Eventually they began to see people, stragglers moving along the goat paths and game trails Finn had found. Small families dispossessed by conflict, some with little more than the rags on their backs, and others with an animal or two, packs of possessions, and downcast eyes hollowed by what they had seen. Most fled at the sight of the armored company, abandoning their animals with an alacrity born of desperate practice.
Here and there, as signs of civilization increased so did signs of atrocity. Hundreds of victims of Mongol plank-crushing lay in shallow, dug-out ditches, the planks long since retrieved for structures or firewood, the corpses left naked, worm-eaten, and shriveled under the sun, their jaws and sunken eyes lost in half-amused, unending screams. Once, they passed an astonishing pyramid of skulls, stacked carefully atop a kurgan—a burial mound of the ancients—to give testament to the power of the conquerors.
The Khans were the masters of Rus, and the Shield-Brethren were riding headlong into its greatest city. Yet Illarion seemed to think, for all the foreboding that hung about him, that they stood a chance therein. Cnán could not help but remember the way Illarion had frightened off a group of Mongols when they had first found him by pretending to be a ghost, back from the dead.
There was a grim determination about the Ruthenian, a grinding set to his jaw, as they drew near the city that Cnán had seen in many a warrior returning home to a place that was no longer home, but knew it could not be avoided. Perhaps more than any of the others, save Istvan, Illarion understood the toll the Mongols would reap upon the conquered.
The bare space on the side of his head offered mute testament to a mortal awareness not all that different from the gaping smiles on the crushed corpses in their ditches. Cnán tried to take what comfort she could from the knowledge that at least the man who was guiding them knew the path well.
And what of this path? Feronantus had refused to tell them any more of what he had learned from Percival, and while the Brethren—after the initial discussion—were stoic in their acceptance of their leader’s decision, she was not held to the same traditions. She hadn’t spoken to any of them about what she had seen in the woods, nor had she seen or heard Percival speak of the vision.
In the lands of the Great Khan, the Mongolians had shamans to whom they went for aid and advice, and she had seen more than one of these mystics perform their strange animistic ceremonies where they were afforded glimpses of other realms and deities, or so they professed. She herself would profess to having seen too much of the cruelty and barbarity of men—and how much they enjoyed it—to believe the claims of divine guidance or inspiration in their actions, but at the same time, she did believe in the presence of a greater spirit. It was what lay at the core of being a Binder, and so she could not completely disregard what she had seen.
The Shield-Brethren had no trouble adopting the mantle of Christian piety, for it was not unlike the true faith they held in their hearts, but she was beginning to see how deep the roots of their belief went. She thought of the orange lilies that would flood the hillsides in the spring. The roots thrived belowground, and every year, for a brief time, they grew new stalks and flowers.
Was Percival’s vision a stalk that was soon to flower? Did it flow from his sense of honor—held dearer to him than life itself? The first few times he had spoken of this honor, she had snorted and rolled her eyes, but since then, she had seen him act under its power—several times at mortal peril.
The memory of him pulling her from the path of the Mongols and slinging her across his saddle, defending her even when his horse fell, weighed on her. She stole a glance at him as he rode, some yards away, on a steed taken from their enemies. For all Percival’s skill in the saddle, the animal would never be as responsive or as swift and powerful as his lost Tonnerre.
Was it honor or grief that drove him? Should she feel pity or sympathy? She looked away, unable to resolve the confusion in her head and heart. In many ways, the unforgiving and savaged terrain of Rus was easier to understand.
When she had come west across the Great Khan’s empire, Cnán had taken care to avoid cities, except where absolutely necessary. She had seen, on more than one occasion, what was left behind by the Mongolian Horde as it swept across the plains. Like Illarion, she was prepared for there to be nothing left but the shattered remains of the crown jewel of Rus. Still, she was taken aback by the vista laid out before them when they crested a rise that brought them within view of the city’s southern walls.