Finan took one pace backwards.
Two armies watched.
Finan turned his back on his brother and began walking towards his horse.
And Conall charged.
We gasped. I think every man on the field who saw it gasped. Conall charged, his sword reaching for Finan’s spine, and Finan spun.
Soul-Stealer flashed. I did not hear the clash of blades, just saw Conall’s sword fly up as it was deflected, saw Soul-Stealer slice at Conall’s face, then saw Finan turn his back and walk away again. No one who watched spoke. They saw Conall step back, blood on his face, and watched Finan walk away. And again Conall attacked. This time he lunged for the nape of Finan’s neck, and Finan ducked, turned again, and punched Soul-Stealer’s hilt into his brother’s face. Conall staggered, then tripped on his heel and sat heavily.
Finan walked to him. He ignored his brother’s sword, but just held Soul-Stealer at Conall’s neck. I expected to see the lunge and the sudden splash of blood, but instead Finan held the blade at his brother’s throat and spoke to his brother’s men. Conall tried to lift his sword, but Finan kicked it contemptuously aside, then he stooped and, using his left hand, seized his brother’s helmet.
He dragged it free.
He still stood over his brother. Now, with even greater contempt, he sheathed Soul-Stealer. He took off my helmet and replaced it with his brother’s black horse-tailed helmet with its royal circlet. King Finan.
Then he just walked away and, retrieving his shield from the grass, he climbed back into his saddle. He had humiliated his brother and now he rode the stallion along the face of Ragnall’s whole line. He did not hurry. He dared men to come and face him and none did. There was scorn in that ride. The horse-tail of the gold-ringed helmet streamed behind him as at last he kicked his stallion into a canter and rode back to us.
He reached the thorn fence and tossed me my helmet. ‘Conall’s men won’t fight us now,’ was all he said.
Which only left about a thousand men who would.
We had given Ragnall a problem and Finan had worsened it. Ragnall had to be confident that he could beat us, but knew he would pay a price for that victory. The Roman fort was old, but its walls were steep, and men climbing those short slopes would be vulnerable. In the end he would break us. He had too many men and we had too few, but too many of Ragnall’s men would die in killing us. That is why battles of the shield wall are slow to start. Men have to nerve themselves for the horror. The fort’s ditches were not much of an obstacle, but we had hammered short stakes into the ditch during the night, and men advancing behind shields can see little, and, especially if they are pushed on by the rank behind, they can trip, and a man who falls in the shield wall is as good as dead. At Æsc’s Hill, so many years ago, I had seen an army of victorious Danes defeated by a ditch that Alfred defended. The rearmost ranks had pushed the shield wall forward and the front ranks had stumbled in the ditch where the West Saxon warriors had killed them till the ditch was brimming red. So Ragnall’s men were reluctant to attack, and made more reluctant by the omen of Conall’s humiliation. It was Ragnall’s task to fire them now, to fill them with anger as well as ale. You can smell the ale on an enemy’s breath in the shield wall. We had none. We would fight sober.
The sun was halfway to his summit by the time Ragnall came to insult us. That too was a part of the pattern of battle. First the young fools challenge the enemy to single combat, then the speeches are made to fire men with the lust for blood, and finally the enemy is insulted. ‘Maggots!’ Ragnall called to us. ‘Sow turds! You want to die here?’ My men rhythmically clashed seax blades against shields, making the music of death to drown his words. ‘Send me my little brother,’ Ragnall shouted, ‘and you can live!’
Ragnall had donned mail and helmet for battle. He rode his black stallion, and, for a weapon, carried a massive axe. A dozen men accompanied him, grim warriors on big horses, their faces made mysterious by closed cheek-pieces. They were inspecting the ditch and wall, readying to warn their men what difficulties they would face. Two rode towards the thorn fence and only turned away when a spear struck the ground between their horses. One of them seized the quivering haft and carried it away.
‘We have ravaged Mercia!’ Ragnall shouted. ‘Razed farmsteads, taken captives, stripped the fields of cattle! The old hag who calls herself the ruler of Mercia is hiding behind stone walls! Her country is ours and I have her land to give away! You want good land, rich land? Come to me!’
