Drustina gets involved in a war of attrition with the Viking invaders of Hibernia by plaing a game of 'Cat and Mouse' amidst the various islands and rivers that comprise the estuary of the river Shannon. She achieves a spectacular success at the little town of Askea where the island crossing and rocky gully proves to be a perfect place to set one of her cunning traps.

The Island at the town of Askeaton where the battle was fought. Though Drustina's fight predates the castle and the present abbey.

River Deel in full flood. A dangerous and treacherous river.

The Angry Mermaid 103
Or
Y Morforwyn Dicllon 103

When Carl and Heliox returned to the main channel of the River Shannon there was no sign of the main Viking invasion fleet. Carl slowed down to speak to Heliox in the following mermaid.

“I suppose they’ve all gone up channel, I suppose we’d better do the same.”

“Well we’d best keep close to the south shore,” Heliox added, “we’ve no idea where Drustina and Udris are but if they’re close to the south bank we might just see them.”

They studied the south shore but it didn’t look very inviting. There were low-lying rocks that seemed to mark a narrow estuary but nothing of any significance seemed to point to the river having any importance. Indeed, the rocks looked rather dangerous to any navigator who lacked local knowledge and the only local men Carl had were the Clare men who only knew the north shore. There were no Kerry men handy to tell about the narrow winding channel and dangerous rocky outcrops. They were just about to set off up the channel when one of Heliox’s lookouts called out.

“Look there. A green signal arrow! What would it mean commander?”

Carl saw it just before it plunged back to earth and he cursed.

“Unless the Vikings have learned a lot of secrets, I would guess that is one of our arrows. What think you Heliox?”

“Yes, but what does it mean?”

“It means that either Drustina or Udris is up to something. I think we’d better investigate. “

“That channel looks treacherous,” Heliox replied, “we’ll have to feel our way. Those rocks look lethal.”

“Should both of us go, or just one?” Carl wondered.

Both commanders hummed and hawed as they considered the situation. If both mermaids went upriver and the Viking fleet returned, they could get well and truly caught.

“You’d better wait here and keep a lookout for any ships. If you see any, fire a red signal arrow.”

Reluctantly, Heliox waited off the mouth of the estuary while Carl began to feel his way up towards where the green signal arrow had been seen. The navigation was tricky at first but the wide flat estuary let several places were Carl could turnabout if necessary. They could see the channel emerging from some dense trees on the shore but those same trees made it impossible to see up the river. Carl was cautiously feeling his way across a deep, wide, tidal pool when a commotion caught his attention. Several heads turned simultaneously in Carl’s boat as the commotion grew louder

“What the hell is that?”

“Dunno’, it sounds like some men shouting.”

“But what’s the roaring? Sounds like a waterfall or something.”

“I can’t see anything commander,” the lookout called down from his perch up the mast, “the damned trees lining the banks are impenetrable. I can see smoke further inland by one of those monk’s towers. You know, the ones they retreat into when the Vikings come raiding.”

Carl and his crew hesitated uncertainly. They were more perplexed than frightened and they stopped in the deep pool as they debated what to do. The decision was made for them as a Viking ship erupted from the tree-lined river rocking and tossing wildly while the crew cursed and struggled to control it. The longship was being swept downstream almost uncontrollably by a violent surge of water.”

“What the hell...!” Carl cursed as he roared his orders. “Man the oars! Get ready to ride the flood. That ship will be more concerned with saving itself when that surge reaches the tidal flats. The wave break will get worse as the channel shallows. We’ll be safer here in the deep pool. The depth will ease the torrent and flatten the crest. Get ready lads!”

All the crew were experience seamen who knew that deeper water made wave motions less violent so they leapt to ship the oars and watched their commander like a hawk as he gauged the arrival of the breaking crest. They trusted him implicitly. Carl manoeuvred his mermaid to where he thought was the deepest part of the pool and then carefully sculled with an oar over the stern to keep his position. In this case the tiller was useless for it could not manoeuvre the vessel backwards to maintain its place. Carl’s next concern was the onward approaching rush of the Viking longship as it tossed, pitched and almost capsized as its crew struggled to maintain some semblance of control. For several moments Carl actually admired the seamanship being displayed by the Vikings for they were enduring a wild ride at the mercy of the onrushing crest. It was not to last however. The rocks that formed the perimeter of Carl’s pool also comprised two sentinel spurs that caused the channel to narrow as the river entered the pool where it had scoured out the hollow sanctuary.

