The Wolf in the Sunlight

The Invasion

The Invasion
Eliana woke from her slumber when the faint, yet strong scent of smoke filled her room. She slipped out of the bed and tiredly stepped over to her window that faced the town. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until the corner of her eye caught a flash of orange light permeating the night. Quickly and with renewed energy, she went to her other window, the same one that had allowed her to see the head of the Viking on the wall.

The front barracks, at least a significant portion of them, were on fire. The gates joining the fort to the town were open, with men and guards carrying buckets filled with water from the mill to the burning thatch housing.

"My Lady! My Lady!" Gwen rushed into the room, trailing a brunette girl behind her. She closed the door quickly. "Your mother told me to bring this girl to you. She is the victim of a Viking attack."

Eliana turned around and looked at the two girls. Her mind took a moment to clear. "Why is she here?"

"It was the Queen's order, just until they contain the fire." Gwen sat the girl down on the chair in front of a small alcove. "My Lady, I have to return to fill the pitchers for the guards."

Eliana attempted to stop Gwen, but the maid rushed out of the door. Eliana sighed and shook her head, instead focused on the girl that her mother had ordered to be brought to her chambers. She looked surprisingly underwhelmed at the events she had been through. Eliana had heard the passing bards' storytelling of the brutality of the Vikings, of their reputation as unrelenting pillagers and subjecting innocent maidens to the worse kind of violence. "What is your name, girl?"

She looked up at Eliana but shook her head and looked back down at her lap. She stuttered her words, "I... can't."

Eliana knelt in front of her. "Cannot what? Speak Anglisc[1]?" She put her hand on hers and the girl pulled back crying out a word in another language. "I do not wish to harm you; you are under my protection." Eliana glanced down at the girl's cupped hands - she was holding something. It looked small, so Eliana didn't worry too much that she was concealing a weapon. Her heartbeat still picked up its pace though.

Maeve noticed that the Princess's eyes had been focused on her hands for a few prolonged moments. In a quick action, Eliana reached out to tug open the clasped hands. Maeve tried to push her away. The two girls tumbled to the floor in an awkward struggle to gain the mysterious object.
——-

Two warriors, on each side of the town, emerged from the woods clad in dark clothes and hoods. Simultaneously, they nocked a single arrow and aimed for the chests of the guard that stood watch. Both arrows met their target within seconds. The two men, with utmost silence, closed the gap between the line of trees and the Roman fortress. From their belts, they gathered a rope with a carved stone tied at the end. One flick of their wrists and the stone was coiled around the foot of the wooden structure built upon the tower. With the aid of the jagged 12-foot wall and the rope, the two men climbed until they reached the dead bodies.

The fire was burning in the distance and the two men used the distraction to deposit the bodies and continue across the outer wall to reach the second guard tower. They unsheathed their jewelled seaxes[2] and, while one hand muffled the guard's cry, the other pierced the heart. Two owl calls echoed through the night, a signal to the waiting soldiers.

The three guards on the fort's watchtowers were next. With ease, three arrows were nocked in place on the bow and released. Their chief had told them that no mercy was to be shown.

Upon hearing the signal, several soldiers propped two long planks of wood against the watchtowers. The warriors used them to form a bridge between the fort and the town's watchtowers. When they crossed it, the remaining guards along the walls charged with their weapons, but three single arrows pierced the Saxon's necks - archers having been in wait on each side of the fort.