The Aebeling (8 page)

‘I though Wilgar and Shona were going to do that? He’s the best one with a sword.’

‘Oh, this is ridiculous’, the first said, ‘we are going to get ourselves killed. So where is the big guy now anyway?’

By this time Conn was a yard behind them. This was his opening.

‘Right behind you...’

The two young men spun around in shock, to see in the moonlight, Conn with his Katana ten inches away from their throats.

‘Now, I wouldn’t say anything if I were you. Not if you want to stay alive.’ Conn beckoned to them and they handed over their swords. ‘Lads, your plan is full of flaws; you would have gotten yourselves killed. Lesson one; never lose sight of your enemy. Lesson two; make sure everyone understands the ‘plan’ before it is implemented. Lesson three – never bite off more than you can chew. Now, let’s call in your troops before they get an arrow for their troubles.’

Conn whistled, and some of his dogs came bounding over; ‘Guard them’, he said, and they gave a deep growl just to let them know they were listening. They had never seen a dog of this size before, so they weren’t going to argue.

‘Call them in’, Conn instructed again.

‘Rab, Peig, Wilgar, Shona, come here!’ the elder one yelled. There was no answer, so they yelled again ‘Rab, Peig, Wilgar, Shona, come here - it’s all over, they know.’

One yelled back, ‘I can’t, there are two big dogs watching us.’

Another yelled, ‘I can’t either, there is a sword in my back’

Conn smirked; ‘Let’s go to them then.’ And he followed the two boys down to where the Maremmas had two more cornered up a small tree. Conn whistled off the dogs, who returned to their jobs, and he then followed the four into the camp, where Abrekan had the other two, including a girl, sitting around the fire. They were cold and looked hungry.

Abrekan started the conversation by saying; ‘They are Silekians, and they are a long way from home.’

Conn remembered Caewyn’s warning. He addressed the girl. ‘Have you eaten?’

‘Not properly for days’ she answered, staring at the goat stew still cooking on the fire. She was shivering as well. Conn fetched a blanket for her. She looked cautiously at him as he offered it. She finally took it from him and wrapped it around herself.

‘Abrekan, do you think we can spare them some food?’ Abrekan was startled at the request, but soon complied. It seemed to come naturally – following Conn’s ‘orders’. They fed them bowls of bread and stew, as well as a mug of ale. They ate ravenously, but nervously and guiltily.

‘Are there any more of you?’ Conn asked curiously.

The girl responded again, ‘Yes, about a dozen and they haven’t eaten properly for days either…’

Conn then organized more food to take away – bread, cheese, dried meats, and asked one of the boys to volunteer to take it back to the rest of them. He should then return with the entire group in the morning.

‘I’ll do it.’ The young man raised his hand.

‘What is your name?’

‘Wilgar’.

‘Ok, Wilgar, Don’t make me regret this decision.’

‘Sir, you will not. We’ll be here at first light.’

With that he saddled and mounted one of Conn’s ponies and trotted off over the hill. Abrekan was standing at his shoulder. ‘Will he come back?’

‘I don’t think he has any reason not to. Why are there Silekians outlawing in Lykia? Surely that is not normal?’

‘No, because it’s normally a death sentence; and Octa will certainly have no mercy if they have harmed any of his people, or stolen from them. But as to why they are here, it is a good question. Perhaps we need to find out.’ With that, they both turned back to the fire where the youths were still eating under the careful eyes of the Maremma pups.

Abrekan addressed the group. ‘I’m sure that you all know that you are in a lot of trouble. Brigands are normally hanged, and when we get to Tabae, you will need to have a very good reason why you are in the Eaorl’s lands without his permission.’

The girl had settled into to being the spokesperson of the group, and as she started to talk, Conn observed the group observing him. In the moonlight, they thought they saw that he had golden hair, but now they knew he did. They clearly didn’t know what he was – but the other three were normal Trokians.

Of the four kinds of Priecuman he knew about, it seemed that the Silekians were the least Asian in complexion, and thought they still had the black hair and a deep olive complexion; their eyes were larger and browner.

