We let our people rest, the following day. Exhausted as they were, there was no point in pushing them to cover a few more leagues. The Izumyrians arrived at the foot of the Steps in the late afternoon.
Our enemies were clearly puzzled by the obstacle that now confronted them. Two men dismounted, and began to climb the rocky terraces. Most of our fighters stayed well back, so that they couldn't see us.
When the two horsemen reached the second-last outcrop, Yevna and Nameless stepped forward, with arrows nocked.
To my surprise, Yevna missed a relatively easy shot (for her). Nameless did not. Yevna drew another arrow, and made a much more difficult shot, hitting her target in the hip.
Yevna leapt down like a mountain goat, and finished the fellow off with her knife. It was a little gruesome, I suppose, but the Izumyrians needed a reminder that they were dealing with Uplanders.
My daughter calmly cut her arrow from the dead man's hip, then went to recover Nameless' arrow as well.
Yes, Libot, Seva, and Guenna and I could also have shot at the two scouts. No doubt we would have managed to hit both men at the first attempt. The truth of the matter was quite simple: we were running low on arrows.
- "What happens if they try to go around?" asked Gerimir, the Lowlander.
- "They get lost!" laughed Giedra.
- "There are forest tracks," said Yevna, "but none of them re-connect with the path we're on - not for the next 10 or 11 leagues."
"The Izumyrians won't feel very comfortable, leading their horses single file through the forest." she explained. "And there's nowhere for them to camp, at night."
That night, we made sure to have at least half of our fighters on guard at all times. I didn't think that the Izumyrians would dare try to climb the Steps in the dark - but we couldn't afford to be wrong.
***
The next day, we left half our fighters in place - including all of the archers - while we began moving everyone else.
The terrain was much easier, much more level. There were fewer tree roots to trip on, fewer sudden drops and steep climbs.
I'd wanted to stay at the Steps, but I was outvoted by my daughters, and by Nameless.
- "Tanguiste and Vingoldas need your help." she suggested.
- "Whereas you don't."
Nameless didn't know how to respond to that.
- Please, Papa." said Guenna. "I'll have all of the best archers, plus Giedra, and Gerimir."
- "All of the best archers, except me. Nameless is better at softening the blow than you are." I grumbled.
Was I getting too old? I said it out loud, from time to time ... but perhaps I was hoping that someone would disagree, and point out that I was still a valuable warrior. No, more than valuable - essential. Indispensable.
I was walking along with Sulcen, helping her mother.
- "I'm getting old." I muttered.
Guen Nadesti just snorted. "I hope you're not looking for sympathy from
me
." she said.
Sulcen gave me half-smile, just before she patted me on the backside.
So much for that attempt to get a little moral support.
We covered five leagues, that first day. When we finally stopped, no one seemed to be excessively tired. Tanguiste had some kind of extra sense, by which she could tell what our folk could do - and what they couldn't.
She, at least, asked for my approval before calling a halt for the day.
***
Giedra and her friends, Eliv and Rion, rejoined us late in the second day. Guenna and the archers, plus Gerimir, were still at the Steps.
Of course, they could all be dead, and the Izumyrians only a few minutes behind, about to charge down upon us, for all we knew.
But all had been well the night before. The Izumyrians hadn't tried to climb the Steps again, and if they'd explored the forest pathways ... well, that made little or no difference.
We were now approaching lands that Giedra and her friends knew better than Yevna or I did. Another day's travel would bring us to the slopes of Brana, the third of the Three Sisters.
The flanks of Brana, covered in twisted, stunted pine trees, had always been closest to my home in Asphodel. When we looked across the lake, it was Brana we saw first. Yet I'd never been here, on the far side of the mountain.
This land belonged to the people of Nareven - the home of Giedra, Eliv, and Rion.
- "What should we expect?" I asked the big blonde warrior.
- "I wish I knew." she said. "By the time we left, Nareven had been raided three times, by Bacho and his son. The shepherds kept their flocks higher in the hills, and stopped coming down. There were more widows and orphans than anything else."
- "Will there be any trouble if we move in, and stay the winter?"
- "A force like ours? No."
- "Will we able to feed ourselves?"
- "Plenty of game in the hills, and there haven't been many hunters for the past few years - they're mostly dead. I suspect that whatever folk are still there will be happy to see us."
- "How will it be for Eliv and Rion - and for you - to go back home?"
Giedra shook her head. "Not my home, Veran. It never really was."
- "Do you still have family there?"
- "No."
That was the end of our conversation.
***
Guenna and Gerimir rejoined us the following day. They'd left Yevna, Nameless, Libot and Seva at the Steps. The four archers were now at least two days' travel behind us. But I wasn't worried about them. Yevna could lead them back by pathways the Izumyrians would never find.
But it crossed my mind that Guenna must have spent the better part of two days - and a night - alone with this Gerimir. I liked the lad, even if he was a Lowlander. But alone with my daughter?
- "The Izumyrians hadn't moved up the Steps, by the time we left." said Guenna. "They may be exploring the forest, looking for a way around, but we're safe, for the next two days."
