The Chronicles of Hvad Ch. 04

And then chaos ensued.

Mushtal and his warriors emerged right on the heels of their unarmed decoys. Ten or eleven men, fully armed and armoured, shields high. Some of them might be our friends. We had to wade through the fleeing women and servants to get at them.

For their part, Mushtal's men must have been surprised by our numbers. We had seven warriors, two archers, and Berit and Shant. It was dark, and their eyes had to have been stinging from all the smoke.

I lost track of everything but what was in front of me. I had to stay on Borna's left hip, and guard him with my shield as he went after Mushtal. At the same time, I had to watch out for Mushtal's Hand, who would be looking for me.

Two arrows flashed into the melee. One was high, but the other struck a warrior in the face.

Borna and I had fought side by side, as a team, in dozens of mock skirmishes, but never against real enemies who were actively seeking to kill us. His blood was up, and he went for Mushtal like a mad bull.

I was a step behind from the outset. Borna crashed into Mushtal, shield to shield, and he truly put his shoulder into it. Mushtal was driven back. He caught his foot on something, stumbled, and pitched over backwards.

Borna was driving, leaning into it, so that he too tripped. He fell atop Mushtal. Their two shields were between them.

I had to protect his back. I tried to straddle them, one foot on either side. Mushtal's Hand saw an opportunity to end the fight in an instant. All he had to do was stab Borna in the back.

I got my spear in the way, and blocked his thrust. Then I stumbled, as my foot caught on somebody's leg. My enemy's spear barely missed my neck. It slammed into my shoulder. I felt a sharp pain, but I managed to hoist my shield across Borna's back.

That left my face and throat exposed to the next thrust. But it never came. Khoren stabbed Mushtal's Hand in the face, and the man went down, screaming.

Somehow, I regained my feet, and saw Borna's face. He was alive. Mushtal was not. Borna had lost his sword, and used his dagger. It was wedged into the side of Mushtal's neck.

I pulled Borna to his feet. We found the fight almost over. Lovro and Priit were too much for the enemy to handle. When Mushtal and his Hand went down, at the very outset of the fight, the heart went out of them.

There had been a moment of great concern, when two of Mushtal's men attacked us from behind. They were the two who were spending the night with their families. We never learned whether they were alerted by the noise we made, or if they heard or saw Aigars as he knocked on doors to warn his friends.

In any event, they timed their rush well, to coincide with Mushtal's exit from the hall. They chose a soft target: Kawehka and Tsoline. Fortunately for us, Shant was paying attention, and shouted a warning. He and Berit threw themselves between those two warriors and our two archers.

It was touch and go for a moment, but Kawehka was able to fire an effective arrow, and Berit brought down one of the men.

Unfortunately, the second attacker stabbed her through the chest. She was dead.

It turned out that I had a broken collarbone.

- "You were lucky." said Lovro. "If that spear had been a handsbreadth to the left, you'd be very dead."

- "You're one to talk." I replied. He had taken a spear point in the thigh. "A few fingers to the right, and there'd be no baby Lovros."

- "And wouldn't that be a tragedy."

The two of us were allowed to sit by the firepit, with Dirayr, who needed to have his cheek and half his ear sewn back together.

Among our warriors, only the three of us had serious wounds. There were scratches, and cuts and bruises, but no one else was badly hurt.

Except Berit. Her career as a warrior had been brief - but she had fought well.

- "She saved our lives." said Tsoline. "Her and Shant."

- "Do me a favour?" I asked her.

Tsoline looked at me curiously. "What?""

- "Tell him so. Then keep him from drinking. And if you can, the two of you keep your eyes open, tonight. At least until I finish my counting."

- "Your counting?"

- "Are all of Mushtal's men accounted for?" I asked her.

- "I don't know." she said.

- "Neither do I."

Mushtal was dead. I felt only quiet satisfaction. No exultation, no sense of triumph. Just as though I had completed a task long overdue.

His Hand, and eleven of his warriors were dead: two at the gate, two more in the first group that rushed from the hall, and seven in the final fight. Only two had survived, one of them wounded.

But of the former members of Gosdan's druzhina, we had killed three, and wounded two, by mistake. One of these was probably unavoidable, as he had fought alongside Mushtal to the last. But two had died by accident, in the confusion. One was lying in a pool of blood, near the doorway. Dirayr felt terrible. He suspected that it was his blow that had killed one of our own.

I felt exhausted - all I wanted to do was lie down and sleep. But Borna was still riding a wave of energy. He praised Shant, and gave him the silver ring off his own hand. The boy was wide-eyed, and probably still stunned by what had happened. But one day, if we survived, Shant would remember this gift, after his very first fight.

Borna called all of the people of the steading to the great hall, and told them that Mushtal was dead. He promised that he would not harm any of them, but warned that they would have to leave in the morning. I noticed Lulalme, Asrava's former concubine - and Mushtal's - standing among the servants.

Then Borna called together all the men who had served Gosdan, and asked them to bring their families. He addressed them.

- "You swore an oath to my father." he began. "I understand - only too well - why you were unable to honour your oaths, and cleave to me. I blame no one. Our enemies have broken every rule of decent behaviour. Every standard of honourable conduct."

He pointed to me, and held his arm extended. Then he did the same to a few other members of our group.

"You know what these people have suffered - what was done to their loved ones. They have lost much, for supporting me."

