by Griff Hosker
“Hogan these are your men, what do you suggest?”
“Thank you, Warlord. Tuanthal and Pol, take half the men and approach from the west along the river. I will lead the rest along the valley from the east. We will catch them between us and use the speed of our attack to make up for smaller numbers.”
It was a good plan and I happily rode behind my son. I drew Saxon Slayer and slung my shield from my pommel. “Lann Aelle, the banner.” I felt better advancing under my Wolf Banner. It brought us good luck.
The valley had a stream which was not deep but it was lined with bushes and undergrowth and we rode to the side of the undergrowth. I noticed that we rode two abreast which allowed us to travel quite quickly. We saw the flames and heard the screams before we saw the Saxons. I was to Hogan’s right. I would be the one protecting my son as Lann Aelle normally protected me. The column went from two abreast to a line of fifteen warriors. They all held their spears in their right hands and extended the heads well in front of their horses. I was interested to see how these worked. We emerged from the bushes and saw the Saxons finishing off the last of the brave defenders. They had no idea what was about to be unleashed. Hogan kicked his horse on and the others did the same. I was not expecting it and felt myself losing ground. Without turning Hogan laughed, “Come along Warlord, keep up!”
The equites used their spears like long swords and jabbed and stabbed with them. They aimed them precisely at those areas without armour and Saxon after Saxon fell to the deadly accurate spears. The Saxons had no answer to the heavily armoured equites. I swung Saxon Slayer and felt it bite into the back of the warrior who was racing to thrust his spear into Hogan’s side. Lann Aelle slashed at the face of another who tried to hamstring his horse. The Saxons began to flee, just as Tuanthal and Pol arrived from the opposite direction. Our two lines of armour met in the middle. We had no time for quarter even had they asked for it and soon there were just dead and dying Saxons left.
I dismounted and shouted, “See to the wounded men. Pol, secure the perimeter.” As I handed my reins to Lann I noticed that the horses of the equites were breathing heavily. The charge had taken much out of them. I would need to bear that in mind when they were used in the future.
We managed to save four men and boys, but the rest were dead. One of the survivors was the old headman. He had been stabbed in the arm and I could see that he would never use it again. He recognised my shield, “Thank the Allfather you arrived when you did or we would have all been taken. They came from nowhere, Warlord. We had no defences.”
My first thought was that they should have had a wall and defended it but this was not the time for such carping. “They will come again you know?”
“Aye, I know but what are we to do?”
“There is a fort being built a few miles back at Ruthin. The Clwyd is a fertile valley and I can protect you there. Here you are too close to the Saxons. If you moved there then there would, at least, be warriors to aid you.” I saw the despair in his eyes. “You can start again.”
“We have but four men. What of the women who have lost fathers and husbands.”
“The men at the fort are good men. They will help you to rebuild and…”
The old man smiled, “And nature will take care of the rest.”
I nodded, “If you go there now I will send men to escort you and I will ask Bishop Stephen to send healers for your wounds but Myrddyn is there.”
“Myrddyn the wizard?”
I could hear the awe in his voice. “Yes, old man, the wizard is there.” I waved Tuanthal over. “Captain, escort these people to Myrddyn and they will build a settlement there. Have one of Aedh’s scouts go to the Bishop; he may be able to help. We will camp here. Return tomorrow and we will continue our patrol.”
Aedh and his indegeftigable scouts were out before first light. We were ready to ride when Tuanthal and his men returned. “We will wait for Aedh to return. I need to know where the Saxons are and where my ships are.”
Hogan examined his horse as we waited. “We cannot keep this up for long, Warlord; the horses cannot cope with the weight.”
I had worked that out for myself. “Then perhaps we leave the horse armour. We should not need it.”
“I am loath to lose it. Let us see what today brings. Perhaps when Garth and Mungo reach us we can do so.”
I said nothing but I had decided that, even if they disagreed, I would rob the equites of their horse armour. What was the good of armour if you could not use the horses because of the weight?
Aedh rode in with all of his scouts. “My lord, I have collected all of my scouts.” He pointed to the north. “‘The Wolf’ and the others ships are anchored at the mouth of the estuary. We have found the slave camp. It is close to Y Fflint. Captains Garth and Mungo are five miles from here and there is a sizeable warband heading from Y Fflint towards Treffynnon. There appear to be sixty men in the band. The village has no walls to protect the people.”
“You have done well, Aedh. I want the ships to be as close to Treffynnon as possible. I want the equites to get to the village and dismount. You will defend it on foot until my warriors can reach it.”
Hogan looked appalled, “But we are equites!”
“And can your horses charge the Saxons?”
“They could manage one charge.” Hogan sounded truculent.
“I need your horses to be fresh for the attack on the slave camp. Obey the Warlord!” I put steel into my voice. Hogan might be my son but I was Warlord.
“Yes Warlord.”
“Aedh send one rider to Garth and tell him to hurry to Treffynnon I will join them there and the rest of your scouts can stay with me.” As they all left, I suddenly felt naked. I had just eight lightly armed warriors and we had to hold up the enemy until Garth reached us. I grinned at them. “Well boys, it looks like we have the honour of attacking a warband six times our number. Are you game?”
