John Carr - Kalvan Kingmaker

Rylla took his hand. "You can juggle better than any other man in the Six Kingdoms, Dralm be praised!"

"I'll gladly praise all the true gods at once, but they won't make me twins, or give me two extra arms!"

"I suppose not. What weapons will the combat engineers carry?"

"Pistols and swords and half-pikes. They'll usually be working close to the main army, so they'll have lots of infantry support. I was thinking of making Captain-what's his name, the one with the red hair that sticks out-the captain of the Ulthori fishermen…?"

"Kybanthos."

"Captain Kybanthos-I was going to suggest him as Captain-General of the Sappers and Engineers. Master Thalmoth would be the ideal candidate, but he says he's too old for any more campaigning. I think he just doesn't want to leave the University, which is just as well because he's indispensable there, too.

"Another of the Sappers and Engineer's jobs will be building boats and rafts when we have to cross a river where there's no bridge."

Rylla frowned, obviously a little out of her depth at the idea of crossing a river too deep to ford anyplace except at a bridge. Kalvan wondered why, if this was standard military doctrine here-and-now, nobody had thought of blowing up or burning bridges to foil an enemy. Probably because every Prince or King had to reckon on fighting on his own real estate sooner or later, and didn't want to set a precedent for demolishing things as expensive and hard to replace as bridges. In fact, the whole idea of carrying the war to your enemy had been rarely done, until the Dralm-sent/demon-serving Kalvan I of Hos-Hostigos proved that this strategy could knockout an opponent so thoroughly you didn't have to worry about his doing anything to you next year.

Of course, it would have been even better if there hadn't been people serving Styphon's House who could learn that lesson too: Grand Master Soton. Grand Duke Lysandros of Hos-Harphax. Archpriest Anaxthenes, who wasn't a soldier but could almost certainly hand pick generals-and teach them. It would have been much more convenient if all his opponents could have been of the caliber of Prince Philesteus-who'd died a glorious and futile death at the head of the Hos-Haraphax Royal Lancers-or even the late Prince Gormoth of Nostor.

For a while, he'd even begun to convince himself they were all that hapless, but he'd learned otherwise by now, and perhaps he should have always realized that Styphon's House must have something going for it to survive five centuries as the ruler of rulers here-and-now. One of the problems of being an agnostic dropped into a world of believers: you weren't used to the idea of how much work people would do on behalf of their god.

Rylla was still frowning.

"Yes, darling, what is it?"

"Kybanthos might not be the best man for Captain-General of the Sappers and Engineers. He's not a nobleman and the other Captain-Generals are. If you give him a title, some will say you are ennobling too many commoners too quickly. Also, those Ulthori are not well thought of in Hostigos.

"The Ulthori don't fight by Galzar's rules, I'll admit," Kalvan replied. "But-no, you're right. Kybanthos hasn't done nearly as much as Alkides or Hestophes. And a very important rule for Great Kings as well as for Ulthori fishermen is 'Don't rock the boat if you don't have to.'

"We will need a Captain-General for the Engineers sooner or later, to give them status. Right now, we can just organize an Engineer Regiment and put their Colonel on the Great King's staff. That will honor him without needing to give him a title." The way Rylla beamed told Kalvan he'd hit on the right solution, and for the fiftieth time he wondered what in the name of all possible and impossible gods he would have done without her.

Rylla traced the figures on the paper with her finger. "That is 6,600 cavalry, 8,600 infantry, 26 guns, and 500 engineers you will be adding to the Royal Army. Add these to the 5,000 men of the regiments we already have, and the Great Crown will have better than 20,000 men in its pay, ready to march. That is truly an army worthy of a Great King!"

"We have Styphon's House's temple treasuries and Balthar of Beshta to thank for being able to pay that many. Also the two armies we smashed last year for being able to arm them. In the armies of Hostigos it had become a point of honor to glean the battlefield for any useable piece of abandoned equipment, from an artillery-piece down to a thrown horseshoe. Of course, this meant bore-standardization was not only out the window but also on the trash heap for years to come, which would doubtless make those Dralm-damned gunsmiths happy.

"You have not divided the men into regiments yet?"

"No. That can wait until spring. I want to see which captains do the best work, so I can make them Colonels."

"You will need some more Generals if you have so many new regiments. A General cannot give orders to twenty Colonels all at once in the middle of a battle."

Kalvan nodded, and began to explain his plans for doubling the size of the Royal infantry regiments, by increasing the number of musketeers in each battalion. They'd gone as far as starting to work out a model Royal Army Brigade, when a royal page arrived to announce that an outrider sought audience with the Great King.

"Thank you, Aspasthar. Bid him enter, then go to the cellar and order some beer brought up." Even Kalvan, who'd had a giant adolescent growth spurt himself, was amazed at how much Harmakros's left-handed son had grown since spring. Already his ankles and wrists were showing on his Royal livery.

"The courier must have been waiting outside the door because Aspasthar had him inside the study before Kalvan could finish his thought. The messenger was obviously bushed, his jerkin and trousers were still wet from his horses lather and he reeked worse than an infantry soldier after a long day of latrine duty.

"Your Majesty, Great King Kalvan, I have come from Vygon Town in Ulthor. A large body of cavalry, with the colors and flag of the Princedom of Ubros, has just left Ulthor Town and are said to be journeying to Hostigos. Their captain is Duke Mnestros, son of Prince Thykarses of Eubros. They are said to be representatives of the League of Dralm."

"At last, the other shoe drops!" Kalvan exclaimed.

Both the messenger and Rylla looked at him in confusion. "What I mean is, after all this waiting, we shall finally learn the intentions of the League-good or bad."

"Their news will be good, Xentos would never forsake his homeland." Rylla answered with a confidence that Kalvan wished he shared. "Soon we will have even more soldiers and gold."

"I hope you are right. I just wish we'd get word of that from the horses'-I mean-Xentos' mouth."

"His last post said he would be here in a moon-quarter. I'm sure Chancellor Xentos will have wonderful news for the Kingdom."

If so, why didn't he even hint at it in his last rather cryptic and short letter, Kalvan wondered to himself. For the time being, it was best to keep his doubts to himself; Rylla didn't need to have her hopes dashed. He just wasn't as sure of their Chancellor, as she appeared to be.

Hadron Tharn knocked at the door, the peephole opened and a gravelly voice asked, "The password?"

"Death to all Paratime Police."

The voice answered with a booming laugh. "That's a good one boss. Your 'friend' is already waiting in the privacy booth, like you requested."

Hadron, followed by Warntha Thul his personal bodyguard, entered the Blind Pig-one of a chain of mock speakeasies he owned-patterned on illegal bars on a Europo-American Sector that had once attempted the 'apparently' noble, but futile, effort to prohibit the consumption of alcoholic beverages. The prohibition had barely lasted two decades, glorified a group of sub-moronic gangsters and opened up the Hispano-Columbian Subsector to serious penetration by a number of First Level outtime firms.