The Aebeling (45 page)

‘Kuitans? Do you mean the pirates? Do you mean that someone is sinking their ships?’

She nodded.

‘Yes, that would be me. I’m surprised that you have heard.’

She smiled a thin smile. ‘They trade with us on a small port on the west. They have been complaining about the situation. It is hard not to laugh.’

‘They will be doing a lot of complaining if they keep attacking my ships. Perhaps you can pass that on. Please tell them that if any of my ships is attacked, I will sink every one of their ships I see – it is time that they find a new line of work.’

She laughed, ‘I’ll pass it on. They were confused why you weren’t doing that already.’

Conn was about to ask another question when a tall women with long black hair strode into the hall and marched towards the throne. Graceful arms, long legs, and ample bosom bursting from a leather bodice that was clearly a size too small; she was as fine a creature as Conn had seen. It suddenly occurred to him that he had seen her before. He also sensed an extra voice that followed her in – the very same that Alric had. What was ‘it’ doing here?

Strangely Lilith didn’t seem to know that the voice was there – though she did sort of connect with the girl – but it seemed a weak connection. Sibbe and Lilith had a strong link in comparison.

The new arrival hadn’t noticed him when she arrived. She bowed to her mother and Sibbe introduced her to Aerlene and then him: ‘Conn il Atrak, my eldest daughter Halla.’

As she turned to greet Conn, there was first obvious surprise of seeing a male in the keep, then recognition spread over her face; quickly followed by anger, and before the Aebeling had time to react, she yelled ‘You … you will regret the day you saw me...’.

She drew her sword and leapt at Conn in a single motion. Conn had stood to greet her and he threw his weight backwards over the couch, tipping it and himself over; providing himself with a moment to recover as Halla leapt the couch. Conn rolled and drew his sword in a fraction of a second and the girl’s sword made contact with the katana; the sound of steel on steel reverberating throughout the keep.

Sibbe, having had the time to react now, demanded that her daughter sheath her sword, and only when confronted by her mother’s guard, did she desist. She was still furious however. Sibbe was remonstrating with her daughter; furious that she would unsheathe her sword in the keep; and to attack a guest of the Keep was unforgivable. She demanded that she apologize.

It was like the girl was not in control of herself; she was taking in deep breaths.

‘I refuse. I will not give this …’ she looked him up and down in distaste, ‘feorrancund the satisfaction of my apology. I demand an honor bout!’

Conn could tell the turmoil that was going through her head. He sheathed his sword. ‘What’s an honor bout?’

Sibbe took a deep breath; she was clearly very upset about the whole event. ‘It is a bout to the death – or submission – whatever comes first. Winner takes all. It is an ancient Silekian tradition.’

‘Aebeling, if it means so much to her, I’m happy to accommodate her wishes. She seems very hard done by for some reason.’

Conn sensed that the two voices in his head were at odds with this decision – one was delighted, though Lilith was disturbed. Lilith didn’t seem to know what was happening.

Aerlene was confused. ‘Submission or death? What sort of bout is that? In Moetia, we just pay fines.’

Ignored, Aerlene followed the crowd as it poured out into the forecourt. They were strangely excited; an honor bout was not something that happened everyday – Conn quickly got the feeling that everyone thought him dead already; such was the reputation of the Valkeri. Outside they encircled a large stone ring on the ground. It must have been carved a thousand years ago. Halla was waiting in the circle; she stood with her sword, almost snarling.

As Conn walked in he had a chance to look at her in detail in the sunlight. She was dressed in leathers suitable for training, but not ideal for a battle to the death. To be fair, Conn removed his mail and gambeson, and stood bare chested with his Katana, the only thing around his neck were the two Twacuman medals. His white skin, though tanned, made him more noticeable than before and Conn flexed his muscles to show off a bit.

It suddenly occurred to him to ask. ‘Any rules?’

Halla responded, eying him as she circled. ‘Submit or die. That is all you need to know. I’d prefer if you didn’t submit.’

‘OK. Whatever works for you?’

