The Marquis (2 page)

She sympathised. ‘Given your experiences, you are almost lucky to have made it this far. My name is Efilda il Samria, currently Wealdend “in opposition” to my younger brother, and this is my cousin and Folctoga, Wystan.’ Although scruffy and dirty Efilda was mid- thirties and still a very handsome woman. In her youth she would have turned heads in the court of Samria. Her clothing was very functional and rustic; layers of tunics covered with a well maintained but inadequate hauberk. Obviously made up of several different items, it still had pieces missing. 

Conn bowed respectfully. ‘Pleased to meet you Wealdend, Folctoga. We are grateful for your help in this situation.’

As they got to the water’s edge, sailors from the ship had arrived with four extremely long ropes, and harnesses. With Balios’ help, they gathered in all the horses, saddled them with harnesses, and connected them to the ropes. Two ropes were connected to the horses, and two ropes had people at the end; Efilda’s people had arrived to help, and their job was to keep the vessel as upright as possible to stop the vessel toppling. With the sound of drums from the boat, they started to pull, and with every wave they surged forward until the vessel was in a few feet of water, beyond the breakers. The tide was now fully in, and although beached, they were safe from being torn apart by the waves. When the tide receded, the ship would be dry on the sand – another problem for another day.

Given that the junk was on a lean, they couldn’t stay on that for the night so Logistics set up a camp behind the first dune. Efilda sent most of her wiga back to their camp but accepted an invitation to stay with Conn. She was further surprised to see Njil’s family and Conn’s children walking towards them.

‘It is not often that a Marquis takes children with him on a campaign. And isn’t the lady an Ancuman? I thought you said that you weren’t a minion.’

‘I’m not – Kutidi is a theow.’

‘A theow? But she is a wiga – Ancuman wiga never surrender to become theow. It is against their code.’

‘I was taught to believe that one should never say never.’ Conn introduced Kutidi to the Wealdend. She bowed respectfully and then continued on her way with the children into a tent. Logistics has completed the assembling of a dozen large tents for their use. Conn guided the Wealdend into one where a table and chairs had been set up. Not long after sitting, food and drinks started to appear.

‘Please eat and drink, and I’ll tell you my story after you tell me yours; I am interested in why you are in opposition.’

Efilda sat beside her Folctoga and they devoured the food. Freshly cooked fish, steamed with ginger and spices, served with rice, soup and large lashings of beer and wine.

After she had eaten, and having thanked her hosts many times for the quality of the food, she started her story. ‘It is a long tale, and unlike most, it does not get better in the telling. It begins with my father and ends with my younger brother.’

It was indeed a long story and Conn had many questions along the way. Efilda’s father was Beohart, Healdend of Samria, and by all accounts a successful leader. He had only one serious vice and that was lust, and a wandering eye – so he had many bedda but few children. He would quickly tire of his latest conquest and seek out new ones, creating a not insignificant impact on his treasury because of the dowry he had to return and the compensation he had to pay when relinquishing a bedda for no good reason.

Some twenty years ago, when Efilda was just a child, an Ancuman trading ship had arrived. On the pretext of having to repair their damaged vessel, they stayed for a month despite being banned from Sytha. The Captain seemed to know of Beohart’s predilection, and offered him three Ancuman bedda, daughters of the noble house of Axum, if he would agree to a trade treaty. He even gave Beohart a young Ancuman theow as a “taster”. Despite the opposition of many, he agreed, and six months later a dozen girls arrived for him to choose from. So blinded with lust, he immediately divorced Efilda’s mother and all his other bedda so that he could have six new Ancuman bedda.

