"Sure, why not? The dragon serves us well. Carstars, bring over a few more lanterns. I want you all to look at the dragon's head when it comes for two more bales. Mr. Blithe, go ahead and spread the rest of that bag of sugar on the hay," Solvalson ordered.
Halcyon spread the sugar evenly over the remaining bales as more lanterns brought increased light to the area.
The dragon's head dipped down for another helping. The light allowed the deck crew to see the long wattle under the dragon's chin. Its head frills were all dark green except for the first one. That spiky frill was paler than the rest of the frills all along its long neck. The light actually allowed the crew to see thick veins full of blood pulsing through the pale flesh.
"Notice the red veins on the top frill. You can see them on that one, but you can't see them on any of the other ridges along its neck."
"Are you feeling all right?" Halcyon mentally asked the dragon.
"I'd like to eat some meat soon. The fishing has been poor in this sea." The thought came back clear in the midshipwizard's mind. "These bales taste much better." The dragon's head moved back out of sight as it munched contentedly on the hay.
"Mr. Blithe, do you have any idea why that frill has turned pale?" the lieutenant questioned.
"Could it be because it isn't getting enough meat in its diet?" Blithe guessed.
"Well done, sir. Have you read Gray's Anatomy of the Sea Dragon?" Solvalson asked, showing some surprise at Halcyon's quick answer.
"I haven't yet, but I'd like to borrow a copy if the ship has one," the midshipwizard replied.
"After the watch, you can get the book from my quarters. You men hook up a winch off the mainmast. We'll haul up a pig for its dessert. It will gobble our pig and that frill will go back to its normal dark green color by tomorrow. Gray's Anatomy says a lack of meat slows the dragon down tremendously. We're going to join the blockade in a few days and we can't afford to sail into danger with a sick dragonship. Blithe, go down with Carstars and talk to the purser about the pig," Solvalson ordered.
"Aye, aye, Lieutenant."
The bow section of the upper blast-tube deck held stalls for steers, pigs, chickens, and goats. Fresh meat was preferred over salted beef and pork, and since a large supply of hay was necessary for feeding the dragon, the ship could carry more of other types of animals.
Lieutenant Josia Tinner was the ship's purser. His duty assignment gave him control of all the ship's stores and their use during the voyage. Up until that moment, Halcyon hadn't dealt with the man. Halcyon wasn't pleased at having to wake him up to get a pig. He knocked on the purser's hatch. Tinner rated his own billet, but it was next to the pens of animals. The smell was shocking, even with the pens cleaned twice a day.
"By the gods, who's knocking at my hatch?"
The man didn't sound asleep to Blithe. "It's Midshipwizard Blithe, sir. I need a word with you. Sorry to wake you."
The hatch flew open; there was a lantern in the man's hand. Tinner was fat, and even with the smell of the animals all about, a huge draft of rum struck Blithe in the face as the man opened the hatch.
"Whatta you trying to do here? Can't a man get some sleep after a hard day's duty?" The words came out slurred. The lieutenant had clearly been drinking hard in the last few hours.
"I'm terribly sorry to be waking you, sir. Lieutenant Solvalson wants a pig for the dragon's feeding."
"A pig! A pig needed at three bells of the night watch. That's just crazy. Get out of my hold!" The drunken lieutenant slammed the hatch shut in Blithe's face.
Blithe turned, holding up his lantern and seeing the pigs in question not ten feet away.
"I know what you are thinking, Midshipwizard. The halter's coming down any second and we could just take the pig while the purser sleeps in his cups. There would be hell to pay if we don't get his mark on the order. You could be fined for the pig and I could get a touch of the cat, if you get my meaning, Mr. Blithe," Carstars said.
The sailor was a twenty-year man. The patch on his left eye came from a battle ten years ago. The old salt wasn't about to take punishment duty for Halcyon's actions.
"I've been given an order and I will carry it out." Halcyon pounded on Tinner's hatch once more.
Tinner's voice bawled out over the sound of Halcyon's pounding. "By the gods, I'll have that middy's head on a stick!"
