Blue arrow: Direction of travel of Nauca’s group when leaving area of Gulf of Gdansk.
08:42 (Baltic Time)
Thursday, October 16, 60 B.C.E.
Coastal fortified village on the Vistula Delta
Southern coast of the Baltic Sea, on the Gulf of Gdansk
Two days after arriving in Thorval’s village, Nauca, Igrid and Talya got back on their horses, their reserves of provisions replenished during their stay, and said goodbye to Friya, who raised both of her arms high while looking at the sky.
‘’MAY FRIJJO{33} PROTECT YOU DURING YOUR LONG TRIP, MY FRIENDS!’’
Nauca briefly twisted around in her saddle to wave at Friya, then trotted out of the wooden gate of the village with Igrid, Talya and their pack horses, loaded with big bags full of chunks of amber and with two bundles of furs bought from villagers. Once out of the gate, Nauca directed her horse Tamat to take the trail that, according to Friya, would lead them to the next village, a half day away. Thanks to the seeress, Nauca now knew that there weren’t any cities or even towns worthy of the name in the territories they were going to cross while heading west, just villages of various sizes and farms or groups of farms. Nauca waited until they were a good 400 meters from the village before looking at Igrid and Talya.
‘’So, what do you think, girls? That place was friendly enough and we were able to acquire a large quantity of amber for next to nothing but, trading-wise, that village was quite limited in what it could offer us. Most of the villagers didn’t have any coins to buy some of the merchandise we brought from Samarkand and those who bought something from us paid with either amber, smoked fish, furs, hard-boiled eggs or locally-made sausages. Not exactly what I would call a bustling trading center.’’
‘’Well, Friya did warn us to expect more of the same as we go westward.’’ replied Igrid. ‘’Those Goths are obviously still living very basic lives and their agricultural output is still limited, with much of their diet consisting of meat and fish. Their social system is also quite basic, something demonstrated by their said lack of cities. That for us means that we will have to play it blind during our trip, as we can’t say what kind of village chieftains we will meet on our way.’’
‘’That last part is actually a bit scary.’’ said Talya, who was riding behind Igrid’s horse. ‘’The thought that we will depend on the mood and goodwill of every village leader along our way is not reassuring. How will we know that we won’t be attacked and robbed or worse, while sleeping in a village?’’
‘’We won’t know, Talya, and that also worries me.’’ replied Nauca, thoughtful. ‘’Even though Friya told us that women are generally respected in this country, we do carry what would be considered by the local men a fortune in goods and equipment. Maybe we should actually camp out in the forest, out of sight of villages and farms, and only go there fully armed and armored, ready to trade but also to fight if need be.’’
‘’I agree with that!’’ said at once Igrid, her expression somber. ‘’I was once forced into slavery and I have no intentions of letting anyone reduce me to slavery again. You do remember what Friya told us about the local slave trade?’’
‘’Yes, I do! Along with amber and furs, slaves are the other main trading commodity in this region.’’
The three young women then fell silent while riding their horses westward, reflecting mentally on the various dangers and risks to be found ahead of them.
While roughly following the coastline while on the trail, the trio rode through a near-endless, thick forest swept by a cold, humid breeze. Thankfully, they were well equipped for that kind of weather, having fur coats and hats and also wearing well-made boots produced in Samarkand. Rare were the cultivated fields they encountered on the way, most of them tended by only one or two farms. The farmers they saw either kept their distances or retreated to their houses on seeing the weapons they were carrying. By the time that the evening approached and time came to stop for the night, Nauca’s mind was made about how and where to camp: out of sight of the local people. She ended up choosing a small clearing off the trail, next to a small stream. Stepping down from Tamat, Nauca’s first action was to lead her horse to the stream, so that it could drink to its content, imitated by Igrid and Talya. Next, they tied their horse to nearby trees, using long ropes which would allow their mounts to freely graze the long grass of the clearing, and unloaded them, piling their saddles, bundles and bags next to the spot chosen to erect their tent. That tent, a conical one made of wooden poles and a sewn envelope made of thin, water-resistant animal skin, took them only minutes to erect. Once it and their other, smaller ‘A-frame’ tent were up, the young women transferred their bags of supplies and merchandises inside the smaller tent, so that they would be protected from both rain and thieves. As per a routine they had adopted early on during their trip, they made a campfire right in the center of their tent, keeping it small and piling rocks around it to contain the flames. Talya sighed with delight when the smell of tea being boiled filled the tent.
