Grand Vizier of Krar

by W. John Tucker

  The conversation at the top table turned to the events of the last few weeks. To Blan’s relief, her story was mostly told by Arnapa, who had gathered together the essence of what had happened to each of the travellers. She did not know the exact nature of Blan’s ordeal with Carnus or of Memwin’s reaction, so she glossed over those. She had guessed what might have happened, but thought it best not to speak of it until Blan and Memwin felt ready.

  115

  “Tell us about events here and how my friends Aransette and Norsnette came to be Heroines of the Duchy,” Blan urged. She was keen to know. She also hoped that her question would divert any further questioning about what happened to her in the enemy camp.

  The others all had much to say on the matter. They explained the events of the most important day; the twenty-fourth, the day after Serunipa had brought Arnapa and her company to River Docks. That was the day of greatest danger, saved by the success of the river barrier. It was a day in which Serunipa, Bonmar and Pretsan had especially distinguished themselves. Blan was very interested in the river barrier; she held her questions and let the others continue.

  Once the barrier had surprised and cut off part of the quimal fleet, although only a small part, the enemy took a more defensive stance. The quimals trapped in the river were still a powerful force, yet inevitably doomed. When the wind changed they would be sitting like frozen ducks between the barrier and the fire boats, so their crews scuttled their ships and took to their dragon boats in an attempt to join their comrades besieging the forts. However, when the first party landed, they were overwhelmed by a cavalry charge. All the crews surrendered and were set to work salvaging weapons and equipment from their scuttled ships.

  When the Dabbinan ships were freed from battle in the river and able to concentrate on supporting the forts along River Docks, Serunipa had led a small squadron upstream to Lake Glorz to resist the enemy advance down Southport River, and so her destiny was sealed.

  The army besieging the two biggest forts launched several more furious attacks over the next two nights and three days. They were repelled each time. That was when Norsnette and Aransette had been permitted to join Bonmar, Pretsan and Zeep in First Fort, the one most in danger. Although there to give support only, bringing arrows, torches and such like to the warriors, both had on several occasions successfully intervened to save lives when enemy forces had scaled the walls.

  On one occasion Norsnette had charged and head-butted a huge enemy warrior in the groin as he was about to chop down on Bonmar with a nailed cudgel. The man had recoiled in pain and fell, backside first, down the siege ladder, taking a dozen others with him as he went. The banquet hall resounded in laughter as Bonmar described the sequence of expressions on his opponent’s face as this occurred.

  Aransette had been heroic as well. Pretsan had been fighting two enemy warriors, one behind and one in front, on a long plank stretched between two buttresses. Both enemies had struck at Pretsan at the same time with their sabres. Pretsan had avoided the blows by dropping from the plank and grasping it with his hands to break his fall, but lost his sabre in doing so. Aransette was holding another sword and a javelin for Pretsan. She ran out onto the plank and thrust the javelin at one of the warriors. It struck his armour and caused him to turn around. Aransette threw the sword to Pretsan who demonstrated his sporting skill by catching it even as he ran hand-overhand to swing up onto the plank behind the other warrior. Meanwhile, Aransette dropped into a sitting position on the plank and swung the javelin into her opponent’s feet. He jumped to avoid the weapon but landed so awkwardly that he spun the plank over, throwing himself and his comrade to the ground far below and nearly dislodging Pretsan and Aransette at the same time.

  While the twins and their prospective fiancés were defending First Fort, Zeep was leading a band of Proequan commandos. Having been sent to assist Dabbin many months earlier, they had been taking leave in Port Fandabbin before rejoining the fighting along Southport River. Zeep rallied them to Township Farms and led them on many successful night raids against the larger enemy catapults.

