The Chronicles of Hvad Ch. 07

- "We'll have to go to our steading." said Borna. He turned to the youths. "But not you two. I have a job for you."

"Ride east until nightfall, and make camp. Tomorrow morning, I want you to ride down to Manahir's steading, as if you're just young warriors arriving for the election."

- "You want information?"

- "Exactly." said Borna. "Who they are, and why they're here. How many fighters we have to deal with. I also want our people told that I'm on my way to our steading."

"Nothing stupid, though - no heroics. You understand?"

No sooner were they gone, than I turned to Borna. "Why those two?" I asked.

- "They're not so well known. And they're the worst riders in our group. All the time we were galloping, I was expecting one of them to fall off." he explained.

We watched the youngsters go, and then resumed our ride. Walk, trot, canter. Hvadi ponies can cover a lot of ground at that pace.

There was no way that our new enemies, wherever they were from, were going to catch us. We took the quickest route, and we weren't about to give up our head start.

During one of our walking periods, Imants told us what he knew.

Yelsa, the province to the south, was ruled by Ban Indrek. He was a middle-aged man, known as SlumpShoulder, for his bad posture. Indrek had suffered a run of bad luck, years ago. His eldest son had been killed in a hunting accident. Two years later, his second son succumbed to a fever.

- "He has a daughter, though." said Imants. "Her name is Ahli. She would be about fourteen years old, now."

- "Good looking?" asked Lovro.

- "She's half your size, LongArm." replied the guslar. "Cute though, in an impish sort of way. Red hair - not quite so red as Aare's. Orange-red."

- "Is she the heir?" asked Borna.

- "Indrek has a brother, but he's not well. And he sired only daughters. Ahli may well be the future. Anyone who marries her would probably win the election to replace Indrek, whenever that day comes."

- "Let me guess." said Hravar. "The Ban of Adarion?"

Adarion was the largest, most fertile and most populous province, other than Hvad town itself, which had grown wealthy from the trade on the lake. Adarion was also the province bordering our neighbours to the south: the Kingdom of Izumyr.

- "Leho." said the guslar. "A young man in his prime. He has an infant daughter, but his wife died giving birth to a stillborn son."

- "So he's unmarried, now?"

- "Not for long. He is betrothed to Ahli of Yelsa. They will wed when she turns sixteen."

Yelsa and Adarion, allied. And possibly even united, one day, under a child of this marriage. Adarion alone would outnumber us significantly. It was a sobering thought.

- "What kind of man is this Leho?" asked Borna.

- "I met him only once." said Imants. "He favours long hair and a mustache, but no beard. Handsome. He likes to wear an engraved breastplate - a gift from his brother, Dagnis."

"Dagnis is younger, and ... portly would be the correct word to describe him. Leho got the height in their family - and the looks. But Dagnis is ambitious, too. He wants to bring Izumyrian fashions into Hvad. Wears a surcoat, and drinks only wine."

- "Did you perform for them?" I asked Imants.

- "For the Ban, yes. His brother did not stay to hear. Dagnis said that guslars are 'outdated'."

Lovro and I exchanged a glance. We were both taken aback by this attitude.

- "Is he mad?" asked Hravar.

- "No." replied Imants. "Merely enamored of things Izumyrian."

- "Was the Ban generous?" I asked.

The guslar tilted his head to the side as he looked at me. "Somewhat." he answered. "Why do you ask?"

- "Curious. So he's a cheap bugger, but feels like he shouldn't be?"

- "An interesting guess. Yes ... you may be right." said Imants.

Borna put an end to our conversation.

- "Let's ride."

I must say that at that moment, I was immensely proud of Borna.

I'd seen him in the woods, after the murder of his father and brother, when he had only Khoren and me beside him. A lesser man might have despaired, or even broken down, but Borna simply steeled himself to do what he could to redress the balance.

He'd done more than that. With a mere handful of supporters, he'd defied all of his enemies. Borna had also endured the humiliation of his mother and the murder of his sisters. Many of those who supported him had suffered - but none more than him.

In spite of the cruelty - the savagery - of his enemies, Borna had not replied in kind. I thought of the man Juris, who we'd captured three times. Borna had taken his parole, his promise not to fight against us again - twice.

