by Gerard Bond
The Captain appearing a bit nonplussed could only manage an ‘Uh’ before replying,
“There will be food brought out soon. I thought it might be nice to exchange a little conversation.”
Loranda jumped right in with a reply not waiting for Night,
“Noooooo, we need to eat right now I’m famished, your first mate kept me up all night long. So chop, chop bring it on.”
Night almost burst out laughing but managed to hold it together and keep a straight face. It was hard though. Night continued to play the consummate guest though Loranda was just getting warmed up.
“I will have it brought in immediately,”
The Captain called out behind him and then looked back. His normally bulging eyes were bulging just a little more if that was possible. Two trays of food were carried in and as one was carried past Loranda she would grab a roll straight off of it and scoffed it down without chewing. Nightwing gave her a little kick under the table to cool it a little. When the trays were in place and a carafe of milk put down, Loranda immediately reached across and took a few small cuts of meat, a hard-boiled egg out of its shell and some more bread. Then she put the collection directly on the table, all under the staring eyes of a Captain who was not sure what to do.
Loranda grabbed a pointed knife and holding it in her fist drove it down into the table skewering a piece of meat then holding it to her mouth as she chewed from it. As an afterthought she grabbed a bread roll and pulled it open, slid another piece of meat then some egg into it and chewed that out of one hand while holding the skewered meat in the other.
Meanwhile Night had been quietly going about her business carefully choosing bits of the food and eating it daintily. All the while the Captain was staring at Loranda. He hadn’t touched a thing and even forgotten to offer anybody a plate. After Loranda had devoured most of her meal, she looked across and saw the Captain hadn’t touched anything.
“Please let me serve you Captain,” she managed to get out between chewing.
Grabbing a roll and putting it through the same tribulations as she had done her own, she finished making it. Then with a funny look smelled it and leaned over the table and held it to his mouth. The captain was in a state of shock and all he could do was lean forward a little, eyes locked on hers and take the most tentative bite of the proffered roll.
“See? It's okay, you can eat it now.”
Loranda sat back and gave a loud belch, looked about and wiped her mouth on the tablecloth. Now she looked at the remains of a roll still
on the serving plate and grabbed that. Then she decided to dip it straight into the carafe of milk sitting on the table and once more started chewing on her food with an open mouth.
She quickly polished it off under the watchful staring eyes of the Captain with Nightwing trying to look nonchalant.
“Well I’m done,” she said with a smile, “And I’m out of here, coming Night?”
Loranda stood up and Night nodded to the Captain who was still staring with his mouth slightly open. And then they were gone, leaving him to digest the spectacle.
When they got back to their cabin, Night couldn’t help but walk into the room laughing. That had to be the funniest breakfast she had ever attended. Loranda was smiling and wiping her greasy mouth off now and giving Night a look.
“So was I a proper lady?” They both burst out laughing.
Near midday their vessel approached a fleet of ships moving back and forth over a wide expanse. A crewman had moved out to the bow with two flags and was signaling towards a large white painted warship. As the two girls watched they saw the sails drop and the ship slow. It wasn’t long before they had pulled alongside the huge craft and a ladder was dropped over the side. The Captain of their vessel approached, nodded to Nightwing and wished her well, turning to Loranda he quipped.
“I am sure that you will be able to skip up that rope ladder without a problem. But I can tell you this, the Prince will not be amused by your obvious common heritage.”
Loranda looked him straight in the eye with a stern look and addressed him,
“My dear Captain, as a special counsel of the court I shall be conducting myself in the proper manner as befits the station of not only a Queen’s counsel but also that of a lady. I also take affront to the suggestion by your esteemed self that I have not at all times conducted myself properly in every aspect as befitting my station. I shall not hear of any more such accusations and shall now leave, with all due respect to your title and office. But it is not with a certain amount of disappointment in your manner. I bid you good day sir.”
Loranda curtsied and turned, leaving a wide-eyed Captain staring after her again as she followed Night up the ladder.
Once on board an officer of the ship bowed his head to them and Nightwing handed him a rolled parchment with the queen’s seal on it, then they were directed to follow him to the Admirals quarters. Upon arriving they were asked to wait outside while the officer entered. Standing there in the hall of this great ship they could not help look about at what was the biggest, most grand vessel they had ever set eyes on. Loranda had only seen ships from a wharf and maybe close to shore but never anything like this. The officer came back out and spoke,
“The Admiral Prince shall see you now. Please go in.”
He left as the girls entered the room. It was a large affair and they found they had to take a good five paces to get to the table where the Admiral was sitting,
“Please be seated.” He motioned to the chairs. Upon sitting he spoke again, “I have read the letter of introduction from my mother and I understand that you have grave news that must be acted upon?”
“Yes Milord, we have been traveling since last week to bring news of an invasion of the south lands.”
The Admiral quickly focused and sat up.
“An invasion you say? Well you must tell me everything you know and leave not a single detail out.”
