Lady of the Lake (9 page)

Horrifically simple, Tala realized. She felt her heart sink like stone in water. What a fool she was. He must think her stupid beyond measure, demanding gold from him at every turn.

“The law holds jarls accountable, Tala. Here at Warwick I have five hundred Vikings under my command. Were Guthrum to go to war, I must provide him five hundred soldiers for war. For every man I do not provide, I owe my brother the king a wergild. That, my lady, is the king’s decree.”

“That changes everything,” Tala said, shaken.

“Not if what you are seeking is peace. Come the new moon I will convene an eyre. You may accuse my agent, Embla Silver Throat, and she may have the right to answer all charges brought against her. Bring your witnesses and any you care to have speak on behalf of the people of Leam. The kings’ treaty will be followed to the letter of the law.”

“What is an eyre?” Tala asked suspiciously.

“A court of judgment authorized by the kings.”

“And who is the judge of this court?”

“I am, and my decision is final.”

Tala didn’t like the sound of that.

“Know you this,” Edon added in voice that grew harder than it had been only moments before. “Embla Silver Throat has charges of her own to lay against you. She claims the Treaty of Wedmore was broken first by Leamurian attacks upon the settlement of Warwick. She also accuses your druid, Tegwin, of murdering my nephew, Harald Jorgensson. Should you hold Harald Jorgensson captive at your temple in Arden Wood, it will not go easy on you. I will hold you accountable as a priestess of that temple.”

He’d touched her vanity. Tala reacted by lifting her chin and glaring at him. “We keep no captives in our holy groves. There is no honor in that, Viking. A Celt does not shy from death by the sword any more than a Viking does. We are warriors all.”

Edon regarded her proud stance in silence. She was braver and more honest than most of her people. They had common ground there, for to die a warrior’s death in battle brought much honor. He nodded gravely.

“Aye, in that we are alike. But you, Tala ap Griffin, cannot draw swords against me. We are not, nor ever will be, equals on the field of battle.”

“I know that, Viking,” she answered without hesitating.

“Then know you this. Do you want a place in this world for your atheling, you will come with me to Warwick and make terms with me. I have told you once that your days of skulking in the forest playing fast and loose with the waters of this shire are at an end. I mean what I say.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“Nay, I make no threats. I do not have to threaten to enforce my will. You have much to account for to two kings and me, beginning with the water that does not flow in that river yon.”

Tala arrogantly turned in her saddle and gazed upon the dusty Leam. She looked up at the cloudless sky, then
laughed at the jarl of Warwick. “You think a mere woman can control the clouds in the sky, Viking? Where is the rain that fills the rivers?”

Edon eased Titan to Tala’s side and reached forward to take a firm hold upon her mount’s bridle. “There is ample sun remaining for us to explore yon dry river to its source, Princess. Ride with me awhile.”

Tala yanked on Ariel’s bridle, but didn’t dislodge Edon’s grip on it. “Haven’t you a rune master warning you not to tamper with the gods’ will?”

“Nay, lady. I have an oracle whose predictions are ruled by the movement of wine in a gold mazer. He makes as much sense as any rune master. What have you? A druid water witch?”

“You have it wrong, Viking. I am the one empowered to witch water. That is the sacred duty of a princess of Leam, our singular duty—bringing water forth from the dry earth.”

Edon noted the zeal burning in her amber eyes. She was not frightened of him, even as he aggressively took control of her mare. He laughed darkly, telling her, “I don’t believe in water witches, Tala. Any man or woman with good common sense can find water under the ground. One doesn’t need to be born a princess of Leam to master that skill.”

“I do not mock the gods.” Tala grimaced as he spurred his horse, forcing Ariel to trot at his side down the steep embankment.

“Do you pray to trees and lakes then?” Edon asked. His curiosity about her beliefs increased threefold. Did she truly believe she had the power to find water? Could she find a new source of pure water under Warwick? Or show him where to dig new wells that would flow clean and sweet? Was Embla right in accusing Tala of fouling the springs deliberately?

“Who doesn’t pray to their gods?”

Edon considered her question as he ducked under the tangle of fallen beech trees that spanned the banks of the dry river. Surprisingly, she was not fighting his control of her horse, which told him much. First, that her men were nearby. Second, that the riverbed would not lead him to the lake.

When they’d cleared the brambles, he released the mare’s bridle. The princess pressed her heels into her animal’s sides and rode beside him.

