bubonic plague

Avalon 9.1 Johanne, part 1 of 6

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After 1374 A.D. Northern France

Kairos lifetime 112: Quentin, the Highlander

Recording …

The travelers came through the time gate on to a country estate of some sort.  They moved quickly down the long driveway to the dirt road that led into the village.

“Did anyone see us?” Sukki asked.  She sounded worried about what might happen if someone saw them.

“I saw the gardener at that early hour,” Nanette said. “He just waved.”

“I imagine most of the house is still asleep.  The servants may be out back fixing breakfast,” Katie said and got out her amulet, so Sukki got hers out to compare.

“I think we are okay,” Lockhart said.   “So which way?  Lincoln, any idea where we are?”

Lincoln already had the database out and tried to read it.  “England?  Flanders?  France?  Not Scotland I think, though we may be in the low country.”

“Good to have options,” Lockhart joked.

Elder Stow frowned as he stared hard at his scanner.  It showed the area for several miles around, including roads and habitations, like the estate house and the nearby village, but he did not recognize the area.  He thought to expand the search grid, but he saw no particular landmarks he could name.

Tony tugged on the lead for the mule, like Ghost suddenly decided running was not part of his job description.  Decker was the only one who noticed they had a visitor, and he only had to clear his throat once to get everyone’s attention.

“You are at Wandomme,” the man said and pointed to the big house.  “I am Lord Lionel of Wandomme, where you arrived out of nowhere, and you did not even allow me the chance to invite you inside.”  The man smiled like he said that as a joke.

“Lockhart,” Lockhart said and tried to return the smile.  “My wife, Katie.”  They were not often caught in the open like that.  Then again, Lockhart imagined the man posed no threat.  Otherwise, Nanette might have picked up the bad vibes, and Katie’s elect radar would have gone off.

“Lovely to meet you,” the man said, tipping his hat, and offering another thought.  “I was riding.  I find an early morning ride most invigorating.  It sets me right for the whole day.  But then I saw your hole to another place in the middle of my lawn.  I thought you must be angels.  I hurried, but now I see that you are merely human, unless you are cleverly disguised angels.”

“Human,” Lincoln raised his hand, but hardly took his eyes from the database.

“We are all human here,” Katie said, and she proceeded to introduce everyone, carefully pointing out that Decker and Nanette were African, and saying Elder Stow and his daughter Sukki were Slavic, an idea they got in the last time zone.  “Robert and I are German and Swedish.  Lincoln works for Robert.  Tony is Italian and works mostly for Decker.”

“Indeed,” Lionel said. “But the question is, where did you come from?  You came out of a hole that appeared on my front lawn.  I am concerned, if you are not angels cleverly disguised, then are you witches or demons?”

“Nothing of the kind,” Katie said.  She looked at Lockhart while Lockhart looked once around the group.  It was his decision, but no one appeared to object to the idea of being honest.

“Strictly human.  Remember?” Lincoln raised his hand, his nose still in the database.

Lockhart spoke.  “We came directly from just outside Milan, Italy.  The year was 1347, just before the plague swept through Europe and killed half the population in some places.  We jumped forward in time by going through a time gate.  Hopefully we missed the worst of it.”

The man went pale.  “Plague is not something that people want to hear about, at least polite people,” Lionel said.  “But then tell me.  Where are you headed?”

“Lincoln?”  Lockhart asked.

“Aragon and Castille.  Somewhere between 1437 and 1499.”  Lincoln looked up at Lord Lionel.  “We don’t normally talk about our journey and especially about the future.  Future knowledge can be very dangerous in the wrong hands.”

“We are like pilgrims,” Lockhart said.  “Except our journey is through time not just across land and sea.  We travel from one time gate to the next.  They are normally about four or five hundred miles apart.  We are trying to get back to the year 2010, or whatever year it is when we get there.”

“We got company,” Decker interrupted.  A dozen soldiers on horseback came up the road.  Lord Lionel held up his hand.  The soldiers saw and dutifully stopped twenty yards away.

“So, you are from the future, originally.” Lionel said.  “But you don’t know exactly where the next stop is on your journey.”

“We know the general time frame, but not the exact date until we arrive,” Katie said.

“What year is this?” Lincoln asked.

“1430,” Lionel answered.  “Spring.  Early May, I believe.”

Lincoln wanted to say something, but Katie, Tony, and Nanette, all gave him hard stares, so he held his tongue.

“We went into the past on a rescue mission,” Lockhart explained.  “We succeeded, but then we feared we would be stuck in the past forever.”

“God always makes a way, if you trust him and follow after him,” Nanette said.

“Yes,” Lionel said.  “And your way seems so hard to believe.  I would not believe a word of it if I did not see you appear out of nowhere in my front yard.  Come.  Go my way for a bit.  I have so many questions.”

“Katie?” Lockhart asked without spelling it out.  She pointed in the direction of the soldiers, so the travelers went with the man.

The dirt road was not well kept, but wide enough to ride three or four abreast.  Lionel squeezed between Lockhart and Katie so he could ask his questions.  Decker, Nanette, and Lincoln followed.  Sukki, Elder Stow, and Tony with Ghost brought up the rear.  The soldiers divided so half led the way and half followed behind.

