VOLUME IV,
PART II
Whoever gave the order, it was never determined. But they quickly oared the ships over to the cove, rather than remain in the path of the approaching floodwaters from the broached river dam.
They no sooner saw this happen
when the floodwaters, released from high above, reached
the now blocked-up opening of the gorge. For a moment the dam held, then
suddenly a tremendous surge of waters
exploded through and up over the
blocking rocks.
How could he have known the flood
would be so violent and great? They had to see
it to believe it. He had been through ferocious storms at sea,
but this was different and worse than any
of them.
But was this going to be all?
Their enemies had been extremely
cunning, and had nearly
destroyed them--except for the
water cloud giving enough
water to fill the cove that became
their safe haven, then
the fall of rocks partly blocking
the floodwaters.
Pelted with rocks and arrows,
it seemed at first that the ships
would be overwhelmed and it would
be hand to hand fighting, with swords and
axes with their more numerous foe. But Becca,
under shields held up for him,
got the siphon ready, and
when he had his men maneuver
closest to the land, he saw
thirty or forty
Muslims rush into the water,
no doubt thinking
they might
board him.
It was now or never!
Maybe they would all blow
up together?
But he
had two men working the
bellows, and then he
released the first
burst of Greek fire.
It worked!
Deadly, all-consuming fire jetted in a long stream
from the horned dragon head, and
sprayed the leading
Muslim warriors charging forward,
and they
were immediately
running and jumping, burning
up and even throwing themselves
into the water to no avail, for
the flames burned just as fiercely under water.
Becca could not help thinking, while this
was going on, of Alissa,
what these men had done to her.
So there was no
pitying them, as they had
not fought with soldiers of their
own strength, but with a mere
shepherdess and treated
her most shamefully and cruelly,
without any pity at all.
Becca then heard shouts, Frankish ones,
coming from the heights above,
and saw Frankish troops
pouring down to
attack the Muslims from their
rear. Somehow they had eluded the
ambush!
But they could not rest on this
victory. They still had to deal
with the outlying
bands that the imam had sent
to ambush Becca.
Rushing back up the slopes, the
Franks stormed up to the Lamb Fortress,
and took it, for
no men could hold it now against
them, being so little defended it
was hopeless to resist. But the Franks did not
disturb anything and shut the
gate tight, and they waited, while
other forces hid in the rocks round
about, rocks that easily swallowed up
any number of men they chose to
put among them.
It soon happened, what they
were awaiting.
The Muslim bands that had been sent
out to ambush Becca now returned, though
warily, their weapons all held
ready for any enemies they might meet.
The Frankish commander had meanwhile made a
running search of the city and captured the imam alive, and
forced him to signal to his
men to come into the city, and
the gate, at the commander's word,
was slowly opened.
Just as the Muslims rushed to enter,
they were met by the Franks from inside the
fortress who charged out at them.
From all sides, the other Franks
attacked, and the Muslim warriors were
annihilated. The imam would have
no one left now to fight for him.
Only the women and children, and the
old people, were left, along with
whatever Christians still lived in the
vicinity.
Freed at last of their oppressors' cruel yoke, the Basques
crept out into the open, from wherever they
were hiding. Soon, tentatively at first, then
more animated, finally exuberantly, they danced
a Basque victory dance. The Frankish commander, Count
Chevalier de Rouncevalles,
turned the city completely open to them,
and told them they could take whatever
houses they wished (other than the spoils he himself
confiscated for the Emperor, of course!), for the city and citadel had all been theirs
after all. Yet the Basques hung back, as if unsure and
uncertain that he really meant it. The city was
theirs? They seemed as if they couldn't quite accept their
own freedom and good fortune, having been treated as slaves for so long.
Becca watched all this taking place,
after
the fighting was finished and the imam
was shackled and set under guard for a journey
to the dungeon in Aachen. His whole family had
fled, slipped away into the
surrounding mountains, during the confusion of battle, so
he was going alone to whatever fate
Charles decided was his due. That was just as well,
Becca thought, for the militant jehadist imam's end would probably not
be so pleasant (he would probably be quartered and drawn
by horses pulling his limbs in different directions), having taken the role of a military
commander instead of sticking to his religious duties at the
mosque. Becca brought his
locker and had a sad duty to perform.
He took Alissa's family aside among those who
had gathered. He could see at a glance that
something more was needed to be done to
built up the people's confidence in themselves,
so that they could take possession of the city
as they should, in order to keep it fast.
He went first to the Frankish commander,
explained what he was doing, and the
Frank turned over some of the
imam's and the mosque's treasure (which
also contained many items taken from the
Basques),
which was given to the family, to afford
them some solace in their great loss.
Wrapped in fine cloth, with
the treasure beside it--it was the best Becca
could think to do for Alissa's family.
Then when the Frankish commander heard
that Ranorr was the Basque
youth who had led them another
way to the citadel, thereby
eluding an ambush laid for them by
the imam, he was all the more anxious to be
generous with the family.
Becca thanked them all, saying that
Alissa had warned him just in time,
and had given her life to do it.
