Parno's Gambit: The Black Sheep of Soulan: Book 3

by N. C. Reed

  Winnie looked mulish for a moment, but Stephanie intervened just then.

  “I needed to speak to you, anyway,” she said quietly and the redhead nodded reluctantly.

  “We all have work to do it seems,” Memmnon said, looking toward Grey, Finn and any others in the room. All of them took the hint and departed, leaving the two women alone with the King.

  “You may use this room for as long as it is needed,” the King said, rising without aid, though an attendant stood close by. “I would appreciate the pleasure of your company this evening at meal time, if it pleases you,” he told Winnie formally.

  “Of course, My Lord,” Winnie nodded gracefully, as Stephanie had taught her.

  “Then I take my leave, ladies.” Memmnon departed with his attendant hounding his steps, leaving the two alone.

  “What is it?” Winnie asked, turning to Stephanie.

  “You wanted to speak to me and we haven't had the opportunity,” Stephanie said, reminding her friend. “I had intended to try and do it today anyway, so why not now?”

  “Oh, yes,” Winnie looked momentarily surprised but regained her composure quickly. “Captain Case suggested that I talk to you about how things work at this 'level',” she said, clearly looking for the words she needed. She was trying very hard not to embarrass Memmnon with her glaring rural manners and rudimentary education.

  “What things, exactly?” Stephanie asked kindly.

  “He suggested that there were families who might take great comfort in something happening to me,” Winnie tried again.

  “Ah,” Stephanie nodded in understanding. “Court intrigue and machinations, yes,” she sat back. “And yes, dear, I'm afraid that is true. I am surprised that he would mention it to you, however. It's his job to prevent such things from happening, after all. That's what he and his men are for. To keep those events distant from you. What?” she asked as Winnie's face grew more and more red while listening.

  “I…I didn't believe him,” Winnie began. “I've been pressing his men into service to help the refugees these last three days or so and he resisted me the last time, claiming that he needed at least some of his men to be working at their real jobs. I might have insulted him a bit about that,” she admitted, more red faced still.

  “Insulted how?” Stephanie asked.

  “I might have said or implied that he was too good to help commoners in their time of need, or something like that,” Winnie tried to blow it off.

  “And he isn't of noble birth, I take it,” Stephanie mused.

  “No, he isn't,” Winnie confirmed.

  “Then yes, you gravely insulted him, Winnie dear,” Stephanie sighed, leaning back. “You are going to have to learn to get that tongue under control young lady,” her sponsor told her flatly. “These aren't the mountains, and these aren't backwoods people or former prisoners who speak that kind of language. And men like Case are rare indeed to make it into the King's Own on nothing but merit.”

  “He did seem proud of that,” Winnie nodded, still stung from her dressing down.

  “He has every right to be,” Stephanie told her flatly. “Until recently the King's Own was more ceremonial at times, but these days it's nothing of the sort. Now as to your problems,” Stephanie leaned forward again. “Yes, there are a number of families in Nasil alone who will not be glad nor happy to see you in the King's company, let alone to hear that he considers you marriage material. Families that are not above the use of assassination to remove someone they perceive as being in their way,” Stephanie emphasized. “You would think in a Kingdom such as ours that things like that couldn't happen, and they are rare, or were,” she frowned. “I'm afraid that Therron and Sherron McLeod's influence on the nobility has not been a good one, by and large. Where their father tended to keep them in check, and their mother I'm told kept them at bay, the twins have instead allowed them not only to run amok but have encouraged that separation between noble and commoner to a place far in excess of anything in at least recent history.”

  “So, Case wasn't just trying to get me to do what he wants,” Winnie murmured.

  “No, he wasn't, and his job is hard enough as it is without you making it worse,” Stephanie chided. Winnie's face flushed even further at that but she nodded in understanding.