Lionel started right away with more questions, and Lockhart and Katie did their best to tell what they felt was safe.

“I heard the bells, you know,” Lionel said.  “It lends further credence to your Milan story.”

“The bells of the Basilica San Lorenzo Maggiore,” Katie said.  “They ring the bells at sunrise.”

Lionel nodded before he asked a serious question.  “So, something I don’t understand.  Why is the Lord taking you home in such short hops?  Why not just bring you home all at once?”

“Because there is something we must do in each time zone, as we call them,” Lockhart said.  “Everyone needs to do the work assigned to them.”

“We have an advantage over Abraham,” Katie said, dredging up the reference from her Sunday School days.  “We know where we are going.”

Nanette leaned forward and added some additional thoughts.  “David was anointed twenty years before he wore the crown.  The people of Israel spent forty years in the wilderness making an eleven-day journey from Egypt to the promised land.”

“What work could the Lord possibly require of you folks?”

“I could tell you how we saved Charlemagne’s life,” Lockhart responded.  “Have you heard the stories about Robin Hood or King Arthur?”

“I see…” Lionel had to think.  “I guess the question becomes, why are you here at this time?  Are you on the English side or the French side?  And if the French side, do you support Charles and the Armagnacs or the Burgundians?”

“No side,” Katie said, plainly.  “We are not here to take sides unless the Lord says otherwise.  Usually, it is a person or two we have to protect, or someone we have to stop from doing whatever evil thing they have planned.”

“In this place,” Lincoln interrupted from behind.  “Joan of Arc is the name that keeps coming up.”  Nanette immediately hit Lincoln in the arm, the way Alexis used to hit him to get him to shut his mouth.

Lord Lionel shook his head.  “Joan d’Arc is what the English call her.  Johanne de Bar is who she is.  An illiterate peasant girl.  The Maid of Orleans, she is sometimes called.  Who would have thought such a one could cause so much trouble and death?”

Katie looked over at Lockhart, who looked at her with questions.  Lockhart might not have the history at his fingertips, but he heard of Joan of Arc and understood she was one of the good guys.  Nanette hit Lincoln in the arm again just on general principle.

Avalon 9.0 Pestilence, part 6 of 6

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That evening, Babara and Malore did not come down to supper.  Prudenza wondered if they had taken ill, but Francesa assured her they were fine.  “Babara is very old.  No telling how old.  And the young one is her only support.  I will take some food upstairs.  They will not go without.”

“Fine,” Prudenza said, but paused when Francesa stiffened.

“Yes.  Yes,” Francesa said, seemingly to the air.  “I will send Divitia up right away.”  Francesa smiled for Prudenza and stepped to the door to call Divitia.  She and Sancta were playing in the snow with the dogs.  She got ready to say something, but Sancta came to the door first.  On seeing Prudenza, Sancta turned to her.

“Mother.  Divitia does not feel well.”

Divitia came in holding her tummy.  Francesa did not blink.  “Divitia.  You must take this upstairs immediately.”

“Now wait,” Prudenza interrupted.  “She is not well.”  She reached for the girl but someone in her head said, Wait!  Prudenza did not fight it.  She traded places with the Nameless god, one of her lives that she spoke with earlier.  That is, Prudenza went to some safe place utterly beyond this world, and Nameless came through time from the deep past to stand in her place.  He came dressed in the ancient armor of the Kairos with the sword Wyrd at his back and the long blade Defender across the small of his back.  Yet, he kept up a glamour of Prudenza, so no one was the wiser.  He looked and sounded like Prudenza.  It was a simple thing for a god to do.  He learned how from his Mother Frya, the Asgardian goddess of love, war, and magic.

Nameless immediately noticed a spiritual string connecting Divitia to something else, a string Prudenza would have gotten tangled up in.  He cut that string.  Divitia fainted and Sancta got down on the floor with her friend.  A cry came from overhead, and a forty-year-old woman came staggering to the stairs and part way down.  She shouted.

“Kairos.  You have no power in this life.  I made sure.  I saw when you came inside.”

Nameless knew who it was and in Prudenza’s voice, he named the woman.  “Malore.”

“I should have feasted on you yesterday.  But Babara was reaching the end of her strength.  I could not risk losing her before I had a new child in place.  Now, I will feast on Divitia for the next twenty years.  She will age, and I will stay young forever.”

“That is not going to happen,” Nameless said.

Malore laughed as she aged a little more.  “You have no power.  Mine is the power of the goddess Frigg, the queen of the gods herself.  I will crush you and I will feed.”

“No,” he said.  He saw tendrils of power snake out from Malore’s hands and reach for Divitia, but he put an Elder Stow-like screen around the girl and around Sancta so the witch’s power could not reach them.  Malore screamed.

“What power do you have to defy Aesgard?  Even now the men of the mountain are coming to kill you.  The gods have all gone over to the other side.  I will feast and live and you will die.”

“No,” Nameless said again, and as he dropped the glamour of Prudenza, he let out a touch of his glory and said simply, “I am Aesgard.”  Tedesca and Carlo came to the kitchen door and had to look away.  Francesa dropped her jaw before she closed her eyes, completely free now from the witch’s control.  Sancta looked at Divitia who became bathed in the healing light of eternity.  Malore screamed louder than before.

