by Griff Hosker
“I think, master archer, that we will have your longer bows made for all of our warriors.”
I shook my head. “It would be a waste of time until they are stronger in the arms and chest my lord. My brother will be ready for one by midwinter for he has been training but the rest will take until spring. Do not worry. They will all improve.”
The twenty men we had to teach were all attentive and desperate to learn how to be as accurate as we were. For the first afternoon we concentrated on improving their technique. The strength training would come later. As we trudged back to the barracks we were tired but I felt a real sense of achievement. I was giving commands to men older than me but it did not feel strange; it was as though I had been born to do it.
Ywain and Gildas had kept glancing over as they trained the swordsmen and when we headed back they joined us. “You were sent by God to help us Lann and you Raibeart. I always had a feeling that we could defeat the Saxons but, having seen your skill, now I know we shall.”
“Have you fought the Saxons my lord?”
I was aware that he was the same age as me but I suspected that he had not. “His red face confirmed it. “No Lann I have not, why?”
“I have fought three times and been lucky enough to kill the enemy but it is not as easy as hitting a target. You think you are going to piss or shit yourself when they charge at you and, until you have felt a man’s blood spurt over you and watch his life ebb from his eyes then you cannot know how you will fare in a battle. Those archers we trained today will hit their targets but will they hit their enemies? Only our first battle will tell us that and the battlefield is a hard place to learn that lesson.”
“Wise words from one so young and I will heed them Lann the archer. Perhaps you can try out your sword tomorrow.”
“I was going to suggest that the archers be trained with swords my lord. If you run out of arrows on a battlefield then there is little for an archer to do but run, unless he has his sword at his side.”
We did not get the chance to try our swords the next day for word came to us of a raid by some Saxons who were in the east and north of the Dunum. They were using the Roman road to come west. The war of King Urien and the Saxons would not now begin in the spring; it began when the skies were filled with clouds and the rain threatened to turn the roads into a morass. What was even worse was that the king had no idea of the size of the enemy warband. Two reports had reached him and the size of the Saxons varied from over two hundred to almost five hundred.
Our small army left the fortress taking all but twenty men left to guard the deserted fort. The three of us commanded forty archers and slingers while Ywain and Gildas had a further fifty armed with swords and spears. King Urien had his fifty horsemen and they led us along the road that the Romans had called the Stanegate, and we came to term it, the road to hell!
Chapter 6
The three of us led our men immediately behind the horsemen. If we were ambushed then our task was to form a protective screen around the swordsmen and spearmen, thin the enemy out and then retreat behind their protective shields. Of course the three of us marched with our own shields slung across our backs. The archers marched proudly behind Raibeart and me and I knew that they were envious of the wolf skins which marked us not only as warriors but hunters too. Aelle had quickly cowed the slingers with his skill and they were desperate to impress this warrior who was the only slinger they knew to have killed someone in battle. He had not had time to cast more of the round metal stones he had used against the Angles but it was one of the tasks he had set himself when we returned to the fort.
The first part of the journey was familiar to us as we had come along it but a few days’ earlier. To the others, however, it was virgin territory and more than a little intimidating to them. “It is a pity the king’s allies did not join him.”
I too wondered at that. Ywain had told us that Morcant Bulc’s kingdom lay to the east of us. Admittedly it was further north but we wondered, at the time, why he had not come to aid us earlier. “Perhaps he could not gather his forces in time.”
The king had scouts out and the dragon standard was furled. When the horsemen charged only then it would flutter above them, making its frightening, ghostly sound. The column was halted and the officers were summoned. The three of us stayed with our men but Ywain said, “No, we are all officers. You included. If the king gives instructions then we must all know what to do.”
In truth I wanted to avoid the baleful looks of Bladud but I would have to put up with it. “The scouts tell me that the Saxons are two miles up the road.” He pointed behind him. “The fort we use is on that hillside. I will goad and provoke the Saxons into charging us. I want the archers and the rest of the army to form a battle line with your backs to the fort. We will bring them to you.”
Gildas asked the question which was in all our minds. “Do we know how many yet?”
The king said simply. “They outnumber us.” He rode off with the dragon standard unfurled and the eerie wail echoing down the road the ancient Romans had called the Stanegate.
We wasted no time but ran to the fort. Once again I was familiar with it but the others were not. “Aelle, take your slingers to the left of the line so that you will be closer to the enemy. When they close with us they are agile enough to climb into the fort and carry on using their weapons from there.” I know we both commanded ten but Aelle was used to following my orders. I do not know what would have happened had it been another officer. As the spear and swords men prepared I addressed our archers. “You loose on one command, mine, and you keep loosing until we are out of arrows. When that happens then those without another weapon join the slingers behind the walls, the rest will join my brother and me and we will fight alongside the others. “
I looked at Raibeart who nodded and said, “Put five arrows in the ground at your feet. It makes for faster and more effective use of our arrows.”