Instead of insulting us he was trying to bribe us. Behind him, across the ridge’s wide pastureland, I could see the ale-skins being passed among the enemy. Shields were resting on the ground, their upper rims against men’s thighs, and spears were held upright, their points glinting in the sun. There was a mass of those spear-points beneath Ragnall’s banner at the centre of his line, and that told me he planned to use the long spears to shatter the centre of our line. It was what I would have done. He would have assembled his biggest men there, the most savage, the men who revelled in killing and who boasted of the widows they had made, and he would loose those men at the fort’s entrance and follow it with a rush of swordsmen to peel our wall apart and kill us like trapped rats.
He tired of shouting. We had not responded, and the clash of blades on shields had not ceased, and besides, his men had seen what obstacles we had waiting and they needed to see no more and Ragnall, after spitting towards us and shouting that we had chosen death instead of life, rode back to his men. And those men, seeing him come, picked up their shields, and I watched as the shields were hefted and overlapped. The spearmen parted to let Ragnall and his companions ride through the wall, then the shields closed again. I saw Ragnall dismount, saw him push through to the front rank. They were coming.
But first Sigtryggr rode.
He rode with eight warriors and with the eight hostages. The women’s hands were tied in front of their bodies, and their horses were led by the eight men. Ragnall must have known we had captured the women when we had taken Eoferwic, but it would have been a surprise for him to see them here. A surprise and a shock. And the eight men whose women we had as captives? I remembered Orvar’s words that men liked Sigtryggr, but feared Ragnall, and now Sigtryggr, resplendent in his shining mail and with the kingly circlet about his helmet, rode towards them, and behind him came the hostages, each escorted by a man with a drawn sword, and Ragnall’s men must have thought they would see blood and I heard a murmur of anger swelling from the pasture’s far side.
Sigtryggr stopped halfway between the armies. The women were in a line, each woman threatened with a blade. The message was obvious. If Ragnall attacked, then the women would die, but it was equally clear that if Sigtryggr killed the hostages he would merely provoke an attack. ‘He should just bring them back here,’ Finan said.
‘Why?’
‘He can’t kill them there! If they’re hidden in the hall then the enemy won’t know what’s happening to them.’
Instead Sigtryggr raised his right arm in a signal to his eight men, then dropped it fast. ‘Now!’ he called.
The eight swords were used to cut the bonds that had loosely tied the women’s wrists. ‘Go,’ Sigtryggr told them, ‘go find your husbands, just go.’
The women hesitated a moment, then clumsily kicked their horses towards Ragnall’s line that had fallen abruptly silent when Sigtryggr, instead of slaughtering the wives, had released them. One woman, unable to control her nervous horse, climbed out of the saddle and ran towards her husband’s banner. I saw two men come the other way, hurrying to greet their women, and Ragnall, understanding that he had lost power over men he wanted to fear him, also understood that he had to attack now. I saw him turn and shout, saw him beckon his shield wall forward. Horns brayed, banners were lifted, the spear-points dropped to the attack, and men started forward. They cheered.
But not every man was cheering.
The shield wall did start forward. The men at the centre, the men I feared most, were adv
ancing steadily and, either side of them, other men were coming, but out at the flanks there was hesitation. The Irish had not moved, and the contingents next to them also stayed still. Other men stayed put. I saw a man embracing his wife, and his followers were not moving either. Maybe half of Ragnall’s line was marching towards us, the other half had lost their fear of him.
Sigtryggr was riding back to us, but he paused when he heard the loud horns. He turned his horse and saw how half of his brother’s shield wall was reluctant to attack. Horsemen were galloping behind Ragnall’s shields, bellowing at reluctant men to advance. The Irish had not even picked up their shields, but stood stubbornly still. We were watching an army in two minds, an army that had lost confidence. The men whose wives had been restored to them were weighing their loyalty, and we could see it in their hesitation.
Sigtryggr turned and looked at me. ‘Lord Uhtred!’ he called. His voice was urgent. ‘Lord Uhtred!’ he called again.
‘I know!’ I shouted.