Nameless reached out his hand and the amulet and rings vacated Malore and appeared in his hands.  The witch began to age rapidly, and still she screamed.  She surpassed a hundred before her skin began to peel back and show the bones.  In the end, she collapsed into a pile of dust to be swept out the door.

Nameless prepared to return to his own time and let Prudenza come home, but he heard gunfire outside and though it would not hurt to see.  He quickly sent the amulet and rings to Avalon where they could be locked away for safe keeping, and where no mortal could ever get them again.  Then he vanished from the Haus and appeared on the mountainside between the travelers and the mountain men, being careful to stay invisible for the moment and watch.

Nanette and Dagnanus were in a magical duel.  Nameless had no doubt Nanette would win that one.  Her magic had great potential.  His magic was small.  The mountain men had some bows and were mostly hunters, but they could hardly get close enough through the hail of bullets put out by the travelers.  He saw the dwarfs sneaking around to come up behind the mountain men with their axes sharpened.  Too bad they would have to be disappointed.  He also saw Elder Stow with his weapon and Sukki with the power she carried inside her.  They looked ready to fly overhead and bake the poor mountain men.  Too bad.  But at least Nameless knew Elder Stow and Sukki, unlike the dwarfs, would not be disappointed at being prevented from carrying out their plans.

Nameless became visible as he waved his hand and said, “Stop.”  Everything on the mountainside stopped, even the birds in flight and the bullets half-way to their target.  He first set the mountain men free of their compulsion to kill and told them to go home to their wives and families, which they were more than willing to do.  With their chief gone and the compulsion of Dagnanus lifted, some wondered what they were doing there in the first place.

“Sorry for your losses,” Nameless said, as he waved his hand again and all the bullets spent in that area gathered together.  He sent them all to Avalon, to his island in the sea of eternity that held all the things misplaced in time that he found and removed from the Earth.  It made a regular museum.  Then he set the travelers free so they could watch as he called Dagnanus to face him.  He took Dagnanus’ magic away and the man fell to his knees.

“Please, Lord.  The Masters are torturing my future life.”

Nameless nodded, waved his hand again and Dagnanus went away to be replaced by a man who looked similar but not exactly the same.  The man cried and folded his hands as in prayer.  Nameless killed him painlessly and sent him back into the future so Dagnanus could come home.  Dagnanus cried, just like his other life, and Nameless spoke softly.

“If I let you go home, will you be good and stay away from the pope and the first men of the renaissance?”

“Yes, Lord.  I promise. I will be good.  You will see…”  Nameless waved and the man vanished.

“Where is home?” Katie wondered out loud as she and Lockhart stepped up to see.

“He really has a home in Pisa, and a family, so not everything he said was a lie.  Sadly, Pisa is due for demolition by the plague if it has not already begun.”  Nameless smiled for the couple but shouted to be sure he was heard.  “Dwarfs, go home.  The war is over.  And take that stinky, ugly ogre with you.”  He let the birds fly again, the animals run, and the plants blow in the cold breeze of the first of November.  Then he let Prudenza come home to her own time and place.  She also began to weep and hugged Lockhart, and hugged Katie.  She made a special point of hugging Sukki but said nothing about missing Boston.

###

Prudenza sat on a chair and waved to the travelers as they headed off in the morning.  She did not want to hurry them, but they wanted to get to the other side of the mountains before the winter truly came.  The early snowfall was just a brief indication of what was to come.

Prudenza told them if the gate was in or around Milan, it should remain there.  She and her family and friends were headed off the main road.  The village nestled in a hollow between two peaks stood eight miles away.  Francesa arranged for them to take an empty house to winter.  She said it was her old family home, but all three sisters had their own houses now and the house sat empty.  Prudenza said, “Thank you,” but Francesa said, “No, I thank you.”

Sancta came up, holding her puppy, Rosso.  The two girl puppies, Blu and Verde would be staying at the way station.  Sancta wanted her mother’s attention, but Prudenza’s mind was wandering.

“We will stay in the village until spring, late March or early May.  Then we will find my brother and my son and come back this way as soon as we can.  But in any case, the time gate location should remain stable for some time.”

“You know, the plague will dog you in France, if it doesn’t get ahead of you,” Katie said.

“Yes, I know.  There is no escaping it.  It is like the Masters.  They seem to be everywhere trying to change history to their liking.”  She sighed.  “But in this case, at least I know what we are facing now, and I can take some precautions against this pestilence.  You are lucky.  According to Lincoln, Milan is one of the few areas in all of Europe that is not impacted by the pestilence or is minimally impacted.”

“And you?  Will you be all right?”

“We will be fine.  This is where I live, remember?  You are the people who belong in 2010, or whatever year it is by the time you get back there.”  Prudenza smiled and Katie nodded.  “Meanwhile, I understand some alpine villages escape the plague as well.  I don’t know if where we are going is one of them, but it is better than nothing.”

Prudenza let go of her thoughts and hugged her daughter, and the puppy.  “Now, what is it?”

“Divitia,” Sancta said.  “I like her well enough, but she won’t stop talking.  I can’t get a word in.”

Prudenza laughed as Tedesca came to sit with her.  They watched the travelers vanish in the distance.  Then Tedesca unloaded.