‘’Aah! I think that I now can’t live without a good cup of hot tea every day, especially after a hard day of riding in the cold.’’
‘’I must say that I was conquered by tea once I first drank a cup of it, years ago.’’ said Nauca while getting ready to serve tea to her two companions. ‘’Hopefully, those Germanic tribesmen will also appreciate it and will then want to buy some of our tea.’’
‘’Well, Friya and Thorvald seemed to like it enough.’’ replied Igrid. ‘’I wonder if those Celts Friya told us about would also appreciate tea. Friya did say that the Celts had a more advanced culture than that of the Goths.’’
‘’She did say that and her willingness to acknowledge that was a testament to her open-mindedness.’’ said softly Nauca. ‘’What she told me about the lands around and beyond her village proved very useful to me in order to write down notes and annotate my sketched map of our voyage.’’
‘’And she was in turn quite happy when you let her make a copy of your map, Nauca. By the way, I am impressed by your writing and drawing abilities. Who taught you those skills?’’
‘’I learned to write in Greek in Tanais, before I started travelling with caravans. As for learning to draw maps, I learned that from Liu Han, who had been producing maps for years while living in Pataliputra, using his vast knowledge and the information he gleaned from the caravan masters he spoke with. Liu Han is a true genius and we are damn lucky to have met him in the first place and even luckier to have been able to convince him to go with us and Babita to Samarkand.’’
‘’Babita…’’, said softly Talya after taking her first sip of hot tea. ‘’The poor girl was treated horribly by her family after we saved her from those bandits. Thankfully, she now seems fairly happy to live in Samarkand, close to Liu Han.’’
‘’Don’t laugh, but I believe that Babita is also of high intelligence, not quite as much as Liu Han but still close. Liu Han quickly noticed that and started at once to teach her many new things. In fact, Liu told me before our departure from Samarkand that Babita was learning Mandarin Chinese at an impressive speed. Liu seemed to be quite fond of her.’’
Those last words made Igrid chuckle.
‘’Fond is not the word I would use to describe Liu’s feelings towards Babita. Their relations seem to be quite, uh, close.’’
‘’Good for them!’’ replied Nauca, shrugging her shoulders. ‘’They both deserve some happiness in this hard life. Well, you girls better go to sleep as soon as we will have eaten supper: I will take the first guard shift. We still have weeks of travelling ahead of us and we need to be well rested tomorrow morning.’’
02:25 (Baltic Time)
Friday, October 17, 60 B.C.E.
Forest west of the Bay of Gdansk
Goth territory, Germania
As per Nauca’s rules about sentry duty, Igrid was wearing her lamellar steel armored vest and her helmet while doing her night guard shift outside the group’s tent. She also wore her padded gambeson under her armored vest, both to help cushion blows if she ever got into a fight and to ward off the cold, damp air of the night. Since the temperature was barely above the freezing point, she also had put on leather gloves, thus was barely bothered by the cold. Thankfully, it wasn’t raining tonight, contrary to many of the days they had travelled through this region. As a Bastarnae girl, she had learned to endure the elements and to survive in the hills and forests of her native land, so this night guard duty was no challenge for her. Rather than the elements, she was much more concerned about the possibility that roaming bandits or a band of wandering Germanic warriors could find and attack her camp. A sinister owl then reminded her in a hurry about another possible threat in this forest.
‘’Wolves! Shit!’’
A second, then a third owl sounded off as she hurried back inside the tent and shouted an alarm.
‘’WAKE UP! WAKE UP! WOLVES ARE NEAR OUR CAMP!’’
Not waiting for Nauca and Talya to fully wake up, Igrid then rushed back out of the tent, where she got closer to their tied-up horses. They had also heard and sensed the approach of the wolves and were now quite nervous and scared, prompting Igrid into speaking to them in a reassuring tone while gently patting them.
‘’Calm down! Calm down, girls! We are here to protect you.’’
Staying near the horses, Igrid then scanned visually the dark forest surrounding them, while listening intensely in order to figure out from where the owls were coming. What she perceived then made her swear.
