Much Fall of Blood: Chapter Thirty Five

    The knights found Bortai’s cart easily enough. The bullock had pulled its stake and it took Kari a while to find it. He was a better-than-average tracker, Erik noted. He was as useful out here as he had been difficult in more civilized parts. The knights were glad that he had found it. So was Bortai, Erik noticed. It was probably all she had in the world besides a couple of ponies. Good horseflesh, but not on a par with that owned by the Ilkhan’s escort. That was to be expected, naturally. Erik did not have Svanhild’s eye for horse-flesh, or utter passion for it. But he did like horses, and felt that he could tell a great deal about a man and his culture, from his horse. The Illyrians were not great riding people and generally the quality of the mounts of the scouts that accompanied them had not been of the best. Not that they didn’t look after their horses, or were not proud of their steeds . . . but they came across as a people who fought on foot and fled on horses. The Ilkhan’s men used and loved their horses . . . but the Golden Horde came across to Erik as men who lived in the saddle, fought in the saddle, and would probably mount a horse in order to cross the street in a town.

    With three rather unexceptional ponies to her name, no wonder a cart and a bullock had seemed so important to the girl. Well, his own family were not rich — the lands at Bakkaflói had always been more beautiful and wild than really productive, although they grew good sheep and tough Icelandic ponies, and the sea saw that no-one ever starved, but there were only little patches that were arable for rye and oats — so he knew what it was to be careful. And she smiled about it. She had an infectious smile, as well as a happy laugh — frequently, it seemed, when he was there. Erik was glad for her, although it gave him a pang of guilt. He’d never really thought he would enjoy listening to any woman’s laughter again, after Svanhild. Svan had been quite a serious girl, most of the time. Except — he blushed, remembering — when he tickled her.

    Finding the cart intact — and the bullock too, was a relief to Bortai. It meant that she could implement the second phase of her plan. With Kildai safely hidden in the cart, there was a chance that she could fool — or at least insert doubts into the minds of some of the Raven clan, that the boy who looked like Kildai, was in fact him, and up and about. There was of course one problem. He looked like Kildai. He ran like Kildai. But he did not ride like him.

    She had to come up with an answer for that. But finding the cart, bullock and the things they had had to abandon was something to smile about to the tall blonde Knight. Her betrothed. She had to laugh a little. If that story got among the clan! And it was rather appealing and amusing the way he looked puzzled when she laughed at him. She felt slightly guilty. He had blushed so today. She chuckled to herself, a gurgle of welcome laughter. It had been rather pleasant to play such games after the life and death survival on the run for the last while.

    She looked up from the cart to discover that he had just ridden up. And she was laughing again. He probably thought she was laughing at him. Well, at least he did not appear to be offended. She smiled and greeted him in his own manner. Perhaps his mother really was a tortoise.

    He frowned, looking most comically puzzled. “I thought that was the wrong greeting.”

    Some demon from the lands of Erleg Khan made her reply, demurely looking down. “It is. But a man might greet his betrothed so. ”

    He put his hands to his face. Shook his head. “I am sorry. That horse boy! He told me it was the right way to greet people politely. I wanted to learn your tongue. He taught me much rubbish.” He blushed yet again. “I am glad Benito didn’t know it was that sort of greeting. He would have killed me, let alone David.”

    “What?”

    So in broken Mongol, assisted by Tulkun who had just ridden up, he told the story of how he had got the Darughachi to thus greet the tarkhan. By the time he had got to the part where his friend the Darughachi had the boy in jail she had to wave her hand at him — the one that wasn’t clutching her pommel — to stop. She couldn’t breathe and was in danger of falling out of the saddle. The plump Ilkhan warrior was in no better case.

    Erik hadn’t seen quite how funny it could be before. But he had to admit, telling the story himself, in his broken Mongolian, that it was more than just a little ridiculous. He found himself hard put not to laugh too at their delight in the story. It would appear that the Mongols shared the same sense of humor as the Plains Tribes in Vinland. The Plains Tribes could be serious and earnest people. But they were also hugely fond of practical jokes, preferably very embarrassing and fairly direct ones. It was not a terribly subtle humor perhaps, but it was enjoyed enormously. Erik had liked the Plains Tribes. He found he liked the Mongols too, so far. Well. He had not bound to the tarkhan Borshar. But perhaps he was more likely to get on with the rustic ordinary Mongol, than someone who was plainly more at home in the great cities of the Ilkhan empire, places like Jerusalem, Dishmaq and even the fortress-city of Alamut. Borshar seemed to spend a great deal of time in a trance-like state, paying little attention to the rest of them.

