The Chaoswar Saga: A Kingdom Besieged, A Crown Imperilled, Magician’s End

‘None of our friends in the court of the Emperor have hinted at such an undertaking. We’ve had reports detailing debates within the Chamber of Lords and Masters, some calling for a more aggressive policy towards the Kingdom, especially regarding the Vale of Dreams. But no warnings, no alarms, nothing.’ Pug let out a long breath. ‘This is no mad adventure conducted by dissidents or a break-away faction in the Empire. For something of this scale, the Emperor himself had to give approval, or at least be in no position to object.’

Pug looked at Creegan. ‘Had the temples any warning?’

‘No, just the usual: some members of the Congress of Lords urging a more belligerent posture towards Kesh, and closer ties with Roldem.’ He stopped. ‘Usually, those in favour of adventure turn their eyes to the Eastern Kingdoms, seeking to expand in that direction. War with Kesh is never anyone’s notion of a good idea.’ He paused, then added, ‘But we haven’t received any reports from our temples or shrines in the south of Kesh for over a month now. And Sandreena was investigating some reports of …’

‘What?’ prompted Pug.

‘Just some things that sounded to her as if the Black Caps might have returned.’

The Black Caps were a group of murderers and thugs attached to those who had been in the service of Belasco, the mad magician who had attempted to bring the Demon King Dahun into this realm and had been possessed by him for his trouble. In the end both the magician and the Demon Lord had been destroyed, but many of those serving them had escaped into the wilds of Kesh. Any rumour of their re-emergence would have attracted Sandreena’s attention, as she had more run-ins with them than anyone else.

‘You didn’t think this worthy of a mention?’ asked Magnus.

‘I would have once she returned,’ said Creegan. Members of the Conclave were not merely Pug’s agents, but powerful men and women in their own right, and many bristled at the idea they had to defend their choices within their own areas of influence.

Pug held up his hand, forestalling any argument. ‘I trust each of you to let me know what’s critical.’

He looked from face to face, almost as if trying to read their thoughts, then seized upon something Creegan had said. ‘Sandreena ventured to the south of Great Kesh?’

‘Yes, somewhere below the Girdle,’ said the Grand Master.

‘Have any of you received reports from your agents south of the Girdle recently?’

Glances were exchanged, and finally a woman named Veronica said, ‘No. But then it’s not unusual to not hear from them for months. There is very little that happens in the Confederacy that has any particular bearing on our interests, save the occasional magician who is found and recruited for the Academy or your island.’

Pug nodded. ‘If our enemies know us as well as I think they do, where better to stage a massive operation against us than somewhere we just choose to ignore?’

Daniel, a highly-placed warrior in the martial order known as The Hammer, stood up. The Hammer was a disavowed sect putatively associated with the Temple of Tith-Onanka. In fact they were close to being a mercenary army, tolerated on both sides of the border between Kesh and the Kingdom. They answered only to their leader, the Knight-Marshal of the order, and it had taken years for Pug to place an agent within their ranks: like other martial orders associated with the temples, they were wary of spies and had magical means by which they could ferret them out. ‘How big was the fleet you saw, Pug?’ Daniel asked.

‘I counted over one hundred ships making for Port Vykor or Krondor.’

‘If they’re sending that many ships into the Bitter Sea, they have other fleets as well. They’ll not leave their coasts unprotected from pirates, raiders, retaliation, or other disasters. Moreover, the combined fleets of Roldem and Isles in the Sea of Kingdoms needs be met with a show of strength.’ Daniel paused, thinking. ‘To muster such a fleet south of the Girdle and then sail up to the Straits of Darkness and into the Bitter Sea within a few weeks to catch the Kingdom unawares …’ He stopped. ‘What I’m trying to say is the execution may have only taken weeks, but the planning … that’s been months, perhaps years. Food, weapons, drinking water: it’s a massive cargo! It all has to be moved somewhere out-of-the-way, somewhere they have a reasonable expectation of privacy.’ Daniel looked around the room as if looking for someone to argue against his point. No one did.

‘South of the Girdle would be an obvious choice,’ said Magnus. ‘We presume, perhaps wrongly, that the Empire is primarily in a position to pacify, not to be used as a staging area.’

‘Ah, but there’s more than simply hauling a few casks of water, some loaves of bread, hogsheads of hard cheese and dried beef and leaving them on a beach for ships to pick up,’ continued Daniel. ‘Moving goods through the market sets up ripples.’ He looked at the tall, white-haired magician. ‘You’re smarter than most, Magnus, but like all of us you’re ignorant about one thing or another.

‘I’m in logistics, and that’s how I made my way into The Hammer, feeding the bastards.’ He laughed. ‘The point is, if I wander into a city and buy up enough food for a thousand men, prices go up, others can’t find what they’re seeking, and word goes out to the world that that city needs whatever it is I bought. Shippers then scramble, buying whatever they think they can quickly get to market where I am, and that creates more demand further away.’ He wiggled his fingers. ‘Ripples, you see? Like a rock in a pond. The thing is: with this bastard of a fleet sailing around there are no ripples.’

