Grand Vizier of Krar

by W. John Tucker

  “Of course I am, and always have been, Arnapa,” she replied. “I’m sorry not to have told you before, but you’ll understand better when I tell you the story.” Then Arnapa started to tell Blan the tragic stories of Parn, Duchess of Dabbin, and of Arnapa, rightful ruler and Princess of the ruined city state of Belspire.

  Arnapa’s father had been Ruling Prince of Belspire and a descendant of the last king of Arctequa. Her mother had been the former Duchess of Fandabbin who had divorced Carl’s father and married Arnapa’s father. Her half-brother, Carl, was thirteen years older than she. He had always been a good and supportive friend to her and it had been he who recognised her talents and suggested that she train as a Master Spy. Her other mentor was the beautiful and talented Spymaster General, Parn, who also happened to be Carl’s sweetheart and then his wife. However, one year ago, when the current war was starting, an infiltrator fatally wounded Parn. The assassin was killed and Parn’s death was kept secret in the hope that the instigators would be caught should they try again. The secrecy was especially important since Carl and Arnapa believed that Prime Minister Binpin was involved and that he had recruited enemy spies within his administration. Binpin had become so rich and so powerful that the greatest care had to be taken, so Arnapa agreed to disguise herself as Parn for banquets and other state occasions.

  “How do you disguise yourself so completely?” Blan asked. “I thought there was something familiar about you as Parn, but it was only when I heard your voice change slightly, when Pikkin had his sword to your throat, that I became convinced that you were really Arnapa.”

  “The voice and most of the disguise is down to technique and practice,” Arnapa explained, “but my complexion is changed by a secret method that Parn and I discovered. It greatly interested Praalis because he already had a theory about human complexion and our method seemed to fit his theory.”

  “Gra told me something of his theory, Arnapa. He said that, before the Nightless Week, humans inherited their complexion through their parents. It was part of the design code passed down the generations. However, the great forces applied to humans in an ancient Cataclysm, topped off more recently during the Nightless Week, caused part of that design code to break loose and return soon after birth to infect us randomly with certain traits, such as our complexion. That is why you can never predict what colour your baby will turn out to be. It is why even twins are often different colours.”

  “That’s right, Blan. I don’t pretend to understand the theory of it, of course, but Praalis believed that Parn and I had found a way of infecting ourselves with a different complexion. It would fade away after a few days, but it was useful for spying missions.”

  “You seemed to fool Pikkin into believing that you were Parn,” Blan said. “What a pity Parn didn’t use it to evade her assassins.”

  “I was the only one to use it,” Arnapa admitted. “Parn and Carl were desperate to have children and Parn worried that the essence we had concocted might cause problems for her. In fact, when she was murdered she was pregnant with her first child. Her baby did not survive. Carl was devastated. He makes a brave face, but he is still sad and lonely in his soul.”

  Blan was silent for a while, thinking of the awful and unnecessary sadness war brought to so many, about her own child yet unborn, about Telko, the trials and tribulations of her own family, and about all those others who suffered similar tragedies. She remembered the sadness she sensed in Praalis when he told her about his lost love, Silquooay, a beautiful and promising person, so like how she imagined Parn might have been. To hold back the tears, she bent her mind again to Arnapa. She asked softly, knowing that she might be touching on an emotional subject.

  “Did you feel that the essence would affect your chances of having children, Arnapa?”

  “When I lost my parents and my home in the last war, I decided to dedicate my life to my work as a spy,” Arnapa said sadly. “I decided that I would never have children. You don’t need to ask me if I regret that decision because I tell you now that I have often regretted it, all the more as the years roll away.

  “But you, Blan, do you wish to tell me anything about pregnancy?”

  Arnapa said this with a knowing look at Blan. Although her pregnancy did not yet show in any obvious way, and it was hard to say that she felt any different, Blan realised that perceptive people might already notice the subtle signs that informed their intuition. She then told Arnapa the full story of her ordeals as a prisoner in the enemy circus and her concerns about not knowing for sure the identity of the father.

