The Chronicles of Hvad Ch. 09

- "Yes, Lord." he said. "Here to serve you, if you will have me."

Borna smiled. Though he brought only two men with him, Modri was important in his own right. As a former Hand, he had some status. And as a former enemy, who now sought fit to join with Borna, Modri could prove significant. He might set an example for others to follow.

- "You are welcome here, Modri." said Borna, lifting the big warrior to his feet and embracing him. "I remember you well."

Modri had more than two men, though; he brought information, as well.

- "Leho is coming, Lord. He has gathered men. You have less than a week."

- "How many?"

- "Hundreds, Lord." said Modri.

- "Yet you chose to come and offer me your service now." said Borna.

- "You are in the right. You should be Ban of Yeseriya. Leho was in the wrong, to interfere in our election."

- "I'm glad you see it that way." said Borna. "Would that more people agreed with you."

- "They do, Lord." said Modri. "Did you not know? The men from Adarion and Yelsa are not popular, in Manahir's old lands. They take food and fodder, and rarely pay for it. Some of them make free with the women. They are resented."

Modri hung his head. "I know, Lord, that these things seem mild, when compared to what Manahir's grandsons did to you - and to yours."

- "Thank you for that." said Borna. "So you think they might follow me?"

- "I believe so. They won't rise, just now. Not with Leho's army on their lands. They have heard of your doings, and the re-capture of your steading raised their spirits. But ... they are not confident enough, yet. They aren't sure that you will win, in the end."

- "I will win, Modri."

- "I know, Lord. That is why I am here."

***

Borna had almost one hundred fighters. Thirty were women - but that included Payl's fearsome band. We also had 20 men from the Uplands. We were stronger than ever.

But when Leho of Adarion came, he brought the numbers.

- "Three hundred and fifty. At least." said Kawehka.

- "So we were right to evacuate the steading." said Nanaidh.

Borna nodded. So far, our enemies had behaved reasonably. Unlike Manahir's grandsons, they did not stoop to rape and murder on every occasion. But that didn't mean that Borna was ready to trust Leho's good faith. Nobody would be left in the steading to be taken hostage. When Leho's troopers cautiously investigated, they found it deserted.

It might have been difficult to restrain the hotter heads amongst us, but we were so plainly, so massively outnumbered, that even Vepar could see the need for caution. Also, Borna's reputation was unshakeable. Anyone who had fought with him before trusted his instincts - and his luck.

Leho was faced with a situation he hadn't prepared for: an invisible enemy, an empty steading. He had brought an army: now he plainly had to do something ... to achieve something.

There was no question about where we were. Leho sent scouts into the forest, to find us. Most of them did not return.

The Ban of Adarion led his army into the forest - and rapidly found out that there was no way to advance on a broad front. The trees, the bogs, the thick undergrowth all combined to funnel his warriors onto the paths - paths where we had laid traps of every description.

Pits, covered over with woven mats and a thin screen of dirt. Swinging branches, with sharpened tips. We had only a few caltrops, but we placed them to best advantage.

And we ambushed them, from well-chosen sites where they could not easily reach us to strike back. Kawehka, Tsoline, and the foresters stung them repeatedly.

Finally, when their anger was at its peak, the enemy charged blindly down parallel paths, in pursuit of our archers. Some of them ran into a trap, where we waited with almost our entire force. It was not the great ambush Borna had been hoping for. But seven more of Leho's warriors died - at no cost to us.

By the end of a very frustrating two days, they had lost at least twenty men killed and wounded, and had absolutely nothing to show for it. They repeated every mistake that Vazrig had made, and discovered several new ones of their own.

I had to give them credit for determination. The following day, the entire enemy army rode around our forest. They made a complete circuit, hoping to catch us out of the woods. It was nearly dusk before they returned to the site of their camp.

The day after that, the entered the forest again. They were far more cautious this time, advancing only gradually, and keeping close together. That kept their losses down - but they didn't find our camp. Three more dead, and nothing gained.

Leho then changed his tactics. He sent a single rider, with a white cloth tied to the end of a reversed spear. The man rode to the gates of our empty steading. Kawehka brought us the news.

- "They want to talk." said Lovro, with a grunt.

- "Should we?" asked Dirayr.

Borna mulled it over. "Tell them to come back tomorrow."

