Luwis commented several times in the first few minutes that he thought the entire meeting and idea trivial and not worth their time. In contrast, Denes participated and joined Yozef in interacting with Lorna. They gave the seamstress enough feedback and suggestions to go back to her shop and come up with a second round of proposals. As a notable exception, Denes immediately adopted one of the flag examples and declared it the official flag of the 1st Keelan Dragoon Regiment, the largest formal military unit yet formed by the islanders. The twelve hundred men were divided into three dragoon battalions and an artillery company, with Colonel Denes Vegga the commander. However, organization was not the same as readiness. The battalions and the companies, spread over southern Keelan, had yet to come together for regimental maneuvers.
14th Hour
Yozef heard the ring for the 14th hour. Not that he could have missed it, with St. Tomo’s bell tower only a few hundred yards away. Through their meeting room’s open window, they could see the tower. The bell rang loudly enough that they stopped talking until the reverberations faded.
When Yozef left the headquarters, he collected Seabiscuit and Carnigan, and they rode to the new industrial park, where eight masons waited in a planning room with no furniture, save a dozen straight-backed wooden chairs.
“Please have a seat, Sers,” said Yozef. He proceeded to describe how he wanted them to work on developing concrete, a material composed of crushed rock and mortar.
“We already do this for some projects, Ser Kolsko,” said a graying but solid-looking man, “but it’s known that this ‘concrete,’ as you call it, tends to crack unless allowed to dry just right and is not as strong as one might think.”
“Have you tried different combinations of materials to look for stronger ones?” asked Yozef.
“Occasionally, but there’s little demand for structures made of mortar and rock combinations,” said the worker, his manner conveying “Why are you bothering us with this?”
Yozef sighed to himself. It’s not their fault they don’t see this as worth pursuing, since there’s been no market until now. I need to light a fire under them.
“It comes to me,” Yozef said, with a dreamy voice and a pause, as if hearing something, “that the time will come when the safety of Keelan families will depend on fortifications made from what I’ve described to you as concrete. Therefore, it will be your task to determine the strongest possible concrete. I don’t believe it’s necessary to ask Hetman Keelan to talk to you about how hard you need to work on this . . . is it?”
“No, no, not necessary, Ser Kolsko,” the man said hastily. “I’m sure the masons of Caernford will be eager to help. Uh . . . when do you want this concrete?”
“I wouldn’t want to rush you, but you should have the details worked out and be ready for the first structure in one month,” said Yozef.
The youngest of the eight masons spoke up. “If you want it in a month, you’re going to have to help us with some of that knowledge you seem to have.”
The original man blanched and elbowed his young colleague. Yozef could hear him whisper, “Ser Kolsko, you idiot.”
“Ser Kolsko,” came a grudging addition.
“Knowledge?” murmured Yozef. “Yes, there should be something I can help you with . . . ” He let his voice trail off, as if searching his memory or listening. “Concrete. A combination of crushed rock and a special mortar called ‘cement.’ You make the cement by heating limestone with either shale or clay to produce something we will call ‘clinker,’ which is then ground with gypsum. The heating step has to be quite hot, so you’ll need to work on how to get it hot enough, maybe with a coal-fired furnace.”
The idea for concrete had been percolating in his mind for several months, which gave Yozef time to confirm the availability of the ingredients, though not all could be found close to Caernford. Limestone was abundant throughout Caedellium, as was clay. However, the closest deposits of shale lay eighty miles away in northeast Keelan, and the closest gypsum deposits were in Hewell Province. He saw no reason to go into the chemical compositions of the ingredients.
“You will need to have shale and gypsum shipped to Caernford, and you can see Cadwulf Beynom at the Bank of Caedellium building for coin. I’ll let him know you’ll see him tomorrow. Once you have the cement, mix it with rock crushed to pieces the width of a thumbnail or smaller. Add water, and pour the slurry into a mold you’ll make with wood. Don’t worry about the mold immediately. When you think you have the ingredient amounts worked out, send me a message, and I’ll come look at the progress. Any questions?” Yozef asked as guilelessly as he could manage.
The eight men looked at one another worriedly, the youngest just shrugging.
“Good, then I’ll let you get to work.”
The men filed out of the room, leaving Yozef with Carnigan.
“I think you enjoy pretending you’re a Septarsh,” admonished Carnigan.
Yozef winced. “I didn’t think about what I was doing, but I guess you’re right. I get frustrated sometimes and tired of trying to convince people to do something I want done. It’s easiest if they think it’s something they have to do, instead of something they need to be convinced to do.”
“Oh, I don’t blame you getting frustrated,” said Carnigan in his gruff voice, “but maybe you should save the Septarsh bit for when it’s really needed.”
“What do you think of all the rumors?”
“I leave such thoughts to those with nothing better to do. It’s not worth worrying about whether Yozef the Mysterious is from a land where things are different from here or if he’s communicating with God. It all works out the same, doesn’t it?
“Maybe, in a way, but it’s different in how people think of me.”