Within a few years he had several children from his new bedda, but only one boy, Dagrun. No sooner had the boy turned sixteen than the Healdend died of a heart attack in the throes of passion with a new Ancuman theow who had been sent as a ‘gift’ on the occasion of Dagrun’s coming of age.  There were no immediate signs of trouble – Efilda’s elder brother, Caenwald, was duly installed as Healdend, and Dagrun took up the position as Folctoga of the Castle Guard – a position formally held by his elder brother. It was when Dagrun installed a company of Ancuman wiga into castle security that some became suspicious of his intentions. Efilda was then bedda to a Folctoga of the Border Patrol, and lived within the castle walls with her daughter.

Two years later, when Dagrun turned eighteen, he received a gift from his grandfather, the Healdend of Axum, of two more Axum bedda. However, on the feast night where everyone of importance was gathered, by command, assassins found entry into the castle and attacked and killed Efilda’s brother Caenwald and his entire family, as well as Efilda’s bedda and daughter. Nearly every member of Dagrun’s extended family was murdered.  It was fortuitous that Efilda herself was not killed – her mother had taken ill and Efilda had left the castle at short notice to visit her – not partial to Dagrun’s celebrations with his underdressed Ancuman bedda. Her mother lived in a cottage on the outskirts of the town since becoming bedda to a merchant.

Her cousin Wystan was a member of the Border Patrol, the second of the two military wings of Samria. He was with his Healdend Caenwald when he was attacked, and whilst unable to save him, he was able to kill the group of assassins that had attacked them. The assassins were mostly Merians.

‘Merians?’

‘Meria is a vast uncivilized land to our east – they lack a central authority such as a Healdend and the demesne is are full of warring clans and mercenaries.’

‘So the Merians killed your family? Why would a demesne without central authority do such a thing? But you said most…’

‘Indeed, I have the same questions. Also, amongst those that we killed was an Ancuman wiga, though not one of the many in the Castle Guard. I had never seen him before.’

Wystan immediately feared that Dagrun was somehow complicit in the murders, and suspecting that Efilda’ life was also in danger, he decided to flee the castle while he could. He also suspected that he might not live to see morning – given that he had seen the Ancuman assassin. Gathering his surviving men, he went in search of Efilda, and finding her, they rushed to the main barracks of the Border Patrol outside of town where they collected as many wiga and resources as they could before fleeing. No one was prepared for such an occurrence so they were able to leave without interference. They then travelled as far away as possible, and the furthest, and safest point from the town was Subari.

Although they knew that it was the Ancuman – if not Dagrun himself – who had orchestrated the assassinations, nothing could be proven. Dagrun proclaimed that all the assassins were killed and all were Merians, and it was a great tragedy. He promised retaliation against Meria, but any retribution planned had yet to eventuate. He also sent envoys to his sister to request that she return to the safety of the town but she refused.

Their new home, Subari, was a demesne whose only access to the rest of Samria was through a mountain pass that was only open nine months of the year. Covered in snow during the winter, and easily defendable during the other months, they were safe from attack by land. They were, however, vulnerable by sea.

‘Where is your village?’

‘We have two, a village to the north in the mountains. It is near the pass so that we can guard the road into Samria. The second is south of here, and we maintain that all year. It is a fishing village and we only vacate it when we see ships.’

‘Ships?’

‘Yes, every spring and autumn, instead of more pleas, my brother now sends ships to attack any villages along the coast, destroying any houses and fishing boats that he can find. He is trying to starve us into submission – we have minimal cropping, almost no livestock, so depend on fish for survival.’

‘I gather he doesn’t land his wiga?’

‘He tried once – but on land we are his match. He doesn’t have enough Ancuman wiga to invade from the sea – and our countrymen readily desert to my side if they are left alone.  However, we can’t defend against his ships attacking our homes, and he has succeeded in destroying most of our villages along the cost. So every year it is getting harder to survive – and this winter will be our hardest yet. We now have shortages of everything – including basic things such as salt to preserve food. The season has also been bad and we have little to harvest. By next summer we will not have enough able people to defend the mountain pass. My brother knows this and he is sure to attack our villages again this year to make sure. Once I am gone, my people have no choice but to fully accept him as Healdend.’ Efilda concluded her story, and finished her wine in gulps before a servant refilled her glass. The thought obviously brought her great pain.

