by V. M. Sang
Ailbert swore.
The old man looked at him. “No need for that, now. Gone without you, have they? If you hurry, you might catch them, but they've been gone some time.”
Ailbert walked slowly across the village, back to where Maeve and Gwen lived. Gwen sat weaving outside, as it was a warm day. He wondered if he could catch them and stop them if he ran very quickly, but decided he could not, and so he sat wearily down beside Gwen.
The older woman looked up from her weaving. “What's the matter?”
Ailbert shrugged.
“Come on, now. Something's wrong. Is it a girl?”
“No.” Ailbert shook his head. “Not a girl. Something perhaps more serious.”
Gwen smiled. “I didn't think there was anything more serious than that for a young man of your age.”
Ailbert did not reply for a short while, then turned to her and said, “It's Rees. It seems he's taken some of the young lads and gone to ambush a Roman patrol. I'm afraid he's going to get them killed.”
Gwen stopped weaving and looked hard at Ailbert. “And you're feeling responsible because of your involvement previously.” It was a statement, not a question.
“Did Huw tell you?”
“No, but I've got eyes in my head. I've noticed how you young men have gone out hunting … and shortly afterwards there has been a report of an attack by the Phantom Raiders.”
“Yes, I suppose there is some element of guilt about it. If I hadn't nurtured my hatred of the Romans all those years and put it into practice here, then this wouldn't have happened.”
Gwen sat beside Ailbert and put her hand on the young man's arm. “Look … did you instigate the initial rebellion?”
Ailbert looked hard at her. “No. In fact, at first they didn't want me to join. We'd not been here long and they didn't trust me.”
“Well then, they would have raided with or without you. What you did, by planning properly, was to save the lives of probably all those young men. You only lost one, I think.”
“No, I didn't lose any.” Ailbert looked away. “The one who died was on a raid with Rees. I had nothing to do with that one. Rees did it off his own bat.”
“Then you have nothing to feel guilty about. This raid is not your responsibility.”
He returned his gaze to the older woman. “I know, Gwen, but I feel bad for those youngsters in danger. They have all their lives in front of them, and the village needs them too.”
“Ailbert, you and the others who have been a part of the Phantom Raiders are also young.”
He stood to leave, but turned back. “We may still be young, but we're old enough to know what we're doing. Those kids aren't.” He strode off through the gate, towards where Eira and the other horses grazed.
He called his horse over and as soon as he had her saddled, he galloped in the direction the old man told him Rees had gone.
He had only travelled about thirty minutes when he saw three figures approaching, carrying something. He reined in Eira and jumped off. It was, as he thought, three of the youngsters carrying a fourth.
Ailbert quickly assessed the situation. “Put him on Eira,” he commanded.
The young men did as Ailbert told them, and the injured youngster, a boy of thirteen summers, groaned as they hoisted him up. Ailbert made a quick estimation of his wounds. They did not seem too serious.
“How many of you went?” he demanded, “and where are the others? More to the point, where's Rees?”
The boys looked at one another. “Cedric's dead,” one said and they all looked down at the ground. “Glyn, Tristin and Rees are prisoners. I don't know what happened to Owen.”
“Ten of you set out and only four are returning.” Ailbert scowled. “What did you think was going to happen? No, don't answer that! You all had thoughts of glory put into your heads by Rees.”
He grabbed Eira's reins, making her shy. She nearly deposited her burden on the ground.
“Come on. We need to get Floyd back and treated. Then you need to go to Adair and tell him what has happened, and to Cedric's mother and tell her too.”
The three looked up and quailed when they saw Ailbert's face. “Do we have to?” asked the smallest boy.
“Yes. You tried to be men, now you must act like men and take responsibility for your actions.”
The sad little party wended its way back to Pen Coed where the villagers met them with wailing and tears. Adair questioned the boys and learned that Rees, Glyn and Tristin had been taken prisoner by the Romans.
“What will happen to them?” Brianne whispered.
“I don't know,” Adair replied glumly. “They could be enslaved … but they could equally well be put to death.”
Later that day, Ailbert discussed the situation with Huw. He had gone to the older man to ask his advice as to what to do about those the Romans had taken prisoner.
“Ailbert,” Huw said grimly, “I don't think there's much we can do. We don't want to bring the anger of Rome down on Pen Coed. That would mean the deaths of many more.”
“I feel guilty about it, Huw,” Ailbert replied, looking into the distance. I know all about Roman reprisals for attacking them.
“You don't need to. It wasn't anything to do with you. You neither ordered nor planned it.”
“I know, but I want to do something to help those boys.”
They discussed possibilities far into the night, until Dera got annoyed and called Huw in to come to bed, but by then they had the beginning of a plan.
The next morning, Huw told Dera he was going to the market in Eberacum.
“But you've not got much to sell,” his wife replied.
“I have other business there,” Huw murmured, not looking at his wife. “There are things I might buy to trade in Londinium.”
Dera knew that look in Huw's eyes. She knew that she would not succeed in changing his mind and shook her head as she watched her husband and Ailbert trot out of the gate to the city, wondering what he was up to now.
