THREE SISTERS Chapter 4
Moruith and Inisian asked us to stay. It would feel safer with us there, they said. They didn't put it into words, but I'm sure they also felt indebted for our assistance in ridding them of the threat of Rymvi SmallFoot - and helping Inisian to avenge his brother.
But I believe that Moruith was also moved by her ailing husband's reaction to my daughters. Miek persisted in seeing them as supernatural creatures, who had come to ease his way into the afterworld.
For our part, it was an easy decision to accept their offer. Bacho wouldn't find us here - assuming that he was still looking. We would be safe, and comfortable, for the winter.
I never imagined that we would stay there for six years.
***
Miek didn't survive the first winter. He faded away before our eyes, suffering in silence. Between Moruith and the girls, though, there was always someone there to anticipate his needs.
It was a good way to go, all things considered.
***
Moruith was a wise, capable woman. She was only in her early forties, but looked much older. Her face was lined, and her hair was a coarse steel grey. The veins in the back of her hands were prominent, and her fingers were crooked, twisted like mine. Almost all of her fingernails were cracked, or split.
She had led a hard life. Miek was her second husband. The first was a reiver, a thief and a killer. She lost her first two children, and didn't shed a tear when her man was killed.
- "He deserved it." was all she would say.
Miek was a kinder, gentler man - and a builder, rather than a destroyer. She loved him, and her two sons, without reservation.
On those dark winter nights, when it was too cold to go out, and too dark to see, but too early to go to bed, we told tales. Moruith was not shy. She had no reticence about her past, and told many stories. They weren't about bravery, or swords, or the follies of men.
She told my daughters about the strength and endurance of women, the power of the earth, and the deep roots of the mountains.
- "Three Sisters. Just as you three are sisters." she said. "You have to stand together, the same way they do."
I knew, from the first, that she told her stories for the benefit of my girls. Moruith was happy to have listeners - that's true. But she had a wealth of wisdom to share, and I was very pleased that my daughters were there to soak it up. After raising two sons, she was delighted to have my girls to talk to.
She was a veritable fountain of useful advice.
- "If you have too many flies," she said, "soak a cord in honey, and hang it. When the flies settle on it, they'll stick."
- "One fly is too many." I said.
Her knowledge benefited me as well. Moruith took a long, hard look at my right hand.
- "Let me see that." she said. After a lengthy examination, she shook her head. "They're not like mine. Your fingers were broken, but they didn't set right."
I didn't like the sound of that. "What am I supposed to do about
that
?"
- "We have to break them again, and set them straight."
Moruith had me drink a full jug of sushen - fermented honey - until I was almost unconscious. She instructed Inisian to hold me, firmly.
Then she broke my fingers, one after the other.
Alcohol makes you feel the pain less keenly - or not at all, if you've drunk enough. There must have been magic in that jug, because I barely felt it as the old woman snapped my fingers, then tugged and pulled at them until she was satisfied. After that, she bound them tight.
- "You're not to use that hand." she said.
- "For how long?"
- "Until I tell you."
I was not particularly happy with her, the next day. But over the ensuing months, I came to respect her judgment. My index finger remained crooked, and I never completely trusted it. My pinkie never recovered. It was still completely useless.
But by Spring, the other two fingers began to recover their flexibility, and their strength, to a degree that I found miraculous.
I was so grateful, I even considered asking Moruith to marry me. Upon reflection, though, I realized that gratitude was not a good enough reason for marriage. I hadn't buried Meonwe, yet, either - and Moruith was still mourning Miek.
- "I wish I'd met you when we were both younger." I said.
Moruith laughed. "No, you don't." she said. "Tanguiste says that your wife was beautiful. I ... I was never more than plain. I could never have given you daughters like yours."
"They'll make you proud, Veran." she said.
***
Inisian was a solid lad. I wasn't his father, and I didn't pretend to be anything other than a guest in his house. But he was at an impressionable age, and never ceased to be amazed that I had helped him eliminate the threat to his family and avenge his brother - all with one hand.
- "I'm no great warrior." I told him, but Inisian seemed to think that I was just being modest.
- "Teach me what you know." he would ask.
I did show him how to hold a long-handled axe in a fight.
- "Keep it back here - like this." I said. "Then you only have to swing forward, to strike. If you hold that weapon in front of you, you'll have to swing it backwards before you can launch an attack with any speed or power. Might as well tell an enemy 'I'm about to hit you'."
"And don't swing at his head. He can duck. Don't try to split his head in half, either. Go for his waist. Too high to jump, too low to duck. And difficult to block. His only move is to jump back. Hard for him to do
you
any damage while he's moving backwards."
"You just have to be careful not to overreach - to overextend yourself. Keep your feet under you."
I let Inisian swing at me with a stout branch, to get the idea. It was a bit awkward, since I could only hold the sword in my left hand. But when we reversed roles, he got the idea right quick.
In fact, though, the young man had more to teach me than I him. He was a skilled woodsman, who knew the forest the way I knew the lake. In his domain, there were many, many things he could show me.
And not just me.
While Tanguiste gravitated to Moruith, Yevna insisted on accompanying Inisian and me when we ventured out. Hunting, gathering edibles, or even just checking on Svijo and his sister - Yevna always wanted to come along.
She learned the location of all the trails, the names of the trees and the shrubs, and all of their particularities. Inisian taught her how and where to find the forest wildlife, either for hunting, or as signals as to the whereabouts of edible plants and fruits.
She also worked hard to develop her upper body strength. That's not easy, for a woman, but Yevna was frustrated that she couldn't pull a bowstring back past her chin. She was stubborn, and determined.
Yevna grew up coltish - slender, long-legged, and a little bit awkward. She was dark-haired, and dark-eyed, and in my biased opinion, quite lovely. But she was too self-conscious of her front teeth. Yevna preferred not to talk, unless it was absolutely necessary. And she rarely smiled, except occasionally, for only her sisters or me to see.
By the time she was 14 years old, Yevna took to accompanying Inisian into the woods even when I wasn't going.
By 15, she was going alone.
Yevna would ask my permission, but the look in her eye suggested that the answer had better be yes.
***
Tanguiste learned more than household craft from Moruith. She learned everything.
- "That girl is a wonder." Moruith told me.
- "How's that?" I was a pleased, as a father, to hear my daughter complimented. But I was also curious to know exactly what the old woman meant.
- "She's a great help when I'm working. She understands exactly what I'm doing, and never gets in my way. And Tan seems to have a way of knowing what I need to do next. She'll hand me ... a tool, or an ingredient - almost before I've even thought to ask for it. Like she knows what's in my mind."
"I swear that girl could take over the household and prepare meals as well as I do."