They all roared, “Wolf Warriors!” We were ready.
There was a hollow running alongside the road and we took advantage of it. Aedh and his scouts were masters at estimating distances and the lead scout held up his hand and halted. “They should be half a mile up the road, Warlord.”
The scouts all had bows and short swords but they were not armoured. Our only advantage was speed. “I want us to get ahead of them. You will loose arrows from cover and then we will appear before them. I want them to chase us onto my son’s spears.” I looked at Lann Aelle. “You need to wave the banner as though you are signalling an army to come to our rescue. With luck Garth and Mungo will fall on their unprotected backs.” The scouts looked keen to be fighting for a change. “I want no casualties. Five arrows only and then we retreat. They will follow me so I want no heroes. You will get the village and you will help Hogan.”
We made swift time down the sunken dell. My horse struggled a little with the weight of my armour but the ponies of the scouts flew over the mossy mud. The lead scout held up his hand and slowed down as we passed the head of the warband. We could hear their noise as we slowly passed them. Two hundred paces further down we halted. I held up my hand and they drew back their bows. As I lowered it they released and reloaded. I did that four times and then we hacked our way through the hedges to emerge on the road. We had caused few casualties but there were bodies lying on the road. “Now Lann!”
As soon as the banner was unfurled the Saxons roared their anger and hurtled towards us. The scouts loosed their last flights as I shouted, “Retreat!” We rode swiftly down the road with the Saxons in close pursuit. Had they had bows they might have tried to hurt us but they had spears, swords and axes only. I kept pace with them so we were always, temptingly, out of reach. I saw the village ahead and hoped that Hogan had laid an ambush. He might still be bridling at losing his horses but he was a warrior through and through and he would know how to lay a good ambush.
As we approached the village I could see nothing and that boded well. I glanced over my shoulder and saw that the Saxo
ns were just forty paces behind me. I heard Hogan’s voice as I approached the first round house. “Keep riding! Take them to the end of the village!”
I allowed Lann Aelle to pass me then I wheeled my mount around and shouted in Saxon, “Saxon dogs!” I continued my wheel and galloped through the first of the huts. As I had expected my taunting had allowed them to close with me and they were just twenty paces behind me. I kicked hard and my horse leapt away.
I heard the roar of the Saxons followed by Hogan’s voice, “Now!”
The thirty equites stabbed with their long spears as they emerged from the huts. “Scouts, turn and loose!”
I galloped hard and aimed my horse at the warrior with the full face helmet. I extended my arm and sliced down with my blade. It cut the helmet and skull in two. My horse trampled a second warrior and then Lann Aelle was laying about him with Bear Killer. The maces of the equites were doing terrible damage to Saxons who were wearing poor iron helmets. With their leader gone they turned and fled. Lann and I pursued them. It must have looked ridiculous but the Saxons who turned would have only seen a huge warrior on a massive horse. When Garth and Mungo’s men charged into them they either surrendered or died. We had won, again.
As our men herded the sullen prisoners together I had Mungo’s men collect the weapons to add to those we had gathered from the other warband. None of them were of high quality but Prince Cadfan would be able to use them. “Pol, go and signal ‘The Wolf’ to close in shore. We can store the weapons on board the ships and our wounded. Although we had not lost men there were many wounds and there was little point in sending a wounded man in to battle.
Hogan approached me, “You were right father. I am sorry for my outburst.”
I smiled, “You are a horseman and it is natural that you should wish to ride to war. I am Warlord and for me the burden is the whole army and all of our people. We will have differences of opinion. That is good. It is just important that we fight together. Now make sure you have rested your horses and take off your amour. Tomorrow we fight again and this time you will use your horses.”
I waved Garth over. “Warlord, what do we do with these prisoners? There are twenty of them.”
“I do not know yet. Just bind them and guard them and we will give it some thought. Did Myrddyn not accompany you?”
“He said that he would join us here later. He was with us until we spied the warband and then he vanished.” I cocked an eyebrow and Garth laughed. “What I mean is he was with us one moment and they he had gone. I can understand why people think he can become invisible. He can be as silent as the night when he wishes to be.”
“Do not worry Garth; he has a way of reappearing when we need him. How man men have we now?”
“We have fifty warriors.”
“Then we will need all of Myrddyn’s cunning if we are to rescue the slaves and not lose all of our men in doing so.”
The villagers had returned from their places of hiding. They were grateful to us for our help. I summoned the headman and pointed to the stones of the Roman walls. “Why do you have no defences? These stones could have built a wall. You know that the Saxons are at Deva and that is less than a day from here.”
“King Iago told us that the Saxons had been defeated.” He looked distraught.
“Then your king was wrong. How many men do you have here?” He looked fearfully at my armed men. I laughed and shook my head. “I am not here to take your men. My warriors have trained for years. How many men do you have who can bear weapons?”
“There are twelve of us.”
“And have you weapons?”
“A few my lord.”
I turned to Lann Aelle. “Go and bring twelve good weapons and helmets before the ships arrive.” He galloped off to fetch the weapons. “You need to use the good Roman stone to build walls around your village. Dig a ditch and build a tower to watch for the Saxons.” I pointed to the river a mile or so away. “The Saxons can reach here more easily than many places.”
