20 The Burning City

As the army approached the village, a bell could be heard softly tolling in the distance. The army approaching the village started banging on their shields, and chanting "Die" to scare the villagers.

Anyone left in the village was considered an enemy. The rules set in place by the Jarls stated that rape was forbidden during these campaigns. Children were always off limits in the Northman culture as anyone that harmed a child was viewed as a monster, castrated, and then burned alive for their unforgivable crimes.

As they got closer to the village the shield banging and shouting intensified. The Golden Isles men holding the ramparts of the wooden outskirts were quaking in their boots at the sight of so many men. Archers on the ramparts had superior range and as soon as the army entered their range they loosed their arrows. The Northmen had been advancing in shield wall formation for a few hundred feet now, and their arrows were so sparse, that they did literally nothing aside from rarely hitting a soft spot on the shield and piercing someone's hand or arm. No deaths occurred from any of the volleys of arrows. As they approached the gates, torches were prepared and they lit the wooden battlements on fire. The dry wood lit up immediately, burning fast and extremely hot. The men had scrambled from the battlements and formed up on the other side of the burning gates. Their only hope was to buy their families enough time to put some distance between the horde of merciless Northmen and themselves.

After almost an hour after lighting the battlements on fire, the weight of the top of the structure was too much for the support beams to take, and soon collapsed. As the ash cleared the Northmen flooded through the smoldering, collapsed battlements, surprising the enemy with their fearlessness.

As Jon rushed through the gap he found that most of the enemy had already been slaughtered, the rest were about to die. All that was left was to loot and burn the city.

Jon did not wet his blade, instead chose to find the valuables hidden in the city. Churches and homes of royalty were always the best targets, as they could afford fine things like that.

After the city had been sacked Jon looked at his loot. He only found a silver locket and what might be a gold wedding band. Jon might has well have gone down and looted their wine cellars.

Marching away from the burning village, the goal was to find a good place to camp, away from the dark smoke billowing high into the air. The five Jarls called for the army to stop after coming to a nice flat area. Sending scouts out again, hoping to find a larger village to loot, they all made camp and began to show off the little trinkets pillaged from the poor village. Jon was not very proud of his trinkets, as they were low in value and were not visually appealing.

Raska asked how Jon felt about the sack of the town. Jon just shrugged his shoulders with indifference.

"Just wait until we sack an important city, there are many more men and the gold that they horde there is beyond imagination." Raska explained. "Just remember to stick by my side, and you will always be safe. I would give my life for you, my son." Raska said with a serious expression on his face.

Jon nodded and and shared a moment with his father. They drank and ate until they could not hold anymore, and passed out.

When morning came around, the scouts were back and reported a force of almost 2,000 men led by the "king" of this large area. The Jarls had their stewards blow their horns and announced that whomever killed the king would receive 100 pieces of gold from the Jarls' personal treasuries.

The scouts estimate that the enemy is probably 4 or 5 hours away. with at least 300 fewer men, the Jarls decided to put a medium sized force of archers up on a hill to the South, with a cohort of 500 men to protect them and the remaining Northmen would be concealed behind the hill, and perform a two pronged attack at the backs of the first wave of enemies.

In the next few hours the whole army was working hard, setting up defensive trenches for the enemy assault. The men were soon ready, and hidden. Jon's cohort of 500 men was up on the hill, protecting the archers his group had to stand firm, unwavering in their defense.