Vengeance of a Slave

by V. M. Sang

  A group of people came across to them and interrupted his observations. They were interested in seeing why the strangers had come. A man stepped out from the group. He was a big man with dark hair and a bristling beard. He wore a gold torc around his neck, indicating that he was a man of rank.

  “Welcome to Pen Coed,” he said amiably. “Judging by the goods in the back of your wagon, you’re traders. We’re always pleased to see people with goods we seldom get here in the north. What have you got to trade?”

  Huw climbed down from the wagon and began to point out various things. “I have wine and olive oil from Rome. I’ve also got walnuts, and glassware as well.” He took out some of these things to show the people gathered there.

  The crowd grew as he began to pull out his wares. The man with the torc turned out to be the headman of the town. He walked over to Dera. “Are you his wife?”

  She replied in the affirmative. “And these are my three children: Glenda, Dewi and Gwayne. The other two are Huw’s niece and nephew, Ailbert and Awena.”

  “Why are there so many of the trader’s family with him? Traders don’t usually bring their wives and children, let alone nephews and nieces when travelling.”

  “I’ve been visiting my family and Huw picked me up on the way. Ailbert and Awena wanted to come with us to see their other aunt, Huw’s sister, who lives in our village.”

  Dera knew they would need to be careful and find out exactly where this settlement stood on the subject of the Romans. If they were Romanised and in favour of the Empire, then to reveal too much would put them all in danger. It was far enough away from Londinium for them to be safe if no one knew who they were, and a day’s journey from Eberacum, so there would not be much danger from that city either if the knowledge of their escapades travelled so far north.

  Dera shivered. It still felt cold although spring was on the way. It did not seem to be as far advanced here as it was further south.

  The headman’s wife noticed her shiver and came over. “I’m so sorry. I should have invited you into our house to get warm. Come with me. I have two children about the same age as your girl and elder boy, and as you can see,” she patted her belly, “another one is on the way. Since we have a boy, we’re not too worried about what it will be, but another boy would be nice.”

  She continued chatting while leading Dera, Awena and the three children to a large round house in the centre of the settlement.

  Ailbert looked towards the horses. He wandered away from the trading going on and patted a bay animal that came to the fence when he approached. A dog growled at him as he passed, but a young man about his own age kicked the animal and it slunk away.

  “Don’t mind the dogs,” he said, approaching Ailbert. “Just aim a kick at them and they’ll go away. Do you like horses then?”

  “Yes, very much. I spent as much time as I could with them when I was at … er … home,” he said.

  “This one is a softy. His name is Blaze because of the white blaze on his face.”

  “He’s lovely.”

  The other young man pulled a wizened apple from his pocket and handed it to Ailbert. “Here, give him this and he’ll be your friend for life.” He laughed.

  Ailbert took the apple and held it out on his hand, and laughed as soft lips nuzzled his palm when the horse took the apple. Ailbert leaned his head against the animal’s nose and breathed in its scent. He had not realised how much he had missed the animals.

  “Told you he’d be your friend for life,” he said with a smile as the horse nuzzled Ailbert to see if he had any more treats. My name is Rhodri.” He held out a muscular hand.

  “Ailbert. Are you in charge of the horses?”

  “Not really. My father is actually in charge, but I help him a lot. Since the fighting stopped, we’ve not had so much work for the horses. They used to draw our chariots into battle and also carry some of our soldiers. Now they pull our wagons and ploughs.” He grimaced. “Not as exciting though. I sometimes wish the wars weren’t over. I was born too late to be involved. It must have been exciting to fight the Romans.”

  “Your people were on the side against the Romans then?”

  “Hush,” Rhodri looked around. “I shouldn’t have said that. The Romans rule us now and we’re at peace. It wouldn’t do to go fermenting unrest now, would it? The Romans are bringing us so many good things.”

  Somehow, Ailbert felt the young man did not feel as in favour of Roman rule as he made out. He would have to find out more while he was here.

