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

Conn prepared to fire an arrow.

‘What do you think; his hand or foot?’ The question was directed at Derryth.

‘I’m thinking the cup he is holding – it is near his head enough to give him a fright.’

‘You can’t hit that from …’ Kaltor started to say as Conn lifted the bow and fired. The arrow flew true. The cup that the Ancuman Folctoga was about to pick up was sent sprawling off the bench that it sat on. ‘Well, I’ll be…’

The Folctoga was incensed and grabbed his sword and bow, ordering his troops to attack the tree line. It was a rash move and one that he soon regretted as fifteen men fell within moments of charging Conn’s position. Conn simultaneously charged down to the camp site. The remaining thirty Ancuman only contained ten wiga – four of whom were females. A couple closest to the captives decided to provide some retribution but the arrows that thudded into various body parts meant no Twacuman died. Sensing an opportunity to escape, the Twacuman sprang up and fled into the forest. Anyone that tried to stop them died very quickly. There were eight wiga left.

Conn walked towards the remaining Ancuman – the sailors had quite wisely kept their hands high and out of the way.

‘Does anyone else want to needlessly die?’ Conn asked.

The Ancuman looked confused – the men marching towards them were not the Twacuman they had sought to enslave – these were armed in gambesons and with long bows. Another recognized Conn.

‘What is the Feorrancund doing here?’

‘I have been asked that question several times today – and the answers don’t make much sense – even to me. Needless to say, it is to stop what you are doing. Now if you hurry, you can all leave without dying, but leave very quickly.’

The sailors took the hint and immediately set to drag the cog out to deeper water. It was a big vessel and being light on available hands they had difficulty moving it until Conn sent some Twacuman to help them. As they stood watching the men pack, one of the female wiga called out.

‘One of your companions is Ancuman. Is she theow?

‘No, she is my daughter.’

They looked at each other, confused. ‘I had not heard the infamous Marquis of Kerch had an Ancuman child.’

‘A couple in fact. I like Ancuman women.’

‘She wears a haligdom – it is not black…’

‘No. That one belongs to Ishtar.’

There was stunned silence.

Finally, one spoke. ‘Ishtar is dead, gone, banished. Ashtoreth is the one true Gyden.’

‘If you say so.’ Conn shrugged. ‘And if you believe what you say, why don’t you touch the stone and find out for yourself?’

The females were quiet – but one of the males – of Axum – was not. He yelled; ‘You lie – Ishtar is dead. She was found impure and replaced with Ashtoreth who is perfect.’

‘I don’t know,’ Conn ventured, ‘I met a few of Ashtoreth’s folgere recently who are less than perfect – in fact they are less than alive now. So why don’t you prove me wrong and touch it?’

He scoffed. ‘I would not sully my hand with such imperfection. Whatever you say, Ishtar is dead and long gone.’

Beside him, Asbera walked forward. She seemed totally unafraid and she moved half of the distance.

One of the girls spoke. She was confused. ‘But if the girl wears the stone, Ishtar could be back. The white stone can only mean that Ishtar has returned. What else can it mean?’

The Folctoga was getting angry. ‘Ishtar will never return – you blaspheme by even mentioning her name.’

‘But...’ another ventured.

‘Enough!’ he yelled, and went to strike the girl with his hand. The blow did not land. An arrow passed Conn’s side and struck the man in the neck; where he was unprotected. He looked to Conn and saw that it was not him that fired the arrow; it was Alana.

The remaining men stood in shock and they watched silently as the four girls walked to Asbera. One stepped forward.

‘May I?’

Asbera removed the necklace from around her neck and handed it to her. It was less than five seconds before she started crying, and then as the rest received the haligdom, they all were crying. Finally, they gathered themselves and handed back the haligdom. Then all four fell to their knees in front of the girl.

‘Please accept us your companions’, they begged.

Asbera placed her hands on their heads in turn. ‘I accept you’, she said to each.

Derryth was standing by Conn’s side.

‘Well, that is not something you see every day.’

With that, two of the girls went to the cog and removed their travel packs and joined Asbera at Conn’s side.

Totally unsure what had just happened, Conn gave the instructions that the rest of the Ancuman should leave, and as they watched the cog depart, Conn arranged for the dead to be quickly buried under sand. If the volcano was going to explode soon, there seemed little point in doing anything else. They then immediately headed across the island.

~oo0oo~

As they walked, Conn asked Asbera and her four companions, who walked behind her, what had happened.

One of the wiga answered. ‘We are all of Nobatia. Ishtar told us that we should follow her wherever she goes. If she is of the house of Nobatia, then she has to have a guard. She needs to be protected.’

‘I think she is fairly well protected.’ Conn indicated to the men that surrounded the camp.