  “What will Carl do about Binpin and Pikkin?” Blan asked after she and Parn had taken time out to clean up the mess in Blan’s room.

  “Binpin had already left his chambers early this morning when one of my own spies warned us about a possible assassination and kidnapping attempt. He probably got away to protect himself in the event that Pikkin’s plan went wrong. We are still searching for him. We are treading gently because we still want to catch any other infiltrators. We hope to get more information about them from Pikkin when I interrogate him after the banquet.”

  “Now that I can intercept Black Knight’s communications, I will look for any mention of the plot,” Blan promised. “In fact, I am training Memwin and the twins to decode and analyse the messages I intercept. That will save me a lot of time. I already have Pencar and Penna working on it, and Nightsight has promised to spend some time on it now that the new defences of Austra Great Harbour are well advanced. As for Azimath and Nargin, by tomorrow they will reach the Archipelago and be too busy attacking enemy patrols and supply ships.”

  “Let’s get ready for the banquet, then,” Arnapa sighed. “It will be nice to put today’s troubles behind us and refresh ourselves for tomorrow’s challenges.”

  “Or tonight’s challenges, if you will be interrogating Pikkin,” Blan added.

  “I won’t be doing much tonight. Pikkin is a hard case. Tonight I’ll just put a few ideas into his head, to keep him awake with worry. Then I’ll be hoping to sleep better than I did last night.”

  122

  Port Fandabbin – 22nd December

  Winter had come in the north and was having its effect in Port Fandabbin. Snow in the higher mountains was cooling the waters of Southport River. Glorz River and Lake Glorz had quickly become uncomfortable to work in. It was well that the hull of Mangrove Robin had been floated again and brought to River Docks where there were dry docks available for the construction and repair of ships.

  It was also well that Blan had discovered how to detect the presence of dormant Geodes, because the enemy was unusually quiet. There were numerous Geodes with the fleet blockading Port Fandabbin and out in the Archipelago, two with the fleets off Proequa, three with the fleets off Slave Island, one near Austra Castle, and three more at sea between Austra Castle and Port Cankrar. Blan detected many more which appeared to be on land, especially along the front line from Lake Glorz to Tan Mountains; one was near Quolow; one at Belspire; one at Fork Pass and another south of there by a small mountain range more than two hundred leagues north of Belspire. There were more in eastern Arctequa. There were others further afield which Blan could see because of the power of Control. Only two of these concerned her for the moment: one at sea off the coast of Krar and another at what Blan guessed to be the location of Krarisca. She took notice of these two because they were busily communicating with a Geode at Port Cankrar and, more sporadically, with the others around Arctequa.

  “I don’t understand what the enemy is waiting for,” Carl remarked. They were looking down at Black Knight’s flagship as it lay at anchor a league and a half southwest. The view from Nargar Fort was panoramic. They could see the enemy fleet laid out amongst the islands below them like toys on a blue-green table.

  “It looks so crowded,” Memwin ventured. “How can all those quimals move about without bumping into each other?”

  “I wish they would,” Carl replied with a smile. “Come to think of it, I hear
they have indeed lost some ships that way. I have asked Nargin to keep an eye open for enemy skippers who may be hiding out in the Archipelago after abandoning ship. They can be useful. The last thing they want to do is report back to Black Knight.”

  There had been a banquet last night to celebrate the winter solstice. Blan’s friends had attended: Arnapa, Serunipa, Zeep, Pel, Aransette, Norsnette, Bonmar, Pretsan, Memwin, and Nellinar. Carl and Arnapa had promised to take Blan and Memwin on a ‘secret journey’ and that is how they now found themselves standing on the battlements of Nargar Fort. They went via the dock in Silver Caves where Blan had first arrived in Port Fandabbin with Serunipa and Pel. A crew had been waiting in the dragon boat to take them further down the underground river. After a league or two by water they berthed at a similar dock and entered another castle complex. After being lifted almost two hundred fathomes upward by a succession of counterweight powered elevators, they spent the rest of the morning winding their way up to the fort. On their way they could see what was not visible from the sea, surrounding islands or mainland: huge catapults; service roads; and fortified tunnel entrances.

