The Making of the Lamb (22 page)

Besides, Jesus was now old enough to be a man under Jewish law, and if he insisted that God was somehow calling him from prayer, who was Joseph to gainsay him? So, Joseph let him be and returned to continue the chanting of the prayers with Daniel.

As the sun began to set in the west, Fedwig joined the rest of the villagers at the feast of welcome in the common dining hall. It was a splendid affair with plenty of mead and pig meat. He could not sit with his father. Sons were not permitted to appear with their fathers at public affairs until they were old enough to take up arms. The Dumnonii were less rigid in this, but for big banquets, Fedwig was used to banishment to another table.

Kendrick presented the linen from Lugdunum. The gift was well received. As the meal was almost over, Jesus entered and watched from the side. Father soon spotted him and summoned him to take a seat at the head table. Fedwig observed Jesus as he begged off the pig meat and took only some hot bread, fish, and mead. These strangers in flowing togas and sandals who kept to themselves were mighty odd. This one could not even play a decent game of hide-and-seek.

The mead continued to flow well after everyone’s appetite was sated. Then the men began the drinking songs. Jesus soon picked up on the choruses and joined in. After another song began, all the men suddenly stopped, leaving Jesus to finish the last chorus alone with Mother. At the end the company gave them a round of enthusiastic cheers, and Mother embraced Jesus in a warm hug. Fedwig laughed and clapped with the others.

During a lull, Kendrick regaled everyone with the tale of their escape from the pirates, giving much credit to the cleverness of Jesus. Soon there many calls for another song, and they pressed Jesus into service. Fedwig could tell that Jesus had taken a boastful pirate drinking song and changed the words into a lament. The audience, helped along by the intoxicating mead, found the combination of sad words and bright tune riotously amusing, erupting in wild cheers when Jesus finished.

As Pirro and Kendrick walked with his parents back to their hut, Fedwig trailed behind.

Father asked, “Was that tale about the pirates true?”

“I assure you it is,” Kendrick said.

“Far too true,” Pirro muttered. “That boy has some strange magic about him.”

Does he mean to question Jesus’s trustworthiness?

A stern look from Kendrick silenced the Greek merchant, but the mention of magic caught Fedwig’s attention. He forgot all about Jesus’s strangeness and inability to play hide-and-seek. Jesus was now his idol.

The next morning, Fedwig, downcast, tagged along after Jesus as the travelers walked down to the ship. “You have to leave already? You just got here.”

While Uncle Joseph and Daniel climbed aboard, Jesus turned back to Fedwig and clapped his shoulder. “Don’t fret. I have a feeling we’ll soon be back.”

Fedwig grinned.

Kendrick and his passengers set sail on the tide. As they rounded the harbor entrance, a fresh following wind took them rapidly southwest.

Jesus watched with a longing gaze as the mouth of the Fal dropped astern. Then he heard Uncle Joseph’s footsteps approaching.

“I hear you were quite in your element last night. Could not the son of God have waited for the end of the Sabbath before joining the pagans in their carousing? I thought you were going to spend the day contemplating God’s creation,” Joseph admonished.

Jesus smiled. “Come, come, Uncle. The Sabbath day should be a day of rest and joy. These people are God’s creatures, too, and we were making our home with them. So, why is it not proper to join them for their communal banquet? Do we not eat among our own relatives at home throughout the Sabbath?”

“Tell me at least that you did not join in the libations to their gods.”

“No, Uncle, I drank no toast to any pagan god. Nor will I ever do that.”

By early afternoon, they spotted a small rocky island that rose two hundred feet above the water. As they sailed across the bay and drew near, they spotted wagons making their way across a tidal causeway.

“Look, the merchants see us, and they bring their wares,” said Pirro.

“Yes, that is Ictus.” With the tide low, Kendrick sailed the ship as far as possible into a shallow cove between the island and the causeway that linked it to the mainland. Kendrick led his passengers on a short trek across the mud flat. But when they examined the merchant carts, they were disappointed. There were samples of various wares, principally grains, woven cloth and ceramics, but no metals of any kind. If they filled Kendrick’s ship to the brim, they would not have enough to make the expedition worthwhile.