Borna looked around the great hall. He made eye contact with all of his warriors, and all of the men who should have been his warriors.

"I will avenge my family. And the families of my friends. Asrava is dead. And now Mushtal."

"Vazrig is next."

That was received with a growl on all sides.

"We lost a good warrior, tonight." he continued. "Berit had the heart and the soul of a champion." He stopped for a moment, on the verge of being overcome by emotion.

"I need every hand that can wield a spear, or a sword. Or a bow. And I can't promise you that it will be easy. But I need your help."

I have known Borna since we were children. That night, he surprised me. I had never heard him speak so eloquently, so persuasively. And it came from the heart. I believe that it was unrehearsed.

There's no way of knowing what was going on in the minds of his listeners. I can't say if he changed any of their minds. But I did see the results.

Two of Gosdan's former warriors offered Borna apologies. One had a pregnant wife; one had young children. They were frightened by a war of vengeance that had grown barbaric. I couldn't blame them.

But eight of our former friends rallied to us.Aigars also renewed his oath to Borna. He claimed that Borna's decisions were those of a wise war chief.

- "Saved lives, tonight. I can get behind that." he said.

That included their wives, children, and families. There were also three women who asked to be taken as warriors. Nanaidh spoke for them. She was tall, with a body primarily composed of sinew and whipcord.

- "I'll fight, too." she told Lovro and me.

- "What do you know of weapons?" he asked her, with a gentle smile.

She snatched the spear from his hand, turned, and drove it into the wall of the great hall. When she released it, it was firmly stuck in, and still quivering. Lovro raised both his hands, and leaned back.

- "Alright." he said.

Nanaidh was the wife of a man who had been killed with Gosdan and Antras in the ambush. Just as with Berit, when Nanaidh declared that she would take up weapons, I didn't feel the slightest temptation to laugh.

But when Fimi said she wanted to be a warrior, too, I had to restrain myself. She was young, for one thing. For another, she and I had lain together a few times. There was no marriage, or even serious relationship, in our futures - both of us could see that. We had settled for friendship.

She had flaming red hair, and a slender build. I couldn't picture her with a spear or a sword. Fimi - a warrior? But, as Borna had said: he needed every hand that could hold a weapon.

Borna broached every cask Mushtal possessed. We weren't going to carry it away with us, so there was no reason to leave it untouched. We celebrated our victory, or our deliverance, whichever was the case.

There was little fear of counter-attack, even if one of Mushtal's men had managed to slip away, in the dark. There was no help closer than Vazrig - and he was two days away. Besides, only maniacs like us would travel in this weather.

Lovro was remarkably easy to get drunk. I had to call for help to keep him from falling into the firepit. Dirayr rigged me a sling, to keep my arm in place. He kept me company for awhile, but when Borna came over, with a jar in each hand, Dirayr left us to it.

- "I'm very drunk, Ljudevit."

- "You should celebrate, lord." I said.

- "I'm not celebrating." he said. "Berit's dead. If I'm not killing women, I'm getting them killed."

- "Not your fault, Borna." I replied. "Not your fault."

- "This time. But I'm still drunk."

- "You are." I agreed.

He cocked his head, and looked at me from the corner of one eye. "You're very good to me, Ljudevit." he said.

- "I try, lord."

- "Saved my life, tonight." he said. Then he burped. "Another mauling. Another bloodbath."

- "Lord?"

- "Sorry. Getting a bit maudlin. I'll apologize in the mornin'."

- "There's no need to apologize, Borna." I said.

- "Ever wonder", he said, "if my father and Mihran had talks like this?"

Before I could answer, Borna spoke again.

"Shant's a good boy. We have to keep him alive, if we can. Do a better job keeping him alive than we did with Berit."

- "It wasn't your fault, Borna. It could have happened to anyone." I said.

- "I know. Not yours, either." Borna paused, and poured a long draught into both of our cups. "You should get married, Ljudevit."

- "Lord?" This was the first time I had heard him say anything like this.

- "You should have a son. My son will need your son's ... support. Sons. Sons, for that matter. The more sons you have, the better. I need warriors, of course - but my son will need a Ljudevit, too. You need to have a son who inherits your wits. Your loyalty, but your brains, too."

I had no answer. Yes, I was tempted to ask Borna: what makes you think that I wouldn't sire an idiot? Or a bluff, shallow, hail-fellow-well-met, back-slapping warrior?

And what made him think that his son would be worthy of my hypothetical son's - or sons' - loyalty. What if he sired another Antras?

"I don't know." he said, almost as if he could hear my thoughts. "You may need to father half a dozen. More. Maybe one will inherit your brains. And then he can be as useful - as vital -as you are to me."

Borna finished his drink. Then he embraced me, and kissed me.

- "Kanni likes you." said Borna, with a loud burp.

After that, he took Lulalme, Mushtal's concubine - and Asrava's before that - into the family rooms at the back of the hall, and stirred the furs with her.

*****

[1] Bittercress. It's edible raw, but best cooked. It has a peppery taste.

[2] Staghorn is another name for sumac. It's a source of vitamin C, and helps to prevent scurvy.

[3] Hemlock was a source of tannin for leather making. Tannin / tanner / tannery

[4] Shagbark is better known as Hickory.

[5] White walnut. The nuts are edible, and useful as oil. Butternut also produces a distinctive yellow or orange dye