“Tis na wise to trust these Ammericaans so,” Gospatrick said once the General departed to prepare his men.
“Bah,” Æthelflæd replied. “Twas with these men more’n a week past, yet ye see me here and safe.”
Gospatrick shrugged and looked to Ædwin but the man said nothing. As a swordsman, Ædwin was very adept at reading other men and these Americans intrigued him. That they were confident of their own power was very easy to see, but the fact that they did not act on that power was very telling. Few powerful men could resist the pull of their own strength and supremacy. In Ædwin’s experience, only a truly gifted swordsman could resist the urge to demonstrate his skill at every opportunity. It was a lesser man that constantly felt the need to prove his own greatness. The Americans had the feel of a gifted swordsman.
“I’ll nabe sittin’ here with me army away on the Lizard,” Æthelflæd stated simply. She was going and that was that. “If’n ye na want to come, stay and watch over the Queen as is yor duty.”
“Na! Sir Gospatrick will accompany ye, and will hear na more about it,” Ealhswith interrupted and cast a glare at the Captain of her Guard.
“Yah M’lady,” he answered immediately, knowing by the Queen’s manner that she would be brooking no more argument. Gospatrick would be going but not alone. Along with his deadly friend Ædwin, he would be taking ten of the Queen’s best knights. Sir Ceorl of Lady Æthelflæd’s own guard would also be along to help keep her safe.
Lemay was very dubious as well about the decision and let his commander know it.
“We may need her with the King. Alfred has an army of his own. It wouldn’t do to have him attack us out of ignorance…and she’s his daughter. He’ll trust her word before he’ll trust ours,” Peebles explained so Lemay kept his mouth shut and let his General handle the diplomacy. For his tastes they’d already stayed in the area too long. The communications tower, which was being erected on one of the castle’s highest points, was nearly complete. The array would greatly increase their ability to communicate; in fact, once it was operating all of lower England should be covered.
An hour later the tower was powered up and ready, and an entire parade of people, Americans and locals alike, marched to the very top of Maiden Castle. Lady Ealhswith readily agreed to let Peebles and his men confiscate a room in the tower to store and operate their radio equipment, though why they should wish for this location she could hardly say, twas nothing but a prison.
Even so, she had a cell emptied and hastily cleaned, but still the rank odor of unwashed human body permeated the air. The locals seemed not to notice, all except for the Lady Ellyn, who had lately taken to bathing every day, refusing to let any man of hers have sweeter smelling, cleaner skin. She held a perfumed handkerchief to her nose and watched the proceedings with just as much interest than the others. Sir Gospatrick was right by her side, bumping against her with calculated innocence, but she ignored him. Ædwin had also made the climb and kept one amused eye on his friend. Gospatrick could use a good spurning. The other eye was glued on the antics of these strange men. Bored with life, the Americans had lit a fire in his soul from the moment he first heard and saw the strange magical wagons in which they rode. But it was the sheer size of the men, and the way they carried themselves that truly aroused his curiosity. These were men, worthy enemies, worthy friends.
General Peebles ignored the absolutely awful smell of the room as he settled down onto a sturdy high-backed chair near the one small window.
“Major Thane,” Peebles said into the small black microphone. At first there was no answer so the General adjusted a few knobs on the panel sitting on the desk. Ædwin smiled and wondered if this was all a clever ruse. “Major Thane,” the General repeated, “do you read me?” There was a long pause...
“Rochester reads ye,” a voice said from the large box on the desk and all the locals gasped. Gospatrick even went so far as to take a single step back before he gained control of his emotions. The signal came through clearly, though Peebles did not readily recognize the speaker.
“Identify yourself?”
“Tis Leoforic,” the voice answered. “Dr. Rice be seeing to Sir Ordmere.”
“Leoforic!”Æthelflæd exclaimed in surprise. ‘Wot was he doing in Rovescester?’
Peebles raised his eyebrows but waved her over. “When I press this button you may talk...when I lift it, we listen.”
