The Earl's King by M J Porter
Author:M J Porter [Porter, M J]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-12-23T22:00:00+00:00
Chapter Seventeen
AD1039 Powys Ãlfgar
Ãlfgar could see little from his place among the Mercian men. The sum all that was known to him was the warriors in front of him, and those to his side.
Noises drifted to him from behind, but he kept his head forward. When the attack came from the rear, one of the ten warriors there would ensure the Mercians knew their backs were under threat.
For now, events at the front of the shield wall were what mattered.
Ãlfgar knew the two sides had clashed. He felt it, rather than saw it, in the quiver of the men before him, and heard it too, in the grunts of men pushed to their greatest physical exertion.
âKeep close,â Orkning barked at his side, his voice harsh.
âAnd you,â Ãlfgar replied, placing his weight on his back foot so that he could better balance the shield he held above the head of the warrior in front of him. The man was of smaller stature than Ãlfgar and the gap above his head, from where the shields of the Mercians overlapped, felt like a vast, yawning gape, just waiting for a spear or an arrow to work its way through.
Ãlfgar glanced at it fearfully. It would be too easy for the space to be used against him. He prayed that none of the enemy thought to use the shields as a jumping off platform. He knew his arm would buckle under the weight. Already it threatened to shake with the exertion of holding something so heavy above, not his own head, but that of the man before him.
Ãlfgar bit his lip, hard, forcing his mind away from his useless thoughts to focus on what was happening in front of him.
The line of the shield wall seemed to be holding, in so much as he could determine, and yet he could hear the terrible cries of wounded men and men fighting for their lives, and as of yet, no forward progress had been made by the Mercians.
Neither had they been forced backwards. Was it possible that a stalemate had already been reached?
The next moment, Ãlfgarâs faint hope faded.
It began as a small thing, a flicker passing through the men before him, but then he was being forced backwards, despite his best efforts. His back foot, braced to support the weight of his shield, was quickly joined by his front foot as those before him tried to retrace the ground theyâd only just walked over.
Ãlfgar knew he needed to yield, if only for the sake of the construction of the shield wall and yet he fought against it until he was left with no choice. Before him, his fellow warrior turned.
âMove you fucking bastard,â the man hollered, spittle flying from his open mouth, as he was forced ever closer to Ãlfgar by those being obliged to retreat. For a quick moment, Ãlfgar caught a view of the front of the fighting men, through the space below his shield. He gazed at the scene of devastation, at the rage of the enemy fighting warriors theyâd trapped, and he finally stepped backwards.
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