By Schism Rent Asunder (52 page)

Ultimately, he supposed, it could be argued that Charis was playing a dangerous game by setting the example of such energetic privateering. After all, the Charisian economy was completely dependent upon its own shipping. Not only was that a major potential weakness, but the sheer value of the Charisian carrying trade promised huge profits for anyone who managed to raid it successfully, as well, and it was unlikely that the kingdom's enemies would remain blind to those minor facts forever. On the other hand, very few of the mainland realms had anything like the supply of trained seamen Charis did, which meant simply crewing enough privateers would be difficult, especially with the competition of the Church's new naval buildup drawing on that same limited pool of sailors.

Besides,
he thought a bit grimly,
I suspect there's a very good reason Cayleb has been so enthusiastically encouraging the construction of so many of those damned, long-range privateer schooners and even “letting” them buy the new cannons. Once the supply of victims runs out, all of those hulls will be available for his Navy to snap up as
anti-
privateer cruisers, won't they? Their owners will be eager to dispose of them for a song once they've “hunted out” everyone else's merchant traffic. They may be fast, but there's no way a typical privateer is going to have the cargo capacity for a suitable bulk carrier, whatever they do, so the owners will be under a
lot
of pressure to dispose of them. I bet they'll settle for a tenth piece on the mark of their original prices, and the Navy's the most logical customer. Which means Cayleb didn't even have to pay the cost of their
artillery
out of pocket, much less their entire hulls, to provide himself with dozens
—
maybe even
hundreds—
of light naval cruisers. Talk about making war pay for itself!

The thought twitched his lips in a hint of a sour smile of bitter admiration. From Clyntahn's irate snort, however, it was evident that he remained unimpressed by the importance—or relevance—of Maigwair's report.

“Pouncing on a few merchant ships may be irritating, but it's scarcely likely to pose any sort of true danger,” he said dismissively, as if determined to illustrate that very point. “And whatever your reports may seem to indicate, not even heretics could put their accursed new weapons on
‘hundreds'
of privateers this quickly. No doubt people are panicking and exaggerating wildly.”

Maigwair started to open his mouth, but Duchairn raised one hand in a courteous gesture and turned towards the Grand Inquisitor.

“First, Zhaspahr,” he said, “no one is saying
all
of the privateers have the new guns. Most Charisian merchant galleons have always carried at least a few guns, if only to discourage pirates, and it doesn't take a lot of firepower to force a merchant ship to heave-to and surrender. So the ‘old style' artillery is probably all the vast majority of them need, and it's not as if old-style guns are particularly hard for them to come by these days. God knows there're plenty of them lying around in Charis after Darcos Sound!”

Clyntahn glowered at him, but Duchairn met his gaze calmly until, finally, the Grand Inquisitor gave a grumpy, irritated nod.

“Secondly,” he continued then, “if it were only ‘a few merchant ships,' you might be right about how important the losses are. But it isn't ‘a few,' and Allayn is perfectly correct to be concerned over the potential consequences.”

Clyntahn's face tightened, but Duchairn had emerged as the Group of Four's internal peacemaker, and the beefy Inquisitor made himself nod a second time, however little he wanted to.

“You were saying, Allayn?” Duchairn invited.

“I was saying that according to Fern's report, the Dohlaran merchant fleet has taken extremely heavy losses. Apparently, these damned ‘privateers' are operating virtually at will, despite the fact that they're thousands of miles from any Charisian port. They seem to be
everywhere
in the Gulf, including Hankey Sound and apparently Shwei Bay, as well. Losses are so heavy insurance rates have gone sky-high. And even
with
insurance, many owners are refusing to allow their vessels to put to sea at all. From what the Duke has to say, the Kingdom's maritime commerce has effectively come to a halt.”

“So?” Clyntahn's voice was at least moderately courteous this time, Duchairn noted, and the Inquisitor shrugged heavy shoulders. “With all due respect, Allayn, and fully admitting that the impact for
Dohlar
may be significant, I fail to see what's so immediately threatening about the situation. We always knew that once these damnable heretics started raiding, the consequences were going to be severe for everyone else's merchant fleets.”

“The point, Zhaspahr,” Duchairn said, “is that the damage is being far worse than we'd originally anticipated. Despite what I just said, Allayn is quite right that many of these ‘privateers' appear to be purpose-built vessels, armed with the best Charisian artillery. Artillery, I remind you, we still haven't managed to duplicate for our own vessels. I'm Mother Church's Treasurer General. I know how expensive our rearming program is being, which means I also have at least a feel for the sort of investment the Charisians must be making to produce the quantities of artillery their own fleet requires. Yet despite his navy's own obvious requirement for more and more guns, Cayleb is permitting
privateers
access to them. That indicates just how high a priority he and his advisers must place on those privateers' operations. And, again, speaking as Mother Church's Treasurer General, I may have a better grasp of some of the … indirect consequences than you do.”

“So enlighten us,” Clyntahn invited in a half growl.

“Allayn is probably in a better position than I am to address the consequences for our building programs,” Duchairn said, “but I already know Charisian attacks have been more than a minor irritation where they're concerned. Many of the items required for the construction of our new galleys are normally transported by sea, Zhaspahr. Spars, masts, timbers, artillery, anchors—anything that's heavy, or massive, or simply big and can't be supplied in the immediate vicinity of the shipyards themselves has to be freighted in, and attempting to haul loads like that overland, even when an overland route is available, is a nightmare. If they can't be shipped by sea, costs are going to rise sky-high, and construction times are going to become far longer.

