"DRUIDS BANE" A Tundrawolf Story

DRUIDS-BANE 'Free'

Part Nine     3500 BC     'Free'

     As Arthfael and his band of acolytes traveled northward along the eastern coast of Albion they could feel in their minds the army of Meath had finally caught up to them. Through the power of the Black Magick they could sense it was roughly a week behind and knew there were approximately five hundred mounted warriors and Druids and fifteen hundred warriors on foot. The High King and the High Druid Priest had added to their force through the long turns of pursuit with more warriors from Meath and many warriors from the surrounding lands. Arthfael knew this was an army they could not overcome, but that did not matter to him. He did not want to defeat it he only wanted to destroy its head.

     With Judoc at their lead he sent his newly formed Star of Black Druids on ahead to a small Nordic trading village that was only a few days march to the north. Morcant and Haerviu went with them to help turn the little village into a defensive fort where they could make their stand against the oncoming army. They took with them three hundred of their slave warriors and the carts that carried the altar table and their supplies.

     The village was built next to a small protected harbor where the Nordic barbarians could anchor their longships in relative calm away from the rough waters of the North Sea. Three of their longships were anchored in the harbor when the scouts of the Black Druids found the village. It was home to about four hundred Nordic men, women and children with another one hundred and fifty Nordic barbarians from the longships. From the addition of the new acolytes the Black Druids had become powerful enough to keep the warriors they had enslaved plus put the peoples of the village under their spell. Their band of fighters would double giving them a force strong enough to face the High King's army.

     Arthfael and Drest stayed behind with two hundred slave warriors. They moved their force inland into a thick forest that lined one side of the coastal road which led to the village. Fortunately for the two heavy snows started falling concealing the tracks of their small force as they made their way westward. They had to travel deep into the forest to put distance between themselves and the King's army as it passed by. Many of the Druids traveling with the High King had acquired skills using Good Magick giving them the ability to sense if any using the Black Magick were close about.

     Before they made their way westward into the trees they ambushed and killed four long range scouts who had been spying on them for the High King's army. They stripped the bodies, hacked them up and left them hanging from four huge old oak trees growing alongside the road. Arthfael knew this attempt at a warning would not stop this army from advancing any farther. But it would serve to enrage the men and cause them to advance towards the village with less care. At least that was the outcome he hoped for.

     They had found a clearing in which to make their camp located on the eastern side of a tall hill that overlooked the tree tops so they could see down to the coastal road. They were so far away that it would have been almost impossible for an ordinary man to see the road through the snow and fog but with the power of their Black Magick they could view it as if it were right in front of them. While one of the Black Druids kept sight of the road the other saw to the needs of their enslaved warriors. The entranced men did not feel the cold but that did not make them immune to it. If one of the Druids did not ensure the men stayed warm near a fire there was a good chance they would suffer frostbite or worse, freeze to death. For Arthfael's plan to work he needed every fighting slave warrior he had in good fighting condition. These men left to their own devices would not last through the night so they built several fires in a large rift beside the clearing and compelled the warriors to huddle around them to keep warm. It would be several days of waiting in the cold and the deep snow before the arrival of the High King's army.