The trek through the duchy became more relaxed after that. Davina could tell the child felt more comfortable around her after a contractual relationship had been established. She didn't have to doubt her intentions anymore, since she now knew the other party had something to lose if the agreement was not kept.
As per usual, Davina stayed out of sight as much as possible, while Neera was in charge of social interactions. This worked to their advantage, with the girl's innocent face appearing harmless, earning them any information they needed easily.
"Yes, sweetheart, you have to continue down this road north for a few more days and then you'll finally reach Vinoa."
A stall vendor smiled at the small girl in front of her shop. She could see her clothes were travel worn and her hair was matted. Her furtive glances around her told her how scared she was. And she understood why. It was not very safe for young girls to walk alone these days.
Thankfully, the Lord of the duchy seemed to have stopped his raids among the towns in search for young maidens after a big uproar in the capital, Singre. Something about nobles that had stolen money being publicly hanged, and the relief funds finally being directed at the right places, although nothing really changed in the small town of Juez. There had been no food supplies, no money nor help in what had been the end of a harsh winter. With all the crops being taken, many people began selling their children, and every day arrived the news from the loved ones at the front. Some were dead, some were alive, others crippled while whole families moved to the military posts in search of even a trace of those whom had disappeared.
With the lack of control over the populace after putting all the efforts towards the war, and the lack of presence of the Duke's knights, everyone slept with windows and doors tightly shut, as the crime rate skyrocketed higher than ever before.
She had even heard one of her neighbors' daughters went missing a couple of days ago, only for her body to be found naked and face down on the river a couple of miles downstream from Juez. She had been no older than nine.
"Can I ask you something too, young lady?"
The child nervously nodded.
"May I know why you are going to Vinoa? No young lady should be traveling alone around here with how things are going these days."
Neera directed her eyes to the ground, with her chin trembling.
"I... I'm just looking for my elder brother. He left with all the able men from our village to the front a couple of months ago, but we haven't heard from him since. We heard many injured people come from the front to Vinoa after the city hall was transformed into a military hospital."
The woman's eyes shone with pity.
"What about your parents?"
"Father left for the front too a couple of years ago, but..."
The girl could not go any further.
"Oh, you poor thing. And you mother?"
"She's very sick. That's why I'm looking for my brother."
A stray tear fell down the woman's wrinkly cheek. Everyone around here had lost someone to the war. For her, the battle had taken away her youngest along with her old husband who could barely walk with a cane when they made them march away. All she had left now was her oldest son, who's whereabouts she didn't know ever since a missive arrived informing her that he would depart further south a couple of months ago, and her daughter that helped her man the shop so they could feed themselves.
Wiping the moistness from her eyes, the woman grabbed a potato from one of the shelves.
"Here, child. Take this. Don't let my daughter see you carrying it when you leave, and may God help you in your travels. I wish you a prompt reunion with your brother."
Neera quietly thanked her and walked away quickly, vanishing between the silhouettes of the passerby's in front of the stall. After walking away from the town of Juez into a forest she was approached by a hooded figure who soon pulled away the fabric covering her face.
"So? How did it go?"
"Good. We have a few more days on this road before we finally arrive."
"It took longer than I expected."
"Well, yes. Although the Duke's forces are still gathering majorly at Singre, we have to remain cautious because of the increasing presence of the military. There seems to be an outpost on the road, so we might have to take a detour around it."
"Alright. Let's depart in the morning. Are you ready?"
"Yes."
Without any more words between them, Neera launched towards Davina, with a fist ready to strike her face, but just before it could reach her she swiftly shifted to the side in a barely perceptible movement that allowed her to escape by a hair's breath.
The Ronna then stretched her leg out in an attempt to sweep Neera off her feet, but the girl soon sidestepped, having been through this before.
Their flurries of movements became increasingly faster, seamlessly transitioning from one position to the other. Rather than the usual method of fighting, with stable stances and attacks, the true Ronna's way of fighting used every part of the body in order to minimize the effort made to move the weight of the limbs from one place to another. This implied a much higher level of creativity and reaction speed, while at the same time achieving better results.
This was why Neera had to endure the grueling and painful initial training, to prepare her body to move in ways it had never been able to before. She still had a long way to go, being nowhere near Davina's graceful dance, but even she herself could notice an improvement from the weeks prior as they trained every day while they traveled.
Davina turned quickly, catching Neera off guard as she was aiming for a strike and resulting in a powerful blow being delivered to her side, sending her tumbling towards a tree. The pain was blinding, rendering her paralyzed for a moment. By the time she gathered her wits Davina already stood in front of her with a dagger to her neck.
The warrior stepped back with a satisfied smile. While Neera barely managed to ask through ragged breaths.
"So? Ho-how did I do?"
"Better. I can see you have improved."
"But I still need to learn more before it's too late."
They both frowned at that.
