‘The Casere had a similar device – but his personal colour was green. The Marquis of Kerch used white because he was not the Casere. What do you think?’
‘I’m very impressed. In a week or so, however, I will have new equipment for you all. I think you will find that equally impressive.’
With the horses returned to their stable, the wiga marched to the ruins where they joined others already hard at work. With the instruction that everything should be sorted for reuse later, they commenced the removal of the rubble and clearing of the site using axes, picks, shovels and wheelbarrows – another surprise. What was too large for one man was carried with shoulder harnesses and the larger pieces taken away on rollers of bamboo poles. It took two days before they were down to one piece – a large rectangular block of white marble. It would have once been at least four foot wide by eight foot long by six foot in height; half had been carved into a recline figure of a naked woman – a Gyden probably. This was however not a Cirice idol; whilst naked, it was more celebratory than erotic. Unfortunately it had not been finished; and whilst the body was completed the area above the breasts was incomplete. Consequently it had not been seriously damaged by the wave but had been pushed off the raised dais, and on to the ground beside it.
Caldred admired it as he stood by Conn. ‘Wonderful. How are we going to get it out of here?’
Conn laughed. ‘How on earth did they get it in here? It had to be here before the walls were built – it probably weighs well over ten tons. No, we won’t be taking it away; we need to get it back on the dais – we’re going to need more ropes and some horses.’
Unquestioningly, the Kerchians went and collected ropes from the docks and put together a team of horses, who surprisingly had collars. Like the wheelbarrow, it was the only place in Sytha he had seen a horse collar.
With horses on one side and people on the other, they started to pull the huge carving back to its place. It took some time but with a huge cheer the piece slid back into position on the dais. Centred, they went and inspected their work.
‘Marquis; that is truly magnificent – I can only imagine what it would look like finished. But I still am unsure…’ Caldred felt compelled to ask the question that had been on everyone’s mind for the two days.’
‘Why we did all that? Sadly, Caldred the statue is nothing. Beautiful, yes, but it was just in the way. What we want is over here.’
He directed Caldred to where work had just been completed cleaning way the dirt and soil under where the statue had been. On the ground was a large roman styled mosaic tiled floor; they had uncovered part the day before but it was now complete. It had survived almost perfect. The pattern a series in interlocking rectangles, designed to be deceiving.
‘Here? What is here?’
‘A door – there is an underground room.’
Conn inspected the pattern for some time until he had determined which rectangle was the appropriate one and directed Derryth to the other side. It had been closed for eight hundred years so Conn hoped that it didn’t break when moved – it had however been totally protected during that time under ten tons of marble. The design of the trap door allowed for spaces for the kunai to start the movement of the very heavy four square foot slab of rock; and as they lifted they found places to insert bamboo pins to keep the slab moving. After an hour of effort, and with ropes under the slab it was finally moved away from the opening.
They looked into total darkness. It was deep – perhaps ten foot of blackness.
‘How are we getting down?’ Derryth asked as he stared into the abyss. ‘And back up, for that matter…’
‘We need a tripod.’ It didn’t take long to assemble a tripod from the readily available bamboo and ropes; and they dropped a rope down into the cavity. They then lowered a lamp, made of brass and horn plates, to provide them guidance on their landing.
Conn was the first, hand over fist down the dangling rope, followed by Derryth and Brictdred. More lamps were lowered.
It wasn’t a huge room– perhaps fifteen foot by fifteen foot – and it wasn’t overly full. In fact there was a single table; surprisingly still in one piece, and on top were three boxes. All clearly of Twacuman construction, they were intricately carved. Two small, one larger, all identical in design. Conn went and opened up one of the smaller. The lid opened without too much force and it was clearly a box made especially to carry gold bars. It was full. The three of them raised their lanterns to gawk.
Derryth was first to speak. ‘Well, that is not something you see every day.’
Brictdred was shocked. ‘I have never seen so much gold.’
Conn picked out a bar and handed it to him. He examined it under the light of the lamp. ‘It feels like a thirty – each one is fifteen thousand Ryals. There much be hundreds.’
Conn agreed. ‘Judging from the size of the box and the layout, I’d say close to two hundred and fifty. They are also very heavy – about 60 pounds, I’d say.’
Conn went to open the larger box, and it was not full of gold. It was also much lighter as it didn’t have gold coins – instead it had gemstones – gemstones not unlike some of the ones that he had brought with him.
He picked up one and looked at it. It was a brown sapphire. ‘This is all very weird.’
Conn sent Brictdred to organize for the removal of the boxes to the surface in baskets on ropes, and they followed them up to the surface. With the trapdoor back into place, Derryth rubbed his hands with happiness.
‘Thanks be that it’s time for dinner. I’m famished.’
Back in the hall, they discussed the significance of the haul. It certainly eliminated any concern about their shortage of gold – which was taken directly to their storage facilities within the roundhouse. Conn took the gemstones with him to his quarters, and had Derryth meet him there later.
They stood looking at the box. Like all the boxes they had found in Meshech of a similar design, this one also looked uneven and strange. Which meant it had a trap door, and a secret compartment.
‘We should be good at this by now…’ Derryth offered.
‘We should.’
Nonetheless, it took them over an hour to find the right number and sequences of tiny latches for the top of the box to reveal its secret compartment. As it dropped down into the empty compartment, and revealed its secret, they both nodded, and spoke simultaneously.
‘The other half of the Torc.’
Derryth sat back and reached for his beer.
‘Are you going to tell them?’
Conn shook his head. ‘I think they have had enough excitement for one week.’
‘What are you going to do with it then?’
