by Griff Hosker
“No Garth, Myrddyn and I agree.” I pointed across the river. “See there are fewer tents than there were. They are moving. We will give another day and then we will retire to Civitas and Tuanthal can watch them. We have merely won the battle. Not the war.”
We waited for a few more days and then the Saxons were suddenly gone. Myrddyn had managed to save many men and the wait had not caused problems but I now worried where they had gone. I sent Tuanthal east to see if he could find them and I led my army back to Civitas. My men, and especially Pol and Hogan, were in an exceptionally good mood. I had noticed Hogan looking at me in a different way. I suppose he had seen me before as the father who played with him and his sister- an affectionate and doting father- but now he had seen me as a warrior.
“Will they make a great celebration at the castle father?”
“I do not know. We did not defeat the Saxons.”
Hogan looked shocked. “But they ran away!”
“They ran away and still have most of their men. Warriors call that a retreat. We did well, you and Pol did very well but it is only the start.”
“I want a longer sword.”
I shook my head. “Pol used that one, very successfully for many years. You need the weapon to be a part of you.”
“The Warlord is right Hogan. Keep it sharp and it will save you.” Hogan took out the seax and looked at it as though he had never seen it before.
Hogan was disappointed with the reception we received at Civitas Carvetiorum because there was no reception. It was as though we were just visiting. The sentries looked at the ground, shamefaced as we rode in and the king did not bother to see us at all. I went to the infirmary with Myrddyn to see Pasgen and the other wounded warriors.
Prince Pasgen was furious with his brother. “I cannot understand Ywain. He was annoyed because we did not kill the whole Saxon army.” He shook his head. “I tried to explain that we were heavily outnumbered and it was a miracle that we did what we did.” He paused. “Lord Lann, your plan was perfection and your attack a masterstroke. My father would have been proud of you, as would Brother Osric.”
“Thank you, Prince Pasgen, your words more than make up for the cool reception.” Myrddyn had been examining Pasgen’s wounds and he nodded. “Myrddyn thinks that you can get up tomorrow. I would like to meet with the king, you, Myrddyn, Garth, Riderch and Miach.”
“Gladly, but you had better be careful. Ywain is becoming secretive. He might think that we are ganging up on him.”
“I care not what he thinks. It is time he began behaving like a king.”
When we arrived at the king’s chamber the two guards looked embarrassed. “You may not enter, Warlord.”
Garth’s hand went to his sword but I restrained him. “Why not?”
“The king wishes to see no one.”
“You have done your duty. Do not be ashamed. Tell the king that his counsel will be meeting in the main hall to decide what to do next. We will inform him of our decision. Come gentlemen. Let us go to the hall.”
Pasgen was incandescent with rage. “That jumped up… how can you take these insults, after what you have done?”
“I serve Rheged. I promised your father that I would do so. We will talk and then the king will join us.”
We sat around the table and Myrddyn unfolded the map which Brother Osric had begun and he now added to each time we travelled. He had just identified all the places on the map when the door burst open and King Ywain came in flanked by two armed guards. “So this is where the conspirators meet. I should have you all put in chains.”
“Your majesty; it is good of you to join us.”
Prince Pasgen stared at me. “Warlord. Did you not hear what he said? He is accusing us of conspiracy!”
“As the king has not left the castle I assume that he has been misinformed.” I stared at the two guards. “Lying and spreading false rumour in time of war is a very serious offence. Who had told you this your majesty? Is it these two?”
The two men stared at Saxon Slayer lying across the map and they paled. Seargh, the older one dropped to his knees and said, “No Warlord. We were ordered here by his majesty.”
King Ywain looked puzzled. I stared at him. “Then if you would sit at the head of the table we can explain what we think ought to be done about the Saxons and you can give us your opinion.”
He sat down but pointedly left his two bodyguards in the room behind his chair. I pointed to Myrddyn, “Continue with your analysis.”
“The Saxons have left Rheged which leaves them with two main options and many minor ones. They could use their ships and land from the seaward side of Rheged or they could come from the east. Although, as we have seen, Aethelric is cunning and clever and may use a combination of both.”
Prince Pasgen asked, “Why not the south?”
“There are two strongholds barring his route, Aelle’s and Raibeart’s. We would have ample warning and he would lose many men.”
“So your majesty what do you think we should do?”
“I thought that you were invincible and that you would have killed them all. We do not have enough men to fight them. It is hopeless. And my poor wife has lost her father.”
“Brother we lost our father but he was murdered!” Pasgen’s fury made his face white.
“We can make it hard for them. Lord Gildas had built another fort on the coast. With Ridwyn at Banna and me at Castle Perilous then we can halt the enemy and you could bring the horses and the army to wherever they are.”
I could see the nods from the others but the king just shook his head. “We must protect the castle. We need every man we can.” He sank back into his chair. “Protect your castles but I wait here.” He stood and left with head hung down.
“My lord, the warriors who fought with us did well. We could train them to become warriors.”
“A good idea, Myrddyn; if the Saxons give us time.”
“I am afraid, Warlord, that we will have to buy that time.”
