Hosker, G [Wolf Brethren 06] Saxon Slaughter

by Griff Hosker

  We stayed just seven days and in that time we seemed to work miracles. Myrddyn and Gawan appeared more capable when working together. They saw each other’s ideas and adapted them. I had no doubt that this fort could be held by the small number of men of Bedwyr’s command. Hogan Lann and Prince Pasgen remained after we had left to try to increase the number of local men who could fight. The prince was also keen to rebuild some of the towers. It was just fifty miles between Pol’s fort and this one. Reinforcements could reach it in a day. Of my leaders I was only taking Daffydd and Tuanthal back to Mona. When we left Lann Aelle he would be on his own.

  I walked Mona to the bridge. Hogan Lann asked, “Where are you going?”

  “I am going south and I do not want this bridge to break yet.”

  He pointed to the west. “You could go that way.”

  I nodded, “True but I want to go this way. I have a yearning to see Stanwyck again and the Roman Road which goes south passes through it.”

  “But there are Saxons!”

  I laughed and pointed at my men. “And I have these warriors. Do you think I fear a foe that fights on foot? I know the land and I would see how much the Saxons have taken.” I turned and walked across the bridge. As Gawan had discovered it was a disconcerting experience but that was all. When we were all gathered on the far side I waved. “I will send a despatch rider north when we reach our destination.”

  “Look after yourself Warlord; we cannot do without you yet.”

  “I will still be here and I promise you that I will watch out for your brother and the prince in the land of the Saxons. They will not come to harm.”

  This was not mere bravado. The route I would take would be quicker than travelling west and then south. I also wished to see the Roman fort where I had first discovered weapons. In my mind I saw that as one of our forts but I knew that would be a fort too far.

  The road was unerringly straight. The two boys had never travelled on such a straight road. “Did the Romans have engineers as road builders?”

  “No, Prince Cadwallon. They used their soldiers. Every Roman soldier knew how to build a road and they built well. This one is over five hundred years old.”

  “They must have been mighty builders. Could we ever build roads like this?”

  “If we had peace for a time then it would be possible.”

  Myrddyn rode next to me. He pointed east. “You do know that Dunelm is less than thirty miles in that direction?”

  “It is my son who is your student not me; do not teach me how to suck eggs. I know perfectly well where it is. I need to know how vigilant this King Edwin is. Has he built defences close to the road? Does he patrol the road? We are horseman and can out run anything.” I waved an irritated hand down the road. “Aedh will spot anything which is ahead of us. Let us enjoy this journey.”

  “You are definitely becoming more bad tempered, the older you get.”

  “Perhaps I am aware of the passage of time and how little time I have left to achieve what I want to.”

  We rode in silence and I enjoyed looking at the land. There were farms and small hamlets along the road. Aedh, and the men with him, investigated each one and discovered that many of them were the people of Rheged. There were also Saxon communities but none had defences up. Their king held his army at his main forts. There were no Saxons defending this part of Northumbria. I had gathered some valuable information already.

  We reached the old Roman Fort of Morbium on the Dunum by dark and we camped there. “Tomorrow Gawan and Lann Aelle, you will see where your grandfather and grandmother were murdered. Those who did it paid with their lives but it did not bring them back to us.”

  That evening I showed them the fort where I had dug up the caligae, the nails and the swords.

  “Why did you take the nails? They could not have seemed important.”

  I shrugged, I had asked myself that question many times over the years. “Perhaps I thought that if someone had buried them then they must be important. They turned out to be for we used them to make better shot for our slings. I think I was meant to find them and they saved the lives of your uncles and me.”

  When we saw Stanwyck the ancient ditches and ramps impressed all three. I had seen it recently but I was not sure that I would ever see it again. It was strange because it felt smaller than the last time I had visited. I sent Aedh to scout out the small road which headed over the moors towards the south west. He came hurrying back within an hour.

  “They have built a fort on top of the high cliff overlooking the river. It will make passing it without being seen difficult.”