Because of her, his life, and the lives
of his men, were spared.
Ranorr, his father and mother, and his
younger brothers and sisters
seemed to take pride and strength
from what he as well as the Frankish
commander told them and did for them. As
their own parting gift to Becca, they handed him
their most precious possession they had,
an ornate wooden cross that
had some gilt on it which they had saved
from the city's overthrow by the Muslims
a generation before their time.
But Becca's duty was not completed.
He took Charles's imperial standard
which he had carried up from
the ship and climbed up into the
tallest tower, the minaret of the
mosque, and hung it there from the
topmost window. Then he
took the cross he had been given
and climbed out on the roof and
tied it to the topmost spire
with leather cords,
after pulling off the crescent.
Workmen, he knew, would
follow and make it more permanent, but
that would do for now--he had obeyed
the emperor's orders.
Fearing to let the
fortress go back to the Muslims
for want of Frankish residents
to defend it, Count Chevalier de Rouncevalles
commanded
the Basque people, that they should call
for more young and vigorous Basque men from
outlying areas to come and live
there, to properly defend Laith and keep it
a stronghold for Charles the Great.
"Yes, sir," Ranorr's father
assured the commander, "we will send for
them, as there is
room enough for
good, young men to make
a living now that our
enemies are so reduced in number." In exchange
for this duty, the commander appointed him
Count of the city, responsible to
Charles the emperor.
As for the captive women, children,
and the old people, what would
they do with them?
Some pled with the commander,
to allow them to remain, even
if they should have to
become servants and slaves to the
Christians. These were
assigned to various
Basque families who were
willing to take them.
Some old people were too
sick and infirm to travel, so
hearing of them, Becca
gave them money, so they would
not starve if they remained
in their homes.
But the others would have to
leave as there were no
men to support them. About these Becca had a word to
the commander.
"Let the women and children go free, sire!" he said to
the Count de Rouncevalles.
"Let them take the old Roman road
and go back to their own people
up over the mountains to the south,
for they would be a nuisance for you
to escort all the way back to
Aachen, and this way,
they will be no further trouble to you.
They cannot fight us. Let them
go free. If they wish to
accept Christos (as they have had no
Savior from their sins, only a prophet until now), then maybe
let them remain too if that
becomes their desire, and
a peacable living will be found here
for them--but only if the Basque
people accept them peaceably, of course."
The more "civilized" Franks, despite
Becca's wise and merciful words that they
all thought were exceptional for a barbarian, agreed but
made some exception too. They took their pick
the female captives for slaves and concubines, since
a number were very
attractive young women,
and the rest were
released to find their
way out, so only half of what
he had asked was done.
Seeing the Franks do this
with the young women, Becca
shook his head. Would such a woman
ever be trusted? What if she
took her ravisher's own dagger to his
throat when he
lay sleeping after he ravished
her? Would that be his fault, or
his for being so foolish and
lustful?
Now he was glad he hadn't
worn the Cross the Franks emblazoned on
their mail shirts. They
dishonored the Cross by their
behavior, and he wanted to do
nothing to follow their
poor example and bring
discredit to Christos his Lord.
Becca, evenso, after
offering the Muslim people Christos,
saw most all were determined
to leave, so he gave them
grain and wine from the fortress.
They could take all they
could carry to
sustain them on their
journey, he said.
At last, he though, the
"Lamb Fortress" had ceased to
be a den of wolves and could now
become again
what its ancient name had
described, a haven
for peaceful sheep.
Both the Franks and their commander
were amazed by this largeness of
Becca's heart, but they
did not interfere as they knew
Becca had Charles' imperial standard
and after the hunting expedition a special standing
with the emperor even they could
not claim. But
after the Muslim women
and children had gone,
he turned to Becca. "You
have shown them much mercy
today. Why? Do
you love these infidels?
Why is it that you
have a heart to help them?
Wherever they end up, they will only breed more
infidels for us to have to
fight and kill!"
"Sire, years ago I determined
I would fight only fighting men
like myself, not helpless
women and children and
the aged. God has blessed
me richly for that decision
made in my youth, and spared
me destruction many times at the
hands of my enemies. You
yourself have seen and heard
what the Lord did for me and my
men, have you not? How then can
I shamefully defile the Lord's Cross I raised
on the tower, staining it with
the blood of these
ignorant people who happen to
follow a false shepherd?
I would be a poor disciple of Christos
indeed if I behaved like that!"
The commander shook his head doubtfully. "I will
do it, but we Franks know these Muslims
and their devious ways well, ever since the Hammer
gave them a terrible pounding and drove them back into these mountains.
The mothers will never let their children
forget that this mount was once taken
by the House of Islam, as they call it,
and once taken, they will never give
up claim to it. They feed hatred of us
in their mother's milk to their babes!"
"Oh, I believe you!" said Becca. "But
we still cannot be as they are,
if we follow Christos and his Way,
can we? We are called by His holy Name.
If we choose to act as they do,
nurturing the same kind of hearts of hate, then they
will never see cause to change
and depart from their
false god and his prophet
which have done the world so much hurt!"
