by Griff Hosker
“If the road ahead is clear then your equites a mile back from us and your archers guarding our rear.”
Garth grinned. “Are we safe from this sheep shagging bum bandits from the north my lord?”
Raibeart just grinned back, “Believe me Garth our sheep are more attractive than you will ever be!”
I knew then that we would make it. Raibeart gave his orders and then dismounted to walk beside me. I told him what had happened and he nodded when I told him something which he knew. “The king moved heaven and earth to muster the army.” He dropped his voice, “We have no idea what the Bernicians are doing. They receive messages but they do not send them. I am sorry that the prince’s father in law was so tardy but he had problems with early raiding Hibernians. It is almost as though the Saxons had planned it.”
“They have. Myrddyn discovered that Aella has bribed the Irish. I fear Rheged will suffer the same attacks.”
“It is a good job then that the princes did not bring all their warriors and they have left defenders for their strongholds. The sooner we rid the world of Aella the better.”
“And what of the defences in the west? If we lose then they will need to hold out.”
Raibeart’s concerned expression spoke more than his words. “This is not like you brother. You were always the confident one. The one who knew we could win.”
“That was before I knew that the Irish would be raiding Rheged. Perhaps we should leave the Saxons to the king they threaten, Morcant Bulc.”
“You are tired and it is tiredness talking. You know as well as I that we have to rid the land of the Saxons or we will have no peace.”
I became silent as I mulled over his words. What peace would we have? Perhaps we could come to an arrangement with the Saxons and live side by side? As soon as the thought erupted in my mind it was extinguished; they wanted the whole land and, as Aella’s army showed, he had endless numbers of warriors to help him.
We trudged over the bridge at Dunelm and we could march no further. Had Raibeart and his men not come to our aid we might have lain down in the woods and slept but they jollied us along and demanded that we tell them of our deeds. A man, who sings or talks when marching, marches further than a silent one who feels every pain and every inch of his march.
Tuanthal and, I suspect, Myrddyn had transformed the small settlement overlooking the river. The bridge was now bristling with warriors and I could see log barriers ready to be erected when we all arrived. There were shelters already made and I could smell the food that the villagers were preparing. As Tuanthal told me, once they knew that the Saxons were coming they were willing to provide anything the army needed. There were only twenty men in the village but that was twenty more than we had when we arrived and were welcome for that. This was the only point an army could cross the river for some miles and there was nowhere closer to the coast than this. If this could be held then the Saxons would be forced west, towards King Urien.
Raibeart had left his wagons of arrows with Tuanthal. When my archers rejoined us then we would be in a much healthier position. Raibaert’s equites and Miach and his archers arrived an hour or so after we did. I could see a few empty saddles amongst the archers but the cost of delay had not been high. While Garth and Riderch saw to the men, Miach reported to my brother and me. “They are keen to get you my lord, we had to keep attacking them and they had slingers. We lost four men to them but we still had the horses. We only stopped when our quivers were empty.”
“I brought more you can refill them when you have eaten.” Raibeart and Miach, as fellow archers, had the same priorities.
“Where are they?”
“Less than a mile yonder. If I was to make a guess I would say that they will camp on that rise. That way they can see our defences below them.”
“You have done well. Get some food.” I led Raibeart up the hill a little where we could see down towards the bridge and the river. “We have almost the same number of men now as when we began. With your horsemen we are a hundred and ten down but your archers have increased our advantage there. We could destroy the bridge and deny him the crossing or we could contest it.”
“Destroying the bridge sounds a good idea to me. He would have no choice but to go west.”
“You forget his fleet. If there are no bridges between here and the sea then he could send a messenger and bring his fleet up. He could cross the river anywhere. I agree that the destruction of the bridge would enable the king and the reinforcements to arrive but we would then be stuck here. We could not pursue him easily. We destroyed many of his ships but he has more than enough to ferry them across this river.” I pointed to it. It was barely forty paces wide. It was flowing swiftly but that was because of the weir. Nearer to the sea and it would be like the Dunum and more sluggish. I grinned at Raibeart and clapped my arm around his shoulder. “It is good to talk to you brother. It clarifies my thoughts. We will defend the bridge and make him take it. If the king is but a week away then we only need to hold him for seven days and we will have him.”
My men had found an old church from Roman times. There was no roof but they had rigged up some tents as a temporary shelter. We gathered there. Prince Ywain was awake and had insisted upon his inclusion. He looked pale but determined. Apart from the leaders Myrddyn took his place beside me. He had earned that right and I knew that he had knowledge which we did not. After we had eaten our first hot meal in a while I went through the plans. “Prince Ywain’s wounds have meant I have not been able to confide my thoughts to him. If you disagree my prince, with anything I say then please speak.”
He gave me a wry look. “The day that my tactics and planning is better than yours is unlikely to be today Lord Lann. Continue and, may I say before the warriors here, that I am grateful to you for my life. I would not be here if it were not for your reckless bravery. I will reward you when the time is right.”
