Warriors of Ethandun (32 page)

‘Hush, Dan, you are not helping. This is risky. We know little more than you.' She got down awkwardly on to her knees, helping herself with the aid of a broom; she was too proud to use a stick. She put her ear to Taliesin's chest. ‘His heart still beats so the draught has not killed him.'

Dan was silenced. It had not occurred to him that Rhonwen and Taliesin would risk so much. He helped Rhonwen to her feet.

‘What do we do now?' he whispered.

‘You can scream your head off now and he won't hear you. There is nothing to do but wait,' Rhonwen answered in an undertone.

It was not the first time Taliesin had sent his soul out of his body seeking what the earthbound human eye could not see, but Dan had never felt more concerned for his safe return. It was long after dawn that Taliesin finally awoke, wild-eyed and gasping for breath, as though he had been suffocated. Rhonwen rushed to get him water. He could not speak for several breaths. He had never looked more afraid.

‘Finna!' he said. ‘She has Ursula but I can't get to her. She almost had me.'

‘Here, catch your breath. Have some water. Give yourself a minute to come to,' Rhonwen soothed him gently.

He gulped the liquid down and smoothed his wild hair with shaking hands.

‘She has set a trap for magic. The minute I drank your cup I was there. I couldn't escape. Ursula is there but I had no power to talk to her or let her know that we are looking for her. I only got away because Finna was not looking for me. I doubt she even noticed me. She has all the power she can use in Ursula. We have to stop her. I cannot describe it but I know she could have made me do anything. I was not in control of myself.' Taliesin's voice trembled with shock and he suppressed a shudder.
Rhonwen thrust another of her tinctures into his hand. It smelled of honey.

Dan was on his feet and ready to leave. ‘I'll find Finna and kill her!'

Taliesin shook his head. ‘Dan, I believe Finna is at the heart of the Danish army. Even you cannot get to her there. You have to promise you will not try until you have Aelfred's forces behind you. When you become the bear, there will be no one to help you get back to being Dan. You may never get back to being yourself. Even you can see it would be madness.'

‘I have kept control here.'

‘You have done well. But you haven't had to fight an enemy. I don't believe you could keep control if sorely pressed.'

Dan would have liked to have claimed that he could keep control for Ursula's sake, but he knew it was not true: the bear was stronger than he was.

‘What can we do then?'

‘Wait and pray. Perhaps Ursula will find a way to break her bonds.'

Dan knew from the tone of Taliesin's voice that he did not believe it.

Ursula's breathing remained even and her colour good and Rhonwen said that she did not think she was about to die. The one-time sorceress found a way of getting Ursula to take some nourishment and Dan clung to her opinion. Ursula wasn't dead yet.

He did everything the King asked of him to keep his
mind off things, to fill the time. He helped to debrief Gunnarr. He helped to train troops, and listened to Aelfred and his ealdormen discussing strategy and logistics, adding a suggestion where his experience was of use. Long days passed. Aelfred finalised his plan. Dan did not feel able to judge whether the plan itself was good or bad, but he was relieved that they would finally see action. Waiting for battle overshadowed your days, formed a huge question mark in your life. Would this battle be the end? Would he die on some muddy field in some foreign version of an England he barely recognised? The bear did not much care, but Dan did.

Aelfred had sent out his messengers in force. The King's fyrd was to muster at Egbert's Stone, from which place they would move on to Iley Oak and make what preparations they could before marching to Cippenham to do battle with the treacherous former allies of Aelfred who had usurped him.

The King would have had Rhonwen and Ursula remain at Athelney along with his own wife and infants, but Taliesin and Aethelnoth backed Dan in his request to allow these two women to follow the army. As a result, Aelfred allowed Dan to commandeer a horse and cart from the farm he had defended so wildly. Ursula had to share it with provisions and with Rhonwen, but Dan was content with that. He was not sure he could have left her behind. He was grateful that his oath to Aelfred was not put to such a test.

