The Aebeling

by O'Neill, Michael

  ‘You really think so?’

  With no choice, Conn chose the weakest target first – the younger girl, and in a fluid action of drawing both swords and launching himself in a roll towards the girl he was able to surprise them all – and her in particular. There was no one faster than Connor MacLeod. They called him ‘Lightning’ in boxing and MMA circles because you never saw the strike that took you down. At the moment of Conn’s attack the wiga parried the careless stroke of the katana but didn’t see the thrust of the wakizashi – under the mail and leather, and straight into her chest.

  Her partner was the talker and the leader – he had that feeling of importance and arrogance. He saw Conn’s attack and lashed out – Conn defended with the wakizashi; tearing in from the innards of the girl and into action. The girl dropped her sword and reached for her bowels. It was the suddenness of her falling to the floor that distracted her partner long enough for a leaping Conn and a slashing katana to almost sever his head from his body. The utter shock in his eyes stayed with Conn for some time; as well as the voice in his head that screamed its anger and rage as her ward died.

  With two on the floor dead or dying, the other two took a step backwards and hesitated. Conn retrieved his katana and stood and faced them. Interestingly, the voice in his head disappeared as the life flew from the man on the floor.

  ‘Well, that evens things up a little, doesn’t it?’ Conn offered, as he stood in the center of the room with the two circling him, his swords dangling by his side, and the tall pole that held up the roof at his back. It was his partner tonight.

  The assailants stayed silent as they circled. They had reach but they knew now that the stranger’s sword was more than capable of blocking their strike. They also knew that if they weren’t careful, they would be dead – Conn could see confusion in their eyes.

  Conn moved to keep his position. ‘I don’t suppose you two want to surrender?’

  They didn’t answer – but looked at each other for instructions.

  Conn continued. ‘Okay, so let’s finish this – I’d like to get some sleep tonight.’ Conn stepped towards the male and parried as he swung the long blade. The female attacked from the other side which Conn blocked and rolled; pushing the woman past him. They moved around the room; Conn eluding each attack with speed and grace; every now and then they would overstretch and connect the blade with a pole in the room; and every attempt creating a small amount of frustration. They expected that this would be over by now – but the blonde Feorrancund did not seem to have any intention of dying quickly. After several minutes of ducking and weaving Conn feigned weariness, and he could see confident growing in the face of the young man; Conn then tripped and half fell, and the male saw his chance; going for the killer slice – missing Conn by inches and colliding with the pole. The Katana, however, instead went right into his chest, through the mail, and the wakizashi sliced through the side wall of the stomach of the woman as she rushed in to protect her partner.

  The male looked in disbelief at the sword sticking out of his chest, and as Conn withdrew the blade, blood oozed from the wound as he collapsed backwards to the floor. Conn returned to the woman, still alive, as she struggled to stand and fight. Conn punched her on the jaw and she collapsed.

  ‘Sorry – you may as well die without pain.’

  Conn called over the owner and asked him to remove, strip and bury the bodies. He was about to head to a room when they called him back.

  ‘Thane – the female is still alive!’

  ‘Seriously? She shouldn’t be...’ He went and checked her wound and was very surprised to find that the blade had gutted her but had missed every major organ. There were no internal injuries at all. It was possible for her to live if he sewed her back up.

  He sighed. It was a lot of work. ‘Okay – take her up to my room – fetch me some hot water – and Innkeeper – I’m going to need a lot of candles.’

  They carried the unconscious women to a room and placed her on the floor. Conn stripped her of her armor and shirt, cleaned the wound and started sewing her back together with silk threads. It took over an hour to finish, and after bandaging her, they left her to sleep. She would live but she would be weak for a very long time.

  Exhausted, and back in the bar, Conn ordered ale. The owner handed him a tankard and a pile of money.

  ‘Your share of my winnings.’ he stated.

  ‘Winnings?’

  ‘Yeah – I got ten to one on them killing you. Obviously none of them know what I know.’

  ‘You unscrupulous bastard…’

  He smiled a broad smile as if Conn had complimented him. ‘I know!'

