Chapter 7

Each night as the column proceeded towards the river, Wilhan and his men tried to train the others in the new tactics. Some were willing but most weren't. The attempt did enable Wilhan to separate out a few specialty squads, and most of the warriors did see the value in holding the shield line together during the initial charge, or at least they said they did when Lord Edbil, who was nominally in charge of the small army, announced that no one was allowed to go to the aid of any man who broke formation during the charge of the lines. If you wanted to fight alone you would die alone was his pronouncement.

Two days south of the Sarva River they came upon the first burned out village. The day before, refugees had been encountered and the army picked up several teenagers who knew the area and wanted to fight. Their fathers and older brothers were either dead or were fighting outside of Cronvik. Luckily the column didn't have to worry about women and children attaching themselves and following along; the tribe could still care for refugees behind the lines.

More cavalry scouts were sent out to find out exactly who and what lie ahead, and as the column moved, more burned out farms and villages were encountered. The first scout returned before dawn the next morning and reported, "Lord Edbil, to the northeast we found about a six hundred Sarvalk warriors with their flocks and families -- about three thousand in all.*"

The scout was dismissed and Edbil said to Wilhan, "It can't get much worse. Flocks and families mean that they intend to stay, and we're outnumbered. We should turn west towards Cronvik now and keep to their left flank to protect the countryside."

"Edbil, I disagree." Wilhan said. "The villages were burned out more than a week ago so I don't think that this group did it. My guess is that they are reinforcements, stragglers like us, and they probably think that they are in safe territory. Why else would they bring their families across the river? We should hit them fast and hard while we can still surprise them."

Later in the day more scouts came back with information about the countryside around the enemy war band and reported good terrain to fight in the direction of Cronvik. The men had been put on alert so that they would be ready to move out if an attack was possible. Ever since he left Angelsot, Edbil had a nagging doubt about his decision to join Wilhan, perhaps it was guilt for taking men away from the main battle lines that allowed Wilhan to convince him to committing to such a risky move against superior odds, or perhaps he just needed someone that was more assured of action to convince him, but whatever the reason, Edbil was ready to commit when it looked like they had enough of an advantage to even the odds.

Wilhan led his portion of the army and all of the archers and slingers through the night covering the distance to their goal at a fast pace. Those with horses rode men double while the young men jogged much of the way. They were glad to find that the enemy, not expecting an attack in the ravaged area, didn't have night pickets out.

As soon as the enemy camp began to stir the next morning a group of Wilhan's slingers attacked. The Sarvalk warriors thought it was a raid by some refugee boys, and quickly sent out several squads to chase the boys down. The retreating youths let their pursuers gain ground on them, but they also inflicted damage along the way, and so the enemy squads were tired by the time they came upon Wilhan's force some three miles from their camp.

Most of the Juxan men remained hidden, and those that were visible to the Sarvalki seemed disorganized. Sure that they had stumbled upon a small reconnaissance force in the woods, rather than send word back for reinforcements, the Sarvalki decided to attack. They would gain all of the glory of victory for themselves that way.

With little more preparation than calling their squads together, the enemy charged thinking that they had superior numbers and the element of surprise. Wilhan blew a short blast on a whistle and his 'disorganized' men quickly formed a tight shield wall.

"Stand firm men! You in the back, ready the javelins and hurl on my mark. Stay tight everyone. Their legs are tired." He called out.

The enemy came forward and Wilhan blew his whistle once again. Arrows and stones rained down on the hundred Sarvalk warriors charging his line of seventy five. These were Wilhan's most experienced men. All had been in a shield wall before.

The second whistle was also the signal for his flankers hidden to the north to start moving.

With thirty yards separating the two lines the whistle sounded again and forty thick, barbed javelins flew into the left side of the enemy line. Twenty shields and seven men went down.

The experienced line absorbed the impact of the enemy charge and held long enough for the hidden flanking force to arrive.

Now outnumbered two to one, with their right side pinched between two units, and their left flank failing, few of the Sarvalk warriors survived to run back to their camp to raise the alarm.

Wilhan let the few escapees go and started his troops moving towards the enemy camp. Now the odds, from the Sarvalk perspective, were be five hundred against two hundred.

Within the hour the full force of the Sarvalk camp was on the move. Wilhan's force had advanced a half mile to a good battle site after messengers confirmed that Edbil's troops were moving into position.

The site, an open pasture, afforded enough room for the two small armies to fight a pitched battle. Wilhan waited until scouts reported that the enemy was arriving Wilhan started his men across the pasture, but when it was obvious that they were detected Wilhan blew his whistle loudly and had his men run back to the far edge, all except for some skirmishers left behind to harass the gathering enemy.

