by Simon Lister
*
The days passed and darkness settled on the land. Merdynn had left the group without speaking to anyone but Arthur was unconcerned by his absence. Merdynn came and went at his own bidding but Arthur knew he would be where he was needed. He divided the war band into three sections, alternating between watching the roadway, scouting the forests and resting back at the camp. Those watching the road were posted further up towards Eald in order to give the greatest possible warning of an approaching force sent to investigate the silence from Branque. They watched and waited with the snow persistently falling from the unseen clouds in the blackness above them. The company waited in a state of nervous boredom with nothing to do other than anticipate either the coming ambush or the race to Eald through the dark forest depending on how large the Adren force was. Scouts were sent out as pathfinders to discover the best route north and they were glad for something to occupy themselves with.
Mar’h and Aelfhelm discussed the best site for an ambush and how best to execute it. They honed the plan as they sat around the fire and dreamt about it as they slept until they could make it no more effective and no simpler. Few spoke to Arthur during this time. He had become preoccupied and inaccessible, walking the dark forests and rarely seeming to sleep. Gradually Ceinwen and the others gave up trying to engage him in conversation, he would answer their questions tersely and seemed to resent the intrusion upon whatever thoughts occupied him. He would only spend any length of time with Cei and even then it seemed to be mostly spent in silence. They thought it was the idle waiting that irritated him as it irritated most of the warriors.
A scouting party was dispatched to get as close to Eald as possible to try to determine the strength of the enemy there. The news they came back with was far from encouraging. They could not get close enough to the village without risking being detected but their best guess was that there must be over a thousand Adren camped in and around the village.
The warriors, with little else to do, digested this news and discussed how that might affect Arthur and Cei’s plans. It seemed unlikely that the Adren would send any more than two hundred to investigate Branque, leaving over eight hundred still at Eald. Even split, their forces were too numerous to attack.
Balor bore the waiting worse than any among either the Wessex or Anglians and his mood became more sullen as time wore uneventfully on. He was in favour of an all out attack and the others thanked the gods he was not the one in charge and did not hesitate to point out to him that was why he was not the warlord.
Mar’h’s arm was healing, thanks largely to Ceinwen’s solicitous care and Morgund was fashioning him a leather gauntlet which he could securely strap his shield to in order to prevent the same kind of slip that could easily have cost him his arm. The brief skirmish with the Adren Captain’s guard had revised their opinion of the fighting capabilities of the Adren, which they had previously and inaccurately based on their raid upon Branque. They were not as dangerous individually as Uathach raiders but they had a ferocity and a complete disregard for their own lives that made the warriors reconsider their fighting styles. If faced with two Adren, one seemed quite prepared to attack blindly if it gave the other an opportunity to press home an attack. They did not seem to care if they died and this was something new to the Britons.
Word finally came back to the camp that the Adren were moving down the roadway. They were still a day’s journey away and they came in numbers. There were three hundred of them in an ordered column with an advance guard riding a mile ahead of the main body. The moon should have lit the forests in a pale light but the heavy snow clouds still lay overhead and the land was dark.
The hollow sprang into life. Tents were taken down and all the surplus gear was packed onto the wains, which immediately began their journey north through the forests, paralleling the road. Groups melted into the darkness as they made their way to the ambush point.
Arthur led thirty through the forest towards the advancing Adren and positioned them five yards apart from one another on a bank overlooking the road. Cei took the same number and set up on the opposite bank. Once again they waited.
Although the long wait had been frustrating, they had put the time to good use. Their plan was to divide the Adren column into two halves with felled trees. At two separate points on the roadway and to either side, deep notches had been cut into the trees. Blocks of wood had been hammered into these notches as supports. When half the Adren column had passed the first point these blocks would be knocked out and axes would quickly deepen the cuts. Ropes had been attached to the trees to make sure that they toppled in the direction they had been cut. If the plan worked then there would be a line of felled trees across the roadway and on into the forest on both sides of the road. Arthur hoped that this would divide the Adren force into two and prevent the front half of the column from turning on the raiders.
At the same time trees would be sent crashing across the rear of the enemy line. The raiders would be flanked by the Britons on either side of the roadway and caught between the two obstructions. In the few minutes of confusion that would follow, they would send hundreds of arrows into the trapped portion of the Adren force then race for their horses that would be waiting for them well beyond the felled trees at the rear of the Adren column.
Arthur wanted the whole ambush to only last a minute or two and he hoped with so many arrows firing down into the confined width of the roadway that most of the second half of the column would be annihilated. The barrier of trees, the suddenness of the ambush, the darkness and the confusion should prevent the first half of the column coming to the aid of the trapped Adren in time.
Everyone knew what they had to do and they waited, checking the strings on their longbows, laying out the arrows for rapid firing or checking the blocks of wood and guy ropes on the pre-cut trees.
