by Simon Lister
Merdynn confidently led them eastward and as the days and miles slipped behind them the forest gradually began to thin allowing the moon to light more and more of the ground before them and they started to come across the first signs of wildlife in the frozen forests. Once they startled a small herd of deer but after a moment of mutually transfixed surprise the deer had reacted the quicker and hastily bounded off into the deep forest. The eerie cries of a wolf pack began to follow them but never seemed to get any closer. When they stopped for meals they could hear the wolves baying in the depths of the forest, their baleful howling echoing through the trees and muffled by the snow, making it difficult to discern exactly which direction it was coming from. Merdynn seemed unconcerned by it but Cei’s warriors frequently made the sign to ward off evil remembering the tales they had heard of souls damned to wander the Shadow Lands, lost to this world and denied the next.
As the trees became fewer and further apart Merdynn called another stop. As the others set up a camp and began preparing a meal, Merdynn led Cei and Aelfhelm onwards across the iron-hard ground that rose before them and which lay exposed to the stripping wind.
He stopped at the crest of a ridge and the other two looked at the landscape before them. The land gently fell away before them for several miles and beyond that lay a scene unlike any they had seen before. It appeared to them to stretch from horizon to horizon, a desolate broken uneven land. In the bright winter moonlight they studied the snow-covered terrain. Even where the ground lay under a deep blanket of snow they could tell the landscape was no product of nature. The ruins of an ancient city lay before them for as far as their eyes could see. The sparse stunted trees and straggled undergrowth could not hide the collapsed stonework or mask the linear edges that were set in relief by the winter snow. Among the rubble-strewn remains shattered towers stood out like the fingers on an upturned hand of a corpse, no longer pointing with any purpose towards the hard stars above.
‘What is this place?’ Aelfhelm asked, looking at Merdynn with wonder and fear.
‘A city from another age. There were wondrous things in the world once, Aelfhelm, beyond wonder even. I never saw these things; never saw the glory of the world in that time. I travelled once more in Middangeard only after their downfall and as high as these people of old had risen, so did they fall. Only ruins are left of what they accomplished, desolate reminders of a time we cannot comprehend.’
‘Perhaps they got too close to the gods and were cast down,’ Cei said, still trying to take in the scope of what stretched before them.
‘Perhaps. Perhaps they were gods, of a kind,’ Merdynn replied softly.
‘What could cause the downfall of gods?’
‘Only themselves,’ Aelfhelm said staring at the ruins.
‘Or perhaps fate. Not even the gods can stop fate,’ Merdynn added quietly.
‘What happened to the people of this city? There must have been a countless number of them,’ Cei asked.
‘Dead. Dead a long, long time ago. Only a fraction survived that downfall. Some of their descendants still inhabit the ruins, a desperate shadow of those gone before, poisoned and deformed many thousands of years ago. Now they scrape what living they can from the country around here in the summer and retreat back to their stone tombs when the winter snows come.’
‘Ruins, graves and ghosts,’ Aelfhelm suppressed a shudder.
‘Our road lies through these ruins,’ Merdynn said, pointing with his staff to the distance beyond the ancient city.
‘Is there no other way? Can’t we take the East Road?’ Aelfhelm said, his brow deeply creased with anxiety as he surveyed the immense graveyard stretching out before them.
‘The great Aelfhelm scared? Three decades riding with the Anglians and a son who stands second-in-command of the spear riders and you baulk at ruins?’ Cei was smiling at him as he spoke.
‘It’s not right. Not right to ride with ghosts through their graves.’ Aelfhelm spat on the ground then kicked snow over his spittle to stop the evil spirits stealing it.
‘Quite right. But it’s not the ghosts that worry me,’ Merdynn said.
‘No?’ Asked Aelfhelm, still kicking snow over his spittle and now wishing he had not spat at all. Merdynn remained silent as he stared down into the ancient city.
