We were three quarters of the way across the bridge now and I glanced over at Einhard. He saw my look and he grinned at me as his green eyes flashed with excitement beneath his winged helm. He’s actually enjoying this, I realized, grinning back at him as I realized that I was too.
An arrow thudded into the head of the ram and another smacked into Einhard’s shield and then careened crazily away. We were in range now and Einhard shouted for more speed, urging us forward as we began to run faster, aiming the ram straight at the massive portcullis blocking the doors. I could see the men clearly on the ramparts now as they leaned over to shoot down on us. I heard a grunt behind me and stole a quick glance over my shoulder to see that Tato had fallen with an arrow through his throat. Our pace faltered slightly, but then the rest of us compensated for Tato’s loss and we kept going.
Einhard was grinning like a madman, spittle flying from his mouth as he took great gasps of air into his lungs and finally he shouted, “Now!”
From behind we heard the battle cries of the women rise as they spurred their horses forward and then the sounds of their arrows smacking against the stone battlements. I watched as the Ganders above us ducked beneath the onslaught and we whooped with delight as an arrow caught one of the archer’s in the shoulder, spinning him around before he dropped from sight. We were closing in on the gatehouse now and both Einhard and I shared a knowing look. He nodded and gestured with his chin and we shifted away from the doors, aiming now for the wall to the right of the portcullis. Any moment now, I knew, watching as we bore down on the thick stone wall. I bit my lip, thinking Einhard had waited too long, and then he cried out the command to stop. We plunged the head of the ram down and into the ground, while behind us the Piths in the middle broke off and headed to the back of the ram, where together, the rest of the warriors heaved upward. The ram slowly rose to a vertical position as we struggled to keep it in line with the wall, then, at a signal from Einhard, we let it fall toward the gatehouse. The back end of the ram crashed into the wall, causing a great puff of dust and dirt to rise from the stone and we had to move quickly as the cut base of the tree started to slide along the cobblestones. Several of the Piths ran to support the center of the ram and they heaved it back just in time, and then, with all of us grunting and groaning, we lifted it up as high as we could. The ram now lay angled at a steep pitch against the wall, but I realized with dismay that the branches were aligned up and down rather than side to side.
“Turn it!” Einhard urged us as the women continued to pour arrows up at the ramparts. One of the braver Gander archers had chanced taking a look and I saw him peering down at me from directly above my head. His eyes widened in shock as he realized what we were doing, and a shout of warning rose from him before an arrow struck the stone near his face and he gave a frightened squawk and disappeared.
“They know!” I called out to Einhard.
The Piths had just righted the tree so the branches were facing out and without thinking, I cast aside my Gander shield and began clambering up as fast as I could. I heard Einhard call to me but I ignored him. I made it to the top of the ram and I looked up, cursing as I stretched as far as I could but found my fingers still two-feet short from the end the banner. I felt a body pressing close against my legs and I looked down at Einhard, who’d followed me up.
“Get on my shoulders!” he shouted up at me.
I nodded my head and stepped onto his left shoulder, then pushed up with my foot. I heard Einhard grunt below me and I reached upward with my left hand, this time just able to get hold of the banner. I held on as tight as I could and then swung my right hand in an arc and grabbed the banner with it as well. I said a silent prayer to The Mother and The Father that the banner would hold me and then I started to drag myself upward. Hand over hand I pulled my way up, while below me I could hear the Piths cheering me on. A head appeared above me and I realized it was the same archer as before. He was leaning over the parapet no more than five feet above me and I saw him grin as he placed an arrow in his bow and aimed down. There was nowhere for me to hide. I considered just letting go, deciding a fall to the ground was better than an arrow through the head, but then the Ganderman stiffened as an arrow buried itself in his right eye and he collapsed forward, lying draped over the parapet. The bow he’d held fell from his lifeless hands and I had to look away quickly as it cracked across my helmet before plunging to the ground. I glanced down over my right shoulder and grinned my thanks to Alesia where she sat watching me from atop her horse. She grinned back and saluted me with her bow before drawing another arrow and notching it and taking aim at the parapet above me.
