When Duncan and Conrad came into the hail, the talk quieted and the bleary white of the feasters’ faces turned to stare at the new arrivals. Dogs rose from their bones and showed their teeth at them.
At the far end of the table a man rose from his seat. He roared at them in a joyous tone, “Welcome, travelers. Come and share the board of Harold, the Reaver.”
He turned his head to a group of youths serving the table.
“Kick those mangy dogs out of the way to make way for our guests,” he roared. “It would not be seemly for them to be set upon and bitten.”
The youths set upon their task with a will. Boots thudded into dogs; the dogs snapped back, whimpering and snarling.
Duncan strode forward, followed by Conrad.
“I thank you, sir,” said Duncan, “for your courtesy.”
Harold, the Reaver, was raw-boned, hairy and unkempt. His hair and beard had the appearance of having housed rats. He wore a cloak that at one time may have been purple, but was now so besmirched by grease that it seemed more mud than purple. The fur that offset the collar and the sleeves was moth-eaten.
The Reaver waved at a place next to him. “Please be seated, sir,” he said.
“My name,” said Duncan, “is Duncan Standish, and the man with me is Conrad.”
“Conrad is your man?”
“Not my man. My companion.”
The Reaver mulled the answer for a moment, then said, “In that case, he must sit with you.” He said to the man in the next place, “Einer, get the hell out of here. Find another place and take your trencher with you.”
With ill grace, Einer picked up his trencher and his mug and went stalking down the table to find another place.
“Now since it all is settled,” the Reaver said to Duncan, “will you not sit down. We have meat and ale. The ale is excellent; for the meat I’ll not say as much. There also is bread of an indifferent sort, but we have a supply of the finest honey a bee has ever made. When the Harriers came down upon us, Old Cedric, our bee master, risked his very life to bring in the hives, thus saving it for us.”
“How long ago was that?” asked Duncan. “When the Harriers came?”
“It was late in the spring. There were just a few of them at first, the forerunners of the Horde. It gave us a chance to bring in the livestock and the bees. When the real Horde finally came, we were ready for them. Have you, sir, ever seen any of the Harriers?”
“No. I’ve only heard of them.”
“They are a vicious lot,” the Reaver said. “All shapes and sizes of them. Imps, demons, devils, and many others that twist your gut with fear and turn your bowels to water, all with their own special kinds of nastiness. The worst of them are the hairless ones. Human, but they are not human. Like shambling idiots, strong, massive idiots that have no fear and an undying urge to kill. No hair upon them, not a single hair from top to toe. White–white like the slugs you find when you overturn a rotting log. Fat and heavy like the slugs. But no fat. Or I think no fat, but muscle. Muscle such as you have never seen. Strength such as no one has ever seen. Taken all together, the hairless ones and the others that run with them sweep everything before them. They kill, they burn, there is no mercy in them. Ferocity and magic. That is their stock in trade. We were hard put, I don’t mind telling you, to hold them at arm’s length. But we resisted the magic and matched the ferocity, although the very sight of them could scare a man to death.”
“I take it you did not scare.”
“We did not scare,” the Reaver said. “My men, they are a hard lot. We gave them blow for blow. We were as mean as they were. We were not about to give up this place we had found.”
“Found?”
“Yes, found. You can tell, of course, that we are not the sort of people you’d ordinarily find in a place like this. The Reaver in my name is just a sort of joke, you see. A joke among ourselves. We are a band of honest workmen, unable to find jobs. There are many such as we. So all of us, facing the same problems and knowing there was no work for us, banded together to seek out some quiet corner of the land where we might set up rude homesteads and wrest from the soil a living for our families and ourselves. But we found no such place until we came upon this place, abandoned.”
“You mean it was empty. No one living here.”
“Not a soul,” the Reaver said sanctimoniously. “No one around. So we had a council and decided to move in–unless, of course, the rightful owners should show up.”
“In which case you’d give it back to them?”
“Oh, most certainly,” said the Reaver. “Give it back to them and set out again to find for ourselves that quiet corner we had sought.”
“Most admirable of you,” said Duncan.
“Why, thank you, sir. But enough of this. Tell me of yourselves. Travelers, you say. In these parts not many travelers are seen. It’s far too dangerous for travelers.”
“We are heading south,” said Duncan. “To Oxenford. Perhaps then to London Town.”
“And you do not fear?”
“Naturally we fear. But we are well armed and we shall be watchful.”
“Watchful you’ll need to be,” the Reaver said. “You’ll be traveling through the heart of the Desolated Land. You face many perils. Food will be hard to find. I tell you there’s nothing left. Were a raven to fly across that country he’d need to carry his provisions with him.”
“You get along all right.”
“We were able to save our livestock. We planted late crops after the Harriers passed on. Because of the lateness of the planting, the harvest has been poor. Half a crop of wheat, less than half a crop of rye and barley. Only a small oat crop. The buckwheat was a total failure. We are much pushed for an adequate supply of hay. And that’s not all. Our cattle suffer from the murrain. The wolves prey upon the sheep.”
Trenchers were set down in front of Duncan and Conrad, then a huge platter with a haunch of beef on one end of it, a saddle of mutton on the other. Another youth brought a loaf of bread and a plate of honey in the comb.
As he ate, Duncan looked around the table. No matter what the Reaver may have said, he told himself, the men who sat there could not be honest workmen. They had the look of wolves. Perhaps a raiding party that, in the midst of raiding, had been surprised by the Harriers. Having fought off the Harriers and with nothing better to do, they had settled down, at least for the time. It would be a good hiding place. No one, not even a lawman, would come riding here.
“The Harriers?” he asked. “Where are they now?”
“No one knows,” the Reaver told him. “They could be anywhere.”
“But this is little more than the border of the Desolated Land. Word is that they struck deep into northern Britain.”
“Ah, yes, perhaps. We have had no word. There are none to carry word. You are the only ones we’ve seen. You must have matters of great import to bring you to this place.”
“We carry messages. Nothing more.”
“You said Oxenford. And London Town.”
“That is right.”
“There is nothing at Oxenford.”
“That may be,” said Duncan. “I have never been there.”
There were no women here, he noted. No ladies sitting at the table, as would have been the case in any well-regulated manor. If there were women here, they were shut away.
One of the youths brought a pitcher of ale, filled cups for the travelers. The ale, when Duncan tasted it, was of high quality. He said as much to the Reaver.
“The next batch will not be,” the Reaver said. “The grain is poor this year and the hay! We’ve had a hell’s own time getting any hay, even of the poorest quality. Our poor beasts will have slim pickings through the winter months.”
Many of those at the table had finished with their eating. A number of them had fallen forward on the table, their heads pillowed on their arms. Perhaps they slept in this manner, Duncan thought. Little more than animals, with no proper beds. The Reaver had lolled back in his chair, his eyes closed. The talk throughout the hall had quieted.
Duncan sliced two chunks of bread and handed one of them to Conrad. His own slice he spread with honey from the comb. As the Reaver had said, it was excellent, clean and sweet, made from summer flowers. Not the dark, harsh-tasting product so often found in northern climes.