The Bretwalda (The Casere Book 4) (20 page)

It was a well-fortified castle – the palisades were tall and strong; and entry positions were limited to three. The main gate was well guarded, but the two side gates, the postern gates, being so close to the ocean, were smaller and the guards liable to being distracted with the barrage from the “pirates”.

Conn sat in the dark of the forest overlooking the castle and its walls. The previous night he had fired a white flare into the night on a hill to the north; it had been answered so now he just had to wait. Very soon there would be some very excited people in the town.

On cue, bells were sounded as the schooners appeared as if by magic as they rounded the northern point. The lookout on the headland had been pacified by Twacuman, so the first the sentries in Elis-jo saw of the schooners was when they were almost within catapult range. They were also in catapult range when they were determining if the schooners were friend or foe. That was no longer in dispute when missiles ranged in from the vessels targeted on the towers and the parapets on top. The first shot missed; the second and third did not, and the parapets were soon crumbling from the impact of the large boulders.

The immediate response of the inhabitants was to run to the ocean side; to see what was happening and to man their defences. All eyes focused away, Conn raced with his men from the forest into the town and to their positions under the castle wall. As they waited, ropes fell down from the top of the parapet, and Conn and a dozen men flew up the wall and on the parapet. Another dozen followed and they then released the ropes so as to not incriminate anyone. Conn led a dozen men to the corner tower to the south while Derryth led a dozen to the west. Those on duty turned around at the wrong moment and fell with arrows in their chests. The corner secure, Conn raced down the staircase to the level below; his son Farrun at his shoulder. Men were coming up and they were luckier to only run into fists and shields.

At floor level, they waited for a signal from Derryth before they heading for the gatehouse from either side. The inhabitants answered the knock on the door and when they did Conn shouldered the guards across the room. The room was soon full of people with bows.

‘Open the gate or die.’ Conn ordered.

‘I will never open…’ with a sickly thud the man died. The second man gestured wildly to the windlass that drew up the portcullis; and Conn sent wiga to help him open the gate. It was a double gate; the two windlass drew up different gates. Within moments, five hundred men streamed into the castle. Conn fired a flare to tell Sir Njil that they were inside and the schooners simply turned and went out to sea.

The wiga were confused at the turn of events until they found themselves surrounded by bowmen, and wisely, only a few chose not to surrender. Conn headed in search of the folgere – he sensed that there were two in the castle somewhere. As they travelled, men peeled off to secure their route. Conn entered the castle via the kitchen, the theow standing aside as he passed. With Derryth and Farrun in tow, he climbed the stairs to the second level and indicated to Derryth and Farrun that they should stand to one side. There were loud voices at the end of the floor:

‘The Jarl will pay for this incompetence – he allows too many liberties with the theow – they have rebelled. I will have them all executed.’ The voice was high pitched and very excited.

Conn walked into the room – as if he lived there.

‘I don’t think so, folgere – the only executions will be yours.’

Inside the room were four women – bedda to the Jarl – and several children. The women and a couple of the girls were very distressed – the girls were not yet sixteen but it didn’t seem to stop the folgere from holding them indecently. Everyone jumped to their feet. The folgere pulled the girls in front of them as protection.

‘Who are you – and what are you doing here?’

‘I am Conn, Marquis of Kerch. I’m surprised that you haven’t heard of me?’

‘Unholy spawn! We have heard of you. But you are here? In Makurai?’

‘I have come to rid all of Makurai of Axum and folgere – which obviously includes you two. I suggest that you surrender or die.’

They looked at each other. ‘We will not surrender – we have hostages. We demand that you give us horses so that we may go the Makurai.’

‘Not happening.’

‘We will kill these girls – their blood will be on your hands.’

Conn shook his head sadly. ‘There is so much blood on my hands, the death of these two girls mean nothing to me. In Himyar, I single handily killed thirty of your brethren – each died as my sword ripped their throats or into their chests. Already I am tormented by their screams – the blood of these two will cause me no less sleep.’

