Drustina and her companions complete their 'tour of inspection' to ascertain the general preparedness of the Saxons and Mercians to combat the Norse threat. Finally they return to Winchester to witness the marriage of Ethelred the Wessex king to Sonala the Mercian Princess.

The Angry Mermaid 91
Or
Y Morforwyn Dicllon 91

Drustina glowered at the rain from under her cape. It was supposed to be early summer but nobody had told the rain gods. Seripatese snickered irritably as she struggled to keep her footing in the mud and eventually Drustina was forced to give up on any further efforts to reach Nottingham that night. The mud had splashed up onto everybody’s thighs as they had been compelled to dismount. They came upon a gorge with an overhanging ridge of rock and it proved too attractive to ignore. She waved wearily to Carl and the column was stopped.

“We might as well set camp here tonight. That overhang has left a substantial dry area and at least we humans can find some comfort. The horses will have to weather it out but at least we’ve got covers for them.”

Carl nodded and a well established routine quickly brought order and comfort to the troop. Several fires were lit and Drustina, like all the others, was glad to be drying her clothes within an hour of entering the gorge. The night proved more comfortable than she had anticipated for the abundant heaps of dry windblown leaves provided both insulation and softness on the ground. After eagerly sharing of the communal pot of boiling broth, she was glad to fling herself down amidst the thick carpet of leaves and quickly fell asleep. Her slumber was briefly disturbed when Carl cuddled up to her but she was back asleep almost as soon as his massive arm had reached around her. The sun was well up before she finally woke to find the camp busy with the morning routines. The fire was already burning well and a thick porridge was being prepared. Drustina sniffed appreciatively and her stomach rumbled in response. As she returned from the stream she spotted two earthenware pots.

“Where did the milk and honey come from?” She asked as she peeped into the pots.

“One of the men found a bee-hive and smoked them out. The milk is from one of the mares. It’s not much but her foal is almost weaned and it was a pity to miss the opportunity of tapping off her excess milk.”

“You’d better give it to the girls and the children. Their needs are greater than ours.”

“That was the plan Dru.”

She grinned ruefully.

“I thought so.”

As they broke camp it was a late start and the skies were still murky but at least the rain had stopped. They plodded along muddy roads until they arrived at a small town where they stopped overnight. They resumed travelling the next day and they arrived at Nottingham two days later. They were delayed at the gates briefly until the guards had reassured themselves there was no danger and they finally entered to be met by Edrinor himself who came galloping down the main street sending people flying in every direction.

“Dammit Drustina, why didn’t you send a herald to let me know?”

“The less people who know where we are and what we’re about, the safer it is for everybody; everybody who’s legitimate that is.”

“There are still Viking raiding parties abroad. I have not the resources to guard every village and hamlet.”

“You only have to guard the south bank of the Umbre estuary then their way to Nottingham and Lincoln is blocked.”

“But they can invade all the way down the coast. They can attack Lincoln from the sea to the east if they wish. Thus I have to garrison the cities. I cannot guard every little settlement.”

Drustina was forced to concede that Edrinor was shackled by his responsibilities. The Vikings had virtually a free reign in the northern waters and the eastern coasts. Their ships were free to roam at will. The only really successful tactic was to meet the Vikings at sea and beat them. Edrinor recognised this with his next breath.

“What I’d give to have your ships up here?”

“Well I’m sorry, I cannot be in two places at once, nor can my ships. Our tour is to determine the best resolution to the Viking occupations of the north and Cymru, not to mention Scotia and Hibernia.”

“Have you any ideas?”

“Some, but they are not for all ears. Carl, Althred and I would speak with you in your private chambers if you are willing.”

“Be my guest, but first I must offer you food.”

“Have you plenty?”

“Yes. We are well stocked. Nottingham could withstand a year of siege.”

For the present, Drustina kept her counsel but the idea of the castle and city at Nottingham having plenty while plundered villagers faced starvation for the coming winter was not something that impressed her. On her travels during that late spring and early summer, the crops did not look particularly healthy or abundant. She paused in the great market square and set about making her troop comfortable. Tara took responsibility for the women while the lieutenants attended each to their own platoon. Edrinor fretted while Drustina checked that all was satisfactory with her companion warriors.