As the surging crest of the flood bore the Viking longship towards the sentinels, the Viking commander let rip a curse of despair. The wave peaked between the rocks causing the longship to finally broach and catch the stem-post against the spur. The planking held but the ship heeled violently as it span on the crest and plunged uncontrollably stern first into the pool that Carl was occupying. The stern dipped into the deeper water as the bow reared up onto the crest and the ship shuddered as the stern-skeg rammed the bottom of the pool. The shock unseated the crew and they were toppled aft into the sheets or over the side into the wave that was now surging past the swamped longship. Carl swallowed nervously for despite the deeper water, the wave was still quite steep. He picked his moment and bellowed.

“Row boys! Row for your lives.”

As they picked up the third stroke, Carl’s ship was just starting to make way when the wave swept into them. Their bow started to heave skywards just as the Viking ship had done but fortunately the Mermaid was better placed in deeper water. She was also shorter and shallower draught. The Celtic ship started to slip backwards and Carl had no need to urge his men. They all knew that if they did not make it over the crest of the wave, they would suffer the same fate as the Viking longship on the rocky edges at the other end of the pool. Fear-filled eyes watched their commander desperately threshing on the scull to help his crew as they also struggled frantically to ride over the wave.

The silent tension mounted as the Celts measured their backward progress against the rocks at the side of the pool. They needed no urging from Carl as they pulled even harder on their oars. Then the tension broke into curses of relief as each rower realised the wave was losing its momentum in the deeper waters of the pool. They could finally see progress as they realised they were at least standing still as measured against the rocky sides. Each man found some reserves of strength to make the supreme final effort and the bow responded with an alarming pitch skywards before plunging wildly down the back of the wave. Men clamped the backs of their knees desperately to the thwarts and let out screams of delight as they clutched desperately to their oars.

“We’re not out of bloody trouble yet!” Carl bellowed. “Watch out for the blasted backwash!”

The men needed no second bidding for they well understood what was about to happen. The wave had rushed past to fetch up against the narrow exit at the seaward end of the pool. Not all the wave could escape through the narrow gap and much of its energy was thrown back in a violent clapotis as the back-wave crashed into the following lesser waves of the flood. The pool was briefly turned into a horrendous maelstrom of unpredictable waves and breakers and the mermaid literally bounced and rebounded from wave to trough and back to wave again. It was fully thirty seconds before the crew could regain control. Each man offered up a silent private prayer of thanks to whatever God he believed in; for it was only some sort of benign spirit that had prevented them from somehow being smashed uncontrollably onto one or the other of the pool’s rocky edges. As each man swapped a smile of pure gratitude with his fellow rower they nursed bruised fingers and bruised ribs wherever the oars had fought them. Carl also nursed a bruised shoulder where the longer sculling oar had glanced against the rocks and flicked him violently against the redundant tiller. Silence reigned for long seconds before the crew recovered from the fright.

Eventually Carl found breath to call.

“Anybody badly hurt?”

The lookout called down from his perch.

“Only my nerves commander!”

This brought a collective roar of relieved laughter from the whole crew for they all realised that the poor lookout must have endured a wild tossing as the ship had rocked and pitched and rolled. High up on the mast, the motions would have been hugely exaggerated and he was lucky not to have been flung off his perch. Cautiously he slithered down the halyard and grinned as he rubbed his arse and checked his manhood. His legs had been wrapped around the mast as he sat lodged in the gaff-ring. One of the men teased him.

“Don’t worry lad, she’ll love you still if you get home with or without em!”

The lad stepped gingerly until he was sure everything was as it should be then he went to report.

“The smoke was getting less when I last looked. My thighs are hurting from gripping the mast so long.”

Carl smiled and nodded.

“Good lad, now you lot. The job’s not over. That bloody longship is blocking our way and there’s still a couple of crew to deal with.”

A few survivors’ heads were bobbing in the water, they were those who were both good swimmers and also managed to shed their heavy battle garb. Carl ignored them and steered for the derelict longship. There was no hope of salvaging it at that juncture because
the vessel was swamped and sitting partially submerged on the bottom. Their problem was getting around it to continue up the river.

Once again it was a matter of feeling past the semi-submerged hull whilst others stood ready to shoot any Vikings who looked as though they might still have any fight left in them. None did, they were just grateful to be onshore with their skins intact. Few had their swords and none had any bows. The Celts simply kept an eye on them as they finally squeezed past and between the rocky sentinel spurs as they continued up the river Deel.

