Celtic Tales 24, Gold, Jewels, Spices

By Jill Whalen

Young men have a chance to make enough money to set themselves up for years if they can survive battle and gather loot. The payment for the enemy troops was gold, jewels, and spices. The elite troops carried their loot with them. They had gold trim on their clothes and on their horses' tack. They had jewels inside the hem of their cloaks to hold them down from the wind. They carried spices, gold coins, and small pouches of jewels in their gear. In a sword fight it was winner take all.

These twenty-two tales let you see what risks men take for great rewards if they survive the dangers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jill Whalen
• Release date: May 19, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463757567

Jill Whalen

I am a Celtic mother of eight who is writing about family stories that have been handed down by word of mouth. I live in the beautiful Missouri Ozarks, am a graduate of Millikin University, and a member of Mensa.

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Celtic Tales 24

Gold, Jewels, Spices

By Jill Whalen

Copyright 2018 by Jill Whalen

Published by Smashwords

Table of Contents

Tale 1: Andray

Tale 2: Escandu

Tale 3: Fostered Boy

Tale 4: Megadore X

Tale 5: Zho

Tale6: Coward of Megadore

Tale 7: Megadore Chainmail

Tale 8: Banished

Tale 9: Fourth Son

Tale 10: Jon Jon

Tale 11: Poor Boy

Tale 12: Lanrod

Tale 13: The Mate

Tale 14: Balaka

Tale 15: Tolfin

Tale 16: Trade Route

Tale 17: Kero

Tale 18: DeBanyon

Tale 19: Makalata

Tale 20: Jewels

Tale 21: Tanner

Tale 22: Kallie

Tale 1: Andray

I like to see them fly except in battle. When they come down upon you if you don’t have a problem what do you have? I have in my quiver a special arrow with a tiny, tiny bit of special metal on the tip of the head. I have never used it before. I am saving it for one thing. If I am in battle and they sic the flying beasts on me, I could at least hurt them and let them know that I am there. If I kill one before they get me that would be fine.

My name is Andray. I am of the Danu. I was born there among his noble knights. I cannot read or write or do math like the scholars. I want a woman to be paired up with. There is a craving inside of me.

I was in battle. I was swinging my sword. He raised his arm to throw his ax. I chopped where there was no armor. It severed his ax arm. He ran down the hill. I got in the way of another one charging in. I cut him in twain. I turned. An arrow was coming in at me. I killed that man. I had been taking spoils over the preceding days. I sat down, drank a water flask, and drank a small one of good wine. Sometimes they have spirits. I felt so tired. The horses were tired. I got into my other stuff, tied my things on the horse, and I was up in the saddle. Some people ran away; some were licking their wounds. The old men from up the hill were trying to beat their way down. Ru was packing up and running away. I felt better so I turned and headed down the way.

The leader’s tent was a mess. Two men were setting away in a tent that was marked out for looting. I didn’t know they were behind me. I turned. There were eleven of my own young men who stood on a hillside above me. I went inside of the abandoned tents. I knew the casks held more than I had in my measly pile, so I just cut the full thing for the tent. I tied six casks on those three horses. Suddenly three of those men were back with horses and pack saddles. The others had been separated looking for jewels. They wanted to be under my protection. We packed up horses full of the chests. I freed up the saddles of two riding horses, so I had two more men mounted on chargers. We picked the men who could handle them the best as we were taught.

Another man came in ready to battle. He came from up the hill somewhere. He laughed when he saw us. He said, I am looking for two boxes of jewels for my horse and a few coppers, silvers, and golds for my purse to get me home.

One man had set out so many boxes of good stones that we could never take them all. I said, We’ve probably got more than we can take.

A couple of my men looked at me because they’d become my men while I guarded them and killed the few enemy that came at us. They looked at the stack and they looked at the horses. They knew that it was true. They all laughed and shook their heads. He had leaned down and hacked open a thing. He opened his purse and he put in a handful of what he found there. He hacked open the other one and put in two handfuls. It was a heavy purse by then. He hacked off all the hangings there. He dumped coins in from two places and tied it off across the corners. He tossed it towards one of my men who grabbed it as a ball.

