The Isle of Ilkchild (The King of Three Bloods Book 4)

by Russ L. Howard

  Ahy gasped, then got up from her chair to hug Paloma. “Oh, thank you, thank you, Mother Superior!” She looked as thrilled as a little girl about to open her present at Yuletide. Paloma leaned down and kissed Sur Sceaf, who held her by the hand and whispered, “You crafty devil! I bow to your genius and generosity.”

  She whispered back, “I shall take my reward on God-Day.”

  He loved that Paloma was a peace-maker and that she could do it without missing a step and everyone went away feeling rewarded, even her.

  The other bride-sisters applauded. Paloma took Ahy’s place so that Ahy could take the seat beside Sur Sceaf. He looked into Ahy’s eyes. The fires of the honeymoon were still white hot, for he felt the flames leaping in his breast. He could hardly wait for the dinner to end.

  * * *

  The hall was empty now, dishes washed, the kitchen cleaned, floors swept and pots put away. One-by-one the wives bid him goodnight, and with his children returned to their own homes. Taneshewa had been the first to leave. ‘To make things perfect,’ she had whispered.

  Now as he stood alone on the porch of the hall, he saw what he thought was her bedroom window lit up with a candle, a sign he was to come to her. Her new house was very much like her house in Namen Jewell. She favored the colors of the earth and forest, with touches of gold of the sun. At the moment, the furniture was rather sparse, since most of it was still stored away in the barn. He made his way swiftly up the stairs. As he reached the landing the glow of a door to the rear beckoned him. The piney scent of the burning copal incense drew him toward the rear of the apartment. His heart slammed against his ribs with anticipation and his body was stirring.

  Standing in the doorway and looking through the golden light of a beeswax candle, he saw Taneshewa, clothed only in shadow and candlelight, moving like a sensuous goddess. She slid naked beneath the Quailor quilt. With her hair spread out against the snowy pillow, she beckoned him with seductive eyes and a beguiling smile. This image of her would forever remain emblazoned in his mind unto his last breath. He quickly disrobed, letting his clothes fall to the floor and slid into the warm nest beside her.

  Eagerly, Taneshewa pulled him to her and whispered, “Tonight you are mine and only mine. That means so much to me. I will hold to you tighter than woodbine till dawn calls you from my arms. The lark must wake us in the morning, but this moment belongs to us and in this moment I will live eternally.”

  In the early morning hours, Sur Sceaf woke to find Ahy’s warm body pressed against his back. Fully alert and aware of his surroundings as all good warriors are when they wake. He listened to the plaintive cries of the whip-poor-wills and the tinkling song of bull bats, while reveling in the hum of sensuous fulfillment, so different than the clang of hammer and chisel at Godeselle that went day and night.

  He looked out the window at the twinkling star in the northwest sky. It was Twinkle Hollar, the Guardian Star, named by Muryh to honor the Quailor. His grandfather, Ludwig Hollar would have been pleased, since Twinkle Hollar represented the Herewardi belief that they were being watched over and shepherded by the heavens and their ever watchful ancestral eyes.

  Slowly he turned and snuggled up against Ahy’s warm body and allowed himself to drift off into quiet sleep once again.

  He was in a great sea-going vessel. His hair was whipping from the wind due to the swift speed with which they skimmed over the surface of the great deep. He saw his wives, his children, and his friends were all there with him, laughing and happy. Ahead of them lay a land of unspeakable beauty and a strong sense that the gods and the elves were watching over them. In the distance, from the main land, came a dark and troubled cloud, moving rapidly until it engulfed them in wave after wave of thunder and lightning and waves of churning, heaving sea water that rose in walls above his ship. Even as he tried to extend his protection unto all those he held dear, a dark wave rose up, out of which came a monster-shark-wyrm to swallow the ship.

  Rolling thunder and flashes of light washed over him till he awoke struggling to free himself from the blankets. Now safe in the loving arms of Ahy, he leaned over and kissed his Ahyyyokah, ‘bringer of happiness.’

  She awoke with a smile and purred, “My love.”

  He tenderly made love to her in hopes of driving away the angst left over from his dream, but as he lay exhausted next to his beloved, the dark cloud and monster in his dream still haunted his thoughts.

