The Chronicles: Notomol Ch. 07

We watched the new mercenary units march into Stonje. There were more than 400 of them - too many for us to attack in earnest, but Notomol wanted us to welcome them properly to our war-torn province.

By this time, we knew all of the best spots for ambushes, or for sniping at a long column of men, and then disappearing once again into the forest. We only killed or wounded 13 of them. Not so many, perhaps - but we did it without taking a single loss on our side.

In fact, the mercenaries rarely saw us at all.

One hundred of them split away from the main group, to join Captain Dabrel's sadly diminished garrison. We wondered if he would be superseded in command.

- "I hope not." said Dubek. "I'd love another crack at that idiot."

Almost 200 of the mercenaries made for Dienik's steading. Were they planning on rebuilding it? The Izumyrians kept occupying the place, which was no better than a ruin after Nelime and Orsho's first attack. We'd ambushed them there several times since, as had Vidrik. When would they learn?

The rest of the mercenary force, perhaps 120 in number, headed directly for the Ban's steading, which was already overcrowded, and full of sick men.

- "Pray they catch whatever it is." said Nelime. She was certainly not alone in that sentiment.

***

We had over-hunted the lands around the Deadman's Bog. That was the first reason why Notomol shifted our operations back to the area around Dienik's steading. Food was scarce there, too - but we could extend our hunting into the hills and woods to the west.

It was completely new territory to me; almost all of us depended on old Yadha to get us started. He would point us in the right direction, give us a few words of advice ... and off we would go.

Adrastas actually composed a short song about Snakehand, mainly about how indispensable the old forester was. 'A vanishing breed', the guslar called him, renowned for his knowledge of the land, his acquaintance with half of the people in Stonje - and his tracking and hunting skills.

It was a good song, but Adrastas had missed something important: Yadha had been in battle with us. He'd risked his life as often as any of us. True, Snakehand had done most of his fighting before the guslars had arrived to join our band, but this was an omission that we couldn't allow to stand. Senderra, Cinna and I went and told Adrastas what he'd left out.

I have to give the guslar credit; the next time he sang that song, he added a stanza about Yadha's skills with a bow, his courage and his endurance. That was more like it. I suspect that Yadha had a pretty good idea where the changes to the song had come from, but he merely looked our way and gave us a long, slow wink.

The new hunting grounds were a challenge for us - for me, anyway. I came home empty-handed more than once. There weren't as many of us hunting, either; Notomol had decided to separate the hunters from the archers. We had a number of people who could wield a bow, but lacked the foresters' skills.

Marmos and Olari were two of that type. Notomol wanted them with him, to harass the mercenary garrison of Dienik's steading. My new hunting partner was my old hunting partner: Inita.

- "I hope you don't mind." she said.

- "I'm very pleased." I told her. That was only truth: she was becoming a better archer all the time. She was a quick learner, and had a wealth of common sense. Inita was also easier to talk to than some of my other 'partners'.

- "Are you sure?"

- "'Course I'm sure. I've always told you the truth, Inita."

- "Yes. You have." she agreed.

We worked well together. When she didn't know something, Inita wasn't afraid to ask. She eagerly soaked up any knowledge that I chose to share, and she didn't laugh or mock me when I admitted that I didn't always know the answers.

She and I spent many days together in the woods, and many nights, too, as we ranged farther and farther from the band's camp, west of Dienik's steading.

One evening, upon our return to camp, I followed Inita back to the fire she shared with Senderra, Evane, and Dusca.

- "Are you sure?" asked Inita.

- "Of course." I said. "The last time I stayed away too long, I heard about it from Senderra."

But Notomol's sister wasn't there. Evane looked decidedly unhappy. Big Dusca was seated right beside her, with her arm around the smaller woman's shoulder.

Something was wrong. Even I could tell.

- "What's happened?" I asked.

Inita immediately turned me around and led me away in the opposite direction.

- "Do you really not know?" she asked.

- "Know what?"

Inita sighed. "I didn't want to be the one to tell you this, Kolasovets. But Senderra hasn't been spending much time with us, after dark."

- "Why not?" My mind seemed to be functioning extremely slowly, as though it was clogged with ice. Inita was trying to tell me something, but I couldn't quite make sense of it.

- "She's been ... with someone else."

