Varangian (Aelfraed) (34 page)

“You frighten me Aelfraed and yet I would not be without you.
  The men, even my Greeks, regard you as a talisman.  As long as you live then they will win.”

That was the last major battle for a while.
  We chased Bohemund from city after city.  It was like a game of cat and mouse. We would find a city with a small garrison and take it and then head directly for Bohemund’s main army.  Our light cavalry were superb scouts and we kept one step ahead of him.  Gradually he worked his way back to Dyrrhachium, the place from which he had started. As we drew closer Alexios and I began to plan for our campaign in the East where Andronikos was still struggling to overcome the Seljuks.  The scouts had reported that Bohemund was to the southeast of the city with his men and we made camp.  A rider galloped in, his horse lathered and he exhausted. He handed over his package and almost collapsed.

Alexios read it and then he sagged in his chair. “It is the Pechengs. They have begun to raid our northern provinces.
  When we meet with Bohemund tomorrow we will then need to head north.” It was the Norns again, tying me to this part of Greece and the Normans.

Next morning we had even worse news. Bohemund and his garrison had slipped away in the night and were reported to be heading for Corfu which still remained in Norman hands. We headed into Dyrrhachium partly to see what effect the Normans had had and partly to give us some shelter after over a year in the field. Surprisingly the Normans had improved it with better defences and quarters. Alexios and I sat and ate dinner at a table, which was a novelty and we discussed how best to deal with the Pechengs.

“The news was that they were in Thrace and we know that country well.  The local tribes there, the Bogomils and the Paulicians, have allied themselves to the Pechengs so we have a rebellion and an invasion.”

“The men are tired.
  Another march north might be their undoing.  The cataphracts need a period of rest.”

“I know Aelfraed and I cannot give them one yet.
  At least John has kept us supplied with weapons and armour.”

“And the men that Ridley has sent have been a boon.”

“I can give you a week strategos and no more and then we head north.”

Except that we did not head north for we then received the worst news possible.
  Robert Guiscard was returning to Corfu with a hundred and fifty ships and even more knights.  When Alexios read the news he was as low as I had ever seen him. “Look on the bright side, Emperor.  It is a shorter journey down to Corfu and the islands than to Thrace.”

“But we have no ships and by the time they reach us he will be back on the mainland.”

“Did I ever tell you about my father” He shook his head. “Harold Godwinson?  My uncle Aethelward advised him to keep an army by the south coast to counter Duke William’s invasion.  It was a good plan and he did so.  Then the barbarians allied with rebels in the north and my father took his army north and defeated the rebels but, by the time he marched south to fight the Normans that his army was so exhausted that they were defeated and his best men slain along with himself.  So, Emperor Alexios, who is the greater danger, the Pechengs and the rebels, or the Normans?”

He smiled.
  “I think these Norns of yours are real for the stories are so similar… you are right of course, the greater danger is the Norman threat.  I will send the local Thema north to threaten them and we will go south and wait close to Corfu.  Thanks to the Normans rebuilding and improvements, the garrison here should hold out if they are attacked.”

The day before we left a scout rode in an
d approached me.  “My lord, I was scouting for Normans close to the field where we fought and I found this.” He unwrapped the broken half of Boar Splitter. “We heard that it was a mighty weapon and I thought that you would need it.”

Even though it was broken I now felt whole.
  Wordlessly I reached into my satchel and brought out a bag of a hundred gold pieces and gave it to him.  “My lord this is too much, I did not do it for the reward.”

“I know but the gold I give is not half of the value of this weapon.”

“Will you repair it my lord?”

“I thought back to the hillside in Wales where I had first used it and I shook my head.
  “No.  I will take it into battle with me but Boar Splitter is a spear no more.” As he went I felt that this was truly
wyrd
, the spear had come back to me just as we were to confront my Nemesis, the Normans.

