The Chronicles: Three Sisters 11

I coughed. I couldn't help it - it was that, or vomit. Tanguiste glared at me.

Iduallon sat down again. The Duchess looked a little flushed. She asked Prosquetel to continue the tale.

- "Since then, we have been pursued and harried." said WhiteHair. "There is scattered resistance, in Yelsa, and Yeseriya. And we have heard that in Stonje, a band of former guardsmen are striking shrewd blows against the invaders."

"Unfortunately, we were not able to turn south, to join them. The enemy have hemmed us in, driving us ... this way."

Guen Nadesti spoke up. "So ... your arrival here was not ... planned. This is not where you intended to be."

- "In a sense, it is." said the Duchess. She looked behind her, at the clean-shaven youth, before turning back. "Lieutenant Gerimir has been of the opinion that we should come to the Uplands ever since we escaped the castle."

- "Oh?"

The Duchess waved an imperious hand at her young man. Gerimir rose to his feet, looking uncomfortable.

- "Why would you suggest coming to the Uplands?" asked Mother Nadesti.

- "Because this is where Borna found help." said Gerimir. "When he was nearly alone, and outnumbered, he ventured into the Uplands. And here he found Mutimir LongRider, and Lunach, and Payl, the Shining One ..." The lad was getting carried away.

"And with the help of the Uplanders, he regained control of Yeseriya, and eventually united all of Hvad."

- "Master Gerimir." said Tanguiste. "I'm sorry - Lieutenant."

- "Yes?"

My daughter pointed at me. "My father, there - he is Payl's great-grandson. My sisters and I - we are Payl's great-great-granddaughters."

Gerimir looked at me, and then back to Tanguiste. He looked ready to swoon, overcome by the proximity of history and legend, in the flesh.

- "All very fascinating, I'm sure." said Mother Nadesti. "But my old bones are getting sore. And I'm sure you can hear my stomach rumbling. Why don't we eat, and talk more afterwards?"

I took advantage of the break to go outside. I found Guenna and Yevna, and began to relate what had been said. Giedra and her friends came over to listen, too.

After a bit, though, I noticed that most of my audience were looking behind me. I turned, to find Gerimir (the clean-shaven one) and Prosquetel WhiteHair.

- "I apologize for the interruption." said the young man. "I just wanted to ask if I might ... shake your hand."

- "I'm not Payl, you know. I never met her. She died before I was born."

- "Nevertheless."

- "I hope you don't mind, but I have to use my left hand. The fingers of my right hand were mangled some years ago."

It was only polite to warn him. In the Uplands - as in Lowland Hvad - offering someone your left hand is a calculated insult. The reason for that is quite simple. We use our right hand to eat, and our left hand to wipe our arse.

Even if you wash thoroughly, everyone knows where that hand has been. Makes it difficult for those who are born left-handed - especially at mealtime, when they reach into the communal dish.

Gerimir flinched for a moment. But extended his hand again. I suppose his fascination with the legend of Payl was greater than his distaste at my left-handed greeting.

I gripped his outstretched hand. Then I introduced both Lowlanders to the women around me.

- "What a wonderful set of coincidences." said WhiteHair. "Your connection to Payl .... and the fact that your brothers served the Duke."

"I wonder ..." he said. "Does that mean that ... we can hope for your support?"

I stared at the Lowlander, for a moment.

- "Payl was an adventurer, and a mercenary. I'm neither. And we have our hands full, here. Did you not see the bodies laid out at the edge of the Hill?"

"As for my brothers - they were idiots. They went looking for trouble elsewhere, and then trouble came here while they were gone. Horrible things happened to my family ... which might never have occurred had my brothers been here."

Guenna laid her hand on my arm.

- "I'm sorry, Sir." she said. "What my father is trying to say ... is that you shouldn't expect too much from us. Not just now. We'll listen to what you have to say - but you shouldn't raise your hopes too high."

That was pretty much what Guen Nadesti told the Lowlanders when they had gathered in her house once more.

- "You are welcome to stay, Duchess. You and yours. Certainly until your child is born."

"As for recruiting our fighters for your Lowland war ... I'll have to discuss that with my councillors, to decide if we are able - or willing - to help you further."

The Duchess didn't look entirely happy with that. But it was the best offer she was going to get today.

***

We gave them our house. Sulcen, Guenna, Nameless and I moved in with Yevna and Dengelle. Tanguiste slept at Mother Nadesti's. Even that wasn't enough for the Lowlanders.

- "The Duchess requires a house of her own. And female attendants." said Iduallon. He just happened to be a few inches taller than me - another reason to dislike him, when he stretched a little so that he could look down on me.

- "Where did you sleep last night?" I asked.

- "I beg your pardon?"

- "You can make the same arrangements as you did last night." I said. "Or you can sleep indoors, in the house we've provided. My house."

Tanguiste appeared beside me. "Papa, let me, please." She proceeded to pour some oil on the waters - and made sure that I didn't end up putting my boot to the arrogant Lieutenant.

I went to meet with Guen Nadesti and Vingoldas, instead. This time, all of our fighters were present. It was their affair as well.

- "Nice guests you've brought us." said the Mother Nadesti.

- "I know. I'm sorry, Guen. But ... "

- "She's pregnant." said my daughter Guenna. "We couldn't turn them away."

- "D'we even know how many Izmians is chasin' them?" asked Hedyn.

- "Iz-u-myrians." said Seva, with a sneer.

