In Treachery Forged (The Law of Swords) (40 page)

Damn,
Maelgyn cursed. With a sigh, he addressed Wodtke. “Don’t worry, Doctor – I’ll be sure she gets to sleep and nothing else. I swear it on my word of honor.”

Euleilla squawked, but Wodtke saw enough in his eyes to accept his word. “Very well.”

Maelgyn took the lead this time, guiding her out the door and towards their room. “Listen to the Doctor,” he cautioned. “A certain friend of ours says it’s important.”

He could see the momentary confusion on her face before the realization took over. “Damn,” she cursed.

Maelgyn laughed the rest of the way to their quarters.

Chapter 24

The fleet of ships seemed to stretch for miles and miles. Only those in the front were the warships of Sopan – euphemistically called “triremes,” although many ships had more than the three decks of oars from which they got that name – while a long train of transport vessels followed. Needing to transfer such a large number of people, Sopan’s infantry required all of the ships they could find, filling the hulls of the triremes to their maximum ability and many, many more ships besides. Other transports carried most of the heavy equipment, supplies, and so forth. Once the blockade was broken and this cargo of men deposited at the rendezvous, the whole fleet would be returning for several more loads of soldiers before all was done.

“The thing you have to remember,” Admiral Rudel, commanding Svieda’s Third Fleet, said to Maelgyn as they stood on the flagship’s deck, surveying the convoy. “Is that naval tactics are quite different from land tactics. You can’t exactly turn these boats too quickly – you have to plan your turns far in advance if you want to get anywhere. Ranged combat is always preferred, and any time we use our battering ram – the only decent close-in weapon we’ve got – you’re risking sinking yourself even if you do everything right. Your fancy magics aren’t going to be nearly as effective in a battle like this.”

Originally the Oden Navy – now under the control of Sho’Curlas – was the largest navy in the world. In one single, titanic battle, it had wiped out Svieda’s First and Second fleets, but had in turn been reduced to shreds. Now, it barely had enough ships to maintain a blockade over a half-dozen of the more important ports in Svieda, all east of the Largo River. The Third Fleet, based in Sopan and so far uninvolved in the conflict, now outnumbered the blockading force almost ten to one, and all of Rudel’s ships were in better trim. The Admiral had decided it would be a good idea to explain naval tactics to his liege lord before the major maneuvers began. He was a bit amused, however, at some of the suggestions given to him by the Lord of his province.

“Which is why you’re in charge of the Navy, and not me,” Maelgyn laughed. “I think I’d probably sink half of these ships just trying to organize a simple flanking maneuver.”

“Glad you realize that,” Rudel snorted, amused at the mere concept of a fleet of triremes even attempting a ‘flanking maneuver.’ “When I called the captains in for my traditional pre-action dinner last night, the captain of the
Narwhal
complained that Lord... Yergwain, I think it was, had been making trouble. For some reason, that idiot seems to think being born a noble gives him enough knowledge to tell a sea captain of thirty years experience that he doesn’t know what he’s doing. The Elf and the... what do you call those cat-people? Ah, yeah, Nekoji! The Elf and the Nekoji girl are far better company, he said.”

“Not surprising,” Maelgyn sighed. “Yergwain’s seems a bit stuffy, to me, and I’ve only known him for a few weeks now. He’s competent at what he does, though, and I believe he’s willing to look past his biases in order to get a job done. Don’t take it too personally – he doesn’t exactly like who I’ve chosen as a bride, either.”

Rudel, born in Largo and a world traveler before ending up in charge of Sopan’s navy, snorted. “His kind wouldn’t. Nobility raised with Porosian traditions and biases – God only knows how no-one figured that out in the past two hundred years – are taught to despise mages and look down on commoners. Porosians believe that royalty should marry other royals or nobles so as to keep to their station, and commoners should marry only other commoners, or at most a lesser noble. Yergwain is a strict traditionalist... which is partly why he’s so effective as a leader. He knows what works, he knows his place, and he knows that if he doesn’t perform well it will reflect on both him and his family. So, in the confines of what his idea of nobility is supposed to be, he is the best. But unfortunately, his idea of nobility is backwards and inflexible. And it doesn’t exactly allow for things outside his norm, like commoners married to royals. Your wife’s new title of ‘Baronet’ isn’t exactly going to help improve relations with him, though it might help with some of the less hard-lined nobles.”

