“I can’t believe Taby would bring me much silver,” Merrik said, his voice thoughtful even as he felt anger at her for her deep distrust. By all the gods, hadn’t he saved her? “He is only a small child, of little account. Aye, I should probably sell him.”
“I will buy us from you. Cleve too.”
“Are you hiding your silver somewhere I haven’t looked? Surely not, for I was thorough in my bathing of you.”
She was quiet as a stone.
“Yourself as well?”
“Aye, all three of us.”
He laughed, marveling at her. “You are flat on your belly, my girl, with naught to cover you but the clothing I and my men give you. The food in that skinny stomach of yours is from me. Everything is from me, including your clean hair and your clean hide. You wouldn’t have Taby if it weren’t for me. Mayhap you should caution yourself to guard your tongue before you speak. I think it would serve you better.”
She was silent for a very long time. Merrik rose and stretched and tossed away the dirty bathwater and threw her rags into the forest. He doubted even the animals would scavenge those smelly rags. He then came back to her and stretched out on his back beside her. He snuffed out the candle, throwing the tent into blackness.
“You are right,” she said, nothing more, then she turned her face away from him, and soon she was asleep.
Merrik didn’t sleep until the sun was beginning to rise. Right about what, exactly? That she should guard her tongue around him? He thought it a good idea, but doubted that she could maintain such a guard for very long.
Oleg shouted, “Merrik, Eller smells something!”
Eller’s nose was all Merrik needed. Within moments, all the men were carrying their supplies to the longboat. Merrik had jerked trousers to the girl’s waist and a tunic over her head and was carrying her over his shoulder. Within another minute, they were pushing the longboat into the current and hoisting themselves over the sides. In the next instant, at least fifty men rushed onto the narrow beach, yelling and shouting at them, waving spears and rocks. One spear came arcing through the air and landed solidly in the wooden bench, not a hairsbreadth from Old Firren, but he didn’t move nor did his hand recoil from the rudder.
“Eh?” he said only, and spit over the side, toward the shore.
“We could have killed most of them and taken the rest,” Oleg said, his voice wistful.
“They don’t look like a likely lot for slaves,” Merrik said. “We would have to kill most of them and the others look too savage.”
Oleg shaded his eyes with his hand from the bright sun overhead. “Aye, you’re probably right.”
It was then that Taby eased up beside him and looked at him with his child’s clear eyes. Merrik watched the shifting expressions on Oleg’s face, then saw him sigh and lift the child onto his lap. He said not another word, merely bent to the oar.
Soon they could no longer hear the shouting from shore or see the small men in their ancient animal skins jumping about, hurling curses at them in a strange tongue.
Merrik looked down at the girl. She was soundly asleep again, not that she’d ever really awakened earlier when he’d dressed her and grabbed her up over his shoulder and run to the longboat with her. Her flesh was very white and he feared the sun would roast her. He leaned over her, trying to protect her. It was something, but not enough.
It was Cleve who silently handed him a hat of sorts fashioned out of a shirt covering a wooden plate.
Merrik had bread waiting in his hand when she awoke. She was asleep one instant, and the next, she was staring up at him, making no movement, no sound.
“How do you feel?”
“Clean.”
He grinned at her. “You should. Do you remember my bathing you last night?”
She merely nodded. Somehow, though, he knew that in a very short time, she would have something to say about it, something sharp. No, she would not guard her tongue. He tore off a piece of bread and stuck it in her mouth when she opened it.
“I’m glad you’re alive,” he said, watching her chew the bread. There was an expression of sheer bliss on her face. Her eyes were closed.
He was sorry the flatbread was stale, though to look at her he’d never know it.
He fed her until she said at last, “Nay, I wish no more. It is remarkable, but I don’t.” She sighed. “I’ve been hungry for longer than I can remember. To be full-bellied is a wonderful thing. Thank you.”
“You are welcome,” he said. “Would you like to sleep some more?”
“Nay.”
“Perhaps you will want to close your eyes anyway, for I want to look at your back and bathe you again if it’s necessary.”
She just looked up at him. He knew she wanted to refuse him, but she didn’t. She kept her mouth shut. She was learning; she was showing control. He supposed he knew she had to have some control, else she never would have survived any time at all as a slave.
He gently turned her onto her belly over his thighs and drew the tunic over her head. He looked up briefly to see that all his men were at their oars, faced away from him. He scooped up river water and set to work. Her makeshift hat fell off but he didn’t retrieve it just yet.
How could anyone have ever believed her a boy? Her hair, as red as an early fall sunset over Vestfold, nearly as bright as the bolt of bloodred silk he’d seen from Baghdad two years before, curled in ragged clumps around her face and down her neck. A pretty face, he thought, never a boy’s face. But so very thin. He still feared she would die. Not from the beating Thrasco had given her, but from knowing hunger for too long.
After he’d bathed her back, he dressed her again in Eller’s tunic. She slept again. He gave her over to Cleve and took his turn at the oars, for he was restless. Taby still sat on Oleg’s thighs and when Merrik looked toward him, he saw fear, not so much now, but it was still enough to make him want to clutch the child to him and protect him forever. He smiled painfully and said, “Your sister is sleeping. I bathed her again and tended her back. The fever is nearly gone.”