I felt a glorious surge of energy rush through my body and I turned back and climbed the rest of the way up, pausing once I’d reached the top to wrap my left hand over the rounded stone of the parapet to support my weight before I let go of the banner with the other. I swung my right arm up and grabbed the parapet, then hauled myself over it in an awkward dive. An arrow whizzed past my head and then cracked against the stone behind me as I landed heavily and I instinctively rolled and then came to my feet while drawing Wolf’s Head. Behind me I could hear grunts of effort as someone labored to pull himself up the banner and I knew more Piths were on the way. Gander archers sat huddled all along the parapet walls, pressed into the stone as they waited for a break in the barrage of arrows, while in front of me another archer was crouched down in a covered archway near the top of the stone stairwell that led below into the gatehouse. This man must have been the one who’d just shot at me, I realized, as I noticed he had an arrow embedded in his shoulder. The archer seemed unaware of the shaft jutting out of him, however, as he drew another arrow and swiftly notched it to his bow. I bellowed and rushed at him, slashing out with Wolf’s Head and crushing his bow and slicing his left arm off at the elbow. The archer stared down in shock at the stump spurting dark red blood, while behind him I could see a wall of men-at-arms racing up the stairs. I kicked the archer in the chest as hard as I could, sending him careening backward down the stairs and nodded in satisfaction as his tumbling body collided with the soldiers, sending them into disarray.
A narrow passageway led off to my left and another to my right, but I ignored them both and turned back into the open. I bounded to the nearest archer along the wall, who was aiming at Eriz as the big Pith hauled himself over the parapet. A quick slash with my sword and the Ganderman fell with a scream. I continued on, hacking and smashing my way through the archers as Eriz ran to join me. Together, we finished off the last of them and we turned as angry shouts rose up from the stairwell. The men-at-arms had sorted themselves out by now and were pouring up the staircase and out through the archway into the open, screaming in rage. I counted at least ten or more of them holding heavy swords and shields and I could hear even more pounding up the stairs behind them. By now Einhard had jumped over the parapet and he and I shared a quick look. The Pith leader smiled happily at me before he unstrapped his round shield from his back and then dashed toward the Ganders with his sword raised high over his head.
“Kill the bastards!” Einhard cried as he crashed his shield into a Ganderman’s face, punching in the man’s nose guard.
We ran to support him, the three of us lined up hacking at the Ganders as more Piths came over the wall and joined us. Slowly we pushed the Gandermen back though the archway and to the top of the stairwell. The fighting was desperate and fierce now, men spitting and cursing at each other as the Ganders desperately fought to make room for the soldiers coming up the stairs behind them. The smell of unwashed bodies, piss and shit hung over us all like a cloud as Ganders and Piths screamed and died all around me. I barely noticed as Jebido appeared by my side, and together we forced a huge Gander with a long brown beard and surprisingly tiny eyes backward into the seething mass of men coming up the stairs.
“Finish them!” Einhard cried as he dodged a swung sword and then lashed out with a foot, kicking his attacker along the side of h
is leg. I heard a snap and the man screamed in agony as he dropped to one knee. His helmet fell off and one of the Piths fighting alongside Einhard swung down with his sword, loping the man’s ear off before Einhard finished him with a quick thrust.
“Hadrack!” Jebido cried out in warning.
