The Eaorl (The Casere Book 2) (27 page)

‘The Marquis?’ Conn presumed that would be the title of the owner.

‘The last Marquis died in battle – his heirs declined to accept the challenge and forfeited the demesne.’

Conn sat and contemplated the situation. It was strange and deserved further consideration.

‘Why do you war against the Pontians?’

Lile answered this time. ‘Over land – what else do men fight over? A hundred years ago a war was fought that ended in a treaty that gave us a large tract of land to our north – the high plains that separate the two lands. About seventy years later, the Pontians have decided that they will not accept the treaty anymore and have taken the land back. Without notice, they attacked our settlements; evicted all our farmers and destroyed the Cirices. We have been fighting ever since to regain that piece of land back.’

Conn was confused. ‘So how does that tie in with the Twacuman?’

‘As Turlough said, the land in Rila is very rich and prosperous – now it is deserted and unproductive because of the attacks of the Pontians. Not only did it feed the people of Rila but also the people of the other parts of Sytha as well. Rila is much missed and it is the Twacuman who have allowed this to happen.’

Conn smiled; ‘The Pontians are obviously very well advised. You mentioned that you had lost contact with the Samarians. When did that happen?’

Turlough responded. ‘It must be over a hundred year since they visited...’

‘Would that be about the same time as the Pontians attacked the highlands?’

‘About the same, yes…’

‘It does seems that you have some serious problems. It may be that I can help.’

‘My father was interested in all options – which is why we had the treaty with the Ancuman.’

‘Have the Ancuman always been welcome in Sytha?’

Turlough answered for them. ‘No – eight hundred years ago they were banished. It is only the last hundred years or so that we have seen their return.’

As Conn contemplated all this information, they sat and ate. Later Wuffa returned to the table and handed Conn a parchment, which he passed to Turlough. As he read the document, the surprise on his face was noticeable. Conn commenced the discussion by stating the obvious.

‘Lile, let me tell you something about Meshech. Do you know of someone called Osstan?’

The Sythans were shocked at the mention of his name. Conn continued. ‘From your expression, I can see that you do. Well, my daughters over there are descendants – in fact everyone one in this room is a descendant. Nearly everyone in Meshech is your kin.’

Lile was speechless. ‘So this is where Osstan went when he left Sytha. We have great poems about him – and how he left on fifty ships and disappeared never to be seen again.’ She looked at Conn intently. ‘Are you kin as well?

‘No, but I have been able to help the Silekians – as the Sytha are called here in Meshech, and I will do what I can to help you as well.’

She looked at Turlough. ‘So what are you proposing?’

‘I have given Turlough a document for a treaty between your father and myself that would achieve the same outcome as the one with the Axum; just not as generous to me. I will return half the gold that he offered the Ancuman, and will send three companies of archers and two companies of cavalry – I assume that horses can be sourced in Sytha – to your father within the three months, and at least another five hundred cavalry – within a year after the agreement. In exchange I will accept your sacrifice to be bedda and that Eaorldom that is deserted – what was the name of it again?’

Turlough replied, confused. ‘Rila?’

‘Yes, Rila…’

‘Why Rila? I said that it has been almost deserted for years. It has no value.’

Conn shrugged. ‘Did you not say that it has a good harbour? I like good harbours.’

Lile was stunned. ‘What you offer is much greater than what you get in return. I don’t understand – though my father would be mad not to agree.’

‘I hope he feels that way. I will arrange for a ship to take Tuathal and Turlough back to Sytha to get his approval. It will leave in a few days – I would like your assistance at choosing a cargo that would generate some income for the captain and crew. It has one of my best Captains in charge.’

Turlough said he would be delighted to help. He even helpfully suggested wine.

Conn changed the subject, ‘Tuathal, while we wait, I’m going for a trip to inspect my fyrd at training. I will be away for five days. I would welcome your opinion, if you would care to travel with me.’

Tuathal said that he would be honoured, and as they walked out Tuathal asked about the size of his Fyrd. He was astounded at the answer.

‘Three thousand! That’s extraordinary. How can anyone afford to maintain such a number?’

‘With lots of clever accounting, I can assure you.’

By the time Conn and Tuathal had returned from Azaba, the smaller cog was in harbor and ready to leave. Eggar was also ready to depart with Tuathal and Turlough, and they farewelled them first

It seems that the voyage should take no more than three to four weeks each way – it took nearly six weeks for the Ancuman boat, and given that his boat was sleeker and faster, it would be quicker – the only problem was that they didn’t really know where they were going. Conn expected the vessel back with ten weeks. They had taken copies of all maps and notes that the Ancuman had in their ship and Eggar had determined he couldn’t miss Sytha – it was after all very big.