‘Maybe – but she doesn’t have a guard of her own, does she?’

Conn shook his head.

‘No, she doesn’t, so we have pledged our lives and our service to Asbera il Nobatia, and to Ishtar, Gyden of all Nobatia. Today is a wonderful day.’

As they walked, the ground shook and they turned to see more smoke billow from the mountain. Conn agreed. ‘But if we don’t move quicker, it might be our last day.’

By the time they arrived at the beach, it seemed that the rest of the Twacuman had loaded whatever belongings they wanted to take with them and were waiting aboard the ships.

Whaleboats waited to take them to the schooner, as well as a few of the Twacuman.

Behind them the island’s western crater started to belch even more smoke, this time black and menacing. Several whaleboats had departed and only Conn and Derryth remained, and they turned to watch the smoke rise heavenwards. Higher up on the sand stood four other ancients.

Einulfur stood with him. ‘It will not be long now. Soon this island will be home to no one.’

‘I gather you are not leaving with us.’

He shrugged. ‘If we go, we die. If we stay, we die. It is only the island itself that keeps me alive.’ He pointed to the others who waited for him. ‘Tonight will be our last night. We will not wake up tomorrow. There are worse ways to join the wind.’

‘I think you are right.’

He looked intently at Conn. ‘You have been passed great responsibility, Feorhhyrde. It would seem that you do it well.’

‘Thank you.’ Conn didn’t know what else to say. ‘I don’t understand that you knew I was coming.’

Einulfur smiled. ‘We have been expecting you for a very long time; I think my grandfather was expecting you, but instead the world went black. Anyway, my bones are weary and despite you being late, at least you arrived. Farewell.’

He walked away and Conn watched the small group walk back into the trees. He went to the whaleboat on the water’s edge, where Kaltor and Derryth waited for him.

‘Your grandfather is an amazing man, Kaltor.’

Kaltor nodded and smiled. ‘My grandfather is actually my grandfather’s grandfather. He and the others have been around for many generations.’

Chapter 4
Herewald il Sabatah

Fridfina was the name of the senior wiga amongst Conn’s newest entourage. It was a few days later when they were on the open sea heading for Meshech before Conn was able to get more out of the group, and despite the Ancuman being on board, there was no animosity between them. Fridfina made a general apology, and that was that. The four kept to themselves and Asbera; but they were never intrusive.

Conn learnt that the four were the only Nobatia amongst the troop. The Axum did not trust the Nobatia, one of the Southern Isle tribes, that much – but were happy to have females in their fyrd because they had other … uses. After their training and initiation by the folgere, they were available for their training partners – who had all been killed. Fridfina asked Conn if he would be wanting to use their bodies at all. There was a serious disconnect that troubled Conn. He declined and she was possibly surprised with his answer, but didn’t ask again.

He used her in other ways; she was happy to speak of her and her sister’s experiences. As was typical amongst the Ancuman, Fridfina had left home to train as a wiga at the age of seven. For the next nine years she had been trained daily and only visited her family three times a year. Her father was a Folctoga in the service of the Aebeling of Himyar. At the age of sixteen, after their initiation, it was decided by others if they would continue to train as wiga or, if deemed unsuitable, they would be diverted to other tasks such as working on farms or as craeftiga – or given as bedda to have children. She and the others had been ‘lucky’ enough to be chosen to be wiga, and then partnered to Axum wiga, and they would spend ten years in that role. As the junior partner, they were there to be of service to their male or female partner – and nothing was unacceptable. This was common also amongst the male and male pairings. The junior partner was there for the use of his partner and many Axum wiga only trained young men. Conn had wondered. Fridfina was twenty – she had been with her now deceased partner for four years. The other girls were between sixteen and nineteen.

‘What happens after your ten years of service?’

‘If we have pleased our masters, we could become bedda amongst our people. If we have not pleased them, then we might be sold as theow to others of Axum as bedda. Our children will then be theow.’

‘So there is a great incentive to please your masters?’

She nodded. ‘Otherwise our people die. And when our people die, Ishtar dies.’

~oo0oo~

With the extra bodies on board, it had been decided that they would head to Sabatah in Meshech instead of Sytha because it was closest. The extra weight made the trip slower than usual, and it took fourteen days to arrive. They sighted the lighthouse before anything else, and they slowed to arrive by midmorning.

Conn stood with Derryth and Kaltor on the deck as Njil glided into the harbour. Sails had been reduced to a minimum and small human powered tugboats eased their way into the docks.

‘Herewald will be surprised to see you…’ Derryth offered. ‘It has been a while—and you are supposed to be in Sytha.’

‘I was supposed to be back years ago. Still, we have given him some warning.’