“The Nameless.  Will he help us?  And Nina.  Must she be gone?”  Tedesca did not know how to say what she wanted to ask.

“The ancient gods have gone away, and no.  Nina is gone to us in this world.  Even for the gods there were two rules.  Rule one is people die.  Rule two is even the gods are not allowed to change rule one.”  Prudenza found the tears in her eyes as she thought of the millions that would die.  Tedesca and Sancta joined her in a good cry.

***********************

MONDAY Episode 9.1 Johanne

The travelers find themselves in northern France and the name that keeps coming up is Joan of Arc. Until then, Happy Reading

*

Avalon 9.0 Pestilence, part 3 of 6

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Lincoln relayed information from the database while the others ate their supper.  The inn stayed quiet and empty.  The one older man by the fireplace sat alone and seemed to want to ignore everyone.  He might have listened.  If the staff did not have other things to do, they might have eavesdropped to relieve their boredom.  But no one else was around to overhear, and Lincoln figured he would not be talking about anything that would alter the course of history.

“Prudenza was born in 1312, in Genoa.  She was a Doria, a prominent Genoese family, though her branch of the family was not so prominent.  Her father and uncle had a couple of ships and traded between Genoa, Sicily, Constantinople, and Caffa in the Crimea on the Black Sea.  Prudenza was the eldest of four siblings.  Prudenza, Bartolino the only boy, Nina, and Tedesca.

Prudenza was forced to marry at age seventeen, in about 1330, and the database says she was happy for about a year and had a son, Iacobo.  Her husband was Anthonio D’Amalfi from another not so prominent-prominent Genoese family.  Anthonio was a mercenary captain of a company of crossbow men.  When Iacobo turned three months old, Anthonio raised a hand to Prudenza, and she walked out on him and moved home.  It doesn’t explain…

In 1331, Anthonio took his company and sailed off to fight for the Byzantines.  He came home again in 1335 and it says he raped his wife.  He promptly left town and headed north to fight for the French, who had some money at the time.  Pay from the Byzantines was an on again-off again thing.  Prudenza had a girl, Sancta, and always said it was not her daughter’s fault that the girl’s father was such a horrible man.

In 1339, her brother Bartolino succumbed to the temptation and ran off to fight with Anthonio.  They fought for the French who lost the battle of Sluys.  The company of crossbowmen survived, but they needed to recruit men to fill the decimated company.  Around that same time, Prudenza’s mother died, and her father lost his ship in a skirmish with the Venetians off the coast of Messina.  The man ended up crippled, but he had lived a high lifestyle, living and raising his children above his means, so he was in debt and saved no money to help in his infirmity, much less money for a new ship.  They had to sell the house and move to the slums.  Prudenza’s uncle helped where he could, but it was not much.

Finally, it broke Prudenza’s heart when her son, Iacobo, ran off to fight for his father.  He was just fifteen and no doubt imagined he was relieving some of the burden of staying home.  He had offers on several mercantile ships and a chance to learn the business, but he was not interested in that.  He thought war and adventure, but preferably on land.

1346, the battle of Crecy.  The French lost that one, too.  Bartolino and Iacobo survived, but Anthonio died.  It says Prudenza got the letter from her brother the same day her uncle’s ship arrived in port.  It says her uncle picked up the pestilence in Caffa, spread it to Constantinople and Sicily and brought it home.  He, and most of his crew, were deathly ill by the time they arrived.  Prudenza promptly lost her sister, Nina Bonoconte, Nina’s young son, and her father.”

“What do you mean pestilence?” Nanette asked.

“Plague—bubonic plague,” Tony, Katie, and Lincoln all answered together.

“But what happened to Prudenza?” Sukki asked, not fully understanding what the plague might be, though they had mention of it in previous time zones, so she had the general idea.

“Prudenza packed up her things, her daughter Sancta, her sister Tedesca and her brother-in-law Carlo Bonoconte and headed for Paris to escape the city—to get while the getting was good.  I checked around.  This is late October 1347.  Prudenza is thirty-five and traveling in this direction.  But she does not get over the alps before the weather.  She stops at a way station, and then moves to an out-of-the-way Alpine village where she has to wait until spring.”

“Good luck,” Lockhart said.

Katie looked at him.  “The plague will be dogging her heels, though it probably will not move fast until the warm spring weather.”

Tony nodded.  “It may get down into Italy, but it will probably move slowly over the alps.”

“Great,” Lincoln said, showing Tony the proper way to do sarcasm.  “And we are heading right into the middle of it.”

Everyone quieted.  a young nobleman came into the inn. Two soldiers placed themselves on either side of the door as the young man walked to the table.  He grabbed a chair and placed it at the end of the table, and said, “Mind if I join you?”

###

Prudenza sat on a rock and tried not to start crying again.  Her twelve-year-old daughter Sancta stayed with Tedesca and her Aunt Bellaflore.  The dogs started barking.  Sancta was wary of barking dogs, but Prudenza looked.  The dogs did not seem unfriendly to her.  This was a way station on the trade route over the alps that led into France.  Surely the dogs were used to strangers.

“Do you have names?” the woman asked, holding back what was likely her own young daughter.

