WHITEBLADE

by H A CULLEY

  ‘I see. Well, I’ll decide if I’ll let you go after I’ve met this bishop. If I don’t like him, I’ll kill him and you’ll have to stay.’

  Aidan was shocked at Necton’s ultimatum, but there was little he could do but pray that whoever Iona sent was to the king’s taste.

  ~~~

  Oswald was chosen to lead the assault on the outer perimeter. In the event no fighting was necessary. Fáelán’s father was on duty that night and he and his family and friends had volunteered for the first watch. They opened the gates and Oswald’s men ran in.

  The space between the two palisades was occupied by two warrior’s halls – one for married men on duty for the night and one for single men whose home it was permanently. There were also stables, pens for sheep, a granary and other storage sheds. It was obvious that Dùn Add could have withstood a long siege.

  The attackers numbered two hundred men in all. Half made for each hall, Oswald leading one group and Fáelán’s father the other. The latter was hoping to convince the married men not to fight for Connad and thus to avoid any bloodshed. His men quietly gathered up all the weapons they could find amongst the sleeping men and barred the door. When Connad’s warriors awoke they found themselves faced with a line of armed men around the walls.

  ‘You all know me. I’ll come straight to the point. The other kings of Dal Riada have become fed up with Connad’s deviousness and lack of leadership and have decided to depose him. He’s afraid of his own shadow and sees plots where there are none. We grow weaker whilst our enemies grow stronger. When was the last time he stirred out of his hall? Never. The other kings have elected Domnall Brecc to succeed him. He plans to extend our territory northwards into Torridan and the Isle of Skye and eastwards into Cowal, driving out the Picts and the men of Strathclyde. These places used to be Dal Riadan before Connad cravenly gave them up without a fight. Now who’ll support Domnall as High King of Dal Riada?’

  There was a general murmuring before one man shouted out, ‘But we are oathsworn to Connad. Whatever we think of him, he is our leader.’

  ‘He has been deposed by the vote of his fellow kings, so you can choose to follow him into exile, if he is allowed to live. If he is killed, you are free of your oaths. I suggest we wait and see.’

  This was greeted by a general mummer of assent.

  ‘Now, if you give your oaths that you will remain here, I’ll leave a few men to guard you whilst we storm the inner palisade.’

  Meanwhile, Oswald was having less success in the single warrior’s hall. He and his men approached quietly, but, as luck would have it, a group of four were still awake playing a game of chance and drinking. In their partially inebriated state, they were at first unaware of the intruders. The noise of snoring had muffled the opening of the door and the soft footfalls on the straw-covered floor of beaten earth, but then one looked up and gave a cry of alarm when he saw men collecting weapons near the door.

  That woke the others, or many of them, but Oswald had reacted swiftly. A few who had grabbed weapons near the door died swiftly, but the rest retreated to one end of the hall facing Oswald’s men. The latter were fully dressed in chainmail byrnies or leather jerkins and wore helmets, whilst the former were wearing little and armed in the main with just a sword or seax. Oswald gestured and his archers moved forward, covering the confused men with their bows.

  ‘Now, you have a choice: die here and now, or lay down your arms and live,’ he told them. ‘Connad has been deposed by vote of the other kings and Domnall Brecc is now High King. You can lay down your lives for a man who at best has a life of exile to look forward to, or you can swear allegiance to Domnall. Which is it to be?’

  ‘We are sworn to Connad, Oswald. We can’t betray him just like that,’ one of the men facing him holding a spear declared.

  ‘I understand that; then I suggest you lay down your arms and await the outcome of the assault on the king’s hall. If Connad is killed, you are freed of your oath to support him.’

  ‘And if he isn’t – if he escapes or is taken prisoner?’

  ‘Then you will have to make a decision, won’t you? For now, you need to put down your weapons. You have until I count to twenty to do so. One, two…’

  The young man holding the spear evidently reached a swift decision. He hefted his spear and threw it at Oswald. It was aimed at the unprotected space between the bottom of the face mask on Oswald’s distinctive helmet and the neck of his byrnie. The distance was a few yards only, but it was aimed in haste and it glanced off the side of Oswald’s helmet before clattering to the floor. Immediately six archers put arrows into the torso of the thrower and he died instantly. The remainder of the men stood in shock at the sudden death before one threw his sword down, then several followed suit. Five minutes later they were all disarmed and Oswald left them under guard whilst he re-joined the rest of his force outside.