‘’Hell! They are all around us. We must have a whole pack of wolves surrounding us. Nauca and Talya better hurry up.’’
She then decided to stay near their horses, both to protect and reassure them and because they were what was most precious to her and her friends after their own lives: if they lost their horses here, in unknown territory, then their chances of ever returning safely to Samarkand would be drastically diminished, on top of putting an end to their trading voyage.
‘’YOU BETTER HURRY, GIRLS: THEY ARE ALL AROUND OUR CAMP NOW.’’
With the low visibility provided by a half moon shining through a cover of low clouds, bows and arrows would be of limited effectiveness and range here at night, so she pointed out her Kontos lance, firmly holding it with both hands. Igrid tensed up when she suddenly saw a pair of moving red dots among the trees, maybe some fifty meters away. Then, she saw another pair of red dots, then a third and fourth one, prompting her to shout again.
‘’THEY ARE NOW WITHIN FIFTY PACES OF THE CAMP! HURRY UP, GIRLS!’’
She then had again to calm down their horses, which were now close to panic. That was when she decided to take the initiative. Running to a position in front of the horses, she aggressively pointed her lance while shouting as loud as she could.
‘’SHOO! GO AWAY, YOU BEASTS, OR YOU WILL TASTE THE TIP OF MY LANCE!’’
Her defiant stance seemed to make the wolves hesitate for a moment, despite their clear numerical superiority. To Igrid’s relief, Nauca finally came out of their tent, wearing her armored vest, helmet and weapons but not much else. Nauca then grabbed her own lance, planted in the ground near the entrance of the tent, as Talya also got out of the tent.
‘’WE BETTER CONCENTRATE ON DEFENDING OUR HORSES, NAUCA.’’
‘’I AGREE! TALYA, GRAB YOUR LANCE AND POST YOURSELF AT THE BACK OF OUR HORSES. PROTECT OUR BACKS!’’
Talya, who was holding her crossbow, did fetch one of her two lances and took position at the back of their horses but kept her crossbow in her hands, loading it in a hurry after planting her lance next to her. She barely had time to put in place a bolt before the wolves’ owls turned into ferocious snarls, with a good dozen pairs of red dots then rushing at the camp through the trees. Talya was the first to counter-attack, raising her crossbow and aiming it quickly before shooting her bolt. The leading wolf running at her got hit in its chest and fell on the ground, dying. Talya then barely had time to grab her lance and point it before two more wolves charged her, their white canines visible in the dark. Despite her fear, she held her ground and skewered the nearest beast as it was about to jump on her. However, she didn’t have time to extract her lance from the dead wolf before its companion jumped on her with a ferocious snarl. The shock from the beast’s assault made her backpedal and she would have fallen on her back if not for the fact that she then collided with the back end of her own horse. She cried in pain as she felt the teeth of the wolf partially bite into her left arm but, thankfully, the sleeves of her riveted chainmail vest prevented the beast’s teeth from fully biting into her arm and possibly rip it off. With adrenaline flowing from fear and despair, Talya grabbed her dagger at her belt and stabbed the wolf biting her, digging her blade deep into its neck and killing it nearly instantly. With the beast then falling on the ground and taking its last breath, Talya hurried to extirpate her lance from the second wolf she had killed, then returned to near the horses, ready to face more wolves. However, no other beasts came her way, prompting her to shout out to Nauca.
‘’OUR BACK IS NOW CLEAR OF WOLVES! WHAT DO I DO NOW?’’
‘’STAY THERE, IN CASE ANY WOLVES TRY TO GO AROUND US!’’ replied Nauca as she skewered her first wolf with her lance. With her lance now stuck in the dying beast, she drew in a hurry her sword, a long blade made out of Hinduwani{34} steel, the best and toughest metal one could get around India and Samarkand. One swing of it was enough to chop the head off the second wolf which attacked her, followed by a jab of her sword that pierced the throat of her third attacker and by a slash that killed a fourth wolf. On her part, Igrid followed up her first lance jab with a quick second one, hitting in succession two wolves, before switching to her battle-axe, retrieved in the Khyber Pass from a dead Kushan warrior. Its Hinduwani steel blade, swung down with all her strength, hit a third wolf on the head, splitting it open and killing the beast at once. With more than half of their pack now dead in mere seconds, the remaining wolves hesitated, then ran away in a hasty retreat through the woods.