The evidence of the ‘flash flood’ was apparent on the banks as Carl and his crew continued edging their way upstream. Fresh chunks of bank were exposed where the rush had scoured out earth and rock not to mention the occasional smaller tree. More gruesome however, was the scattering of Vikings some drowned, some injured, some just lying exhausted and shocked either in pools or on the banks but all were too exhausted and traumatised to be a threat. None had their weapons and only those who had shed their battle armour had survived. The ones still wearing plate or chain-mail appeared to be all drowned. Nevertheless whenever a victim of the flood showed signs of reacting to the arrival of the mermaid, Carl’s archers swiftly filled the individual’s body with arrows. Carl could not afford to take prisoners. After half an hour’s cautious rowing and poling, Carl arrived at a point where the river ceased to be tidal.

The location was only a hundred yards below the island where the smashed abbey wall showed evidence of Drustina’s endeavours. As they secured their ship to the damaged riverbank Carl finally made out a large Viking yelling defiance at the Celts who seemed, for some reason, to be reluctant to kill him. The stand-off intrigued Carl so he eventually stepped ashore to find Drustina and Udris discussing the situation. Drustina looked up and smiled widely as she recognised her partner.

“How did you get here?” She asked.

“My ship is around the bend, amidst those trees, you can’t see it from here.”

Drustina’s smile widened to a ‘face-splitting’ grin when she realised that they now had a ship at their disposal.
“How did you get past the longship?”

“The flood surge did for it. We met it as it was being swept along on the wave. The rush of water overwhelmed it further down-stream.”

“So how did you survive the wave?”

“Pure luck. We were deciding the next move whilst biding our time in a large deep tidal pool. The onrush hit us in the deep pools and we just managed — and I mean JUST, - to ride the crest where the water was fairly deep. The longship caught a rocky spur and broached.”

“Didn’t you capture it?”

“It’s partially submerged. It would take hundreds of men to raise it and refloat it.”

“Damn! It would have been really useful.”

Carl then turned to look at the defiant giant Viking still roaring his challenges to the hundreds of Celts who surrounded him.

“What’s with old Noisy? Aren’t you going to finish him off?”

“I’d like to try and take him alive, judging by his armour, he looks pretty high up.”

“He’s a Viking; he’ll die fighting rather than let you take him alive.”

“He’ll die of starvation if he doesn’t surrender. I want him alive. I’ll post a hundred men to guard him where he stands while the rest of us push on to the River Maigue, I want to establish the trebuchet on the bank to assist King Dal.”

“Then you’d better hurry, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Viking vanguard hasn’t already reached the Maigue.”

Drustina cursed softly, she had suspected as much. She turned to Prince Dorvan.

“How far is it to the Maigue?”

“About ten miles but the road isn’t much better than the road from Foynes to here.”

“Dammit! We’ll be faster by ship, at least as far as the Maigue estuary.”

They all agreed that Carl’s ship would probably be faster and Drustina immediately started to load the trebuchet onto Carl’s ship.

“So where’s your own Mermaid?” Carl asked.

“I don’t know. She went upriver with Udris’s ship ahead of the Viking fleet. They’ve either joined forces with King Dal O’ DalGleish or they’ve hidden somewhere, possibly in the River Maigue. Where’s Heliox?”

“He’s standing guard off the mouth of this river. If there’s a threat he’s borrowed a horn from the north shore troops. They are making haste along the north-shore and they’re all on horseback.”

“Good. D’you want me to come with you or shall we secure a landing point on the river Maigue?”

“You’d best find us somewhere safe to put this thing ashore. I wouldn’t want it falling into Viking hands. They could quite possibly have occupied the River Maigue and its estuary.”

“If you do meet any longships, don’t tangle with them. That trebuchet is too valuable to us and it would be devastating if it fell into Viking hands.”

Carl grinned and asked.

“D’you think they’d know how to operate it?”

Drustina smirked and made a sarcastic smile before grinning.

“You learned!”

“Watch ‘it wife or you’ll get a spanking.”

Drustina ducked swiftly from his outstretched clutch as she giggled and gave a final suggestion.

“Whatever you do, don’t let the Vikings capture that!” She nodded towards the trebuchet.

Finally, the trebuchet was reloaded aboard Carl’s Mermaid and Drustina rejoined Prince Dorvan. The prince asked about the trapped Viking.

“Are you just going to leave him?”

“Why not? Provided your archers keep him under surveillance he can’t escape from that narrow gorge. Now we’d better make all speed for this river. Is there a bridge or anything?”

“It’s about three miles inland and it would add about an hour to the journey.

“So how many are we?” Drustina asked before she formulated a plan.

“We are leaving sixty men to watch that giant oaf of a Viking so that gives me about two hundred and forty or so; plus whatever men you can provide.”