I sensed the nervousness of the men around us and I understood how they felt. What was worse was that I did not know, or could not remember a single name. We had barely met them and the previous afternoon and evening had been spent answering questions about archery. I made myself a promise that, if we survived this first battle I would find out more about the warriors I was leading. The king had a good eye for a battle and there was a ditch before us as well as a slope up which they would have to run. Our archers could see over the heads of those with spears and swords awaiting the attack. The only problem that I could see was running out of arrows. While Raibeart and I were well stocked, few of the men we commanded had more than fifteen and they would soon disappear in the heat of battle.
Ywain turned and gave me a nervous smile. “When will you send your first arrows?”
I wished that he had not asked me the question. If I answered truthfully it would affect the morale of the archers as I wanted to loose when they were as close as possible for they were not yet as good as they might be. “A hundred paces.”
“That is close.”
“By the time they are twenty paces from you we will have loosed two hundred arrows.” It was a confident claim but I knew that Raibeart and I could send eighty easily.
We heard the wail of the dragon standard before we saw the horsemen but when they did come I saw two empty saddles. They had not avoided casualties. The horses laboured up the slope in a wide line and behind I could see the enemy. They were better armed than the hunters we had ambushed and the ones who had chased us. These warriors were ready for war. There were many of them in mail and all had a shield and either an axe or a sword and, as they poured forwards I could see archers. “Aelle, take out the archers. Raibeart, try to hit the leaders.”
When the horsemen cleared I could see that they outnumbered us easily by as many as three to one. My first command could be a short one. As the horsemen cleared I gave my first order. “Notch! Pull!” I paused to time it correctly. “Loose! Loose! Loose! Loose!” I noticed that the last flight had been ragged and the ene
my were closing quickly. “Choose your own targets!” I aimed at their archers and quickly sent five to their deaths. Unlike me they were without armour and I felt some of their arrows clattering against my mail. My archers would be dying too. I saw the effect of Aelle’s slingshots as the archers, the few who remained, fled down the hill to escape the rain of death. I switched to those warriors at the front of the wedge which was heading up the hill. They had their shields held tightly to their faces and I saw many shields with arrows embedded in them. I aimed at the eye of the warrior leading the wedge and, as he fell loosed a second at the man behind before he could bring his shield up. Raibeart, too, was choosing his targets wisely and his arrows were mortal. Unfortunately the rest of the archers were hitting helmets, mail or shields. They were doing no good. “Archers fall back!” I did not see how many retreated but I sent my last four arrows to good homes and then dropped my bow, swung around my shield and drew my blade. I stepped behind a warrior in the perilously thin second rank and Raibeart joined me a heartbeat later. “We thinned them out brother.”
“Yes Raibeart, but they still outnumber us.”
Aelle and his boys were still striking home and the effect was to make the vision of the advancing Saxons limited as they tried to protect more of their bodies and faces with their shields. It compacted the wedge and, as they approached the ditch, I could see that they would become disordered as they dropped down to the bottom of the defensive structure. I yelled, “Archers, loose!” The few archers who still had arrows sent a ragged volley into the air and were rewarded by eight warriors caught unawares. And then they slammed into our front line. I saw that they used their shields as a weapon, punching with them. The front ranks were so close that they could not move their arms and those with spears in our second file stabbed through the gaps causing many casualties. My sword was long and I saw a bearded giant with black holes for teeth and I stabbed forwards over the shoulder of the warrior in the front rank. He could see the blade coming for him but could not evade it and I twisted it as I pushed it through his eyeball and into his brain. He fell backwards into the crowd of warriors eagerly pushing forwards. Raibeart’s sword was shorter and he had to wait his turn. Suddenly the warrior in front of my brother fell to the ground, dead and he stepped into the breach. I moved to the left to stand behind my brother. His shorter sword served him well and I saw the look of surprise on the blond warrior who was gutted from beneath. I stabbed at the warrior to Raibeart’s right and this time the sword penetrated his ear and then he fell dead. I half saw an axe heading for Raibeart and, as I withdrew my sword from the man’s skull, I parried the blow, catching the head on my guard. My shield was wrapped around my arm and I grabbed the axe and pulled it forwards. The man kept hold of the handle and pulled himself unwittingly onto the sharp blade which slit his throat.
I still could not tell who was winning. My sight of the battle was restricted to Raibeart and the two warriors either side of him. Then I heard the weird wailing sound and the Saxons before us looked up in terror as King Urien and his bodyguards plunged into the side of their lines. It proved to be too much for them. I heard Ywain roar, “Push them back!”
I put my shield into Raibeart’s back and we both pushed forwards. The men before us tumbled into the ditch, falling onto the bodies already lying there. We stepped amongst them and stabbed and hacked them as they floundered like fish stranded by the tide. My arms felt as though they would drop off and then there were no more wounded. The ones before us were all dead and the whole army was cheering. Against the odds we had won. I looked around to see that both of my brothers were safe. They smiled back at me. Raibeart had blood on his face but it was hard to tell just whose it was.
