Chapter 15 Lessons Learned
LESSONS LEARNED
The arrow penetrated the head portion of a roughly human-shaped mannequin made of burlap sacks. The impact rustled with old leaves, dry grass, and paper with which the wraith-like apparatus was stuffed.
“An excellent shot, Albert, well done,” I told him with my best attempt at a smile, reciprocated by an equally insincere grin.
My praise had been drowned out by the loud cheers of Albert’s ten Hungarian pals whom he had met on the trail.
Apparently, their common nationality was a reason enough to become inseparable friends.
Despite the fact that Albert had arrived at Ascu with Einar, Finn, and Russell, he now spent more time with his compatriots.
Through them, I learnt that ‘Albert’ was his surname that everyone, but the Hungarians, used to address him, owing to the fact that his given name was unpronounceable to the general population.
I hesitated, unsure whether I shouldn’t repeat my praise, but eventually moved on towards the next group and their target.
Albert was easily one of my best pupils, and yet I took very little pleasure in his progress.
If Einar wasn’t around, he habitually interrupted my lessons with thinly veiled criticism of my teaching plan.
Some of his friends proved even more of a disturbance, laughing at what I could only assume from the accompanying gestures to be lewd remarks about my figure.
The late August sun shone hard and mighty in the cloudless skies, and the air around me was fragrant with warm resin from the nearby copse. It wasn’t too hot this high up in the mountains, but I could still feel the already scorched top of my head burning from the exposure.
I had spent the better portion of the past six weeks teaching archery to thirty volunteers, which was a number much higher than I had anticipated.
I had expected that hardly anyone would be eager to risk their lives outside the safe boundaries of the settlement.
But clearly, I had underestimated what effect a prolonged confinement in one place could have on mostly young, fit men.
“You’re aiming for too long,” I told Einar as I passed him by. “You have a strong arm and so can mostly get away with it, but even you’ll get tired eventually if you keep doing this all day long.”
He nodded at me gracefully, his skin pink with mild sunburn.
He was becoming a solid archer not only due to his immense strength but also because he took my instructions more to heart than most. I had worried about him not taking too kindly to our dynamic being subverted in my lessons, but he seemed to go out of his way to show me he welcomed my criticism as a chance to improve.
He couldn’t attend every day, though, and I was secretly glad for it.
Having him around objectively made things easier, as even Albert behaved reasonably well in his presence.
However, I had become aware of an uncontrollable compulsion to follow him with my eyes any time he was near, as if my sight was bound to him by an invisible thread of attraction.
He made it very hard to concentrate on my other trainees.
I had known infatuation before, the sensation of the world around lighting up in the presence of a desired person and going grey in his absence.
But I had never experienced such an obsession as with Einar.
Without him near, my world didn’t just go colourless but rather ceased to exist altogether.
“You, on the other hand, aren’t aiming at all,” I pointed out as I stopped next to Finlay, trying to ignore the heat that had crept up my neck and face and had little to do with the weather.
“Shooting fast will be important, yes, but you will gain no advantage if you can’t hit your target four out of five times.
Remember, they’re practically oblivious to pain and don’t go into shock the way healthy people do.
You need to shoot to kill, not just to cause injuries.
The heart is good. Headshots are even better. ”
“I’ll ne’er manage to hit them in the eye, lass,” Finlay objected.
“You don’t need to! The arrow will pierce the skull anywhere, even if it is a bit harder to pry out after. I only aim for the eyes because ...” I trailed off, realising I had no idea how to finish the sentence. “Well, for fun, to be honest.”
My admission earned me a chorus of laughter and the honorary designation of the ‘biggest badass’ awarded to me by Josh.
There were ten identical burlap sack targets on the parched plain.
Walking from one group of trainees to the next would in my mind be forever linked to the routine nature of those days.
Breakfast, morning practice, lunch, afternoon practice, dinner, and then an evening spent with Einar, almost invariably engaged in another kind of physical pursuit.
