The first scream brought him out of his musings; he looked across the ploughed strips to see nothing at first. Perhaps someone had spilled a kettle of hot water. He scratched the back of one leg with his other foot, and clucked to the oxen. They leaned into the yoke. Then another shriek, one he would have known anywhere. Raheli! He dropped the plowhandles, and started across the field at a run. Then the horses came, from between the cottages, and crashing through the back gate of his barton. Lords' horses, with the bright orange and green and yellow he had seen going in the manor gates the day before. Another scream, and another, shriller—one of the little girls? He had yelled himself before he realized it, a deep roar of rage and pain. Up the field, another plowman answered.
"Stop, you!" yelled one of the riders, waving something at him. Gird paid no mind, charging toward his own gate. Now he could hear a man's voice, yelling, and more screams down the lane. The same rider yelled "Guards! Ho!" The horsemen closed toward him, the horses plunging with excitement. Behind them now he could see footsoldiers in Kelaive's bright orange. The sun glittered on their helmets, on riders' buckles and saddlefittings, on the stubble of last year's grain. Gird took a breath, slowing to see how he might get by. Now one of the riders was above him, the tall dark horse snorting and prancing.
"Get back, fellow!" the rider said. Gird peered up at a narrow pale face. "It's nothing to do with you. Get back to work!" The voice had fear in it, as well as arrogance. Was he armed? Gird tried to circle the horse, but the horse spun, and blocked him. "Get back!" the man said, louder. Gird looked aside; the guards were almost on him, their cudgels ready. Another scream, this one a man's death-cry, ending in a gurgle. Gird flinched, and shivered—it had to be Parin, he was the only one inside. His belly churned; his vision blurred. Then pain stung him awake; the rider had slashed his back with a whip. He spun, fury once more driving out fear, but the guards had him, four of them. For all he could do, it was nothing—they had him face-down in the fresh-plowed furrows, choking on dirt, two of them on his back, as the screams went on—and then died away. When they let him up, the other plowmen were back at work, and the riders were gone, and the grim-faced guard sergeant gave him his warning.
He knew before he came inside what he would find. The shattered barton gate, the ewe he had brought in for nursing lying dead in the barton, her guts strewn wide, their one pig gone, the cottage doors smashed, the great loom broken: that was bad enough. But there lay Parin, his face one curdled mess of blood and shattered bone, and there lay Raheli, naked, the slight bulge of her belly that had promised so much to her and Parin. He knelt beside her, so full of grief he could not breathe. When he felt that first warm breath on his hand, he could hardly believe it. Alive? After the blow that had split her face all down one side, and drenched her in blood? After that blade or another had bared her ribs on one side, and sliced deep into her hip? After the beating, and the rape? He looked at the body he had not seen since she became a woman. Even at that moment, he noticed—and hated himself for noticing—the white beauty of her skin, the full young breasts, the long curve of back and thigh now streaked with blood. Her breath touched his hand again, and he drew a long shaky breath of his own. Alive. He had to do something—
He looked around the room again, seeing destruction everywhere, and out the front door, now splintered—something stirred, there. He could not leave Raheli, but he must; he had to get water, rags, something. He stood too quickly and his head spun. Staggering, he made it to the door and then crouched, heaving all he had eaten into the trampled torn dirt of the yard.
Then he looked up and saw the rest of it.
She must have been at the well, for the blood trail started there, and the water jug lay broken beside it. Girnis lay sprawled between the well and door, her slight body twisted as if she'd been thrown against the wall. And Pidi, where was Pidi? Gird found him on the far side of the well, fists jammed into his mouth, trying not to cry; a hard blue knot on the side of his head and a welt on his back.
He was shaking with rage and grief; he could hardly lower the bucket to the water. The weight of it full dragged on him, steadied him; he got it up, and scooped a handful for Pidi, who said nothing but drank it.