Franks standing around hearing Becca's
words were not happy to hear them,
but the count smiled, despite
his reservations and misgivings
about treating the Muslims with
such Christian clemency. "Indeed, the Lord
has been most gracious to you!
The eyes and ears of the
court are turned in this direction,
you may be well assured!
The emperor will soon be hearing about
the things done here by the
hand of God on your behalf!
This is a great victory for
him, and he will be very
pleased with you.
No doubt he will grant you
lands and a fine castle!"
Becca had to smile in return at
that. "But sire, I have my own ship I
built with my hands, that
is all I wish, not lands
and a stone castle on a mount! And no enemies
on board either, which might not
be the case if I were to accept
a rich fief from the
emperor, and thus gain the envy and malice
of men."
"You are right about that, you
great-hearted
Dane! We Franks are a people wise in council, noble in physique, radiant in health, excelling in beauty, daring, quick, and tough, but I must say, though you are
a barbarian, you are nearly the match of
my best Franks! I have seen many great
men fall, by the hands of
their own trusted underlings.
For the world produces
those aplenty who will always try
to pull down greater men. There are always base men who
wish to take away what you won
with your own courage and
arms. Even the emperor is not
immune from such low vermin and must
keep a large bodyguard posted at all times
of the day and night. Best
keep your one ship then, and so sleep
easily at night with your
good wife than
lie awake in a fine castle
and assassins
are hiding in the window curtains!"
"But I am not married, I have no wife,"
Becca replied.
"Well, then, be thankful for that too, Dane,
as someone else might be
warming your side of the bed while you
are off fighting the infidel!"
They both laughed, and what
had been an uncomfortable
scene now relaxed and the Franks
were friends with Becca once again.
Becca turned away and then saw
Ranorr standing
not far off, looking his direction.
There was something in his
glance, and Becca went over to him.
But the youth did not want to
say anything, he started off
walking, and Becca understood
and followed him.
Ranorr led Becca, who was
increasingly curious,
away from Laith and
along the river up the gorge
until they finally came
to the Great Stone Face.
Yet there was more to it
than a face of some bygone
emperor or ruler carved in the
living rock, as
Becca soon discovered.
Ranorr scrambled down the
steep slopes, as only a native
could, and Becca
followed slowly with difficulty,
holding onto
rock while trying to
put his feet wherever Ranorr
had put his.
Then Becca saw Ranorr
vanish in thin air.
He climbed down to
where he last saw
Ranorr, and found
a cleft in the rock.
Though the hole
he saw a large room,
caught a glimpse of
the youth, and pillars
of some underground
temple!
It astonished him,
that such a hidden place
had been here a long time
evidently, many hundreds or
thousands of years perhaps,
and Ranorr knew of it! What
could it be? Perhaps Ranorr
knew the secret of the place?
What were they? What could they be for? Who created them?
All these things Becca wondered as he gaved at these marvels of
what seemed to be crystal.
He was right, as the crystal did not subside, but
began shooting out bolts, forcing Becca and Ranorr to run for
their lives.
He found it, but it too was agitated,
shooting forth a cloud of electricity in a
highly charged field around it.
The next thing he knew is that the stone under him
was rocking and heaving as blocking stones, weighing tons each,
fell down, completely crushing the entrance pillars and
filling the space immediately ahead of him.
Thrown down, Becca lay in the darkness and flying dust,
his arms over his head, in an instinctive attempt to shield
his head and face.
Gradually, stones stopped falling, and the thundering noise
died away. He realized he had escaped, and felt
sure he hadn't been crushed in any of his limbs, as he
could move them all. Somehow,
not a single behemoth had touched him, as he hadn't yet
stepped through the portal into the entrance, which now was completely
blocked up.
Was Ranorr dead under the rocks? He
could not believe he had escaped. Yet he
began calling out.
After a few calls, he heard a sound, someone was
answering!
"Ranorr?" he shouted with his might.
Yes, he heard the youth's voice, it was Ranorr, but where
was he?
Becca had to find out, he just couldn't lie there in the
dark, without trying to reach Ranorr if he could.
He climbed up the boulders facing him, and discovered
that they didn't quite reach the ceiling of the
entrance chamber.
He crawled up and into the space above the blocking stones,
not expecting the crack would go any further. But he
found it did. In fact, there was a larger cavity or crawl space
over the rocks, winding but
long enough for him to
climb further, and reach toward the entrance far enough so that he at least
saw light. Light! He saw a wedge of light in which there was
a face--Ranorr's!
Pulling out his hammer and chisel, he set to work.
Clip by chip he began to reduce the stone in front of
Becca. It was softer limestone, somewhat eroded already, and
much easier to remove than the blocking stones, which were
solid granite.
He continued at this for some time, and Becca
thought he might as well try some words, and
after a while the mason, for such he seemed to be,
paused, looking directly at him. "My
name is Johanan," he said simply, using
Frankish language. "And you, sir?"