“Well?” she demanded. “Do you pray to Odin all powerful? Have you made sacrifices to Freya and Thor?”

“Aye,” Edon admitted candidly. “So I have done. But I have also traveled the world far and wide and learned that the gods are not invested in trees and streams.”

“You mock me, Viking. I am not ignorant or unlettered. Nor do I live only in the forest. I have a great castle in Chester and a temple here that makes your Viking home look like a hovel. There is nothing that isn’t beautiful and perfect within Arden’s temple walls. We Celts have lived here in peace and prosperity for centuries. We outlasted the Romans and we will outlast you Danes, too.”

Edon cast a pitying look at her determined face. She truly believed that the world would not change, when all history proved that it did. More the fool she. But he kept all hint of condescension out of his voice.

“You must make friends at Warwick with Eli, Rashid and Rebecca. Rebecca is the woman whose babe was born the day of our arrival. She grew up in a village on a desolate mountainside in a faraway land called Syria.” She prays to a god she calls Yahweh. Her people were the first to believe in one god and claim to be the chosen ones.”

“One god?” Tala looked at him askance, as if he had lost his wits. “Impossible. Not even the Christians profess to believe that. King Alfred always speaks of a Trinity of Gods.”

Edon chuckled and nodded his head. “Then there are
Eloya and Rashid. They come from a land even wilder and more hostile to man than Rebecca does. In Persia great seas of sand sweep on as far as the eye can see. When the winds blow, it covers the earth in a choking dry fog. Eloya and Rashid are descendents of Alexander the Great. He conquered the world years before the Romans conquered Britain. Their God is named Allah, but it is the same God as Yahweh, all powerful and one.”

“This is very strange. Why do you keep such people around you?” Tala searched Edon’s face for a clue to his motives. All she could find in the handsome cast of his features was honesty and intelligence. That was most threatening of all.

“Why? So that no night in my hall will pass without learned discussions, exploring the limits of our minds and our worlds of experience. You will enjoy the variety of company we keep within my house when you are my wife.".

“I will never be your wife, Viking.” Tala firmly shook her head. “No princess of Leam has ever married.”

Undaunted, Edon smiled. “Taboos are easy to break once one has taken the first step, Tala ap Griffin. What have you done with your torque?”

His perceptiveness caused Tala’s eyes to narrow. Did he know what it meant for that talisman to be missing from her throat? He could not, for he was not of Leam. “I made a gift of it to my guardian spirit, the Lady of the Lake.”

Edon’s handsome face grew grave. “Show me your lake, Tala ap Griffin.”

He would never know how tempted she was to do just that. Anxiously, Tala cast a glance back to the stand of beech trees edging the riverbed. Save Selwyn, her men were on foot. She gazed at Edon again her expression as solemn as his. His wolf ran close to them, flushing grouse from the bushes.

“I will show you my lake if you will show me each of your animals.”

Edon drew his stallion up short, turning in his saddle to face her. “Which animals of mine do you wish to examine?”

“All of them, large and small.” Tala’s amber eyes grew dark with keen interest.

“Then I will show you all of my menagerie—my lion and apes and crocodile, rabbits and parrots. And I will tell you how each came to be part of my household and how the camels saved all of our lives in the deserts of the Holy Land. Rashid has many drawings of other creatures more curious than my camels, but you will not believe he drew them from living animals. The Mercian sisters who served in my hall thought Rashid’s drawings were of bogans.”

Tala swallowed. Bogans were malevolent spirits that dwelled in the fens. They emerged at night, taking hideous animal-like forms to do evil and spread death and sickness about the land. Venn’s sacrificial death would put the bogan in Arden’s fen to rest for a millennium. Then the rains would come and cleanse the earth, renew all life, and Learn would flourish as it always had. So claimed Tegwin.

“How do you know of bogans?” Tala asked with trepidation.

“I know of many, many things, Tala ap Griffin. Come, ride with me to Warwick. I have so much to show you.”

Did she dare risk returning to Warwick with him? The hair at the back of her neck lifted and a shiver ran through her. She put aside her curiosity about other animals for the present, looking only at the wolf as it ran forward into the wood, barking joyously at a partridge it chased into flight. “How is it that a wolf has befriended you?”

