Hoodsman: Ely Wakes

by Smith, Skye

  Thus the funeral of the angel-Valkyrie, turned into a festival market, where much goods and promises were exchanged and without the use of coins. Raynar kept to himself, still moody, still wishing he were alone with Anske, still barely controlling an inner rage. Still barely being civil to his best friends, John, Alan, and Hereward, or to anyone else who wished him well and tried to comfort him.

  Just in case, the friends all took turns watching out for him. They truly feared that he would throw himself into Anske's pyre. For hours he would just kneel in front of it singing and whistling softly to himself. John was watching him, while also flirting with a group of widows, when a young man ran across the meadow and attacked Raynar with a shepherds staff.

  Raynar, luckily, had seen something from the corner of his eye, and was still filled with the battle energy that gives fast reactions, so by ducking and rolling sideways he evaded the staff and tripped the lad. John, and other bowmen ran towards them and grabbed the lad and held him down ready to pummel him.

  "Hold," yelled Raynar, "don't hurt him. Sit him up." He went and sat in front of the lad, and looked into his filthy face and asked. "Why, why would you want to hurt me, on this day of all days, when I am in mourning for my dead wife?"

  "You are the man Raynar, yes? The one who left the four Norman corpses tied together with their mouths full of each other's cocks?"

  Raynar nodded. Other warriors within hearing moved closer. They had not yet heard this part of the story of the search for Anske.

  "My village in Kingscliff and is the closest to where you killed the Valkyrie's murderers. There are four manors with four Norman knights in our valley. They have declared it a Murdrum, and charged our village for the deaths. We don't have that much silver. They will steal our animals, raze our village, rape our women, and sell us all as slaves. This is all your doing."

  At this terrible news, Raynar stood and reached to the heavens and opened his mouth and screamed at the fates in absolute frustration. Everyone around stared at him in both curiosity of fear, for Anske's man was showing all the signs of losing his mind and becoming a berserker.

  John reached out to him, but he spun away out of his great reach. He pranced, yes pranced along the line of warriors while holding Anske's eel knife above his head. "This is the knife of our Valkyrie. Though it is a weak thing, a woman's knife, I will always carry it always to remind myself that it is the men's duty to protect the weak things from the wolves that roam our lands."

  The warriors were coming closer and listening. "In the valley of Willow Brook there are Norman knights who have threatened the village of Kingscliff and the women of that village, because I killed the Normans who turned our angel Anske into a Valkyrie. Before this day is finished, I am going to walk over to my horse, climb on it, and then ride to Kingscliff and kill those knights. Do any of you want to kill Normans? Will any of you come with me?"

  Hundreds of men stepped forward. Raynar did not expect such a reaction and stood still not knowing what to say or do next. He had hoped for perhaps a dozen brave men.

  John rescued the situation. Big, calm, always thinking John, with the booming voice. "We need twenty men only. They must have horses and longbows," he bellowed.

  There were angry shouts from all of the refugee axemen in the crowd. The men who had lost their villages and their families to the Norman harrowings, and now saw this as a chance for vengeance.

  John looked around him at the disappointment and frustration on the faces of the axemen, and bellowed again, "Twenty mounted bowmen for attacking the Normans, but we will need thirty good solid farm folk who know how to fight. They will be needed to secure the village, and to work the estates after the Norman masters are in shallow graves."

  Now there were cheers from the axemen, and began to argue with each other for the privilege of being one of the thirty. Meanwhile every bowman on the field strolled over to Raynar to find out what his plan was. The lad from Kingscliff now stood with Raynar. It had taken all of his resolve to come this far to find the pyre, and then to attack the man. Now he was smiling with relief.

  "First of all," Raynar announced, "Any of you who have important duties at Peterburgh or Huntingdon must stay out of this. That includes you lot," he pointed to John, Alan, Hereward, Klaes, and Gerke. "I suggest that twenty bowmen, with this lad as a guide, can attack the four manors one at a time. So long as no one gets away to carry a message to the next manor, then each of the attacks will be a surprise, and our losses should be light."

  The axemen had sorted themselves out and twenty or so of them were joining in with the bowmen around Raynar and John. John pulled a bench into the center of them so that Raynar could stand on it and see them all. Raynar knew most of the bowmen, but not the axemen. Did he trust them not to be as dangerous to the village as the Normans.

  "I have two things to say before we leave. The first is that you axemen will be working separately from the bowmen, doing different things at different times. To start with, you don't need horses, but the bowmen need to be mounted so that they can move quickly to surprise the Normans. This means that you axemen must talk together and elect your own leader and a second to command you. The lad, here, will be your guide to his village."

  Raynar still had Anske's small eel knife in his hand. He held it up again. "The second thing is that all of you must go and ask a woman on this field if you can be her champion. She must trade or give you her knife as a token of trust. This knife will signify that no woman or child will come to harm in your presence, and that you will take vicious vengeance against all rapists, be they Norman or Danish or English."

  This caused a lot of discussion amongst all the men present, some of it to elect a leader, and some of it about what the bowman's problem was with the odd bit of rape on the side. They chose a leader, a dispossessed Lindsey who probably won the nomination by virtue of his height, and the second most popular choice became the second.

