Finally, I decided to move my feet, mostly to see if I could. I lifted my face out of the sand just enough to see who else was with me. Svein didn't move an inch and just continued to stare at the low white cliff at the beach edge. He still wore his red tunic, but his shoes were each ripping and the man was absolutely covered in sand. I frantically checked my back for my sword, Agatha, and relaxed back, face first, into the sand when I found her. Getting sand all through my beard and moustache, I asked, "What do you think? Should we hunt here or keep moving?"
Svein spoke without looking at me, "I think your hunting party is dead and you have no rights to game on this side of the world."
"Right." I rolled over, sat up and secured and dusted my wet shin guards only to discover that both of my knives were gone. I checked myself for injuries and stood slowly. "I guess this side of the world spews Norman." Exhaustion and dehydration tried to knock me over, but I had felt worse many times before.
Svein rose slowly while maintaining his gaze on the cliff. "These people have spewed Norman since they started sucking milk from their mother's tit." I followed his gaze and realized that there was a boy standing on the cliff.
"Can you still understand it?"
Svein nodded. "I won't speak it. It requires your mouth to shape like a baby wanting his mother tit." He pursed his lips wide, made sucking noises and then launched a spitball into the waves.
"You look naked without your axes and knives. Have you any left?"
"I am naked."
"We should have secured our weapons better."
"Didn't expect the ship to go down."
"How long has the boy been there?" I asked.
Svein turned to me, tilted his head like a dog and shrugged. "Since his mother squatted and dropped him on that very spot." He looked back to the boy and asked pleasantly, "How many stupid questions are you going to ask this time? Would you like to know the date of his birth?"
Svein had been making me feel stupid at any every opportunity since we were small boys and he always tilted his head like that whenever I asked a stupid question.
I punched Svein on the shoulder just as I always had whenever the brute called me stupid. I thought of a better question, "Is he a threat?"
"I awoke over there with the sun and he was watching from there. If he were my son, I'd be proud. Boys are often more dangerous than a grown man and I would wager that boy has been trained for battle." Svein squatted slowly.
My head spun a bit and my lips were dry, so I squatted too. The boy mirrored my movements exactly. "So now what?" I removed my sanded and heavy neck ring and tried to dust away the sand from my neck.
Svein stood. The boy didn't move. "He has figured out that you are the power and I guard you, so bluffing that boy is not an option. A man of our age left on a horse not long ago and will return soon with others."
I rose slowly and the boy rose slowly. "The ship is not on this beach, but they may have found it elsewhere. Our animals and friends are not here, either? What do you suggest were do?"
Svein said evenly, "The plan is to tell the truth and hope that God sees fit to save us."
I rolled my eyes. "Or, we tell the truth and hope Thor greets us with honey mead in Valhalla when we are slaughtered for being raiding pirates. This is certainly France or Normandy and they see pirates whenever a ship lands on their shores." I put my torc back on my sandy neck.
Svein looked away from the boy and stared directly at me. "It was your smashing the face of a man of God that provoked God to smash us on these shores without weapons to defend ourselves."
"I have Agatha." I released the strap and pulled my sword.
"Agatha is a toothpick. A real warrior needs an ax to split faces." We both noticed the sound of horses. "Riders are here."
I returned Agatha and said, "There be great power in silence."
Svein struggled to remember each word correctly, "A man is what he thinks he is, what others think he is and what he really is, so there is power in silence."
"You remember the cave."
"I remember your Druid initiation better than you do. One sip of wine should not do that to a boy." Svein shook his head.
I casually rested my hand on Svein's shoulder, " What you remember and what I saw are two very different things. Besides, no boy should have to handle the knives and dye that mark Druid lessons into your skin forever without a very powerful wine." Three horse riders with many more walking men entered the beach. "It seems we are about to find out who others think we are."
We stated in unison, "There be great power in silence," and we both spit on the same spot in the sand between us.
Svein and I allowed ourselves to be forced to the ground by the men on foot that reached us first. The well-dressed men on the horses followed the foot soldiers at a casual pace.
The largest foot soldier forced our heads down into the sand and said loudly in Norman to the horse riders, "These two are gifts from God. Count Ponthieu is always in a better mood when he has pirates to torture." I immediately knew where I was. The smell of old fish permeated the air so thickly that I could taste rotten fish. The fish smelling soldier pulled Agatha from her scabbard and walked away with her.
