by Griff Hosker
“The king wants your men on the left flank. He will be on the right.”
Just then the king rode up to me. “Better get your shield wall in position. I will wait here until we see what they intend.”
I looked at him, “I would have thought that was obvious your majesty, they want to kill us.”
He smiled, “True but there are many ways to fight a battle and we must respond to our enemy’s decision.”
I turned to see the shield wall in position. Garth and Gildas had left a place for me in the front rank. The second and third ranks held spears and were ready to make the front appear as a hedgehog with bristling spikes. I had placed the better men, my men and those of my brothers in the middle. I placed the two prince’s men on the flanks near to the horsemen where there would be less risk. The king and I stood together a few paces before the Saxons. The sun was already beyond its zenith. I did not want a night battle which would suit the Saxons but we were in no position to dictate how the battle would be fought. I could see, as band after band emerged from the forests on either side of the road, that we were well outnumbered. The slope on the other side showed them forming ranks, heavy with mailed and armed warriors. Their ranks bristled with swords and axes. They were intent on victory.
Four men left their ranks. From their arms and standards they were chiefs at the very least. The king turned to me, “Lord Lann, Lord Gildas accompany me and one more thing Lord Lann,” he smiled, “bring your standard.”
“Garth, bring the standard.”
The four men waited for us and we rode down the road, carefully avoiding the ditch and its traps. They spoke first and they spoke in Saxon. King Urien looked at me and I translated. “This is King Ida of Bernicia and King Aella of Deira. They want to know why you have barred the way to their lands. They say Rheged is to the west.”
“Tell King Ida that after we threw him from Metcauld I thought he had fled back across the sea to lick his wounds.” Garth and Gildas grinned at that but when I translated King Ida’s face filled with fury. He was restrained by King Aella who looked to be a more thoughtful king and less reckless.
He spoke. “King Aella repeats the question. He says the two kings are heading north to reclaim King Ida’s land from the usurper, Morcant Bulc.” Even as I translated I was angry that we were, once again, fighting Morcant Bulc’s battles for him.
“This land was once the land of Rheged before the Angles and the Saxons stole it. Tell them that the only way across this bridge is over our dead bodies.”
The two kings withdrew to confer. “Very well then you will die.”
After I had translated the king shrugged, “We all die sometime; it is the manner of the death which is important.”
Both of them seemed to agree with that and then King Aella said cunningly, “You are Lord Lann the one they call the Wolf Warrior.”I nodded. King Aella pointed to his front rank. “Karl there is my champion and his brother was slain by you close to Din Guardi.”
“I slew many Saxons; it is hard to remember them all.”
King Ida bristled but was restrained, “He had a helmet much like the one you are wearing now but yours appears grander.”
“I remember now. Yes it is his helmet which I have improved but he was not an honourable man for one of his men attacked me with an axe while I was killing his lord.”
“He would fight you here before the two armies.”
“What are they saying Lord Lann?”
I told the king of their words and he snorted, “Out of the question.”
“I think I will have to fight him your majesty. If I do not then they will take heart for they will think we fear them but I will try to make an advantage of this.”
I spoke to King Aella. “Why should I fight this man? I can kill him in battle just as easily.”
“If you fight him then we will not slaughter you until the morning.”
I told King Urien his words. “It buys us time to improve the defences and gives King Morcant Bulc more time to get here.”
“Can you beat him?”
I closed my eyes and listened for my mother’s words and the pictures. All that I saw was my baby son in Aideen’s arms. “I will not die here. I can beat him.”
“Very well. But be careful. If you die then the whole army will lose heart.”
I strode back for my shield. As I passed Raibeart I said quietly, “I am to fight their champion. If he wins then kill the two kings, they are well within your range.”
He nodded and smiled, “You will not lose brother!”