Kendrick was surprised to discover that his passengers had come this way in search of tin. “I wish I had known. I would have told you back in Nantes that the tin trade from Belerium died years ago.”

Pirro swallowed to quell the bile rising in his throat. Joseph would consider him an idiot or worse.

Joseph glared at him, and then he turned to Kendrick. “I’m sorry. We didn’t want the secret of the tin treasure getting out all over Nantes. That secret doesn’t matter much now, and I wish I had put my trust in you, Kendrick.”

“I saw the carts when I was here before.” Pirro spoke fast. “All the Greek and Roman historians said this place was known for tin. They even named Britain the ‘Casserides,’ after the word for tin ore. I wasn’t here to trade for tin back then. I had no reason to look in the carts. How was I to know? This is not my—”

“The damage is done,” said Joseph. “I’m ruined.”

Only one of the wagon merchants had ever sold tin, but he had sold the last of his stock to a Belgic trader a month before. The merchant explained, “When we sell tin to the traders from the east, it travels across the lands of many tribes before it reaches the Romans, and each tribe demands a share of the price. What the Romans are willing to pay does not leave much for us after those other tribes take their tolls. The only tin we sell is what can be panned from the streams, and that is running scarce after centuries of mining.”

“Do you have some of the ore for me to see?” asked Jesus.

The trader produced a small, brownish-black, oily rock.

Jesus held the sample in his hand and felt its weight. Then he looked across the bay to the low-lying hills on the mainland. “I think this ore can be found all around us. We just need to know where to dig.”

The merchant laughed. “You’ll do a lot of digging.”

Jesus turned to the men. “The Lord wants this venture to prosper. He will guide me.” He pointed to a hill that rose to the east across the bay. “Let us go tomorrow morning. We will find tin ore by the evening.”

The three men exchanged glances. Each must know what the others were thinking, but how could they say it? If not for Jesus, they would all be in a chain of slaves heading into some god-forsaken corner of this country.

“Give the boy a chance for a day,” said Kendrick. With nods all around, the others agreed. It did not take much to secure a few picks, shovels, and hammers. The merchant agreed to bring them to the spot identified by Jesus at dawn the next day.

In the morning Kendrick landed the ship on the shore four miles to the east of Ictus. They quickly concluded the purchase of the tools, and they followed Jesus inland. “How far are we going?” asked Daniel.

“We have to get to the foot of the hill. That is where the best veins will be—a little more than a mile in,” Jesus answered.

The cunning boy led them along a well-trodden trail to an enclosed hillside village. Once again, he weighed the sample rock in his hand and looked around. A hillfort was just up the hillside. Jesus pointed to a spot to the south of the fort’s circular rampart. “We will dig right there.”

“I know these people,” said Kendrick. “Go on ahead, and I will have a few words with the village chief. That’s his hillfort. It’s called Pencaire.”

Jesus swung the first blow with a pick. Daniel and Pirro joined in with shovels.

Kendrick soon returned with the village chief.

By early afternoon, they had dug five feet into the ground. By then, Kendrick had taken Jesus’s place with the pick. As he swung it again they heard the sound of cracking rock.

Jesus grabbed a pick and took another swing. “Yes, that’s it, I feel it now.”

Soon they cleared away the dirt layer, exposing the bedrock. Jesus took a heavy hammer and swung with all his might. The rock broke cleanly along a fault line. Jesus took out the ore sample the merchant had given him, and he compared the sample with the rock his hammer had uncovered. “Is it the same?” he asked.

“It certainly appears to be identical,” Kendrick answered.

The village chief was shocked that strangers had found the lode of ore so close to the surface, right under his nose.

Joseph was shrewd enough to close the deal. “Tell the chief we will give him an amphora of fine wine for each three cartloads of ore his people bring to Ictus,” he said.

Kendrick translated, and the deal was done.

“Well, this wasn’t quite what you expected,” said Kendrick, with a laugh.

“Not what I expected,” agreed Joseph, “but we have a supply of ore, and we know the Romans will buy the finished ingots. All we have to do is refine it and transport it.”

“See, I told you there was tin—” Pirro stopped when Joseph gave him another scathing look.