“Prudenza D’Amalfi de Genoa.  My daughter Sancta.  My sister Tedesca and my Aunt Bellaflore.  The old man is Benedictus de Auria.  The middle-aged fellow is Luciano Calvo.  And the young man…”

The so-called young man, who was near thirty, stepped up and interrupted with a flourishing bow.  “Carlo Francischo de Bonoconte.  Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

“We don’t have room for all of you,” the woman said, flatly.  She looked at the sky.  The sun would soon set.  “We have two others already, but the next village is a day away.  I suppose the men can stay in the barn, but they will still have to pay.”

A man came around the corner of the big house and stopped to eye the motley group.  “You are a strange collection,” he said.  “We don’t often get unescorted women here.  You have no soldiers, no hired men?”

Prudenza shook her head.  “My father died.  A terrible sickness has come upon the city, and we thought to escape the city while we are well and able.  My brother Bartolino and my eldest, my son Iacobo are among the soldiers fighting for the French.  I am going to fetch them and bring them home.  I am sure the sickness will be over by the time we return.”  She sighed and the woman paused in her rough attitude to show some sympathy.

“My father died last winter,” she said.  “I am Francesa.  My baby is Divitia.” she pointed to the girl beside her.  “My husband is Augustinus.”  She pointed at the man.  “No telling where my son is.”  Francesa smiled, though it did not look entirely like a natural occurrence.  “You might as well come inside.  There may be a delay in fixing supper with so many more mouths to feed.”

“I am sure whatever you fix will be fine,” Prudenza said.  “Bellaflore and Tedesca can help.”

“Prudenza,” Tedesca complained about being volunteered.

“And yourself?” Francesa asked.

“No,” Tedesca responded.  “She is not the best cook.”

Francesa nodded and walked Tedesca through the house.  The kitchen fires were out back.  Bellaflore followed.  Prudenza paused to look at the men while Augustinus moved to intercept them and spoke.

“Let me take you to the barn.  It is where the men often stay, and where the soldiers and hired men always stay.  It is not as bad as you may be thinking.”

Old man Benedictus took the ox and wagon, and the men followed.

Prudenza stopped and turned in the doorway.  She watched the two girls.  Divitia went straight to Sancta, and the dogs followed, tails wagging and tongues lolling.  Sancta stood her ground but did not look entirely comfortable.

“Hi.  I’m Divitia.  I’m thirteen.”

“Sancta.”  Sancta gave her name but neglected to say she was only twelve.

“This is Filipo and Giletta.  They are very nice.  They won’t hurt you.  They like people.  They hate rats.  They are ratters. Father says they are pinschers, but Mama calls them ratters.  They keep the rats away from the house and Mama says that lets her clean the house for the travelers to stay.  Mama says it is a good thing they have short hair.  They don’t shed so much.  I like your hair.  You can show me how you put it up like that.  Your mother is very pretty.  I wish I was pretty.  Your mother has big breasts.  Giletta got breasts when she had her puppies.  We got three puppies.  Come and see them.”  She turned to lead the way.

Sancta said nothing that whole time.  She stiffened a little when the dogs sniffed her, but she followed Divitia on the chance that she might make a friend.

Prudenza turned her eyes inside the house.  She saw an old woman and a girl by the fireplace.  The old woman looked like a Gypsy crone.   She had a stick in her hand that she waved at the fire.  The young one, maybe fifteen, sat at the old woman’s feet like an apprentice of sorts.  She wore fancy rings and something like an amulet that hung from a gold chain around her neck.  Witches, Prudenza thought before she scolded herself.  She must not judge based on appearance.  They were probably a grandmother and her granddaughter trying to get warm in the October chill.

“Hello,” Prudenza said in her friendliest voice.  “I’m Prudenza.”

The two stared at Prudenza for a minute.  Prudenza waited and felt the need to scratch the back of her head.  The old woman frowned and spoke.  “Babara.  My young one is Malore.”  She had nothing more to say as she and Malore turned in unison to stare once again at the flames.

************************

MONDAY

Everything seems calm and quiet, but strange things are swirling around the travelers and around Prudenza and her family. Until Monday, Happy Reading.

*

Avalon 8.2 Trouble Big and Small, part 5 of 6

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After a second, Lockhart tried not to clink and clank his way across the room as he hustled for the keys.  Katie studied the hole in the wall.  The ship had been built with double thick walls.  The outer wall only had a small hole in it where the sea splashed in from the occasional wave.  By the time she decided it would take hours, if not days to sink the ship at the rate it was taking on water, Lockhart handed her the keys.  She quickly unlocked her shackles and handed the keys to Lincoln.

“Just checking.”  They heard a man’s voice on the steep ladder-stairs that led up to the upper deck.  “I thought I heard something.”  Lincoln quickly turned his back to the stairs so what he was doing would not be obvious.  He found the key for Alexis’ shackles.  Apparently, they did not all use the same key.  Lockhart and Katie each jumped to the sides and a bit behind the stepladder so the man would not see them at all unless he turned his head to the side.

Katie reached through the steps as the man descended.  She grabbed his feet, so he fell forward, face first.  Lockhart punched the man in the head as he went past.  It was not an affective punch, but he hit the man’s ear and it made the man dizzy for a second.  Then the man hit the lower deck with his face despite the effort to catch himself with his hands.  He may have broken a wrist.

