This chapter explores the Alliance's options and strategies to deal with the imminent Viking threat.

The Angry Mermaid 115

Y Morforwyn Dicllon 115

The four friends joined Althred the Saxon Admiral in the town square and immediately set out for Winchester. There had been a brief thaw and parts of the new road were free of snow. Drustina had a chance to inspect it and was pleased with Ethelred’s commitment. The hard stone surface with little snow enabled them to reach Winchester in the mid afternoon and the others went to see Ethelred whilst Drustina declared she would join them after visiting her family. On hearing this Udris asked if he could accompany her.

“Be my guest comrade, I thought you had news for Ethelred.”

“There’s not much to tell; now I have you alone I have a chance to declare my real reason for coming.”

Drustina’s eyes widened with curiosity for she had no idea what Udris wanted. He was playing his cards close to his chest. She smiled at the thought that Udris was prepared to tell her and nobody else.

“Well go on, tell me.”

Udris blushed momentarily then found his voice.

“I seek a wife.”

“Well there are a thousand women who would marry a chief, especially a proven warrior and statesman. So why do you tell me and why come to Wessex? I’d have thought there are plenty of Celtic girls who’d die to be married to you. Since your parts in the defeats of the Vikings so far, your reputation as the most successful Celtic warrior is uncontested.”

“I don’t seek a Celtic bride. I have seen how dynastic unions can become soured and loveless. I want a marriage like yours.
It’s obvious you love that giant, Saxon oaf though for the love of god I don’t see why. It’s obvious there’s no accounting for what makes the magic that you and Carl share but it’s the sort of thing I’d like to share with my bride.”

“We are of like minds Udris. A marriage can survive many differences like race or culture or even religion but if the pair do not have similar intelligence they will soon tire of each other. When Carl and I talk to each other we are on the same level, the same wit, the same reasoning. When we seek advice or reassurance from each other we know it will be fair and balanced. These things make a lasting marriage Udris. Being able to talk to each other even enables us to surmount my gender duality and that is a remarkable test of any marriage. So are your looking for a marriage amongst the Saxon women?”

“I don’t seek a Saxon girl; I don’t think my Celtic tribe would accept such a radical step. Though Saxon women are beautiful, their golden hair, like yours, is very attractive. No, I seek another. I met her when we were here after we defeated the Vikings in the Solanta and off Ynys Wit. There is a girl among your followers, a Gaulish girl. You rescued her when you freed Honfleur.”

“Oooh! You mean Symone, the titian haired girl. I’m not sure where she is now. She might have joined Sister Catherine’s order as a nun. She had some brutal experiences at the hands of the Vikings. She might be a nun by now. Rape usually destroys a woman for life.”

Udris’s face darkened with despair.

“Damn! She was such a pretty girl and I had hopes because she is not a Saxon. As the new chief, I am expected to take a bride but I’m not interested in some dynastic arrangement, I’ve learned from watching you and Carl. You have a marriage made by the gods, he truly loves you.”

“And I him Udris. I hope you find the girl and that she is willing. Do not force yourself upon her. If she refuses your hand respect her wishes she has much cause to fear men, nay, hate them even. Symone went through some wicked ordeals in Honfleur. Indeed if you try to force her she could end up killing herself, she was brutalised by the raiders.”

“She was pleasant to me last time I was here and we seemed to get on so well. I was just hoping; she’s very pretty.”

“Yes, that’s why the Vikings abused her. They were punished and rightly.”

“So do you have any objections to my seeking her?”

“None whatsoever, I am not her keeper or overlord; though I was once her protector. Seek her out by all means. I’d try Sister Catherine’s convent or hospice first. That’s the last I heard.”

“Thank you Lioness. I knew I could get good advice from you.”

Having revealed his ambitions, Udris bid Drustina good day and followed the others to visit Ethelred while Drustina joined her family.

She found them as expected in her private apartments at the Palace and her pleasures were doubly enjoyable when she found them all together. At that time Drustina’s family group comprised essentially Tara her sister, Morgan and Amethyst, her older twins, the younger twins by Harald Coldblood’s rape and Gisela, who still did not know that Drustina’s youngest and as yet un-named twins where in fact her half siblings.

