. Be free," Tess smiled as she rested her cheek in the dirt.

"Tessa!"

"No," Tess’ head snapped up to see the woman approaching her from the river’s edge, "Jordan, no. You were suppose to be on a boat. You were free."

"And you were suppose to be on the last boat. I waited." Jordan dropped to the ground and pulled Tess into her arms.

"I wanted you to be free," Tess sobbed as the unmistakable sound of soldiers drew closer.

"Better to spend one more day as a slave with you than one whole lifetime free without you," Jordan sealed her vow with a kiss.

The End

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