Viking Sword (12 page)

There was an edge to my voice.  Although I had taken off my helmet I had not yet washed off the red dye from my face.  That and the blood which had spattered on to me must have made me appear aggressive for the king took a step back. His face creased into a frown.  He was not accustomed to being spoken to like this. I would not back down.

Arturus' cheerful voice broke the tension.  He had been a little slow getting off his drekar and had not witnessed the disagreement. "We managed to take some of the weapons and helmets from the dead warriors who were in the wedge.  We did not have time to take their mail.  Look, father, a silver torc!"

King Egbert managed a smile at my son's enthusiasm. "You have succeeded then.  Good."

I pointed to the south west corner of the fort.  "We need to defend there.  I will leave our drekar here but I will not risk losing them." Without our ships we were helpless.

Eorl Edward stepped forward and put his arm around my shoulders. He led me into the fort.  "I will have my men build a barrier between the ditch and the river…"

I shook my head. "Have them dig a channel from the ditch to the river and it will fill with river water. That will suffice."

I saw the look exchanged between father and son.  They had obviously not thought of that. I was tired and I headed directly for the warrior hall. Arturus caught me up.  "I am sorry, father, what was all that about?"

"It was not your fault, son.  King Egbert did not think that we had lost enough men.  Now that he pays us he thinks he owns us.  I will put him straight on that but I shall wait until I am less tired. I do not want to say something that I will regret." I looked at the objects he had in his hands.  "What do you have there?  Treasure?"

He nodded, "These were on the warrior you slew.  There is a small golden torc.  See how it has the blue stones at the ends.  They are the same stones as are on the sword you found and the scabbard from the fort."

"
Wyrd
." It was the second such torc we had found.

"The sword he had was also decorated with gold wire.  These Danes are rich if they can decorate their weapons so."

We had reached the warrior hall and he offered them to me. I took the torc.  "You keep the sword.  It looks well made."

"But you killed the warrior." He was desperate for me to have it.  I needed no such treasure. Arturus and Kara, they were my treasure.

"I have Ragnar's Spirit and I have the sword we found.  That is enough treasure for me. I am content"

After I had taken off my armour I returned to the river.  Taking off my clothes I plunged in.  The current was not particularly fast and my drekar were close by. I let my head sink beneath the river water. I felt much cleaner when I emerged, free from blood. The water had wakened me somewhat.

Feeling refreshed I sought Aiden.  He had spent the night on the drekar as an extra bowman.  He now took me to one side and said, "You should watch your words with King Egbert, Jarl.  I have spoken at length with his son.  The King has a new wife and she is young.  He is keen to show her what a fine warrior he is and what a hero. You are too great a hero for him.  The folk of Lundenwic are speaking of you as the hero who saved them.  The king does not like it."

I was bemused, "And how does that affect me?"

"She is travelling with his army and your threat to his authority today would not be brooked in front of his young wife. She is young, jarl.  She is younger than Arturus.  Apparently he likes young girls. His old wife is now in a nunnery." He shrugged, "I cannot understand it either but poor Eorl Edward has suffered because of it. It is hard enough being the bastard son but when someone young enough to be your daughter is put above you then it is even worse."

"Thank you Aiden.  You have done well. Your eyes and ears are as sharp as any.  When King Coenwulf is defeated then there is not enough gold in the world to keep me here.  We will return home." I would have left already had I not given my word.  A man did not forswear himself.  The gods did not like it and a man had to face himself each morning.

That evening, after I had rested we were summoned to a counsel of war.  It was punctuated with food and ale but I kept my intake of the latter down to a minimum. Arturus was invited as were King Egbert's eorls. I could not help but compare them to my Ulfheonar.  Where my men were powerful warriors without an ounce of fat, Edward excepted, they were all overweight and too fond of their food and drink.

The way King Egbert spoke one would have thought that he had been the one responsible for the attack on the Mercian camp.

"We have weakened them now.  Perhaps we could take the army beyond these walls and defeat them in the field." He was asking for praise and for encouragement.  He deserved neither.  He had done nothing.

I saw Edward look to me. He appeared far less confident when his father was close by.  The overweight eorls all sounded their agreement. I introduced a pail of ice cold water. "You do not have an army. You have three warbands. If you met them in the field then you would be slaughtered."

"You and your band survived."

"We did not fight them we tricked them.  We led them into an ambush and we took them by surprise. If we leave Lundenburgh then they will know and they will be ready. From what we have seen they have twice the number of mailed warriors as you do. The Danes are a tough enemy.  We sent them packing only because we surprised them. We have no more surprises.  We have to hold them here until your army reaches us.  The question is, when will that be?"

The king looked at me as though I had spoken Greek to him.  "How do I know?  They could be here tomorrow."

I knew the answer to this question but I had to voice it.  "Is it just the army or do you have baggage and," I hesitated, "women?"

"Yes of course we have baggage and we have women.  The army protects them both."

"If the army do not reach here in time, your majesty then the baggage and the women will belong to Coenwulf and Guthrum."

When the eorls looked at each other I knew that the queen was not the only female passenger. "So your only solution is to wait behind these walls?" I think the king thought that such a mighty warrior would have a solution he had not thought of. He was wrong.

"We have food, water and shelter.  We control the river.  If anyone tried to get up or downstream then my drekar can stop them. We have plenty of oil and pig fat, we can burn them as we did before. This is a good, well made burgh.  Use it."

As soon as the words were out of my mouth I knew that I had not used the right tone and the king frowned.  I was not meant for politics.  After this was over I would not fight with allies.  I preferred making my own decisions.  Within seven days I would be a free man again. We would never serve another again.  The treasure was not worth it.