He said, There are silvers and golds in there to split up for expenses on the way home.

Some of my men had already gone over by the foot of his horse and loaded up their sporrans. I put a bunch in mine because the man was right. The man on the ground just kept right on packing his horses. He only had space on one for good food, but then we put another pack on a spare horse.

I said, What have you got loaded on this horse?

He said, Two clicks down is his lordship’s food locker. You want food for us? It’s going to take days to get away from this mess. Those two boxes packed down low are full of spices. The men just looked at each other when he said that. It is the one thing that can be even more valuable than gems. He said, There are a great many spices down there, but I have them packed away. I’ve got some kind of fancy hardtack. It is easier to just take the box. I’ve got two good sized cheeses that are more than I can eat. I’ll share my food if you’ll share that man’s protection.

He pointed to me. I felt foolish at that. I’ve never been a main man before. I didn’t know that from that day at Megadore I would be. They call me Breaker because I break the back of the charges. I survived and helped the wounded into the saddles. As they were packing up I turned and went into the great tent. I rode through the opening hacking curtains aside. I got to a huge space. That was for the man leading the group. Over against one side was a temple of I don’t know what. Over against the other side was a great sword, a lesser sword, a short sword, blades, and something in a bag covered with spider silk. Very quickly on the horse I took the great sword down and all the other swords and blades. On the side was a rack for four hand axes. I took those. There was a bright colored bow case that I took too. I turned the silk over it, bound it up, and slung it up over my back. I was tired and weak, but I wanted to see what those blades were.

When I cut my load other men went in immediately, looked at the swords, and strapped them on out of my loot. It irritated me at first, but then I figured if they were going to be with me for a while, the better off they were the better off I was. There were two wine skins hanging up. I brought those back around my saddle horn. I thought about it and I unleashed them and let them fall. They have things that alter their minds. I didn’t want that. There were strange dishes partially eaten down a long table. Near the end was a huge golden bowl filled with fruit. I had that up in my sword arm and back to the tent. I put some of the fruit away inside my own kilt. Others took the rest and the golden bowl was discarded. Before I came to Megadore that bowl would seem like a large fortune. Now it was piss. Others went in and out of those tents cutting open the backs. My men and I went away eating the fruit as we went. I had an extra heavy load on my back.

The horse ran free and I had up its reins. That lead cutter came up on the other side and together we got that heavy load off my back and tied onto that horse’s saddle. He took the reins and tied them on with the rest. The old men went down there in the night searching the treasure tent. I could see them turning at me and shouting something, but I couldn’t hear over the roar. I recognized one of the sergeants from Ru. He had taken off his markings and colors. He was wearing chainmail pants, boots, and he had a bow case over his back. Some of my men had picked up extra horses as we went. I pointed to one of those that was saddled and nodded. He came over because he had a big pack made up. When I nodded others took his pack and tied it to another horse. He came along with us.

That night we were talking about experiences. He had passed his manhood trials and they had sent him away to this one thing. He was from farm lands about a month’s ride northeast of Ru. He spent time in the service of Ru. He had money and land and was in Ru’s court. He was never going to get out of Ru’s service. They protect the handsome young men for city duties. He had been in service for Ru in the city for nine years. He wiped filth all over himself when they were coming for inspection. He was sent off to do this, that, and the other thing. He did some fighting but he thought Ru was at fault. He got out of the city and never wanted to go there again. He was a tough soldier. He made it away from there with a sword and such, but nothing compared to us. He was good with that bow.

Seven of our lads were without bedding for the night. I had three spider silk sleeping bags I’d taken. I shared those out and gave them cloaks I had found on the floor of the tent. I had kept a good, spider silk, double reverse cloak for myself. You know how they get it to dye itself. That is the way it was. The outside was a dark bluish green that blended into everything. It looked like a shadow in the night.

