Saxon Dawn (Wolf Brethren) (3 page)

The doe and the weapons were heavier than I had thought but I made it to the flock before dark. Aelle and Raibeart were impressed by the doe but when I showed them the weapons they almost soiled themselves with joy. 

“Where did you get them?”

“Can I have
one?”

“Never mind where I found them and father will decide who has them.  Now you
two, carry the doe and we will return home.  Say nothing about the weapons.  That is my honour!” The boys were quite happy to do as I instructed and Wolf happily chivvied the sheep along.

When we reached the hut my father was outside the hut with the forge they were building.  I could see that they had
almost finished building it and, when the clay was dry it would be ready for its first firing.  My father had said that the iron we could produce here would not be of a high standard but at least we could make crude weapons with which to defend ourselves. He left the forge and strode over to meet us. “What is that you have in your hands Lann?”

I was
so proud as I opened the cloth and displayed the weapons.  I was disappointed with my father’s reaction.  His face darkened. “What is wrong father?”

“Where did you get these?”

I could see that he was angry for he was normally peaceful and it was my mother who chastised us. The look on his face did not bode well. I did something I had never done before. I lied. “I found them in the woods when I was hunting the deer.” I pointed to the dead animal being carried by my brothers.

He seemed relieved.  “Good I thought that you had stolen them, or even worse, taken them from the Roman fort.”

My heart sank down to my feet. Now I could not tell the truth, my father would think badly of me and I could not bear that. “What is wrong with the Roman fort?”

“There are weapons buried there but they are cursed by the Romans who buried them.  My grandfather told me that.  They were to lie there until the Romans needed them again.”

“But the Romans are gone. They will not return.  You told me so. And we need the weapons.”

He shook his head. 
“It does not matter the curse is there for ever.” Then he smiled.  “But it matters not for these were from the woods and the curse will be on the one who took them.” As he examined the sword I furtively clutched at the stone charm I wore around my neck.  It had been my grandmother’s and I had been told it protected me from evil.  Now I needed that protection.

My father swung the sword.  “This is a fine sword.  I
t has a good balance.  It is too big for you just yet so I will use it, if you are in agreement with that?”

I forced a smile and mumbled, “Of course.”

The boys had deposited the doe outside the hut and now stood expectantly looking at the daggers. “And now I wonder who shall have these?” They were all the same design, I later found out that they were pugeo, a Roman military dagger, but one had no sign of rust at all and my father handed that to me. “As the finder the best goes to you my son. And you two can have these but you must make them as shiny as Lann’s.”After he had handed them to the boys he put his huge arms around them.  “And tomorrow we shall sharpen them but tonight we have the meal provided by Lann to prepare.”

The normal
pride I would have had at the praise was dissipated by the knowledge that I was cursed. The weapons I had cached would have to stay hidden.  I dared not bring them forth.  My dreams of glory were reduced to ashes.  I had a dagger with which to fight the Angles.  What kind of hero would I be?

Hen Ogledd 577

I had wondered for the last couple of years if I was cursed.  Nothing bad had happened to me
in the intervening years.  I did not sprout another leg nor did my face break out in some plague.  I was not whisked away by a wight and the Angles did not come. But I still worried; I new that
Wyrd
had a long memory. For the last year I had regularly visited my cache of weapons.  I had tried on the mail and found that it almost fitted me. Thanks to the forge I now understood metals a little better and I had fashioned a couple of crude rings to replace the damaged ones. I was desperate to sharpen the swords and daggers I had hidden but knew that I daren’t.  My secret seemed to grow larger each time I visited my secret dell. The boys loved their daggers and it seemed to make me more of a hero in their eyes. Father too practised with his sword each day although he had no one with whom to practise. I still exercised with my bow each morning and evening and I now had a longer, man sized bow. I had learned to make my own arrows and I had secretly melted down some of the nails I had found to make better arrows than the ones I had.  No-one seemed to notice and I hoped that my arrows were not cursed too.

It was just before the time we took the flocks out to the pasture again when the king came.  Of course we knew not who the king was then but we were soon informed of the fact. One of the other boys was watching from the ramparts and he raced down shouting to us. 
“Horsemen!  Horsemen appear!”

Although we did not think it was Angles, for they fought on foot, it did not pay to be careless and the men armed themselves with their
crude weapons.  My father had his sword and a spear while other men had spears and axes. I stood next to my father with my bow strung.  The ten horsemen rode through the gate from the west.  They all wore mail and I noticed that it looked identical to my mail shirt.  Their helmets looked like metal caps with two cheek pieces and a guard at the rear.  They each held a spear and carried a shield. The second man carried a standard which flowed in the wind and made a strange howling noise which caused my sisters to hide behind their mothers, I later found out it was a standard from the times of the Romans and warriors who had fought on the wall called, Sarmatians.

The leader reined in his mount and dismounted
, he handed his helmet which had a long red crest upon the top to one of his warriors and approached the men with a smile on his face and his hand held out palm uppermost.  It was the sign of peace. “I am Urien Rheged and some people call me king of this land.” This was the first time I met him and I fell under his spell immediately.  He looked to be older than my father had been but something about him made him appear younger; it is hard to explain but the king seemed magical even on that first visit.  He had a fine red beard and moustaches but it was his eyes which you noticed; they were a green which seemed to sparkle and shine. You felt as though he was looking only at you and you were the most important person in the room. “I am visiting those parts of the kingdom which are, as yet, free from attack.”

My father stepped forwards.  No one else had had the temerity to grasp the proffered hand but my father did. “I am Hogan of Stanwyck and this is my family.”

He waved to include us and we bobbed, bowed or just gave an awkward smile according to whatever thoughts ran through our minds.  How do you address a king?