At a signal from the Aebeling, the bout commenced. Halla was still furious and she was a highly trained operator, very skilled, and she attacked with ferocity. She went very close to striking Conn with her blade on several occasions and he even had a faint mark over his chest where the tip of the blade whizzed past. After about five minutes, Halla was still attacking and Conn spent most of his time defending. After 10 minutes, Conn was starting to get his feel of her methods.

He raised his hand and she paused. ‘Do you wish to submit?’ she demanded, as she drew in deep breaths. ‘I hope you don’t.’

‘No, not at all. I just want to apologize for underestimating you – you are a great wiga. I was thinking that you would fight like a girl.’

‘Then it will be a girl that kills you.’ She mocked.

Conn shook his head. ‘Sorry sweetheart, not today. You are good – but not that good.’

‘I am not your sweetheart!’ Snarling, Halla lunged and Conn parried. He changed his tactics now; instead of just defense, he mixed it with attack, though he always retreated from the terminal blow. After another ten minutes, Conn could see that Halla had begun to realize that this was not going to be as easy as she thought; her eyes showed that she now understood that it was now a fight for her survival, and her tactics changed.

With the change, the mood in the crowd also changed; Halla was now not fighting in her usual fashion, and everyone knew that. As they fought Conn could hear the ‘other’ voice in her head – though he suspected that ‘it’ didn’t know he was eavesdropping, and it drove her to kill. She wore a leather thong – that stretched down between her breasts. Whenever it was in danger of coming loose, she would place it back – it must have a brown stone hanging off it. None of the other Cyme had similar that he had seen – and their bosoms were all on display. He needed to get the necklace, because if he didn’t stop that voice in her head, there would be no reasoning with her, she would never submit.

First he needed to get the sword from her, and turn the battle to hand to hand so that he could get close enough. It took another five minutes before she overreached slightly and this time Conn was able to deftly kick the sword from her hand and out of the ring. She winced and the crowd drew breath, and instead of retrieving the sword, she regrouped with only her dagger now.

Halla looked surprised when Conn handed his sword to Aerlene and attacked barehanded. It took all his skills gained over a lifetime of training to not get killed, and instead he chose to inflict as much pain on the girl as possible; pain without breakage. As the battle progressed, it was clear that Conn was starting to toy with her, every time that he had an opportunity to end the bout, he would feign a different outcome. After every throw to the ground she would stand and try again, until she could hardly crawl. Still she would not submit.

He was now closer to her necklace, and as she lunged with her knife and he rolled past the arm, grabbing the swinging necklace as he passed and pulled; it came off with a snap and the brown gemstone fell on the stone floor, freed from the leather strap.

Halla regrouped and her eyes watched the stone fall to the ground; her hand gripped her throat where the band had been. Her eyes filling with horror as she saw Conn step forward and crushed it under his heel.

‘NO!’ she screamed and lunged towards him with no sense of self-preservation. The crowd knew she had been beaten, and Sibbe stood downcast; her daughter was being hurt physically and now physiologically, and was moments from death. Instead, with her reckless lunge, Conn was now able to quickly get two hands to her; one holding the dagger and another around her neck, and he followed her to the ground; she was in a submission hold from where there was only one outcome – oblivion – and he carefully reduced her oxygen flow until she passed out.

The match was over. Conn placed the unconscious body gently on the cold stone. The proud Cyme was now a heap on the ground – but at least she was still alive. One of her crying sister wiga came over and threw a bucket of water on her, and gasping, she struggled to her hands and knees. She looked at Conn with confusion and to the others around her in helplessness. She knew she was not in a place she had ever expected to be. She looked lost, alone and simply terrified.

Conn had returned to stand with Aerlene, who had tears in her eyes. She had never seen Conn so cruel and brutal.

‘I presume you humiliated her for a reason.’ Her voice was filled with distaste.

Conn nodded sadly. ‘I did not want to kill her. It was the only way.’

Sibbe walked over to them. ‘I’m sure you have your reasons, Conn il Taransay, but I am glad that you didn’t kill my daughter – even though she is now lost to me. You are the most skilled wiga I have ever seen. I pity any who meet you in combat.’

They watched Halla as she stood, struggling to her feet; pain and humiliation all over her face. Something strange happened as she stood; the two gold bands that were on each wrist suddenly glowed and expanded; they then dropped off her hands to the ground and seemed to disappear into the rock floor. As they did, Conn felt the surge of power in his mind – he could tell that this was Lilith’s doing.