Borna had become a legend in the process, the subject of songs. He outthought and outfought his opponents. And he'd won, against heavy odds.

My friend, the boy who'd never expected to be a Hospodar, had been on the verge of becoming Ban of all Yeseriya.

And at the last moment, it was ripped away from him.

We were back where we started. Even worse, perhaps, if the people who'd supported him were going to suffer for it now. How many would stand by him, against the might of two provinces, one of which was considerably wealthier and more powerful than ours?

I wanted to scream out my frustration, to smash something. But my Lord was busy thinking of what to do next.

***

We reached our steading well before any of our pursuers. But even before we got there, Borna knew that we wouldn't be staying. Our enemies were likely to arrive long before any significant number of his own supporters. Even if we had fifty or sixty warriors, we couldn't hold the steading against hundreds.

- "Lovro - get us fresh horses. And supplies." instructed Borna. Then he spoke to Hravar. "Go and see your wife, first. Come back when you can." Hravar ran off. His wife was pregnant, and expecting another child very soon.

Next, he addressed the guslar. "Imants, it's been wonderful to have you with us. But I don't know where we'll end up next."

- "I am accustomed to hardships, Lord. And I can ride."

- "But you can be much more valuable to us if you're free." said Borna. "I'm asking you to perform two important services for me."

- "Two?"

- "Yes. First, I want you to perform your songs all over Yeseriya - or wherever you may be. Keep my cause alive. I need men and women to be thinking of me, even if I'm forced to hide in the woods again."

"And second, I want you to hold a sum of money for me. Pay for your expenses out of it, and reward yourself - generously - whenever you sing about me. Save the rest for when we meet again."

Imants smiled. "I would tell those stories for free, Lord. I'm fairly certain that they will be very popular."

- "Good." said Borna. "Then there'll be more of my money left when I do see you again."

I had to admire Borna's cleverness. No one - even the most desperate bandit - would ever dare to rob a guslar. And if he was carrying coins, no one would think to question their provenance. Imants would be an excellent hiding place for a portion of Borna's hoard.

I had a request of my own to make.

- "Imants, would you do me a favour, too? It's about Noyemi." I explained to him what I wanted.

- "Have you spoken to her about this?" he asked. Then he made a counter-proposal, and we hammered out the details. I turned to Borna for his approval.

- "Go. Do it." said Borna, without hesitation. "And send Kanni to me. Be quick."

They were waiting together, near the well with Borna's bucket. I remembered that fight around the well as if it had been only a week ago. Yet it might have been in another lifetime.

Kanni greeted me warmly, with an embrace and a kiss on the cheek. Noyemi waited patiently, hands crossed before her.

- "I'm so glad that you're safe." said Kanni. "What's going on?"

The whole story came pouring out of me. The election, Yelsa and Adarion, the horsemen pursuing us. "We're back where we started. Worse, maybe." When I told Kanni that Borna wanted to see her, she left me alone with Noyemi.

We looked at each other. We were still awkward, uncomfortable. Had we always been this way? She was a Hospodar's daughter, and then, in the blink of an eye, became my slave.

I'd never wanted to own her. She couldn't have been very happy about it, either. But when the alternatives were death, or marriage to a man of humble origins - or even sharing her sister's fate, at Khoren's hands ... that put the whole matter in a different perspective.

"I was ... I was going to free you right after the election." I told her. "Now that isn't going to happen. It's back to the forest for us. I'm not even sure that we can stay there."

Noyemi didn't interrupt me. She just let me talk, watching me with those big, bright eyes.

"I won't put you through that again. So you're free. That's it. Well, that's not all of it. I don't want you left unprotected, if our enemies come here. So I've made -"

She looked alarmed, all of a sudden.

"No - that came out wrong, Noyemi. It's not a marriage. I wouldn't ... do that to you. But you were - I know that you were concerned, about what would become of you. What you would do, if you were free. So I made arrangements ... I'm sorry - I should have asked you first, but there isn't time."

"I've asked Imants to take you along with him. I suggested that you could be a servant, or assistant - whatever the two of you decided. But he's heard your singing voice. And he knows how clever you are. So he proposed that you go as his apprentice."

