by Robert Brady
I’d appointed one my court barons, Dellick Jarves, here as an Earl. Shela had pointed him out to me as someone who was wasting his life in the court, and from what I saw around me, she was right.
The Bitch pulled into the single wharf without the benefit of a break water, meaning that she took a little roll every time the Bay rolled. Because the place was designed to move heavy cargo, the dock was wide enough to start unloading horses, even if we had to go one ship at a time.
The new Earl met me at the dock. He was dressed in the same leather pants and homespun shirt I wore, with a long drifter’s jacket over all of that for warmth. He wore boots like mine, but he kept his brown hair short. An Eldadorian of the race of Men, he was noticeably smaller than the Volkhydrans he had working for him.
“Your Imperial Majesty,” he said, by way of greeting. He bowed and took Shela’s hand in his, kissing the back of it. “My lady,” he added.
Shela looked sideways at me. This had started around the palace about a year ago after I told Lee a story about it, and the decided that she liked it.
He gave my wife her hand back and looked me in the eyes. His were brown, you could tell even while he spoke to me that he was thinking about something else.
“It’s an honor to host you here,” he informed me. “I’ve arranged for entertainers for you –“
I waived the gesture off as a wooden crane lined up to start removing horses from the hold. This sort of thing, though it seemed dangerous, was a lot safer than risking moving them across a gang plank, which could give under their weight or from which they might take it into their heads to jump or kick (if you could get them to cross it at all). It was simply easier to train the horses to stay quiet in the crane.
“We’ll only stay the night,” I informed him. “Put the Knights up in a barracks, fence off enough land for their horses to graze and have tenders, and then the Empress and I will join you for a meal. We plan to be off in the morning.”
“Of – of course, your Imperial – um,” the man was clearly flummoxed. Having the so-called ‘royal personage’ at your disposal could mean great things. It had made an Earl of me, for example. No one expected to be a way point.
He filled me in on the progress in his city. He’d made enough money here already where he was improving the wharves and getting dumpsters from Eldador. They were a characteristic of all of my cities, from the largest down to anything larger than a hamlet.
Collect the trash and you keep down a host of problems that came with trash. Getting rid of it was a service that the state could charge for, and then put people to work. Keeping it inexpensive meant that even small businesses didn’t feel the pinch, and then people didn’t live in their own filth.
Ports in general tended to stink. Mine didn’t. That was a huge benefit right there.
Finally Blizzard came up in the rotation. We’d learned that he did better if he could see where he was going, rather than if he was hooded. We slipped a strap underneath his mid section and guards across his breast and butt, and then the ship’s crew hoisted him up and over the side.
Smooth and fast, he left the deck, swung over the ship and was down on the dock. Other handlers disconnected him as soon as his hooves were on the wood, before he could get it into his head that he should do it himself.
When he was free he lighted on me and trotted over to butt me in the chest with his head. I laughed and scratched his ears.
“That’s – that’s a big horse,” the Earl commented.
“That he is,” I agreed.
I removed him from the pier to ensure that he didn’t get into it with any of the other horses. We’d corral him separately from the herd for the same reason. Angadorian Knights stood waiting for their own horses, then this ship would pull out while the next pulled in.
Watching, I realized that this was going to take all night.
“War’s beard,” I cursed.
That got Dellick and Shela’s attention. Then theirs got mine.
I looked at Shela. “We’re not going tomorrow,” I said. “We’ll still be unloading until after midnight.”
“Leaving on mounts already tired would be pointless,” she informed me.
I sighed. It was these things that you really couldn’t plan for that would turn around and get you. A day wasted now is a day we wouldn’t have later, but there was nothing we could do about it.
I turned to the Earl.
“How good are your entertainers?” I asked him.
***
It turned out that the entertainers were common troubadours, who sang to me of stories that were already based on my life.
When you were used to my son, Vulpe, singing, other entertainers tended to leave you cold. Vulpe could do this thing where you heard his voice and you practically left your body. You were there, experiencing the song as the writers meant it. It was like being an eagle on the wings of song and, when it was over and you touched down, you might not even remember the songs, just the flight it took you on.
Shela held my hand the whole time and I had to think she felt the same way. Her tears welled up for the ‘Battle of Tamaran Glen,’ which was essentially a story about how much I loved her. I always marveled at how, year after year, the number or warriors I faced grew, while the number of people who helped me dwindled.
There was another, the ‘Hero of Tamara,’ which was about Karl Henekhson, but since his defeat at the Battle of the Foveans, it wasn’t as popular.
Fame is a measure of your last triumph, I suppose.
We ended up in a pretty large suite for the size of the town. In fact, Medya’s original purpose had been for other nations to come here and negotiate peace, usually with the Volkhydrans and, before that, between the Volkha and the Hydrans who were their forefathers. The city was designed to accommodate dignitaries, and was being rebuilt to accommodate people.
Some of that was already done – with the Fovean High Council, the place to negotiate had become the Silent Isle, and this one was used less and less. Volkhydrans from both sides of the country had come to settle here, being displaced only when the Battle of the Foveans came.
