Читать книгу Arthur, King - William Speir - Страница 26

“King Ambrosius, the Saxons are attacking Londinium!”

“Are you certain?” Ambrosius demanded.

“Yes, my King.” Lucius held out the dispatch.

Ambrosius snatched the dispatch from Lucius and read it. A large force under Horsa was attacking the walled city to the northwest of the Saxon frontier.

“I’ll get the army ready to march,” Lucius stated.

“Wait.” Ambrosius commanded. “How many soldiers does General Marcus have at Londinium?”

“Five thousand,” Lucius replied.

Ambrosius strode to the great wooden table in the center of his war council chamber. He found the map of the Saxon territory and searched for Londinium and his fortress of Venta Belgarum.

“Northwest?” Ambrosius asked. Why are they attacking northwest? Why aren’t they attacking to the west to secure more shoreline for their boats?”

“Perhaps they’re trying to reach farmlands to get food,” Lucius suggested.

“And perhaps this isn’t their main force,” Ambrosius countered, holding up the dispatch.

“My King?” Lucius sounded confused.

“We’ve known that Hengist is planning something ever since Colgrin attacked Gododdin. Now he sends Horsa to attack Londinium with only a couple of thousand warriors? Where is Hengist? Where are the rest of the Saxon forces?”

“So we’re not moving the army to Londinium?”

Ambrosius shook his head. “Marcus has more than enough men to defeat Horsa.”

Pointing to the map, he added. “We’re moving the army here.”

Lucius looked at the map and saw where Ambrosius pointed. “The western edge of the Saxon frontier?”

“Yes. If I were Hengist, that’s where I’d send my main force. The more shoreline he has, the more Saxons he can land and the more warriors he can add to his ranks. We must deny him any more shoreline along our southern coast.”

“Yes, my King. When do we leave?”

“At once,” Ambrosius replied. “Alert your captains, Lucius. We leave within the hour!”

King Mor of Ebrauc stood on the ridge overlooking the part of his kingdom that was now the Anglian territory. His son, Prince Arthwys, and the captains from Ebrauc, Rheged, and Bryneich stood with him. They watched a dust cloud growing in the distance.

“They’re on the move,” Mor commented.

“Just as Ambrosius feared,” Arthwys said. “Does this mean that the Anglians are invading, or is this a diversion for the Saxons in the south?”

“I don’t know,” Mor replied. “But whatever this is, we can’t let them cross the frontier. We must hold the border against them.

He turned to the captains “Deploy your men,” he ordered. “Colgrin must be held back.”

Ambrosius rode at the head of the column of soldiers – in between Lucius and the High King’s standard-bearer. The gold dragon standard fluttered in the warm breeze.

Even though the autumn chill had already reached the northern kingdoms, it was still the last days of summer in the south. It was a cloudless day, but it wasn’t too hot. The army made good time as it marched east toward the edge of the Saxon frontier.

Two days later, Ambrosius saw smoke in the distance. He ordered scouts to ride forward and report back on what they found.

When Lucius saw the scouts returning, he rode forward to meet them. Ambrosius followed.

“You were right, my King,” Lucius said when Ambrosius arrived. “Hengist has pushed west. He’s stretched the frontier of his territory nearly twenty miles, and he’s entrenching.”

“Can we dislodge them?” Ambrosius asked.

“Possibly, but we have to hurry before they finish building the earthworks.”

“If we march all day, can we attack before nightfall?”

“Doubtful, my King,” Lucius answered.

Ambrosius stared at the smoke in silence. If Hengist believes that his plan worked, then he’ll think that I’ve sent men north to deal with Colgrin. He’ll also think that I sent men to reinforce Marcus at Londinium. I hope he doesn’t realize that my main army is marching straight for him and will be there in the morning. If I can catch him off guard, I can push him back. Otherwise, he’ll have expanded his frontier, and I’ll have failed to keep him penned inside the Saxon territory.

Ambrosius shook his head. “Then we’ll attack before dawn and see if we can catch them still asleep.”

Ambrosius and Lucius rejoined the army and continued leading the soldiers east.

Colgrin’s Anglians reached the edge of the frontier that bordered Ebrauc by mid-afternoon. The soldiers from Ebrauc, Rheged, and Bryneich hid, waiting for Colgrin’s forces to move closer.

Colgrin’s men were deployed in five wide columns. When they reached the border, they didn’t stop. They marched confidently into Ebrauc.

When the front half of each column was across the stream that marked the border, archers from Ebrauc, Rheged, and Bryneich began raining waves of arrows on the Anglians. Most of the Anglians marched with their wooden shields slung on their backs, because there had been no sign of their enemies. Hundreds fell dead with the first wave of arrows. Hundreds more fell before the rest of the Anglians reacted and grabbed their shields for protection.