Frankish words, and some well-recognized words from other languages,
all came to
use as the conversation continued, proceeding
with many starts and lapses, of course, as
Becca and the rabbi got to know one another
better and how each thought. But this was
no problem they hadn't known before. The peoples of
that day, mingling together for business or
trade or even government and war, if they wanted to
do business in any part
of Charles' vast, diverse empire, needed to
make do with a word-stock that contained
words from many languages. Since
stone masonry of this type cannot be hurried, they had plenty
of time to find the proper words if they could
to communicate.
Becca learned a little more as each
searched each other out. This man was
Jewish, he was a rabbi, and
lived in the Lamb fortress with his wife
and two girls. They resided in the
crypt under the imam's palace, which had
been a church. It was there they hid
after the Franks took charge, and were safe
enough there until they
came out to greet the new commander.
"Weren't you afraid of the Franks?"
Becca wanted to know.
"Oh, I know they call themselves
Christians, and we have suffered often from
some Christians in the past who hated us, those
saying we killed their Christos, but I didn't
fear them moreso than
our captors, who were
cruel enough as infidels go. They only kept
us alive so I could serve as
the mason, doing repairs. No one
wanted my work. But they
fed us worse than their donkeys
of course! As you can see, sir, we barely
kept our skin on our bones!"
Becca could see the man was telling
the plain truth. He was very thin, and his
color was pale too, so it was
clear that he seldom saw the sun.
The hours flew rather
swiftly, as their conversation
picked up. It was amazing to Becca
how brilliant the little man was,
as he squeezed out meaning from
every Frankish word they knew in
common to get across many
different things.
The topics ranged
more and more afield.
Becca mentioned the
cave and its contents at one point.
The mason-rabbi seemed interested.
"There are marvels in it, far beyond
what ordinary men could create," he
told Johanan.
He tried describing them, then
asked who could be the beings
that created such wonders.
The rabbi had an answer! He was
sure about it too!
"They are the Nephillim, and the
rabbis and teachers of old
have written much other about
them and their acts. They are the
Fallen Ones, a race of what
you call giants today. But they
were really the Titans, as the
Greeks of old named them, and
though they were indeed fallen
from God's kingdom of heaven,
they were not necessarily
giant in stature. Yet they
were superhuman in powers, and
they lived upon the earth at one
time, and came and intermarried
with humans, with the
lovely ones of the
womenfolk that they picked out
for their pleasure. And they bred
children from them, half-human and
half-Titan. These children grew
and waxed great and became the
Giborim, the mighty hunters with bow
and sword and slingshot, such
as Nimrod who built the Tower of Babel
and defied God. But the Flood
came, by the command of God Almighty,
and destroyed them all.
How could that be, rabbi? Becca asked.
You mean they are all dead?
Is this place they built
down in the mountain
then so great in age, that
it was fashioned before the
Great Flood of Noah?
Johanan didn't know the answer,
but he replied it might
be that old, or even older.
But what if it isn't,
what if it is something
done after the Flood. Wouldn't
that mean the Titans, or at least
some survivors of the Flood,
are still alive?
The rabbi thought that was
possible, and he hurried to
clear away the last
portion of stone blocking
Becca's way out.
He turned to thank the rabbi, but
the rabbi didn't wait for
any such thing and after a
yank or two on the rope, he was
drawn up by the Franks who
kept hold on the rope on
the crags above.
Becca waited for his turn, but
suddenly a bundle of old clothes
fell past his shoulder and tumbled
into the river.
He knew he might strike
rocks under the water, but
he gave a Danish war whoop
and jumped.
Rocks stood out of the current in many places,
dangerous to any boat, but one of these
snagged the rabbi, and Becca
reached him just before he slipped off and back into the
main current. He seized the rabbi under his arm. Lunging toward the
river's shore, Becca reached the
rocks nearest him and with the rabbi
still tucked under his arm got ahold of
a rock and pulled himself up.
Being a water-born Dane, acquainted much
with drowning men, he knew
ways land-dwelling folk did not know.
He pushed and pushed, then breathed in
his own breath into the rabbi's lungs,
and did this until the rabbi suddenly
got rid of all the water he had swallowed
and began gasping for air.
His eyes opened, and he lay weakly on the rock, but
he was alive.
Becca was overjoyed the rabbi
would be able to rejoin his wife and family
and not leave his wife a widow and his childrfen
orphans--especially with
Franks in charge who might not
want to help them since they were Jews.
That thought reminded him. He had some business
to complete with the Franks!
You couldn't cross a Dane so badly and
not expect a fury that was beyond
description to seize upon his whole being.
A very stern, icy-cold look took over his expression,
replacing the joy. Danes looked like that
whenever their whole being was affronted by some
deed of base treachery, and
there was hell for somebody to pay who had
injured them with.
Becca glanced up at the crags above that lined
the narrow gorge, but he could see no one.
Perhaps, the rabbi's persecutors thought they had
taken care of two birds with one stone--getting rid
of both the Jew and his protector,
with their bodies floating somewhere downriver
for the birds and fishes to devour.
Well, Becca was very much alive, and the rabbi
too, and they would soon see
how wrong they were!
It took Becca's great stamina to
get the rabbi back up to the top of the gorge, as they
couldn't get to the Laith Fortress by going downriver, not with the
sides of the gorge so steep and
full of fallen boulders.