  “My uncle’s rather busy. I’m supposed to be helping him with the money and trade goods. He likes to have them all written down” he explained to Rhodri.

  “You can write?” the other young man asked, raising his eyebrows as the pair walked back to Huw.

  “Yes, and figure too. I was learning … er … I learned it at school.” Ailbert found some difficulty in remembering he was supposed to be the son of a Roman citizen and not a slave. It would not do for him to say that he learned it from a slave so he could take over that job when the slave grew too old. That would put him squarely in the slave category himself.

  “Ah, there you are,” Huw said as the two young men came up. “I see you’ve made a friend. We’ve finished here for now. After we’ve eaten, we can go through the sales and you can write them down. Adair here,” he indicated the headman, “has invited us to his house, so come on.”

  Once inside, they found Dera deep in conversation with Adair’s wife, whose name was Brianne. Ailbert was glad for the warmth of the fire as it felt cold outside and he held his hands out to the blaze.

  Adair offered them a drink and then food. Hospitality was very important to the Britons, and in fact to all the Celtic peoples. Not to welcome travellers with food and drink would be very remiss.

  They ate the food gratefully. The cold weather had made them hungry. After the meal, they settled down to talk. Adair invited them to sleep in his house for the night.

  After a while, Huw asked, “Will you tell us about Queen Cartimandua? We heard a bit where we live, but not much.”

  “Well,” Adair replied, looking around and not meeting Huw’s eyes. “When Caractacus was beaten by the Romans, he fled here from Cambria, expecting to be sheltered. Instead, the Queen had him taken prisoner and handed him over to the Romans.”

  At this point, Brianne, Adair’s wife snorted. Dera looked at her, but she quickly regained her composure.

  Adair continued. “Cartimandua decided to divorce her husband, Venutius, and to marry his armour-bearer. He, the king, was very much against the Romans and fought them when they tried to move into this area. They defeated him though, and the Romans made Cartimandua queen under Roman rule. This is a good thing as far as Cartimandua is concerned. She gets to continue her rule, albeit under the Romans.”

  Ailbert looked at the people gathered round the fire. Awena and Dera stared at Adair, following his story with interest, although Dera looked closely at him with narrowed eyes. His gaze then went to Brianne. She had her eyes turned down as Adair told the tale. Why, he wondered?

  Adair did not make eye contact with anyone, either. This was not what he had observed in the other man previously. He had seemed open and met the gaze of everyone with whom he spoke. Ailbert wondered about this. Could it be that this tale was not one that Adair liked and, if so, what did he not like about it? Could it be that this community was, in fact, against Roman rule in the north?

  13

  As he still did every night, Ailbert whispered his litany of hate before he went to sleep. “They crucified my father; they took my family away from me; they took my home from me; they took my friends from me; they took my country from me; they sent Odila to a brothel; they treated me like a pet animal; they sent Avelina to a brothel;they took our names from us;they made a slave of Maeve;they tortured and killed an old woman for helping us; they made us flee from our new village;they took Awena’s promised one from her.”

  The litany had grown over the
years and it seemed to increase with almost every day.

  Ailbert woke to the sound of voices. He had slept long and well, and he found everyone else already up and breaking their fast around the fire. Brianne had banked it down for the night, but it now blazed again.

  Awena looked up and saw him approaching. “You’ve slept late. Everyone was up ages ago.”

  “Is the sun up?” Ailbert looked towards the open door.

  “Only just,” Dera answered from the other side of the fire. “You don’t need to worry. You’ve not slept in very late.”

  Ailbert grabbed bread and cheese, and went out into the daylight. Dera had been right. The sun was only just up, but the husbandmen were already tending the animals in their pens. Beltane approached when they would turn them out into the fields. With his love of horses, Ailbert made his way towards where they were penned.

  He met Rhodri carrying a bucket to get water for the animals. “Get yourself a bucket, and come and fetch water for the horses,” Rhodri instructed the young man as he passed.

