Chapter 20

Jón got angrier as he rode. Part of this was because the pain of his wounds was increasing. "Why didn't you make the fuses like those on the grenades of your time? We could have been killed. You want to keep all the good things out of the reach of the barbarians but we have to have more. Even if we had a dozen hand grenades we could have taken all of them and Aagt would not have been hurt."

"A few good things happened about this that you don't seem to comprehend."

"What?"

"Your cadets have been bloodied and all of them have survived. They have killed to save themselves and you. They were very unsure before and now they will have to be slapped down or it will be their egos that explode."

In a moment he said, "I guess that's good."

"You must have noticed that I left you in control of your body almost all the time. You were the one that killed and you did it by yourself. You were the one to charge and to put me into a position to do what I could to assist you."

Now Jón's mood shifted and his own ego expanded but then he said, "We need more padding under the armour. The arrowheads were good but we need more work on them."

When we camped that night Jón used a small hammer and a dolly block to do a better job of his quick repair. In a moment he passed the tools to Aagt who was now bare chested except for the wide bandage. I figured she was flashing Jón but she was actually wearing a lot. She straightened out the previous work on her breast plate then used a stone to abrade the edges that stuck up.

The rest of the cadets made camp then had to tend to not only their own mounts but the forty seven more. There was a lot of armour and weapons tied to the horses and all this had to come off for the night.

Everybody hurried in their labours then after a meal they counted out the booty they had amassed. There were ninety six gold coins and a thousand and twenty seven silver. Bronze and coppers totalled nearly six thousand.

The Alamanni had not been into much jewellery but they did possess a lot. When it was cleaned up it would be worth a considerable amount of gold. There were bronze mirrors and a lot of things a Roman woman would wear. This made me think of the wives and family of the Alamanni men. They usually rode together unless they were raiding and sometimes even then. We could come upon them on the road that we were now using.

There were a lot of ornate knives and a few bronze swords. None of them were from just one style and place and must have been picked up where they could. The pack horses had ornate boxes which contained fine clothing including some that were silk. At the bottom were some ivory combs and brushes along with some very well made sewing needles.

It just took too long to categorise, so only some of the articles were examined. It was too dark anyway. The cadets were very excited and few could get to sleep. Dolf tended to Aagt like a mother hen and I know that he made her very happy a few times later that night. Forni was very excited too and that energy had to be siphoned off. Jón and Forni slept in well past dawn.

Jón was very sore in the morning and Forni started to play the nurse maid. Aagt was much the same but had not only Dolf but Klaasje tending to her every need. I watched and listened for trouble but there didn't seem to be any. Aagt had a shit eating grin most of the time but her eyes sparkled when she looked at Dolf.

We were ready to ride much later than usual. The load was more evenly distributed on the horses. The helmets were worn all the time but the visors were usually up. During the fight, Jón had not lowered his but the rest had. Perhaps it was better that way because there were two people looking out his eyes and a visor would make a lot of blind spots. A visor of Lexan or even a shield of the same material would be much better than what we were using now.

I had been taking Jón's comments to heart about the release of information to this age. I could make potassium chlorate or lead oxide. The later was close to lead azide used as primers for heavy ordinance while the former was an explosive too. Antimony was readily known at this time and the sulfide would not be hard to make. Gum, and starch were all that was left that would allow me to make matches. Match heads could be mounted inside a grenade and a simple twist would ignite one or more of the heads. This would get a wick going. In turn, this would lead to the main charge.

Making black powder was not hard, but to make it as good as it could be done was another matter. Hundreds of years had been used on refining the process. Ball mills to crush each of the ingredients then heavy steel wheels supported just a small amount over a steel floor. Alcohol was added to make a paste and this mixed even more.

The best charges though were those that were very fine grained but then packed so tight that it burned from one end to the other very quickly. If it were packed hard enough it would not separate in transit which happened a lot with the powder I had made. Fálki of course knew of this and was prepared to mix the powder before using it.

Fálki's disposition was unknown just like Clovis. He had left with few men and a heavy load of metal in the form of the cannons and the wagons of shot and powder then the ones laden with food. Their slow progress would invite a ambush if any convoy did.

Our progress was much slower than usual because of all the riderless horses. They were strung out single file but they had to be constantly pulled to keep them going. It worked better when five cadets in the centre of the column split the horses between them while the rest road guard. It might have been even better to turn around and go back to our home but Jón wanted to continue. I knew that the only way for a boy to learn was by him making decisions and learning from them.