Now I understood. Surprisingly, it felt like being stabbed. There was the sharp shock, and the strange numbness as my mind struggled to absorb what had happened. The pain only came afterwards.

"I'm sorry, Kolasovets. I thought ... we all thought that you knew."

- "Who?" I said. By some miracle, my voice didn't crack.

- "Eiven."

Cloudy-Eye. A noted warrior. A famous warrior. Handsome, where Dubek was scarred and ugly. Not too old, like Orsho, but at least a decade older than her. Senderra would see Eiven as mature, and experienced. I was a boy. An immature adolescent with big ears. What had I been thinking?

The unrealistic dreams of youth may be mere fantasies, but that doesn't mean that their roots don't go deep. It felt as though my heart had been torn from my chest. I was still numb, though. That gave me a moment to think of others.

- "Why is Evane so upset?"

Inita could only shake her head. "Are you serious? She's been in love with Senderra since they were little girls."

- "But I thought ..."

- "You thought what?"

- "Senderra said ... that Evane was in love with Notomol."

Inita snorted. "That's possible. Probable, even. We're all in love with Notomol, in a way - aren't we?"

I turned and looked at Inita as if she'd just grown a second head.

"You've been with him the longest, Kolasovets. Ask yourself: what are you doing in Stonje? Shouldn't you be in Yeseriya? And you heard what your friend Motekin wrote. He felt it - enough to fill pages in his journal. I can admit to it, too. It doesn't mean that I want to be his woman. It's something else ... but you know that better than I do."

I heard every word she said. Only later did I suspect that she was trying to distract me from thoughts of Senderra and Eiven. But that didn't mean that what she'd said wasn't true. In fact, I was to spend quite a bit of time mulling it all over.

For now, though, I didn't want Inita to see me cry.

- "Thank you." I said. "For telling me. Excuse me."

She let me go. What more could she have said? It would have been nice to have Dusca put her arm around me, and offer comfort. Or Inita. But then I decided that I didn't want to cry. I wanted to get beastly drunk.

Yes, I wanted Senderra to be happy. I hoped that Eiven would be good for her, just as Nelime had proven to be for Notomol. I just would have preferred that she'd found someone else. Someone like ... me. But that was a foolish dream.

There were a few members of our band who always seemed to have some kind of liquor. Dubek was one of those. I found him easily enough, just away from one of the main campfires. I always remember him just as I found him then - sitting on the ground, with his back to a tree.

His eyes were slightly glassy, but he was no less fearsome.

I sat down next to him, and extended my hand. "Have enough to share?" I asked.

Dubek merely grunted, and passed over a wineskin. I put it to my lips and took a long swig.

I might as well have tried to swallow a long knife. It burned like fire, and nearly choked the life out of me. Dubek chuckled as I gagged and coughed.

- "You'll get the hang of it, 'Vets." he said. Another century or two of hard drinking, and you'll have almost caught up to me."

- "What is that?" I got out.

- "My own private blend." said Dubek. "Suchen (a drink based on fermented honey), grain spirits, and ale. Kills every disease I've ever heard of. I hope."

- "It's awful."

- "I agree that it takes some getting used to. But then ... you came to me, 'Vets. Which means that there's some reason you stopped by. You have something on your mind."

I could have sworn that he was already drunk, but Dubek still had his wits about him. "Oh!" he said. "you just found out something you would have preferred not to know. Ouch."

- "What are you talking about?"

Dubek passed me his wineskin again. Against my better judgement, I took another swallow. It burned just as badly as the first.

- "She's entitled to find some comfort while she can. We could all die tomorrow, you know. Me ...I'm too ugly. You, friend 'Vets ... you're too young. But look on the bright side: I can't get any prettier; but you can certainly get older."

I was struggling to understand how everyone knew what Senderra was up to, except for me. Was I so oblivious?

- "I don't know if that's a 'bright' side, Dubek."

- "Well ... how about this, then? Forget 'em all. Have another drink."

The alcohol didn't help - especially the next day. Nor did I remember much of the drunken wisdom Dubek shared with me. Strangely enough, though, I did feel just a little better. Sharing the pain didn't make it go away, but it didn't hurt, either.