It seemed a paradox that a global pandemic causing a full-scale societal collapse could lead to my days being so unvaried, and yet I wasn’t unhappy about it.
Watching the progress of my students, I felt like I served a purpose more than I ever had in my life.
The time to leave our sanctuary and face the new world would come soon enough.
“Your feet are too close together, Lucas.” I smiled kindly at a young blond lad of about eighteen, and he returned my smile readily.
“Thank you, Miss,” he said, and adjusting his stance, he fired an arrow, missing only by a few inches.
Lucas was only eighteen but looked even younger with his lean body and delicate bones.
Earlier, I had been obliged to tell some volunteers that I would not train them, seeing as they lacked any natural aptitude for archery.
Lucas came close to being one of them but managed to gradually improve to an acceptable level of skill.
I knew he would never be great, but neither would he be a liability to the others.
The truth was that I had had a soft spot for Lucas ever since Einar had decided to make an example of him the previous week.
Contrary to expectations, conflicts in the settlement were primarily of domestic character, usually centred around disagreements on using shared resources or someone not adhering to the cleaning schedule of common areas.
After witnessing Einar deal with several of those quarrels, I quickly understood just why people followed him so readily.
He was unafraid to acknowledge the reasoning of both opposing parties before contributing his own arguments for deciding one way or the other.
He made a point of never looking unsure—undecided, yes, but never uncertain.
For some time, the occupants of the main lodgings building had complained that its younger inhabitants were being loud at night.
These delinquents included Maya, the girl who had shown us the settlement, and her boyfriend, whose existence I was shocked to learn about, given the strange tension between her and Einar.
But the main culprits were a group of young Frenchmen consisting of Louis, Theo, Jules, and Lucas.
Asking them to be considerate caused them to cease in their activities for no longer than one night.
I could already tell Einar was brewing for something from the way he walked into the hall at dinnertime a few days later.
Brisk, his features hard-set, eyes dark.
He marched over to his central place at the head table, closely followed by Russ, Finlay, Albert, and Jean-Luc.
Whilst the others sat down, he fixed his eyes on Lucas and his lot, observing them coldly and very pointedly.
Everyone went so quiet that the crackling of embers in the fireplace became audible.
Einar then declared without much preamble that the offenders were not to be given their evening meal for the next three days, listed their names, and asked them to leave the hall.
A few shocked exclamations filled the air. Given our diminishing supplies and resulting meagre portions, skipping even a single meal was a harsh penalty.
“Fuck you, man, no way.” Standing up, Lucas protested with vehemence at odds with his mellow appearance.
He was pale with hair like dandelion fluff, and generally an unproblematic member of the settlement, despite his proclivity for loud late-night entertainment.
Einar glared at him, the whole of him still in the way a predator would be right before lurching at its prey.
My heart sped up uncomfortably at the scene. I liked Lucas for his mild manners and touching boyishness.
“We’ll cut down on the noise, okay?” Sensing danger, Lucas adjusted his tone to a more conciliatory variety. “I’m sorry, everyone, won’t happen again. But you have no right to deny us food. We work as hard as anyone.”
Without further ado, Einar nodded to Finlay and Russell, who both promptly got up with a loud scrape of their chairs. Within a minute, all three of them encircled the young offender. I very much wanted to look away but could not bring myself to peel my eyes off the terrible farce of the situation.
“Did you say I had no right?” Einar asked the boy in a gravelly voice, a thunderstorm gathering in his eyes as he took a step closer, crowding him.
“You see everyone watching and not lifting a finger to stop me? That’s my right,” he declared firmly with just enough viciousness to sound angry but not uncontrollably so.
“You can either pack your bags and leave this settlement or accept the penalty for your actions. Which is it going to be?”
Lucas looked very fragile in Einar’s close, looming presence. The top of his head only reached the latter’s chin, and the breadth of his slender body was about half of Einar’s.
“But ... three days ...” A distinct pleading note suffused his tone as he mumbled.
Einar straightened up and took a step back, looking him over as if measuring him. A chill ran down my spine, followed by the clenching of my stomach.