  Nellinar had followed Arnapa who supervised the salvage operation on the scuttled quimals. The river had been so churned up by the battle and the ships were so wrecked that the available divers could not easily find targets to salvage. Nellinar, however, had no trouble diving down and locating worthwhile targets. He could swim through narrow spaces that were closed to adult divers and he could hold his breath as long, if not longer, than most of the adults. Although reluctant at first, Arnapa soon realised that Nellinar’s help was critical. He located targets, attached ropes to them or to solid objects nearby, and then took the ropes to the surface where buoys were attached to them. The divers would then be able to secure the targeted items below so the prisoners could haul them up and take them ashore. A huge supply of weapons had been recovered already and, by the time of the banquet, sixty large catapults had been recovered and many more had been located for later salvage.

  “Where do things stand now?” Blan asked after all this had been explained to her.

  “Seeing that our forts stood firm and our commando and cavalry attacks were taking a heavier toll, Black Knight started to withdraw his army back to his ships two days ago,” Carl reported. “By this morning, they were all gone and Township Farms is ours again. However, we have little time to rest. The enemy has been foiled for the time being, but that was because he acted too soon; too anxious to grab hold of you, Blan and Memwin. Soon he will know that you are both in Port Fandabbin, not up river, and that he wasted resources trying to take River Docks prematurely. This will not worry him very much. Losing thirty thousand soldiers and marines to casualties or captivity, along with twenty-six quimals will also not overly worry him. He will send all his ships and soldiers against us again as soon as his terrestrial armies advance here from the current front lines at Tan Mountains and Glorz River. The more he hems us in, the fewer options we have. If his armies reach Outer Wall, we may be forced back to the citadel and to Nargar and Bangar Islands. We would then have to abandon the city as well as River Docks. Our river fleet will be trapped. It will only be a matter of time before the enemy builds barriers to hem it in and bombard it from the riverside.”

  The hall had gone quiet as everyone took in these sombre warnings.

  “Can the river fleet escape if the barrier can be removed?” Blan asked.

  “I believe that many of our ships could escape if we had a favourable wind,” Serunipa put in. “We could bring the salvaged catapults to the beach near First Fort to keep quimals from entering the strait between the beach and Rivermouth Island, the raised sandbank just offshore. Then, if we launch simultaneous naval attacks by the port fleet and the Archipelago fleet, targeted to distract the quimals at the river’s mouth, much of our river fleet might escape along the coast to the port. Our ships draw much less than the quimals, so they could stay nearer the shore of Township Farms until they reach the safety of Bangar Island. Of course, it must be done before the enemy take Township Farms and set up artillery along the coast.”

  “All we need to do, then, is to find a way of opening our own barrier,” Carl said dubiously.

  “When Azimath arrives, he will bring Kem’s explosive bombs,” Norsnette said hopefully.

  “Do they work under water?” Carl asked. Every face fell except those of Blan and Pel. Memwin would have understood too, but she had already left to play hide-and-seek with Nellinar in Silver Garden, the great terraced gardens within Silver Castle.

  “Pel can make Beehive vessels for the bombs, if need be,” Blan said with a smile and a nod of acknowledgement to Pel. “However, if your engineers will tell us about the construction of the barrier, I’m sure that Pel and I can think of ways to make an opening that will allow Alliance ships out but not allow quimals in.”

  It was a bold offer for a seventeen-year-old village lass to make a national leader. However, she was a Grand Vizier and she was confident; it was a matter of technology, with no
difficult ethical and emotional issues. All the way along Southport River in the hold of the enemy barge, thoughts of how to block and unblock rivers had occurred and recurred to her. She already had many ideas about it.

  116

  Proequa – 1st December

  He had not always been a patient man. In his youth he had been keen to get everything done at once. Then his life changed and he had been forced to accept patience as though it were a heavy cable bound around him. As he grew older and wiser, and trained his mind to resonate with flows of events beyond his control, he had become a very patient man and had thereby acquired some measure of control over those events. However, today Praalis felt as impatient as he had ever been in his youth. He missed Actio 8 which he had handed over to Count Nargin. It had been the proper thing to do, of course. Nargin and Azimath were about to lead a two-pronged attack to break the blockade of Proequa. If they succeeded, they would each need an Actio to coordinate their movements at sea. Nonetheless, despite having handed over his responsibilities to Blan, Praalis still wanted to know how everything was going. Before he died, he fervently wanted to see his father’s wish come true. He wanted to see a Grand Vizier restore peace, justice and prosperity to Krar and the world; or at least to be well on the way to doing so.

