Stewart Binns - Anarchy

By late morning, we had replenished our water and I had mixed my remedy and distributed it to the men. Even so, some of them were in a bad way. So was Lady Alice.

‘Livia, give her this and take some yourself. How are you feeling?’

‘Better, but I’m worried about Alice.’

‘Make her drink. It’s important. I’ll be back in a while.’

When I returned to the men, I greeted the return of the two scouts we had sent out the previous afternoon. Eadmer’s face foretold bad news. I looked at the scouts.

‘Sir, you should come with us. We’ve been waiting for you about three miles ahead.’

‘What is it?’

‘You should come.’

I asked Eadmer to stay while I followed the scouts through a narrow track just off the beach. After a few miles they stopped and beckoned to me to turn right into a small clearing. What I then saw made me shudder in revulsion.

Sandro and his men were naked and had been hung upside down by their ankles, their heads no more than a foot off the ground. Their bodies were covered in flies and had started to decompose. Their faces were badly disfigured and their torsos covered in blood. Beneath them were large dark patches in the earth, the residue from hours of heavy bleeding. They had been castrated and emasculated. I looked at the scouts, one of whom was an Anatolian Christian.

‘Seljuks. It is a common punishment for any Christians they capture. They learned it from us. We do it to them; they do it to us. They use the whip and then they kick their victims’ faces like a pig’s bladder. They make it into a competition.’

‘How long ago?’

‘At least a week.’

‘Will they still be around?’

‘In the hills somewhere. They may have moved on, but they may have seen the smoke from the camp last night.’

‘How many?’

‘Thirty at least. They usually move around in large raiding parties.’

‘Cut them down. I will bring back some men. We don’t have tools to dig a proper grave, but a shallow resting place in the sand is better than this charnel house.’

By the following evening, when the full impact of our circumstances became clear, we had lost six men to what Eadmer was sure was the bloody flux, caught from the dirty water, and Lady Alice was close to her end. The rest of the men were recovering but were in no fit state to move. All the while, we were still at risk from attack by the Seljuks who had murdered Sandro and his men.

We were now just eighteen survivors from the great entourage that had left Venice. We were still in grave danger, and Livia was a long way from her destination. I needed a new plan.

Lady Alice died later that night. Livia was inconsolable and immediately said she did not want to go on to Antioch – yet another issue for me to wrestle with. I tried to help her, but she just wept and wept, uttering the odd semi-coherent sentence in between the tears. She spent the night curled in a ball at my feet, crying for at least an hour before she eventually fell asleep.

My only priority was the safety of Livia. Despite her pleas, my commission had come from her brother, the Doge. Therefore, my duty was to get her to Antioch. Our greatest threat was from the Seljuks lurking in the hinterland. I decided that we should make for the small village that had been Sandro’s destination. My only fear was that rather than it being a small fishing village, able to provide us with a boat to get to Kalonoros, it may be a nest of Seljuk Turks – a species with a bite far worse than the horned vipers of the undergrowth.

When Livia woke early the next morning, I told her that I planned to make for the fishing village to find a boat.

‘Thank you for staying with me last night.’

‘It was the least I could do. How are you feeling this morning?’

‘I have felt better… I just want to go home now, to Venice.’

I decided not to pursue the issue of which direction we would take when we got to Kalonoros.

‘Today we will bury the dead and after a few days’ recovery for the men, we will move on. When we do, I need to ask you to do something important.’

She looked very apprehensive.

‘I want you to crop your hair short, like a boy. I’m going to pass you off as a boy servant.’

To my surprise, she did not baulk in the slightest at my request.

‘I understand. It will grow again. I suppose you will be my master?’

‘Yes, I’m afraid so.’

‘Don’t be concerned. From now on, I will address you as “sir”.’

I was relieved that she had acquiesced so readily to the more eccentric details of my plan.

For the rest of the day, Livia stayed at Lady Alice’s graveside. When she came to the fire for food that evening, she had cropped her hair as tightly as a sharp blade would allow. She had dirtied her face like a street urchin, stuck a dagger in her belt and tried to adapt the elegant bearing of a lady to the ungainly gait of a young boy.

I had to smile.

‘Why are you laughing at me, sir?’

‘I’m not! I’m admiring you.’

‘You’re not supposed to admire me. I’m your servant boy, remember… sir?’

‘Quite so, sorry.’

She was playing a game with me, and I was enjoying it. Despite her new appearance, she was still a goddess and my urge to have her had not diminished in the slightest. I was sure she knew my feelings and was also enjoying the frisson of the game.

Four days later, we were on our way. I had told the men to treat Livia as a boy servant, stressing to them how imperative it was for her safety. As we walked, I thought about our good fortune in avoiding contact with the band that had killed Sandro and the marines. I then wondered whether the Seljuks had asked them where they had come from and why they were there. I realized that it was probable that Sandro and the others had been tortured in order to get them to talk. I would never know for sure, but I imagined we must all owe a great debt to Sandro and his brave marines.

When we reached the point where we thought the village was located, we turned to our right, through the trees, to find high ground so that we could put the surroundings under observation. After choosing a place where we could see the smoke from the settlement and a few boats in its small harbour, I sent Toste and Wulfric and two marines to make a thorough reconnaissance.

We waited for over two hours, but there was no sign of their return. I took Eadmer to one side.

‘What do you think?’

‘It’s not good. They are four good men, no noise, nothing. I suspect a trap.’

‘So do I. Scratch “ddwyrain” in the ground.’

Eadmer looked puzzled.

‘It’s Celtic for “east”. Wulfric and Toste will understand it. The Seljuks will expect us to go north or south, and there’s no chance of them being able to read Celtic.’

‘Shouldn’t we try to find Wulfric and Toste?’

‘We can’t risk it. We must get Livia away. The boys can take care of themselves.’

‘I doubt it, with that lot of murdering bastards! Have you forgotten they’re our comrades?’

‘No! But we must get her away.’

‘Bugger that, you’re obsessed with that bloody girl. Our friends are more important than her.’

‘Eadmer, they’re professional soldiers. And so are you. We’re moving east, now! Let’s go.’

As usual, Eadmer had spoken his mind and then got on with it. I called to the other men and beckoned to them to move east, further up the hillside away from the beach. There was a small path, slightly overgrown, but manageable in single file. Livia came to stand by me, and I looked back to see Eadmer scratching our signal in the dirt.

‘Hal, I could hear you arguing with Eadmer. I couldn’t understand everything you were saying in English, but I think you were arguing over me.’