  * * *

  Taneshewa sat smiling at the breakfast table with her bride-sisters while Sur Sceaf helped his boys with the horses in the barn. Out the corner of her eyes she saw two of the Citriodoran maids giggling over the hearth while putting game on a spit, rabbits, turkeys, and pheasants. Faechild who had just sat down beside her, and began to eat her buckwheat cakes, paused and whispered, “Don’t mind the help. They’re just jealous because they heard you and Surrey shaking the timbers last night.”

  Chapter 22 : The Origin of the Herewardi

  It was the day after Fyribod in the year 584 H.S.O. The Lord Sur Sceaf’s daughter Aryfae of Faechild’s hearth was married yesterday. The newly weds were sent out on the lake on a barge to honeymoon. Reports were coming in daily as to the progress of capital works and asset development in Godeselle.

  Sur Sceaf’s wives blossomed even more beautiful than usual. In this time of celebration, he could shower them with love, passion, adoration, and affection. His wives were like a well of understanding for him to draw from, and he learned much of the interactions between the tribes from their pillow talk.

  During the days he played endlessly with the children, taking them on hunts, reading poetry together with his wives and children, listening to the compositions of Brekka Copper Locks, and the lyrical songs of Rachael-Fae and Brimgold on their lyres. And he took particular joy in telling bardic tales of ancestral lore and the bloodlines of Saxon kings to his children.

  It was a time of repose. Eyvind , Griselda, and Aegir conducted plays. Sur Sceaf constructed a water wheel for Swan Hilde’s experimental garden, which was worthy of much praise. It could not have been a happier time.

  After Fyribod came the harvest of pumpkins and Halloween, a time for families. At this time of the year the Herewardi had feasts and re-enactments of their history and struggles, in each individual family home. It was the time of the season for remembering the tribulations of the Herewardi Tribe and for honoring the ancient landmarks of Herewardom. It was a time for the folk to learn that Herewardom was not so much a place on the map as a place in the heart and in the blood, in the family.

  In the Grand Hall of Neorxnawang, Sur Sceaf began telling his family the triumph of the Herewardi. Faechild painted all the children’s fingernails in gold, as had been taught by the spygyric art of the wizard, Govannon. The children wriggled with excitement and anticipation while Sur Sceaf created the ritual space for the performance by displaying the Great Lights of Herewardom, removing the hoods off the obelisk and the labyrus, and lighting the hall with myriad beeswax candles, and filling the air with the incense of white magnolia.

  Sur Sceaf’s children sat leaning forward on their benches awaiting the re-enactment while the rest of his children stood behind drawn curtains waiting for their moment on stage. He took the sacred vellum written in the flame elfabet by Long Swan.

  As his eldest son, Arundel acted the role of Os-Syr-Rus. He reminded everyone that the spirits of their ancestors were always with them and especially on this holy occasion.

  Sur Sceaf read, “Howrus discovered what we call the Golden Obelisk which is a symbolic representation of cluster marriage or the taking of multiple wives; Our culture’s most vital part. Howrus wrote, ‘Plural marriage is the ultimate virtue of any people and this virtue alone is unconquerable.’ It is why we keep the Golden Obelisk veiled for seventy days before the ceremony of unveiling each year at Midsummer. By means of the Golden Obelisk the earth can be replenished and renewed with the holy seed. Men can be made more manly and women more womanly by its holy application.”


  Sur Sceaf paused. “Permit me to read more.” As he took up the vellum scroll, the first curtain was slid back, revealing the body of a man lying on the ground. “It was at a time when the leader of the Herewardi, whom we call the Tree was cut down. His name was Hrus-Syr-Os, which means, god’s seer is Hrus. He was descended from Hereward the Wake from which all the Herewardi reverently take their name. Hrus-Syr-Os’s tribe dwelt at Big Springs in the north end of the Shenandoah Valley in a land called Firginia, on a mound called Heredom. His tribe had amassed much wealth and had developed a formidable army of free men and great trains of merchants that stretched to the four points of the compass.