  “Azimath, will you take me with you?” Praalis pleaded.

  “My dear friend, my family and I owe you everything. It was your guidance that enabled us to hone our maritime skills and knowledge and that brought us great fame and honour. Of course I would take you with me if there was any chance of safety, but you are still injured and the sea voyage would be a great risk to you. Besides, you are chief adviser to us all; what would we do without you? And how would Blan and Kem and Nwarpaw feel if I risked your life at sea without great need?”

  “I am six score years old and ready for what may happen to me,” Praalis replied, not entirely with conviction. “There is little else I can do to help you in this war. I need to be involved for my own sake.”

  “I am sure that Blan is perfectly competent to take over your role, but think how she will be affected should you perish with us on our voyage,” Azimath said.

  “You will not perish,” Praalis said. “As for Blan, she is now much tougher than she was when she left her village so few months ago. She will resolve to do her duty whatever may happen to me. Besides, she will have other things to think about.” He did not elaborate. Last time he communicated with Blan, his intuition told him that she was pregnant. His searches with Actio 8 had also led him to believe that Telkooay might not be dead after all. It was too early to raise these hopes and fears with Blan, let alone anyone else. First, he wanted to be sure that she was safe. Second, he did not wish to mention the possibility that Telko was alive until he was certain of it.

  “Allow us to go without you on this occasion, dear friend,” Azimath entreated. “Should we succeed in establishing a base near Port Fandabbin, perhaps in the Archipelago, I will ask for help from Wayhooay and Penntrafa. I will ask one of them to send a ship to Nantport to collect you with Kem and Nwarpaw. Kem’s bomb factory will then be needed nearer Port Fandabbin and your leg will be very much better.”

  Although frustrated by the prospect of delay, Praalis agreed to Azimath’s offer. He would spend his time studying the Visitors’ record plates in his possession. Perhaps he could find some additional clues to help Blan use them.

  Azimath had been gone just one hour when Neep came to Praalis with a message.

  “Good news! Azimath has just received word from Blan that she and Memwin have arrived safely in Port Fandabbin. Blan arrived from Lake Glorz via an underground river. Zeep, Arnapa, Bonmar, Pel and the two young twins had already arrived. All of them are in good shape.” Neep was clearly elated and there was no hint of her usual formality.

  The frustration that Praalis had been feeling melted away and changed to joy. Rejoice at least until other challenges arrive, he thought.

  Praalis heard about the underground river when he had helped Carl at the end of the last war. The fact that Blan had now been able to enter the river from Lake Glorz might seem like mere good luck. However, to Praalis, it suggested that Blan’s destiny was now strongly aligned with the Great Plan, just as when Memwin had led her to Belspire Library. Recognising the sky ship and the underground river for what they were, and using them to advantage, were signs that Blan was starting to ride the flow of events, instead of being washed along with them. Her brave (some would say reckless) decision to try to take Actio 28 to Port Fandabbin now looked like the single most influential decision of the war, a fulcrum on which the future teetered.

  117

  Count Nargin broke through the blockade at dusk with fourteen warships. A favourable wind and the powerful river current shot them down Proequa River like bolts from crossbows. They were a league off Western Point within an hour of setting sail. The speed of their progress left the enemy in disarray. The thirty quimals blockading the estuary could not move quickly enough to stop any of the escaping ships. Nargin did not have to use any of the large cargo of fire bombs carried aboard. He continued along the coast southward. He knew that a Geode was aboard one of the quimals he had just passed and another was aboard a quimal near Gateway Island, so the southern admiral would have known about the breakout within minutes and would be planning to send quimals to cut off the escape. The quimals from the estuary would meanwhile follow to attack from the north. The enemy admirals would be worried; they could expect no mercy from Black Knight for allowing the blockade to be broken, even though he had diverted a large part of their original force to the blockade of Austra Great Harbour. They knew that the Alliance warships could not maintain their speed once they were beyond the strong influence of the river, so they quickly planned to crush Nargin’s fleet between their converging forces.