Katie jumped on the man’s back, reached around and found an errant rag left from a former prisoner or slave.  Plenty littered the floor.  She wadded the rag and stuffed it in the man’s mouth before he could shout out.  Lockhart put his knee down hard on the man’s neck so he could not get up.  He tore the man’s shirt and tied it around the man’s mouth so he could be properly gagged, while Katie tied the man’s hand behind his back.  One shelf on the wall held plenty of rope and leather cut to just the right size for the job.  Katie guessed they sometimes tied the prisoners, or with the shackles, they might tie the feet together.  She decided that was a good idea, so while she tied the man’s feet together, Lockhart stripped the man’s knife, short sword, and took his pistol, which he looked at once and handed to Katie.

The man opened his eyes wide, but he did not say anything, even after Lockhart lifted his knee from the man’s neck.

Katie finished tying and grabbed the small bag of powder, wadding, and couple of poor excuses for bullets from the man’s belt.  She looked at the pistol while Lincoln finished getting free. To be honest, she felt afraid to fire the pistol, thinking it might blow up in her hand.  The wick looked good.  She thought she knew how to load and fire it, but she had to decide if it was worth the risk.  She half decided it might make a better club.

“Ready?” Lockhart asked.  He stood, one foot on the bottom rung of the stepladder, the short sword in his hand, a dirt streak on his cheek from rummaging around the floor.

“You look like a pirate,” Katie said, and smiled at some inner thought.

“Ready,” Lincoln said.  He had the knife.  Alexis had her wand.

Lockhart climbed and looked carefully.  Sailors were wandering the deck, pretending to look busy.  The ship’s captain, or an officer of sorts stood on the poop deck by the man who held the steering oar.  The doctor also stood there, talking with the captain, and watching as the ship slowly crossed the Bosporus.  Two men, Lockhart thought guards, stood lazily by the railing, taking about something and occasionally glancing at the hatch, probably waiting for their friend to come out.

Lockhart pulled his head back below the hatch before he got seen and reported what he saw.  Lincoln and Alexis agreed to keep the crew back.  Lockhart imagine that would be Alexis calling up her magic.  Katie and Lockhart argued over the two leaning on the railing.  Finally, Lincoln got the job so both Katie and Lockhart could invade the poop deck.  Alexis assured Lincoln that she would help, when Lockhart said, “Ready?”  With affirmations, he said “Go.”

Lockhart ran, but Katie outran him.  Alexis first pointed her wand at the two by the railing, and one went right over the side.  The other angrily grabbed his rifle, but the shot misfired because of the wind, and Lincoln got there before the man could change his mind and pull his knife or sword.  Lincoln poked his knife into the man’s belly, grabbed and pulled the sword and said, “Drop your knife and down on your knees, hands behind your head.”

Katie hit Stygria in the jaw with a staggering blow.  As an elect, she was as strong as a man and had the speed and reflexes better than most.  The man fell, like he had a glass jaw.  Lockhart crossed swords with the captain, and while the captain maybe had the experience on his side, he was old, fat, and small.  Lockhart, young and a bit of a giant at six feet tall, quickly overpowered the man.

The doctor, though older himself, nevertheless prepared for such eventualities.  He had a large knife and showed from his stance that he knew how to use it.  Katie, a marine trained in hand to hand, could have taken him down, probably without a cut, but she did not feel the need to risk it.  She had lit her wick off the lamp in the hold, so she squinted and fired point blank into the man’s chest.  The man dropped his knife and fell.  She grabbed the knife and turned to face Stygria who was getting up, one hand on his jaw.  She put her knife to the man’s throat and disarmed him.  Then she told him to get down on his knees and put his hands behind his head.  She saw Lincoln did the same thing with the man by the railing.

“Tell the crew to stand down,” Lockhart said.  “Lincoln, bring that man up here,” he ordered.  “Alexis, can you raise the wind?”  She nodded, and immediately the sail filled, and the ship jerked forward.  “Katie, when Lincoln arrives, you need to go down into the cabin and find the doctor’s bag.”  He raised his voice.  “I assume dumping the stuff in the sea will end the bacteria threat.”

“That will do it,” Alexis shouted back.

Lockhart turned to the ship’s captain who also got on his knees.  “Take us safely to the dock and I will let you live and keep your ship.  You have been paid, and I have a few extra coins if you cooperate.”  Lincoln always carried some coins in a pocket on his person.

“A bargain,” the captain said.  Lockhart shook the man’s hand.  Stygria threatened murder, but Katie kicked him, and he quieted.

“Stygria,” Katie said.  “Order your men to come forward and lay down their guns by the mast.  I want them weaponless and face down in front of the poop deck, here.”  Stygria looked at her and she smiled.  “I could cut your throat.”  He believed she would.  He gave the order, and the guards came out from where they were hiding.  The weapons went by the mast and the men came forward.  One spoke.

“Chief.  Corben and Miletes are missing.

“One went overboard,” Lincoln said as he arrived with his prisoner.  “The other is tied up in the hold.”

