The Temporal Knights Page 8

  “Holy Mother,” Lemay whispered, stunned by the meeting, while Gordon Rice grinned at them all like a fool.

  “It’s the lollipop guild,” Major Thane whispered softly and the doctor frowned at him, but Lemay and Peebles both had to stifle a chuckle. The General led the group to the mess tent, the largest tent in the camp and the entire group of locals followed with their dogs slinking quietly behind them. They entered together except one of the Englishmen paused to feel the heavy canvas fabric of the tent. He said something to the others and they all came over to feel the flaps and walls.

  “Verily well,” was all the Ealdorman said then moved over to a long table and took his place opposite the General. His son, Harden and all of his knights sat in a line on the same side of the table, while Colonel Lemay, Rice, Thane, Robertson, Captain Hersey, and Private Brooks joined their General. Brooks was delighted to be asked to join the conference. There was no other place on Earth he would rather be at the moment, and it was all Gordon Rice could do not to reach across to the nearest knight and check the thin chain mail the man wore around his chest and shoulders.

  “Bring tea,” Peebles said to the orderly. “The English like tea,” he added looking at Rice for confirmation.

  “Well, not yet,” Rice said still smiling, “but it’s as good as anything.”

  “Da,” Harden said in a whisper, nervous to be among so many strange looking, giant men. “Methinks this unwise.”

  “Hush lad,” the Ealdorman replied, though he agreed with his son’s assessment. They could be in a great deal of trouble. “Tis na the time for boldness.”

  The orderly brought the tea, and the Ealdorman and his men waited until after the General and his party had all sipped before trying the drink cautiously. Harden did not like the drink, but the Ealdorman thought it was somewhat pleasing. His mind however, was racing and not truly on the drink. Why would this group of men be on his lands, all afoot and claiming to be Anglish, but with obvious Moors and other strange men among them? It did not make any sense. Alfred would not have sent such a force into his lands without prior warning…unless somehow these men were allies against the Boneless. And how had these seemingly ordinary men spit fire and kilt the dogs from such a distance? When such a group of strange men appeared on the land, murder and pillaging closely followed...except of course for celebrations and touring fairs. These men had not the look of a touring fair.

  “Where should we start?” Peebles asked leaning over to catch Dr. Rice’s eye.

  “Introduce yourself again,” the doctor advised.

  Peebles shrugged. “I am General Peebles and these are my men. Colonel Lemay,” he said gesturing to his second in command who nodded. “Dr. Gordon Rice, Lee Robertson, Major Thane, Captain Hersey and Private Brooks.”

  “Sir Æthelnoth, Ealdorman of Somerset,” the man before him answered with a returning nod. “Me son Harden, Sir Elid of Wiltshire, Sir Oldalf of Bridgwater, Sir Tomkin Cronin of Wedmore, Sir Wilfred of Watchet, Sir Rawlins of Aller, Sir Ældwin and his brother Sir Eaton of Shaftesbury. These be me knights,” the Ealdorman answered and General Peebles nodded.

  “Wherefore ye come upon the lands of King Alfred?”

  Peebles paused, and his men thought for a moment that he didn’t understand, but instead he was thinking, trying hard to decide where to begin with these men.

  “We are here to help you...and for you to help us,” he finally answered.

  The Ealdorman did not understand this, unless the stranger was offering his fealty to him and his King, but that made no sense and could hardly be believed.

  “We are from the future,” the General added, but the Ealdorman truly had no inkling what the General was trying to say. Peebles caught the blank look and turned to Rice for help.

  “I’m not sure that’s a concept we’ll be able to get across to them very easily, if at all,” Rice said, “nor would they likely believe us if we did. I think it would be best just to say we are friends who’ve come to help with their problems.

  “We’ve come to help you,” Peebles said simply to the Ealdorman, who smiled vaguely and sat for a moment in thought. He looked down his side of the table at his knights, but they only nodded and smiled back. He could tell they were nervous and out of sorts. Then he leaned over and spoke to Sir Oldalf, his chief knight, a converted Dane. Oldalf was a mighty fighter and utterly loyal to Æthelnoth.