    Erik rode back up the column to Manfred. “You seem to be getting along very well with your Mongol girlfriend,” said Manfred.

    Erik knew better than to rise to Manfred’s obvious bait. “I was explaining how come I used the wrong greeting. Fortunately, they seemed to find it quite funny. And there’s no need for you to mock me about it.”

    “I wouldn’t have dreamed of it,” said Manfred with a totally unsuitable saintlike expression on his face. “I was just wondering if I should be learning the language. Or if she has any sisters.”

    “Learning the language is always good idea. Philandering in a strange culture probably isn’t,” said Erik.

    “You never know,” said Manfred. “There must be a culture out there somewhere that thinks it’s a good idea. I mean, I’ve never met any other girls who think that your face is something to laugh over. They normally go all starry eyed and moon over you.” Eric cuffed him. “Ouch. You are supposed to be protecting me. Not inflicting me with injuries.”

    “I am protecting you. Your comments will get you killed elsewhere. I’m trying to teach you not to make them. Just you wait for rapier practice. Too much of you is covered by armor.”

    “Not another word, I swear,” said Manfred, his grin belying the solemn words. “It is age, I am sure. Your face didn’t used to be funny, now it is. We’re all just used to it. Or afraid of you. That’s why we don’t laugh.”

    Erik threw up his hands in disgust. “Just you wait. You and that horse boy, David. I will choose my time and place.”

    Manfred laughed. “That hell-born brat. He’s even more trouble than Benito was. Falkenberg and Von Gherens have both told me that he was born to be hung. At least Benito had the common sense to shut up and learn. This one keeps his mouth shut only when he’s eating. And he’s not even too good at that. Kari has had a rough time just teaching him to chew with his mouth closed.”

    Erik nodded. “Mind you, I’ve had less trouble from Kari since he’s had to run after the boy.”

    “So now, instead of one source of trouble, you have two. I am not sure if you have gained ground, Erik. But no doubt this is some obscure Icelandic battle strategy.”

    “I think I’ll ride up and check on the van,” said Erik, shaking his head.

    Manfred watched him ride forward. He smiled quietly to himself. There had been a time, after Svanhild’s death, that he had seriously feared for Erik’s sanity and survival. He would never tell Erik: but he hoped that this Mongol girl seduced him, stole his heart, or at the very least make him laugh a lot. It had done Manfred’s own heart good to see Erik smiling again. He would have to find excuses to send the Icelander to keep the lass company. Preferably on a cold, lonely night. Erik was no philanderer, but perhaps the girl could make up for it. In Manfred’s experience, all but a few of them were willing to do just that, given the right opportunities. Erik was several years his senior, but in this, Manfred felt very much like an older brother. It would do the boy the world of good. And besides, she really was quite a looker. Maybe she did have a sister.

    David was beginning to wonder whether dying of heat was any better than being murdered. The knights in their armor were complaining. And he, in this hooded cloak, felt as if he was going to melt entirely. Worst of all, it appeared that both Kari and Erik had noticed. “What are you wearing that thing for?” asked Kari. “It’s hot enough to make a bear shed its pelt. Are you hiding something under there?”

    “I’m just not smart enough to be seen among these noble Mongols,” said David.

    “These are nobles?”

    David nodded. “Yes. Of course. They are Mongols. Like the knights, they are nobles. Well, not just commoners like me.”

    “In Vinland a man’s as good as he can prove himself to be,” said Kari. “I’ve never understood how just being born makes you something special. Maybe all nobles have tough births . . . but you never showed any worry with the knights. If these Mongols are what you call nobles, the knights should have troubled you just as much, eh?”

    “They’re foreigners. It’s different,” said David.

    “Well, I’m not buying you some smarter clothes because you won’t be seen dead in what you have. They’ll just have to put up with you as you are. Or you can cook in that thing.”

    That was all too close to the truth. The part about being seen dead, and the part about cooking.

    A little later, Erik had come past, doing his usual checks on the column and scouts. He had his visor raised within the column. He raised his eyebrows looking at David.

