The Chronicles: Notomol Ch. 02

We left brother and sister alone. It seemed like the right thing to do.

- "Hope you like horse meat." said Cinna, to Evane.

***

There wasn't much room in the little house. Once we'd eaten, everyone looked for a place to sleep. The brothers curled up on the floor with their blankets, and Motekin made himself comfortable.

I wasn't so sure that Notomol's sister and her friend would be comfortable with so many strange men suddenly camping in their house. I took Grandma's blanket and went outside. I found a nice dry spot just the other side of the family's woodpile, and lay down.

It was a mild midsummer night. I lay on my back for a while, thinking. It still seemed odd to me that I was in Stonje, so far from home.

Then I heard voices.

They weren't speaking loudly - in fact, they were doing their best to keep their voices down - but I could hear them quite clearly. One of them was Notomol.

- "I have skill with a bow." said a female voice - his sister?

- "No." said Notomol.

- "I'm better than the clerk. Or the boy. I don't even have to see them shoot, and I can tell."

- "Kolasovets is very accurate." said Notomol."

- "Which is wonderful - if you're hunting squirrels." said Senderra. It was her voice.

- "Look, it's -"

- "Don't you dare say it's too dangerous!"

- "You don't understand, Sen - we saw the brothers' village after the Izumyrians had passed. Every single woman was raped. Do you have any idea what could happen to you if you were captured?"

- "You think I don't know that?" she said. "I don't have to leave home to be raped. It could happen right here. And it doesn't have to be Izumyrians! That's right - a week after you left, Riho and his brother Picknose came by, sniffing around."

- "What?"

- "Within the week. Luckily for me, Evane spotted them before they got close. I had to tell him - and not for the first time - that I'd cut his balls off if he touched me. Riho just laughed - said he'd be back."

"What am I supposed to do, brother - sleep with one eye open?"

- "That's not ..."

- "It's quite simple: if you don't let us join you, we'll go find a group that will take us. I am not staying behind. Neither is Evane."

- "Sen ..."

- "Borna had women warriors."

- "I know the stories." said Notomol.

- "Then why won't you let us go with you? Why won't you let me fight?"

- "Sen ... Evane has no skills. She'd be killed in the first serious fight."

- "I'd put her up against your friend Motekin. Or Kolasovets. I wager she could outshoot both of them."

There was a pause, then. The silence began to lengthen.

"What's the real reason, brother?" said Senderra.

- "I don't want to worry about losing you." said Notomol.

There it was, stark and plain.

- "I worry about losing you." said his sister.

- "It's - I can't be on one side of a fight, and then suddenly start worrying about whether my little sister is in danger."

There was silence again, for a moment.

- "Your friend Motekin told me that you saved his life - that you killed the Izumyrian who was about to finish him, and then dragged him away to safety."

Notomol didn't answer.

"It's dangerous everywhere, Notomol." said Senderra. "Evane and I could be raped by Riho and his brother. Or by Izumyrian soldiers - before or after they stole our food. Are you going to stay here and protect us?"

"You know that Evane would go anywhere you asked her to. She only stays here to look after me - and to stay away from her own family."

"Where do you want us to go, brother?"

That was all I heard, because they moved away after that last exchange.

Two days' later, we left Notomol's home behind. Senderra and Evane joined us.

Seven fighters, then - five men, and two women.

*****

[1] A league is very hard to define. In the Roman Empire, it was approximately 1.4 miles. In England, three miles. In lowland Hvad, a league was approximately 3km (or 1.9 miles). One of my readers suggested that it was the distance a person could walk in an hour.

[2] Gralloch = to gut or eviscerate.