The seaworthiness of the schooner was second to none, Conn also sent a company of archers for security, and a boat full of cargo to make the trip profitable. They had rations on board for a six months. Conn wished him well and waved them off. Wuffa was there to act on his behalf; Conn wished he was going instead.

A day later, they farewelled the Ancuman, releasing the chains on Alfvir as they let him on to the ship. He still had a few defiant words as he sailed away.

‘Next time, Eaorl, the result will be different! You will wish that you killed me when you had the chance.’

‘For better or worse, Alfvir, this time I have left you alive. Next time, we shall see. Bon voyage
.’

Everything had been transferred from the bigger boat to the smaller. Nothing was missing except the gold – not a single map.

Fainche stood with Conn as the vessel sailed out of sight. Despite the fact that Fainche was a regular visitor to his room at night – she would come and then leave after her needs were sated, she was still somewhat hostile. It seemed that she hated herself for visiting him but couldn’t help herself. Conn was happy to be of assistance. He wasn’t selfish like that.

‘I don’t understand you Eaorl – I don’t know why you left him alive either. Nothing good can come of it to my thinking.’

Conn looked at her and smiled. ‘Fainche, we shall see. Killing people is not always the answer.’

With the river finally safe to cross, Conn’s fyrd heading down the mountainside into Silekia, and gathered on the other side. It took a day to get everyone across but there was no resistance – they were certainly seen – but their scouts ran into a scouting party of Conn’s and surrendered before dying. The sheer scale of the invading force would have put off anyone looking.

Conn then led a fyrd of five companies of Sagittari towards Tegeste – it would take several days but he didn’t expect to meet anyone along the way – they knew better than to take Conn’s wiga on in open combat. The defenders would be confident behind their walls – which, even for him, could take a lot of time to break down, and he didn’t have the time. The Ancuman who had built the walls so many years before had done a thorough job. Conn rode alongside Derryth, and behind him were the young Eaorls about to be reunited with their demesne – Eirnin of Tegeste, Uileog of Azali, and Godfred il Jader. Alduni had to stay in Atrak as he was still too young. He was not happy.

It had been a memorable day a week earlier when Derryth had arrived with two hundred Twacuman cavalry. Lile and Fainche were visiting Azaba with his daughters and standing with Conn in the bailey of the barracks when the troop rode in on Elfina – the Twacuman were riding the overo again.

As Derryth dismounted from the horses, his girls rushed him, almost knocking him off his feet in hugs. Lile, on the other hand, rushed to hide behind Conn. Derryth finally disengaged himself from the kids and walked towards Conn. He stopped to stare.

‘Conn, why is that girl hiding behind you?’ He asked as he and Conn then embraced.

Derryth then looked her up and down. ‘In fact who is she? I have never seen her before and I never forget a face.’

Conn did the introductions.

‘Well, you don’t see one of those every day – a real Sythan.’ Derryth added. ‘Does she speak?’

Conn nodded. ‘Hardly stops. Just very nervous of Twacuman.’ Conn explained the whole story,

Derryth was put out. ‘Whenever I go away something really interesting happens. I don’t think I’m going to go away any more. As for being traitors, that is not in our nature. Something very wrong must have happened.’

‘I agree – something for another day.’

Lile finally decided that he weren’t dangerous after all and walked out into the open – she was after all the daughter of a Healdend and a Folgere.

Derryth held out his hand. ‘Welcome to Meshech, Lile il Sytha. Any friend of the Feorhhyrde is a friend of mine.’

Lile shook Derryth’s hand, and then looked at Conn. She spoke feebly. ‘Did he call you Feorhhyrde?’

Conn nodded.

Derryth looked at him curiously. ‘Did you not think to tell her that?’

‘Hadn’t even occurred to me. Why?’

‘She will know about the medallion because it came from Sytha where it had a long history. It was given to Osstan when he came to Meshech.’

Conn was bemused. ‘And you didn’t think to tell me that?’

Derryth shook his head deadpanned. ‘I didn’t know you wanted to know and you didn’t ask.’

‘I didn’t ask! No one gave me a history lesson when Caewyn gave it to me did they? She just put it over my neck.’ Conn paused. ‘Let me think now; I wear a medallion from Sytha some thousand year old, and the daughter of the Sythan Healdend just drops in on my doorstep after, what, six hundred years. Does anyone see a pattern in all of this?’