I watched the boy run as fast as he could from the cliffs and straight to where I lay in the sand. He pointed at me and announced, "This is the leader. He is an Arab pirate."
The fish soldier laughed. "Stupid boy."
The boy implored, "He is the leader." He noticed my Druid markings through my tunic. "And those markings are symbols of magic. He is no Christian."
The fish soldier cut my sandy tunic down the back and forced it off my arms. He stabbed each marking with his short sword as he counted eight of them and they were all markings that were symbols he had never seen. The fish soldier cut the sandy tunic off of Svein in the same manner. "This is the leader. Our savior's cross has been burned onto his whole back. No Christian would be led around by a pagan heathen."
The boy began to pace like a chained fox.
A small man sitting on a very decorated horse forced his way to the prisoners without dismounting. He pointed at Svein and announced that Count Guy of Ponthieu would hold him for ransom and that the heathen would be thrown into the Count's new dungeons, adding that God surely sent us both as a gift.
The boy leaned into my face in the sand and said slowly, "Your blood will drip from many wounds until you scream for Jesus to be your savior." He pulled a small dagger from his boot and cut across the Ladder of Finn marked on my back shoulder. I endured the pain because the smell of the fish soldier reminded me that Finn was the Druid Master that had tasted the Silver Salmon of Knowledge and the mark was a reminder for the student to remain above the surface world and truly see. What I saw was a lonely boy that was surviving and I could not fault him for that.
Svein and I were tied and walked down the cold beach, through a break in the cliffs and over the grass covered hills. Despite the cold air, it wasn't long before the bright sun had the two of us steaming with sweat.
I turned to a soldier that walked to the side of us that was covered almost head to foot in black soot and said in Norman. "My servant and I need water."
"Keep walking pirate." He punched me hard across the chin.
I spit some blood and continued in Norman. "How about some mead?" The soldier ignored me. I spoke loudly in English so Svein could hear me. "How long since we had some mead? Night before last? I need some mead." The black soldier shoved a flask of wine at me. Speaking in Norman again, I said, "What is this? Wine works." I drank some as best as I could and I did my best to hand Svein the flask without falling. "What kind of game do you hunt here?" I asked the black soldier in Norman.
"Shut up, Arab."
"Do I look Arab?" I was silent for only a moment. "How many Arab pirates has your Count tortured?"
The black soldier answered causally, "You are the first that I know of, but your kind has been attacking since my grandfather began working iron in this area and the Count tortures all."
I shrugged my shoulders, "Can't blame him."
Svein turned back to me and said in English, "So much for silence."
I ignored him and walked more closely to the horses. I shouted in Norman up to a dark man with a flowing dark green silk tunic. "Do I look like a pirate?"
The man looked down at me. He began to speak but stopped.
I continued asking questions. "Your nine men were going to take on my whole crew of pirates?" I walked closer to another horse.
The man on the horse said, "We have scouts. Your crew is dead. We were in need of no assistance."
Stupid men always answer questions eventually. "Still. You must be fierce fighters."
"We train," said the rider in the green cape.
Laughing, I said, "I can never get my men to train together. You must be very persuasive." I kicked the bottom of Svein's foot as he took a step.
The fish soldier snickered loudly, "We don't train together."
Svein stumbled and slammed his shoulder into my side shoving me almost hard enough to hit the leg of the fancy horse rider, so I had to launch myself the rest of the way. Svein yelled at me in English, "Don't kick my foot again."
The rider yelled back in English, "Keep moving." He moved his horse to Svein and kicked him in the back.
Svein fell to ground and didn't move.
"Svein?" I fell to my friend. I looked up at the rider and cried desperately in Norman, "What did you do?"
The men on horses dismounted and the foot soldiers gathered around just as my Housecarls quietly emerged from bushes and from the edges of small hills. They started the attack when Svein rolled over allowing me to pull Agatha from the side of a horse and cut Svein's ropes. Just as Svein cut my ropes I yelled not to kill any of the local men. It was too late. Suleyman gutted the fish soldier and Tofi smashed the black soldier in the head with a rock. The rest of the villagers were tied so that they could walk to their homes and the horses were released. We all ran over the grassy rolling hills to a beach just north of the beach Svein and I woke up on.