He laughed. My son-in-law took a delight in war. He was a warrior born, a lord of war, a Norseman, and he had seen what I saw. If a man rules by fear he must succeed. He must keep his followers docile by showing that he cannot be beaten, that his fate is victory and riches. Wyrd bið ful āræd. Fate is inexorable. A man who rules by fear cannot afford a single setback, and Sigtryggr’s release of the hostages had loosened the bonds of fear. But the men who hesitated would not stay defiant for long. If they saw Ragnall’s spearmen cut their savage way through the thorn fence and through the fort’s entrance, if they saw men swarming up the wall, if they saw the axes chopping at our shields on the wall’s top, then they would join the battle. Men want to be on the winning side. In a few moments all they would see was Ragnall’s men crowding at our defences and outflanking them, and they would fear that Ragnall’s victory would bring Ragnall’s revenge on those who had hung back.
What Sigtryggr had seen and what I had seen was that they must not be given that glimpse of Ragnall’s victory. We could not defend the fort even though it was made for defence, because those of Ragnall’s men who advanced were still more than enough to overwhelm us, and the sight of those men forcing their way into the fort would bring the rest of Ragnall’s army into the battle.
So we had to give the rest of Ragnall’s army a glimpse of Ragnall’s defeat.
We had to offer them hope.
We had to leave our refuge.
We had to attack.
‘Forward!’ I shouted. ‘Forward and kill them!’
‘Jesus Christ,’ Finan said beside me.
My men hesitated for a heartbeat, not out of reluctance, but from surprise. All night we had prepared them to defend the fort and now we were leaving it to carry our blades to the enemy. I jumped down the wall into the ditch. ‘Come on!’ I shouted. ‘We’re going to kill them!’
Men kicked the thorn fence aside. Other men scrambled down the fort’s wall and through the ditch to reform the shield wall on its far side. ‘Keep going!’ I shouted. ‘Keep going and kill them!’
Sigtryggr and his horsemen scattered from our path. We advanced along the ridge’s flat top, still clashing blades on shields. The enemy had stopped, astonished.
Men need a battle cry. I could not ask them to shout for Mercia, because most of my force were not Mercians, they were Norsemen. I could have called Sigtryggr’s name and doubtless all my men would have echoed that because we fought for his throne, but some impulse made me offer a different shout. ‘For Mus,’ I bellowed, ‘for the best whore in Britain! For Mus!’
There was a pause, and then my men burst into laughter. ‘For Mus!’ they shouted.
An enemy sees his attackers laughing? It is better than all the insults. A man who laughs as he goes into battle is a man who has confidence, and a man with confidence is terrifying to an enemy. ‘For the whore!’ I shouted. ‘For Mus!’ And the shout spread along my line as men who had never heard of Mus learned she was a whore and a good one too. They loved the idea. They were all laughing or shouting her name now. Shouting for a whore as they went to death’s embrace. ‘Mus! Mus! Mus!’
‘She’d better reward them,’ Finan said grimly.
‘She will!’ my son called from my other side.
Ragnall was shouting for his spearmen to advance, but they were watching Sigtryggr, who had ridden with his horsemen off to their right. He was shouting at the men who had not joined the advance, men who were now lagging behind Ragnall’s shield wall. He was encouraging them to turn against Ragnall.
‘Just kill them!’ I shouted and quickened my pace. We had to close on the enemy before the laggards decided we were doomed. Men love to be on the winning side, so we needed to win! ‘Faster,’ I shouted, ‘for the whore!’ Thirty paces, twenty, and you can see the eyes of the men who will try to kill you, and see the spear-blades, and the instinct is to stop, to straighten the shields. We cringe from battle, fear claws at us, time seems to stop, there is silence though a thousand men shout, and at that moment, when terror savages the heart like a trapped beast, you must hurl yourself into the horror.
Because the enemy feels the same.
And you have come to kill him. You are the beast from his nightmares. The man facing me had crouched slightly, his spear levelled and his shield high. I knew he would either raise or lower the blade as I closed, and I wanted him to raise it so I deliberately let my shield down so it covered my legs. I did not think about it. I knew what would happen. I had fought too many battles, and sure enough the spear-blade came up, aimed at my chest or neck as he braced himself, and I lifted the shield so the spear glanced off it to go high in the air, and then we hit.