We fought five times before we got free of that mess. I guess they were just robbers that came to rob the men from Megadore. Quite often they sheer off if there is a fair number of warriors that survived Megadore. They attacked with fifty or more men. That man had set his bow humming long before they got there. By the time we hit them the heart had gone out of them. It was our old nobleman.

I yelled to him, What are you attacking us for, you old fool?

He said, Give us the horses and we won’t attack.

I said, I saw you sitting at the top of the hill sucking the marrow out of a sheep bone while the rest of us bled and died in the mud.

He challenged me to single combat. That man from Ru put an arrow through his throat.

He looked at me and he said, I was tired of him and his mouth.

We fought against other men like ourselves that fought on the line once and got loot from dead men. They didn’t do much. We got loot out of Ru’s tent and they were trying to take it from us. It didn’t work out so well, did it?

We decided before we came out of there that we would split treasure with that thirteenth man. He had two cases of spices and we had all those jewels. We had been grabbing pretty fast. We had hard tack and cheese, so we didn’t have to hunt. We didn’t have to find food. We didn’t have to do anything. We already put water in water bags, but in the first town we came to I threw a silver on the counter. We took away all the water skins they had in the place. The place where you leave your horses had four extra horses. The man trading bought those with a gold. We were gone and out of that town. One of my men had somehow gotten eight loaves of bread, two of which were fairly fresh. You could still smell them. We ate those and gave the others to our horses. We used the bread to supplement the grass. We tended wounds. Some of them had suppurated. We lanced them, burned them, and did this and that.

On the eighteenth day after leaving there we came upon a small place out in the woods. There was a fine looking young woman living there. She went among the men. She was a healer woman and she healed most of them. We left one man there with a bag of gem stones.

She said, I didn’t do this for a fortune.

I said, Take it. You’ll be able to afford medicines and such.

She looked at me oddly and she took it. She stood there looking at us. She turned and looked at him. She hugged him at the waist with her face on his chest. He hugged her. I thought they had something good. Farmers were bringing us horse meats, cheeses, bread, eggs, and all manner of edibles to sell to us because we bought high with cash money. We were already extremely well thought of.

We finally came to a place where we holed up to kill deer and let the horses rest. We made a semi-permanent camp with defenses. We soaked in the creek. Others caught fish and did all manner of things. But most of all by the clear light of day we separated our plunder out. I saw one of the men eyeing another man’s treasure. I took two of the small chests. Other men wanted big ones to put their loot in. I packed mine full of gemstones and tied them off. I still had left two or three handfuls of gemstones of nice quality. I looked at the knives, swords, and such. I found a good sword, not a great sword, but a lesser sword. It was made of a special metal that will cut through anything. I changed my sword out for that right away. My old sword was a fine weapon made of water steel. There were other good weapons still left.

I motioned to them and I said, Come find blades, boys.

One man was really good at throwing knives. He took all the knives and put his down in place. Another man took two of the hand axes. Somebody else took the last small ax. It is a good ax for cutting firewood if nothing else. One man had grabbed a double handful of fire starters. Mine was old. I exchanged that. Pretty soon there was a pile of the least weapons we had. Some men spoke up to take one for a brother or cousin. The last few we bound up and set aside for trade goods. I packed a bit of spices that I got out of the deal. I took my horse and one of the best packhorses. I tied two boxes on the packhorse and the bow case. I put two hands of hardtack away in my kilt.

I mounted my horse and I said, There are two other fine riding chargers here folks have been riding that were mine. I leave them and I take this animal. I leave the sleeping bags we had for others. I leaned down and in my left hand I grabbed a stick. We had several chunks of meat that were slowly cooking over the fire. I took one up and I said, I take this away for food.

I rode off. I just left. I ate that roast while I was riding. I ate the whole thing because I was able to. I had one of the big water jugs. I turned off, went this way and that, up, down, and around. I went down to the city known as Mach. They call themselves a city, but they aren’t. I’ve heard tales of Ru. I was in the outskirts. I waited until morning, went to the gate, and checked in with the constable the way you have to do to find lodging. I came to the gate. The man was standing on the watch platform. I held up a silver and he pointed to a sergeant near the gate. The sergeant held a hand up like you’d catch a stone, so I flipped it to him. He caught it, looked it over, and nodded. I came up over the crowd.