He spent part of the day alone, weighing his options, or perhaps trying to divine what our enemies wanted to say. It was my job to keep people away from him. The Uplanders were curious, but they respected his odd behaviour.

Later, he called for Lovro, Dirayr, Nanaidh and me.

- "I have two questions." he said. "The first, obviously, is what do they want? The second follows from the first: What should I say? Or do? I want to know what you advise."

We had been thinking of nothing else.

- "We could try for another Ovlivada." said Lovro. But he sounded tentative, as if he himself wasn't wholeheartedly surer of his own suggestion.

- "Too much could go wrong." said Dirayr. "And there's no cover, for our approach. One noise, one stumble, and we'd be out there in the open. Against triple our numbers."

- "We won't catch them napping." said Nanaidh.

- "I agree." said Borna. And that settled that.

We were silent, for a moment, until Borna looked at each one of us, in turn.

- "Prisoners." said Dirayr. "We could ask for an exchange. Get Hravar back."

Everyone agreed on that point. There were a few more suggestions, but they all seemed hesitant, unsure. Perhaps we simply couldn't make up our minds until we knew what Leho had to say.

When the others had gone, Borna turned to me.

- "That was very unlike you." he said.

- "I know."

- "Why were you so quiet? You always have something to contribute."

- "I'm not sure." I said. "My ideas feel ... half-baked."

- "Never stopped you before." he said, with a smile.

- "When we were boys, yes." I agreed. "But there's so much at stake now."

- "So tell me what you're thinking. Don't worry about whether it's fully baked."

I nodded, and tried to marshal my thoughts. "Some things Imants told me about Leho, and his brother." I recounted that conversation to Borna.

- "You think he's cheap? That could be important." Generosity, in a Ban, or a Hospodar - even in an Uplander chieftain - was highly respected. Warriors would flock to a liberal leader. Conversely, they would be less likely to join the druzhina of a miser.

- "But Imants suggested that Leho is aware of his shortcoming - and tries to correct it."

- "That's not the same thing as being generous." said Borna. He snapped his fingers. "In the end, Leho will always revert to form. He thinks about money first. What else?"

- "Well," I said, "I've tried to put myself in Leho's position. I asked myself what he could do to get you out of the woods, to bring you to battle."

- "And?"

- "The only place we're vulnerable is our food supply. Kawehka's foresters slip out, and go to hunt further away. We're also bringing in sheep from flocks north of here. But even if Leho was aware of it, he doesn't have enough men to completely surround the forest."

- "He could send out patrols. Try to interrupt our supplies." said Borna.

- "I don't think his mind works that way. And then there's his brother." I repeated to Borna what Imants had told me about Dagnis.

- "They seem themselves as Izumyrian? They want to be Izumyrian? What does that even mean?" Neither Borna nor I knew very much about Izumyr. Their warriors wore heavier armour, and the nobles preferred to fight from horseback. They had twenty times our population, and fifty times our wealth.

- "I'm just guessing." I said. "But if I put these things together ... Look at yourself. You're outnumbered, so you have to think small-scale. Ambush. Raid. Whittle them down."

"But when I try to think like them, I can only see a battle. Some kind of formal engagement, where each side lines up on opposite sides of an open field. They want to draw us out, and fight a decisive engagement. That way, Leho can send most of his troops home, and save money."

- "And if I don't give him one?" asked Borna.

- "Then he's stuck. He has to maintain a large army, which is ruinously expensive. He's learning that he can't simply garrison our steadings, and occupy Yeseriya. You've made him pay for that - three times, now."

- "Yes." said Borna. "If he concentrates his forces, we can't match him. So we won't fight. But if he spreads out, we can defeat him piecemeal. That's it, then. Thank you, Ljudevit. Now I know what to say to them."

The next day, Borna sent Nanaidh to speak to Leho's representative. He wouldn't go in person, of course, fearing treachery.

- "I don't trust them that far. And I'll save you for another occasion. Nanaidh's clever. She knows what to say."

We watched her from the shelter of the woods, not far from our steading. Nanaidh returned safely, shaking her head.

- "That was odd." she declared.

- "How so?"

- "The first thing out of his mouth was an offer to confirm you as Hospodar, if you swore allegiance to Leho as Ban." said Nanaidh.

- "You're serious?" said Lovro.

- "I just laughed. Their man seemed a bit offended. He insisted that I convey the message to you. I said I would, but that it would be more useful in writing, because then you could wipe your ass with it."