  Evidently the sentries on the inner palisade had realised that something was happening below them, as they called out a challenge when Oswald and about eighty of his men re-appeared outside the warriors’ hall. Although it was dark, there was enough moonlight to be able to see shadowy figures and when there was no response to the challenge, a few arrows whistled down towards them. Realising that they were easy targets, Oswald withdrew his men out of sight behind the buildings and waited for the three kings to join him.

  ‘Well done, Oswald,’ Domnall congratulated him warmly and threw his arm around the younger man’s shoulder.

  ‘Yes, great; but what do we do now?’ Brennus of Lorne muttered grumpily.

  Oswald sometimes thought that nothing would ever make the man happy.

  ‘Well, we can starve them out,’ suggested Fergus of Islay and the Isles.

  ‘I have another idea,’ Oswald put in.

  The others looked at him in surprise. This was meant to be a council of the kings, but they had forgotten that Oswald was still there.

  ‘Very well,’ Domnall said, to break the disapproving silence. ‘Let’s hear it.’

  ‘This outer palisade runs around three sides of the inner one, but the short escarpment on the north side is only defended by the inner palisade. Because we are all inside the outer defences, that’s where they are watching. I suspect that the north side is poorly defended, if at all.’

  ‘So?’ Brennus asked contemptuously. ‘As you said, the palisade is constructed on top of a cliff face. It may be only a short pitch, but it effectively makes the defensive wall more than forty feet high. I agree with Fergus; I say we starve them out.’

  ‘Cyning,’ Oswald turned to Domnall again, ‘I have men who are expert climbers. They can scale the cliff easily. Indeed, when I lived here, I used to train warriors by getting them to do just that, but at another outcrop a mile away.’

  ‘Fine, so you can get to the top of the rock, but how do you get up the sheer face of the palisade?’ Fergus demanded to know. ‘There is only a ledge six inches wide between the top of the climb and the bottom of the timber wall.’

  ‘That’s just it. The top of the escarpment is rock with a covering of turf no more than six inches deep. When it was built, they dug into the rock in just three places and sunk the timbers in by no more than a foot. The rest of the timbers are lashed to those three uprights and consequently aren’t very strong. If we can loop ropes around the top of the timber poles in the centre of a run between the embedded uprights, there is a good chance we can pull it down with horses. My men can then climb up and enter the defences that way.’

  ‘How do you know all this? You weren’t here when the palisade was built, were you?’

  ‘No, but Fáelán’s father and uncles were. They helped to build it and they told me how it was constructed.’

  Evidently Brennus was suspicious of Oswald, for whatever reason, so the three men were sent for to attest to the truth of what Oswald had said. This annoyed Oswald more than a little and he decided that he would never trust the King of Lorne.

  It was too late to make an attem
pt on the north wall that night and the next day was spent in futile negotiations with the Bishop of Argyll and the Isles, who looked after the spiritual welfare of both Connad’s and Fergus’ people, as mediator.

  ‘Your three sub-kings propose that you resign the high kingship of Dal Riada and content yourself with the rule of Dùn Add and its territories. Domnall Brecc has been elected to replace you as High King, but he will rule from a new Dùn to be built in the north of Kintyre,’ the bishop told Connad somewhat pompously.

  ‘Never!’ Connad roared at the unfortunate cleric, who was by nature a rather timid man, if one full of his own self-importance. ‘Go back and tell Domnall Brecc and his traitorous fellow sub-kings that I will have the heads of all three of them and that treacherous swine, Oswald, before this is over. I have an army gathering near Loch Fyne and I have sent to both my friend Fiachnae mac Báetáin and my fellow king, Belin map Neithon, to come to my aid. Then we will see who is master of Dal Riada.’