In some ways it was good to be in an army again. Aelfred's trust in him gave him rank and many of the men
he trained treated him as an ealdorman or as a war leader in spite of his youth. They were quick to recognise his skills and he had no trouble with the men, only with the bear that lurked constantly just below the surface of his mind, conjuring slights from thin air, making him jumpy and difficult where once he had been known as relaxed and easy-going. Still, it felt good to walk with men his own age and listen to their chatter, to feel part of something, even if that something was too brutal and violent to be valued in his own time. It was not exactly a march by the exacting standards of the Romans or even of the Romano-British – it was more a brisk if shambling walk through the country. It was warmer than it had been and the signs of spring were everywhere; the no-longer-naked trees and bushes offered much more shelter on the road. It seemed a better, brighter country than the one he had ridden with Aethelnoth and Taliesin in search of Ursula.

Few of the men who travelled the cross-country route to Egbert's Stone were properly armed or kitted out. Most only had their work clothes and perhaps a cap of boiled leather to protect their skull from spears and slingshot, the brunt of a blow from an axe, the blunt edge of a seax. Only a very few lucky wealthy men had proper metal helms – passed down from father to son through many generations. They were not much changed from the Roman helmets Dan had known in his other journeys through the Veil. Aelfred had brought all the new spears they had made and the shields, which were made from thick wooden planks and covered in stretched hide so as to make it more difficult for a spear point to bury itself in
the wood. Dan knew from his training experience that trapping a spear did no man any good, rendering the shield useless and the spearman weaponless. Not many men carried swords and Dan's splendid ancient Celtic sword was a treasure and a wonder beyond price. Asser had gone so far as to suggest that it would be a worthy gift for a king, but Dan ignored him. Dan had pledged it to Aelfred's service and that was enough. He had given Bright Killer away once before and it was not something he intended to repeat. All the men carried seaxes: strong blades with one sharp edge for slicing, one blunt side for bludgeoning and a lethal point for stabbing – all attributes that would come in handy in the brutal close-quarters mayhem of the shield wall. Dan had always fought in Celtic fashion, as a free warrior among others – individualistic, wild to the point of insanity. He was fearful of standing shoulder to shoulder with other men; his madness was as likely to harm friend as foe. It was something he needed to talk to Aelfred about, though he had not yet found the courage.

Dan knew that he was not a coward in the usual sense. He had fought as a berserker, as an amnesiac, as an empath and as a bear, risking death and injury every time, and yet he was full of dread at the thought of joining the butcher's line of the shield war, the press of men, the tight ranks. He had listened to the talk of the veterans trying to prepare the unblooded men. One man, a thegn of almost thirty-five, had been most graphic.

‘You have to look out for the men beside you, for none of you can shirk your duty or all will die. A broken line
means you can be picked off, the enemy flooding in to take you, slaughtering the line from behind, killing you like beasts not men. When the line breaks, the men behind have to act quick and step on or over the fallen to take their place in the breach. It is their duty and the only proper act of a warrior. If the line is too tight packed, there is scarcely room to lift your arm above the shield and a man killed in the shield wall may not fall but stay propped between the living.'

It didn't take much imagination for Dan, familiar as he was with warfare, to imagine the press of men, the stink of fear, the screams of the dying and the terrible claustrophobia of the shield wall. Neither Dan nor the bear could fight that way and much as he did not want to be seen to be a coward, he knew that neither his strength nor his speed and agility would help him much when forced to fight hard up against his fellows, struggling to pull down opponents' shields and thrust his spear home. If he were to fight shoulder to shoulder with anyone, it ought to be Ursula. He thought of the recovered crystal orb he kept in a pouch under his tunic and mail. There had to be a way to free her, to get them both home.

As they approached Egbert's Stone a kind of hush settled on the marching men. They were far from silent – the thegns, the senior churchmen, the ealdormen and the King all rode, while men marching, even out of step, make a kind of thunder of their own, but all talk had ceased. How many would muster for the King?

No one knew. Dan sought out Taliesin who, in the guise of a travelling scop, had paved the way for some of the recruitment and reconnaissance on which all their hopes depended.