  It was almost two days before she woke; and Conn took food for her to eat – some of his own supplies of rice and soy. It was all easy to digest and highly nutritious. They propped her up onto the bed when Conn came in with the tray.

  Her black eyes flared – not hatred – she was a warrior and she had been defeated. She accepted that – it was just pure stubborn defiance.

  ‘I am not eating. I will die before I eat.’ She found speaking hard; her stomach muscles were severed and still extremely sore.

  ‘If you want – but that seems a silly choice. I’m not making you theow.’

  Surprised she responded. ‘What then – are you just going to execute me once I get better? That is perverted.’

  Conn laughed. ‘No – I won’t execute you – I’ll let you go home when you are able.’ Prior to saying it, Conn had not really decided what he was going to do with the girl, but that just popped into his head.

  ‘But how…’ She started to say but stopped herself to look at him intently. ‘You are a crazy Feorrancund. NO – I will not play your games. I will not eat.’

  What happened next surprised both of them. It surprised the girl because she didn’t expect it; it surprised Conn because that was the third time this had happened to him, and he still wasn’t used to it.

  A voice came into his head – and it was directed at the girl, and it was a completely new Gyden.

  ‘You must live. Eat.’

  The girl’s right hand reached for her necklace – Conn had previously noticed the dark colored gemstone hanging around her neck on a leather lace. It was now hanging between her rather large breasts – she wore only a light linen blouse and she held her hand over her chest. Conn could see that she was suddenly breathing heavily.

  ‘You are my child. I need you to live – your duty to me is not finished. You must eat.’

  The voice spoke again, and Conn could see tears form in her eyes. She fought the desire to cry – presumably with joy – extremely hard.

  Ignoring what he had heard, Conn asked the obvious. ‘Something the matter?’

  It took her some time to answer. ‘No, no, nothing.’ Finally she took her hand away, and after a deep sigh, she spoke again, softer. ‘So what kind of food do you have there? I do not recognize it.’

  It was another two days before Conn was able to get the woman – still extremely weak, but making an extremely rapid recovery – into the barge and heading for the coast. The Ancuman horses were in the livery and Conn had someone ride them to Sabatah for him. They were indeed all buckskin and they had a lot in common with his stallion; though a bit smaller. They were nonetheless fine animals. There were just four of them – all mares – and nice additions to his breeding project. Without the interference of the Gyden, the rest of the journey was uneventful.

  In Sabatah, Conn took the girl to an Inn next to the port that he had used before. The Innkeeper had an especially attractive bedda named Sherlinda, who always paid Conn a lot of attention when he stayed there. Sherlinda greeted them when they arrived and found suitable rooms for Conn facing the ocean. Conn posted a guard and headed for the keep.

  Sherlinda met him on his way out.

  ‘Thane, I was wondering if you can help me – I’m in terrible trouble.’

  Conn directed her to one of the surprisingly empty tables. ‘Of course – what
is the problem?’

  ‘My bedda died last month – murdered in a brawl. It was with the owners of the “Salty Eel” – and since then they have made sure that I have no customers. They know I have to sell – I can’t be an Innkeeper because I am female – but there will be no bidders because I have no customers. Then I will have to be theow – and my daughters as well. I don’t know what to do.’

  ‘When is the auction?’

  ‘In two days.’

  Conn stood. ‘Leave it with me. And don’t worry. You will never have to be theow.’

  Herewald was shocked when Conn told him about the Ancuman. Not so shocked about the situation in the Inn.

  ‘Assassins? In Lykia? And are trying to assassinate you? What am I – chopped liver?’

  ‘I wouldn’t take it personal if I was you, Eaorl. I’m lucky to be alive.’

  He sighed. ‘True. I guess there is that. Still – I’m going to increase border inspections. And you say you have one alive – a woman? And they are really Ancuman?

  ‘So it would seem.’

  ‘So how did they get so far up the river – I’ve had no reports of Ancuman wandering through the countryside.’

  ‘A good question – and another is how did they intend to get back. I want to find out so I need to borrow a boat – and some wiga. I don’t have the time to go to Atrak.’