  “Now I suggest you start with an apology to him, and then by heeding his recommendations when he has any. Men aren't chosen for such a position without cause or reason, so he's undoubtedly able. When he tells you something should be or not be done, heed his advice. And in the future, it would be good not to lean too heavily on that 'commoner' tag as well,” she warned. “It might surprise you to learn that a great many people around Parno and Memmnon both are not 'noble' in birth. Neither has time for mere cosmetics.”

  “It will be as you say,” Winnie promised.

  “And speaking of behavior, you have missed your etiquette classes the last three days,” Stephanie's tone grew even more firm if possible.

  “I don't have time to-” Winnie began but Stephanie's voice cracked across the table cutting her off.

  “You will make time, Winifred,” she told her ward firmly. “If things continue to develop between you and Memmnon then you will one day be Queen of Soulan and your children will be the heirs of the Crown, young lady. You will make time for those classes and you will apply yourself to them. Don't give your enemies any more ammunition than they have already to use against you.” Stephanie leaned back again and relaxed ever so slightly.

  “Your work with the refugees has already gained you a great deal of respect and notoriety among the commoners of the city, who incidentally are far more numerous than the nobles in this kingdom. The refugees also respect and adore you for helping them in their time of need, and using Minister Philo to separate them into new groups to head off to work was a good idea that insulates you from any hard feelings over that. It will allow you at some point to visit them again and ensure that all is as well as it can be, and we can always have Philo make a few odd mistakes on purpose for you to correct. He knows how these games are played and will not object to being a heavy, provided it does not impugn his honor.”

  “That's dishonest,” Winnie muttered.

  “It's politics,” Stephanie corrected. “Do you like Memmnon, Winnie?” she asked suddenly. The renewed blush on the younger woman's face was answer enough but Stephanie wanted to hear her say it.

  “Yes,” she said softly. “He is very kind and warm hearted when we are alone,” she admitted. “He doesn't. . .he's not the King when it's just the two of us. He's just himself.”

  “Do you want to be his wife, Winnie?” Stephanie asked.

  “He hasn't actually asked me,” Winnie replied.

  “That isn't what I asked you,” Stephanie refused to be put off.

  “I. . .I think so,” Winnie nodded. “I'd never thought much about marriage at all but. . .Memmnon is different from anybody else I've ever met. And I don't me cause he's the King, either. I can see myself being his wife. I just don't know if I can see myself being his Queen.”

  “There's no separating the two,” Stephanie said flatly. “I don't necessarily want to be 'Princess Stephanie', either. But if I want to be Parno's wife, and I do, then I have to be Princess Stephanie as well. And I hold no title of nobility either, dear,” she added as almost an afterthought.

  “What?” Winnie's head shot up. “But your parents-”

  “Have more than one child and I am not the oldest, nor am I a son,” Stephanie finished for her. “I hold no title other than 'Doctor' and I earned that title, so I wear it with some pride.”

  “Of course,” Winnie nodded. “I just thought, I mean. . .you know so much and everyone calls you 'Lady' or 'milady'. . .”

  “Because of Parno,” Stephanie nodded, her own face reddening just a little. “I'm afraid that where Memmnon is well thought of and liked if not loved, Parno is a somewhat different story. Many respect him, yes. Many also fear him. And I honestly don't think he cares for the di
fference either way,” she admitted. “As his 'Lady', that fear or respect transfers to me, just as the respect for Memmnon does to you in your present circumstances. Which makes your classes that much more important, by the way,” she used this point to hammer home another.

  “I see,” Winnie nodded, and she did, finally.

  “Good,” Stephanie stood. “Now, I have been given at least one more day to convince Parno to marry me before he leaves, so I'm afraid I have work of my own to do,” she smiled.

  “Marry you now?” Winnie's eyes widened.

  “If I can make him, yes,” Stephanie nodded. “One of the good things about not be a 'noble' dear,” she smiled broadly. “I can pretty much do as I please and no one cares.”

  ~*~

  “I don't care how hard it is.”

  Parno's face was a slowly erupting volcano as he spoke in terse terms to the man in charge of the River Guard. Unlike the Navy, the River Guard worked only the navigable waterways of the Kingdom, protecting commercial and civilian traffic alike from river piracy and raids. As the idea of the Nor using their boats to creep around his army had struck him, he had become obsessed with finding a way to prevent it.

