The Aebeling (11 page)

‘We understand – they are going to act as theow – and they expect to be treated by you as theow.’

‘Now I don’t understand.’

‘It is often said that no one ever notices theow – they are invisible to free people. They will be excellent body guards – and information collectors.’

Abrekan laughed. ‘You mean spies! I knew that there had to be a reason. What if they get caught – the punishment is death.’

‘They won’t get caught. No one will ever know.’

Conn had been training the pair relentlessly; not only in protective combat but also in covert operations. Already Conn knew everything about everyone in the village. They had all been practising. Rab and Peig were also in training; but he had different plans for them.

When Abrekan finally took his leave of Conn and headed to Lykiak on horses that Conn had lent him, he went with an escort of wiga led by Wilgar, who was going to Lyciak to do some ‘shopping’ for Conn and would return to Tabae in a few weeks. Since his arrival Conn had spent whatever free time he had training with Hengist and the Eaorl’s Fyrd. Octa had about thirty men, spilt into three squads; one of whom was on patrol while the others guarded the cotlif. After a few days of Conn’s clearly noticeable disapproval of the Fyrd and its abilities, Octa asked him the open question.

‘Oswald tells me that you are not enamored with my Fyrd.’

Conn feigned surprise. ‘They are not too bad, I guess… if you only want them to be a nominal defense.’

‘A nominal defense?’

‘If you want them to actually fight, they might last about two minutes.’

‘Two minutes!’

‘If you’re lucky.’

Exasperated, Octa objected. ‘I think you exaggerate. Anyway, I’ve been meaning to tell you that every Thane can have twenty wiga on his staff; and with three domains, you could have sixty – which of course is more than I have! Why don’t you show us how good the wiga of Taransay are?’

Rising to the challenge, Conn recruited sixty wiga from amongst the Silekian refugees, and put them in boot camp. After a week they had horses and swords, some bows, but little else; that was Wilga’s job in Lykiak – to equip them more appropriately. Conn planned to manufacture his own weapons in the future, but he wasn’t going to tell Octa that.

After two weeks of training, Octa conceded the point and requested that his Fyrd train with Conn’s Silekians. He decided that he wanted them to last more than two minutes.

Octa had warned Wilga and Conn that with no Aebeling in place, Lykiak was a dangerous place for the common person. It had been ruled on behalf of the absent Aebeling and the Witan by a Metgiend, but a hundred years of governor rule had led to imbedded corruption. Dealing with Lykiak was never an easy thing without greasing the right palms. He urged that Wilga be careful.

Indeed, all the merchants who returned reported problems with the town guards who controlled access into the cotlif. It seemed that the news that they had Ryals to spend increased the level of greed displayed by the guards. Wilga had the misfortune of getting separated from his men, and had taken a beating from the guards on leaving. He didn’t have enough Ryals on him to satisfy the exit fee.

Conn was deeply offended at Wilga’s treatment, and it was a slight that he did not intend to let go unrewarded. It was not in his nature. It would wait, and he wouldn’t forget.

Several weeks after arriving with Abrekan, Conn led a procession of over five hundred men, women, and children, on the five days trip to the Burh of Haran. Merchants were already on the road; delivering the large amount of seed – wheat, oat, barley, vetch, turnip and pea – that Conn had ordered for his domains. There was enough to survive not only this season, but if things went poorly, for several seasons after that.

Haran was the closest to Tabae, the most inhabited, and also closest to the border with Silekia, and as the home of Annisa, it was the logical choice for their home base. It also contained the most fertile fields, and that was where the planting would start. The herds of horses, oxen, cows, sheep and goats that had been departing Tabae on a regular basis, under escort of his Fyrd, headed to Hama instead of Haran, as the lack of crops provided extensive forage for the animals. A large number of shepherds – and Maremmas – would inhabit the plains until Conn had built yards, fences and barns.

By the third day they had started to climb the hills that separated Haran from the plains that led to Tabae. Even here they travelled through acres of fallow and overgrown farmland; the result of bad seasons, insufficient money and non-existent labor over the last decades. After crossing through the pass that marked the border of his domain, they travelled through more fallow fields and hamlets of run down cottages, before reaching the keep itself.