He called out and said, What can we do for you, stranger?

I said, I would be having good, clean lodging for me and my horses at a fair price.

He laughed and I laughed. I liked him.

He said, If you’re looking for a fair price you aren’t going to find that at any inn I know.

I said, Where is a place where they won’t rob a man or especially eat him alive in the night and play tunes on his rib bones?

He called to the guards’ room and a young man came out. He said something to him. The young man nodded and came jogging over.

He said, I’ll show you, sir.

That was the pot boy. He fetches meals and such. He took me to a place that was built of stone. I realized it was built as a compound years ago before the city was there. That man had gone off and the city had built into that. They still had a good fair patch of open field there as well as around them. They still had guards at the towers looking out over the animals that were there. The meadows were blocked off into sub pastures. In two of them were beasts of burden. Even from this distance I could tell they were in good shape. You could see the shine of the sun on their heads. I knew there was a real calm in there. The place was long and some of it looked low, but you realized that some of those were barns. The main went up sheer walls with slits for firing up near the top. It went up three stories. It tends to keep the stench of men close by in wet weather up higher.

We went to the place where they sold beer. You could smell beer, but it was clean. Two stable boys ran. Men in the same sort of outfit came down the hall. They carried my stuff up the steps and they waited there patiently. Men took the saddles and bridles off my horses and brought them up. The stable boys put soft, heavy ropes around the horses. The horses seemed pretty happy with those lads. The lads and horses went trotting off to the stables. The lads were talking to the horses already.

The men took my stuff inside and said, Do you want fire or cool?

It wasn’t a cool day, but for some reason I said, I’ll take a bit of fire with a bit of courtesy.

They nodded their heads and they took me to a fireplace. I noticed the marks on the table weren’t carved up. They were good and comfortable. I sat down. The lady put a flagon of something down very carefully in front of me. I could smell heated apple juice. They had spiced it a little bit with something. Later on I would find out it was grape juice. It was that time of year that they had just closed their grape juice. They just added a generous portion of it to the alcohol type of apple cider. It sounds weird, but it tasted good. Some kind of spices were added too. She put down bread and butter. She took up a sharp knife from her livery and sliced off the outer open part. She cut that in four pieces and stacked them aside. She sliced off two more slices and put her knife away. She took the spare bread off the outside with her. I was sitting there with something to drink to wash the dust down. It was good.

The maid said, I wouldn’t drink more than a couple of bowls, sir. It has got fresh grape juice in it. It will cleanse you right out.

I drank half a bowl and the dust was gone. Seated on the other side of this little private fire were seven gentlemen. You could tell by looking at them that they were men of well means. By this time I had the sheath of my sword wrapped so it wouldn’t show much.

The woman asked me what I wanted there. She said she had some cold meat left over from the night before. She could slice that with some cheese or put it on bread and toast it. She had eggs she could fix any number of ways. She also had a slice of chicken pot pie left over from the day before. I told her I hadn’t had pot pie for years.

She said, You ain’t had pot pie for years?

I said, No, ma’am.

She said, Can you make do with bread for about three fingers of time?

Yes.

She said, Well, you’re not getting day old pot pie. I’ll have my fresh ones out and cooled enough. I’ll bring you a new one and you can work away at it.

One of the men got up, came over, and introduced himself. He was the caravan master. He said, Pardon me friend, but I’d like to get to know any stranger over here.

The lady of the inn came over when she saw us talking. She introduced him. He was the third son in the second generation down and over from inheritance of the second biggest spice family in Spice City. He was a confident man who would be leading caravans and that sort of thing for his whole life. He’ll never be running his clan’s business. As he said he was doing something very useful. He had a solid feel about him that came from knowing who he was, and where he was, and he answered for what he did. We talked. The lady brought out the pie for me. You could have gone from your elbow to the tips of your fingers across that plate. It was about a hand’s width thick.

I said to that