‘’KEEP YOUR POSITIONS, GIRLS: THEY STILL COULD RETURN FOR A SECOND TRY. ARE YOU ALRIGHT?’’
‘’I’M INTACT!’’ answered Igrid, who was then followed by Talya.
‘’I GOT BITTEN ON MY LEFT ARM BUT MY CHAINMAIL SLEEVE PREVENTED THE WORST, NAUCA. I GUESS THAT I WILL END UP WITH ONLY BITE MARKS.’’
On hearing that, Nauca hurried to Talya and gently pulled back the left sleeve of her chainmail vest, then examined closely her arm as best as the darkness let her do.
‘’I don’t see blood, Talya, just bite marks. Are they painful?’’
‘’Quite! However, the pain is bearable.’’
‘’I will examine your arm again, once it is daylight. We don’t want any infection to set in.’’
Talya grimly nodded at that: infection was one of the biggest killers after a battle, with few ways known to combat it once a wound got infected.
‘’What do we do now, Nauca?’’
‘’First, we pile up those dead wolves close to our tent’s entrance: with luck, their sight and smell will deter other wolves from attacking again.’’
‘’Or could attract another beast to our camp.’’ sneakily suggested Talya, making Nauca wince.
‘’True but I’m presently more worried about wolves than anything else. Once we have piled up those dead beasts, Igrid and I will go sleep, while you take your turn on guard duty. In the morning, we will examine your arm again and then will start skinning and curing those wolves. Wolf pelts make excellent winter clothes and will be nice additions to the bundles of fur we already have.’’
‘’Well, if it goes on like this, our trading trip could become a hunting and trapping trip instead.’’ said Talya in a joking manner, making Nauca smile.
‘’I would see nothing wrong with that, Talya. This actually reminds me of my old hunting and trapping trips in the Taiga{35} of Sarmatia, while I was a young teenager. Besides, furs are always in high demand and fetch good prices, so that won’t detract much from our original purpose of trading. Also, we could at the same time get some fresh meat to eat. This forest probably shelters a mix of bears, boars and deer, plus smaller animals like rabbits and squirls.’’
‘’Then, hunting we will do! I especially like boar meat.’’
‘’Me too! Now, let’s get to work and pile up those dead beasts.’’
Thankfully for Talya, morning came without further incidents and Nauca was able to examine again her left arm with the help of daylight. She was more than relieved when Nauca found no breaks in her skin, something that was going to prevent possible infection in her arm. While still painful, she could live with those bite marks, which would eventually fade and disappear with time. Then came time to skin the ten dead wolves and scrape their hides, an essential job in order to prevent the hides from rotting away. That hard work took all of the day, with them finishing it only as darkness fell. Another day and night were needed to let the skins dry at least partly before the pelts could be rolled up into a bundle and loaded on one of their ex-Roman pack horses. Only then did the trio resume its journey westward.
10:36 (Baltic Time)
Monday, October 27, 60 B.C.E.
East bank of the river Oder, near site of modern-day Zcezcin (Poland).
Territory of the Rugii Tribe, Germania
A light snow was falling when Nauca and her friends arrived on the east bank of the Oder River, emerging from a forest which bordered it. On both banks of the river, Nauca was able to see a village next to the water’s edge, something that she found encouraging.
‘’Look at those two villages, built facing each other from across this river. With luck, we will be able to find and use a ferry to cross to the western bank.’’
‘’What if those two villages hate each other’s guts?’’ replied Igrid. ‘’The tribe on the other side of this river is probably not the same tribe settled on this side.’’
‘’That could we be but we won’t know until we go to the riverbank and ask if there is a ferry. If we are told that there are no ferries despite these two villages being in sight of each other, then the chances are that they are hostile to each other.’’
‘’That sounds logical.’’ said Talya. ‘’Let’s go forward and find out.’’
‘’My thought exactly!’’ replied Nauca before urging her horse forward.
As they got nearer to the village and the river, Nauca saw something that made her smile.