“You are welcome to fetch him,” Lockhart said, as he stepped on the captain’s sword.  “Drop us safely in Constantinople and you can have all this for free.”  The captain shrugged, like maybe it was worth the attempt before he started doling out orders to the crew.

“One thing before I check the cabin,” Katie said.  She slipped the knife in her belt and picked up the body of the doctor.  She heaved him over the side from amid ships.  She saw Stygria nod and rub his jaw.  “He might have been carrying the plague on him,” she said and stared at the captain.  “You come with me and show me everything he brought on board, unless you don’t mind getting the plague.”  The captain went with her, but then he would not touch anything.  Katie figured that.

Lockhart and Lincoln looked at their prisoners while Alexis kept the wind in the sails.

“My wife is an amazon,” Lockhart said to Stygria and gave him a big grin.  “I’m surprised she did not knock your head clean off.”

“My wife is the witch, so you better behave,” Lincoln added.

Avalon 8.2 Trouble Big and Small, part 1 of 6

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

After 640 A.D. Byzantium

Kairos 100: Nicholas, not Saint Nicholas

Recording …

“Ankyra,” Lincoln guessed the name of the city that sat behind them on the road.  He had the database out and looked at the map it provided.  He also read some and reported to Alexis and whoever else might be listening.  “The Arabs are definitely knocking on the door, but we are well within Byzantine territory.”  He answered Alexis’ question, while Tony helped Lockhart drive Ghost and the wagon to the road.

“I’m surprised the Kairos is not on the leading edge of the Muslim advance,” Nanette said.  “He, or she is usually where all the action is.  Isn’t that so?”

“He, in this time zone,” Lincoln set that straight and looked at the database.  “Nicholas.  A toymaker and carpenter in Constantinople.”

“All right,” Boston raised her voice and let out an excited elf-worthy grin.  “I wonder if Nicholas has elves helping to make the toys.”

Alexis shook her head and spoke sensibly to Lincoln, Sukki, and Nanette.  “I imagine there are some things the Kairos needs to stay away from.  Maybe most things he has to let work out on their own.  He might not even dare get involved in certain things.  I believe he only gets in the middle of the mess when something threatens to throw history off track.”

Boston had not finished interrupting.  “I wonder if he lets the cobbler borrow his elves.” She grinned again.

“Good thing the time gate sat in an open field and did not let us out in the city.” Alexis changed the subject.  She looked back toward the city that fell away behind them as they started up the road. Boston and Sukki raced around the bend in the road to get a look ahead.  Decker moved off the highway to climb a small hill with the same thought in mind, to see where they were headed.  Alexis and Lincoln took the front, followed by Nanette and Tony.  Lockhart and Katie took a turn driving the wagon, since the Roman road was well kept.

“Probably good all the way to Constantinople,” Lincoln suggested.

“You take the afternoon,” Lockhart responded.  “Give Tony a rest.”

Elder Stow sat in the back of the wagon, working on his screen device and shaking his head.  That seemed about all he did for the last ten days.  “I have it set to the way it was made.  It can put a solid screen up around a certain area, like the camp, such as a ship’s officer might put around his crew.  But all the special programing I worked on over the last couple of years has collapsed.  I think you use the word crashed.  No more screen walls, much less one-sided walls where we can shoot out while they cannot shoot in.  I can still tune it to let in oxygen and keep out other, noxious gasses.  That is built in, but other than that…”  He never really finished that sentence.  He mumbled about starting from scratch and went back to work on the device.

Lockhart turned to Katie who sat beside him.  “So, tell me about the Arabs knocking on the door.”

Katie had a thought.  “Interesting, us being on the other side of the world when Muhammad was alive and working.  I think the Kairos, or someone worked that out on purpose.”

“The Kairos was also on the other side of the world,” Lockhart said.

Katie nodded.  “Muhammad died in 632, and they argued about who would take over.  He had pretty much united the Arabian Peninsula under his monotheism.  The Arabs were polytheists, but they had serious influence from the Jews and Nestorian Christians who made up significant minority populations.”

“Nestorian Christians?”

“They believed Jesus was not God made man.  They taught that Jesus was just a man, though God-inspired.”

“Ah,” Lockhart seemed to understand.  “Maybe where Muhammad got the idea.”

Katie shrugged.  “Anyway, there were four Caliphs, you know, rulers of the sect.  They were kind of both religious and secular rulers at the same time.  Not all the faithful agreed on who should rule, so there was a split in the faith right from the beginning.  But they made a big dent in the Byzantine Empire and almost completely killed the Sassanid Empire.  My personal opinion was they put off a civil war in the faith by focusing their armies on outside enemies.”

“Distraction.  But what happened to the Byzantines and Sassanids?”

“Well, they sort of fought each other to exhaustion.  Neither side had any strength left when the Arabs came.  The Byzantines lost Syria, the Levant and Egypt very quickly.  The Arabs fought some battles, but the Byzantines did not have any armies left to speak of, and the people were tired of the constant wars and heavy taxes to support the wars.  Some scholars have suggested the people practically gave themselves to the Arabs to get out from under the Byzantine yoke.  They did not all instantly convert to Islam.  That took generations.  Even in our day there are Christians, and even Zoroastrians in those lands.  But those areas fell fairly quickly.  The Byzantine leadership stayed together back home, so they held on to their core territory of basically Turkey and Thrace with Greece and a bit of Bulgaria, but the rest vanished in a blink.”

