The Eaorl (The Casere Book 2) (5 page)

A single file of six thousand horses is a very long line, and Conn suspected that the first horse had arrived before the last horse had departed. Conn was going to be the last horse. He was standing with Halla on a ridge looking down the valley with his telescope.

‘We’ve been spotted.’ Conn informed Halla casually.

‘How many?’

‘Probably a dozen men – obviously they had been sent to look for the others. I don’t think we are in any danger.’

‘I hope not – we only have one squad of Sagittari still here – and they have just started to leave. Are you going to attack them – you are prone to foolhardy antics.’

Conn shook his head. ‘No – if they have any sense, they will turn and run – or at least pretend to. That, I’m not going to risk.’

Behind them Derryth emerged from the trees. ‘You ready to leave?’

Conn was surprised to see him. Derryth had led the fyrd up the mountain. ‘Shouldn’t you be waiting for us on top of the mountain?’

‘I couldn’t trust you not to do something silly.’ He rode up beside Conn, who handed him the telescope. ‘About thirty men. We are not going to them are we – even you are not that foolhardy…?’

‘No.’ Conn turned his horse to the mountain as the sun set. ‘Anyway, I’m not foolhardy’.

‘You could have fooled me.’

‘And me.’ Halla added.

It was dark as Conn finally arrived at the camp. It was a good site, and Logistics had been preparing a camp for almost two and a half thousand men.

Conn grabbed a meal and a tankard of ale and headed to his tent. He had thirteen Majors in his fyrd – each Major commanded four companies of men. Each company was commanded by a Captain who was in charge of eight squads. They spent the next hours going over orders for the next few days.

At dawn squads of Sagittari left the mountain side to harry the enemy, and in their central position over the roadway between Ridlah and Trokiak, they were ideally positioned to interrupt supplies and communications. Anything not totally protected was fair game; Conn wanted the Gatinan to be so annoyed that they would march towards him; he didn’t have the numbers to compete with them in their own environment. Conn had a lot of “other world” experience fighting insurgents – and this time he was the insurgent. Conn wanted to inflict maximum damage with minimal losses.

A new resupply route had to be created through the mountains to their east, and Conn sent pigeons to get Arlen to attempt to enter Trokian directly to the west. Conn sent a squad of Logistical support to try and meet him. They were also responsible for setting up a “pony express” communications system to supplement his one way communications of pigeons. Unfortunately, he only had Trokian, Susa or Menia bred pigeons and that was a slow network. He was also running out of pigeons, and his last pair of pigeons were sent to tell an old Troakian friend, Abrecan the merchant, that they had arrived “nearby”.

The “pony express”, when set up with stables every 10 miles, could cover up to two hundred miles in a day. It would, if a pathway through the mountains behind him could be found, provide an excellent system of rapid communication between him and Dor and from Dor to the rest of his network.

Communication would make a significant difference because, within days his Sagittari were having a significant effect of the Gatinans. Their entire resupply and communications network was being decimated; anything travelling along the road ways would feel the force of several hundred Sagittari swooping by and leaving behind dead and dying wiga. Many wiga quickly realized that surrendering was the only viable option – especially once their Commanders were killed – and once the knowledge spread that they weren’t going to get executed as prisoners – and in fact be fed good food.

Consequently, Conn now had to deal with a steady flow of prisoners, both wounded and able. As they watched another group of prisoners arrive in the camp, Derryth shook his head in surprise.

‘We will have more Gatinans here soon then they have down there. And they eat like horses. What are you going to do with them?’

‘I’m not sure – yet. It is certainly not something that I’d planned for – certainly not these numbers.’ They went in search of Daigh, who he had entrusted with guarding logistics as they headed west to Dor. He asked him what he had seen in the valley north of their position in the mountains.

‘It is largely deserted – as we went west there were more people – they were either from the Villages closer to Trokiak.’

‘What is the closest Thane demesne?’

‘I think it was called Ushu or something – but it is deserted – and the Thane is either in Trokiak or dead. Their overlord is the Eaorl of Temah – and they think he died at Ridlah.’