Not bothering with a lantern, Lieutenant Tinner threw open his hatch. This time he stood in shock, bathed in a red glow. A very angry Halcyon Blithe stood in front of the purser. All that drunken Tinner could see was the bright demon glow from Blithe's eyes. Tinner's mouth became slack and he took several steps back into his berth. The angry red glow filled his room.
Halcyon, noting the power his eyes had on the drunk, strode into the man's berth. "I have orders to take a pig. Affix your mark on a loading ticket, Lieutenant Tinner." Halcyon didn't give the man time to think. Using the force of his anger, he pushed his face up to Tinner's. That did the trick. The man signed a form and handed it in fear to the midshipwizard.
The red glow faded from Blithe's eyes as he silently closed the hatch, leaving Tinner to recover.
"Those demon eyes come in handy sometimes, don't they, sir?" Carstars was smiling at the way Blithe handled the purser.
"Our purser wasn't at his best in the middle of the night. Go and cover the pig's eyes. The quicker we get it up and away the better, to my way of thinking," Halcyon ordered.
The hold cover came off and the crew on deck lowered a halter for the pig. With an empty sack of grain covering the big pig's head, the sleepy animal made little noise as it moved from one deck to another.
As Halcyon and Carstars came back on deck, the dragon scooped up the large pig in one quick bite.
"Meat, tastes good." The dragon's thoughts were happy ones, but fading. The effects of the tannin oil were wearing off the midshipwizard.
"Rest easy, dragon." Halcyon liked the feeding duty. The work made him feel closer to the dragon.
The dragon looked down at Halcyon and the rest of the crew. "Weather magic, d..."
Halcyon couldn't quite catch the last thought. The dragon gave an odd chirp and turned its head back away from the deck. It too knew that Halcyon couldn't hear its thoughts anymore.
"Blithe, I see you had no problem with our good purser, Mr. Tinner." Solvalson made it more of a question than a statement.
"He didn't like being woken up in the middle of the night," Halcyon replied. "It took a bit of talking to get the dragon's dinner. As you can see we accomplished your order."
"There's a bit more to the Tinner action than I'm sure you're telling me, if I know our Mr. Tinner." Solvalson shook his head, and Halcyon figured the lieutenant knew the purser would be drunk.
"Give me the lading ticket. If Mr. Tinner remembers things differently than you do in the morning, I will deal with him.
"The old dragon is properly fed for a few more days. You should have seen it in action at the battle of Sontal. I'd just been commissioned a lieutenant before that conflict. The action was fierce as two Maleen ships of the line, first-raters both, came upon us. Our broadside destroyed the port enemy. We must have hit their magazine. The other enemy warship was cleverer and we hadn't done much with our starboard broadside. That ship grappled us. Our dragon reached up and started plucking crossbowmen out of their rigging." The excitement in the lieutenant's voice was infectious as the crew around him hung on his every word.
"Our ship, sitting on the dragon's back, is higher in the water than normal enemy first-raters. They had a hard time getting to our deck. Normally, they use a huge plank called a corvus. It's got a spike on the end. They swing it over to an enemy ship and drop it down hard on the deck. The spike pierces the deck and holds the two ships together better than dozens of grappling lines. When they tried that with our higher ship, the corvus of theirs came down, but their deck was too low in the water. The end of the corvus never touched our deck. We just laughed at them as our double blast-tubes raked th
eir decks, killing their troops.
"All the while the dragon was tearing away rigging and eating enemy crew by the dragon mouthful. Our blast-pikes worked hard that day, but the old dragon put the fear of the gods in the hearts of the Maleen. We made them surrender with hardly a loss to our side.
"Blithe, get back to the tiller. Our orders call for a starboard tack at four bells and I suspect we're near that time now. The rest of you men get on the mainmast lines for the tack," the lieutenant ordered.
