Conn agreed with him. ‘You has a point…’
‘I do? Yes of course I do… it would be dangerous for you to let me go…’
‘You have clearly unravelled all our secret plans.’
‘I have? Yes I have!’
‘And I think you would be terrible under torture.’
‘Very true – point a hot iron at me and I’ll cry like a baby. And it won’t just be information I’ll be parting with.’
‘Very well, I guess we have no choice. What do you propose to tell your men?’
Surprised with his success, Beortan had to think for a minute. ‘I will tell the Folctoga to inform my uncle that I have been kept a prisoner to ensure that Kotan doesn’t invade Sytha again – if he does, you will execute me.’
‘Won’t that give them an incentive to invade – then he would be Eaorl.’
Beortan shook his head. ‘No – if he does anything to endanger my life, his claim will be void. It is our law. He can only hope that I do not come back alive.’
‘Ok, so be it. Beortan is our official hostage – and Alana is his warden.’
Alana burst into tears – but no one really knew if they were of joy or of distress.
With the departure of the Pontians wiga, Conn headed for Bamos; a two week ride, and a week behind schedule. Nothing ever happened as he thought it would. They took with them the booty from the raid – the hundred odd horses, plus all the armour and weaponry that the dead and living Pontians no longer required. He had purloined only the mares and a couple of stallions and had allowed returning Pontian wiga to take the geldings and any stallions not required. The Eaorl of Waliwa was given his share and Conn took the rest with him to Rila.
By the time they arrived in Bamos, his fyrd had long since departed; it was only the hird that waited for them – impatient and annoyed. It was late afternoon and Cynilda and Lile greeted them at the stables as he made sure that Balios was being taken care of. What Balios mostly needed most was rest and oats as he didn’t allow Conn to ride him for at least half the journey to Bamos; he was too tired from servicing all the mares that Conn had confiscated. The stallion continued to make a rabbit look like a hermit.
Lile was delighted that her friends were safe and sound in the refurbished Cirice. They walked towards the hall.
‘They gave me this to give to you.’ Conn handed her a leather case and she poured out the emerald necklace that all Folgere wear.
She stopped to inspect the gem and held it fondly to her chest. ‘I treasured this once. It made me feel whole, and when she asked me to relinquish it, I cried for days. Without it, I was but a shadow. It took me a long time to feel whole again but there has always been something...’ She looked up at him. ‘Whose idea was it?’
‘Inanna wants you to have it.’
‘How very strange.’ She placed it around her neck, and sat still for a moment. ‘You know, I feel better already. But it is not the same feeling – Inanna is here with me but not as before. It will take some getting used to.’ She turned and kissed him passionately. ‘I do know that you are not going to get any sleep tonight.’
Cynilda joined them as they walked; she had returned from issuing orders to someone, and interrupted them. ‘Time for that later. Have you told him yet?’
‘Told me what?’
Lile smiled sheepishly. ‘We unfortunately have a situation that needs your special talents.’
‘Somebody wants to get pregnant?’
They laughed. ‘Not this time. We also have some people who have been waiting to see you, especially. Old friends, I am told…’
‘Who?’ Conn hated surprises.
‘You will see.’ She led him back to the hall in the main roundhouse where everyone had gathered. The twenty one year old Eaorl of Bamos - Baldrys – waited for him with two people he hadn’t seen in a while; Cenric il Agra and Egilda il Larsa. Since being proclaimed the new joint rulers of Larsa, they had been travelling the oceans on Conn’s suggestion – visiting the many ports of Meshech, and had obviously only just returned. With them was a girl – about one year old, who was introduced as Bide, the future Wealdend of Larsa.
Conn greeted the young Eaorl of Bamos, and although they had been acquainted in Sytha, Conn had not spoken to him very often. In his own home, he seemed surprisingly ill at ease; probably due to Healdend from neighbouring demesne dropping in unexpectedly. It may have also been because it seemed that Cynilda had ‘taken over’ since her arrival – she was fussing around the place and all the servants were doing as she requested – surprisingly happily as far as Conn could tell.
Conn asked after the Eaorl’s bedda – he knew that he only had one bedda because they had yet to have a child but were expecting – for the third time. The Eaorl had not stayed in Sytha long because he had to return to his pregnant wife.
‘Marquis, she has been unwell but is recovering extremely well at the moment. My child – a daughter – was also poorly but is now well, thanks to… um … your medics.’