The crash of the shield walls, the sudden noise, the hammering of wood and steel and men screaming their war cries, and I thrust Wasp-Sting into the gap between two shields and the man behind me had hooked the enemy’s shield with his axe and was tugging, and the man was struggling to pull his spear back as I rammed the seax up into his ribs. I felt it burst through the links of his mail, slice through the leather beneath to grate on bone. I twisted the blade and tugged her back as a sword struck my shield a ringing blow. Finan was protecting my right, his own seax stabbing. My opponent let go of his spear, it was far too long a weapon for the shield wall. It was meant to break open another wall and was almost useless in defence. He drew his seax, but before the blade had left the scabbard I raked Wasp-Sting across his face that was inked with ravens. She left an open wound spilling blood that blinded him and turned his short beard red. Another stab, this to his throat and he was down and the man in the rank behind him lunged over the falling body with a sword thrust that turned my shield and sliced into my son’s arm. I almost tripped on the fallen man, who still tried to stab up with his seax.
‘Kill him!’ I shouted to the man behind me and rammed my shield at the swordsman, who snarled as he tried to lunge with the blade again, and my shield slammed into his body and I stabbed Wasp-Sting down to open his thigh from groin to knee. A blade crashed against my helmet. An axe swung overhead and I ducked down fast, raising the shield, and the axe split the iron rim, shattered willow, and tilted the shield over my head, but I could see the bleeding thigh and I stabbed again, upwards this time in the wicked blow that made the man shriek and took him from the fight. Finan ripped the axeman’s cheek away from his jaw with his seax and stabbed again, aiming for the eyes. Gerbruht, behind me, seized the axe and turned it against the enemy. He thought, because I was crouching, that I was wounded, and he bellowed in anger as he pushed past me and swung the huge weapon with all the force of his huge strength. A sword pierced his upper chest, but slid upwards as his axe cut a helmet and a skull in two, and there was a mist of blood as a spatter of brains slapped on my helmet. I stood, covering Gerbruht with my shield. My son was heaving forward on my left, stamping his foot on an enemy’s face. We had taken down Ragnall’s two front ranks and the men behind were stepping back, trying to escape our blood-painted shields, our wet blades, our snarling love of sla
ughter.
And I heard another clash and heard shouting and though I could not see what happened I felt the shudder from my left and knew that other men had joined the fight. ‘For the whore!’ I shouted. ‘For the whore!’
That was a mad shout! But now the battle-joy had come, the song of slaughter. Folcbald had arrived to the left of my son, and he was as strong as Gerbruht and armed with a short-handled axe that had a massive head, and he was hooking down enemy shields so my son could lunge over them. A spear slid beneath my shield to strike against the iron strips in my boot. I stamped on the blade, rammed Wasp-Sting between two shields, felt her bite. I was keening a wordless song. Finan was using his seax to give short fast lunges between shields, raking his enemies’ forearms with the blade till their weapons dropped, when he would slice the blade up into their ribcage. Folcbald had abandoned his shattered shield and was hacking with the axe, bellowing a Frisian challenge, smashing the heavy blade through helmets and skulls, making a pile of blood-spattered enemy dead and shouting at men to come and be killed. Somewhere ahead, not far, I could see Ragnall’s banner. I shouted for him. ‘Ragnall! You bastard! Ragnall! You shrivelled piece of shit! Come and die, you bastard! For the whore!’
Oh the madness of battle! We fear it, we celebrate it, the poets sing of it, and when it fills the blood like fire it is a real madness. It is joy! All the terror is swept away, a man feels he could live for ever, he sees the enemy retreating, knows he himself is invincible, that even the gods would shrink from his blade and his bloodied shield. And I was still keening that mad song, the battle song of slaughter, the sound that blotted out the screams of dying men and the crying of the wounded. It is fear, of course, that feeds the battle madness, the release of fear into savagery. You win in the shield wall by being more savage than your enemy, by turning his savagery back into fear.
Warriors of the Storm (2015) Page 31