Conqueror tt-2

by Stephen Baxter

  But the Menologium's terse enigmas irritated Aelfric. Take this fourth stanza, for instance: how could a shield not be a shield, an island not an island? And she knew kings; her father was the thegn of a king, and no king would bow to a hermit. It was all much too opaque for Aelfric, who was impatient with riddles, artificial obstacles to the truth.

  But she could always find pleasure in the work itself.

  This copy of the Menologium would be little more than a transcription of the text with some simple illumination in black ink. She longed to be able to use colour, to unleash her imagination fully, as she was promised one of these days – one of these years, such was the pace of monastic life. But around the opening 'T' of that first line she carefully sketched out a tree, with roots fading into unseen depths and branches reaching to the sky. The tree image was a secret joke. In this Christian manuscript she hinted at Irminsul, the World Tree of legends repeated around her father's fire: the tree in whose mighty branches lodged the universe itself…

  Elfgar and his novices pushed their way into the scriptorium.

  'Ah, novice – Aelfric, is it? We haven't had a chance to talk.' Elfgar's face was round, almost fat. He must eat far more than he was supposed to. But his eyes were deep and sharp. His companions, whose names she didn't know, were still, watchful.

  'And you're Elfgar.'

  Elfgar bowed.

  She stood warily, with her back to the desk. Elfgar and his cronies fanned out, cutting her off from the door. She saw low cunning in their overfed faces. But her head was full of words, and her first reaction wasn't fear but irritation that they were wasting her precious time. 'What do you want? You can see I'm working. Soon study hour will be done-'

  'Ah, yes, study.' Elfgar leaned over the manuscript, coming close to her. She could smell him, a kind of sickly milkiness under the dirt stink. 'You're not very good at it, are you?' With a slow, obscene gesture, he put his finger in his mouth, drew it out wet, and held it over the page.

  'Please,' Aelfric said hastily. 'You'll ruin it.'

  'So what? It's only scribble.'

  'It's hours of work. I'll go to Dom Wilfrid. I mean it.'

  Elfgar snickered. 'Dear old Wilfrid. It's a long time since I heard a harsh word from him, I can tell you that. But then he's so ashamed.'

  'Ashamed? Of what?'

  'Of what we give him, and how he longs for it.'

  'Whatever it is you want, Elfgar, get it over.'

  He stepped closer, so that milky stink was even stronger. 'Why, do you think I'm here to hurt you, novice? Not at all. I'm here to help your frail little soul. It will do you good to eat a little less each prandium, and hand over the rest to me and my brothers. It will speed your way into Heaven to work a little longer in the fields in the hours of opus manuum, while I and my brothers doze. You see? That sort of thing. And just to prove how sincere I am, I'll freely give you a little of what Dom Wilfrid so longs for, in his cold and lonely cell.'

  The others rushed her from either side. Before she could raise a hand they had pinned her arms and spun her around, and Elfgar pushed her down so she sprawled over the table, belly-down over the precious Menologium. She struggled, and was punched in the back hard enough to wind her. It took only heartbeats. Obviously these brutes practised their moves.

  The sudden violence in this place of learning was shocking.

  And when they had her pinned, the others yanked her arms over her head, and Elfgar fumbled at her habit, dragging it up over her legs.

  She understood. They were trying to tup her – even thinking she was a boy. So this was how they exerted their power, even over poor, confused Dom Wilfrid.

  But she was no ordinary novice.

  'You can't do this. You'll burn in Hell!' She thrashed and squirmed. Her reward was another punch, this time in the nose. Her mouth filled with blood. Elfgar ripped down her pants and kicked apart her legs. He fumbled at her, and she felt the hot tip of his prick pushing at the cleft of her buttocks.

  Dazed by the blow, confused, she tried to think. Perhaps if he used himself up in her arse, she could still get out of this with her secret intact, and no worse than a bloody nose and a sore backside.