“Must we fuss so?” he asked.

Drustina shrugged and decided to demonstrate to Edrinor her ideas about leading troops.

“Yes, I must fuss. I will see my men well housed and fed for we have endured many a night under the stars ... or rainclouds for that matter. They need shelter more than they need food. “

After an hour co-operating with Althred and Carl she finally attended Edrinor again.

“Sorry to keep you waiting but their needs must be met first. My men come first for without them, the lioness is but alone and powerless.”

She could see that Edrinor was a little nonplussed at her willingness to detain him, a king no less, but this time it was for Edrinor to keep his counsel. He needed the Lioness, her troops, her warrior skills but most of all her fleet if the alliance with Wessex was to be successful. She and Carl exchanged knowing smiles with Althred as they finally set off to the Castle.

There they met again with Tara and Drustina’s immediate coterie of female companions. They were already bathed and ready for dinner. Drustina and her two commanders decided to forego a wash and sat straight down to eat. There was much to discuss after the meal in the privacy of the king’s chamber. It was late in the evening before Drustina and the two lieutenants finally got to wash and close to the middle hour before they found their beds. In the privacy of their bed chamber Drustina ‘pillow-talked’ with Carl about the Mercian king.

“He doesn’t seem to have much heart to go out and take the Vikings on.”

“That’s what I thought,” Carl replied then added, “Althred is of much the same opinion. I get the feeling he’s prepared to fight the Vikings until every Wessex soldier or yours are dead.”

“He’s got huge numbers on his side though, his Kingdom stretches from the Umbre to the Tamsis and to the Severn.”

“Yeah but his communications are poor. At least Ethelred has seen sense to take our advice and repair the old Roman roads. You saw what a state the Mercian roads are in; mud up to our knees for mile after mile. It would take him months to muster all his forces and meet the Vikings in sufficient numbers to ensure success.”

“Aye and that only if they struck in the Umbre area,” Drustina added, “if they take their ships and attack at Londinium or cross over the Pennines by Mancunium, Edrinor would be hard pressed to face them anywhere.”

“And all he talked about was defending his own realm if and when the Vikings do finally attack, which I believe they are certain to do.”

Drustina nodded.

“A man of inaction methinks; a man who can only think defensively.”

“Not the most reliable of Allies I’ll hazard.” Carl reflected.

“It seems if we are to defeat this Viking threat, we must somehow invite the Vikings to attack at a time and place of our choosing.”

“Well I’m not taxing my brain tonight, let’s sleep on that idea.” Carl sighed as he turned over and placed his arm on Drustina’s arse.”

She smiled and chuckled as his fingers slipped hopefully towards her belly.

“Which brain will you be taxing tonight Saxon?” She giggled as she pressed her femininity against a Saxon invader she had come to know well.

~o000o~

Carl stirred the next morning only to find the bed empty. Disappointed at this, he craned his head to see Drustina staring out of the brightly sunlit window. She turned and smiled as she heard him stirring.

“We should be making tracks back to Winchester if we’re to attend Princess Sonala’s wedding. We’ve only got a month and who knows how many of those days will be raining?”

“We’ll be travelling with Edrinor’s party so we can’t actually be late; Edrinor has to give his sister away.”

Drustina nodded and grinned.

“I’d prefer to leave plenty of time for the journey though. Sod’s law states that we’re bound to encounter at least one or more problems, the bigger our procession, the more things there are to go wrong.”

At breakfast, Edrinor proved to be of a like mind. He explained to the three as they ate.

“Nottingham to Winchester will take at least a month especially with all the ceremonial that will assuredly arise in every town and city of any note. They will all be trying to make my overnight stops memorable feasts.”

“Then send your heralds ahead and explain the need for despatch.” Drustina urged.

“It would be better if we were to bypass the towns and slip by each town to make camp as and where the night befalls us. Supplies can be bought as and where we need as we pass the towns.” Edrinor replied.

