target?”
“Raibeart, remove our arrows.” I paced out another one hundred paces. Raibeart ran up to me and handed me my five arrows. He said quietly, “You can hit further than this brother.”
“I know but we want these men to achieve this some time so let us give them an achievable target.” I chose my straightest arrow and I licked my fingers to smooth out the flights. I held up the wetted finger to ascertain the wind and then I notched it. I kept my breathing smooth as I pulled the bow back, almost to its maximum and then I loosed. The arc of the arrow was true and it flew up into the air and then plunged down to strike the target dead centre.
“I think, master archer, that we will have your longer bows made for all of our warriors.”
I shook my head. “It would be a waste of time until they are stronger in the arms and chest my lord. My brother will be ready for one by midwinter for he has been training but the rest will take until spring. Do not worry. They will all improve.”
The twenty men we had to teach were all attentive and desperate to learn how to be as accurate as we were. For the first afternoon we concentrated on improving their technique. The strength training would come later. As we trudged back to the barracks we were tired but I felt a real sense of achievement. I was giving commands to men older than me but it did not feel strange; it was as though I had been born to do it.
Ywain and Gildas had kept glancing over as they trained the swordsmen and when we headed back they joined us. “You were sent by God to help us Lann and you Raibeart. I always had a feeling that we could defeat the Saxons but, having seen your skill, now I know we shall.”
“Have you fought the Saxons my lord?”
I was aware that he was the same age as me but I suspected that he had not. “His red face confirmed it. “No Lann I have not, why?”
“I have fought three times and been lucky enough to kill the enemy but it is not as easy as hitting a target. You think you are going to piss or shit yourself when they charge at you and, until you have felt a man’s blood spurt over you and watch his life ebb from his eyes then you cannot know how you will fare in a battle. Those archers we trained today will hit their targets but will they hit their enemies? Only our first battle will tell us that and the battlefield is a hard place to learn that lesson.”
“Wise words from one so young and I will heed them Lann the archer. Perhaps you can try out your sword tomorrow.”
“I was going to suggest that the archers be trained with swords my lord. If you run out of arrows on a battlefield then there is little for an archer to do but run, unless he has his sword at his side.”
We did not get the chance to try our swords the next day for word came to us of a raid by some Saxons who were in the east and north of the Dunum. They were using the Roman road to come west. The war of King Urien and the Saxons would not now begin in the spring; it began when the skies were filled with clouds and the rain threatened to turn the roads into a morass. What was even worse was that the king had no idea of the size of the enemy warband. Two reports had reached him and the size of the Saxons varied from over two hundred to almost five hundred.
Ou r small army left the fortress taking all but twenty men left to guard the deserted fort. The three of us commanded forty archers and slingers while Ywain and Gildas had a further fifty armed with swords and spears. King Urien had his fifty horsemen and they led us along the road that the Romans had called the Stanegate, and we came to term it, the road to hell!
Chapter 6
The three of us led our men immediately behind the horsemen. If we were ambushed then our task was to form a protective screen around the swordsmen and spearmen, thin the enemy out and then retreat behind their protective shields. Of course the three of us marched with our
“Raibeart, remove our arrows.” I paced out another one hundred paces. Raibeart ran up to me and handed me my five arrows. He said quietly, “You can hit further than this brother.”
“I know but we want these men to achieve this some time so let us give them an achievable target.” I chose my straightest arrow and I licked my fingers to smooth out the flights. I held up the wetted finger to ascertain the wind and then I notched it. I kept my breathing smooth as I pulled the bow back, almost to its maximum and then I loosed. The arc of the arrow was true and it flew up into the air and then plunged down to strike the target dead centre.
“I think, master archer, that we will have your longer bows made for all of our warriors.”
I shook my head. “It would be a waste of time until they are stronger in the arms and chest my lord. My brother will be ready for one by midwinter for he has been training but the rest will take until spring. Do not worry. They will all improve.”
The twenty men we had to teach were all attentive and desperate to learn how to be as accurate as we were. For the first afternoon we concentrated on improving their technique. The strength training would come later. As we trudged back to the barracks we were tired but I felt a real sense of achievement. I was giving commands to men older than me but it did not feel strange; it was as though I had been born to do it.
Ywain and Gildas had kept glancing over as they trained the swordsmen and when we headed back they joined us. “You were sent by God to help us Lann and you Raibeart. I always had a feeling that we could defeat the Saxons but, having seen your skill, now I know we shall.”
“Have you fought the Saxons my lord?”
I was aware that he was the same age as me but I suspected that he had not. “His red face confirmed it. “No Lann I have not, why?”
“I have fought three times and been lucky enough to kill the enemy but it is not as easy as hitting a target. You think you are going to piss or shit yourself when they charge at you and, until you have felt a man’s blood spurt over you and watch his life ebb from his eyes then you cannot know how you will fare in a battle. Those archers we trained today will hit their targets but will they hit their enemies? Only our first battle will tell us that and the battlefield is a hard place to learn that lesson.”
“Wise words from one so young and I will heed them Lann the archer. Perhaps you can try out your sword tomorrow.”
“I was going to suggest that the archers be trained with swords my lord. If you run out of arrows on a battlefield then there is little for an archer to do but run, unless he has his sword at his side.”
We did not get the chance to try our swords the next day for word came to us of a raid by some Saxons who were in the east and north of the Dunum. They were using the Roman road to come west. The war of King Urien and the Saxons would not now begin in the spring; it began when the skies were filled with clouds and the rain threatened to turn the roads into a morass. What was even worse was that the king had no idea of the size of the enemy warband. Two reports had reached him and the size of the Saxons varied from over two hundred to almost five hundred.
Ou r small army left the fortress taking all but twenty men left to guard the deserted fort. The three of us commanded forty archers and slingers while Ywain and Gildas had a further fifty armed with swords and spears. King Urien had his fifty horsemen and they led us along the road that the Romans had called the Stanegate, and we came to term it, the road to hell!
Chapter 6
The three of us led our men immediately behind the horsemen. If we were ambushed then our task was to form a protective screen around the swordsmen and spearmen, thin the enemy out and then retreat behind their protective shields. Of course the three of us marched with our
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