Osla peered into the darkness trying to see back up the roadway. He was a young warrior in the Anglian spear riders and this was his first battle. Much to his disgust he had been placed on duty guarding the camp when his friends had gone off to attack Branque. He had complained bitterly to Roswitha, one of the more experienced Anglian warriors, and she had patiently borne his ranting and told him his time would come; there would be more than enough Adren for her younger friend. She had been quickly proved right and now his time had come. He could not decide if he was more nervous or excited but whichever it was he could not stop his knee from trembling as he squatted in the snow. He glanced sideways to Leah. She was securing her shield across her back. She wanted some protection if she had to turn her back to the enemy. Osla had left his shield strapped to his horse and regretted the oversight now. Looking to his other side he saw Herewulf doing the same.
‘Why didn’t you tell me to bring my shield?’ Osla hissed at him.
Aelfhelm came out of the darkness behind him and told him to be quiet, he would know to take his shield next time.
‘If you get a next time, lad,’ Herewulf said softly once Aelfhelm had moved on.
Osla glared at Herewulf who grinned back. Leah was drawing her full longbow repeatedly, keeping her arms warm as the snow continued to swirl around them.
Aelfhelm came back down the line, ‘Remember, five arrows only. Pick your target, fire and move on to the next. Don’t be tempted to fire more or stay longer.’ As he said this last bit he rested a hand on Osla’s shoulder.
‘What’s Arthur’s aim? Sting them? Why don’t we charge who’s left once we’ve fired the arrows?’ Osla said across to Leah.
‘You do as Aelfhelm says. There’ll be one hundred and fifty Adren crashing through those barriers as soon as they fall. We won’t have long,’ she answered.
‘Arthur’s just trying to keep you alive, lad,’ Herewulf added from his other side.
Aelfhelm came striding back towards them, ‘Do I have to gag you fools? I said quiet. We’ll hear them before we see them but only if you shut up.’
They spoke no more. Each of them strained their eyes in the darkness
and tried to listen above the sound of their own hammering hearts.
*
Trevenna waited by the first barricade of trees with Cei who was hefting his war axe, readying for the swing that would knock out the supporting block of wood from the tree trunk. He looked across at Trevenna,
‘Just make sure you run the right side of the tree,’ he said quietly to her. She was to haul on the rope that was to make sure the tree fell the way it was cut and intended to fall. Running the wrong way would put her on the Adren side of the barricade. She smiled back to Cei and jokingly pointed the wrong way for confirmation. Cei shook his head vigorously before seeing her smile broaden. He went back to hefting his heavy war axe, his hands sweating despite the cold. They had tested what they were about to do a few days ago, deeper into the forest and it had worked well. It did not put his mind at rest though. If this barrier did not work they would be in a lot of trouble. He hoped it would not go wrong here or on the other side where some of Arthur’s band were to do the same.
Suddenly the waiting was over. They heard the muffled sound of marching feet and the soft creaking of armour. The head of the column was right below them. There had hardly been any warning at all. Cei tried to count them as they passed slightly below, wondering where the advance guard was and if they could have possibly missed them. He quelled his rising excitement and prepared himself to guess when the right moment was.
He stepped away from the tree and nodded towards Trevenna who took the slack up on the rope. With a mighty swing he sent the supporting block flying back into the forest and immediately swung the blade back into the deep groove to finish the task. The tree groaned under its own weight as Trevenna and two others hauled on the rope putting their whole strength and bodyweight into it. The tree splintered and cracked deafeningly and slowly began to topple over before crashing into the next pre-cut tree. The forest was suddenly alive with the cacophony of falling trees. Screams and curses erupted from the roadway as the column was divided into two.
*
Leah was cursing that they had not lit the forest road somehow. It was not easy to pick out individual targets but they could tell where the Adren ranks were and they loosed their arrows into them. Then they were up and running madly for the rear of the column.
When they reached the second barricade at the rear of the Adren column they paused and fired five more arrows each into the milling ranks below them and once more sprinted along the bank. Once clear of the barricade they jumped down the embankment and sprinted back up the roadway the Adren had just come down. From the opposite bank Arthur’s band were doing the same and they laughed wildly as the groups met and ran together towards their horses.
Ahead, Leah could hear Arthur shouting out different groups’ names to see they were there and then sending them galloping off up the roadway.
She reached the horses and heard Arthur roar out, ‘Aelfhelm!’
Aelfhelm looked around, counting his band off before replying, ‘We’re here, Arthur!’
Arthur flung his arm out to point up the road and Aelfhelm’s group galloped off.
When all the groups had left Arthur took one last look around, only Morveren and Cei were with him. He grinned at them and tore off after the others. He sent Morveren off to get ahead of the others and make sure no one missed the point where they were to turn off into the forest.
A few miles up the road Arthur and Cei came to the turning point. Morveren moved out of the shadows.
‘Everyone through?’ Arthur asked.
‘Yes.’