The current training regime had been proposed after they agreed to travel together. There was a limited window of time in which Davina would still be able-bodied enough to teach Neera before they both were left to mostly rely on the girl's skills to cross the mountainous region after her pregnancy reduced much of the Ronna's movement. They also had to arrive at the Ronna territory before the birth of the baby and the change of the season, which would bring an increase in the armed forces surrounding the pass since not many people from either side tried to cross during winter, making the security more lax. This meant they had to cross right before spring arrived, just after most of the snow had melted.
Given they didn't know the timing of the baby's conception, they were hoping the birth wouldn't arrive before then.
"We'll make it. Don't worry."
Davina offered an encouraging smile, which the girl did not reciprocate.
"Anyway, let's go."
They gathered the things from their provisionary camp, with Davina carrying most of the burden while Neera walked ahead with a map they had purchased in her hands.
So far they had not had any problems with financing themselves thanks to Davina's precise knife throwing skills which provided them with food. They even managed to make a profit from their game, allowing them to change their clothes every so often to avoid being recognizable on their way.
They walked through the forest, following a parallel path to the road while avoiding being seen, stopping to sleep and eat before continuing once more.
Davina felt her chest getting heavier and her back sorer every day, noticing more and more changes in her body with a mix of emotions pressing down her throat. She didn't even want to think about what was to come. The image of her beloved rejecting her child was too harsh to bear, but nor even close enough to the pain that made her sight blurry every time she recalled the fact that she was unsure whether he was still alive.
He might have been caught as well just like her, perishing in the dark basement where Neera got all her scars.
The marks on the girl's skin were now mostly covered by dirt and grime, which they had purposely left on themselves in order to disguise any distinctive features that might make them recognizable. People tended to ignore and avoid dirty looking individuals since they tended to be dangerous to be around, being the most desperate right now.
Davina looked at the canopy of branches and leaves covering her head. Autumn had bared the bark of the non-perennial trees, letting the sun timidly shine through the heavy clouds. Thankfully they didn't feel the cold with their thick clothes, but not the same could be said for every traveler they saw on the road through the trees.
Groups of shivering people gathered around a dwindling bone fire were not an unregular sight, along with medical caravans from the front that silently made their way through despite being comprised by dozens of people. The smell of death accompanied them every time.
The Ronna had a hard time feeling pity for those people since they bore the same uniform as the men who...
She inhaled the cold air into her lungs and stopped her train of thought. There was no use in thinking about that now.
She was about to strike up a conversation when a scream from the road drew her attention.
"No! Please stop! We'll give you everything, just please don't take her away!"
A begging mother kneeled on the ground next to what Davina assumed was her unconscious husband while a group of armed men grabbed a young girl by the hair, pulling her away from her siblings huddled behind their mother.
"Mommy, don't let them take me away! I don't want to go! It hurts!"
Tears streamed down the tender cheeks as her small nails scratched at her captor's hands, trying to free her burning scalp.
"Stay quiet, you swine!"
A hard slap quietened her screams for help, while more tears pooled from her eyes which were stuck on her sobbing mother.
"Please! Please, I beg you! Please don't- don't take her away!"
The rest of the men finished gathering anything of value from the bags the family carried before signaling to the man to bring the child over and leave.
Before the man could move any further a knife lodged itself into his throat. Blood gurgled out from his lips, staining the young girl's face.
Screams burst from her mouth once more, this time shrill in terror as she stared at the hooded figure that appeared behind the man's falling frame. Davina retrieved her knife with a sickening crunch and sprinted towards the rest of the robbers, swiftly attacking them.
The girl could hear the sound of the knife cutting flesh while the men's agonizing screams carved themselves into her brain until a pair of silver eyes appeared in her view as a pair of warm hands cupped her ears, blocking the sound of the carnage all around her.
She couldn't hear what the stranger was saying, but her lips clearly mouthed:
'Close your eyes.'
And as if under a spell she did, escaping from the horrid situation she was in to a world of warm darkness, with the sound of the sea in her ears from the pulse in the warm hands that surrounded her head. Her remaining tears fell freely, while her face became serene.
Davina quickly finished what she was doing and kneeled next to the mother and children, inspecting the fallen father. She could tell his head had been struck with a blunt object from the crimson stream that wet his brow, and she was about to inspect further when a loud voice stopped her.
"Don't touch him!"
The mother's red eyes looked straight at her in terrified fury, reaching for her husband to pull him away.
Sighing, Davina stood up. She then turned to look at Neera.
"Let's go."
Neera nodded, letting her hands fall to her sides.
"You should hide in the trees while he wakes up. If you can, move as far away from these bodies as you can and continue travelling away from the road."
Those were her parting words to the traumatized family. When she turned she felt the girl's stinging gaze on her back.
Davina took one last glance at the mother who now cradled her crying children in her arms, rocking her body back and forth to soothe them, before disappearing amongst the tree line.