  “Wot do ye make of all this?” the Ealdorman asked in Danish, hoping that these strangers would not understand. They did not, and that at least, proved that they were not gods.

  Oldalf frowned. He was the largest of the group, standing just over five foot eight, which was not overly tall for a Dane, but he was large shouldered and barrel-chested like the other Englishmen. “These giants make me nervous,” he answered in Danish. “Now I know how thee Anglish feel among the Northmen.”

  He thought a moment then shrugged. “They seem friendly enough though, and they wear no swords,” he added, not recognizing the soldier’s sidearms as weapons.

  “Yah, but neither does the assassin before the knife enters yor back.”

  “Assassins dunna breathe fire,” Sir Oldalf answered smugly. “They say they want to help...ask them wot they canna do?”

  “Genaral Peeebles,” the Ealdorman began, “I wold know how ye breathe fire and kilt our dogs?”

  Peebles hesitated, but quickly realized that he had little choice. The locals would find out about their weapons soon enough.

  “With weapons, our weapons of war. Weapons like your swords, lances and crossbows, only deadlier, more effective.”

  “Will ye aid Alfred against the Boneless and breathe fire at Ubba down the Lizard at Countisbury Hill?” the Ealdorman asked very curious as to the answer he would receive. It made him uneasy to ask these men to fight for him, even against Ivarr the Boneless and his minions, but if Alfred was to survive, perhaps these magical men were a gift from God…at long last.

  Once the question sunk in, the General glanced quickly at his Colonel, who nodded his agreement and then he looked down to Major Thane, who shrugged.

  “The English have enemies,” Matt said.

  “The Vikings,” Dr. Rice chimed in, “were raiders of the time, coming to England to pillage and burn, not usually staying longer than a month or two, just long enough to steal a few valuables, some women, horses, and food…perhaps extort some coin in exchange for a false peace. But some stayed on and were occasionally adopted by the English, while most continued back to Denmark or Norway, or else moved on to harry the French. Countisbury must be their local stronghold...a base they use for safety when they are not out abusing the locals and their lands. Probably it is somewhere along the coast.”

  Peebles nodded and then turned back to the Ealdorman, who was again conversing with the large knight with the shaggy blonde hair. They were speaking in a strange language none of them understood.

  “Would King Alfred wish it?” he asked.

  “Yah, verily he wold,” the Ealdorman said with a hearty laugh. “The Northmen are like flies, always sucking the land dry, but quick and gone before ye can swat them away. Countisbury is different, a pestilence. There the flies land and stay. Forsooth we should have burned them out long ago.” he answered not wanting to tell the newcomer that they had tried on many occasions to drive out the Danes but were beaten back every time.

  “Would the King like to come and watch us drive out the Northmen?” Peebles asked. The Ealdorman’s eyes narrowed and the General immediately knew that he had made a large mistake. “It is only that we wish to meet him and swear our loyalty to him personally.”

  The Ealdorman turned to his knights again and spoke in the unknown language, while the General just sat and waited, hoping his mistake would not be a complete blunder. The locals seemed to be arguing amongst themselves but finally the Ealdorman turned back to face his counterpart.

  “Ye burn out Ubba and then mayhap Alfred will meet with ye,” the English noblemen replied cautiously, still v
ery uneasy.

  “Fair enough,” the General answered, smiling and quickly held out his hand. The Ealdorman looked at his extended hand for a moment, then put out his own and they shook.

  “Ye cometh now to Athelney Burh with me,” the Ealdorman said and then smiled as the General and his men exchanged anxious looks. Perhaps it was good that these strangers seemed as wary and uncomfortable as he had earlier. They seemed good, honest men, but who knew, and though they claimed to be Anglish, they were not, mayhap Irish, but not certainly na Anglish.

  “We have to repair some of our...er...wagons. We can leave tomorrow. Will you stay and eat and drink to our new friendship?”