She nodded that she understood. The entire room was buzzing behind them, Sir Gospatrick believed it was some kind of trick, but Ædwin now knew in his heart that it was not. ‘These men could talk over all of Angland. Wot else could they do?’
“Leoforic?” The Countess asked as Peebles pushed the button. He was conscious of her closeness, her face so near his own.
“Yah Mum! Are ye at Winchester?”
“Yah lad! Wot ye be doing at Rovescester?”
“I’ve come to be with Dr. Rice. There’s na one much left up at the Ealdorman’s now, just Giffu.”
“Reading you General,” another voice interrupted, and Peebles recognized Thane’s voice immediately, as did the Lady Ellyn. She took in a deep breath of surprise and involuntarily moved forward. Sir Gospatrick watched her go…bitterly.
“Major Thane,” the General butted in, all but forgetting the Lady Æthelflæd and her son. “Is the ship online?”
“Yes Sir,” he said, obviously very happy. “Blish believes it’s been online the entire time. It was the diagnostics equipment that was faulty. We replaced one bad circuit board with another so they were giving the wrong results.”
“You stay put until you hear from us, understood?”
“Yes Sir.”
And then Ellyn was by his side. Peebles glanced up at her and nodded. “Major, we’ll be leaving within the hour to move down and support the King on the Lizard. Sit tight until you hear from us again...I have someone here wanting to speak with you...” he added and smiled when Ellyn nodded her head eagerly.
“Matthew...” she said tentatively, very conscious of the great number of people in the room. Peebles stood and Æthelflæd took his place. Moments later the Queen and the General ushered most everyone else out of the room. Only the Ealhswith and Peebles stayed behind with the two women.
“It truly works then?” Ealhswith asked Peebles softly, as Ellyn chatted happily with her love.
“Yes, we can stay in contact with all our people now through the GBF,” he answered simply and suddenly grew anxious. “We should be leaving as soon as possible.”
“GBF?”
“It’s complicated,” he replied with a smile, “but we have transmitters in our helmets that will allow us to hear what’s being said over the airwaves. We’ll outfit your daughter with one so that you can speak with her at any time except during battle.” He explained just as Æthelflæd walked up to him, all smiles. She was very happy to have been able to speak with her youngest child and admonished him to stay at Rovescester until the fighting was over.
“A helm of me own?” She asked with a grin, having caught the last bit of the conversation.
Peebles smiled, dazzled a bit by the beauty of the woman.
“Twold be grand,” Flæd agreed but then frowned slightly. “But I’ve na battle clothes; mayhap ye can find some like yors for me to wear?”
Peebles looked down at her and her long flowing dress. She was tall for a woman of the times, maybe standing five foot four, but even still she was at least four inches shorter than Chuen. She might be able to fit in a small shirt, but any pants would have to be rolled many times.
Peebles grinned. “I’ll see what we can do,” he told her though he was not even sure they brought any extra supplies with them. However, knowing supply officer Logan as he did, the man was sure to be prepared for anything. The man packed like a woman going on vacation…anything and everything.
§
On the Lizard the attack was going poorly. Alfred had lost scores of men, with many times that wounded, yet still the wooden walls of
the buhr resisted all of their efforts and kept them out. It was now nearly noon, and the cries of the dying were growing with the rising sun. But there was still no sign of Halfdan or an approaching Viking army when King Alfred called for yet another assault on the north wall of the fortress. Sir Aller of Dorset, one of Alfred’s most fierce and loyal knights spotted a weakness there during the last assault and nearly breached the buhr. Alfred was anxious to have another try at it; the Boneless was spotted walking the walls and taunting the attackers so nut was inside for sure.
Alfred watched from the top of a nearby hill as his men valiantly charged the walls. Some threw spears, some fired bolts from their crossbows. Others desperately tried to lasso the top of the palisade with long ropes that led to teams of horses, in the hopes of wrenching down a section of wall before the defenders managed to cut it away. Archers in the rear put a continuous stream of arrows into the buhr, while the crossbowmen worked in close, doing their best to protect the men attacking the walls from the enemies above. The day was growing very warm, and killing was always hard, hot work.
