“I am sorry that my temper overcame me, brother,” Ecgbryt apologised. “You should not have let me hound the man.”
“No, it was well that you did. I doubt many have challenged him of late. And I agree-why not simply wake a band of knights to come and break the siege?” Swi?gar asked gruffly. “Drive the nasty filth back into the deep tunnels. The solution is so simple that it’s maddening.”
“I would challenge him, were it my place,” stated Modwyn.
“It would not have been right,” agreed Swi?gar. “Ecgbryt and I can be excused our rudeness-”
The door reopened and Godmund entered with a long scroll, which he placed on the table. He unfurled it to show a map of the underground realm, a large oblong with little branches that represented tunnels leading off the sides. Ni?ergeard was marked in the middle, a small knot of structures and streets. They started talking about where the yfelgop army was thickest, where they had come from, and many other details. Daniel watched with fascination as the small military strike was planned and tactics discussed.
“We have no idea where their main force is,” Godmund said.
“We suspect it may be here”-he placed a hand on a section of the map-“but who is to say that they do not move it, or that they are split equally in different areas?”
“What are their main routes into the plain?” Swi?gar asked.
“There is no way to know that either. Seeing that you encountered them, it is possible that they have infiltrated most of the upper tunnels-there would be little enough to prevent the beasts from overrunning them. But do they circulate randomly? Are most of them here? Are they gathered somewhere else? How can we know?”
“None of that matters right now,” came an unexpected voice from among them. All eyes turned to Freya, who was standing near the table, looking down on the map.
“We won’t learn everything in just one raid,” Freya continued, her voice quavering slightly. “The important thing is to test their numbers, their strength, and their reaction after that-that will tell us a lot. Then we can judge the appropriate measures to take, once we have evaluated our resources. Then we can go home, you can find a way to break the siege, and so on.”
Ecgbryt smiled grimly and placed a huge hand on Freya’s shoulder. “The girl has a good head for these matters,” he said.
“I just want to go home,” Freya said, trying to avoid Daniel’s gawking stare.
Swi?gar frowned. “Then it’s decided,” he said. “We will raid them, leaving through the main gates here.” He brought his hand down on an area of the map. “Enough talking. That is what we will do next.”
5
In addition to Swi?gar and Ecgbryt, the raiding party consisted of Godmund and three of his best men, his champions. To Daniel they looked like superheroes-stocky with a lot of weight in the chest and shoulders. One of them had a red bushy beard and long plaited hair; his armour was made of medium-sized brass rings, interlocked with one another. One man had black hair and skin that was still slightly olive colour, despite being very pale. The third was a man taller than any knight they had seen so far. He was so tall he looked slightly clumsy and uncomfortable. His whitish-blond hair was uncombed and matted, like a sheepdog’s shaggy coat. He carried a spear in the same hand as his shield and casually gripped a massive war hammer in the other.
They were all big and strong, and although their dress varied, they all wore helmets made of iron with a sculpted figure of an ox on the crest. The three new knights moved sluggishly and creakily, slower than the others. Daniel and Freya wondered if they had just been woken-and if they could really stand up to the erratic frenzy of the yfelgopes, especially if there were as many out there as they all imagined.
And then, with no more preparations to be made, they were ready to depart. The six knights mounted their stallions and set off through the city at a gentle canter. The torchlight played on their armour, making it sparkle and shine; the gold tracing reflected the light brilliantly. It looked as if living fire were flowing through the metal.
Freya and Daniel followed, walking behind the six riders, and were soon joined by others. Ni?ergearders working in smithies, guards in their barracks, and masons in their workshops, seeing the knights pass by, dropped what they were doing, stood, and hurried to fall into step behind them. The silent procession had swelled to over fifty people when the knights reached the large city gate. They stood for a few moments making final preparations: adjusting the harnesses of their mounts, shifting weapons in their hands, and whispering short prayers.
Godmund, Shield Thane of Ni?ergeard and leader of the war host, motioned to two guardsmen on either side of the gate. The gigantic hinges started to creak. The large entrance opened a crack, and then- A bell was heard in the distance-it was a deep, solid toll coming from the other end of the city. The crowd tensed and started to mutter in confusion.
“What’s going on?” Freya asked. Daniel shook his head.
The effect of the bell on the knights was instantaneous and dramatic. Several of them jerked back hard on their horses’ reigns, causing them to rear upwards and turn around. “Stop the gate!” yelled Godmund to the guard above him. “Shut it!”
The knights leaned forward in their saddles, scanning the buildings in front of them, ready to gallop back into the city.
“Hold!” cried Swi?gar. “Hold! Wait for the horns!”
The gate shut behind the knights. Godmund turned to Ecgbryt.
“Get everyone to the Tall Tower!” he shouted. Ecgbryt trotted through the crowd that opened a path for him.
“Everyone, this way!” Ecgbryt bellowed, leading them back into the city.
“What’s going on?” Daniel shouted.
“Ni?ergeard is being attacked,” someone answered behind him. “That bell tolls a breach at the south wall.”
Just then, the sound of a high-pitched horn was heard from a far corner of the city. The other knights spurred their horses and galloped off along the smooth stone streets and were soon out of view.
“Hurry now,” Ecgbryt said, shepherding the crowd. “Move quickly. I do not know how they breached the wall without being seen, but I suspect devilry!”
6
Daniel and Freya tried their level best to stay with the crowd as they fled for the safety of the Langtorr. The streets, buildings, and city guards blurred past them as they struggled to keep up with Ecgbryt.
Horns sounded from other parts of the city. Freya and Daniel kept their eyes on the Tall Tower, remembering its thick iron doors. Freya grabbed Daniel’s shoulder and pointed up at the tower. Following her finger, Daniel saw a flicker of bright red and yellow in one of the windows several stories up. It was Ealdstan, gripping the window frame, with one foot on its ledge. As they watched, he launched himself forward and fell, his robes billowing and flapping around him like flames on a burning arrow. He quickly dropped out of sight, below the roofline of the houses. Daniel tried to shout to Ecgbryt, but it was no use, he couldn’t make his voice heard over the clamor.
They had just turned a corner and had their first glimpse of the Tall Tower’s gates when the yfelgopes caught up with them. The creatures had scaled the buildings and were jumping from roof to roof towards the centre of the city, out of the reach of the guards.
Nine of the creatures dropped into the road ahead of the crowd. Ecgbryt halted his horse and ushered the fleeing townspeople down a side street. The yfelgopes, each of them sprouting sharp bits of metal from joints and fingers, ran towards them, snarling and barking.
From around the corner of a building, Daniel and Freya watched Ecgbryt charge forward, galloping into one end of the line of attackers. With his spear couched in his arm, he drove into the swarming knot of yfelgopes, skewering a creature on his left with his spear and batting another two away with the edge of his shield. Releasing his spear, he drew his axe and sliced cleanly through the neck of an yfelgop that was slashing at his leg and stirrup. His horse reared underneath him as one of the twisted men raked at the horse’s flank. Ecgbryt kept his saddle and brought his axe down into the attacker’s head with a juicy thok!