Tatzel, sitting at the table, seemed absorbed in her own thoughts and watched him without interest.
Dusk had come to the valley. Aillas once more left the hut. On this occasion he was gone almost half an hour. He returned with several pieces of fresh red meat wrapped in reeds and also a branch loaded with elderberries, which he placed beside Tatzel. Kneeling at the hearth he laid the meat on a flat stone and cut off thin strips which he threaded upon twigs and set to toast over the fire.
When the meat was cooked to his satisfaction he brought it to the table. Tatzel had been eating elderberries; now she ate the meat, slowly and without great appetite. She drank from the pail, then, pouring water on a kerchief from her wallet, she cleaned and rinsed her fingers.
Aillas chose his words carefully: "It might be difficult for you to relieve yourself comfortably. Whenever you wish I will help you as best I can."
"I need none of your help," said Tatzel shortly.
"As you like. When you are ready to sleep I will make up your bed."
Tatzel gave her head a fretful toss, to indicate that she would much prefer to sleep elsewhere, such as her own bed at Castle Sank, then sat staring stonily into the flames. Presently she turned to inspect Aillas, as if now, for the first time, she were ready to recognize his presence in the hut. "You stated that soldiers and not bandits attacked my party?"
"So I did, and such is the case."
"What will they do with my mother?"
"They are under orders to spare life whenever possible. I expect that your mother will be captured and sent into South Ulfland as a slave."
"A slave? My mother?" Tatzel wrestled with the idea, then put it aside, as something too grotesque to be considered. She looked sidelong at Aillas, thinking: What an odd person! At times as grim and careful as an old man, and the next moment he appears little more than a boy. Amazing what turns up among one's slaves! The episode is most puzzling! Why did he pursue me so remorselessly? Does he hope to collect ransom? She asked: "What of you? Are you a soldier? Or a bandit?"
Aillas reflected a moment, then said: "I am more nearly a soldier than a bandit. But I am neither."
"What are you then?"
"As I told you before, I am a gentleman of Troicinet."
"I know nothing of Troicinet. Why did you wander so far from safety? Even in South Ulfland you were secure."
"I came partly to punish the Ska for their looting and slave-taking, and also, if the truth be known ..." Aillas stopped short. Looking into the flames, he decided to say no more.
Tatzel prompted him. " ‘And if the truth be known'?"
Aillas shrugged. "At Castle Sank I was forced into servitude. Often I watched you as you went here and there, and I came to admire you. I promised myself that someday I would return and we would meet on somewhat different terms. That is one of the reasons I am here."
Tatzel mused a moment. "You are most pertinacious. Very few slaves have escaped Castle Sank."
"I was recaptured and sent to Poelitetz," said Aillas. "I escaped from there as well."
"All this is confused and complex," said Tatzel crossly. "It is beyond both my comprehension and my interest. All I know is that you have caused me pain and inconvenience. Your slavish yearnings seem disgusting and truly insolent, and you show a gracelessness in bruiting them about."
Aillas laughed again. "Quite right! My hopes and daydreams now seem nothing less than callow when I put them into words. Still, I have only answered your question, and with candor. In the process I have clarified my own thinking. Or, better to say, I have been forced to admit certain things to myself."
Tatzel sighed. "Again you speak in riddles. I care nothing for their solving."
"It is simple enough. When the day-dreams and romances of two persons run alike, they become friends, or, as it may be, lovers. When this is not the case, they find no pleasure in each other's company. It is an easy concept, though but few take the trouble to understand it."
Tatzel looked into the fire. "Personally, I care not a fig for your mournings and vagaries. Explain them to persons whom you think they may fascinate."
"For the present I will keep them to myself," said Aillas.
After a few moments Tatzel stated: "I am surprised that your band dared venture so far from South Ulfland."
"The explanation again is simple. Since we came to attack Castle Sank, it was necessary to come at least so far."
Tatzel at last showed startlement. "And you were repelled?"
"To the contrary. We left the citadel intact only because we had brought no siege engines. We destroyed everything in sight, then rode off to do battle elsewhere."
Tatzel stared at him in wonder. "That is a cruel deed!"
"It is no more than long-delayed justice, and it is only a start."
Tatzel looked glumly into the flames. "And what do you propose to do with me?"
"I have impressed you into servitude after the Ska style. You are now my slave. Henceforth, conduct yourself accordingly."
"That is not possible!" cried Tatzel furiously. "I am Ska and of noble birth!"
"You must adjust yourself to the idea. It is a pity that you have broken your leg and so cannot obey my commands."
Tatzel, leaning on the table with chin on her two fists, scowled into the fire. Aillas rose to his feet and spread her cloak across the bed of grass. "Chew some of the willow bark, that you may sleep without pain."
"I want no more bark."
Aillas bent over her. "Put your arms around my neck and I will carry you to the bed."
After a moment's hesitation Tatzel obeyed, and Aillas transferred her to the bed of grass. He unlaced the thongs of her boots and drew them from her feet. "Are you comfortable?"
Tatzel looked up at him blank-faced as if she had not heard the question. Aillas turned away, and went outside to listen to the night.
The air was still. He heard the murmur of water in the river but otherwise silence. He returned into the hut. Tilting up the table, he placed it across the doorway, and wedged it in place with the bench. He banked the fire and after removing his own boots, lay down beside Tatzel and covered them over with his cloak. He looked toward the pale blotch of Tatzel's face. "Have you ever slept with a man before?"
"No."
Aillas gave a noncommittal grunt. "Thanks to the broken leg your virginity is secure. It would be too much distraction to hear you yelping in pain because your leg was hurting... . I suppose that I am a man of too many niceties."
Tatzel made a scornful sound but otherwise had nothing to say. She twisted about so that her back was toward Aillas, and presently he heard her regular breathing.
In the morning the sun rose into a cloudless day. Aillas brought hardtack and cheese from his wallet for their breakfast. Immediately after he took Tatzel to a secluded little glen fifty yards up the ravine behind the hut. Tatzel protested and grumbled but Aillas was firm. "These hills are not unknown to true bandits who are little more than wild animals. I lack bow and arrow and if there were more than two I could not protect you. If more than two Ska found us, I could not protect myself. So you must hide during the day until we leave this place."
"When will that be?" demanded Tatzel, somewhat peevishly.
"As soon as possible. Do not stir from here until I come for you. Unless several days go by; then you will know that I am dead."
Aillas returned to the valley. From a crook of driftwood and a pole cut from a birch sapling he contrived a crutch. He cut a strong willow branch, scraped and shaved it and produced a bow of no great quality, since willow lacked the strong resilience of ash or yew. Hickory and oak were too brittle; alder was too weak; horse-chestnut served tolerably well, but none grew to hand. He cut willow shoots for arrows and fletched them with ribbons of trailing cloth. Finally he contrived a fishing-spear by splitting one end of a birch pole into four prongs, sharpening each, wedging the prongs apart with a pebble, and lashing a foot from the end to prevent the pole from splitting along its whole length.