Housecarl Read Free Page B

uncle’s voice was laden with
threat. “I think, Edwin, that you stay away from your hall too
much.  You should be here to teach this pup lessons in manners
for if he shouts at me again he will lose more than his
tongue.”
    “Try it old man…”
    “Silence!” My father’s voice
cracked like a whip and I wondered at Egbert’s defiance for I
remembered how he had been held like a squirming fish by the
warrior he called an old man.
    Aethelward’s voice laughed a
reply, “Any time you are ready Egbert you can try your blade but,
ask your father first, for he knows that you would lose.”
    Just when it was becoming
interesting I felt my ear being tugged and Ridley and I were hauled
to our feet by Nanna. “No one hears anything good when they spy on
others.  Back to the yard and do not let me catch you
listening again.”
    As we trudged back to the yard I
could see the pain on my grandmother’s face as she coughed blood
into a cloth.  I felt guilty for I knew that she should be
resting.  She was right, we had learned nothing from the
argument save that my father owed my uncle a debt and Egbert was
willing to fight Aethelward. Neither helped me although I secretly
wished that my bullying brother would try his blade against that of
my uncle for I was certain that he would lose, and he would die.
The pagan side of me relished the thought but the Christian side,
that of my Nanna, made me feel guilty that I was wishing death on
my brother.
    That night as I lay in my bed I
was desperate to ask Aethelward about the debt but knew that, if I
did, he would know that I had disobeyed him and I did not want him
to think badly of me.  Instead I asked, “Tell me of
Constantinople and the Romans.”
    He smiled, his eyes half closing
at the memory. “I was not much older than your brother Egbert and I
was full of myself.” His eyes opened and he looked seriously at
me.  “My first battle was a disaster and I think that it saved
my life. Remember young Aelfraed that mere belief in oneself will
not save you when you are badly led.” He pulled the covers up to my
ears and his sonorous voice told the tale and I suddenly thought
that it sounded like one of the sagas we heard at Yuletide and that
my uncle had more skills than merely those of a warrior. “The
Emperor was a young man, not unlike Egbert, who thought that he
merely had to turn up on a battlefield and he would win.  My
first battle, the battle of Azaz showed that he was wrong. We
marched into the desert to fight the Arabs and I felt
invincible.”
    “Did you have fine armour?”
    “Who is telling this tale young
Aelfraed, you or I?”
    “Sorry.”
    He ruffled my hair, “Never stop
the tale for it must be told to the end. Aye, we had fine armour; a
long mail shirt and greaves on our legs.  We each had a long
well balanced axe and our shields wore the sign of the Raven. Atop
our heads we each wore a sound helmet with a leather cap
beneath.  Oh we were well protected but as we headed into the
desert the heat was so much that men began to fall.  There was
little water and then men began to die from diseases.  When we
were all weakened then the men of the desert, the Arabs, attacked
and even though they were not as armoured as we, their attacks
killed those who were not as skilled nor as well protected as we
were.  When they came within range of our axes then they died
but they used arrows and spears and learned to keep away from the
edges of our weapons.  Were it not for the Hetaireia, the
Emperor’s own bodyguard, who sacrificed themselves then we would
not have escaped. It showed me than that men must fight for
something in which they believe or a man they can follow.  The
Emperor Romanos was not a man to follow.”
    His voice fell silent. I used
the silence to venture a question. “But you served him still.”
    “Aye you show wisdom beyond your
years young warrior, I did but he only lived a short while longer
and the ones who followed were neither as