"Stay here," he said to the boy; Pidi nodded. Gird went to Girnis; she was alive, but unconscious. Her left arm was crooked, and swelling: broken. He glanced around for something to splint it with, and caught sight of someone, a kerchiefed head, over the sidewall. It disappeared; he did not call. He found a piece of the splintered door, and tore a strip from his tunic. Girnis did not stir when he handled her broken arm. Should he carry her inside? No. Girnis would do well enough out here until she woke, he thought, and knew that he wasn't thinking as well as he should. But Raheli needed him. He took the bucket inside, breathing hard through his mouth. The cottage stank of blood and brains and slaughter. He had killed animals more cleanly—but he could not stop to think of that.
Raheli's face, if she lived, would have a scar from hairline to jaw. He was not sure she would live. The blade that had cut her had gone through into her mouth, come near her eye—might have broken her jaw or her cheekbone as well, he couldn't tell. Raheli had had the parrion of herbal wisdom from Mali; it was not his knowledge. Blood pooled under her head; her scant breaths gurgled. Blood in her mouth, what if she choked? He looked wildly around, and this time found the scattered bedding, the cooking cloths for straining, the cloths for women in their time. As quickly as he could, trying not to think beyond the immediate wound, he pressed the cleanest rags into her wounds. The long shallow gash along her ribs had nearly quit bleeding anyway; the deeper wound where the blade had met her hip oozed steadily, reddening the cloth. Her face—her face was hopeless, he thought at first, as blood soaked one cloth after another.
"Gird?" He jumped, swore, and turned to glare at the light that poured in the broken door. Then he saw it was a woman, though he could not make out her face against the light. "Is—is Raheli alive?"
"Just." His voice grated and broke; he wanted to burst into tears. Hard enough to be alone with this, but harder with someone else.
"Let me see." She came up to him, and now he could see it was Tam's aunt, old Virdi. Her breath hissed out. "Aahhh—Lady's Peace, she's bad—"
"I know that." He had never liked Virdi, but she had the healing in her hands, so his mother had said. And no scorn to her for not saving Mali—healing in the hands was nothing in a plague of fever.
"The lord, he did this?" He thought he heard derision in her voice, and bristled. Next she would ask why he'd let it happen. But when he glared at her, her eyes were soft, not accusing at all.
"He did. I was—plowing. They—" He could not go on.
She nodded. "I saw across the fields—the guards knocked you down, there were too many. Lady's Curse on Mikrai Pidal Kevre Kelaive: may he never know peace."
He had never heard a woman lay a curse before, but there was no doubt Virdi had done just that. So simple? He shivered, suddenly cold. Her hand touched his head, dry and chill as a snake.
"Near broke your head, they did, too—" He had not realized that he'd been hit, but where she touched him was a heavy pain—and then it was gone, and she was rubbing her hands briskly on the hearthstone. She gave him a quick smile. "Rock to rock; the hearthstone's strong enough." She pointed, and he saw a little crack he didn't remember seeing.
Her hands on Raheli's head hardly seemed to have weight; they hovered, touched as light as a moth on a nightflower, retreated. She sighed, then lifted the cloths he'd laid on that torn face, and hissed again. "Get more water—and—" a quick look at the hearth, now fireless, "—go to Tam's, and bring a live coal."
"But will she die while I'm—?" Gird didn't finish the question, for she interrupted.
"Not if you're quick about it." She had poured the remaining water in the bucket into the one unbroken pot, and he took the bucket and went out. Pidi still crouched by the well, but now he was crying, shoulders heaving. Gird drew another bucket of water, and found the dipper somehow unbroken, caught in the hedge. He squatted beside Pidi.
"Come on, lad—let me see—" Pidi looked up, eyes streaming.
"I—I couldn't—" He winced as Gird touched the lump on his head.
"You couldn't stop them. Neither could I."
"But—but they—they hurt Raheli—and Parin tried to fight—"
"Pidi, listen. I have to get fire. Can you stay here?"
