The Sword Brothers (107 page)

Domash looked at Gleb,
who shrugged his shoulders.

‘Reinforcements,
lord?’

‘The leader of the
Estonian tribes, Lembit, has contacted me with a proposal. In
return for Novgorod leaving Wierland alone he will give me Odenpah.
It seems that the Ungannians no longer accept the leadership of
Lembit and have turned against them. As we speak he is mustering an
army to march against them. So you see, your forces combined with
his will be more than sufficient to take the fort.’

Domash was horrified.
‘I am to fight beside the Estonians?’

Mstislav approached
him until their faces were but inches apart. ‘Better that than your
head decorating the walls of this city, I think.’

‘That’s true,’ said
Gleb glibly.

‘If it comes to that
your head will be on a spike beside his, mystic,’ sneered
Mstislav.

It took Domash two
weeks to muster seven thousand variably armed and equipped men. The
élite were Pskov’s
Druzhina
: five hundred fully armoured and
trained horsemen, supported by three thousand men of the city
militia, mostly spearmen and archers but also two hundred horsemen.
The rest of his army were the
Voi
, who at least were wrapped
in fur-lined hats and cloaks. They still wore bast footwear but
Domash issued them all with boots from Pskov’s warehouses. It was
bad enough that he was campaigning in winter; there was no need to
arrive at Odenpah with half his army afflicted by frostbite.

Retracing his steps
from the earlier campaign, he marched due west and then north along
the western shore of Lake Peipus, now a great expanse of ice and
snow. Mercifully most days were sunny and free of the biting wind
that cracked skin and froze fingers and toes. But the army still
covered only six miles a day.

*****

Lembit left Lehola
when his scouts reported back to him that Kalju was fortifying his
hill forts and that the crusader army that had spent the summer
camped around Wenden had dispersed. This meant that it was highly
unlikely that the bishop would re-assemble an army to march against
him when snow was on the ground, thus leaving him free to deal with
Kalju. An example needed to be made of the Ungannian chief, else
the fragile alliance of tribes would disintegrate. Nigul was dead
and the Russians had raided Edvin’s kingdom. If action was not
taken Estonia would fall prey to foreign invaders, but Lembit
believed he could play the foreigners off against each other and
thus preserve the independence of his people. Well, most of
them.

‘Does it feel unusual
to be far from the sea?’ he asked Sigurd seated on the pony beside
him.

‘It may surprise you,
lord, to learn that Oeselians spend more time on dry land than they
do on the water.’

‘Yes, I suppose they
do,’ said Lembit thoughtfully.

On his other side Jaak
sat silently on his pony as it plodded through the snow. He had
brought a thousand warriors to join the two thousand Saccalians
that were marching to Odenpah, Sigurd having left Rotalia with a
thousand Oeselians. Lembit had at first been alarmed when Nigul had
been killed fighting the crusaders but then looked upon it as a
sign from Uku himself. With Rotalia prostrate and without a leader
he feared that the Bishop of Riga would seize it anyway, but before
he could do so Lembit offered it to Olaf. The Oeselian leader thus
sailed the short distance from his island to Rotalia and took
possession of the most important hill forts. Most of the Rotalians
fled to seek sanctuary in Saccalia rather than fight the sea
pirates. Thus did the empty land of Rotalia become Oeselian
territory. And the price was the loan of a thousand warriors to
march with Lembit against Kalju.

Lembit could feel the
tension in the air and the frostiness between Sigurd and Jaak that
made the winter air seem mild by comparison but he did not care. He
needed all the allies he could get and if that meant giving Olaf
Rotalia then so be it. In any case he had too few warriors to
defend that kingdom on his own and none of the other chiefs were
inclined to send their warriors to garrison it. He knew that a
Russian-occupied Ungannia was not an attractive prospect but hoped
that by fighting alongside Mstislav he would win enough favour with
the Russians to be able to influence their future policy. He also
knew that a Russian-occupied Ungannia would bring them into direct
conflict with the crusaders and hoped the two would soon be
fighting each other instead of killing Estonians. He also hoped
that the Oeselians in Rotalia would also come into conflict with
the bishop’s men. And with everyone fighting each other the freedom
of the Estonian tribes might still be preserved.

