The Eaorl (The Casere Book 2) (39 page)

‘I will NOT tell you my name!’

‘His name is Torvarr il Axum.’

Conn spun around to the sound of the voice. In his discussion with the Ancuman, he had missed the silence that had grown behind him.

Caronwyn il Halani had arrived, and had snuck up behind him. He hated people sneaking up behind him.

‘Gyden, Caronwyn. What are you doing here?’

Behind her stood a detail of her own wiga. Beside them stood and embarrassed Derryth. Conn gave him a dirty look of
‘why didn’t you say something?
’

‘Caewyn sent me; she said you might need my help.’

‘I’m going to have a chat with that girl one day.’ Conn shook his head in confusion. ‘His name is Torvarr?’

‘Yes, he was my captor.’

Conn was neither prepared for the information nor the nonchalant matter in which it was handed over, so he just moved on. He turned around and called out.

‘Torvarr! I’m sick of yelling. Get out here now or I’ll burn the building down.

There was silence, and then. ‘How do you know my name?’

Conn was about to answer but Caewyn held up her hand.

She called out. ‘Torvarr, its Caronwyn. Come out please. The Feorhhyrde’s word is sacrosanct.’

Conn muttered. ‘So I’ve found out. Most inconvenient.’

A voice came from the Inn. ‘Caronwyn??’

It wasn’t long before two Ancuman wiga walked out of the building. One was male; big and strong, and his partner, a younger female; tall and beautiful; the armour stained to keep her bountiful body undercover.

‘Hello, Torvarr, Kutidi. I certainly did not expect to meet you both again.’

Both were still too surprised to speak. Torvarr finally pointed to the band around her head. ‘You are Wealdend?’

‘I am.’ Caronwyn looked back at Conn. ‘Torvarr, my captor, had a problem from having too much spare time – some of which he spent fornicating with me – the rest gambling. He lost a lot of money one night. He handed me over instead of his sword.’ She laughed. ‘I was unsure as if to be insulted or pleased. The merchant was unsure what to do with me but as fate had it, he used me to pay off a debt to another merchant – for wheat. And then you found me.’

‘Another thread in the tapestry of life.’

Torvarr looked at Caronwyn. ‘Caronwyn, you understand that we will not surrender… we will never be theow.’

Caronwyn nodded, understandingly. ‘You will not be theow. The Feorhhyrde will let you go.’

Conn looked at her, shocked, ‘I will?’

‘Feorhhyrde, I can only ask. It is your decision.

Conn mulled it over – though he was always going to say yes. ‘You do realize that most of these will probably come back and I’ll have to kill them all then?’

Caronwyn nodded.

‘Very well. I
might
let them go…’

‘Thank you Feorhhyrde, I am grateful.’

‘However, in exchange for their freedom, can I keep the girl?’

Caronwyn looked surprised. Torvarr looked surprised and Kutidi looked shocked. Derryth just laughed.

Conn continued. ‘After all; they have to pay a price for their freedom and your imprisonment and treatment as a theow. It seems only fair that

Caronwyn looked between the pair. ‘You want Kutidi to surrender herself to be a theow?’

‘She will not have lost honour because she is doing it for the survival of the others.’

Kutidi found her voice. ‘I… I… I will never be …’

What happened next surprised them both because Conn and the girl were the only two to hear it.

‘Yes you will, you will do it because you love me. You will be Theow and I will not desert you.’

Conn was surprised and he tried hard not to show it – the voice wasn’t a voice he knew – it was none of the Priecuman Gyden or the one he had just shut out. Somehow this one was different. It didn’t hate him for starters.

Interestingly when the girl heard the voice, he saw astonishment on her face and she instinctively reached for the black stone that hung from the amulet around her neck. Just as quickly she let go of the necklace. She didn’t know what to say anymore. Conn decided to insist. He addressed Caronwyn.

‘He was your captor and I’m really quite comfortable burning them all alive. I will pay the Wergild of an Eaorl EACH for the Rakians inside that have to die. But some price has to be paid for their release.’

Kutidi found her voice again. ‘If… if… my master wants me to do this vile thing, I will do it…’

Torvarr looked at her. ‘Kutidi, I cannot ask you to do this – it is wors than death.’

‘But the feorrancund is right – there is still honor in my sacrifice….’

After a while; he nodded. Presumably he had taken guidance from the voice in his head. ‘There is honor. Your sacrifice will be spoken of to the Bretwalda. Your family will be celebrated and rewarded.’ He looked back at Conn; ‘It is agreed then – we can leave?’