  The service roads were hidden from view by reinforced earthen banks which had been fashioned and covered with vegetation to look natural on the outside. The catapults, mostly stored underground during peacetime, had been drawn out and were ready for action. They, too, were hidden from distant view by huge hillocks covered in local scrub. The tunnel entrances were now buzzing with the coming and going of soldiers and engineers. The tunnels were evidence of the great underground city that had been carved under the island in more prosperous and populous times.

  From her position on the fort’s wall Blan could see some of the tracks made for rolling huge boulders over the cliffs to crush enemy ships trying to enter the harbour. At the top of the cliff where the tracks ended there were movable ramps which could be raised or lowered to alter the trajectory of the boulder. Blan admired and approved how mathematics was being used to ensure precise hits, but she felt somewhat horrified by the thought of a huge ship being smashed to pieces with hundreds of people on board. With a pang of guilt she was reminded of her own part in the Battle of Western Point.

  “The movement of the Geodes suggests that he is gathering his forces along Glorz River, perhaps for a grand assault,” Blan declared in answer to Carl’s concern.

  “And yet he has been in a position to launch such an attack for several days now,” Carl acknowledged. “Azimath and Nargin reached the Archipelago eight days ago. They have been picking off enemy supply ships ever since, as well as a few warships. Nightsight reports that Wayhooay used the captured quimal to break the Austra blockage at new moon, three nights ago, and he heads to rejoin his fleet off the coast of Akrin. The enemy must know this already. Black Knight must also know that we have all the food and supplies we need for as long as we control the land on this side of Glorz River. Meanwhile, Penntrafa and her fleet have been harassing enemy ships up and down the eastern coast of Arctequa. Waiting does not help him at all, so what is he waiting for?”

  Blan thought for a moment. There was something about her manner which caused the others to turn and look at her. At last she said, “There was new activity this morning between a Geode at sea near the coast of Krar and others at Krarisca and Port Cankrar. They are all reaching out to the one on Black Knight’s flagship, but its replies are sporadic and very short. The code differs from the ones we have already uncovered, so we have not yet decoded these new messages. Perhaps this has something to do with the enemy’s delay.”

  “Then please work on that as a top priority. Arnapa will find more people to help you from among those accustomed to dealing with coded messages.”

  “There is something else,” Blan said. “I believe that I have found a way to shut down the Geodes. However, where the enemy has overwhelming strength, it serves us better to read his messages than to stop them and force him to use alternative means. I propose that we shut down just three Geodes at first: at Belspire, Fork Pass, and another located between the two.”

  Carl was looking back toward the citadel just a league and a half east. He was an experienced warrior and leader, and a cunning strategist. In the three weeks that he had known Blan, he had come to understand that she was no ordinary teenager, but a worthy successor to Praalis, albeit with less experience. He listened to her carefully and weighed her every word as he would those of his wisest counsellors.

  “The three locations you mention, Blan, are the nodes on the enemy’s landward supply route. In this part of western Arctequa the most fertile and productive lands are those nearest the central mountain range and that is where most of the population lives. The coastal lands are populous near the ports or along the rivers but the rest is desert, jungle or steppe. As in the last war, the enemy’s army came through Fork Pass and first sought to conquer the lands near the central mountain chain where the greatest riches lay in agriculture and mining products and, of course, slaves. They have succeeded in large measure but there are still many pockets of resistance in the mountain foothills and remote valleys higher up. We hear from them from time to time, all the more in the last few weeks, since Nellinu’s spy ring has reached from here to beyond Belspire. Now that the enemy’s armies have concentrated along Glorz River and around Quolow, I have often wondered if we could free the whole area along the mountains. However, we would first need to shut down the Geodes there so the enemy garrisons can’t call for reinforcement before our allies have established control.”

