They camped in an open field beside the river. Captain Flint was not concerned about alerting any possible scouts on the other side of the river. In fact, he seemed interested in inviting them to come attack his group. Not because he wanted Aeolwyn dead, but because he was hungry for some action.

Fortunately, no scouts were seen on the banks. Aeolwyn suggested to the captain that considering the nature of the intelligence that they had received, it would be wise to send out forward scouts so they wouldn’t be caught unaware if they ended up in a dangerous situation. Flint, who resented Aeolwyn’s quick promotion told him in no uncertain terms to mind his own business. So, he did.

He contemplated sending scouts of his own out, but that would be disobeying a direct order, and the general looked down on things like insubordination, even if it was the right thing to do. Still, Aeolwyn told his men to be even more vigilant.

They had been marching for 5 hours and were in sight of the outpost when they came into what Aeolwyn would later name the funnel. On one side was the River Tyr, covered sparsely with stunted trees and riparian vegetation. On the other was a thick bit of vegetation amid a copse of trees. It wasn’t large enough to be considered a forest or woodland, but it was large enough to hide an army.

As they got close to the funnel, Aeolwyn rushed to Captain Flint and begged him not to go this way. It was a perfect spot for an ambush. With the river blocking them on the right, there was nowhere for the army to run to for cover. Should someone attack, the whole group would be done for.

Aeolwyn didn’t know if it was due to incompetence or malice, but Captain Flint refused his request. In fact, if he had been considering an alternative, he dismissed it as soon as Aeolwyn spoke up. Despite the danger, Flint insisted on going that way. All Aeolwyn could do was order his soldiers to close up formations and be ready to join shields. It wasn’t quite a shield wall, but they would be ready to get into that formation on a moment’s notice.

A shield wall was a very common battle formation. The men in the front rank would get close together, shoulder to shoulder and overlap their shields. The main job of the front rank was to protect those behind them, while using short swords or axes to try to break the enemy’s shield wall. The men further behind would use longer range weapons such as spears to strike at the enemy.

What would end up happening, according to Sir Jom, was that there would be a lot of pushing and shoving between opposing shield walls, while each side would try to spear each other in the heads or the feet. The goal was to try to break the shield wall and route the enemy.

If one side or another had archers, they would typically be protected behind the shield wall and from their fire their arrows at the enemy before the two shield walls made contact with each other. Once they were face to face, the archers had to find other targets for fear of hitting their own men.

If there were mages among the combatants, tactics could change. They would stay behind the wall as well, but they would use their spells to try to break the shield wall, or rain death from above. Thus, the mages would be the first line of defense, and the first target the enemy would choose. It often ended up being two separate battles, where the shield walls would fight one battle, and the mages would fight their own against the enemy’s mage, attempting to attack the shield wall and the mages as well as countering the enemy’s mages attacks and counter attacks.

That was the theory as presented to Aeolwyn by Sir Jom. He had never been in a shield wall himself, so he had no first-hand knowledge. During the war games they played at the table, the strategies seemed sound, but Aeolwyn always thought he could do better. He thought using mages in a different way than just as magical archers were the key to victory. He just hadn’t figured out how yet.

When they were far enough into the funnel for there to be no way out but forward, something thunked on the shield behind Aeolwyn, and then all hell broke loose. It was an arrow! Another whizzed by his head before Reiva leapt up and pulled him from the saddle behind his men.

Men from behind the trees shouted out battle cries and charged into their column. Most of the line was unprepared and were easy pickings for their attackers. The ones that fled were cut down by the archers.

“Shield wall!” Aeolwyn yelled. His men immediately formed up shoulder to shoulder and overlapped their shields. The Fenns who assaulted them weren’t expecting such a quick defense, and his men were able to easily cut down the first dozen men who thought this was already a rout.

Aeolwyn got to his feet and surveyed the situation. It was bad. The soldiers outside of his shield wall were getting cut down with reckless abandon. Men were fleeing and drowning in the river. Up ahead, he could hear Flint giving panicked orders to run for the outpost, but it was too far. There was no way they would get out of the range of the archers.

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He turned to Galafar. “Take command here, Gal. Pivot up to protect the other soldiers and get them into the shield wall.”

“Me? Where are you going?”

“To rescue these men from this disaster!” He cried and leapt atop his horse. Sefalus was already in a gallop as soon as Aeolwyn landed in the saddle. He grabbed the shield and hid behind it as best he could. Arrows flew past, but thanks to some miracle, none landed anywhere but his shield.