When they reached the top, at first they
saw no one, but soon a Frank came forward
from the rocks and greeted Becca, a surprised
look on his face. He also glanced at the
rabbi, and was even more surprised.
The Frank's face went ashen. "You mean you
saved the Jew?" he cried. "You saved him?"
Becca seized the Frank before he could even
draw his weapon, and was throttling him as he
demanded, "Yes, what of it? I am a Christian!
I didn't come here to kill innocent Jews! Were you the one holding his rope
and you let it go?"
"No, no!" the Frank gasped. "Let me go!
Several held the rope that let the Jews down
and then cast him into the river.
I will lead you to them. You can do with
them as you wish then."
Becca released his deadly, iron-like grip, and
the Frank, the moment he was free, took
off running.
"I'd kill you right now, you bastard of
a dog and a pig," Becca growled into the Frank's ear, "except I want to know what happened.
Who did this to the Jew--you, or were
there others?"
He tightened his grip round the
man's throat.
"I can't tell you!" the man rasped.
"They'd kill me if I--"
Seizing his hair and scalp, Becca smacked the man's head on the
hard ground, put a fist to his
back and stomach a few times,
and the man lolled in his grasp,
softened up a bit and more
likely to tell him what he knew.
"All right, if you won't
tell the truth to me, then I will
do with you as we Danes do with
our betrayers and liars--I will cut off your
flesh, strip by strip,
show it to you, then proceed to your
liver, and thrusting my hand in, I'll rip it out and
feed it to you, piece by piece!
Is that what you want to happen
to you now? Speak, and
save your rotten hide!"
The Frank's eyes rolled with
horror in his head, he
was so terrified he
gasped, "I will lead you to
the others who did played
this trick on the Jew. I was
just watching them do it.
I am not the one you seek!"
"I have only now come
to find out how you are doing,"
he said, greeting Becca with
his arms out.
He glanced down at the Frank
that Becca had pinned to the ground
with his foot on his neck. And he
also saw the Jew standing in
Becca's shadow.
"But what is going on?
Why are you punishing that
man?"
Becca could hardly hold his
temper, but he did, respecting
the commander. "You sent some
base men to help us. That
is the truth. After this
Jew freed me from a
rock chamber, they let him and
his rope fall into the
river, thinking he would perish.
And they thought I would
concede to the death of
a Jew--even if that Jew were
my rescuer! I mean to show them
how wrong they are. Where are
the men? This man tells me
he knows who they are, and
will point them out to me.
I told him I will not
kill him as he deserves if he tells the truth.
Will you stand in my way,
or see that justice is done?"
The commander's face changed
expression, and he grew just as
stern as Becca looked, and he
shook his head. "No, I will
not stand in your way, Dane!
Go root the guilty ones out. I don't
care how many there are. Do with them
as you deem best,
as they are no longer
soldiers I would claim to
bear my ensignia.
I befriended the Jew, and
I was right about him, for
he has done you good service
and me as well in your rescue,
so how could I
accept such base treatment in return
of the Jew--so
do with those
men, according to your own people's law, just as you please, Dane,
for I wash my hands of them!"
To put power in Becca's hands, he
granted him his own bodyguard, and
Becca then proceeded. As for his own men,
he thought to send for them, but
in the meantime he had
the bodyguard, in case
there was a mutiny in the
Franks against their own
commander's order.
His pigeon in tow, Becca
strode into the midst of the
Franks, and they parted to let him
pass.
"There, he is one!" said
the pigeon.
Immediately, he was seized
by the commander's bodyguards
and held.
"Speak truth to me, and you will
fare better. Speak lies, or do not
speak at all, and you will
suffer the consequences.
"Did you cast the Jew into the river,
when you knew he was
my benefactor and sent by
your own commander to my aid? Speak!"
The Frank remained silent, his eyes
showing how much he hated Becca and
Johanan standing nearby.
Becca left him alone for the moment,
then went to the rest, and each
in turn followed the
first in refusing to
speak.
Becca then turned to face the
other Franks, other than the bodyguards.
"Will you put them to death for their
base treachery to a friend of mine and
for their dishonoring a command of
your commander, or
must I do it according to
my Danelaw?"
The whole atmosphere suddenly
grew tense, strained.
The Franks, shoulder to shoulder,
declined, they were opposed to a man to
punish one of their own, and looks as if
they wanted to fight anyone who tried
such a thing.
Becca glanced over to the commander,
and he saw the look of disgust on
the commander's face. He
was taking no chances either, and
had his sword drawn.
Becca then turned to do his
duty, to avenge the Jew on his
attackers and also to
vindicate the commander's
honor, which had been betrayed
by these six men and even by his
own force in not
taking the men and doing what
was just to do to
wipe away the crime.
He drew his knife, and
went to the first man, who was
then, at his order, pinned
on a big flat rock, his
shirt mail stripped off,
and his chest bared to
his knife.
