A Song Of Steel (The Light of the North saga Book 1) by James Duncan

Author:James Duncan [Duncan, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-03-18T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

A Gathering of Crowns

Aarhus, kingdom of Denmark

Mid-May 1116

Sedemonr carried Jarl Ragnvald into Aarhus on a fresh southerly breeze and into a world of chaos. As soon as they landed, they were aghast to find that the bulk of the Danish army, and most of the lords of Jutland, had been utterly defeated three days before, twenty miles to the south. Few men had survived the battle to report back to the city of the carnage, of the terror, of the Christian knights.

King Magnus ‘Barefoot’ Olafsson of Norway was in Aarhus too. He and his small army had landed in the north of Jutland a few days before at Aalborg and marched south. The king of Denmark had survived the battle by the simple mechanism of not being present and staying in the city. He was old and half-mad, and his sons, who had died on the field, had been ruling for him for a decade.

It was chaos. The few Danish scouts still alive and doing their jobs reported that the Christian army was just a day away from the city, inciting further panic into an already disintegrating population. Into this maelstrom arrived the Swedish fleet. A hundred ships, five thousand men, all that could be brought at such short notice, and yet it seemed they were too late. All three kings of the Norse nations were gathered in one place for the first time in a generation, but none had control of the situation.

King Eric called his leading jarls together, to his credit laying their dispute aside and including Ragnvald, and went to meet the Norwegians and those of the Danish lords who had survived. The party hurried to the hall of the king in Aarhus and found King Magnus was there with many of his lords and the remaining Danes of note. The Danish king was not present, and no one cared to ask or explain why.

‘King Eric, I am pleased to see you here, come to join us as brothers.’ Magnus embraced his fellow king warmly, and Eric returned the gesture stiffly. He put his hand to his mouth and coughed sharply, waving Magnus away when he showed concern.

‘It seems our arrival is too late. Why did the Danes march to battle without us?’ he asked with a scowl as the cough receded.

‘Why?’ shouted a Danish jarl. ‘We marched because you were not here!’

‘We came as soon as we could. Our lands are vast, and it takes time to gather our forces,’ snapped the king.

‘And yet you took so long and arrived with so few,’ sneered another jarl.

‘Yet here we are,’ boomed Magnus.

‘And you, with even fewer. How many men did you bring? Four thousand?’

‘We came to our enemies’ lands to help you defend yourselves, and you question us?’ roared Eric, raising his voice for once.

‘I know the price you extracted for your ill-timed aid, Silverfist,’ the man spat, turning his back on the king, who was roiling with anger.

‘And why did you march without us? With

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.