    David had to admit that he’d at least tried to avoid being noticed quite so much by Erik, since the practical joke. He’d also tried to avoid any more temptation in this direction, especially after he’d been caught out. But the Frank’s face did make it hard to resist. And he did feel that there was still some payback justified, even if Erik and Kari had saved his life from those barbarians on that island.

    “Are you sickening for something, brat?” asked Erik. “It’s as hot as a warm day in hell, or even a cool day in summer in Jerusalem.”

    David decided to play it for sympathy. “I am not feeling too well.”

    “I’d better get Falkenberg to look at you, then,” said Erik. “He’s as near to a Knight Hospitaler as we have with us. Mind you, I could ask one of the Mongols. Maybe they have a healer.”

    “Er . . . no. I’m really not feeling that sick. Perhaps I could just ride back to that village in Illyrian territory and wait until you all came back.”

    Erik snorted. “I don’t think you’d survive, boy. The world out there is more complicated than Jerusalem. Maybe I can get you a ride in the Mongol lady’s ox cart. You could hardly ride it worse than you do that horse. I’ll go and ask her.”

    He rode off, and came back a short while later. He was smiling. That was enough to worry David. He had seldom seen Erik smile, and never for no apparent reason. “Come along, brat. The lady says she’ll do you up as a pretty little Mongol boy. No one will ever accept that something as lowly as a mere horse-boy will be smart enough to ride in a Mongol lady’s cart. I’ve been talking to Kari. So if you’re sick, or not smart enough? Either way we’ll fix you.”

    David groaned. But he had learned by now that there was not much use in trying to resist Erik. Besides, he could lie down in the cart, couldn’t he? No one would see him there.

    Of course, when he got to the cart he discovered that the noble Mongol lady had her own ideas about what to do with him. It appeared that these included cutting his hair and dressing him up in her brothers deel. “I’m sure that they would hardly recognize you like that,” she said, with a twinkle in her eye that he entirely distrusted. From the lofty height of his 15 or possibly 16 years he knew that women were usually not to be trusted, especially when they looked at you like that. And after they had asked you if your mother was a tortoise, definitely not.

    On the other hand, it did appear that she was going to let him drive the cart. That was more pleasant than riding as far as he was concerned. And he did rather enjoy wearing the fine clothes. He noticed several of the Golden Horde riders were plainly very impressed. He sat tall, forgot about the various ills of his life and played off the attitude and manners of nobly born Ilkhan Mongol. He doubted that they were that different to the ways of the Golden Horde.

    Bortai had to laugh again. The tengeri were surely playing some complicated game with her life, and for that matter, with Kildai’s. The foreign knight, Erik, must by now think that she spent her entire life laughing, principally at him. But he had told a good story, even in his broken Mongolian. Storytellers and singers were much liked and respected, the great ones as much as Shamans and Orkhans. He seemed genuinely concerned about the serf who looked so like her brother. Well, he did say the boy was much trouble. So was Kildai, except when the seriousness of being a leader of the Hawk clan was impressed upon him, which, sadly, usually lasted only a few heartbeats.

    She was of course pleased to ‘help’. She hoped she didn’t look too utterly delighted by his request.

    A little later Tulkun rode by again. He grinned at her. She beckoned him closer. Using every ounce of protocol at her disposal she addressed him very flatteringly. He grinned wider. “And what is it that the noble lady requires? When my wife is that polite to me, I know that she wants something.”

    “The wisdom of the noble warrior from the bear clan stands as high as the eternal blue sky,” she said, with her best smile. The one she saved, normally, for asking just how much a warrior would dare to wager on a wrestling match.

    He chuckled roundly. “Oh, this is a large one. What is it that you desire, noble lady?”

    “Just that if any of the people of the Raven clan of the Golden Horde should ask, my brother Kildai, as well as having been concussed, has broken his leg. It is not too serious,” she said demurely. “You saw how they strapped it up and splinted it, did you not? It will make riding very painful until it heals.”

    He laughed again. “I suspect that this is a very clever trick. But I do not see that it will do me, or my master the tarkhan, any harm.”

    “No. And it will earn you the gratitude of the Hawk clan.”

    He nodded. “If any of them should ask me, I’ll tell them that. You do not want them to think he can ride?”