Rushing, they came to
the encampment just in time
to interpose themselves between
the Franks and Becca. As for
the bodyguard of Franks assigned
to them, Becca had already
sent them back to their commander,
saying, "I will not ask you to
defend me against your own
comrades! My God, Christ, stands
with me, and He is enough!"
Standing in rows with their bows drawn,
the Northmen and Danes stood facing
the equally armed force of Franks.
This sobered the Franks, who saw that
many of them would now die if they
rushed at Becca to rescue the
six men in his hands.
As they fell back somewhat
confused, Becca thought to try
one more word with them, to
take away some the fire in their
hearts if possible. Though he
had Greek fire, and his archers'
could dip their arrows in it
before sending them into the
Franks, he was loath to use it
against his own confederates with
whom he had shared a battle and victory
over the Muslims.
"Hear me, Franks! Becca the Red,
son of Rasmus, wishes only peace
with you. Your commander only
wishes peace amongst us. So why
are we arrayed against each other.
These men given into my hands
have betrayed the both of us, have
they not? Think on it. They
did not count the Cross of the
Christ anything worthy, as they
dirtied it with their own
base treachery against an
innocent man who had befriended
and rescued me from the
rock tomb..."
He paused, and saw his words
were creating some second thoughts,
if the expressions changing from
fury and anger to
something approaching shame
began to spread among the hundreds
of faces.
Would you want that stain on your
own Crosses which you bear
on your mail shirts--a stain that
heaven itself would see and
abhor? No! You wouldn't!
But if you defend these
base fellows now, and fight
us innocent men for them and
approve their crimes, then you
are one with them and their crimes
in the eyes of Christ whose banner
you hold and serve under. What say you?
Will you resist a just punishment
due them?
There was a rumble that passed through
the ranks of the Franks--and it gathered
volume, until finally it was a
thunderous "NO!"
"Will you then stand with me for the
sake of the Cross?"
An equally thunderous "YES"
greeted his ears, and the entire
atmosphere changed, from
outrage and anger to
peace and agreement.
Just as amazed as anyone that
this happened, Becca turned back
to the traitors.
Everyone watching his every move,
he drew his knife which was sharper than
even his sword and went up to the first, then
took a sharpening stone from an
inner pocket in his hair shirt.
Whetting it against the stone,
he eyed the first of the traitors.
The man's eyes widened, and he
struggled in the hands of the
Northmen holding him. His chest was
bared, and open now to the knife.
Becca knelt down and put the point of the
knife to the man's ribs, where the
skin was most tender and sensitive.
The man gasped. His eyes
squeezed shut and he groaned,
trying to twist away from the point
of that Becca's knife.
"No, I have thought of something
more painful than carving this
roast! I will try that first.
Everyone was amazed. What could be
worse than flaying the man and then
making him eat his own liver and other
organs piece by
piece until he expired in utter
agony?
Commander on down to the last Frank, the six hundred
man force and the Danes and Northmen
watched spell-bound as Becca
drew aside Toari, his second in command,
and then Toari hurried away, got
two leather goatskin waterskins and
brought them. Toari slit the one, using the
other to give the man a drenching, including
pouring water into his mouth that
the
Northmen held open.
He sputtered and gasped as
he spat out water.
That done, Toari slit the
other waterskin, poured that water
over the man again, with his
fellow Franks of the six captives
looking on, with the same results.
Then Toari slit the bat, and made one piece
of it. This he handed to Becca.
"Tell me," he commanded the man on the ground, "what
did you do with the Jew? And who helped you?
Tell me the truth and we will not deal so
harshly with you and let you live."
Despite his sodden, bedraggled state, the Frank
turned his face aside, refusing to talk. Becca
then glanced at the other five, being held
as spectators of the first to be made an example of.
They too were solidly allied, all defiant.
"Very well then," said Becca with a slight smile, "we'll
have to do our worst as barbarians to
this man to get the rest of you to see reason and
tell us everything we want to know."
The man on the ground groaned, shut his eyes, and
expected the knife, but instead Becca laid the
wet goatskin like a blanket over the man's face,
and for a moment there was silent, then
they all heard horrible shrieks and gasps
and he struggled violently to get free but
could not, as his body thought he was drowning,
though he was not.
An old Danish custom to get traitors to tell
the whole truth, it worked like a charm.
It never took very long, before the
culprit spilled everything he knew.
Terror was still in his eyes as Becca
yanked off the wet leather skin from
the man's face. "Speak!" he commanded.
And the man opened up. He was only to
eager, to spare himself that terror of
drowning, something he had thought to
inflict on the Jewish rabbi.
"Mercy, mercy, Lord Becca! I'll tell you
what we did! I'll tell you all!"
And indeed he did tell, breaking the
silence they had all vowed to keep.
With everyone present hearing every word,
he named his five collaborators, and,
what's more, babbled on about how they
had plotted to...then one of the
other captive Franks stuck his leg out and kicked him, and
he stopped.
Becca saw this and grabbed the
one who kicked the interrogated man
into silence, and threw him to the ground
and put his foot square on his neck, pinning
his face to the dirt and rough rock while
he proceeded to receive the rest of the
testimony.
He motioned to Toari to administer
the "water skinning" as it was called.
