Saxon Dawn (Wolf Brethren) (28 page)

“How many Garth?”
I had counted but I wanted a second opinion.

“Over a hundred.”
He grinned. “The odds are in our favour my lord.”

I laughed and strung my bow. They were three hundred paces away and thought that they were out of range but I
was high above them and they were tightly packed. “Let us test their courage Garth.” I drew back and let fly. The arrow soared high into the air, disappearing against the white. Then it plunged down and, fortuitously, it must be admitted, it struck a warrior in the neck and he fell dead.  The effect was instantaneous.  The rest all fled to the safety of the trees, all that is, except the leader who steadfastly stared at the walls.

The effect on the garrison was also immediate.  They all cheered as though I had slain a hundred men rather than the one. “I want no one trying to emulate me.  We loose the arrows on my command.”

The Saxon leader turned to his men and I could hear angry shouting. They emerged reluctantly and held their shields before them.  Urged on by their chief they raced across the snow towards the walls.  The snow was our ally that day for it hid the traps in the ditch. I knew that we did not have a great supply of arrows, that task was to have been the work of the winter and so I waited until they were thirty paces short of the hidden ditch. “Loose.” We had but fifteen bows and yet they were effective.  Even the ones who took arrows on their shields had a greater weight to carry.  The boys with the slings were even more effective as they had a direct trajectory and were able to score hits on many of the Saxons.  The barbarians closed up behind the shields and pushed on. I was aiming my bow carefully and each arrow found a victim. My men kept pulling and loosing until I knew their arms were aching fit to drop.  Raibeart’s men would have halted the attack.  These were not archers; these were farmers with a bow. When they reached the ditch I heard the screams as some had their ankles broken by the fall and others stood or fell on to the spikes we had cunning laid there. Even there my novice archers and slingers caused casualties.  When the raiders tried to clamber out they found the banks a slippery morass of mud.  We constantly wet it. The men found it funny each night and each morning to piss on the bank and now they laughed as the Saxons struggled to climb up the treacherous slope.

Their leader was a foolish man.  Had he spread his men around the walls then he would have suffered fewer casualties
instead he concentrated on one wall but now, climbing over those dead or wounded, his warriors steadily approached the walls.  Here they were a danger. “Get ready with your spears!”

The bottom part of the wall was stone faced with turf and they began to clamber up.  Once they reached the wood they had a
problem for it was too high to climb. The noise of the battle stopped me from hearing the chief’s words but suddenly pairs of men held a shield for a third warrior to climb upon.  They were now the same height as those men on the ramparts. “Archers to the towers!” The towers were both higher and the archers could continue to rain death upon the Saxons but now it was down to the work with swords and axes and these Saxons were all warriors.

I laid down my bow and drew Saxon Slayer.  I descended the tower and stepped on to the rampart just as a farmer was pushed to the ground below.  I had the advantage for my opponent
’s sword was on the rampart side and he was forced to bring the sword down to allow him to make a thrust.  I had no such obstacle and I swung my blade upwards to sever his leg above the knee.  He fell to the floor of the fort where the angry women, literally, tore his body to pieces. I saw a Saxon head appear above the wooden walls and I swung the sword to take his head but now the rest were pouring over the walls and my men were falling to the superior weapons and armour of the Saxons.  The boys were sill causing men to fall with their stones but, my three trained men apart, we were ill matched. I stabbed a Saxon through the spine as he tried to decapitate Garth and then I leaned over the wall to put Saxon Slayer through the neck of a man who was about to be launched over the wall.

“Now I will claim the reward for
King Ida when I bring back your head in a bag.” I sensed the weapon striking my unprotected back and I thrust my shield around.  The axe bit into the leather and was held tightly by the nails. I stabbed below his shield into his knee and twisted the blade as I removed it.  He screamed.  Regardless of the result of this combat he would be a crippled for the rest of his life. “You have no honour Wolf man!”

“I fight honourably against honourable warriors not Saxon shit like you!”

He pulled hard on his axe to remove it from my shield and almost overbalanced.  I stabbed forwards and felt the blade cut through his mail shirt and along his side.  It was not a killing wound but it would slow him up. I almost slipped on the blood which was flowing freely from his knee but I kept my balance. Suddenly one of the boys in the tower shouted, “Lord Lann! Duck!” I quickly lowered my head as the stone flew from his sling and struck the warrior behind me full in the face, throwing him to his death. The chief was becoming reckless and he swung his axe at my head as I raised it. Had it struck me I would have died instantly but the edge of my shield caught the handle and the blade flew harmlessly over the top of my helmet.  The momentum carried the blade around and I took my chance; I stabbed my sword into his neck, below his facemask. The axe fell and he crumpled to the floor. 

Before I could turn to face another warrior I heard a voice from the tower.  “It is the Prince.  He comes!”

I looked over the walls and saw Prince Ywain and sixty horsemen plough into the Saxons waiting to climb into the ditch. With their chief dead and enemies to their rear they fled, pursued by Ywain.  Few would return home. “Garth! Finish the wounded Saxons!

All a
round me were the dead Saxons.  None lived. I looked over the wall and saw that the survivors had all fled.  We had survived.  I looked to see how many of my men still lived.  It was hard to tell.  The women were tending to their husbands, brothers and sons and that meant that more of the wounded would survive but it had been a close run thing. I could see Brother Oswald calmly bandaging a man’s arm.  He caught my eye and smiled; I thanked Brother Osric for sending me such a reliable cleric. I picked up the chief’s dagger and went up to the tower. “Who shouted the warning?”

They all pointed at a boy who stood grinning.”I did my lord.”

“And what is your name?”

“
Tuanthal.”