‘I do not understand
why we march to assist the Russians conquer Ungannia,’ said Jaak
suddenly.

Lembit sighed. ‘For
one thing because Kalju has proved an enemy rather than a friend,
and for another the Russians are assisting us, not the other way
round.’

‘In what way?’ said
Jaak incredulously.

‘Because in return for
Ungannia Mstislav will not attack Wierland, which means northern
Estonia will be unmolested.’

He did not tell Jaak
that he hoped the Russians and crusaders would start fighting each
other once they found themselves on each other’s border. Nor did he
mention that the Oeselians would soon be fighting the crusaders
next spring when the bishop renewed his hostilities.

‘Kalju’s treachery has
proved most useful, Jaak, as you will soon see.’

‘You are wrong,
Lembit,’ said Jaak. ‘We should be fighting against the Russians not
with them.’ He cast a disparaging glance towards Sigurd. ‘You are
unwise in the choice of your allies and my view is not the only one
in this.’

Rusticus riding a pony
immediately behind Lembit snorted at this effrontery but Jaak was
unconcerned with the opinions of Lembit’s pet brute.

Lembit continued to
stare ahead, speaking calmly after a few seconds had elapsed. ‘The
last time someone spoke to me like that was the last time they
spoke. You are a fool, Jaak, a short-sighted fool. Do you think we
can fight the Russians and crusaders at the same time? Nigul is
dead and Kalju turns against us. You think we can conjure up armies
in the spring when the crusaders advance north and the Russians
sweep west to the north and south of Lake Peipus? What I do I do
for the good of all Estonia and not for my own interests.

‘No one forced you to
march with me. If you feel so strongly you are free to return to
your stronghold, there to await the spring and to see if it is the
crusaders or the Russians who arrive at your gates first.’

Jaak snorted in
contempt but kept his tongue. Sigurd noted the animosity between
the two and the thought entered his mind that Rotalia might not be
the only province that his people could acquire at the expense of
the Estonians.

It was a relatively
short distance from Lehola to Odenpah, a southeasterly march across
a snow-covered land filled with villages that were now empty.
Sigurd noticed with amusement that Lembit gave orders that these
settlements were not to be torched as the army moved by them. He
informed the Oeselian that their occupants had fled to the
sanctuary of either the forests or the local hill fort if one was
nearby. The villagers had taken their food and animals with them
but their huts provided warm, dry shelter for the army’s commanders
and chiefs on the march. Lembit also explained that they would need
them when they made the return journey after capturing Odenpah.

‘You do not mind
giving up this place to the Russians?’ asked Sigurd.

‘That is part of the
agreement I have with their leader,’ replied Lembit, drinking beer
from a wooden cup in the long hut of a village elder who had fled
with his people. The fire in the stone hearth crackled and spat and
filled the hut with smoke.

‘Don’t put damp wood
on the fire, you idiots,’ Lembit barked to the two wolf shields
tending the fire, his eyes smarting from the smoke. ‘Otherwise I’ll
make you sleep outside in the snow with the others.’

‘What of this Kalju,
the leader of the Ungannian people?’ said Sigurd. ‘What will you do
with him?’

‘Better for him that
he dies in the fighting,’ said Lembit. ‘He will discover what
happens when he breaks an agreement with me. The defenders of
Odenpah will also be put to the sword as an example to the rest of
Ungannia.’

‘And then that kingdom
will belong to the Russians,’ said Sigurd.

Lembit thought of the
Russians fighting the crusaders and trying to hold a land that the
Bishop of Riga desired.

‘Can’t be helped.’

*****

Lembit believed the
Ungannians who had fled to the small hill forts that dotted Kalju’s
land to be lambs that could be left until Odenpah had been taken.
They posed little threat to the thousands of warriors who tramped
through the snow, many of them wearing snowshoes made from the
supple branches of evergreens. Most of the hill forts were small
affairs that could accommodate perhaps a hundred people behind
their crude timber walls. They could have been stormed with ease
but that would have taken time and Lembit wanted affairs concluded
with Kalju long before the spring came. And so the long column of
warriors, sleds and ponies loaded with supplies ignored the forts
that sat on the hills where village elders and their people prayed
to their gods for safe deliverance from the invaders.