‘Well? What does then?’ Cei asked no longer smiling.
‘It’s the shadows of those who still live,’ Merdynn finally replied and then turned to make his way back to the camp leaving Cei and Aelfhelm looking at each other.
‘Come on, don’t look so worried. I’ve seen you stand before Uathach raiders and grin, what are shadows to us?’ Cei said and clapped a hand on Aelfhelm’s shoulder before following after Merdynn.
Aelfhelm started after Cei then turned back and swept some more snow over where he had spat before trudging back to the camp muttering to himself.
Merdynn told them to collect some firewood while they could, as there wouldn’t be any to be found in the city, so Cei handed his large war axe to the diminutive Leofrun. She scowled at Cei then slung it over her shoulder and strolled off with Roswitha and Herewulf chuckling behind her.
They ate quickly then crossed the bare ridge before starting down the long gentle slope towards the ruins of the city that spread for miles before them. Merdynn led the way with Cei and Trevenna. Cerdic brought up the rear with Ethain and Leah.
As they passed the first of the levelled stone buildings, Leah loosened her spear and touched the wooden shaft for good fortune. Cerdic noticed the unconscious act.
‘There’s nothing to fear from ghosts,’ he said.
‘If old Aelfhelm’s concerned then so am I,’ she answered.
‘Aelfhelm’s not afraid of the dead,’ Cerdic stated flatly, ‘nor is our Wessex warrior,’ he added, mistaking Ethain’s silence and steady gaze for resolve and determination.
‘Perhaps Aelfhelm isn’t but I’ve never seen him look nervous before and perhaps those in Wessex are accustomed to walking among ghosts,’ she replied, glancing at Ethain for a moment.
Ethain came out of his trance and turned his tired, reddened eyes to Leah. She did indeed look nervous as her blue eyes darted from side to side of the broad path they followed, searching the shadows for movement. He took heart from someone else showing fear and began to fight the fatal resignation he had felt approaching the city.
‘People lose their courage as they get older, particularly the women,’ Cerdic said to Ethain.
Leah scoffed in derision, ‘You’ll lose more than your courage if you say that again, boy.’
Ethain looked at them both finding it hard to imagine that Cerdic was ten years younger than Leah was. He acted with so much confidence and seemed so self-assured that he had forgotten they were about the same age. He felt himself to be no more than a frightened boy in comparison. His nervousness and uncertainty transmitted itself to his horse, which skittered sideways, bumping into Leah’s horse before he could bring it under control. Leah scowled at him and he held up a hand to apologise, feeling foolish and out of place.
They began to pass by more and more of the collapsed buildings until ruined stonework continually lined their path and rose high to either side of them. The column paced on through the snow-covered avenue, veering to one side or the other to go around the frequent large mounds of collapsed stonework. The debris sprouted wiry shrubs and shallow-rooted trees, winter-bare except for the precarious lines of snow balancing on the emaciated branches that reached towards the black sky. Ethain looked on their twisted trunks and saw the spirits of tormented souls and their thin branches seemed to him like the begging arms of starved children. He shuddered nervously and tried to mask it by scratching at the beginnings of the sparse beard on his chin.
The moon still shone brightly casting irregular shadows across the track they were following and causing the snow and ice to glisten and shimmer like the stars in the skies above them. Ethain was subsiding back into his lonely trance when Cerdic swung his horse around
quickly and drew his sword. Leah reacted to his sudden movement and did likewise. Ethain watched them almost disinterestedly, barely feeling as if he were involved in any way with anything that might happen here. They stared back down the track they had come along then searched the broken land to either side before Cerdic shook his head and sheathed his sword.
‘There’s something evil about this land,’ he said quietly as if in explanation for his actions.