“But my lord, we are farmers…”
“Dead men cannot farm and their families become slaves. That is your choice.”
His shoulders sagged in resignation. “Would that you could protect us.”
I waved my hand in the direction of Wyddfa. “I have much land to watch and my men will visit as often as we can but you must bear some responsibility. Build a beacon and if they come again then light it. My men are building a fort at Ruthin, just up the Clwyd Valley, and they will come. The bishop has a beacon at the monastery too. Your walls may slow the enemy up enough to allow us to get here.” I smiled. “I have been in your position too. It is a short period of work and then your family will be safe. It is worth it is it not?”
“Yes Warlord.”
Lann Aelle arrived back with two warriors who were laden with helmets and weapons. They were mainly spears with a couple of axes but they were sound ones. “Distribute these and have your men make shields when they can. If you have archers then so much the better and your boys who cannot fight can throw stones. Give your women knives. You must make it hard for the Saxons and they will go to find easier targets.”
The headman was grateful and they shared what little food they had with us. I left them to eat while I went to tell my captains what I intended. By the time I returned I found that Myrddyn had reappeared. “Ah the magician is here again; very good of you to join us.”
He swallowed the morsel he had been chewing and grinned at me. “I thought that you would wish to know how many Saxons faced you at Y Fflint.”
“You have been there?”
“I played the healer again. There are two hundred men there, or near enough two hundred for some were on board their ships. They have six ships and they are moored in the middle of the river.” That fitted in with my calculations. There are a hundred and fifteen slaves. That is their count and not mine. They are guarded by twenty warriors and when the villagers from here are brought then they will be transported across the river.”
“Good that fits in with my plan.” I gathered my captains around me and explained what we would do. The fact that they all left in such good humour made me think that my mad plan might just succeed.
Myrddyn walked with me by the river. “The plan has all the marks of a wizard, Warlord. You are learning.”
“I think it is a mixture of you and my association with Constantinopolis and their convoluted minds. We will see what the morrow brings.”
The next day we herded the prisoners together. Those of our warriors who had Saxon helmets and shields led them down the road to Y Fflint. Garth was the captain. It was only five miles. The marched them down the river track. I led Mungo and the remainder of our men down the Roman Road. Hogan and the equites were half a mile behind the prisoners. It was all a matter of timing and what the Saxons saw. We ran down the road to reach our allotted position before the prisoners could be seen from their camp.
It was maddening for me to be reliant on others but Myrddyn had promised me that they would be able to do what I asked of them. Myrddyn was also playing a prisoner and would be a vital part in the rescue of the slaves. When I heard the shout and the roar I had to imagine what was happening. “Now Mungo. Wedge!” We were hidden from the camp by trees and hedges but I could see Hogan charging our men and the prisoners. I hoped that there would be panic amongst the Saxon defenders as they saw the mailed equites charging their own men and the newly acquired slaves. My four ships only had six bolt throwers but I knew that they would be sending bolt after bolt into the Saxon ships. With luck they would try to escape and not notice my wedge approaching.
I saw that the Saxons had formed a shield wall. They had left a gap for what they thought were their own men, returning with newly acquired slaves, to pass through and were preparing to hold off the mailed horsemen. They did not see us approach their unguarded left flank. We did not shout until we were ten paces from the end. The roar made them start and look in horror at the Wolf Banner and Saxon Slayer. Their whol
e left flank crumbled. Garth and his men left the tied prisoners and followed Myrddyn to the slave compound where they swiftly killed the guards. We were still vastly outnumbered by our enemies but they were disorganised and only saw two walls of iron closing upon them. They broke and ran for their ships.
“Halt!” With so few men it would have been madness to follow them. We turned and headed towards the slave compound. The men we had captured the previous day looked confused as we passed them without harming them. They had bought their lives with the deception. As soon as I saw Garth and Myrddyn leading their charges down the road towards the coast we ran to join them.
“Hogan and I want you and your equites to stop the Saxons pursuing us when we go to the monastery. Avoid contact. Your presence should deter them.”
“I will do Warlord.”
We had ten miles to go until we reached Bishop Stephen’s monastery and with women and children that would take half a day. The scouts led the women and children off and we followed a short way behind. Like Hogan we would stop the women and children being recaptured.
Lann Aelle signalled the ships to withdraw and I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that they were all undamaged. Looking upstream I saw that the Saxon ships had been damaged but they could be repaired. We had, however, achieved our objective. We had destroyed four warbands and rescued the captured villagers. Once our fort at Ruthin was completed we would be able to control such incursions.
Bishop Stephen had been warned of our impending arrival and all was ready for us when we reached them. The monks were kind and enjoyed looking after children. When we reached the monastery the children were laughing and the tears from the women were with relief that they had survived. I waited anxiously for Hogan to arrive and felt that I could relax when he did.
“They showed no sign of wishing to pursue us.” He looked at his horses with concern. “We could not have charged them.”
“I know. Take your men and horses back to the island. Leave Tuanthal, Aedh and his scouts with me.”