John Carr - Kalvan Kingmaker

The Ulthori branch portaged to the Allegheny River, went down the Allegheny, using one of the short portages to the tributaries of the Harph (the west branch of the Susquehanna River). Since the Zarthani had metal tools, they could build bigger and better boats than the Ruthani, or Native American Indians, could even though they had little or no natural advantage over the Ruthani in woodcraft. Therefore, the early Zarthani settlers kept to the river valleys as much as possible until they reached salt water at the mouth of the Harph where they founded HarphaxTown, which later became Harphax City.

Harphax Town may have originated as a fishing village, but it quickly became a naval base, since a fleet of Great Lake galleys based there could drive the Ruthani canoes off Chesapeake Bay and dominate all of Tidewater Virginia. Isolated from the rest of the major landmass by Zarthani boats and a line of fortifications roughly along otherwhen Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, the Ruthani in the Delmarva Peninsula were soon exterminated.

The Ulthori Zarthani left the western shore of the Chesapeake alone, since the Ruthani there could retreat into the Piedmont, safe from Zarthani naval vessels, and make raids into the Tidewater. So the Zarthani proceeded to colonize the flat land of the Delmarva Peninsula. Within a few years they began producing a surplus of corn, which meant for the first time the settlers in the Harph Valley were something more than subsistence farmers in a perpetual combat zone. Later a second wave of Zarthani migrants moved down the Harph to Delmarva, this population increase meant more farming, hence more food in storage, more ship and wagon building, and more young men to be soldiers. The result was that sizeable Zarthani armies, with the infrastructure to support them, were now available to carry the war to the Iroquois.

Erasthames the Great was not so much a Napoleon as a Carnot who could organize the Chesapeake watershed into a war machine that could grind down the Ruthani by sheer staying power when it couldn't beat them in battle. Erasthames did not resort to conscription. Instead he levied heavy taxes on farms and boat and wagon operators, using the proceeds to pay soldiers. Eventually, he had a large supply of mercenary soldiers, which meant that the profession of mercenary, at least in the Northern Kingdoms, became an honorable profession, if only because so many sons spent a year or so at it. Undoubtedly, Erasthames the Great had lavishly subsidized the priests of Galzar. By the end of the Ruthani wars the profession of mercenary was not just honorable-it was traditional.

The shipyards of Harphax City had a boom time from the beginning, producing first war galleys, then small merchant vessels to carry settlers into the Chesapeake and north, then coastal vessels to trade with the Carolinas. Harphax City turned into a prosperous seaport. In a few generations the ship builders and ship owners and ship captains turned into shipping magnates and became considerably wealthier than the upstream boat and wagon train operators. This meant that Harphax City, and likewise Agrys and Zygros Cities, developed the economic muscle to dominate their upstream relatives and before long the oligarchies/monarchs of the seaports began to throw their weight around upstream, if for nothing else, to protect and encourage their trade routes back to Lake Erie and Grefftscharr.

So it was the seaport city eventually became the capital of a Great Kingdom, whose unity was more economic than political. As long as an upstream Prince behaved himself and paid appropriate tribute-while above all keeping the trade route running smoothly-the seaport kings had no problem with letting him do as he pleased. Styphon's House didn't invent this local autonomy; it merely encouraged it to keep the political power of the Great King low and the fireseed burning.

Kalvan's discussion with Skranga and Harmakros about conquering Hos-Harphax and placing Phrames in the throne was more than just talk. If the Great Kingdom of Hos-Hostigos were to have good trade relations with the rest of the Five Kingdoms, it was imperative they either made friends with Hos-Harphax or beat-her-up militarily and install a friendly King-the latter being the easier of the two possibilities if Lysandros were crowned Great King. The merchants of Hostigos hadn't yet begun to riot in the streets; they were too busy dealing with the smugglers who were anxious to share some of the Hos-Hostigi Styphon's House temple loot. When that treasure ran out, Hos-Hostigos would begin to look like Spain in the Eighteenth Century, when the South American and Mexican gold and silver mines began to peter out. Already inflation had halved the value of the Royal Hostigos Crown in one year.

There was much more to being a Great King than winning battles and robbing temples-the latter, thankfully profitable work!

Kalvan heard the door open and turned to see Rylla, dressed in a gorgeous blue gown, walk inside. For a moment, he sat transfixed-Rylla looked every inch a queen, in fact, in that outfit she reminded him of Princess Grace of Monaco, with a sprinkling of freckles across her cheeks and a well-turned nose. Being married to Rylla was the best part of being Great King of Hos-Hostigos. If Styphon's House would only leave them alone, he'd be content to play consort for the rest of his days.

"Did I disturb you, darling?" Rylla asked, coming into the study.

"No, my love. I'm just going over the muster roles of this year's recruits for the Royal Army." Kalvan gently laid the piece of tan, crumbling-at-the-edges paper on the silver tray and pushed the tray across the table toward Rylla. "Try picking it up and reading it. If it starts to fall apart, leave it on the tray and read it there."

"After all this time, I'd almost stopped believing… And if I can't read it?"

"Then we don't charter the Royal Hostigos Guild of Paper-makers this moon."

Rylla nodded and reached for the paper as cautiously as if it had been a newborn kitten with the mother cat watching. As she lifted it up, the edges where she held it started flaking like a too-thin slice of army ration bread. She hastily put it down and started reading:

Light Cavalry-800 pistoleers, 300 mounted crossbowman

Dragoons-1000 with musketoons, pistols and sabers

Heavy Cavalry-800 lancers and 3,600 Cuirassier with pistols

Arquebusiers-1,600 with arquebus and sword

Musketeers-2,200 with musket and sword

Pikemen/Billmen-2,400 with pike or bill, and sword

Sword-and-Bucklermen-900 with sword and buckler

Halberdiers-1,800 with halberd or poleax

Artillerymen-700, including boys and servants

– 26 guns (2 siege, 24 field, with 13 already mounted on carriages)

Sappers amp; Combat Engineers-500 engineers and support troops

"What are Combat Engineers?" Rylla asked.

"You can read those words!" The Zarthani runes were unusual looking first and it had taken Kalvan a few months to make the proper phonetic substitutions for the Roman characters. Because, like English, Latin, and most European languages, Zarthani was an Indo-European dialect, most of the sounds were familiar. It hadn't hurt that he'd had Greek-which was closer than English to spoken Zarthani-drummed into his head by a most determined Professor during the first two years at Princeton.

"Would I be asking what they meant if I couldn't read them?" Rylla asked.

"Combat Engineers are soldiers specially trained and equipped to build or destroy bridges, roads, and earthworks."

"Like the sappers who helped with the siege of Tarr-Beshta?"

"Exactly. You remember how I had to be in three places at once during the siege because I was the only man who knew how to lay out the trenches. The officers of the combat engineers will do that work the next time we have to lay siege to a town or castle. With Dralm's help, they'll have a chance to perfect their craft on Harphax City. After all, I can't do everything and be everywhere at once even if Lyklos seems determined to keep throwing new balls my way faster than I can juggle the ones I already have."