He hoped it was the truth. He could do no more for her. He nodded to the child, and bent back to the oars. The day remained calm and hot, with scarcely a breeze to cool the men. They let the longboat drift close to shore in the mid-afternoon to rest and drink ale from the barrel Roran had dangled from a rope overboard to cool in the river water. The silence was absolute, save for the soft slapping of the water against the sides of the longboat and their low conversation. They were well beyond Chernigov now and drawing to within a half day of Gnezdovo and Smolensk where the Dnieper ended just beyond, curling eastward. They would sail to the far shore at roughly the mid-distance between the two towns before the sun set tonight, then early tomorrow morning, they would drag the longboat ashore to begin the portage overland to the river Dvina. The portage wasn’t overly difficult, the ground was mostly flat, a wide road worn down over the years by hundreds of traders. Viking traders in the past years had killed most of the savages who had attacked trading vessels, or taken them as slaves, but if there were still some of the savages nearby, Merrik didn’t want to alert them, and that was odd of him, for he always relished a good fight. But now he wanted no trouble and it was because of the small boy and the girl who were helpless and in his charge.
When she awoke again and yawned deeply, it was Merrik’s face above her. He smiled at her and stuffed some bread into her mouth. She chewed silently, then opened her mouth again. He fed her until once again she shook her head, a look of pleased amazement on her thin face. He gave her cool ale to drink. Then she said, “I wish to go ashore for a moment.”
He stared at her. “What?”
“I wish to go ashore.”
“You cannot. There could be danger. We will continue northward for three more hours, then we will go ashore and camp for the night.”
“You are a coward then.”
He shook his head at her. “Were you truly a boy, you would surely be dead by now. You forget again that you are alive only
because I decided to intervene.”
She winced. He didn’t know whether it was from pain in her back or from the reminder of what she owed him.
She looked at him straight on and said, “I must relieve myself.”
He said matter-of-factly, “You have seen the men relieve themselves. It is more difficult for you, a female, but nonetheless, you must do it. I will stand in front of you to give you some privacy. Do you wish to do it now?”
She nodded.
Once she was finished, he helped her sit down beside him. “That wasn’t so very bad, was it?”
“It was bad,” she said, not looking at him. “It’s always been bad. At first I couldn’t bear it, it was more humiliation than I thought one could endure. Then I realized that all regarded it with indifference, save for those who enjoyed shaming the slaves. They enjoyed watching closely and laughing. When I became a boy it was all the more difficult.” She sighed, then grinned. “I became quite good at aping the boys. I would turn my back, position my arms just so, and all would think it a boy relieving himself. It was an act, of course, to lull any suspicions.”
“How long were you a female before you changed to a boy’s garb?”
“Not long, it was too dangerous. I didn’t wish to be ravished. Being a boy was safer.”
“Not in Kiev and to the south,” he said.
“Then I was lucky not to be in the south,” she said, and her voice was cool and he wondered if she were lying. He couldn’t tell.
He said, “If ever I intend to humiliate you, it will not be in that fashion. I gave you what privacy I could. I could do no more for you.”
“I know.”
“How do you feel?”
She looked surprised, then said, “Much better.”
She squared her skinny shoulders, winced, and let them relax again. “Perhaps not all that ready to kill your enemies,” he said.
“No, not quite.”
She was different, from her red hair and white flesh to the natural arrogance in her that should have been beaten out of her a long time ago. “How old are you?”
“I am eighteen.”
“How old is Taby?”
“He is nearly six now.”
“How long were both of you slaves?”
“Nearly two years—nay, I forget. It isn’t important. There is no reason for you to know, no reason for you to be interested.”
“It matters not that you told me. Had it been longer than two years, you would probably be dead, at least Taby would. It is amazing that you managed to keep him alive for two years. He was naught but a baby. Where do you come from?”
She shook her head and said, “I am from a place much like the place you come from. It is a place I will return to, in my own time, when I am ready to return. And I meant it, Viking, I want to buy the three of us from you.” She drew a deep breath. “I will pay you for the clothes, I will pay you for what you paid for Taby, for—”
He wanted to cuff her. Instead he grabbed her arm and jerked her around to face him. “My name is Merrik. You will use it. You will also learn to mind that tongue of yours. No wonder Thrasco beat you. How many other masters have flayed the hide off you for your insolence?”
She shook her head, looking at him straight in his eyes. “Only one, the first one. I kept quiet after that. But I did win, for she bought Taby as well.”
“And why has your learning failed you now? Do you believe me too soft to beat you?”
Her eyes shifted and she looked over his left shoulder, toward Cleve, who was holding Taby’s hand, looking down at him and listening to him speak. “You aren’t like the others,” she said. “You are not soft, but you are different. I don’t fear you, at least I don’t fear that you will beat me or Taby.”
“You should fear me only if you find obedience to me difficult.”
She shook away his words. “You are different, aren’t you? You won’t sell us or hurt us or give us to your friends? When I asked you before, you mocked me.”