Sir Helmstan sat on his own charger atop the hill, carefully watching his Lord and King. Twice now Alfred had charged into battle only to be led back to the rear cursing both the Danes who would kill him, and the Anglish who struggled to protect him. But at the moment the King only watched with a mixture of anticipation, hope, and agony as the attack peaked, and then receded once more in failure. Another great cheer arose from inside the fortress, followed by taunts and an occasional arrow.
“Tis the time that worries me,” Alfred admitted to Helmstan, who only nodded. Both realized given enough time they would overwhelm this fortress, but how much they truly had, neither knew.
“We’ve still na word from our scouts,” Helmstan answered with some hope.
“Tis a trap for sure. The Danes will come, and by the grace of God we will have at least a bit of warning,” the King answered as Sir Wulfhere rode up fast.
“They’ve built a fine buhr,” the Earl admitted with equal amounts of disgust and admiration. “There must be many a man inside, for they’ve shown na sign of weakening. If we only had time to build some machines...” he added referring to the siege machines of the day, but then he stopped since it was useless thinking.
“I’ve had enough,” Alfred suddenly barked. “We attack from all sides. We must breach soon. The trap is comin’ and if’n the Boneless is the bait, it will be a mighty fyrd indeed,” Alfred said and both of his advisors glumly agreed.
“We could still break off,” Wulfhere suggested, knowing it was useless. Both Alfred and Helmstan stared at him coldly.
“Men have died here,” the King’s advisor shouted. “Should their deaths be for naught?”
“Should ours?” Wulfhere answered in the same tone.
“Na,” Alfred said. “We still have time. Let us crack this nut so they sing of the fields at Exeter for generations to come.” Then they all turned to face the buhr just as the sun moved behind a bank of thick, dark clouds. The three men looked up and spotted the storm, which had come up with amazing suddenness. Dark clouds now covered the entire western sky, and a cool breeze blew past their faces. They all smelled rain on the air.
“Tis going to be a bad one,” Sir Wulfhere judged mostly to himself, but his two companions nodded in any case.
“Tis a gift from God! If’n we can win this victory quickly, we can hide in the storm and escape Halfdan and his trap. Attack again…at once,” railed the King.
§
The Bots gave ample warning of the impending storm, and landed well before it struck to give the pilots time to tie down the wings and secure the light planes behind a pair of trucks. They’d stopped just west of the small village of Gosford, which was only about eight or so miles from the sea. The smell of salt water was strong until the winds changed to the northwest with the approaching storm.
“Well now we’ve lost our reconnaissance,” Colonel Lemay said simply. They were now nearly as blind as the locals, and at the moment King Alfred and his army was still lost somewhere on the Lizard.
“It’s not a particularly wide peninsula, fifty miles at most and only about thirty-five at our present location,” Sadao said staring at a display map on the hummer’s onboard computer.
“Yes, but it’s still almost a hundred and fifty miles to the point, and that’s a large area to search with the rain limiting our visibility,” Peebles answered. He was concerned. The land was quite hilly, severely limiting their line of sight in any one direction. They all looked up from screen as a strong, cool gust of wind rocked the vehicle. The wind was growing stronger by the moment.
“It’s going to be quite a storm,” Lemay predicted confidently as they watched the Lady Æthelflæd approach. She was no longer dressed in one of her fine gowns; instead she wore a pair of oversized camouflaged pants that Logan managed to scrounge up somewhere. The trousers were rolled at the cuffs and too big at her waist, as was the button-down shirt she wore underneath a large windbreaker sporting the logo of Arizona State University in big red letters. She still wore her dainty shoes since not even Logan could find boots to fit her. She did have her own helmet however, complete with silver TVD, though Peebles had turned off most of the systems so she would not be overloaded with information. She looked as women have always looked when dressed in men’s clothes, ridiculous, and impossibly attractive. She carried her helmet at her side and fought the fickle wind as she made her way up to them.