The first true smile of the evening graced the Viking’s handsome face, making his eyes sparkle with amusement. “Suppose I tell you that Sarina is not a wolf. She is a hound, not so different from the slick-haired mastiffs you
hunt with on this isle. The sun fades, Tala. Make your decision.

“And the lake, my lord?” Tala turned the tables with ease, taunting him, “…and your test of my powers to find water?”

Edon quickly turned her challenge aside with his widening smile, “I’m a patient man in some matters…the water can wait till tomorrow. The question between us, Princess, is do you dare ride to Warwick with me?”

S
he dared. Casting better judgment to the wind, Tala left her guard behind in Arden wood and galloped across the sun-scorched fields alone with Jarl Edon to Warwick. Dusk settled softly on the land as they passed through the fortress’s open gates. With a feeling of growing excitement, Tala dismounted outside the byre of Edon’s menagerie.

Her nostrils flared at the strange scents that greeted her immediately in the dark and shadowy stable. The chaff of hay, straw and fodder tickled her nose and danced in the remaining twilight. Her ears caught the rumble of a large beast purring and the restless shuffle of others scuffling back and forth across the dry, straw-covered earth.

She and Edon came to stand before a huge tawny cat inside a cage made of stout iron bars. The beast within was hundreds of times bigger than the mild-tempered mousers of Tala’s acquaintance, but it was certainly recognizable as a feline.

“Oh,” she whispered reverently, face-to-face with a great cat that lazily blinked its golden eyes at her. “That is a lion.”

“Aye.” Edon nodded proudly.

“Why, he’s huge,” she said, her voice no louder than the rustle of a bird’s wing.

“Rex is a lion. I do not know his age. Rashid reckons he is well past his prime, perhaps a dozen years older than I. A pasha in Alexandria had taken him captive many years ago. The light is poor this evening, but if it were earlier in the day, you would see the scars on Rex’s trunk and notice that many of his great teeth are missing.”

Rex ambled forward on padded feet, moving purposely toward Edon, then shook his head and roared. Tala jumped back. Oblivious to any danger whatsoever, Edon dropped to his knee and thrust his hands through the cage to grasp the beast’s head and ruffle his shaggy mane. He spoke to the lion in a foreign tongue, but it was clear from the animal’s response the two of them were not enemies.

Fascinated, Tala knelt beside Edon, watching his hands disappear under the tangles of the lion’s mane. “You treat this beast as if it is a pet. Isn’t it wild and dangerous?”

“Oh, yes, very wild and very dangerous. But to me, Rex is not so much a pet as a friend.” Edon laughed. “We understand each other. The truth is, Tala ap Griffin, I could not bear to see this animal tormented night after night in the pasha’s arena. The Alexandrians thought it great sport to put Rex and a bear in the same ring and let them fight to the death. So I liberated him.”

“Liberated?” Tala did not know what that meant.

“I set him free.” Edon got up and motioned to Tala to come with him. “But Rex has been too long in captivity or else he’s grown too old to hunt for himself. In his world the lioness hunts, and he could have twenty such females in his pride. A strong lion grows fat on the kills his mates provide him. Rex is old and has lost many teeth, as I said. Some of his claws are missing. He could not win a pride of lionesses if he were returned to the wild. So we brought him with us to Britain and we feed him goats and sheep. He hasn’t many years left.

“This strange beast is a camel…” And so it went as Edon took her through the byre, proudly showing her the
animals in the cages and pens. Every beast in its own unique way had claimed some measure of the jarl’s heart.

Most fascinating to Tala were his birds in wire cages— golden finches and warblers that sang sweetly, and green parrots that could imitate the speech of a man. Last they came to a cage of wire and wicker that contained a great number of the same fluffy animals Tala’s little sisters had found.

“Rabbits,” Edon said with a laugh, naming the animal for her. He opened the cage, withdrew a good-sized creature and put it in Tala’s hands. “Their fur is prized in Denmark for its softness and warmth. They make good eating, too. Are they not common here?”

Tala smoothed her hands over the rabbit’s thick pelt. “No, they are as strange to me as your camel and crocodile.”

“Ah.” Edon lifted his brows in amusement at her fascination with the gentle creature. Where the fierce beasts held his interest, hers was taken by the softest, meekest animal. Her mothering instincts were strong and dominant. Edon took that as a good sign.