I returned and when I reached the kings, Karl was standing there. He towered over me and had a large war axe. As soon as I saw that I knew that I would win. When he held up his shield I saw that it was not leather covered and the only metal was on the rim and the boss. He would die; it might take me some time but I had better arms and if he only used an axe then I knew I had more skill. He did not have a helmet with a face mask and I could see that he had had his nose broken and lost teeth. He was a brawler and I would use that to my advantage.
He grinned at me and it was like looking into a cave filled with sharp rocks. “You are the Wolf Warrior; I eat wolves for breakfast! Soon you will meet my brother again. Tell him you are my present for him.”
“Tell him yourself but have a bath before you do for the stench of you is making me gag.”
His face infused with anger and he roared at me, “I will roast your heart on a fire!” and he swung his axe at me. It was not in the spirit of a duel but I was prepared and the axe sailed harmlessly over my shoulder as I ducked beneath it. I heard the gasp of outrage from behind me but then I put all such thoughts from me as I concentrated on defeating him. He was a strong man and he swung the axe again as though it weighed nothing. He was used to shields such as his and he swung at my shield. The axe head caught on the leather and the nails and would not come free. Unable to swing my sword because we were so close I head butted him and the nasal caught his already broken nose. Blood erupted everywhere.
“And there is a present from your brother’s helmet.”
He wrenched his axe free and his face, now a bloody mask glared at me. “Coward!”
He was angry now and angry men do not fight well. I swung Saxon Slayer and smashed it down on to his shield. The blade bit into the wood and I saw him wince with the power of the blow. There was a sliver of white wood the width of two fingers clearly visible. The shield was weakened. He changed his tactics and swung the axe in a flat arc aimed at my head. I raised my shield, ducked my head and stabbed at his knee. I had used the tactic before and it worked every time. He staggered as the blood flowed freely from his wound and I saw fear creep into his face for the first time. He was a brave man and he came on again smashing his axe at my shield. This time it struck my boss and I felt the metal as it dented in towards my hand. I punched with my right hand and the edge of my sword guard found the gap between the helmet and the shield. The rough edge ripped into his left eye and a sticky bloody mess erupted. He was now much weaker and he had limited vision.
I would finish this before he got lucky. He staggered again and I punched with my shield. I caught his hand with my damaged boss and I saw a gap. I jabbed forwards with the blade, the sword stabbing into the mail links. It was good armour but my tip broke two or three of them and entered his vast gut. He recoiled again and this time I swung my sword over my right shoulder and the sharp edge took his head off in one blow. It landed at King Aella’s feet and he briefly glared at me before smiling and saying, “Your reputation is deserved, I look forward to watching you die tomorrow.”
His two bodyguards lifted the body of the champion as our ranks roared their cheers. They banged their shields and Gildas and Garth slapped me so hard on the back I thought they had hammers in their hands.
King Urien walked over to me, “Thank you Lord Lann that may just have bought us the time we need to defeat them. Now we just wait for the arrival of Morcant Bulc.”
Ywain rode over to me
and leapt to the ground. “That was magnificent Lann! When I saw the size of him I thought that you were doomed.”
I shook my head. We need to tell the men that the Saxon shields are weaker than ours and their mail is vulnerable. This challenge is wyrd and shows that the gods are on our side.”
“You mean the White Christ.”
I shook my head, “No Prince Ywain. It was not the White Christ who aided me.”
Chapter 17
I could feel the aches and pains from the combat. I had won but Karl had left his mark on me. Garth brought me some hot food. My men feted me and treated me as though I was an invalid. They were all in a positive and confident mood. All that we needed was the arrival of Morcant Bulc and our victory would be assured. Ywain kept looking to the north almost willing our ally to appear over the horizon. “If Bladud reached him without incident then they should be here by now.”
I looked at King Urien. “I think that we fight as though he will not arrive.”
He looked at me in surprise. “But why?”
“Firstly, I believe that we can beat them despite their numbers and secondly if Morcant Bulc does not arrive then it will be a sign that the gods want us to win. Besides we have no alternative.” I pointed to the south where the Saxon line was advancing. “We have to fight without him anyway so let us do so as though his appearance does not matter.”
