7. Nyossa

Three days passed.

Nothing changed except we were given some jerky and a canteen to share once a day.

At night, they let us out, one by one, and shackled our right hands, one by one, to a long chain.

Four of them guided the nine of us, shackled, behind whatever scrubs of trees they could find, allowing us to relieve ourselves.

The shame of squatting, pissing under our robes, only lasted for the first night.

This was mining country.

The land was harsh and dusty.

Its wealth was underground.

Little flourished that was green here.

If my geography was accurate, we would not hit a forest or river for some days.

And thus, our privacy was slim.

We were made to lie down on the ground, still shackled, the ends of the chain looped between two stakes.

The smallest shift in a body caused the entire chain to squeak.

There was no escape.

I looked up to a starless sky that first night away from Eccleston and wept without any sound.

My happy life that I had scrapped together with nothing in the beginning, my one room lodging above the apothecary, the books on a shelf and the secondhand furniture, the bed, the pottery, the copper rings I liked to wear on my forefingers and the cup of coins under my bed of my life savings was all gone.

I had not felt this insecure in winters.

Everyone was asleep save for the silver-haired man called Fletch and the youngest boy who was Maureen’s admirer.

They had taken the first watch.

All of the soldiers had unrolled kits from their saddles and snored softly around us.

My fellow captives, after a night and day of heat and standing more than sitting, were all fast asleep.

And so I let myself weep, making no noise.

Or I had thought not, but when I brought my left hand, the unchained hand, up to my eyes to rid myself of my tears, I felt it, the unnameable sense that another was awake.

Someone was listening to me and it was not Fletch and the boy.

My heart raced at this but if I craned my neck to look around I would draw attention to myself.

I closed my eyes and tried to ignore that uncanny presence.

Midmorning on the fourth day, we reached the forest.

“This has to be Nyossa,”

said Quinn, as the trees along the road became closer and closer together.

“Am I correct?”

she asked.

“Are we headed east? I did not see from which gate we left the city.”

“We must be, the sun is blinding in the mornings,”

yawned Mischa.

“I believe we are east,”

continued Quinn.

“East and a little south even.”

“I need a bath,”

I said.

“I reek.”

“That’s alright.

We all do,”

said Maureen, standing so as to allow Eefa a longer turn on the floor.

“Nyossa is a forest ripe with edibles and streams,”

said River.

“We may be allowed a bath.

And have something to eat other than jerky.”

“At the worst, we now have shade,”

said Mischa.

“What about the spirits and ghosts who live in Nyossa?”

asked Catrin.

“Mythical,”

said Helena in a reassuring tone.

“I have never heard one shred of evidence to the otherwise.

I’m sure someone lived there at one point but other than this road, isn’t it supposed to be so dense you can’t even walk among the trees?”

“It took winters to make the one road, I heard,”

said Bronwyn.

As they chattered about the forest, I enjoyed the breeze and shade, but did note that we smelled horribly.

My own skin crawled under a layer of filth.

The soldiers were only slightly better as they had canteens to wash their faces in the morning, but they all had stubble on their faces and dust on their skin.

They had to want to bathe as much as we did.

My eyes, as they kept doing, found Captain Alric.

And every time I found him, he found me, as if my gaze had a physical power that nudged him to seek me out.

A few times, it was I that felt nudged.

It was I who found myself watched.

Sometimes, he looked away, as if I was not of interest.

And sometimes I looked away, because I kept seeing that note of challenge in his expression, but not again that bit of heat, that sense that he was a man and I was a woman.

He was riding ahead of where I was standing in the wagon, so I could only see the tall back of him on top of his gray horse.

His armor was off except for his breastplate, all of it strapped across the back of his mount.

Beneath his shirt, between the leather straps that held the breastplate in place, I could make out his strong but sinewy shoulders and back.

And again, as I observed him, his head started to turn back, about to look over his shoulder, sensing me.

I pulled away from the opening in the slat and rejoined the conversation.

In the afternoon, we were given jerky and the captain sent Fletch and a fair-haired man about Mischa’s age ahead to scout for food.

This man kept curiously looking at us through the slats whenever he rode nearby.

He was another whose attention could have been innocent, like the handsome young one who sneaked glances at Maureen.

I was convinced that one was simply lovestruck.

Or it could have been more sinister.

There was no way of knowing.

The two men returned to where we were walking on the path, each at a gallop, each with a deer slung over their saddles.

“Clear ahead?”

asked the captain.

The fair-haired man responded.

“Not a soul.

Plenty of deer and coneys.

We should eat well until we hit the farmlands.

And the stream is about an hour away.”

“Thank you, Nash,”

answered the captain.

Then raising his voice, but in his always measured tone, “We will hit the stream and make camp in an hour.

Same pace.”

“If they don’t let me bathe, I will just ask them to kill me,”

said Mischa.

As Nash the fair-haired man had said, we soon reached it.

The stream was not fast or wide enough to be considered a river but it curved along parallel to the path for a short distance before flowing back into the dense trees, its banks overflowing with eroded roots and mushrooms.

Under the canopy of trees, they tied their horses and started to set up camp.