He’s still angry. He will give Jesus all the credit if this continues to go well, and he will forget that trade with Ictus was my idea. If it goes badly, he will blame me, not that precious nephew of his.

T
his was not going to be the simple exchange of goods for tin ingots that Joseph had planned. He had expected to be well on his way back across Gaul by now with a cargo of tin, but it had fallen to Joseph and his own people to oversee mining and refining the ore. Some of them would need to stay behind for that.

Joseph gathered everyone in Kendrick’s ship. He looked from one member of the company to the next. “We cannot trade profitably by just bartering with the merchants,” he said. “Their supply of tin is too unstable, and they have little else we can sell at a profit in Gaul or anywhere else in the empire.” Joseph paused for effect. “On the other hand, if Jesus can locate veins of ore, we have more possibilities. It does not take much to get the locals to dig the ore and bring it to a convenient trading post on the shore. All we need is a base camp where we can refine the metal and cast it into ingots.”

Joseph looked at his great-nephew. “You seem to like it here among the Dumnonii.” Jesus was smiling already. “I take it you wouldn’t mind staying for a while?”

Silence fell over the group. No one doubted that Joseph could require the boy to stay, but it would work so much better if he had his heart in it. Jesus’s smile turned into a serious expression as he considered the situation. Then he said, “Very well, Uncle, as long as Daniel is with me and we can stay in Carn Roz.”

Daniel smiled. He had no objection.

Kendrick let out a great laugh at Jesus’s feigned attempt to drive a bargain, and then he turned to Joseph. “You cannot find a better place than Carn Roz. The harbor and its streams take you right into the heart of tin country. It’s also an easy sail on the ocean from Carn Roz over to here, or by sailing east with a good wind you can reach the mouth of the Tamar in half a day. That covers most of the places tin is found.”

“Daniel will join you,” Joseph told Jesus, “and we will make the base at Carn Roz if Bannoch will have you.”

Daniel and Jesus beamed at each other.

“There’s little doubt of that,” Kendrick said. “Tilda would never forgive Bannoch if he refused the boys. We will need to give Bannoch something for supplies and protection, but it will not be much. The druids might have something to say about this, but we can deal with that.”

“I can stay behind, too,” offered Pirro. “I can help with the tin operations and look after the boys. Mainly, I can look through the villages to trade for the better weaves of cloth, pottery, and anything else we can sell for a profit in Gaul. There will be plenty of space left on Kendrick’s ship for lighter goods, once we load on as much tin as we can.”

In their first conversation at the tavern in Lugdunum, Pirro had made it seem so simple, as if the Britons in Ictus were eager to shower them with tin ingots in exchange for trinkets. If not for Jesus, Pirro’s scheme would have led to Joseph’s ruin. He could not blame Pirro for their perils at sea, but he had to wonder if Pirro had ever been to Ictus, as he claimed when he painted such a rosy picture. Nonetheless, Pirro was an experienced trader, and there was little to go wrong with the idea of using empty space on the return voyages to bring back staples and curiosities from Britain to sell to the Romans and Gauls. Joseph reluctantly nodded.

“What about you, Uncle?” asked Jesus.

“I have other commitments in Gaul and elsewhere. I cannot let my regular customers forget me. Besides, you seem to have a knack for finding tin, and there is nothing more I can teach you about it. I will leave the initial load of trade goods with you and Daniel. Use them to purchase the ore and anything else you need from the natives. I must do what I do best, which is to carry on my business and come back as often as I can with more supplies, wine, and other things to trade.”

Fedwig burst into the clearing, out of breath.

Elsigar looked up at Fedwig, then glanced at the sundial and sighed.

The boy had arrived just in time to avoid punishment. The others were already seated on some logs. Why did the boy always try his patience so? It was just as his predecessor had told him: Nothing good ever came from Carn Roz. It seemed to Elsigar that Bannoch and his Dumnonii villagers hardly paid any attention to the druids at all. True, the Carn Roz villagers took part in the four great feasts of the year, but they treated those occasions as just another excuse for carousing and drinking mead. They went through the motions, but they did not seem to be true believers.