Bernard Cornwell - Stonehenge

'It was your men who took the stone,' Saban said accusingly.

'My men!' Lengar sneered. 'My men did nothing! You lost the stone!' He punched Saban's chest. 'You lost it, Saban!'

The two spearmen watched Saban warily in case he responded to his brother's anger with a rage of his own, but Saban just shook his head wearily. 'You think you've been cheated because one stone is missing?' he asked. 'One stone from so many?'

'If I chop off your prick, brother, will you miss it? Yet it is such a little scrap of flesh,' Lengar spat. 'Tell me, when these men attacked you with black-fledged arrows, did you kill one? Did you take a prisoner?'

'No.'

'So how do you know who they were?'

'I don't,' Saban confessed, but only Ratharryn used black-fledged arrows. Cathallo mixed the blue feathers of jays with their raven black while Drewenna tipped their arrows with a mix of black and white.

'You don't know,' Lengar jeered, 'because you didn't fight them, did you?' He plucked aside the upper hem of Saban's tunic. 'Just two scars, Saban? Still a coward?'

'One scar is for Jegar,' Saban said defiantly, 'and he did not find me a coward.'

But Lengar did not rise to that bait. Instead he had found the nutshell on its leather thong and, before Saban could stop him, he had pulled it out from under the tunic. 'Cathallo puts its spells inside hazel shells,' he said in a dangerously soft voice. He lifted his gaze to look into Saban's eyes. 'What charm is this?'

'A life.'

'Whose?'

'It is the bone of someone's bone,' Saban said, 'and flesh of their flesh.'

Lengar paused, considering that answer, then gave the leather thong a sharp tug, jerking Saban forward, but succeeding in breaking the nut free. 'I asked whose life it is,' he said.

'Yours, brother,' Saban said.

Lengar smiled. 'Did you think, little brother, that this nutshell would keep your woman safe?'

'Slaol will keep Aurenna safe.'

'But this charm, little brother,' Lengar said, holding the shell in front of Saban's eyes, 'is not of Slaol. It is of Lahanna. Did you crawl back to Derrewyn?'

'I did not crawl to her,' Saban said. 'I went to her with a gift.'

'A gift to my enemy?'

'I gave her Jegar's head,' Saban said. He knew it was dangerous to provoke Lengar, especially as he had no weapon, but he could not help himself.

Lengar stepped back and shouted for Neel, the high priest. 'Neel! Come here! Neel!'

The priest ducked from his hut. He limped because of the arrow that had pierced his thigh on the night that Lengar had killed Hengall. His hair was spiked with dried mud, a ringlet of bones circled his neck and his belt was hung with pouches in which he kept his herbs and charms. He bobbed in front of Lengar, who gave him the nutshell. 'This is a charm on my life,' Lengar said, 'a thing of Derrewyn's. Tell me how it is done.'

Neel glanced nervously at Saban, then took a small flint blade from a pouch and cut the sinews which bound the nut. He split the two halves, then sniffed the contents. He made a face at the stench, then poked at the tiny bone with a finger. 'It must be from Derrewyn's child,' he decided.

'My child, too,' Lengar said.

'She killed it,' Neel said, 'and used its bones and flesh to curse you.'

'A curse of Lahanna's?'

'She would use no other god,' Neel confirmed.

Lengar took the shell back and carefully placed its two halves together. 'Will it work?' he asked the priest.

Neel hesitated. 'Lahanna has no power here,' he said nervously.

'So you constantly assure me,' Lengar said. 'Now we can test your belief.' He looked at Saban. 'To kill me, little brother, what did you have to do? Crush it?'

Saban said nothing. Lengar laughed. 'One day I shall feed your flesh to the pigs and use your skull as a pisspot.' His words were defiant, but there was nervousness on his face as he placed the nut between the heels of his hands and slowly applied pressure. He paused, evidently wondering whether his defiance of the goddess was sensible, but Lengar had not made Ratharryn feared by being cautious. A man must take risks if he was to achieve greatness and Lengar was willing to wager his life if the reward were large enough, and so he squeezed again. It took more strength than he expected, but at last the shell gave way and the charm was crushed. He held the sticky scraps between his hands and held his breath, waiting. Nothing happened.

He laughed softly, then carefully scooped the remnants of the charm onto one palm. He gave the scraps to Neel. 'Put them in the closest fire,' he ordered, then watched as the priest went obediently to the nearest cooking fire and tossed the charm into the flames. There was a small burst of brighter fire and a hiss of fat, and still Lengar lived.

'Why should I care for Lahanna's curse?' Lengar demanded loudly. 'I live in her temple, and she does nothing. We are Slaol's people! Kenn's people!' He shouted this, making folk stare at him nervously as he brushed his hands together. 'So much for Derrewyn's curse,' he said to Saban. 'Or am I dead?'

Neel laughed at this jest. 'You are not dead!' the high priest cried.

Lengar patted his body. 'I seem to be alive!'

'You are alive!' the priest cackled.

'But Derrewyn is hurting, yes?' Lengar asked the priest.

'Oh. yes,' Neel said, 'yes! She is hurting!' He writhed to show the pain that would be racking Derrewyn. 'She hurts!'

'And Saban is disappointed,' Lengar said pityingly, then gave his brother a stare so chilling that Saban expected the sword to be drawn and buried in his belly. Instead, surprisingly, Lengar smiled. 'I shall make you an offer, little brother. I have cause to kill you, but what merit is there in slaughtering a coward? So you can crawl back to Sarmennyn, but if I ever see your face again I shall cut it off.'