He then addressed the man. "I'll have to
teach you another lesson?"
But the moment the skin touched the Frank's face,
his body remembered, and
he convulsed, and cried for mercy again, and
Becca had the skin removed.
This time he did tell all. He added that
the drowning of the Jew was just
a bit of fun they had together, not
expecting that Becca would make such a
big fuss about it. But what they had
planned was to turn the fortress back to
the Muslims, betray it with its
slim force of defense to the
mountain Muslims, for a certain
sum of course! The Six
were part of those who had volunteered
to remain behind. They had seen this as
their chance to get rich quickly.
And once the money was theirs in hand,
they would fly to some other country
to enjoy the money in
any way they chose. It had seemed
the perfect plan, only the
little affair of the Jew had
messed everything up!
By this time, the man was
weeping, and Becca was too disgusted
to spend anymore time on him. He rose
and faced the whole gathering.
It had been an ugly confrontation just
a short time before, offering to
end in the deaths of himself and his
men and many of the Franks too, but now
all was changed. The Franks all looked
abashed and ashamed at what fellow
Franks had plotted and would have
carried to completion but for Becca and
his choosing to defend a "mere Jew"
who had been thought fair game for
persecution up to then.
Becca knew what they were thinking.
He had Toari escort the rabbi
to a place where all could see him.
"This brave man saved my life, in freeing
me from the blocked chamber in the
mountain. He has been done a great
disservice for his kindness to me. Your commander
sent him to my aid, and, look how he was
rewarded." He
lifted the rabbi's hand and held it, then
challenged the Franks, including the commander
who was witnessing all this reversal
of fortune. "What is your thought now toward
this innocent man? Should he be rewarded for
his kindness, and also for the ordeal he
suffered at the hands of these base traitors?"
The whole company did not hesitate. They
lifted their weapons and shields and roared
their approval.
Becca was satisfied. "It will be so done!" he
shouted back.
He then had Toari and others escort the rabbi
back with an honor guard, along with
many Franks who wanted to join in, to the
Fortress. They carried him on their
shoulders!
As for the traitors, he turned them back
to their commander.
"I have no desire to punish them, I only wanted
the truth, and since we now have it,
these men are yours to deal with. As for
the one who spoke the truth, at least
show him mercy and spare his life. The one
who stopped him from telling me the truth,
well, give him what he deserves. As for the
remaining four, that is up to your discretion.
But Christ would give them all a chance
to repent, lest their souls be lost to
the fires of hell! Let the priest first
offer them repentance, sir!"
The commander nodded grimly, took charge
of the men, and Becca and his crew were free
to return to the squadron in the river.
But he did not go there immediately. He
followed the rabbi's entourage into the
Fortress, intending to seek a final word
with the man who saved his life and perhaps
reward him further. After all, the rabbi
must have a family hidden somewhere, he thought,
and how were they faring and being
treated under their new masters the Franks?
He would go personally and find out. What he hadn't
thought of was that word of everything
proceeded him, so that he had
a great surprise for himself in store.
Becca and his men had just
gotten their ships into the
safe haven to the left side of the
gorge when the cliffs began falling in
an avalanche that
blocked the gorge hard to their right. What had done it?
They had felt no quaking of the earth.
In their safe haven they all watched,
utterly speechless, as the floodwaters
surged past them. It did them no harm whatsoever
as the tumbling mass of waters swept downstream, rolling big boulders down
the channel with an appalling roar that
could make a heart stop.
Becca could now see that they would never
have survived more than a few moments if they had remained in the
main channel. If the
fall of rocks had not happened,
they would have stood no chance at all.
They would have been swept away by the waters and
the boulders like so
many leaves on a mountain brook and
dashed against the rocky sides of the
river and all their lives lost.
But there was no time
rejoice over their deliverance, for
the Lamb Fortress had sent
its last defenders down the defile,
and they now attacked. The Franks
had been caught in an ambush and
thus were not coming to join Becca,
it appeared. Holding
the upper ground, they were so
sure they had the advantage,
the imam had let all his remaining
fighting men go.
Caught between Becca and
the Franks, the Muslims
still fought ferociously even with all hope gone, but
the battle was soon over,
and the sloping ground was littered
with their bodies, burnt up by Becca's
Greek fire or pierced by
Frankish swords and arrows, while
a fair number had skulls split by
Danish and Northmen's axes.
The next few days were very
busy, of course, as the Franks and Becca too saw to all the
details of making the Lamb Fortress
defensible again, garrisoning
it with selected men, who had indicated
they wanted to remain and perhaps
marry among the Basques and
raise families, though
few Franks cared to do that, as
the place seemed far too primitive
for their tastes and
and the mountains too savage
and remote.
Beneath them was the dark, rushing
water, and so a fall
would give them
a most nasty shock in the ice-cold and rocky-bottomed stream.
He followed Ranorr in, and
the pillared room proved to be only an entrance, for
the main chambers lay beyond, deep down in the bedrock of
the mountain. Ranorr went quickly, as
the steps were lighted from something like living fire in them,
and Becca had to move quickly too lest he
lost sight of him. Finally, Ranorr
came to the ground floor of the
huge, cavern like chamber, and
he stood gazing at a blue-glowing crystal he
had selected from the other
glowing objects.
