Chapter Eleven
Berwick
One month later
The tavern was called Blankenship and it sat in the wharf area of Berwick’s seedier side, a district called Hide Hill.
This lower section of society contained all of the dregs, thieves, pickpockets, robbers, and thugs that one could imagine, all of them using the dingy buildings as hovels and lairs during the day.
When night came, like vermin, they would wander out to find their victims.
Berwick had been through a great deal of turmoil over the past hundred years or so, with the English in charge of mighty Berwick Castle, then the Scots, then the English again until Richard the Lionheart sold Berwick to the Scots to raise funds for his foray into The Levant.
The Scots didn’t seem to have much interest in law and order.
The castle at Berwick, an enormous bastion with a massive keep, had become no better than a stable with all of the Scots living there like animals.
A man named Shaw MacHeth was in command of the garrison, so Addax and Essien had discovered.
In fact, that had been their task – to discover what they could about Berwick.
After MacDuff’s attack on The Keld, Cole and Addax had returned to Pelinom Castle to tell Jax everything that had happened, from Canmore’s gruesome death to the Justiciar of Scotia coming to demand de Bourne’s allegiance. The key of Jax’s focus, and everyone else’s, seemed to be Berwick.
That locale was the only nugget of information they had to go on for a coming invasion, the only thing of interest that had come up in their interrogation of Canmore, so Jax sent Addax and Essien to Berwick to discover what they could while Cole went to Alnwick to relay everything to the Earl of Northumberland, Yves de Vesci.
Once Cole was finished at Alnwick, he was supposed to return to Pelinom, but he’d returned to The Keld instead.
A month later, that’s where he remained.
Cole’s presence at The Keld wasn’t entirely unnecessary, as a liaison between his father and Alastor de Bourne, since de Bourne seemed to be such a target for the Scots, but Addax and Essien knew why he’d really gone there.
There was a pretty little blonde who had his attention.
And Jax knew nothing about it… yet.
In fact, it was probably best if Cole stayed away from Berwick considering he was a de Velt and they were known in these parts.
Addax and Essien made the perfect spies because they blended in with the rabble that came off the cogs anchored along the river’s shoreline.
Berwick was a fairly cosmopolitan port, with ships coming in from France, Spain, Lisbon, and several of the Baltic countries.
There was a blend of many nationalities here, so the two brothers from the lands beyond The Levant blended in quite well.
But it had been a long month. Mostly, they were focused on Berwick Castle and the comings and goings, but they also spent their time in the taverns and hovels, pretending to be sailors looking for a job, but also pretending to be drunk the entire time so no one would hire them and no one would take them seriously.
Addax had even taken to letting his hair grow on his face and, a month later, had a seriously bushy beard growing, while Essien had taken to shaving his head and wearing jewelry he received from women in exchange for what he termed as “services”.
Addax knew what he meant, and Essien had bedded several women who were either concubines or even wives of the Scots at Berwick Castle, so he had learned a great deal from the local women.
As he’d told Addax, a woman never spoke more loudly or more freely when he was withholding a climax from them.
Addax had to shake his head at his brother’s rather bawdy way of doing things, but it worked.
A month into their mission, they had more information than they could have hoped for.
With Addax and his bushy beard and Essien with his gold earrings and jewels around his neck, they made quite a pair on the dirty, smelly streets of Berwick, but they were tolerated and completely overlooked in most cases.
Scots from the castle would drift into the taverns and speak rather freely in front of them.
Sometimes, they would speak freely to them after they’d had a few drinks purchased for them.
One of the more important things they had learned while trolling in Berwick was the fact that MacHeth didn’t keep his fortress very secure.
The gatehouse was always open, and any number of gates down to the river were also always open and often without a guard.
There was one particular gate down at the river’s edge they didn’t even lock any more.
It remained open all the time, day and night, although if someone wandered into it and ended up at the castle, there was usually a guard at the mouth of the passage to stop them.
MacHeth himself wasn’t at the castle all of the time.
He came and he went, and although he had a wife at the castle and a few children, it was common knowledge that he also had a mistress who lived to the north in Coldingham.
When he left, it was usually by himself, as he apparently didn’t see the need to travel with a contingent of men.
However, they noticed something over the past week that had their interest. MacHeth had been present more than usual and there had been an inordinate amount of activity at the castle.
Men were coming and going, but mostly coming.
There was some kind of a buzz going on that neither Addax nor Essien could quite get the pulse of.
Something seemed to be happening, but they didn’t know what it was.
Given that MacDuff had ample time to return to Edinburgh after the battle at The Keld, it was quite possible that William the Lion was sending men to shore up Berwick’s defenses because he suspected the English knew that Berwick would be the entry point for the Northmen.
The only flaw in that theory was the fact that the castle still had loose security and men came and went at all hours in any case.
If William knew that the English were on to him, keeping the castle open didn’t make much sense.
Unless, of course, they were expecting reinforcements from the sea.