‘You can – but if you are in Rakiak when we arrive, you will die.’

Torvarr nodded. ‘I understand.’

Kutidi had gone inside and collected the others and they all streamed out. Torvarr looked a little lost for the moment, until Kutidi brought over two of the female wiga.

‘These have lost their masters – they will serve you.’

He looked them up and down, and nodded. ‘Alkia il Makuria, I will take you as my second. Will you accept me as your master?’

She nodded. ‘I will accept you as my master.’

‘Good. Get my horse.’

He turned to look at Caronwyn and Conn. Resolve returned to his face. ‘Feorrancund, do not think that you have defeated us. You have only defeated a fryd of Priecuman and they are weak. Next time….’ He left it hanging. He looked at Caronwyn, and simply nodded. There were no words.

Alkia returned with his horses and he mounted and rode away.

Derryth returned to stand at his side. ‘Well, that is not something you see every day. We have let some live.’

‘No fair – we let Alfvir go. And the sailors. And some others… not that many now that you mention it…’ Conn headed inside the Inn; the people inside were delighted to be free again, and thanked him profusely. The small village was soon overtaken by Conn’s fyrd, and they used up every available space. It seemed that the regular inhabitants had escaped to the village.

Conn sat at a table and waited for Aelfstan and Osdred to come in a report on the battle. Logistics had arrived and had taken over the Inn and its kitchen, and rooms and before long they were all eating and drinking. Derryth was famished. Conn was a bad influence on him.

By the end of the day, the dead had been accounted for – there were over five hundred, and they had been buried in another mass grave, while the Thanes and Folctoga had been celebrated by a funeral pyre. Prisoners were under guard –though Conn didn’t expect any trouble from them. They were having their first real meal in days.

Conn finally had a chance to speak with Caronwyn. He asked her why she had wanted them released. Caronwyn smiled a thin smile.

‘As I left, Caewyn said something strange. She said that if there is a decision to be made, I should choose the opposite of what you might expect and that would be best. I hope that is what she meant.’

‘That girl certainly seems to know a lot more than she lets on. And I hate keeping prisoners – but it is hard to let people go who want to kill you.’

As well as everything else that needed to be done, Conn arranged for pigeons to be sent to Silekia. A short message; ‘Commence stage 2’.

Stage two had two elements – instructions would be sent to Eriak to tell the Aebeling of Gatina, Devnet, to commence operations again the Rakian Fyrd outside of Akarah – and push as far as Tindara. Once they had Tindara captured, they were to stop. The other part was for Njil to lead a fleet of ships to Rakiak and to wait off the coast. Conn would be there in just over a week.

It was late when Conn retired to his room. Kutidi followed him. She hadn’t said a word since her comrades had left. She followed Conn into his room and sat in the corner. Logistics had built a bath for him and it was full of hot water. He disrobed out of direct vison and got into the bath and soaked. It had been some days since his last bath. All the time she looked at him curiously.

‘So you are from Alwa.’

‘Yes I am.’

‘And Torvarr was of Axum?’

‘Yes – the Axum are always partners with one from the Southern Isles.’

Conn nodded. ‘Is that because they don’t trust you?’

The question stunned her. ‘I… no… I… I really don’t know but it has always been so.’

‘Do those of Alwa follow the same Gyden as the Axum?’

She paused. ‘There is only one Gyden in Kishdah – Ashtoreth is the one true Gyden.’

Conn laughed. It was a stock answer. ‘Has that always been the case?’

She paused again. The line of questions confused her. ‘There was a time when the Southern Isles had a different Gyden – but no longer. Ashtoreth is the one true Gyden!’

What was more interesting to Conn was that her hand reached to the bodice where the amulet hangs, when she started to speak, before she dragged it away.

‘Will you show me the amulet please?’

‘What amulet?

‘The one around your neck.’

Fear as Conn had never seen raced over her face. Conn reassured her.

‘Do not worry – I will not destroy it and I will give it back.’

She stood and her hands shook as she removed it from her neck and brought it over to him. Conn tried not to touch it because he didn’t want it to know him – yet. It was not the same as the other black stone – it looked like a black emerald – which wasn’t possible. He handed it back to her and the relief was noticeable.

‘Tell your Gyden that she can let it be its natural colour. It is safe with me.’

‘This is its true color.’

‘No – I have seen a lot of the black stones – this is easy to mistake as black, but it is really white.’

‘How do you know? How can you know? No-one knows that this stone has any colour other than black.’

