Winter's Blossom: The Seasons of Arthur

Chapter 38

Agravaine and I crossed the narrow sea with seventy men. The sea was very rough even for the time of year and the floorboards were slimy with sick as the men vomited everything they had consumed in days across the deck. The boat's master screamed for us to do it over the sides but, with the seas so rough nobody dared go near the sides should they lose they be plunged overboard. Men were wearing so much armour that even those few of us who could swim would be dragged under very quickly. I tried to set an example by being sick over the rail, but as the boat rocked violently on the waves and I cracked my forehead on the wooden rail.

Even over the roar of the surf I heard a booming laugh rolling like thunder across the waters and looked up to see Agravaine, completely unphased by the rough waters, stood easily but howling with laugher from the deck of a different boat.

'Bloody bastard.' I swore vehemently under my breath, rubbing my forehead and hoping for wave to drag the big oaf under.

It was a good job no enemy waited for us on the far banks. The majority of us were in no condition to fight as we reached the shore. The boat did not fully beach, and I dragged myself across the bow of the boat and collapsed into the water that reached up to my waist. I waded up to the beach and, as I reached the stony beach I just dropped onto my back and lay there, breathing deeply and loving the feeling of land beneath me. My stomach felt weak, and my throat was raw from being sick. There was a red lump on my head from where I had hit it but I did not care. I was on land. All around me men were following me to the beach and collapsing onto the solid ground. A dozen children could have killed us all in those first few minutes, all except Agravaine who strolled through across the edge of the waves and amused himself by kicking the sea water at where I lay until I finally moved, cursing him as I did so.

We made our way east along the coastline. We marched along the firmer ground at the top of the beach but we had to keep making detours across the stony shores and cursed as our boots sank ankle deep into the stones. We were all heavily weighed down with armour, weapons and our bundled food, and many of us wore heavy boots that sapped at our already depleted energy as we slogged our way through shingle. My own knee-high boots were of better quality than the men around me, thick leather with studded soles that would give me a solid footing on the ground. The leg of the boots had strips of iron sewn into them to protect my legs in the shield wall. The boots were heavy though, so much so that I had almost left them behind for a lighter pair in the foreknowledge of the hard marching ahead before deciding against it. I was regretting that decision as my thighs burned and my calves cramped. I began to dread every footstep.

It was four miles until we found what we were looking for: a fishing village in a small fold in the coastline. The term village was a stretch, it was a clutch of huts around a half dozen tiny boats. We did not close in and surround the village to block anyone's escape, I had no compulsion to slaughter a group of innocent people. Our slow approach gave the people time to flee.

We burned the village. It did not burn well. The damp had seeped deeply into the thatch, but a man went into the buildings to set the inside of the thatch alight where it was dry. The fire caught slowly, smoking reluctantly as it smouldered and spread. But the heat of the flames deep in the thatch seemed to dry some of the damper thatch and then fire would burst out in patches before being beaten back by the drizzling rain. The faltering flames seemed to die, but they would suddenly flare up again in a rush of heat. The wattle walls glowed red on the outside of the inside of the walls burned while the outside hissed and steamed as the rain landed on the scorching walls.

Suddenly the first of the buildings collapsed, the side of the wall sheltered from the wind and rain, and that burned more freely collapsed amongst crashing and cracking wood.