The Sword Brothers (110 page)

In the space of a few
minutes the formality of an easy conquest of Odenpah had turned
into a bloody disaster.

The only commander who
had escaped the debacle was Sigurd, who had kept his men back and
then diverted some of them onto the ice of the frozen lake when it
became apparent that the walls were lined with crossbowmen. His men
held their shields over their heads as they gingerly approached the
fort’s northern walls, advancing almost to base of the sloping
earth rampart until driven away by a handful of archers in the
fort’s north-western tower.

Conrad took off his
helmet and rested his shield against the wall.

‘That was easy
enough,’ said leather face, checking the number of bolts in his
quiver. ‘Next time won’t be, though. The cat’s out of the bag now.
They know the Sword Brothers are in the fort so that will make them
more careful.’

‘They might try to
starve us out,’ said Conrad.

Leather face screwed
up his ugly features. ‘They might, although their food might run
out before ours. No, they will try another assault, most
likely.’

He smiled at Conrad.
‘When our ammunition runs out it will be down to you and your
brother knights to earn their pay.’

‘We don’t get paid,’
said Conrad.

‘Ah, yes, that poverty
thing again. I forgot. Very strange.’

*****

Domash urgently
requested the presence of Lembit, Sigurd and Jaak at his tent after
his men had returned to camp. They arrived as it was getting dark,
the Russian commander still pacing up and down as Gleb sat on a
stool sipping ale. Domash knew that he had to take Odenpah if he
was to keep his head, the chances of achieving both rapidly
diminishing following the calamity that had occurred earlier.

Lembit and Jaak wore
dark expressions as a guard showed them into the tent, though
Sigurd appeared relaxed as he took a stool and a guard offered him
and the others ale.

‘You neglected to
inform me that Kalju had allied himself with the Sword Brothers,’
said Domash to Lembit.

‘That is because I did
not know,’ replied the Saccalian.

Domash sat down on a
stool and eyed Lembit. ‘This changes many things.’

Lembit winced at the
bitter-tasting liquid he had been given.

‘He thinks it is
poison,’ remarked Gleb, noticing Lembit’s disparaging squint.

‘What did he say?’
asked Lembit, wondering who the strange figure always accompanying
the Russian commander was. Domash shook his head. ‘Nothing. I must
inform the prince that to proceed with the operation against
Odenpah will result in open war between Novgorod and the Bishop of
Riga.’

‘But you will still
carry on with the siege?’ said Lembit. ‘That is, after all, what we
are all here for.’

‘I lost nearly a
thousand men today,’ snapped Domash. ‘All for nothing.’

‘We all lost men,’
said Jaak.

Domash looked at
Sigurd. ‘And you?’

‘A few,’ replied the
Oeselian.

Lembit had cheered up
somewhat, it having dawned on him that what he desired – open
conflict between the bishop and Novgorod – had materialised,
notwithstanding the bloody nose he and the others had been
given.

‘The enemy’s
crossbowmen are very effective,’ said Sigurd, ‘but they presumably
do not have an inexhaustible supply of ammunition.’

Domash looked up at
the tent’s roof. ‘What do you suggest? We continue assaulting the
walls in the hope that they run out of ammunition before we run out
of men?’

‘I am suggesting,
lord,’ replied Sigurd calmly, ‘that we build siege towers. There is
an abundance of wood in the nearby forests and we have thousands of
men who can construct them. The garrison of Odenpah is not going
anywhere, we have assembled a large army here and so I suggest we
make the most of our advantages.’

‘The Sword Brothers in
the fort may be the vanguard of an army being assembled by the
bishop in the south,’ said Jaak.

‘I will despatch
horsemen south to ensure that we are not surprised again,’ said
Domash. He looked at Sigurd. ‘We will try your strategy,
Oeselian.’

During the following
three days the besiegers established their siege lines and felled
hundreds of trees to provide the building materials for the siege
towers. They were crude affairs hurriedly built, moved forward on
wheels hewn from great oaks, men sweating and heaving in the base
of the towers as they pushed them towards the fort. There were six
of them – two earmarked to assault each wall – each one three
storeys in height with a ramp attached to the top storey that would
fall forward onto the top of the wall once they had reached the
ramparts. To allow the towers to be pushed up against the walls the
moat had to be filled so they could cross it, and the earth slope
beneath the wall had be dug away.

