He nodded, “Our Army Captain.”
I nodded, “Our Army, Sire.”
“Go see your wife before I have to hear about it.” He said smiling. I laughed and dropped back beside Reggie.
“About time you got back.” She said smiling. “You were successful?”
“I was. All the conspirators are in the King’s dungeon, and gold recovered.”
“How many were there?”
“116, and most were officers.”
She stared at me. “116.”
I nodded.
“That’s not good. I thought maybe ten or twenty at the most. But a 116. Lord have mercy.”
I gave Reggie the high points on the way in to pass the time. She had a quick mind and asked good questions.
“Father needs to call up the army and expand our Army right away.”
“That would be a good first step. I have a few other ideas I’ll suggest to him when this dust settles.”
THE KING HAD SENT RIDERS ahead so by the time we arrived the castle staff was ready to receive us. I had Oaks park my coach in the inner courtyard. I had a feeling I was going to need it. I had not taken the time to look around the castle much. Now that I took the time, how could I say this nicely, it needed work, or TLC.
“I ask that you have patience.” Reggie said, “We don’t have a wing, or an apartment. We have my room for the time being.”
“I have an idea, let take over the General and his adjutant’s quarters. They have other accommodations and will no longer need them. Or, we could stay in our pavilion until things settle.”
She nodded, “I honestly like the pavilion idea. I’ll let mother know. Stay close I have a feeling father will call on you soon.”
Soon turned out to be the next morning. We all ate breakfast together. “I read through your report last night. Very thorough.” I said nothing. “As soon as we finish eating, we’ll hold a closed court and get this business over with. I don’t want a scandal or to cause a panic.”
When the King and Queen were seated and ready. “Bring up the General.” I looked through the floor and concentrated on the General. I teleported him up before the King. I stood to the side but between him and the King.
“Sire, I must protest!”
“Be silent, or I’ll have you gutted where you stand.” I guess he believed him, he stayed quiet. His trial was the reading of my report, the General listened. The more that was read the more his shoulders slumped.
“We have found you guilty of treason and conspiring to overthrow the Crown. I sentence you to death, and I don’t care if you have any last words.” The King cast his spell and broke the General’s neck.
The rest of the trials were a copy of the first. I brought them up, the King read the report of their activities and they would be executed.
The last to come before the King was Master Merchant Nee-Carr. I teleported him into the throne room. As soon as he was there, he started an incantation. I threw a knife pinning his foot to the floor. That broke his concentration. I punched him in the temple dropping him to his knees.
“Next time I won’t be so nice.” I said getting him to his feet.
“Well, Sir Spy, you have been busy.”
“I have done nothing I am a peaceful merchant.”
The King began reading but stopped halfway through.
“I have information to trade maybe we could come to an agreement.”
“Oh? what kind of information?”
“The names of those who are working against you.”
The King read of the list of names who had been tried and executed. He continued reading the report on Nee-Carr.
Nee-Carr looked at me, “my compliments, well done.” I gave a slight bow of my head.
“Why?” the King asked.
Nee-Carr shrugged, “because Kings are greedy.”
The King busted out laughing, “I can’t argue with that."
“I follow orders, my King says do thus, I do thus.”
“Duty, I can understand,” the King said, “You will be my guest until I decide what to do with you.”
He bowed, “You are most kind, Sire.”
A servant came in. “Show our guest to his room. Make sure he has what he needs.”
“Yes, Sire.”
“Before you go,” I said. I healed his foot. “We can’t have you tracking blood all over the place.”
He tried his foot. “Thank you.” I nodded. He followed the servant out.
When we were alone, “what are you going to do with him?” The King asked, smiling,
I chuckled, “I hadn’t really thought about it. I’ll have to get back to you on that. Any preferences?”
“None, you decide.” I nodded.
“Come, let’s go have some tea.” the King said. I followed him and the Queen back to their sitting room. Reggie was already there. I took the offered seat, and servants brought us tea.
Reggie poured our tea. “So,” the King started, “We have the threat of invasion from the South-east, the North, and the East, overseas. Your father, who always bears watching, holds the North West.” He watched me as he spoke. I nodded. “You will someday be advisor to the Queen. If that were now what would your advice be?”
I took a swallow of my tea gathering my thoughts. “The first thing I would do would be to consolidate my army. We’ve gotten rid of the rot in our leadership, which means some units lack leadership. We need to correct that...” I almost said ASAP.
“Go on.”
“Next call up half of your militia and make sure they are trained, armed and ready to fight. Which could be at any moment. Once they are trained, start rotating the trained units with the other half of the untrained ones. Block off our harbor, so we control entry to it. Raise our Navy, to start with, by issuing ‘Letters of Marque’ to armed merchant ships.” I was expecting the question, so I waited sipping my tea.
“What is a ‘Letter of Marque’?”
“It is when the Crown gives permission to a kingdom’s merchant ships to capture enemy cargo ships. The Crown gets half the spoils, the capturing ship the other half. The Crown buys the captured ship at a reduced price, recrew it, and sends it out to do the same again.”