“Camulites! To me!” He shouted as he ran up the line. “Form up!”

“Soldier Aeolwyn stand down!” Captain Flint shouted as he reached the center of the column where the captain’s retinue was. Aeolwyn noticed that his men had formed up into a shield wall to protect him but hadn’t bothered to order anyone else to. From here, Aeolwyn could already see the rout coming. Most of the men ahead had already began making their way to the outpost and were quickly getting cut down by arrows and pursuing men.

“I will not,” Aeolwyn said as he slid off his horse. “You’re getting these men killed.”

“Stand down or be cut down,” Flint said, drawing his sword.

Woebringer practically leapt from its scabbard into Aeolwyn’s hand. He slashed down at the captain’s sword, knocking it from the man’s grasp. The captain stared in shock, disbelieving that anyone under his command would have done such a thing.

“As a Prince of the Realm, I am assuming command, captain. If you take exception to that, I’ll run you through myself!”

Captain Flint raised his hands in surrender. Aeolwyn turned to the men nearest the captain. “This man is under arrest, either for treason or incompetence. You are to keep him under guard, by force if necessary. If you choose to disobey me, you will find yourselves with nooses around your neck if we survive this. Understand?”

“Yes, sir!” three of the men said.

“Good.” He turned to another man. “You,” he said. “Go to the shield wall and have them move to link up with mine. Call the stragglers to arms before they get themselves killed.”

Then he turned to another man, “Take half of your men and form up another shield wall behind us. We need our flank protected from the men who broke through. Cut them down and rescue as many of our men as you can.”

He got back onto his horse and chased after the men fleeing to the outpost.

“Men! To me!” He cried as he passed them. “Form up!”

Most didn’t understand what he was saying. He got ahead of as many as he dared before leaping off his horse again. He grabbed the first three men who had thus far survived the rout.

He braced himself and put forward his shield. “To me!” he yelled. He grabbed the arms of the first two men as they passed him. “Form up!” he shouted.

The surprised men stopped fleeing and got shoulder to shoulder with him, overlapping their shields. The others who weren’t cut down by arrows saw a shield wall starting to form and joined up with it. They shouted to the men now behind them, closer to the outpost to come back. Many did so, others chose to keep running and were cut down by the enemy’s arrows.

“Advance!” Aeolwyn shouted and directed the shield wall into the woods where the archers were still hidden. It was difficult to maintain a tight shield wall in the forest, but they did the best they could, with the men on the far end the most vulnerable from flanking attacks.

They moved slowly, heads down behind their shields. The arrows came in a frenzy at first. Their shields stopped most of them, but occasionally a well-placed shot would strike a man down. The men just closed the gap in the shield wall and continued advancing.

The first few archers thought they could break the shield wall, despite having no shields themselves. Aeolwyn and the other men quickly cut them down. Some in the back ranks recovered their bows and turned them on the enemy as the advancing shield wall passed the dead archers.

Soon, the line of archers broke and fled. Some of the men broke into a run, chasing the archers only to be cut down by a stray arrow as soon as they left the safety of the shield wall.

“I will hang the next man who breaks rank!” Aeolwyn shouted.

When the archers were routed, Aeolwyn divided the shield wall in half, sending one half to pursue the archers, cautioning them to not break formation. The other half he took with him to attack the Fennish infantry from behind.

His men had met up with enemy shield wall and were finally holding their own against the attackers. They had formed three shield walls in total. The largest was the one Aeolwyn had instructed Galafar to form. The second was the one that had formed around Captain Flint, and his was the third. All three were significantly smaller than they should have been. They had lost a lot of men.

Aeolwyn pressed his men into the backs of the enemy. Without the archers to protect them, their flanks were exposed. The men in the rear turned and tried to form a backside shield wall, but it was too little, too late. Aeolwyn’s men had already broken their wall. The men began drop their weapons and flee. They were cut down by Aeolwyn’s newly formed archer corps.

As Aeolwyn’s shield wall joined up with Galafar’s they marched north to Captain Flint’s. When the men in the back of the enemy shield wall saw Aeolwyn’s squad marching towards them, they broke and fled.

The battle was over. He sent men off after the fleeing Fenns but stayed behind to survey the damage. The cost was staggeringly high. They had lost three-quarters of their men to death or injury. Egne was running around trying to heal as many as he could, but most were beyond his ability.

He supposed they had won, but it sure didn’t feel like one. He formed the men up into a much-smaller column, and together they all limped the rest of the way to the outpost. He didn’t send anyone out to deal with the dead until he was sure it was safe.