‘How many people do you have here?’

‘Nearly two thousand. After we left Samria, we’ve had a steady stream of people arrive to join us – there were only about five hundred people scattered around Subari before we arrived. Small fishing villages. The main purpose of the fyrd on the other side of the pass is to stop people coming to us.’

She waved out to the ocean.

‘Food is not an issue if we can fish – the bay here is a full of fish, but it is hard to fish for many if you have no fishing boats. That is another reason why my “brother” is so intent of starving us into submission – he needs the harbours here for the fishing season but doesn’t want every person unhappy with him to suddenly disappear into Subari.’

Considering his answer, Conn looked at Derryth. ‘Now you know why I think we are being messed with.’

Derryth smiled back. ‘I have no idea why you have that idea…all seems very normal to me…’

Conn turned back to Efilda. ‘As I said, I was on my way to assist the Healdend of Sytha in his war against the Ancuman, but it would seem that he will have to wait. Fortuitously for you, I have arrived here and you seem to need help. Will you accept it?’

She paused for a while. ‘We need help, but if you are a mercenary, we have nothing to pay you with. I suspect even if we reclaim Samria, there will be little left.  And while your men and horses are the finest that I have ever seen, so few can do little of consequence. I am led to believe that my brother has an entire Fyrd of Ancuman now – over three hundred cavalry arrived just this last year.’

It struck Conn as strange that they would need that many cavalry in Samria. He smiled nonetheless. ‘We are not so few – I have two hundred in total with me – though some are out there somewhere in the ocean. I hope they aren’t shipwrecked as well. And as for being paid, I am happy to accept land – what do you say this demesne is called?’

Efilda shook her head. ‘Here – this is Subari.’

‘Who is the Marquis or Eaorl?’

‘Marquis. And there is none at the moment – the last Marquis was unfortunately implicated in a plot to overthrow my grandfather as Healdend. His lands were confiscated and his people moved elsewhere.  Subari is a long way from Samria and we have no need to farm it, and it is not as good grazing as other places much closer.’

‘So would you be prepared to grant me the March of Subari in exchange for me giving you back the demesne of Samria?’

She looked at her cousin and almost laughed. ‘Of course, it would be a very cheap price to pay. Is that all you want?’

‘From you, yes, anything else I’ll get the Ancuman to pay.’

They thought he was joking. They stopped laughing when neither he nor Derryth joined in.

~oo0oo~

The mood was lighter the next morning when they saw their other two ships anchored off the coast – Njil had set up a temporary lighthouse overnight which was spotted. At dawn they sent in a whaleboat to see what help Njil needed in his attempt to re-float the junk, and soon a hundred men arrived with shovels and buckets.

At first they utilized all available human resources to unload everything from the ship on to the beach. It was then Brys’ responsibility to have it all ready for transportation by horse to the village. Some 200 tons of goods was a lot of trips by horse, even with travois attached.

After two days of hard work, they had a much lighter junk to deal with, and Njil then supervised the digging of a canal in the sand so that even at low tide, the vessel was almost floating upright in the water. Finally the long ropes were towed out to sea and connected to the two vessels as they lay at anchor. They waited for high tide.

Efilda stood beside Conn and Derryth. ‘So you think this will work?’

Conn nodded. ‘The hull of the ship is still sound; and with a high tide and a good breeze, we could be lucky. Nothing ventured…’

It was like watching a kettle boil. As the tide came in the ship continued to rise in the water, while the waves started to batter it forward, the long ropes held it in position. As soon as it started to bob around, the order was given to engage the force of the wind, luckily strong and heading out to sea. With every sail set on the two ships, the ropes went taut and the junk started to move backwards, in spurts as the waves continued to push in towards the shore. After some time the last sandbar was cleared and she hit open water, finally safe from the waves.