“True,” admitted Carnigan. “Though also how you think of yourself. I wonder whether it would make a person forget he can make mistakes, if he acts like God talks to him.”
“I don’t have that problem. Not yet, anyway. I know I’ve hesitated to give advice on things I don’t have knowledge of. I’m afraid of making mistakes or having people give too much credence to my opinions. But with the Narthani always on my mind, I find myself more anxious to get things done. I go back and forth between not wanting to have too much influence to feeling impatient when people don’t agree with me. It’s confusing.”
While Carnigan didn’t respond right away, Yozef could almost see the wheels turning in the red head. Then he smiled.
“I was trying to think of a way to help. Certainly, nothing about your ideas, but I can keep reminding you that you’re Yozef Kolsko and not Yozef Kolsko the Septarsh, all-knowing, all-wise man familiar with God.”
“Which would you be, the angel or the devil on my shoulders?”
Carnigan gave Yozef his standard “I don’t know what you just said, so why don’t you say what you mean?” look.
“Okay,” said Yozef, “you’re big enough to be both, but stay off my back. I don’t want to be crushed. Let’s agree you can always tell me if you think I’m starting to believe in my own infallibility.”
“That I can do,” grunted Carnigan.
15th Hour
After leaving the masons, Yozef and Carnigan rode to the napalm project shop, located well away from the other projects, just in case. He had set the project’s men to developing napalm and to join forces with a second team that worked on mines. Yozef had gotten a message from Raywin, the napalm project foreman, that they were ready to give a demonstration. They met in a field near the building used by the napalm team. Several tables had been set up, with numerous objects of varying sizes and shapes.
Raywin led the demonstration. He obviously felt pleased with their results and all but puffed up with enthusiasm. On that partly cloudy day, 50-some men and a few women witnesses had assembled. The development team had set up a triple line of 100 straw men to simulate a Narthani infantry line. Each dummy had paper coverings to allow better scoring of hits. Another hundred yards behind the line stood a
block of 225 dummies, 15 to a side.
Yozef addressed the witnesses. “One of our problems is how to counter the Narthani infantry tactics and discipline. We want to not only kill Narthani but break up their major formations and destroy their belief in their invincibility. A group of impressive craftsmen has been working as a team to develop weapons that contribute to those objectives. What you will see is a demonstration of these new weapons. We need to be aware that this is a planned demonstration, and nothing works as easy in real life. Still, it will give you a rough idea of the weapons’ capabilities.”
He pointed to the line of straw dummies. “You’ll see different versions of what we call ‘mines.’ Two are placed on the ground in front of the straw infantry. On the right side are mines that will explode and throw pieces of lead and metal at the dummies. The mine is designed so that the pieces go only in the direction of the dummies and not in this direction. We call these claymore mines. On the left side are containers of an inflammable substance called napalm. The containers are thrown up from the ground and spread burning napalm in all directions. We call these bouncer mines. A similar bouncer mine sends metal and lead in all directions, instead of directional like the claymore. We won’t demonstrate this version of the bouncer today.
“The third weapon involves napalm containers that will be hurled at the straw infantry block farther to the rear. The straw dummies have been soaked with water to more simulate the consistency of human bodies.”
Yozef nodded to Raywin. “At your direction, Development Leader.”
Along the hundred yards facing the “infantry,” ten men lay on the ground, each one holding a wooden handle with twine wrapped around it. The twine seemed short, ending a few feet in front of each man. Raywin blew into a whistle once. All ten men pulled hard on the twine. Instead of being short, each length of twine suddenly elongated, as the dirt-covered remainder of the twine popped up from the ground. Four of five napalm and three of five claymore mines fired on the first pull. The three not firing with the first pull were subjected to repeated pulls. Two more fired on the second pull, and one failed to work. On the right, explosions from claymore mines were followed by clouds of straw bursting from the dummies. On the left, fireballs covered almost all of the 50 yards of dummies.
Raywin then blew the whistle twice in succession. From the side where the observers had gathered, six small catapults, each with an 8-foot throwing lever, fired round objects that trailed a thin line of smoke as they arced toward the more distant block of dummies. One of the objects ignited into a fireball not 20 yards from the catapult—fortunately, far enough away to avoid incinerating the catapult’s crew. Three of the objects landed near the square. Two hit the square, ignited, and merged into a fireball covering most of the square, while a third projectile hit the square dead center, didn’t ignite, and bounced away.
After shocked silence, the crowd erupted in exclamations and a couple of quick prayers. Everyone waited for the team members to check the unexploded mine and napalm projectile to avoid the danger of accidently eliminating a good part of the Keelan leadership, then people walked out to see the result. On the right, the infantry lines had been decimated. Of the fifty right-side dummies in the front line, every dummy had at least one hole in its paper covering. More than half of the dummies had simply disintegrated. The degree of damage lessened in the second and third rows, with perhaps two-thirds of the dummies hit in the second row and a third in the last. On the left, all fifty front-line dummies were scorched to some degree, with more than half burned substantially and still smoldering, despite being water soaked. In the second and third rows, a few dummies had escaped apparent damage, but almost half showed major scorching. In the middle of the line, where some of the fake infantry had suffered the effects of both the claymores and the napalm, the dummies were blackened piles of smoldering straw.
