Gemini Thunder (7 page)

He gripped Desmond’s hand and they were gone.

Later Desmond raged around the Avebury compound, spitting out his wrath.

‘Why didn’t you turn him into a goat, destroy his mind, burn his curls, and unravel his fancy coat? How does he expect to fight those savages with ‘God’s words and unction’? Oh, how I hate people like that Godleman.’

‘What good would that have done?’

‘Made me feel better, that’s what. That stupid priest now actually believes he is protected against people like you and the invaders. Even I, a lowly purveyor of entertainment, know better than that.’

‘His mind is closed to learning anything from me, especially in front of his king. He’s been peddling them that stuff for far too long to turn back on it.’

‘Umm. Now, about the bears. Why didn’t you tell me before we got there?’

‘I only realized it when Alfred asked me the question. It suddenly came to me that when we were looking down on the twins,
odora ursa vis,
the strong scent of bear, was on the female’s clothes and the other, the male, had that of the sea eagle, which we knew. I was too busy at the time getting my mind around the fact that they were twins to make the connection with the animals that were in ligamen to them.’

‘Twin male and female venefici, eh?’

‘Yes, and identical.’

‘Does that mean
my
bears will be in ligamen to one of them?’ Desmond asked.

‘I don’t know,’ replied the astounder. ‘It certainly means that the other local bears are theirs to command. As for your bears, it is to be hoped that the bond with you is too strong to break, but only time will tell.’

They were both silent for a while.

‘I suppose you’ll have to put Nation, Combi, Billy, and Milly far away just in case they turn against us?’

‘Probably but let’s wait and see. There was another interesting development when we were over them that may affect it. You’ll remember the auras that distinguish venefici from ordinary mortals.’

‘How could I ever forget,’ replied Desmond sarcastically.

‘Neither of the Viking twins have a full one. It looks to me as if a single venefical aura was divided up between them when they were born, or even before.’

‘What does that mean?’

‘It means that in order to stand up to me directly, both of them need to be there. My power will be too much for any one of them alone.’

‘So,’ said the young troubadour reflectively, ‘separate them and they will be easier to deal with.’

‘Precisely,’ replied Twilight. ‘Or as the long magus would say, when the clouds obscure the Dog Star Sirius from the side of Orion,’ he pointed toward the sky, ‘they become invisible to each other.’

The first Vikings to make landfall were Ove Thorsten’s group. Unopposed, they swept ashore and began to move quickly inland, taking horses as they went. Those who did not get a horse kept running until they found one. Three thousand horses capable of bearing heavy, battle-ready Vikings was a tall order; many of them never actually found a mount and ran all the way. As per their orders they made straight to Winchester, for once leaving most of the villages they rushed through alone. Small parties of thane-led locals who opposed them were crushed brutally in the time-honoured way, but no time was taken up with the traditional pleasures of rape and pillage. Thorsten drove them remorselessly onward toward Winchester and the greater prize that was the whole of Wessex.

On the morning of the second day, the soldier-filled ramparts of Winchester castle and its outlying fortifications came into sight. With sentries posted, Thorsten settled his men down for a well-deserved night’s rest before the impending battle. The venefical twins transported themselves between Guthrum’s group and Thorten’s and reported that there was no discernable force in Salisbury, and Guthrum was changing his course to approach Winchester from the other side, catching the Wessex soldiers in a pincer movement. It would be a further day before Guthrum got there. Ove Thorsten was to wait where he was and not engage until Guthrum’s arrival.

In the meantime Olaf Tryggvason’s force was approaching landfall further down the coast at Lyme Bay. Their progress had become nonexistent. Twilight had turned the winds, tides, and currents against them, and their oars threshed the water just to stay in the same place.