‘Well, how many will come?'

Taliesin shook his head. ‘I dare not use magic to find out, but I'm optimistic.'

‘Surely we need at least five thousand men to stand a chance against Guthrum?' Dan said. He knew that to raise such a number the men would have to come from the thegns and ceorls of the loyal ealdormen and perhaps from some of the disloyal too. Even the veterans of such an army were not professional soldiers, while the Danish forces comprised fighting men well used to
battle, to skirmish and to raid.

Taliesin tapped a tune with his harpist's fingers – a sure sign that he was nervous. ‘Let us hope for one of Asser's miracles. I don't know. It is Aelfred's only chance. If he fails in this, he has no chance of regaining his throne. Wessex will be as Danish as Mercia.'

It was at that moment that Asser rode up to join them, his keen eyes scrutinising Dan's face for any sign of the madness of the bear and his ear ever alert to trouble for Aelfred. He responded robustly: ‘Do not worry! God will not let this land fall to the heathen. He has punished us enough and in Aelfred we have a king who will fight to restore the study of the gospels and the restoration of all that the Church has lost to the marauding pagans. We cannot fail. You must have faith!'

Dan was impressed by the bishop's certainty until he saw that his fingernails were bitten down to the quick and his fingers torn and bloody from where he had worried them with his teeth. Asser noticed him looking and coloured.

‘Faith will overcome doubt – even the saints have to experience doubt, face it and overcome it. Come along anyway; the King wishes to speak with you. There is much to organise while we wait for the muster to be complete.'

There was still no muster waiting for them when they finally reached the stone – just their small complement of a couple of hundred men.

Aelfred's face did not betray his own doubts for one moment. ‘We will make camp here until the rest arrive. Aethelnoth will oversee the fair distribution of food, but it
would help, Dan, if you could talk to the men and steady them. You have such a reputation that your presence can only help.'

Dan was all too aware that his reputation for heroics had only arisen because Aethelnoth and Taliesin had kept silent on the nature of his affliction and had led the King to believe that when they described him as fighting like a demon in human form they were using a metaphor, not speaking the simple truth. Keeping busy stopped him from dwelling on Ursula, still lying like some beautiful statue on Aelfred's cart under Rhonwen's watchful eye. They had no idea what Finna might make her do.

As the day wore on the tensions among the men grew and Dan knew, because they told him, that they were not prepared to go in alone against such a vastly greater force as Guthrum was known to field.

‘The King would not ask it of you,' Dan said confidently. ‘We have to win this battle to free Wessex and King Aelfred will not sacrifice men for a lost cause. When the others arrive, we will prevail.' He glanced at Taliesin and Asser, who were watching him with interest. Taliesin nodded his approval. Dan earnestly hoped that Taliesin knew something that he didn't, knew that men were on their way.

The tension in the royal party mounted as the spring daylight began to fade. Dan wandered away to find Rhonwen. All the emotion was making it harder for him to stay in control of his temper. He wanted to hit something and he knew that if he wasn't careful he
would
– and as the bear.

‘Is there any change?' he asked Rhonwen.

‘She is still breathing. That is all I can say.'

Taliesin joined them by the cart where Ursula lay. Somehow, her beauty in sleep had brought her more affection from the men than her courage and skill at fighting had. It was not something she would be pleased about if – no – when she woke.

They sat down together and Taliesin brought out his harp. ‘It is time for a song, Rhonwen, to inspire the faint of heart.'

‘I am too old to sing,' she said, but with a smile that suggested the contrary.

Taliesin struck up an ancient song, from the time before, from the time when he was a bard at the court of a Celtic king. Dan noted that it brought tears to Rhonwen's eyes.

‘Not that, please,' she said. ‘I cannot bear to think of home. I am too long gone from it and I know I will never go back.'

A kind of reverent hush had settled on the gathering, the kind of enchantment that always followed Taliesin's playing. Asser rushed over.

‘It might be more fitting to hearten the men with Christian songs,' he said. ‘Aelfred wants us to remember that we fight against the heathen, we fight for God.'