John Carr - Kalvan Kingmaker

"I see your problem. However, you might as easily blame Lysandros and Styphon's House who have enforced their bans, not King Kalvan who would welcome your wares. Not that I'm an impartial observer, but King Kalvan has made many reforms throughout Hos-Hostigos. He has removed all tolls on bridges, roads, and pastures. Outlawed slavery and involuntary servitude. And has made it illegal for any noble to pay his debts in other than specie."

"These are not the acts of a madman or cutthroat as Styphon's high-priests made Kalvan out to be. This will interest the Council greatly."

"Yes, and let it not be forgotten that Kalvan lets artificers, merchants, guild masters, and other commoners sit upon his Councils. Now, I pray you go with the gods. I have many preparations to make before nightfall."

Master Trader Mynellos rose to his feet, bowed, and said, "Truly, I understand. It has been a pleasure making your acquaintance and I wish you the gods' own favor in your future travels."

He wasn't sure if that was a warning from a potential ally, or a suggestion that he get out of town before someone got the idea of a tar and turkey feather party-or a hanging! Regardless, he would be on his way before tomorrow's sunrise. He would try and contact his agents before he left, but only if he could do so without raising an alarm, or risking their covers. Kalvan had told him stories about fifth columns and cells. Skranga would not want to live in a place where such activities were accepted or commonplace, but the stories were instructional and he had used a few of their techniques in Harphax City.

The plank table that ran the full length of the upper chamber, or war room, was almost filled with the General Staff of the Royal Army of Hos-Hostigos. As Great King Kalvan looked down the table at his friends and advisors he felt blessed that so many were the same faces that had occupied these seats last year. Despite the years hard campaigning, the only members who were absent was Major Nicomoth, his former aide-decamp, one of the casualties of the Battle of Phyrax, General Hestophes, who was commanding the Army of Observation along the Harphaxi border, and Prince Phrames, who was up to his knees in beeswax as Prince of the troubled Princedom of Beshta.

Kalvan sat at the head of the table, while to his right sat Queen Rylla and to his left sat Colonel Krynos, his new aide-de-camp-one of Harmakros' top students of military science and a former mercenary captain. To Rylla's right sat Captain-General Harmakros, Duke Mnestros, as a friendly representative of the League of Dralm, Baron Zothnes, former Archpriest of Styphon, General Baldour a former mercenary Grand Captain from Hos-Ktemnos, who knew more about the southern Kingdoms than anyone else in the chamber, and Prince Sarrask of Sask, who'd just arrived to pay respects to his Great King-or as one wag put it, 'to try some more of the new Hostigi brandy at the Blue Halberd Grog Shop.'

At Colonel Krynos' left sat General Alkides, of the Royal Artillery, Captain-General Harmakros, just returned from Royal Army tour of the inspection, Captain Ranthar of the Mounted Rifles, who was sitting in for his superior Colonel Verkan, Prince Pheblon of Nostor, with his hand out for more foodstuffs for his war ravaged Princedom, and Prince Ptosphes.

Great Captain-General Chartiphon, nominal commander of the Royal Army and at this moment looking none too happy for it, sat at the foot of the table.

Just as Kalvan was about to start the General Staff Meeting without him, Klestreus came puffing into the room. The Chief of Intelligence was a boar of a man and Kalvan estimated that he, Harmakros, and Princess Demia could all fit inside his barrel-sized back-and-breast. "Sorry, I'm late, Your Majesty!" Klestreus wheezed. "But that third flight of steps is a killer."

"Too much sitting in wine shops, Klestreus," Prince Sarrask bellowed, while patting his own flat stomach. It appeared to Kalvan that not only had the Long March from Tenabra built Sarrask's character, but had removed most of the surplus gut as well-which surprisingly had not returned!

"What you need, my friend, is to get back into the saddle. I'm sure our Great King will do his best to see that that can be arranged next spring."

Several council members broke into open laughter and Rylla ended up in tears trying to hold her laughter in. Klestreus's face reddened as he squeezed into the chair between Duke Mnestros and Baron Zothnes. Over a year ago Klestreus' had been Captain-General of Nostor's mercenary army, which had unsuccessfully tried to conquer Hostigos; his ineptitude as a general had played no small part in Prince Gormoth's loss. Klestreus had joined the Hostigos Army, where Kalvan had been careful to keep him out of the field. His long service had made him invaluable as a source of information and gossip on all the major mercenary captains and the various noble houses throughout Hos-Agrys and Hos-Harphax.

Kalvan waited until the laughter had subsided, then lit his pipe and stood up. "First of all, I'd like to have Captain-General Harmakros give a status report on the state of preparedness of the Royal Army."

"Your Majesty," Chartiphon interrupted. "Could I be given leave to say a few words, before General Harmakros begins?"

Kalvan nodded and sat down. Chartiphon was a loyal, old-style soldier and very good as long as he stuck to pre-Kalvan tactics and strategy. Kalvan had promoted him as high as he could, to keep him off the field of battle, but there was going to be no changing his traditional beliefs. Chartiphon and Xentos were becoming Kalvan's greatest obstacles to progress. He was not going to win the war against Styphon's House, if he had to spend as much time trying to outflank his friends as his enemies.

"I know your Majesty's views on these new bayonets, but I question their performance on the field of battle. With my forty years of combat experience, first as a mercenary and later as Captain-General of Hostigos, I cannot see these metal twigs stopping a troop of lancers. By Dralm, I pray, I am wrong, but I fear that many of our pikemen will view them likewise."

Kalvan took a long draw on his pipe, then rose to his feet There had been a time in Hostigos-not all that long ago!-when no one would have questioned Kalvan's words, not even if it had been to ride their muskets like flying broomsticks. While Chartiphon's healthy skepticism was an improvement over his attitude of yesteryear, it had come at a particularly bad time.

"I don't believe it is all that big a problem, Chartiphon. I doubt the Styphoni cavalry will be able to make a direct hit on the front ranks of the Hostigi infantry. The wall of lead our lines can hurl will equal or better the Sacred Squares of Hos-Ktemnos. Not even the Zarthani Knights will be able to press home a charge against such a storm of firepower-much less the usual mercenary rabble."

Laurrey, Napoleon's Surgeon General, had checked his hospitals after several major battles and found very few examples of bayonet wounds. Most infantry and cavalry units broke off before contact, with one fleeing and the other pursuing. Ardant du Pica came to the conclusion that the traditional picture of an infantry charge, where the charging column smashes into the defending line, was mythical. At some point in a charge, either the column decided the line was going to hold and stopped, or the line decided the charging column was not going to halt and broke. It was this observation and his mastery of it that had put the "great" in Frederick the Great.

However, Kalvan wasn't just depending upon his infantry. With his mobile artillery he expected to rake the enemy pike and musket blocks before hitting them with massed salvo fire. The tremendous number of casualties would leave them shaken and vulnerable to cavalry or infantry charges. He could do the same to any mass cavalry charges. Most battlefield casualties were taken by broken and fleeing units, if the other side decided to pursue-not by those who stood their ground. Kalvan could not afford too many more battles with the butcher's bill as high as it had been at Fyk, Tenabra, or Phyrax.