"Why did we run back?" young Sven asked Ulius.

Ulius had asked a similar question to Wilhan not ten minutes earlier, and he told Sven and the gathered slingers, "To keep their attention. Hopefully they will think that we are expecting reinforcements coming from behind us, from Cronvik, and they will not delay to attack because of it."

The Sarvalk commanders assumed just that and wanted to take on the small force before reinforcements could arrive. They had little choice with so many men eager to avenge the morning's massacre, and about all they could do was wait long enough for all of their men to arrive.

As soon as the last of the Sarvalk warriors made their way to the edge of the pasture their commanders let them loose, and five hundred screaming men charged across two hundred yards of pasture eager for blood.

They were first greeted with a hail of small but deadly stones. As they got closer those turned into larger bone crushing rocks. Those were joined by arrows and something much worse.

Horns were signaled to blow as soon as Wilhan saw the charge starting, and by the time that arrows and fist-sized rocks were flying at the approaching shield wall a group of fifty cavalry lancers came thundering out of the woods from the south. They closed the gap before the numerically mismatched lines could meet and threw the Sarvalki into confusion. The Sarvalk commanders saw three hundred men running towards them from behind the horses and quickly tried to reorganize and split their force to face the new threat, but it only served to confuse the charging warriors

Most of the enemy confusion was on Wilhan's right, and his left side still faced two to one odds. This time the barbed lances flew into the strong side of the Sarvalk line and weakened it enough so that Wilhan's men had a chance when the two shield walls crashed together. Wilhan stood fast with his men, as was expected of any good war jarl, but instead of being in the middle of the line he stationed himself on the far left where enemy cavalry were expected to try to attack his flank. With him were most of his men who owned armor.

Knowing that the first few minutes of this battle were crucial, Wilhan didn't hold anything back and within ten minutes as many men fell to Oakheart. Most of the enemy's flanking cavalry were pulled to the middle of the field to meet Edbil's horses, but a dozen or so stayed to cause trouble. Wilhan and his men struck at both man and beast. Dead horses made for good obstacles to protect that end of the line.

Wilhan was exhausted by the time his flank was secured, but Ulmin who was acting as Wilhan's eyes and ears behind the lines still had to restrain him and pull him back to rest, fearful that Wilhan would make a mistake in that condition. By that point the battle had shifted to the middle of the pasture.

The sides were evenly matched overall but the Juxani had a tactical advantage with Wilhan's line acting as an anvil against Edbil's hammer. The stones and arrows had done more than distract the enemy, and once Edbil's foot soldiers engaged, the melee didn't last long. It was all over an hour after the Sarvalki started their charge across the pasture.

The boys were tasked with dispatching the wounded enemy and bringing their own off of the field while the rest of the army went after the retreating enemy and their camp. Many of the Juxan wounded would have died, but the veterans were quick to realize that the extra slings carried by the boys made excellent tourniquets. Wilhan stayed behind to use his sword to cauterize wounds. Now that he had an army supporting him there was no reason to hide the power of the sword any longer, and if some of the more headstrong warriors were willing to listen to him because they thought that he was favored by the gods with magic, so much the better.

The units that went on to attack the enemy camp were under orders not to pursue fleeing women and children. They did not have the time to chase down captives, or the manpower to look after them on the way to Cronvik, so they took what supplies they could and set the rest on fire.

The slingers were a boon to the little army working as drovers and shepherds for the newly acquired livestock. In addition to the food on the hoof, the Sarvalk warriors had iron and steel weapons, so that was another benefit to the victory.

Later that same day scouts returned with news about the main enemy encampments. Ten to fifteen thousand warriors, possibly more were waiting ahead, and people and supplies were being ferried across the river. Wilhan and Edbil had lost fifty men killed or severely wounded and decided to head west the next day keeping a safe distance between themselves and the enemy.

Word from King Arfald came the following day. He congratulated them on their victory and said that their road was clear to Cronvik. The Sarvalki had pulled in the raiding parties that had been ravaging the northern part of the kingdom for weeks and they were assembling for the final battle. He also informed them that all the Juxani were assembled four leagues north of Cronvik, all except for Wilhan and Edbil's forces, and he ordered them to join up as fast as they could.

They were not fast enough and late the following day messengers reported that the first day of battle had come and gone. So as not to miss the second and possibly deciding second day of battle, Edbil and Wilhan pushed the men hard for the rest of that day and through most of the night. The men were allowed to sleep for a few hours until dawn and then they were pushed on again.