  That is exactly what Azimath and Nargin hoped. They had no intention of staying around to fight sixty heavily armed quimals in the open seas. Their tactic against superior numbers was to wait until they could use the terrain to advantage; islands, channels, reefs, complex currents and winds; and their skill as navigators.

  A dozen quimals drew closer to Western Passage to tighten the blockade while the others headed north to attack Nargin. At the same time Carlcan’s Heron and two other warships appeared in Western Passage with Freedom behind them, and fifty warsloops emerged from Eastern Passage. The leading warsloop was skippered by Azimath himself.

  Each warsloop was manned by thirty mariners. Many of them were Akrinans or their allies who, after being taken prisoner at Western Point, had since followed the Akrinans by joining the Free Alliance. Many were Proequan fisher folk, mostly retired trawler men who had volunteered to refresh their skills for the war effort (most Proequan fisher folk of working age were already manning warships with Nargin, or on assignment to the Dabbin fleet).

  The warsloops had been mass-produced at the Proequa River dockyards, taken in sections to Nantport on carts, and reassembled there. Mass production had been Blan’s idea, ten weeks ago. She had the idea when Azimath mentioned that some skippers would take numbered parts for an entire ship with them on convoy voyages. Azimath and Tor both saw the value of the idea and the project to build fifty warsloops began. Each warsloop was equipped with a massive kite sail to enable it to better compete with quimals downwind and on reaching courses.

  Azimath’s plan was to break the blockade when there was a strong north wind which would help the warships surprise the quimals anchored in Proequa Estuary. Warships were essential to the plan, so they had to get them out of Proequa River and into the open sea.

  The warsloops were designed to navigate shallow waters, both to sneak up on the enemy and to escape him. They were of a particularly lightweight construction and carried movable outriggers for stability on the high seas. That would not protect them from the furious turbulence of Proequa River, so it was therefore decided to launch them from Nantport. For several weeks all the crews had been practising sailing in smaller s
loops in the treacherous Eastern Passage. They had done night runs in the warsloops for the last few nights. Aided by the overcast conditions which hid the waxing moon, they sailed as far up Eastern Passage as they could without running into light from any of the floating beacons laid out by the enemy.

  Azimath had arranged for divers to make detailed up-to-date charts of the floor and hazards of Eastern Passage. His divers thwarted the enemy’s attempt to do the same. They captured all the enemy divers and made sure that no news of this escaped back to the enemy. It was hoped that the enemy admiral would think that his divers had come to grief in the rocks.

  *

  Nargin’s ships were still well ahead of their pursuers when they confronted the enemy’s southern fleet a league from the entrance to Western Passage. At the same time, Azimath’s warsloops were emerging from behind the reefs outside Eastern Passage and his warships advanced a little from Western Passage.

  The odds had changed. Instead of sixty quimals converging on Nargin’s fourteen warships, the immediate picture was of thirty quimals against seventeen warships, a barque, and fifty warsloops. Although the warsloops posed little danger to quimals in a battle, they did pose a considerable threat in the longer term. Their crews could behave like pirates, boarding anchored quimals at night or diving beneath for sabotage. The southern admiral could not afford to let the warsloops escape, yet that was what they seemed to be doing.

  With just eighteen ships, Azimath and Nargin could not sustain a battle for long. Nargin’s ships launched an avalanche of fiery catapult shot, not Kem’s sticky fire bombs but heated ballast dowsed with oil. The damage caused by this did little to reduce the enemy’s superiority, but the apparent weakness of the attack encouraged the enemy admiral to concentrate on attacking the warships, hoping for a quick victory. He would chase down the warsloops later, or so he thought.