The Aebeling

by O'Neill, Michael

  The Sagittari hit the Cotlif in moments; firing arrows into walls and the few Rakians unlucky enough to be on guard duty. Almost as soon as they had arrived, the Sagittari were gone; while the wiga inside rushed from their barracks to saddle their horses, and follow their ‘new’ Folctoga in hot pursuit. Unfortunately, this would have been a bad idea as they ran straight into the Cataphracts.

  Conn retreated to the outside wall, going out the same way he came in. He found his horse and headed back to the meeting point. No-one knew he had ever been there. The first one back, Conn had nothing to do except wait. Within a short time, Wilgar and his Fyrd turned up, and they were without loss. Cathal arrived about an hour later; reported that twenty Rakian had died today when they charged the Cataphracts. Consequently, there were only six Rakians left, and when Cathal entered the Keep again, they quickly surrendered, including the Eaorl. They were all under guard, blindfolded with hands bound on horses behind them, and he handed them over to Wilgar – who promptly departed for Lykia with the prisoners in toe. It was now close to dawn and leaving the Eaorl behind, Conn followed along behind.

  He was eating in his kitchen later that afternoon when he was informed that the former Eaorl of Salvia had ‘arrived’, and he was brought forward to learn his fate – he would soon be joining his kin building roads.

  After the prisoner was taken away, Annisa and Sileas sat down with him.

  ‘I want you to take Sileas as Bedda.’

  It was so off topic, that Conn was startled, ‘I’m not sure that I understand...’

  ‘You know that you can have three, don’t you?’

  Conn nodded. ‘I do – and Eaorls can have four and Healdend five.’

  ‘Indeed – and if you want more, you can make arrangements to demote one of your Bedda to be a Scylcen. You don’t need to do that yet – so Sileas is my gift to you.’

  ‘And she is happy about this arrangement?’

  ‘Very – but not as happy as me. It will allow me more time to rest.’ She patted her belly. Seven months pregnant, Annisa still insisted on visiting Conn in his bed at night. She also worked at her position of Burhgerefa; but as a concession to Conn, Annisa had taken Sileas under her wing as an assistant. The widowed sister of the Eaorl of Tovio, Sileas had been bedda to a Thane, but had lost her family in the attack by the Rakians. Sileas was almost thirty, very pretty; tall with a full figure, her long black hair hung down and around her fine featured face with dark brown eyes. The only reason she was alive was because she had been visiting her kin in Lugia the day the Rakians had attacked her home and Tovio. Sileas and Annisa were also kin as scions of the ancient Eaorldom of Ilissus in Silekia.

  As part of his macro management of his domains, Conn had appointed a Lykian scribe to a new position of Herald; his job was to manage a registry of births, deaths, and marriages, compile genealogies of everyone, and to avoid confusion, to allocate everyone a surname – retrospectively. His office had also to create and maintain a record of all heraldic emblem in use in Meshech – and if need be, create new one – as he did for some of the new Lairds. It was he who determined that both Annisa and Sileas descended from the former Eaorls of Ilissus. Luckily for him, Meshechians were extremely knowledgeable about their ancestors as filial piety was considered the duty of all family members.

  Not wanting to be difficult to get on with, Conn chose not to argue, and Sileas moved into his bed that very night. She was already in his longhouse as she was sleeping in one of the ends where his staff slept.

  CHAPTER 08

  Conn’s second spring dawned on a transformed Haran, a replenished Veii, and a reinvented Hama. Conn now also had two daughters – twins to everyone’s surprise – Elwyne and Alana, and like their brother, they also had blue eyes; and were manipulative and demanding, and Conn hoped that they wouldn’t be like this all their lives. He was mistaken. He also suspected that Sileas was now pregnant. Twins were extremely uncommon – and considered very dangerous as deaths at childbirth were common. Sileas was hoping that she wasn’t also pregnant with twins. She was also wrong.

  As expected the winter crops were bursting with grain ready for harvest; the animals were having foals, calves, kids, lambs and piglets at an alarming rate with twins and triplets common. The weather had been kind, the season kinder. Conn suspected something had to go wrong soon.