I gave an embarrassed nod and continued. “We must hold the bridge and entice the Saxons over. They can only bring ten men at a time for it is a narrow bridge and this plays into our hands. Ten of our men can defeat any ten Saxons. We will use the superiority in archers to thin them out. I am afraid that the horse will not be needed but, as we have lost a large number already, that is no bad thing. King Urien will need every horseman he can get if he is to defeat this horde.” There were satisfying nods of agreement.
“My lord?”
Every eye turned to Myrddyn. None doubted that he had the right to speak but I saw a sceptical look on Raibeart’s face. He knew the young healer less well than any. “Speak for you have earned the right.”
“Brother Osric told me of the Romans and how they fought. They knew that they could only fight for a short time and to freshen up the fighters they rotated fresh men to fight at the front.”
Riderch frowned. “How could they do that? As soon as you stopped to turn you would be killed.”
“I am not sure but I have thought of a way we could do it. If the new warriors had a line of spearmen behind them then the spearmen could thrust the spears between the heads of the warriors at the front and that would make the enemy recoil. At that point the warriors exchange places.”
Garth nodded his approval. Of all of the officers he knew Myrddyn best. “It would need a precise command.”
“How about, ‘Front rank prepare, third ranks stab, second rank rotate.’?”
The two warriors nodded and I said. That would work. Teach the men the command tomorrow. Thank you Myrddyn.”
“I would teach at least fifty tonight for you will be fighting tomorrow early I think.”
As we went to bed I wondered how accurate my healer was and the answer was, very!
Chapter 11
I was awoken before dawn by Garth; he was fully armed and armoured. “My lord, there is movement across the river. The sentries have reported warriors heading towards the bridge.”
“Call everyone to arms.”
He grinned, “Already done my lord!”
&
nbsp; I felt the stiffness in my leg as I struggled into my armour. Summer would mean some respite from my wound but the winter and spring dampness had made me acutely aware of my injury. As I strapped on Saxon Slayer I remembered that it had not been sharpened lately. I would have to remedy that. I put my shield over my back and carried my helmet. I needed to see clearly if I was to make the right decisions. As I walked down to the bridge I saw that Riderch and Garth had organised the first thirty warriors who would face any foe who came to the bridge. We would meet them at the far side although I suspected that I would have to give that up at some point as my warriors could be attacked from the flanks there and we had to minimise casualties. Our side, the northern bank, of the river was much easier to defend but we intended them to buy the bridge crossing at the cost of their warriors.
Raibeart was already there as was Myrddyn. My healer thrust a hunk of bread and a piece of cheese into my hand. I did not feel like eating but he glared at me. “Brother Oswald stressed that you must eat before battle and, as the Lady Aideen backed him up I would rather face your wrath than theirs. So eat.” He walked back to the area we had set aside for the injured.
“Bossy little bugger isn’t he?”
“Yes brother but he is as valuable to us as another twenty archers.”
“From what I gleaned last night he is.”
I could see that the warriors, with Riderch at their head and Ridwyn next to him, were at the far side of the bridge. The spearmen at the rear had hidden their spears and behind them were forty archers. We had more archers waiting on our side of the bridge but they would give a concentrated and withering rain of arrows to deter attacks. I was confident that we would hold them this day but as for the next, I was not so sure. The rest of the warriors waited patiently in three huge lines on the steeply sloping banks of the river. The terracing made them look to be a larger force than we actually were. The twenty men from the village formed a small fourth rank. The warriors who would replace those on the bridge had all been assigned a number so that they would reinforce the others in groups of tens. It was another Brother Osric idea stolen from the practical and ingenious Romans. All of the rest of our archers and slingers were on either side of the bridge.
As we waited a huge warrior from Strathclyde approached us. “My lord, I am Angus and I lead the warriors from Strathclyde.”
I nodded, “And we are pleased to fight alongside you again.”
“Aye, well we know yon laddies are very useful with swords and very organised.” He gave me a shrewd look. “I ken that ye think we are mad buggers and we are but we do have a weapon that you do not. This.”
He pulled out a huge metal ball held by a thick rope. “What in Belenus’ name is that? And how do you use it?”
“It’s like a war hammer but you whirl it around your head and you throw it.”
I picked it up, but only just, it was incredibly heavy. “What does it do?”
He grinned and I noticed that he had no front teeth; he would be a frightening warrior to fight. “It will smash through a shield and armour. Even a helmet and shield will not stop it.”
“What is to stop them throwing it back?”
“That is why we stopped using the hammer; our enemies could use that against us but this takes years of practise to perfect. We only have ten warriors who can use it really well. If the Saxons try to throw if back they will hurt their own men more than us.”
“Send your ten warriors to me and I will use them when it is right.”
“So that’ll be nine others and me then eh?”
He picked it up with one hand as though it was a turnip and wandered over to his men. “That might be useful; especially if they mass against us.”
Dawn broke behind the Saxons and we began to see them as they marched down the slope towards the river. Their shields were locked and they looked determined. Aella had many fresh warriors to throw against us and he would have chosen his assault troops carefully. They would have seen our camp fires and estimated our forces. It would have been obvious to Aella that it was not the full army which faced him and that would have given him some hope that he could destroy us and then rampage through Bernicia. We were relying on our training and our archers to withstand this first assault. This was the first battle I had watched rather than fought in and it was a strange experience. Men would be dying and I would just stand by.
