Epistle To My Lady Ch. 06

This Epistle is part of the "Epistle To My Lady" series that I have written, which complements the series "Epistle To My Captain" by RedHairedandFriendly. I have enjoyed, do enjoy, and hope to keep enjoying the process of writing these stories with her. I hope that you, the readers, enjoy it as well.

9/30/10:

My lady,

I sincerely apologize for my paranoid comments regarding the rumors. Yes, I know that you would never marry someone like Anexagoras, a traitor to our country. I simply wanted to let you know what the gossip was, but I suppose that my own hidden fears came out in the way that I noted them. Please forgive my moment of madness and let that be a bygone matter, never again discussed.

Speaking of war, however, I have some mixed news. I assume that you prefer the worse part of it first, so I will share it now. We have suffered another humiliating defeat, this time in the North. Draco, the Malacanian military governor of Damoclea, has decimated our forces under Hippolytus. Half of that army is gone. My understanding is that Hippolytus himself is slain.

The rest of the army is now disintegrating, without any real senior officers in charge of it. The cavalry is no more. Most of the light infantry has been annihilated. The heavy infantry is mostly intact, if you call leaderless phalanxes spread out over open countryside and seeking the shelter of fortified towns being intact.

The only thing that I can say for Hippolytus is that he had the honor to fall in battle, rather than let the enemy take him alive. He had no real grasp of strategy or tactics, as he evidently thought our superiority in phalanxes would be enough to hold off the invader. He didn't understand the disaster happening to him until the enemy had slaughtered his personal bodyguard and had their swords drawn on the commander himself. Rather than yield, he fought to the death like a vanquished, but noble officer. His death, and the deaths of his officers, destroyed the cohesion and discipline of the army, causing a panic.

That's the essence of the bad news. There is no army to defend our northern cities and towns, only fortifications and garrisons that can be starved out or even bypassed. There is nothing, essentially, between our capital and Draco's army of 10,000 men.

Does this mean imminent defeat, some might ask. Well, in a short answer, no. The reason I say this is the good news. Sophocles has driven back the army of Demetrius yet another time. When the Tetrarch Themistocles arrived with his army to reinforce Demetrius, it looked awful, but the enemy suffered terrible luck from the outset. First Themistocles lost his son Icarus to an arrow during a cavalry charge. This distracted him, causing him to be less than his usually dynamic self in command. The enemy ended up withdrawing in the face of a successful barrage from our archers. It was a solid defensive engagement.

The following day, the enemy lost none other than the Tetrarch himself. He was reckless, perhaps due to his grief. This caused him to be stabbed by a javelin that should have missed him. The enemy, confused and lacking clear leadership, now avoids battle until it can regroup. This will buy us time. The invaders' new joint-command of Demetrius and Eumaeus is not up to his level of expertise and genius.

So, in a nutshell, we have a rather distinct stalemate in this war. I do have an idea on how to continue it long enough to achieve a favorable peace treaty. I know that it will not appeal to you, involving as it does risk to myself, but the alternative is a siege of our capital that might result in starvation or surrender.

If we can rally the remnants of the northern army and combine it with the garrison and the local militia, we can raise a fresh army under my personal command. There is no one else in a position to do this. I am the obvious choice by default, as well as the fact that most of these troops know of me. I have the additional value of proven loyalty to you, my beloved Queen.

I know that you would prefer to keep me out of danger, but I urge you to consider this. It will buy us time to attain a negotiated peace on the basis of the situation from before the war. It wouldn't be the dazzling victory that we once envisioned, but it looks more appealing than the fate of the Posidonians. I am confident that we can bluff our way into a parley with Isocrates, who would no doubt be the Tetrarch chosen to make peace with us. The Tetrarchs are old men and don't wish to end their long reign with a protracted war.

Well, I have finished my duty as a soldier in the first part of this epistle to you, my lady. Let me speak now as your lover. I love that you wish me to mark you in that way. It demonstrates your trust in me, as well as your love and your desire for me. I had no idea that you felt such a strong need to submit in private to a man whom you have always commanded in public. Let me assure you that I would never try to expand this beyond the bedchamber. I am content to be as obedient to the Queen as I am commanding to the woman. I am both lover and subject, and must balance these roles as carefully as you do.

I also love that you enjoyed your bonds and the ivory balls. The idea that you wore them while writing to me the last time was the cause of more than one orgasm in the privacy of my command tent. If I had been a lover of young men, some officer or cadet would have gotten a sore bottom. Instead, I relied on my left hand, while thinking of my lover, my Queen. The vision of your juices flowing into Antigone's mouth from the arousal caused by the balls made my blood heat up in excitement. My officers probably wondered why I looked so happy, since none of them got to see your letter to me (due to my keeping of my promise to you).

I so enjoy commanding you in the bedchamber, as well as pleasuring both you and Antigone. Of course, my passion for you far dwarfs any lust for your slave. The way that you revel in assuming a subservient role in bed that you would never accept in public, the way that you ravish Antigone, the way that you welcome my cock in your ass, and the way that you scream with ecstasy as I lick your pussy, all convince me that I will never know a woman who is more ardent in love and lust as you.

I hope that I in some way measure up to your ideal of a lover as well. The Fates might well be cruel and separate us before our time, but I will pray every day to the Gods that they allow us at least some years together in our old age. If the Gods are truly just, they will reward us for our sacrifices. If they only knew how much I ache to be with you openly as your husband, the people would be shocked. However, they will not even know we are lovers at all, until the time comes that we can proclaim it to all. We both have duties, and we will both keep them as long as we must. That is what I admire most about you, your devotion to your people above all. It is the mark of a worthy sovereign.

If nothing else sustains you during your reign, let it be my loyalty and love to you. I will never betray or harm you, nor will I permit others to do so without making them suffer for it. I will accept that another man will wed you and sire children on you, instead of me. However, I will do so in the knowledge that one day we will take our own vows, and that you will do so then with an entire different meaning than with some foreign king. Until then, I will do nothing to anger the Gods by trying to expedite that day dishonorably, I assure you. The Gods favor only those who have honor and justice in their cause. That is why I hold out hope for us.

Know that I think of you often when I enter my wife, and I hope that you will think of me as you give your future husband your favors. I will also continue to make love to you whenever we get the chance, as we discussed, whenever we are away from our duties and our spouses.

Your loving Captain,

Cadmus