“Half of you bathe quickly and return so the rest of us can.

I do not care about the order,”

said Alric, throwing his right leg over the back of his horse and dismounting, his feet barely making noise as they hit the earth.

“You must be very stealthy,”

I muttered to myself and he turned to me. “Damn,”

I said and turned to listen to River explain what kind of deer she thought they had hunted.

Thatcher parked the wagon near the gray horses and jumped down from the seat.

He unhitched the four draft horses and secured them with the rest so they could eat the rich moss and ferns that covered the forest ground.

Half of the troop walked down the path to where clusters of water trees that grew straight up out of the stream offered some privacy.

Their long green and aquamarine-colored, feathery leaves drooped into the water, waving like kelp where they hit the flowing surface.

“What is that wonderful smell?”

sighed Bronwyn.

Something like camphor permeated the forest.

There was also a nutty sugariness in the air.

Compared to our bodies, it was wonderful.

“Oh, I know,”

said Helena.

“Some of the trees in this forest are eucalyptus.”

“And clematis vines on the trees,”

added Maureen.

“That’s what smells like dessert.”

“I want to rub their leaves all over me,”

said Mischa.

“Anything but how I smell now.”

“You can make soap from both,”

said River.

The sun was still up but on the way down.

We were making camp earlier than we normally did but I guessed the captain had sensed his company needed fresh meat, hygiene and more sleep.

But so did his prisoners.

“Captain,”

I called through the slats.

Both groups, men and women, fell silent.

Taking his time, he turned from where he had strung the two deer from a lower tree branch.

Knife in hand, he faced me.

He had rolled the sleeves of his shirt up his elbows, exposing his forearms without their vambraces.

“Yes, priestess?”

“We would like to bathe also.”

“There is not an abundance of soap, madam.

Each soldier has his own—"

“We can use clematis and eucalyptus.

At least let us in the water when your men have finished.”

His men watched us speak.

I noticed Perch and Thatcher, standing next to Alric, watching him more than watching me, even while I talked.

He sighed through his nose.

“Please,”

I continued, infusing more emotion in my voice.

“Grant us the dignity.”

Maureen had stepped next to me to peer over my shoulder out at the soldiers.

I noticed the handsome young one look away from me to her.

He stepped forward.

“I have extra, captain.

They can have my extra bar.”

Alric turned to him.

“Luka, you mean well, but—”

“Thank you, young man!”

I said, ebullient.

Alric’s eyes darted to me.

The speed of his glance was the only thing that gave away his annoyance.

But I had been watching him all day for several days.

He was annoyed.

“Madam, you thank too soon.

You ought to not count your chickens, as it were.”

Mischa now looked out over my other shoulder.

“He is a bastard,”

she whispered.

“It’s just a bath,”

Thatcher said, his words meant only for the captain.

“They’re women.

I feel bad not letting them bathe.

It’s not like they are the men we—”

“Noted,”

said Alric, holding up his hand.

“They smell rotten,”

Perch said.

While I did not believe his aim was to offend and he was truly considering our humanity, Mischa felt differently.

“Speak for yourself, you prick,”

she called out from behind me.

Confused, he looked at her, taking in her stubborn features and her cornsilk curls, which somehow did not seem as dirty as the rest of our hair.

“I’m on your side,”

he answered her.

She shrugged.

“You seem like a prick.”

“My gods, woman.

I’m the reason you’re alive,”

he retorted.

“If it weren’t for the fact that I have respect for religious institutions and sacred places like temples, you would have been run through on our swords.

Because of my faith, you live.”

“No, idiot, that would be Edie because she—”

With a smack, Helena had appeared next to Mischa and covered her mouth.

Wedging her way through our tangle of bodies, she pressed her face through two of the slats.

“Captain, please excuse our behavior.

We take our discomfort out on you.”

She released Mischa’s mouth from under her hand and turned the smack into a half hug, pulling a chagrined Mischa further behind me and away from the slats.

Then she pushed her face against the opening and said, “Forgive us.

Should there be time this evening and should you change your mind, we will be quick about bathing.”

Thatcher, having watched her closely, held up his hand towards her, saying to Alric, “There, they promised they would be quick about it.”

Alric said nothing and turned to the deer, beginning to skin the one closest to him.

“You’re in luck, ladies! That means yes,”

said Thatcher, smiling up at us, but I noticed he spoke to Helena, in particular.

“And you can have my second bar of soap as well.”

His offer was to Helena, not the rest of us.

She blushed but did not look away and nodded politely.

“Not mine,”

said Perch, glaring at Mischa and walking away.

“Bathe in your clothes,”

I said to the rest of the women.

“It’ll be cold tonight, but you can rinse some of the dust and sweat out and the sun will dry them tomorrow.”

“Don’t let your regular clothes show too much from under your robe,”

said Quinn.

“Good thinking,”

said Helena, eyeballing a shame-faced Mischa.

“I’m sorry,”

she said.

“That one with the long hair chaps my ass.”

“What is wrong with you?”

I said, realizing how closely she came to giving us away.

“I don’t know.

I’m on edge,”

Mischa said.

“We all are,”

said Helena.

“We have to watch our words.”