There were no Murcian survivors once we caught up with them. And in the middle of that carnage we dragged Ædwulf from the puddles.
He had breath just enough to speak some dying words. He said this was how he wanted to go – gloriously, on the War Path. He honoured each of us by name, praising our loyalty and courage. Even Cynric was praised, for he fought alongside us that day. But Ædwulf saved the last of his words for me.
“Twyla is yours now. And my son Aldric, take care of them both. Go forward and become a great Man!”
I knew then that he had known about me and Twyla all along. Then he was dead, and all the Men cried.
“He should have left Aldric to me!” Cynric spat, as heavy rains began to fall. “He took my son, it only stands to rights that I should have his!”
The others berated Cynric for this disrespect, but his resentment did not abate.
We had won the battle, but there were no celebrations in the village that day. Ædwulf’s body was dressed in fine armours and he was buried in a barrow befitting his life and unparalleled status.
Twyla cut her hair, as all women do when their husbands die, but she did not mourn long. She wanted babies, and I loved her very many times to make doubly sure it would happen – Dousing my newly lawful load freely within her!
Such things were commonplace, that a Man should inherit another’s wife. But the question of Aldric was quite different. He was no wife. Ædwulf had earned the right to Aldric’s body by lifting Cynewulf’s stone, and had also made himself the very last to do so by breaking it on the summit. The Elders discussed the matter among themselves three days and nights. In the end it was agreed that the Hero’s dying wish should be the law, and it would please the people to see it done. This honour seemed something too great to accept, but I made no objection.
I did not see Aldric for yet another month. He hid himself away to mourn, up in the hills with the Sorceress, his mother. I was plenty busy in his absence with my wife, but I did wonder about him. I wondered if he would want me. I wondered if I would want him. Twyla was already making me happier than I believed I could be, but when Aldric did finally return I found I had desire enough for them both.
He came to me by night, and having shaved away his whiskers and all the hair of his pubic mound, he looked just as he did when we were young. Aldric had not a single tattoo or scar. He’d done nothing to make a Man of himself while I had been going to war.
Before long I was banging his ass with all the same tenderness I had for Twyla, and over the nights I let my passions alternate between the two. Each was respectful and knew when to be needed and when to be gone.
And I did not flaunt my authority over Aldric the way Ædwulf had done. Having never carried Cynewulf’s stone (nor anything even close to such a great deed), it was not my place to show off. I never loved Aldric for the entertainment of others.
But if Twyla was worried I would forget about her the way Ædwulf had done, I soon put her mind at ease. In fact the two got on well at first, and even better after, so that in the fullness of time I could bed both my sweethearts together! Ædwulf had gifted me with such pleasures as are denied all other Men.
But like his legendary Father before him, Aldric was not for this world. I returned one dark day from fighting our enemies in the north to find my boy dead, his body in a broken heap at the foot of Bal Tor. Although there was no witness to the tragedy, everyone could guess at what took place. Mad with jealousy, Cynric had kidnapped Aldric in my absence and marched him to the summit of Bal Tor, where he determined to make the boy his in an unlawful ceremony of his own. But Aldric would not be taken, and in the tumult they were both thrown from the precipice. The Coward died also in the fall, and like the hated murderer he was, we did not honour him with burial.
I shed more tears for Ædwulf’s wanton son than I did for the great Man himself. At least they would be reunited in the map of stars. I see them together as Star-men in dreams – Aldric settled snug on his Father’s great cock for all eternity.
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