  Hours later, Conn headed out to sea in one of the Eaorl’s Dhow type boats. It had been stripping it down to bare essentials so that it only had people and weaponry on board.

  Sabatah was a domain situated in a valley; to the west was Lykiak in the highlands, and to the north and south were mountain ranges that separated it from the Eaorldoms of Neh and Abela respectively. It made sense that the Ancuman craft would have made landfall north of the cotlif as it was relatively underpopulated; as the road south was used by the constant traffic between Atrak and Sabatah. If they had good intelligence – and there was obviously someone out and about, they would have been able to travel unnoticed if they travelled west via the foothills.

  It didn’t take them long sailing slowly north to find the Ancuman ship. Conn was able to search the coastline with his telescope without giving away the purpose of his voyage. It was tucked into a narrow inlet and beached. Broad, with a single mask and a flat bottom, the vessel looked just like a Cog.

  He directed the Dhow further north and they made land; the wiga disembarking on small skiffs to shore. At first light, the Dhow headed back to sea while the wiga marched south with Conn, and within several hours, they had the Ancuman camp surrounded. They waited for the Dhow to appear.

  The Ancuman sailors patrolled nervously around the ship; it was obvious that they did not expect to be here this long – and there appeared to be some disagreement between the men – the question would have to be about deserting their comrades who were very late.

  When the Dhow soon appeared close to shore and scooting past the camp site, the sailors reacted as he suspected; they raced to their boat to push it out to sea. As they were about the reach it, twenty arrows imbedded themselves into the timber on the side of the fifty foot vessel. They fled back into the trees.

  Conn called out. ‘Do you wish to die or do you want to live?’

  They were not wiga, so Conn hoped that surrender was not impossible.

  A jumble of voices and argument ended with a single voice. ‘That depends... will we be theow?’

  ‘No. No ransom – no conditions. I will in fact let you leave in a month. Oh, I guess you should know that the people you are waiting for are nearly all dead. They tried to kill me – but failed.’

  ‘You are the Feorrancund?’

  ‘Indeed I am.’

  ‘You say you will let us go?’

  ‘You have my word.’

  ‘Why should we believe you?’

  ‘Because you have no choice…’

  More discussion and disagreement before the voice spoke again. ‘Very well; we’ll surrender.’

  The Ancuman filed out with their hands up. Almost immediately, they were ordered to pack and load the boat, and push it out to sea. With Conn and the wiga on board, and with the Dhow in close guard, the boat was escorted into Sabatah. A very surprised Eaorl found that he had thirty Ancuman prisoners for a month; and was most annoyed that he wasn’t able to execute them.

  The Eaorl complained. ‘But execution is generally the punishment for assassination. These men and the girl were a part of a plot to murder you.’

  Conn agreed. ‘True – but if I wanted them dead, I could have done that myself. I’m going to send the girl home after she recovers.’

  ‘What on earth for?’

  ‘Research. I don’t know a lot about the Ancuman and I’d like to find out more.’

  Herewald laughed. ‘I don’t think she is going to come back and tell you what you want!’

  ‘Not deliberately, no.’

  From the keep, Conn took the long way back to the Inn and dropped in at the ‘Salty Eel”. Inside, Conn could see the owner’s attraction at getting his hands on Sherlinda’s “Blue Gull” tavern, as the “Salty Eel” was a dump in comparison. Most of the men he had seen loitering around the “Blue Gull” were in the inn having a drink when he arrived. Conn went to the bar and requested the company of the owner. The barkeep pointed to a table in the corner.

  Conn walked over and as he got closer a man stood in his way.

  ‘Are you serious?’ Conn asked – as the man folded his arms in defiance.

  Conn’s boot to his ankle, knee to his groin and hand to his collar bone saw the man crumple to the floor in seconds in agony. The second was luckier; he met Conn’s right hand on his jaw and he fell as well. The rest scattered.

  The owner of the tavern raised his hands in mock surrender. ‘Thane – my apologies – a misunderstanding – my apologies.’