‘Not all things are every as they seem, Kutidi.’ Conn noticed that she wanted to ask something.

‘Kutidi – you have a question?’

‘The bath is big – and you are soaking in hot water. I don’t understand your need.’

‘I could give you a long explanation about baths but, let’s just say that it is a custom that has lots of benefits for mind and soul. Why don’t you try it?’

She stood and walked over to put her hand in the water. ‘It is very warm.’

‘Get in – there is room for two.’

She shook her head. ‘No thank you. If I get naked you will take advantage of my nakedness and then pleasure yourself in my body with your puny Priecuman manhood…’

Conn was indignant. He stood up, out of the water, everything available to be seen. ‘Puny? Is this considered
puny
in Kishdah?’

She tried not to look but couldn’t help herself. Finally she spoke. ‘Master, I apologize for misspeaking.’ She stood up and got undressed, quite quickly. ‘Perhaps I will experience your bath – and should you decide to pleasure yourself on my body with your
adequate
manhood, I doubt that I will be offended.’

Of course, with her fairly magnificent ebony body now naked and gleaming, his adequate manhood was now
over
adequate, and he sat down to relieve the pressure. Kutidi eased herself into the water. It took some time, but Conn didn’t mind as he was enjoying the view.

Finally in, she sat opposite him; less than two yards away.

‘What do you think?’

‘I am pleasantly surprised – though I am starting to heat up a bit.’

‘Now let me explain soap and shampoo to you.’ Conn then rubbed the soap over her entire body, until she was
very
clean, and quite flushed.

She stood up facing him. ‘If you are going to pleasure yourself with my body, are you going to do in here or on the bed – and is it going to be soon?

‘I’ve never felt the need to limit myself to one location.’

~x343~

By morning Kutidi had managed to cool down. Conn held a breakfast meeting with all his commanders – Aelfstan and Osdred being the first two to be elevated to the rank of Colonel. The Majors in charge of Logistics and Engineering were there with the Captain of each company. They all reported on the status of their companies and then left to get ready for departure planned for the next morning.

Conn also had some special guests. He had Ceolred, Thane of Ilissus, ride with the fyrd as they travelled south.

‘Ceolred, we have several hundred prisoners as well as injured wiga here in Amrit, and they need to be taken care of. Can I entrust them to you?’

‘To me? I have no authority in Rakia…’

‘You do now. I am appointing you Baron of Amrit.’

Conn had to explain what a Baron was before he could continue.

‘Your demesne continues from here to the sea. To ensure that things run smoothly, I am leaving you with a company of wiga, and single squads of Engineers, Medics, and Logistics. They know exactly what needs to be done – just follow their lead.’ Conn introduced him to his new captains. ‘As for food and other supplies; that will start arriving in days. Benen will be organizing those deliveries from his docks.’

‘I don’t know what to say.’

‘Nothing to say – I did kind of steal the Earldom of Ilissus from you… seems only fair to give you something in return.’

It was early morning the next day when Conn headed out to join the fyrd as he commenced its march south. As well as Derryth, Caronwyn had decided to ride with them – she said that Caewyn wanted her to be with Conn should she need him. Kutidi rode alongside the Aebeling, and they chatted like old friends. Conn found it confusing whilst Derryth shrugged it off.

‘Things are what they are – and what is done cannot be undone.’

At best it was a six day ride, provided that Fallon didn’t suddenly have a lot more wiga than he had estimated. Over two thousand had been ‘eliminated’ at the Battle of Amrit as he chose to call it, and with the other fyrd possible captured near Tindara, there would not be a lot left – just Fallon’s personal guard.

Three days out, as they prepared to camp for the night, Conn was advised that messenger had arrived. Derryth brought him to the tent.

He was a wiga from Conn Logistic Corp. He bowed and handed over a sealed message. Conn read silently and handed it to Derryth. He waved it away.

‘You can tell me – you know I hate to read.’

‘It seems we have another hostage situation. Brathmac, tell us what you know.’

‘After we arrived near Rakiak, it appeared that there were few wiga guarding the harbor, so Commodore Njil brought us in late at night and we were able to take control of the harbor without too much difficulty. It seems that the docks are some way from the town. Once we were in the harbor, a small force from the town attacked us but were easily defeated and they retreated. We then learnt that the Healdend Fallon then retreated to his castle with his Ancuman and wiga and has remained there since – but he has also taken a large number of hostages – the relatives of all of the Eaorls of Rakia that he could find.’

Conn shook his head. ‘But that is not the worst of it. Keep speaking.’