  Myrddyn said, “We can go south. There is another road close to the Nidd.” He looked at me with a strange look on his face. It was the look he normally had when he read my mind. “This is wyrd, Warlord.”

  “Why?”

  “I had hoped to visit a cave where a witch was said to have lived but could think of no reason to deviate from our path. It seems we were meant to go that way.”

  While Gawan was excited Cadwallon was worried. “A witch? Living in a cave? We should avoid it.”

  “Just because it is unknown does not make it dangerous Prince Cadwallon. Watch and see what we can learn.”

  It took us most of the day to reach the river. We travelled over low hills and shallow valley. We saw no Saxons. We did not even see any signs of them. It still looked like Elmet when we had ridden in this land. The houses looked the same and the people, before they fled in fear, also looked the same. We could see the cave high on the southern bank. There was a small settlement there nestling at the foot of the cliffs on the northern shore. The villagers hid in fear. I took off my helmet and dismounted.

  “I am Lord Lann, Warlord of Rheged. You have no need to fear me. I swear by my sword, Saxon Slayer that we will not harm you.”

  The men were the first to appear and they bowed. The women and children hid in fear behind them. I looked over my shoulder and saw why. My men were all armed and had their weapons at the ready.

  “Sheathe you weapons and dismount. You are frightening them. Who is the leader?”

  The headman came over and began to speak. He spoke our language. “I am Geraint. What can we do for you Warlord?”

  “I would know of the cave and ask you if the Saxons visit here?”

  “The Saxons come for tribute twice a year but they fear the cave and its power. They do not take everything and they do not stay long.”

  “Rheged is returning. Soon the Saxons will be like the tide and they will begin to ebb.” I could see Myrddyn bursting with questions, “This is Myrddyn the wizard. He has some questions for you.”

  “The cave up yonder. Does a witch live there still?”

  He shook his head. “No longer. Legend has it she lived there before the Romans arrived and she came from a holy island far to the west across the darkening sea. Some say that they have seen her flying through the sky at night. But none can visit the cave for there is an aura of death about the place. We live here because the Saxons fear it and we are better off than most of the other people of the valley.”

  I looked at Myrddyn and saw his surprised expression, “Wyrd. That is Mona. One of my following lived here in times past.”

  “What happened to her?”

  “It depends which legend you believe. Some say she murdered a Roman soldier and was crucified. Others say that when the Romans came for her she changed into a bird and flew back to her island home.”

  “What is the cave like inside?”

  The man shook his head and looked fearful. “No man ever goes inside. It is said that you turn to stone if you stay too long in the cave. No one has ever visited it in my lifetime.”

  Myrddyn suddenly looked like a child again. “Well tonight we shall sleep there.”

  There was a collective gasp from both the villagers and my men. I smiled. I knew my wizard. We had nothing to fear from a night in a cave. I clasped the headman’s hand. “Thank you old one. We will leave you now and cr
oss the river.”

  We camped on the opposite bank. I left Tuanthal, Daffydd and Aedh to set up the camp; they looked grateful that I had not asked them to come with us. I went with the others up to the cave. Lann Aelle had little fear for he had spent a night in the cave at Wyddfa and Gawan was excited but Prince Cadwallon looked terrified.

  “Do I have to go in with you?”

  “No, of course not; it is your own choice. There is no shame in not facing an unknown danger. Of course, if you do come in and survive then there is nothing on this earth that will be able to frighten you.”

  Gawan nudged him, “Let us do this. It will be safe and think of the stories we shall tell.” He pointed to the horsemen below us, most of whom were staring up at us. “They will be impressed by this as much as killing a man in combat.”

  I think it was the last argument which persuaded him. He knew that my men were all true warriors and he yearned for their respect. “I will do it.”