“Then Sarina will have little luck hunting in Arden Wood. Rabbits are her favorite food. These are what is left of the breeding stock we brought from Byzantium. Rabbits were rare there, too. You might see them in the woods, since one of the cages broke on our way to Warwick. Two or three dozen animals escaped. They are very efficient breeders. We could well be overrun by rabbits before long.”

“Rabbits,” Tala said, committing the name to memory to tell her sisters. She handed the creature back to Edon to return to the cage. “What do they eat?”

“Anything that grows. They can be a nuisance if they get loose in one’s newly planted fields.” Edon put the creature in the cage and secured the door. He gestured for Tala to precede him out of the byre.

Full dark had descended, blanketing the land in a sheen of starlight. No moon had risen yet. Inside the high walls of the compound torches had been lit, some near the closed gates and some outside of the keep’s great doors. The windows of the second floor glowed with soft, inviting light.

“Have you eaten, my lady?” Edon took her hand, guiding her along a darkened path toward his keep.

Tala shook her head in silent answer, searching the dark compound for their horses. They had been led away, and she hadn’t given a second thought to Ariel since she’d dismounted. “It grows late. I should be on my way.”

“Nay,” Edon said silkily, and his hands moved to her shoulders, guiding her. “Come, my hall is well lit. There is ample food for another at my board. When the moon rises, it will be time enough for you to depart.”

Tala shivered at the sensation of his rough palms clasping her shoulders. From the second floor came the music of a flute and soft laughter. She didn’t want to admit that his entourage fascinated her as much as his exotic animals. Jarl Edon wasn’t demanding any admissions from her. That made it easier to give in to his suggestions. The truth was, she wanted to stay with him. Somehow, she felt more alive in his company…more vital and alert.

This time they entered his hall together in friendship, Tala’s hand resting firmly on his arm. The company greeted them affably, with smiles of welcome. Room was cleared at his table for Tala to sit in a place of honor beside Edon.

This time she was very much aware of the feast that had been prepared for him. Tala tried everything—the leek soup, the eels swimming in a thick, minted raisin sauce, the steamed pheasant and peppered fish, and the crusty haunch of smoked venison that was so succulent it melted on her tongue. There were olives stuffed with crab, and soft wheat bread, as well as a dark rye she enjoyed so much she ate half a loaf slathered with melted butter.

Too full to indulge further, she passed on the next course, while Edon ate heartily of rich pastries stuffed with currants and jelly, meat pies and bread puddings.

Throughout the meal his ladies talked and his men chatted. Each recounted amusing details of the day in Warwick. It was a much more jovial company this night than it had been the first time Tala had sat at the jarl’s table.

“Princess.” Rebecca of Hebron had noted Tala’s obvious interest in her infant son. “Would you like to hold young Thomas for a while?”

Tala had thought her curiosity about the newborn would have gone without notice at the jarl’s crowded table, but the proud new mother obviously knew admiration when she saw it. “He is a handsome babe. I did not mean to stare.”

Rebecca smiled and gently shifted the sleeping baby into Tala’s arms. The princess of Leam was a natural, knowing exactly how to handle a newborn.

“Oh, he hardly weighs anything.” Tala smiled, dividing her attention between the baby and his young mother. “How thick and fine his curls are. You must be very proud.”

“Thank you.” Rebecca beamed at the compliment. “With such loving arms as you have, it will not be long before you have handsome sons of your own, my lady. Jarl Edon wants many sons.”

“Does he?” Tala murmured, stroking the infant’s soft cheek. The image Rebecca’s words caused to form in her mind was not unpleasant. Tala liked children.

“Aye,” Rebecca responded candidly. “I am glad the kings have ordered him to marry. Else he might never have settled in one place and taken root with only one woman.”

Tala smoothed the cap of silky curls with the pads of her fingertips. This tiny human baby was so fragile and beautiful. “There is nothing I would like better than to have babes of my own, but it is not to be.”

Edon shifted slightly, to lean close to her as he said, “You are wrong to doubt me, Tala. I am every bit as fecund as the Greek.”

“Your fertility was never in doubt, sir.” Tala lifted her gaze from the baby to Edon. “My ability to accede to your demands is. I have a duty to my people.”

“Which will be well served by becoming my wife,” he added quickly. “Times change, Tala. Virgin princesses no longer benefit the house of Leam. In truth, Leam is no more than a title you cling to. It does not exist as a kingdom anymore. Better that you align yourself to the house of Warwick, for I will protect what is mine.”

“Better for whom, lord?” Tala asked him pointedly.

