The Sword Brothers

by Peter Darman

  ‘And where are the heathen Lithuanians?’

  ‘They encircled Kokenhusen a week ago, Lennewarden three days later and arrived before Uexkull yesterday. They will be here in four or five days.’

  Stefan crossed himself. ‘The Lord save us.’

  Volquin sighed. ‘The walls of Riga are thick enough to deter an assault, archdeacon. In any case the last despatch I had from Kokenhusen indicated that the Lithuanian strategy is to sit outside the walls and starve the occupants into surrender.

  Stefan went pale. ‘The last despatch from Kokenhusen? Has the castle fallen?’

  Volquin wanted to laugh at this absurd little man whom the bishop had made governor.

  ‘No, archdeacon, it has not fallen. Nor will it. And that is the same for all the other castles of my order that are surrounded by the Lithuanians. My castellans are men of iron, not rotten wood. But the Lithuanians will ensure that no messages leave the garrisons or enter. They use hawks to kill the courier pigeons.’

  Stefan tightened his lips. ‘Barbarians. They must be made to pay for their treachery.’

  He looked at Volquin. ‘You will be organising a relief force, I assume?’

  ‘Relief force?’

  Stefan frowned at him. ‘To save our castles along the Dvina.’

  Volquin shook his head. ‘I have too few men, archdeacon, even counting those knights who remained here during the winter. Master Griswold at Kokenhusen reported that thousands of Lithuanians crossed the river. That is why they can lay siege to each castle.’

  ‘Then what is your plan, grand master?’

  ‘I have sent letters to King Caupo to bring his warriors to Riga. Combined with our own forces we will have enough to defeat the Lithuanians. After that those enemy soldiers besieging our castles will disappear as quickly as snow in spring.’

  Stefan was not convinced. ‘Caupo? We leave the safety of the whole of Livonia in the hands of a pagan?’

  ‘King Caupo,’ said Volquin firmly, ‘is a friend and ally of the bishop. I have fought by his side and he is a good man. I trust him implicitly.’

  Stefan rose from his chair once more to recommence his pacing. ‘You would be well advised not to trust anyone in this land, grand master. I trusted Prince Vsevolod and look where that has got me. The bishop has made a peace with the heathen Lembit but will he honour it? I think not. The only thing we can trust in this land is our own kind and God’s mercy.’

  ‘Our own kind?’ queried Volquin.

  Stefan waved a hand in the air. ‘Christians from Germany and other godly lands, of course. They will supplant the natives and then we will have a truly god-fearing kingdom, free from Livs, Estonians and Lithuanians and all the other dross that we currently have to endure.’

  Volquin raised an eyebrow. ‘That is the bishop’s view?’

  ‘The bishop’s time is devoted to enlisting knights and funds for his holy crusade in Livonia. He leaves the day-to-day running of the kingdom to me.’

  ‘How fortunate he is,’ remarked Volquin dryly.

  Stefan, who stopped pacing, noted his tone. ‘That being the case, I would prefer that it was a Christian army that defeated the Lithuanians, not one filled with Livs.’

  ‘King Caupo and his men are Christians, archdeacon.’

  ‘That is a matter open to debate,’ sneered Stefan.

  But whatever Stefan may have thought of Caupo and his Livs he and they did not want for courage. Upon hearing of the Lithuanian invasion the king gathered his chiefs and marched south to do battle with Grand Duke Daugerutis. The castellans of Segewold, Kremon and Wenden were ordered to fortify their strongholds and await reinforcements. Ideally Volquin would have liked to have ordered Caupo to do likewise but he had no authority over the Liv king, and in any case he understood that Caupo could not stand by idly while the Lithuanians were overrunning his people. And so he marched from Treiden at the head of three thousand men, including Thalibald and his eldest son Waribule, and met Daugerutis in battle by the shore of Lake Inesis, some sixty miles east of Riga. The king and his men fought well but at the end of the day the lake and its western shore were filled with Liv dead. Daugerutis brought four thousand horse and eight thousand foot soldiers to the battlefield and Caupo and his men were simply overwhelmed by a Lithuanian tide. The king was resigned to die fighting among the remnants of his army but Thalibald physically put him on a horse and ordered what remained of Caupo’s bodyguard to take their king back to Treiden. Caupo was in tears as he looked back to see the banner of Thalibald fall beneath a mass of Lithuanians.