***

The second reason that Notomol moved us back to the hills near Dienik's steading was because Nelime had suggested it. Notomol wanted to test the mercenaries. She suggested that it would be easier there, since the walls weren't completely rebuilt, yet. It left them vulnerable, exposed to our attacks at all times - day and night.

Nelime also knew that the local people had mostly fled, so if our enemies wanted trees felled, they were going to have to do it themselves. The mercenaries weren't very keen on hard labour, in the first place - and we had some small successes ambushing their work parties.

The mercenary commander had some sense: he sent out large armed parties to guard his labourers, and also tried to hide large supporting forces in to trap us if we attacked. But we had a dozen pairs of eyes watching the steading at all times. They couldn't sneak a single man out of there without us knowing about it.

Notomol was extremely patient; he was merely probing, poking the enemy to see how they would respond. Every day, we killed or wounded at least one or two mercenaries.

Meanwhile, we learned a great deal. First of all, it seemed that the mercenary captains weren't going to help each other. There was no cooperation between the three steadings, no coordinated movement such as Arnger had organized against us.

Then we heard tidings that changed our plans.

The disease at the Ban's steading was growing worse. Twenty more men had died, and nearly 100 of the mercenaries were said to be seriously ill.

Also, food for all three garrisons was growing short. The mercenaries had begun foraging again. But they were better prepared for our ambushes. Rather than send out three or four parties of 20 to 30 men each, the mercenaries travelled in large contingents of 50 or more - and stayed within supporting distance of each other.

- "We can take them." said Dubek.

- "I agree." said Eiven Cloudy Eye. Senderra, standing next to him, nodded her approval.

Even Orsho was ready to agree with them. But Notomol still wanted to be careful.

- "They won't find much." he said. "We can't find much. And that's a problem that's only going to get worse. For them, and for us. We're going to have to hunt even more - and that still won't do it. It's going to be a lean winter."

- "There won't be much of a crop of anything." said Nelime. "No one is foolish enough to believe that the mercenaries will let them keep anything they harvest."

- "Exactly." said Notomol. "The question is, then: what will the mercenaries eat, this winter, if they stay? Are they staying? I think that they are."

- "What makes you think so?" asked Adrastas, the guslar.

- "They're still rebuilding Dienik's steading. Why do so if they plan to abandon it for the winter? They must know that we would destroy anything they left behind. And then there's the Ban's steading. There are too many sick men there. They can't move them all - and I doubt that they'll just abandon them."

Orsho understood immediately.

- "You think that they'll send food."

Dubek slapped his knee. "They have to!"

- "They have to." said Notomol.

Then he began to explain his plan to us. It was not at all what most of us had been expecting.

***

We kept up the pressure on Dienik's steading. One day, we were caught by surprise when twenty riders galloped from their camp. We simply weren't in any kind of position to intercept them. They escaped to the south - towards the Ban's steading.

***

The leaves had begun to fall. There was sometimes a chill in the air, at night.

It was bound to happen, sooner or later. I ran into Senderra.

- "Hey 'Vets!" she said, quite cheerily. "Where have you been? Haven't seen you around the fire for quite some time."

- "I came by a few times." I said. "You weren't there. Evane and Dusca weren't really in the mood to talk, so I didn't stay long."

Senderra knew what I meant. She didn't blush, though; she merely nodded.

- "I'm sorry, 'Vets. I should've -" she began.

- "You don't have to apologize to me, Sen. I'm glad that you're happy." There: I'd said it - and I meant it.

- "You're worried about Evane?"

- "A bit. Yes."

- "I'll make it up to her." said Senderra. "But we're alright - you and me?"

- "I'm still ... young." I'd been about to say 'still a boy'. No need to cripple my hopes forever. "Just an adolescent crush, you know?"

Senderra looked at me, as though she wasn't entirely convinced.

"I'll get over it." I promised.

Notomol's sister leaned forward, and kissed me on the cheek.

- "Thanks, 'Vets." she said.

***

A week later, we were again caught off guard - this time by a force coming from the south. They cantered past our scouts, forty or fifty strong, and then into Dienik's steading.

Notomol was just as puzzled as anyone else.

- "Reinforcements? I wasn't expecting that."

- "Does it really change anything?" asked Orsho. "Forty more men. That's not so many."

- "I know. But I was beginning to be sure that the different garrisons weren't going to help each other. Why now?"