Night spoke once again of not only what they had seen, but also of the enemy forces and their numbers plus what Wollfen had set in motion. At the end of the speech, she could see the admiral’s mind was working overtime digesting all that was spoken.
While waiting Night studied the man sitting there. He had black curly hair and chiseled features, suntanned skin and was lean and powerful, nothing like any of the other royals of the court. He now called out to an adjutant who came into the room.
“I will need you to make it known to the fleet that the war games are canceled forthwith and that the Commodores of the four battle groups are to report to myself within the hour.”
The adjutant nodded, acknowledged the orders and left. After some more thought the admiral spoke up,
“May I ask how you intended to relay messages to and from your leader Wollfen?”
Nightwing explained,
“With some effort we are able to message each other via mind touch. Only a few of the group have the ability but it has served us well until now. Unfortunately I have lost all contact with him and haven’t been able to sense his presence.”
The Admiral looked a bit surprised.
“So you have the ability and others within the group too? You know of my entire fleet, I have maybe four people who can mind touch and even then only under the best of circumstances. It is certainly a dying art. Mm well that answers my second question too. It would have been nice to be able to get some information from down at Port Cholandra. There is nothing for it but to organize a couple of fast cutters to go have a look. Tell me milady, is there any word from your other group shadowing the enemy?”
Unfortunately she had to say no. It was a little disturbing for her, there had been no contact for almost four days now. For the next thirty minutes or so they talked and swapped little questions on minor points waiting for when the four Commodores would arrive. Once they did the Admiral had them called in. With Night and Loranda sitting to one side and the four Commodores opposite, the Admiral filled them in on what was going on. Once he was done explai
ning, he then asked from the four their suggestions on what to do.
The second Commodore, Ahearn, immediately sprung up and in bowing to the Admiral addressed all that were there,
“Your highness I would suggest that we mobilize the fleet and immediately sail on Port Cholandra with the goal of liberating it of any forces we will find there. Even if there aren’t any to be found we have lost nothing other than a few days out of our war games.” He then he sat down.
There were some nods of agreement but one Commodore begged to differ. Admiral Alard asked him to speak and Commodore Darach rose, cleared his throat and spelled out his own interpretation.
“It occurs to me my Prince that if there is a sizable force in place in Port Cholandra it is probably true that they aren’t just moored there waiting to be attacked and are also probably prepared to repel any fleet that attacks them.”
“A very good point Commodore Darach. It also stands to reason they probably have a good idea of our strength as well and have made preparations against any such attack. Any other observations to be offered before I make my decisions?” A third Commodore sat up and cleared his throat.
“May I also suggest my Prince that we send out more than one patrol to collect intelligence. Maybe send a boat a week or two out towards and down their supply route to keep an eye out for any large fluctuations in volume of supplies or warships so that we can get advance warning?”
“Yes another good idea and I think I will add to that. We need a lot of information on the enemy but also an ability to get word out quickly. I think we will station a number of fast cutters along the coast for riders inland to be able to relay word back to the Capital quickly by sea.” The Admiral thought once more then spoke again,
“I have decided we will commit a fairly large force to travel down the coast that will be able to do a quick raid not at Port Cholandra itself as it may be too heavily defended and is virtually impregnable from the sea. If we sail to a spot one-day out from the port but south west of it, then we are sure to meet some enemy ships there. Our ships can patrol there and wait for a fast cutter to report of what they observe at Port Cholandra. Depending on that information, I will decide whether we move in close or not. I intend on leading that battle group. The second and third battle group will stay here off the coast of Oceania in defense of any attempted landings if there are to be any. The fourth battle group will move two days down the coast and lay anchor to await further orders. Now gentlemen, you may return to your fleets and prepare to move on the morning light by which time you will have had final orders sent to each of you in writing by me.”
The Prince rose, these four men were handpicked and totally loyal to him which could not be said of quite a number of the older officers within the ranks that felt he was too young for his post. But in the coming weeks he was going to prove his mettle.
Having dismissed the men, Prince Alard turned to the two women and asked what they wanted to do? Nightwing conferred with Loranda and then turned to the Prince,
“We would like to remain with your battle group as our friends are in Port Cholandra and I envision this course of action being the best chance of catching up with them.”
The Admiral nodded and called the adjutant in.
“Please find quarters for these women on board as they will be our guests on this mission.”
Both Night and Loranda followed the adjutant out at the request of the Admiral to allow him to continue preparations. Loranda couldn’t help but speak up.
“I think we should be able to handle a proper sit down meal with this man.”
Night thought about that. She hoped Loranda didn’t try something again. This time they just might not get away with it.
An hour later found the two women up on deck watching the crew busy themselves with the coming voyage. While there weren’t any actual preparations to sail as yet, there were many menial tasks to deal with before they got underway. Night and Loranda marveled at just how many men were on board. It looked like hundreds and the number of big catapults was mind-boggling. Never had they seen so much firepower concentrated in one place before. While they were casting appreciative eyes over the ship, the Admiral had approached from behind and coughed. Night and Loranda turned and curtsied to the Prince but he shook his head.