‘I’m glad they could be of assistance.’ Their conversation was interrupted by Cynilda who declared that dinner was ready and they should sit at the table to eat. Cenric had a ship load of Meshechian food goods so the feast was excellent. Derryth was ecstatic because of the new supplies of coffee.
As they sat Conn introduced his hostage Beortan il Kotan, and explained why they had released everyone else. Beortan left the conversation and sat next to Alana.
‘He is the most unlikely hostage that I have ever seen,’ Baldrys commented, ‘he seems positively happy to be a prisoner.’
Conn agreed. ‘Indeed, the unpleasant nature of his circumstance seemed to have eluded him; and humility is certainly not a burden he carries.’
When Conn had chance to talk to Cenric and Egilda he asked why they had come looking for him.
‘We were on our way home and we dropped in to Rasadi to see what you were doing there and we heard that you were in Sytha – and due in Rila soon. So we visited Kerch and then Sinope and then Rila and then came here. Bide has yet to see her home as she was born in Cyme. Halla took great care of us. When we left Cyme we visited Tovio and after that we headed home. After we left we found we had an extra passenger – but not a stowaway. She insisted on coming – and her mother let her.’
‘She?’
A voice came from behind him. ‘Me, papa – I insisted.’
Conn spun to see another of his daughters – Osgytha von Taransay – the second born of the second set of twins. Her mother was Sileas il Tovio, Eaorl. She was fifteen years old, tall and beautiful. Conn was about to say something when there was a shriek and Alana leapt to her feet and rushed to her sister. They had been inseparable growing up – and Alana had found leaving her hard – harder than her own twin. By the time Conn got to her, they were both in tears.
Conn tapped Alana on the shoulder. ‘Will you please let me have a go? Fathers need hugs too.’
Tears down her face, Alana backed off, and allowed her father to hug his daughter, who struggled to not cry himself. Putting her down, he gruffly told her to go and say hello to Derryth.
Derryth was an old softy. He was crying before he even enveloped her in his arms.
Osgytha apologized for her late arrival as she was acting as medic for the Eaorl’s bedda and daughter. All of Conn’s children were trained and educated in all things until they found their niche. Even as a child Osgytha had a gift for healing and medicines and Conn was proud that she had continued down that path. ‘Nothing to apologize for – as I always say, things that have to be done…’
The interrupted him; the two girls and Derryth in unison. ‘Should be done when it needs to be done.’
‘All right, so you’ve heard it before. What is the problem with the Eaorl’s bedda?’ Osgytha explained her ailments as they sat down to eat together.
Later Beortan asked a question of Conn. ‘Marquis, just many children do you have?’
Derryth answered. ‘You don’t want to know.’
‘Why wouldn’t I want to know?’
‘It would just confuse you.’
‘Not possible.’
‘If you say so. By my last count, by winter, fifty.’
‘Fifty?’ Beortan ‘who has fifty children?’
‘Normally someone who spend a lot of time at home and in bed. The Marquis is not one of those people.’
~oo0oo~
When Conn finally arrived at his quarters after a long awaited bath, Lile was waiting for him in his room, naked. Well, nearly naked; all she had was the green haligdom lying gently between her breasts, and it gave off the dimmest light. Conn slid into the bed beside her.
‘You know,’ she said as she sat up to run her hands over his warm body down to the important bit. ‘I have never fornicated wearing a haligdom. I am told it is an experience unlike anything you will experience. Is that true?’
An exhausted but elated Lile escaped his bed a couple of hours later and Cynilda, one of very few of his bedda not pregnant, visited him in the early hours of the morning with a cup of coffee and little on.
~oo0oo~
At daybreak, Conn stood in the harbour looking at the ships as they sat tied to the docks; two schooners amongst the local cogs. He had come down to see Kadmah, Eaorl of Anga in Larsa. Sir Njil had indeed given him a ship to use, and it was one of his hundred and fifty foot schooners; one of the first built. Kadmah had not been in the hall the previous night because he wanted to stay close to the ship.
Derryth waited for him as he disembarked. He had been walking the village, and as they travelled back to the hall together, he asked. ‘Didn’t Lile say explain what the problem was?’
‘No, I couldn’t get her to explain it last night – the moment passed and she then had other things on her mind. Do you have an idea?’
