Gemini Thunder (12 page)

Both Alfred and de Gaini nodded in agreement.

Gode swept her arm behind her.

‘I have one hundred well-mounted and trained cavalry out there, and whilst we are few, they will give a good account of themselves riding down on the barbarian horde when they get here. They could be even more effective harassing and picking off the isolated groups and separated Viking as they travel toward us. My men know the terrain, especially the outer Savernake, and will be able to use the forest for cover.’

Alfred looked at de Gaini and Twilight with his eyebrows raised.

‘It makes sense,’ said the battle leader. ‘Use their own disorganized methods against them. You could account for quite a few that way, but don’t forget, the fastest lead groups will be mounted themselves on stolen horses, so initial contact could be mounted combat. The horses they have will be farming animals, more used to the plough and unskilled in the responses necessary to engage an enemy. Your second advantage is that their main weaponry, big, double-handed swords and axes, are unwieldy and heavy, not ideal on horseback, even for the vaunted fighting skills of Viking.’

Gode nodded. ‘Thank you. Are there any other problems?’

‘Yes.’ All eyes but Desmond’s turned to Twilight as he spoke. ‘The animals in ligamen to Go-uan, one of their venefical twins, are bears. Go-uan will be busily engaging with every brown bear between Winchester and here, reminding them that their duty is to fight for her and the Viking cause. Most of these bears are big and powerful, and there could be a lot of them. If they are accompanying the leading lowlanders, as I would expect, your cavalry will have to be careful. Bears have better senses than humans. They will smell, see, and hear the horses and riders long before the raiders.’

‘Can you and your pica do anything to counter the bears?’ Alfred asked.

‘We can spot both the isolated groups of marauders and the bears and let this young lady know where they are, especially during daylight. My companion here,’ Twilight indicated Desmond, who still hadn’t taken his eyes off Gode, ‘is an expert in bear behaviour, aren’t you, Desmond?

‘Desmond?’

The spell broken, the young man blinked, realizing he was being addressed. ‘Y-yes. Bears are my thing,’ he stuttered. ‘I have four of my own.’

‘Good,’ said Gode. ‘How will you let us know?’

‘I will talk directly into your ears,’ said Twilight, sending out a signal for Bell, his lead pica that he knew was roosting close by.

‘You can do that?’ Gode’s question indicated that she had no knowledge of the venefical gifts.

‘He can,’ blurted Desmond, eager now to make up for lost ground.

Bell alighted gently on Twilight’s shoulder.

‘Then with your permission, my liege,’ Gode bowed to Alfred, ‘we leave at once.’

‘Good luck, young Gode of Combe,’ replied the king, returning the bow. ‘Our prayers and thoughts go with you.’

Before they left the smoke and stench of Winchester, Goian and his sister communicated with their mother, Freyja. Explaining all, including Twilight’s veiled threat upon her own existence in Norgstal, they asked for her advice. Her reply came back immediately.

You must use your animals more widely. You have superb aerial and great ground power, so why are you not taking the advantages that these offer? As for that Wessex veneficus, I welcome the opportunity to show him what a real veneficus from these lands can do. His bones will rot long before he gets to occupy one of those fancy stones. If his aura is disguised, a most interesting development and one I have never come across before, you must force him to expose himself at every opportunity. The best way to do this is to force him to fire thunderbolts. Even if he can do this and still remain aura-free, you will have the trajectories of the bolts to trace back to his origin. This is where you target your bolts. If you two cannot handle him, then I may have to come over there and show you just how to do it.