‘In Silekiak, the Folgere Fainche joined the ship, and she then decided to take Elva il Halani with her under the flag of truce to talk to her uncle the Healdend; to negotiate his surrender. The Commodore was most upset because the Healdend has made them his prisoners. You have his demands.’

Conn reopened the scroll to read it aloud.

‘Feorrancund, your treachery combined with the treachery of some of my own people has led us to this invidious situation. I will not relinquish my demesne to usurpers. I demand that you withdraw your ships and your wiga out of Rakia immediately. If you do not agree to that in writing within one week, I will start to kill my hostages – starting with Elva il Halani. Fallon.’

Derryth. ‘Fainche and Elva? That’s annoying… I’ll never hear the end of how she once was a hostage, and how it was all my fault.’

The envoys was confused. ‘Eaorl, are you not concerned?’

Conn shook his head. ‘Not really; it is not as if Fallon will kill his own niece regardless of what he thinks she is…her father is with him. And good luck to him if he wants to murder Elva. He knows that will sign his own death warrant – he would never be able to set foot outside again; every window will also be a danger to him and the inevitable arrow. The problem is that we don’t want to accidently kill them or the others in crossfire. ’

Conn drafted a letter for Brathmac to take back to Njil. He asked Njil to ensure that the best food and other supplies were to be delivered to the castle – he didn’t want Fainche and Elva to go without while they are captives – and it also showed that he wasn’t going to starve them out. He didn’t make any threats or demands.

Conn then sat and considered his assault on the castle. He sent for all the maps that he had. His intelligence on Rakia was limited – the maps were old and of minimal use as most had been drawn in better times. Rakia had declined in considerable wealth over the years – thanks in no little part to Conn’s interference – and once where there was a settlement, there were now none.

He called together all those that had some knowledge of the castle and asked them to tell him everything they knew, showing them the maps.

Brathmac looked concerned after a while. ‘Eaorl, the castle doesn’t look like that anymore. It doesn’t have the new walls.’

‘New walls?’

Brathmac nodded. ‘There seems to have been a lot of recent work – the stone walls now fully surround the castle.’ He moved forward and indicated on his map. ‘Here ... here ... and here. All stone walls about 3 yards high. Also, a moat has been dug out around the entire building.’ Conn gave him instructions to have the building fully mapped by the time he arrived and sent him away to rest.

Conn sighed. ‘Well that is just great; Fallon has ensconced himself into a stone castle.’ He mulled over the situation. ‘This is going to take a lot more planning than I thought.’ He looked at Derryth. ‘It’s simple really; we just need to find a way to get into the castle without them knowing. There has to be a secret way; there always is.’

‘Sure.’ Derryth gave himself and Caronwyn more wine. ‘But it’s not as if secret pathways are advertised anywhere.’

Conn looked at Kutidi. ‘Do you know a secret way through the ancient walls?’

She shook her head. ‘No, I do not.’ When she saw the expression on their faces, she continued. ‘Truly, I don’t.’

Caronwyn stood up and looked more closely at the maps. ‘I think I might – and though I doubt that the information will be of use to you, perhaps this is the reason that Caewyn sent me.’

She twirled the map until she under stood what it represented. ‘When I was there, the new walls you speak of had not been built but the ancient walls were, and they were connected by timber palisades.’ She pointed to a large corner tower. ‘I used to visit the old parts all the time; and below this tower was a lake. In the tower was stairway underground – and in to lowest levels was a hatch. I opened it one day – and below it was water – you can access water from the lake from here.’ She looked at Conn. ‘I don’t know if that information is of use at all?’

Conn stood and kissed her in a brotherly manner. ‘That is just what we needed. We may be able to enter the castle by that trap door. Just as long as it is big enough.’

‘Just a moment.’ Derryth interrupted. ‘If you are suggesting what I think you are suggesting, that’s foolhardy.’ Derryth added. ‘You are suggesting that we jump into the water and try and find a pathway that might exist in a stone tower and enter that to see if it gets us into the tower. And I presume we will be doing this at night – otherwise they might just put an arrow into us.’

‘No choice about that.’

‘This is the craziest plan I’ve heard so far.’

‘It is the best plan so far.’

‘Might I add that it’s the only plan you’ve heard so far.’ Derryth continued. ‘And once we get in, we are going to do what exactly.’

Conn looked at the plan. ‘Rescue the hostages; and as soon as we do, Aelfstan and Osdred can lead a full scale assault on the front gate. We can’t do any more than that – and that’s not going to be easy.’