“Look Lann, there are flames!”
I could see torches coming towards us; they were ahead of the wall of shields. There were too many just to light up their attack and I wondered what Aella’s plan was. It became clear when they hurled them at the log barricade erected across the bridge. They would burn it and force the warriors back. Miach would have to deal with that. I yelled, “Miach take out the men with the torches.”
The answer came quickly and I saw the torches drop but they were brave men and others took their paces to be dropped again but they came inexorably on. I was about to change the order when Miach read my mind. He rained arrow after arrow on a twenty pace section and there were no more warriors to throw the torches. Myrddyn sent the slingers forward with buckets and they hauled river water to douse the flames. Even after they were out they continued to wet the logs to prevent a second attempt.
The sun was fully up and I could see the wall of bodies which littered the road on the other side of the bridge. The men had been unarmoured and I suspect they were little more than boys but they had died for Aella and they had failed. What would his next strategy be?
Aella was forced to resort to brute force. He sent his warriors down in a ten wide, one hundred deep column of heavily armed and armoured men. The barrier would delay them and they would lose warriors but it could be demolished. Miach needed no orders from me and he and his archers began to release arrow after arrow, continuously so that the Saxons had to hide beneath their shields. Warriors fell but they were quickly replaced and, when they reached the barrier they began to demolish it. That was when they began to lose larger numbers of men. They had not trained sufficiently and there were gaps in the shields. Warriors died. They were not large numbers but they were whittled down as the men at the front tore down the logs with their axes and, in some cases, their bare hands. The first few logs were easy but then they came within the range of Riderch and his men. The warrior’s swords chopped off hands and arms as they appeared. Still they came on and still they died. Eventually the barrier was down and warrior faced warrior.
It was hard to see who was winning but when I saw a ripple at the front then I knew we had changed for the first time. I could see that, had we wanted to, we could have pushed them back but Riderch and his men were under strict orders to hold at the bridge. Beyond the edge of the bridge we could be outflanked. Eventually I heard a horn sound and the Saxons pulled back. Garth immediately sent down the next thirty warriors as the Saxons move back up the hill.
Riderch and Ridwyn came to me as soon as they had crossed the bridge. “Myrddyn’s idea worked well my lord. We lost but four warriors and they lost many more.”
“Good, get some rest for this is not over.”
This time the warriors who held the southern end of the bridge were led by men from Elmet. They all shouted Wolf Warrior and saluted me as they marched down to the bridge. They held me in high esteem for my efforts against Wach. They were good men. It was noon and I had ensured that all my men were fed. Raibeart had replaced Miach to give him and his men a rest. Pulling a bow as often as they did tired a man, no matter how fit he was.
The next attack did not come until late afternoon. Their warriors had remained close to the bridge. I would have replaced the logs but it risked the men replacing them being attacked. We still had the second barrier at the northern end of the bridge and that was more important; the narrow bridge would be a bottleneck for the attacking Saxons. Their next attack was cleverly thought out and took all of us by surprise, including the thirty warriors from Elmet who guarded the end of the bridge. They had cut down some mighty trees and
attached ropes. Their warriors pulled them down the hill and then, when they were but thirty paces from the bridge they released them. Raibeart had his wits about him. He ordered his archers to kill the men who were pulling the third and fourth logs so that the logs slewed to the side and did no damage. That did not matter for the first two struck the chargingwarriors in quick succession. It was carnage. There were just the dead and dying. The Saxons rushed down to take advantage of the disaster. I saw Raibeart look around and I said to the standard bearer.”Signal retreat.”
He did so and I was relieved to see Raibeart order his men back. He also ordered a handful of men to find those wounded Elmet warriors and drag them to safety. “Miach, cover Raibeart!”
The Saxons were rushing towards the bridge. Garth had the next thirty warriors ready at the barricade and Miach’s men and the slingers were doing all that they could to slow down the enemy but it was a disaster. Raibeart loosed arrow after arrow to protect his men and soon they were heading back across the bridge with eight injured and wounded men with them. Myrddyn would be busy that night. The archers struggled over the barricade, helped by the remaining Elmet men who had seen the cream of their fellows slaughtered by logs. It was not a warrior’s death.
I went down to the bridge. “I want them clearing from the end of the bridge. Do not use volleys Miach but use your best archers to kill any who stand there.”
“What if they rebuild the barricade?”
“Then let them. They will have to take it down if they wish to attack us.”
He grinned. “Excellent my lord.”
After they had lost twenty men Aella realised the futility of trying to get across the bridge piecemeal and his men retired. He would be back but we had bought King Urien another day. I felt like a cheat for all I had done was stand and give orders. It was others who had bled and died. I now began to understand King Urien. He too had pressures and problems which ordinary warriors could not begin to comprehend.
I left Garth in charge and headed for Myrddyn and Raibeart who were with the wounded. “That was well done brother.”
