Pagan Siege (Tribes of Britain Book 5) by Sam Taw (10 best novels of all time TXT) 📕

“Huh? Oh, yes, and the burdock. Couldn’t remember whether you said the leaves or the root, so I brought the whole plant.” He seemed more interested in the sopping wet bundles suspended from either side of his pony. A second horse and then a third arrived just as Ren unhitched the lengths of soaked linden bark, each laden with a similar quantity of the goods. “Kenver must have hoped that we’d not find them. They were trailing in the river upstream.” He looked at me as though I could perform miracles. Did he really think I had the time or the strength to split and twist that lot into rope?

I raised my brows and pursed my lips, holding out my hand. It took a moment for him to comprehend my frustration. His expression crumpled into sadness when he glanced down at Kewri laying by the fire. His jubilance crushed, Ren untied a sack hanging from the horse and handed it to me.

“Thank you. This should make all the difference to his recovery.” I hated to think that I’d trampled on what little hope he’d found. I gave Ren’s forearm a little squeeze and smiled. “You may just have saved Kewri’s life.” I waited long enough to see his weather-beaten face light up, before returning to treat my patient.

The medicine didn’t take too long to prepare. Smashing a little peeled burdock root and the willow bark between two large pebbles was easy, waiting for them to stew in the hot water over the fire was the hard part. While it cooled a little, I took what duck fat I’d saved and began working in the chopped burdock leaves to make a salve against the rot.

When the brew was ready to drink, I couldn’t get Kewri to cooperate with me. “Please sit up, lad. It’ll taste something awful, but it’ll help with the pain and bring your fever down. The burdock should clean your blood before it starts to fester.” I waited for some sign of understanding, but he just groaned and ignored me. “Kewri, please sit up.”

Ren saw my struggle and called the men over to assist. It was not an easy manoeuvre, tipping him onto his side to avoid further harm to his back, and lifting his shoulders enough to pour the liquid down his gullet. I thought he might react to the bitter taste but he just swallowed it without a murmur.

There was nothing more I could do for him. The men rested Kewri in the sand on his belly and set to work on preparing the linden bark strips for twisting. While I scaled and gutted a few trout and a couple of flat fish they’d caught, Ren told me about their progress in the valley. He explained how they overcame some obstacles early on in the day by felling a few storm damaged trees that were partially uprooted, thus saving them time and effort using axes. His main concern was in being spotted by the Alchemist watchmen.

Thanks to Nectan, we now knew where the lookouts were posted and could avoid them. I worried that the speedy preparations put too much strain on our surviving horses. The men were exhausted too and at greater risk of injury. With so few of us left, we had to preserve our fighters at all costs.

Senara didn’t return to camp that night, nor for the three nights that followed. Nectan and I took it in turns to keep watch over the wounded and forage for food and wood for the fires. Kewri had his ups and downs. He almost scared me to death on the third night, with his raving sweats and thrashing about, but by dawn of the following morn, his fever broke. He ate a little for the first time in days and was well enough to sit up and wash himself - much to my relief.

The men worked long days and some of the nights to set up the foundations of our plan, and by good fortune or the will of the gods, come late afternoon of the fifth day, we were ready. Senara crept out of the dunes to join us around the fires. She carried with her a number of plucked waterfowl and a quiver packed with new arrows. I believe she meant the food to be an offering of peace to the men, but it failed to charm them. They grew surly and quiet when she lingered at their fire making her as uncomfortable as they could. In the end, she left the birds at their feet and sat with my nephew, Ren and me.

The sun was far from setting, it being so close to the solstice, but we all needed to rest before dark. Kewri offered to see to the horses while Nectan and I prepared the wildfowl for roasting. As much as I wanted to appear calm and confident in our scheme, my hands were trembling as I slashed open the birds to yank out the entrails.

Nectan noticed my jitters and gave me a warm smile. “It’ll be fine, Fur Benyn. There’s nothing to worry about.” He whispered, which only served to make me more anxious. The entire scheme rested on the information he’d given us. He certainly seemed to be confident, which was suspicious in itself. Whose side was he really on? Had he set us all up for a catastrophic failure? From captive to ally in a few short days, I was starting to doubt my trust in him. It would certainly be a clever ploy if Kenver deliberately placed Nectan among us, someone capable of influencing our actions.

I spent much of the evening mulling over my thoughts on the matter. Kenver couldn’t have known that we would spare Nectan’s life. Neither was it likely that anyone would volunteer to walk into enemy hands, risking the same torture our crewman, Treeve had endured. Since his capture, Nectan had plenty of opportunities