On exactly the one-month mark since their venture into Berwick, Addax and Essien found themselves in the tavern called Blankenship because this was the tavern frequented by so many Scotsmen.
There had seemed to be a particular buzz about the castle today because a group of Scots had arrived from the north the day before, and Addax and Essien wanted to know why.
They had a plan to put into motion.
Essien had been watching the tavern most of the day and he knew that several Scots from the castle had visited, but he wasn’t watching them so much as he was watching the women they kept company with.
Like most taverns, Blankenship had its share of local ladies.
Addax had been inside the tavern, pretending to be drunk, also watching to see which men found company with which women.
That would be key when Essien joined him, because Essien would then go after the women who had spent the afternoon with MacHeth’s men.
He wanted information.
At dusk, Essien entered the establishment, grabbing the first woman he came to and laughing seductively.
The serving wench had seen him in the place many times, and he was a favorite, so she laughed right along with him and give him a big kiss.
Essien asked her to bring him some ale as he left her and made his way across the crowded common room until he came to his brother, sitting at a leaning table with his back against the wall.
There was a half-filled cup of ale in his hand.
“Greetings, my drunken friend,” he said, slapping Addax on the shoulder so hard that drink splashed out of the cup. “The night is young and so are the women. It will be a good evening!”
He was being boisterous and loud, as he usually was, but the regulars at Blankenship were used to him.
In fact, he was so obnoxious sometimes that they tended to shut him out, which was exactly what he wanted.
He plopped down next to Addax, who was using his fingers to wipe up the spilled ale and then lick them.
He portrayed the perfect drunk, unwilling to lose even a drop.
“No one else has a chance with you on the prowl, you alley cat,” he said. “The evening will be good for you, I think, but not me.”
He put the cup to his lips as Essien leaned back against the wall. “What do you have for me?” he muttered, his gaze on the room.
Addax still had the cup to his lips. “Celandine,” he whispered. “MacHeth’s man has just left her.”
Essien’s attention went to the wench named Celandine who was over near the kitchens. She was busty, dark-haired, and pretty. Essien had spent time with her before and it was never wasted because she chattered like a magpie. He kept his eyes on her as he spoke to Addax.
“We have been here for a solid month,” he mumbled.
“We’ve learned what we could, we’ve made nuisances of ourselves to every tavern in town, and everyone thinks we are drunken fools.
I will glean what I can from Celandine, but regardless of what she tells me, we must return to Pelinom tomorrow. We have enough to tell de Velt.”
“We have everything except when the longships are coming,” Addax said, his lips still on the rim of his cup. “That is what we need, Es. We estimated a summer arrival, but summer is nearly upon us. De Velt must have time to rouse armies and move them to Berwick.”
Essien’s nostrils flared. “We are men of many talents, but I am tired of pretending to be a drunkard with a flair for jewels,” he said. “I have more jewels than I know what to do with. Who am I going to give them to, anyway?”
Addax sighed heavily. “That is the least of our worries.”
“Untrue,” Essien countered. “This entire month has been beneath us. I do not want to do this any longer.”
“You will do as you are told.”
Essien looked at him. “We are knights, not fools,” he said. “I want to be at the tournament in Morpeth where I belong.”
Essien often showed distain for things he felt were beneath him, as a man of royal blood.
Addax had been dealing with that since Essien had been a child, and in moments like this, pretending to be men they were not so they could glean information against the coming invasion was when Essien strained against orders.
It was true that he was excellent at what he did, and he made a splendid spy, but there were times he had resented the position he found himself in.
Like a wild stallion, sometimes Essien had to be reined in.
It was the powerful nature in him.
Addax understood because he had much that same nature, but he had more discipline than Essien did. He drained the last of the watered ale in his cup.
“Go to Celandine,” he said. “Get what you can from her, if anything, and we shall depart for Pelinom on the morrow.”
“Swear it?”
“Follow your orders, Es. Do as you are told.”
Essien grunted unhappily but when Celandine appeared again, carrying drink, he smiled brightly and got up from the table, heading in her direction.
As Addax watched, Essien gave her his very best seductive expression, took the tray from her, and sat it on the nearest table.
Then he snaked his arm around her waist and pulled her off towards the rear of the tavern, which had a yard that contained a small livery. That was Essien’s destination.
Literally, a roll in the hay.
Addax waited for him.
And waited.
The tavern filled up as the night deepened.
A cog from Copenhagen had moored along the dark river shore and the tavern was overrun with big, blond sailors who were loud and happy.
Addax pretended to be mostly passed out, awakening only to pretend to drink more ale when what he was really doing was spitting it out in the corner.
Still, he had managed to imbibe enough that he was fairly drunk and as he sat with his chair tipped against the wall, his head back as he struggled not to fall asleep, Essien reappeared from the rear of the tavern.
The expression on Essien’s face had Addax up and moving.
The Princes of Kitara didn’t wait until morning to depart.
By the light of a full moon, they headed back to Pelinom.