  Ailbert did not need telling a second time and he quickly stuffed the remaining bread in his pocket, found a bucket, and ran after Rhodri.

  A well stood in the middle of the settlement and the two young men filled their buckets, and carried them back to the waiting horses.

  The bay that Ailbert had given an apple to the previous day came over and nuzzled him, hoping for another treat.

  “He likes you,” Rhodri said.

  “Only because I gave him an apple yesterday.” Ailbert laughed. “He’s trying to find another.”

  Rhodri laughed too as they gave the horses the water.

  A reddish-brown animal came over and pushed the others away.

  “Hey, Tân, wait your turn.” Rhodri pushed him away.

  The horse laid back his ears and attempted to bite the young man, who deftly dodged the nips.

  “He’s called Tân, not only because of his colour, but because he has a fiery nature as well,” Rhodri told Ailbert. “He loses his temper far too quickly.”

  Ailbert smiled and clucked his tongue at Tân. He held out his hand and the horse sniffed it. Ailbert felt in his pocket for the bread and held it out for the horse. Tân sniffed it once, then gently took it from Ailbert’s outstretched hand. Ailbert gently stroked the horse’s nose and spoke quietly to him.

  Rhodri, who had been watching, smiled. “What a pity you can’t stay here. You’d be good with the horses. You like them and, even more importantly, they like you—even Tân, who doesn't usually like anyone.”

  The pair went to fetch more water for the animals and began to chat. Ailbert thought he would try to find out if the community was really anti-Roman, as he had thought while talking to Rhodri yesterday, and last night as he had watched people’s reactions in the house.

  “How close is the nearest Roman town?” he asked casually.

  “Eberacum. That’s where the garrison is. They don’t bother us much unless we give them trouble. They’d like us all to be Romans though.”

  “And what about you? Do you want to be Roman?”

  Rhodri paused and looked away. “The Romans think we’re barbarians and uncivilised. We’re not though. We're as civilised as they are. Just different.”

  “That doesn’t answer my question. I asked if you want what the Romans have—baths, theatres, gladiators, paved streets and such like. You’ve only told me the Roman idea of civilisation is different from your civilisation, not if you would like to have theirs.”

  Rhodri changed the subject and started back towards the pens. “We must get this water back to the animals.”

  Ailbert watched his retreating figure through narrowed eyes. Rhodri’s back indicated the subject was closed.

  In the house, once the men had gone out, Dera asked Brianne if she could do anything for her. Dera hated sitting with nothing to do. Brianne had some wool ready for spinning and so the two women took their spindles outside and began to spin the wool. As they span the fleece into thread, they chatted.

  After a while, Dera stopped spinning and looked at Brianne. “I’m going to take a risk now,” she said.

  Brianne raised her eyebrows.

  “While we talked last night, I watched both you and Adair. When we started talking about Cartimandua, you both looked nervous and embarrassed, as though you didn't agree with her actions.”

  Brianne looked down as Dera spoke and stopped spinning.

  “I’m going to tell you our story,” continued Dera. “We are, in fact, not what we told you. Oh, Huw is a trader, that much is true, but we’re here because of a different reason.” She took a lengthy breath before continuing. “In our village, after Boudicca was defeated, some of us wanted to do more for those Britons whom the Romans had enslaved. It was obvious we couldn’t fight the Roman army, they’re just too disciplined, so we decided to set up a group to free as many of our countrymen as possible.”

  Here Dera looked at her companion. Brianne watched her with interest. “Fortune smiled on us and we thought the gods were approving our decision. A Roman began to show interest in Huw’s sister, Maeve, a very pretty young woman. This, we thought, would be a way to find out where the slaves were. Maeve married him and went to live in Londinium. She found out where enslaved Britons lived and sent them messages with a trustworthy person from our village. We found an old woman, a Briton of course, living in an insula in the poorer part of the town, and we used her insula as the place where we took the slaves we’d rescued.”