The claim had two effects – the first being that the folgere moved their razor sharp daggers from the girl’s necks to remonstrate with Conn. The second being that the girls looked to their mothers, with tears in their eyes. That single opportunity resulted in two thuds; as arrows passed around Conn into the gap that was where the girl’s heads had been. Disbelief and pain, then agony, as the dying folgere met their Gyden, who simply wasn’t happy. Free from the arms of the folgere, the girls raced to their mothers, who took them into their arms – their eyes looked to Conn with mixed relief and concern. They still didn’t know what was in store for them.

Conn bowed with a tilt of his head. ‘I will leave you in peace. You are in no danger. I’ll go and see the Jarl; hopefully he didn’t get himself killed.’ Conn first went and collected the haligdom from around the dead folgere as servants came in to collect the bodies. The Twacuman were not confused about anything.

Downstairs the Jarl was walking up and down in a highly agitated state; which increased as he saw the bodies of the folgere being carted away. Conn told him that his family was safe.

Relieved, he asked ‘What is the meaning of all this?’

Conn introduced himself and then asked the servants to organize food, and somewhere for them to sleep. It was late and he was getting hungry. Farrun returned to inform him that Sir Njil was safely docked and unloading had begun. The castle town was under his control.

The Jarl looked on with amazement. ‘Why are my servants following your instructions? I do not understand what is happening – and why are all your theow armed with bows?

‘They are not theow – and some like Derryth and a few others are not of Kishdah – they are from Halani, Iladion or Neritum.’

‘Also,’ Derryth added, ‘it is much easier to do as the Marquis says than to do the opposite.’

‘I still don’t understand what this is all about.’

‘You are not alone, Jarl, not alone.’

When the food arrived, Conn sent someone up to collect the Jarl’s family, who came down because he asked, and as they sat Conn explained the whys and the wherefores. When Njil arrived with some wine from the ship, they drank that as well. Conn noticed the daughters who had been saved, made a special attempt to speak to Farrun.

The Jarl, Anstar, knew of Farrun. His son had trained with him in the Academy.

‘I didn’t expect to hear of you again, Folctoga, other than that you had died a hero’s death in Meshech because I expected that the Aebeling was going to ensure that you died there. You have been a thorn in his side for some time.’

‘He tried – but things did not work out the way he had planned. Instead, we will soon have all the Healdend back in place in the Southern Isles, and it will be free of folgere and of Axum control.’

‘Yes, indeed. A great plan – assuming it works. The death of a lot of people if it doesn’t. As for Makurai, Sigkarl is my cousin so this Eldarr is my kin. I know that the Aebeling has acknowledged his existence but he was raised by the Jarl of Tarsus out of the castle because Sigkarl had not yet had a child with his Axum bedda. The folgere were very upset. Sigkarl has been very uncooperative all his life. And you would make him Healdend?’ He addressed the question to Conn.

‘I would; unless Sigkarl has other kin that I do not know of?

Anstar smiled a thin smile. ‘No – Sigkarl has other preferences. So where is this Eldarr? I would meet my kinsmen again?’

Conn looked at Njil.

‘Eldarr is on one of the ships that have yet to dock. He will arrive in the morning.’ No Ancuman except for Farrun had ridden through the mountains. The rest of his family were on the schooners.

‘And the Makurai fyrd that you say returned from Meshech?’

‘On its way from Sipan, under the control of Rendel, the Jarl of Tarsus. It will be some time before they arrive.’

He nodded. ‘I did not know that Rendel was the Folctoga. What happened to the Jarl of Sidona?’

‘We understand that he died on the way in Aeaea – he was quite old.’

‘True enough. Anyway, Rendel is a good man. So how did you get here so fast?’

‘By ship. We landed up the coast and walked here.’ Not totally a lie, but certainly a misdirection.