‘My name is Shona and my father is the Burhgerefa for Sighard, Eaorl of Melnik, or at least was. That is Dodi, Rab, Broch and Peig. Their parents were Tilia at Lugia. Two months ago, our keep was attacked by the Rakians. Our keep is close to the border with Rakia, and despite the best effort of the Eaorl and his wiga, it fell. The old were killed, including the Eaorl and his sons except for Wilgar – you met him earlier – he is the Eaorl’s youngest. The men and females were branded as theow’, the boys showed the burn mark on the arms, ‘and, well, you know what else happens to girls…’ She trailed off; the sadness in her voice still there but now hardened by living on the road for two months.

‘So how did you get here?’ Conn asked, interrupting, ‘I’m not being insensitive to your plight; I’d just like to get the big picture first.’

‘Wilgar was able to avoid capture, so he hid and when he had a chance, he collected as many as he could while the new ‘Eaorl’ were still unaware as to how many people were in the domain. When the group was getting too big to hide, we left our friends and family behind and started our walk to Lykiak. We are hoping for sanctuary there, as we have heard many of our kindred have travelled that way; when the road to Silekiak is dangerous.’

‘Are there twenty in your group?’ Conn asked.

‘Yes, fifteen boys and five girls. It was harder to rescue the girls.’

‘Why did you not follow the road to Tabae and the Eaorl?’

They didn’t answer immediately, but Abrekan answered for them. ‘Because of the brands – and Eaorl is required by law to return any theow that he finds, or if he cannot, he is to punish them as if they are his own escapees – with imprisonment, a flogging or death.’

With Conn looked at him strangely, Abrekan continued, ‘It’s true, that’s how the law is written.’

‘That seems a bit harsh. They haven’t done anything wrong, have they?’

‘Yes they have; they were on the losing side. There is never much right about being on the losing side’, Abrekan commented sadly.

‘Are there alternatives to death or being returned?’

‘They can buy their freedom as they have escaped their domains and are seeking sanctuary in another’s – but they would have to prove that the money is not stolen. And that is of course impossible.’

‘What is the fine?’

‘The current purchase cost of a theow. Plus a penalty of half again. A young male is around three, while a young female is two thousand Ryals. So for this this group the wergild would be a lot of money.’

Conn addressed the group, ‘So, do you have – what – eighty thousand Ryals?’

They shook their heads; Shona added ‘We had intended to find sanctuary in Lykiak.’

There was silence and Conn looked at them silently, watching the fear shine in their eyes.

‘Do not worry,’ Conn stated matter of factually, ‘you will not be executed if I have anything to do with it.’

‘But how…?’

‘Let me worry about that. Now get some rest. We have a big day tomorrow.’ They gathered more wood for the fire, branches to cover themselves with, and as everyone settled to sleep, Conn sat and stared at the blazing fire. He wondered if this was what Caewyn meant when she said to take care of the Silekians.

With the light, Wilgar returned as promised. This group was younger, a lot of them under fifteen. After they had been fed, they were put to work loading the pack animals – work they were grateful to be doing on a full stomach, and reassured that they were not going to die. Despite the late start, the extra hands had them quickly on the road to Tabae, everyone now riding horses.

It was just after midday when they encountered a small Lykian Fyrd, a dozen men on horses armed with swords, shields and spears. Their horses were similar to the Rakian’s – tough and wiry ponies. The Folctoga, the youngest man in a group of aged wiga, quizzed Abrekan, who he greeted on sight, and the Silekians, and then decided to escort them back to the Cotlif, sending the rest to continue their patrol.

As they travelled, Conn commented that the Fyrd didn’t look very battle ready; the riders were fairly old and grizzly, not dissimilar to their horses.

The Folctoga, who introduced himself as Oswald, smiled grimly. ‘True, they are not. It is a long time since there has been a war in Lykia – but there are some issue with incursions of Rakians or Silekians from the north so we patrol to keep an eye on things.’ He nodded to the ragged group that walked or rode along behind. ‘We need our young men to work in the fields.’

Conn commented that they didn’t seem to be going downhill anymore; since coming out of Halani, it had quickly levelled out. And it was still quite cold – although the wind had died down significantly.

‘That is because it doesn’t – Lykia is all high country until the coast. And it goes down very quickly there.’

‘So there are no seaports?’