As they arrived, the residents gathered to watch them pass. Undernourished and poorly dressed, they looked in need of lots of things. Some stood with their oxen working fallow fields that overlooked poor fields of winter wheat that stood waiting for eventual harvest, while others stood on their doorsteps.

The layout of the Burh was familiar to Tabae – a symbolic keep with the main cottage and several buildings within a defensive barrier of earth ramparts and wooden palisades – all in various stages of disrepair; but in better repair than Tabae. Outside the walls, cottages lay scattered in a semi ordered pattern. Inside, the main longhouse was about eight by thirty yards and it was a single level building that provided the sleeping, eating and meeting rooms for the Thane and his family – had he one. Alongside, other smaller cottages were available for the keep staff and wiga, and were surrounded by stables and granaries. Everything was muddy, rancid, old, tired and keeping itself together with memory alone.

The Ceorl lived in larger Cruck style houses, built around a wooden frame, with thatch roofs, and wattle and daub walls. All the buildings had extensive gardens planted with vegetables as well as pens for chickens and pigs. This was well tended, as it guaranteed the survival of its owners. Inside the cottages there was sufficient room for the family to sleep and for a draught ox and a milk cow during winter nights.

The difference between the Thane and the Ceorl was that he didn’t have to share his home with animals, and as they didn’t own livestock at all, the Tilia lived in even smaller huts, a single room of about six by four yards; lines of huts built closely together, and with even smaller gardens around them. Between the dwellings were, albeit empty, granaries and workshops for the part-time craeftiga in the village.

Whilst it was once home to almost three hundred families, today there was less than fifty – and only a twentieth of the original 150 Ceorl remained. The rest were tilia, keep staff and a few old wiga. With over five hundred new arrivals, however, the population more than trebled; and would double every six months for some time.

Annisa greeted them on arrival; she had departed a week earlier to prepare for their arrival, and she directed the new residents to buildings that would be their temporary homes. She then guided Conn to his new home, and whilst a lot of work had been done tidying and cleaning before he arrived, Conn felt her embarrassment as they looked into the run down building; with its fire blazing on the floor at the center of the room, and the resultant veil of smoke that greeted them. Annisa had learnt from her experiences in the Inn in Tabae, but she had little time to make improvements.

Conn tried not to cough, but failed. He hated smoke.

She apologized. ‘Thane, we did what we could – I know it is not what you are used to.’

‘It is fine, Annisa. It is warm and dry. That is all we need for today – though we do need to build a fireplace – very quickly.’

Later that night, the residents, old and new, were gathered together in the bailey. Conn addressed them.

After an introduction and general chit chat, he went to the matters at hand. ‘I know that times have been tough. I know that you have been short of food, short of seed, short of animals and short of hands. That has changed today – we have everything we need to once again be a very productive domain – no longer will we be short of anything.’

Cheers erupted. Conn continued.

‘We have many Silekians amongst us today; those that have lost their homes to the Rakians, and they will stay with us until they are able to go home, however long that takes. I know that you will welcome them, as you have done in the past.’

Conn paused. ‘You will also have noticed that I am not from around here.’ he paused again, having stated the obvious, ‘My home is called Taransay, and we do some things very differently, so I will be asking you to do some things very different from how you have done them in the past. Please remember, these are better ways – despite what you may first think. They have been tested over hundreds of years. Once we were just like you, but we found ways to make life easier and more prosperous.’

He knew that only time would convince them. The best short term solution was bribery, and Conn pointed to the food and drink that had been prepared. ‘I have brought food, mead and ale from Tabae for this feast tonight, so drink wisely, eat well and enjoy.’ There were now even greater cheers.

With the food and wine all consumed, Conn’s new subjects retired for the night; but not before personally greeting and thanking him. Finally alone – except for his keep staff, one was never really alone, Conn found his way back to his new abode. Annisa had candles and lanterns – new inventions from Tabae – situated in the room to provide him some light; with a bathtub was being filled with hot water. Plumbing was going to be one of his first ‘inventions’.