"Raheli? And—and Girnis! They—hurt her too!" The boy grabbed Gird's arm with both hands, threatening to overturn the bucket. Gird set the bucket carefully aside and gathered up his youngest child, letting him sob. He wanted to do that himself, would have given anything for a strong shoulder to cry on, but all the ones he'd known were gone. He patted the boy's back, carefully avoiding the welt on it, and carefully not thinking. Enough to comfort one who could be comforted. "I'm so sorry," the boy was saying between sobs. "I'm so sorry—"
"It's not your fault." Gird tried to keep his voice steady, soothing, as if Pidi were a sheep caught in a briar, a cow with her head through a gap. Finally sobs quieted to gulps. Gird unhooked the boy's hands and moved him away far enough to see his face. "Here—let me wipe that for you—" Pidi nodded, mouth set tight, and Gird cleaned his face. "Now—I still have to go get a firestart, from Tam's house. Will you stay here quietly?" Pidi nodded, solemnly, tears threatening again. "I'll be back," said Gird. Pidi said nothing.
He saw no one on the way to Tam's cottage, though he was aware of a stir in the village, of people watching him and ducking from his sight. All the doors were shut. He knocked on Tam's door, and Tam's wife, white-faced, opened at once. She paled even more when she saw the blood on his clothes.
"Virdi sent me for a firecoal," he said, as calmly as he could. Tam's children were huddled around the hearth, silent and staring. "Our fire's out." Tam's wife nodded. Without saying a word, she went to her hearth, and took a burning brand, far bigger than the custom was. She offered it with a stiff little bow, and he took it gingerly.
In the sunlight, the flame was pale, hardly visible; he could feel the heat of it as it blew back toward his face. He knew by that he was walking fast, too fast. Pidi waited in the yard, sitting now by Girnis. He nodded to the boy, and stopped to pick up some splinters of the door.
Inside, Virdi had Raheli's face clean of blood, but for the wound itself. She had her hand over Raheli's cheek, her expression withdrawn. Gird stepped carefully around her and laid the only fire pattern he knew, the shape the men used in the open. The brand from Tam's house lit it instantly, and warmth returned to his hearth. He went back out for the bucket, and picked up more wood. For an instant, he wondered if it was bad luck to burn doorwood, but then shrugged. How much worse could his luck be? He put the bucket down beside Raheli, and laid the wood carefully on the fire.
"Is there a boiler left?" asked Virdi suddenly. Gird looked around the chaos in the room, and then went to check in the back room. There he found a single metal pot, the one Mali had used for steeping her herbs, dented but still whole. He took it to Virdi, who nodded. "Good. Start heating water in it—put it near the fire, but not in it. And then clean your hands. I'll need your help."
They had Raheli's wounds bound, and her body covered with the cleanest cloth, when the steward came. All that time anger had grown in Gird's heart, anger he had controlled so long that he had half-forgotten some of it. Now it grew as swiftly as a summer storm-cloud, filling him with black rage. He had tried so hard: he had suffered so much already. In spite of all he had brought up three of his own children, and two of Arin's—he would have had his first grandchild the next year—and the lords could not let even one hardworking farmer alone, in peace.
Yet when the steward came—an old man, now, slightly bent but still capable of rule—Gird said nothing of it. He heard what he expected to hear: he, as head of his household, would bear the penalty for his son-in-law's attack on the count's son and his friends, and for his own attempt to get to his cottage to defend them. The loss of the cottage he expected, immediate eviction, fines, loss of all "so-called personal" property, damages assessed for the breakage of the lords' property in the cottage.
"The count remembers you," the steward said slowly, his eyes drifting from the broken loom to the smashed door. "He will be content, he says, if you sign yourself and all your children into serfdom, become his property in name as in fact." He paused, and his voice lowered so that Gird could hardly hear it. "Were I you, Gird, I would flee: he'll name you outlaw, but you would escape for a time. Otherwise—you well understand what kind of man he is; he would take delight in all you fear, in far worse than you have seen, in this manor. I have done all I can."
"You serve him." That was all Gird dared say, and he clamped his mouth on the rest of it.
"I serve him—I gave my oath, long ago, to the count's father; had he not died young—but that's no matter. I break my oath by this much—to warn you, to say that for this night I can promise you no pursuit. Say you will clean and mend what you can by midday tomorrow, when you must be evicted: I will tell him that."
It was all the kindness left; years later Gird realized what the steward risked, and what he would suffer if anyone found out what he had done.