WHITEBLADE

by H A CULLEY

  ‘To land in the south and push the invaders back north to recover the island.’

  ‘May I suggest that it would be better to trap them and destroy them? That way Belin map Neithon will learn a valuable lesson.’

  ‘And how do you propose we do that, my lady? We only have four hundred men between us,’ Domnall asked scornfully. ‘The enemy have the same number, as far as we can tell.’

  ‘My son has a hundred and thirty more, which gives you the advantage; however, I am not a warrior, so I will leave you men to your deliberations.’

  ‘Thank you my lady,’ Domnall said with a nod. ‘I’m afraid I can’t offer you accommodation here at my hall, but there is a hut near the beach for you and your family to use. This man will show you where it is.’

  Oswald watched his mother go with some relief. She was strong willed and her idea had merit, but he was embarrassed to have her overshadow him. He hadn’t said anything because he didn’t want an argument in front of Domnall and Fergus.

  ‘I take it from what your mother said that you would be willing to help us?’

  ‘My mother doesn’t speak for me,’ he replied, a trifle more brusquely than he had intended, ‘but yes, we have nothing better to do at the moment.’ He paused, lost in thought.

  ‘Once you re-capture Arran you will need to replace the inhabitants you have lost or it will be re-taken.’

  ‘Yes, of course. What are you suggesting?’

  ‘Let me keep what I gain as your tenant.’ Domnall looked at Oswald sharply, then nodded.

  ‘Very well.’

