by Chris Page
Baby Giant and his four men didn’t have time to react or pull up, and disappeared into the inferno where the shattered bridge had stood.
In disbelief Jack Cat and his men hauled desperately on their reins. It was too late to stop the galloping herd as they, too, disappeared right over the edge to the falling oblivion below, taking some of the mounted mercenaries with them.
With the deep gorge at their back and no other way out, the mercenaries turned to face the berserker horde rapidly bearing down on them.
As Jack Cat said, it was only death, nothing they hadn’t faced before.
Chapter 10
For two weeks Freyja had been experimenting. She knew that defeating the Wessex veneficus would be difficult, if not impossible, unless she could match his ability to disguise his aura. He had a distinct and winning advantage in that he, and the animals in ligamen to him, could always locate and follow her every invisible move due to her telltale aura trail, whilst she had no idea of his whereabouts because his aura trail was invisible. She was also getting fed up with the antics of Guthrum and his chieftains, who had seemingly abandoned the fight for the winter against Alfred in favour of releasing young Celtic maidens from the pens and chasing them around the castle.
The old Viking astounder called upon every little bit of her ninety years’ experience in shape- and phenomena-shifting to solve the problem. If Merlin, Twilight’s old mentor and teacher, could solve it, so could she. In a quiet corner of the Combe Castle estate she re-ordered the physics of shape-shifting as she knew it and remodelled the scenery in her attempts to solve the problem. As a result of their ligamen attachment, her wild boar carried a smaller version of her own aura. Starting with short distances, she would send them off and see if she could change the phenomena as they moved through space between two points sufficient to hide their trail. Once she got to grips with the concept of replacing the aura trail with the clear air that was there before, it was then a matter of rearranging the space disrupted by the telltale aura to revert back to its original clarity. After losing dozens of wild boar who disappeared into the ether, never to be seen again, Freyja thought she had solved the problem.
Only a full confrontation with the hated Wessex veneficus would prove it, and it wasn’t long in coming.
Twilight watched Jack Cat and his men raid Combe Castle from high in the clouds. Going right into the heart of the Viking forces, albeit at night when they were slumbering drunk, spoke a great deal about the mercenaries’ courage and organization. What the Wessex astounder wasn’t prepared for was the thunderbolt from the sky that blew the bridge apart. He’d been constantly monitoring the surroundings and skies for Freyja’s aura and couldn’t detect it anywhere. Fully expecting her to make an appearance when the alarm was sounded as Jack Cat’s men made off, he’d been ready to counter whatever she did in order to help the renegades get away.
When the bridge went up, he immediately traced the thunderbolt trail back up to its release point in the sky. There was no aura around its original firing point, and yet in order to release the deadly missile she had to have been there. It was then he realized that the old harridan had also solved the telltale aura trail, and Twilight’s advantage had just been countered. The fight had just evened out. Somewhere up here she was hovering, as he was, preparing for more explosive chaos as the situation unfolded below, with two thousand Viking rapidly converging upon Jack Cat’s one hundred and fifty men. With their backs to a deep gorge that dropped into a fast-flowing river, the mercenaries had drawn their weapons and were preparing to die fighting.
Twilight made his decision.
‘Take the second bridge that appears behind you,’ he said loudly in Jack Cat’s ear.
With a look of utter surprise on his face, Jack looked over his shoulder as a bridge suddenly appeared where the last one had been. He howled at his men and pointed. As they spun around, this bridge exploded and another one appeared alongside it. With the Viking howling like mad dogs almost within spear-throwing range, Jack’s men spurred their mounts toward the second bridge as the skies opened up in a series of bright orange explosions. Knowing that Freyja couldn’t resist the temptation of letting off another salvo of thunderbolts at the first apparition of a bridge, Twilight put it there as a tempter. Sure enough, the old hag destroyed it with another salvo, and he instantly returned a couple of thunderbolts at her firing position. Twilight knew she would fire and move, so to keep her busy dodging around, he peppered the sky with lines of exploding thunderbolts. Meantime, Jack Cat’s men had all galloped over the bridge, and the leading Viking were also charging across the river on it. Twilight instantly withdrew the apparition of the bridge, and the berserkers disappeared into the gorge.