    “Something like that,” she said, favoring him with a smile again.

    She was pleased to see, a little later, after some quick barber work, and changing the boy into Kildai’s beautifully embroidered deel, and even letting him wear Kildai’s sword, that her judgment had been dead right. So long as they did not really get a close look at him or see him riding . . . The sword too, he was plainly unfamiliar with. Ion was able to leave off driving the cart, and she let the boy take over with it.

    This David seemed to be enjoying, which was something Kildai would never have allowed anyone to see, even if he did. And by the looks on the faces of the Raven Clan escort, Tulkun had done his part too. It would make nearly as good a story as the tortoise greeting, if they got away with it. And there was some delight in playing such a trick on this serf from Ilkhan lands. No matter what his birth, he had shown himself to be a practical joker. A trickster. It was a dangerous way to establish your status, but it was both popular and effective. Of course any such trick always called for a reply. She smiled to herself; she was, in a way, repaying Erik for his generosity, and this David for his practical joke. Besides the look on the faces of the Raven clan made it all very worthwhile.

    A little later the blond knight came riding up again. He was, she noted, ever vigilant. An Orkhan who did not believe in merely delegating his responsibilities. She could understand why the tarkhan Borshar had hired such a mercenary, if he was going to hire such things at all. She’d seen quite a number of battle commanders, and this was one of the most methodical she had ever come across.

    He looked at David. Blinked. Looked again. Then he motioned for her to ride next to him. They rode ahead a little. “He looks very like your brother. Clever. I should have seen.”

    And she should have realized that someone as vigilant as this would not miss the similarity. Or be taken in by the deception. She could only hope that the Raven clan was led by less observant warriors. “They look quite like each other,” she admitted. “If they see him sitting up, they will not realize that he cannot ride away.”

    He looked at her keenly. “There is more, yes?”

    He was entirely too astute. She nodded. “There is conflict between this clan and ours. Believing that my brother is recovered will worry them. That is good.”

    “I have a lot to learn about your people,” he said. “Good luck with this.”

    His eyes, never still, scanned the countryside. “It is a fine, rich land this,” he said.

    “Ours to the north is better,” she said proudly. “What is your land like?”

    “Mostly rocks,” he said with a smile. “And very much colder. But when I have finished my . . . ” he searched for words and ended up with, “serving.” Which was plainly not quite what he wanted to say. “I am going back to Vinland. There is much good rich land there. I went there before,” he searched for the word again, and had to settle for ’serving’ again.

    Bortai had to smile at his description of his family’s lands. Not many of the Mongol would admit to their lands being ‘mostly rocks’, although in some cases it was true. It also explained what he was doing here. He was probably a second son. At least it would seem he had no plans to carve out a holding on Golden Horde lands, or, not yet. “So where is this Vinland?”

    “A long, long way to the west,” he said. “Across a huge . . . water, that takes us weeks and weeks to cross. My home is . . . part of the way. On a land in the water.”

    “An island. In the sea,” she explained, resisting an urge to ask him if his people tended fish on seahorses.

    He repeated her words, carefully. “And you would call them?” He supplied the words. And asked for a few others. It was amusing. But he never stopped looking out for trouble.

    And when it came he reacted with speed and ferocity.

    They had fallen back slightly and were now level with David and the cart. He suddenly dived sideways, snatching the boy off the bench of the covered cart.

    An arrow ripped through the covering of the cart. Had he still been sitting there, David would have taken it in the chest. Erik had somehow spotted it in the process of removing David from its path he had also knocked her sideways, almost off her horse. She could not be certain that that was his purpose, but they were the only unarmored people there.

    The responses from the Frankish knights were equally rapid, and plainly very practiced. Well, the movement of the knights was practiced and coordinated. What nearly frightened half of the Raven clan off their horses was the dark-skinned man and his hand cannons. He had fired four of them in to the copse, which the arrow had almost certainly come from, even before the steel-clad knights had got to a full gallop. Some hurtled towards the trees, the others closed in around them, as they pushed the whole column, including the poor ox and cart, into a run.