‘Will it make a good prison?’ Conn described what he wanted and Daigh was delegated to set it up. After a few days, the prisoners were transported down to the Village and set to work rebuilding, repairing, and farming – under guard by Sagittari would were no longer capable of fighting because of injury. The Valkeri were also sent to provide additional security.

They were not over taxed – the Gatinans were more than happy to be away from fighting – they were warm, dry and being fed – and the daily rain showers were causing discomfort for all combatants without appropriate shelter – which the Gatinans didn’t have having destroyed Temah. Most prisoners were also not professional wiga – and were not Nobles. His first significant prisoners arrived in the third week of fighting. An Eaorl and his small force had been surrounded, after they had rashly decided to pursue a squad of Sagittari that had attacked their patrol. Despite being easier to kill than capture them, the Captain of the company had made a decision to try – and he would be a rich man as a consequence – the Eaorl would pay a significant ransom for his freedom.

Conn went to meet his new guests on their arrival. As he got closer, one was complaining bitterly, about how they were all cowards who didn’t meet him in a full fight, and the like. Conn saw that it was a young man in his early twenties who was making the noise. When he saw Conn, he stopped.

‘You must be the feorrancund I’ve heard about – you are in charge of this murderous rabble aren’t you?’ He sneered.

‘I am. I gather you are a little disappointed that you are alive?’

He looked strangely at Conn before proceeding. ‘If this filth hadn’t ambushed me, they would be dead and I’d be still alive and free – cowardly pond slime that they are. If my hands weren’t tied, I’d show them a lesson ...’

Before he had time to say anything else, Conn hoisted him roughly off his horse, spun him around and untied his hands. Conn took his cape from his shoulder and said. ‘Perhaps you’ll show me then. What weapon do you choose?’

The young man was confused, it seemed that he had just wanted to vent as much as he liked – he was obviously used to browbeating his way around.

‘I asked – what weapon do you want? If you win, you get to leave – if you lose … well, you just lose.’

Still flustered, he chose his sword. Conn chose a similar blade and ordered him to commence fighting. He started out bravely – but within minutes, even he knew he was being toyed with. Despite many opportunities, Conn would deflect his thrust and instead of killing him would deftly cork a muscle or bruise a rib or a give him a welt on another part of his body. After twenty minutes he could hardly stand, his body ached; every muscle was in spasm and it hurt when he breathed. But there was no visible wound on him – though he would be swollen, black and blue for days. He sank to his knees, dropped his sword from his aching hands and through swollen lips cried out; ‘For mercy sake, just kill me.’

Conn handed his sword to one of his wiga. ‘No need for that, I’m sure that your Eaorldom will pay for you. But then again, given that you are an arrogant little shit, I don’t know that they will. I guess it will depend on if you have an heir already or not.’ Leaving him prone on the ground, Conn walked over to the other captives; some of which were clearly Nobles. ‘Name and rank please.’

A middle aged noble stepped forward. ‘I am Conary, Thane of Samos in Eryx. You have met our Eaorl, Demne.’ He nodded to the figure on the forest floor. ‘What are you going to do with him?’ Surprisingly, he was more curious than worried.

‘Let him recover – perhaps he will have some humility when he wakes up. But we won’t kill him – yet. Depends on how annoying he proves to be.’

‘He is fairly annoying. What about the rest of us?’

‘You will remain my prisoners until we ransom you – including your Eaorl. Unless of course your Aebeling rescue you! I’ll be putting you all to work – in exchange for the food I have to give you! A little hard work might do him some good as well. Of course, I don’t know how long that is going to take.’

‘I understand. We will do whatever you say. At least we are still alive. We all thought we’d be dead by now.’ Conary shrugged as he followed the guard away; collecting the Eaorl as they passed.

The beating served a purpose; any new captives quickly learnt that if they complained, they would be given a sword and a fight to the death with the Thane – and as great as the temptation was, they didn’t want to do that. It took a week before the Eaorl could walk without pain.

