Chapter 32: The Benefactor

The harvest was as pitiful as everything else about the children’s destitute farm. Even with Vesna’s late-summer efforts to salvage the garden, its produce would have been barely enough to feed the occupants for a month. So, the failed harvest meant several trips to the market to purchase food for the winter, along with supplies needed for preserving vegetables, hay for Moonlight, and seeds to plant next year. Vesna was not surprised to spend most of her remaining silver on ensuring her hosts’ survival over the winter. After all, not having any wealth seemed to be her Path in Life.

She spent September and October organizing the harvest and teaching the children what she knew about preserving food and preparing the ground for planting the following spring. She tore down the chimney and built a new one with a better design that heated the house more efficiently and was not a fire hazard. She had to build a stable for her horse, using the boards from the pigsty and some of the fencing.

Vesna visited to the bookseller in Platnackt Dek several times during the autumn to obtain information about the road repair and the flooded mine. As she suspected, the road was not repaired, even after the first snow fell in the mountains. During her final visit in October she bought a piece of slate, chalk, quills and an inkwell, and parchment. When Vesna and the children were driven indoors by the first snowfall in November, she announced how she planned to spend the winter: everyone in the household would learn to read and write.

So, Vesna spent the next five months cooped up with six children, teaching them writing and basic math. She taught them to sing hymns and campfire songs and how to pray to the Lord-Creator. She would have preferred to teach them to pray to the Ancients, but knew in the Vice-Duchy indoctrinating them as Followers would put their lives at risk. She entertained them with stories of her travels and her adventures during the wars of 1754 and 1758. She talked a lot about her year in the forest with the Followers and her studies at the university. She even talked about her time in the Grand Duke’s castle, but omitted the detail of performing sexual favors for the Sovereign.

She realized she was good at story-telling. She also learned about handling children. Margickta was intimidated by Vesna, but at the same time deeply admired her. The girl matured over the winter and realized she had more potential than spending the final year of her life as a starving prostitute. Vesna talked to Margickta and the younger girls at length about her experiences as a woman and what she knew about relationships with men. She talked to the boys about the various men she knew and what made some better than others. She explained about guilds and the military and about the rich and poor. By the end of the winter the older children had a fairly good grasp of the way the Realm of the Living worked. The younger children understood less, but perhaps in the future they’d know what questions they needed to ask.

When the spring of 1760 arrived, Vesna had to spend less time on lessons and more time worrying about the farm. She kept the children busy with spring planting. She returned to the marketplace to buy hens to re-stock the chicken coop and several piglets. When the owner of an adjacent farm died and the widow told Vesna she needed to sell a portion of the property, Vesna bought the land with five of her remaining pieces of silver. She had to buy more seed to plant in the new section, but she knew if the harvest went well, there would easily be enough food for the following winter, plus some extra produce to exchange in the market for cheese and tools.

By the beginning of May she had only four coins from the original fifty she had taken from Rika Chorna. She knew what she needed to do with her remaining silver. After the May-Day celebration she braided Margickta’s hair. She then took the girl to a tailor in Platnackt Dek to have her fitted for a dress. The girl was speechless as Vesna tied the yellow sash around her companion’s waist, indicating she was available for marriage. Vesna struggled to hold back tears as the traumatic memory of her own failed effort to buy a dress forced itself into her thoughts. She was afraid to speak and let the girl hear her voice crack from emotion, so she tapped Margickta and directed her to the church to obtain a citizenship certificate. She exchanged the last of her coins for the parchment and seal.

The two women, one wearing a new courting dress and the other wearing a simple working outfit, left the church. Margickta still didn’t know what to say to Vesna.

As they exited the plaza into the marketplace, they passed the town’s pillory. Vesna stopped to examine one of the ankle-chains. She ran her fingertips over the links and opened the metal cuff. She turned to her companion.

“You know, I spent a day on the pillory, a few years ago.”

“You, Mistress Vesna?”

“Yes. I spent a day on the pillory because I wanted a dress so I could look for a husband. I was just like you, just as desperate, and just as willing to do stupid things. To pay for the dress, I stole apples from a farmer. He had me arrested, but then he repented and saved my life. So, you’re not the only one. I know what it is to be poor and not have a dress.”

“But last fall, you did have money, Mistress Vesna. Why didn’t you?”

“It wasn’t my Path in Life. It just wasn’t. So I never bought the dress, at least not for myself. Instead, I bought it for you.”

“I don’t know what to say, Mistress Vesna, how to thank you.”

“I don’t want you to thank me. Words don’t mean anything. What matters is what you do with your time in the Realm of the Living, not what you say about it. The only way you can thank me is to find a decent husband and lead a decent life. The neighbor boy two farms from yours, what about him? He seems nice.”

“Yes, Mistress Vesna. I was thinking about him.”

“Certainly he’d be better than what you were thinking about doing last year, don’t you agree?”

Margickta blushed and nodded.