“So, it’s legalized piracy.”
“In a nutshell, yes. But when you have little or nothing, you do what you must. And since we have closed our harbor, we must start patrolling our coast looking for where they may land their army, should they press the war.”
“What about Midwick, and Volwick?”
“I don’t think we will have to worry about Midwick. Unless I miss my guess, my father is already making a move against them. Volwick we keep an eye on.”
“Anything else?”
I thought a moment, I already knew what I wanted to say, but I wanted them to think I had considered things, which I had. “Repair and expand the castle or built a new one.”
The King laughed, “You repaired St. Philip’s Abbey?”
I nodded, “partially.”
“I approve of your thinking, a well thought out plan. I have promoted a colonel to General and given him the task of reorganizing the army. Letters are being prepared to call up the militia. You may restrict harbor entry and issue the ‘Letters of Marque’. I want to hear more of this plan to expand, or build a new castle, but not now. Give me a few days.”
“Of course, Sire.” I took that as my dismissal. Reggie stayed behind. Once I was out of the room, I stepped “inside” the wall and went back to eavesdrop, or spy to be honest. I hadn’t known these people very long and did not know what their mind set was. Everyone has self-interest, I didn’t know how deep it went.
“Where are his loyalties?” the King asked Reggie.
“He is not like his father and brother. He is not blind to their actions.”
“He may still have motivations of his own. Where does he come up with these things? Letters of Marque?”
“He reads a lot, History, Armies, tactics, whatever he finds.”
“He must. I’m just having trouble trusting him completely. He does not ask for anything.”
“So, your complaint is, he does not ask for money. He basically gives you all the spoils he fought for, and that’s why you don’t trust him? What would you do if he pitched a fit about the Crown taking half of his spoils in a tax? Do you tax the other Royals, and courtiers at that rate?”
“That’s different, these were spoils, they were free to him.”
“They cost him blood. I think he will be friendly if you let him, but he will only be pushed so far until he reacts. And when he reacts, it is with violence. And as far as I know, no one has survived it. Treat him fairly and he will do the same.” She got up and left.
“She is right,” the Queen said. “It has gone beyond testing his motives. If you are pushing him for a reason, I understand. But I seem to remember a story his little brother told about him having teeth.” The King said nothing, only nodded.
I WENT UNDERGROUND and down to the harbor. I came up in an alley out of sight. I walked the wharfs looking at the state of repair until I found the Harbor Master’s office. There was one old man in the office, he looked up as I entered.
He stood, “How can I help you M’lord?”
“You are the Harbor Master?”
“I am.”
“My Name is Prince Aaron, I’m Princess Regina’s husband.”
He bowed “welcome M’lord.”
“Thank you, I come seeking knowledge. The King has set me a task, and I need you help to do it correctly.”
“How may I serve?”
“Let’s take a walk.” He came from around his desk and followed me outside.
I talked as we walked, “let’s play a ‘what if’ game. What if, let’s say by magic you could have new wharfs, new buildings, a new harbor gateway where would you put them? Where would be the best place to put all of it?”
He nodded, “Oh, I understand. Well, let's see. Since we are wishing, I’d make all these wooden wharfs stone with piers jutting out into the harbor for the ships to tie off to.”
“What about the depth of the harbor?”
“Oh, she’s plenty deep all the way around.”
“Let’s say I wanted to restrict entrance to the harbor and, in case of attack, close it off completely?”
He looked to the harbor mouth. “The harbor mouth is pretty wide. On the right-side is the beginning of rocks and a reef, but it doesn’t extend into the mouth. That would take a lot of building. I guess if we could have or do anything, you could put rock on both sides of the mouth and build out across the mouth as much as you wanted. But the water is fifty feet deep there.”
“Any crazy currents to worry about?”
“Not really, she’s pretty peaceful.”
“What is your greatest need on the waterfront?”
“Storage space, warehousing. It’s always a fight for storage space for cargo coming and going.”
“I don’t know about here, and I not accusing anyone. But what about smuggling? I’m talking about the dangerous things not an extra roll of silk here and there.”
“It’s that way in every port, the only way to slow it is to wall off the wharf from the city. That would slow it, but not stop it.”
I nodded. I waved my hand, and a masa rose from the ground. It had a 3D model of the harbor area on it. He looked at it smiling.
“If I understand you, what we are talking about is something like this.” I waved my hand and the model changed showing the proposed changes. We had talked about. I had walled of the wharfs, added warehouses, added stone wharfs with piers out into the harbor. I added rocks and reefs at the mouth with forts on either side and a great stone chain stretched between the forts. There was also a city gate that separated the wharf from the city, it was a small fort.
He studied the model, looking at it from different angles. “Can you add more warehouses down on the beach end? Extend the rocks and reef further down to protect that end?"
I made the changes; he looked it over again. “The wharf needs to be wider to handle the heavier traffic to the warehouses.” I made the changes. “I’m not a military expert, but I’d make the forts bigger and armed to the teeth.”