Leah looked at him but did not chide him for his nervousness. She felt it too. Ethain watched her as she chewed her lower lip. He studied her face briefly, the pale blue eyes set wide of her long straight nose, the paleness of her full lips and the leather collar that encircled her throat with the glinting silverwork embedded in it. He had found her attractive the first time he had seen her, sitting on the ground with her long legs stretched out before her and laughing with her head thrown back. Unfortunately for him Morgund had felt the same way.
He quickly turned away and set his horse plodding after the others. He felt a stab of bitterness at his idle attraction to her. She was older than him, more confident, braver, taller and probably stronger, indeed, altogether more of a warrior than he would ever be. He felt attracted to the qualities and strengths he saw in her and which he knew to be absent within himself. He felt there was less chance of her liking him than there was that he would make it back to Wessex alive, and he put those chances at nothing. In a strange way it was only the resignation that kept him going. He had already accepted his certain death. It was only a question of when and where. The sooner it happened, the sooner he could stop fearing it.
Despite Cerdic’s newfound kinship with Ethain, based largely on the mistaken assumption that he shared his own bravery, they only truly had one thing in common and that was their feelings towards Leah. Cerdic was not fearless, he had felt fear standing before Arthur when he had questioned the staking of the Adren heads and he certainly did not feel comfortable now, but he had courage. He had been with the Anglian Spear Riders for three years now and his dreams of heroic deeds had not diminished. In fact they had redoubled and he looked upon this venture to the East as an excellent opportunity to reinforce his growing stature within the Anglian war band. He felt that if he could perform some great unspecified deed on this quest then he would be nearer to realising his ambition of becoming the warlord before he was thirty. Perhaps even the foremost Warlord of Britain, Arthur would be fifty by then and he could not live forever. He respected Cei as his leader and looked upon him almost as a father but like many sons he felt the time was coming when he should take over his father’s position as head of the family. Cerdic had plans for the future.
The head of the column entered an open space surrounded on all sides by the piles of ruinous dwellings that had risen in height the further they had travelled into the city. Merdynn called a halt by raising his staff in one hand.
‘Is there something wrong?’ Trevenna asked.
Merdynn, standing up in the stirrups of his pony, faced each side of the square in turn.
‘We aren’t alone here,’ he finally answered.
‘Danger?’ Cei asked quickly, signalling his riders to draw together.
‘There! In the tower!’ Herewulf said pointing to the crumbled remains of a building that stood taller than its surroundings.
They followed his gaze and saw movement in an opening near the top of the tall and dangerously leaning tower. A solitary and slowly rhythmic clanging began on the opposite side of the square. The warriors turned their horses toward the source of the sound and someone in the tower took up the dull beating of iron on iron. They looked back to the tower and gradually, one by one, the clashing tattoo was taken up by others on all sides of the square until the dull clanging filled the air around them like a malevolent heartbeat.
The Anglians had drawn together in the centre of the open space and were fighting to control their horses in the din being created around them.
‘There must be a hundred or more of them!’ Cei shouted above the noise to Merdynn as he turned his horse first one way then another to watch the shadows emerging from the ruins.
‘I don’t understand! The creatures who inhabit this tomb never join together in numbers!’ Merdynn shouted back.
‘What do they want?’ Trevenna cried as her horse reared up under her.
‘Horsemeat! They must want our horses!’
The Anglians drew their weapons as the hunched and raggedly clothed figures leapt from the ruins and began encircling them. Still beating their crude iron bars together they began to close in round Cei’s riders.
‘Get us out of here, Cei, it’s not just the horses they want!’ Herewulf shouted above the deafening clash of noise.
Cei looked around urgently. He saw what might be the beginnings of an avenue between the heaped stones in one corner of the square.
‘Follow me!’ he cried and spurred his horse towards the shambling figures that blocked their way.
The others pulled their horses around and in a cloud of trammelled, powdery snow they sped after him. A desperate wail went up from the square as Cei rode through the advancing throng with the others close behind him. They raced blindly along the linear depressions between the mounds, unconcerned with where they were heading only intent on leaving behind them the nightmarish scene of the misshapen shadows that the ruins of the city had birthed.