- "Hmm." said Borna.

- "Too much?" asked Nanaidh.

- "No - I think you struck the right tone. And then?"

- "Then he offered an amnesty to any of our warriors who surrendered in person."

- "What? Was he drunk?" asked Lovro.

- "No. I don't think so." said Nanaidh.

- "Sounds like a complete waste of time."

- "No. Borna was right. They agreed to an exchange of prisoners. One for one."

- "Do they have so many of ours?"

Nanaidh could only shrug. "I don't know. I specifically named Hravar, and his wife."

- "Well done, Nanaidh." said Borna.

- "Just one question, Lord." said Lovro. "What was that all about?"

- "For us? Getting our people back. For them? Who knows? A face-saving gesture?"

Leho moved into the forest the very next day, with most of his army. They came from a different direction this time; perhaps they hoped to catch us off guard. If so, they miscalculated. We were unable to prepare any effective countermeasures, but that was mostly because of the forbidding terrain the men of Adarion tried to cross.

They blundered into a bog. Had they persevered, and advanced another mile, they might have come within sight of our camp. Of course, they would have had to fight their way through an ambush, waiting for them just the other side of the bog.

Filthy, and thoroughly frustrated once again, our enemies returned the way they had come, and left the woods.

***

The exchange of prisoners took much longer than we had expected. It was heart-warming, and at the same time, farcical.

The men of Adarion were sticklers for detail, and insisted that every prisoner we wanted to trade with them had to be identified by at least two men who knew them.

- "Fussy, aren't they?" said Lovro.

- "Where does this come from?" I wondered.

Aare provided a possible answer. "They get it from the brothers. Leho and Dagnis apparently insist on the formalities. They call it 'protocol'."

- "How do you know this?" Dirayr asked him.

- "They came to visit Manahir the year before last. Everything had to be just so."

The first exchange was Leho's captain, Elof. In return, we got Hravar and his wife Yeva, with their baby. Once they were back in the woods, they were embraced by virtually everyone: Lovro and Dirayr, Nanaidh, Aigars, Durra and Siret ... and Borna.

- "I'm so sorry." said Hravar. He appeared to be near tears. "I couldn't leave her."

- "I wouldn't expect you to." said Borna. He kissed Yeva on the cheek, and hugged her gently as well.

- "I'm sorry you had to give up a captain." continued Hravar.

Borna seized him by the shoulders. "Hravar - I'd give up three captains to get you back. I'd give up Leho's brother, if I had him. No more of that."

- "How did they treat you?" I asked Yeva.

- "Well." she said. "They were courteous, even."

Hravar had not wasted his time as a prisoner.

- "They have some fine horses." he said. "The brothers. Their Hands. A few of their key men. Izumyrian, by the look of them. Beautiful beasts. Big. Strong."

- "But they don't have the endurance of our ponies." said Dirayr.

- "Course not. Damn expensive to maintain, too. But strong."

We got three more men of our druzhina back, after that. But the next man offered in exchange wasn't one of ours. Nanaidh came back in person, to ask Borna what he should do.

- "Who is he?" said Lovro.

- "How the hell should I know?" answered Nanaidh. "Never seen him before. But he was begging for me to take him - with his eyes, you know."

- "Just ask him who he is." suggested Hravar.

- "That would be admitting that I didn't know." said Nanaidh. "If I do that, what's to stop them from slipping their own men into the exchange?"

- "Spies?"

- "Or assassins?"

- "Nanaidh, find out how many more prisoners they have." said Borna. "If we've got enough to trade for them, take them all."

We got 15 people. It turned out that Leho's men had arrested a wide variety of individuals. Two were warriors who intended to join Borna when he was elected Ban, as they had fully expected when they arrived at Manahir's steading. One was a rather shrewish female, the wife of a merchant, who wore an ornate dagger. The men from Adarion suspected her of being one of our 'warrior women'.

The remainder were simple cases of mistaken identity. For the most part, they were farmers or herders who had been - or looked like - warriors. Borna gave them some food, and let them go their way.

Nanaidh came back, laughing, again. "They made another offer." he said.

- "What is it this time?" Borna was curious.

- "You can be Hospodar twice over. Our steading - and Asrava's." said Nanaidh. "All you have to do is bend the knee to Leho."

Lovro didn't say anything - but he did break wind loudly.

***

- "They're gone!" Aare told me.