Solvalson clearly enjoyed telling war stories, but duty called. The tacking maneuver took less than an hour and the rest of the night watch passed without any problems.
his majesty's articles of war: article x
If any person in or belonging to the fleet shall make or endeavor to make any mutinous assembly upon any pretense whatsoever, every person offending herein, and being convicted thereof by the sentence of the court-martial, shall suffer death: and if any person in or belonging to the fleet shall utter any words of sedition or mutiny, he shall suffer death, or such other punishment as a court-martial shall deem him to deserve; and if any officer, mariner, or soldier on or belonging to the fleet shall behave himself with contempt to his superior officer, being in the execution of his office, he shall be punished according to the nature of his offense by the judgment of a court-martial.
Halcyon walked into the captain's cabin with the rest of the midshipwizards. A sense of wonder and almost dread filled his mind. The richly appointed cabin revealed many oak cabinets. A large oak desk and three stern chasers shared the back of the cabin. Thirty-pounders presented themselves at the port side and the stern, but special tables allowed the tops of the tubes to support cabinets filled with tiny ship models.
"Gentlemen and ladies, please come all the way in and be welcome in my cabin," the captain said, waving the last of the midshipwizards into his private chamber.
The rest of the middies hustled into the cabin and Jason closed the hatch.
"While the steward fills glasses for all of you, I would like you to look at a luxury I give myself. I collect and make models of ships of the line," Captain Olden said, sweeping his hand around the room to show off the many glass cabinets filled with the tiny model ships.
"I've placed just a bit of water magic in each of these models and today we will use them for a lesson in tactics." As the captain talked he took out models from several different cabinets.
The midshipwizards circled around the large table at the center of the room. The table held a huge shallow pan filled with seawater. As the captain placed each model into the water, a green spark of enchantment lit up the hull of the ship and it stayed in place, floating on the surface of the water.
"At any point in time, if any of you have questions please ask them," the captain ordered. "The battle we'll display today is the famous battle of Ilumin Harbor fought almost twenty years ago. As you all should know from your academy training, schooners from Ilumin had reported a huge Maleen fleet approaching the capital on the fateful day."
As the captain spoke, he placed out perfect replicas of all the famous ships from that long ago battle.
Halcyon had a grandfather and great uncle in that battle and knew its history well.
"Was this the first time our navy faced dragonships of the line?" Mark Forrest asked the captain.
"Yes it was, Mr. Forrest, that's a good question," the captain replied. "I always put the dragonships out last as they are the most animated of the models I own." From a cabinet filled with dragonships of all ratings, he took out five dragonships and placed them in the Maleen line of battle.
"Legend has it that all five of these ships were first in the line of battle," the captain told the group. "But I've read accounts from the logs of both the Maleen ships and our own Arcanian vessels in that battle and the dragonships were spread to the front and middle of the line. As you know, that would cause them problems in the middle of the battle," the captain said, looking over the two lines of model ships floating in the tiny table-ocean. He was finished setting up the ships in the positions history reported them to be in at the beginning of the battle.
"Mr. Murdock, please review for the group the forces of the Maleen that you see before you," the captain asked of Ryan.
The midshipwizard coughed in nervousness. "Well, there were ten first-raters, among them the famous one-hundred-and-forty-blast-tube Malua, their fleet flagship. We would consider their first dragonships fifth-raters today, but twenty years ago they classified them as second-raters. Twenty more ships in the line were second-, third-, and fourth-raters. Ten frigates and ten brigantines were in a second Maleen line of battle behind the larger-rated ships. The Maleen plan of battle was to use their massive firepower to destroy the sailing capability of any warships coming out of port. Each of their ships had an unusually large number of Maleen marines. Then as now, they wanted to board the Arcanian ships and take them over that way."
"Very good, Mr. Murdock." The captain smiled at the midshipwizard and looked among the others, picking out Halcyon. "Mr. Blithe, please be so good as to detail the Arcanian side of this struggle."
Halcyon looked carefully at the mix of ships on both sides and knew the captain had gotten the order of battle perfect. He didn't need to look at the assembly of Arcanian models floating in their line to give the captain an answer. "The Arcanian royal fleet was in the harbor that day. Under the orders of Fleet Admiral Gray, they left the harbor in perfect battle order. Knowing the Maleen wanted to quickly approach and board them, the admiral gave orders to stay at maximum range and fire at will for as long as possible. In the days before, extra shot and blast gel had been loaded on all the Arcanian ships."