But when it is not
snowing Estonia is blessed with bright sunshine on cold winter days
when the sun glinted off whetted spear points and burnished
helmets. Lembit’s army would not have detected the flashes of light
coming from the hill forts as the elders and chiefs used polished
silver to reflect the sun’s rays to send signals to other
strongholds on high ground. By the time Lembit was a week away from
Odenpah Kalju knew the exact location and approximate strength of
the invading army advancing from the west. That was Lembit’s first
mistake. And before the sky thickened with grey clouds holding
thick snowfall he had also learnt of the size and composition of
the Russian army marching from the east.

‘They will be here in
a week,’ said Kalju after being told the latest news that had been
relayed by his signalling system.

Once more Rudolf and
Conrad acted as interpreters as the chief, Eha, two of Kalju’s most
senior men, Bertram, Mathias and Sir Richard gathered in his great
hall to drink warm milk and take shelter from the biting cold. The
mutual suspicion that had existed between the chiefs and crusaders
had abated greatly since the latter’s arrival at the fort, not
least because all of them soon directed their hostility towards the
man who seemed to have assumed command over all of them, and who,
realising this, had turned into something of a taskmaster. The
atmosphere in the hall was relaxed without his presence as chiefs
and crusaders nodded and grinned at each other and drank their
milk.

‘That is a lot of
men,’ remarked Bertram.

‘Perhaps we could
attack at least one of the enemy columns before they combined,’
mused Mathias. ‘Take the brother knights and sergeants and hit them
hard.’ He smiled at Sir Richard. ‘And your horsemen too, my
lord.’

Rudolf translated the
words to Kalju. ‘Who would you attack?’

‘The Russians,’
answered Bertram. ‘They are the larger force and will be more
strung out.’

The doors opened and
in swept Odenpah’s taskmaster. Everyone groaned when they saw
him.

‘Ah,’ said Thaddeus,
taking a cup from a wooden tray held by one of the servants, ‘warm
milk. Excellent.’

He gulped it down and
looked at the figures sitting round the large trestle table. He saw
Conrad standing by Rudolf.

‘Translate for me,
Conrad.

‘I have organised
rotas for the scattering of the spoil from the ditch that has been
dug, rather tardily I might add.’

Kalju looked confused.
‘Rotas?’

Thaddeus smiled.
‘Indeed, lord. Organisation may be a necessary evil but it is vital
for success.’

‘Why do we need to
scatter the spoil?’ asked Sir Richard.

‘I would have thought
that was obvious,’ remarked Thaddeus. ‘When the enemy arrive they
must be convinced that there is no moat. If they see a great hump
surrounding the fort even the simplest among them will discern that
the earth has been dug. Quite obvious.’

‘We have just learned
that two enemy columns are a week away,’ said Mathias, ‘so you had
better get your rotas to fill the moat with water.’

They all chuckled but
Thaddeus was not amused. ‘Why would I wish to fill the moat with
water?’

This stopped their
chuckling.

‘Then why in the name
of all that’s holy did we dig it?’ demanded Sir Richard.

Thaddeus began to pace
up and down as he had done many times since his arrival at the
fort, explaining that if the moat was filled with water it would
freeze, which would provide a hard surface upon which to stand.

‘The ice will break if
anything heavy is rested on it,’ said an exasperated Sir
Richard.

Thaddeus smiled
knowingly at him. ‘Having spent a number of years in this land, my
lord, I have knowledge of how the cold can turn water into thick
ice. You must trust me in this.’

‘Your lords are
thinking of riding out to attack the Russians,’ remarked Kalju.

Conrad translated and
Thaddeus was horrified. ‘Leave the fort? Out of the question. For
one thing you will weaken the workforce and there is still much to
do.’

‘We did not come here
to shovel dirt,’ snapped Sir Richard.

‘No, my lord,’ replied
Thaddeus calmly, ‘you came here to defeat the enemy and if you do
things my way your chances of doing so will increase
substantially.’

Sir Richard looked
away as Mathias looked at Bertram, who shrugged. Thaddeus brought
his hands together in front of him and walked towards Kalju.