As Drustina reflected on the complexities of her children she smiled to herself. When she opened the door, she was overjoyed to see that they hurtled across the floor to embrace her. She had been expecting them to be afraid of her for she had not seen them or played with them as a mother should. Hot tears of joy forced their way to her eyes despite her desperate efforts to hide them. She had missed them so cruelly and she resolved to spend all her time with them until the time for war with the Vikings came. That gave her a couple of months at best to indulge her children. For the rest of the day she played with them and mothered them in some desperate effort to atone for the neglect.

Even after the children had been bedded for the night she felt bound to devote her time to her Sister Tara and Gisela. It was long after supper before a message came from Ethelred asking if she would be attending the king’s court. She sent a reply explaining her circumstance and offered to speak with Ethelred and his other commanders the following morning. When Ethelred got the note he showed it to Carl.

“I think your wife needs you Carl. Best you go and see her.”

Carl needed no further encouragement and left immediately. He found her in their apartments chatting quietly to her sister Tara and the Viking princess Gisela. When he arrived Drustina needed little persuasion to join him in their bed. She wanted hugs and spoiling and lots more.

~o00o~

In the morning she joined the war council much refreshed and in a far better mood to address the issues of war. Ideas were exchanged and discussed at length and Drustina was deeply pleased to learn that the old Roman roads were steadily being repaired.

“Hopefully by the middle of spring, the road to Shrewsbury should be completed.” Ethelred observed then added the inevitable rider. “We don’t have the man-power of resources to go any faster.”

Drustina nodded thoughtfully.

“Well the land from Shrewsbury to Chester is fairly flat so you should be able to move your army in time to meet a threat from the north. Harald Cold Blood is not going to start his campaign until the northern roads are useable and their seasons are about three weeks behind ours in the south.”

“Should we not approach more from the east so as to meet up with Edrinor’s forces then march to Chester? Can we be certain the Celts in Cambria won’t try to attack our flank if we march via the Welsh Marches?”

“Leave the Celts to me. They see the Saxon’s as less of a threat than the Vikings; besides when Celts and Saxon’s aren’t fighting, they’re trading and even intermarrying. The Vikings tend to try and dominate and occupy or attack and take slaves.”
Ethelred nodded and smiled slightly as he spoke.

“You don’t much like these Vikings do you?”

Drustina returned a sour, ironic glare as her lips tightened with anger.

“Hardly surprising is it?”

Her childhood story was well known to the Saxon king. During Drustina’s recent absence on her expedition around Hibernia, her sister Tara had spoken of their earliest shared experiences. Ethelred tactfully changed the subject.

“I would prefer to meet with Edrinor’s forces earlier rather than later. If Harald’s forces meet with us before we are prepared they could pick us off piece by piece.”

“We don’t know yet if Harald will be able to combine with his Scottish cousin before spring. The Scottish armies have even worse roads to travel so he will probably be forced to transport the Scottish forces by sea. Scottish seas can be rough until April or even May; plus his Irish Allies have to come by sea! We’ve discussed this before and I must emphasise that’s the reason I believe he will be forced to attack Chester instead of Nottingham. Harald knows he has to concentrate his forces and moving them by ship enables him to do exactly that.”

“We don’t know how many men he’s got.” Ethelred mused.

“Nor does he know how many we have got. It’s my guess that the repaired roads will enable us to get more men into battle faster than the Vikings. I’ll wager the savage hasn’t even considered repairing the old Roman roads. Their reason d’être was to enable the Roman legions to travel quickly. They serve us with the same utility.”

“Do we move our army as one vast column or do we move them piecemeal north to Chester?” Ethelred wondered.

Drustina paused thoughtfully.

“The sooner you can get forces to reinforce the garrison at Chester the better your chances of success. Send your army up the road piecemeal to give the logistics train time to re-stock and accumulate sufficient supplies. There’s nothing so miserable and unwilling to fight as a cold, half-starved soldier. There’s room enough in Chester to garrison a whole Roman legion so there’ll be plenty of facilities for us. Besides, the longer our forces are up there, the more time they have to prepared defences and scout out the surrounding terrain.”

They continued deciding strategy all morning then Drustina made her excuses and returned to her children. She was pleased to find Symone playing with the children and talking to Tara. Drustina was pretty sure she knew what about. The moment she out her head around the door, Symone came over to chat.

“Lioness I am in a quandary. The Dumnonii chief has offered me his hand and I don’t know if I’m worthy enough!”

“Of course you’re worthy enough girl! You are old enough aren’t you?”

“Of course I am but I am not of noble birth.”

“I would have thought he had explained that.”