The King rode to the front of the men. “Today men of Rheged, we will fight the Saxons and we will do as the Wolf Warrior did yesterday we will defeat them and we will prevail.”
The mention of the duel brought forth another roar and men began banging their shields chanting, “Rheged! Rheged!” The Saxons looked determined. I could see that King Ida was leading his men; he meant business while his brother king waited on the slopes behind. The initial attack looked to be a thousand men in a huge wedge. The wide hillside afforded them that luxury and the point of their attack was the bridge. King Aella had as many reserves on the hillside as we had in our whole army. The Saxons came on relentlessly. This was no pirate warband, this was an army which had fought before and would do so efficiently again.
The two groups of horsemen, augmented by the despatch riders on their ponies waited on our flanks. The despatch riders began to hurl their stones. There were so few of them that it was an annoyance only but an effective one for it ensured that the Saxons kept their shields up and they would be blind to the trap laden ditch and the stakes which awaited them. Raibeart and Aelle needed no command from the king. Today the standards would only have one signal, and that would be advance. We had nowhere to retreat to.
I heard the command, “Loose!” Raibeart had timed it perfectly and the arrows soared in volleys, one after the other. Even above the sound of the chants we could hear the thud and ping as they struck wood or metal. There were shouts and screams as Saxon warriors fell. As soon as one man fell another strode to take his place but in that instant, Aelle’s slingers accurately hit the warriors who were briefly without defences. Soon there were large gaps and the whole Saxon line halted, just before the ditch, to enable them to fill the front line. Raibeart and his men took advantage. They had plenty of arrows and they rained their missiles on to the shield wall. Soon every shield was peppered with flights. Warriors reached their arms around to break them off allowing the more skilled archers to strike them in their arms. When they did close with us they would have wounds.
Then they launched their own arrow attack. They had few archers but even a few could cause us trouble. My men lifted their shields and the arrows thudded into ours. The leather on our shields stopped the penetration and a shake of the shield made them drop to the ground. The old archer in me saw that they could be used again should run out. One or two of our men took a hit and they retired but there were so few Saxon archers that they could not harm us. Even so Raibeart took matters into his own hands and his archers gave some respite to the wedge and loosed sixty arrows in quick succession to end the archer threat. Soon they all lay dead or had fled.
Encouraged by the brief cessation of the arrow storm the wedge lurched forwards and entered the ditch. Some of those at the front were lords guarding the king and they had boots. The rest did not and we heard a cacophony of screams and shouts as they found the wicked metal barbs. Raibeart’s assault began as soon as they started to climb out the ditch and this time there were gaps and men did fall.
They were but thirty paces from our men and I shouted. “Men of Rheged! Steady. These are the men who come to steal our land and take our women. Let us show them that there are easier targets!”
The stakes were a real obstacle and they had to turn sideways to get through them. The stones and the arrows were now on a flatter trajectory and arrows pierced arms and carried on into bodies. The stones struck with such force that even a helmet was no salvation and warriors fell unconscious causing even more disruption.
As I had expected, King Ida, at the front of the wedge had made straight for me. His attack was hampered by the fact that he no longer had a thousand men pushing him and the spears of the men behind us, which were at the height of a man’s eye, made a daunting sight. Although the king had a masked helm like mine most of his men did not. I saw the anger in his blow as he lunged forwards with his sword. I saw the two men next to him die as spears pierced their eyes and heads. Ida’s sword slid harmlessly down my shield and I swung my sword over my head to crash on to his helmet. His had no protective rim, nor did he have a soft inner cap and my blow cracked the metal and made him stagger with the force of it. I punched him in the face with my shield and he would have fallen backwards were it not for the press of men behind, all of them eager to get to grips with the Wolf Warrior and his mystical sword. I could not swing my sword over my head and so I stabbed, blindly, upwards. I felt the sharp edge sink into something soft and I saw the pain in the eyes, discernible through the mask. He was tiring and I lowered my shield and rammed the hard metal edge, deliberately left rough and unpolished, upwards, striking his jaw. I must have rendered him unconscious for his arms fell to his side and I had the simplest of kills. I plunged my sword into his throat and King Ida of Bernicia fell dead.