After the Wessex astounder’s accomplishments at Lyme Regis with the first raiding party, the Viking twins had not transported that far for fear of running into him. Tryggvason had been left to his own devices as the twins concentrated on Guthrum and Thorsten’s groups. The twins knew, however, especially having sensed Twilight and Desmond’s presence over them at sea, that the time had come for some serious veneficus-to-venefici negotiation. They needed to find out just who and what they were up against before the real fighting began.

So they sent Twilight a mind message.

We, Go-ian and Go-uan, the venefical twins of the Viking, wish to meet with you at a place of mutual safety.

Twilight smiled to himself as the message came through and replied immediately.

The Tor at Glastonbury, daybreak.

The Viking
gemini
would know where that was since Glastonbury was one of their attack targets, and there was only one Tor there rising high above the town and surrounding countryside. More, it was the place Merlin had met Elelendise the wolf woman when she had thrown her thunderbolts and destroyed the hamlet below in a vain effort to impress the old alpha spellbinder.

Having sent the cryptic return message, Twilight left Desmond with the animals and went for a walk around the Avebury stones. When he got to the Obelisk stone, he pressed his cheek to it and explained his next plan of action. As he walked away, he thought he heard a faint, low chuckle emanating from the depths of the mighty sarsen.

As dawn broke over Glastonbury, Twilight took up his position on the Tor in readiness for the arrival of the twins. Suddenly they were there standing side by side, two shorthaired blonds dressed in battle armor with chain mail lining. Small of stature for Viking, the only thing that belied their age was the careworn, lined faces staring levelly at Twilight through very clear, pale blue eyes above their breastplates. Had he not been blessed with all-seeing abilities, the Wessex astounder would not have been able to distinguish the male from the female.

But then they had the same problem, for Twilight had also twinned himself, and an exact replica stood alongside him.

With surprise registering on their faces they spoke.

‘I am Go-uan,’ said the female with a short bow.

‘And I am Go-ian,’ said the male with the same bow.

They both giggled.

‘We speak as one,’ they said together, ‘think as one, and act as one. We are as one.’

‘And only have the power of one,’ replied both Twilights together, nodding a greeting.

Go-ian shrugged. ‘Since we are never apart it does not matter. However, I see that the twin you have made of yourself has full power as you do.’ He addressed his remark to both images. The Twilights smiled. ‘As would any other clones we make.’ ‘You also do not leave an aura trail,’ they said together. ‘And you do,’ replied both Twilights, ‘so we will always know

where you are.’

‘You have an advanced form of the enchantments. Who was your mentor?’ asked Go-uan. ‘His name was Merlin.’ ‘Ah yes. Even we have heard of this famous veneficus.’

They both giggled again. ‘And yours?’ asked one of the Twilights. ‘Our mother. She was called Freyja after the Norse goddess of love.’ They bowed their heads respectfully in her memory for a moment.

‘You didn’t bring much love with you,’ said the other Twilight quietly. ‘Especially in the matter of forty of my dead pica.’ Go-ian nodded. ‘That was my Boma taking out your warning system. He did not come back from the second trip so we assumed he met the same fate?’

‘I had another forty of my pica peck his brains out.’

‘There are other eagles,’ they said together dismissively. ‘And we have Go-uan’s bears. We have also noticed that Wessex is full of fierce bears. Such animals will be very useful in the coming battles alongside Guthrum’s warriors.’

‘How do you know they will join with you?’ asked both Twilights.

‘Because, if they are not in ligamen to a local veneficus they cannot refuse. As you know, it is the way of the enchantments.’

‘I wouldn’t be so sure of that.’

‘Oh, but we are,’ they chorused. ‘As we are in the Viking victories that will be ours in the days to come. Our noble Norsemen are already at the gates of Winchester where your King Alfred skulks in his rooms like a shadow. And we acknowledge your prowess in killing two hundred of our warriors at Lyme Regis in exchange for the two hundred dead villagers, but that, double person Twilight, special veneficus of Wessex, was before we came to play.’

Leaving behind a spate of giggles hanging in the empty air, they were gone.

