by Griff Hosker
A warrior in mail with a full face helmet and decorated with back metal raven’s wings strode over to me. He did not take off his helmet and I had his measure straight away. He was trying to intimidate me.
“What warband? Who is your chief?”
Myrddyn began the story we had rehearsed. “We were sent by Edwin of Northumbria to reinforce your garrison. He had heard that King Cadfan is planning an attack in the autumn.”
I saw the eyes narrow behind the mask. “King Edwin?”
It was as we had expected, they had not heard of the change of ruler.”Did you not know? Aethelfrith and his sons have fled and Edwin is the new king. He has the support of Ceorl of Mercia and Raedwald of East Anglia.” We wanted to keep this commander on the back foot and so far it was working.
He took off his helmet which showed me that he was now less suspicious. “When did this happen?”
“At the end of last year. I know the new king sent messengers.”
“Where did he send them from?”
I pointed to the east. “He was at his father in law’s home in Mercia.”
“That explains it then. The new king of Gwynedd is a better leader than his father was. He keeps us bottled up in here.” He looked at each of us. “I am Lod, the garrison commander. Who did you say your chief was?”
Myrddyn jerked his head towards the gate, “He was Aelle son of Targh.”
“Never heard of him.”
“That is because we were in exile with King Edwin in East Anglia.” Myrddyn thrust the hilt of his sword forwards. “Look, count the warrior bands. I have served King Edwin since he was a boy.”
“All right calm down. I meant no offence but three of you are hardly going to stop King Cadfan are you?”
“The ones who weren’t killed went back to Mercia. The king will send more men.”
He seemed to notice that we were still dripping wet from the river. “You had better get by the fire and dry off. We don’t have a warrior hall here but there are barracks. Just find one with a fire. There are spare beds. We only have thirty warriors here at the moment. The rest of the men have gone north raiding.”
I hoped that my son had his wits about him. We went to the nearest barracks. Had the Saxons had any kind of wit they would have worked out how to make the hypocaust work and they would have had warm rooms throughout the fort. As it was they used open fires which filled the rooms with smoke and blackened everything. We left them discussing this change of king. We stood, steaming before the fire. A couple of warriors came in and fired questions at us. Myrddyn answered them all.
“When do you eat around here? We haven’t eaten since this morning.”
“We were hoping the warband would be back with food. You will have to make do with game soup and stale bread.” He pointed to the door. “Should be ready about now.”
“Aye the soup has been watered down so much it is more like game water.”
“I thought the Roman forts had bakeries. The one at Eboracum does.”
“Lod can’t be bothered. He would rather be raiding than sitting here on his arse.”
The room was darkening which told us that the sun was setting. I stretched, “All that water makes me need a piss.”
One of them gestured. “Outside, close to the south gate. The Romans built little channels under the walls. Me, I just piss anywhere.”
His friend said, “They may not be barbarians like you.”
The two of them set to arguing and the three of us left. We could see that most of the men were heading to the eating hall for food. I glanced up at the walls; there were just two sentries above the gate and one below. While Myrddyn went to begin the pretence of passing water, Aedh and I strode up to the guard on the gate. He looked as though he was ready to fall asleep.
“Been on duty long?”
“Too bloody long. They have no system here. No one else does his fair share.”
He got no further. Aedh had rammed his knife into his unsuspecting throat. I had blocked the view of anyone in the fort and Aedh slid his body to the ground and then donned his cloak. Myrddyn and I lifted the bar on the gate but did not open it. We both went to the stairs to climb to the gate tower.
One of the sentries approached us. “What are you two doing here? Didn’t you just come from the river?”
“Yes,” I walked closer to him. His companion was joining us. “We have just arrived and your commander Lod, said we had to earn our keep. He sent us to relieve you.”
They relaxed and laughed. “That sounds like Lod.” They came to walk past us. As they did Myrddyn and I grabbed them by the shoulders and pushing them tipped their bodies over the wall. They crashed to their deaths on the path beyond the ditch.
I yelled, “Now Aedh.”
Myrddyn leaned over and shouted, “Now Bors!”
Myrddyn and I raced down the stairs as Bors and his men ran through the open gate. The remainder of his men flooded over the bridge. The Saxons were unprepared. Many were eating and none, save for the guards at the other gates, had armour on. I was unarmoured too but I didn’t care. I joined Bors’ men as we ran towards the eating hall where the confused Saxons were emerging from their paltry meal. I watched as Bors swung his war hammer to smash into the side of the head of the first warrior. I do not think they had ever seen that weapon and fear was in the eyes of the ones who followed.
A spear darted from behind the barracks to my left. It slid just before me. I grabbed the haft in my left hand and slashed sideways with my borrowed blade. The Saxon died without a murmur. The captain we had seen before had donned his armour and was trying to rally his men. He had eight men behind him trying to overlap their shields and form a shield wall. Bors’ hammer smashed through a warrior’s shield and bones to demolish the wall before it was even half formed. Lod saw me and lunged at me with his sword. I wore leather gauntlets and I grabbed his blade and pulled him towards me. He slipped on the blood of one of his warriors. I thrust my sword into him and he gurgled his life blood away at my feet.