  Grand Duke Daugerutis did not halt to celebrate his victory at Inesis. He consigned his own dead to the fires, left the Liv slain to rot and then marched his men north, towards the Gauja and Wenden.

  Chapter 15

  Master Berthold had assembled the garrison of Wenden and those Livs who had sought sanctuary in the castle in the courtyard to inform them that the Lithuanians had defeated King Caupo and his army and were now on the way to the castle. Conrad felt a knot in his stomach as he wondered what had happened to Thalibald and Waribule. Rameke and a score of warriors had escorted the women and children from his and other villages to the castle where they had been accommodated in the castle quarters. He and the other novices had been unceremoniously consigned to tents inside the perimeter, among the huts of the civilian workers. He did not mind because it meant that Daina was safe.

  But the daughter of Thalibald was distraught when she learned about Caupo’s defeat, as were most of the Liv women, because it meant that her father, brother and their menfolk were probably dead. Conrad held her in his arms as she sobbed her heart out after learning of the king’s defeat, while Rameke swore revenge on the Lithuanians.

  ‘I will ride south with what few men I can muster,’ he hissed. ‘I am chief now.’

  Conrad was shocked, not by his desire to exact vengeance but by the fact that he was now the chief of his people.

  ‘I will come with you,’ he said, holding Daina tight.

  ‘Me too,’ said Hans.

  Anton nodded in agreement and Johann slapped Rameke on the back.

  ‘None of you are going anywhere,’ hissed Lukas, ‘not even you, Rameke.’

  ‘I lead my people now, Lukas,’ snapped Rameke, looking at his sister sobbing.

  Lukas smiled and laid a hand on his shoulder. ‘Listen. Cool heads are needed in a crisis. Your first responsibility as the leader of your people is to ensure their safety and not to ride away on some stupid revenge mission that will only get you killed. Who will lead your people then?’

  ‘But…’ Rameke protested.

  Lukas held up a hand. ‘Have all your people been gathered in?’

  Rameke looked around at the dozens of women, young children and infants that filled the courtyard. He nodded.

  ‘Very well,’ said Lukas. ‘Help me and the master get them settled into their quarters and then you and Master Berthold can discuss what needs to be done.’

  Rameke nodded his head sullenly and slapped Johann on the shoulder.

  Lukas walked over to Daina and gently laid his hands on her shoulders.

  ‘Perhaps it would be better if your brother consoled you, Daina. Conrad has duties to attend to.’

  ‘I do?’ said Conrad.

  Lukas glared at him. ‘Yes, you do.’

  Conrad kissed Daina on the head.

  ‘I love you,’ he whispered.

  She pulled away from him and looked at him with tear-filled eyes.

  ‘And I you.’

  Lukas gestured for Rameke to take his sister to her quarters and waved Conrad and the others away. Somewhat crestfallen, Rameke put an arm around his sister and they walked towards the dormitory.

  ‘And Rameke,’ Lukas called after him.

  Rameke stopped and looked at the brother knight.

  ‘Your father was a good man and like a brother to me and the other brother knights here. We will avenge his death.’

  Lukas watched them disappear into the
dormitory as sergeants, who had also been ejected from their quarters, began herding the Liv women and children into the building that their new chief would also occupy. And because there were so many new civilians the dining hall was also given over to housing them.

  ‘Where will we eat?’ asked Hans with alarm. The others laughed.

  ‘You won’t have time to eat,’ replied Lukas.

  Hans smiled. ‘I always have time to eat, Brother Lukas.’

  At that moment the alarm bell began ringing at the gatehouse in the perimeter wall, to be reciprocated by the bell in the courtyard.

  Lukas pointed at Hans. ‘You think so?’

  The sergeants hurried everyone inside as brother knights and mercenaries rushed to the armoury to collect their weapons. There were guards at the perimeter gatehouse and on the timber ramparts at all times but they would need reinforcing if the castle’s outer wall was to hold. Lukas told Conrad and others to collect crossbows from the armoury. They were all allowed to wear their swords now, but their helmets and shields were deposited in the armoury and so they had to retrieve them.