  “Thus Hrus-Syr-Os became a savior for free thinkers, philosophers, and escaped captives of the Pitters in the northlands as well as a defender of the peace loving Quailors who dwelt there. In those days the Pitters were not solidified and represented bands of chaotic evil throughout the northlands. Nevertheless several bands of these Pitters came to an alliance with an other bastard people, the evil Vardropi, bastard meaning half-human. The two transhuman peoples attacked in a most vulnerable moment, destroying most of the Herewardi and sending their allied peoples into flight. They captured and killed Hrus-Syr-Os atop Mount Heredom in the newly constructed temple of light, unto which many came to learn of his wisdom.

  “The Pitters seized his wealth, slew all the men, burnt down the temple and monastery. Following the destruction of Heredom, this vile enemy carried away the Herewardi women and children to a place called Harper’s Ferry at the confluence of the two great rivers known as the Pot-Omac and Shenandoah.”

  Arundel, dressed in Andalusian grey robes, sat re-enacting Osir the all seer. Russell and Ev’Rhett came in, dressed in black robes and wielding knives. They slew Os and tore him to pieces which they represented by pulling scarves out of his robe sleeves. Grapes were taken from the seat of the throne, torn apart, and smashed. Russell and Ev’Rhett then rounded up all the little children in the room and placed them in a simulated cage of sticks.

  Aelfheah, as the second son of Sur Sceaf took the vellum scroll from Sur Sceaf and read. “The son of Hrus-Syr-Os was none other than Howrus, who with his hundred and forty four mighty warriors had been fighting a band of Pitters in Getisbuhr where they had seized a colony of Quailor. After the Pitters had extorted great tribute from the Quailor, they waited til they were fully impoverished, then enslaved them. The Herewardi twelver, led by the Swan Knight, Howrus, freed the Quailor and led them back to sanctuary at the Big Springs, as the Quailor had no defenses and no refuge other than the Herewardi.

  When Howrus returned to his father’s land he discovered what mayhem and utter destruction had befallen them. He gathered up his father’s remains and built a large burial mound atop the hill of Heredom at Big Springs near the ashes of the Temple. Howrus then prophesied that, ‘One day his Seed would return to possess this land and in that day, the Seed of the Woman would utterly crush the head of the Pitter serpent.’”

  Aelfheah, in the role of Howrus, took Arundel who played the role of Os, and placed him and his scarves in the barrow. “I decree this place be called Osir’s Barrow atop Mound Heredom.”

  Next the children from age eight and up, pretended to be riding with Howrus to set free the captives of Harper’s Ferry by breaking down the cage.

  Aelfheah passed the sacred vellum to Redith, who proceeded to read in a surprisingly strong voice. “Howrus the Swan Knight and his Wolf Pack of twelvers launched an attack in the night on the Pitters in Harpers Ferry and freed their women and children along with many other captive women and children from other tribes, particularly the Powhatan and Cherokee. There was barely a male child above age four left alive among the captives, so thorough was the purging of the Vardropi.

  “Howrus took his wife Mawva, his mother, Siri, his remaining young children, and the children and wives of his fallen comrades and the Quailor, up into the Appalachean Mountains to two tiny settlements called Tomahawk and Sleepy Creek. There, he built a stronghold between Sleepy Creek Mountain and Third Mountain near Roaring Run. It was near there in a place called Meadow Branch that he wrote the Forty-Four Laws of the White Swan People, which cannot be unwritten so long as a body of Herewardi agree to be governed by them.

  “When he realized how few marriageable men remained in the land he presented and gained permission from his wife Mawva to introduce the Law of Multiple Marriage, so that all the women would have a house to belong to and a wing to reside under. Which he explained would allow us to outgrow evil and overcome all of our enemies by producing a greater population dedicated to righteous living. Thus he gave the widows of their fallen comrades the benefit of marriage. His second wife was Myra-El, a woman of the hills, who fought as a slayer by his side. It is told that she slew ten men alone in one battle foray with her weapon of choice, the labyrus. Her tales are legendary.”

  She paused, while Milkchild played the role of Mawva and Brekka acted the role of Myra-El. Brekka went over to the barrow where the body of Os lay. She searched on and about his body till she discovered a bejeweled Golden Obelisk and held it up for all to see. The curtain was pulled to reveal several young boys in a setting of sticks and branches chiseling the Forty-Four Laws on a stone in front of a hogan made of woven grass reeds.