  Myrddyn stepped into the cave. He had to bend a little beneath the overhanging roof. We could hear the steady drip of water as we entered. The light from our torches lit up the cave throwing strange and sinister shadows. The cave was filled with peculiar misshapen rocks and they were all around the glistening pool as though they had been placed there. We could see no sign of human habitation. Once we were all in with our lighted torches the cave looked white.

  Suddenly Cadwallon gasped and pointed at a rock. “It is a woman! It’s the witch!”

  He tried to flee but Gawan prevented him. “Then she is stone.”

  I saw what he meant. There was a rock which looked like an old woman bent over. The rock was round in places but the similarity was uncanny.

  “The prince is right, Warlord, it does look remarkably like a woman.” We all went closer to examine the rock. It was wet and slimy to the touch. Prince Cadwallon would not touch it but I did. I touched the other rocks and they had the same slimy feel.

  Myrddyn walked around it and examined it from every angle. He looked up at the ceiling. Then he caught a drop of water which fell and tasted it. He nodded and smiled. “Gawan, go and ask Aedh for his small war axe if you please.”

  My son raced from the cave. I sensed that the Prince of Gwynedd considered following him. “What are you up to, you cunning old goat?”

  “I think I know what this is and if so then we might well find some treasure here.” He went around all the other rocks which were sitting around the pool. None was as big as the one which looked like a woman.

  Gawan raced in, his eyes aglow with excitement. “They all wanted to know what we had found.”

  Myrddyn’s hawk like eyes fixed on him, “But you did not tell them.”

  “Of course not.”

  Myrddyn turned to Prince Cadwallon and wagged a warning digit at him. “We keep this a secret from the others and preserve the magic.” The prince was so frightened that he just nodded.

  I was fascinated. I knew the wizard well but I had no idea what he was up to. He turned the axe so that the blade was facing away from the rock and then he brought the head down on to the slimy, dripping stone. To my amazement it shattered, revealing a crumbling skeleton beneath. Prince Cadwallon was dumbstruck and even Gawan was bereft of speech.

  “How did the woman get inside the rock? Was it magic?”

  Myrddyn pointed to the ceiling. “She died. She died a long time ago and the water dripped onto her head. It deposited something which became rock again. This may well be the witch they spoke of.”

  “Should we go lest her spirit harms us?”

  Myrddyn smiled at Cadwallon and then closed his eyes. After a moment or two he said, “Her spirit is not here but she is in torment.” He frowned, “She is on Mona.”

  That surprised even me. How did he know that? He would tell us more in the fullness of time. I then saw what he meant about the other objects. “So all of these rocks contain objects which have turned to stone?”

  “Yes. Of course those made of living things will have rotted away but other objects should still be here. Shall we look?”

  I suspected that he was as excited as my son whose face was as bright as a summer’s morning. “Yes Myrddyn.”

  “Remember, Prince Cadwallon. Not a word of this to any others.” The prince nodded and Myrddyn tapped one of the taller rocks. The rock crumbled as though waiting to reveal what it hid. A rusty Roman Spatha stood there embedded in the ground. When Gawan tried to pull it from the rock the rusty tip broke. He looked disappointed. Myrddyn shook his head. “The sword can be mended and it must have been here for a purpose. Look at the writing on the blade. We will keep whatever we find here, safe.”

  I knew that a sword drawn from stone had to be magical in some way and there was a story here. The next four objects all turned out to be bones. Myrddyn examined one closely and said, “I think that these must have been cats or another small animal. This witch had real power if she was able to make the cats all stay here even when the others had died.” He stood and stroked his beard. “When we were in the library at Constantinopolis I read of the Egyptians who revered cats. They believed they aided the passage to the Otherworld. She may have been trying to ensure her own safe passage. Fascinating.”

  The next four rocks all revealed treasure of different types. There was a pile of jet which the ancients had placed great value on and there were three piles of Roman coins. Some were copper, some silver and there were some large gold coins. Myrddyn slipped them into his leather pouch. “More for me to examine.”

