With the dawn, Ubba’s  commanders urged him to overrun the town, but at the same time, Ubba’s spies returned and reported. “They did not lay in any supplies and food. They don’t have any fresh water in the fort.”

Ubba turned to his commanders and smiled. “Why waste our men and blood? We have the gates blocked. We can wait a week and starve them out. Meanwhile, we can send out scouts to survey the area, west, south, and east. Let us see which way we can most easily move to enrich ourselves.”

“We had a good thing in Dyfed.” A man named Carlson complained. “Why did we come here?”

“Because.” Ubba retorted. “Guthrum has some five thousand men in his army. I am told Wessex can just about match that number. But an army cannot be in two places at once and right now they are focused on Guthrum. We can pick Devon clean and maybe Somerset, at least the western half of it and leave before Wessex can send any serious opposition. Then again, if Guthrum succeeds, we are safe here in the west end of Wessex to do as we please.”

“We have much to gain and little to lose if we play it smart.” One commander understood.

“Devon has not been in West Saxon hands for very long. They probably can’t raise much of an army. If we are patient, the men in this place will surrender when they get hungry enough and then Devon will be ours for the taking.” Ubba set about securing the siege on Countisbury and the fort while he selected the men to send out to scout and get a good grasp on the lay of the land. Those plans got interrupted when they saw men coming from the east.

Ubba’s men hurried to fortify that side of his camp. When he managed a count, he decided they only had three or four hundred men. “Probably the coastal watch from west Somerset,” Ubba said. “I don’t know how they knew we were here to come running, but it is a gift for us. We still have twice their number if you count them and the men in the fort together, and they are divided. It should not be hard to kill off one and then the other, and the coast of both Devon and Somerset will be ours for the taking.”

It sounded good in theory, but the dwarves picked up a second hundred coming through the Brendon Hills. Somehow, they got around Gwyn and his men and headed toward the coast and the twenty-three longships there. They had in mind first to make sure the Vikings had no means of escape. They figured with the ways east and west blocked by men, the Vikings only had the south as an escape route. They and their axes would happily chase the Vikings all the way to Dartmoor if necessary.

The Dwarfs with some judicious arrows from Pinoak’s people made short work of the hundred Danes Ubba left to guard the ships. Then they turned their axes on the ships themselves, though they mostly cut the anchors and shoved the ships out into the water. The water sprites in that area dragged the ships into the deep water where Ubba’s men could not get at them, and the dwarves were able to turn and face the Vikings in case Ubba sent his men to save the ships.

Ubba quickly turned his eyes toward the south, but he found no escape in that direction as the main force from Devon, about nine hundred men formed a wall and moved slowly forward. Ubba yelled. “Form up. Form the line. Make the wall. We can win this.”

“I hope,” Carlson mumbled.

Gwyn and Osfirth linked up and between them, they matched the Danes in numbers. it was a bit over twelve hundred Saxons and Celts versus a bit under twelve hundred Danes, and the Danes did not have time to set their order and keep any in reserve.

Copperhand yelled at the Vikings but he kept his dwarfs back from the men. Pinoak got the word that the Dwarves had come out of their place and what they were doing, and he told Elgar. Elgar yelled, but then he settled down and gave himself a massive headache, projecting his thoughts all that distance to Copperhand and whatever other dwarves might be listening.

You had your fun. You can stay back and prevent any Vikings that may try to escape down the shore or maybe try and swim to the ships, but let the men fight their own battle. Most of your people can’t tell the difference between Saxons and Danes, and if you start killing my Saxons I will be very angry.

Copperhand yelled back, but he kept two long ships intact as enticements to Ubba’s men, and in the course of the battle, there were some that made the attempt, so Copperhand and his got to chop up some Danes. They were not entirely disappointed.

Gwyn and Osfirth had mostly farmers and fishermen in their ranks. That just meant they had strong arms, backs, and legs. They could push a spear of swing a sword as well as any man, and hold their shields up all day long, but the Danes had mostly veterans of many battles. They had all the battle experience on their side and had learned some lessons the Saxons hardly imagined. Though the sides were about even in numbers, there seemed little doubt that the Danes would win the day, that is, until Odda moved.

Odda picked up another hundred men in Countisbury, plus he had a hundred or so men in green that he knew were Elgar’s people. They were in fact Pinoak’s fairies and a contingent of local fee, elves, gnomes, and such that manifested to help out. Odda knew if the Danes won the battle, he would be stuck with no food or water. He did not imagine he had any choice. He and his men charged out of the fort at the back of the Danes and hit them in the rear with five hundred new swords and arrows, The Danish line shattered.

Three men in their fifties ran with Odda and knocked him down. They knocked him down three times before the old man did not have the strength to get up again. He laid there in the grass and threatened the men. Those men understood, but they hovered around the seventy-year-old to protect him from the battle. In the end, Odda sat up and asked.

“How did we do?”

“Complete victory,” one of the men said. “Our losses were light. They lost their whole army. We have about four hundred prisoners.”

“Ubba?” Odda asked.

“Found. Dead,” the man said. Odda nodded, and two of the men helped him back to his feet.

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MONDAY

The story of Alfred and Guthrum comes to a different conclusion. Until then, Happy Reading

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