Shipping was a large feature of Meshech and in the harbour at least ten ships were being unloaded or loaded. Most were junks – there were few schooners in service and they were doing the longer run between Sytha and Meshech. Each ship was identified by the pattern on their sails or by the flags that hung from the mast. The schooner had two flags flying high. One indicated a request for assistance – though not an emergency, whilst the other was Conn’s personal standard showing that the Eaorl of Ilissus, his senior title in Meshech, was aboard. It was to give the Eaorl of Sabatah some warning that he had important guests.

Their unscheduled arrival certainly caused consternation. It didn’t, however, cause as much a surprise as Conn had expected. As they docked, a large number of people waited for them.

Kaltor turned to Derryth. ‘You did not tell me that the Twacuman live in Priecuman cities?’

‘We don’t – Halani is in the mountains.’

‘Then why are there kin waiting on the docks?’

Derryth just burst out laughing and Conn shook his head, bemused. ‘Caewyn! Why am I not surprised!’

‘Who is Caewyn?’ Kaltor asked.

‘Caewyn is the daughter of the Aebeling of Halani.’

As they got close enough to see the whites of each other’s eyes, she smiled and waved at them.

Kaltor looked at Derryth curiously. ‘She radiates power. Such power that I have never felt before. Is she a Wothbora?’

Derryth shook his head. ‘No, but she has more power than any of us have ever experienced either. I expect that she came here because she is expecting us.’

‘Really? Is the wind that powerful?’

Derryth just looked confused. ‘Not to my knowledge, but I don’t think Caewyn is talking to just the wind.’

Conn disembarked as soon as he could. As well as Caewyn, Elva waited for them. He kissed her and then hugged Caewyn.

‘You are getting more beautiful, Caewyn.’

‘Thank you. You are very nice to say such things. As for you, you have been gone years and yet you do not change. Feorhhyrde, I fear for your sanity.’

‘My sanity is safe as long as I have you to keep me on my toes. Anyway,’ Conn did the introductions as they disembarked, ‘this is Kaltor il Neritum. Also his cousin Siga il Neritum – and the last of the people of Neritum, which I fear is now under fire and ash.’

As they had sailed away from Neritum, the smoke plume had gotten worse until they heard the explosion and saw the black plume. Ash had even fallen on the boat.

Caewyn nodded thoughtfully. ‘So many of our kinfolk. And from Neritum? I was thinking that they would be our kin from Sytha. Why didn’t you tell me you were going to Neritum? I would have liked to have seen our ancestral home.’

‘I didn’t know I was going to Neritum. It is a long story. I’m sure that Kaltor and Siga can tell you about it. For now, we have a lot of people who need somewhere to rest, certainly wash, and eat.’

Ethelmon, the Eaorl of Sabatah’s son, was there to greet him and he quickly agreed that extensive barracks within the castle walls would be made available to the new arrivals. He directed wiga to assist the Twacuman off the ships.

Amongst the many that waited to greet him were two young women – one of whom was unmistakably one of his daughters. Allynne was the daughter of Sherlinda, the former widowed Innkeeper and now one of the richest women in Lykia. Standing beside her was another very pretty young woman that Conn didn’t recognize. Allynne hugged her father formally – they hardly knew each other – and did the introductions.

‘Papa, this is my cousin Cenwitha – she is Osdreda’s daughter, and she is soon to be bedda to Ethelmon.’

Conn was surprised. Despite being the Aebeling of Lycia’s niece, Cenwitha was still the daughter of a merchant. There could only be one reason why it was being mentioned to him.

‘There is a problem?’

She smiled meekly. ‘They have been unable to agree to a suitable dowry. I was hoping…’

Conn nodded. ‘I’ll see what I can do.’

She hugged him again, with more enthusiasm. ‘Thank you Papa.’ The two young girls then turned and rushed back to the keep, presumably to make arrangements.

Derryth laughed. ‘One minute you are invading counties, saving entire civilizations and the next – sorting out marital issues.’

‘My job description is certainly varied.’ He turned back to Elva as she stood at his side, watching the people disembark. ‘You seem surprised.’

‘Yes, this is not what I was expecting at all.’

‘What were you expecting?’

‘Caewyn just said that we need to go to Sabatah. That kin were arriving. I presumed from Sytha as well. We knew about them.’

‘So even Caewyn can be surprised.’

‘So it would seem. The Ancuman are also surprising. You have a daughter.’

‘And a son. Something more to worry about.’

She smiled at him and Derryth. ‘Doesn’t Derryth tell you that there is no point in worrying about things you have no control over?’

‘More than once.’

Derryth agreed. ‘He doesn’t listen.’