  Some of the smaller piles had nothing but dust beneath but there was one which had not completely rotted away and was a piece of calfskin with writing upon it. We could read nothing and I saw the disappointment on Myrddyn’s face.

  The wizard stood and went to the walls of the cave. They too were shiny with the watery deposits. He held the torch as close as he could get to the wall and then said, “Gawan, the axe.”

  When Gawan had handed him the axe he swung it at the wall. To the horror of Prince Cadwallon, a skull fell from the wall, shattering on the floor and we could see the rest of the skeleton. Myrddyn repeated this action a number of times and we found eight bodies. He stopped and shook his head. “This was not a woman to be crossed. She put her enemies here and turned them into stone.” He shivered. “Let us leave this place now.”

  I pointed to the bones we had uncovered. “What about those?”

  “The cave will turn them into stone.” Myrddyn wave an airy hand around the cave. “These followers of the White Christ would not understand that here it is Nature which has the power. This is a special place. We were meant to come here.”

  When we emerged and entered the camp the warriors just watched in silence. Tuanthal approached, nervously and asked, “Are you hurt?”

  Gawan laughed, “We are unharmed. It is a cave filled with…” he glanced at Myrddyn, “rocks and a pool. There is nothing living within it.”

  We put our treasures in the saddlebags on the spare horse. Myrddyn wanted to examine them but back in the safety of his rooms. I, somehow, felt better too. We had been meant to find the precious stones, coins and sword. I did not know why but my life had changed when I had found Saxon Slayer. Perhaps the Roman Spatha would have the same effect.

  We headed south west. We were travelling in unknown country. Even when we had visited Elmet before we had not crossed this part of the country. Unusually, this Roman Road had more twists and turns than they normally did. The moors had many valleys and they were steep and, in many cases, dangerous. The road had crumbled over the years and parts had fallen into the torrential river below. It was not an easy day but, by late afternoon we had left the wild passage of the moors and descended into a green and verdant land filled with woods and gentler streams.

  Myrddyn smiled as he said, “The Saxons can have that land. This is Rheged.” He had been making notes as we went and he showed me a rough map he had compiled. “I think that the coast lies less than fifty miles from here.”


  I looked at him sceptically, “And how do you know that wizard?”

  He laughed and pointed, “If you look to the west you can see where the land ends and that sparkle in the distance must be the sea.”

  I grunted, “I suppose you are right. Aedh, send two of your scouts north west, two more to the west and two to the south west. I want to know what we are likely to find in the next forty miles.” I looked at Myrddyn, “We will see if the wizard is correct.”

  The first scouts returned the next day. “Warlord, we rode west and there is a river which reaches the sea some forty miles from here. We crossed the river when we headed north. It is not far from Wide Water.”

  The next two scouts confirmed their findings. We had reached the land we sought. That night we summoned the four scouts and Myrddyn tried to make a map of the land. When we had questioned them about what they had seen we realised that there were no Saxons to the north of us. All of the farms and villages they had passed through had been our people. This was Rheged still. The hills gradually stopped and became a huge fertile plain where there were many farms.

  Myrddyn fixed Lann Aelle with his sharp eyes, “My lord of Lann’s Land, where would you build your fort?”

  Lann Aelle knew the wizard well enough not to be intimidated by his hawk like stare. In my mind I had already pictured the fort. I knew where we should build one. My nephew looked at the rough map in Myrddyn’s hand.

  “We need to have one close to the river which runs west to stop invasions from the south. If my memory is as good as yours then I believe there was a Roman fort close to the river.” He turned and pointed to the north. “Just a few miles north of here.”

  One of the scouts forgot himself and shouted excitedly, “Yes my lord, it is quite close.”

  Aedh’s irritated look made the man subside. Myrddyn smiled and clapped my nephew on the back. “Well done Lann Aelle. I can see that those years as Lord Lann’s squire stood you in good stead.”

  I looked at the sun which was dipping in the west. “Scout, do we have time to reach the fort before nightfall?”