Eadric and Oswi brought the news. “They’re at their fort, lord,” Eadric said, “and it’s a bastard.”

“And we’re on the wrong side of it,” Oswi added gloomily.

I ignored Oswi’s words for the moment. “How many?” I asked Eadric.

He shrugged. “Hard to tell, lord, most of them are inside the walls. Maybe two hundred outside? We couldn’t get close, we had to watch the bastards from across the valley.” He explained that the Tine was joined by a stream a couple of miles ahead. “The fort,” he said, “is across the stream’s valley.”

“And it’s steep,” Oswi added.

“Is that why we’re on the wrong side?”

“It’ll be hard to attack from the valley this side,” Oswi said, “but to the west there’s a hill that overlooks the fort.”

That sounded strange. Given a choice, no one would build a fort beneath a hill instead of on the summit, but the Romans were not fools, so if Oswi was right there had to be a reason. I looked at Eadric, who nodded confirmation of Oswi’s news. “And it’s a good-sized hummock, lord. Get on top of that, and the bastards will have a job to drive us away.”

“They won’t try,” Sigtryggr said. He had joined us on the heights as soon as he saw the scouts returning, “we have to defeat them, which means we have to assault the fort. They won’t attack us, they want us to attack them.”

“The walls?” I asked Eadric.

“Big enough, lord. They’re not like Ceaster or Bebbanburg, but you’ll need the ladders.” Like Oswi, he sounded gloomy.

“There were men outside, you said?”

“Scouring out ditches, lord.”

“Odin help us,” Sigtryggr said unhappily.

I pointed at the distant smear of smoke. “Is that Heahburh?”

Eadric shook his head. “That smoke’s well to the south of the fort, lord, and closer to us.”

“Lead smelting?” Finan suggested.

“Whatever it is,” Sigtryggr said, “it can wait till we’ve taken the fort.” He looked at me for agreement, and I nodded. “So let’s look at the damn place,” he finished.