by Various
Two days before, a band of black bone Mongols had chased her like a deer to the edge of the thick forest, where they had jerked up short, cursing in bastard Turkic and peppering the trees with arrows. Steppe-bred warriors loathed thrashing through cluttered groves where they could neither gallop freely nor swivel quickly on their powerful ponies. The deep woods were still safe, though traveling through them was slow.
It was just after the solstice: three months since the dissolute Khan known as Onghwe had defeated the armies of Christendom at Legnica, just a few miles from here, and a bit more than one month since he had issued his challenge.
She shifted to her left, darting behind the trunk of an elder oak. She stroked the bark lightly as if to ask the oak for guidance, then passed her fingers over her eyes in an old Binder prayer. The mist was clearing already; she could wait. In these lands, a well-trained adept knew to be patient.
Snatches of a conversation came to her, a back-and-forth argument that sounded like it hadn’t started this morning, nor would it be finished any time soon. Cnán recognized the cadences of Latin, which she had not heard in a while, and had not spoken since childhood.
“—relax your vision. You know where the blade is. Stop looking at it—”
“—don’t close your eyes! You might as well throw down your sword altogether. Are you a dumb lamb?”
“—if you watch his blade, it is too late. You can’t see his eyes, so why are you—”
Less than a stone’s throw away, a young man, no more than twenty years of age and crowned with hair so blond it was almost white, was facing an older man—a bulky, battle-scarred redhead. Both were carrying great swords of war, and their repetitive exercises were being observed by a man dressed like a monk.
These men were likely knights of the Shield-Brethren—the ones she had been instructed to find. If there was anything to their reputation, they would have responded within days to the Khan’s unlikely invitation. The Shield-Brethren were scattered all about, but their closest branch was in Petraathen, an ancient crag-fort in the mountains south of Kraków, just a few days journey from here. Their instinct—the reverse of the Mongols—was to camp in the woods, and their scouts had spied this old monastery, long since abandoned. To her, it had the look of a pagan temple, reminding her the subterranean mithraeum, the hidden temple wherein her people had once held their arcane rites. This ruin, whatever its original purpose, had been converted into an impromptu chapter house, a sanctuary where these knights could wait and train while they reconnoitered the territory around the blood-soaked battlefield of Legnica and the great, stinking tent city that Onghwe had built there.
A horseman emerged from behind the graveyard wall riding a big blue roan stallion. Cnán flinched at the sight of a Mongol-style bow, striped and jointed like the leg of an insect, held out in the man’s hands. But this was no Mongol: his hair was brown, long and full, and below his sharp nose drooped a luxuriant moustache. He pivoted his mount and galloped along the curve of outbuildings, then pivoted again and rode back and forth through the grass. His apparently aimless movements made no sense until she understood that he was practicing archery. When his eye fell on something that looked like it might serve as a target, he loosed an arrow from the bow, sometimes galloping past, sometimes away, or jerking his horse up short and shooting from a standstill.
She did not know these knights other than by reputation, but she saw the rider as one who had suffered under the power of the Mongols and had learned from them, adopting and adapting their weapons.
Farther back in the clearing, visible through dispersing curtains of fog and over the tumbled walls of a refectory, a young man was striking at an upright log with a sword, repeating the same attack over and over again. Near him, two others sparred with carved wooden sticks while another paced around them, sidestepping as necessary. To her left, in the green shade of a sapling oak, two men sat at a table assembled from half-rotted lumber, sharing refreshment from battered brass cups. Both wore trim dark hair. One sported a dark beard and had black eyes to match—a kind of Saracen, she thought—his Syrian heritage apparent also in the cut of his clothes.
The other, rounder of face and lively, flashed pale eyes as his nervous fingers fidgeted, and he whispered in short bursts as if laying out plans he knew the dark-eyed one would not approve.