Guthrum’s warriors arrived at Winchester after an overland rush from Salisbury and now had the town and castle surrounded. Preferring the counsel of Septimus Godleman, King Alfred had

not taken Twilight’s advice and kept all his soldiers in Winchester. Six thousand Viking now laid siege to ten thousand Celtic soldiers plus the inhabitants of the town. The Viking were licking their hairy lips at the prospect of the battle and spoils to come.

Convincing his king that Christianity offered a peaceful solution to the siege and he and his brand of unction was the one to deliver it, not to mention the universal acclaim that would come with it, Septimus Godleman appeared at the gates of Winchester castle early that morning with five of his priests in close attendance. Dressed in pale silk vestments heavily embroidered with yellow and blue trim and wearing tall hats, the small band of priests walked piously out toward the surrounding Viking with the white flag of parley held high and their hands together in an attitude of prayer.

King Alfred’s soldiers craned from every vantage point of the overhanging ramparts of the castle, including the king and de Gaini.

The priests were lucky. Viking don’t normally do parley, but Guthrum, who had just joined Ove Thorsten, decided to listen in the hope that he could learn something about his foe that would stand him in good stead in the coming battle. They might even be offering surrender terms, which would be a huge disappointment to his men, who were thirsting for the blood of revenge, but a saver of manpower for the other battles to come.

Moving toward the priests Guthrum motioned Ove Thorsten and his twin venefici, Go-uan and Go-ian, just back from their meeting on the Glastonbury Tor with Twilight, to join him with their animals. Go-ian had Ran, the sea eagle partner of the dead Boma, on his wrist, and Go-uan had the glossy brown coat of a huge female bear, which even on all fours almost reached her shoulders, locked to her side.

When the priests got to within three horse lengths of Guthrum’s party, the Viking king held his hand up to indicate that was close enough.

Shaking his silver curls, Septimus Godleman stepped forward with a big smile on his face and hands open in a gesture of welcome. The other five priests dropped to their knees and copied Godleman’s open hands of welcome.

‘My Viking brothers, I welcome you in the name of the House of Wessex and Alfred our king, and the Christian fellowship of the Almighty God who rules our lives.’

Go-uan translated rapidly in a low voice to Guthrum, who did not understand Latin, the tongue Godleman was using.

The priest continued.

‘We would like to introduce and share with you the delights of He who created from nothing our heaven and earth and the sea and all that is therein, and made the sun shine and lit the sky with stars and put beasts upon the earth and flying creatures in the skies and upon whose will made the fields fill with fruit and plants. I ask you now to adore that which you have burned and burn that which you have once adored and in doing so . . . ‘

With his eyes on Godleman and his ear bent to hear Go-uan’s translation, Guthrum had heard enough. He issued a short command to Ove Thorsten, who, in one fluid movement, reached behind his back, produced his short throwing axe, and hurled it. The spinning axe head arrived at Godleman’s shoulder just as it was arcing downward and, slashing through the pale silk embroidery, buried itself to the wooden handle in the priest’s shoulder.

Letting out a piercing scream, the tall hat flew from Septimus Godleman’s head as he collapsed to his knees, clutching at the axe handle protruding from his body.

Guthrum muttered something to Go-uan, who bent to the bear’s ear and spoke a short command. It took five ambling steps and arrived at the side of the screaming priest, who, still on his knees, was pumping great spurts of carmine-coloured blood from his wound with every sound. With the white, yellow, and blue silk vestment now completely saturated with Godleman’s blood, the sight of the bear seemed to shake the other five priests from their frozen terror, and they began to scramble to their feet. With a casualness belied by the act, the huge brown bear bit clean through Godleman’s neck in one powerful lunge, picked up the head in its teeth by the blood-soaked silver curls from where it fell to the ground, and ambled back to its master with the prize. As the twitching body of the headless priest slowly sank to the earth in a pool of its own blood, everything around it erupted.