  Another group of children dressed in black hats to represent the Quailor came out to join the Herewardi, as Redith passed the scroll to Faechild who read in her lyrical voice:

  “The Quailor opposed this law of polygamy and the principal of cluster marriage, as well as the life of warriors, but they needed the Herewardi to protect them, so they lived and sojourned together as two separate people. Among the people of Sleepy Creek was also a band of Cherokee-Powhatan from which Howrus took to wife his third bride; one seeress called Sasa, his much beloved swan maiden.”

  In the background a steady drum beat could be heard, as though the heartbeat of all former generations lived on and thrived in the new generations. Taneshewa came on the stage dressed in red feather wings symbolizing Cherokee-Powhatan and the mythical Red Swan of Herewardi legend. It was believed that all the different races came from the different wives of the First Elf Father. Taneshewa did the dance of the Red Swan and made flying motions with her arms till she settled next to Howrus.

  Shining Moon then became the reader: “She it was, who mothered the Syrapa or Sharaka Race. Since that time Mawva has been greatly venerated by the Herewardi people and Sasa his third wife has been greatly venerated among the Sharaka.”

  Shining Moon motioned for a group of young boys to come on stage, then read, “The Slayer, Myra-El, had two sons and they joined up with Sasa’s son, Rdoke, as a band of nomadic warriors operating throughout the Hrusian Mountains of the East. They later would become known as the Lost Band for unto this day no one has heard aught from them.”

  Shining Moon handed the vellum to Sur Sceaf, who stood up in his red surcoat with it’s golden bee buttons and continued the reading, “It was in the reign of Howrus that the Elves, our ancient patriarchal forefathers, visited the Herewardi on ea-urth and gave them instructions on finding a new home as far to the west as they could go.”

  Russell, Ev’Rhett, and Hroar, appeared as Elves clothed in the traditional Saxon green robes.

  “The Elves declared the Pitters a quarantined population, guilty of intergenerational transgressions that had now ripened them for destruction less no humanity should be free from bondage and oppression and the whole ea-urth should become bastardized with transhumans.”

  Russell and Ev’Rhett brandished their swords and shook them while Brekka shook her spear. “They declared the Herewardi would be one of the main weapons to someday destroy the Pitters and blot them off the face of the ea-urth along with their corrupt scientific priesthood of Ish and Vardrop. But for now, the Elves decreed, the Herewardi must flee to the far west where they would find rest to their feet from time to time until ultimately they would discover the isle of safety, strength, and peace, a paradise of w
ater, fertile soils, and wood.”

  With that said the acting Elves cut off the head of a Pitter effigy dressed in its black cowl. After which the children all paraded off in a westerly direction with the Elves holding barley shields with barley fanisks over their heads.

  Sur Sceaf passed the vellum scroll to Paloma ritualistically dressed in her aubergine robe. She waited until several of the teenage girls dressed as white robed angels handed letters to the children dressed in black hats. “During this same time the Quailor were visited by beings they called angels who gave them a similar message as had been given by the elves to the Herewardi. Howrus had grown old, so he turned over the Law Stone, the God Hring, and the government of the Herewardi to his son, Arundel I, who built a dolmen for Howrus in Sleepy Creek and purified the teachings of the Elder Faith, during which time four generations passed until Elrus arose, a descendant of the seed of Howrus. It was he, along with the Great White Lady, Godgifu, who then led them across the mountains and the Middle Sea to the settlements in the Taxus hill country. To this day he is revered as the greatest seer of the Herewardi people and Godgifu as their greatest queen. The holy writings of Elrus and Godgifu may only be viewed by the lore masters. For great are the prophecies of Elrus.”

  Another curtain was drawn back revealing a small ship which was then pulled across the stage area. A maiden dressed in buckskin was going the opposite direction with several boys in loincloths, and red robed dog soldiers holding spears of protection over them.

  The seven year old son of Shining Moon, Red Swan, took the vellum and continued the text: “After the Herewardi had lived peacefully in the Taxus Lands, the Pitters had another population explosion and came in pursuit of the Herewardi, for a sorcerer among the Pitters named Shermadamus gave a prophecy that unless the Herewardi were exterminated, they would surely one day destroy the Pitters.