"Just the order of the battle line, Mr. Blithe, my little diorama will show us the way of the battle, if you please," the captain admonished Halcyon with a smile.
"Aye, aye, sir. The first-rater Arcania, the flagship of the fleet, led ten other first-raters out of the harbor, followed by ten second-raters. There were twenty frigates following them in the line of battle. The Arcanian fleet engaged the Maleen fleet at maximum range."
"Good answer, Mr. Blithe. Miss Merand, why was it unusual for the Arcanian frigates to be part of the main line of battle?" the captain asked.
"Normally, fifth-raters are ignored by the larger ships in favor of larger targets," she replied. "Frigates are usually used to tow away prize ships, or in the Maleen case, they approach and add the weight of their marines to an onboard melee. The ten to fifty-five blast-tubes from a frigate broadside are considered meager to the blasts of second- and third-raters."
"Excellent, midshipwizard," the captain praised her. "You are correct, our Admiral Gray knew he was outmatched, but placed his frigates in the line of battle knowing the nature of Arcanian ships. Now watch as the first exchange of blast-tube fire is acted out on our model here."
The captain waved his hand and the entire pan of seawater took on a green glow. From the north, the Maleen model ships strung themselves out into a long line and under battle sails moved briskly south. From the south, the shorter line of Arcanian ships stayed to the east of the enemy and sailed north, keeping a wide distance between themselves and the enemy.
The model ships were unbelievably real-looking. Their sails filled with wind. Their pennants and battle flags flapped in an illusionary breeze. The ships rolled up and down on the illusion-created roll of the ocean waves.
The Maleen dragonships were moving far faster than the other ships of the line. Those five living ships caught up to and blocked other ships as they passed them in the battle line.
Tiny puffs of smoke came out of the ships on both sides. The shots from the two lead Maleen dragonships splashed in the water in front of the lead Arcanian ship. The shots of the Arcanian ships struck the enemy dragonships. Puffs of smoke erupted from the models followed by holes in the hulls of the Maleen ships, while few of the Arcanian model ships showed damage from the Maleen broadsides.
The captain froze the battle w
hen the lines had come midway through each other. All of the Arcanian ships appeared frozen with puffs of smoke belching from their port broadsides. The Maleen ships displayed erratic puffs from half of their starboard batteries. "Mr. Surehand, if you please, tell us what you have observed from this battle so far," the captain asked. He looked at his midshipwizards. Enthralled, the young officers were barely breathing as the battle unfolded before their eyes. Few had ever seen such use of magic.
"Well, sink me if I don't think the Arcanian ships are firing at least two times faster than the Maleen ships," Dart answered nervously. "I also think the Arcanian blast-tube shots are hitting the enemy more often than the Maleen shots are striking. The wall of iron shot fired by the flagship Arcania mauled those smaller dragonships. I noticed its to the middle of the enemy line and almost untouched. Was it like that in the historical battle?"
"As you all know, the Arcania is the only first-rater of the Arcanian fleet that was sunk that day, but that happens much later in the day. I'll let the ships continue to battle against each other so we can see the now-famous actions of their dragonships. Mr. Argo." The captain was gesturing over the scene of battle, and the ships started moving and blasting out with their tubes. "Please tell us what happened to these dragons as we see the end of the battle lines come together."
"Like many of the ships of the Maleen line, the dragonships were crewed by inexperienced crew and captured crews from Toman and Drusan." Jason's speech slowed as he watched two of the dragonships ensnarling themselves, with the heads of the dragons snapping at each other and the friendly crews in the rigging of the other dragonships. "The five male dragonships got too close together and took a great deal of damage. They began fighting among themselves and fell hopelessly out of control. Soon they were blocking the fire of their other ships of the line. Signals from Admiral Gray ordered his fleet to ignore the dragonships and concentrate on any other ship coming into range."
Midshipwizard Halcyon Blithe Page 12