Halla wailed: ‘No, No, not that, no…’ and broke down in tears, falling to her knees.

She was really alone – nothing like she had ever been before as there were no voices in her head; she had been cut off from all the Gyden. Conn knew that Lilith was sad – but happy that she wasn’t dead.

Sibbe took a heavy gold necklace from around her neck, and placed it over Conn’s head.

‘The gold in this chain symbolized the gold that was around her arms, the bands that made her bedda to Lilith. As a betrayer of her vows, and as a result of losing an honor bout that she requested, she is cast out. She is no longer a part of the house of the Valkeri. She is yours to keep. She is theow.’

The sadness in the courtyard was palpable; a lot of people were crying. Even Sibbe was finding it hard not to cry. Somehow she directed Aerlene and Conn to be shown to rooms to rest; and there, Conn took the opportunity to take a bath; he was exhausted after the bout – physically and mentally. House staff came and filled up a tub for him. They were unused to having a male there but not so shy as to not wanting to stay in the room just in case he needed them – for anything. He was sure that they didn’t have that much cleavage on display earlier. Alone, he soaked – for once in his life he was even too mentally exhausted for sex.

He could feel Lilith lurking in his head. He wondered if she would talk to him.

‘Why did you not stop the bout?’ he tended as an opening statement. Probably too demanding.

‘You do not understand what you ask.’ was the curt response.

‘Perhaps. There is much I do not understand. Perhaps you didn’t because she wasn’t listening to you.’

There was no response. He suspected that she wasn’t sharing, and she left Conn in peace as he finished his bath. Clean and refreshed, he was about to leave the room when the door opened and Halla walked in. She was escorted by wiga. She bowed.

‘Thane il Hama, I am Halla, theow, and I have reported here as is my duty. And as per the laws that relate to theow, you can do anything to me except sell me, share me, or kill me.’

‘Seriously? OK, well how is your head?’

Halla was startled by the question. ‘My head?’

‘Yes, without the voice there to keep you company.’

‘You know about that?’

‘I try to know about everything. Whose voice did you think you were listening to?’

‘Lilith. She is the protector and guardian of the Valkeri.’

‘It wasn’t Lilith. It was someone else – another Gyden. That is why you chose to fight. The other Gyden wanted you to kill me. I don’t think she likes me very much. I have yet to know why. Lilith was upset you wouldn’t listen to her.’

Halla looked at him in disbelief. ‘That is not possible. I was joined to Lilith at birth – and how could you possibly know? No-one can hear what the Gyden say to other people. No one – not even a Folgere.’

‘Not entirely true. Anyway, is your father a Rakian?’

She still shook her head but answered his question. ‘Yes, my mother spent some time in Rakia. But how is that relevant?’

‘It is relevant because the Rakian is a descendant of the Ancuman and that connection allowed another Gyden to supplant Lilith in your mind and heart. I do not know how yet.’ Conn chose to remind her of their first meeting. ‘You were in Tegeste recently?’

She smiled thinly. ‘You caused a great deal of trouble.’ She looked at him curiously for a moment. ‘Why would you steal the Twacuman girl – did you want her as a theow? I understand that she was quite young.’

‘She is not theow – I just rescued her – she is now in Halani.’

‘You went to all that trouble to rescue the girl?’

Conn nodded.

Confused but resigned, Halla was now curious. ‘Can you tell me why you fought for so long… you could have killed me much earlier? We both know that.’

Conn nodded his head. ‘I didn’t want to kill you. Lilith certainly didn’t want you dead. It took a while to achieve that.’

‘Lilith still loves me?’

Conn nodded.

Hall seemed relieved at that – despite that fact that she was cast aside, and she tried hard not to cry. It had been a very bad day for her.

Conn told her that he was heading for the port to check in with the Captain, and that she should accompany him. Aboard the brand new schooner, he gave Halla a guided tour of the boat. The weather was perfect today; and the large vessel rocked gently in the harbor.

She was suitably impressed, but Conn could see that her body ached as she walked, and climbing up and down stairs made her wince. She was doing well to hide the pain.