We argued back and forth but Myrddyn’s solution was the only one anyone could come up with. We all left the next morning. Each of us took our own men to protect our castles while all the horsemen we could muster were assigned to Tuanthal. Pasgen took it on himself to ride around the kingdom, despite his wounds and gather volunteers who would be trained at Castle Perilous by Garth and me.
Aedh had proved himself to be adept and I gave him command of the slingers. With Hogan as my squire every boy for twenty miles around wanted to join. Pasgen managed to find some riders but our horsemen would never be the force they had once been. Every man and boy who could be found was brought to my warrior hall and training started at first light and ended at dusk.
Brother Oswald became more of a quartermaster than a priest but he was a resourceful man and a clever organiser. His work in procuring wagons and horses meant that we were able to gather supplies quickly. “We will still be heading for Wales, my lord?” He was also astute.
“I would imagine so. I cannot see that King Ywain will relent and although we can hold out for a while we will fall and then we will go to Wales.”
Raibeart and Aelle came north with their bodyguards and we held a counsel along with Garth and Myrddyn. “We will keep our horsemen ready to join you at a moment’s notice and then we can bring our other forces north.”
“Do not throw your men away on a lost cause. My hope is that King Ywain comes to his senses and then you warriors will be needed.”
Myrddyn cast doubts on that idea. “In this room I will say that our only hope is for Prince Pasgen to become king.”
“That cannot be, Myrddyn, for that would be civil war and we would be doing the Saxon’s job for them.”
“I did not say it was a good solution but it would give us hope.”
The day after my brothers left the Saxons came. We heard later that they arrived at Banna at the same time. There were a thousand in each warband but they seemed content merely to build a camp across the two Roman roads.
It was a repeat of the previous year’s tactics. This time, however, we were in no position to shift them. When Tuanthal’s patrol returned it was with the news that there was a further warband to the south and it was threatening Raibeart’s domain. They were closing for the kill. I sent my despatch riders to the others to keep them informed. Prince Pasgen sent every available warrior, not to Civitas Carvetiorum, but to either Ridwyn or me. Soon Castle Perilous was full.
They timed their attack for the start of the harvest. It was a clever move. The men from the camp closest to us were reinforced by another thousand warriors and they began their attack. Ominously they did not attack the castle but the bridge over the river. They intended to bypass us if they could and take King Ywain’s castle. All of our hard work building the defences paid off for no matter how hard they tried they could not break through Myrddyn’s cunning defences. Our archers and slingers were able to kill those advancing with impunity and our losses in return were negligible. I had begun to think that we might be able to hold them when I received a despatch rider from Ridwyn; the Saxons had spread south of the wall and bypassed Banna; they were heading for Civitas Carvetiorum. They were going for the king.
I had to hope that he would be able to hold out for the only forces I had available were the horsemen of Tuanthal. I sent despatch riders to Raibeart and Aelle asking them to send a force to relieve us. Then we would be able to relieve the king. Gradually more and more of my people fled to the safety of my castle and we put them in the camp we had built beyond the castle. Brother Oswald had gathered in much food but, with the harvest uncollected there would be a lean winter ahead. The Saxon attacks slowly petered out as they seemed willing to wait for the results of their attack on Civitas. None of my despatch riders had managed to breach the ring they had thrown around the stronghold. I did not fear that they would breach its solid walls but their presence had ground Rheged to a halt and starvation would be the enemy.
As I had expected Raibeart and Aelle had set off with their men as soon as they had received my message. They approached my castle from the west and beyond the prying eyes of the Saxons. I rode out with Tuanthal and we met them five miles from the castle. “You did not leave your own lands undefended did you?”
“No brother. Our walls are defended but we brought our best.”
I looked at the warriors and I saw that they had spoken true. Many looked as I did, scarred and grey but it bespoke skill. I recognised men from Elmet who were still keen to avenge the death of their king and kingdom. All told they added two hundred warriors for the shield wall, a hundred archers and eighty slingers. The forty horsemen they brought, doubled my force and gave me the chance to relieve the siege. I quickly outlined my plan and we set it into motion. I led the eighty equites and twenty mounted archers whilst Raibeart and Aelle joined my garrison. The walls would be bristling with armour and steel. Tuanthal took the Dragon standard and I left two disgruntled retainers in the castle with my standard. Hogan and Pol felt put out, despite the fact that I told them that neither was good enough on a horse. I had to be blunt. This was not the time for honeyed tongues. I eased the disappointment by telling them that they could raise my banner from the ramparts when they heard the buccina.
We left in the small hours of the night and rode first south and then east. We arrived a mile east of the Saxon camp just before dawn. Their camp was secure on all four sides but the land to the north and south was open and rolling. They had not put ditches across them. They were confident that they could defeat us. Their normal practice was to line their warriors up to intimidate us. They had learned to stay out of bow shot but they jeered and catcalled as they knew we could not sortie. There was a small hill about two hundred paces from the camp and I sent my archers there under Raibeart’s captain, Gwallog. Raibeart had spoken highly of him as a sound and reliable warrior. The archers had bellied up to just below the crest and there, they would rain arrows into the camp. When dawn broke we saw, from the shelter of some trees, movement in the camp. As soon as they had eaten they marched out. Their chief had placed them in a single line to give the impression that they had more men than they actually did but we had counted them carefully and knew that we faced one thousand eight hundred and fifty warriors. We now had almost seven hundred to face them and those odds favoured the Wolf Warrior and his men. As they lined up, we emerged from the woods. We all had two javelins and a spear and each of us was mailed from head to foot. My horse, Raven, also had a metal headpiece which afforded him a little more protection.