“No need to pay homage Miladies. On board ship here we are certainly strict, but I will not enforce that on you. Anyway I see that you are pleased by the ship?”
To which the two women nodded in agreement. He continued on quite proud of his personal vessel.
“The Aggressor as she is called has over six hundred men on board and eight catapults, four to each side. In addition, below deck and behind hatches on the sides we have fourteen ballista’s, seven to a side. Then you have a complement of ten heavy crossbows mounted on the railings on each side during combat. In addition to that we have approximately one hundred of the men all well trained in archery whenever they are needed to be called upon in close quarter combat. She can make a good twelve knots in high wind. She may not be the fastest boat around but she does pack quite a heavy punch.” beamed the Prince.
Both Nightwing and Loranda were impressed, but six hundred men? That was the size of a small town. Loranda spoke up with an intense inquisitiveness.
“What do you fire from the catapults?”
“We have a few different items, but our main weapon for firing on enemy ships is a large clay pot using a tar and oil mix. This is set alight just before we fire the weapon and when it comes in contact with the enemy ship, the pot disintegrates and sprays the compound over a wide area immediately setting alight anything it comes into contact with. It is very hard to put out because of the amount of tar in the mix.”
“So if a person gets it on him?”
“Then it is a painful and hopefully quick way to die.”
Loranda shuddered at the thought, these things weren’t pleasant at all.
“How many ships of this size do we have?” she asked.
“We have five at sea now with another in dry dock being refitted. There are another two in construction but not to be finished for another two seasons. So that means I have another under my immediate command in this battle group. That is the Vanquish over there.”
As he spoke he pointed out to where many ships lay at anchor and there was a similar ship to Aggressor nearby. The Prince continued on, very pleased to have an avid audience,
“There is also one for each of the other squadrons or battle groups as I like to call them, Each ship is supported by approximately thirty frigates all of which carry between three to four catapults each. They are not as well armored as this ship but they are a bit faster. Then you have a small flotilla of support ships, mainly cutters for scouting work and brigantines as well. The brigantines can be called on to fight but mainly ferry supplies as we need them and also double as hospital ships when the fighting gets underway.”
Night looked around at what was to her a formidable force and by far the largest collection of military hardware in one area she had ever seen. All of a sudden things didn’t seem so bad now that this Prince was getting things under way and he seemed quite competent from what she had already seen.
It was time to put a few pertinent questions to the Prince while he was in high spirits. She wasn’t just loyal to the kingdom but also loyal to Wollfen too and if she could gather any information that could help him make further decisions then she would do so.
“Tell me your highness, if what we have told you turns out to be true and all that we suspect is supported, what do you suppose the army will do?”
The Prince thought about this, it was in fact a pertinent question to which he hadn’t given much thought.
“On the face of it I would have to say the Commander of all land forces will send an expeditionary force south to attack the enemy forces in Port Cholandra. He will act swiftly and won’t waste anytime in dealing a blow.”
“Well then that’s a good thing.”
The Pri
nce frowned and shook his head,
“That’s the problem you see, he won’t seek any intelligence or waste his time scouting ahead. He will simply plunge right in and if there is a trap he will walk right into it.”
Now he was quietly in thought. He had been so busy preparing for this fleet movement he hadn’t the time to consider the ramifications of ill news and how it would be dealt with out of his sphere of influence. What would his father do once he found out? What would his fleet be ordered to do once he had scouted Cholandra? He could certainly work under autonomy for now until word got back to him with actual orders. This fleet action may be short-lived.
“I thank you Lady Nightwing for bringing this to my attention. It is something to which I will have to give serious thought.”
And I am going to have to decide what course of action will be needed to take care of any stupidity that was sure to happen, he mused. What if his father, the King, worked against the best interests of the state? That didn’t bear thinking. His father might be a bit of a fop, but he was no fool.
“M’ladies, I bid you farewell for now as I have many matters to attend to.”
He then bowed, turned and moved off. Yes, he needed to seriously consider who to contact and who to ready for whatever may come. On entering the conference room, he sat down and began writing a number of scrolls.
The following morning found all ships at the ready, only waiting for the right flag signal from the Admirals vessel to get under way. It wasn’t long in coming. As the flag waved in the air to get underway, sails across all of the boats in the flotilla began unfurling. Some boats were moving forward before others, a number of cutters moved out ahead and within three hours had disappeared over the horizon.
Prince Alard was still busy in his conference room with people coming and going. It seemed like Night and Loranda were spare wheels at present and it was hard not to get restless plus they had three days sail to look forward to. Looking around they walked together watching as the men worked the ship.
Later that evening, they were invited to dinner by the Admiral, which they accepted. It was a pleasant affair with simple fare but filling and the Prince was a true gentleman. No need for Loranda to pull out her ‘act’. Night was interested to know though how things were going,