Eventually Cei pulled his horse up and the riders came to a halt around him. He passed back among them, checking through the clouds of steam and pluming breaths of the horses to make sure everyone had gotten away. He realised Merdynn was missing and cursed himself for not remembering that he rode only a pony.
‘Did you see Merdynn?’ he asked Leah.
She shook her head, out of breath. Cei cursed.
‘Wait here,’ he said and then, lashing his already lathered horse, sped back the way they had come. Cerdic turned to Ethain,
‘Come on!’ he cried and dug his heels into his horse’s flanks.
‘But Cei said to...’ Cerdic was already out of earshot and Ethain turned helplessly to Leah.
‘We’ll wait here for you,’ she said, indicating it was all right for Ethain to go on after Cerdic.
Ethain swore and seeing no other alternative, followed Cerdic. Cei was already some way ahead of them and he was still cursing himself for leaving Merdynn behind when he heard a crashing cascade of rock ahead and saw one of the precarious towers collapse in a billowing cloud of snow. He reined his horse in and leapt to the ground then scrambled up the broken masonry in front of him. He peered over the edge at the scene below.
Merdynn was standing in the pathway with his staff raised. The tower had toppled onto the rear of the assailants who had pursued him. In the clouds of settling dust and snow he faced the crouching figures that had survived the carnage of the tower. They were slowly advancing upon him. Cei was about to race down to his side when Merdynn drew himself up to his full height and the countless years that had weighed him down seemed to slip away. His voice rang out clear and strong and a deep rumbling echoed from the heaped mounds of rubble to either side of the avenue. Stones and blocks of masonry slid and tumbled down the steep slopes. The advancing figures wavered as they warily watched the unsettled slopes to their right and left. Merdynn took a step forwards and raised his staff once again. They fled before him.
Cei ran back down to his horse as Cerdic and Ethain arrived.
‘Is he safe?’ Cerdic asked.
Cei nodded to a bend in the pathway as Merdynn came into sight on his pony, sedately plodding towards them.
‘Weren’t you just a touch too hasty in getting away, perhaps?’ he asked when he arrived.
‘Are they following?’ Ethain asked.
‘I shouldn’t think so.’
‘What was that? The tower? How did...’ Cei gestured to Merdynn’s staff as he spoke.
‘Oh, saw that did you? Well, just lucky I suppose. The tower could have fallen at any time – must have been all the comm
otion caused by your speedy retreat.’
‘You can do that?’ Cerdic asked.
‘Do what?’ Merdynn asked and stared at him for a second then nudged his pony onward. When they met up with the others Cei turned to Merdynn for directions.
‘Don’t look at me like that. I’ve no idea where your headlong flight has taken us.’
‘You have no idea at all?’ Cei asked.
‘Well, we’re deeper into the city and we need to be heading south but I don’t know the paths from here.’
Cei looked up at the winter stars in the moonlit sky. He picked a broad way that headed south between the tall broken buildings. They resumed their journey with more urgency, wanting to distance themselves from the starved inhabitants of the ancient city.
Despite their sense of urgency, their progress was slowed by the snow that had drifted deeply between the endless lines of ruins in this part of the city. At times they had to resort to digging through the snow, using their shields as shovels. It was tiring work and when they came to a ravine that ran straight across their path they stopped, leaning heavily on their shields and trying to take only shallow breaths in the frozen air.
‘It looks like it might be deep,’ Cuthwin said as he tried to brush off the snow that stuck to his winter cloak.
‘Probably a collapsed tunnel. There are many that run under the ruins,’ Merdynn replied.
Cei looked about them for a place to rest for a few hours.
‘Do you think they will be following us?’ he asked Merdynn.
‘I’d be surprised, but then I was surprised by them banding together like that. As far I know they’ve always avoided intruders, hiding in their underground lairs until the city is theirs once more.’
