(eng) Mike Reeves-McMillan - Gryphon Clerks 01 by Realmgolds

Author:Realmgolds [Realmgolds]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

The newspapers in the capital were out of newsprint. They had shifted operations to Six Gorges, where their presses were free from RBP interference, and those newswriters stuck in Lakeside Koslin used farspeakers to file their stories, but they had no distribution within the city.

Accordingly, Reliable, with the help of Victory’s clerks, had organised a system of newsrunners. Determined was impressed with the way his nervous secretary had risen to the challenges of living in a besieged city. Ever since the assassination attempt, Reliable had been taking more initiative and jumping less at sudden noises. It was as if he had come through the worst he could imagine and found courage on the other side. He worked like a gnome to organise the withdrawal from the city.

“Gnomes and dwarves get priority,” he told his runners. “Then civilian humans.”

“What about the military?”

“General Vigilance will instruct them.” The newsrunners crouched and looked round nervously just hearing her name.

Koskant owned the Gulf, and maintained a powerful navy to escort trading ships past the notorious Corsair Coast to the south. The much smaller Denninger navy had wisely decided not to oppose them, but stayed at anchor in the Gulf port of Koslinmouth. A still smaller fleet of mainly coastal and river patrol craft was headquartered in Lakeside Koslin, and all its officers had either taken the loyalty vow or been ejected from the city.

Determined declared all fishing and pleasure craft anchored off Lakeside Koslin requisitioned for the evacuation. He wasn’t going to leave anything floating there that was bigger than the buoy on a lobster pot. There were shipyards, of course, but it would take time to build any new ships.

“The problem,” he said to Constance, Victory and Vigilance, “is getting everyone to Koskant.”

The river was neutral territory, but the Denning bank was lined with small castles in which localgolds, or, depending on one’s perspective, bandit chiefs lived and harassed shipping to the extent that they thought they could get away with it. They wouldn’t attack a boat escorted by a Koskander naval vessel — Victory had broken them of this habit with characteristic thoroughness — but the river was winding, and the columns of refugees would need to be interspersed with military vessels throughout. Nor were there enough boats to take them all at once.

“Negotiations with the beastheads are not yet at a stage where they will welcome several thousand human, dwarf and gnome refugees,” put in Victory. “Unfortunately.”

“That leaves two possibilities,” said Vigilance. “The Isle of Turfrae, or the tussocklands.”

“Two problems with Turfrae,” said Victory. “Firstly, it is full of Human Purity supporters. It would be out of the mud and into the quicksand. And secondly, as the old Elven Empire capital, Turfrae has symbolic importance well beyond its strategic value. Any move on the Isle will look like a play to set up as Empiregold.”

“Surely nobody would think I’m taking a bunch of refugees there, having lost my own capital, in an attempt to become Empiregold,” said Determined.

“Perhaps not. But they would certainly believe it of me,” she said.

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