Two Heirs (The Marmoros Trilogy Book 1) (28 page)

Chapter 15

As old Isaac had promised, the rain had stopped shortly before dawn leaving a thin mist rising off the sodden landscape in the early morning sun. David sent scouts back down the trail to warn of the approaching horsemen and set Jorgen and his men to work, fortifying the river crossing. Sharpened stakes as high as a man’s head were sunk into the near bank and caltrops were placed in the river bed in front of the stakes and for twenty paces on either side to prevent the riders from trying to go around. The river was now above knee high and flowing quite strongly so the caltrops had to be firmly inserted into the bed of the stream.

David put Bern in command of the defence of the actual ford and under his direction, wicker screens were placed on the rise above the crossing to provide some protection for the un-armoured huntsmen. Once the stakes were positioned, some of Jorgen’s spearmen were deployed behind the screens as well, to protect the bowmen in case any of the horsemen made it past the fixed defences. The remainder of the spearmen were deployed in mobile troops with some of the more experienced archers, to challenge the horsemen if they attempted to cross the river at any point other than the defended ford.

In the meantime, the first wagons had begun the descent from the top of the rise as soon as there was enough light to see. The track zigzagged down the face of the escarpment and although the first section of the descent was quite gentle, the middle section was very steep indeed. A block and tackle system was arranged with one end anchored to a rocky outcrop on the corner of the hairpin. One team of men took the strain on the loose end of the rope to slow the descent of the wagons while a second team ran alongside with wedges to jam under the wheels if necessary. The work was slow and tiring and the team of men on the ropes had to be rotated after every wagon to allow them to rest and recover.

When he was satisfied that the preparations for the defence of the crossing were in hand, David rode down the line of wagons which were queuing on the first stretch of the downward slope. He found Falaise and the other councillors directing operations at the first hairpin.

“Lady Falaise, my lords, how is it going?”

“Not well,” Falaise admitted. “We’ve been going at it for two hours now and we’ve only managed to get twelve wagons down this next section. We’re doing it and we’re getting faster but it’s very tiring and very slow.”

David did a quick calculation in his head. “Twelve wagons in two hours! It’s too slow. At this rate it will take sixty hours to get everybody down to the road. I cannot guarantee that we have that much leeway before Duke Henry’s troops start appearing from one direction or another. Can we put another block and tackle on and run two wagons at the same time?”

“We don’t have enough rope,” Perborn complained. “To run even a simple pulley system, we need a rope that is three times the length of this descent and it’s a hundred and fifty paces to the next turn. Once they’re there, then we can let them go and it’s a simple drop down to the road. We have the blocks and tackle but we don’t have enough rope to run a second system all the way down this slope.”

“Then cut the rope in half,” David suggested. “Run the wagons down to halfway and put wedges under the wheels. Then transfer them to a second system to take them the rest of the way down. It’s more manpower but with two wagons on the slope together we can cut the time in half.”

Perborn scratched his head in thought. “Yes, we can do that. It will take us, maybe, half an hour to set it up but then we can run two wagons.”

“All right. If you can arrange that, my lord, can the rest of you organise the men into shifts and start preparing torches and flares? It’s still going to take more than 24 hours to get everybody down there so we’re going to have to work all through the night. Once we’ve dealt with this morning’s little problem, I’ll send my men along to help on the ropes.”

By the time he got back to the ford, the work on the defences had been completed and the men were relaxing in the way that only soldiers can while awaiting the start of a battle. Jeren and Baltur were standing with Bern or, at least, pacing impatiently in front of him as the grizzled old archer gazed impassively into the distance. As soon as they saw David approaching they ran over to accost him.

“Why were we not allowed to go with Captain Feynor this morning?” Jeren demanded. “You assigned us to his troop so why were we not allowed to accompany him?”

“Calm down. You have no idea where Feynor has gone or what his orders are,” David replied. “Yes you were assigned to Feynor for training but, for today, you are assigned to me and your orders are to stay close to me throughout the coming action. And, Lord Jeren, be very clear that those are orders that you will obey, regardless of how much you may think you outrank me.