Drustina added.

“That’s more or less what we have done throughout our tour of your and Ethelred's realms, We only entered a city when we needed to assess things. Plenty of people to question. I would support your idea of avoiding the cities when you can. Besides, there’s less chance for any ambush attempt if people don’t know exactly where your column is.”
Edrinor raised a disbelieving eyebrow.

“D’you seriously think we might be attacked, in the heart of my own kingdom?”

“You can never tell. You’d be a very tempting target; you have no heirs as yet so if the enemy could somehow bump you off, there would be discord and strife bubbling up throughout your realm.”

“Well I suppose that’s true,” Edrinor conceded.

Carl chuckled.

“My advice your majesty is to beget yourself an heir as soon as.”

Edrinor pulled a wry smile.

“Let’s just get my sister married off first aye? Then I can worry about my own affairs.”

The mutual agreement amongst them led to a thoughtful silence as they left the breakfast table to prepare for the journey.

That same afternoon, the column, some four hundred strong, slipped out of Nottingham without fanfare. They made good speed for the roads were dry and dust free after the recent rain.

Three weeks later, to everybody’s relief, they arrived at Winchester saddle sore and dusty from the road.

Edrinor immediately made himself known to his sister Princess Sonala who was still a guest if her future husband King Ethelred. Drustina stopped overnight only briefly to sort various issues out with Ethelred then she pressed on to Sotona with Carl and

Althred. She was desperate to rejoin her companions and check the situation amongst her fleet of ships.
After reassuring themselves that all was as it should be, the three returned to Winchester a week later to attend the wedding preparations of Ethelred and Sonala.

To Carl and Drustina the degree of ceremonial seemed unnecessarily complicated and long-winded but the kept their thoughts to themselves. Compared with their simple pagan promise to each other, it seemed that the Cardinal’s intentions were more to promote the power and pomp of the new Christian church and its newfound status in the Saxon community than establishing the sincerity and intensity of the promises to be made by Ethelred and Sonala to each other.

The more Drustina saw of the rehearsals and preparations the less she was impressed. When Cardinal Craklow finally invited her to bear witness to the union she expressed her feelings privately but in no uncertain terms.

“I will sign my name as witness to their contract; I owe that much to the princess and the king, but I will have no part in the nodding and bobbing all that wailing and chanting, it gives me the creeps.”

Cardinal Craklow frowned but he was thankful Drustina had declared her feelings in the privacy of his chambers in the Bishops palace. The lioness’s fame and universally held affection would still add to the spectacle when she advanced across the aisle in full battle regalia simply to sign the registry then return to her prominent position set aside and just below the communion rail. Everybody who was invited to the wedding would certainly see the lioness and that alone would add gravity to the ceremony. Drustina knew that her fame was being exploited but if this alone served to endear more of the Angles and Saxons and Mercians to her campaign against the Vikings, it was a small price for her to pay. Simply sitting prominently on what was tantamount to a minor throne for several hours was little sacrifice to make if it added allies to her anti-Viking cause.

After Carl and Drustina had scanned the ceremonial organisation they returned to their chambers and prepared to bath before dinner. As Drustina stripped unashamedly before her already naked husband Carl grinned at his partner and remarked.

“They’re going to dress us up like bloody royalty and we’re nothing of the sort at heart. You’ll be stuck out there like some sort of ceremonial prize, a stuffed lioness in all its glittering finery. Shall I polish your sword ma-am?”

Drustina grinned and thumped him affectionately on the shoulder.

“Stoppit you oaf. You’ll be there as well, poncing about with all the fancy armour they can hang on you. We’ll look like a pair of bloody trophies. Let’s just hope it endears them to my cause when we go up against those bloody Norsemen.”

“So where and when d’you think that will be Dru?”

“I was thinking somewhere near that bloody great fortress of Deva. There’s city and fort enough to house a substantial army and the County Palinate of Cheshire is rich enough with wheat to feed a multitude for a year. There's also two estuaries up there to give any fleet manoeuvres flexibility and scope. If we can somehow entice the main Viking force to attack Deva from the north and west it means we might be able to trap them on the Wirral peninsular. We would be able to attack them from the sea on three sides while they have to somehow try and take that massive fortress of Deva to the South and east.”

