Saxon 01 - The Last Kingdom Read Online Free PDF Page A

"You. And a king should be able to read and write."

"A king," I answered scornfully, "can always hire men who can read and write."

Then, next morning, the decision to attack or besiege was made for us, because news came that more Danish ships had appeared at the mouth of the river Humber, and that could only mean the enemy would be Bernard Cornwell The Last Kingdom reinforced within a few days, and so my father, who had stayed silent for so long, finally spoke. "We must attack," he told both Osbert and Ælla, "before the new boats come."

Ælla, of course, agreed enthusiastically, and even Osbert understood that the new ships meant that everything was changed.

Besides, the Danes inside the city had been having problems with their new wall. We woke one morning to see a whole new stretch of palisade, the wood raw and bright, but a great wind blew that day and the new work collapsed, and that caused much merriment in our encampments. The Danes, men said, could not even build a wall. "But they can build ships," Father Beocca told me. "So?"

"A man who can build a ship," the young Bernard Cornwell The Last Kingdom priest said, "can usually build a wall. It is not so hard as ship-building."

"It fell down!"

"Perhaps it was meant to fall down,"

Beocca said, and, when I just stared at him, he explained. "Perhaps they want us to attack there?"

I do not know if he told my father of his suspicions, but if he did then I have no doubt my father dismissed them. He did not trust Beocca's opinions on war. The priest's usefulness was in encouraging God to smite the Danes and that was all and, to be fair, Beocca did pray mightily and long that God would give us the victory.

And the day after the wall collapsed we gave God his chance to fulfill Beocca's prayers.

We attacked.

Bernard Cornwell The Last Kingdom I do not know if every man who assaulted Eoferwic was drunk, but they would have been had there been enough mead, ale, and birch wine to go around. The drinking had gone on much of the night and I woke to find men vomiting in the dawn. Those few who, like my father, possessed mail shirts pulled them on. Most were armored in leather, while some men had no protection other than their coats. Weapons were sharpened on whetstones. The priests walked round the camp scattering blessings, while men swore oaths of brotherhood and loyalty.

Some banded together and promised to share their plunder equally, a few looked pale, and more than a handful sneaked away through the dykes that crossed the flat, damp landscape.

A score of men were ordered to stay at the camp and guard the women and horses, Bernard Cornwell The Last Kingdom though Father Beocca and I were both ordered to mount. "You'll stay on horseback," my father told me, "and you'll stay with him," he added to the priest.

"Of course, my lord," Beocca said.

"If anything happens," my father was deliberately vague, "then ride to Bebbanburg, shut the gate, and wait there."

"God is on our side," Beocca said.

My father looked a great warrior, which indeed he was, though he claimed to be getting too old for fighting. His graying beard jutted over his mail coat, above which he had hung a crucifix carved from ox bone that had been a gift from Gytha. His sword belt was leather studded with silver, while his great sword, Bone-Breaker, was sheathed in leather banded with gilt-bronze strappings.

His boots had iron plates on either side of Bernard Cornwell The Last Kingdom the ankles, reminding me of his advice about the shield wall, while his helmet was polished so that it shone, and its face piece, with its eyeholes and snarling mouth, was inlaid with silver. His round shield was made of limewood, had a heavy iron boss, was covered in leather and painted with the wolf's head. Ealdorman Uhtred was going to war.

The horns summoned the army. There was little order in the array. There had been arguments about who should be on the right or left, but Beocca told me the