I’d taken my eyes off the Gander with the long beard for just a moment, thinking he was done for, but somehow he’d regained his balance and he came at me, growling like a man possessed. I managed to bring my shield up to block his sword and the blade slid off the raised iron boss with a screech. Seeing an opening, I lunged forward with Wolf’s Head, but the big Gander just laughed and swatted my blade away with his sword, and then he rushed at me with his heavy shield held low in front of him. I had only a moment to brace myself for the impact before he crashed into me, jarring me to the bone. I was flung backward through the archway and I landed heavily with the wind knocked from me as my shield spun away, rolling along the stone floor to come to a halt against the parapet wall. I lifted my sword over my head to block the big Gander’s downward thrust that I knew was coming and I kicked out at the man’s leg like I’d seen Einhard do. My foot caught him between the legs, higher than I’d intended, but the result was the same and he gasped, doubling up above me. Instantly I sprung to my knees and, with both hands wrapped around the hilt of Wolf’s Head, I stabbed upward. The point caught the big Gander at the base of the throat and I pushed hard, severing cartilage and bone before my blade burst out the other side. The man sagged above me and I almost gagged on the smell of his fetid breath as I struggled to hold him up before finally I managed to shove him aside.
“You like to live dangerously,” Jebido muttered as he offered me his hand.
I grinned up at him and accepted his help as I got to my feet, then turned to watch as lithe Pith women carrying their bows over their shoulders poured over the rampart wall. Within moments there were at least five of them, led by Alesia, and then Baine’s grinning face appeared along the parapet and he rolled nimbly over the stone and landed cat-like on the floor of the gatehouse.
“Out of the way!” Alesia commanded as she and the rest of the archers brushed past us to spread out in a semi-circle around the archway.
“Einhard!” Alesia shouted as the archers drew their bows.
Einhard glanced over his shoulder as he fought and he grinned when he saw her. He gave a quick shouted command and the Piths instantly fell back and ducked into the passageways, leaving the surviving Gandermen open to the Pith arrows.
“Now!” Alesia cried. Six bowstrings hummed in unison and several of the Gandermen screamed and fell, writhing in agony as the metal-barbed arrowheads pierced their armour and flesh. “Again!” Alesia called. I stood and watched in awe as the Pith women moved with practised ease, notching and letting fly arrow after arrow, decimating the Ganders relentlessly. Baine stood in the middle of the line, and though he wasn’t as fast as the Piths, he still managed to shoot one arrow for every two the Piths did. How accurate he might have been, I can’t say, though I figured even I could have hit such easy targets as the boxed-in Ganders on the stairs. Within moments it was done, and, save for one Gander who had turned and fled back down the stairs, the rest lay dead or dying draped all along the length of the stone steps.
“Move!” Alesia ordered, motioning the archers to spread out along the southern ramparts. She looked down over the edge. “The spineless bastards are running like rabbits,” she spat as she aimed and shot downward.
“They always run!” Einhard said with a grin. He waved his sword toward the stairs. “Follow me! Kill any who stand in our way!”
“Where’s that winch?” Eriz grunted at Jebido as the rest of the Piths rushed down the stairs.
“This way,” Jebido said, heading along the left passageway.
Eriz and I followed him past an open doorway, where I caught a quick glimpse of swords, shields and spears, before he turned into a second doorway leading into a room lit by bright sunlight coming through a slot cut through the stone along the northern wall. A block of granite several feet wide and long lay on the floor, and mounted to this was a metal winch with an iron handle twice as long as my arm. A rope thicker than my wrist was attached to the winch and rose above us, where it looped over a pulley and then disappeared into the wall through a rectangular hole in the stone. Eriz grabbed the handle and I joined him, and together we slowly turned the winch, both of us grunting with exertion.
“It’s moving,” Jebido said as he leaned out the window slot to look down at the gate below us.
The portcullis rose slowly, protesting loudly, but eventually we had it most of the way up and Jebido nodded to us that it was enough. Eriz set the lock in the teeth of the winch and we headed back down the hallway. We made our way over the bodies on the stairs and down to the first floor, with Baine and the Pith women following us. The north-facing doors were open by now and the rest of the Piths were riding into the gatehouse with the extra horses. I noticed they’d stopped to get Tato’s body and I thrust his death from my mind. I stared across the bridge at the other gatehouse and studied the far bank, where I could see Ganders massed just out of bow range as they waited for the ram they’d fashioned to do its work. I could hear shouts and occasionally the odd crash as the ram impacted mightily against the portcullis. I knew Ania and the other Piths had made the Ganders pay for each attempt, but I also knew that it was only a matter of time before they broke through. I could see Gander archers ringed around the gatehouse and shooting up at the ramparts and I prayed to The Mother and The Father that Ania was all right. As if in answer to my prayers, three riders burst out of the gates and rushed toward us across the bridge. One of them was listing in the saddle, clearly wounded, and for a moment I was convinced it was Ania, but then relief flooded over me as I realized she was in the lead. I stepped aside as the three women burst through the open gates and came to a shuddering stop.