We did pass people on the road and those we had to actually capture first, because none were going to stay and be questioned. We found that many people had been killed or molested by unknown invaders. Jón gave everybody the directions to Hildestun and mentioned that they would have a chance to start again. Now he was going to split the Pict community there by adding some of the various German tribes. This I figured was just to spite the Picts for the ungrateful way they had treated him.

In some cases he gave some of our captured food supplies to those refugees most in need. This earned him many thanks. In some cases the clothes that had been washed of blood were given too. Many people wore little or nothing like the peasants of mediaeval England. Clothes were expensive but the nights were still cool.

Nothing of much importance was found. Three robbers had been killing, raping and of course robbing the poor travellers. We came across one poor group that were even unable to run and hide. The robbers had attacked the small family gathering and killed one of the males and wounded two others. Jón gave them six horses and directions to Hildestun. He said, "Those are my horses. I want them back."

The travellers had never owned a horse before but knew roughly how to handle them. Jón's generosity staggered them.

The robbers were found a day later. Dolf, Epje, Guinevere, Klaasje, Tiebout and Hafgan went into the robber's encampment to put them under arrest. They of course resisted this. The cadets took the men in pairs while the rest held bows to be sure. The fight didn't last long. The highwaymen were all taken with swords though most of the cadets learned something. Their armour is what saved them not what they thought was their expert swordsmanship. This also meant that we now had seven more horses to add to our string.

It was about three days from Hildestun that we found the next threat.

We were making a lot of noise in our passage but there were few if any of this groups' sentries posted. It was near dusk in any case and Jón turned our group around and in a few kilometres pulled the horses off the road and into a creek. In another kilometre he made a quick camp while some cadets went back to hide the tracks that didn't make it into the water. It was the sheer number of tracks that had warned us and ours shouldn't be noticed.

Epje and Guinevere were the best at stealth. Jón posted the cadets and ordered some to sleep if they could. They all stripped to their underclothing then donned the black suits over their armour. Burnt cork would be used but all the cork was in Spain. Charcoal had to do. A great many arrows had been made even before leaving for the first time. Many of these projectiles came with the three as well as their usual swords and knives.

There was an hour to scout the camp though it was getting too dark for the cadets to make out the details. This was an encampment of over seven hundred men and their families. This brought the total to around four to five thousand individuals. Most were of course children.

Jón tried to place the accent. The German language was spoken but not the way the Frisians spoke it. The three moved in quite close to listen to what was said. They proved to be eastern Gauls of the Mediomatrici clan. They were following a plan where this tribe linked up with a cohort of the V Iovia legion from Pannonian. A cohort was usually composed of six centuriae with a total of four hundred and eighty fighting men but the total rose with the number of officers.

It was an hour later that more information came. The Romans would be coming from the south, an area not covered in our patrols. They would be in place in a few days but the chief by the name of Bran was determined that the Romans loose some men to the Frisians. Portions of his tribe had been decimated a few times by the Frisians while the Romans remained nearly untouched. There was no mention of odd weapons so any battles would be before Fálki arrived on the scene.

Jón told Epje, "Go back to camp. Tell the rest what we have found out. There is a small road ten kilometres south west of our camp. The cadets are to leave immediately at a walk with all the horses back out the creek and down the road we just left. When they get near our location here, they are to walk at a slow pace. If there are sentries they will not bother them. When our people are safely passed then we can begin. Leave our packs and horses a hundred metres east along this side of the road."

"What are we going to do? There must be close to a thousand men that are going to threaten our home."

"We harass this enemy. They seem to be already angry at the Romans. If we give them more cause they just may turn around and go back."

"What about the Romans?"

"Somebody has to make an effort to warn Hildestun. We will deal with the Romans when we get there.

"Arienh is the best rider for this particular task. Tell her she should take four remounts. She is to get the cannons ready and fill the ammunition carts with grapeshot. When we get there we will need it ready.

"Two more cadets, Dolf and Aagt, will take the horses and the supplies and drop them off at the ambush sites we picked out before continuing on with the horses. There are only four more between here and Hildestun. They have to make good time because we will be on their heals soon enough with a lot of angry Picts on ours. The rest of the cadets will prepare the first ambush site.

"When you come by on the horses, you can stay and help us steal the Mediomatrici mounts. Bring more arrows and a dozen grenades. If we are not right here, then wait."

"I will do my best."

"Then hurry but if you get hurt then you hurt all of us."

"I won't fail you."

The boy left with a lot of care because there were still people around to hear of his movements through the brush.

Guinevere said, "What do you want me to do?"