The enemy came in the middle of the next morning. This time they had prepared well and had faggots to lay in the ditches and a ram to break down the gate. They did, at least, come by the north gate which we had prepared better than the others.  It was the one entrance which allowed them to use the ram. Although we could only see two hundred warriors I knew that there would be others hiding in the woods.

King Egbert, on the other hand, seemed confident that this was all that Coenwulf and Guthrum had available to them. "We will slaughter them before they reach us!"

Argument with him was futile. I waved to Haaken to bring all of our archers to the north wall. Our enemies were lined up in a long shield wall which bristled with spears.  Once again it was not his best warriors whom we could see but, from the helmets in the second rank, I knew that they were close. The ram was visible but it was behind the front two ranks.  It would be well protected on its journey towards us. My men waited to release their arrows.  We had saved enough for this. King Egbert shouted to his men, "Release!"

Eorl Edward said, somewhat diffidently, "They are too far away. The arrows will be wasted."

"I command here, boy.  Do as I say! Release."

Every archer but ours released but they all fell well short of the advancing warriors.  Eorl Edward ventured, "There are markers to let the archers know when to release." His comment was greeted by a scowl.

I said nothing but I pulled back on my bow. My warriors would choose when to release.  With shields before them and helmets on their heads they were difficult targets. The closer they came the more chance we had of making a worthwhile hit. Snorri sent an arrow soaring. It did not strike any of the warriors in the first ranks but hit one of those pulling the ram in the shoulder. Other Ulfheonar sent arrows at the ram and more of those hauling fell. I saw King Coenwulf wave and shout.  Twenty more warriors rushed with shields to protect those pulling the ram on.

The front ranks came within range of the archers.  They loosed but all that they did was strike shields or ping off helmets. One warrior clutched at his arm and then threw the broken missile to the ground. The Danish slingers began hurling their stones and I saw two Wessex archers, in the process of pulling on their bows, fall from the ramparts.

"Target the slingers!"

Our Norse archers went to work with ruthless efficiency. Slingers had neither helmet nor mail and they stood no chance.  They all died but it allowed the shield wall to advance even closer. The archers of Wessex were now, at least, hitting their targets but barely one arrow in five did any sort of damage. I noticed my archers changing to the boar arrows. The shield wall was less than fifty paces from the ditch and my men were good. It was Bjorn the Scout who scored the first hit through mail. The shield was not held high enough and the arrow plunged through the mail and into his shoulder. He dropped the shield involuntarily and Tostig Wolf Hand sent one into his chest.  As soon as he fell there was a gap in the line and two more warriors were hit before the gap was plugged.  They were moving much slower now as they concentrated on holding their shields up.  The ditch was closer. They were barely five paces from the edge.  They halted.

Suddenly every shield was raised and each warrior in the front rank hurled his faggot. Even the archers of Wessex had a target and many of the warriors in the front rank were hit but only a few were fatally injured.  Half of the faggots hit the ditch.  They all covered the stakes.

The ones with the ram were Danes and I heard them counting. "They are going to run with the ram. Aim for the men on the ram!"

The front rows parted and the Danes pulled the ram whilst running as fast as they could.  The Mercians protecting the men, who were pulling, ran alongside.  They were hit first. I loosed an arrow and watched it strike a warrior in the middle of his body.  They were so close that it penetrated flesh.   He fell and I heard a scream as his head was crushed by the wheel at the back of the ram.  The ram was losing momentum but the brave Danes were still pulling it.  The last two were killed when it was just two paces short of the ditch. It flew over the ditch and struck the gate.  I felt the gate shake from my position above it.

King Egbert shouted, "Shore up the gate! Have the pig fat readied." He sounded unsteady as though he was panicking already.

What we could not do, with the ram in the position it was, would be to use fire.  We would end up burning down our own gate. I had had a quantity of stones brought up and as the warriors ran across the ram and the ditch my men hurled the large rocks. When they struck there were more devastating than an arrow. Even so some of the warriors made the walls and they made a cover of shields as they started to hack at the gate with their axes.  The boiling pig fat sent some Danes to their deaths as it burned beneath their armour. They were damaging the door but they were doing so at a cost.  They were paying with their warrior's lives.

They would break through.  "Ulfheonar! To me! Arturus keep up our attack." I ignored the men of Wessex.  Their king could issue the orders.  My men fought for me, no matter who was paying.

I led my men down to the courtyard.  There were spears stacked there ready to be thrown.  We each picked one up.  They would keep an enemy at bay. We would need that edge when the gate fell.  Already gaps were appearing in the wood of the gate. "Form a wedge on me."

Haaken and Cnut stood behind me. Sigtrygg would normally have been there but his leg meant that he was in the rear rank.  It would annoy him I knew. I slipped my seax into my left hand behind my shield. It was irritating to be kept in the dark.  We had no idea how we were doing.  We were just concentrating on the gate.  I hoped that the new gulley would protect us yet. When that burst open then we would have to race forward and meet the attackers before they had any order.

I watched as two of the villagers carried an amphora of boiling pig fat up to the gate tower.  They handed it to two warriors and then I heard a chorus of screams as the men at the gate were scalded by the boiling fat. The hammering of the axes slowed.  I wondered what incentive they had used to make the Danes keep coming on. The defenders were now hurling spears but the Danes were winning.  One of the planks in the gate was shattered and that gave impetus to their blows. A second one disappeared and I could see them now. One warrior had arrows sticking from his shoulder but he still swung his mighty axe.  From behind me one of Arturus' archers sent an arrow into his throat and he fell from the ram.  He was quickly replaced.

"Ready.  As soon as I give the command we move as one."