“Welcome back!” I called to Ania.
She gave me a weary smile and then turned to look down at Einhard. “They’re almost through,” she managed to gasp.
“It doesn’t matter now,” Einhard said with a grin. He gestured to Eriz. “Destroy the ram and then close the portcullis and bolt the doors. It’s time we left this cesspool of a place called Ganderland!”
Everyone cheered his words and I went to join Baine and Jebido, who were holding my horse for me. I mounted up as the sounds of battle axes rang out as the Piths chopped up the ram. Once they were finished and had returned, the portcullis behind us crashed down with a resounding bang. Then the light and the view to the north was cut off as two Piths closed and barred the doors.
When we were all mounted and ready, Einhard drew his sword and pointed out the open southern doors. “Home!” he cried. “And let no man stand in our way!”
“Home!” the Piths echoed as we trotted out into the sunlight.
Most of us were smiling and chatting happily when we rode out through those doors. We had slipped through the Gander net and accomplished the impossible and, now with open land and horses beneath us, we knew that we couldn’t be caught. Unfortunately, our happiness would prove to be short lived. Einhard warily held up his hand, halting us as we spread out in a loose semi-circle behind our leader. We sat there in silence, smiles wiped from our faces as we stared at the mass of mounted men facing us and stretched out across the road and the fields to either side. There had to be hundreds of them, I realized. Behind us I heard a crash, and then a great cheer rose up and I knew the Ganders across the bridge had broken through the gates.
“Mother’s tit!” Baine said softly.
Chapter 10: The Shield
It’s been more than fifty years since the assault on the bridge, but I can still remember the feeling of elation I had felt at our success, only to have it squashed in the blink of an eye and replaced with mind-numbing despair. We were truly and completely trapped this time. We all knew it, an
d by the triumphant looks on the Ganders faces, they knew it as well. As it turned out, Einhard and the Piths had been seen after all, and the watchers had waited just long enough to ensure the Piths were truly attacking the bridge before chasing after Lassan and telling him of our trickery. Lassan had turned about immediately and returned to the bridge, first instructing a rider to ride as fast as possible to the pass and tell them what had happened and that they should take the southern route around the cliffs to cut us off. Rarely, in all the years I would know Einhard, would I see him look as utterly disappointed and defeated as he did that day. He sat hunched over slightly on his horse, his sword still bared in his hand as he stared with hooded eyes beneath his winged helm at the mass of men surrounding us. His right hand holding the sword twitched several times as if eager to cut through Gander necks and I wouldn’t have been the least bit surprised to see him charge the men in front of us.
What was going through Einhard’s mind at that moment, I can’t say. Remorse? Rage? Regret? Probably all of those things, I thought, as I knew that was exactly what I was feeling and probably everyone else as well. It seemed to me as though that particular moment was frozen in time and no one moved, as all eyes, Piths and Ganders alike, focused on Einhard the Unforgiving, Sword of the King, and waited, unsure what he was going to do. Would our leader have us charge the Ganders and die beneath their blades, or would he have us flee back into the gatehouse and try to make a doomed stand? I didn’t know, nor, I’m sure, did anyone else. I stole a glance at Jebido, who like me sat his horse in stunned silence. The color of Jebido’s face matched the grey of his hair and his lips were pursed tightly together in anger. He saw my look and his face relaxed somewhat and then he shrugged slightly as if to say, what can you do?
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