"We find where we can hurt them the most."

Jón could not use his senses the way I could. Though it hurt him, I was given control of the body. We were going to start with the horses because there were few sentries here and if they died quietly then taking the horses would be much easier.

Guinevere would not be good at cutting throats or stabbing an unsuspecting guard so this task was left to me. I was turning into a cold blooded killer but Jón's ethics were seeping into me. The Mediomatrici didn't have much structure and probably relied on their shear numbers to keep enemies away.

I used the shorter wakizashi for this task. Our arms were much stronger from practice and swinging a hammer in the forge. In ten minutes I had decapitated four sentries. In ten more I had another two. The last took fifteen minutes and I had to avoid three people just out to take a piss. They would be missed much sooner than sentries.

Guinevere was busy with the horses but she wasn't acting frantic and exciting the horses. There were ropes tied to trees and the horses tied to these ropes. More were tied to individual branches. Things got testy a few times but Jón used his voice to tell the intruder to leave because he felt sick. Sickness was a bad thing and nobody claimed this unless it was serious. The odd voice could be attributed to the sickness possibly caused by drink.

I could hear our own horses slowly moving past the camp in the dark and I hurried to help Guinevere and tell her the good news. She had found more rope and she was busy tying more bridles to it.

With the way clear I raced to our old position. Epje was nervously waiting with a pack full of explosives. His hand held four more full quivers complete with our arrows.

I took the arrows and we raced to the horses. Epje helped Guinevere add more to our string while I placed the new quivers around the camp where they would do the most good.

Guinevere led the string away at my order. She knew where our horses were and could change mounts in a few minutes. I moved more towards the centre of camp with the pack on my back. The horses made a lot of noise when a great many of them were suddenly put into motion in the dead of night.

One half drunk Gaul came out to investigate and when he was just about to give the alarm I used the sword on his neck. Epje had a more difficult time moving his string of horses because it was just as long. He had only waited for fifty horses to leave before he started.

Five more men came but four of them were in pairs. I had to resort to a slash and a stab but they made little noise. Soon the bodies would be found and then the alarm would be given.

The camp was well lit so it would not be good to venture into the middle at this time. When the alarm did come then the people would come toward the horses and I would have less difficulty. This was what I had in mind when I placed the arrows. I only had about a hundred arrows and some were sure to miss while others would only wound.

The last of the horses did actually leave with others following behind but this was rare. The two cadets had orders to cut all the bridals of the remaining horses if they could. Two men came to investigate or to take a piss but I was only able to get one.

The camp was suddenly alerted by one call after another. Men came running from their tents donning leather or bronze armour. It was only a minute before a large grouping of men came to check out the situation. Few had shields.

A small fire kept by the sentries was used to light a piece of rope that had been soaked in saltpetre. It had a glowing end but would not burn more than a metre in an hour. I threw a grenade into the group of men then another and another to different areas. Some had stopped to see what it was that came from the sky with a glowing tail. The grenades blew up one after another.

Men were thrown all around but it was some that took the brunt of the explosions and saved the rest. I didn't waste more grenades or arrows because I was just delaying them as long as possible.

Thoughts of the horses were not on their minds now because they had never heard of an explosion before. The smell of the burning sulphur or what they called brimstone was something else that was new.

I must have gained ten minutes before they turned their attention back to the remaining horses. I used the bow now to take out the few that got too close. They now yelled out about being shot if they were able to. A forth grenade kept a larger mass of men from pushing their way forward.

They tried to circle me and I moved and hit them from the side or even got behind them. The fires in the camp burned bright to give their warriors light. Torches were brought and I had to shoot women though I tried to aim for the legs.

My strategy was to keep moving so they would not know how many were here. A man giving harsh orders was my next target but he was too far away to get a good shot.

The explosions had frightened many of the freed horses into leaving the camp but there was simply too many of them remaining. It also represented a useful bait to draw the men near.

When a lot of torches were near I shot every third man all along the line if I could because they were now behind shields. I was given a lot of ammunition because the Mediomatrici were shooting wild hoping to hit somebody in the darkness. I was actually hit many times but the armour stopped all of them easily.

They started using fire arrows to get some light near me and this worked because the arrows came by the hundreds. Since I never fell or indicated that I was hurt they were reluctant to use anything but more arrows. I was out of range of their spears.

There was a sudden charge and I threw three more grenades in front of the ranks. They had learned fast but the ones behind pushed those in front. When the three exploded the charge failed miserably.

I left the warriors alone and moved to a different area and harassed those in the rear with another grenade and more arrows.