‘’I SEE A RAFT ATTACHED TO THIS BANK, NEXT TO THE VILLAGE.’’
‘’Thank the gods!’’ said Igrid in response. ‘’Searching for one could have taken us days.’’
‘’Let’s accelerate a bit, so that we could arrive at this ferry before someone else.’’
The trio, along with its pack horses, thus accelerated to a canter, just short of gallop. They did arrive at the ferryboat before anyone else and Nauca was then able to eye it critically, to judge if it could safely carry all of their horses. It was a simple raft made of round logs attached together and propelled by four long oars but it was large and looked sturdy enough. It had a central mast meant to support a canvas sail, plus a tent next to the mast and a wooden handrail along its sides.
‘’Igrid, could you ask one of those ferrymen how much they are charging to carry people and horses?’’
‘’Sure!’’ said the Bastarnae girl before speaking in Germanic with the older ferryman, who seemed to be in charge of the raft. She then translated into Greek what the man told her.
‘’He is asking for twelve silver pieces or the equivalent for us and our horses.’’
‘’One silver piece per person and per horse… That sounds fair to me. I will pay him.’’
Getting off her horse and grabbing its bridle, Nauca got on the ferryboat before giving twelve silver drachmas to the boatman, making him smile. The man then waved to Igrid and Talya to come aboard as well with their horses. Once they were aboard, the elder boatman gave orders in Germanic to his five crewmembers, who then pushed the raft away from the shore with their long oars before starting to row towards the western shore of the river. As the raft was crossing the river, its pilot spoke in Germanic to Igrid, who listened to him before translating his words in Greek for the benefit of her two companions.
‘’He says that the people on the other side of the river are from a different tribe than that of the Rugii, who live on the eastern side of it. Those on the western banks are from the Suardone Tribe and they are very suspicious about strangers.’’
‘’Great! Another bunch of xenophobes!’’ replied Nauca. ‘’Well, we will do our best to stay polite with them but do not hand over your weapons if they ask for that. I will not make myself defenseless and nor should you too.’’
‘’Oh, we learned our lesson with the Romans, Nauca.’’ said Talya.
They then fell silent for the rest of the trip, until the raft bumped against the sandy shore and a crewman jumped out to tie the ferryboat to a nearby tree as five armed Germanic warriors approached. Nauca didn’t like the way they were looking suspiciously at her and at her two friends. However, those suspicious looks changed into stunned looks when the warriors realized that they were female, with their apparent leader growling in a voice full of surprise.
‘’Women? Armed and traveling by themselves? What is this?’’
Igrid then took on her to answer the warrior’s rhetorical question.
‘’We are Amazons and we are on a trading voyage, collecting amber in order to bring it to Samarkand and sell it there.’’
‘’Amazons? Samarkand? Where is that?’’
‘’Far to the Southeast of here…VERY far!’’
The leading warrior, who wore baggy pants and a deerskin vest and who was armed with a spear, a dagger and a hexagonal shield but had no armor of any kind, eyed with envy the sets of armor worn by the three young women, making a remark to his four companions.
‘’Look at all this armor those girls are wearing. They must have bought them with money.’’
‘’No, we got them from defeated enemies we killed in combat. We are Amazons, not simple peddlers. Now, what do you want?’’
The warrior was taken aback by that direct response from Igrid and eyed her with a bit of irritation.
‘’What we want is to collect the usual toll we ask from all the ones who cross the river near our village.’’
‘’Fair enough! How much is your ‘toll’?’’
‘’One silver coin per head, including animals. You can pay with coins or with the equivalent in objects.’’
Igrid translated that to Nauca, who then stepped forward while taking twelve silver drachmas from her purse.
‘’At this rate, my purse will soon be flat if we keep hitting rivers along our way. Here you go, big brute.’’
Of course, Igrid refrained from translating her last words then. The Suardone warrior took the money, then nodded his head once.
‘’You may pass, women.’’
Igrid did not reply to that, instead getting back on her horse and taking the lead ahead of Nauca and Talya. The five warriors watched them trot away with their pack horses before looking at each other.
‘’Have you ever seen women warriors before, men?’’
‘’They may be armed and armored, but are they real warriors? I don’t think so!’’ replied one of the Suardone, making his companions nod their heads in approval at his words.