No, someone captures her for

Just as Isa was about to step down into the faering, a pair of arms quickly engulfed her abdomen from behind and lifted her up with ease even with the lockbox she was holding, slinging her over his shoulder as she tried to kick and flail without making headway.

The man stepped off the boat and headed towards the arrow-flingers. Isa looked up at the man's face and saw to much her horror that it wasn't anyone from her boat - his moon face with stubble and scruffy dark brown hair precluded that. Isa groaned at the realization that the boat had already been compromised from within. What she didn't know was that the man was not a Pecheneg but rather one of their allies.

It was the era of the old gods. Ivan's father had passed away when he was very young, so all he had in his village were his mother and older sister. His life was fairly tranquil aside from a limp that would make him the target of teasing. That all changed one day when his village was raided by the Rus' elite, and everyone was taken captive outside the village while the buildings were torched.

All the women were lined up and stripped naked, and many of them were on the receiving end of the raiders' sexual frustrations (especially with their hands) before receiving their musky streams on their bellies. This was a public spectacle, and Ivan watched this fate befall his mother and sister, their faces of stone and their eyes gazing upwards towards nowhere in particular.

Eventually the villagers were chained up and led southwards to be traded to Constantinople, the women still naked. The raiders noticed Ivan's limp, and mocking him cut his chain loose and pushed him on the side of the road as he was left for dead.

Isa was petrified as she was placed on her captor's back when he began swimming across the river towards the enemy. She couldn't help but notice the man's right leg kicking oddly through the water every second or so. The river wasn't very wide, however, and after about twenty minutes the man came to shore and continued carrying Isa to the tents behind the archers.