The wreckage of the raised platform that the enemy had used was still here. Other than that and some arrow and spear damage, the place hadn’t taken that big of a hit. It had a cemetery on a hill overlooking the town which was pretty impressive.
When I finally came to the room, all of our furniture from the ship had been brought here. I had to think that the captain of the Bitch didn’t want it. It made sleeping here a little more familiar. I can say that Shela didn’t seem to mind.
When we awoke the next day, the ships had only just finished unloading and most of the Knights were exhausted. Shela, Dellick and I took our own horses around the town to see the ongoing construction and to make sure that things were actually going according to plan. A road (barely more than two grooves) was forming to the north of the city. I was told that it ran to the one that I’d followed between Vol and Ulef, so many years ago.
That brought up some memories.
“I’ve been thinking of your idea of tracks, instead of cart paths,” Dellick informed me.
“Have you?” I asked.
He nodded. “What if we extended those tracks to the north, and then partnered with the Volkhydrans to extend them father.
“Gharf Bendenson,” I said, “would never go for it.”
Bendenson was the King of Volkhydro. Of Volkhan ancestry, he had ruled from Volkha until Vulpe ran him out of there. He’d taken being defeated by a 12 year old to heart.
Dellick smiled, “Gharf Bendenson isn’t really much of a king anymore,” he said. “I guess no one told you, but he’s considered a coward by his people because he didn’t come to the aid of Hydra, and then wouldn’t dip into his own accounts to pay his own army.”
I raised an eyebrow. “No,” I said, “I hadn’t heard that at all.”
Dellick nodded. We’d started down the northern road, but now he stopped. “The cities have
almost all gone back to being independent,” he said. “We hear from all of them, as do Lupha and Hydrus. We trade goods, and they pay him no taxes.”
I smiled. Better and better.
Volkhydrans didn’t appreciate a coward – at all. Whoever was running Vol right now might be putting up with him, but even that would change if the people in general had no respect for their King. Either they’d elect another one, or they’d go without.
Or, of course, someone would just come in and be a King for them. Maybe someone that they were already used to.
Of course, it was that sort of thinking that encouraged France to back the Americas in revolt against the British. They’d believed in part that they’d just step in and take up where King George had left off.
Next thing they knew, we were making the Louisiana Purchase from Napoleon.
I needed to be smarter.
I turned Blizzard around. “You’re a good man, Dellick Jarves,” I said. “Shela here informed me you were right for this job, and I always do best when I listen to her.”
Shela smiled as did the Earl. He bowed his head in her direction, saying, “My Lady.”
“My Lord,” she returned.
“So I’ve got a mission for you,” I added. That’s when it occurred to me.
Where the hell was Karel of Stone?
***
You know, you get used to someone being around when they’re not supposed to be for long enough, then you don’t miss them when they’re not.
Karel had come up on a different ship. He’d brought a pony I’d gotten for him years ago, named Trickery. I didn’t wait for his ship to disembark and, on reflection, I didn’t know which one he was on.
When he didn’t show up for dinner, I didn’t miss him. It wasn’t unlike him to do his own thing – that was if his ship had unloaded yet, which I didn’t know. In the morning, he could have slept through breakfast or had his own things to do.
Of course, when I asked Dellick, he had no idea. While Karel of Stone may be a member of the Free Legion, it wasn’t like he was out there fighting and inspiring ballads like Nantar, Arath or I. The troubadours never sang “And he worked behind the scenes, convincing people that there was nothing to say about the Eldadorian Regulars until they pasted five times their number.”
So we turned our horses around, and Shela concentrated on finding Karel. She’d said many times that we had an ‘aura’ about us, a unique signature that differentiated us from other people. She focused on that and quickly led us, not back to the city of Medya but several daheeri to the East, toward the city of Hydrus.
The road between Lupha and Hydrus actually bypassed Medya. It was dotted with little villages full of Volkhydrans who were an actual hybrid of their Volkhan and Hydran ancestors. These people had scattered to the north when Vulpe led his army through here, they’d come back now and become Eldadorian subjects. I controlled every inch of the bay side of Volkhydro.
That had led to some real unhappiness in people like Gharf Bendenson, and a good part of what Dellick used his 3,000 Regulars for was to protect them from retaliations from the north. Even that many warriors couldn’t cover the whole area at once, and it wasn’t uncommon for the remains of the Volkhydran army to focus on one side of the road, then move to the other. Now there were small forts, each with a Millennia, spaced out between all three cities and supported by all three.
Karel was visiting one of these. We found him on Trickery, speaking to one of Vulpe’s majors and his retinue of 100, all of them on horseback.
They all saluted as I approached (with the exception of Karel), and remained silent until I spoke.
“Recruiting for the Free Legion Army from my warriors?” I asked Karel. Since I’d become a King, he’d taken that job over from Shela and I.
Karel smiled his characteristic smile. “No,” he said. “The last thing that the Free Legion Army needs is more warriors loyal to you.”
The major scowled at such disrespect – I barely noticed it, coming from Karel.
I cocked an eyebrow at him and waited. That went on for a good fifteen seconds. Finally he sighed and said, “I have intelligence sources within your army.”