Few were getting sleep at the king's command post when the messenger arrived in the middle of that night.

King Arfald, we are moving to hit the left flanking force when they awake, or soon after. We have only four hundred and hope that you can take advantage of the distraction before we are destroyed. Signed -- Edbil and Wilhan, Warjarls of the Elksen Clan

The message was passed along to the commanders at the end of the line, with little note.

The next morning Wihan and Edbil's men were tired but not worn out when they neared the war camp of the thousand-man Sarvalk flanking unit. They came in from behind. The morning march had only been two miles and as dawn broke they attacked quickly, sweeping through the sleepy camp on their way to what would be their battlefield.

It didn't take much time for a foot soldier to grab his gear, but it did take some time for commanders to assess a situation and organize their squads. While the Sarvalk commanders rushed to get organized, Juxan stones and arrows flew at them. The skirmishers had rushed forward to get to a range where they could hit individual targets. They wanted to pull out some of the enemy troops to fight them. The ploy worked and the Sarvalki advanced on them without delay, or much organization.

The heavy slingers and remaining archers did their job, and by the time the enemy clashed with the regrouped and organized Juxan line the odds were down to three to two.

The armored horsemen of the Juxan nobles, who had led the raid, left the line and circled back behind the enemy camp again. The Sarvalk lead commander chastised himself for not for not thinking about attack from the rear, but the land behind them had been cleared of Juxans and all of the Juxan forces had been pinned down in front of him for weeks. Now that the little mob had passed through his camp and was ready to fight in front of him, where they were supposed to be, he paid no more attention to his rear, and again he was caught off guard when the riders came in behind his lines.

The riders kept the Sarvalk lines in disarray and helped even out the odds when the two forces met. The Sarvalk warriors were no more experienced than Wilhan's overall, but after the battle in the pasture Wilhan and Engruth's men were disciplined and ready to do as they were told.

As a war jarl, Wilhan was expected to be on the ground at the front of every charge, but with so much going on when the battle started he found himself on his horse blowing horn and whistle commands as the lines clashed. From that point on he was swinging his sword at targets of opportunity from horseback trying to keep the line closed.

After the first clash the line held at a stalemate until commanders on both sides called their men back to regroup.

"We're just surviving out there," an exhausted Edbil said, "if we keep on like this both sides are going to chew each other down to nubs."

"Odds are about even now," Wilhan said, "and I think I can get us the breakthrough we need..."

Wilhan quickly gathered all of the most heavily armored men, along with his special units, and got them ready.

When the horns from both sides sounded, the Juxan line advanced at a jog towards the Sarvalk warriors who were sprinting at them. Juxan whistles then started blowing all along the line and the last remaining shield buster javelins were thrown. They were aimed at two points of the Sarvalk line. Where the spears were hitting two heavy, powerfully built men sprinted ahead at full speed, and forming behind them were wedges of armored men. Like fangs in a great jaw the two points bit into the Sarvalk line. As the two lead men hit they were pushed forward by those behind them.

The two fangs punctured the enemy line and the trained men of the wedge opened the two wounds in the line wide enough for horse lancers to come through before it could be closed again.

Enemy soldiers forced back by the press of horses started their lines to roll back on themselves. That soon started a panic that turned into a rout.

The Juxan foot soldiers were held back as the lancers chased the retreating force. Wilhan an Edbil expected a long day, and the war was much bigger than the barley field they were now in. The foot soldiers were allowed to strip the dead of valuables, and the skirmishers were sent out to recover what stones and arrows they could find.

It was a good thing that the men were held back because before too long the lancers came galloping back with an impressive force of Sarvalk cavalry on their heels. The men were quickly whistled back into formation and Wilhan and others rode up and down the line organizing pike men, archers, and slingers. Corridors were opened for the Juxan horsemen to pass through.

The Sarvalk horsemen were met with a wall of pikes that stopped them short, and the reequipped archers and slingers took advantage of the stationary targets.

The charge of their reserve cavalry gave the retreating Sarvalk foot soldiers courage to regroup and rejoin the fight. Things got dicey on the line for the Juxani after that. Wilhan's archers and slingers, some who had lied about their age and were as young as fourteen, were forced to pick up shields and weapons when they ran out of stones and arrows. The boys had listened and watched the other men train, and did a good job of working in teams, and even though losses were heavy losses were not as bad as they could have been.