Domash ordered his
commanders to attach overhanging log roofs to some of the wagons,
members of the
Voi
pushing them forward to the moat and then
filling the latter with logs carried on the wagons to build bridges
for the towers to cross. It was difficult, dangerous work and
dozens of Russians were killed by crossbowmen on the walls and in
the towers. The
Voi
commanders pleaded with Domash to send
archers forward to shoot at the crossbowmen but he refused. Poorly
armed villagers were expendable; archers were not.

*****

The enemy worked not
only in the day but also through the night, hammering nails into
wood and cutting down trees by the light of torches and fires.
Conrad stood in one of the inner perimeter’s towers and heard the
sounds coming from the enemy camp.

‘They sound very
close,’ said Eha beside him.

‘That is because sound
travels further on a cold, clear night, lady,’ he said.

It had been five days
since the enemy’s attack and since then the garrison had largely
stood and watched the siege towers being built around five hundred
paces from the walls. Kalju had wanted to launch a raid against
them but Master Thaddeus, who had assumed the role of de facto
chief military adviser, was adamant that the enemy should not be
disturbed.

‘Never interrupt your
enemy when he is making a mistake,’ he had told the chief.

Sir Richard was all
for riding out to destroy the siege towers but Bertram and Mathias
concurred with Thaddeus and pointed out to him that the Russians
had many horsemen in the saddle at all times. Any raiding party
would be quickly cut off and surrounded and the garrison would lose
some of its most effective members for no result. Sir Richard
bridled at his enforced inactivity in close proximity to the enemy
but Thaddeus said that if he showed patience he would be rewarded.
And so the garrison watched as the towers took shape.

Sir Richard did amuse
himself by borrowing a crossbow and shooting at the poor wretches
who were filling the moat and removing earth from the hill. He and
his fellow knights and their squires looked upon it as great sport
until Thaddeus prevailed upon Bertram and Mathias to persuade the
knights not to waste precious ammunition. The culling of the enemy
labourers was left to the expert marksmanship of the Sword
Brothers’ crossbowmen.

Eha, her handsome
features highlighted by the torch that burned in its holder nearby,
pointed at one of the towers being worked on.

‘When they have
finished they will push them against the walls?’

Conrad nodded.

‘And then their
soldiers will flood into the fort.’

‘Not if Master
Thaddeus can help it, lady. And even if they reach the wall they
will not be able to take it.’

She noticed that he
was toying with a ring on a finger of his left hand.

‘That is a marriage
ring, is it not?’

‘It is, lady,’ he
replied.

‘My husband told me
that the Sword Brothers are not allowed to marry.’

‘That is correct. I
was married before I became a brother knight. My wife and child are
dead.’

‘I am sorry.’

He stared at the enemy
siege towers. ‘It is no concern if I am killed here because I know
that I will join them in the next life.’

‘I will pray that it
is not so,’ she said.

‘How are the other
women and children?’

She sighed. ‘Fearful
that they will be raped and taken as slaves after seeing their
husbands butchered. My children will not suffer such a fate and
neither will I.’

‘Oh?’

She smiled, a cunning
glint in her eye. ‘I have enough poison to ensure we are all dead
before the enemy violates our bodies.’

‘My religion holds
that it is a sin to take your own life.’

‘Then I am fortunate,’
she said, ‘that I do not follow your god.’

They heard laughter
coming from the enemy camp.

‘It will not be long
now,’ said Conrad.

In fact it was the
following morning when the enemy at last moved the siege towers
forward. The alarm was sounded in the fort and the Ungannians and
Christians calmly went to their positions. Conrad stood beside
Hans, axe in hand, as his friend chewed on some biscuits. The
crossbowmen had been redeployed in the towers so they could direct
their bolts against the sides and rear of the towers, behind which
were long columns of soldiers holding their shields above their
heads.