“That would necessitate your gaining control of the Celtic sea.” Carl observed.

Drustina smiled wryly.

“Listen my idiot husband, I was born and bred in those waters. If there’s one thing I know for certain, it’s the Celtic sea and all its tempers. I know every inch of rock and exactly how the tides flow. Besides, I will have natural allies on almost every shore, Cambrian, Hibernian and Manx. I’m hoping the Celts will come to join my banner once they learn of us and our fleet.”

Carl nodded sagely. Once thing he knew for certain, if anybody had the Charisma and fame to win loyalties it was the battle-scarred beauty who stood naked before him right then. As ever when Carl noticed her beauty, Drustina somehow sensed the attraction between them and they fell into each other’s arms before bathing. After pleasing each other, they were ready to bathe.

~o000o~

The following Woden’s day was Midsummer’s day, the day set for Princess Sonala’s wedding. For all her reservations about the cant and ceremonial, Drustina was very taken with the decorations of the church. She smiled to herself as she noted pagan symbolism in many of the flora that was chosen to decorate the altar and various furnishings not to mention the assorted trailers, creepers and climbers wound around every pillar that supported the vast roof. As Drustina strode into the church on that morning, the vast expanse of flora reminded her of nothing more than some great natural bower or forest glade. Naturally the vast nave of the cathedral church was filled with the citizenry from the city of Winchester and Drustina savoured the pleasant, casual mingling as just about everybody came to admire the decoration. There was so much greenery and floribunda that Drustina felt compelled to approach one of the attending priests who was monitoring the guests who were invited into the choir.

“I’m surprised your church or your faith approves of all this floral decoration.”

“It’s the cardinal’s idea Lioness.” He replied with a wry smile. “I suspect your feelings influenced his own ideas but he decided that if God made the flowers and the trees then God would not object to them decorating his house.”

Drustina smiled back. She had absolutely no argument with the Cardinal’s idea. 'Flowers brightened up even the meanest hovel.'

Having exhausted her perambulations amongst the expectant throng she finally took up her invitation to enter the choir as the approaching clamour of the bridal procession made itself known in the cathedral close. As she settled in the seat allotted to her, she exchanged glances with Carl across the choir at the opposite end of the altar communion rail. When she sat, the clank of her trusty Toledo blade clanked against the chair leg and Ethelred turned to smile nervously at her. Drustina smiled back as she re-arranged her sword and her casual act served to calm the king’s nerves. Althred, the Saxon fleet commander also turned to grin at Drustina. He was Ethelred’s supporter and closest to Drustina. Finally, cardinal Craklow emerged from the Vestry to take his station facing the nervous king.

“Nervous?” He asked King Ethelred.

“Yes, more so than my coronation, it’s the waiting. Why are brides always late?”

“It’s their privilege majesty, the most important day of their lives.” Craklow replied.

Drustina smiled inwardly. She might have debated the cardinal’s words but there was neither the time nor the place. She, like everybody else, wanted Sonala’s day to be a happy one. Instead she turned and peered down the aisle to see Edrinor escorting his sister up the aisle to ‘give her away’. This was an expression that rankled with Drustina but she had already conceded that this was Sonala’s special day and nothing was to spoil it. She took her cue from the choristers and stood as they started to chant some tedious anthem. Drustina had little time for the liturgies and chants that seemed to accompany all the different ceremonies of this new faith. She wondered why the musicians didn’t play one of the lively melodious songs that accompanied the old pagan marriage ceremony.

Eventually, Sonala passed under the rood screen at the transept and entered the choir. Ethelred turned to smile at her and she lowered her eyes demurely. To Drustina it seemed as though she was already somehow acknowledging her reduced status. No longer a high-born free woman but a wife, a chattel apparently promising to love, honour and obey. Drustina would never have acceded to such a diminution but then few women had ever fought and led men as Drustina had ... and still did!

~oo000oo~