After two weeks of daily sorties into the fringes of the Gatinan fyrd, they observed the largest gathering of forces so far that seemed intent on dealing with the “problem”. It was a two pronged attack – they had determined that Conn’s forces were located at the head of a valley and they also determined that he had considerable forces in the Village of Ushu – though they probably didn’t realize that most of them were Gatinans.

‘How many did you see?’ Conn asked the scouts that had returned with the latest news. The Majors were all gathered in Conn’s tent.

‘Over a thousand heading up the valley – mostly cavalry – while a mixed force of cavalry and infantry are marching towards Ushu.’

‘Strange behaviour.’ He turned around and addressed the Majors. ‘Plan B it is; everyone know what to do?’

They all nodded; and Conn continued.

‘Very well; let’s go and do it then.’

It was all very bloody; and soon over five hundred men lay dead – and very few of them were from Conn’s fyrd. The Gatinan cavalry lead by Rakians Commanders ran into a wall of pikemen in front of two hundred archers; when they turned to flee they ran into Cataphracts. Not a pretty sight.

Those on the pathway to Ushu found their right flank being harassed by Sagittari and when they turned to face them, the undefended rear was attacked by more Cataphracts. More dead, more wounded and more prisoners. A very small rear guard was all that escaped and returned to report on the very serious losses incurred by the Gatinan forces, and while Conn regretted that his losses were reaching into the hundred, the Gatinans were losing thousands. For the next two days, the prisoners dug graves for their comrades.

The final tally was over four hundred dead and over a thousand prisoners; swelling his prison camp to almost fifteen hundred. Luckily a second company of Valkeri had arrived to assist with guarding the prisoners.

Having now lost four of his ten fyrds, the Aebeling of Gatina had wisely decided to send no more forces against Conn’s fyrd; instead he doubled his efforts to break into the fortified donjon, but it was clear to Conn now that he was unable to progress very far with that either. Information gained from prisoners indicated that the Gatinans were all for withdrawing but the Rakians were not allowing that from happening. The Eoarl of Motya seemed to be the driving force behind the entire campaign – and he would no doubt have heard about what had happened to the former Healdend of Kania.

Hall, Conn and Derryth had ridden to the highest point overlooking the plains and the town of Trokiak in the distance.

‘Do you think it’s time?’ Conn asked somewhat rhetorically.

Derryth shrugged. ‘His supply lines are withering; he has lost over a third of his forces – and the rest are reluctant at best. Things have not turned out as they expected. This is as good a time as ever.’

‘Indeed – and we do have pigeons again.’ They had finally received a supply of Trokian pigeons from Abrecan. It was still one way, but at least they could tell the Wealdend of Trokia what they were doing.

The year was getting late; spring was long past and summer was almost finished. There was a need for this to be over before winter as he had too many prisoners to survive a winter in a tent.

‘I think it is time to do the marathon.’

‘The what?’

‘You will see.’

Days later, after moving his entire force down the mountain in the cover of night, Conn led a company of Sagittari with an audacious plan – which he hoped worked. Travelling further down the plain than ever before, waves of Sagittari attacked the main Gatinan fyrd camped outside of Trokiak as sunlight hit the mountains. Both Halla and Derryth rode with him, and they led the first of eight companies of the best horses and archers in Meshech; each armed with about 30 arrows, from about 300 yards they would start firing, 10 arrows in 30 seconds; their horses at a gallop but smooth over the uneven terrain; by about 150 yards they would have used half their arrows and the entire force would swing in an arch until they turned around and fired the rest as they left. It would take them about two minutes to fire the thirty arrows.

In waves, a new company would engage as soon as the other had completed their run; the eight companies meant that over two thousand arrows would be fired at the Gatinans in less than an hour. Returned, they changed horses and did it again; and five thousand arrows later, the Gatinans had finally had enough; with hundreds of men dead or injured, the Gatinans formed a fyrd of several thousand men and charged uphill.