  ‘And don’t forget to collect at least three quivers of bolts each,’ he said to them.

  As they waited in line Conrad saw leather face exit the squat stone building with his crossbow on his shoulder and holding four quivers. The grizzled old mercenary smiled at him.

  ‘Never fought the Lithuanians before. Should be interesting.’

  ‘You have enough quivers there,’ said Conrad.

  ‘Now don’t you boys worry,’ said leather face, ‘there will be plenty of Lithuanians to go round.’

  He grinned to show his rotting teeth before sauntering off as though he had not a care in the world.

  When he at last got to the armoury the armourers were already flustered and irritable, slamming down full quivers on the bench that served as a makeshift counter between them and the outside world. They guarded the armoury like an eagle watches over its nest. But they knew their business and soon furnished Conrad with everything he needed: crossbow, two sets of bowstrings, kettle helmet, shield, three full quivers and a one-handed axe, which he tucked in his belt. Then he and the others went outside and ran from the courtyard to man the outer wall.

  As he raced across the bridge over the moat he saw horsemen riding up and down beyond the perimeter wall, dozens of them. They were obviously acting as a screen for the hundreds of foot soldiers that were being marshalled into position behind them.

  ‘Do you think three quivers each will be enough?’ said Anton with alarm.

  As they descended the slope to where the civilian huts stood they passed their occupants rushing the other way to the safety of the castle, clutching their children and a few pathetic belongings. The gates in the perimeter wall had been closed and braced with logs but as Conrad looked to the left and right to see members of the garrison loading crossbows on the ramparts, he realised that the defenders of Wenden were vastly outnumbered.

  He was comforted by the fact that the outer perimeter defences had been considerably strengthened since Lembit’s men had managed to breach them quite easily. Under the supervision of Master Thaddeus the ditch that ran along the entire length of the outer perimeter had been deepened, the earth that had been dug from it being used to raise the rampart. Thus the height of the ditch equalled the height of the adjoining rampart, with a narrow, horizontal strip of ground called a berm left between the ditch and the rampart to prevent the latter sliding into the former. The bottom of the ditch, which was dry, was filled with sharpened stakes to impale anyone unfortunate enough to fall in it.

  But it was the timber walls themselves that had been entirely rebuilt. Now the defences on top of the rampart comprised a series of log cells placed side by side along the whole perimeter. Each ‘cell’ had three walls: one facing the outer side of the rampart and two at right angles to the outer wall. These defences were built around the superiority of the crossbow, which could be shot through loopholes in the parapet. In addition, the upper part of the wall had been built slightly forward, overhanging the lower part, to create a gap between the two parts. Through this gap could be shot crossbow bolts at any enemy soldiers who had reached the berm at the foot of the wall. Finally, the log cells were covered with gable roofs to protect against the weather and enemy missiles.

  Conrad placed his quivers on the floor beside him, leaned the crossbow against the wall and peered through a loophole. Each ‘cell’ could accommodate up to four men but because the perimeter wall was extensive and the garrison meagre, two were usually allocated to each one. So he and Hans checked their weapons and were left alone with their own thoughts, Anton and Johann occupying the adjacent ‘cell’.

  The Lithuanians had made no attempt to move closer to the walls but seemed to be content to stand in blocks of spearmen as the horsemen continued to ride up and down in front of them. After a while the enemy began banging drums, the irksome din reverberating around the perimeter. After the initial excitement following the appearance of the enemy and frayed nerves as the garrison rushed to man the walls, a sense of anti-climax descended on the defenders. Lukas climbed the ladder to reach Conrad and Hans and articulated everyone’s thoughts.

  ‘They are not going to attack.’

  ‘Perhaps they are waiting for reinforcements,’ suggested Conrad.

  Lukas walked to a loophole and looked through it. ‘Perhaps. But there must be over a thousand of them out there so I suspect their strategy is to sit outside the walls.’

  ‘To what end?’ said Hans.

  Lukas smiled sadistically. ‘To starve us out, of course. No point in wasting men when hunger can do their work for them.’

  Conrad laughed. ‘The other garrisons will send a relief force long before that happens.’