- "Scores. Perhaps as many as a hundred." said Vingoldas.

I looked at him in horror. I hadn't even thought to ask that.

- "Where'd you get that number?" asked Guenna.

- "It's what Gerimir told me. The friendlier one."

Everyone was silent for a moment, digesting that.

My father, as headman at Asphodels, had three sons and four retainers. I, in turn, had five sworn men - two of whom had betrayed me. After turning on me and eliminating the Nadestis, Bacho had gathered an enormous band of men - 35. Granted, they weren't all first-rate fighters, but it was still a staggering number, by Upland standards.

A hundred was just ridiculous, in a land where many people had to take their shoes off to count past ten or eleven.

- "I'm sorry." I said. "I didn't know."

- "Would it have changed your decision?" asked Mother Nadesti. She looked around the room. No one dared to suggest that I had been foolish.

"Then we deal with what we have." she said.

Some decisions make themselves, I suppose. There are no other choices, no palatable options. I went back over my meeting with the Lowlanders, in my mind - but I couldn't imagine having acted any other way than I did.

Mother Nadesti assigned us duties. Yevna and Nameless were to hunt together, and to share whatever game they could bring down with the Lowlanders.

Vingoldas, Weyl and Odma were to make friends with the younger men, to get close to them and find out anything they knew.

- "Veran, you do the same with Prosquetel."

- "There's a shock." I said. I was surprised by myself - by how sour and snarky I sounded. If I wasn't careful, I'd end up like Seva.

- "If you like, you can switch with Tanguiste." said Mother Nadesti. "She's got the Duchess."

- "I'm fine."

***

Seva shagged the unshaven Lieutenant - Iduallon - on the second night they were there. She was reasonably discreet, I suppose, except that Giedra and her friends, Rion and Eliv, had been asked to keep an eye on the Lowlanders, too. It was Giedra herself who discovered them.

- "The little tart." said the big blonde.

- "A bit jealous, are ya?" said Odma, with a grin. "Were ya -" He never got to finish that sentence, because Giedra decked him. She knocked him flat - and broke his nose in the process.

The Lowlanders hadn't been with us for more than two days, and we were already come to blows - between ourselves.

- "They'll calm down." said Tanguiste.

In fact, we did settle into a pattern. We kept an eye on the Hvadi we had been assigned to, while they worked on us, trying to win us over.

Prosquetel - or WhiteHair, as I still thought of him - tried his best to be pleasant with me, to change my mind. He obviously believed that if I could be recruited to serve his Duchess, then others would follow.

I didn't dislike the old fellow. He was honest enough about his intentions, and seemed to be trying to overcome his prejudices against Uplanders. He had probably been raised to believe that we were filthy savages.

Given the history of my family, that wasn't far wrong.

The young lad, Gerimir, I genuinely liked. He was eager to learn as much as he could. His questions were endless; he reminded me of my daughter Guenna, when she was younger.

Gerimir found our ways fascinating - especially the warrior women. He just couldn't understand, though, how Nameless could get along without a name.

Unfortunately, I didn't like the other Lieutenant - at all. And I was none too fond of the Duchess, either - pregnant or not. It just wasn't in my nature, I suppose, to be impressed by someone because of their clothing, or who they had married.

I was the grumpiest person on the Hill. Giedra ran me a close second. Everyone else seemed willing to grant the Lowlanders the benefit of the doubt.

- "I wasn't their fault they ended up here." said Sulcen.

- "No - it was mine."

***

Two more strangers reached the Hill. They'd come from north of the Three Sisters. They were kinsmen of Lihi and Odma, who'd made up their minds to join us when they heard that their distant cousins had already left. Odma knew them well enough to vouch for them.

Then three women arrived, from the northeast. One carried a babe in her arms. They'd listened to Seva and Weyl, last year, and then made their plans to leave. Unfortunately, they'd had to postpone their departure when they discovered that one of them was with child.

Two had left abusive husbands, and the other an abusive father. Our female fighters took them in without question.

I ran through training sessions with each of the newcomers: Odma's kin were capable, if not exceptional, and one of the women could handle a bow. The other two were willing to try, at least.

More potential fighters was nothing to be sneezed at, but it irked me somewhat to see that WhiteHair was even more pleased by the new arrivals than we were.

But all of that was nothing, compared to the arrival of three more men. Yevna found them, looking for a way up the southern slope of the Hill. She brought them to me. A crowd quickly gathered.

They didn't look like much. All three were fairly young.

- "What brings you here?" I asked.

Two of them wouldn't meet my eye: a scrawny youth barely started on his first beard, and a dark fellow who carried one shoulder noticeably lower than the other. The third was blonde, with a pushed-up nose. Only he looked at me directly.

He surprised me by bowing.

- "We came to offer you our services, Hammerfist." he said.

My hackles rose. The last men to call me that were spies sent by Bacho.

- "What's your name?" I said.

- "Yorun."

- "Where did you come from?"

- "Bentwood."

- "Bentwood? You served Bacho - and Kestutis?"

There was a growl, at that, from the onlookers. Nearly twenty people now encircled us. It had to be daunting for the three youths. But blondie seemed calm enough.

- "We did." said Yorun. "But now we wish to serve you."

- "Are you serious? You want to change sides - you want to switch your allegiance - from Bacho to me?"

Yorun looked confused.

- "We aren't changing sides, Hammerfist." he said.

"Bacho is dead."

*****