Out of breath, I demanded a report.
Thurkil moved forward. His tunic was ripped at the shoulder and his hair was matted with sand. He spoke clearly, "As far as we can tell, we are those alive." Thurkil turned to each. "And one other. Ringolf has gone to Duke William. He left just as soon as we saw your capture. Our hounds have not found us and may be dead. Your hawk is there." He pointed at the wreckage on the water's edge. My hawk stood on the tall curl of the ship.
I stared at the hawk in silence.
"Three crew are also gone."
"So, no hunting today?" I asked with a deep sigh.
Thurkil smiled, "If you want to hunt, then we hunt. We could arrange a hunting party as you have never experienced with far less than this."
"And what do we hunt for?" I asked.
Thurkil laughed, "Norman women, of course."
"And what weapons would we hunt with?" Tofi asked. He had lost his tunic but didn't even seem to notice the cold.
Scalpi walked around pulling on his crotch, "with my best weapon, what else?"
"Norman women think that all Arabs are pirates, Suleyman," I said. "They would run screaming from you."
Suleyman's dark hair seemed to repel sand as did the rest of him. His tunic and pants were clean and unharmed. "Harold must not know women then," said Suleyman loudly.
Every one of the men laughed at the idea that I didn't know women.
Sulleyman continued loudly, "All women, English, Norman or Persian, drink of a pirate's seed just after sending their husbands to search elsewhere for those same pirates. Women bed bad men and wed idiots. How many of you are wed?" He winked at me. "Harold will be twice wed."
Then, Scalpi dove over a small sand mound and came up with the cliff boy. The boy easily escaped Scalpi's grasp and ran to the ship wreckage.
Svein reached the ship first and pulled the boy from the waters behind the tall prow. The others stop in amazement. Svein looked as if he were a giant trying to keep a small rat from escaping his large grasp. In a matter of seconds, Svein was in the sand with the boy's limbs trapped by each of Svein's limbs. The boy's arms were trapped between Svein's elbows and his rib cage. The boy's legs were under Svein's thighs with his little feet trapped to the outsides of Svein's knees. The boy's torso was exposed on top of Svein's and it was the only part of the boy that could move. "Be still boy," said Svein.
"Never!" The boy squirmed even more.
Svein grunted a laugh as the men and I gathered around. He continued warning the boy, "I have ten sons and four girls and I controlled you faster than I could trap even my youngest daughter. Be still or you will suffer a fate worse than you need to."
The boy squirmed even harder as he growled, "let me go."
Geoffrey had seen this many times and knew the things Svein liked to do to make his children suffer. "Svein. He is only a boy. Don't be cruel."
"I am no mere boy."
Svein smiled an evil childish grin at Geoffrey. "You asked for it." Svein folded his large body in half with the boy's body disappearing except for the hands and feet. While Svein folded himself, he managed to get the boy's head tucked into his armpit. The boy's chin moved slightly with his muffled tortuous complaints. Svein unfolded himself, returning the boy to his pinned position. "Are you going to quit?"
The boy breathed in deep and loud. "You are rank." Every one laughed and the boy remained still.
I leaned over the boy to the boy's face and paused before I asked, "Who are you?"
The boy clasped his lips tight. I stood back up. Svein waited a moment and then began to fold in half again.
The boy screamed, "Taillefer." Svein laid flat again. "My name is Taillefer."
I kneeled down into the sand, "who is your father, Taillefer?"
"Jesus Christ is my father."
I rubbed the mark on my back that the boy had cut and thought a moment. "Is this your community or did you come from somewhere else?
"
Taillefer turned slowly to me. "You can not hold me like this forever. This man will have to pee sometime."
I stood up. "Let him go, Svein."
Svein did not move. "I can hold him."
I turned and walked away.
Svein folded over the boy again saying into his ear, "I can hold my piss a long time boy. How long can you hold your breath?"
Taillefer started laughing rather than screaming. Svein unfolded slightly to look at the boy. He started to laugh himself and unfolded some more.
"Do it again," said Taillefer as if it was the most fun he had ever had.