“Well, about two dozen will be accompanying the Trebuchet and providing a full crew for both Carl and Heliox, so I’ve got about forty.”

“So that’ll be just short of three hundred mounted warriors. Have they all got bows?”

“Most of them have.” Dorvan replied.

Drustina nodded as she considered her options.

“Our advantages are speed, mobility and fire power. What we won’t be able to do is protect the trebuchet if the Vikings catch us with it on land. They will win hand’s down in a stand up man-to-man fight.”

“Do we have to land it?” Udris asked. “If we can fire it from Carl’s ship it will be fully mobile.”

“But not so accurate. It’ll be smaller stones again to make a wide scatter to hit as many men with each salvo. The trouble is small stones don’t damage the longships enough to sink them quickly. If the thing is fixed on the shore, we have a more constant range fix and a better supply of ammunition.”

“There aren’t many stones around that area Drustina,” Dorvan lamented. “It’s muddy and flat with few rocky outcrops.”

After the frequent rocky outcrops and abundance of stones on the beaches as she had sailed and ridden up the Shannon estuary, this news came as a bit of a shock to the Lioness. She cursed softly.

“Dammit, where’s the nearest rocky outcrop? Somewhere we can readily assemble ammunition.”

Dorvan frowned thoughtfully.

“Further up past the river Maigue there are a couple of rocky outcrops. I remember playing there as a child; there were plenty of cobbles and larger boulders. It’s only a couple of miles below the city.”

“Can we cross the Maigue? The Viking fleet has got to be between us and Limerick.”

“If they have entered the Maigue, they won’t have got more than about three miles up it and then only with their smaller ships. It won’t benefit them much either. Limerick’s walls are at their strongest to the west and south, that’s were main land threat was always bound to come. And they’d be separated from their ships. Viking’s don’t like being far from their ships.”

“Take me to the River Maigue and let’s hope the Vikings have not decided to explore the river. Where’s the most convenient crossing point?”

“That depends on the tide. By the time we get there it will be after high water. If we don’t mind swimming with the horses, we can cross at slack high water. To stay dry we’d have to detour about three and a half miles inland.”

Still undecided how she would play this scene, Drustina determined to arrive at the very mouth of the Maigue whilst despatching scouts on the fastest horses to check the length of the river for any Viking activity. As they galloped up the road towards Limerick several local riders came forward as they learned that Drustina might have to cross the River Maigue if the Vikings had passed above the Maigue estuary. As she and Dorvan pressed to make haste the men each told the same tale.

“The shallowest place to cross is at a point where the river bends around Ballynacarriga Point. If the tide is low one can even wade across. On horse-back you would hardly get your feet wet at low water.”

“Trouble is,” Drustina frowned. “It’s now a couple of hour’s ebb and the tide will be flowing out to sea at its strongest. We could lose some weaker men and horses.”

“The answer milady is an endless whip between Ballynacarriga head and Carrigclogher point. All the riders can hang onto the rope as it passes around a pulley block on the opposite shore.”

Drustina turned to Dorvan and Udris.

“We have rope and yard blocks on each mermaid. It could work. How wide is the river at those points?”

“Not much; about a hundred Yards I think, maybe less!”

“We won’t have enough rope unless Heliox has some spare line as well. We’d best make for the — what the hell did you call it
Dorvan?”

Dorvan smiled as he repeated the tongue-twister name.

“Ballynacarriga Point. Below that the estuary widens and we will never have enough rope. What about any Viking ships that might have entered the river Maigue?”

“You’ll have to despatch scouts to look as far as they can navigate up the river. It’s about three miles of river, I’m guessing about three teams of four riders should be enough to confirm if they’re in the river.”

Drustina was pleased she didn’t have to give the order. Dorvan was beginning to show some initiative as he quickly organised the teams. By now they arrived at a tiny settlement called Toreen and Dorvan stopped the gallop briefly to find out if there was any news of a Viking landing. Nobody in the village could give any information but one young girl offered to show them the fastest route to Ballynacarriga Point. Udris had also the sense to remember about rope and while Drustina and Dorvan were checking the route. He managed to find some lengths of rope and a pulley from a windmill. It meant they might be able to organise an endless whip to assist with crossing the river before Carl and Heliox arrived with the trebuchet. At first Drustina thought she had lost her lieutenant and she cursed when she realised he was not with the main party.

“Dammit! We can’t bloody wait for him. We have to reach the Maigue as soon as! We’ll look right idiots if Carl and Heliox arrive before us.”