Oswald nodded. ‘Yes – the Eaorl of Sabatah has the biggest seaport – but you need to ask the Eaorl – I have yet to see the sea.’

‘And the eastern border – into Silekia?’

‘It is mostly a sheer escarpment down to a river, and there are few places that riders can travel down into Silekia or up to Lykia in safety. That is why we have had no wars for hundreds of years.’

Conn continued to quiz Oswald as they travelled; not that he was very worldly. He was able to tell him that Lykia was once part of Moetia, but a successful uprising a two hundred and sixty years ago led by the Eaorl of Lykia had resulted in it getting its own Aebeling. Unfortunately the position was currently vacant as the male line had died out, and whilst there were many pretenders to the position, the Witan had been unable to decide on a replacement – and had been unable to do so for a generation.

The broadleaf woodlands opened up into intermittent rolling hills and forest clumps, and there was little sign of farming activity though abandoned cottages did appear from time to time. It was explained that a decade of very bad seasons had resulted in some of the more marginal and outlying domains becoming unviable, and consequently deserted.

It was evening when they arrived at a collection of empty buildings that sat on the top of a small hill and overlooked the road west to Halani and north to Tabae.

‘This,’ Oswald explained, ‘was once the Thane fief of Hama. It is the closest Burh to Halani and two hundred years ago was the most important transit point between Halani and Lykiak. Today the family is long gone – all dead – and its inhabitants moved to other domains.’

Conn walked around the decrepit buildings and the remnants of a stone keep. The fields had not been planted for many seasons so were overgrown, and it would take some effort to reclaim this domain. There were sufficient buildings, however, to provide them all with shelter for the night, and protection from the rain squalls.

In the morning, and back in sunshine, they resumed their trip to Tabae; staying two more nights along the way. Here the burghs were inhabited and the Thanes hospitable; allowing them to sleep in barns and abandoned houses. Although friendly towards Abrekan, they were cautious of Conn and the Silekians. Outside, farmers were active in the fields with teams of oxen pulling heavy wheeled ploughs, while children herded sheep and goats. Some fields had a ripening crop of winter wheat, albeit a very poor one, but reportedly better than usual.

Osward explained that of the people in the fields, some were Ceorl, who rented land from the Thane to grow crops, while others were common tilia, who worked in exchange for money or food. Yet others were theow; but they were few in Tabae due to the poor harvest and pestilence over the last few years.

By midday on the third day the long convoy arrived outside the cotlif of Tabae; clearly a large settlement that had seen better days, and there were no great walls to protect the townspeople or even the keep itself. Remnants of palisades did exist but were poorly maintained. The guard houses were still manned, however, and the Folctoga reported to the guards and a runner was sent to the Eaorl. Inside the old palisades, occupied and unoccupied longhouses lay scattered along the winding roads that led to the keep; all the buildings were desolate and run down, in need of rethatching and rendering, and with the recent rain providing mud and mold for everything, they also needed a good clean. It fitted Conn’s image of a medieval village even more than the villages in Halani.

They continued their way to the sole Inn in the village; it was old, dark and damp, and it stood next to a livery. They put their animals into stables, enticed the hostler with an excessive amount of silver coins to seek out fresh hay and to release his oat supplies. In the Inn, they organized rooms and a meal for the Silekians. Luckily there was no competition for accommodation – they had the building to themselves. They then went to visit the Eaorl.

The Folctoga informed them as they walked, proudly, that Eaorl of Tabae ruled a domain of about sixty Thanes, and had a population near thirty thousand. The Cotlif itself had a population of around five thousand while each Burh had between three and five hundred people. As proud as he was of the village, as they walked, they saw Craeftiga idle in their workshops and the merchants without customers in their stores.

The main building in Tabae was a longhouse about thirty yards long by ten yards wide; cobbled together over time – it too had seen better days. At the door, they were met by the Burhgerefa, who took them to the Eaorl, who was waiting impatiently. The longhouse had rooms partitioned off at each and a large squarish middle section that held the meeting and eating hall. With the central fireplace, the room was damp, dusty and smoky. They found the Eaorl pacing the longhouse, and he looked up as they entered, greeted Abrekan warmly, and directing them all to sit. Wilga and Shona remained standing.