  The three stayed to eat with Domnall and then slept in the hall before going back to tell their men what was intended the next morning.

  ~~~

  It was nearly dusk when Oswald’s three birlinns and that of Conmael of Lorne approached the strand of sand gleaming whitely in the gloom. They grounded their keels and then men leapt over the side armed with shield and sword to secure the land overlooking the beach. The others hauled the ships up onto the white sand and set a guard before they too collected their weapons and formed up on the beach.

  ‘There’re nine beaches on Arran where it’s possible to land,’ Domnall had told Oswald. ‘There are others, but there are rocks offshore and, unless you know the coast well, they’re best avoided. Six of the beaches are in the south, which is the area that my men still hold. We think that Belin’s men landed near the main settlement at Brodick and at the end of a small inlet called Loch Ranza. The other beach in the north is at a small settlement in Catacol Bay. It’s quite close to Loch Ranza and it’s probably your best chance of getting ashore unopposed.’

  And so it had proved. Oswald had been placed in command of the four birlinns and their crews. Domnall had found thirty young warriors to bolster his existing crews and, although they were all between fifteen and seventeen and as yet untried, he now had a total of well over two hundred men. They settled down just off the beach for the night and made do with a meal of cold meat, cheese and water. It was now October and decidedly chilly after the sun set, but to light fires would have been foolish.

  The next morning they were up before dawn and broke their fast with more cold meat and cheese. Domnall had sent a priest with them and he gave them a quick blessing before they set out. Oswald knew that the priest would encourage the men, but he hoped the man didn’t want to deliver a sermon. That would have delayed them, but, thankfully, he didn’t. Oswald left Alaric in charge at the beach with the ships’ boys, ten of the untried warriors and a few experienced fighters, and led the rest in the direction of Loch Ranza two miles away.

  He knew from what Domnall had told him that the loch lay over the shoulder of a mountain that dominated that area of the island. This time he didn’t just send out scouts forward, but also a little way up the mountain on their right flank. Initially the going was quite steep and it took them a long time to reach the crest of the ridge that sloped down from the summit a couple of miles inland all the way to the sea.

  Torquill had been put in charge of the forward scouts and, two hours after they had set out, he came back to report that there were four birlinns drawn up behind a spit of land that jutted out into the loch near the settlement at its head. Oswald sent for Eochaid and Conmael to hear Torquill’s report so he didn’t have to repeat it to them.

  ‘The settlement appears to be a blackened ruin, but men are building a hall, huts and a palisade on a flat area immediately below this mountain. It’s about a hundred yards from the spit where their ships are and there are women and children with them, so presumably they intend to settle.’

  ‘Thank you, Torquill; you’ve done well. Any idea as to numbers?’

  ‘We counted about a hundred men and I’d estimate the number of women and children at nearly twice that.’

  ‘How big were the birlinns?’

  ‘They varied from perhaps fifteen oars to a side to twenty. I’d say, with the women and children aboard, there couldn’t be more than a hundred and fifty men in all.’

  ‘So presumably there are another fifty in the hinterland, foraging and hunting,’ Eochaid added.

  ‘Were the women and children with the men building their new settlement?’

  ‘No, they were at a tented campsite on the other bank of a small river which feeds into the loch. It’s several hundred yards away from the new site and not far from the old settlement.’

  The body of men followed Torquill back until Oswald and the other two shipmasters could see Loch Ranza below them.

  ‘Good. We’ll need to wait until the hunters are back before we attack. We don’t want to have to chase isolated pockets of the enemy all over this island. We’ll come in from the south east at dawn. That way we’ll trap them between us and the sea. We’ll leave a few men up here, in case any of them try to flee this way. If they try to escape up the mountain on the other side, they’ll still be trapped between us and the sea.’

  As soon as it was dark Torquill led them down the way he’d scouted during the day so that at dawn they’d be in position for the attack. It was a difficult path, but the clouds cleared and the nearly full moon lit their way. Because nights were long at that time of year, they had several hours to sleep once they’d got into position, but few did more than doze wrapped in thick woollen cloaks and for the lucky few, wolf and bear skins to keep out the cold.

  Conmael had been given twenty of his men to prevent escape up the mountain and now Oswald divided his men once again. Eochaid took his own crew and the remainder of the men of Lorne to secure the settlement, whilst Oswald tackled the more difficult task of attacking the single warriors in the nearly completed fortress near the ships. Thankfully, the palisade hadn’t quite been completed and there was a gap twenty feet wide where the rest of it and the gateway would go. Unfortunately, this was guarded by at least six men, who appeared to be alert.

  Oswald gathered his archers and explained what he wanted them to do. His plan was to wait until they were all in view before trying to put several arrows in each at once. However, he was conscious that Eochaid was about to enter the camp of the married men and their families. He wished he had thought to bring a hunting horn with which to co-ordinate their attacks.