  The New Year also gave Conn his first exposure to the religion practises of Meshech, with a fire and fertility celebration in gratitude for a bountiful season – which, Conn noted, was not unlike a Beltaine festival. They built four bonfires, one in each cardinal direction and each dedicated to a different Gyden, and decorated in different colors. The north was dedicated to Badb and the Moetians and Lykians, and they wore blue. South was for Tabiti and the Gatinans, and was decorated in red. In the west was Inanna, whose color was green, and her people were the Silekians. Lilith was in the west and wore yellow for her Trokians. Without any form of priest or priestess amongst them, real information about the Gyden was hard to come by, but he did learn that Tabiti was also called ‘the banished Gyden’, while the Silekians described their Gyden as ‘missing’.

  How Gyden could either be banished or missing was beyond anyone’s explanation.

  All the girls and women over sixteen winters dressed in one of the four colors, even if they were not actually from Trokia or Gatina. When the bonfires were lit at dusk, the musicians started playing their kettle drummers, bamboo xylophones, and bamboo flutes. The females danced in the smoke and haze; dancing clockwise while the males danced anticlockwise. It was choreographed to a point, in a long circle, and they danced as long as the musicians played, and they played as long as a single girl danced. It was exhausting – when they started dancing, they were dressed – but by the time they finished, they were almost naked – something common with fertility dances.

  Conn added to the music with his didgeridoo – one of the instruments he played – as it seemed to fit into the music played by the Lykians. Conn also played the bagpipes but that didn’t seem appropriate – and he had been ‘banned’ by Derryth from playing the bagpipes in Halani. Derryth was not fond of bagpipe music, it seemed.

  As well as euphoric exhaustion, the festival was meant for cleansing and renewal, as well as matchmaking, and many that danced were the new Silekian arrivals – and they took the opportunity to ‘hook up’ with other Silekians or even Lykians. Conn had an excess of Silekian males so many took Lykians as bedda. The Eaorl of Tabae’s children used the festival to formalize the relationships with their new partners.

  The winter harvest was completed when Conn left for Tabae. Behind him, hundreds of horses and donkeys were being prepared to carry the grain from the harvests, as well as a small range of manufactured goods from Hama. Some were the traditional packhorses while the “new” horse collars created a new form of transport – a horse drawn version of the traditionally ox drawn two wheeled ‘red river’ cart. The horses were quicker, and technological improvements to the cart allowed them to traverse the extremely bad roads that connected the towns in Lykia, as well as carry six times as much. The workshops in Hama were also building a range of wagons – a heavier four wheeled ‘Conestoga’, the long distance people carrying “stagecoaches” and “Hanson’s” for carrying people around town. These would take some time to come into use; and the roads being built by Conn’s teams was going to hasten this process.

  Conn arrived in Tabae at the end of spring as agreed, and he joined Octa in his keep for supper. Tabae was also being transformed; it was not the same run down village that he had arrived in so very few months previously. Now that Hengist, with his new bedda, had returned, the pace of change would increase.

  As they sat at the table in the remodelled keep, Conn handed over a long thin wooden box.

  ‘What’s this?’ Octa opened up the box; it was full of thirty silver Ryals. Shiny and new, Octa examined them in the light. ‘So you have found more silver to reforge?’

  ‘You might say that. The
se were cast from ore.’

  ‘Ore?’ He looked at Conn curiously. ‘Haran doesn’t have any mines – they have all been exhausted.’

  ‘That is not necessarily true – we’ve reopened a lot of old mines – especially the coal ones. Taransay has different ways of mining that allows us to go deeper. Hama, however, has a lot of mines that you have never exploited because they were hidden by the Ancuman before they left. This is from one of those – and it is a very good one.’ Conn explained the first discovered and the several others that followed after the new what they were looking for.

  ‘Half your luck.’ Octa handed back the box. Conn waved it away.

  ‘No – they are for you.

  ‘For me? Why?’

  ‘T think it only fair that I give you thirty percent of the output…’

  ‘Thirty percent? What does that equate to?’

  ‘About twelve thousand Ryals a month.’

  ‘A month!! Gyden!’ Octa was initially stunned but then looked at Conn intently. ‘What’s the catch?’