  “I can shut down the Geode at Belspire at any time since it is close to Control,” Blan declared, “but I need to be within a hundred leagues, a hundred and twenty at most, to shut down the others. I cannot shift Control, so I need to bring Actio B into the area to focus Control’s energy.”

  “Fork Pass I know. The place you mentioned about two hundred leagues north of Belspire will be Congloot City or an enemy camp in the vicinity. The President of Congloot refused to join the Free Alliance, yet his city was destroyed anyway, and he was put to death horribly whilst trying to escape. To come within one hundred leagues of Fork Pass we would need to sail up Harbeet River from Port Harbeet three hundred leagues north of here. It would be a long and difficult expedition and would require a great deal of planning and preparation. Are you sure that you can shut down the three Geodes if we can get you there?”

  “Let me check the facts first,” Blan replied. “I’ll let you know tonight.”

  “Why would the enemy have a supply node at Congloot City?” Arnapa asked. “I thought they had to march far to the northwest, into Punandin, before coming south. From Punandin they would surely either come down the coast or stay in the mountain foothills. If I remember rightly, Congloot City is nestled in a small mountain range of its own, midway between the central chain and the coast.”

  “That question has troubled me for some time, but I now believe that the enemy has found a new pass through the mountains directly down to one of the sources of Congloot River,” Carl explained. “That is consistent with reports we have heard from refugees and prisoners alike. Pretsan confirms this, too. Although he did not know where he was, his description of his journey from Port Cankrar confirms that the enemy has found a shortcut from Fork Pass to Congloot City.”

  That night, Blan confirmed that she could disable the Geodes at Fork Pass and at Congloot if she was taken at least eighty leagues up Harbeet River. She might have disabled the Congloot Geode by sailing only as far as Port Andin, a much shorter voyage, but it was vital to close down Fork Pass as well. Once at her destination she would instruct Control to simultaneously disable the Belspire Geode.

  Once they had Blan’s confirmation, Carl and Arnapa called for Nellinar.

  “Your wish is my command,” a proud Nellinar had said, the words remembered from some fairy story told him in his even earlier youth. A fast rider was soon taking Nellinar to River Docks from where he would be taken upstream to Lake Glorz. There at the Granite Ridge south of the lake
he would find a group of children who had set up a camp in the barren hills. Three of them would take the coded message by separate ways to Nellinu near the confluence of the Southport and the Polnet. Nellinu would send the message on by concurrent routes, up past Belspire to where contact had already been established with leaders of two guerrilla patrols. The guerrilla patrols would send the message to other patrols and, from there, on to the resistance leaders all the way along the mountain foothills.

  123

  Port Fandabbin – 2nd January, NW 801

  In the last week of the year little had changed except that Pel, Serunipa and Blan had worked out a way of opening and closing the river barrier to enable Free Alliance ships to exit and return, and yet not allow enemy ships to enter.

  It had been Blan’s concept. She had been amused by the huge size of the key to the room she had been allocated in Silver Castle. That had later triggered the idea of fitting a key-like projection, like a stabiliser, on the hull of every Free Alliance warship in the river. Of course, the keys and keyholes looked nothing like her room key and were vastly larger, yet they served essentially the same purpose of secure entry and in much the same way as the room key.

  The river barrier had been held down by huge drums full of ballast. Raising the barrier had been triggered by a system of pulleys and a domino effect which slightly rotated the drums until some ballast rolled out into deeper water beyond the river mouth. As the ballast fell away, the drums would rotate further and more ballast would empty until the counterweight would finally force the barrier up through the surface of the water. Lowering the barrier again would have required filling up all the drums with ballast, a job that would take many months; a huge quantity of new ballast would have to be mined and transported.