Men were crying for help or just because they were in pain. I ignored those as best as I could. Some I evaded by just moving faster than they could move with their wounds.

A lot of men had died and I called out with the visor up, "Chief Bran of the Mediomatrici. I am Jón, son of Clovis of the Frisians. You are invading our land. The deaths are on your head. I have prayed to our gods and Thor came to me. I was given Thor's very own hammer. I will hold my weapons for a few hours for you to think and pray. Attack me and I will start to kill once again. Come and gather your dead and wounded."

The fire arrows stopped but those already fired illuminated me from the rear. Arrows continued to hit me but they slowed to a stop when they saw that I was not hurt.

It was the women that raced forward without armour or shields to tend to the wounded. They cried aloud when they found a loved one dead. The men now ran forward and used the shields to protect them when they investigated the figures on the ground.

A man came forward in full armour carrying a spear. He called out loudly, "Why do you attack our camp in the night like a thief."

"You old fool. You attack my land with the warriors of your tribe and you wonder why I protect my people. You had hundreds of warriors while we were few in number. Thor must have liked the odds. He is probably laughing now at what you said."

"Come and fight me if you dare."

"I would just kill an old man even without Thor's hammer. Your tribe needs a leader even if he is foolish enough to follow the orders of the Romans. Come further into our lands with weapons raised and I will kill all of your tribe. Come with peace in your heart and we will greet you as friends, even now."

"Fight me coward."

"Shall I throw Thor's hammer? What defence can you put up? Shall I throw it near you and kill all those around you? If you want to fight with iron then come to me in Hildestun. You will have to climb over the bodies of your men to get there."

"I see that you are a coward after all."

"A coward that is in your camp and talking to you?"

"You are a coward."

"Fight me in Hildestun if you make it there alive. I am going to use the hammer on the Romans. Who could stand against me with this mighty weapon?"

"Then leave my camp coward."

"I will in an hour of so."

"Leave now."

"Are you going to come and push me out?"

"Leave," he yelled but turned around himself.

For the next while I moved around. They were still trying to circle me. Barbarians didn't take orders well and each worked on what he or she thought best for the tribe. This was anarchy in a way but it had worked well for them for a long time. I didn't have to use the grenades or arrows because I could stop them with my voice now. The flankers never gave up so I shot through their shields and into their arms or hit them in the legs. They could not return the fire effectively and usually limped back to the camp. Our arrows were meant for piercing armour and had only a steel point with no blades to do further damage.

Jón was hardly ever anxious to get his body back when in the dark because I could see and hear much better. He did make comments though when there was a few quiet moments.

"What are you going to do about the rest of the horses? They can hold a bridal with two hands or even ride clutching the mane."

"We have to flush them out. I can lead them toward the opening but even a grenade will not get them to all go through the opening. Many will just scatter throughout the camp."

"Let's just take a few and leave?"

"There are some larger horses off to the side. I think they are still hobbled. It might be fun to take them if they are Bran's horses."

Jón was happy at this. He was not a coward but he did want to leave. Enough time had left for the first bridge to be mined. I selected the horses but had to find bridals for them. Apparently the owner thought his might be stolen. In a half hour we had another dozen fine horses on a string and I led them out of the camp. I came back to let the Mediomatrici know that I was still around. I left then after encouraging as many of the freed horses as possible to leave with me.

I rode bareback and it was not as good as the saddle. It was fifteen minutes later that I found Jón's horse. It was loaded with supplies, our forest camo suit and even some additional grenades. I switched mounts and tied the lead onto the saddle horn and now made much better time.

When I came to the first ambush site I called out, "It's me. I hope you don't have any fuse burning."

It was Forni's happy voice I heard. "Not yet. Are you followed?"

"I don't know yet. They may wait for morning, but they may decide to go home instead."

"How many did you kill?"

"Too many I think." By this time I had walked the horses to Forni and saw that he had the rest of the troop with him minus those that had orders to get to Hildestun or to pull the strings of horses.

I asked, "Did anybody get a chance to count the horses?"

Forni said with a laugh, "I can't count that high."

"How did you set the ambush?"

It turned out to be just a small keg of powder tied under the bridge. The stream itself was not that deep. They had waded in the water to place the charge. I listened along the back trail and there were no sounds of thundering hooves so I said, "Recover the charge. This bridge would not slow them down much. The next site has a high stone wall."

I stayed in command of Jón's body because of my sight. We hurried down the trail but it twisted about a lot and had a lot of mud. The larger stones on the path were mentioned and we walked around them. We made the best time we could in the dark.