That should have been a surprise, but it wasn’t. Spying was big business in Fovea, and Karel made sure that business was good. My warriors went everywhere now – it was a good place to hide spies.
“Would have loved to have known about that,” I said.
“Now you do,” he answered. The major was actually looking embarrassed, and Dellick as well.
“Your Major Gepintell, here,” Karel continued, “has been informing me that Volkhydrans aren’t all that happy about their King’s behavior, since you came in and took over the coast.”
Precisely what I’d come here to talk to Karel about. Another of my allies was that much farther ahead of me. You’d think I’d get used to it, but in fact I didn’t.
“You’re thinking that the time is right to push our futures here,” I said to Karel. Then I looked at the Major. “Is that your opinion?”
“It’s my advice, your Imperial Majesty,” the Major said. “We have the army – we could march north and find very little resistance.”
Oh, and that would seem easy, I thought. Wouldn’t it be grand to march 50,000 warriors from the shore to the mountains, conquer some villages, starve out the armed cities with walls?
A very transparent and a very stupid idea. Hitler had made the same mistake in the invasion of the USSR. He plunged vastly superior forced deep into a Russian backwater, took the cities that were easy and then laid siege to the ones that resisted him.
He’d left dozens of pockets behind and created more, the farther inland he went. When the time came, every pocket of resistance became a hard point, and they drove the Germans back out. It tied up the lion’s share of his troops when he needed them elsewhere, and he lost.
You can’t actually conquer people like that. The Romans didn’t do it that way and the Mongols tried it and failed in China. My strategy here wasn’t to crush all resistance, it was to draw my enemies in and convert them.
“An excellent idea,” I informed my Major. He smiled and opened his mouth, probably to tell me how many troops he thought he’d need to pull it off.
“Collect the top commanders of my Volkhydran forces, and have them in Medya in four days. I’ll delay my march forward that long to set this plan in motion.”
Karel frowned. “I can take care of the orders,” he began. I shook my head.
“If it were just a matter of giving orders, you probably could,” I said.
“I have something else in mind.”
***
Medya included a small auditorium where state leaders or their ambassadors could make pleas to other state leaders, or their ambassadors. On the 14th day of Life, on a morning that was cold enough where I could see my breath when I spoke, I addressed two new Dukes, a new Earl, two generals and five colonels of the Eldadorian Regulars, all of them my occupation forces in Volkhydro.
In that time, Gharf Bendenson had gotten word that I was here, and was supposedly pulling every armed man and boy he could lay hands on in Vol, where he was sure I would make a final strike on him.
Which was what I wanted him to do, which was why I had Karel leak that information to him. By the time he figured out what I was actually doing, he’d have other problems.
I stood at a podium on a stage, before seats set in a half circle, three tiers high. Ten attendees, Shela and Karel barely filled the place, which was fine. The room was circular and a fire roared in a pit between me and my audience, keeping the place warm enough for them to focus on me and not their cold behinds in hard wooden seats. The firelight shone up on me and gave me an other-worldly glow, especially in my armor. Whoever designed this place knew what they were doing.
“It has been brought to my attention that Volkhydro is ripe,” I informed them. I didn’t make the mistake of thanking them for coming or telling them they were doing a good job. They were va
ssals, not citizens. They went where I told them and, if they didn’t do a good job, they wouldn’t be here.
Heads were nodding, regardless. I had to think that Karel was doing more than collecting information through my troops, he was spreading opinions that he wanted put forward, but not by him.
“I’ve left 8,000 Regulars here, and I’m told we’ve collected 2,000 horse,” I continued. “Even that force could likely humble the remains of the Volkhydran army. With our reserves in Eldador, it would be nothing for us to land major assault forces along the coast, and to drive through Volkhydro, right up to the ogre tribes in the Great Northern Mountain Range.”
More nodding. We were still undefeated, and against vastly superior numbers. I’d heard estimates that Bendenson couldn’t count on 3,000 troops, all foot.
“Do it and we’ll fail,” I said. Eyebrows rose. I never talked of failure with my troops – why would I do so now, after so many decisive victories.
“We’ve done what I set out to do – we have the coast,” I said. “We drove the Volkhydrans out who wouldn’t be Eldadorians, and we’re now protecting the ones who would. We’ve given them work, a market for their goods, life for their families.
“We’re showing the Volkhydrans that our way of life is better.”
A colonel stood. Another idiosyncrasy of Fovea is that they didn’t raise a hand to speak – in fact, that was considered an aggressive gesture in a space like this. Instead you stood and were either given permission to speak, or not, in which case you sat back down.
“Colonel,” I said, acknowledging him.
“With respect, your Imperial Majesty,” he said, “but in time, Gharf Bendenson will raise an army, and he will march south.”
More heads nodded.
“If we do nothing, I agree,” I said, and the colonel sat down. “Which is why we will do something other than nothing.”
I made eye contact with as many of them as I could, sweeping the room from left to right from the podium.
“We will begin to buy Volkhydran goods, especially beef and iron ore, and we will pay market normal for it,” I said.
