Bernard Cornwell - The Grail Quest 1 - Harlequin

Thomas and Mordecai were sharing the house while Sir Guil-laume visited his estate in Evecque, some thirty miles south of Caen, where he had gone to raise more men. He will fight on,“ the doctor said, wounded leg or not.”

What will he do with me?"

Nothing,“ the doctor said confidently. He likes you, despite all his bluster. You saved Eleanor, didn't you? He's always been fond of her. His wife wasn't, but he is.”

What happened to his wife?"

She died,“ Mordecai said,'s he just died.” Thomas could eat properly now and his strength returned fast so that he could walk about the Ile Saint Jean with Eleanor. The island looked as though a plague had struck, for over half the houses were empty and even those that were occupied were still blighted by the sack. Shutters were missing, doors splintered and the shops had no goods. Some country folk were selling beans, peas and cheeses from wagons, and small boys were offering fresh perch taken from the rivers, but they were still hungry days. They were also nervous days, for the city's survivors feared that the hated English might return and the island was still haunted by the sickly smell of the corpses in the two rivers where the gulls, rats and dogs grew fat. Eleanor hated walking about the city, preferring to go south into the countryside where blue dragonflies flew above water lilies in the streams that twisted between fields of overripe rye, barley and wheat.

I love harvest time,“ she told Thomas. We used to go into the fields and help.” There would be little harvest this year, for there were no folk to cut the grain and so the corn buntings were stripping the heads and pigeons were squabbling over the leavings. There should be a feast at harvest's end,“ Eleanor said wistfully. We had a feast too,” Thomas said, and we used to hang corn dollies in the church."

Corn dollies?"

He made her a little doll from straw. We used to hang thirteen of these above the altar,“ he told her, one for Christ and one each for the Apostles.” He picked some cornflowers and gave them to Eleanor, who threaded them into her hair. It was very fair hair, like sunlit gold.

They talked incessantly and one day Thomas asked her again about the lance and this time Eleanor nodded.

I lied to you,“ she said, because he did have it, but it was stolen.” Who stole it?"

She touched her face. The man who took his eye.“ A man called Vexille?”

She nodded solemnly. I think so. But it wasn't here, it was in Evecque. That's his real home. He got the Caen house when he married."

Tell me about the Vexilles," Thomas urged her.

I know nothing of them,“ Eleanor said, and he believed her. They were sitting by a stream where two swans floated and a heron stalked frogs in a reedbed. Thomas had talked earlier of walk-ing away from Caen to find the English army and his words must have been weighing on Eleanor's mind for she frowned at him. Will you really go?”

I don't know." He wanted to be with the army, for that was where he belonged, though he did not know how he was to find it, nor how he was to survive in a countryside where the English had made themselves hated, but he also wanted to stay. He wanted to learn more about the Vexilles and only Sir Guillaume could satisfy that hunger. And, day by day, he wanted to be with Eleanor. There was a calm gentleness in her that Jeanette had never pOssessed, a gentleness that made him treat her with tenderness for fear that otherwise he would break her. He never tired of watching her long face with its slightly hollow cheeks and bony nose and big eyes. She was embarrassed by his scrutiny, but did not tell him to stop.

Sir Guillaume,“ she told him, tells me I look like my mother, but I don't remember her very well.”

Sir Guillaume came back to Caen with a dozen men-at-arms whom he had hired in northern Alencon. He would lead them to war, he said, along with the half-dozen of his men who had survived the fall of Caen. His leg was still sore, but he could walk without crutches and on the day of his return he summarily ordered Thomas to go with him to the church of Saint Jean. Eleanor, working in the kitchen, joined them as they left the house and Sir Guillaume did not forbid her to come.

Folk bowed as Sir Guillaume passed and many sought his assur-ance that the English were truly gone. They are marching towards Paris,“ he would answer, and our king will trap them and kill them.”

You think so?“ Thomas asked after one such assurance. I pray so,” Sir Guillaume growled. That's what the King is for, isn't it? To protect his people? And God knows, we need protection. I'm told that if you climb that tower,“ he nodded towards the church of Saint Jean that was their destination, you can see the smoke from the towns your army has burned. They are conducting a chevauche .” Chevauchee ?" Eleanor asked.

Her father sighed. A chevauche , child, is when you march in a great line through your enemy's country and you burn, destroy and break everything in your path. The object of such barbarity is to force your enemy to come out from his fortresses and fight, and I think our king will oblige the English."

And the English bows,“ Thomas said, will cut his army down like hay.”