  Inka walked over to the two new leaders, and pulled some silk May Day scarves from her purse and gave them to them to wear at their throat so they could be recognized as the leaders. Then she pulled out her own eel knife and made a great show of giving it to the tall Lindsey. She continued through the crowd of men until she reached Raynar's bench.

  "That knife thing was both wise and canny. You are showing some wisdom as you grow older. How can you trust a fox to guard a henhouse? By making it so that each fox won't allow any other fox to taste a chicken."

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  The Hoodsman - Ely Wakes by Skye Smith

  Chapter 6 - With Mary and Eustace in London in October 1101

  Mary was glad of the trip to London. Things were strained between her and her sister, though Edith had sworn to Raynar that Mary did not know that Eustace was a prospective groom. Mary was given leave to enjoy herself in whatever way pleased her while she was away from court, so long as she kept Raynar close at all times.

  She was also pleased with the escort of a Count of Boulogne and his men at arms. It gave her another intelligent man to talk with other than Raynar. She immediately set herself to learn Flemish from the count, which was not difficult for her as she already knew English, which was related. She was fluent in French from court, but even though she was a Scottish princess, she knew almost no Scottish as she had grown up in southern England.

  Early on in the journey, Raynar realized that he had to allow these two their privacy. At their first rest stop at a ford where the village women were selling crafts and food, he took them aside together. "Mary, this road can be dangerous and we may get separated, so would you approve of my asking for an oath from Eustace to guard you with his life." Mary was more than pleased with the attention and the oath, and Eustace agreed to it immediately, and thus Eustace was made one of her guardians.

  This was a great relief to Raynar because it meant that they could be left alone without chaperone, with little worry of the betrothal-by-rape that Duke Robert had so strongly suggested. Eustace took the
making of oaths so seriously, that he would even trust them to sleep in the same bed, if guarding her made that necessary.

  Accommodations on the way from Winchester to London were no longer a problem as there was a new and well appointed fortress at Guildford. It was often used by couriers and courtiers to break the journey. Accommodations in London, however, were a bother.

  While in London, Raynar normally stayed at his room at the Travelers Domus in Temple Lane, where there were rooms enough for all, around its lovely Mediterranean style courtyard. Unfortunately women were not allowed on the grounds, which meant that Mary could not stay there. Since he was oathed to protect her, they must stay together, which meant they could not stay at the Domus.

  Mary's bed at Westminster palace was in a room shared with other ladies in waiting, and was forbidden to men. The solution was provided by Eustace. Boulogne paid a wealthy merchant to be their ambassador in London, and this merchant kept a large household in London proper. They were warmly welcomed by the merchant. He was eager to please his employer, and had the added benefit that he could force his ever visiting in-laws to move to the inn around the corner.

  The merchant's house was in a far more vibrant part of London than either the Palace near Westminster Abbey or the Domus on a lane running between the ruins of Roman temples. The street in front of the house was lined with fine shops and led to one of London's main markets. The street scene was alive with strange folk and strange wares and strange food from all over the kingdom and other kingdoms as well.

  Mary had lived at Westminster for almost a year and had never been allowed the freedom that she now had. In truth, she had rarely ventured further than Westminster palace grounds. The merchants daughters were younger than her, but far more worldly, and they led her to all their favourite places, though never out of sight of one of Mary's guardians.

  Within a week of leaving Winchester, Mary was treating Eustace as much like a guardian as she did Raynar. Eustace, on the other hand, was smitten akin to worship. Raynar understood this well, as he was long smitten with both his daughters. It was their smiles. Smiles that left you with the feeling that you would do anything, anything at all, to win another smile. It was their softly voiced quick wit, that made any conversation a time of contentment that you wished would not end. It was their grace of movement, as if they were dancing through life to music that no one else could hear.

  Mary's voice even soothed the merchant back from the attack of apoplexy after he answered a knock at his door and found a senior treasury officer with a heavily armed patrol of palace guards. She simply held his face in her hands and kissed him on the forehead and smiled warmly as she told him, "Don't be a silly. It is just friend Gregos come to visit with Raynar."

  In truth, as soon as he found out that the house was an Embassy of sorts, Gregos spent most of his time talking with the Count and the merchant ambassador. Gregos had heard that some Flemish merchants were attempting to set up a trading bank between Flanders and Constantinople to encourage trade along the routes opened up by the Crusade.

  He needed the information not just because he was running Henry's treasury, but also because he was a Greek merchant from Al-Andalus, which had a long established banking syndicate between Cordoba and Constantinople. Risto, the young swordsman who shadowed Gregos, immediately left these old men to talk, and went to spend his time visiting with Mary and the merchant's daughters.

  Raynar had little to say in such a conversation about finances, but he listened intently. His time spent in Constantinople had been as an ignorant foreign mercenary, and yet he had acquired more learning in his time in that queen-of-all-cities, than most learned men of England ever acquired. He had polished his Greek, which meant that he could ask questions and use the libraries. Usually when together, Raynar, and Risto would speak Greek to guard their words from casual listeners. In the count's company, they spoke English.

