Chapter Seven – Two smacks are better than one
We set out at dawn, aiming to take the Franks by surprise at the time when a man is between dream state and wakefulness. We had marched towards our target, our men trailing behind Huw; apart from a skeleton crew we had left to guard our ships back on the beach. He had described the fort that we were about to take. Sven and I walked by his side, Sven holding the rope around his neck, whilst I had my sword pressed against the small of his back.
‘Fulk has quite a formidable fortress, its not wood you see, no timber palisade or stockade, it’s a Roman fort, its one of the only things that Fulk lavishes money on, because it keeps his wealth safe you see?’, the Welshman was pulling on the rope leash around his neck, but continued to describe the fort that we would need to take.
‘The problem is that although he has spent a fortune on the walls, strengthening them and so on, he has starved his men of gold, the battle would have seen all but his most loyal flee, so I think you will able to take them easily. The only problem is getting through the main gate, you could fire it, but it would take an age to burn, you could use a ram on it, but you would need to build one, which would take time, so I suggest that you use guile instead.’
Sven stared at the little man, his interest apparent, like all Norseman he loved to trick or fool an enemy, ’Well, what’s your scheme then, lets hear it?’
Raising an eyebrow Huw suggested ‘I think that Aed and I exchange places.’
Sven, looked at the Welshmen and then at me, ‘Aed?! Ah, you mean Dogface!’
I could feel my face burn up; I had wanted to tell my new friend my ‘name’ in my own time.
‘Well, Aed or Dogface or whomever needs to change places with me, I can lead him through the gates, Fulk will recognise him as the man who smashed his face in, he won’t wonder why Aed is my prisoner. He will just want to get even, see? We should be able to hold them at the gates, while you bring the rest of the men up to support us – the gates are narrow you see – the two of us should be enough of a handful.’
Sven turned the idea over in his head and then asked the same question that I was thinking, ‘What’s to stop you from running into the gates with my son and then handing him over?’
‘Nothing’, Huw, as I would come to know was always straightforward. It wasn’t the answer I was hoping for…
Sven looked at the pair of us and smiled, I could sense he was coming around to liking the little man from Gwynedd. ‘Alright swap over, but if you play me false Welshman, I will take that fort, I will gut you like a carp and let you watch as I eat your entrails.’
Sven raised his right arm and our column of men stopped moving, a few taking an interest in what we were doing, most however stood around waiting for the order to move on.
The little man nodded, and we swapped places, he took my sword and stuck it in his waistband, Sven handed him a battleaxe, and I took the rope from his neck and place it upon my own.
‘Aed, he wouldn’t really eat my innards would he?’ Huw had a hopeful look on his face’.
‘I wouldn’t put it past him, he is a mad bugger’ I smiled and laughed, and then felt a smack in the right eye as the Welshmen hit me.
‘What the hell did you do that for?’ I was rubbing my eye, tempted to smack him back when I felt another blow to the other side of my face, and landed with a thump on my backside.
‘Good idea, Welshman’, Sven had landed his meaty fist on my left eye and I could feel my eye swelling already.
‘It’s for your own good; I can’t drag you in there as my prisoner without a mark on you, can I?’ Huw smiled as he helped me to my feet, Sven and several other Norseman having a good laugh at my expense.
I was not amused I can tell you.
Huw looked at us both and spoke ‘We haven’t got long to walk now, about half a mile, we need to get on the other side of this small hill, see, and we will be able to see the fort, and the fort will be able to see us. Your men will need to remain here, while we approach the fort’.
I was incredulous, ‘Half a mile?! We will be dead before our men can get to us. Can we not get our men closer?’
‘No, it’s all flat farmland over the rise, not a tree, hedge or stone to hide behind; the men will have to follow us’.
It seemed we had no choice.
Sven nodded, handed his shield to Huw and waived at us to go on, we walked up the small hill, the rope around my neck, just starting to chafe. As we crested it, I could see Huw had been telling the truth, before me lay a panorama of flat farmland, no cover, and a stone fort with a simple wooden gate in its centre.
‘Don’t worry, we will be fine, I’m telling you. The fort will be half empty. You and I will be more than a match for what’s left of Fulk’s men. We just need your boys to close on us quickly’.
Huw handed me the shield, ‘You holding the shield is a good idea, it keeps your hands busy, and makes the Franks think you are no danger. When we get in the fort I will take out the guards, and then drop your sword on the ground and you can start fighting. Let’s go.’
We walked along a well worn track, using the centre of the path to avoid the wheel ruts that had formed in the hard earth on either side. Huw had his battle axe in his right hand and dragged me along with the rope in his left. In no time at all we were in front of the fort.
As we approached the fort a man who had been carefully watching our approach from the battlements raised his arm in acknowledgment of the Welshman. Huw shouted up to him in Frankish for the gates to be opened, I stumbled and fell, Huw pulling me to my feet whilst aiming a well aimed kick at my backside.
The man on top of the gates laughed out loud and said something to Huw, he then shouted out again, and I heard the sound of a locking bar being lifted from behind the gates.
The gates swung open and I saw four men in heavy mail standing before us, we had only counted on two….