Sir Guillaume looked angry at that, but then shrugged. A marching army gets worn down,“ he said. The horses go lame, the boots wear out and the arrows run out. And you haven't seen the might of France, boy. For every knight of yours we have six. You can shoot your arrows till your bows break, but we'll still have enough men left to kill you.” He fished in a pouch hanging at his belt and gave some small coins to the beggars at the churchyard gate, which lay close to the new grave where the five hundred corpses had been buried. It was now a mound of raw earth dotted with dandelions and it stank, for when the English had dug the grave they had struck water not far beneath the surface and so the pit was too shallow and the earth covering was too thin to contain the corruption the grave concealed.

Eleanor clapped a hand to her mouth, then hurried up the steps into the church where the archers had auctioned the town's wives and daughters. The priests had thrice exorcized the church with prayers and holy water, but it still had a sad air, for the statues were broken and the windows shattered. Sir Guillaume genuflected towards the main altar, then led Thomas and Eleanor up a side aisle where a painting on the limewashed wall showed Saint John escaping from the cauldron of boiling oil that the Emperor Domitian had prepared for him. The saint was shown as an ethereal form, half smoke and half man, floating away in the air while the Roman soldiers looked on in perpiexity.

Sir Guillaume approached a side altar where he dropped to his knees beside a great black flagstone and Thomas, to his surprise, saw that the Frenchman was weeping from his one eye. I brought you here,“ Sir Guillaume said, to teach you a lesson about your family.” Thomas did not contradict him. He did not know that he was a Vexille, but the yale on the silver badge suggested he was. Beneath that stone,“ Sir Guillaume said, lies my wife and my two children. A boy and a girl. He was six, she was eight and their mother was twenty-five years old. The house here belonged to her father. He gave me his daughter as ransom for a boat I captured. It was mere piracy, not war, but I gained a good wife from it.” The tears were flowing now and he closed his eye. Eleanor stood beside him, a hand on his shoulder, while Thomas waited. Do you know,“ Sir Guillaume asked after a while, why we went to Hookton?” We thought because the tide took you away from Poole.“ No, we went to Hookton on purpose. I was paid to go there by a man who called himself the Harlequin.”

Like hellequin?" Thomas asked.

It is the same word, only he used the Italian form. A devil's soul, laughing at God, and he even looked like you.“ Sir Guillaume crossed himself, then reached out to trace a finger down the edge of the stone. We went to fetch a relic from the church. You knew that already, surely?”

Thomas nodded. And I have sworn to get it back.“ Sir Guillaume seemed to sneer at that ambition. I thought it was all foolishness, but in those days I thought all life was foolishness. Why would some miserable church in an insignificant English vil-lage have a precious relic? But the Harlequin insisted he was right, and when we took the village we found the relic.” The lance of Saint George,“ Thomas said flatly. The lance of Saint George,” Sir Guillaume agreed. I had a contract with the Harlequin. He paid me a little money, and the balance was kept by a monk in the abbey here. He was a monk that everyone trusted, a scholar, a fierce man whom folk said would become a saint, but when we returned I found that Brother Martin had fled and he had taken the money with him. So I refused to give the lance to the Harlequin. Bring me nine hundred livres in good silver, I told him, and the lance is yours, but he would not pay. So I kept the lance. I kept it in Evecque and the months passed and I heard nothing and I thought the lance had been forgotten. Then, two years ago, in the spring, the Harlequin returned. He came with men-at-arms and he captured the manor. He slaughtered everyone

- everyone, and took the lance."

Thomas stared at the black flagstone. You lived?“ Scarcely,” Sir Guillaume said. He hauled up his black jacket and showed a terrible scar on his belly. They gave me three wounds,“ he went on. One to the head, one to the belly and one to the leg. They told me the one to the head was because I was a fool with no brains, the one in the guts was a reward for my greed and the one to the leg was so I would limp down to hell. Then they left me to watch the corpses of my wife and children while I died. But I lived, thanks to Mordecai.” He stood, wincing as he put his weight onto his left leg. I lived,“ he said grimly, and I swore I would find the man who did that,” he pointed at the flagstone, and send his soul screaming into the pit. It took me a year to discover who he was, and you know how I did it? When he came to Evecque he had his men's shields covered with black cloth, but I slashed the cloth of one with my sword and saw the yale. So I asked men about the yale. I asked them in Paris and Anjou, in Burgundy and the Dauphine', and in the end I found my answer. And where did I find it? After asking the length and breadth of France I found it here, in Caen. A man here knew the badge. The Harlequin is a man called Vexille. I do not know his first name, I do not know his rank, I just know he is a devil called Vexille."