Colgrin marched behind the vanguard of the center column. He saw his men fall dead in front of him, and he quickly grabbed his shield. He looked up in time to see the next wave of arrows approaching, but something was strange about them. Fire!

His men ducked down behind their shields, but the arrows were tipped with oil-soaked rags. The oil splashed across the shields, spreading the fire. His men tossed the shields aside to keep from getting burned, exposing them to the next wave of arrows.

Colgrin couldn’t see the enemy archers anywhere. He ordered his men to charge, hoping to close the distance to the archers before too many more of his men were killed. As the Anglians surged forward, their formations broke as the men had to step around or jump over the dead and wounded.

Moments later, the soldiers from Ebrauc, Rheged, and Bryneich appeared. Colgrin was surrounded. Waves of arrows continued flying toward the rear of his columns, leaving him nowhere to go but into the lines of the waiting soldiers. He clutched his axe and led his men into battle.

Ambrosius’ army stopped for the night. They were less than five miles from Hengist’s westernmost forces. Guards were posted, and the men spread out to rest. There would be no fires lit – nothing that could alert the Saxons. The soldiers were accustomed to cold camps, and they understood the stakes. The Saxons must be pushed back, and surprise was the army’s best weapon.

Colgrin and his men fought furiously, but they were outnumbered and outmaneuvered from the moment they crossed the border. As darkness fell over the battlefield, he knew that further fighting was hopeless. He broke off the attack, and the surviving warriors escaped back across the border under the cover of darkness.

Search parties worked all night to find any wounded soldiers from Ebrauc, Rheged, and Bryneich who could be saved. Search parties also worked to drag the dead and wounded Anglians into piles to be burned. Mor didn’t bother to order the search parties to kill the wounded Anglians first. He wanted them burned alive.

As the Anglian funeral pyres lit up the night, Arthwys approached his father. “Our losses were light, Father. This was a great victory! But Colgrin was not among the dead or wounded. He escaped with the rest of his men.”

Mor nodded, watching the fires burn. “It’s only a matter of time, my Son. I’ll see him die, and then I’ll reclaim the lands that he took from me.”

Two hours before dawn, Ambrosius’ men crept forward toward the Saxon entrenchments. The hastily erected earthworks weren’t completed and offered little protection against the army.

His men were deployed along a wide front to attack the Saxons in several places at the same time. Ambrosius and his cavalry waited on the far right of the army. They’d hit the Saxon west flank and push the enemy back as the rest of the army attacked. Ambrosius hoped that the Saxons would flee in fear and abandon their newly-captured lands.

As the soldiers approached the Saxon line, archers took out the Saxon sentries standing outside the earthworks. Then the archers fired flaming arrows wrapped with oil-soaked rags at the Saxon camps while the soldiers advanced. The soldiers were over the earthworks before the Saxons awoke to find their camps burning.

When Ambrosius saw the fires spreading through the Saxon camps, he ordered his cavalry to charge.

The Saxons were caught off-guard. Hundreds were killed before they could reach for their axes and fight back. In the confusion, some of the Saxons retreated east, which kept the other Saxons from mounting any kind of defense against Ambrosius’ army. By sunrise, the western end of the Saxon line had broken, and Hengist’s warriors fled east as fast as they could.

Ambrosius and his army attacked the retreating Saxons, chasing them toward the original frontier.

Ambrosius and his army pushed the Saxons back almost ten miles. But by mid-morning, the army reached Hengist and the main body of his warriors. These Saxons were well-entrenched behind completed earthworks. Ambrosius’ archers fired into the Saxons, but the enemy didn’t retreat. Their new fortifications provided an effective defense.

Ambrosius ordered his army to regroup and form ranks. “If they won’t leave on their own, then we’ll push them back.”

The army moved forward toward the earthworks. Hengist’s Saxon warriors held their position, and then they jumped over the earthworks and charged the army. Their blond hair shone like harvest grains in the sunlight.

When the two forces met, the clash of metal on metal was heard for miles. Carrion birds swarmed over the battlefield, waiting for their chance to feed on the fallen.

The battle raged for hours. Ambrosius’ line held, but the Saxons wouldn’t retreat. By late afternoon, Ambrosius’ cavalry turned Hengist’s west flank, and the Saxon line began to waver. Hengist ordered his warriors back behind the earthworks.

Ambrosius’ archers fired wave after wave into the retreating Saxons, but Hengist still had enough warriors to repel any attack on the new fortifications.