  But now, with horror, she felt his hand snaking around her hips. Perhaps he meant to play with Aelfric's balls. There was nothing she could do about it. She felt his hot hand slide over her belly, and then down into the tangle of hair below-

  He pulled back. 'Tears of Christ!' He laughed. 'Why, lads, he's no Aelfric! You're a-'

  Wood slammed on bone. 'Animals! Hell-hounds!'

  Elfgar howled and fell back. Aelfric's hands were released. She slipped backwards off the table, her manuscripts sliding back with her. Frantically she fumbled at her habit.

  Dom Boniface was laying about him with his walking stick, the purple scar on his face flaring. The three novices yelled and ran. Elfgar was bleeding from the back of his head, his pants around his ankles, his prick comically still erect. They clattered into tables, spilling heaps of vellum and ink pots, until at last they made it out of the door. Boniface chased them. 'I've had enough of you animals! I know what you do! Never mind your confessor, I'm going to the abbot about this, and you'll be scourged as even you have never been scourged before!…'

  The Menologium was on the floor, covered in blood and spilled ink. Aelfric lifted it to the table and tried to smooth it out.

  She was distracted by a wheeze. Boniface, his burst of energy used up, had collapsed to the floor, still clinging to his stick.

  She ran to him. 'Dom Boniface. Let me help you.'

  With one arm under his, she got him to his feet. He was lighter than she had imagined, frailer, and there was a strange stink about him. Perhaps it came from the purple growth that enveloped one cheek and the side of his jaw. As she walked him to a chair, she tried not to recoil.

  He noticed, of course. Gasping, he said, 'Oh, you needn't be afraid of it, child.'

  'Afraid?'

  'Of my demon, the thing which is eating me from the outside in. I don't fear it. I thank God for sending me an opportunity to show my strength! I have had a good life, and a long one – I'm forty-three, you know – I thank Him and praise Him.' She got him to the chair, but he tried to kneel. 'Join me now, child, in a prayer of gratitude.' He closed his eyes.

  She knelt, but she felt unable to concentrate. 'Oh, Dom Boniface – the manuscripts are ruined! Even the original is covered in blood.'

  'The blood you spilled defending it. That's no sin. Ruined? Well, perhaps. But time ruins all things. That is why we make copies, after all. Your copy may last a century or two, but when it wears out there will be another novice, in this very room, to make a fresh version, and so it will go on.'

  'But all the time I put into it-'

  'Then you must thank God for giving you the opportunity to start again and to do it even better. Everything that happens to us reflects the generosity of God.' He opened one eye. 'I don't think he saw, you know. Elfgar. He felt below your belly, but he may not believe the evidence of his fingertips. Especially since he was distracted by my stick colliding with his thick head. Your secret is still safe. Safe with you, your father, the abbot – and me, Aelfric.'

  'Aelfflaed,' she said miserably. 'My name is Aelfflaed.'

  'No,' Boniface said gently. 'In this holy place, your name is Aelfric. Come now, Aelfric, and join me in prayer.'

  She closed her eyes, kneeling, and followed as he began to chant a rosary. The repeated words soon lost their meaning, and the throbbing pain of her nose subsided in the soothing rhythms.

  VI

  At last Macson opened his eyes.

  He was lying on a straw-filled pallet, in a small, smoky, mud-walled room. He turned his head to see Belisarius, who sat gravely on a battered couch in a corner of the room. Macson raised his right hand. Belisarius had stripped it of its bandages. At the sight of his ruined palm, Macson blanched.

  Belisarius waited patiently.

  Macson said something in a tongue Belisar
ius didn't recognise. Then, evidently remembering further, he repeated it in Latin: 'Where am I?'

  'A tavern,' Belisarius said. 'Near the docks. I took a room.'

  'You brought me here.'

  'It wasn't cheap. I had to hire two men to carry you.' Two of those accusers who had filed out of the church, in fact, who hadn't been averse to accepting a little of Belisarius's silver.

  Macson looked at his hand. 'What have you done? The bandage-' 'The priest's rag would not have helped. I removed it and bathed your wound in wine, which may stop it festering. And it is better to leave the burn exposed to the air, rather than to cover it.'

