Winter's Blossom: The Seasons of Arthur

Chapter 30

They called it the Battle of Bassus, though despite the numbers involved it was little more than yet another skirmish with barely a score of dead Angles. We had suffered a mere three killed and four wounded. It was hardly the battle of the ages. In the wake of it Owain begged for men from Adaryn to strike north, and sent messages to Ambrosius imploring him to come east. Owain was convinced that thanks to the devastation we had wrought in the north, how intimidated the Angles were by us that a joint invasion from our ford and from Ratae could lead to the capture of Venta Icenorum, Durobrivae and maybe even Durovigutum. We could effectively take the kingdom of the North Folk from the Angles, cut them off from the big tidal river that cut southwest from the Wash, and the town upon it, starving them of trade. It would have been a huge blow to Angle power, and would have taken half their kingdom from them.

But Adaryn refused to send men, and Ambrosius had apparently been struck down with some illness that had taken all the vigour from him. Owain sent another message asking Aglovale, Laval or even his father to be sent east with an army, but by the time the messengers returned we were deep into the autumn. No army would venture now, not with winter upon us and so, fuming, Owain led us north.

It rained every single day of our journey north, as if God himself disapproved of the direction we were marching in. Still, as miserable as the weather was, I was happy for we were going north to Gododdin, towards Din Eidyn and Pellinore's beautiful daughter, whose name I did not even know but who I was convinced that I was in love with and destined to be with. I had left Eadith behind when I had left. There had been no tears, though I had felt a surprising amount of sadness. 'You're free to do what you want.' I had told her, and she had given me a pitying look as if to question whether she had ever not been. She was not the only girl who was being left, scores of women were being abandoned. What happened to them afterwards I would never know, whether they stayed in the growing settlement and found men amongst the score of warriors that would now defend it, or whether they made their way back to their own land to try and remake their lives from the devastation we had left behind.

Many women did come north with us though, traipsing through the rain behind our column of men, helping to carry what plunder and equipment their men had to carry, taking it in turns to sit on the side of the wagons that followed behind us. Sometimes they ran up and just walked besides the ranks their men marched in upon the cracked stones of the Roman road that carved its way northwards.

Owain's reputation constantly preceded him. He was now the saviour of Ratae, of Lindum and of all Elmet to hear the stories told. The scourge of the Saxons he was called, though we were yet to fight any actual Saxons for all our battles had been against the Angles, but that detail seemed to be overlooked. I wondered how Owain's father would feel hearing his despised son revered by the same title he was known for and decided this would not be something that would mend relationships.

Every settlement we passed cheered us, brought us food and water for our march if we stopped, and wine if we stopped for the night. In all of the larger settlements we passed through such as Eboracum, Isirium, and Coria and every lord insisted on feasting us and our men. The men loved it, happy to be hailed as heroes. I was not complaining either. Both Lancelot's and my name were on people's lips too, and we were being hailed champions of Britain and I could not help but grin broadly at the praise. Many a baby must have been made on our steady journey north.

Owain's mood matched the weather though, and he brooded as we went north. He mourned the chance to invade Angleland. 'I don't want to be at war my whole life.' Owain told me despondently in Carataconium, a small Roman settlement surrounded by the rolling moors, but whose position on the Roman road still gave it a dense population for the small town. 'We had a chance to start the beginning of the end for this "Bretwalda" this month.' He added bitterly. 'And we didn't take it because we were too cowardly.' Because Adaryn was too cowardly, Owain was too diplomatic to say. Because Ambrosius, ill, was too weak to command kings to march in his place as the other petty kings hoarded their armies as they gathered like vultures, ready to make a play for the throne that had no heir to it.