And so a week later, the army of Alexios Comnenus headed south for its final confrontation with the Norman threat.
The further south we went the more convinced we became that this was the correct strategy. There were high mountains close to the coast near the islands he had conquered and if we could hold him there then we could do as the Spartans had done and thwart a much larger invader. We had reports that Guiscard had almost fifteen hundred knights which totally negated our cataphracts.  Even more worrying was the fact that he had sixteen thousand men which outnumbered our force by four thousand men.  It became imperative to reach the islands before he had landed. The light horse was sent ahead to observe the Normans while we plodded down through the mountains.  The only good news was that the weather warmed as we neared our quarry. The Thema sent to halt the Pecheng threat had done just that by holding up in the forts along the border.  Some of the land was ravaged but no territory was taken.

At last we heard the news we wanted, the Normans had not landed.
  Their fleet was still between the islands of Corfu and Kefalonia. We halted close to the town of Margaritim.  It was opposite the fleet and the men were hidden behind the walls and in the woods. We had to wait until Robert decided to attack.  We actually needed him to attack for we needed a victory to enable us to deal with the Pecheng threat but for a week we waited.

Finally they set sail, they must have boarded during the night for in the morning we saw the sails of his ships as they headed directly for us.
  Alexios quickly mobilised the army and within an hour, just as the Norman fleet was half a mile from the shore, we were all arrayed along the beach.   The commander of the fleet must have realised that they would lose too many men in an opposed landing and they tried to slow down the ships and change direction.  A number of ships fouled each other and two began to sink.  Alexios despatched the horse archers to dispose of any survivors and we watched for Guiscard’s next move. They headed south and, once again, although this time fully armoured, the army set off south watching the fleet to our right the whole time. Fickle Fate then intervened in the favour of the Normans and a wind picked up so that they began to outpace us.  The light cavalry was sent to follow them and we trudged on. By noon we were tiring and we came around a headland to see a messenger racing towards us but, in the distance we could see that we had lost the race, the Normans were landing. The messenger confirmed the news.  They had landed south of the river, just below the town of Glykeon.

My face must have fallen for Alexios leaned over to me.
  “Do not be downhearted Aelfraed.  We can see them and they needs must cross the river at some point.  We still have the advantage.” Although he was right I knew how dangerous our adversary could be and I hoped that we could find terrain which suited us.

The town of Glykeon was on a small rise above the river.
  I could see why they had avoided the river for it looked swampy with glutinous marshes and a grey fuzz of insects.  The opposite bank, close to where the Normans had landed and camped was the same.  The town itself, where we were, was in clean air some two hundred paces above the river.  Some four hundred paces from the town there looked to be a ford, not a shallow one but from the tracks leading to it from either side a well used one.  As we set up our own camp and began to assemble the artillery, Alexios and I rode to view the ground over which we would be fighting.

Alexios pointed to the ford.
  “That is where they will cross.” We looked at the land behind us, it was steep, too steep for cavalry to risk riding up but perfect for our cataphracts to launch themselves down. “We will put the cataphracts and the light horse there to threaten their right. If they avoid the town and try to head inland then we can attack them from above.”

I shook my head.
  “He will want to defeat you.” I pointed up at the Imperial banner.  “He knows you are here. He tried to put his own man on the throne and he wants you out of the way.  He is an old man and this is his final throw of the dice. If we put my men close to the river with the Hetaireia and the Scorpions then we force him to attack towards the town and we can put the Thema archers behind the city walls.  With their elevation and the spears of the others as a barrier we have our best chance and the Scorpions can scythe through their ranks.”

Alexios considered the plan, “That might work and is as good a plan as any.
  I will place my banner in the centre to draw him there, away from the Thema.”

“And I will stand with the Varangians and Hetaireia before you and to the right.”

That night I went around the camp to speak personally to all the officers so that they knew precisely what we were to do. I sent out men to strew the ground, under cover of darkness, with caltrops and then I joined my Varangians around the camp fires where we told tales of Stamford and Fulford. It was a good night and I saw, in my men’s faces, that they feared nothing, especially not the Normans whom we had already defeated.