Vesna spent some of her spare time exercising her horse and preparing him for traveling. She still hoped to return to the western valley before the end of the summer. The road was clear and the marauding workers had gone back into their mine, so the danger was greatly reduced, although not completely eliminated.

As she thought about her plan to return to the western valley, Vesna watched with rising hopes as the neighbor courted Margickta. If he married her and moved to the farm, the children would become the young couple’s responsibility and she’d be free to leave. Unfortunately, because protocol required several months of courtship before marriage, it was unlikely Margickta would marry in time for Vesna to make it through the mountains before the first snow. Maybe that wasn’t so bad. There were worse places she could spend a year than a farm with a bunch of kids. She fervently prayed to the Ancients for an answer to her question, should she stay another year at the farm or try to figure out how to make the children independent enough so she could leave.

The answer to her prayers came in late June, the day after the summer solstice. A ragged, wretched-looking man showed up on the property. Vesna ran into the house to grab her crossbow and make him leave, but when she went back out, she saw the children gathered around him, hugging him. He was Tanelickt’s son; the prospector everyone thought had died the previous year.

At first the man was extremely happy to see the farm and the children in such good condition. That happiness vanished when he found out his father, his wife, and his sister were dead. He ate a quiet dinner, thinking about his failed excursion in the mountains and the loss of his relatives during his absence. He had been irresponsible in his desperation to find silver, but it was his family that suffered as the result. Vesna consoled him with hard logic.

“Well, the only way you can redeem yourself is to stay here and take care of your kids. You have a nice farm if you work the land, and I’ve taught the children how to do that. Margickta is courting right now, so her Path in Life looks good. What happens to the others is up to you. You’re the father.”

“I, don’t know, how to thank you for what you’ve done.”

“In a way, you’ve already thanked me. I prayed for an answer to my question about leaving the Vice-Duchy before the end of the summer. I wanted to go, but I didn’t want to abandon the kids or leave before Margickta got married. You’re back, so now I can resume my Path in Life of wandering. You can thank me every day by making sure this farm is a safe place to live and feed your children. That’s all I’m asking of you.”

As Vesna prepared to resume her journey, her host realized he could partially return the huge favor she had done for his family. He knew the mine region very well, so he told her about the various paths and lanes traversing the area, emphasizing the ones that were the safest and the ones that were the easiest to move through on a horse. She marked various locations on her map as she listened to his advice. Vesna finally had the knowledge she needed to successfully make the voyage to Severckt nad Goradki.

Vesna rode to Platnackt Dek wearing her worker’s dress. She spent the short summer night exchanging information with the map-maker. He gave her a parting gift, a small compass. Shortly before sunrise she changed into her guard outfit and left the town.

She rode though a region of impoverished farming homesteads. As the terrain became steeper she passed through sheep pastures. The road became steeper and narrower as it traversed a series of rocky hills that divided the settled area from the forest. The only people she saw along the road were miners hauling ore or workers taking up supplies. Following her map and the advice of Tanelickt’s son, she left the main road and followed a side trail. She camped briefly before resuming her journey at daybreak. Towards the end of the day she came across a small meadow where Moonlight could graze. She decided not to go any further that day. Instead, she stripped off her clothing and spent her time praying to the Ancients for guidance.

She spent the following six weeks slowly traveling west. During that entire time she did not see another human. She had to stop to hunt and gather mushrooms and berries while letting Moonlight browse. During much of the journey she walked, and whenever she walked, she was naked, according to the custom of the Followers. She didn’t have to think about anything apart from making sure she was going in the right direction and day-to-day survival. She was alone and independent, not having to please anyone except herself and the Ancients who continued to protect her and guide her journey. For the first time she did not have to meet anyone’s expectations. All she had to do was keep moving at a pace of her own choosing.

If surviving in the mountains during the winter not been a concern, Vesna would have been content to spend the rest of her time in the Realm of the Living traveling through the forest and avoiding contact with other people. However, she noticed the days already were becoming shorter and the nights longer. Occasionally there was a hint of chill in the air to remind her the summer would not last much longer and she would have to leave her temporary paradise.

After several weeks of navigating the trails, she was able to see cleared flat farmland in the distance whenever she was at a vantage point that offered her a view to the west. She knew she was looking at the western valley, meaning she had escaped from the Vice-Duchy. The area around her was starting to look familiar. The path led into a wider lane. She looked through the trees and saw a wagon crew hauling a load of cave-charcoal. Yes, she knew exactly where she was, she was close to one of the Followers’ mines. The wagon crewmembers were not Followers, however. Vesna realized the mine must have been taken over by outsiders.

She avoided the road as she descended towards Severckt nad Goradki. However, as she neared the grassy hills with the sheep pastures, she had no choice: she had to end her time alone in the Realm of Nature and re-enter civilization. She put on her guard’s clothing, but left off the helmet and the Vice-Duchy’s tunic. As always, she loaded her crossbow and was vigilant for trouble. She rode towards the town, taking the same route she had taken in the opposite direction nearly a decade before with the odious lover who had treated her so cruelly.