As daylight faded, Ambrosius ordered his men to reinforce their lines while search parties looked for any wounded soldiers that could be saved. A few of the wounded Saxons were taken prisoner and interrogated. The rest were killed, but no funeral pyres were to be lit.

“Can we dislodge them from those earthworks?” Ambrosius asked his captains and General Lucius late that night.”

“No, my King,” Lucius replied. “They have a strong defensive position. We’d need the army at Londinium to push Hengist back.”

“Which is why Horsa attacked Londinium,” Ambrosius said angrily. “To keep the armies separated. Do we know how Marcus faired against Horsa?”

“He defeated the Saxons attacking the city. Horsa got away, but most of his warriors were killed.”

“What if we can’t push Hengist back to his original borders?” Ambrosius asked. “We pushed him back ten miles, but he still has ten more miles of coastline than he did before. Do we surrender that land to him?”

“It’ll take several days for Marcus’ army to reach here, my King,” Lucius said. “And we have no idea how many fresh warriors Hengist has behind those earthworks.”

“So we quit the field and leave him with an expanded territory?” Ambrosius demanded.

“I don’t see that we have a choice, my King,” Lucius said. “We inflicted heavy losses on Hengist, but he has fresh warriors arriving daily. Our losses were high, and reinforcements are days away at best. If we wait for reinforcements, it only benefits the enemy. It gives them time to bring up their reinforcements and strengthen their defenses. We pushed them back, and we protected our two largest fortified cities along the frontier. That’s the only victory we can achieve here.”

Ambrosius shook his head in frustration. He was not in the habit of allowing the Saxons to expand their territory, but Lucius was right. The Saxon strategy had been well-executed. Ambrosius, for all of his brilliance as a military commander, had been outmaneuvered.

The next morning, Ambrosius’ army and Hengist’s warriors stared at each other across the field of battle, but neither side attacked.

“Is it just the light, or do they have something on their faces?” Lucius asked, pointing to the Saxon warriors.

“It’s blood,” Ambrosius replied. “They sacrificed last night to ask their gods for victory and glory. Blooding themselves is their way of absorbing the pleasure that their gods feel from the sacrifice.”

“Barbarians!” Lucius spat.

“True,” Ambrosius agreed. “But their faith is part of what makes them such ferocious warriors. Never underestimate faith, even when it’s faith in false gods.”

For two days, Ambrosius’ army and the Saxon warriors faced each other across the fields littered with the dead. Carrion birds had begun picking the bodies clean, and the stench of rotting flesh was almost unbearable.

Seeing no other options, Ambrosius sent an envoy to Hengist with terms to end the fighting. Ambrosius agreed to allow Hengist to retain the additional lands that he was currently defending. Britain would recognize that the Saxon territory was now ten miles longer, and the Saxons would agree not to attempt any further expansions. Hengist agreed to the terms.

As Ambrosius’ army withdrew back to Venta Belgarum, they smelled the Saxon funeral pyres sending their fallen warriors to their gods.

“My King, will Hengist honor the agreement?” Lucius asked.

Ambrosius snorted. “Of course not! This was just a way to buy us time. We must raise more troops and build more forts along the frontier. If we’re going to keep him inside his territory, then we must have a better way of knowing what his warriors are doing and when they’re on the move. We cannot lose any more land to them.”

“How do we raise more troops?”

“A levy,” Ambrosius replied. “The Council of Kings must agree to give me a portion of their soldiers to guard the frontier.”

“They won’t like that,” Lucius commented.

“Would they prefer to have the Saxons overrun the southern kingdoms? Because that’s what we’re facing. It takes too long for the kings to send reinforcements. Britain must have a standing army to defend the frontier or the kingdoms will fall one at a time.”

They rode in silence, grateful to leave the reek of rotting and burning flesh behind them.

Arthur, Bedwyr, and Cai returned with the men two weeks after they left for the annual autumn hunt. Smokehouses had already been erected around the hillfort to begin curing the meat brought back by the other two hunting parties.

Arthur rode next to the wagon carrying his bear. It was the largest animal killed during the hunt, and Arthur still felt elated.

Merlin and Galerius waited at the gates when the men reached the top of the causeway. Both were grateful to see the three princes, apparently uninjured.

“How went the hunt?” Merlin called.

“Incredible!” the leader of the hunting party bellowed. “Best hunt in years! We even killed a bear!”

Merlin was about to ask about the bear when the chant went up: “Prince Arthur, the Bear of the North!”

“Prince Arthur killed the bear?!” Merlin shouted.

“All by himself!” the leader answered. “It was glorious!”

Merlin glared at Galerius. “You said that there’d be no danger.”

Galerius appeared confused and gestured at the princes. “They’re back, safe and sound. How much danger could there have been?”