There was a cackle in Twilight’s ear.
Now you know the truth of it, foul rune-slayer. I am invisible as well. Non sum qualis eram. I am not what I once was. We will meet again soon and next time I will have your head. My earthshine is better than yours and, added to the Viking dedication to the death of our enemies, is a force beyond compare.
With a scabrous scream the old Jezebel’s voice was gone.
Confused and relieved, Jack Cat’s men pushed their horses to the limit until they had put a great deal of ground between themselves and Combe Castle. As the early dawn glimmered on the horizon, they finally made camp in a small forest. Slumping to the ground in exhaustion, they looked blankly at each other.
‘Where,’ said Patch, ‘did that bridge come from?’
‘Which one?’ Bullwhip scratched his chin, his cheeks running in blood where the branches had whipped across his face as they raced through the undergrowth.
‘The last one that we escaped over.’
‘It was a miracle. I’ve never seen anything like it.’ Arrow unslung a quiver of shafts from his back and dropped them to the ground, followed by his longbow.
‘I thought our time had come.’
‘Like poor old Baby Giant. The big fella never stood a chance. What was that, a lightning strike?’
‘Dunno. I thought lightning wasn’t supposed to strike the same place twice.’ Bullwhip stretched his legs. ‘You saw that second bridge first and gave the command. What d’you think, Jack?’
Jack gazed into the small fire that Patch had just lit with his flint box. He hadn’t said anything so far.
‘You’re not going to believe this,’ he said finally, ‘but I heard a loud voice.’ He pointed to his right ear. ‘Told me clearly to take the second bridge that appears behind me. That’s when I shouted to you lot to turn around.’
He shook his head in disbelief as he remembered the moment.
‘It was like a message from some sort of god or something. Then that other bridge disappeared, and the one we used to escape, the second one, appeared as if by magic.’
Sitting in a tree listening to their conversation, Twilight smiled to himself. He wouldn’t reveal himself and his role in their escape just yet, but this group of brave but rabid misfits could have an important role to play in Alfred’s resurgence. Edward de Gaini had been talking about training up a small force of good fighting soldiers as a special raiding force. A group to get in and out quickly, inflicting maximum damage on the static Viking forces. Well, training wouldn’t be required because this band of untrustworthy brothers already had all the attributes and a competent leader as well.
Two days later Jack Cat and his weary group arrived at Tintagel. Unbeknown to them, their exploits at Combe Castle were already common knowledge, and they were received well by none other than the king himself.
‘What we were trying to do,’ said Jack Cat later when sitting with Alfred, de Gaini, the baron, and Twilight, ‘was steal about four hundred horses and bring them here for sale. I figured that you could use some horseflesh as well as men. It wasn’t to be and I lost fifty of my own men. In the end we were lucky to get out of there alive.’
‘I don’t t
hink luck had much to do with it,’ said Alfred.
‘Oh?’
The king nodded toward Twilight.
‘This young man saved you. He is the Wessex veneficus and has remarkable powers. Making and destroying bridges instantly being among them.’
Jack Cat turned to the Wessex astounder and nodded.
‘Then me and my men are indebted to you,’ he said quietly.
‘What we would like you to do, Jack,’ said de Gaini, ‘is take a couple of days to rest and then return with your men to the Combe Castle area. We will make up your numbers by adding fifty of our own men with one of my most trusted and brave commanders. His name is Samuel Southee and he has faced the Viking twice in battle and will not be found wanting. That should give you enough for two groups of one hundred men each if you decide to split them. The Viking appear to have settled for the winter in Combe, and we would like to keep them on their toes, harass them with quick, incisive raids, disrupt their supply lines, release their horses, set fire to their food stores, and take lives wherever you can. That should keep them busy throughout the winter whilst we build up our manpower for a spring onslaught. Twilight here tells us that you and your band are good at that sort of thing.’