Nine that she could see, then. A strong crew, but mostly young—and not the sorts of men usually found in close company. This was either good and expected or very bad indeed—for in the Land of Skulls, this region that had been devastated by the passage of the Mongol hordes, desperation and evil intent often united the most diverse stragglers.
Still, they seemed to be the ones she had been sent to find.
Ordo Militum Vindicis Intactae now claimed to be Christian, so hiding near a monastery would come naturally to them. There were stories, however, of how, in older days, the knights of Petraathen had practiced a cult of death, harboring strange ideas about the benefits accruing in the afterlife to warriors who went down bloody and swinging. These brethren then might also take comfort from sharing quarters with the heroic and blessed warrior dead. From where she squatted, she counted seven big granite Crusader crosses in the monastery’s overgrown graveyard, erected perhaps a century-and-a-half before.
Cnán picked at her teeth with a twig then shifted on her knees, practicing quiet breath, quiet heart—confident in her stealth, contented to watch unobserved.
Or so she told herself until she heard a flicking noise behind her head. A twang, a hiss, and something jerked her off her feet, slamming her head against a tree with a thunk that rang her skull like a bell.
She reached around desperately and felt a smooth, long shaft. A broad-headed arrow had snagged the hood of her cloak and pinned it to the bole of an aged birch. She struggled to yank herself free. Two years of running from Mongols had taught her that another arrow, better aimed, would soon fly, and she had best leave the garment behind and make a run for it.
But a voice—like the voice of her mother, only far away and sad—spoke as if in her ear. “First arrow perfectly timed, perfectly aimed.”
Cnán understood immediately. She lowered her hand. The archer had accomplished precisely what he intended. Likely he had left camp even before she arrived, to circle around, guard, and observe.
Running was useless. She was dealing not with Mongols or their jackals, nor with ill-trained bandits, but with men born and raised in woods. At any false move, that second arrow could strip through the green branches and split her spine.
Cnán quieted herself. Her eyes twitched at more rustling, faint, very close. She had been tracked through the trees by at least two men: the archer, still unseen, off to her right, and the stalker now approaching from behind. Almost certainly from the camp, posted in the woods as sentries.
The hunter behind her began to move freely, making plenty of noise, but she could not yet see his face, nor he hers, because of the pinned-up hood and the dense cowl of mud-crusted black hair falling from the part in the middle of her head. He circled her warily, and when he finally came into full view, they spent a few moments gauging each other.
Cnán had seen some wild-looking men during her long trek across the lands of the Ruthenians, but this fellow—clothed entirely in things he’d killed, sporting a matted beard thick as a bear’s pelt—looked half-animal. Nothing woven—no womanly arts for him. Green eyes, sun-wrinkled at the corners, lent him a glimmer of youthful amusement.
No need to guess what he saw in her, since he announced it. His language was unfamiliar, but some of the words came from familiar roots. She recognized “woman” and “Mongol” and “spy”—the last a word very like her real name, in Tocharian.
She could have framed a denial in words he might vaguely recognize, but there were more effective languages that did not involve words.
Cnán shrugged out of her cloak, drew herself up, made a derisive snort, and fixed him with a glare.
It was better than sla
pping him in the face. The hunter recoiled half a step, then recovered with a mock-stagger. Now the green eyes really were laughing. He glanced to his right, gathering a third party into the unspoken conversation: the archer, using the end of his bow to push a branch out of his way and step closer.
This was the tallest man Cnán had seen in years, possibly in her whole life. She knew that the men of Christendom were of greater stature than those of the steppes, but this one was likely a giant even among his own kind. His hair and beard were red-blond. He was not handsome, but there was a strength in his face that demanded respect. He examined her for a few moments, then faced the hunter, who was still chuckling. They exchanged some halting banter that included a few more repetitions of the words “Mongol” and “spy.” Their languages sounded the same to Cnán but must in fact have differed, since they were not communicating very well.
After a few misunderstandings, the archer broke into Latin. But the hunter only shook his head and held up his hands.
Time to take charge, clearly.