  ‘Don’t apologise to me – you will need to apologise to these two – he will be eating with a spoon for months, and he won’t be going near his bedda for weeks.’ Conn stated, pointing to the two on the ground. ‘Anyway, I was just passing on a message – if I see any of your men stopping anyone going into the “Blue Gull” or ever hear about it happening, I’ll be back. If I come back, it will be you that has to eat with a spoon and whose gonads are so swollen he will be carrying them around in a bucket of water.’

  The image was enough to make the man’s face pale and he couldn’t help look at the two on the floor. He didn’t doubt the possibility.

  Conn continued. ‘Have I made myself perfectly clear?’

  The man nodded; his voice weak. ‘Yes, sir, perfectly clear.’

  Conn turned and walked out; the tavern keeper’s henchmen parted like the proverbial Red Sea and Conn walked back to the Inn to see how his captive was progressing.

  Having reassured Sherlinda that her first problem was solved, he went upstairs to see the patient. The guard knocked and opened the door. Conn walked in and she was sitting in a chair, looking out to sea.

  ‘I was wondering when you would get here. I suppose you are going to gloat about capturing our ship as well.’

  Conn laughed. ‘Some people are never happy – how do you think you were going to get home if I didn’t get your ship – all your men are alive. You can go when you are well enough.’

  ‘I’m well enough...’ She tried to stand but failed.

  Conn helped her back into bed, and he left her to rest. It would be some time before she went anywhere.

  With time on his hands Conn travelling around Sabatah, and then convinced the Eaorl to sell him another domain – this one was called Ebusos. Smaller, it was only five thousand acres and had its own coastline, but was useless as a harbor as the shore line was shallow rocky flats, and the farming land was marginal at best. Conn had alternative uses in mind; he wanted to build a tidal salt factory; where water flowed into canals and pits, water mills and wind mills would pump it up and on to evaporation ponds situated over the fully exposed granite rock flats. After evaporation, i
t would then packed and dried inside the large longhouses that he was going to construct nearby. Salt was an essential trade commodity and he would soon have a reliable supply – local demand was high as the Silekian fishermen needed it to salt their catch, which was then transported to Silekiak for sale. He though that an oyster farming, kelp farming, a terraced housing estate, and some orchards would fill up the rest of the land. Within five years Ebusos would be one of the richer domains in Sabatah.

  He even had some cheap labor and he put the Ancuman sailors to work digging canals while he waited for his craeftiga to arrive. Coincidently, Daray had an elder sister, Osdreda, who despite being the daughter of a Thane, had chosen to be bedda to a young merchant whose family was based in Sabatah. He appointed her bedda the Burhgerefa of Erebos. Conn liked to keep things in the family.

  As well as work in his new domain, Conn would also visit the prisoner daily. Her wound was healing; the evidence of the severity of her wound was demonstrated by the bright pink line across her side, and after the stitches were removed, she was starting to be able to move freely. She liked to tease him when he changed the dressing; instead of lifting her top, she would disrobe completely; her well-endowed body on full display. She was daring him to display behavior suitable of a vanquisher.

  ‘So if you going to force yourself upon me, I wouldn’t leave it too much later if I were you – my strength is returning. You will have to subdue me until I am unconscious... perhaps you like to abuse a sleeping body.’

  Conn refused to rise to her bait. ‘I’m not going to force myself on you, Elddis, I don’t have the desire.’ His every refusal seemed to annoy her; perhaps she wanted to hate him – but she had finally told him her name.

  ‘Is that because the Innkeeper visits your room – I can hear you mating with her every night like wild animals.’

  Sherlinda was very grateful that her problems had been solved – especially after Conn had bought the Inn himself at the auction but installed her as Innkeeper – and had the laws changed so that a woman could be Innkeeper. He was also spending a large amount of money making improvements, and she was showing her appreciation. She had offered her eldest daughter, but when Conn declined, she offered herself, which Conn was happy to accept. On top of which, Conn was arranging for the eldest daughter to be bedda to some of his other Innkeeper’s sons.