It was true. Three days after the exchange of prisoners, Leho's army had slipped away in the night.

***

At first, some of us suspected a trick. Borna sent scouts, to determine which direction they had gone.

- "Back towards Manahir's steading." was the answer.

We remained careful. But we had more pressing problems. Food was far and away the most urgent of these. Leho's host had stripped most of the country between us and Manahir's steading. We had to look north, and east.

- "We have to stockpile food." said Borna

- "You're thinking of next winter? Already?" I said. It was more than three months away.

- "We may end up here, again. And we've hunted out this forest. Not to mention stealing food from our people. Why do you think Leho left? It wasn't fear of us."

Borna gave our folk a few weeks to rest, and to gather supplies from further away. It was something of a holiday, for many. But not for everyone.

For example, Payl nearly beat a man to death. The fellow was an Uplander, but she injured him seriously enough that the matter had to be brought before Borna. For my sake, he questioned her privately - just the three of us.

- "Tell me what happened." he said.

Payl glared at me. "It was Ljudevit's fault." she said, flatly.

In a roundabout - and completely unintentional - way, I suppose it was.

I'd wanted to do something special for Payl. It also grew out of my desire to show her that lovemaking didn't always have to lead to heavy bruising and fractured bones. So I convinced her to go with me to one of Borna's favourite spots.

It was a pool, in the forest, located less than a mile from our steading. By midsummer the water was almost warm. Some kind of underground spring kept it fresh, and clean.

Simply put, I convinced Payl to bathe with me. She showed remarkable courage, and trust in me. The water was just over her head, in the very center of the pool, so that she had to cling to me, rather deliciously.

I scrubbed my own skin, first. It had been months since my last decent bath, so that the scrubbing released built-up dead skin, bodily oils, sweat and grime, as well as accumulated dirt. There was probably an extra layer of filth from our time at Hanik Sawtooth's.

All of this bodily debris floated to the surface of the water.

- "Eeww!" said Payl, flinching away from me. "What is that?"

- "Dead skin." I answered. "And dirt." It had already occurred to me that this experience might be a new one for her. Opportunities to bathe, in the Uplands, might not be so frequent.

- "What's wrong with your skin?"

- "Nothing. Here - see for yourself." I held out my arm. "Touch the skin. Feel it."

- "Smooth."

- "Yes. And it feels wonderful."

Payl was honest enough to admit that it felt nice to touch, as well. But it still took all of my powers of persuasion to convince her to let me do the same for her.

- "Does it hurt?" she asked.

- "Not at all."

- "Do those other women do this?"

- "Who?"

- "Noyemi. And Kanni." she said.

- "Probably. I believe so." I decided that it wasn't the best time to tell Payl about the time I had helped Kanni bathe - naked - the very first time I met her.

Payl summoned up her courage, and let me scrub her.

I broke two twigs, trying to scrape the dirt off her skin, before I got a bigger stick. The sheer volume of dirt clouding the water around her was alarming.

- "Eew! Is there something wrong with me?"

- "No. Just dirt." I said. A lot of dirt. Scads of dirt. Payl waved her arms about, pushing the floating debris as far from her as she could.

When I had finished one arm, I tried to encourage her. I lifted her clean, smooth limb to my lips, and kissed her bare skin. Then I ran my tongue from her wrist to her elbow, and up to her shoulder.

Payl shivered, and agreed to allow me to continue. It took considerable time, but I scraped and scrubbed her until we both grew impatient, and climbed out. I stroked, and kissed, and licked all over her fresh, clean skin, from ankle to chin. Payl was so enthralled with this new experience, that she forgot to punch and pummel me.

- "There's more." I told her, a little later.

- "More? Really?"

I coaxed her back into the pool. Then I had Payl close her eyes, pinch her nose, and hold her breath, before submerging her completely. She came out of the water, sputtering and spitting, and clouted me on the side of the head - so hard that I saw stars.

- "What was that?" she shouted.

It took me a moment to recover my equilibrium. "Look!" I told her.

The water now looked like there had been an avalanche. The caked on mud and lime in her hair had begun to dissolve, and was spreading like a fog just under the surface of the water.

"Remember your skin? How it felt?" I said. "It's the same with hair."

It wasn't easy, but I somehow managed to convince Payl to let me wash and comb her hair. The comb I had borrowed from Kanni - though if she could have seen what came out of Payl's hair, she might not have wanted it back.