  Connad was always thought of as clever and devious, but it wasn’t very bright of him to mention having sought help from Strathclyde, who had always been enemies of Dal Riada. When this was relayed to the inhabitants of Dùn Add and the warriors being held captive in the two halls, they were furious. Few now considered themselves bound to Connad and most warriors, except a dozen who still held fast to their oath to him, now swore loyalty to Domnall Brecc and his two fellow kings.

  Fiachnae had his own problems in Ulster, but in any case, he felt bitter about Connad’s failure to help him in his time of need, so he was hardly likely to side with him. Besides, he was a long way away. It now became imperative to dispose of Connad before Strathclyde could invade. If he was dead and Dal Riada was firmly under Domnall’s control, Belin’s excuse for an invasion would disappear and he was too canny to take on a united Dal Riada.

  That night Oswald and a dozen of his best climbers, including Rònan and three boys, scaled the steep escarpment. As Oswald suspected, there was no sign of a sentry on that side and the men lifted the boys up on the shields that they had carried on their backs. They attached a loop of rope to three of the upright timbers in the section between two of the posts that had been sunk into the ground, then cut the bindings at the top, middle and bottom of the posts where they joined the sunken uprights, after tying the section in place with thin twine. That done, they moved to one side whilst the horses were fastened to the other ends of the ropes.

  More men swarmed up the rock face to join the others on the narrow ledge either side of the section of palisade that was to be removed, until it couldn’t hold anymore. By then, there were forty men in place. When Oswald gave the signal by flashing his blade so that it caught the moon’s light, the horses pulled the section of palisade away and it crashed to the bottom of the escarpment. Oswald led the way into the fort with his forty men close at his heels, whilst the boys threw down ropes to help the less able climbers ascend the rock face.

  Oswald’s object was to reach and open the main gate. The other three sides of the palisade were packed with men and those with bows started to shoot down at Oswald and his running men.

  ‘Shields up!’ Oswald yelled just as the first volley was loosed. Only two of his men, slower than the rest to react to his command, were hit and they only suffered flesh wounds. They reached the gate and easily overcame the six men guarding it at ground level. Those on the parapet above hurled down rocks which smashed into the mass of warriors below. Luckily only three were crushed to death, but four others suffered broken arms or legs. However, by then Oswald had reached the gate and he and his men quickly removed the two locking bars.

  Once the gates were thrown open, Oswald and his men were knocked out of the way by the hundreds of men waiting outside. Another man died in the crush and several suffered fractured ribs, but they were in and now a short one-sided battle started between the six hundred attackers and the men of Connad’s personal bodyguard.

  Oswald battled his way to the doors of the king’s hall, suffering only a minor cut to his arm on the way. Inside, he found Connad cowering behind his throne. The four men beside him took one look at the scores of men flooding into the hall behind Oswald and threw down their arms.

  ‘Cowards!’ Connad screamed, waving his sword and cutting one unarmed man down from behind. ‘Protect your king!’

  The other three quickly picked up their discarded swords and hacked their erstwhile master to death, before once more throwing the bloodied blades to the ground.

  ‘So dies a dishonourable man, treacherous to the last,’ Domnall Brecc said quietly, clapping Oswald on the shoulder in congratulation.

  Chapter Ten – The Battle of Leithet Midind

  627 AD

  If Oswald thought that he could now enjoy some time with Gytha and have a well-earned rest, he was sadly mistaken. First came news that Edwin, the man who had replaced his father as King of Northumbria, had married a Christian princess, Ethelburga of Kent, who had brought Paulinus, a Roman Catholic bishop, with her. Far from pleasing the Christian Dal Riadans, they were dismayed as the Celtic and Roman churches vied for supremacy in Britain and Ireland. In the main, the Roman faith held sway in the southern half of England and the Celtic Church in the North, in Wales and in Ireland. Edwin had been baptised by Paulinus, who had now been made Bishop of Eoforwīc.

  The alliance with Kent depressed Oswald and his dream of one day reigning in Northumbria seemed as far away as ever. However, Kent and Wessex were rivals for the control of Sussex and the Jute Kingdom of Hampshire, so the alliance hadn’t pleased Wessex either and eventually the King of Wessex went to war with Edwin. Oswald didn’t pay much attention to two other developments, though in due course they were to have far-reaching consequences for his life: Penda had been elected King of Mercia and Cadwallon returned from exile to seize the throne of Gwynedd in Wales.

