A Chronicle of the Year of Lost Hope,

Four-hundred and Ninety-Six

Being a Tale of How Five Squires Rose as Knights and Rode into the Maw of Wessex

Set down by the Clerk

Session Summary

• Five squires are knighted by Sir Brastius at Sarum, sworn to Countess Ellen and her young son Robert in the wake of Earl Roderick's death at Badon.
• Aescwine, Atheling of Essex, arrives demanding tribute; Sir Aur delivers the Countess's flat refusal to his face.
• The five are sent south to Hantonne bearing a gilded cathedral cross as a gift and a plea for military alliance.
• On the road they encounter a river of refugees: Hantonne has fallen, the King is dead, and Chichester is rubble.
• They are escorted into the ruins by Sir Aran of t ...