  The Ealdorman paused, again clearly suspicious. What good were wagons without horses? This smelled of some sort of trap. He turned and talked it over with Sir Oldalf and the others for a long while before turning back to General Peebles.

  “Sir Elid wishes to know, what good are ye wagons without horses? Ye have hidden yor horses eh?” he said with a slight smile, though beneath the table his hand moved to the pommel of his sword. Sir Elid looked anything but curious and he wondered just how soon he was to be cooked alive.

  The reaction from across the table was not what the Ealdorman expected either. Instead of hostility for being called out, the General’s mouth fell open in surprise and the tough looking Colonel with the Frankish name laughed out loud, and all the men were smiling. These strangers were very odd, but the Ealdorman was beginning to feel better about them, for they seemed to be genuinely trying to please.

  Peebles finally succumbed to his own chuckles.

  “Our wagons move without horses,” he explained, laughing all the more at the Ealdorman’s puzzled expression. The Ealdorman’s men began to laugh also, but more out of relief that no confrontation with these large strangers was imminent, than from understanding the apparent joke.

  “Say now, how tis it possible?”

  “That I’m afraid will take a bit long to explain,” the General answered. “Come if you will stay we will show you,” he added standing up, a smile still on his face.

  The Ealdorman paused again, looking at each of his knights in turn. They all nodded their agreement, though some with a shrug. His son nodded and smiled. These strangers were beginning to intrigue him. So the Ealdorman agreed, and the men from the future celebrated their first contact with the men of the ninth century by breaking out a little beer, properly rationed, even still Chief Supply Officer Carl Logan gave up his stock grudgingly. Beer was very, very precious back on old Earth, and now even more so.

  “By the by, ye seen any dragon sign?” the Ealdorman asked as he headed out of the tent. Peebles glanced with an amused frown at Rice, who shrugged but said nothing, and neither did the General so the Ealdorman let the matter drop.

  §

  The Englishmen were far more impressed with the beer than they were with the tea. They especially seemed to enjoy the easy opening aluminum cans, and Peebles allowed them to keep them as gifts. The Englishmen were very appreciative and admired the gifts greatly. Hoarding and rationing was a way of life for American soldiers, and the fact that they had any beer left at all was a testament to their discipline. Oh, there was still plenty of unopened beer back on old Earth, but in the last years the soldiers could not travel far enough to reach it, and now there was no one left to drink it, that is, unless the Skawps developed a taste for it.

  The evening passed very easily. The strangers were friendly, eager to talk and to know the Ealdorman and his men, who were a little surprised by Eve, both by her presence and by the way the strangers acted around her. They obviously loved and doted on the young girl, deferring to her every whim, as if she were their queen. But as queen, she needed to work a bit on her diplomacy, since she held her nose and made gagging noises whenever she came near the Ealdorman or any of his knights. The General felt that the night went smoothly, though he was unaware that the English were still very anxious and slept in shifts for protection, with two awake at all times.

  The next morning started out well. Æthelnoth watched curiously as the camp quickly disappeared. The strange men worked hard and well together, packing and storing the tents with astonishing speed and efficiency. Within an hour the Ealdorman and his men would have been hard pressed to prove there’d been a camp here at all. Æthelnoth was curious about the wagons since there were still no horses in sight, but the strange man Peebles had claimed that the wagons could be moved without horses and the Ealdorman was looking forward to seeing how this was accomplished.

  There were thirty-two trucks in total, all of which were now working but only fourteen were slated to carry men; the others were hauling gasoline, supplies, and spare parts. One large flatbed held a small backhoe and a Bobcat mini-dozer, while the final truck carried a dozen small tactical nuclear artillery shells, and towed a 105mm “light gun” howitzer along behind. All of the nukes were less than a megaton, and Peebles could not imagine why these would ever have to be used and was against bringing them, but Commander Wilder insisted. Along with the trucks were three half-tracks and eleven Humvees, but only eight were currently operating; the others would have to be towed behind the trucks. In all there were forty-three working vehicles, plus the two tow vehicles for the alien ship, and the pair of ultra-lights, which would also be towed.