“Yergwain? He has a hard time accepting commoners married to lesser nobles, much less royals,” Leno said, coming up on deck. “The, um... midshipman? Is that the right word? The young lad in charge of the lower deck of rowers?”

“Yes, that’s one of my midshipmen,” Rudel replied with great patience.

“Right. He said to come up and, well, he had some very formal terminology, but basically he would like you to come down to take a look at some kind of problem.”

Rudel snorted. “That’s the captain’s job, not mine. I’m not in charge of the ship, just the fleet. The captain is on the foredeck, over there,” he pointed.

“Actually, sir, he said that it was you he needed to speak to. He was very specific about it,” Leno insisted.

The admiral just snorted. “A midshipman ordering an Admiral around? Well, I’ve got nothing better to do for the next couple hours while we close in enough to even start thinking about real combat maneuvers. Might as well go give him a chewing out. I’ll be back in a minute.”

Maelgyn didn’t bother looking as the Admiral left – he was more concerned about the movements of his wife. Euleilla had discovered that she couldn’t sense many of the things stored on a ship like rope and canvas, wooden rails, and even many sailors personal effects. Her magic powder was insufficient in as crowded an area as this warship. She had known sea travel was difficult from her barge trips back when she was living with Ruznak, but it hadn’t been nearly as bad there.

The best she could do was find an out-of-the-way place where she could just sit still and avoid running into things. The problem was that there was no such thing as an “out of the way place” on board, and every sailor had noticed her stumbling around like the blind woman she was.

To prevent more questions, Maelgyn had ordered a hammock rigged for her above deck, where she lounged most of the time. Dr. Wodtke had covered for her, declaring that she was suffering from severe seasickness and was bedridden, so nobody questioned it. In the run-up to the battle, however, the sailors had to clear the decks and – somewhat apologetically – deconstruct her hammock.

Euleilla was trying to stay in an area where she could safely remain, but Maelgyn had seen her stagger a few times while he’d been talking to the Admiral. He figured that, just perhaps, she’d be willing to talk with him to get her mind off of the discomfort of not knowing where things were.

“You know,” Maelgyn began, approaching her from behind. “I figure the big disadvantage of using magic to find your way around is that you don’t know how to deal with it when your magic can’t help.”

“I’ve been in this situation before,” she snapped, flinching as he put his hand on her arm. Her magical sense was ‘off,’ since all it did was confuse and deceive her while on board. “I’ve always managed.”

“Yeah,” Maelgyn agreed, gently pulling her into his arms and tucking her head under his chin. “But you’ve never had to deal with sea travel for so long. Here you can’t just sit in an out of the way place and wait until it’s safe to use your senses again; you have to keep moving to get out of people’s way. It’s already been almost a week, and it’ll likely be another couple of days until you can escape to land. In the meantime, you don’t know where anything is, and your magic doesn’t help. It must be like it was when you were first blinded.”

“Yes,” she admitted in a scared voice. “I know I’ll be able to use my magic again, but... but right now, it’s just like I’m blind again. I discovered the ability to ‘see’ with magic before I had a chance to learn to really deal without sight, and this isn’t exactly the best place to learn.”

“You shouldn’t have come,” he sighed.

“I don’t regret my decision,” she replied fiercely. “My place is here.”

“I understand you wanting to come with me,” Maelgyn sighed. “To be honest, I didn’t want to be separated from you either. But you could have at least crossed the mountains and met me in Largo instead of coming this way.”

“You’re going into battle,” she replied. “I need to be with you when you do – while my magic confuses more than it helps on a ship like this, I’ll still be able to use it when we get into a fight. I want to be here, to help keep you safe.”

“I doubt I’ll need your help,” Maelgyn laughed. “Even if the flagship is engaged, there’s not much that magic can do to help in this situation, according to the admiral.”

