074

The next day, the King, the Queen, the entire court, and our group of Vikings waited on the riverside awaiting Roll's baptism.

The bishop, accompanied by two priests, entered the river with Roll and began the sacrament.

"Lord, Holy Father, Almighty and Eternal God, expel the devil and his kin, from this person.

From the head, from the hair, from the brain, from the eyebrow, from the ears, from the nostrils, from the mouth, from the tongue, from the throat, from the neck, from the chest, from the heart, from thoughts, from words and deeds.

In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord."

- Amen. (Crowd)

In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.

- Amen. (Crowd)

- Baptize you in the Name of the father and son and holy spirit, amen. (Bishop)

The bishop made the sign of the cross and plunged Roll's head into the river.

The baptism itself did not interest me, I went to the King and the Queen, two guards blocked my way. I have instructed Athelstan to translate my words.

- Your Majesty doesn't have to fear me, if I wanted to kill you I wouldn't have to come so close. The baptism took place, our part of the contract has been honored ... Lady, you look stunning, I'm just waiting for a moment when we will be alone.

The king was furious at my words to his wife. He wanted to say something, but before he did, I turned and started walking towards my people ...

- Your Majesty, gold and silver. We are waiting.

(King Aelle / Ealdorman Edgar POV)

- My Lord, according to your instructions, our people are watching the norsmen camp, we do not know their exact number due to the large number of prisoners in the camp.

- I don't care what you don't know, but what did you find out ?!

- They have no cavalry, only infantry and archers. They dug pits from the west side of the camp, but masked them badly. There are no such traps from the front and the east. The camp is fenced but poorly guarded. There is no discipline and no obedience.

- I didn't expect anything else from a bunch of thieves ... it looks like we'll get rid of them rather easily. How are our troops?

- My Lord, in two days they will all be there, a total of 1,000 soldiers. Cart and empty chests are already prepared. When the norsmen go to collect the ransom, then we will attack.

- Yes... You and Wigea will command this army ... and I swear by God and all his angels that Ulf Erikson and the pagans he commands will be punished for all the sins and crimes they have committed against my subjects.

(End POV)

Rollo and Floki have not been able to communicate with each other since they were baptized. One saw it as a good joke the other saw it as a betrayal of the Gods ... they were like children.

I gathered a few people and explained to them that they should discreetly strengthen our defenses, prepare crossbows and discreetly scatter the crow's foot from the front and east.

The next days I spent with Athelstan, who taught me the language, he also wanted to teach me something about Christianity on this occasion, but when I spoke several quotes from the Bible in Latin, he understood that he was only a kind of smoke screen to confuse the enemy.

- Jarl Ulf, carts of silver and gold have arrived.

- Choose two slaves, let them go to check the contents of the chests, choose those with families ... if they resist, you know what to do.

I signaled my people to be alert. After a while, two slaves headed towards the carts ... Everyone waited tensely, except me... In the series the crates were empty, I had no reason to believe that it would be any different now. The slaves opened the chests and suddenly started running towards the camp ... only to be killed by the cavalry after a few meters.

I signaled my people to get ready ... The cavalry wanted to strike from the front...

The cavalry launched an attack, with each meter covered, the charge gained strength and speed... but suddenly the horses started to stumble, make terrified sounds, threw riders ... trampled people lying on the ground. Before the cavalry reached our camp, their formation was broken... Crow's foot proved to be very effective, even if the rider controlled the horse, the horse was injured anyway and was losing speed and mobility. I gave the order to attack, and three hundred men rushed forward, killing the wounded people and attacking the horses... at the same time, we were attacked by infantry and archers from the east.

First, I ordered the crossbowman and archer to shoot at the approaching enemy ... shields were not useful in confrontation with crossbows, bows also took their death toll. The opponent responded with an attack of his archers and a dozen of my men fell to the ground ... I didn't know if they were wounded or dead.

The enemy infantry tried to break through our fortifications, but it was not an easy task. The situation became very chaotic ... Three hundred of my men were fighting with the remnants of the cavalry ... I gave the order for the rest of my men to attack the enemy infantry.

The fights lasted two more hours, only when their attack completely broke down, the opponent began to withdraw. I wasn't going to waste my strength on the pursuit, only my archers fired a few more shots.

My men walked around the battlefield and killed the wounded, cut off the opponent's heads ... no matter if he was still alive or already dead.

I don't know the exact number of enemy soldiers, but he lost over 400 men in this battle, and we managed to capture the Ealdorman Edgar and Wigea. My losses are 250 wounded or killed, although the battle was won, the amount of losses was difficult to accept. Although my people trained a lot, during the battle they often forgot what they were learning and stopped thinking logically.

One of the positives of the battle was that they had acquired a little more experience ... and that there would be horse meat for every meal for a few days.