The Highlander's Touch

Page 100

Edward Plantagenet’s troops assembled near the burn. They were boisterous, they outnumbered the Scots by five to one, and they were arrogantly certain that victory was scant hours away. They were mere miles from Stirling, they had a supreme advantage in numbers, and they still had two days to defeat the barbaric Scots.
Edward scoffed, joking with his men. It would take no more than two hours, he gloated.
The opposing troops engaged, and much to Edward’s dismay, over the course of the next two hours a large number of the English fell prey to the Bruce’s cleverly concealed pits and caltrops—spiked pieces of iron treacherously hidden in the brush.
Their confidence shaken by the concealed traps, they regrouped, having belatedly discovered that the Scottish front was virtually impenetrable.
Circling around to attack from the side would necessitate skirting the swampy Carse, while Scottish spearmen sat the high ground, waiting to pick them off.
Edward was chagrined by how well the Bruce had chosen his battle site, and how foolishly his troops had discounted the Scots’ abilities. The end of the first day saw Edward’s heavy horsemen repulsed twice, and large numbers of Englishmen slain.
The Bruce’s camp retired to the fringes of the forest of the New Park that night, elated by their success in repelling the English troops.
The English camp made their second deadly mistake by taking refuge in the soggy ground between the burn and the River Forth, a tactical error that would call its due in the morning.
When Sir Alexander Seton, a Scottish knight in Edward’s English army, defected late the first night, advising all who would listen that the Scots would win on the morrow, and if they didn’t he would willingly forfeit his own head, the English troops were further demoralized.
On the second day the English swiftly realized the error they’d made in choosing their campsite. The Scots descended upon them, trapping the English army immediately after their first charge, cornering them between the Bannock Burn and the River Forth, in a space too constricted for them to maneuver into formation for another charge.
The Scots had cunningly chosen their position, forcing the English to wage war on foot—a tactic for which they were grossly unprepared.
The Scots were far superior to the English on the ground, well accustomed to fighting in the swampy bogs and marshes, and free to move easily without the binding weight of armor.
The English began to break into unorganized formations, and it was at that weakened moment that the laird of Brodie arrived with his Templars. Into the fray they galloped as one, the holy knights ripping off their plaids, revealing the stark white robes and blood-red crosses of their Order.
Across the field of mud and broken bodies, the wave of brilliant white knights cut like a scythe of death. Many of the battle-weary, discouraged Englishmen simply turned and fled upon glimpsing the robes. The Templars were legendary for their invincibility in battle. Few encountered a warrior Templar and lived to tell of it. The Englishmen who were astute enough to notice that they rode into battle under the banner of the notorious laird of Brodie reared their mounts about and raced away from certain death.
Along the Bannock Burn, Circenn Brodie was an animal, merciless and swift. Later the men would claim he vied with the Berserkers in his deadly rage, and epics would be composed in his honor. He was cold and sharp and hard, and good for nothing but slaughter. He lost himself in a blackness so complete that he cared naught if he slew legions, he simply raged, hoping to exhaust himself and gain the respite of unconsciousness, a temporary kind of death.
When at last one of his lieutenants took the English king’s mount by the bridle and rushed Edward from the battlefield in a blatant admission of defeat, a bellow of triumph echoed across the bogs.
The English swiftly decamped and fled upon seeing Edward’s standard leave the field, while the Scots roared their joy.
In the midst of the celebration, Circenn felt only a savage sorrow—it was finished too swiftly. One measly day of battle, and he had no choice but to face both his pain and his ancient enemy. A month-long war would have made him far happier.
While the men celebrated and paraded through the country proclaiming the English defeat, Circenn Brodie turned his mount and, without stopping to eat or rest, rode back to Castle Brodie to destroy his nemesis.
* * *
Circenn sensed Adam the moment he entered Castle Brodie.
While riding, he’d conceded the possibility that a natural disaster or an accident had befallen his beloved. But Adam’s presence could mean only one thing: The fairy had found Lisa and discovered she’d brought the flask.
Either you do it, or I will, the blackest elf had insisted.