"That will give you freedom of movement, and time to think about what you want to do. You'll be safe, too. You should probably keep your identity a secret -"

Noyemi reached out and touched the back of my hand. I stopped talking. Her bright blue eyes were shiny. Was she crying?

- "Thank you." she said.

- "Ahh - you're welcome."

- "You've been good to me, in your own way." she continued. "Much better than I expected. And this ... I will be very happy to travel with the guslar, if he will have me."

- "He will." I assured her.

- "Good luck to you. Keep safe."

I ran back to rejoin Borna, and ran into Kanni on the way. She seemed to be smiling, but crying at the same time.

- "Are you alright?" I asked her.

- "Borna has freed me." she said. "Not the worst thing that has ever happened. I suppose he has another woman. Is it Tsoline?"

I couldn't lie to her. "Yes."

- "I saw the way he looked at her. Well, she will be good for Borna - and she can fight beside him, too. Oh - Imants told me what you asked him to do for Noyemi." Kanni wrapped her arms around me, and kissed me on the cheek again.

"You're a good man, Ljudevit. One of the best he has. I hope you win."

- "Will you be safe, Kanni?"

- "I'll go the woods. Kawehka has offered to look after me. It's not a proposal of marriage - these foresters do things differently. I like him, though." she said. "But you don't have time to stand around gabbing with me. Off you go."

Borna was speaking to Kawehka. Hravar came back a moment after I did.

- "Not yet. Any day, though." announced Hravar.

- "You'd be staying here either way, Hravar." said Borna. "You're in charge of our people. But you might want to take to the woods, in case Leho decides to play rough. At first, anyway."

Borna embraced him. "Not sure when I'll see you next. I hope the baby's healthy."

Lovro had a dozen horses for the six of us who remained: Borna and me, Lovro and Durra, Tsoline and Aare. We could ride one, and switch to the second. We would tire long before the horses did.

Kawehka accompanied us through the forest. But we wouldn't stop there. The woodsman had told us months before that we had exhausted the game over the past winter. This forest couldn't support so many people again. If we remained in hiding here, folk would flock to Borna - fighters and non-combatants alike - but we just wouldn't be able to feed them.

- "You'll take care of those who do come, though, won't you?" asked Borna.

- "Of course." Kawehka showed no surprise that his sister was going with Borna. He didn't seem angry at all. Maybe he had known that their relationship was in the offing long before I did.

Brother and sister said their farewells, and then the six of us set off.

- "Where are we going?" asked Aare.

- "The forest near Asrava's steading." said Borna. "For now."

***

'For now' turned out to be two weeks. We hid in the forest, afraid to venture out for fear of being discovered. Borna was perhaps the only one who would be recognized by people hereabouts. But Lovro was instantly recognizable as a warrior - he couldn't possibly have been anything else, with his long limbs, and ugly, scarred face.

The rest of us might have gone out, in disguise, to gather information. But Tsoline was a forester - neither a farmer nor a herder. Aare was not from these parts. Nor was Durra - but she was far too tough and unbending to pass as a peasant girl.

That left me, but Borna weighed the small chance that I might learn something of value against the danger that I might be recognized, and decided not to send me out.

So we grew impatient, short-tempered, and unpleasant to be around. Borna and Tsoline had each other, for physical comfort. I was not sure how much emotional support she provided. One day, I thought, Borna would miss Kanni.

Lovro must have lost his mind, temporarily, because he made a pass at Durra. She broke his nose with her fist, and might have injured him more seriously if there had been weapons to hand - or if we had not pulled her off him.

Borna grew more irritable by the day.

We reached the lowest point when a hundred horsemen rode into the ruins of Asrava's steading, and made camp. The next day, they sent out formidable scouting parties. It was obvious that they were searching for us. For Borna.

Tsoline found us a stream deeper in the forest where we could water our horses, and hide from our pursuers. No one suggested attacking them. We were listless, and frightened.

Borna said nothing. He sat by the stream with a stick, whittling furiously, until he had barely enough left for a toothpick.

- "We have to be patient." I told him.

- "Fuck your patience!" he shouted.

*****