“I am Vaetha,” she lied—in Latin. The words from her mother’s second tongue rolled forth with surprising ease. “I come from lands far to the East with tidings for Christendom. I would deliver this news to the master of your Order. Please take me to him.”
The hunter shook his head again, grinned, then heeled about and sauntered back to the compound.
“Don’t move,” said the archer. He unsheathed his knife and warily moved in and around her, eyes narrow and glittering. He roughly cut the hood from the arrow, ripping the fabric in the process. Apparently the iron head of the arrow was more important, as he then carved away bark and pried it from the tree with the delicacy of a surgeon.
“I am Rædwulf,” he said, tossing the cloak to her feet. “What manner of person are you, and why do you speak Latin?”
“She is of the Bindings,” said a new voice, hollow and deep between the trees.
Cnán spun to discover that the older man had come up upon them silently. He wore the robes of a Christian monk. His face was creased and rugged, counting at least threescore years, but age had not brought frailty. As he solemnly inspected her, he held his hand to his chest and drummed his sternum with his fingers. A chingle of mail suggested a hauberk under his travel-worn tunic.
All the activity had drawn the attention of the others in the clearing, even the younger ones busy hacking each other with sticks. They called a halt to the mock combat and took time to salute each other and shake hands before turning to amble in Cnán’s direction.
The horseman cantered past them and drew his horse up short just at the edge of the woods, then sidled close behind the older man. He looked down on her, his huge moustache flicking in disgust, as if she were an engorged tick just plucked from his inner thigh.
“Mongol!” he proclaimed.
Without turning, the older man countered, “No, Istvan. She has the cheekbones, it’s true, but take a closer look at her eyes.”
“Bandit or corpse-robber, then. Either way, kill her.” The horseman, Istvan, spat on the ground near her feet, expertly swung the stallion around, and cantered away.
The older man came closer and bent before her to pick up the torn cloak. Unafraid, polite, but far from humble, he handed it to her.
“I am Feronantus,” he introduced himself, “of the Skjaldbræður.” He used not their newer, Christian name, but an older one, in the tongue of the Northmen: Shield-Brethren.
“I am Vaetha,” she said. “As you judged, I am a messenger.”
“‘One who sees,’” Feronantus translated. “From the Tocharian. Wordplay for ‘spy.’ Of course, you are lying about your name—we expect that. But Vaetha will serve until you trust me well enough to tell me who you really are.”
She tried to best his steady gaze but could not.
“Come,” said Feronantus. He turned his back on her and walked away. She followed him into the compound. The giant archer Rædwulf trailed after them both, clutching his precious arrow and smoothing the fletches as if it were a living thing in need of the master’s comforting touch.
The young blond watched with dumfounded amazement as she passed, then whirled on the others. They laughed at his astonishment.
The pell-fighter leaned forward and stretched out a clutching hand toward the blond’s crotch. “She could have cut your balls off,” he chided. “No great loss!”
“Did you see her?” the boy asked sharply. He tagged along after Feronantus, his sidewise gait that of a whelp. “I’m called Haakon,” he said to her. “How do you say your name again?” Clearly, he had never seen a dark woman before.
“Don’t bother,” Feronantus said. “She’ll be gone before you glean any truth from her. And remember your vows.”
The boy’s feckless astonishment disgusted Cnán. This Feronantus might be of the ancient school, but the others—the Saracen-looking fellow, the men still clutching their cups of country beer, the stick-swinging, rowdy youngsters, this rudely staring blond—appeared far more raggle-taggle than her mother’s tales of steel and glory had led her to expect. Clearly, the warrior-monks of Petraathen had fallen on hard times.
Perhaps her news would change all that.
• • •
Before they reached the tumbledown monastery they were using as their chapterhouse, Feronantus’s attention was drawn to the skin-clad hunter. He, for no obvious reason, crouched, then performed a clownish flop to the ground, and with eyes closed, pressed his ear against a settled and moss-covered tombstone.
