by Griff Hosker
“Then we had better gather our leaders and decide what we will do.”
Chapter 13
Prince Pasgen was all for showing off his new weapons and warriors. I, of course, wanted nothing of the sort but I had to let my other leaders speak. Myrddyn was, unusually for him, itching to speak but a slight nod of my head silenced him.
“Well I could bring over some warriors from my fort to help you defend this one.”
Prince Pasgen smiled, appreciating the support of his friend, “Thank you, Mungo, but you will need to defend the bridge.”
“My archers will be needed on the walls.”
“As will my warriors. The plain fact is, Prince Pasgen that we do not have enough warriors yet.”
“But it means that when there is a battle my equites and those of Tuanthal will be twiddling their thumbs while others fight and die.”
“I hope that it is us who fight and the men of Gwynedd who die.”
Myrddyn nodded his agreement and also the fact that I had spoken which gave him the opportunity to give his opinion. He unrolled the map he had been drawing over the winter with the help of Brother Oswald. “Look at this map. We have a toehold here at the very edge of their land. The mountains and the sea make it very narrow. The only opportunity for an attack by the equites will be when we drive him back to the monastery and there the open land will suit us and allow you to charge, to encircle and to use your superior weapons and armour. But until he has bled a little that will not happen.”
Pasgen looked at the map and then at me. “I am sorry Warlord. You are all right and I am wrong.”
“No Prince Pasgen, it is not wrong to want to fight with your comrades.” I stood. “We have brought more arrows and bolts. The first of our ships will be ready to sail within the week and Gwynfor himself will bring her over. We will use some of Mungo’s men to help man the bolt throwers and, when this is over, give some thought on the best way to use and to man our two boats. We will keep them on the far side of the narrows so that they will not be seen until the time is right.” I looked at Calum. “The signals work well?” We had used the Roman system of flags to signal between our two forts and I had yet to see it in operation.
“Aye my lord. It is a great boon and saves much time. This way the bridge stays on Mungo’s side until we need it and by the time we reach the Narrows it is ready. It saves time and, I believe, it will save lives.”
Just then we heard a call from the gate and a short while later, while we were still poring over the map, Aedh came in. “King Iago is now two miles down the coast. He has brought his entire army and they have cut down two mighty oaks which I believe they intend to use as a battering ram.”
“Well now it begins. The equites can remain close to the southern wall and provide guards there. Every archer, slinger and warrior will be on the northern wall.”
Calum looked first at me and then at Myrddyn. “How do we deal with the rams?”
“Have your men bring as much sea water as they can and flood the approach to the gates. They would struggle to span the ditches anyway.” Two of the ditches had bridges which we removed until needed while the other was drawn up before the gate. The ram would have to breach three ditches and pierce two gates. If we did nothing then they might succeed but we would be picking off their men while they toiled to drag the trees.
“Right my captains. To the walls!”
Lann Aelle was ready with my armour and my sword. I saw Pol nearby and knew that he had supervised every action. When I was dressed I said, “That was well done squire. Now has Pol told you of what you must now do?”
“Aye Warlord. I stand behind the two of you and stop anyone getting behind you and I run messages when you send for me.”
“Good.” I glanced down at his armour and weapons. “I see you have Hogan’s old buckler?”
Pol patted his arm. “It was mine before his. It is the heir loom of the squire. It will protect you and the warlord, believe me.”
When I reached the wall I saw the last of the warriors hurling buckets of sea water to make the ground slick and muddy. It would drain away and dry but not for a few days and by then it might be slick with blood too. It was an anticlimax when they did not arrive that day. I think that King Iago was trying to avoid another embarrassing about face and wanted to arrive when everything would be in place. Captain Calum took the opportunity of wetting the ground even more and laying a few more lillia in the ditches.
I stood with him, watching the sunset over Mona. “It is a pity we do not have a stream here on the northern edge and then we could be surrounded on three sides by water.” Already he was thinking of how we could improve our defences.
“Ask Brother Oswald. He may have some ideas about how to divert the flow to both sides.” I pointed to the mountainside. It was steep and covered in scree below the tree line. “And what of an attack from that direction?”
He laughed. “We sent up some of the boy slingers to see how solid it was and even they could not keep their footing. Once you are beyond the trees then you cannot move and the trees are three hundred paces from the walls.”
“They could use archers. They would be above us and even their bows might have the range.”
“They would have to emerge from the trees and our archers could pick them off.”
“Still I think that we might cut the trees back another fifty paces or so. The wood will come in handy for more ships.”
“As you wish Warlord, but that is one part of the fort I feel happiest about.”
The sentries alerted us early the next morning before it was light. The garrison was up but the start of their attack caught us unawares. King Iago was showing that he had thought the attack through thoroughly.