We were up before dawn and saw that it was a misty, foggy day.
  The men fed and there was the whining sound of the whetting stone as the blades were sharpened. I felt at my belt for Boar Splitter which nestled below my left arm.  Today Death Bringer and Boar Splitter would bathe in Norman blood.

When the mist cleared we saw that Guiscard had been up early too and his army was arrayed on our side of the river. His knights could be seen in a block behind his infantry who faced us,
in the town and then at right angles for the cavalry in the hills.  The cunning old warrior, who sat astride a black stallion beneath his huge banner, was not risking his knights against the Scorpions.  I could see the banners of the soldiers of Dalmatia and Ragusa were to the fore. He would waste his allies and save his own, more valuable knights.  William the Bastard had done the same when fighting my father, sacrificing the Bretons. It did not matter; they would all die this day. They waited until the sun rose properly and the ground dried a little more.  That suited me for I could see the men waving their arms as flies and mosquitoes swarmed around their heads.  The warriors would be irritated while ours were calm. My men began keening a song about Stamford.  It was a lonely haunting song and its words carried across the valley making it even more melancholy but, oddly, calming the Varangians who waited for Guiscard.

The Croatian troops began their march towards us.
  I was not in the front rank for I needed to react to the enemy and their movements.  The front ranks of the Imperial Guard bristled with spears. They did not attempt to try to climb the hill to face the archers and artillery and they remained a silent threat. As soon as the front ranks struck the caltrops their cohesion went, but they were brave men and came forwards to face a withering volley from the archers in the town. Protected by huge shields they took fewer casualties than might have been expected but that very defence proved to be a hindrance as they reached my well trained men.  The Croatians did not see the spears which stabbed and jabbed unseen; they fell to the axes wielded by masters of their trade and they began to fall back through their dead and dying. 

I was on a low wall behind my men and I could see beyond the retreating infantry.
  I looked for the signal for the knights to charge but it did not come.  Instead I saw him wave his pennant and a line of Dalmatian soldiers with crossbowmen began to trudge up the hill.  Even from eight hundred paces away I heard the whoosh as the bolts were released and the screams as the bolts and the arrows began to take their toll but the crossbowmen had targeted the Scorpion crews and the number of bolts began to slow; allowing the Dalmatians to close with the Thema. The commander of the light cavalry ordered his men forwards and a volley of javelins sent the line backwards and we could see the ground littered with bodies and darkly stained with blood. Alexios saw the danger and sent two Droungoi of Thema to bolster the men on the hill.

Perhaps that was what William had been waiting for as he sent in his Norman men at arms.
  They walked steadily with a shortened version of the kite shield and they too were armed with spear and sword. The caltrops had served their purpose and now the infantry tramped steadily towards us, a line of mailed warriors facing another line of mailed veterans.  This would be bloody. I left my place to stand in the third rank of my Varangians.  My banner descended with me and my men began to beat their shields and chant my name. As they came into the archers’ range, men began to fall but they were quickly replaced by the well trained men in the second rank.  These men had not fought and conquered Italy without showing that they had steel and determination in their bodies.

“Brace!” All of us put our shields into the backs of the man in front and placed our right legs behind us.
  The Normans hit our front ranks and then were pushed back.  I could see the axes rising and falling and then rising again, bloodier.  Here and there I saw a gap appear and then it was filled by another Varangian.  The Normans were dying, but they were dying hard. I saw a gap before me and stepped into it.  There was little point in trying to use Death Bringer and I took out the shortened Boar Splitter. One of the Normans saw a gap and raised his spear to stab one of the men in the front line.  Boar Splitter darted out and went through his eye into his brain. As he slid to the ground the spear head came free. I saw a space between the two Varangians before me and I stabbed the short spear forwards.  The cry of pain told me that I had struck someone.  And so it went.  They were brave men but we were protected by archers who shot at any who lowered their shields and eventually they began to retire.  They had lost many men and although we had suffered fewer losses, ours were the more telling for we had not as many men as the Normans who could afford a battle of attrition.