April 13, 870 AD
City of Calais, Kingdom of West Francia
It had been eleven days since the Frankish camp sent a messenger to Emperor Louis the Germanic.
Duke Odo and Count Lothair were waiting for a response from their ruler. A messenger riding a fast horse could make the round trip in exactly ten days. Therefore, Bjorn calculated that the Frankish army had received their new orders yesterday.
King Erik sat on a bench nearby. He was drinking cold ale from an iron cup. Erik looked bored.
During these eleven days, the Frankish army had done nothing during the daylight hours.
They wanted to block all land trade and starve the Vikings. But Bjorn did not care about the land routes.
The Iron Kingdom had control of the sea. Every three days, a transport ship arrived at the docks carrying five thousand pounds of salted pork and ten thousand pounds of hard wheat bread.
