John Carr - Kalvan Kingmaker

"It is done!"

The Highpriest of Glarth and a few other highpriests stomped out of the Temple, shaking their heads.

"Xentos, you are to take our judgment to Great King Kalvan and council him to have patience. Tell him when the auguries are right; we will reconsider our decision. I will talk to the leaders of the League of Dralm and council them to prepare for war, but refrain from any alliance with the Kingdom of Hos-Hostigos until Allfather Dralm has spoken."

Xentos felt his stomach drop. There would be no celebration upon his return to Hostigos. In truth, there would be much recrimination-not the least amount from Rylla. Yet, how could he council otherwise?

"Finally, in recognition of the Unholy War raised against the True Gods and their head, Allfather Dralm, we will need someone to lead the high-priests of Dralm. A Primate, first among equals. And for that position, I nominate Highpriest Xentos, who has shown no favoritism towards his home and friends, thereby proving his devotion to the Father God. How do you vote? Yea or Nay."

"Yea," thundered the assembled highpriests throughout the Great Hall of Dralm.

Xentos looked down at the table to hide the tears in his eyes. First Primate of Dralm, never had he-a simple highpriest-dared dream so high. But how would this appear to Kalvan and Rylla? Would they think him a traitor to Hostigos, coming home with a title and empty hands? Yet, it was his devotion to Allfather Dralm that had won these accolades. He would take their punishment and recriminations; his duty was to a higher master. Praise Dralm, they would understand in time. And, if Kalvan were truly Dralm's chosen one, he would make his presence known to all men. If not, he had made the right decision.

Kalvan stopped writing with his quill pen, set it aside and began to massage his temples. He stood up, stretched and walked over to a narrow castle slit, where he watched the First Royal Regiment of Foot practicing their musket drill in the outer courtyard. The musketeers formed ranks, assumed positions-with the first ranks dropping down to their knees-and 'fired.' Had they been really firing the noise would have been loud enough to wake baby Demia, but these dry runs were essential for teaching the musketeers shot discipline.

Kalvan's study was on the third and top floor of Tarr-Hostigos, along with the Royal bedchambers, the Royal nursery, the solar, and the upper chamber, which acted as the Royal Army's Chief-of-Staff operations room and meeting hall. The second floor contained the dining hall, Prince Ptosphes's quarters, the guardroom, the common hall, and the Great King's audience chamber. The first and largest floor held the Great Hall, the kitchen, the servants quarters, and the Royal Armory.

From the third story, Kalvan could see the First Regimental colors, a red flag with a blue square containing the royal double-headed gold ax in the upper left-hand corner. The officers and their guards were outfitted with red plumes, while the enlisted men wore red sashes over their breastplates or leather jacks. Kalvan had done away with the blue sashes they had worn last spring since they were too hard to see from a distance. Set off, against leather jacks and dark woolen shirts, the dark blue sashes and plumes had blended in too well with the uniforms, adding to the ever-present fog of war. These red sashes could be seen three fields away by a one-eyed bull.

A year ago Kalvan had seriously thought of using his own colors, maroon and green, for the Royal Army until Rylla had made a convincing case for sticking with the traditional Hostigi colors of red and blue. Now only his bodyguards, King Kalvan's Lifeguard and the First and Second Royal Horseguard, used his flag-a maroon keystone on a green field-and colors. He knew that these small details might appear trivial to the non-military mind, but to an army on the march, with dozens of distinct flags and banners, it might well mean the difference between fighting its own advance guard, and reconnoitering the enemy before they came within artillery range.

At this height the standard Royal Army battalion, consisting of two one hundred and ten men companies, and a small headquarters unit, appeared awfully small. These undersized battalions had also been difficult to maneuver enmasse. Now was probably the time to double the battalion strength, by adding two additional companies of shot. This would then make each 'New Model' battalion almost the same strength as last year's regiment and with twice the number of arquebusiers, since he planned to convert all the pikemen in the Royal Army to shot weapons. That should put a bee in Grand Master Soton's burgonet.

This would give the Royal Hostigi Army the advantage of concentrated firepower without depriving it of the flexibility of small unit movement, since each company would still have its own sergeant, or petty captain-he was still working on getting the new titles accepted-and chain of command. Note: Make a New Model' army more along the lines of Gustavus Adolphus than Maurice of Nassau. Then, if they were facing tercio-sized units, like the Hos-Ktemnos Sacred Squares, he could form up two or three of his New Model regiments into Gustavus's famous 'Swedish Brigades.'

The Royal Army of Hos-Hostigos was growing faster than Styphon's temple bureaucracy at the Holy City of Balph. Thousands of new recruits, many of them captured mercenaries from the spring campaigns, were swelling its ranks. Now as winter approached, thousands of free lances, from all over the Trygath and Northern Kingdoms were arriving daily, eager to sell their services to a Great King who paid them year around rather than only during the campaigning season. Another of Gustavus's innovations that Styphon's House was sure to pick up on once they realized the great mercenary leak into Hostigos had grown from a trickle to a stream.

The net result was that Kalvan needed a new source of income; by Dralm's Beard, make that several sources. The Royal Treasury was still making vast sums selling excess Hostigi fireseed, mostly to Hos-Agrysi Princes, but soon most of the Hostigi production would have to go into powder depots for next spring's invasion of Hos-Harphax. Kalvan had already spent over half the gold looted during last year's campaign from Styphon's temples in the Harphaxi princedoms' of Dazour, Balkron, Ark-los, and western Syriphlon-almost two hundred thousand ounces of gold and six times as much of silver!

At this rate, not even Prince Balthar's Great Hoard, taken after the Siege of Tarr-Beshta last year, would last more than another year or two. There were times when Kalvan wondered if he were the Great King or Great Robber Baron of Hos-Hostigos. They were definitely living on borrowed time, and borrowed income as well. Eventually, there would have to be an accounting. The cost of year-around mobilization was forcing him into war as much as Styphon's Holy Crusade; even if Styphon's House was to sue for peace, he would still have to go on the offensive or risk demobilization. He hoped no one in the Inner Circle was smart enough to come up with a here-and-now version of the Cold War!

When it came to cash reserves, Styphon's House held a full deck; they owned most of the great banking houses. This was why he had taken the here-and-now unprecedented move of attempting to corner the market on all the uncommitted mercenaries in the Six Kingdoms by promising the unprecedented offer of year-around wages. This had opened the floodgates; mercenaries of every stripe had poured into Hos-Hostigos from every part of the Six Kingdoms, and the Middle Kingdoms as well.

In order to understand the here-and-now history of mercenary troops, Kalvan had spent the last year, going over old records and histories. The original Zarthani settlers had moved by boat down the Great Lakes, or Saltless Seas as they were called here-and-now, to the Niagara River, where they were halted by Niagara Falls. Here, the migratory wave split up into three different rivers, one landing at the natural harbor at Ulthor (Erie, Pennsylvania); the second going ashore in upstate New York, moving down the Mohawk and Hudson Rivers to New York Harbor where they founded Agrys City; the third portaged Niagara Falls and moved down the Saint Lawrence, founding Zygros City at the site of Quebec.