“But there's another, more direct consequence. If the Charisians succeed in effectively destroying the merchant fleets of their enemies—and producing a situation in which the surviving merchantmen cower in port rather than daring to put to sea will have the same effect capturing or sinking all of them would produce—the economies of those realms are going to take severe damage. Even our coffers are ultimately limited in terms of the subsidies and loans we can make to offset that sort of damage. And as their economies suffer, the tithes due to the treasury will also decline, with ultimately serious consequences to our own fiscal position.

“At the same time, the carnage the Charisians are wreaking isn't something realms who aren't actively at war with them are likely to fail to notice. We've all had our concerns about the ultimate reliability of Siddarmark. Well, if they see the Charisians' enemies suffering this sort of devastation, it's going to make them even less inclined to add themselves to the list of those enemies … and to the privateers' target list. Besides, I rather doubt that someone like Greyghor Stohnar is going to be exactly heartbroken over watching the commerce of rival rulers being hammered. After all, as their merchant fleets decline,
his
can expand to fill some of the void.”

Even Clyntahn was listening attentively now, and Zahmsyn Trynair sat back in his own chair. There were times when he found the apparent rebirth of Duchairn's personal piety more than a little wearing. The Treasurer's newfound willingness to “trust in God” and to punctuate discussions of policy and planning with quotations from the
Writ
and
The Commentaries
might produce serenity for
him
, but it didn't do a great deal for all of the red-hot coals Trynair was required to juggle every day. On the other hand, his ability to convince even the increasingly belligerent Grand Inquisitor to stop and actually listen was impressive. So impressive that Trynair himself had actually considered spending some time with the
Writ
.

“But even the impact on the thinking of his potential enemies is secondary to what Cayleb is really after,” Duchairn continued now. “He's systematically eliminating the carrying capacity of other realms. Effectively, he's doing exactly what we accused his father of—deliberately setting out to secure complete control of the entire world's merchant shipping. And the reason he's doing that, Zhaspahr, is that if all the other merchant carriers are eliminated, the only ones left will fly the Charisian flag. Which means the mainland realms' need for shipping to transport the cargoes essential to their own economies will drive them into using Charisian bottoms. And, in effect, that means they'll be subsidizing Cayleb's military expenses. He'll be driving the kingdoms of Haven and Howard into literally paying for his war against Mother Church.”

“Then stop them from doing that,” Clyntahn growled.

“That's far easier to say than to do,” Duchairn countered. “The trading houses
need
that shipping just to survive, and I don't see anything we
could
do to prevent the consequences to our own cash flow. It's what I've been trying to explain all along. The entire edifice is far more fragile than it might appear from the outside, and the imperatives of economic survival are going to be as apparent to kings and princes as they are to individual bankers. Those imperatives are going to drive even godly men into the Charisians' arms if that's the only way for them to survive.”

“And that's not the only worry,” Maigwair put in. He'd clearly been willing to allow Duchairn to carry the major burden of the explanation, but now he leaned forward, his own expression a combination of anxiety and anger. “It's not just a matter of harming their enemies and bolstering their own economy. There's also the corrupting effect.”

“Corrupting effect?” Clyntahn sat abruptly straighter in his chair as Maigwair captured his full attention at last. “What sort of ‘corrupting effect'?” he demanded.

“There's an enormous amount of money being made by these ‘privateers,'” Maigwair said. “Whatever else they may be, they're still Charisians when it comes to finding ways to squeeze marks out of any situation. And they've been spreading some of those marks around. I have confirmed reports that they're managing to dispose of their prizes in mainland ports. That means they don't have to put prize crews aboard them and sail them all the way back to Charis. They only need to crew them long enough to reach one of the ports which are open to them, at which point their prize crews can immediately return to them. And
that
means they can take a
lot
more ships before shortage of manpower forces them to go home and recruit new crews. Even worse, in some ways, it also means they're building cozy relationships with the authorities in those ports. They couldn't be selling captured ships there, or disposing of cargoes from their prizes, without the knowledge and consent of those authorities.”

Clyntahn's jowls darkened, and anger glowed behind his eyes.

“Allayn's right,” Duchairn said. “These privateers are clearly part of a coordinated Charisian strategy. Cayleb's total out-of-pocket expense is the artillery he's allowing them to purchase, and even that's only costing his navy
time
, since I'm quite certain the foundries casting those guns are showing a tidy profit in the process without any actual subsidies from the Crown. And once they run out of other people's shipping to
attack,
all of them will be available to be taken into naval service as light convoy escorts and cruisers. It's not only hurting his enemies and helping his own economy, but also freeing his navy to concentrate on Emerald and Corisande while forcing our allies to focus all of their limited remaining naval power on efforts to protect the commerce they have left. And simultaneously, as Allayn's just pointed out, giving officials of places like Harchong strong personal inducements to actively collaborate with him
and
pointing out to those rulers who aren't already on his list of active enemies that he can do the same thing to them, if he has to.”

“Then obviously we need a counter-strategy, don't we?” Trynair said.

“I'd say that was a reasonable observation, yes,” Duchairn agreed just a bit ironically.

“That's easy,” Clyntahn growled. The other three looked at him, and he snorted.

“You've just been pointing out how destroying our allies' merchant fleets is going to hurt them, Rhobair. It's not my area of expertise, but it is yours, and I'm fully prepared to accept your analysis. But if shipping is
important
to them, it's
critical
to the heretics in Charis. All their damned fleets and all their damned privateers have to be paid for somehow, and the leeches pay for them with the money they suck out of the mainland economies. Cut that income off, and you eliminate their ability to finance their opposition to God's will.”

“That's true enough,” Duchairn acknowledged, watching Clyntahn through narrowed eyes.

“Well, we don't need any ‘privateer' fleet to do that,” the Grand Inquisitor said harshly. “All we have to do is order all mainland ports closed to Charisian shipping. We don't have to sink or burn their ships to make them useless to Cayleb and his fellow apostates.”