THREE SISTERS Chapter 9
I was still weak as a kitten, after the fever. Sulcen and the girls fussed over me, and continued to take turns sleeping. The fever didn't return, but I woke one morning, and immediately concluded that I was hallucinating.
There was a big blonde woman standing over my bed.
She was dressed outlandishly, in a black leather jerkin, decorated with pieces of cheap jewelry and bits of metal. There were two ... well, they looked like desiccated human fingers, sewn into the shoulder of her jerkin. Over her shoulder, I saw a quiver, with half a dozen arrows.
The woman was tall, and broad-shouldered. She had rather thick lips, and a wide face, but she was reasonably handsome - if you like your women wearing severed fingers. She saw my eye open.
- "There we go!" she said, cheerfully. "So you're Veran One-Eye? Payl's grandson?"
- "What?
Great
-grandson." I mumbled.
- "Right - that's right." said the big blonde. "Tell me: is it true that she wore a necklace of foreskins?"
I was barely awake, and a little bit grumpy. My manners weren't quite what they should have been.
- "Why do people refuse to get the story straight?" I complained. "It was her friend Meeli-DeadEyes who wore the foreskins. Payl had a necklace of teeth."
- "Human teeth?" asked the woman.
- "As far as I know."
- "That's still pretty good." she said. "And she was Borna's mistress? The real Borna?"
- "No! Where did you get
that
? She bore twins to Ljudevit, Borna's Hand. The boy was my grandfather." Only at this point did I notice that there were two more strange women sitting at our table.
"Who
are
you?" I demanded.
The big blonde smiled. "I'm the next Payl, old man."
Then she laughed, with her hands on her hips, throwing her head back. It was a belly laugh, a full-bodied celebration of amusement. I had seen one or two men laugh like that in my time - but never a woman.
"My name is Giedra." she said. "These are my friends: Eliv, and Rion." She indicated the two seated women. I had no idea which one was which.
The first had painted her face with vertical black stripes across her eyes, and a strange swirl under her mouth, across her chin. It was very distracting. The second girl - neither was very old - had painted half of her face blue. She cradled a double-headed axe to her chest, stroking it with her fingertips.
- "What ... what are you doing here?" I asked.
- "Your daughter invited us." said Giedra. "But it looks like we were too late for the first fight. There'll be more - right?"
I tried to glare at Giedra. My one eye was useful for frightening children, but the big blonde didn't seem all that intimidated. I suppose it's also harder to impress people when you're lying flat on your back.
- "
Where
did you come from?" I said. "Why are you here?"
- "I told you - to fight."
Giedra finally took pity on me. She pulled over a stool, and sat down next to my bed, so that I wouldn't have to look up at her.
"We're from Nareven - do you know it?"
- "West of the Three Sisters? West of the lake?"
- "Northwest. Four, may five days walk. Bacho's men came ..."
- "Five years ago." said the girl with half of her face painted. Rion, I think. She was still stroking her axe.
- "That's right." said Giedra. "They raped a girl, and took most of our sheep."
I nodded. It was a story we had heard before.
- "They came back the next year. This time, two girls were raped. Eliv was one of them." I glanced at her two friends. Eliv was the one with the stripes and the swirl on her face. She didn't look my way.
- "I'm sorry, Eliv." I said.
Giedra's friend did not respond. But the blonde let out a deep breath.
- "That's right. You know what it's like ... we heard about your wife. And your son."
I was no more prepared to talk about that with strangers than Eliv was.
- "What else happened? The second time?" I asked.
- "They killed a man, and took the rest of our livestock. They also took two of our young men along. 'Recruits', they called them."
"There was a lot of talk, after that. Most of our folk wanted to move, up into the hills. To hide. Only a few were prepared to fight."
"I can't blame them, really. There were only four men left - and they were hardly warriors. In the end, only one of them came with us."
- "A man? Where is he now?" I asked.
- "In the ground." said Giedra. "He thought that running off with three women meant that we would be at his disposal - that he could hump us whenever he wanted."
- "He was wrong." said Rion, still stroking her axe.
- "Dead wrong." said Giedra.
They were an unusual trio. It made me wonder if Payl, the Shining One, had been just as strange. But if they could fight ... I would be more than ready to accept their little ... foibles.
The door opened. Yevna came in, followed by Inisian.
Giedra picked up the stool, and moved to join her companions, giving my daughter space to approach my bed.
Yevna came and perched on the side of my bed. I was taken aback. She seemed to have grown, somehow. She wasn't taller, or heavier, but I had a sudden sense of ... presence.
- "Papa - how are you feeling?" asked my eldest.
- "Better." I said. "
Much
better, now that I've met your new friends."
- "We'll let you talk to your father, Yevna." said Giedra. "See you later,
Papa
."
As the big blonde and her companions left, Inisian came closer, to shake my hand.
- "I'm so glad you're both safe." I said.