“He did, he said he does not seek a noble woman to forge some dynastic alliance. He said he wanted a wife who loved him. He mentioned you and Carl as an example.”

“Well I’m flattered but that begs the question. Do you love him?”

Symone frowned and her head sagged.

“Well yes, a bit. We hit it off after the first Viking battle but then he returned to Dumnoniia. He chatted to me a lot but he never showed any physical interest. I thought he wasn’t interested because I am damaged goods.”

“Damaged goods?! What the hell d’you mean, damaged goods!?”

Drustina almost choked with disgust as she snorted her contempt for the conventions that the new one god faith demanded of women-kind.

In her old Celtic Druidic traditions, when a girl was ready for marriage she told her father of her ambitions and the father let it be known that his daughter was available for marriage. Any suitor was entitled to make an offer but each one had to sleep with the girl to ensure that the pair were compatible. If or when the girl was put with child, she was entitled to choose any one of the men she had slept with as her husband and the marriage was arranged. Drustina herself had surpassed even that convention. She had born three sets of twins to three different fathers and none of them were Carl’s. He would become the father to Drustina’s later children once the Viking business was settled once and for all. She explained this to Symone in no uncertain terms.

Symone listened in shocked disbelief until Tara confirmed the fathers of Drustina’s babies and Drustina’s childhood as a boy.

“Yes, she had twins to the Celtic galley slave Torvel whom she rescued in the Iberian wars with the Corsairs, then she had twins by the Egyptian king Astos, then she fathered a child to Queen Meronee of Nobatia and finally, there are the last two by ...”

Tara frowned for Drustina still had not declared the father.

“Yes; who is the father of these two? You still have not revealed all.”

“All in good time older sister, all in good time.”

Symone took much comfort from Drustina’s story, especially the circumstances of her children’s parentage. She asked Drustina about Udris’s nature and what sort of lover he was. Drustina smiled at Symone’s naivety.

“He’s a very practical and down to earth sort of fellow and he cares about his people. He thinks a lot when he is dispensing justice or arbitrating between his tribal kin-folk. I can’t speak of him as a lover for I have never taken him to my bed but in other things he strives to be right and fair. If you are asking if he’ll treat you gently and kindly, I have every reason to believe he would. He’s told me he’s fond of you and wants you desperately. He does not lie and that’s a good thing in a man, especially for the woman.”

Symone nodded then swallowed nervously.

“When he left last time, I presumed it was not to be. I wish he had been more forthright. A few days after his departure I presumed I was never to find a husband so I asked Sister Catherine if I could join her order.”

“Oh dear. And have you taken your vows?”

“No. Not yet. I must serve as a novice for a year.”

“Well there’s no problem then. Ask Sister Catherine to relieve you of your obligation.”

“Won’t she ne angry?”

“Who Katy!"

Drustina deliberately chose her own private name for Sister Catherine to put Symone at ease.

"Nooo! No way girl. Katy and I go a long way back. Sister Catherine is a tough old bird but she’s a compassionate one. She would not want you to forsake your chance of real happiness simply for her to swell the numbers in her convent. You may not know it but Sister Catherine is a very worldly woman.”

“Will you explain it to her, I’m a bit frightened.”

Drustina rolled her eyes and wagged her head as she smiled reassuringly.

“Alright girl. She’s not some sort of ogre you know; she’s a very kindly and compassionate woman.”

“Maybe to you, but you’re the Lioness. I’ve heard about Polanda and the piracy.”

“If you haven’t heard it from me, Tara or Katy, you’ll have probably heard a very lop-sided and embellished version.”

Symone breathed out a long sigh of relief.

“Thanks Lioness. I feel much easier about it now. Thank you!”

She leant forward and squeezed Drustina so tight her ribs clicked.

“Ouch girl! That’s the rib that hasn’t healed fully yet. Take it easy.”

Symone stepped back in surprise.

“What!! After all this time!”

“Don’t know that it ever will. I can feel the break even now. It’s okay provided you don’t hug me around the lower ribs. Carl always hugs me around the shoulders, but then, he’s a good head taller than I and he knows about the rib.”

Symone nodded then changed the subject.

“Are you ever going to reveal who the father of your youngest pair is?”

“When the time is right girl, when the time is right.”

With these words, Drustina changed into a gown and went to play with her children. Carl found her reading a story to them as he entered their quarters.

~~oo000oo~~