“I will think about it. Perhaps one of those choices you named will suit me. I will eventually determine some gain the three of you will bring me, but I will have to think about it, perhaps discuss it with Oleg, whose hand you nearly chewed off. In any case, I must fatten you up first, for now no man would want to grind his body against a woman with more bones than soft flesh.”
She said matter-of-factly, “I have learned that men will grind themselves against any female who is not dead. I became a boy after I saw a man rape a girl. He cuffed her until there was blood streaming from her nose and mouth and then he tore off her clothes and raped her. I don’t know if she lived. When he was finished with her, she was bloody everywhere. If I’d had a knife I would have killed him. If you decide to sell me to a man who would do that, I would kill him.”
“Then perhaps you should consider more gentleness of word and manner toward me.” He supposed it pleased him that she didn’t consider the possibility that he would rape her. But he could if he wished to, surely she knew that. Surely she knew he could do whatever he wished to her. On past trading voyages, he’d been given slave girls to pleasure him, thus making him more apt to spend his silver and trade his goods with the men providing the girls. Would she believe he had raped the girls? They’d never fought him or cried out. He’d never raised his fist to any one of them. He’d never hurt any of them. Or had he? And hadn’t he simply left that merchant’s house in Kiev when he’d seen Thrasco plowing that girl? Aye, he’d left, disgusted with what he’d seen. Still, a female slave was for the use of her masters, wasn’t she? He frowned, disliking the way of his thoughts. He dragged his hand through the fresh, cool water, wondering yet again why he had rescued these three from Kiev. Surely he had been struck by a madness, a strange sort of malady that would leave him soon enough. His hand fisted in the water, spewing a light rain upward to his chest and throat.
“Why did you stare at me at the slave market?”
5
HE DIDN’T LOOK at her, rather at the huge sail that was flapping wildly overhead. He held his hand up to dry and to feel the exact direction of the wind. He said with complete indifference, “Why do you think I would stare at you?”
“You did. I remember feeling that someone was staring at me and that’s why I looked up. There you were, standing there as if you’d been frozen and you were looking hard at me.”
He shrugged. “It’s true, no need to quibble about it. I don’t know why. I simply saw you and I couldn’t look away. Then you looked at me and I thought you defeated, utterly, then just as suddenly, your eyes held such anger, such bitterness, that still I couldn’t look away from you. I didn’t understand you. You intrigued me.”
She said nothing.
“Then there was Taby. That is truly odd. I have no particular liking for children. But these feelings for him went deeply within me the moment I saw him. I did not understand them then nor do I now, but I will keep Taby safe.”
“That is why you came to save me, then, isn’t it? This feeling you have for Taby, you wanted only him but you had to save me, too, in order to make him happy.”
“Aye, that’s more the way of it than not, though you did interest me as well.”
“You will get over these odd feelings for my little brother. You’re a man; men don’t love children, not as women do. They are proud of them if they show prowess in something a man admires, but to have love for them, to give them attention, it’s more a thing of words for men, not of action, as it is for women.”
“You appear to be knowledgeable beyond your years,” he said, sarcasm thick as he looked toward the shoreline and not at her. “Your words are perhaps true for the men in your country but I doubt it. Men are men. My father loves me and my brothers. His affection for us isn’t to be questioned. He also cuffed us and praised us in equal amounts, and taught us endlessly when we were boys. As to my feelings for Taby, you have no idea what kind of man I am or what I will or will not feel for him in a year or in five years.”
/> “He is no kin to you. He doesn’t carry your blood. I know this is important to men. You will easily forget Taby once you are home again. What will your wife think of a child you bring back to her?”
“I have no wife.”
“Men must have wives to have heirs. You will have a wife soon enough. You are still young, but not that young. Men must breed when they are young else their seed loses its potency. Aye, you will have a wife and then will you expect her to care for Taby? What if she were cruel to him? It isn’t fair, Merrik. This is why you must let me buy him back from you, before you come to care nothing more for him, before your wife hurts him, before you come to sell him.”
“You spin better tales than a skald, and none of it has a footing in truth. Also, you will stop asking that question. You have no silver, you have nothing to buy anything, much less three people.”
“I can get silver, a lot of it, more than a man like you could possibly trade for or ever steal.”
“Do I scent a ransom in your insult? Do you have rich parents, relatives? Is that the silver you speak of?”
“Perhaps.”
“Perhaps is a word for weasels. Truth slithers about on your agile tongue like a toad through swamp grass. If there is someone who would ransom you, tell me. I will consider it. At least I can send a man to this person and ask him if he still wants you back, if he still even remembers you or the child. Since he is a man, perhaps he will have forgotten you since he would have no particular love or affection for you.”
He could see her mind squirreling about madly, see the myriad shifting expressions on her face. He waited to see what she would say. He awaited lies. He was a bit surprised when she let out her breath in a gasp, saying, “I cannot tell you anything. There is someone, but I’m not certain. Perhaps that someone is no longer there. But, heed me, I buried silver long ago. Aye, that is it. I have a buried treasure.”
Ah, at last the lie, but not at first, no, that was truth of a sort. He raised an eyebrow. “For just this emergency?”
“You mock me, Viking. A man like you could never understand.”