Derryth shook his head. ‘Only that you are very, very lucky. Conn, she doesn’t look well.’

Lile finally succumbed to her shock and fainted. It had all been too much for her. Luckily she fell into Conn’s arms and he carried her back into the donjon. Some smelling salts and she should be back on her feet in no time. Unfortunately she didn’t get to spend much time with Derryth as the girls returned to Atrak soon after. Fainche also returned; she had asked if she could remain with Njil on the schooner rather than staying in Atrak. Conn agreed as Lile was doing the same.

Conn had expected Elva to come with Derryth, but Derryth told him that she had to do something for Caewyn. They both knew that it didn’t pay to argue with Caewyn. He hadn’t expected the two hundred wiga that did arrive with Derryth.

‘Caewyn said that she promised you a fyrd when you needed one – she thinks you need one now. And don’t look at me like that – I just do what I’m told.’

‘I grateful – truly I am – but I didn’t see the need to risk the Twacuman at this time.’

‘Nearly every female in Halani is pregnant – everyone here is a father already. Caewyn is not concerned. What will happen, will happen.’

Once in Silekia, the fyrd split into two; Conn led half towards Tegeste while Wilga led the other half towards Emona. Yet another fyrd was leaving Salvia, being led by Cathal, the Eaorl of Salvia. Together they would perform a version of the blitzkrieg, albeit as fast as was possible on horseback!

Following behind them waiting were an even larger number of people under the command of the Logistics Corp; tilia, craeftiga, engineers, medics, while similar skills and a hundred Valkeri waited on ships at sea under the command of Njil. With him were dozens of cargo ships. He was intending to remove all Rakian control from Silekia by the end of autumn at the latest, and it was necessary that those liberated would be able to survive the next winter. He didn’t imagine that there was going to be lot of resources left after the Rakians left.

The fyrds were highly decorated. Wilgar il Melnik led a fyrd shield, tabards and guidons displaying the red goose that was Melnik; while the Eaorl of Salvia, with his raging boar emblem, was to ‘attack’ his neighbour Sirido. Cathal had within his wiga a squad under the leadership of Eadrys, the Eaorl of Sirido, who had returned from Silekia a few weeks earlier. His squad of fifty were wearing the sheep device of Sirido on their shields and tabards.

Conn had been preparing the uniforms for some time; Hama had tabards and shields prepared for all Silekian Earldoms – and those that were leaving from Silekia had the uniforms delivered to them by ship. The Eaorl of Tegeste had the flying gull on gold and green, while Azali had the Rooster on black and green. Silekian families all shared the base of green in their crests. The Eaorl of Jader had a prancing stallion device.

‘If nothing else, they are very colorful.’ Derryth comment dryly as he looked at the sea of shields and guidons behind him. ‘Perhaps the bright colors will scare our enemies to death.’

‘You doubt their abilities?’ Conn did – almost half the force he led wasn’t trained by him.

‘Not as much as I appreciate their enthusiasm. Still, we are going to leave a lot of these behind as we go aren’t we?’

‘We are – The Eaorls will keep their squads with them to secure their demesnes. Even so, if you are standing on the walls of Tegeste and you see all these colourful shields, wouldn’t you be fearful.’

‘Impressed yes – but only fearful of one of them.’ He tapped Conn’s golden sun shield, ‘This one.’ All Twacuman in the fyrd wore the golden sun, as did the remnants of his fyrd from Trokia. Amongst the Silekians, there were Moesians and Trokians as well; all highly trained.

Since the campaign commenced a few days earlier, the inhabitants of the castle would have been confronted by an armada of ships with that very sign – Njil had commenced a blockade of the harbour – and every ship prevented from while nothing entered. For the last day Njil would have been practising with his new toy, an on-board catapult, and using it to destroy some non-essential battlements and walls – just to show that it could be done.

By the time Conn and the fyrd arrived at the outskirts of Tegeste, it was evening; they had not been engaged at all – all guard posts had been abandoned and all wiga moved back to defend the castle or abandoned their posts. This was confirmed by the people they passed; none showed fear of the approaching fyrd because they were told that they had nothing to fear. It was after all led by their rightful Eaorl, and the bowed to the young man as he passed. Some older ones came out and shook his hand.