“Well
Tuanthal I am in your debt and when you are big enough to wield a sword I would have you join my warriors but, in the meantime, here is the chief’s dagger and two silver pennies.”

They were both gifts
which the boy did not expect.  The dagger was ornate with a magnificent scabbard and a bone handle and he had obviously never had coins before. “Thank you my lord but I did not do it for the reward.”

“I know which is why the reward is well earned.”

Four of my warriors had died and another eight of the men who had come to the Castle Perilous for the feast.  As Garth pointed out, had the Saxons been loose in the valley then all would have died along with us in the fort. The Saxon dead were stripped and piled outside the fort.  We used kindling and wood to make a bonfire of their bodies.  The smell of burning flesh was a savage reminder of how close we came to dying. The Saxons had lost over a hundred dead.  All of the men wounded in the ditch had had their throats cut by men eager to vent their anger upon them.

It was dark when Ywain and his men returned.  The women had cooked up the remains of the food and the weary horsemen were greeted with hot food as they stabled their horses and warmed themselves in the now overcrowded hall.

“We chased them until we could no longer see them.  On the morrow we will find and strip their bodies. What were your losses?”

“Not as many as it might have been but too many to be acceptable. Do you think this was the invasion?”

He shook his head.  “No there were not enough of them.  The leader, what did he look like?” I showed him his helmet and torc. “These look like a minor chief. I think they will come but in greater force.  We have been lucky.”

“I believe the gods of this land protected us with the snow.”

He smiled, “Perhaps the snow is the sign of the White Christ and perhaps he saved his people.”

“Let us agree that it was the gods of all the people who helped.”

The families were reluctant to leave the next day. Ywain came over to me. “They will have to go back now Lann.  It will be safe for them.  The Saxons are dead.”

“And yet I can understand their fear.  Leave it with me Prince Ywain and I will devise something.” They all cheered Ywain as he left.  Brother Osric would be happy with the booty.  I put my men on guard and the
n Garth and I addressed them with Brother Oswald looking on. “I know that you are reluctant to return to your homes.  You are welcome to stay here.  We are not throwing you out but I will tell you that it will be safe for you to return home.  I also promise that, if there are four or five families living in a village we will come and build you a ditch and a wall such as we have and you can take arms we captured from the Saxons. You are not being abandoned and, should the Saxons return then you are welcome inside my fort at any time.”

One of the older men said, “Lord Lann is right.  If we leave our land then they have won.  I will return.” He picked up a sword and a shield from the pile outside the hall.  “But I will be prepared and I will learn how to use a bow.” He laughed
, “Then I can kill as Lord Lann did!”

His words were the stone which starts the avalanche and they picked up weapons and helmets as they left the fort.  Garth looked ruefully at the diminishing pile of weapons. “There goes our spare weapons my lord.”

Brother Oswald said quietly, “Regard it as an investment.  They will look after their weapons and learn how to use them.  You lost three brave men yesterday but through this you will gain many more recruits.”

As I looked around I saw one young woman who had not moved and she was alone. I looked at Garth who said, “That is Aideen, her husband and father both died.  She is alone.”

Brother Oswald looked like he would speak with her but there was something about her and I shook my head. And, although I could not tell the priest, I heard my mother’s voice in my head exhorting me to comfort her. He nodded goodnight and headed for his cell.

I went down to her.  She looked to be the same age as Raibeart and she looked
to be in shock. I had seen the same with warriors after their first battle when they have survived and cannot believe it. The villagers had taken their dead with them to be buried near to their homes.  There were two bodies covered with cloaks and I assumed they were her husband and father. I was better speaking with warriors than men.  This needed Aelle for he had a way with women and knew the words to use. “I am sorry for your loss.”

She stood and threw her arms around my waist and wept. Garth and my warriors watched with interest.  They could see that I knew not what to do. Garth mimed putting my
arms around her shoulders. I did so and she began to sob, her whole body shaking. Garth waved the men away I heard him mumble something about jobs to be done and then he too went to check that the gate had been fastened.

After a while her sobs subsided and she pulled away.  Her face was red and puffy.  “I am sorry my lord but I am alone now and when I saw you there I thought you reminded me of my father and
...” she threw her arms around me and began to cry again. I could see this was going to take some time and then a picture of a terrified Monca and a young Aelle came to mind.  If all I had to do was to stand there and let this young woman cry then I could do that. This time when she stopped I held her at arm’s length. Now, Aideen, what would you like us to do for you?”

It was obvious that she had not thought beyond the next moment. “I have no home now.  Our animals are there.” She pointed to a milk cow and a couple of goats. Her eyes filled with terror.  “Do not send me away I beg you my lord!”

“You heard my words.  No one has to leave and you are welcome to stay here but we have things to do.” There was no easy way to say what I had to.  “We needs must put your father and husband beneath the ground.  Would you like them buried at your home?”

She shook her head violently, “No my lord. I
do not want to return to my home, ever, it is far from here and we have no neighbours.  Could we bury them here?”

My men were already digging graves for their comrades and two more would not inconvenience them.
“Of course.”

Garth had been close by and obviously listening. “I will see to it my lord.”

“Now wash your face and put this cloak about you. We will honour your family and then we will talk of your future.” It was as though I had lit a lamp n a dark room for her face lit up with hope.

When we had laid the bodies beneath the ground and covered them with stones
Brother Oswald said some comforting words to send them beyond our world and then we re-entered the fort. “I have arranged for the men to guard tonight in pairs.” Garth smiled.  “I think our boys did well enough today and need to sleep.”

“Do not forget to rest yourself Garth for you did well today.  You all did.” He inclined h
is head and went to the tower. We needed a couple of dogs.  The men could sleep at night and the dogs would act as sentries.  I thought of Wolf.  Aelle would be reaping the benefit of his alertness.