He then turned to Becca, and presented it to him. Becca
understood. This was Ranorr's reason for bringing him here, he wanted
to give Becca his benefactor something precious, and this
was the best thing he had. Becca took the crystal,
and did not know what to say or what to do with it,
but he thanked Ranorr. But there were far more things to look at than one crystal, and
Becca set the crystal down as Ranorr went to show him other things as well.
Becca found especially intriguing a certain mirror-like
item that glowed with life and showed scenes of some land he had never imagined. Where could it be?
It held all sorts of objects the earth did not have, but some of which
he saw here in the cavern, both broken and unbroken mixed together.
But Ranorr did not pause long in this chamber, and led
his benefactor further on to a yet larger chamber. Here were
huge serpent-twined columns, an obelisk and other crystals of various shapes,
all glowing color, light, and power.
Beyond that chamber was a third, just as impressive, for held a vast pool or lake.
In it Becca observed huge floating globes, that seemed alive as they
moved this way and that, but always in line,
serenely cruising along the shores.
The serene scene was soon disturbed dramatically, however,
when Ranorr picked up a stone, as youth characteristically do,
and flung it at the first and biggest of the
floating globes.
The crystal globe erupted, changing colors, and the water churned
around it. Becca saw that they might have to leave the
area, if the crystal got even angrier, as it seemed it might.
They made it safely into the adjoining chamber they had
recently left, and Becca, still wanting to leave the entire underground
chambers because he felt danger in the air, turned to see if
he might take the crystal with him that Ranoor had given him.
Becca could see others too in the chamber were doing the same thing.
He knew now that their presence was abhorred by the objects in the
place, and he wanted only to get out of there as quickly as possible.
Ranorr had the same instincts he had, apparently, for he
was running already. Becca let him go ahead, since he could help him if
he fell or got into some difficulty. Both of them made it up
the stairs just as huge volumes of blocking rubble cascaded down
behind them, sealing off the two large chambers from the entrance.
As for the entrance, Ranorr dashed through it, and
then came a tremendous rumble and grinding commotion overhead that
stopped Becca in his tracks.
Climbing up toward the wedge of light, he found not only
that he was still blocked in, for he couldn't get through the space,
but Ranorr had vanished. Ranorr! he called out long and hard, but
the youth never answered, and the echoes returned, mocking the trapped
caller. What was Ranorr thinking? he wondered. Leaving him
like that, without a word?
It seemed hours in that confined space, but Becca heard
a scratching sound, and crawled back up to the
crack to see if he might look out. Perhaps it was Ranorr?
He fully expected Ranorr, but instead he saw a strange face, that of
a dark-bearded little old man, who had a bag of some kind of tools
suspended from a rope over his head. Amazed, Becca could not think to say or
do anything, but simply watched to see what the
visitor would do.
The stranger did not seem to be put off by
Becca's plight, but inched forward until he was
within reach of the area he had chosen to work on.
Becca was amazed that he was
free when he finally tried the hole
and was able to squeeze out.
He hung there for a few moments,
breathing the air of a free man--how
delicious the fresh air and light
was, not like the prison
inside the blocked chamber!
As if to answer his
question, the rope came falling next, the
bag of tools still attached to it!
And he heard Franks' laughter echoing from above him!
He didn't have time to
think. He had to do something
now!
The water was just as much a shock as he anticipated. He
ignored it, however, and swam as fast as he could to catch up
with the rabbi, who was drowning, face down but being carried
with the swift current.
/center>
Becca followed, despite his
recent ordeal in the river, he summoned
his reserve of strength and ran even faster, and
jumped and brought the Frank down.
He soon had him subdued.
But it was
well for Becca that his
crew showed up, word having
gone down to them that their
captain needed them. Who had
sent it? Nobody could say
after these events--but they
were informed to
make haste, with all their arms,
including what was left of the
Greek fire.
The arrival of the Jew,
attended by both Franks and
Becca's men as a great man might be, had
captivated the whole attention of the people and soldiers
of the Fortress. Word of what had happened
with Becca and the traitors, and how their city
was spared betrayal back into the hands of the Muslims--who
surely would have behead every single one of them
in vengeance, not sparing even the women and children--
made the people all the more jubilant, even to the
point of hysteria!
As Becca walked through the gates swung open to him
by the guards, he found the whole populace of Laith packed tighly into the
narrow street beyond, cheering him and his men with
an exuberance that only the Basques could muster! Becca's ears, which
were not so used to the shrieking ululation of the women, were deafened temporarily
as the crowd erupted. Both men and women were bathed in tears of joy and
relief. They all certainly knew they had just been spared certain death and
destruction, and they all knew it beyond any doubt. If not for Becca, they would have
lost everything. He was so astonished even so, not having planned
any of the events of the day, and know how impossible it was for him
at every point to make it all come out right, but
then Ranorr and his father came running up to him,
bowing and even kissing his hands.
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