Conn had a dozen ‘domestics’ – all females – who served in roles such as cooks, cleaners and maids. Those that were bedda would sleep outside of the main house, while the younger ones would be sleeping here in the house with the master and his family. If there was theow, they would sleep here as well; and their duties could also include providing sexual services should the master desire. They all had straw bunks and rudimentary blankets to keep them warm, and a bunk had been set up for Conn at the other end of the room. As Thane, his privacy was created with handing drapes. Modesty not an issue in the dark room full of curious eyes, Conn disrobed, and climbed into his bath. Five days of road dirt removed, he went to bed. It had been a long day; and the following were not going to get shorter.

At first light, the workers, old and new, gathered back in the bailey and prepared for work. Those without appropriate clothing were provided replacement items brought from Lykiak. Annisa had created teams, and appointed locals as leaders. Whilst the locals knew the layout of the estate, it was the Silekians that joined their crews that knew what was expected to be done, and how to do it – having spent the last few weeks in Tabae training. So whether it was repairing, building, or ploughing the fields, they commenced work with gusto. Conn travelled from crew to crew assisting, directing and correcting.

It helped that everyone knew that they were being paid Ryals for the work they did – everyone in the village was now effectively an employee; and the barter economy had been supplanted overnight by a monetary one. The only exception was the Ceorl – those that by custom paid rent for the right to farm strips of lands scattered around the domain. Of the original one hundred and fifty, only thirty remained – so three quarters of the five thousand acres of tillable land in Haran was ‘ownerless’, which suited Conn’s plans perfectly.

When Conn met with the Ceorl, he gave them an offer that they couldn’t refuse — they could swap their current rights of thirty acres of land in strips – a virgate – for a new five hundred acre ‘farm’ – enclosed behind fences, a new cottage, free labor and free seed for the first year, and he would change their title from Ceorl to Laird; to indicate their change of status from leasing land to owning land. It was generous enough to be unrefusable, and after two years Conn had forty five Lairds in Tabae and Veii; not only becoming very wealthy in the process but allowing Conn the ability to be an absentee landlord. Their prosperity only enhanced his.

The Meshechians employed a three field system of agriculture; a third fallow; a third ploughed for the winter wheat, and a third for the spring oats and barley. Conn changed that. With the Lairds on side, the ploughmen ploughed everything; the ox teams started ploughing and didn’t stop until the last spring grain had been harvested and the winter crop planted. What wasn’t planted in oats, barley, rye or wheat for summer was planted in vetch, pea or clover. These legumes were then either fed to cattle or ploughed back into the ground to fertilize the fields for the winter wheat. With the available technology and resources at hand, over three thousand acres of land was ploughed and planted over the season.

There were other changes too; significant ones. Instead of just teams of six oxen pulling the heavy wheeled ploughs, the fields soon saw teams of horses – with the “new” horse collar – pulling a “new” metal tipped light plough. These teams were more productive and manoeuvrable than the oxen teams. Before planting, the teams of horses pulled the “new” metal tipped harrows, and at planting time, instead of the current broadcasting method, the domain saw the first ever horse drawn seed drill, a “Jethro”, being put to work.

When it came time to harvest, the tilia used the “new” scythe with its shoulder snath, instead of the regular sickle; with the harvested grain going through a watermill powered threshing machine – a “Meikle” – and later a wind powered gristmill. All existing and would be Craeftiga in Haran – both Lykian and Silekian – were redirected from farming tasks to specialize on the manufacture of these – and many other – “new” implements. Conn’s own version of the industrial revolution was taking place at the same time as the agricultural revolution.

From Haran, field teams moved to Veii to prepare for the winter crop. It would take a few years to get the whole fifteen thousand acres of tillable land under the plough – and over ten of those belonged to the new Lairds.

Any excess labor was directed at building a hard road between Haran and Hama; a base of broken rock, crushed by newly built windmills, was covered by a layer of finer ground stone that was rolled in by horse teams, and protected by drainage ditches dug on either side. With bridges constructed over the gullies and streams, the newly constructed or improved two wheeled horse and ox carts would make the daily trips with ease. At a mile a week, his three domains would be connected by winter. The road to Tabae – and then Lykiak – would commence next spring.