A line of warriors bearing shields led the way and we could see the two rams being pulled one behind the other. A second line of warriors protected the men hauling the huge sharpened tree trunks. Darting archers and slingers jinked their way between the rams and the warriors ready to let loose when the order was given. King Iago was at the rear and I saw that he, his bodyguards and his son, were all mounted. They were the only horsemen he appeared to possess. Aedh had told us that but it was good to have the intelligence confirmed. There was little point wasting bolts on the warriors pulling the ram. Our archers were good enough to pick them off. Despite being protected by shields there was always a piece of bare flesh which could be struck and an injured arm or leg prevented the warrior from doing his job.
I could see the nervousness of the warriors as they moved slowly forwards. They would have spoken of the terrible weapons we had unleashed upon them around their winter fires and they would be waiting for the crash of the deadly war machines as the bolts were launched. And we waited. The first of the ditches was fifty paces from the one closest to the walls. That had been a deliberate ploy by Myrddyn and Oswald when they had designed it. The side facing the enemy was steep and would be difficult to climb. The forward slope was shallow allowing not only their men to escape but to afford no shelter from our arrows. We wanted them in the ditch; we wanted them in the killing zone. It was like the game we had played as children where one child was facing away from the others and the other children had to creep closer and closer. The game would be won by the one who could touch the first child’s back but if they were caught then they had lost. The men of Gwynedd were coming closer and closer and waiting for the trap to snap. Every step closer to their goal brought them closer to the trap they could not see. I had been in the wedge which attacked a defensive site and it was a terrible place to be when fighting an unknown enemy.
The shield wall approached the first ditch. The slope was slight but the slippery and muddy surface made it as treacherous as ice. In addition the sticky mud clung to the bottoms of their shoes and boots making the next steps even worse. They held their shields anticipating the arrows but none came and I could see their confusion as they looked to their chiefs for leadership. Still we did not release our arrows. The machines remained
silent and the shield wall approached the edge of the ditch. There was no easy way down save jumping and that was when the eerie silence was broken as they jumped into a trap filled, watery ditch. I swear that I heard at least one ankle break before the screams began. They tried to return the way they had come but more men were piling in and the only way they could go was forwards. The second rank had less of a problem as they stepped over their wounded comrades, lying injured in the bottom of the ditch. Most of them would never fight again; a broken leg or ankle rarely heals perfectly. The chiefs and leaders who had survived began to organise their men, no doubt grateful that the deep was not as steep on our side. As they reached the top of the slippery bank, the only way out, they began to lose their footing and hands, which should have held shields, grasped the ground for support.
Walch grinned as he ordered his archers and slingers, “Loose!” Every arrow and stone was deliberately aimed. Although there were only sixty of them there were able to reload and release five times in a few moments. The ones who had reached the top of the ditch fell backwards to knock others into the deadly trap now filled with the dead as well as the wounded. Men were suffocating beneath the bodies and more of them tried to escape but, for most, it was a struggle in vain. Eventually some of them managed to clamber over the bodies of the dead to reach their own archers who were busy trying to hit our men on the walls. They were having little success as our men were protected by the walls and had a height advantage but I could see that Walch did not want to take chances. “Change targets. I want those archers dead!” They were a smaller number and were encumbered by warriors trying to flee through them. There were not many archers but within a couple of heartbeats there were none and the men pulling the ram were exposed as they, too approached the ditch.
Suddenly I saw a messenger race from King Iago; it looked to me like his son Cadfan. The rams halted and the warriors gathered around it with their shields. He had seen the futility of trying to get the ram across that ditch of death.
I turned to Calum, “You might as well feed the men. He has to rethink his strategy.”
Myrddyn nodded. “He will now build a bridge.”
Calum looked at the wizard, “Are you looking at the future now?”
I smiled, ”No Calum. It is what we would do. It is the only way to get the ram over. He will cut down some trees and then try again. They will probably attack later this afternoon.”
It was closer to noon when the warriors brought the logs to the ditch. Walch knew what was coming and his mouth formed an almost wolf like snarl as he said, “Pick you targets and kill them!”
The men carrying the logs only had their helmets and armour for protection and at that range it did them no good. The ones at the back fared better as they were protected by the bodies of the warriors who fell before them. More men took their places and the logs began to move across the gap but incredibly slowly. King Iago was buying the crossing with the lives of his warriors. The only good thing to come out of it was that his warriors could cross the ditch over the bodies of the dead. Once the bridge was complete fresh warriors came to pull and to protect their precious charge. At the same time a line of warriors locked shields and stepped across the human ditch. Walch and his men ignored the ram and picked off warriors as they crossed. The men pulling the ram could not believe their luck until they struck the slippery land before the next ditch. As soon as they struck the mud their feet slipped and they could gain no purchase. The mud then now mixed with Saxon blood, began to suck their feet into it. It was then, as they struggled to stand, that Walch started to kill them. The ram reached halfway across the ground between the ditches before there were not enough men left alive to pull it. The men of the shield wall, who had reached the second ditch, huddled under their shields around the precious ram.
More men struggled up and this time they brought rushes with them which they laid on the muddy ground before they began to pull, this time protected by the shields of the survivors of the first attack. Walch and his men were still striking the men of Gwynedd but this time they were not killing. They were wounding and maiming but Iago’s men stuck to their task and the ram was finally across the bridge allowing even more men to come forwards. It was now mid afternoon and they still had two ditches to go.