The young girl guiding them turned and wagged her head.

“I doubt it Miss! If the tide is ebbing as you say it is, they’ll have trouble making progress past the horse and bridge rocks. The current is pretty fast there.”

‘By Noden’s arse is there no end to the trickery of this bloody river?’ Drustina wondered. ‘I’ll be glad just to get my own feet on my own Mermaid again if she hasn’t been sunk!!’

Eventually after a hard gallop, the main body arrived at the western bank of the River Maigue and the young teenage girl pointed out where the sandbank was shallowest between the bend around Ballynacarriga point. Both Drustina and Dorvan frowned as they noted the ebb already beginning to suck and gurgle as it recurved from the opposite bank at Carrigclogher Point on the east side. Drustina searched anxiously for signs of Carl and Heliox. The young girl realised that the famous warrior queen was looking for her ships and she pointed to a gap between some bushes.

“If you push through that gap, there’s a track that takes you to the Runekirk point. You’ll get a good view of the river from the little abandoned church. The tower is not locked for the door is missing.”

“Show me!” Drustina replied as her anxiety shortened her temper.

The girl hesitated and Drustina realised her own nervousness was becoming infectious. She turned to Udris and suggested he light a fire while she went to reconnoitre. Then she smiled briefly to reassure the girl and drove her horse through the gap between the bushes. The girl paused until Dorvan advised her.

“Go with the Lioness girl, she still needs a guide.”

Within fifteen minutes Drustina was relieved to be standing on Runekirk point church tower and spotting her two ships about two miles downstream. Carl and Heliox had piled on all sail and set the oars. Despite this their progress was painfully slow and Drustina cursed the tide. She dashed back to Ballynacarriga point and noticed with some relief that Udris had appeared.

“What kept you?”

“This.”

Udris replied as he indicated the coils of rope being spliced together to form a satisfactory length.

Drustina’s tension evaporated as she realised the service Udris had done. They had no need to wait for Carl and Heliox before attempting to cross the river. Indeed Dorvan was already organising a phalanx of his biggest, strongest men to make the first crossing. Men were cutting stakes with their war axes to make a couple of trestles to stretch the rope across the river. Drustina decided to prepare some signal arrows. She then explained to the teenaged girl.

“Go back to the abandoned church and watch out for his reply. He should answer with a red arrow.”

She dashed off and Drustina waited for ten minutes before firing her first arrow with green smoke. From her lookout the teenaged guide saw several of Drustinas green smoke arrows then grinned to herself with relief as she finally saw the anticipated red smoke arrow in reply. She returned with the news to find the camp in some commotion. Several men had finally managed to cross the stream and the rope had been successfully stretched across the river. The commotion was caused by the news from the scouts that a Viking ship was up river raiding yet another abbey church for silver and gold plate. The young girl became anxious.

“My older brother works for the monks on the Abbey farm, I hope he’s safe.”

“He’s probably found a bolt-hole girl. Don’t worry about him. The real problem is here where we are crossing. If the Viking ship crashes into our endless whip, they’ll snap it.”

“Why don’t you set stakes in the river-bed so that they are just under the water? When the Viking ship hits them she’ll stove in her planking. She’ll be coming down the river quite quickly with this ebb tide.”

Drustina stared stupidly at Dorvan and Udris who smirked somewhat sheepishly.

“Why didn’t we think of that.” Udris grinned.

“Good girl! That’s a brilliant idea!” Dorvan added.

The girl smiled a little self consciously as many warriors quickly picked up their axes again and started desperately fashioning sharp pointed stakes. These were quickly embedded in the river bed mud then sharpened as best they could whilst the stakes were submerged. The young girl’s idea had come not a moment too soon. For soon the Viking ship was heard splashing irregularly as drunken oarsmen toasted their successful raid and celebrated their ill-gotten gains.

It was not until the first arrows thunked into the longship’s planking and crewmen that the Vikings realised they were under attack. The merriment quickly turned into roars of rage as shields were quickly raised and the Vikings started rowing in earnest.

They had the wit to realise that the arrows would not hurt them provided they ducked down behind their shields as they rowed furiously to escape the ambush.

The young guide watched with evident satisfaction from behind a large tree as her idea worked perfectly. Suddenly the surging longship shuddered violently and broken planking snapped upwards as the ship’s speed drove its own hull hard against the stakes. Within seconds, the longship was settling in the muddy river and Vikings were roaring with panic as the longship span around and broached in the rushing ebb tide. As arrows rained down from both banks, there were no Viking survivors.

~~ooo000oo~~