Two towers approached
the southern wall, two the eastern wall and the last two, operated
by Estonians and Oeselians, were directed towards the western wall
held by the men of Wenden and Segewold. Despite their heavy losses
the Russian levies had filled the moat in six places and removed
the soil from the earth slope so that the towers could be pushed
against the walls. Then the ramps would be lowered and men would
pour into the fort. The top platform of each tower held twenty men,
with dozens more waiting on the ladders and platforms below. The
front and sides of each tower were covered with thick logs to stop
crossbow bolts and arrows, thus negating the defenders’ most
effective weaponry.

On each wall was one
of Thaddeus’ engineers who watched the approach of the siege towers
carefully. When he was satisfied that the towers were at the
correct distance he gave the signal to his comrades below. Seconds
later barrels of burning pitch shot by the mangonels were arching
into the grey sky.

‘Supplies are running
low,’ remarked Hans as the first barrels landed on top of the tower
directly ahead of him and Conrad with a muffled bang. Then flames
shot into the air and hideous screams came from the tower as the
warriors on the top level were covered with hot pitch. The Sword
Brothers cheered but their acclamations were drowned out by the
high-pitched yells of men engulfed in flames. Some threw themselves
off the tower in desperation and fell to their deaths in the snow
below as another barrel struck the tower, this time its front, to
engulf the logs in flames. The tower came to a grinding halt as
those pushing it forward heard the grisly screams of men above them
and heard the calls of alarm from the warriors packed on the
ladders at higher levels. A third barrel was shot by the mangonel
and landed where the first had struck, setting the top of the tower
alight and causing panic inside it.

The Sword Brothers
cheered again and raised their shields and weapons as men began to
flee from the tower, causing panic among the column of Saccalians
behind them, the crossbowmen to the left of where Conrad was
standing shooting at the warriors behind the siege tower and adding
to their misery. The tower had been stopped less than a hundred
paces from the wall.

Unfortunately the
second siege tower, the one being propelled forward by the
Oeselians, was still trundling forward. The mangonel allocated to
stop it had malfunctioned, its skein having lost its torsion. A new
one had been hurriedly fitted but by the time it had shot its first
barrel the tower was too close to the wall and so the projectile
landed among the column of warriors following it.

‘God with us!’ shouted
Rudolf as the tower’s ramp crashed down on the top of the wall and
Oeselian warriors raced across it. Two sergeants standing in the
path of the warriors killed four of them with their swords before
they were literally barged aside by sheer weight of numbers,
falling from the walkway to their deaths.

The walkway was two
paces wide, which meant that the Sword Brothers could not be
outflanked. But as Rudolf and Henke stood side by side, killing
Oeselians with mace and sword, they were gradually forced back by
weight of numbers, back towards the fort’s tower behind them.

Conrad and Hans
likewise stood together as a tide of Oeselians rushed them. He
heard Lukas’ words in his head but there was no room to manoeuvre
and so he and his friend used enemy bodies as shields. The
Oeselians carried one-handed axes that they swung over their
shields in an attempt to split the Sword Brothers’ helmets, but the
blows were too clumsy and Conrad raised his shield and thrust his
sword below the first Oeselian’s shield and upwards, driving the
point into his belly. The man groaned and his body went limp but
Conrad pressed his shield forward to stop him from collapsing as
other warriors behind the dying man pressed their shields into his
back. Hans had also killed his man and the two brother knights kept
the corpses in front of them upright, pushing forward to create a
press of men on the walkway.

‘Anton, Johann,’
screamed Conrad, ‘use your swords.’

He felt a weight on
his shoulders as Anton barged his shield into his back and lurched
up and forward, jabbing his sword over Conrad’s head, over the dead
Oeselian and into the eye socket of the warrior desperately trying
to get the dead man in front of him out of the way so he could get
to grips with Conrad.

On it went, Johann and
Anton jumping up and lunging forward with their weapons to try and
strike living Oeselians. But after a few minutes neither side could
get at each other because there were at least three ranks of dead
men between the living. Sergeants and brother knights gathered
behind Johann and Anton and pressed forward.