‘No. Not a clue. Come, breakfast waits. I’m starving.’
Everyone was there waiting for them as he arrived in the hall for breakfast – except Osgytha, and he asked.
‘She is with the Eaorl’s bedda.’
As they ate their oatmeal, coffee, bacon and eggs, Osgytha arrived, apologizing again to her father for being late. He kissed her forehead. ‘So how is she this morning?’
After several miscarriages, Baldrys’s bedda had finally gone full term after seeing Meshechian medics in Sytha. Despite instructions, she had returned to Bamos for the birth and it had been hard; with a great loss of blood and the child weak. Luckily Osgytha arrived the next morning and was soon given access to the child and mother at Cynilda’ and Lile’s insistence. Her knowledge and range of tonics and potions she had with her had made the mother comfortable and the baby flourish. That was three weeks ago. It would be some time before the mother was well again but she would recover. She would not however be giving birth again.
‘Last night I did as you suggested and have started a new treatment for her. Already this morning she has colour to her face and is eating well again.’
Later there was a pregnant silence. Everyone was sitting around waiting and the meal was complete. ‘So,’ Conn started, ‘Someone mentioned that there was a problem?’
Lile looked at Osgytha and they both looked at him. Osgytha blushed as Lile spoke.
‘Not a problem but a situation. It seems that Osgytha and the Eaorl have developed a relationship over these weeks that she has been here – as well with his bedda and child. She would’, Lile paused to lift Osgytha’s face up so that Conn could see the white of her eyes, ‘like to make that official by becoming his bedda – when the time is right. She doesn’t know what you feel about the situation – and doesn’t want to disappoint you.’
Conn looked at his daughter and nodded. ‘Fine by me.’
Osgytha stood up. ‘Really? Do you mean that? Are you really okay with that? I mean, you had no other plans for me?’
‘No, you have my blessing. The Gyden laugh at me every time I make plans. It took me five years to get to Rila and I’m still not there.’
Osgytha ran to her sister and they jumped around hugging and squealing.
He interrupted. ‘Except to say…’
They turned to look at him, stopped in their tracks. He continued. ‘You are not sixteen until next spring. Who will chaperone you until then?’
She nodded, it wasn’t a surprise. ‘I understand that, papa. Cynilda has suggested that Aunt Alreda could stay with me. If you are agreeable.’
Alreda was the last of his non Blood Merian theow to get pregnant and she had done so recently. Lile had mentioned that she was not travelling well, as early morning sickness didn’t combine well with sea travel. She would also benefit from having Osgytha by her side during the pregnancy.
‘If Alreda is happy, I am happy.’
Osgytha went and hugged him. ‘Thank you papa, I was just uncertain what plans you had in mind for me.’
Conn laughed. ‘I have no plans. After all, any plans I had for Alana have been ruined because she will probably run off with this Eaorl she keeps as hostage.’
Alana looked at him quickly, blush seeping through her face. ‘I will not!’ she answered far too forcefully.
‘I mean, he’s a terrible hostage – all he does is eat – and he can’t even beat a girl in combat training.’
‘I object’ Beortan stood and intoned from somewhere in the room. ‘I don’t eat all the time – and when I do eat it is to gain the strength to train harder so that I might one day be able to defeat this “girl”, albeit the most beautiful one I have ever met, in training.’ He sat down, ‘I must admit, though, you do have the best food I have ever tasted. I just love curries.’
Cenric il Agra watched with interest. He commiserated with the Eaorl. ‘Be prepared for disappointment, Beortan, the Marquis has twelve year old daughters that humiliated me and my men when we trained with them in Cyme. They are trained by the Twacuman in the use of the Bo.’
Lile went to organize affairs with the Eaorl who was most grateful. Conn gave him a dowry of two hundred thousand Ryals – a small fortune – so that he could rebuild his town to an ‘acceptable standard’, while Ceolrys il Iladion promised to arrange for a squad of Twacuman to come to Bamos and provide her with a security detail. In the meanwhile, he would leave a squad of Kerchians behind.
Before Kadmah, Cenric and Egilda departed for Larsak, Conn took the opportunity to present his Larsan theow to them, Oselda il Malla, mother of the future Marquis of Rasadi – and possibly Healdend of Larsa if he was chosen.
Egilda was amazed to meet her. She knew of her disappearance and promised to inform her parents.