“Now let me see your swords.”

“Why?”

“Firstly because I ordered you to, soldier, but mainly because your skill and your sword are two of the things that are going to keep you alive today. Now show them to me.”

Jeren and Baltur stood silently as David examined the swords. “When was the last time you put an edge on this sword, Jeren?”

“I cleaned and honed it last night.”

David nodded. “And you, Baltur?”

“The same, sir. We worked together last night.”

“Very good. A professional soldier sharpens his weapons before a fight and cleans them straight after. It helps him stay alive longer. So are you ready for today?”

“We are, my lord.”

“Good. Then let’s go and inspect the defences.”

Jorgen had done a good job embedding the stakes in the bank but angled out over the water. The level of the river had already started to drop slightly but it was still about knee high and still flowing strongly.

“I hope the caltrops have stayed in place and not been washed downstream,” David remarked. “But there’s nothing we can do about that now.”

“You think they will still attempt to cross here?” Jeren asked. “Despite the stakes and the archers obviously positioned on the slope behind us?”

David nodded. “The first lesson every officer has to learn is that, in any fight, there will always be casualties. He has to know that and he has to accept it, not just in his head but in his heart. Otherwise he will never be able to order his men into danger such as attacking a defended position like this. What he has to do is to assess the strength of the defences and the likely number of casualties and weigh the risk of those casualties against the value of taking the position.

“Yes I believe he will try to force the crossing because he will think he can see a way of going around the fixed stakes and, once he has horsemen on this bank, he will have an advantage over any archers. So we will have to hit him hard as soon as he begins to cross and hope that he will take sufficient unexpected casualties from the caltrops to make him withdraw and reconsider his options.”

“The first option, I suppose, would be to try to cross the river somewhere else?” Jeren said.

“Or try to find a path through the marsh. Neither option will be easy given the amount of rain that we’ve had. So let’s look at the river option. What will he be looking for in an alternative crossing point?”

Jeren thought about it for a minute and then shook his head. “I don’t know,” he admitted.

“Yes you do. Just think about it logically. This ford is the widest point of the river and therefore the shallowest. What problem is he going to have anywhere else?”

“The river will be deeper,” Jeren replied hesitantly. “But that’s not the problem. The horses can swim across if they have to. Of, course,” he looked up at David as the answer finally struck him. “They have to be able to get the horses out on this side.”

“Well done,” David smiled. “It’s easy to jump a horse into a river but, if the water is deep, it’s virtually impossible to jump out again. And while a man might be able to scramble up a steep bank, it’s much more difficult for a horse.”

“So they will be looking for somewhere on our side where either the water is very shallow or the bank is very low,” Jeren finished. “And those are the points the mobile patrols will be covering.”

“Exactly.”

Further discussion on possible crossing points was interrupted by a shout from above. David looked up to see one of the men pointing back down the trail.

“Riders coming,” the lookout shouted.

“How many?”

“Not many. One, maybe two. Certainly no more.”

“That’ll be the scouts, then,” David said. “We’ll wait here for them.”

It only took about five minutes for the scouts to reach the ford. David signalled them to stay on the far bank and not attempt to cross.

“They’re about half an hour behind us, my lord. No more than that,” one of the scouts shouted across.

“How many of them?”

“Couldn’t get an accurate count, my lord. They had riders pushed well forward on point and I think they had riders out to each side as well. Couldn’t get close to the main group but I estimate it’s twenty plus riders.”

“Okay. Did they see you?”

“Yes, my lord. As you instructed, we showed ourselves and made sure they saw us before we turned to head back.”

“Well done. Now go and report to Feynor and get yourselves out of sight.”

As the two scouts galloped off, Jeren looked puzzled. “Where are they going? Where is Captain Feynor? We haven’t seen him all morning.”