With everyone exhausted, Conn begged his leave from the still confused Jarl and retired for the night. A barracks had been purloined within the walls and had been cleaned and prepared for the use of his wiga. Surrounded by guards, Conn took a bath and prepared to go to bed.

Aga waited in his room for him.

Conn was surprised. ‘I thought you weren’t going to come inside the walls.’

She shrugged. ‘I thought I might find out if fornicating on a bed is as much fun as standing in a forest.’

‘Much more fun. Especially if you are totally naked.’

She shrugged as she started to disrobe. ‘I can do totally naked.’

~oo0oo~

After a breakfast meeting with the Jarl and Farrun, Conn spent the rest of the day watching the last of the horses disembark and leave the castle. The Jarl had offered them a field near the town that had been left fallow for the season, and his fyrd set up camp.

When Eldarr disembarked and met the Jarl, he was surprised to find that Anstar was his cousin. The Jarl welcomed him and then spent a not inconsiderable amount of time talking and querying him. He also spent the day observing him at work. By evening he reluctantly agreed with Conn that he would be a suitable candidate.

That evening, Anstar met the rest of Conn’s family. He was surprised to meet Albega and to learn of her other connection to him as well.

‘So Dengor is still alive?’ Dengor turned out to be a cousin, as well as being a merchant who was operating in Pontiak and had been left behind. ‘We all presumed that he had been executed or killed when he didn’t return.’

Dengor was very much alive and well; he was part of Conn’s Ancuman merchant company. Dengor had also taken his distant kinsman, Dagvir il Axum (Albega and Disetha’s mother), as bedda after Conn left Pontia.

‘Indeed. He is also very prosperous. I have sent word to him to return, and he will be in Kishdah next spring. There is much he can do for Makurai. Albega and Disetha are also the descendants of Feygurl il Makuria – from his theow from Rubutu. Her grandmother is from Bakan. Eldarr has asked to take Albega as bedda, and I see that it will strengthen his blood ties to the Jarls in Makurai.’

Anstar almost laughed. ‘It is an amazing web you weave, Marquis. I can hardly wait to see how this all plays out.’

~oo0oo~

The next morning as they all headed towards Makurai-jo, the Jarl was so interested that he decided to join them. He was impertinent enough to ask how Conn actually intended to capture the castle.

Derryth was alongside. ‘I was wondering that myself. What is the plan?’

‘Don’t have one yet – this time we are winging it.’

‘Winging it! We have over a thousand men riding to a town with perhaps two thousand armed men inside, and you don’t have a plan. Amazing.’

Conn felt maligned. ‘I HAD a good plan – but that fell through. Actually I had a couple, but they weren’t good either.’

‘Winging it – I don’t know what to say. So what have you told the forward scouts and patrols to do?’

‘Capture everyone; my current idea is to draw everyone away from the town. It is kind of a plan – just not a good plan.’

So everyone who crossed their paths were placed behind them and told not to try and go to the Makurai-jo; on pain of death. It was a two-day ride to the town and they were able to neutralize all the guard posts and sentries along the way as the Jarl of Elis and his troop rode ahead, as where then surrounded by Conn’s Twacuman wiga it was too late.

When they got within ‘spitting distance’ of the walled town, Conn called the fyrd to a halt and decided to start “burning and pillaging”. He found a small town of shoddy roundhouses and unkempt fields and went to see the Thane – after he had surrounded the town.

The Thane was old; most people were elderly, and after they had recovered from the shock of the invasion, Conn approached them about selling.

‘What – this dump? These are the worst fields in this entire district. It is impossible to grow anything well – even in good seasons. The ground is too wet – nothing grows but weeds. We have no children because we had to sell most of them to survive. Why would you want it?’

‘Because I want to burn it down.’

‘You want to burn down all my fields?’

‘No – just all your buildings – you have quite a collection and I have a need for a large fire.’