‘Anyone missing? Did we lose anyone?’ he asked and even through the billowing clouds of his horse’s breath he could see Morveren’s white teeth grinning in the darkness.
‘All safe, Arthur.’
Cei thumped him on the shoulder in celebration. He wheeled his horse around once more but there was still no sign of pursuit. They led their horses off the roadway and into the forest.
Ceinwen came out of the trees and started to erase the tracks leading into the forest. There was not a great deal she could do other than shovel snow over their tracks and hope the still falling snow would bury the evidence of their passing before anyone else reached here.
Ceinwen led them on to where the others were gathered some miles into the forest. Cheers erupted when Arthur and Cei emerged into the clearing, restrained in their volume but not their passion. No one had any clear idea how many Adren they had killed and they all realised that they could have killed more if they had stayed longer but they had attacked a force four or five times greater than their own and not suffered a single loss. The plan had worked and it had worked well enough.
Rope was passed down the line and secured to each saddle so that no one would go astray. They made their way in single file, walking their horses through the darkness of the forest. They were heading for a high hill to the South of Eald and they followed the scouts who had already travelled this way.
Their spirits were high despite the cold, wet snow that settled on their cloaks and steamed from their horses’ flanks. Their hushed talk was lively and full of hope despite being so far from home. None of them would remember it as such but this was the last time they journeyed together with such hope.
Chapter Eight
Their camp on the wooded hill was well chosen by the scouts, secluded and far enough away from Eald to be beyond any Adren patrols. During their ascent they had come across an opening in the forest that afforded them a view down into Eald. There was no unusual or hurried activity and they considered risking a charge right through the heart of the Adren camp before any news of the attack on the road to Branque reached the Adren. Arthur had eventually discounted the idea, not only was the risk of losses too high but it would only serve to show the enemy how small their force was.
Once they had made camp, Arthur went back down to the viewpoint with Cei, Aelfhelm and Mar’h. Ceinwen joined them at Arthur’s request as she was more familiar with Eald and the surrounding country than anyone else was. The snow had stopped, leaving a light covering on the cold forest floor and they made their way slowly and with caution down to the wide ledge. The clouds above them were breaking up and they drifted like heavy smoke across the waxing moon sending their shadows gliding over the pale winter landscape below.
Eald lay below them and about a mile or so distant. The forest had been cleared all around the village by previous generations for their crop fields and pastureland for their stock. Ceinwen had been at the village not that long ago but it was now almost unrecognisable to her. More of the forest had been cleared and from their elevation it looked as if the whole area was one large camp. Hundreds of small fires dotted the fields around the village, adding points of colour to a world cast in the grey shades of winter. Eald itself seemed dwarfed by the army camped around it.
Aelfhelm stirred from his position and said, ‘We were wrong. There’s more than a thousand camped down there.’
‘Say there’s ten to each fire. Four, five-hundred fires?’ Cei said.
‘That’s just not possible. How can they feed an army that size? That’s half the size of Caer Sulis at the Gathering.’ Ceinwen was incredulous at the scene below.
‘Well, we know where their army’s camped,’ Aelfhelm said.
Arthur shook his head slowly and said, ‘This is only part of their army.’
Cei rested his forehead on the snow-crusted ground. The other two stared at Arthur.
‘There’s more than this?’ Aelfhelm finally asked.
Arthur nodded in reply, still studying the valley below.
‘We’re only a few hundred strong, at best. How can we fight them all?’ Ceinwen asked.
‘We don’t,’ Arthur replied then fell silent.
Cei raised his head and turned to look at the other two, ‘We need to delay them until the tribes return from the West. We need to arm and train the peoples for war. We need time. If we can’t fight them all then we’ll fight them band by band and group by group, never staying long in one
place and never engaging in open battle. Ambush after ambush, just like earlier.’
‘We could fight them like that for a hundred years before we bring the numbers even,’ Aelfhelm pointed out.
‘If that is what it takes then that is what we will do,’ Arthur replied and they fell silent once more.
After some time they noticed sudden activity in the valley. News of the ambush on the road to Branque had reached the camp.
They were about to draw back into the forest when Cei pointed and said, ‘What’s that line to the North of the village?’
‘Where?’ Aelfhelm asked trying to follow the line of Cei’s outstretched hand.
‘Through the trees, about two miles beyond the village. Looks like a river cutting through the forest but it’s straight,’ he replied.
‘Looks like there’s fire burning down there too,’ Aelfhelm added.
‘It’s the roadway east. There must be hundreds travelling on it - and carrying torches,’ Ceinwen said quietly.
They lay on the ledge as the snow melted under them and watched as the light from distant torches advanced along the straight line that cut through the forests.
‘Then that must be the East Road that Merdynn and Lord Venning spoke of. It must be the roadway that eventually leads to the Shadow Land City. Their supplies and armies must all come down that road,’ Arthur said, thinking about the thousands of miles between where they were and the second Cithol city.