  Just as Raynar's eyes were glazing over with discussions of the merits of various types of collateral, and the significance of forward markers as opposed to interest, someone mentioned codes. He came alert immediately. The basis of trade based banking was that there was no need to risk precious treasures like gold by moving them along the trade route. If the trade was balanced then a measure of gold deposited at one end of the trade route could be claimed at the other end, without the gold actually moving. Trade and transport thus became much safer because the lack of gold made raids by outlaws, and outlaw knights, much less profitable.

  Since the crusade had well shown the problems of moving armies and wealth to and from the Holy Land, every traveler was now seeking the surety of trade bankers. This was true of merchants, of holy men, of warriors and of kings. Even though the treasure stayed safe and did not move, the messages and markers that signified the deposits of treasure still had to move along the trade routes. Eliminating fraud in these markers required strong and secret codes that only the bankers could decipher.

  Raynar understood some of this already because he had helped Gregos set up Henry's system of tally sticks as a method of paying taxes in England. Tally sticks worked very well to replace the exchange of gold in the business of the crown, because the code was simplistic. When a stick marker was in use, it was split down its center and half was issued as a credit for gold. To eliminate fraud you had only to rejoin the two split halves and they should match identically. Coded markers were like tally sticks but between bankers in different kingdoms. It was not the banking, but the encoding techniques that interested Raynar.

  "You must realize," spoke Gregos, "that trade based banking was never lost from the Byzantine Empire as it was in Romanized Christendom. Byzantium stayed wealthy because it kept open its trade with the Chinas and the Indies. The codes were based on Semitic languages and the bank officials and clerks in all trade centers were Semites. Hebrew was used along the northern overland routes and was run by Romanized Jews, whereas Arabic was used along the southern sea routes and was run by the ship owners of the Caliphates."

  "If you wish to connect to these banking syndicates you must employ officials that are learned in one or both of these Semitic languages. In Al-Andalus, of course we use Arabic as most of the country speaks it. Here in the north, because of the Church's hatred of the Arabs, you must employ Hebrews."

  "But Rome hates the Hebrews as much as they hate the Mussulmen," objected the merchant.

  "Are you saying that Rome will refuse your coin when you ask for a dispensation?" asked Gregos and they all laughed at the thought of Rome's churchmen refusing coin.

  "I hear that Rome is in discussions with the city states of Lombardy about forming trade based banks," the Count pointed out. "They will refuse my banks in Boulogne the use of Hebrews to keep us from competing with them."

  "Even Rome must choose between the two tribes of Semites, else they will limit their own trade to the western kingdoms. What does your brother suggest?" asked Gregos. "I am not so naive as to thing that this idea did not come from King Baldwin of Jerusalem. He is surrounded by enemies that have their own banking syndicates. To keep his kingdom, he needs a banking syndicate of his own."

  The Count paused while he wondered how much he should tell to Henry's exchequer. It would be so much easier if he were married to Mary. Then the fortunes of Boulogne and England would be woven together more tightly and they could be partners in such ventures.

  "It is true. I have been asked by my brother Baldwin to set up a Flemish banking syndicate. I thought it was to make the movement of his recruits and supplies to his kingdom more secure. He often loses half during that perilous journey. You could be right, however, in thinking that he has larger plans of tapping into the eastern trade routes. So where do I find trustworthy Hebrews that are willing to move to the low counties?"

  Gregos pondered, but not for long. "Skilled men are available from Constantinople. The families there are worried for it's future and are sending their sons out to other kingdoms just in case. You are late to that market, however. The Norm
ans and Franks and Lombards have been poaching the best connected Hebrews from Constantinople since the start of the Crusade. That is ten years now.

  If I were you I would have your agents in the Mediterranean visit the Balearic Islands off the east coast of Al-Andalus. There is a free colony there with a magical mix of races and knowledge, including Hebrew. The Caliph has ceded them the islands so that he can profit from their ventures without allowing them into his kingdom."

  There was a long pause for thought, and they decide to continue the discussion another time after more thought. Risto walked into the suddenly quiet room with Mary on his arm and announced that he had promised to take the sweet thing to a local alehouse so that she could see one with her own eyes. The protests were immediate and loud, except from Raynar.

  He thought and then said, "Mary is mature enough to see how the more desperate men and women of the kingdom spend their few coins and long evenings. I have no objections, save that she must go dressed as a commoner, as a doxy even, and to go on the arm of a disguised Eustace and with a few of his men keeping close watch."

  Mary screamed with delight. The merchants daughters started begging their father for permission to go too, but from the look in his face, that would never be. Risto was disappointed that he would not have Mary to himself. The Count was at first skeptical, but he could not deny himself such an opportunity to expand his friendship with Mary.

  Once the sisters got over their disappointment of not being able to go with Mary, they set about dressing her for the part. Even with much too much lip paint and rouge, and with smudges of dirt, and wearing the smock of a serving wench, Mary still looked too angelic. She was impatient to be gone, as if she thought the alehouses would close before they got there, so she tugged at the Count to get him to hurry with his disguise. The tugging became a friendly wrestle that became tickling and got both of them into a spirit of rolling laughter, which infected the rest of the room.