Myrddyn came to see me. “I think I can prepare a little surprise if you will excuse me.” He disappeared leaving Calum looking bemused.
“It will not be magic, Calum, but the enemy will believe it is. Whatever he is planning will be outside the scope of the minds of Iago and his generals.”
I heard Lann Aelle ask Pol, “They have lost so many men why do they not go away?”
I turned. “Because he has paid a high price already it will be even higher if he has to leave and start again. If you were Iago you would see that you were very close to our gates.”
“But the ground is muddy and there are even more traps.”
“The king thinks he has the solution, look.”
Even as we discussed Iago he was sending up more logs to bridge the second ditch. I assumed there would be more trees for the third but I was not going to let it get that far.
The second ditch was a repeat of the first. When I saw the calibre of warriors Iago was using now I could see that they were neither the best armed nor the best armoured. He was saving those for his final assault. As soon as he had his ram half way across the second body filled ditch I nodded to Calum who ordered his men to pick up the specially made spears. Brother Osric had written about a Roman spear called a pilum which had a soft piece of metal holding two halves of the spear together. When it struck anything the soft metal broke. The spear hinged in two and could not be thrown back. It only had a range of twenty or so paces but thrown from a wall it could easily reach the men at the ditch. As the shield wall came up, two hundred pila were thrown. Those that did not strike flesh struck shields and the weight of the broken spear pulled them down and they were slaughtered by the archers and slingers.
This time they retreated well outside the range of the archers and we were almost back where we started. My squire became quite animated, “We have won! We have won!”
“Not quite nephew. They will come under cover of darkness and they will think that they will suffer fewer deaths.”
His face fell, “Then they will win!”
“Luckily it is not all black and white. Just because we haven’t won yet does not mean we will not win. Myrddyn has plans of his own. We will wait until he returns.”
Myrddyn was back well before dark. He had with him three rough clay pots and he had with him three men from Strathclyde. “I took the liberty of finding these three. They are some of the hammer throwers Mungo was telling us about.”
We all peered at the containers and wondered what was within. “Come wizard and tell us or do you want an amazed audience when you pull your magic trick?”
He sniffed, “A little appreciation is all I ask.”
“Myrddyn!”
He grinned and relented. “Within here are some oils and powders. I discovered the mixture when reading Brother Osric’s papers. The liquid is thick and burns well. It sticks to whatever it strikes. I have three prepared for the ram will be difficult to hit in the dark.”
One of the warriors laughed. “What hit yon wee log from here? Man I could do it without my hammer.”
“Warriors!” Myrddyn shook his head. “In that case you wait until your friends have thrown and if they hit then you can try for the far ram.”
“Right let me…”
I held up my hand. “Let us wait until they attack. We will demoralise them even more.” I looked at my wizard. “Do they take long to light?”
“No but what we will do just before is throw three containers with some of the fiery liquor brewed by the monks and the men of Strathclyde. When the burning mixture strikes it will burn quicker.”
I held my hand up. “From now on no talking from anyone. We need to know when they approach. Just wave your arm when you hea
r anything.” To help me I took off my helmet. I smiled as my squire and Pol did the same. We could hear the crash of the waves along the nearby shore and I knew that would disguise some of the noises but metal on metal makes a distinctive noise as did the noise of someone slipping and sliding in mud.
Pol held his hand up and pointed into the dark. I listened and I too could hear the laboured breath of men as they crept forwards. Once we heard them we could look for the changing shadows which would show they were men. I saw shapes crossing the first ditch and touched Myrddyn’s arm. He tapped the arm of the first warrior who hurled his pot. It crashed and broke on the log. Myrddyn slapped him on the back. The noise made the enemy stop for a moment but as nothing happened they moved forwards and we saw them approach the second ditch. Myrddyn did not need my help and he judged the moment well. He lit the pot and, as it flamed the warrior hurled it through the air where it looked like a comet. It lit up the space before the fort and we saw the upturned faces of the men of Gwynedd as they massed for an attack. The pot struck the soaked log and it erupted in flames. Splashes flew to the sides where men were waiting to begin to pull the ram. They too began to burn.
The next pots were thrown at the second log. It was further away but at least one of the pots of liquor struck and both fire pots did. Soon both rams were ablaze and the men around them were dying as Walch’s arrows struck home. I watched for a while and then went to my chamber. There would be no attack this night and I had seen enough useless slaughter.
Myrddyn and I went to see Calum and Pasgen at the southern wall. They were disappointed that no one had attacked them but when I told them that only the archers had been involved then they were a little happier about the situation. “So far we have their measure but tomorrow is another day!”
I awoke the next morning to the smell of burning. Lann Aelle was awaiting me and helped me to arm. “Will they be gone Warlord?”
“I do not know. It depends on how badly he wants this fort. We shall see. There is little point in worrying about things over which we have no control.”