  Brianne looked intently at Dera. “How did you get them out of the town?”

  “That was another problem. We decided we’d use Huw’s visits to Londinium to get the slaves out. He was already well known as a trader and so could come and go without much trouble.” She looked around to see if anyone was nearby. When she saw no one, she continued. “Usually, we tried to get slaves out before the Romans raised the alarm. That same day, if possible. Huw hid them in his wagon or even had them sit beside him. If the guard on duty was the same one as when he came in, he would know Huw hadn’t had anyone with him when he came in and, in these circumstances, he left by a different gate. We brought them to our village, but only kept them for a night, then moved them to another until they were far away.’

  “Why are you telling me this? We could betray you to the Romans.”

  “But you won’t, will you? If you were going to, you wouldn’t look as you do now.”

  “That tells me you were subverting the Romans and doing something to aid our fellow Britons. It doesn’t tell me why you’re running away. You are running away, aren’t you?”

  Dera paused for a moment. “Yes, we’re running away. Someone saw something when we took Ailbert and Awena to the insula. The Romans came and took the old lady and tortured her. Before she died, she gave Maeve away. She should never have known about Maeve, but the silly girl took a fancy to these two and went to the insula to make sure they got away safely. The old woman’s description was good and Maeve was captured. We have no idea what has happened to her.”

  Brianne put her hand on Dera’s arm. “I’m sorry about Huw’s sister. So, Ailbert and Awena were slaves?”

  “Yes, they were slaves and we rescued them. They have their hair dyed because it’s very light and makes them easily recognisable.”

  “I’ll speak to Adair later. I’m sure you’ll be welcome to stay here.”

  Later that day, Adair came and spoke to Huw. He told him Dera had told Brianne about why they had come north and invited them to stay in the settlement. They could always use more hands, and a trader would be useful to have. The boy, Ailbert, looked as though he would be good with the animals, especially the horses, and they would find a good match for Awena. New blood was always welcome.

  Huw had mixed feelings about what Dera had done in telling Brianne about them. He felt partly annoyed that she had taken such a big risk, as he saw it, but then again, they could not have stayed much longer. A trader family would be expected to move on, and i
t pleased him they had now been accepted. This community liked the Roman occupation no more than his own did.

  They would be safe here, far away from Londinium and with like-minded folk. Perhaps Ailbert and Awena could let their hair go back to its natural colour. That would certainly bring interest from the young men in terms of a handfasting for Awena.

  They told the two young people that evening. Ailbert grinned at the thought they had found a new home, but Awena burst into tears and ran out of the house.

  Dera followed and put her arms around her. “What is it? The people here seem nice enough and we won’t have to go any further to look for somewhere to live. We’ll be safe here, far away from Londinium.”

  “And I'll never see Madoc again.” Awena sobbed into Dera’s shoulder.

  “You knew that when we left.”

  “I hoped we’d not find anywhere to live and would go back. We’d just got settled in. I’d found a young man I love and was to be handfasted to him. I learned to love Gwen, too. Everything was going so well, then we had to leave it all again. It’s not fair.”

  Dera held her until the crying abated. “Awena, you’re very young. This will be our home from now on and you will no doubt find someone to handfast here. You won’t forget Madoc, but you’ll forget your love for him.”

  Awena tore herself away from the other woman’s arms. “No! There can never be anyone like Madoc. I’ll not marry anyone then.” She turned her back on Dera, who stood for a moment regarding the girl, then turned and walked back to the house.

  Before long, they had to build their own house. They could not live with Adair and Brianne indefinitely.

  First, they needed to choose a site for the house. There was space near the edge of the settlement, not far from the gate, and Huw said it would be a good place for a trader. He decided to build there. It would be handy when he went on trading expeditions.

  They next needed to find wood for the walls of the house. The Britons built the walls from hazel branches woven between vertical poles, and then daubed with mud to keep out the wind. The roof they built of more poles joined together at the top, and thatched.