Conn picked up an oilskin from his belongings and wrapped the gold band up, putting it in his pouch – in the inner protected lining. ‘Don’t know for now. Like everything else, there will come a time for it to be revealed. For now, let’s get a bath and get some sleep.’
Soon after his return from the bathhouse, however, there was a knock on his door. It was Dorte, wearing very little. It was only a couple of nights previous that she had decided to allow herself to fornicate with Conn.
‘Dorte – back so soon?’
She came into the room and hung her yukata on a peg on one of the posts that sat in a circle around the bed.
‘Well – the last time was enjoyable enough, I guess…but I thought I’d see if there was room for improvement…’
~oo0oo~
As Conn waited for the arrival of the ships from Caledonia, he worked with Caldred to understand more of his demesne, while Derryth trained with Brictdred and the fyrd to test and refine their skills. Conn found the library of Kerch to be enthralling. Though they didn’t have Codices, they had books made of flat sheets of bamboo paper and bound in the traditional Chinese style of stab binding. They were still very functional.
‘There is very little about the Casere.’ Conn noted after a day of investigation.
‘Indeed. Everything written before that time was destroyed – and everyone who knew or met the Casere died in the wave. My own ancestor who wrote many of the earlier books was a child at the time of the wave. I have read where he tried to write a history of that time without success. Even then, fifty years after his disappearance, he was just a memory. So everything we have is just pieces put together of scraps of information.’
‘And yet you continued to believe that you were to wait for his return – or someone in his stead – like me?’
‘We have not always been that way. After the wave, life was pretty much destroyed. We were then just another part of Meria – unlike them, however, we had lots of male children – and still do. The rest of Meria seem to have a lot of daughters which is why they have the system they have. After a time, we were stronger and more powerful than our neighbours so our ancestors sought to conquer Meria – recreate the demesne of Kerch. They put together a large fyrd and prepared to subjugate all of Meria. Before that was attempted, it is written that the troika of Kerchian leaders – my ancestor, Brictdred’s ancestor and Egwhal’s ancestor had a visit by the Gyden, and they all quickly changed their minds. Instead we closed our borders and became what we are today. That was over five hundred years ago.’
‘Lilith visited them here in Kerch?’
‘So it is written.’
During mid-afternoon, a terrified runner came to tell them that Egwahl had returned – and he had a very large ship chasing him.
Conn calmed him down. ‘Tell me about the sails. What can you see?’
‘They are brown – with a yellow symbol – like a rising sun.’
‘Fear not; they are friends. They are my ships.’
He stared at him google eyed. ‘It is huge!’
Egwahl was also surprised as he docked at the wharf to find Conn as his new overlord. Delighted also. He was more relieved to know that the ships that had been on his tail for some time were not the enemies. Then as requested, he quickly unloaded his cargo of over twenty young theow and moved his ship away from the main dock. Conn than used his two flags to communicate with the schooner as it sat out in the harbour. When the dock was ready, it slowly made it in; two large whaleboats acting as tug boats. Finally secured at the docks the gang plank was lowered, and Sir Njil walked down and embraced both Conn and Derryth.
He handed Derryth a package. ‘Coffee? Have you run out yet?’
‘Thank you Njil, you are a lifesaver. I am down to a couple of weeks – more if I stop the Feorhhyrde from drinking it.’
Introduced to the harbour master, Njil detailed everything that was aboard and what else to expect. He had ten ships arriving over the next few days. Conn had already arranged warehouse space, so it was just a question of manpower. The schooner had a shipboard treadmill crane in place to make unloading and loading quicker. One of the first things it unloaded was a heavy duty horse cart to make the unloading even quicker. Knowing this, Conn had horses on standby – horses from Meshech – and they would soon be moving a thousand pounds at a time rather than seventy pounds.
The Kerchians stood in amazement as the Taransay logistics machine went to work. Njil joined them in a nearby roundhouse that Conn was converting into an inn for a meal – Conn had assured him that it was edible. They had a lot to catching up to do.
Njil was stunned. ‘Let me get this right – you are Marquis of all this’ he waved his hands about, ‘as well as Steward of eighty thousands acres north of here, and have two more demesnes that you have yet to claim – and all this happened because a couple of people tried to kill you?’
‘Not totally correct. I’m Marquis of Kerch because I have a few relics that belonged to the Casere eight hundred years ago – and for some bizarre reason, he left behind a message written in Latin…’
‘Latin – the language we learnt for our secret communications? How could he know that? Where was he from?’
‘He was shipwrecked apparently. On the coast here. Anyway, it is a mystery.’
When they finally had a chance to gather again in the roundhouse to celebrate the arrival of the new theow as well as Njil, Conn finally had a chance to speak with Egwahl and ask him of Utika.
‘I understood that you were buying ten theow. I see you have twenty.’
‘Yes, they are very cheap at the moment. Everyone is trying to sell to get money to buy more equipment to join a fyrd. It’s a full clan rising and everyone has to go.’
Immediately Conn, Derryth and Njil stopped eating. Conn knew the answer but had to ask. ‘Where are they going to invade?’
‘Larsa apparently – someplace called Rasadi.’
‘Did you hear when?’
‘Apparently mid-summer because crossing the mountains that separate Larsa and Meria is problematic in winter and even into spring.’
‘Crossing the mountains? Is that how they are getting there? The ocean road is reportedly well protected…’
‘Yes, I heard someone say that the Steward had found the ancient road over the mountains – I even heard it described as the road used by the Casere.’
Conn looked at Caldred. ‘What do you know of this road?’
‘Not much. It is true that the Casere made a regular trip around Sytha. It took years, and I can believe that they had a special way – but those maps have long been lost.’
Egwahl continued his story. ‘I also heard that they knew the Marquis of Rasadi is going to be away for a long time.