  “Milord,” Commodore Steven Williamson licked suddenly dry lips, “it's not that it's difficult in and of itself. Our small boats are not equipped to battle against soldiers, that's all.”

  “I'm not asking you to fight them,” Parno said, his calm tone of voice making Williamson even more nervous. “I'm ordering you to send boats and men to guard against them sneaking by me. All you need do is raise the alarm. That alone may be enough to stop an incursion.”

  “Our boats are spread over much of the kingdom, milord,” Williamson tried again. “And many of our able-bodied men are now serving in the ranks, either in the Army or the Navy. Our manpower is limited.”

  “Commodore,” Parno spoke with exaggerated patience. “I don't care where you have to pull men from, understand? I want boats patrolling that stretch of the Tinsee, as well as the Cumberland, and I want it done as soon as possible. By which I mean as soon as a boat can make it to where I want it, even if it has to be hauled by mules!” Parno took a deep breath to calm himself before continuing.

  “Lay lines across the river, drive piles in rapids, do whatever you think it might take to slow an advance along the river by the enemy, do you understand? Why haven't you already thought of this anyway? Must I do all the thinking in this kingdom!”

  “I will get right on it milord,” Williamson promised, seeing Parno's hand creeping toward his sword. “We should have men on the way by first light.”

  “See that you do,” was the terse reply and then Parno was gone, out the door and into the street.

  “You must calm yourself,” Cho Feng said quietly from his side.

  “I'm calm,” Parno told him.

  “People in the streets could hear you 'talking' calmly,” Cho's voice was dry with near sarcasm.

  “I'm tired of being told how difficult something is,” Parno shrugged. “Nothing is impossible with enough work. You taught me that. You and Darvo,” he amended.

  “I understand,” Cho Feng nodded. “Many do not yet fully understand the gravity of the situation,” he observed. “Until they do, they do not see the urgency of things as you do.”

  “Well they better start if they want to stay in their cushy jobs where it's safe,” Parno said darkly. “My men are bleeding and dying all the time while they complain about how 'hard' something is. I'm sick and tired of hearing it.”

  “I understand,” Cho repeated.

  “Stop trying to make me calm down,” Parno almost growled. “I need people to start thinking.”

  “So you do,” Cho's voice was still smooth and gentle. “And threatening them is certainly the way to do that,” he added just a moment later.

  “I didn't threaten him!” Parno objected.

  “You didn't put your hand near your sword while speaking to him?” Cho asked, eyebrow raised.

  “Did I?” Parno was suddenly less sure of himself.

  “I am afraid so,” Cho sighed. “You have become far too comfortable with that sort of thing my Prince.”

  “Well,” Parno's reply was lame and he knew it but he didn't know what else to say. “Now I have to scratch up some kind of force to send up river from here and keep an eye out,” he changed the subject. “Don't you love it when things just fall into place so well?” he asked rhetorically.

  “Had you stayed with your original plan, none of this would have occurred to you at all,” Cho reminded him. “As it stands now, you have the chance to repair this oversight. You are beginning to see the value of defense beyond merely winning one battle.”

  Parno considered that. He had no problem with defensive thinking when preparing for battle, but when merely looking for contingencies, he stuck with his background in horse soldiering. Movement, power, speed and agility were the way to win a battle.

  “I have to start thinking like I want to win a war,” he said aloud and missed the pleased expression that flitted across Cho's face before being schooled away.

  “Indeed,” he settled for saying. “Your battles to this point have been all or nothing, make or break affairs. Your enemy has been bloodied and are now reevaluating. You must look to do the same. You made a good start this morning, taking the long view of things. You must continue.”

  “Yeah,” Parno nodded. “I need to see Roda Finn,” he said suddenly.

  ~*~

  “The river?” Finn frowned in thought. “I don't know, milord. What did you have in mind?”

