By now, under the continuous rain of stone, timber and arrows, several Norman knights and foot soldiers lay strewn at the foot of the walls and in the bottom of the ditch. The group who had assaulted the gate was struggling to inflict any damage on the strong oak timbers.
With de Barry in safe hands, Myler rushed back across the causeway. They huddled under the meagre protection of their shields while others tried to hoist the ladders. Not one got a foot to a rung before it was quickly thrown back. I saw one ladder being pulled up onto the wall by the defenders. It was hopeless.
Realising that continuing the attack was pointless, FitzStephen called on them to withdraw. The Norsemen jeered as they retreated over the causeways, taking their dead and wounded with them.
It had not only been pointless; it had also been costly. As the evening closed in, we gathered around a campfire near my tent; we needed to eat. We had lost eighteen men, with many more wounded. This was a lot for a force our size; they were the irreplaceable knights and foot soldiers. Myler’s uncle had regained consciousness and would survive, although his helmet would not. Worse still, Rob reckoned he had hardly put a scratch on a man on the walls. The Norsemen would take heart at today’s fighting, as we could hear from the laughter drifting over the walls of the town in the still evening.
‘We’ll be attacking again at first light,’ Myler said gloomily. ‘Ladders and timber platforms to give us some cover are being built.’ We all turned to the sound of the hammering coming from where Rob’s archers were camped. They were woodsmen and farmers for the most part and would make easy work of it.
However, none of us were encouraged by the sound. We sat in silence.
‘Myler. We’re not going to take this place by force,’ Donal said eventually. ‘Well, not quickly anyway. It’s never been done. I told you that.’ He shook his head. ‘They can stay in there forever, resupplying themselves from the sea as they want.’
Rob nodded his head in agreement. ‘He’s right, Myler. These Norsemen know what they are doing. We need another plan.’
Myler knew they were right. He looked at each of them in turn. ‘OK, but what? What do you suggest?’ A long silence. Nothing. The baleful hammering droned on, ominous, like the sound of a scaffold being built for the condemned. What could be done? Another day lost; another defeat would be ruinous for our campaign. More so for Eanna, I thought.
‘The boats,’ I said. Their faces, sculpted by the glowing flame of the fire against the dark night, turned to me.
‘What?’ Rob asked.
It was clear to me now, suddenly clear.
‘The boats.’ I jumped up. ‘We destroy the boats on the quays.’
Shaking heads. Dismissive sighs. Donal threw the remnants of a rabbit leg he was eating into the fire. The long scrape of the whetstone on steel resumed as Myler honed his well-sharpened blade.
‘No, listen,’ I insisted. Pausing, Myler looked at me, more out of loyalty than any real sense of hope in my plan.
‘They are fighting because they think they can hold out until help arrives. If they doubt that, they will talk,’ I said. Donal nodded but shrugged at the obvious.
I continued. ‘Right now, they think time is on their side. Without the boats to resupply, time is with us. They don’t particularly care who claims to be their overlords, as long as they are left to their trade.’ Myler looked to Donal, who nodded his agreement. He said nothing, expecting me to continue.
I went on to explain to him that the Norsemen do not seek enemies. They would ally with any force that best suits their interests, and equally fight ferociously against any that endangered them. Their desire was to be left unmolested in their towns and hinterlands, allowing them to continue their seagoing trade in all manner of goods with places far and near. They would quickly come to terms and offer support to any lord who would guarantee these freedoms. They had, until recently, been subjects of my father and many kings of Leinster before him. It was understandable that they were weary of the unknown, particularly if that unknown presents itself as a formidable armed force beneath your walls.
‘Well, why not just send messengers to them now,’ Rob asked, ‘telling them they can keep their town if they support us.’
‘They won’t. Why would they? They can sit behind their walls until an army arrives at our rear. They’d be a lot more certain in their future then,’ I said. I had their attention now. ‘We don’t have time. We need to tip the balance in our favour a bit. Make them think again. Burn their boats and then offer to talk.’ They were all silent now. They knew it made sense.
‘They’ll be well guarded. Under the walls. Risky,’ Donal said. ‘Anyway, not all the boats are on the quays. There’s a good few anchored in the bay.’
Rob said that they were close enough to set alight with fire arrows. After a bit of talk, Myler eventually agreed that it was worth a try, and if it didn’t work, they’d be attacking the walls in the morning regardless. It would need to be done by stealth in the dark with a small group, creeping silently around the town through the marshland to the east, up the shoreline to the quays. It would have to be quick, and hopefully the guards had brazier fires and torches on the quays for the flame they’d need to fire the boats.
Knowing they might have to swim and needing surprise, there would be no armour or heavy chain mail; reflected light and clinking metal would quickly betray them—if it didn’t drown them first. Rob said that wouldn’t work for him, as the pitch on his arrows could not get wet. So it was agreed that he would take his men to the northwest side of the town and create a diversion for the men on the walls by lighting some fires. He would be ready to fire into the anchored boats when he saw those on the quay ablaze, all going to plan.
With that agreed, Donal and Myler went to get the agreement of my father and FitzStephen. Rob and I sat silently listening to the crackling fire, our appetites gone in anticipation of what was to come. Returning quickly, they both simply nodded their heads. They could try it, but they had to be quick.
‘Ten men,’ Myler said. ‘Five of mine and five of yours, Donal. Bring quiet ones that can swim.’
As they were leaving to their tasks, they stopped when I suddenly said, ‘I’m coming,’ to the surprise of everyone.
‘No, you’re not,’ Donal said.
‘Yes, I am. It’s my plan.’
‘No, you’re not!’ he said, raising his voice.
‘Stop me so!’ I shouted back at him. Donal looked to Myler, certain sense would prevail.
Myler looked at me. Then he simply shrugged his shoulders and opened his hands, powerless.
‘Gods!’ Donal cursed and stomped off to gather his men.
The men carried short swords and daggers. Fáinleog was tucked into a thick leather belt I wore over a tanned leather tunic and rugged breeches.
‘Grow a beard quickly, Aoife, or blacken your skin with this mud.’ Myler handed me a bowl of a foul-smelling substance with the consistency of thick gruel. It reminded me of the monks’ food we had survived on during that long winter at the monastery in Ferns.
‘And you too, Padraig,’ Donal said, pointing to the young lad he had brought as one of his five men. He was one of the young buachaills Rob had trained with the longbow in Ferns, one of the boys who had fired him into the mill pond that day. I smiled at the memory. Padraig was turning out to be a valued warrior in all manner of ways. He was probably a couple of years younger than me. I knew his sisters and mother well.
‘There’s barely a shade of a hair on your chin,’ Donal teased him. ‘Have your balls dropped at all yet?’
Even then, Padraig managed to look a bit embarrassed. We all smiled and laughed as best we could. We needed the diversion of humour now to lessen the tension gripping our stomachs.
The clouds covered any moonlight, and the weak light from the lanterns swaying in the wind on the walls would not betray us. Our night eyes gradually opened to the darkness; Myler whispered to me to stop looking at the lanterns after I had stumbled as we moved through the marshy ground. The squelching of our footfalls boomed like thunder to me when I saw the guards on the walls peering our way, but the gusting wind was kind, breaking and disguising any sound we made. The flurry of the occasional nesting bird we disturbed was lost in the wind.