They walked farther to the block. Although only two of the thrown napalm containers had hit the square and worked, three-quarters of the dummies were significantly burned and most of the others scorched to some degree.
Yozef let observers talk among themselves for another fifteen to twenty minutes, then asked them all to retire to the site meeting room.
“Remember, this was merely a test where everything had been set up to work. You can imagine what would have happened if the dummies had been real Narthani infantry. The firing line was destroyed. All of the front line would be put out of action and most of the second and third lines impaired. For the infantry block, visualize the effects on the block’s fighting ability and the ability of a commander to respond to changing enemy actions. If we are given time to set up these weapons, and enough of them, any Narthani efforts to defeat our positions will be incredibly costly, if not impossible. However, there is one major problem with these weapons. Does anyone see it?”
Yozef looked around. It was Mulron Luwis, Vortig’s son and commander of the Caernford garrison, who saw it first. “It’s mainly defensive. The Narthani would have to attack a prearranged position. In addition, it would fix our people in place. If we had to retreat, we’d probably have to abandon the catapults.”
“You see the problem then,” agreed Yozef. “It’s only useful in very specific conditions, not in general field maneuvering, where we couldn’t predict either the Narthani positions or their intentions. And one more important consideration. Anyone?”
Culich spoke this time. “Once we use these, the Narthani will know about them and change their tactics. How long would it take before they started to use the same weapons against us?”
“Hetman Keelan is correct. The Narthani are professional soldiers and will adjust their actions. Therefore, the best chance we have to inflict the most casualties will be the first time we use these weapons. After that, it will become more difficult to be as effective. As for the hetman’s second point, it’s true that once they know about our mines and napalm, it will be only a matter of time before they duplicate them.”
Yozef concluded his prepared comments with, “In open field battles, it will be difficult to deploy what you’ve seen today. However, there is one scenario where we might have advantages over the Narthani; where they attack our prepared defensive positions. The only other time we could probably use most of these weapons is if we put their positions under siege. We also need to carefully decide when to use these weapons so the Narthani don’t have time and opportunity to use similar ones on us.”
For the remainder of the day, they discussed and argued how to most effectively use these new weapons, asked and got answers to detailed explanations of the mechanisms involved, reviewed the logistics of their production, were cautioned in their deployment, and emphasized the need to train the men in their use.
18th Hour
Yozef felt ready to sit on their veranda, take a turn at holding Aeneas, and have a large glass of wine next to him. Unfortunately, Wyfor Kales was waiting outside with Carnigan when Yozef exited the clan headquarters building.
Shit, thought Yozef, when he saw two of his Shadows standing by Seabiscuit, Carnigan’s Percheron-like horse, and a roan Yozef recognized as Kales’s. I forgot it’s the day for sparring practice.
After the Buldorian raid of St. Sidryn’s and Abersford, Denes had recommended Wyfor Kales, the wiry and disreputable Keelan man, when Yozef asked for someone to help him learn to defend himself. He had come to the jarring realization that Anyar was a dangerous place and, like it or not, he needed to know something of fighting, because hoping to never again experience combat might be a fanciful wish.
No one seemed to know what Kales had done during the twenty-three years he’d lived away from Caedellium, but scars and familiarity with blades testified that it wasn’t gardening. Over several months, Kales had twice a sixday inflicted bruises on his one and only student. It was only after Yozef managed to stay “alive” for more than ten minutes during one of their sparring sessions that Kales admitted Yozef might manage to stay alive until help arrived, should he be unable to avoid a
real opponent intent on mayhem.
Accepting his fate on this day, Yozef left with Kales and headed back to the Kolsko estate. Carnigan accompanied them, even though he had passed off to Kales the task of evening bodyguard.
“It’s always amusing to watch the great Yozef Kolsko be humiliated,” said Carnigan, oblivious to Yozef’s glares.
Back at the estate, the stable master took their horses to be unsaddled and groomed. Kales would spend the night in the cottage shared by Yozef’s Shadows, while Carnigan headed back to Caernford.
Yozef quickly changed into thicker clothing, to better cushion his impact on the ground, and walked to the sparring area set up behind his workout room. Then his resignation about attending the session and his determination to give Kales a run for his money took a morale-inhibiting hit. Wooden chairs had been lined up into observing positions. It wasn’t the chairs that bothered Yozef, it was the occupants: Maera holding Aeneas, Anarynd, Gwyned holding Morwena, Mirramel holding Dwyna, and Carnigan, aka “the Traitor,” standing behind the women’s chairs.
During the next thirty-five minutes, Yozef refreshed last month’s bruises but consoled himself that he had inflicted a few on Kales. It took all of his willpower to ignore the laughter and jibes from the hostile audience. Yozef was so intense, he missed the silence that followed when he flipped Kales onto his back and his mock knife made a gutting motion.
Heavier Than a Mountain (Destiny's Crucible Book 3) Page 40