We picked up a few more horses as we went. They had got loose from the strings that were being pulled by the others. Our string grew by eight by the time we got to a cliff face. We made a large fire on the road for light and then dug into the loose rock to place some of the charges. These were kegs and should bring a lot of rock down as well as spray rock fragments at those nearby.

"Hafgan, Edana, find a way to the top of the cliff. Lower a rope over the edge. You will be pulling up the fuse and waiting here to use it."

The boy and girl were happy to do this though they also looked sad because they would not be with us. I needed Aagt, Dolf, Forni, Guinevere and Oriana to be in the city. They had been with us when we had tested the cannons. If the city was besieged then the cannons would be important if we could get to them with powder.

Before we finished there was enough light that Jón could recover his body. We had three fuses of almost equal length leading to one location three metres above the planed explosives. When we were ready to leave Jón called out, "Your mission is to light the fuses when you think the time is best and then leave. If you wait at the edge the rock may collapse under you. Your horses would be harder to handle too if you are near. If the Mediomatrici do not show up then recover the powder two days from now. I want the two of you safely back home and that is an order."

I heard the German equivalent of, "Yes, Sir," from both.

Two days later Klaasje and Tiebout were left at the next site. We heard no explosion behind us but there were too many trees in the way if there had been. This was a narrow defile where a tall man could look over the top if he was riding a horse. We used all the rest of our bulk powder and fuses. The boys would just have to use the burning rope to light the fuse. This would take some judgment but they had lots of rope to practice with. Ten minutes should be enough but it was hard to judge how fast the Mediomatrici would ride.

The rest of us hurried down the trail to Hildestun. We changed mounts all the time. We rode early in the morning to when it got too dark to continue. The cadets were exhausted by this. We discussed possible scenarios when we could. We had no idea if Arienh had made it or not.

We caught up to Dolf and Aagt after the first day. It was the sheer number of mounts that was slowing us down. I debated abandoning them or just passing Dolf and Aagt. Both knew about the cannon though. The horses would help our fledgling calvary.

I convinced Jón to hand over the horses to Dina and Edana. They were not expendable but they didn't have any working knowledge of the devices. The horses were valuable and all I could do was give them grenades and a smouldering rope.

That night Jón gave the news to the girls and the rest of the cadets. They were proud but worried. I was worried too and so was Jón but there was nothing we could do. They had two hundred and seventy six horses to tend to now and that didn't count the ones we brought originally. The armour, weapons and booty was hidden in the trees and we hoped it would be there when we came back for it.

We got to Hildestun in three more days. We knew what we would find because there were some refugees on the road fleeing the city. Jón took a minute or so the tell them to hide instead. In a few days the city's fate would be decided one way or another.

Jón went to see for himself what was happening while the cadets took a side road before the city. This looped around toward our cache of powder. The farmland around the city was ripped up. The Romans were building some large siege weapons but they were not complete yet. The typical Roman palisade of logs was not constructed and it was easy to see the tents. Patrols were all about and this was supposed to serve in place of stout walls.

The city had not fallen and the Romans kept their distance. Almost all our arrows were steel tipped and designed to penetrate armour. They caused less damage though for they cut less and could be pulled out easily.

It was near dusk when Jón rejoined the cadets at the bunker. We were surprised to see one of the large barrels were missing. There was only one left and one large keg of about twenty five kilos. Fálki would be the only one that would be here and then hide the rest so we at least knew he was still alive. It was certain that he would take more ammunition for his campaign and I just hoped that there would be enough left for us.

Jón wanted to check the readiness himself. When it got dark, I took over the body and walked the two kilometres to the walls. A handful of stones were thrown and this almost got us shot. A steel tipped arrow would go through our armour too.

A rope was lowered after Grímkell gave his ok. Jón this time was pulled up because he was the one to do the talking. After getting over the wall he crouched and then said, "If you stand there the Romans will shoot you."

Grímkell crouched and said, "What have you been doing? The scouts heard that a large army was coming this way."

"There are four or maybe five hundred left. I took a lot of their horses so they will not be coming quick. I set traps for them along the way. I would be surprised if any make it here."

"Four or five hundred warriors. That is hard to believe that you took the horses from that many."

"Count the horses when they come. There were more but they are now dead or wounded. What did Fálki report?"

"How did you know he was here?"

"I saw signs. What did he say?"

"Our king and your father is still alive though he was wounded. The new weapons you made have worked very well. The Romans and the Gauls run when they are used. What do they really do?"