  He could just make out Eochaid’s men moving into position by the first rays of the sun as it crested the mountains to the east. Then he heard the sound of fighting coming across the water and he gave the order for his archers to let fly. Five men crumpled to the ground, but no-one had hit the sixth. For a moment he was frozen in shock before he reacted and opened his mouth to cry a warning. Not a sound emerged, however, as three more arrows from the quickest men to nock a second arrow to their bows punched through his leather jerkin into his chest.

  Before the guard hit the ground, Oswald was running towards the gap in the palisade, waving on his men with his sword above his head. It caught the rays of the sun and flashed white again and again and someone called out, ‘Follow the white blade!’ Soon the cry was taken up and a hundred voices yelled
‘Follow Whiteblade!’ It was the name he would be known by from then on.

  Oswald darted through the gap in the palisade and headed for the doors into the hall, just as they swung open and a man, still half asleep and wearing nothing but his undershirt, peered out. He took one look at the horde of warriors heading for the hall and dashed back inside, pulling the door shut and slamming the bar that secured it into place.

  Oswald cursed. It would give the men inside time to put on their armour and arm themselves. Then he noticed that the hall had been constructed with just two small windows at the front. A quick check confirmed that there were none in the side or back walls. The Strathclyde men were trapped inside. Two arrows flew out of the small windows, but both hit shields. Oswald’s archers shot back; most of their arrows bristled around the two windows like the quills on a hedgehog, but a few went through the openings and there were no more arrows from inside the hall.

  Something of an impasse followed. Of course, Oswald could have used one of the tree trunks lying around ready to be put in place to complete the palisade to break in the doors, but that would mean fighting the warriors inside, now fully prepared, hyped up and ready to fight. Although he would win, as he had more men, he would suffer a lot of casualties. So he decided on a less honourable course of action to save his men’s lives.

  The roof of the hall was made of bundles of straw, tightly packed in layers to make it waterproof. The top layer was wet, thanks to the recent weather, but the straw underneath would be dry. He therefore sent men up onto the roof to throw down the top layer and then his archers shot several volleys of fire arrows up onto the dry straw. It was soon ablaze and he could imagine the scene inside as smoke billowed around, making them choke whilst trying to dodge the blazing straw as it dropped onto their heads.

  Soon the falling straw had set light to the rushes that were used as a cover for the floor of beaten earth, and even some furniture caught alight. The warriors inside had a choice: be burnt alive, die of asphyxiation, or come out and fight. Most chose the latter and the doors were thrown open as a horde of men, coughing and spluttering, charged out.

  The first dozen or so were killed or wounded by the archers, but then the rest were upon them and Oswald’s men locked their shields together. Their assailants were weakened and light-headed and were easily cut down as they flung themselves on the shields and tried to wrench them out of the way so that they could get at the men behind. One man pulled Oswald’s shield down, exposing his face and a second man thrust his sword at his head, but it struck his helmet and glanced off. Oswald dropped his sword, which was too unmanageable for this type of fighting and pulled his seax out of its scabbard. He thrust it into the mouth of the man with the sword and he fell away with a scream. Torquill, on his left side, killed the warrior hanging onto Oswald’s shield and the immediate danger was over.

  The hall was blazing furiously now and the intense heat forced Oswald’s men to retreat a little way. Their opponents were not so fortunate. There was nowhere to go to avoid being scorched. A few tried to climb the palisade, but the archers, who had retreated to the rear when the hand-to-hand fighting had started, soon picked them off.

  Finally, after two thirds of their number had been killed, died in the flames or were too badly wounded to fight, the rest surrendered. As they were disarmed and tied up well away from the flames, Oswald made his way over to the families’ encampment. Eochaid splashed across the small river to greet him and the two sat down on a rock.

  ‘How did it go?’

  ‘Very easily, really. We caught them asleep and we were waiting for them as they came out of their tents. A few men put up a fight and they were killed. The rest are our captives. Some tried to run off up the hill, but they were caught by Conmael’s men. I don’t think anyone escaped.’

  ‘I hope not; I don’t want anyone warning Brodick, where the rest of the invaders probably are.’

  ‘I see you had to burn them out?’

  ‘Yes, we still lost a few, but not nearly as many as we would have if I hadn’t set fire to the hall to smoke them out.’

  ‘Will you rebuild it?’

  ‘Not there, no. There’s room for a fortress on the spit of land where the ships are beached. The encampment is a good site for the settlement, though. The only problem is the water supply, but we can overcome that by building a tank and keeping it topped up with fresh water.’

  ‘What will you do with the captives?’

  ‘That will be up to Domnall Brecc, provided he gives us a fair price for them and for those birlinns.’

  ‘Fergus might want to buy some of them. After all, he’s the King of the Isles and needs ships the most.’

  ‘Good point. Perhaps I can get them to bid against each other,’ he suggested, grinning. ‘For now, we need to bury our dead and treat the wounded on both sides. Once the fire dies down, we can incarcerate the prisoners inside the palisade. It’s as good as a stockade once we get the gate and the final length in place.’

  ‘We’ll need to send one of those birlinns we captured round to the other beach with enough men to bring ours here.’

  ‘Yes; can I ask you to look after that?’

  ‘What are you going to do?’

  ‘Tomorrow I’ll take Torquill and a few of the other scouts to have a look at Brodick.’