With their leader gone and his oathsworn too, the rest surrendered. They fell to their knees. “Spare us!”
There were just ten men left from the garrison. Bors and his men had been too fast for a formed resistance and none had managed to escape. I now had a dilemma. Should I put them to the sword? Give them a warrior’s death? My head told me to do so but they had surrendered and I could not, in all conscience just kill them.
“Do you know who I am?”
They shook their heads and one man ventured, “No, my lord!”
“I am Lord Lann the Warlord of Rheged.” They stopped looking at the ground to glimpse a glance at this man who had been terrifying Saxons for so many years. Many would have grown up with stories told by their mothers to make them behave. Saxon Slayer would come for them. The Wolf Warrior waited. I saw terror in their eyes. They still expected to die.
“I will spare you if you swear allegiance to me and my captain here, Bors son of Mungo.” I turned to Aedh. “Fetch the sword.” He raced off to our camp across the river. “Will you swear or do you wish the warrior’s death?”
The man who had spoken earlier said, “We swore oaths to Aethelfrith and he has fled. For myself I would swear my oath to you Lord Lann.” There was a chorus from the others, all desperate to swear loyalty.
“Very well. Captain Bors have your men secure the fortress.”
“Aye Warlord.” He grinned his approval at my decision.
Aedh arrived with Saxon Slayer in its magnificent scabbard. I drew it and held it before me. “This is Saxon Slayer; it was made in antiquity and is a magical weapon. Touch the blade with your hands and swear to be warriors of Rheged and to follow me and my captains.”
They all swore eagerly.
“Give them back their weapons. I believe they will be loyal.”
“Aye well if not you will know when you return for their heads will adorn the walls if they are oath breakers.”
The first part of the task was compl
eted and we had our first fortress in Saxon lands. My conquest could begin. Bors set his new men to work removing the rubbish from the ditch while he and his other warriors repaired the gate properly. I inspected the walls with Myrddyn while we awaited the arrival of Hogan Lann and the others. If the rest of the campaign went as well as this then we would have Rheged conquered by Yule.
Chapter 3
Hogan Lann and my horsemen had ambushed the war band which had been raiding without loss. It had been a successful start; in fact it was hard to see how it could have gone better. The weapons and armour were left with Bors who now had a solid garrison and would be a rock upon which the Saxons would crash. As we left he smiled at me, “If I lose this fort, Warlord I will become a priest of the White Christ and you know how much I hate that idea!”
We spurned wagons and carried everything on spare horses. It kept us mobile. Aedh and his men ranged far ahead of us to find good camp sites and to help us to avoid Saxons. As far as we knew there were no major Saxon settlements between the Sea and the land of the lakes.
Last year a Danish ship had put in for trade. They looked a little too warlike to be traders to me but they showed us no aggression and were happy to trade with us. They told us that their land was poor. I suspect had we made the offer they would have settled on Mona but we knew too little about them to take the risk. They were the ones who told us of the Saxons on Manau and about the empty land between the Maeresea and the land of the lakes. They had found fertile land but few people. Even before my mother’s message I was intrigued with the idea of resettling Rheged.
As we rode north I berated myself for my decision to leave Rheged all those years earlier. Had I clung on or even settled in this fertile land then who knows what might have happened. I thought of those who had died on the journey to Mona and on Mona itself. Could I have prevented that?
Myrddyn was riding next to me and saw my frown. He smiled and spoke quietly to me. “Warlord, you cannot go back. The decisions you took all those years ago were good ones. It was just wyrd.”
Even as I heard his counsel and felt again how inadequate one felt next to him I felt anger too. “As I recall I was advised by you to go to Mona.”
He was not discomfited by my aggression and attitude. “True but as I recall Brother Osric also thought it a good idea, not to mention you who thought of the idea when King Urien died. Besides we had to leave Castle Perilous. We were surrounded. Would your people have survived in the hills without walls around them? How many would have died of cold? Would Prince Pasgen have had a sanctuary? Would Mungo and his men have been rescued? No my lord. As much as one wishes to go back, it is impossible. You made the correct decision at the time. You are a man and so you live with that decision. You are now going to go back and who knows the effect that will have.”
We rode in silence for a while. “But my decisions?”
“Were good decisions, both at the time and now, viewed through the tunnel of time. But you, Lord Lann, like all men, want a perfect world. We have to deal with life and its problems as they are handed to us. It is what makes us different from the animals. We change our world to suit us. Your fortress beneath Wyddfa is a good example.”
He was right, of course, and my decision to come north was equally good. I turned in my saddle to look at the long column winding to the west of the ridge of hills which formed the back bone of Britannia. In Constantinopolis I had seen Ptolemy’s maps of Britannia and I understood the land a little more than most men. The Saxons had come from the east and the hills were a natural barrier to their naturally avaricious nature. I could halt them this time but I would use nature to aid me. I had been younger when I had left but now I was older and wiser. I had gained knowledge in the court of the Byzantine Emperor. This new king, Edwin, would meet his match in me.