  As well as being High King, Connad had ruled one of the Dal Riada sub-kingdoms. However, after his death the three remaining Dal Riadan kings in Caledonia decided to divide up that kingdom between them. Now that there was no king at Dùn Add, Domnall would move there instead of creating a new capital. From there he could continue to rule both the Kintyre peninsula and the territory between it and Dùn Add, as well as Dal Riada, as High King.

  The sour faced Brennus gained the land between O-Ban and Dùn Add and the land between Loch Awe and Loch Fyne. In return, he promised Domnall his help when the latter invaded the Cowal Peninsula to the south of the sea loch. This would mean war with Strathclyde, but Domnall was intent on re-establishing Dal Riada’s traditional borders.

  Fergus would retain the Isles, but Domnall promised him help as well, this time to take the sparsely populated Isle of Skye and the smaller islands surrounding it. However, Domnall’s first priority was to re-establish Dal Riadan control over their original homeland in Ulster. The Dal Riadans belonged to a tribe called the Scotii, who had originated in the north of Ireland, though it was split into a numbers of clans. Fiachnae had had several small scale skirmishes with the Dál Fiatach branch, but matters were far from resolved. The situation wasn’t helped by Congal Claen’s continuing infatuation with the Dál Fiatach girl he’d abducted, or by the fact that she was now pregnant with his child.

  Domnall asked Oswald if he would lead a small force to show his support for Fiachnae and try to negotiate a sensible settlement to the dispute. Oswald was anxious to return to Arran and his family but he felt that he could hardly refuse Domnall’s request. The new High King had more or less promised him his support if he had a reasonable opportunity to regain the crown of Northumbria. Privately, Oswald thought that Domnall was promising a lot of support to a lot of people and, if he honoured them all, he’d be stretching Dal Riada’s meagre force of warriors extremely thin.

  In the end, Oswald set off for Larne with three birlinns and a hundred and fifty warriors. However, he sent Rònan back to Arran with those of his men who had been wounded during the fight for Dùn Add. The young man was loathe to leave Oswald, but he
had suffered several minor wounds and they needed time to heal.

  ‘Do we even know that Fiachnae still controls Larne?’ Alaric asked him as they sailed southwards down the western side of Kintyre with the wind on their beam.

  ‘No, but hopefully we’d have heard if the place had been taken.’

  They were interrupted by the sound of Osguid being violently sick again. At twenty, he was the next oldest of Oswald’s brothers. Once a monk on Iona, he had now been ordained as a priest and had been sent with the expedition to care for their spiritual welfare. At the moment it seemed that he was the one more in need of care. It hadn’t helped that he had spewed first over the windward side of the ship and it had blown back into his face, much to the amusement of the crew.

  Oswald beckoned to one of the ship’s boys and told him to take care of Father Osguid and try to keep him alive until they landed. The boy smirked and nodded.

  ‘It isn’t even as if the sea is rough,’ Alaric commented.

  ‘No, but there is something of a swell and the birlinn is rolling a bit. It can make you queasy if you’re not used to it.’

  ‘Queasy? I’d say your brother is a damn sight more than queasy!’

  Thankfully, the rolling motion eased as they sailed into the calmer waters in the lee of the Irish coast and Osguid started to feel a little better, even if his face was still pasty white and had a sheen of clammy sweat over it.

  Fiachnae made no secret of his delight in seeing Oswald and his men. They had lost three more settlements to the Dál Fiatach in the past month and the old warrior was itching to take to the field to drive them back into southern Ulster. To make matters worse, the Uí Néill had settled their own internal differences and were preparing to take advantage of the internecine warfare amongst the Ulaidh to take over all of Ulster.

  When they walked into the king’s hall, Oswald and Osguid were surprised to be greeted as ‘cousins’ by a young man of about twenty. At that moment, Eochaid came striding over and he and Oswald threw their arms around each other with some enthusiasm, overjoyed at their reunion.