“Good. And hopefully you won’t see him for a little while yet. Now I’ve had to put a lot of the more experienced men into the mobile patrols which means that the majority of the defenders here are from the village. Your people. So let’s have a walk around, chat to them and show them that the new leader of their people is down here, in the front line, ready to fight alongside them.”

***

As the scouts had reported, the first horsemen to appear were outriders from the main troop. They had obviously come across the drovers trail a few minutes before and came trotting along the trail until they were in sight of the ford. They stopped just out of bowshot and sat there for a few minutes, studying the defences and talking animatedly. Then one of them wheeled his horse around and set off back down the trail at a gallop while the other continued his observation
.

Jeren peered over the top of one of the screens. “He’s only just beyond my range with a bow.
One of the better archers must be able to reach him.”

Bern, who was standing next to him, shook his head. “Waste of an arrow. I could reach him, alright, but I could only hit him if he sits still and lets me. By the time the arrow reached him, he’d be gone. Left, right, back;
anywhere but where he’s sitting now. Let’s just wait a bit.”

They didn’t have to wait long. The whole troop came cantering up the trail and stopped on command a further twenty paces back while the officer rode forward to talk to the scout. They studied the defences together for a few minutes before the officer rode back to the main troop and started issuing commands. Immediately, pairs of riders broke out left and right, moving parallel to the river but keeping a healthy distance back from any aspiring archer.

The point where the trail crossed the river was only about forty paces from where the various streams draining the marshland came together sufficiently to be termed a river and the riders in that direction were soon forced to start skirting the marsh, searching for a path into the interior. They tried a couple of entry points but the soft ground sank beneath the horse’s weight and they had to pull back. Seeing the situation, the officer shouted a command and the two riders turned and trotted back to the troop.

The other pair of riders had much further to go to reach the trees on the edge of the escarpment where the river dived into a narrow gorge and dropped steeply. It took them twenty minutes, stopping once or twice along the way, to reach the gorge before turning back to report. The troop, in the meantime, had been stood down and the men were relaxing by the side of their horses while keeping a wary eye on the defensive screens across the river. Defenders and attackers alike, took advantage of the last few minutes of calm.

The attack, when it came, was almost an anti-climax. The scouts reported in and the officer spent a couple of minutes in discussion with them before issuing a string of commands. Six of the men produced longbows from cases hung at their saddles and began to string them. Then the whole troop mounted up and rode slowly towards the ford.

David spoke quickly to Bern. “They’ve got archers to cover the attack. Keep most of the men firing at the riders in the water but you try to take down their archers.”

Bern nodded in agreement as a shout came from across the river. The six archers slid smoothly off their horses and nocked an arrow as the rest of the troop charged headlong into the water screaming abuse at the defenders.

“Archers, now,” Bern shouted and a volley of arrows flew through the air. The volume of noise intensified with screams of pain from both men and horses as the arrows struck home. Most of the archers stayed behind the screens, loosing volleys into the air as fast as they could fire but one or two ran out from cover to take an aimed shot before dashing back behind the screen. David saw one of the young hunters who was not quick enough, go down with an arrow in his shoulder but Bern took out one of the enemy archers with a clean shot through the throat.

“Spearmen, to positions,” David shouted and led the dash to the water’s edge to the left of the stakes, as the horsemen approached the bank. The other group of spearmen, under Marvin’s command, covered the bank to the right of the stakes.

“Archers, stop volleys,” Bern shouted as he took down another of the archers across the river. The archers all now had to come out from behind the screens to take aimed shots which made them more vulnerable to the enemy and another hunter went down with an arrow in the chest.

The attacking horsemen were taking casualties as well. David could see two
riderless
horses in the middle of the river and another bolting out of the far bank with an arrow in its rump. The attacking force was still coming however, and split into two to sweep round both sides of the fixed stakes. Suddenly a horse screamed and reared up in front of them, throwing its rider into the water and then another did the same to the right of the stakes. The other riders urged their mounts towards the bank as a spearman by David’s side went down with an arrow through his thigh.