Not his ear, actually, but the heavy skull-bone behind it. He was listening for something.
“What comes, Finn?” said Feronantus, or something like that in the rough tongue Finn favored.
Finn held up four fingers. Then he dropped his hand to the ground and made it prance along like a cantering horse.
Many steppe ponies… Finn opened his eyes and shook his head. He held his hands close for a moment, then drew them apart. One very big, he judged.
“Destrier,” Feronantus said.
All of the men in the compound, save Feronantus and Finn, seemed to have disappeared. Looking around, Cnán was able to see where they had gone to ground. Boys who had been brandishing wooden swords a moment ago were suddenly armed with long steel. Istvan and Rædwulf had their bows out and arrows nocked, and as soon as Finn rolled back to his feet, he did too.
It was an embarrassingly long time before Cnán could hear anything at all. But finally a heavy clop of hooves and jingle of steel penetrated the dense swath of greenery that surrounded the compound, and two riders came up the forest road abreast, each leading a spare horse.
Now here, Cnán thought, was a knight worthy of her mother’s tales. He was tall, with long brown hair swept back from a high forehead, hazel eyes, and the clean-shaven face of an angel. He was armored in a shirt of mail, which she was accustomed to, but over that, guarding his shoulder and his breast, he wore segmented plates of polished steel. Slung over his back was a shield shaped, she sourly guessed, like the teardrops that must have rained from the faces of all the fancy ladies in his castle on the day he had gone prancing off to fight the Mongols. On his hip was a sword made for use in one hand, but straight, double-edged, longer and finer than most such weapons.
The other man was smaller, thick-muscled, and with a head more square than round. At first, she assumed he was a squire, but as the pair rode into the compound, she saw he was at least as old as the knight. His clothes, though travel-worn, were more in keeping with courtly life than this forest camp. Something like a hatchet dangled from his waist, and he was festooned with daggers. Across his back was slung a crossbow, drawn and cocked. In his posture and the way he related to the beautiful knight, there was no deference, only equal regard and camaraderie. Coupled with a wry awareness of how people favored his handsome friend.
The knight had eyes only for Feronantus and a courteous greeting seemed ready on his lips, but the courtier with an excess of daggers broke in and was first
to speak. He swept his arm ceremonially and announced in a booming voice to the compound: “Christendom is saved! Brother Percival has made a quest of it.”
Laughter from all around, partly at the jest, but partly, Cnán thought, out of relief that these men were on their side.
The knight Percival drew up near Feronantus and dismounted with practiced grace. Finn had been right about his horse. It was a rare, beautiful brute with a white blaze on its forehead and a silky gray mane, barrel-chested, bigger than Istvan’s stallion and easily twice the size of a Mongol pony.
She had heard tales from her kin-sisters of an altercation between certain brothers of the Teutonic Knights and a party of Mongols that had gone astray and gotten lost in enemy territory. Trapped between river and woods, unable to maneuver as they were wont to, the Mongols had crowded together and the war-horses of the Teutons had slammed their smaller mounts around like bowling pins. Seeing this huge destrier, it was easy to believe. A horse worthy of the man…
Percival bowed low to Feronantus. Cnán was not at all amused at how much pleasure she felt, studying his face. She did her best to make sure it didn’t show.
“Brother Percival, Brother Roger, welcome,” Feronantus said. “It is very good to see you both. Thank God for your safe arrival.”
Percival’s companion, Roger, was only a step behind him. “Truth be told, God was surprisingly unhelpful,” he began. Percival shot him an exasperated look. Side by side, the difference in height between the pair was not as great as she had thought at first; Percival had seemed larger because of his mount.
“We will listen to your stories while we sup,” Feronantus said, holding up a hand to stay further discourse between the two.
“And listen, and listen some more—and listen again!” cracked the big man who had been training Haakon.
Percival turned to look at the source of the jest and unfeigned delight spread over his face. “Taran! I hoped you’d be here.”