    Bortai had pulled herself back into the saddle, and, plainly on orders from Erik, found herself between three steel clad knights. The man with the hand cannons had leapt from his horse and onto the cart, a feat fitting of a Mongol warrior. The Raven clan obviously did not know quite what to make of all of this. It was apparent that although they were supposedly escorting the knights, the knights themselves were looking after the situation. A few hundred yards later someone — possibly Erik — called a halt. Looking back, Bortai could see why. The small column of knights that had detached itself, now accompanied by a couple of Arban of Raven clan warriors were returning. With a dead body.

    Erik, still with the serf boy David across his saddle bow, rode up. He dropped the boy, who sat down abruptly panting and wild eyed at their feet. Eric was not laughing now. “I did not bring him to you to be killed.”

    “They are without honor,” hissed Bortai, white with anger. She had expected treachery, but later, in the dark, when they could do it with poison or a thin-bladed dagger. She had never expected anything quite this blatant. True, had the boy been killed, and the knights and the man with the hand cannon been less rapid to react, the bowman would have got away. No doubt the Raven clan would have sent several Arban ‘in pursuit’. They might even have brought someone back. Almost certainly, a dead someone. Possibly even the bowman. They would have been handsome and fulsome apologies. Blood money paid — they were under the escort of the Raven clan. It would have been a matter of considerable embarrassment. She would not even have been surprised if they did escort her home after that. She was not that important in their scheme of things. Killing Kildai plainly was.

    “I nearly got killed,” said her brother’s look-alike, still stunned.

    The man with the hand cannons had pulled the cart up next to them. He said something. The boys staggered to his feet. Bortai noticed that the man who had taken control of the cart was patting him on the shoulder with a sort of rough kindness. She felt terribly guilty. They did not look alike, but what if it was his younger brother? “I’m sorry,” she said humbly. “I did not expect this.”

    “You warned me, Lady,” the serf David said, gratefully.

    That actually made her feel worse. It was conduct without honor. And without honor the Hawk clan was nothing.

    The knights who had sortied, together with two of the Golden Horde Mongols, Tulkun and a second man, and two Arban of the Raven clan came riding up. Bortai noticed that Erik’s huge companion had made his way there too.

    Bortai let her fury explode within her. A little later, when she calmed down, she was not entirely sure quite what she had said to the commander of the Arban. It had included quite a lot of terminology that a wellborn Mongol lady should not admit that she knew. The leader of the Arban was bright red, and the serf boy David was laughing so much that it looked like he would fall over. Tulkun and his companion were looking at her with a mixture of shock and amusement.

    The commander of the Arban stuttered out the start to a reply.

    Bortai, now that she had vented some of her spleen, demolished him in a few well chosen words about the honor of his clan. And told him to go. Now. To remove himself from her sight, and to do the sort of job of patrolling that honor really demanded. She knew just as well as he did that the archer was from his own clan. She also knew that the humiliation would prevent them from trying in that manner again. It did not stop her from being badly embarrassed too, later.

    “By Christ’s blood!” said Manfred admiringly. “I don’t understand a word of it, but I have heard drill proctors with thirty years experience give a gentler chewing out. She’s quite some spitfire, that girl. Take my advice: stick to the meek and mild ones. They’re not as much fun in bed but at least you get to keep your head on your shoulders.”

    “She certainly was as shocked and angry as any one can be. She . . . has quite a rough tongue. I thought at first that she’d set David up as a decoy — a false target. I was fairly angry with her. He’s just a fool of a boy.”

    Manfred shook his head and looked at the leader of the Golden Horde’s little patrol slinking away like a whipped cur. “Are you sure she’s just some ordinary woman, Erik? She was behaving like an empress back there.”

    Erik blushed dully. “No empress would tell a man to do that. No empress would even know the words. I didn’t even know half of them, but what I did understand . . . well, I think perhaps she is woman who cleans fish. They are . . . um inclined to speak like that.”

    “Still think you’d better take some steps. Fishwife or no, someone just tried to kill that boy. My suspicion has to fall on our escort.”

    Erik nodded. “Kari got lucky with a shot there. Normally those pistols of his are not particularly accurate, especially at that sort of range. Mind you, if they’d shot from close up they’d have killed him. I only had a few heartbeats of warning. I think he’ll have to go inside the cart, and we’ll have to put a full escort on it. I think, because I am trying to conserve our force, I will bring them inside your cordon.”

    “Makes sense to me,” said Manfred. “If the targets are hidden inside that cart they can’t tell just where they’re dropping their arrows.”