  ~~~

  Oswald was to find that doing that was easier said than done. No-one in the three crews knew Arran well, but there were some of the original inhabitants who had been taken as slaves. Most were fishermen who didn’t know the interior of the island very well, except for the fact that it was largely uninhabited. All the settlements were on the coast, as the hinterland in the north was quite mountainous.

  However, there used to be several huntsmen in the settlement who knew the mountains well. They had all been killed fighting the invaders, but one of them had a son – a boy of twelve called Cormac – who had been hunting deer with his father a few times. He told Oswald that the biggest settlement on Arran was to the south of the tallest mountain – Gaoda Bheinn. He had never been there, but he did know the way to Gaoda Bheinn and he thought that you could see Brodick from there on a clear day.

  The next morning was anything but bright and clear. Low clouds hung over the mountain tops and it had turned much colder overnight. However, Oswald was not to be deterred and set off with Torquill, Cormac and three other scouts – Griogar, Iomhar and Ruaraidh.

  The six of them made good progress during the morning, following the small river that emptied into Loch Ranza up the valley until it forked. Cormac said to take the left fork and after a further gentle climb, the slope got steeper and the stream petered out in a boggy area. Cormac skirted the bog to the east and shortly they found themselves on a ridge which climbed up into the clouds. Cormac didn’t know the name of the mountain they were on, but he was adamant that they couldn’t get lost in the mist if they followed the ridge up to the summit and then over the other side and down into a saddle between four mountains, the one to the south east being Gaoda Bheinn. He suggested that they camp in the saddle and set out in the morning to climb Gaoda Bheinn.

  That seemed sensible to Oswald. He should be able to work out which was the mountain above the settlement, provided he could judge where south east was from the position of the sun. However, there had been precious little sight of it so far that day. In fact, the weather deteriorated and Oswald woke up in the middle of the night when snow started to land on his face.

  By morning the light snow had turned into a blizzard and Oswald realised that they could be in serious trouble. It was about four inches deep, which made walking through it tiring, but the wind was causing it to drift and in places it was a lot deeper. There was no question of climbing to the top of Gaoda Bheinn that day and the priority now was survival.

  Griogar and Ruaraidh were in favour of taking the easiest path, which led down from the saddle to what Oswald thought was probably the east. If so, that would eventually lead to the coast and they coul
d then follow that all the way back to Loch Ranza.

  ‘But that is about three times as far as we’ve come,’ Cormac pointed out.

  ‘You are the only one of us who knows this island at all. What do you suggest?’ Oswald asked him.

  ‘You’re not going to leave the decision on which our lives depend to a boy, and a foreigner at that, are you?’ Iomhar butted in.

  ‘Why, do you have reason not to trust him?’ Oswald asked, his eyes narrowing dangerously.

  ‘Well, no, not really,’

  ‘Good. Then shut up and let’s hear what he has to say.’

  Oswald realised that, in their current situation, if he let them start arguing amongst themselves, he’d lose control and a wrong decision based on prejudice and fear was likely to follow.

  ‘Well,’ the boy began, with a nervous look at Iomhar.

  ‘Never mind about him, just tell me what you think.’

  ‘From what I remember, if we head in the opposite direction up the saddle, we’ll reach the highest point in a few hundred yards. We can then drop down into Glen Iorsa and follow that all the way back to Loch Ranza.’

  ‘If that’s such a direct route, why didn’t we follow it here?’ Griogar wanted to know.

  ‘Well, because the climb up to the saddle is very much steeper than the way we came, and it’s further that way.’

  ‘I still say that we should follow the route down to the coast,’ Ruaraidh said stubbornly.

  ‘Then it’s a good job that you’re not in charge, isn’t it?’ Torquill told him with a grin, which diffused the situation.

  Still grumbling, the other three picked up their equipment and followed Cormac and Oswald into the driving snow, with Torquill bringing up the rear. The path up to the crest of the saddle was hard going and, once they started to go downhill, everyone saw what Cormac meant.

  ‘Cormac, stop. This route is getting dangerously steep. If someone lost their balance they would slide downhill until they crashed into a rock. Griogar, you brought an axe, didn’t you?’