Varangian (Aelfraed) (31 page)

I heard a trumpet and the knights withdrew.
  My men cheered and some of them began to go forwards.  “Back in line or I’ll have your ears!” They all shuffled back into line. I could see on the right that the cataphracts had, indeed broken through and the Normans were routed. Our plan was working and then, to my horror, I saw Ridley and other Droungos charging after the fleeing Normans.  I yelled a futile, “No!” but it would not have been heard, Ridley and half of the best troops we had raced off to their doom.

The knights in the centre had not been committed and they wheeled and charged my poor Varangians who were caught in the open.
  Here and there small groups tried to form a shield wall but it was in vain. At that point the knights from the Norman right and the infantry launched themselves, not at us but Alexios in the middle. I turned to the light horse.  “Get to the right flank and try to cover their retreat.  Hit and run! Hit and run!” I turned to the men around me. Plunging Boar Splitter into the ground I drew my axe, “Wedge!”

Alexios was struggling to maintain his line as the knights who had hacked Ridley and his men to pieces now joined the others.
  It was too much for the men of the Thema and they fled the field.  Alexios and the Hetaireia would have all been slaughtered were it not for two things; the Normans had forgotten my four hundred men and the light horse were disrupting the Norman knights on the right.

My wedge plunged into the side of the Norman knights.
  We were on their right and there were no shields to stop us causing them serious wounds.  We carved a bloody path through horse and knight relentlessly making our way to Alexios and their fellow Imperial Guard.  Inexorably we slowed down their advance and I saw that Alexios was moving them backwards.  We had killed so many that we were exhausted and we were the ones at risk.

“Shield wall!” The men halted instantly, probably with exhaustion. “Retreat!” My men performed this difficult manoeuvre well turning from an arrow to a line and then walking backwards.
  The Norman horses were blown and, when the cataphracts reformed the Normans allowed us to leave the field, fearing even more casualties. They had won the battle but we had saved the army.

The baggage train was a mile behind the battlefield and we found that the Kentarches, the backbone of the army had rallied many of the Thema and they had made a crude fort from the wagons. It was little enough but it saved the army.
  As soon as we reached it, the doctors began to deal with the wounds.  I had the Imperial Guard form a perimeter while we assessed the disaster. I had seen Alexios during the retreat and knew that he had survived.  I would speak to him later but my first worry was that the Norman Knights would attack us.  “Make sure the wagons are tied together and the horses are in the middle!”

“Horsemen!”

Our nervous warriors immediately presented a wall of shields and spears but I was relieved to see that it was Basil, the Tourmache, and the light horse. They had been knocked about by the Normans but they had survived. Basil had received a blow to his head and had a dented helmet.  A tendril of blood trickled down his cheek. “The city has fallen and the Normans have retired within its walls.” His shoulders sagged with exhaustion, “They are not following.” He waved with his arm and one of his men brought a horse with a body draped over it.  “This is one of your Varangians, lord, he is wounded but alive.”

I raced to the horse and saw, to my delight that it was Ridley.”Thank you Basil, I am in your debt! Doctors!”

The doctors raced up and grabbed the limp, almost lifeless body.  They waved my arms away, “This is healing business, not killing business, strategos!”

I did not mind their impertinence for they were right. Alexios took my arm, “At least he lives and now my friend we need to work out what we must do.
  This Robert, he has out foxed us.  Where to go?”

I thought of this Norman as a chess player.
  We had been playing a game of chess and we had been bloodied but how did we end up in this trap? Ridley’s recklessness did not cost us the battle, it was our haste to get to the city which had done that but poor Ridley had denied us the warriors we would need...  “Tell me Emperor, why did we think that Robert was in Thessaly?”

“We had reports of Normans in the region.”

“But it was not the army of Robert Guiscard. He has been one step away from us each time.  First we think he has already captured the city and we moved south.  Our distraction and the Venetians at Dyrrhachium meant he could take Corfu unopposed and that means he controls the whole of the west coast of the Empire.”

“We know that Aelfraed but it doesn’t tell us where he will be going.”

“It does.  Thessaly.  The place we started for.  We can beat him to Thessaly and defend that land.” I waved my arm around the camp.  We are in no position to attack but we can hold until your plan for the Holy Roman Emperor comes to fruition. We can build up our armies and John can produce the Scorpions.  It takes time to take a city, and we can bolster the garrisons with the Thema.”

“It is a plan and, at the moment, the only one we have.
  I will send the Thema ahead to Larissa and my guards and the cavalry will escort the wounded there.”

As he left to give his orders I hurried to the tents of the surgeons to see how Ridley and my other wounded warriors were. Edward was there already.
  He had suffered a slash to the arm and was bandaged. He approached me, “He is badly wounded my lord, he took a spear through his knee and he was hamstrung in the other.  He will never stand in a shield wall again.  His left arm was badly cut and his has a bad wound to the face.” My face must have displayed my feelings for he added, “But he will live.”

“Thank you Edward.
  How many of our men survive?”

“We have three Kentarchia.
  Until Cnut and Sweyn return, I am the only officer.” That was a measure of the bravery of my men and officers.  They had not fled but stood their ground and died, they were warriors.

“You have done well.
  We escort the wounded to Larissa in the morning.  Prepare the men and watch over Lord Ridley.  I will see how many others are left.”

A depressing walk around the camp revealed that there were only two thousand of the Hetaireia left alive and barely a Droungos of cavalry.
  We had been soundly beaten.  The only force which had emerged almost intact was the one hundred and fifty cataphracts although, a quarter of their men as losses, was still too high a number.  They too would remain with the column and they were the only threat we had against the Norman cavalry should they approach.