When everyone had disembarked, Elva escorted Conn to his room in Sherlinda’s Inn where she had organized a bath big enough for two. She wanted to welcome him
properly
. It has been years.

~oo0oo~

At supper time, a very clean Conn arrived with Derryth and his entourage at the Earl of Sabatah’s new hall. Aside from the Aebeling, the three people that had benefitted most financially from their association with Conn was Octa in Tabae, Herewald in Sabatah and Egbert in Abela. With manufacturing, construction and trade activities expanding exponentially, all three Eaorl were now very rich. To Herewald’s chagrin, he had to concede that had Octa was richer than him. To prove that he was “really” rich, however, he had employed Conn’s engineers and craeftiga to build him a great stone castle.

Ethelmon, the Eaorl’s son greeted them at the gate, and guided them inside to find the Eaorl pacing impatiently. Herewald would have thought it unconscionable for him to have to go the docks to greet Conn and gather information first hand so had to wait for Conn to go to him. Conn took his own time; Conn was one of very few people that Herewald lacked the ability to boss around, and the Eaorl found it vexing. Waiting with him was Allynne and Cenwitha, amongst many others.

Nonetheless, Herewald greeted him warmly. ‘Taransay; so nice to see you again – and such a surprise. Welcome to my humble abode.’ He smiled, knowing that there was nothing humble about it at all. ‘I gather you have a lot of news to tell me about your activities in Sytha – and elsewhere. But first, who are all these people with you?’

Conn did the introductions and they then spent the next few hours eating, drinking and talking. It was, after all, a long story – and there were many people to include. As the night progressed. More and more people retired to get sleep. By the end it was just three of them. Derryth had deserted him but Elva stayed at his side.

Herewald asked him what his plans were.

‘I will be heading to Sytha as soon as Njil is ready. I only left when I did because I had to. There is a lot to do there.’ Conn stood, ‘I think I will leave you as well. Goodnight Eaorl.’

Herewald shook his hand. ‘Goodnight Taransay. I will see you again for breakfast.’

Conn headed out and then stopped and turned around. ‘Oh, I forgot to say that I agree with you completely regarding Cenwitha.’

Herewald looked surprised. ‘Cenwitha? You agree with me – I don’t know what you mean?’

Conn leaned forward. ‘I heard that you have are refusing to accept the dowry offered to allow her to become bedda to your son. After all, her children will be an Eaorl. Octa has lesser standards than you – I heard one of his daughters is even bedda to a Laird in Hama.’

‘Octa? How is Octa involved?’ Pride is a nervous ally.

Conn tried to look surprised. ‘You didn’t know? I heard a rumour that he was actually going to offer to pay a dowry to Cenwitha instead of demanding one from her.’

‘You lost me – Octa is going to give a dowry to Cenwitha? But his sons are too old and his grandsons are too young…’

Conn agreed. ‘One of his nephews I believe. You’d have to agree that it would be an excellent bedda choice for someone just outside of the main circle. His kinsmen will be a cousin to the future Aebeling of Lykia AND the Healdend of Moetia. I’m sure he will do well from such powerful connections.’

Herewald fell hook, line and sinker. He wasn’t going to let Octa get one over him. By the time Conn left. Octa was yelling at people to get people out of bed.

Elva shook her head at him as they walked.

‘Anyone who actually believes that you are a nice person is very misled.’

‘I don’t know what you are talking about. Talking of being nice, I hope you weren’t thinking of going to sleep.’

She grabbed him by the hand and smiled back. ‘I can sleep next week’.

The next morning Allynne came to see him as he sat with Elva, Derryth and her mother eating breakfast. She was really excited, and hugged him again.

‘Papa, I don’t know what you did but Ethelmon went this very morning and made a formal offer of a dowry to be given TO Cenwitha! She is very happy and extremely grateful. Thank you, Papa.’

‘I did nothing but tell a story. They can be very powerful if not carefully analyzed.’ He looked at the girl. ‘Allynne, I have a favor in return. You are my only daughter who has not gone to Cyme. I did not see you as risk because you looked the least like me. That is no longer the case. You are at risk. I would like you to go to Cyme – or come with me to Sytha.’

‘But Cenwitha, she …’

‘She will be fine. She will have Ethelmon. You have three years before you are bedda. After than you can come back and be the Baroness Rupina.’

She was suddenly overcome with both excitement and sadness and she burst into tears.  Once she had calmed down she agreed to go to Sytha with her father.

~oo0oo~

They held a feast to celebrate the bedda joining and soon after, Conn watched the Twacuman leave for Halani. Caewyn said that Derryth should go with them and help the new arrivals settle in. Wilric and Hallvi also went. Conn was left alone.