It was five days later when we saw the tops of the mountains, in the distance, marking the entrance to the land of the lakes. Aedh and his scouts had already reported that they had seen no sign of Saxons but there were villages ahead. On our last night before we reached our first target I called a council of war with my captains.
“Our first task is to assess how many of our people there are remaining in this land. I will leave that to Prince Pasgen. I will leave Daffydd and his archers to help to rebuild my brother’s fort. We need a base and a place in which to retreat if the need arises. I will take the rest of the men east and we will find the Saxons.”
“Why are you leaving me here, Warlord?” Prince Pasgen must have been worried that he had offended me in some way for he added, hurriedly, “I merely wish to know your thinking, Warlord.”
I smiled, “And it is a good question. I am becoming a grumpy old man. Expect me to be short and to snap. I mean nothing by it.” I smiled to take the sting out of my words. “I need you to assess the situation because you are the last member of the Rheged Royal Family. I want the people to come to you and your banner. They will need someone to lead them and, I assume, that will be you?”
“Of course.” He bowed his head, “Thank you Warlord. I forget myself sometimes.”
“We lost Rheged once because we under estimated the Saxons; let us not make the same mistake again. This time we will not rest on our laurels we will fight until the land is ours once more and a descendant of King Urien rules.”
Myrddyn coughed and poked the fire a little. “With respect Warlord, King Urien made the mistake and not you. You warned him on many occasions of the danger as you did with Morcant Bulc. You have nothing to blame yourself for. But remember Warlord, look forward. The past merely gives us lessons in what we did wrong. The future is in our own hands.”
The next day as we rode up the valley which marked the entrance to Wide Water I couldn’t help remembering the men we had lost defending my brothers’ wagons against the Saxons. As we saw the lake for the first time I could still make out the burnt out bones of the boats we had used to flee down the lake. Their grave marked the place we had bought time with our blood. We headed up the western side of the lake. It was the one we were most familiar with. We were armed but, as yet, none of us was mailed our horses needed preserving for the long campaign ahead.
I turned to Hogan Lann and Lann Aelle. “Do you remember much of this place?”
Hogan Lann shook his head. “It is not even a memory.”
Lann Aelle seemed to see the lake for the first time. “I remember when you came for us, Warlord. You were alone, save for Myrddyn and Aedh and I wondered if the wizard would fly us out of the trap.”
Behind me I heard Myrddyn snort. “I have never flown! Where do these legends come from?”
“Perhaps old friend,” I reminded him, “it was the time you managed to escape unseen from Din Guardi.”
He chuckled, “I thought that was the time they thought I had become invisible.”
“Anyway,” continued Lann Aelle, “that was the day I decided that I would be a warrior like you.”
I glanced at the man who had so recently been a boy and my squire. There were three of them who had served me in the capacity and now they led men but it had been Lann Aelle who had been with me when I had come closest to death and we shared a special bond. His father had been a little resentful of our close relationship but Lann Aelle had spent long hours with him since that time and I think he understood. His father had been a warrior too, albeit briefly and had stood in a shield wall. He knew the magic of such brotherhood.
Aedh rode back. He had gone with Kay and they both looked happy. “The people are joyful at your return Warlord.” Aedh came closer. “The headman believes that the Saxons will be coming for tribute soon. It has been a good summer thus far and there are many young cattle and lambs.”
That meant my plans would have to change. We needed to be here when the Saxons came. I would not go to seek them out. “Prince Pasgen.”
The prince brought his horse next to mine. “There is even more urgency to the wall building. The Saxons are coming.”
His voice was resolute and
his face grim as he said, “We will be ready.”
Aelle’s fort was marked by burnt out timbers close to the water’s edge. The people had moved their settlement further up the valley. I could see why for there was better grazing and pasture for their animals. It was however indefensible. I could now see how the Saxons had managed to extract tribute from them.
Kay’s brother, Saelac, was pleased to see us and began with a flattering speech. I cut him short. I had no time for such niceties. “When the Saxons come, where do they come from?”
He looked confused and pointed to the east. “Over there.”
I sighed with impatience. They were like sheep without either a shepherd or sheepdog. Their attention was on the ground only. “When they come do they arrive in the morning or afternoon and do they have horses with them? How many of them are there?”
He looked like a puppy eager to please his master. “They come in the afternoon but no horses. They come on foot.” I could see he looked confused about the numbers
“Look at my warriors; compare them to us.”
“As many as your men and sometimes more.”
I reasoned that their sweep in autumn and late summer would give them food for the winter and they would need a large number to hold on to it. A warband the size of ours showed how much they needed the resources of this land. “And they camp here do they?”
“They use our homes.”
“They take their goods and they head east again when they have taken all?”
He shook his head. “No, Warlord. They head up the valley to the other settlements.” He pointed north.
I turned away from the headman and spoke with my captains and Myrddyn who were behind me. “They will be coming from the east and they will begin their tribute raid here.”
Myrddyn adopted that superior look he always did when he was about to prove that he was cleverer than me. “You are assuming that, because they come in the afternoon they have walked from their homes and because they have no horses they have not camped.”