“Well I’m here, nonetheless,” she said, snuggling further into his arms. “Let’s not argue... this is the first time since we got on this ship that I’ve enjoyed myself. Let’s just stay here for a while and relax.”

A throat cleared behind them. Maelgyn’s eyes darted over his shoulder to see Admiral Rudel standing there. “Admiral?” he asked formally.

“I’m terribly sorry about interrupting your private time, sir,” Rudel said, looking embarrassed. “But this is important. Important enough that I decided not to chew out that midshipman after all.”

“All right,” Maelgyn said, not releasing Euleilla but instead turning the both of them to face the man. “What is it?”

Rudel gestured to someone Maelgyn had never seen before. He couldn’t tell what it was, but there was something very odd about him. “This... gentleman... appeared below. He’s a mercenary, but he claims he isn’t here to fight.”

“Excuse me,” Euleilla said. Maelgyn felt her magical senses activate to ‘look’ at the man, and found himself ‘looking’ along with her. “But I’ve never, uh, seen anyone quite like you before. What, exactly, are you?”

“I Merfolk,” a throaty gargle answered.

“Shapeshifters!” Maelgyn exclaimed. “Of course! I think you need more training if you really want to pass for a Human, though.”

“I not do this much. First assignment. Not see many Humans before.”

“I understand,” Maelgyn answered diplomatically, just now realizing his surprised exclamation might have insulted the creature. “What is that ‘assignment?’”

“Boats there,” the Merfolk answered, gesturing. “Send message. They Oden City-State. They no want fight. Want give up. No like Sho’Curlas men. One boat not theirs, force them fight. Boat flee. Now want s... srrr...”

“The blockade fleet wants to surrender?” Maelgyn said in surprise.

“Yes.”

Maelgyn looked at the Admiral, who shrugged. “Tell them,” the Sword Prince said after a while. “To raise a flag of truce, and sail with us into Largo Harbor. We’ll discuss the specifics there... under the threat of fire from the most heavily defended port in the world outside of the Borden Isles.”

“Okay,” the Merfolk replied. “Must swim now. Will tell.”

With that, the human-shaped creature dove into the water. After a few minutes of waiting for it to get out of earshot, Rudel said, “That was odd.”

“Odd, how?” Maelgyn asked.

“Ships from the City-State of Oden? Surrendering? Against any odds, for any reason?” The admiral shook his head. “Doesn’t make any sense. Oden is famous for always fighting to the last man regardless of the circumstances. Even if they didn’t really approve of the actions of their allies, their honor wouldn’t allow them to leave so simply. No, something is wrong here.”

“I’m afraid I don’t really know much about Oden,” Maelgyn sighed. “I’ve heard they were fierce, and had a massive navy, but not much more than that. What are the chances that they’ll honor their flags of truce entering the harbor?”

“Pretty good,” Rudel said. “Assuming they’re really Oden sailors. Something else is odd about all this, though: The reliance on a Merfolk mercenary to deliver their message. Oden and the Merfolk have been at war, off and on, for generations – I have a hard time seeing them trust one with such an important message.”

Maelgyn frowned. “What could they gain, being in the harbor? They’ll be targeted by every weapon available on the land, and would easily be sunk if they tried anything. There’ll be a sizable fleet travelling in their wake, ready to attack the moment they try something odd. I don’t know much about naval tactics, that’s true, but what advantage might they gain from this kind of ploy?”

“Nothing significant I can think of,” Rudel sighed in obvious frustration. “But it still doesn’t make any sense.”

“So, what do we do about it?”

“Well,” the Admiral said, “Not much we can do... except stay ready for battle all the way in.”

“Keep us posted,” Maelgyn ordered. “We’ll be right here.”

“Of course, your highness,” the Admiral acknowledged, apparently recognizing a dismissal when he heard one. He quickly disappeared up the foredeck, leaving Maelgyn and Euleilla alone.

Maelgyn tightened his arms around his wife. “We’ll stay here for a while, okay?”

“Yeah.”