The pair arrived in Eberacum towards evening and went immediately to the inn where they usually stayed. Huw asked about news in the city and was rewarded by the innkeeper telling him of the successful fight of the patrols against the Phantom Raiders.
“Not so ‘phantom’ this time,” he told them. “The patrol killed two of them, injured at least one other, and captured three.”
“What's going to happen to those they captured?” Ailbert asked casually.
The innkeeper shrugged. “Dunno, really. I think the two youngsters'll probably be sold as slaves. They're young and strong. Pity to waste them and the profit they'll make. The other, who seems to be the leader of the Raiders, will probably be killed in one form or another. I hope they send him to the arena. He'll make a good spectacle.” He grinned.
Ailbert paled at the thought. The arena? There was no way Rees could fight either gladiators or wild beasts. If that were to be his fate, then they would need to act swiftly if they were to effect a rescue.
Huw asked the innkeeper, “When will their fates be decided?”
“In the next day or so I'd think. There's a slave market in three days, so they'll want to sell the boys there if they're to be sold.”
Ailbert and Huw discussed what they should do and hatched a plan. The pair spent an anxious three days, but eventually the day of the sale arrived and they went with many affluent Roman citizens to the slave market.
When they arrived, they found the slaves standing on wooden platforms. Every slave was surrounded by a large group of potential buyers, poking and prodding the 'goods', and asking questions of the traders.
The slaves also had boards around their necks, with details of education, whether or not they were a risk of running away or suicide, and other such things. Ailbert closed his eyes at the sight of the boards. I had one just like those. He tried to banish the memory. His stomach turned as he watched the Romans treating the slaves like animals to be bought. They looked into their eyes, pulling eyelids down, open
ing their mouths and examining their teeth. They felt their muscles and scrutinised their skin for signs of disease.
The Romans don’t think of them as human. I was treated like a pet until I grew out of my prettiness. Then they were going to sell me, just like a puppy that had become too big.
His anger began to rise and his fists clenched. He pressed his lips together.
Eventually, Ailbert spotted Tristan and Glyn. He indicated to Huw where the boys stood, but did not approach them. They did not want Tristan or Glyn to know they were there in case they gave an indication they knew the two men.
It seemed a long time to Ailbert before the slave trader brought Tristan to the attention of the market. By this time, many of the buyers had left, all the best slaves having been bought. Only a few still stood around, some out of simple curiosity and others believing they could get a bargain. After all, these boys had attacked a Roman patrol. They would likely make difficult slaves.
The bidding started and Ailbert raised his hand after the initial bid had been placed. The people around him expressed surprise that a barbarian should be bidding for a slave, but the bidding went on.
Tristan was small for his age and not a very attractive looking boy, and so the bidding quickly slowed. Ailbert managed to buy him for a reasonable price. The trader indicated to the guards to remove the boy and take him away to where his new owner could pick him up at the end of the market. Then he began the sale of Glyn.
Glyn stood looking defiantly at the crowd in front of him. He seemed much more the rebel than Tristan. He gazed straight at the Romans crowding around and he stood tall, hands at his sides. Earlier, he had received a beating for biting a customer who had been looking at his teeth. This fact soon travelled round the crowd, and when it came his turn to be sold, few buyers remained.
Of those few buyers, though, one man seemed anxious to buy the young rebel. Ailbert could not understand why. Glyn would give trouble and most certainly try to escape. Ailbert remembered the lad as a bit of a troublemaker in the village. Whenever something went wrong, people always looked for Glyn and his friends.
The bidding continued and Ailbert looked at his purse. This attempt at rescuing the young man was costing him nearly all his money and that lent to him by Huw. This would have to be his last bid. Then his opponent threw up his hands and walked away. Glyn was his. He looked at the boy to see if he had noticed who bid for him, but the boy was now in tears, his defiance having melted away when he realised he was truly a slave.
Ailbert asked the slave trader to bind the boys' hands and feet, and also to blindfold them before loading them into his wagon. He decided it would be safer not to risk the boys' reaction when they saw who had bought them.
With the two slaves safely in the back of the wagon, Ailbert clucked to Eira and they left Eberacum immediately even though it would mean they would arrive in Pen Coed long after dark. They waited until they had travelled about an hour before stopping and releasing the boys from their bonds.
“Ailbert, Huw,” Glyn exclaimed and grinned.
Tristan broke down into tears. “We're your slaves. You bought us, so we're your slaves. That will be humiliating back at home.”
Huw put an arm round the young man. “We've not bought you to be slaves, but to rescue you from that very fate. When we get back to Pen Coed, you will be free to return to your families and take up your lives again.”
“Thank you, Ailbert and Huw,” the boys said in unison.
Ailbert said, “Just one thing. You must promise not to do such a foolish thing again. You weren't ready and Rees shouldn't have made you think you were.”
“We understand,” Glyn said thankfully. “Rees said you’d lost your nerve, and the others, too. He made it all sound so exciting, and told us how easy it is to attack the patrols.”
“It’s not easy, though,” Tristan whispered, head bent, looking at the bed of the wagon. “It was hard, and frightening. When it came to shooting, I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t kill a man.”