I could not see my castle as the enemy were in the line of sight but I heard the buccina. That was our signal to charge. We did so in a single line. The wailing of the Dragon Standard seemed to come from the skies or the ground; those who heard it were never certain. One thing was certain, it terrified our enemies. Gwallog and his men loosed arrow after arrow into the camp. I could tell from the shouts and the screams that they were being effective. Although I could not see what was happening I knew that Garth was leading a wedge of my best warriors up the road to the Saxon camp. Their warriors on their left began to run, disordered, towards the wedge. They did not see us. Their shields faced my wedge and when they did hear us we were forty paces from them. I had spread the line quite thinly for I knew how good my men were with javelins. Over one hundred men fell to the javelins we threw and then we waded in with our spears, stabbing at unprotected backs. The warriors to the south, over five hundred of them were isolated and Raibeart led more warriors, mainly archers protected by a shield wall to rain death upon them.
My horsemen reined in and we dressed our lines. The wedge was now close to the camp and surrounded by Saxons. I could see that Gwallog still dealt death with his deadly arrows and we charged again. This time we had no javelins to throw but our spears were just as effective. We stabbed and withdrew as we reached their lines. Raven raised his hooves to smash into the helmet and skull of one warrior while I speared another. The third warrior managed to get two hands on the spear as it struck him and he ripped it from my hand as he died. I drew Saxon Slayer and leaned forwards to stab the next man. Having cleared some space I laid about me with the wicked blade. The Saxons were caught between my equites, my shield wall and, now that the camp was cleared, by Gwallog and his archers. It was too much and they fled the field. Leaving Garth and the wedge to kill the beleaguered war chief and his oathsworn, we set off to chase the survivors. There would be no mercy. We would not allow any to escape. I needed the land close to my castle to be free from threat and then I could aid my king.
It was late afternoon when we stopped. Our horses could go no further and I do not think any had escaped. When we reached, what had been the camp, we saw that Myrddyn and Garth had destroyed the walls and used them to make a pyre on which the bodies of the Saxons burned. The pall of smoke would have been visible at the coast.
As I rode through my gate the army all cheered and I saw Pol and Hogan proudly clinging to the standard watched over by their uncles. It was a great victory; but it was probably the last victory. Our losses had been light and our booty was great. Even Brother Oswald was delighted as he had gained much food as well as arms and armour.
Even as we were celebrating I sent a despatch rider to the capital to gauge the numbers we would have to fight. The feast was a joyful occasion with my son, brothers and close friends all gathered around the same table. Everyone spoke of their part in the battle and it gave all of us the full picture. Raibeart and Miach had totally destroyed five hundred Saxons in their warband while Garth and his wedge had barely been troubled by the Saxons.
“I do not think they were ready for battle. They had watched us and thought we would not attack. It was a master stroke to turn the tables.”
Myrddyn held up a warning finger. “The problem is that only works once. Had they used ditches or three deep lines then it would not have been as easy. Is that not true, my lord?”
“The wizard speaks aright. A single line of men is no obstacle to horsemen and a man with his ba
ck to cavalry is walking dead. Keep clear heads for tomorrow we rescue the king.”
There was an optimistic mood that night. If we could repeat what we had done then there was hope that we could defeat the Saxons. The troubled dreams I had that night should have warned me that wyrd could still play cruel tricks with men and their hopes. When I rose the next day I kept my dreams to myself but Myrddyn came to me. “Your mother came to me again last night.”
I knew that it meant trouble. “And it was an ill omen.”
“Now you are getting the second sight.”
“No my friend but I too had troubled dreams. And what was her warning?”
“That the Saxon tide is rising and you would need all your wits to avoid drowning.”
I said, almost to myself, “The water dream again. As much as I appreciate the warning it is vague, is it not? Besides we do fear the Saxons. I would have been more worried if she had warned me of danger closer to home.”
We both remembered when there had been a spy in my castle, placed there by the perfidious King Morcant Bulc. “If you do not mind, my lord, I will stay close to you for a while.”
I looked at him askance. “I have warriors you know.”
“It may need intelligence and not brute strength.”
“Well we need not worry for a while. We will take the army to Civitas as soon as the scouts return.”
We had had few injuries and wounds and the army was ready to march. Those with wounds and the old were left to guard the castle whilst the rest prepared to march west. Before we could do so the despatch rider rode in whooping his joy. “My lord, the Saxons have fled!”
His high pitched, piping voice carried to the waiting army and they cheered and roared their approval. As we waited for him to close with us Garth said, “They must have heard that we had defeated this warband.”
Neither Myrddyn nor I were convinced. “They had good intelligence then, but let us wait until the excitable young Corin has reported.