- "That's good news, then." I didn't ask about Gerimir. Guenna looked pleased with herself. And if she had been lying with the Lowlander - what business was that of mine?
I'd told my daughters that they could choose their own husbands. I'd just never thought to specify that they couldn't pick a Niskadi.
Yevna settled on Inisian, a young fellow I wholeheartedly approved of. Tanguiste chose Vingoldas - and I loved that young man as well. So why not let Guenna choose for herself? She had excellent judgment. Usually.
So I would let her do as she wished. Except ... if she chose the other Lowlander, Iduallon - I would kill him before I'd let him marry my youngest daughter.
***
Seva and Libot rejoined us the next day. That left only Yevna and Nameless behind us. Giedra - and Vingoldas, when fully healthy - were better with sword and shield, or axe. But my daughter and the strange young woman who'd shed her original name were incomparable archers.
And even with a sword and shield, I wouldn't want to face Nameless, if she had so much as a knife ... or a sharp stick.
We began descending, into the outer edges of the Vale of Nareven. Giedra took the lead, since she knew these parts better than we did.
There was good land here, which could have supported quite a few people. That would explain why Bacho and Kestutis had raided the Vale so often.
My main concern was whether we could find a decent place to live, which was also easy to defend. Then we would also have to find or build shelter for everyone, and gather in a supply of food for the winter, which was fast approaching.
The Izumyrians were still on my mind, of course. Would they pursue us all the way to Nareven? Time was against them. They couldn't possibly winter in the Uplands - not without grain or fodder for their horses.
It takes far more than swords and bows to lead a force of warriors. You have to know where you're going, where you can safely set up camp, and you have to make sure that you have food, water, and firewood.
Yevna and Nameless finally caught up to us, a day before we expected to reach the hamlet of Nareven. There were many of us who went to greet them, but we were all touched when old Guen Nadesti went to give both women a hug.
Yevna accepted the embrace quietly, but Nameless returned Mother Nadesti's hug - a surprisingly tender gesture for such a fearsome warrior.
- "They're past the steps." Yevna told me. "On foot. But we haven't sighted them in the past two days."
That was good news. After delivering it, Yevna and Nameless lay down. They were both asleep a moment later.
***
Nareven was quite a surprise - for all of us.
- "What on earth ...?" said Giedra.
The hamlet was full of people. Full to bursting. From what Giedra had told us, I'd expected to find 40 or 50 people living there.
There were easily ten times that many. The vale was overflowing with humanity.
- "There ... there were
never
this many people."
- "Who are they, then?" asked Guenna.
- "I have no idea. What are they all doing here? Where did they come from?" wondered Giedra. Neither she, nor Eliv or Rion could even recognize the place that where they had once lived.
The answer to those questions proved to be quite simple: the Izumyrians.
Bacho's lands, and the hamlets on the edge of the lake, hadn't been the only places visited by the invading horsemen.
With a few fair words, and perhaps a coin or two, the Izumyrians could have learned whatever they wanted to know. Instead, they preferred to demand instant cooperation, and then to use force to compel obedience.
Wherever they went, they burned and killed. There wasn't much loot for them to plunder, because we simply didn't
have
very much.
But the Izumyrians weren't shy about destroying our homes, or slaughtering our little flocks. It was wanton destruction. Senseless, really. Did they honestly believe that anyone would tell them where the Duchess was -
after
they'd raped our wives and daughters, and taken the least thing of value that we possessed.
I say 'our' - and that was quite a revelation for me. Uplanders generally saw other Uplanders as potential threats. We had so few dealings with Lowlanders; the most likely person to steal your sheep, or to kill a member of your family, was another Uplander.
But now we met dozens of people who had all been raided by Bacho, and then attacked without warning by the Izumyrians.
They were angry, and they had these things in common. That was the only possible explanation for the presence of so many people in a single place. There were survivors from the lake area, and from much further west and south. The Izumyrians had driven these folk from their homes, and they'd all collected in the Vale of Nareven.
The 'Scouring', they called it. The Izumyrians had swept and scrubbed the people from lands they'd occupied for generations. And it had somehow buried all of their traditional suspicions, hostilities and feuds. You don't swat a mosquito when a bear is hunting you.
There was another surprise awaiting us, as the word of our arrival spread.
We were famous.
The Duchess and her baby were certainly objects of curiosity, as in 'Ah - so that's the lady they was lookin' for?'. Folk were also pleased when they learned the name of her little son. Borna was a name that still resonated, in the Uplands.
But when they learned that the newcomers were led by Guen Nadesti and Veran One-Eye (though some still called me Hammerfist), we were mobbed.
A hundred men came to shake my hand. I had no hope of remembering all of their names. And dozens of women, too. Many wanted to meet my daughters as well, which left Guenna with her hands full. Tanguiste and Yevna had made themselves scarce.
I was amazed that almost all of these people knew that Bacho and Kestutis had been searching for me for years. Everywhere they'd gone, apparently, they'd asked for news of me. And an enemy of Bacho, it seemed, had many new friends.