I chuckled, “sound advice. Any reason the other side of the harbor is bare?”
“Not that I know of, the harbors good over there. They just built on this side first and never have done anything over there.”
“Thank you, Harbor Master. I appreciate your help.”
He bowed and went on his way. I had all the information I needed. Now I just needed to make it happen.
REGGIE AND I ATE ALONE in our coach pavilion. “Do anything interesting this afternoon?”
I smiled," Nope, not a thing."
“Don’t make me choke you.” We laughed.
“I was down at the harbor seeing what it would take to protect it. I figured while I was at it, I’d improve the wharf.”
“Really? what did you find?”
“The Harbor Master and I had a good meeting, and he helped me with some good ideas.” I raised the harbor model from the table, so she could see it.
“That looks wonderful. When do you plan on starting?”
“Tonight. We need the harbor secured as soon as possible.”
She nodded. “I agree. Is there anything I can do to help?”
“I’m not sure. Where do your talents lie?”
“So far I can manipulate fire.”
“Oh good, you can burn the wharf down and I’ll rebuild them.” She screamed and jumped on me. I was going to be late getting started on the wharfs.
I WAITED UNTIL TWO AM to start my urban renewal program. I went underground to the harbor. First, I added the rocks and reefs outside the harbor. I raised bedrock up under the harbor’s building foundations. With the model in mind, I went to work. I replaced the wooden wharfs with wide stone ones. I added the piers, the warehouses, and walled off the wharf area from the city. I added the city gate fort.
I raised two forts, one on each side of the harbor mouth. I built them to jut out into the harbor mouth narrowing it. I suspended a huge stone chain between the two forts. I enchanted the chain, so it didn’t weigh so much. I made the forts a good size and put reefs around them to protect them. I would arm them later.
It had not taken me long to raise the stone buildings. I was tired and rested in the earth. I put on the guise of a fisherman and went up to the wharf. The new buildings did cause a stir. I started a conversation, with no one in particular.
“It was the Prince that did this.”
“What Prince?” One of the crowd asked.
“The new one that married Princess Regina. Prince Aaron. He said the King wanted to help the people and protect the harbor so, Prince Aaron fixed everything.” That was all it took. Gossip took over from there. I went to breakfast.
“How did it turn out?” Reggie asked
“Good. You may want to send word to the city watch to man the new city gate at the wharf. And send a like message to the army to man the new forts at the harbor mouth. I spent a lot of energy, so I need to rest.”
She nodded. “I’ll take care of it.” She kissed me on the head as she left.
Chapter 15
“It’s called a ballista or bolt thrower,” I explained. I had made mine like a giant crossbow verses the tension type. “You hook this, to this rope.” I demonstrated. “You then crank this to draw it back until it locks in place, like so. You take the pull rope off the bolt rope like this. Then you lay the bolt in the grooves right here. You aim at your target, by turning the base, and raising it up or down. When you are ready, you pull this lever to release or fire the bolt.” I made sure everyone was clear. “You must give commands, so it kills no one on the team. It would sound something like this.”
“Weapon ready to fire: All clear to fire: Fire.” I had made practice bolts for them to train on. The real ones would be metal tipped. I made four ballista per fort. The men began training on th
em as soon as I showed them what to do.
“And these bolts will go through the side of a ship?”
“Yep. We can even set some of the bolts on fire before we shoot them and set fire to the ships.”
I spent some time warding the forts against magical attacks. It probably wouldn’t stop everything, but it would help.
I went to see the Harbor Master,” Amazing M’lord, truly amazing. I never expected to see anything like this in my lifetime."
“It turned out rather nice. Tell me, who handles the collection of fees from the warehouse rental?”
“I have been.”
“Fine, that first warehouse is mine. The rest you may rent.”
“Of course, M’lord,”
“I’ll bring my manager by so you can meet him.” he bowed.
I travelled under to the castle. I found Nee-Carr in the library. “Good place to spend time.”
“It’s peaceful.” he answered.
“Tell me, your cover as a Master Merchant, are you really a Master Merchant?”
“I am, if I were not, the real ones would know it, and I could not carry out my missions. Besides my King made me earn my money, which he taxed,”
“Yes, I’ve heard kings are greedy.” We smiled. “Do you have a family? Wife? Children?”
“I do not, they would have been in danger. I decided not to give anyone leverage to use against me.”
“So, no real reason to go back to Dunwich?”
He shrugged. “Not really.”
I nodded. “The King has tasked me of deciding what to do with you. I can’t send you home. I can’t release you, not yet anyway. How would you like to work for me?”
“As a spy?”
“As a merchant, here in our port.”
“You would trust me?”
I chuckled, “let’s be real. I can put a bracelet on you that will tell me if you work against my or the kingdoms interests. You work for me as a merchant, I’ll finance you. You make us rich.”
“I am known, and if anyone from my country sees me...”
Mage Throne Prophecy Page 14
