‘But it makes no sense!’
‘War makes no sense, Fell. Let’s talk about it all tomorrow.’
‘Aye, we’ll do that,’ he said. ‘I will be proud to stand beside you.’
‘You won’t be beside me, Fell. I need you and your men to take up a position away from the battle, on the right. They will break through on the western slope, and head for the encampments. They must be stopped. Destroyed. Hold the right, Fell. Do it for me!’
‘Oh, God!’ he whispered, his stomach knotting.
‘What is it?’ she asked, concern in her voice.
‘Nothing,’ he assured her. ‘It is all right, just a little cramp in my leg. You are right, Sigarni. We should sleep now. Come, put your head on my shoulder.’
Sigarni sat up and pushed Lady away. ‘Back to your blanket, you hussy!’ she said. ‘He is mine alone!’
Settling down beside him with her arm across his chest, she fell
asleep almost immediately. But for Fell there would be no rest that night. He remembered the night at Gwalchmai’s cabin, and the drunken words of the Dreamer.
‘But I know what I know, Fell. I know you ‘ll live for her. And I know you ‘II die for her. “Hold the right, Fell. Do it for me!” she ‘II say. And they ‘II fall on you with their swords of fire, and their lances of pain, and their arrows of farewell. Will you hold, Fell, when she asks you?’ Gwalch looked up, his eyes bleary. ‘I wish I was young again, Fell. I’d stand alongside you. By God, I’d even take that arrow for you.’
No house by the Falls. No golden future in the sunshine on the mountains. This one night is all there is, he realized. He felt the panic in the pit of his belly, and in the palpitations of his heart. Fell so wanted to wake Sigarni again, to tell her of Gwalchmai’s prophecy. Yet he did not.
Instead he held her to him and listened to her soft breathing.
‘Willyou hold, Fell?’
Aye, he thought, I will hold.
The loss of a group of his scouts was not entirely unexpected, and the Baron had despatched four more men to scout the Duane Pass. Only one returned – and he had an arrow wound high on the right shoulder.
‘Well?’ asked the Baron.
The man’s face was grey, and he was in great pain. ‘As you predicted, lord, they have taken up a position on the flat hill. A wall of shields. I estimate there are almost three thousand warriors there.’
‘Their full force?’ The Baron laughed and turned to his officers. ‘See what happens when a woman leads? What fools they are!’ Swinging again to the wounded scout, he asked, ‘What of the western slope?’
‘Around a hundred men hidden in the trees. I got pretty close before they saw me.’
‘To the east?’
‘I saw no one, sir.’
‘Good. Go and get that wound seen to.’
‘Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.’
The Baron gathered his officers around him. ‘You have all studied the maps, and you will realize that their position is a strong one. We must first encircle the hill; that will stretch us thin in places, but it is too high for them to make a swift sally down upon us.’ He fixed his attention on a tall, lean cavalryman. ‘Chaldis, you will take half the cavalry and a thousand foot. Kill the defenders on the western slope and attack their encampment and the surrounding Pallides villages.’
‘Yes, my lord,’ Chaldis responded.
‘Where is Cheops?’ asked the Baron.
‘Here, my lord,’ answered a short, stocky figure in uniform of brown leather, pushing forward from the back.
‘You will take your archers to the eastern slope and pepper them. I will initiate attacks from the western side. Be wary, Cheops. I would sooner your arrows fell a little short than sailed over the defenders and struck our own men. Nothing so demoralizes a fighting man as to fear death from the shafts of his own archers.’
‘You can rely on us, my lord.’
‘Leofric, you will command the cavalry wing. Skirt the hill and continue sporadic raids from the north side. Use only the heaviest armoured lancers. The enemy will have good bowmen on that hilltop. Do not push too far. Hit hard, then break away. It will be the infantry who apply the hammer blow.’