Jack scratched his head.
‘The pay would have to be better than that offered by your emissary. It’s dangerous work. As you know we exist by selling our services to the highest bidder. If we don’t get what we want, we’ll go elsewhere or take what we need.’
‘We are under no illusions about the terms of your fealty, Jack,’ said Alfred. ‘I will double the pay for each of you to four gold pieces per month if you take this on. You can also have any Viking booty you recover.’
‘And if we get into trouble? Does this young man with the remarkable skills help us again?’
King Alfred looked at Twilight with his eyebrows raised.
‘Yes,’ said the shape-shifter. ‘But don’t forget that they have my equivalent as well, and she is just as remarkable.’
‘She?’
‘Freyja is ninety years old and still a powerful veneficus. It was she who exploded the first bridge as you were heading for it.’
Jack Cat shook his head in amazement. It took some believing that a ninety-year-old woman was responsible for killing Baby Giant and around fifty of his men.
‘We’ll require the first month’s gold up front,’ said Jack finally.
‘So be it,’ said Alfred, motioning to the far corner of the room for Hywel and Classen to bring one of the saddlebags.
As Alfred counted out the gold pieces, Jack Cat fought every demon in his nature to keep from looking greedily at the huge cache of gold pieces in the saddlebag. He’d never seen so much gold, and by the looks of it there were more heavy saddlebags over in the corner. With a supreme effort of will he kept his face still as Alfred counted out the gold pieces into his huge hands. Finally Hywel closed the saddlebag and returned to the corner with Classen.
‘We’ll leave in two days,’ Jack said, standing and pocketing the
gold. When Jack had left, de Gaini chuckled. ‘We’ll have to watch ‘em. Jack nearly burst a blood vessel trying not to look at the gold.’
Twilight smiled. ‘I think it’s time to have a duplicate set of saddlebags with coins in them that are not, shall we say, the real thing.’ King Alfred again motioned for Hywel and Classen to join them.
Twilight left Desmond on Avalon for a little while longer than the ‘three weeks and nine days’ due to Gode and Edward de Gaini going through the hand-fasting ceremony of marriage. He didn’t think the young troubadour would want to see their betrothal ceremony at which Bede, the leader and now senior monk at Tintagel Castle, officiated. Although Desmond had only been on Avalon for six weeks, the company of Guinevere, Rawnie, Twilight’s brothers and sisters and two children seemed to have brought him back to his old self again. Being among the severely maimed lepers didn’t seem to bother him either, and he had been quite happy to work alongside them with Guinevere. One night he even put on his spectaculum for everyone on Avalon, which was enthusiastically received. Although the animals were a little rusty, especially Combi and Nation, the severely diseased inhabitants of the leprosoria had a wonderful evening and according to Guinevere hadn’t stopped talking about it since.
Twilight told Desmond about the ceremony between Gode and de Gaini when the two of them were walking around Avalon one evening, and he took it well.
‘I expected it,’ said Desmond. ‘It doesn’t matter anymore. I think I’m over her. As you rightly said, being in the company of Guinevere for these weeks has been a wonderful experience. I also feel a part of your family with Rawnie, Eleanor, and Harlo. Guinevere told me many stories of the long magus and Arthur and the battles and even some of your struggles with the enchantments when you first joined Merlin. Also about the fight against Elelendise, the wolf woman. That must have been an abrupt introduction to the venefical world for you, eh?’
‘No different than you being plunged headfirst into a war with the Viking,’ said the young wizard.
Still in thrall to Guinevere and everything on Avalon, Desmond carried on.
‘I was even allowed a few precious hours in the scriptorium. It was everything you said it was, although most of it went right over my head.’