  “I had it in mind to lay the problem at your capable feet and you solve it for me,” Parno smiled winningly. “It's called delegating I'm told.”

  “I've heard of it but rarely been able to put it into practice,” Finn nodded, suddenly jumping to his feet and throwing open the door to his office.

  “Who told you to move that!” he screamed at the top of his lungs, causing several people to jump nervously. “Put that back where it was and get back to work!” he slammed the door without waiting for answer or explanation and sat back down.

  “What kind of problem do you expect to encounter along the river, my Prince?” he asked amiably, his ire from seconds earlier nowhere in sight.

  “Ah, small boats mostly, ferrying troops down the river to land behind my army or perhaps all the way to Nasil, assuming they could make it this far.” Parno couldn't help but glance out the window at the factory workers, wondering how Roda's outbursts were affecting them.

  “Those rivers are closed to our own traffic are they not?” Finn mused, hand stroking his chin.

  “Yes,” Parno nodded. “Only supply ships are allowed to go up the Tinsee, and the Cumberland is closed as well. For the duration of the war or at least until we clear the Nor from our lands and force them back across the Ohi.”

  “Well, the easiest thing to do would be to erect some sort of coffer dams I suppose to limit navigation, but that's a hard job that would require some time and it would ruin the river for our own use as well,” Roda said absently, scratching idly on a sheet of papyrus. “There is an idea I had for the Navy that might work,” he said, looking up suddenly.

  “What?” Parno asked.

  “A double shot ballista,” Finn told him as he rummaged through the papers on his desk. “Instead of two ballistas needing to be fired at the same time to propel say a length of chain between two bolts, we string both bolts on the same system and they fire in tandem-ah, here we are!” he unrolled a sketch and laid it open for Parno to see.

  “What would this do to a small boat?” Parno asked. There was no point in pretending he could understand what he was seeing in all the chicken scratch that decorated the paper before him.

  “Shoot tandem bolts that could carry chain, or tar soaked rope, things like that, and hurl it into those small boats as they tried to navigate the river,” Roda explained. “Also,” he hesitated, “I've developed a way to fire the ballistas from a safe
enough distance that we can return to using the exploding rounds I developed for them at Cove. We can't risk them at the front, but using them against a river target would be completely acceptable and safe, I should think.”

  “Wouldn't the water prevent that from working?” Parno frowned.

  “Not with small amounts of material such as magnesium added to the bolts warheads, no,” Roda smirked. “Magnesium will burn ever hotter if you try to extinguish it with water.”

  “I never heard of it,” Parno admitted.

  “We don't have much of it,” Roda admitted. “But uses for it are very limited. It can be mined in some places but we usually get it from a complicated process using static from a hand cranked turbine-”

  “Short version, Roda,” Parno held up a hand before the fussy inventor could launch into lecture mode.

  “We can get more,” Roda said simply. “It will take a while and will require some manpower and skilled labor, but I know where to get most of it. Shipping from the coast will require a wagon, and possibly a small escort, I don't know,” he admitted.

  “And you can use this. . .magnesium, was it? to make the fire in the. . .warhead, did you say? burn hotter? Right?”

  “Yes, and as a bonus it will provide a good deal of illumination in the event it must be used at night,” Roda promised. “I was initially using it to experiment with a way to provide you with what the old world called 'flares' but. . .I have yet to devise a safe method of launching such a device into the sky,” he admitted.

  “We used them in my homeland,” Cho Feng spoke for the first time. “The mechanics are not known to me, but their uses are many and not limited to warfare, either. Navigation aids for one thing,” he added.

  “Yes,” Roda nodded to the oriental in thanks. “Just so. An imminently usable material for many things, milord.”

  “Anything else you can think of right off hand?” Parno asked.

  “If I could figure a way to use the mines along the river that would be ideal,” Roda mused. “That will take some thought, however,” he shook his head. “I will need to make them float, and then figure a way to insure that the boat striking the mine would make it explode. I'm sorry, milord, but I will need to study on that one,” he admitted.