25.
25.
The watershed of this siege was every single moment.
For three full days, in this space where a wicked magic made a single hour feel like a day, the Northumbrian army had thrown its full strength.
No matter how good you were, how evil you were, or whatever god whose name you believed in. Weapons made of cold iron cared nothing for such petty human circumstances and sliced through everyone equally.
By now, everyone surrounding these walls was gradually growing more familiar with the scattered red of blood than the green of the fields. When the fluids of others smeared on some part of their bodies were becoming less strange.
At last, the enemy's momentum flagged.
They must have been desperate, for they tried to cross the River Ouse, its waters surging with the melting ice... they made a few rafts, the haste of their construction all too clear, and came floating down. But the result was that they were caught by our waiting army and all became fish food.
They likely hadn't truly hoped for success. As Björn had guessed, it was clear that the time given to Ælla was not long.
"Those bastards are sickening! The setting of the sun is meant to tell people the time to sleep. It seems they don't even know such a simple fact!"
The third night upon these walls.
Beyond the walls, where I could now close my eyes and tell where I stood by the degree and shape of the protruding stones, human shadows moved. Like some kind of machinery, the flames flickered relentlessly beyond the darkness as soon as the sun set.
The warriors of Árós and Eoforwic with me had also grown accustomed to fighting under the faint light, and though they spat complaints and curses like Suthorolf beside me, not one of them was gripped by fear.
"Ælla is truly relentless. To press us this hard... he seems intent on crossing these walls even if every last one of them dies."
Hrólfr, whose white beard and hair seemed to have grown whiter over the past few days, also stood beside me, scrutinizing the Northumbrian warriors pushing forward once more.
The same shield walls as yesterday, arrows flying and falling just the same. Torches and lanterns prepared by both sides to illuminate the darkness. Ali's great horn blast and thunderous war cries marking the battle's start.
It appeared no different from the battles of yesterday and the day before, but to the eyes of the seasoned warrior standing next to me, it seemed otherwise.
"Their numbers and their spirit... they've slowed considerably, Jarl Helgi. They are losing the will to fight."
"Aye. I see it too, Hrólfr. To reduce such stone walls, more preparation would have been needed. He rushed too much, Ælla."
What was more, this place, Eoforwic, was a city situated on both sides of a great river.
Its form was no different from two sturdy fortresses linked by a bridge, so to besiege it, one would have to cross the river first, but Ælla had neither the time nor sufficient troops and supplies.
To properly besiege this large city, he would have needed at least twice the number of troops he had brought.
"Now Ælla will have to worry, my Jarl. Having raised such a great host, he must gain something, but instead, he's facing only losses."
"You're right, Hrólfr."
Damn right he was.
'I'd better help Ælla make a swift decision.'
If you show a clumsy opening, that day will be the date carved on your tombstone, Ælla.
*****
Just as Helgi and Hrólfr had anticipated, the camp of the Northumbrians was seething with a tension and fury that felt ready to erupt at any moment.
"How many troops have we mustered...! To fail at crossing these old walls! What a disgraceful affair this is!?"
[Bang!]
A huge, thickly haired fist slammed down upon the table with all its might.
Those startled by the sound instantly straightened their postures, each doing their utmost to avoid meeting the eyes of their enraged king.
"We must press them harder! Carve it into those filthy, impious barbarians that the master of this place is not the accursed piglet, Ragnar's son, but Ælla!"
It had already been an hour.
It was the time the King of Northumbria, who had been staring at the immovable walls while drinking wine fetched from the land of the Franks, finally lost his reason and began condemning everything in sight.
Inside the great tent, closed off on three sides against the evening chill of summer and open only toward Eoforwic.
Where the faint clamor of those trying to climb the strangely bright-lit walls of Eoforwic and those trying to stop them could be heard, though one would scarce believe it was the dead of night, only the king's fury seemed to dwell here.
'It was wrong. That fortress cannot be taken. Especially not as long as that devil is there.'
Bamburgh, the ancient fortress of the Angles once called Bebbanburg in honor of their beautiful queen.
Uhtred, the son of a powerful family that had lived in that region for generations, was impiously contemplating defeat.
But it was a natural thing.
If you removed that drunkard Ælla Cyning from this place right now, who could confidently guarantee their victory? The other Cyning, Osberht? That one was no different from Ælla.
At least Ælla witnessed his soldiers dying, but Osberht's face was hard to find, for what he was doing was anyone's guess.
Moreover, the warriors from the west, from Strathclyde, the kingdom of the Clyde Valley, were already showing signs of desertion.
From the start, there had been no capacity to lay a long siege to that wicked fortress straddling a great river on both sides.
Had the words of the bishops and the two Cyning, who had sounded drums and promised that the Lord's enemies would crumble the moment they crossed the walls, guaranteeing a promised victory, all been lies?
"Wine—! Bring more wine—!"
Recalling the terrifying Norseman who had chopped down the valiant warriors of Northumbria like splitting dry firewood, the clever Uhtred began to seriously ponder retreat.
If the king didn't like it, he himself had no choice but to survive.
*****
In any matter, the first resolve is the firmest.
But as time passes, that initial heart inevitably wavers, and by the time the fifth night had passed, the Northumbrians, who had attacked so ferociously, had begun to 'go through the motions.'
Going through the motions of placing ladders, the motions of advertising their movement by shaking torches this way and that. The motions of shooting arrows.
It was not targeting us on the walls, but rather seemed like a play put on for someone watching from behind them.
Yet who could blame them? The commanders were all lingering out of arrow's reach, sending only the warriors forward.
Moreover, no matter how much more bravely the Angles fought than we had expected, we were Norsemen.