Conn hoped to capture the castle without spilling too much blood, and to do so he had enlisted the help of an old friend. Some years ago a stable boy named Imar had helped him out, now he had called on him again to help him in. No longer a stable boy, he had become one of the wealthiest merchants in Tegeste. The money he received from Conn had allowed him to purchase a small store and when Rory visited Tergeste, he surprised everyone by asked Imar to be his sole agent in Tergeste – as well as giving him a daughter as bedda. Some years later, that arrangement allowed Imar to accumulate great wealth.

He had also been Conn’s main source of information within the town, and his conduit to getting the message out that the rightful Eaorl was returning and if you didn’t want to be killed in the crossfire, you stayed indoors, kept your head down or surrendered very quickly.

They were in sight of the walls and on the outskirts of Tergestek when a Rakian arrived. He handed Conn a message; Conn handed him a gold Ryal. He bowed and disappeared into the night.

Conn read it and nodded. ‘Right. No surrender as expected, so in we go.’ Conn had sent a demand that the donjon surrender. He had used one of the scouts captured earlier as the messenger.

Uileog of Azali, Major of his fyrd, immediately gave instructions and very soon drummers started to play a beat, getting the message out; and with the order received, Captains took their squads and headed out to surround the town; to play their role in the charade that was to be the attack on Tergestek.

This plan had to wait, however, so the fyrd settled in and watched, well out of arrow range. Finally, at two in the morning, Conn led a group of twenty Twacuman silently through the streets of Tegeste, on foot.

An hour later, they arrived on the river bank next to the outside wall of the castle; they had walked in the darkness to the where Conn had escaped so many years previously. Imar had informed him that the doorway was no longer at ground level; it was now five yards above ground level, and he need to be able to get up there if he was to let them in.

Below the doorway, in the thickets at the base of the wall, Conn had a ladder assembled; he had brought several pieces of bamboo that he fixed together into a single six yard pole, and with steps inserted, Conn was able to climb up to the door. He felt a little exposed as he knocked on it twice.

It squeaked as it opened. A torch flared as the outside air hit the flame.

‘About time; the air in here is dry and smelly. I’ve been waiting for hours.’ It was Imar.

‘What do you mean ‘hours’,’ Conn retorted, ‘We are right on schedule.’ He greeted the young man warmly as his group scampered up the pole into the secret tunnel. It was tight squeeze.

‘Well, I got here early.’ He passed around torches and they lit them to expose the narrow and winding tunnel. Derryth led the group through. And they got to the inside door, Derryth stooped, while Imar open it without concern.

‘Eaorl, you will be happy to know that I was finally able to purchase all the property around this doorway – no one seems to know about it anymore, anyway. So the entrance is now in the middle of one of my warehouses.’

Conn thanked him and looked around the large barn; there was a tower at the back of the room.

‘What’s that?’

‘That’ said Imar ‘is something I had built to fix the roof… but it is really just a ladder that will get you to within a yard of the castle walls. I couldn’t get any closer.’

Without instruction, the Twacuman started climbing the ladder and carefully pushed through the hatch. They signalled the all clear, and they filed out on to the roof and wall. Conn was the last to go up.

‘A yard, Imar, is more than close enough. Thank you. Now keep your head down – no heroics – we don’t want to accidently kill you in the crossfire. I’ll see you again after it is all over.’

As Conn cleared the opening and replaced the hatch, he watched Derryth and half the group turn right towards the gate, while Conn followed the other half as it went left towards the donjon. Derryth was to secure the front gate and get it open at sunrise, about an hour away. As they inched along the azure towards the next set of bastions, they could hear conversations between the inhabitants – the Ratakian officer was ordering several wiga to patrol. As he stepped out to the azure, however, an arrow ended the conversation. The Silekians immediately surrendered. Conn asked them to patrol the other way; towards the next bastion. As they got closer, the Ratakian officer ordered them to halt.

‘What do you think you are doing? You are supposed to be patrolling the other way! They turned and headed back until it was just Conn that stood in front of him and he noticed that a sword was an inch now from his throat.

‘Let’s head back very quietly to the bastion – if you want to stay alive.’ Conn ordered. The Ratakian turned back along the wall and opened the door into the guard room. As expected, most were Rakians and after the first three died, the rest surrendered. Conn looked out; there was only one expanse of azure from the bastion into the donjon; a gate securing access to the tower. It was times like this he wished he had a watch – but there was only a minute or two before the sun peaked over the horizon. The lack of men on the azure was going to be noticed very soon – and it was only incompetence that stopped them noticing now.