  Conn shook his head. ‘No catch – but I will have to add more men to my Fyrd to ensure that no one steals ‘our’ ore. I can’t watch it and the border.’

  Octa laughed, a happy laugh, ‘I knew it – there is always a catch! And this thing?’ He pointed to the codex that Conn had just handed him.

  ‘It’s a census of everything in Haran, Hama, and Veii. Just so that you know what is going on. Even every person is listed by name; also every birthing, dying or joining for the last year.’ Conn opened it up to show the information; Octa’s officials peering over his shoulder with interest. Meshechian used scrolls – a codex was just another one of Conn’s “new” inventions. With a leather cover and hemp paper inserts it was one of the first from the factory in Hama.

  Octa sat back and sighed. ‘You keep changing the way we do things – I expect that you think I should get all my Thanes to do the same? And these ‘codex’ things will never catch on – what is wrong with a scroll?’

  The development of the codex is considered the most important invention in the history of the book prior to printing – and Conn had his craeftiga working on a moveable type press. Octa didn’t need to know.

  After two days in Tabae, a long line of horses led by Octa headed for Lykiak. Conn took Godric, Wuffa, Wilgar and Allowena with him. Allowena’s uncle lived in Lykiak and she wanted to see her cousins. Wuffa’s shoulder had healed over the winter and when Conn discovered that he was a cleric’s son – and he had been made Godric’s apprentice. He would take over as Conn’s official accountant after Godric returned to Trokia.

  From Tabae it was a three day ride to Lykiak, and it gave Octa the time to explain to Conn the internal politics of Lykiak. As they got closer, the route became well-trodden, muddy, and increasingly not suitable for heavy carts. Conn made comment that it might be time to fix the roads. Octa had been very impressed with Conn’s new roads.

  ‘The Eaorls are very sensitive to people making suggestions or interfering. It will take some time to convince them of anything – especially change.’

  ‘Just like the position of Aebeling.’

  ‘Exactly; you will need to tread carefully and slowly if you want to effect change. Slowly, gently doesn’t seem to be your forte, but let’s try and not be like a fox in a hen house. I will talk to the Witan about your roads, however. Even I can see the benefit in doing that.’

  Lykiak was a very large settlement – over ten thousand people – and it was situated at the confluence of two rivers. The river carried boats down to the sea every summer, reaching the ocean and merchant ships at the port of Sabatah. Bring the boats back was a much slower process with oxen used to assist in some places, towing through rapids. Nonetheless, the river was very busy carrying produce downstream in summer. Conn expected Abrekan’s ships to be waiting in Sabatah, and he had a hundred tons of produce destined for the river voyage.

  As well as a significant inland port, Lykiak was also surrounded by rich farmland. It all combined to make the inheritance a rich one – which was the main reason why the Lykian Witan was unable to nominate an heir. It was also why the Moetian Healdend waited patiently, and according to Octa, actively promoting disunity within the Witan. They had nothing to gain if an heir was nominated, but according to an ancient agreement signed when Lykiak was created, everything to gain if they didn’t – if the Witan failed to nominate a new Aebeling within the next five years, the Healdend in Moetia would have the privilege. Coincidently, the Healdend’s daughter would be sixteen in five years, and based on his expectation that the Lykians would be unable to name an heir, he had unilaterally decreed that the position of Aebeling of Lykia would become her dowry. So, whoever she chose as bedda would be the new Aebeling. He was obviously very fond of his daughter.

  They arrived at a gatehouse on the outskirts of Lykiak, and were met by several burly guards armed with pikes who blocked their paths. Octa directed them to halt and went forward. After they recognized him, they waved him and his entourage through. When Conn rode up, with Wilgar at his side, they stood in front of him.

  ‘Who are you?’ they demanded gruffly. ‘And aren’t you that Silekian we told never to come back?’ one said, pointing to Wilgar. Ahead of them, Octa was turning to intercede but Conn waved him off. He wanted to deal with these men himself; this was unfinished business.

  ‘I am Conn il Taransay, Thane of Hama.’

  ‘You are not an Eoarl then.’