Svein angrily released the boy and Taillefer ran like a rat to the grass fields and beyond. "Foul creature," said Svein as he lay on his back in the sun. He reached his hands up to the blue skies and pleaded, "dear Lord, why must my master be so damned nice?"
My men and I walked to the edge of the sand leaving Svein on the beach alone. I shouted back to Svein, "Get up!"
Svein shouted back at me as he got up and dusted the sand away, "I could have held him."
The men, the shipmaster and what was left of his crew gathered around me. I loudly asked, "Svein, what is a man?"
Geoffrey, Thurkil and Svein said in unison, "A man is what he thinks he is, what others think he is and what he really is."
"We know enough about that boy." I sat on the grass with my elbows on my knees. "Who does he think he is?"
Svein arrived and stood directly opposite of me with his hands clasped be hind his back and reported, "He thinks he is the child Jesus Christ himself and a servant of God." Then he mumbled loudly, "evil little bastard."
"Exactly," I said. "He thinks he is a servant of God and we think he is an evil little bastard, so I just need to know what the people around here think he is to know all I need to know about Taillefer."
Geoffrey and Tofi took positions behind and to the sides of Svein.
Geoffrey suggested that the boy was either raised by a Druid or was taught by a Druid and has recently been separated from that guardian. "He uses Christianity as his silence. The Christian answers were always empty. Christianity gives the young one power, protection and silence. That is a Druid trick."
Thurkil sat to the right of me and Scalpi sat to the left of me. Gauti and Suleyman remained standing and completed our war circle.
Scalpi asked, "Do we know who is master here?"
I responded royally, "The great Count Ponthieu. And he likes to torture pirates." I suddenly became serious. "We have history. Not good history. He will know me when he sees me."
Old Gauti stated plainly, "I like to torture pirates."
Suleyman remained still in the sand and spoke softly, "Now we know all we need to about our enemy. He is kin to Gauti in thoughts and pleasures."
"We are all dead men then," Tofi declared proudly as he smacked Gauti on the back. "All should shake with fear if Gauti comes for you."
Gauti's large chest puffed up. "No one here would withstand my knives. You would scream like girls and beg for your death."
They all laughed and agreed, but fell silent when Gauti instinctively tried to pull one of his many knives only to be reminded that he was weaponless. The silence was thick.
I spoke first. "Does anyone know of an English Army we could reach in an hour's time?" Silence.
"We will have to face Ponthieu," said Svein.
"We must avoid Ponthieu," I said.
"Let's go south and tell the same story we told the King," said Scalpi. "We were drunk and going hunting when a storm smashed us on this shore instead."
"Would you believe that the second most powerful man in England was drunk and accidentally washed up on your shore?" asked Gauti.
"Do you think that they will cut off my nose?" Scalpi asked me. "Was it the Normans that cut off your father's nose?"
"No."
"Royal diplomats," said Tofi.
Thurkil threw the seashell he had been rubbing at Tofi. "Royal diplomats did not cut off Godwin's nose."
"No," Tofi said. "We are royal diplomats and messengers. No one of importance here."
Cuthwulf added, "it is a secrete mission, so we made it look like a hunting party."
"Keep the lie simple, just diplomats," said Svein.
Gauti pointed to top of the ship wreckage, "Besides, I don't think that hawk will leave Harold. Only a man of importance and wealth would have her following him."
My hawk would only fly to her master and anyone would see that she was a prized bird worth more than even an earl could afford. "I have spent more time with that hawk than with any woman and now she may get me killed."
Suleyman smiled. "Sounds like a woman to me. Spend too much time with any woman and they will get you killed." He nodded at me. "She is going to show who is master in this party just as Taillefer is surely doing now. We will not be able to hide that fact."
"We will keep it simple and believable," I said. "We are a diplomatic party that got caught in the unexpected storm. I bring a message for Duke William from King Edward and we will insist that whoever we meet aid us."
"This means everyone smiles," Thurkil ordered. "No matter what happens, we will not fight our way out of this one. We are here to deliver a message. Not to make trouble- Scalpi."
Svein got up from the sand. "We already made trouble."
"Two dead," said Gauti as he tried to get sand off of his chin and out of his long beard.
I stood and said, "let's hope there are other fishermen and blacksmiths in this town."