“What about the Sassanids?”

“They were in even worse shape.  They lost the last war against the Byzantines and had to give back all the territory they had taken.  Then they had something like their own civil war.  For all practical purposes, they broke up into a bunch of feudal kingdoms.  The last Sassanid ruler was a boy not in any condition to unite the people.  Again, the Arabs fought a few battles, but they honestly faced little resistance.  They took the Sassanid capitol, the Sassanid treasury, and technically took over the Sassanid empire.  They only had to snuff out the occasional, local rebellion in cities and such here and there.”

“Sounds like the Arabs timed things pretty well,” Lockhart concluded.

“Timing is everything,” Katie agreed.

Up front, Lincoln and Tony filled in Nanette and Alexis with much of the same information.

“Muhammad died in 632.  Nicholas was born in Constantinople in 640,” Lincoln said.  He did not like to read and ride at the same time, but he remembered that much.

“Eventually,” Tony said. “The Arabs got into their own civil war of sorts.  But they worked it out when the son of the fourth Caliph resigned in favor of a guy named Mu’awiyah.  That was about 661, about when the Kairos turned twenty-one.  Mu’awiyah started the Umayyad dynasty and ruled until about 680.”  He looked at Lincoln.

“I don’t remember the name,” Lincoln said.  “But the Kairos is reborn next in 697.  I remember the date.”

Tony nodded.  “Okay.  The Umayyads rule until 750, if I remember.  Let’s see.  The Sassanids fall about 651.”

“When the Kairos turned eleven.  Hardly old enough to do much about it.”

Tony nodded again.  “Caliph number three I can’t really remember his name.  I don’t think he did much except have unrest.  Ali became Caliph about five years later, when the third Caliph got assassinated.  That started the civil war.  So, unless the Kairos is a baby, we are probably riding through the days of number three or Ali or Mu’awiyah, or maybe one of the later Umayyads, if the Kairos is an old man.”

“All fine and well,” Nanette said.  “But if we are riding deeper into Byzantine territory, why does all that even matter?”

Lincoln and Tony looked at each other and shrugged, until Tony had a suggestion.  “Around 672, the Arabs under Mu’awiyah’s son Yazid, I think, take Chalcedon and the coast, where we are headed.  They put Constantinople under siege for five years, roughly from 674 to 678.  We could ride right into that.”

No one said anything more until Alexis asked the pertinent question.  “So, who is ruling in Byzantium right now?”

“Yes,” Tony had to think, and Lincoln could not look it up right away.  “Either Constans II, or probably Constantine IV.  I remember Constantine IV was the one who fought off the Muslim siege.  If the Kairos is old, maybe Justinian…the second, I believe.”

“You believe?”

“There was an earlier Justinian, the one associated with the plague.”

“Plague?” Nanette nearly shouted.

Tony nodded but tried to reassure her.  “That was a hundred, maybe a hundred and twenty years ago.  There are reoccurrences up until the eighth century, but nothing to worry about, I hope.”

“Plague?”  Nanette said in a quieter voice.

“Bubonic,” Alexis said.  “I read about it in nursing school.  Elves don’t really get sick.  It was fascinating reading.”  She smiled for Nanette before her face turned sour.  “Of course, it was not so much fun being sick, even if all I ever got was colds and the flu a couple of times.”

Decker appeared on their flank.  Boston and Sukki came riding back from the front, and Boston shouted first.

“Soldiers on the road.”

They got Lockhart to pull the wagon to the side of the road, and the others waited.  It did not take long before the soldiers appeared.  The three in front rode.  The hundred or so behind marched four abreast.

The horsemen came up to the side of the road to talk with the travelers while the soldiers marched on.  “Where are you headed?” The Centurion asked.  People looked at Lincoln, expecting him to open his big mouth, but he actually looked at Lockhart for once.

“Constantinople,” Lockhart said.  “We are meeting a tradesman named Nicholas.  You probably don’t know him.”

“He is a carpenter and a toy maker,” Lincoln did say that much being unable to keep his mouth closed after all.

The centurion smiled.  “Actually, I know Nicholas very well.  He is also the most brilliant politician in the empire.”

“Really?” Alexis looked surprised.

“He usually stays out of politics, if he can help it,” Katie said.

The centurion’s smile broadened.  “I see you do know him, some.  And yes, he stays out of politics which is why in my book he is the most brilliant politician in Constantinople.”

“Where are you headed?” Lockhart asked to change the subject.  He gave it his friendliest smile.

“Caesarea, near where the Arabs are.  We are charged to keep them out of our territory, but I hope they do try us. They need a good thrashing.”

“Good luck,” Lincoln said.

The Centurion nodded.  “And to you.  Tell Nicholas Centurion Rudolph says hello, and my nose is not presently red.”  He waved his men to move on.  “At least we get to escape from that one will or two wills stupidity.  Sergeant.”  They road off to retake their men.

“Okay,” Lockhart said with a look at Katie.  “Now you have more explaining to do.”

“Tony?”  Nanette looked at him while they got the wagon back on the road and started moving again, and Boston rode off ahead of the crowd, singing about Dasher, Dancer, and the rest.