Before he knew it, Wilhan's horse was dead under him and he was fighting on foot. He went after the most heavily armored opponents he could find because they were doing the most damage to his men. Sarvalk warriors relished single combat, and even though Wilhan didn't, time and again he found himself facing off against the biggest and the baddest the enemy had to offer. When faced with a man covered in chain mail he didn't hesitate to use the magic of the sword. His thrusts and slashes penetrated and melted though mail hauberk and iron helm again and again. His own dragonscale armor was battered and chipped from deflecting spear, sword, and axe strikes in the melee.

Ulias dismounted when Wilhan's horse went down, and armed with only a shield and a longsax he did his best to protect Wilhan's back. More than once a flanking enemy warrior went after the heavily armored dealer of death instead of the boy, and more than once he paid for it with his life as Ulius took advantage of an opening.

Wilhan discovered the fourth power of the sword during one of those fights. He was faced off against a highly skilled and heavily armored man much larger than himself. They both had swords and Wilhan was feeling the effects of the man's strength. None of his tricks were working, the other man was just too good and then, during a feint that already hadn't worked on his opponent, Wilhan wished that his sword would disappear.

Out of the corner of his eye he could see Oakheart start to shimmer like rippling water. The supernatural image broke the concentration of the enemy warrior and enabled Wilhan to get in a decisive strike.

It was an easy thing to do, much like the light spell, so for much of the remaining battle Wilhan fought with a shimmering, partially visible blade, which caused more than one superstitious enemy warrior to back away from him.

Finally, the Sarvalki broke and ran for the second time, and this time many of Wilhan's men followed at least as far as the enemy camp. The boys who had not been caught up fighting on the line were tasked with bringing the wounded off the field and stripping the dead of valuables while the camp was being secured.

The captured camp was a godsend that day because it yielded food and water for the tired Juxan troops. Wilhan and Edbil had lost a third of their men, killed or wounded; acceptable losses when fighting against a force over twice their size.

Just after midday scouts reported that the main battle was in an open field a half mile away and was still going strong. There were no enemy reserve units in the area to oppose or attack so Wilhan and Edbil regrouped their somewhat rested men and headed towards the fighting.

They came out of the woods, again to the left rear flank of the enemy, and charged as fast as they could while keeping their line together. The fighting was heavy at this part of the line because enemy units had been shifted to bolster the area when the Sarvalk high commanders found out that their flanking unit was attacked and in a fight. As a result, the Juxan forces were having a hard time of it. They had been fighting since midmorning and. It was now the hottest part of the day. Both sides were exhausted.

After a meal and walk through the cool woods Wilhan's men were ready to go again, and this time his young archers and slingers had no qualms about working in tight. They knew that they could outrun the tired enemy warriors, so they moved in close behind the enemy and made every shot count.

The unexpected attack by a fresh forced soon rolled the Sarvalk flank back on itself, and finally the line crumbled completely, causing what was once an invading army of twenty thousand men to retreat.

Over the next week most of the king's forces and clan units pressed towards King's Port where a battle was fought for the enemy longships that were docked there. Other ships were tied up along the river. Wilhan and Edbil had taken their men straight north chasing after stragglers headed to any boats they could find along that stretch of river. By happenstance, they narrowly missed stopping the Sarvalk king, Bonthan, from escaping.

Moving quickly upriver, since there was less competition in that direction, Wilhan and Edbil secured three longships and several river boats, and defended them against retreating Sarvalk units for several days. There was no shortage of Sarvalk women and children, or livestock, running through the woods and quite a few captives were taken, but within days word came that northern clan chiefs claimed that any Sarvalk resources now in their territory belonged to them. It was a reasonable demand seeing that much of their territories were devastated. With that message came the order to report directly to King Arfald and Ruther. Engruth had left Ruther to deal with such details as he busied himself with matters more economically beneficial.

Cronvik was bustling with activity, and full of both warriors and refugees. Wilhan abd Edbil were debriefed in a rather large room filled with scribes and various administrative lackeys. Wilhan was awed at being in the presence of the king, but it didn't seem to faze Edbil. Both the king and Ruther asked questions that were more detailed than either Edbil or Wilhan expected, and when they were done, Wilhan said. "My Lord, my men and I would like to join the forces going after King Bonthan."

No mention had been made by Arfald or Ruther about pursuing Bonthan, and Ruther looked at Edbil, who said, "This is the first I've heard of it." He then turned to Wilhan and said, "My obligation is done, and I have just about made my money back on the captured livestock and slaves. I plan to go home."

Arfald said to Wilhan, "Bonthan escaped to Harvik with a sizable force, and our clan chiefs are content to be rid of him. As you noticed there is a lot of rebuilding to do, and we have to get King's Port up and running again."