  Conn didn’t answer – the point was moot. They carried on regardless.

  ‘There is an entrance fee for Thanes. Twenty Ryals ... and another twenty – no fifty – for unwelcome Silekians.’

  Conn dismounted, dropping the reins of the stallion.

  ‘Really – and how much is a beating worth. You know – if I asked you to beat someone up for me?’ Dismounted Conn was bigger than when he sat on the stallion – the horse made him look small. The guards took an involuntary step back.

  ‘Umm, a beating? Umm, well, maybe a hundred Ryals?’

  ‘That’s good then – so if I beat you two up that would be sufficient to cover my entry fee and Wilgar’s as well?’

  They looked at each other confused. One wasn’t as bright as the other and called some other guards over. ‘Hey, this Thane thinks he can beat us up. What an …’

  They were his last words for a while. Conn’s punch to his solar plexus dropped him to his knees. Guards rushed to the melee, and after about five minutes, ten guards lay strewn over the muddy road, covered in mud, horse manure and other excrements. The villagers who had gathered to watch cheered and clapped. Conn made sure that he didn’t break anything; but they would be very sore for days and bruised for weeks. Conn walked over to one that was recovering quickest and as Conn reached for him, he cowered and almost cried.

  ‘No, no, no more... please! I beg you. I give in. You can go in – no charge.’

  Conn reefed him to his feet and gripped his collar. He growled in his face. ‘Now, I have a few hundred pack horses coming here over the next few weeks. I do not want them – or any other person charged an entrance fee. If I hear of such a thing I will come back and “pay you” again. I understand that this is a free city and this is a free road. Has that changed?’

  ‘No, sir, no it hasn’t...’

  ‘Good, so have I made myself clear?’

  He nodded. ‘Yes, sir, very clear, sir…’

  Conn let go of the collar and symbolically brushed off mud from his uniform. ‘Also, you guys are a mess. Next time I come here – which will be tomorrow, I want to see you in clean clothes. Have I made myself clear on that point as well?’

  They nodded. The fact that Conn had no authority to tell them what to do was not lost on them – but the fact that he could beat up ten of Lykiak’s finest without raising a sweat wasn’t lost on them either.

  Conn went back to his horse, mounted and led the way through the gate. Octa waited for him.

  ‘Wouldn’t it have been easier i
f I just told him to let you through?’

  ‘Probably, but not near as much fun. Besides, I owe them that for Wilgar.’

  ‘Their boss is not going to be happy...’

  ‘I hope not.’

  ‘I did say to tread slowly and carefully, didn’t I?’

  Conn complained. ‘I did – they’re still alive, aren’t they? Nothing broken either…’

  Each Eaorl maintained a dwelling in Lykiak, and Conn accompanied Octa to his; a group of longhouses surrounded by walls. Conn declined to stay with the Eaorl and instead went to stay at an Inn in the center of the Cotlif. Octa advised against it.

  ‘You have seen what this place is like; and given your reputation already, you will be robbed in your bed – or murdered. The Metgiend tries but he has little power to control it.’

  ‘Does anyone know who is behind it all?’

  ‘No, just that they are well protected – and very powerful. Any attempt to do anything about it never succeeds.’

  ‘I think we might soon find out then – after the gate, whoever is in charge will not let that lie. He can’t afford to. I’d like to see what he does.’

  ‘I still think you are insane.’

  ‘It has been said before. ’ Conn however insisted. ‘Anyway, which would be the best one to stay at?’

  ‘The “Black Sheep” is considered the safest.’

  The Innkeeper, Beogard, was unsure what to do when Conn arrived to take up lodgings; he like everyone else had heard about the incident at the gate and seemed to be of the opinion that Conn was bad for business – until Conn gave him several gold Ryals as a down payment.

  Accommodation sorted, Conn took Allowena to find her uncle Osdred. Osdred had inherited her father’s business when he died, and it was situated in type of bazaar located on the waterfront. The banks of the river were littered with a jumbled mess of wooded docks and rows of longhouses that served as residences, warehouses and shopfronts for the many merchants that served Lykia. They made their way slowly through the wet and muddy streets, and it took them some time to reach Allowena’s childhood home.