Borna recovered, but only slowly. Durra could not walk very well, either, with a splint tied around her leg. The other wounds and injuries, among the Uplanders, were not so serious, although Meeli DeadEyes would have a nasty scar along her hip.
- "We have to move." said Borna.
- "You're in no shape for that." said Lovro. "Neither is Durra."
- "We can't stay here." insisted Borna. "What would you do, if you were Leho of Adarion, and you found out that 40 of your men had been attacked?"
Lovro looked thoughtful, for a moment.
"Exactly." said Borna.
That settled it. We packed up our loot, and moved the whole party. We skirted to the north, and then Tsoline led us through the forest. She did an excellent job, of it, too - she was as good a forester as her brother.
- "You were right." said Payl. "I wouldn't want to fight in here."
The Shining One was changing. The difference wasn't enormous, and I doubt if any of the male Uplanders had seen it. But her companions certainly had. Irija grinned at me, from time to time. Meeli, on the other hand, frowned and scowled more often.
Payl had wanted another 'ride' the night after our first bout. I politely declined, claiming ill health.
- "You're sick?"
- "Not quite, Payl. I just don't know if I can survive another beating like last night's."
- "You didn't like it?" she asked, looking genuinely confused.
- "I liked it very much." I replied. "But I felt like I had gone through a battle - and lost. I need some time to heal."
I pulled up my shirt, and showed her the bruises.
She admired her handiwork for a moment, then walked off, muttering 'Niskadi!" and 'Soft'." I let her go.
But in the interest of Uplands-Lowlands relations, I approached her the following night. This time, I was more prepared, and defended myself much better. I was still sore afterwards, but nothing was broken or sprained.
The night after that, I suggested that Payl might like to try something different.
- "Different? What's that? Some Niskadi perversion?"
- "No." I said. "Just try this. Let me lead. Here - like this. It doesn't have to be a fight ..."
I tried gentle, and unhurried. I can't say that Payl was an immediate convert. Kissing, for example, was going to take a great deal more work. But she didn't stop me. And once Payl realized that we were going to arrive at the same destination, she became more cooperative.
I was still battered, when we finished, and bleeding from the lower lip. But it felt like we had made progress. She was less abrasive with me, after that. Her admission that I had been right was a major concession. And I caught her looking at me, with a little grin on her lips, more than once.
Borna noticed, too. "You look worse than I do." he said. But then he turned serious. "Be careful, Ljudevit. This is a good thing - I think. For both of you. But we can't afford to ..."
- "Upset her?"
- "Something like that."
He wasn't the only one who noticed.
- "Better you than me." said Lovro. Then he shivered.
Mutimir couldn't even bring himself to raise the subject with me. But most of the Uplander males looked at me with more curiosity. It was a strange mixture of respect - I think - and some kind of revulsion, or disgust.
Borna had Tsoline lead us back onto familiar ground - the clearing behind the blueberry patch. We moved a little deeper into the woods, and set up camp.
We hadn't been there very long before one of the foresters found us. To my delight, it was Kawehka. He embraced Borna warmly, and then his sister.
I got an embrace as well, which surprised me. I hadn't thought that our forester friend was an emotional man. He was on a bit of a roll, though, and ended up hugging Lovro, too. I could see from the expressions on Uplander faces that we were going to have some explaining to do. Payl, for one, was not impressed.
- "Tsoline's brother." I told her.
- "She's the more manly of the two?" asked Payl.
Borna left me with the Uplanders, with Aare to assist me. He followed Kawehka back to the campsite we had used last year.
Most of the people there came over to see us the next day. Aigars was among the first. He wanted to see me, of course, but he was honest enough to admit that he wanted to gawk at the Uplanders.
- "You spent the winter with 'em?" said Aigars. "How'd you survive?"
- "We managed."
- "Shit. Look at that one." he said, pointing at Vepar.
- "Don't point. And keep your voices down." I told them.
Ten more men of our Druzhina had made it back to the woods. And nine female warriors, too, including Nanaidh. In fact, she had taken command. Kawehka had looked to provisions, and the thankless task of feeding everyone. Nanaidh had taken over the training, and it was she who had ambushed our enemies - twice.
- "Hravar's been captured." she said. "His wife gave birth the day the enemy horsemen arrived. He wouldn't leave her. It's a girl. He sent his son to us, but Hravar stayed with her."
- "We have a prisoner, too. Maybe we can find a way to exchange them." I said.
Borna returned that evening, in high spirits. It was very encouraging to find so many of our people here. He was concerned, certainly, that was no news of Dirayr, or Siret, and many others. But he had the nucleus of a druzhina here. With the Uplanders, if he could persuade them to stay, we could have over sixty fighters.
- "We may have a problem, though." I said.
- "Tell me."
- "Uplanders and Lowlanders." I said. "When we were on
their
land, and there were only six of us, they looked at us as curiosities. Now they're on our land, and beginning to realize that it's they who are the odd ones."
"I had to ask Aigars to stop pointing. And he wasn't the worst. Our folk are looking at the Uplanders as if they're savages. Or wild animals."