The next day Caronwyn departed for home. She hugged everyone – including Kutidi. Conn was curious.

‘If it is possible in the circumstance, Kutidi was almost a friend. You need to understand that the female wiga are extremely badly treated by their Axum masters – even if the Axum is female. They are not beyond swapping them amongst themselves if they are bored. Torvarr was also partial to young men and often swapped Kutidi so that she could pleasure the woman while he was being pleasured by a young man. He didn’t do it often – and always in secret – there is much shame in a senior adult Axum wiga being penetrated.’

‘But none in him doing the penetrating?’

‘None at all – all Ancuman men like to penetrate other men – and the women prefer women to men. It think it has something to do with their Folgere.’

Conn suddenly understood. Fainche had told him that the Ancuman Folgere we all males – and that she had been “deflowered” by one. ‘You mean because the Folgere are all males?’

Caronwyn was surprised that he knew. ‘Yes – and they have great power but are detested by all except the Axum. Even other Ancuman hate them and the Rakians fear them – especially the young – they have a predilection for penetrating young boys and girls. But there are no Ancuman Folgere in Rakia anymore – they are so hated that they couldn’t leave the Castle without getting attacked by a mob and killed.’

‘What about Fallon and Alric?’ Conn remembered something that Seoirse il Soloes had mentioned about protecting his daughter – if it wasn’t from the Folgere.

‘Just as bad – Fallon keeps lots of young girls and boys around him like pets – and if what they say if true about what he does, he is truly evil. Alric is little better – but the eldest son – the one who died at sea – was worse. It was said that his father was always paying wergild for the underage maidens that he had deflowered.’

After Caronwyn had left to return to Halani, Conn continued on his way to Rakiak, and they soon arrived in the outskirts of the town. There didn’t appear to be any fear of them – he had expected that Njil would have spread the word. Very soon they were met by his own wiga; who directed the fyrd to barracks and buildings around the town that had been made ready as dwellings for them. Conn continued on until he arrived at the Inn that they had purloined for his use.

Njil waited for him in the Inn, drinking some of the recently imported Lykian beer.

Conn and Derryth and Kutidi sat down beside him. Njil looked curiously from the Ancuman to Conn.

‘It’s a long story.’

‘And it gets better every time he tells it!’ Derryth added. He had arrived from the bar with six mugs of beer. He handed one to Conn, and shrugged. ‘I’m very thirty.’

Conn did the introductions and then they said little until that had finished a second mug of beer. Derryth had agreed to give Conn a second.

Derryth sighed. ‘I love good beer. How did I ever survive before they invented beer?’

‘You’re just lucky you never have to pay for the beer you drink.’ He turned to the Commodore. ‘Njil, any news from the castle?’

He shook his head; ‘Nothing new – they accept all the food we send and our emissary gets to see Elva as you asked. Otherwise they are just waiting. The deadline is in five days.’

‘Let me tell you my plan…’

The next morning Conn personally inspected the newly fortified castle. It was impressive; the new stone walls had meshed in well with the ancient towers. The moat itself was murky and brown; the waters that had been diverted from the river had still not had time to settle. That was to his advantage. The lake that was now connected to the moat that surrounded the castle and was in front of the ancient tower that Caronwyn had mentioned was the widest part of the moat; it was at least 50 yards from side to side. This was both good and bad; his people would have to be well trained to survive the crossing. Conn was satisfied that the plan had a prospect of working.

Derryth wasn’t so sure.

‘We have to cross from here to
there
under water! That is a long way to go without being seen.’ He pointed to the tower. ‘There are usually bowmen there as well.’

‘It can be done. Let’s see how Engineering are going.’

Conn’s plan was definitely not easy – they had to travel slowly underwater, then had to find an underwater entrance to the well in the floor of the ancient wall tower, hope that it was big enough to fit into, swim to the well cavity in the tower, open the trap door and regroup – without getting noticed. To help them achieve that, the Engineers were building a large diving bell in timber – though it had to be watertight and weighed sufficiently to stay underwater without flipping. It had two purposes – to provide the wiga a place to take a breath during the journey, and to carry their weapons. In the unlikely event they were discovered, it would also provide them cover against arrows. It was rudimentary, but it worked.

The only difficulty after arriving at the wall was that they had to search for the opening and it was going to be dark. After three days, they were right to go – two days before the deadline. Conn had men studying every movement of every man on the tower; and combined with his creating a model of the inside of the castle from information he collected from those that had worked in or around the building over the last few years, he felt that once in, he was going to be fine.