Stung by her criticism and implied threat, the twins got to work. Go-ian, realizing that Ran had probably been taken care of by Twilight, put out a call for all the sea eagles within receiving distance to rally to him, their liege-lord, immediately. Within two hours he had seven huge birds, three pairs and a single male, perched alongside him. Three of the birds, two male and one female, were the sons and daughter of Boma and Ran and had an added incentive to serve Go-ian well. He explained their task. Using a simple grid pattern to ensure there was no territorial duplication, he instructed the birds to search the entire south-western coast, islands, estuaries, and rivers for the missing three thousand Viking under Olaf Tryggvason’s command. With their last known sighting being the approaches to Lyme Bay, that’s where they would start. Using their excellent olfactory, sight, and understanding of the seas, each bird should follow the prevailing winds and tides. Three thousand men, if still alive, and thirty long ships took a great deal of hiding from the air. Whatever Twilight had done with them would involve water. If they were dead, there would be some evidence of their burial and the long ships. They were to fly until totally exhausted, then fly some more. As soon as they saw anything remotely suspicious they were to report back to their master. Go-ian waved them away, and seven mighty wing sets lifted into the air to carry out his bidding.

Go-uan sent out a similar rallying call to the bears of Wessex. Due to the time it would take for them to get to Winchester, where she did not want them, various meeting points were arranged along the way to Chippingham. As prophesied by Twilight, as midnight approached she had seventy-five big, brown, and ferocious bears, fangs dripping and noses filled with the scent of Celtic flesh, loping along with the mounted lead Vikings.

‘I would like to ask you a very special favour,’ said Desmond as he and Twilight sat in the night clouds high over the southern edge of the Savernake.

‘It wouldn’t have something to do with the welfare of a certain warrior lady, would it?’

‘That’s the trouble with being a companion to a veneficus,’ grumbled the young man. ‘Can’t have any secrets of my own, the all-seeing eye sees all.’

‘A blind man could have seen it. The moment the young Gode strode into the light cast by the campfire, your mouth dropped open and you were smitten. They could hear your heart beating out on the front line.’

‘Was it that obvious?’

‘No more than a crow on a white sheep’s back.’

‘D’you think she noticed?’

Twilight pondered this for a moment.

‘No, I don’t think she did, even though you almost drowned her in drool. The possibility of leading her men on this mission fully occupied her and obscured the glorious sight of this flaxen haired, pigtailed troubadour fawning all over her.’

The spellbinder was enjoying himself.

‘You can be really cruel sometimes,’ sighed Desmond. ‘But, if you see that she doesn’t come to any harm it will be worth it.’

‘I’ll do my best, but remember, this is war and the enemy is a ferocious, ravening swarm that has no moral boundaries. Women, men, animals, all the same to them when it comes to killing.’

‘I just hope she doesn’t get captured.’ Desmond shuddered, remembering what the vile marauders had done in Winchester.

‘Let’s get a little lower. The pica are beginning to bring back sightings.’

The first group of Viking came clattering down the track running parallel to the Savernake. Riding bareback with nothing but a crude jute rope through the horse’s mouth for guidance and their shields looped over their backs, seven helmeted invaders accompanied by two large brown bears kicked their exhausted and frightened mounts onward.

Twilight’s voice spoke into Gode’s ear.

‘There are seven raiders and two bears. I will take care of the bears.’

With fifty mounted men each side of the road, Gode signalled ten from each side to attack.

As the Viking came abreast of their hidden positions, twenty riders with long, wooden-handled spears held in the throwing position burst out from the dark forest. Led by Gode, the first group released their spears at point-blank range, hauled their horses to a stop, and quickly dismounted, drawing their short swords. The second group did exactly the same from the other side but slightly behind them so as not to hit their own men . . . or woman. Taken completely by surprise, the Viking tried to haul their spent horses to a stop. Every one of them had been hit by at least two spears, some lethally. The dead toppled to the ground, whilst those still able to fight tried in vain to unsling their shields, two of which were impaled to their backs by the thrown spears. At odds of four to one it was the work of a few moments for Gode’s men to cut down the wounded Viking.

The two bears loping along slightly behind the bunch had come to a halt at the first sight of the attackers. Raising themselves onto their back legs they both let out a roar and got ready to charge the attackers as they released their spears.