  'You are a bookseller, not a doctor.'

  Belisarius frowned at how much this stranger seemed to know about him. 'True. But I have always travelled. I have necessarily picked up a little medical knowledge, if only to keep myself healthy. The Moors, in fact, are proficient in medicine, having preserved ancient wisdom and built upon it.'

  Macson moved his hand cautiously; it was rigid, claw-like. 'I'm not even in much pain.'

  'I gave you a little opium. The pain will return, I'm afraid.' Macson turned to him. 'Thank you. You helped me. Though I'm not sure why.'

  Nor was Belisarius. He had no business here, save to sell his books, and he certainly didn't want any entanglement with local criminals. But perhaps there had been something in the dignity of this shabby Latin-speaker, tortured before his eyes by barbarian Germans, that had appealed to his soul. He said simply: 'You asked me.'

  Macson propped himself on his left elbow and laughed, hollow. 'A man may ask for charity from a bishop, but he doesn't always receive it.'

  'Besides,' Belisarius said carefully, 'you claimed you know me.'

  'So I do. You are Basil-'

  'Belisarius.'

  'Yes. Belisarius the east Roman. You deal in rare books from the libraries of Constantinople and Alexandria. I have worked for Theodoric before. You may not remember me – but I do you.'

  Belisarius didn't remember this man, but he had no reason to believe he was lying. 'You are not a German.'

  'No. I was born on the other side of the estuary of the river Sabrina, in what was known as the land of the Silures, – in the days when this island was a province of Rome.'

  'You are of the wealisc.' Welsh.

  He grimaced. 'I am British. The wealisc is what the Germans call us. It is a word that means "foreigner". Or "slave".'

  'Tell me what was being done to you, in that church.'

  'It was a trial,' Macson said darkly. 'I am a learned man, sir, as is my father, who raised me as a scholar. I worked faithfully for Theodoric in his book business for many years. But Theodoric accused me of stealing from him. So I was brought to the church, to be paraded before supporters of Theodoric's case.'

  'And you must return in three days.'

  Macson studied his hand. 'If the wound is healing I must be innocent, for God protects the good, and I will go free. But if the wound is festering it is because of the corruption of my inner heart.'

  Belisarius shook his head. 'These Germans call themselves Christians, but such a ritual has more of the pagan about it.'

  'How true,' Macson said. 'And how good it is to be able to converse in a civilised tongue.'

  Belisarius, a hard-nosed trader, was immune to flattery. 'Are you a slave, Macson?'

  'No,' Macson said fiercely. 'My father was born a slave, from a line of six generations of slaves. But we never forgot who we are. We are descended from a British woman called Sulpicia, who was raped by a German, or possibly a Norse. Her bastard child, neither British nor German nor Norse, was given up to slavery.'

  'Six generations? That's a long time to hold a grudge.'

  'We remembered who we were, and what had been done to us. At last my father was able to purchase his freedom. Thanks to him I am free-born – the first since Sulpicia herself.'

  Belisarius, not much interested, merely nodded. 'Then tell me this, free-born. Are you guilty?'

  Macson looked him in the eyes, and evidently calculated. 'Yes. Yes, I am guilty. Theodoric is a fat, greedy fool who cut my pay. I stole food to keep my sick father alive. In your heart, do you believe that is a crime before God?'

  Belisarius stood up. 'I know very little about God. I have paid for the room for the rest of the day. You should rest. Keep your wound clean, bathe it in more wine, and try not to damage the skin further.' He turned to go.

  Macson, wincing as he moved his hand, struggled to his feet. 'Wait. Please.'

  'I have business.'

  'I know. Perhaps I can help you.'

  Belisarius, used to dealing with chancers, could see that Macson, groggy with pain and opium, was nevertheless thinking fast. 'You can buy my books at a better rate than Theodoric, can you?'

  'No, but I can take you to better customers.'

  'Who?'

  'The monks. Especially in the north and east. Some of those monasteries are remarkably rich, Belisarius, considering what an impoverished island this has always been. And as they try to stock their libraries the abbots will pay a good price for your books – that is, they will pay a good price to Theodoric, once he brings them the books he purchased from you, marking up a handsome profit in the process.'

