For once in his life, Aelfric was not bothered by such a stark violation of decorum. It had been about all that Aelfric could do to refrain from drawing his own blade and striking at the arrogant emissaries.
Word had then been sent quickly of the incident and the King’s response, by both airborne and ground steeds, to all parts of the Saxan Kingdom. Parchments bearing the seals of Ealdormen and Counts came back to Aixen with great alacrity, bearing their various responses.
The great Ealdormen and Counts of the land had been unanimous in their support of the King, as had the Gitawan, the great council serving Alcuin.
All seven of the kingdom’s Ealdormen and its four great Counts had swiftly pledged their unequivocal support. They had then turned to the immediate tasks facing them, to begin the enormous and extensive summons that would be required to prepare for the expected response from the Unifier.
Hill-top beacons were lit, while innumerable couriers traversed paths and roads all throughout the kingdom. It was to be a momentous time for the most ancient of obligations, a calling out of all the lands’ able-bodied males to share in a collective defense of the kingdom itself.
The mustering of invasion forces to the west had also accelerated. The surge of the massing had come so fast that it was clear that the Unifier was prepared for, and probably had anticipated, King Alcuin’s response.
Ehrengard had then sealed off the border region, even to the most daring and adventurous of Saxany’s hardy spies. Sky patrols, mounted patrols, and teeming numbers of warriors on foot had clamped down on all traffic between Saxany and Ehrengard, and many courageous spies had lost their lives in attempts to get final word out of Ehrengard.
Before all word had been shut off completely, a dire and portentous tiding had arrived in Saxany. Though ominous, the word had been fortuitous, as it allowed the Saxans to perceive the full scope of what was facing them. One of the last spies to make it out of Ehrengard had reported the arrival of an enormous fleet that hailed from neither Avanor nor Ehrengard. The foreign fleet had included many huge, three-masted ships, of a size virtually incomprehensible to a Saxan.
The vessels carried along with them a multitudinous array of unusual foreigners, horses, and even a horde of strange, hump-backed beasts. They were rumored to have come from far to the north, and their presence in addition to the building forces from Avanor and Ehrengard took the threat facing Saxany to an unprecedented level.
The final word concerning the third mass of enemy forces ensured that the Unifier was not hesitating to summon everything that could be brought to bear upon the western border areas of the Saxan Kingdom. Every ounce of strength had to be applied in defense if the Saxan Kingdom was to have any hope of stopping the titanic invasion.
Everything was converging towards a final resolution, as the powerful, massive forces of the enemy trod towards the Saxan encampments out on the Plains of Aethelney.
Flanked by several elite warriors of his household guard, Aelfric turned Midnight aside and cut between a group of bell-shaped tents. The stallion cantered towards a large, pavilion-sized structure that had been erected near the center of the cluster.
Bringing the war horse to an abrupt halt, Aelfric swiveled and jumped down to the ground with a smoothness and agility that belied his age. Though his years said that he should have been beyond his physical prime, he still held onto his vitality with a tenacious grasp.
Aelfric strode towards the great tent without waiting for his immediate companions to dismount and catch up to him. His mind was fixated upon the priorities immediately facing him, no easy task at the apex of such a vast war campaign.
Inside the tent were several familiar figures, many of whom were reassuring presences, quite welcome sights to his eyes. One individual to the left, though, immediately provoked a sense of annoyance, though the conceited man would undeniably serve an important part in the overall Saxan strategy. All the figures nodded respectfully at Aelfric’s entrance, and he acknowledged them with a nod.
“Godric, I see that you have arrived as well,” Aelfric stated rather brusquely, to the man standing to his left. “I was not sure whether you got our message, for our courier reported that he was unable to gain a direct audience at your fortress.”
Though the words were polite, the tone was unmistakably accusing. Aelfric stifled his anger as best as he could. There was no time for pretensions, even though Aelfric expected Godric to suspend his usual arrogance in the face of the deadly wave sweeping towards all of them.
The man being addressed inclined his head. About an inch taller than Aelfric, but more slender of girth, Godric put forth a regal posture about himself, even though he held no throne. His cold, calculating eyes never appeared to look at a person directly, and his small mouth seemed forever set in tension.
Aelfric neither liked Godric nor wanted to have to depend upon him in any way. Godric was beholden to nobody, and the detached weighing of interests would seem to favor the greater strength and wealth of the western lands. Despite the inner misgivings that Aelfric felt, it was undeniable that Godric occupied a most important position in relation to Saxany’s current situation.
A substantial fortress belonging to Godric guarded the territory to the immediate south of where the narrow passage of land from Ehrengard to Saxany opened out onto the Plains of Aethelney.
Godric had always enjoyed engaging in solid trade with both Saxany and its neighbor, Ehrengard, a benefit that still continued as his lands were alloidal. A few small farming villages and a smattering of homesteads existed within his free-held land, which was not under the direct authority of either kingdom.
The trade with Saxany was still dangerous for Godric to undertake, as the Saxan lands were currently being barred from transacting commerce with anyone who did not wish to be deemed an enemy of the Unifier.
That Godric still traded with Saxany was the very source of Aelfric’s lingering hopes. Perhaps Godric would honor the kingdom that had made his land holding possible.
There was also a certain irony to all of it, one that Aelfric had not missed in the least. As Godric had increased his trade with Ehrengard, he had kept the trade with Saxany more discreet. The irony was simply that Ehrengard had once been an outright enemy to the specific King who had first bestowed the lands that Godric now occupied.
Godric’s lands, as Aelfric knew, hailed back to a heroic and honorable lord of the Fourth Era of Ave’s history, Conrad the Ironheart. Conrad the Ironheart had rebelled in those days against the unstable, continuously agitating nobility of Ehrengard. It had all transpired during an age when the lands of Saxany were two separate kingdoms. Fleeing eastward, Conrad had sought refuge, beseeching the ruler of the former southern and eastern kingdom, Clovis II.
Not only refuge had been granted, but lands with nominal suzerainty had been given over to him. They were part of the greater buffer zones on the western edge of the southern kingdom, located just to the south of the primary Western Marches. The dominion over that land had evolved into a freehold by the time that the two realms had been united into the Kingdom of Saxany.
Godric, however, was not of the line of Conrad the Ironheart. He had been the most senior among the household warriors of the last direct descendent of Conrad’s line, a man named Pepin. He had claimed to have been given the inheritance by Pepin, though no written charter had ever been produced to confirm the claim. Strengthening Godric’s position, most of the prominent warriors surrounding Pepin had supported his assertion.