  Lukas looked away from the Lithuanians. ‘The other garrisons are also besieged, or so we’ve heard.’

  ‘Then who will save us?’ asked an alarmed Hans.

  Lukas shrugged. ‘Who indeed?’

  As the hours passed and the Lithuanians began to make camp around Wenden, Master Berthold stood down the men on the perimeter wall, leaving a small number to keep watch on the enemy. It was obvious that there would be no assault and so he wrote a short note and ordered it to be sent to Riga. He would take no action until he heard from Grand Master Volquin.

  *****

  Stecse took the message that had been attached to the dead pigeon and handed it to Daugerutis. Like at the other Sword Brother castles that had been encircled hawkers had been placed around the walls, ready to bring down any courier pigeons that flew from the garrison.

  ‘The commander awaits the orders of Riga, lord.’

  Daugerutis smiled. He sat on his horse several hundred paces from the gatehouse in Wenden’s outer perimeter wall, the other dukes clustered behind him. His strategy had thus far worked perfectly. He had the castles of Kokenhusen, Lennewarden, Uexkull and Holm besieged along the Dvina. He had defeated and destroyed the Liv army of King Caupo and afterwards pushed on to the Gauja to surround Segewold Castle. Now he had arrived at Wenden, the strongest crusader castle second only to Riga, and watched as his soldiers had surrounded it with ease. It was true that he had six thousand men tied down in sieges but there was no crusader army in Livonia that could mount a relief operation. Soon he would march against Riga itself and adopt the same strategy, and then the crusader castles would fall one by one, and after them Riga itself. And then he would be the master of all Livonia.

  ‘He will be waiting for a long time,’ remarked the grand duke.

  ‘We should launch an attack,’ growled Ykintas, ‘instead of sitting here like old women.’

  Thus far the leader of the Semgallians had retained his full complement of men rather than seeing them allocated to siege operations. He had fought well at Inesis, as had the other dukes, though the truth was that Caupo had been so outnumbered that it had been more of a rout than a battle. Lithuanian losses had been light whereas the Livs had lost hundreds. Now
the Iron Wolf wanted to batter his way into Wenden. Daugerutis knew that the crusader castles were not to be underestimated, despite the small size of their garrisons.

  Daugerutis turned in his saddle. ‘What do you think, Thalibald? Do you think Wenden’s walls can be breached?’

  Thalibald and his eldest son sat in sullen silence on their horses. At the end of the Battle of Inesis they had decided to make a final stand and kill as many of the enemy before they died. However, though their men had indeed been slaughtered, he and Waribule had been overpowered and captured. Daugerutis had treated them with courtesy but they were continually accompanied by a score of guards to prevent their escape. Their swords had also been taken from them. The grand duke knew that Thalibald was second in importance only to Caupo among the Livs. He therefore might prove useful, and if not then he would have him and his son killed. For the present, though, it amused him to entertain them.

  ‘The Sword Brothers are no fools,’ said Thalibald.

  ‘They are cowardly women who hide behind their walls,’ boomed Ykintas.

  Daugerutis held Thalibald’s hateful gaze. ‘Perhaps you are right, Ykintas. Perhaps my tactics are too cautious. Perhaps it is time for the banner of the Iron Wolf to fly from those walls.’

  Ykintas gave a cheer of triumph and wheeled his horse away to lead his men. Stecse brought his horse alongside the grand duke’s.

  ‘Lord, it is folly to assault those walls.’

  Daugerutis looked at him. ‘I know. But it will be a useful lesson for Ykintas to learn and I grow tired of his bluster.’

  Duke Ykintas still had fourteen hundred foot with him and now he ordered them to fashion scaling ladders by felling trees in the surrounding forests while the rest of the army also collected wood, though for cooking fires not ladders. It was now two hours past noon and there were at least four hours of daylight left – plenty of time to take the castle, so Ykintas thought, and roast any prisoners alive before sitting down to an evening feast with the other dukes. Thalibald and Waribule were escorted back to their village, which was now the headquarters of Grand Duke Daugerutis and his fellow dukes. They feasted in Thalibald’s hall while the Liv chief and his son were kept locked up in a small hut.