Pug nodded. ‘Which means goods are being supplied from outside the normal channels of supply. From somewhere we have no informants.’ He waved his hand and an image appeared in the air. ‘This is a likeness of a map I found years ago in Macros’s library, of the southern half of the Empire. From what I’ve learned since I found it, the borders are fluid, the clans and nations variable, and little can be fixed beyond the location of a few big towns on the coast.’

‘It looks as if it’s mainly desert, swamps, and mountains,’ said Daniel. ‘And I know what little farmland is down there is old, worn out and dry. The Confederates are always looking for an excuse to push north. And any large supply of food there would get be eaten, not warehoused.’

Magnus pointed. ‘What about that large island to the south?’

‘That’s the Island of Snakes,’ said Daniel. ‘No one lives there. the north side’s a cold, forlorn place, and that’s the good side. The southern half is close enough to the pole you get winter most of the year and summer’s nothing to call warm and inviting.’

Pug was silent for a moment. Then he said, ‘Snakes? Snakes don’t live in cold, barren places. I’ve never seen snakes where there’s snow on the ground for much of the year.’

‘Who drew the map?’ asked Creegan.

‘Macros himself,’ said Pug, making it vanish with a wave of his hand. ‘He often took old scraps of things he found, pieced them together like puzzles, then annotated them. I’ve taken to annotating his annotations,’ he added with a rueful smile, ‘where I know he made a mistake.’

‘Maybe “snakes” is a mistranslation,’ said Daniel. ‘Or maybe it referred to snakelike rivers, or some other thing.’

‘Or maybe it’s a place where cold-weather snakes exist,’ countered Pug. ‘Still, whatever the reason for the odd name, that’s where I’d be warehousing my foodstuffs and weapons.’

‘I’d have my ships sail out of the Keshian ports,’ Daniel continued, ‘for they’d only need a normal supply of provisions, then run down there to pick up whatever else I needed. Then I could make the long run along the southern coast, up the western coast into the Bitter Sea, then on to Krondor. The currents along the western coast of Kesh are from the south, so it’s a fast run. Keeps the need for provisions for the crews and soldiers to a minimum.

‘Still,’ said Daniel, ‘you’d think if they were stockpiling goods and food and weapons down there, we’d still have had some sort of hint over the last year or so.’

‘Those weapons must be coming from somewhere, Father,’ agreed Magnus. ‘One would assume that should Kesh’s armourers and weapon-makers be increasing production lately, some attention might be paid by one of our agents, or one of the Kingdom’s.’

Daniel agreed. ‘There would be a demand for raw materials, Pug. More iron from the mines, more ships carrying it to the foundries, more coal for the forges, more leather, more wood; all that someone, somewhere would surely have noticed.’

‘Maybe they did,’ said Pug absently.

Everyone stared at him.

At last, he said, ‘Over the years our enemies may have proved mad by our standards, but they have also proved to be cunning. Leso Varen almost captured and controlled two nations, Olasko and Great Kesh itself, working essentially alone both times. Belasco managed to bring a small demon army into our realm before we were able to close off that gate.

‘What if it’s just been going on long enough that we never noticed an increase in the demand for weapons and other necessary equipment?’ He looked at Daniel. ‘Where does The Hammer buy its swords?’

Daniel shook his head as if caught by surprise. ‘Ah … places. We have sword-makers in several cities we regularly do business with. Some of the brothers of the order are gifted craftsmen, so we manage most of the repairs ourselves.’

‘So if one of your sources were suddenly to start making twelve swords instead of ten …?’

‘I think I understand,’ said Daniel with dawning comprehension. ‘If a sword-maker in Elarial was given an order for fifty new blades by The Hammer but produced fifty-five, and sent the extra five along in a shipment of other goods somewhere else … who would notice?’

‘Yes,’ said Pug. ‘But let us not dwell on how, but rather who and where.’

‘Well, that damn snake place seems a likely where,’ said Daniel.

‘Yes,’ agreed Pug. ‘And if that is the place, then we’ll soon know who.’

‘You’re sending someone?’ asked Magnus.

‘No,’ said Pug. ‘This time I’m going myself.’

‘Really?’ Magnus sounded shocked.

‘I’ve been sitting on this island feeling pity for myself far too long, son.’ He flashed a smile Magnus hadn’t seen in years. ‘It’s time for me to get out and do some of the hard work myself. Besides, it’s a part of this world I’ve never visited before. It should be interesting.’

Ruefully, Magnus said, ‘Let’s hope it’s not too interesting.’

• CHAPTER TEN (#ulink_ac247529-5c3b-5628-92fe-01046802cea9) •

Reversal (#ulink_ac247529-5c3b-5628-92fe-01046802cea9)