“Twill be hard Anglish weather to be sure,” she told them with a smile
“Yes, but it will really limit our ability to find your father,” the General answered, and though he was slightly worried he couldn’t help but cast a smile of his own. She was lovely and he was truly enjoying her company. He was very glad she’d come along. Both Sadao and Lemay noticed the change in their commander, though only the Colonel was annoyed by it, after all they had a war to fight.
“Methinks ye should wait here,” Æthelflæd said with no noticeable worry, as they sat along the road to Exeter. “Father wold’ve sent riders out if’n he were to fight the Danes, either to Lord Eadwulf at Shaftesbury, or to me at Winchester. Since we have encountered no one, and this is the only road to Shaftesbury, the rider is yet to be sent or coming as we wait.”
“We’ve got a horseman, coming fast,” Private Brooks announced as if on cue. The private and his group were perhaps two miles west of the main force. He was off the road by nearly a half a mile, hiding in a small grove of trees, but he was positioned on the tallest hill in the area and had a commanding view of the surrounding countryside. Of the three men, only Sadao was wearing his helmet and the report came in loud and clear to him, though it was low, and lost in the wind to the others. Instantly both Peebles and Lemay put on their own helmets and after a brief moment the Lady Æthelflæd followed suit. The Lady of Mercia was bothered slightly by the blank faceplate and was utterly surprised that she could see…and see well through the metal shield.
“Seems the Lady was correct,” Sadao said.
“Say again,” Peebles said.
“Horseman coming fast from the west.”
“What’s his position?” Peebles asked as the inside of his TVD shifted and showed him and Æthelflæd the view from Private Brooks’ position. The Lady gasped though the men around her took the changing view in stride. Æthelflæd felt a brief moment of vertigo but she quickly adjusted and felt a thrill as she spotted a rider, charging hard in the distance.
“Wondrous!” She whispered though everyone heard her plainly.
“About half a klick west, coming right on the road. He should reach Sergeant Moore’s position in thirty seconds.”
“Sergeant Moore.”
“Aye Sir.”
“Stop him,” the General ordered. “We need information. Take out the horse if you must.”
“Yes Sir,” Moore answered. He only waited a little over a minute before the rider topped a hill and charged into view. The rider was apparen
tly oblivious to his surroundings and was bearing down on Moore’s position, unaware of what waited for him. Moore had his men; Chuen, Trotsky and Martone spread out just off the road. As the rider approached, Chuen stood at the last possible moment and fired a burst from his flame-thrower across the nose of the horse. The beast stopped abruptly, nearly throwing the rider. The soldiers rose and quickly surrounded the horse and man, but they immediately took off their helmets, knowing now that it was better to greet the locals face to face.
“We are with Lady Athelflayed,” Moore announced to the confused man.
“Who ye be?” the rider asked not recognizing any of the strange men around him, and fearing a Danish trap.
“We are with Lady Athelflayed,” Moore repeated. “She’s come down from Winchester in Sir Eadwulf’s stead.”
“Æthelflæd?” the rider asked surprised, wondering at the man’s strange speech and garb. Strange though it was, it was clear he was no Norseman come a’vikin’. “God’s be blessed if she be here with her fyrd. The King be north of Exeter, attacking a buhr protecting the Boneless himself.”
“Come, I will take you to her,” Moore said as the first large drops of rain began to fall.
The rain was really coming down by the time the rider finished his report inside the back of one of the trucks where it was dry, if not exactly warm. At least now they had the exact location of the King. He was close; Exeter was only about fifteen miles away. The rider also informed them that Alfred suspected that the Boneless was bait to lure his army down on the Lizard. He expected to be trapped by Halfdan, Ivarr’s brother if they did not take the buhr soon.
“The peninsula widens near Exeter and the Exe River flows right along the edge of the town, the Danes may use it to escape…it’s their M.O.” Lemay said from the front seat of the lead hummer.
The Temporal Knights Page 52