So the Vexilles have the lance?"

They have. And the man who killed my family killed your father.“ Sir Guillaume looked ashamed for a brief instant. I killed your mother. I think I did, anyway, but she attacked me and I was angry.” He shrugged. But I did not kill your father, and in killing your mother I did nothing more than you have done in Brittany. True,“ Thomas admitted. He looked into Sir Guillaume's eye and could feel no hatred for his mother's death. So we share an enemy,” Thomas said.

And that enemy,“ Sir Guillaume said, is the devil.” He said it grimly, then crossed himself. Thomas suddenly felt cold, for he had found his enemy, and his enemy was Lucifer. That evening Mordecai rubbed a salve into Thomas's neck. It is almost healed, I think,“ he said, and the pain will go, though per-haps a little will remain to remind you of how close you came to death.” He sniffed the garden scents. So Sir Guillaume told you the story of his wife?"

Yes."

And you are related to the man who killed his wife?“ I don't know,” Thomas said, truly I don't, but the yale suggests I am."

And Sir Guillaume probably killed your mother, and the man who killed his wife killed your father, and Sir Simon Jekyll tried to kill you , Mordecai shook his head. I nightly lament that I was not born a Christian. I could carry a weapon and join the sport.“ He handed Thomas a bottle. Perform,” he commanded, and what, by the by, is a yale?"

A heraldic beast," Thomas explained.

The doctor sniffed. God, in His infinite wisdom, made the fishes and the whales on the fifth day, and on the sixth he made the beasts of the land, and He looked at what He had done and saw that it was good. But not good enough for the heralds, who have to add wings, horns, tusks and claws to His inadequate work. Is that all you can do?"

For the moment."

I'd get more juice from squeezing a walnut," he grumbled, and shuffled away.

Eleanor must have been watching for his departure, for she appeared from under the pear trees that grew at the garden's end and gestured towards the river gate. Thomas followed her down to the bank of the River Orne where they watched an excited trio of small boys trying to spear a pike with English arrows left after the city's capture.

Will you help my father?" Eleanor asked.

Help him?"

You said his enemy was your enemy."

Thomas sat on the grass and she sat beside him. I don't know, he said. He still did not really believe in any of it. There was a lance, he knew that, and a mystery about his family, but he was reluctant to admit that the lance and the mystery must govern his whole life. Does that mean you'll go back to the English army?" Eleanor asked in a small voice.

I want to stay here,“ Thomas said after a pause, to be with you.” She must have known he was going to say something of the sort, but she still blushed and gazed at the swirling water where fish rose to the swarms of insects, and the three boys vainly splashed. You must have a woman," she said softly.

I did,“ Thomas said, and he told her about Jeanette and how she had found the Prince of Wales and so abandoned him without a glance. I will never understand her,” he admitted. But you love her?" Eleanor asked directly.

No," Thomas said.

You say that because you're with me,“ Eleanor declared. He shook his head. My father had a book of Saint Augustine's sayings and there was one that always puzzled me.” He frowned, trying to remember the Latin. Nondum amaham, et amare amabam. I did not love, but yearned to love."

Eleanor gave him a sceptical look. A very elaborate way of saying you're lonely."

Yes," Thomas agreed.

So what will you do?" she asked.

Thomas did not speak for a while. He was thinking of the penance he had been given by Father Hobbe. I suppose one day I must find the man who killed my father,“ he said after a while. But what if he is the devil?” she asked seriously. Then I shall wear garlic,“ Thomas said lightly, and pray to Saint Guinefort.”

She looked at the darkening water. Did Saint Augustine really say that thing?"

Nondum amabam, et amare amabam?“ Thomas said. Yes, he did.” I know how he felt," Eleanor said, and rested her head on his shoulder.

Thomas did not move. He had a choice. Follow the lance or take his black bow back to the army. In truth he did not know what he should do. But Eleanor's body was warm against his and it was comforting and that, for the moment, was enough and so, for the moment, he would stay.

Next morning Sir Guillaume, escorted now by a half-dozen men-at-arms, took Thomas to the Abbaye aux Hommes. A crowd of pet-itioners stood at the gates, wanting food and clothing that the monks did not have, though the abbey itself had escaped the worst of the plundering because it had been the quarters of the King and of the Prince of Wales. The monks themselves had fled at the approach of the English army. Some had died on the ile Saint Jean, but most had gone south to a brother house and among those was Brother Germain who, when Sir Guillaume arrived, had just returned from his brief exile.