'I want nothing more than to go to Sarmennyn,' Saban said.

'But you shall go without your wife,' Lengar said. 'Lest you be disappointed, brother, I shall buy her from you. Her price is the cost of Jegar's life.'

'Aurenna is not for sale,' Saban said, 'and her people are Sarmennyn's people. You think they will let her go to slake your appetite?'

Lengar sneered at that question. 'I think, little brother, that by tonight your wife will be mine, and that you will bring her to me.' He prodded Saban with a finger. 'You hear that? You will bring her to me. You forget, Saban, that this is Ratharryn where I rule and where the gods love me.' He half turned away, then twisted back, smiling. 'Or you could rule? All you have to do is kill me.' He waited a heartbeat, as if expecting Saban to attack him, then reached out and patted Saban's cheek before leading his grinning spearmen away.

And Saban ran to find Aurenna and was relieved to find her safe. 'We must go,' he told her, but Aurenna scoffed at his terror.

'I am supposed to be here,' she said. 'Erek wants me here. We are here to do a great thing.'

The nutshell had failed, Aurenna was lost in her dream of the sun god and Saban was trapped.

—«»—«»—«»—

That night Lengar gave a great feast for the men of Sarmennyn. It was a lavish feast of oysters, swan, trout, pork and venison. His slaves served it in the feasting hall and Lengar supplied generous pots of intoxicating liquor.

Lengar's own men, like the warriors from Drewenna, feasted outside, for there was not room inside the feasting hall for so many and, besides, the men outside prepared themselves for battle and so had gathered first at Slaol's old temple where they sacrificed a heifer and dedicated themselves to slaughter, then they took their liquor pots and drank deep for they believed the fiery drink gave a man courage. The women gathered at Arryn and Mai's temple where they prayed for the men.

Aurenna and Saban ate with Kereval and his men. Scathel complained that a woman should be in a feasting hall, but Kereval soothed the querulous priest. 'She is one of ours,' he said, 'one of ours, and it is only for this night. Besides,' he added, 'is not Aurenna's fate bound up with the treasures' return?'

Lengar came to the hall after dark. The cavernous building was lit by two great fires that sent their smoke up to the skulls that shimmered red in the flame-light. Smoke looped and curled about the skulls before gusting out of the hole in the roof's peak. The food had been plentiful, the liquor potent and Kereval's men were in a fine mood when Lengar arrived escorted by six spearmen. Ratharryn's chief was dressed for battle, with bronze glinting on his tunic and eagle feathers hanging from his spear blade. He beat the spear shaft against the hut's door post for silence.

'Men of Sarmennyn!' he shouted, using the Outfolk tongue. 'You have come here for your gold! For your treasures! And I have them!'

There were murmurs of appreciation. Lengar let the murmurs go on, then smiled. 'But I only agreed to return the treasures when you had brought me a temple.'

'We have brought it!' Scathel shouted.

'You have brought most of it,' Lengar said, 'but one stone is missing. One stone was stolen from you.'

The murmurs turned angry now, so angry that the spearmen behind Lengar moved to protect their chief, but Lengar waved them back. 'Will the temple have power if one stone is missing?' Lengar asked. 'When we bury an enemy's corpse we chop off a hand, or remove the foot, so it is incomplete. Why? So the dead man's spirit will not have power. And now my temple is incomplete. Perhaps Erek will not recognise it?'

'He will know it!' Scathel insisted. The gaunt priest was standing, taut with anger. 'He has watched us move it! He has seen our work!'

'But suppose he is angry because a stone is missing?' Lengar suggested, then shook his head sadly. 'I have thought deeply on this and I have talked with my priests and together we have found an answer that will allow you take the gold back to your country. Is that not why you came? To take the gold home and to be happy there?'

He paused. Scathel was puzzled and said nothing, so Kereval stood. 'What is your answer?' the chief asked courteously.

Lengar smiled. 'I must attract Erek to his temple. To a temple that is not complete. And how better to draw him to us than with his bride?' He pointed at Aurenna. 'Give me that woman,' he said, 'and I will give you your gold. I will give you more besides! I will send you back richer than you were before the gold was stolen from you — this night! I will give you the gold, but only if my brother brings me his bride.' He pointed his spear at Saban, smiling. 'You must bring me Aurenna.'

'No!' Saban shouted. He knew now why Lengar had sent men to steal the stone and he knew also that no one would believe his tale. 'No!' he shouted again.

'Send her to me,' Lengar said to Kereval, 'and I will bring you the treasures,' and with that he went back outside, unhooking a leather curtain that dropped over the doorway.

'No!' Saban shouted a third time.

'Yes!' Scathel shouted even louder. 'Yes! Why else did Erek spare her at the Sea Temple? No bride has ever been rejected, not once in all our tribe's time! There was a purpose in that rejection and now we know the purpose.'

'He doesn't want her for Erek,' Saban shouted, 'but for himself!' Lewydd was standing beside Saban now, adding his voice to the protest, and some of Lewydd's paddlers, the men who had worked for five years to bring the stones across the sea and land, thumped the floor rushes in Saban's support, but the warriors, the men who had come to escort the treasures home, were not looking at Saban, nor at Aurenna. They just stared at the floor.

Scathel spat. 'For five years,' he shouted, 'we have enslaved ourselves to regain our treasures. We have spent blood and toil. We have done what most men said could not be done, and now we are to be denied our reward?' He pointed a bony finger at Saban. 'Why did Erek spare her life? What was his purpose, if not for this moment?'