  Sir Æthelnoth and his men sat calmly on their mounts as General Peebles gave the signal to move out, but once the first truck started up all hell broke loose. The noise of the engines was considerable, especially against the utter quiet of the calm English morning. All of the horses immediately spooked, and Sir Ældwin’s mount took him on a half mile run before the knight could get the horse back under control. He did not attempt to rejoin the group, but instead trotted along after them at a distance. The Ealdorman and his other knights envied him, and could barely contain their own terror at the rumbling of the strange wagons the strangers called trucks. But the strangers were clearly unconcerned with the noise and even climbed willingly into the bellies of the noisy beasts.

  Dr. Rice was watching the locals closely, and could see the fear reflected in their eyes, so he went to the closest truck and quickly untied the canvas covering, and pulled it back to show them that the men were indeed safe and sound, sitting quietly on two long benches.

  The Ealdorman swallowed hard, wondering just what kind of beast would allow its skin to be peeled back, but he found the courage to remain in the vicinity, feeling at least a little better, but not much.

  After several anxious moments they finally began to move out and Æthelnoth was astounded that the wagons did indeed move on their own, though at a very, very slow pace, but despite their sluggish movements, the vehicles were still very impressive to the locals. The speed of the convoy was slow because Peebles refused to move ahead of the twin towing vehicles which were pulling the alien ship along. Over this terrain Matt thought it best to keep below ten miles an hour for safety. But their slow pace buoyed Æthelnoth’s confidence somewhat; magical and strange these men might be, but they would not be surprising anyone overmuch, though again he had to wonder how they managed to move so far into his lands undetected.

  The trip took just over four hours, and created a circus type atmosphere around Æthelnoth’s Burh. The Ealdorman and his men felt a wave of relief as they reached the outskirts of the walled town, feeling somewhat safe for the first time since meeting up with this strange army moving across their lands. By now the knights of Somerset had grown accustomed to the noise of the trucks and Æthelnoth took great pleasure in the obvious fear and awe showed them by his people. Most hid behind rocks, trees or ran screaming to hide behind the wooden walls of the small town.

  And the town was small…surprisingly so, and only consisted of perhaps forty or fifty buildings within the protective walls. There were also a few dozen structures huddled sadly outside the perimeter, but only a couple of these looked to be dwellings. From just outside the walls, Peebles could see a large three story building near the cente
r of town, but to him it appeared to be just a large house and definitely not a castle like he was expecting. Granted there was a stone tower built on one side, but otherwise it appeared to be a large manor house. As far as he could tell there was no drawbridge, no moat, no turrets save the one, all in all Athelney was rather disappointing. Within the walls, the town was crowded and very dirty and smelled strongly of unwashed bodies and urine; every road was a mass of mud and filth. From its size, Peebles guessed that Æthelney’s population was no more than three or four hundred.

  The Ealdorman rode out in front of the expedition and was pleased to see that the strangers carefully avoided the cultivated fields. He led them to a lightly forested area adjacent to the banks of a small river, just south of the main gate. It took a bit of time to arrange the vehicles properly but eventually they parked and were mercifully turned off. There was only a half-hearted greeting from the people of the town, most were still fearful and stayed hidden, but some seeing the Ealdorman and the other knights mingling with the strangers, grew daring and came out to meet them. Most of these were peasant children and a handful of bold men, but there were a few women and young girls sprinkled in. It was the females, young and old, that instantly caught the attention of the strangers. At first the Ealdorman was concerned by their intensity, thinking they might have theft and rape on their minds, but after a moment he recognized the reverence in the men’s eyes. He was reminded of his stay at the Abbey in Westminster. During his brief visit he met a nun who claimed to have seen the face of God. Her eyes had the same fervent appearance about them. It was the same look the men reserved for Eve, and he quickly realized that his womenfolk would be safe. Æthelnoth thought it likely that some terrible calamity had befallen the womenfolk of these strangers, mayhap death, mayhap capture and slavery. They would bear watching, but he did not think they meant any harm.