The Thema left as soon as they had rested, marching through the night to gain as much ground as they could.
  The surgeons reported that Ridley would live but it would be a long time before he would be able to walk again. I fell asleep as depressed as any time since before Fulford.  Would I never get the better of the hated Normans?  It was galling to win my own part of the battle but to see our army lose. I knew we could beat them but only if we fought them my way. I suddenly heard Aethelward laugh in my head at my arrogance but, in my head, I answered him. ‘
I am a strategos now uncle and I play the game
.’

I rode my horse next to Ridley’s wagon which he shared with three other wounded warriors.
  He had been heavily drugged and did not awake.  I took that as a good sign for it meant his body could rest.  I also knew that the surgeons had used the pastes similar to the ones Reuben of Jorvik had given me and that my friend would heal and he would keep his limbs.  He would become a cripple like Aethelward; but he would live!

We reached Larissa after five of the hardest days’ travel I can remember.
  Ridley began to stir as we approached the walls.  The Tourmache of the Thema had taken charge of the defence and I could see new ditches being dug and wagons entering with foods. The Governor of the town was a frightened looking little fat man who immediately began pestering Alexios with questions.

“Majesty, your man has begun to order my soldiers around and bring in supplies.
  Surely if you are here there is no danger?”

Alexios had a voice which seemed to calm people just by its sound and so it was with the Governor, “Governor, the Normans are coming but they are a nation of horseman.
  I will leave the Thema hereto defend you whilst I go to Byzantium to raise an army to come to your aid.  We are laying in food.  If you wish to send your wives and daughters to Byzantium then we will escort them. We will defeat this enemy.”

The Governor smiled and suddenly seemed calmer and more amenable. We stayed there for one day only, merely enough time to collect the handful of wives, mainly the officials of the town, and we took them east.
  As we left the wagons were rolling in with supplies.  Robert would have his hands full with a siege if he attempted it.

Ridley awoke as we left the vicinity of the soon to be beleaguered city. The wounded warrior next to him, Olaf shouted to me.
  “Strategos, the lord he is awake.”

I rode to the rear of the wagon; we had left the front and rear open for fresh air to carry away the smell of blood. Olaf was supporting him.
  His face, with the red, raw scar running down it was now looking worse as the bruising made it also look black and blue. “I am sorry Aelfraed.  I let you down.”

I was aware that the men were listening and this was not the time for recriminations.
  “We escaped the trap and your charge, reckless though it was, bought us time.  Now rest.  We are heading back to the city so that you can see your family and recuperate.”

“This little wound, “he pointed to his knee, “will not stop me fighting again!”

There was no point in depressing him so soon.  “Just get well as soon as you can.”

There was a sombre atmosphere as the remnants of the army which had marched so proudly to war now slunk its way home.
  The sentries on the city walls looked shocked as the survivors of the vaunted Varangian Guard entered, barely a third of the number who had left.  Their expressions told it all.  If the Imperial Guards could not withstand the Normans then what chance did they stand?  That was our lowest ebb. As soon as the wagons entered the barracks with their wounded, the doctors and aides rushed to see to them.  Anna was also there, her face filled with joy.  We had sent riders back with news of the dead for I did not want the poor woman to be worried that her husband had died.  I had written in my message of his wounds so that she knew what to expect. Ridley hated being on the litter but Anna grabbed his hand. “Strategos, this is a happy day! I have my husband back, he is alive and he cannot go to war again!” She kissed me on the lips.  “Thank you my lord.”

Ridley almost screamed, “I will go to war again.
  This will not stop me.”

I put my hand on his arm. “When you walk again, unaided then you can rejoin the army.” Anna looked horrified but, unseen by Ridley I gave her a slight shake of the head and she mouthed her thanks. “The important thing is to get well.
  That is your wife’s department.  I have an army to rebuild.”

“I am sorry Aelfraed.
  I am burden and you can do without my whining.  I will concentrate on regaining my health.”

I then went to see to the wounded with Edward. “Find out which ones will be fit to fight again and which ones will need a
pension.  Make a list of new and suitable officers and check the equipment.”

“We will be fighting again soon?”

I looked at the sky.  “Winter is coming soon and for once that will be our ally as it will slow down the siege. If our Venetian allies can maintain their blockade then the Normans will not have as many supplies but by the spring we will be fighting again Edward and it will be we who are at the heart of the army.”

As I left to meet with Alexios and John I thought that what I had not said was that the Thema had not covered themselves in glory.
  They had not stood against the Normans and until they did then we would lose every battle we fought. I was praying that the Scorpions would be ready and more volunteers had arrived to fill the ranks of those who had died.

The normally ebullient and cheerful John looked downcast, as did Alexios when I entered their office later in the day.
  “More bad news my lord, Andronikos has lost another battle in Asia.”

“So we will get no help from that quarter.” They had a map on the table. I pointed at the red dot, “If Larissa can hold out for the winter and the Venetians continue to help us we may be able to attack them in spring. Will the Scorpions be ready?”

“In the next month, they will be completed.”

“Any more Saxons or Norse?”

“Three hundred but your friend Jarl Gunnersson tells me that many more are heading for the city by different routes.  They seem to know your name strategos.”

Alexios smiled for the first time. “That is good news at least for your men and the men of the Hetaireia saved the day.”

“And the cataphracts and light cavalry.”

“You are right but the light cavalry only slow down the enemy they do not defeat them and we do not have enough cataphracts to make a difference.”

“You need a better Thema.  Arm them with longer spears, give them a bigger shield and incorporate more archers amongst their numbers.”