  'And how would I reach these monks of the north?'

  'I will guide you,' Macson wheedled. 'The old roads are still good, in places. It is not so difficult, if you know the way.'

  'Britain is a hazardous country, of many nations-'

  'Four. The British, the Picts, the Irish, and the Germans.'

  'Even the German lands are full of squabbling minor kings; everybody knows that.'

  Macson shook his head. 'For decades much of the German country has been under the sway of Offa of Mercia. The other German kings recognise him as bretwalda, over-king. He has brought a certain brutish calm to the island.'

  'Offa's name is known on the continent.'

  'Then you see the wisdom.'

  Belisarius hesitated. What Macson said made a certain sense. Theodoric was a mere middleman, and an odious middleman at that. Would it do any harm to cut him out of the deal, just this once? Besides, he suspected there was something more than Macson was telling him – something Macson wanted out of this opportunity which had so fortuitously fallen into his lap. But what could it be?

  Belisarius was naturally inquisitive and adventurous; he would never have become a trader if he hadn't been. And now his curiosity was piqued. To see more of this strange island, cut off from the Roman world for four hundred years, might make a good chapter in his memoirs of travel.

  Macson, shrewd and watchful, saw something of this inner dialogue. 'Think of the tales you will be able to tell!'

  Belisarius made an impulsive decision. 'We will make this journey-'

  Macson tried to clench his fist in triumph, but winced as his burned claw refused to respond.

  'But,' Belisarius said heavily, 'not for three days.'

  'The law is the Germans', not mine!'

  'If you are healing, if God's grace is on you, we will travel on this exotic adventure of yours. If not – well, I will have lost nothing but a little time.'

  'You won't regret it.' Macson raised his hand. 'I am confident this will heal, thanks to Roman medicine, if not God's grace. One condition, though.'

  Belisarius, heading for the door, turned, amused. 'Are you serious?'

  'My father comes too.'

  VII

  Gudrid walked around the village, looking for the slave from Lindisfarena.

  Most of the houses, set back from the fjord's shallow beach, were places of work: smithies, byres, barns. Stockades for the animals straggled up the hillside, as high as the grass could grow. But the big hall, thirty paces long and solidly constructed of squared and polished wood, was the centre of the community. Around its long hearth the endless winter evenings were passed in drink and talk, in play with the children, and in craft – sharpening blades, repairing clothes. The villagers were also proud of a smal
l wooden building with stone-lined drains running under its walls. Here water was flung on burning logs to be turned to steam. Even in midwinter it got hot enough in there to make you sweat, and by day and night half-naked inhabitants crowded on its benches.

  Did the monks of Lindisfarena have a hall, or a sauna? What were the trees like on Lindisfarena, what was the local stone? She knew nothing of the island, or of Britain. She didn't even know what a monk was for. She burned with curiosity.

  The slave had been put to work feeding the pigs. He had pails of bad meat and rotting vegetables which he was stirring with a long ladle. On his face was an expression of bored disgust.

  His name, she had learned, was Rhodri. He was small, black-haired, round-shouldered. He was seventeen or eighteen, a few years younger than herself. His features were regular, his jaw strong, his ears a little over-large. He might have been good-looking, she mused, in a brooding British way, if not for a sullen downturn to his full mouth.

  Rhodri became aware of Gudrid looking at him. He stopped work, leaned on his long ladle and stared back at her. His gaze, if sullen, was frank, almost defiant – and he stared speculatively at her body. She was faintly shocked; no slave had ever dared look at her that way before.

  She snapped, 'You'll not get those pigs fed at that rate… Do you understand me?'

  'Yes,' he said, his voice heavily accented. 'You Germans have different tongues, but you all sound alike to me.'

  'We aren't German. We are Norse. Or Viking. After our word Vik, which means "inlet". We are the people of the fjords.'

  'Good for you.' He yawned. 'Anyway I picked up a bit of your tongue on the boat.'