“Are these
your entire people headman?”

The king obviously thought my father was a
chief but he shook his head vehemently in denial.  “No, we merely share this old hill fort for protection.  We are our own men.”

“Good.  It is what I have heard.  And what will you do when the Angles come?”

“We will fight.”

He looked at the weapons as did his men.  I noticed looks of derision and pity from some of his men but not the king who
merely nodded. “They are a start but you will need more.” He gestured behind him.”Bladud, bring me your shield.”

Bladud rested his standard next to his horse and brought over his shield.  Bladud was even bigger than my father and his feet had almost touched the ground when on his horse.  He handed the shield to the king.  “If you are to fight the Angles then you need to make these.” He turned it over so that the men, who had all gathered around, could see. “There is a handle here and a hollow for your hand.” He turned it over.  “Your hand is protected by this piece of metal and you can use it to hit your enemy with.
The shield is made of thin boards glued together and covered in leather. If you make them and learn to use them well then you have more chance of surviving when the Saxons do come.”

The man called
Bladud, who carried the dragon, gave a snort and my mother stepped forwards her eyes angry, almost protruding from here face.  “We will defend ourselves do not worry!”

Bladud looked bemused as he took the shield and went back to his horse. The king smiled.  “I would arm your wo
men Hogan for they are like she-bears.”

My father pointed to Monca.  “She has suffered at the hands of the Angles once before but
my sons and me will see that none suffer again.”

“This is what I wished to hear. When I have gathered more men I will return
for I need warriors like you and your sons to fight in my army.” He looked suddenly serious.  “The Saxons are coming. Aella, their king has reached the Dunum.  When he has settled those lands he will head west and he will be here.”

My father looked beyond the king to the east. 
“When?”

“If you have another winter of peace then the
White Christ will be smiling upon us. You have a good place to defend and I will return with my warriors next year for we could make a good fight here. Take care, Hogan of Stanwyck, for there will be dark times ahead but we shall prevail.” He turned to ride away and then halted, looking at the four entrances to the hill stronghold. “If I lived here I would block up all but one entrance and put a gate in the last one.  If you bar it at night you will sleep easier and you might save yourselves from a surprise attack.”

They rode off and, surprisingly, I felt better.  The men in the fort looked depressed but I had seen my first warrior and I wanted to be just like him.  I determined to practise with my weapons all that I could.
I took to spending time in the woods with my sword.  I had chosen the best one I could and taken a sharpening stone into the forest to hone it. My new found strength from the bow and my increased stature made it seem easy to wield although as I had never fought an opponent it was hard to determine how I would fare against an Angle. My father and I worked on his shield first. Alone, out of the men, he had heeded the king’s advice. It was not easy to cut the wood and to glue it.  We found that mixing beer with vinegar and making a paste which, if applied when still wet, appeared to hold the wood together well.  While we waited for it to dry my father said, “It is a shame the Romans are not still here.  They made fine nails. They would have made the shield both stronger and able to withstand sword blows”

I saw a chance to bring some of the cache to the hill fort. “I could look in the river near to the Roman Bridge.  You never know, some may
have fallen in.”

He looked doubtful but finally nodded.  “Do not waste too much time.  We have other work we must do.”

Leaving my shield to dry I raced to the cache and, taking two handfuls, ran to the river.  I dropped them in and picked them up again with river sand. I put them in my leather pouch and walked slowly back.  “I found some, not many but they may serve.”

I felt really guilty when his face lit into a smile as wide as a sunset.  “What a fine son I have raised.  These will be perfect. Here, we will share them out equally.” He counted them into two piles and then hammered them around the edge of the leather bound shield.  I noticed that the skin he used was the doe I had killed a couple of years earlier. 
Wyrd
! He was a careful worker and he was methodical.  He placed them evenly around before hammering them in.  He retained eight long ones for the metal boss which we had yet to make. When mine was completed I couldn’t wait to try it out but my father shook his head.  “There is no boss yet and the glue needs to harden fully.  There are no enemies to fight yet eh son?”

Raibeart and Aelle were envious of my weaponry and now looked at their Roman daggers with disdain.  I had a shield which made me look like a warrior. Many of the men in the hill fort now had spears and I wondered if we could hold off a determined band of Angles.

As winter began to bite my father suggested that we heed the words of the king and improve our defences. At first the others were reluctant; late autumn and winter was a time to do the tasks within the warm huts, not labouring in the cold.  Our hut was close to one gate and my father shrugged his shoulders, “Well boys.  We will have to make our own gate eh?  At least we shall have some warning.  What they do with their entrances is their own business.”

We went into the forest with his
huge axe and my small one and the two of us began to fell trees.  He chopped them down and I removed the side branches.  My two brothers took the small branches back for firewood.  We were soon warm and I wondered at the indolence of the other men. It was abut that time that I began to discern differences in men.  Until then they had all been grown ups and I was a boy but, as the first wispy hairs sprouted on my chin and upper lip I began to see differences.  Men like my father and King Urien made the world a better place by working hard.  Others, like the men in the stronghold, just existed and accepted what life brought them.  I suppose that is why I am the last of the Britons for the Angles and the Saxons were also men who shaped the world to suit them.

When we had enough long logs we hauled them back to our hut. Although my smaller axe was not as powerful as my father’s the two of us were able to work together to make the
logs the same length.  Two of them were kept long for they would be the gate posts. By the end of the day we were exhausted but Radha and Monca who had watched us work while casting evil glances at the other men who sat around their fires observing us, had made a stew with an old sheep which would not see out the winter.  All day long it had bubbled and boiled; cooked with the autumn berries and wild herbs.  After a hard day’s work we were all ready for the fine feast they had prepared; the food tasted much better because of our efforts.