“You’re a witch!” exclaimed Sister Ludmilla, her wide-eyed, missing-toothed face gawping.
Zdenka tensed. She had realized by now that Ludmilla’s insulting
observations were not intentional attacks, but were merely the famous “Hill
Country forthrightness” taken to an extreme, but Sieglinde had not, unlike the others, gotten to know the socially maladroit hermitess over 200 versts of road.
Zdenka opened her mouth to say something politic to this strange and
powerful lady who had just saved all their lives, but Sieglinde had already
calmly replied to the hermitess: “Not exactly.”
Ludmilla had not noticed, but Zdenka had, that Sieglinde had
also given Silvernose’s hand a squeeze, to forestall any gallant but vehement
response from him.
“How did you find the way down to my hermitage?” Ludmilla asked.
“I had been unsure of the location,” replied Sieglinde, “Beyond
a vague ‘near Skalica’ - but I heard Beata’s hymn-singing on the air all the
way in the village: ‘All praise and honor to God in the highest’…”
“How did you get from Skalica to the ravine so quickly?”
“I can travel very fast when I am alone.”
“Well, I thank you, and thank your friends, for helping me
and for saving my life,” said the hermitess.
Once they reached the pretty stone-walled town of Horalka, Ludmilla
parted from her new friends to make a whirlwind tour of grassroots local
leaders and Church officials she knew.
Doubtless, she could relax with them in speaking her thickest Hill
Country dialect. She told Beata to meet
her just before sunset at the gates of a certain convent’s garden.
“Well, thanks be to God and St. Liptov, I’ve organized
myself a fine new place to hang my cloak,”
Sister Ludmilla said when they met
again, beaming to Beata and the others with her missing-toothed smile. “The good sisters here will put me up for the
night in their noisy dormitory in town, but tomorrow I have an empty hut
reserved for me in the sprawling – and quiet – grounds of a pious noblewoman’s
wild park just outside of town. Since
her husband passed away, she has collected hermits, you see, and two others live
widely-spaced in her husband’s former game park.”
Zdenka and her friends congratulated Sister Ludmilla, bid
her farewell, and retired to their inn for a meal of Hill Country halušky
dumplings.
The following days, sunny babí
léto or “Summer in Her elderly womanhood” weather accompanied them on their
leisurely pedestrian travel through the changing leaves of the Hill Country
forests en route to the city of Prešpurk, part of an unhurried southern loop
back to Vodníkov. Sheepskin cloaks kept
them warm enough to camp under the stars, which they did between towns big
enough to sport inns.
They never saw Sieglinde sleep, although several times in
camp they saw Sieglinde stroking Silvernose’s head in her lap and watching him sleep.
“I don’t see any bite marks on Silvernose’s neck, nor on
yours or mine, so I’m not worried,” Zdenka answered Beata’s question in their
private room at the inn in Prešpurk.
Every few weeks, Sieglinde became visibly run-down, but
would excuse herself to go off on some mysterious errand in nature for a few
days (and nights) – and then catch up to the others on the road, refreshed and
energetic.
At one point, the friends
stopped to visit a lovely old pilgrimage chapel dedicated to Saints Mňága and
Žďorp. Beata was happy to see Sieglinde
kneel in prayers with them, and surprised she knew these prayers better than Zdenka and
Silvernose.
 |
| From LibrePhoto - Martin V |
+++
Happy May Day! Hope you're enjoying it safely.
Please join us for The Terror of the Trdlo's exciting conclusion, Part 20, next post!
The story so far...
The Terror of the Trdlo, Serialized:
Part I - The Adventure Begins (But Not Really the Terror, Yet)
Part II - Zdenka vs. The Green-Eyed Monster (Jealousy - That Is)
Part III - Nun: The Wiser
Part IV - The Hermitess
Part V - Silvernose Arrives Minus His Weird Girlfriend
Part VI - She's Gone Feral
Part VII - A Little Traveling Music
Part VIII - Horror at the Hermitage
Part IX - The Rutting Moon
Part X - Herbal Interlude
Part XI - "It's Blood"
Part XII - Empty, Disturbed, Dead
Part 13 - Hut Stinking of Musk
Part 14 - The Howling, Squealing Horde
Part 15 - Something Wicked This Way Comes...UP
Part 16 - A Heaving Sea of Beasts
Part 17 - Hymns Above the Battle's Din
Part 18- Wreathed in Blue Fire
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