“For all of our people, yours as well as mine, Tala. There is only one solution. Through marriage we can blend what we are into a new, stronger people. Our children will inherit the lands you and I now dispute.”

“What you say has some wisdom, lord, but I must remain committed to the traditions of my people. If I do any less, I forsake them.”

“What traditions be those?” asked Nels of Athelney. Tala turned to the priest. Again she noticed that he wore a sword strapped to his side even at the peaceful supper table of the lord he now served.

“For one, it is my duty to offer the first grains harvested at Lughnasa, so that our harvests in the autumn will be as plentiful as the first bounty of summer.”

“Making such an offering in no way interferes with your Christian duty to marry and bear children,” the young bishop said firmly.

“I also value giving thanks for a productive harvest,” Edon added. “I have many times witnessed Christian ceremonies blessing the beasts and the crops of the land.”

“We must always thank the Good Lord for bringing us prosperity,” Nels replied. “That is one way in which what was pagan is made acceptable to the church.”

“It is most confusing to my mind,” Tala said to Edon, “that what we have believed since the dawn of time is pagan and abhorrent to your priest’s Christian beliefs, when we, in fact, celebrate the same thing.”

“Paganism is rooted in polytheism,” Nels of Athelney replied. “There is only one God, lord of us all.”

Tala frowned and shook her head. “My cousin, King Alfred, has priests who speak of a Trinity. Now you say there is only one God.”

“And his name is Allah,” Rashid injected solemnly. “These infidels would mislead you, Lady Tala. Should you give me the time, I would correct the errors of your upbringing in your learned cousin’s court.”

“And by doing so he would guarantee you a spot in the devil incarnate’s hell,” replied Nels of Athelney. “My lord Edon, I must protest. We are to Christianize the district, not confuse it further.”

Edon laughed and waved a magnanimous hand at the bishop. “Here we respect each other’s beliefs, Nels. Tolerance is the watchword of my household. Though I understand from the lady’s cousin that she practiced Alfred’s faith when in residence at Winchester. Is that not so, Tala?”

The baby in Tala’s arms had awoken and begun to root about. She was forced to put off answering that question directly by the necessity of returning the child to his mother. But it was amazing what she felt inside as the infant nuzzled against her breast. Little Thomas made her yearn for a child of her own.

“Well?” Edon prodded, putting Tala on the spot once the infant was moved. “Did you accommodate King Alfred’s wishes when you were in his wardship, Princess?”

“Truthfully, lord?” Tala asked. How well did he actually know King Alfred?

“Aye, the truth and nothing less,” Edon replied.

Tala’s glance encompassed the table and that curious
collection of peoples from a startling variety of cultures and tribes.
This is the real menagerie,
she thought,
the strange peoples Edon brought together under his roof.
“I have appeased the king of Wessex’s wishes, aye.”

“Out of fear of reprisal?” Edon pressed deeper, seeking more truth from her than she was willing to divulge.

“No, I do not fear my kinsman’s wrath. I suppose I do not wish to offend him. He is an unusual man, very wise and tolerant,” Tala answered earnestly.

“Expedience is acceptable?” Edon lifted a brow. Was he mocking her gently? Tala couldn’t tell.

“What are you asking?”

“Suppose a knife was at your throat and you were given a choice, be baptized or die. Which would you choose?”

“Baptism, of course. Do you call that expedience?”

“I would not call it a victory of faith,” Bishop Nels answered loudly. “But I would count it a minor victory, because the seed would be planted. From a single kernel faith can grow. Give me time, Princess, and I am certain that I can show you the way to salvation.”

Tala shook her head, rebuking his offer. “I have no need for this salvation you speak of because my spirit will return again in the next life. Meanwhile I tend the pool of Learn, whose waters heal. My duty is to protect and preserve, and that I shall do all the days of my life.”

“Who is it that you protect, Princess?” asked the priest. “A tree-worshiping druid?”

Tala shook her head. “No.”

“She protects a boy of ten and two,” Edon said smoothly. “The atheling of Learn.”

Tala gave a sharp glance at the man seated at her side. He was too perceptive by far. Again she wondered how well he was acquainted with her kinsman, the king of Wessex.

“Ah ha!” said the bishop, subsiding into deep thought.

Edon nodded to the assembled company as he rose to
his feet. “Come, my lady, the moon has risen. I will escort you safely back to your guard.”