- "Maybe they just wanted out of the Ban's steading." said Dubek. "I would too, if there's disease there."

Dubek was revealed as a prophet within the week. Half a dozen mercenaries at Dienik's steading fell ill. The garrison from the Ban's steading hadn't just sent reinforcements; they'd also sent the cholera.

***

Notomol moved us again. If the sickness had reached Dienik's steading, then we needed to keep our distance. Besides, we'd been harrying and ambushing this garrison for weeks. They were unlikely to come looking for us.

Once again we were back in the area near Notomol and Senderra's home. Ansil's steading was walled, but it was no great fortress. There were many in our band who wanted to storm the place.

- "They don't know we're here yet!" said one young firebrand. Over the past few weeks a dozen new men had joined us. All were thinner, and some were downright scrawny. One fellow was almost emaciated. But they all had one thing in common; they were eager to come to grips with the mercenaries.

- "It could be done." said Dubek. But he was the only one of our leaders who thought so.

- "We have no ladders. No ropes." said Orsho.

- "I'd prefer to tackle them outside the walls." said Eiven.

- "Remember - we're not here to take the steading." said Notomol. "But we can certainly give them a hard time."

And that we did. The mercenaries stopped leaving the steading at all, except in large numbers, accompanied by archers. They wouldn't even go foraging without a force over 100 men - and after three successive ambushes, they stopped foraging at all.

That was the final proof Notomol had been looking for.

- "Do any of you think that the mercenaries have enough food stockpiled for the winter?" he asked. "If so, then why were they still trying to forage?"

- "They've stopped." said Nelime.

That made me smile. They were acting together, almost like a pair of guslars.

- "Because we made them stop." said Notomol. "How much food did they gather, on their last three attempts?"

- "Almost nothing." said Nelime. "And it cost them 11 men."

- "They need food. But the cost is too high. So they've decided to wait until supplies come to them. Because they are coming."

I was convinced that he was right. So were most of our band - now over 90 strong.

But Notomol was one more step ahead of the invaders. He suspected that they would try to contact the relief force, or the supply column - whatever was coming.

They did. Three messengers were sent, at different times. We intercepted all three. Under questioning, they revealed what they knew. Notomol was right: the mercenaries were expecting supplies to be brought to them. They were also going to warn the Izumyrians in Hvad town that there were rebels who might interfere with a relief column.

We were almost caught napping. Ten members of the garrison slipped out of the steading in the early hours of the morning. At the very crack of dawn, they came galloping down the main track leading out of Stonje.

Notomol had expected just such a move: he'd posted most of the archers to watch the path. But he hadn't anticipated that they would send ten men. Mounted on those powerful horses, they proved difficult to stop - especially because we were aiming at the riders rather than the beasts.

I missed. Then I rushed a second shot, and missed again. We only brought down four of them. The others raced down the track, away from us.

Then they ran into the first obstacle: Notomol had felled a tree so that it dropped directly across the path. Thick branches jutted out, some of them pointing straight up. Only three of the remaining horsemen were able to successfully jump over the fallen tree.

They came to grief not ten paces later, where a second tree had been felled to block the road. None of them reached the third obstacle.

Our fighters came out of the trees to dispatch the surviving riders.

Four of the mounts had been injured. We ate them, of course. But six of the horses were captured, and Notomol insisted that we keep them alive. That was a first, for us.

***

The first frost came early. That wasn't a good omen - but was it a bad sign for us, or for the Izumyrians?

Notomol left watchers outside the two nearest Hospodars' steadings, and more men along the road from the Ban's steading. They were there simply to warn us if the mercenaries made a sortie.

- "And if they do?" said Eiven Cloudy-Eye.

- "Then we probably have to run." said Notomol. "And come up with a new plan."

- "They won't." said Adrastas. I wondered how he could be so sure.

Yadha returned with the news we'd all been waiting for.

- "Two hunnerd men. Forty of 'em mounted. Forty-two wagons."

Two hundred! No one spoke right away. I imagine that everyone was trying to grapple with that number.

Senderra broke the silence. "Two hundred more? Is there really so much money, to pay for all of these mercenaries?"

- "They're not mercenaries." said Snakehand. "Not this time. Iz'myrian soldiers - some Lord's retainers."