Saxon Dawn (Wolf Brethren) (9 page)

King Urien looked
first at Bladud and then back at us.  “We came east because we heard there were warriors killing Angles and we came to enlist their aid.”

“We are those warriors.”

Bladud snorted, “You three! Do not make me laugh. The Angles would kill you in a moment and piss in your empty skulls.”

I felt Raibeart go for his sword. “Peace brother.  I have yet to see this blowhard do anything but wave a standard and laugh at those who fight the Angles.  Perhaps he was kicked in the head by a horse and his wits are addled.”

“Why you little piece of shit!” He began to dismount and I drew my sword.

“Any time you wish I am ready for you!”

“Put your weapons up I command it!” Bladud sheathed his sword but I kept mine in my hand.  “Did you not hear me?  Sheathe your sword.”

I turned to look the king in the eye.”And why should I obey you? My family is dead and it is no thanks to you. We have killed twenty Angles with no help from you.  As far as I can see you are king of nothing.”

“Let me kill him majesty.”

King Urien had a curious look on his face.  “No Bladud.  The boy may be correct and,” he waved his arm at the corpses of the men we had slain
, “they appear to be warriors. What is your name?”

“Lann son of Hogan.
And these are my brothers Raibeart and Aelle.”

The king seemed to see Aelle for the first time. “Aelle is an Angle name is it not?”

“My father took my mother and he was an Angle.”

Bladud’s hand went to his sword again. “Touch my brother and I will gut you like a fish.”
My voice was filled with anger at this man who insulted us.

“And I will kill any who touches Lann.”

The three of us stood in a half circle surrounded by the forty warriors of the king. He laughed, “I think I would like these warriors with me, Bladud, rather than against me.  If they are willing to fight forty of my warriors then perhaps we can give them a little respect.” He suddenly became serious.  “Will you three join us and become warriors of my household?” He saw our hesitation.  “With three such as you who knows, we may be able to throw these Angles back from whence they came.”

I looked at my brothers who both nodded.  “Then we will serve you and swear loyalty to you.” We all dropped to our knees and we became the King’s oathsworn.

One of Urien’s warriors had died when he had been pitched from his horse and broke
n his neck with a hard landing. The king offered the rider’s mount to Aelle, much to Bladud’s disgust but Aelle, instead, gave it to his brother Raibeart. “You are the larger warrior and one day I will ride Heart again.” He was the most affectionate of the three of us and I suppose it was because he had had no affection from his father but beatings and hardship. It was his way of making up for that lack of paternal affection and he transferred that love to all that were dear to him and that included animals.

Raibeart took me to one side as we prepared to leave the scene of battle.  We had stripped the bodies of anything valuable and the King had given to the three of us some of the amulets and swords taken from those we had killed. “You know you will have to fight Baldud some time?”

I nodded.  “He took exception to father and that has passed on to me.”

“He looks to be a dangerous man.”

“Do not worry brother, we are all dangerous in our own ways and I will not face him before I am ready. I do not think the king would countenance it.”

The King waved to us all.  “Now we ride west.”

Aelle looked at me.  “What of the sheep?”

The King looked perplexed and so I added.  “We left some sheep penned, ready for our return.”

The other warriors laughed but the king said to Aelle, “And what would you do?”

“If they are to die then it should not be because we neglect them.  I will collect them and then we can slaughter them and eat them.  They deserve it.”

The king nodded.  “I can see that you have honour.  We cannot wait for you.”

“If you head west then I will find you.”

“Head for the Roman Wall north west of us. We will camp there. You will find us if you take the road west.”

He looked at me. “Can I have Wolf?”

“Of course.  Should one of us stay with you?”

“No brother.  I must do this.” He looked at me apologetically. “I do not understand it but it is here.” He tapped his chest.

“If you have not found us within a day I will return for you.” He nodded and left riding Raibeart’s old mount and leading the injured pony with Wolf in his wake.  I wondered would I ever see him again.  Had I betrayed my father’s trust?  And then I knew that father would have wanted Aelle to follow his own destiny; just as we were following King Urien Rheged.

There seemed to be stations of rank within the warriors and we rode at the rear. That suited both of us for it meant we could talk. The meeting and the events had been so unexpected that we had not had time to plan for them.  I had thought that we would, soon, return to our hidden house and continue our war.  I now saw that that had been doomed to failure from the outset. The enemy had been looking for us and it would only have been a matter to time before they would have found us and killed us.  Someone or something was watching out for us.
Wyrd
!

“You know, of course, brother that we are no longer masters of our own destiny. We ride and serve another.  Would our father have approved?”

I honestly did not know. I had not wanted to be given the responsibility of my brother’s lives but it had happened anyway. “I know not, Raibeart, and this meeting may prove ill but had we not stumbled upon the king then we would now have been dead. But our father did urge us to continue the fight and this seems the best way.”

“I know but this seems so strange to be serving a king; until a short time ago we did not
even know that we had a king.”

I leaned over to Raibeart, “I suspect
that king is a grand title. He may just be a lord of part of the land but at least he is of our people.”

We rode in silence and I was able to examine the men who rode a few paces ahead of us. They had taken off their helmets when we rode away from the battlefield.  They all had long plaited hair; some of them had pieces of bones and jewels
woven into them.  They all had a cloak of the same faded red colour.  Their armour was the mail armour which Raibeart and Aelle wore and I suspected that it had originally been Roman. Their helmets certainly looked Roman.  Their swords were as long as mine and they all carried spears.  Their shields were not round as ours were but oval and painted the same red colour as their cloaks. In the middle of each one was painted a crude dragon much like the standard carried by Bladud. It was their horses which marked them as true warriors for they all rode tall horses.  Even my horse seemed smaller by comparison and I looked enviously at Raibeart’s borrowed mount.