I clasped Raibeart’s arm. “Let us go and count the cost amongst our men.”
We found the bodies of eight of our archers who had fallen. One or two others had wounds but nothing serious. “Well done! Next time you will do even better but for now,” I waved an arm behind me, “find swords from the dead Saxons, helmets if they will fit and shields. This will not be our last battle we will need to be better armed next time. When you have done that then search the field and collect all the arrows, even the broken and damaged ones.”
One of the men asked, “Just the good ones, surely?”
“No all of them. Beggars cannot be choosers.”
Ywain and Gildas came over grinning like children on baking day. “Your arrows and stones worked well. By the time they reached our blades they had been thinned. Well done.”
“How many did you lose?” I knew they had few to begin with.
“Too many there are over twenty who are either dead or will never fight again.”
We heard the dragon wail as the King returned. “Well done my lords. You held them up well and made our task easier.” He looked with dismay at the dead. “And now we must begin to build up our army again.”
I bowed as he and his bodyguard rode off. I needed to find Aelle. He had done well and needed telling so. He and his boys were busy collecting their shot and any other metal they could find. “You did well brother. Did you lose any?”
He grinned, “These boys of mine are too crafty and cunning to fall to an arrow. When we have collected metal we can make much better weapons.”
It was too late to return to the stronghold and we slept where we fell; too tired to do more than swallow some water from the well. The King and ten of his men returned to Civitas Carvetiorum so that they could escort carts the next day to reclaim the booty. We had done well and over a hundred Saxons had fallen. The king had chased them east for many miles and they would be loath to return without a much bigger army than the one they had come with.
As we marched towards the fort the people came out to cheer us and praise us. Victories were rare and victories against the Saxons were even rarer. This was the beginning of a time of glory for Rheged and the people basked in our victories. As we entered the gates Urien waited for the three of us. “In honour of our victory I am slaughtering your sheep and you three shall be the guests at my table when we feast this evening. Use the baths to clean up and I will have some suitable garments sent to your barracks. Your coming was like the stone which begins an avalanche and I would have you share in my victory.”
As we trudged back to our barracks Raibeart said, wryly, “Very nice of him to kill our sheep and then make it sound as though he was doing us a favour.”
I shrugged. “He is a king; I suppose they do as they will. For my part I am so hungry I could eat a horse, with the skin on!” We all laughed as that was one of father’s favourite sayings.
“Watch out brother, you are becoming our father day by day.”
The clothes he sent looked like booty from some other fight but we did not complain for they were clean. Ywain and Gildas took us to the baths the Romans had used. They were new to us and looked as though from another world. There were mosaics and pictures on the walls and the water was hot. Even the floor felt warm. They were not as clean as when the Romans had built and used them but they allowed us to clean off some of the dirt and begin to remove the smell of dried blood. As we walked through to the cooler room Raibeart asked, “How is the floor warm? Is it some magic of the Romans?”
The two lords laughed, “No it is a fire and it is so built that the hot air rushes beneath the floor and keep it warm.”
Raibeart shook his head. “Where we come from my lord, we call that magic.”
We spent a long time in the baths and Ywain and Gildas told us of the Romans and how they had lived. When we were dressed I almost felt like a human again.
The room we ate in may have been Roman by design but the feast itself was less refined. There were huge jugs and jars of beer and the two sheep which had been slaughtered were jointed and laid on huge platters with other animals of varying sizes. The three of us were in the place of honour, to the king’s right. The only other warrior, from the bodyguard seated at the table, was Bladud who kept casting us sinister glances which we soon i
gnored. The rest of the company was made up of the king’s family and those who ran his fort. His wife, Niamh, was on his left with his other younger sons. Opposite were Ywain, Gildas, Brother Osric and the officials who ran the complex city. It was a little overwhelming for all of us. We were used to eating in a roundhouse with only the light of the cooking fire; here the king had lamps and candles to make it bright and cheery. Servants and slaves replenished the food and beer at regular intervals.
Once we began eating I relaxed a little and began to enjoy the event. King Urien leaned close to me, “We do not do this for every new warrior, Lann son of Hogan.”
I nodded, my mouth full. I quickly swallowed the lump of sweet and juicy meat. “I know, my lord, and I did wonder why three such as we should grace your high table.”
“It is you and your sword which intrigue me. There is a legend that a warrior would come with a sword which would save Britannia.”
I almost spat out the beer I was just swallowing. “And you think I am that warrior? I am a shepherd who can aim an arrow; that is all.”
He shook his head. “No Lann. That sword is no ordinary sword. I have only ever seen one of such quality and workmanship before and that one belongs to me.”
I sat in silence for a moment taking in the import of his words. I could see that it was a special weapon. I had held other swords and by comparison they were tools for the fields. “If the sword is so powerful or special then why did you not take it from me when we first met? There were but three of us.”
He gestured towards the sour faced Bladud at the other end of the table. “That is what Bladud counselled. He does not see you as a warrior.”