‘The long magus described that wonderful collection of literature as the only thing he really owned. He left it to me, but it will always be his. I am merely the current custodian of its contents. Our turn to read in there will come when this cursed Viking has been routed. I did manage a few precious hours in there some time ago reading about the Macedonians. They also had a great battle leader called Alexander, who won many of his battles against the odds. The interesting bit is about Alexander’s mother, Olympias. She was quite a character and one I believe warrants more study.’
‘Why?’
‘She practiced a peculiar and mysterious religion involving the handling of snakes. Naturally this made everyone afraid of her because she was always surrounded by these reptiles, most of whom were poisonous. One bite meant a near instant death.’
‘Why didn’t they bite her?’
‘That’s the interesting bit. As yet I have no way of verifying this but suspect that she was an early example of a veneficus, and the snakes were in ligamen to her. When we get the opportunity to read other works in the scriptorium, we will find many other similar examples where spectacular relationships existed between humans and fierce, wild animals that could also have owed much to the principle of venefical ligamen. Great beasts of the world such as lions, tigers, elephants . . .’
‘Fire-breathing dragons,’ interrupted Desmond.
Twilight looked at him.
‘There is no such thing as a fire-breathing dragon,’ he said evenly.
‘What! Of course there is. What about the one Saint George slew? Stories abound about the evil dragons stealing maidens and their fire-breathing deeds.’
Twilight smiled.
‘Fireside legends,’ he said. ‘Believe me, there is no such thing.’
‘Pity,’ said Desmond glumly after a while. ‘I was looking forward to seeing you slay one.’
The miracle monger ruffled his companion’s long, blond hair.
‘Never mind, there will, no doubt, be other monsters to engage us. Talking of which I must bring you up to date with the latest happenings in our battle with the Viking.’
Twilight told him about the raid by Jack Cat’s renegades on Combe Castle and Freyja having now solved the aura trail problem.
Desmond whistled.
‘That’s going to make it harder.’
‘King Alfred has, on my advice, sent Ike Penbarrow back to the Levels with Jack Cat’s mercenaries just in case they need a bolt-hole. Freyja still doesn’t know the existence of Swifty’s Island, and having it available might be useful. She knows we are he
re at Tintagel and shouldn’t bother Ike on the Levels.’
‘Did Ifor go with him?’
‘No. We all felt that he was too young this time. Even Ike agreed. One of Ike’s older boys called Idris, who’d got immersed in that devil stuff with his mother, has gone.’
‘Bet that upset Ifor.’
‘It did but we put him to work showing some of the monks how to catch fish. To make up Jack Cat’s numbers, de Gaini added fifty Celtic soldiers under Samuel Southee’s command.’
‘Any news?’
‘I’ve been keeping a careful eye on them. Some small raids have taken place, nothing serious. So far Freyja hasn’t seemed too interested.’
‘That means she’s up to something,’ said Desmond.
‘It does and I think I know what it is. Guthrum has been shipping over more Viking from the lowlands, both fighters and women and children. He obviously feels that Combe Castle gives him a stable base as the first of his colonies. Freyja will be shepherding the long boats over with the new arrivals.’
‘So that’s why Guthrum’s not following Alfred to Kernow. He’s building up his army and setting up proper colonies. You always said that our winter was nothing to them and wouldn’t stop them fighting.’
‘It also gives Alfred a chance to recover. If Guthrum attacked Tintagel now, we would be in trouble.’
They were both silent for a while.
‘Everyone,’ said Desmond eventually, ‘is gearing up for a mighty big battle.’
‘It will begin next spring,’ replied Twilight. ‘Then the Wessex earth will tremble with conflict, and we will be right at the heart of it.’
They walked on for a while until Twilight stopped.
‘Did Guinevere tell you how she nursed King Arthur here for many days in an attempt to save his life after he was badly wounded at the battle of Camlaan?’
‘She did.’
‘That is his final resting place. His casket lies deep in that cave.’