We were not the sort to hang back in shame before a battle.
In particular, the men of Árós fought twice as well as other Norsemen.
The Garmr Brotherhood. Hel's Hunting Dogs.
Those who had once been dismissed as mere fledglings, green chicks propped up by a wealthy lord's generous support, had steadily built their renown and skill into an elite among elites.
And as for the warriors who now looked upon me, Helgi Ragnarsson, the founder and leader of the Garmr Brotherhood—whom even the people of Eoforwīc had begun to regard as something beyond human—only a single emotion remained in their gazes.
Absolute, blind faith.
"Those who are afraid, those who cannot fight, need not step forward. I cannot guarantee your lives."
"..."
Before the massive gate of Eoforwīc. The gate had already withstood several battering ram assaults from the enemy, and now, after all the thick logs leaned diagonally against it as reinforcement had been cleared away, only a single bar remained in place.
"Is there no one? Then you must all follow close behind my back."
Beneath the torches hung inside the walls, I looked upon the faces of the warriors standing with me for this night assault. To a man, they were men who had steeled themselves for death—men who had sought glory above life.
In the faith they conveyed to me, I renewed my resolve.
"And if at some moment your bodies do not move as you will, do not panic. For a Valkyrie will soon open the gates of the sky and come to your souls."
A grim metaphor, and rough laughter burst out here and there. Even some of the Eoforwīc warriors among them seemed to have understood my words. Traditions and culture do not vanish so easily...
"Let us advance bravely, brothers. Glory awaits us."
[Kung!]
[Kung! Kung-kung! Kung!]
When I struck my shield with the sword in my hand, the warriors who would follow me answered in the same rhythm, as one heart.
"Open the gate."
"Open the gate!"
A fearsome bloodlust seeped silently outward.
Under the battle-spirit of warriors who had simmered for days and nights crossing blades with the enemy, the torch flames swayed and danced all at once.
When the gate's bar was lifted at my signal, and at last the gate that had seemed it might never open began to reveal a gap, I met the eyes of each brother who gazed back at me with a steadfast expression, and without hesitation, rushed out into the darkness.
'When we moved, like the wind...! When we struck, like fire...!'
A heart pounding madly ceaselessly pumped blood through my body, and every sense showed me a new world.
Where eyes could not see, I perceived through hearing, smell, and a sense that words could not explain.
Instinctively seizing upon a point where the enemy's momentum was weak, I gave the soldier who spotted me charging out from the gate not even the time to scream as I hurled my hand axe with force.
[Hwik-! Hwirik-hwirik-hwirik Pueok!]
"Urk—"
"Huh?"
[Seogeok!]
Before the axe-struck soldier could fully collapse, I passed by the warrior beside him as though merely brushing past and precisely slit his throat.
And then, to keep my warriors' momentum from faltering as they charged in one after another driving back the enemy, I pressed even farther forward, cutting through the enemy ranks.
"Forward—! Children of Hel! Forward!"
If someone had seen from above, it would have looked as though the point of a boar's snout was piercing the enemy formation.
In the blink of an eye, I had already burst past the tenth shield, and the enemy's numbers had long since lost all meaning.
No matter how brightly the torches burned, they only illuminated their immediate surroundings, and in this midnight hour when all the dim parts had to rely on moonlight, once struck by such a charge, there was no option but to flee.
Or else, die beneath my sword.
"Block them! I said block them!"
"Run! Save your lives!"
Those who shrieked to block them personally came in that direction and gave me the chance to do so.
[Chaeng! Seogeok!]
Even in the dark night, the blades alone glinted faintly under moonlight and starlight, so that the clangor of iron striking iron rang out harshly, and the pale grey shadows of swords and spears the warriors swung tangled this way and that, dazing the mind.
Wearing expressions as though they were in a dream, the warriors of Northumbria who had been struggling to tell whether this was reality or illusion stared blankly as my breakthrough shattered their formation, then smashed into the formation beyond—and only when it came their own turn did they begin to flee, turning their backs.
"Now! Attack! Attack!"
"Hurry! We must support Helgi from behind!"
Once I stepped out of the gate, everything depended on me.
The moment to sally forth from the walls and strike the enemy had been decided by Björn, but everything after that rested solely with the vanguard commander. The enemy's defense was far feebler than I had expected, and my breakthrough exceeded anything they could withstand.
To swiftly match my completely unstoppable breakthrough, I faintly caught on the wind the sounds of Björn and Ivar leading their forces forward from the rear.
'It was truly an unbelievable sense.'
A sense that could grasp exactly the information I needed. Was he not a man truly born only for battle?
'Now that it had come to this, I would strike at the enemy's head.'
Strike the enemy king to strike the enemy. When striking the enemy, seize their chief first.
"Æl—la—!"
Beyond the backs of the fleeing Angles, something caught my eye in response to the bellow I had sent out.
Over yonder, at a distance that felt as if I could cross it in a single stride. A vast tent stood there.
It must have been a momentary illusion, but it felt as though I had crossed that great distance and met Ælla's eyes with my own.
'There he was.'
Fiercely baring my teeth, suppressing the urge to howl like a beast, I gripped my sword and shield as though they would shatter, and Hrolf's voice reached my ear.
"Jarl Helgi! You must wait! They have already turned their backs! We must push the enemy back together with the main force!"
So urgent was he that Hrolf's voice, shouted somewhat disjointedly, was hoarse and cracked, but I could hear him clearly.
'Wait just a little longer, Ælla. Soon I would come for you.'
I turned my back on the fleeing Ælla and cut down the brave warriors of Northumbria who would not retreat to the end and still stood against us.