It was heading towards dusk when we rode along the old Roman road and into the deserted fort which stood next to the
stone marker which showed the end of the Roman world. It seemed they used this frequently for part of it had been repaired and made secure; much as we had done with out home. We were largely ignored as the warriors dismounted and took off the saddles.  They all seemed to know what to do. We too dismounted and I watched the men as they led their mounts to a building which had a crude roof on it.  We followed and left our horses and saddles in the same stable. We tethered them to a long pole which was attached to the wall and then gave them water from the buckets the others had used.  The warriors left before we did as we were just copying them. “What about food for them?”

I looked around and saw a bier containing the last of the summer hay. I took two large armfuls and dropped them in front of the horses
and they gratefully ate it.

By the time we had left the stables the warriors had a fire going and were busy preparing the evening meal.  I felt helpless.  I normally did not rely on others to provide food.  Then I remembered that we had brought food with us and it was in our saddlebags. “Let us take food.  We would not
be seen to be beggars eh brother?”

Raibeart grinned. 
“Especially not in front of Bladud.”

We
still had the two hind legs of the boar and we each took one to the pot.  The warriors were busily stirring a cauldron filled with water and what looked like some cabbages and onions. I winked at Raibeart as I said, “Could we share our food with you?  Perhaps this might enhance the taste of the cabbage soup.”

Bladud threw us a look of pure hatred but
the rest smiled and then welcomed us. The best way to ingratiate yourself with a warrior is to give him food, preferably meat. A rotund warrior took a large butcher’s knife from his belt and strode over to us. “I am Tadgh and as you can see I enjoy my food and so they let me cook.  If you would hand over your bounty I will make sure it goes as far as the feast of Christ did when he fed the five thousand.” He took one of the legs and began to skilfully slice it into long slices which he dropped into the soup.  When the bone was bare he dropped that in too and then proceeded to do the same with the other.

As he wiped his knife clean Raibeart asked, “Who is Christ and what is his feast?”

Tadgh seemed to see us for the first time.  “You are pagans then?” We both looked at him blankly, we did not understand the term.  “You do not worship the White Christ?”

We shook our heads at the same time.  “We have many gods we worship.”

“We worship the one God and when he walked the earth he fed many people with a few fish and some bread.  That is the Christ feast.  There are other stories about him but that is the one I like the best.”

Before we could talk further
, Urien wandered over to speak with us. “My men appreciate your gift.  Come and sit with me for I have many questions.  He led us to a log by the fire and the warriors there vacated it as we approached.”We had heard stories of how the Saxons had been attacked by warriors; how did you do it?”

I was confused.  “We fought the Angles.”

The king laughed, “They are the same people and they speak the same language. They are the Angles and the Saxons but we call them Saxons. How did you defeat them?”

“We used bows and slings and ambush.”

“Ah.  That is good.  Did you fight from the backs of your horses?”

I shook my head.  “We are not horsemen.  We used the horses and ponies to escape.” I looked at the king and saw that he had leather boots which would have protected his legs when riding.”You fight from horses?”

“Aye.  It gives us an advantage over our enemies but our ancestors who lived here in the times of the Romans fought on horses and held back the barbarians.” He gestured towards my sword.  “May I see the fine blade you bear?”

“Of course
, your majesty.”

He took it and began to examine it.  “My men only called me by my title when we are amongst others. This is an old blade. You say it is a family weapon?”

I shrugged, “Before my father died he told me to go to the house of my grandfather and we found this buried with the armour.  If it was my grandsire’s house I assumed it was his.”

“T
hen he was a mighty warrior. What was his name?”

“I know not.” I suddenly thought how little I did know.  There were many questions I would have asked my father now, were he still alive, but those questions would have to remain unanswered now
; for my brother and I were the last of the line.

He handed me back the sword. “The armour is old but it will protect you well.
”  He gestured at Raibeart’s, “Our men wear much as you do but it is newer.  Still that should suffice for a while; it is well made and will protect you.  Yours is good armour, Lann, son of Hogan.  If that was your grandsire’s then he was a leader of men. It is a good sign.”

Raibeart chewed his lip, a sure si
gn that he had a question on his mind. “Will we have to fight on horses then?”

He smiled.  “No, only
my bodyguard fight on horses.  I am going to raise an army and we are going to war in the spring.  We will drive the Saxons from the northern part of the land.” I must have shown my disappointment for he patted my arm. “I have allies north of the Dunum, King Morcant Bulc and King
Rhydderch Hael
who will go to war with me and we can recover the gains from north of the Dunum.  When I have built up my army and defeated those enemies who live north of the Dunum then we will drive them from your lands.”

“The Dunum?”

“It is the Latin name of the river which runs by the fort not far from where you live.” Icaunus had repaid me for my sacrifice of the deer heart and brought this king to our aid.  We just called it the river but it was good to know it had an old name, a name my ancestors might have used. It connected me and made me feel more secure.

“Food is ready!” Tadgh’s voice boomed out and we wandered over. 

I could see that each man had his own bowl. “Let us get our bowls from the stables.”

“I am glad that we do not have to fight on horses.  I prefer the ground beneath my feet.”