Only to become completely immobile as an iridescent look from the spell-binder’s coal black eyes struck them to the spot.

Quickly retrieving their bloodied spears, Gode’s men dragged the dead Viking into the undergrowth and slapped their spent horses onward. Twilight transformed the bears deep into the dark forest.

‘At least fifty men with five bears two minutes away,’ Bell’s voice chirped at him. ‘Two of the bears are out front.’

The young astounder relayed the message to Gode, who signalled for all her men to attack from both sides. ‘Watch the two bears out front. They will probably get the blood scent of the dead Viking before they get to you.’

‘Can you handle them?’ she asked.

‘If I freeze them they’ll be in the way. I’ll look after the other three.’

‘Leave the leading two bears to us,’ Gode said, signalling five men from each side to concentrate on the bears.

With the thunder of fifty horses’ hooves growing louder, the mounted men from Combe steeled themselves for their second attack.

Until a double salvo of thunderbolts streaked in on them, blowing most of them from their horses.

The twins had released their thunderbolts from high in the clouds quite a way out. Twilight had sensed the thunderbolts split seconds before they were released but did not have enough time to get off his own thunderbolts to counter them. Fizzing four bolts at the sky position given away by the telltale auras of the twins, he quickly changed his and Desmond’s position.

Most of Gode’s men from both sides of the forest track had lost their horses and many were dead. The approaching Viking had come to a halt with the explosions, dismounted, unslung their shields, and drawn their weapons. The two lead bears veered off into the forest.

Gode was unseated by the thunderbolts, and her dead horse now lay alongside her with its guts flowing out. Dazed and confused by the sudden turn of events, she staggered to her feet.

Just as the fifty Viking charged.

Ebroin, Head Druid and charismatic leader of the Order of Lacock, Supreme Holder of the Wellsprings of Inspiration, Learned Protector of the Triads, Healer, Teacher and Inspirer of the Celtic Fire Festivals, Protector of the Golden Mistletoe Sickle, and Master of Cosmology, called all the senior and novice druids together and explained the situation. Using his deep, resonant voice and well-honed skills in the mesmeric arts, he outlined a rather different scene to that put to him by his sister and King Alfred. The Norse, although a rather fierce nation, were deeply imbued with the deities and traditions of their culture; their reputation for human slaughter was deeply flawed and more a question of misunderstandings. They were, at heart, a nation of farmers and seafarers, mothers and fathers looking for more fertile lands to settle. In his opinion as long-time leader of the Order, this was an opportunity to broaden the druidical range to include another civilization, and, without showing any undue favour or bias, they should greet the Viking as guests in a humble and open manner and offer their leaders food and drink. It had worked before with scavengers from various tribes and in so doing had spread the word of druidism. It would work again. Indeed, the special barley mead brewed here in the abbey and for which the order was justly famous would be a welcome aid to the process.

There followed a great deal of discussion among the senior druids, and it soon became obvious that despite his undoubted powers of persuasion and reasoned argument, a number of them were against Ebroin’s approach of appeasement. Many of them had heard stories of the lowlanders’ brutality, and some, with families and lands further east on the Kent coast, had practical experience of raiding parties.

Finally a decision was taken and endorsed by Ebroin. Those who wanted to leave could do so without any recriminations. They would be welcomed back but only as novices; seniority in the Order would be sacrificed on the back of their defection in the face of the leader’s advice. Novices would not be welcomed back. Twenty minutes later, seven senior and eight novice druids walked out of the gate of the abbey with a small blanket full of a few possessions over their shoulders, and headed west. Interestingly, for those who study these matters, the school of ravens that had lived in the abbey towers since it was built by the Romans three hundred and fifty years previously also left. This had never happened before; the gray-hooded birds had become a synonymous backdrop to the abbey. Ravens were, however, related to the pica, and although there was little interaction between the two species, they took serious notice of the warnings passed on by their black-and-white cousins . . . unlike the bulk of the druids who chose to remain.