His bodyguards became enraged. They had failed in their duty to protect their king and they were now honour and oath bound to die with him. That made their deaths both sad and unnecessary but ultimately easier. They fought recklessly without any thought of defence. My warriors at the front, Garth, Gildas and the others were calm, controlled and deadly. They fended the axe blows with their shields and stabbed accurately with their swords. They had learned that the Saxon mail did not cover the neck. Some had torcs but they merely deflected the sword into an even more vulnerable place.
Raibeart and Aelle continued to urge their men to strike the warriors at the rear and gradually the Saxon line faltered. I could see that King Aella had still not moved and I took command. “Garth, signal forwards.”
The doughty warrior waved the standard and yelled, “Forwards!”
It was as though a dam had burst. The better warriors, the king and his bodyguard, all lay dead. The ones at the rear were leaderless and when the whole Rheged line came at them, they fled. As they turned Raibeart and Aelle’s men were merciless and warrior after warrior was felled by arrows and stones. King Urien and Prince Ywain urged their horses forwards and their long, lance like spears plucked Saxons like a farmer plucking fruit in an orchard. When they were a hundred paces from King Aelle’s reserves the superbly trained horsemen halted and then rode back to our cheering lines. I had already halted our men. “Pick up any undamaged arrows and pass them back to the archers.” As the arrows, most of them Saxon, were passed back, I saw my brother give me a cheery wave.
We had been fighting all morning and the slingers brought water skins around for us to slake our thirst. We were not hungry but combat makes a man have a thirst which is hard to describe to those who have not fought in a shield wall. I turned to the army, there were many gaps. “That was the first attack. They now kno
w our tricks and they will be more cautious. These men are fresh and they think that we are tired. We will show them we are not! Fill the gaps!”
Garth began banging the shield with the standard and he chanted, “Wolf Warriors!” over and over. The whole army took it up and I saw the riders on our flanks also doing so. King Aella chose that moment to begin his attack. A second one thousand warrior wedge marched relentlessly down the slope. I could see King Ida’s survivors being beaten into a reserve but I did not fear a reserve which had already fled. In the lull before the next attack, I wondered what was keeping Bladud and King Morcant Bulc. I had expected them by mid morning at the latest. If they came now we would win but if they delayed then we could be destroyed. In that moment a horrible thought crept into my mind. If he waited and we were defeated then even his army could beat the remnants of Aella’s army. He would reap the reward of our sacrifice. I hoped I was wrong but a voice in my head told me I was not.
Aella was not at the point of his wedge but at the head of a second wedge which followed his first. I could see that while his main force attacked us, he would have three hundred men who would attack the left flank of our line and the bridge. If he could control the bridge then it would be impossible for Morcant Bulc to aid us and there were just Ywain’s men and two hundred of Prince Rhun’s men to face him. I could do nothing about it.”Raibeart, Aelle, send half your men to the bridge. Attack the other wedge.”
I heard Aelle shout, “I will go!”
I could not see what was happening but I was happy for I trusted my brothers above everyone in the army, Ywain and the king included. They would not let me down. The rain of arrows was not as heavy now and, in addition, the ditch was filled with dead Saxons and so the army which headed for us was bigger. The stakes were still an obstacle but they were able to get speed up and run at us. The spears from above and behind were all that saved us from slaughter. I felt myself pushed back as seven hundred men struck our thin line. We were so close that it was only the spears which could be used. I slid my sword into my right boot and grabbed one of the daggers from behind my shield. The Saxon I faced had an exultant look on his yellow bearded face. “I am going to wear your wolf cloak and wield your sword when I kill you!”