When they arrived in Pen Coed, the boys were fast asleep on the wagon. “Leave them sleeping,” Huw said as they tiptoed away. “They’ve been through a terrifying experience and tomorrow will be soon enough to reunite them with their families.”
Ailbert and Huw crept back to their homes and silently entered.
The next morning, when they awoke, it was to cries of joy as Glyn and Tristan found their families. The parents of the boys smothered the two men with praise and thanks. They could not have been more grateful.
Not so the parents of the missing boys, nor Rees’ parents and wife. They turned their backs on Ailbert and Huw. Ailbert heard the murmurings.
“We should not have allowed strangers to settle here. Look what’s happened. It was peaceful before. They stirred it up and got some of our young men killed.” Rees’s fatherbanged his fist on the side of his house..
“I don’t like the Romans,” the mother of one of the missing boys said, “but at least it’s peaceful. These strangers have made our young men rebels.”
Rhodri tried to placate them by telling them the raiding was all his idea. All Ailbert did was ensure the plans were such that they did not get killed. The boys that went with Rees had nothing to do with Ailbert. Rees had been acting on his own. It had no effect, though. Those families shunned Ailbert.
24
Ailbert was now in debt to Huw. He had borrowed a lot of money in order to assuage his conscience and free the lads. He needed to make more than he did working for Huw. He lay in bed, sleepless, for many nights; he needed to get so many things clear in his head.
First, there was the debt to Huw. He must pay it back as quickly as he could. He had plans to make and he could not do what he wished as long as he had that debt.
Second, there were his guilty feelings about the deaths and loss of the boys who had gone with Rees. And then Rees himself. Could he have done more to prevent Rees from having taken the raiding into his own hands? If he had managed that, those boys would not be dead or missing, and Rees would be alive too.
On a subsequent visit to Eberacum, not long after the rescue of the two boys, they heard that Rees had been thrown into the arena to face wild animals and had met a grizzly death. The gruesome picture in his mind haunted Ailbert. That he might have done something to prevent Rees from taking the actions he had—that resulted in his horrific death—added to his sleepless nights.
There was also his hatred of the Romans. He had nursed his hatred for what seemed like the whole of his life. He had nurtured it and fed it. Now, he did not feel so strongly about them.
This was largely due to his contact with Flavius and family. He understood that Roman people were no different from Britons. They loved and hated, were generous and mean, and laughed and cried just like Britons. Men like Flavius came here because they had been told not to deliberately persecute the people, and his family had come with him.
He went to talk to Maeve.
“You're right, Ailbert,” she told him when he explained his confusion. “Roman people are just that: people like us—it's not the people who are bad, but the system.”
“Their punishment system in particular,” he said with a frown. “So barbaric. I can't get the picture of Rees being torn to pieces by animals out of my head.”
Maeve shook her head as though to dislodge something. “Yes,” she said, almost whispering the words. . “That is something unpleasant … and Romans go to watch and enjoy it. In that I'm with you about the people being bad.” She looked at him and shrugged. “But it's what they've been told is entertainment. It's hard to resist accepting what you've grown up with as normal.”
“And it's how they think they should conquer other people's countries too.”
“Let me tell you a bit of history, Ailbert. Long ago, there was a man called Julius Caesar. He wanted power in Rome, but had fallen out of favour. He decided to gain that favour by conquest.” She brushed a lock of hair from her eyes and continued. “This Julius Caesar wa
s a brilliant general. He managed to conquer Gaul and to invade Britannia.” She laughed lightly. “He went back to Rome, having been beaten by the Britons, but he didn't say so. He put it about that he'd won a great battle. No one tried to conquer us for nearly a hundred years after that, so did he win?”
Ailbert smiled at the thought of the Britons beating the great Julius Caesar.
With a fleeting smile, she continued. “Under Emperor Claudius, they came again and were more successful, as we can see now. However, they do allow our chiefs to maintain their autonomy and even give them jobs in exchange for tribute. They give us Roman citizenship too, if we want it. I got to be a citizen by marrying a citizen, but it was stripped from me, as you know.”
Ailbert thought for a short while, then said, “They're very clever, these Romans. They let us think we're ruling ourselves by allowing our previous rulers to continue. They also make us dependant on them by showing us such things as theatres and baths.”
“Right, but does that make them all bad?”
“No, I suppose not. Certainly Flavius and most of his family are good people.”
“Most?”
“I don't like Octavia very much, and she doesn't like me, solely because I'm not a Roman.”
“You find bigoted people everywhere, Ailbert.”
Ailbert thought for a moment, then looked away, saying, “That was me, wasn't it? I was just like Octavia, only worse. I actually took my hatred and let it feed on itself. It led me to killing people, and ultimately the death of those boys and Rees.” He stood and walked away.
Maeve's eyes followed him and she smiled. He was almost healed.
25
Ailbert thought long and hard. He had plans for his future and, sooner or later, he would have to put them to Huw. He arrived at Huw and Dera's home and found Huw sorting cloth to take to the market in Eberacum.
