The Marquis by Michael O'Neill

Author:Michael O'Neill
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fantasy, Epic, Science Fiction & Fantasy
Publisher: Michael O'Neill
Published: 2015-07-08T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

Nil departed the two days later for Caledonia and then for Avanti and then Rasadi with reinforcements. He would arrange for the message to pass to the Eaorl of Avanti and to the Wealdend of Larsa. The Wealdend was too far away and the Eaorl didn’t have much to offer, but he thought it appropriate to tell them anyway, just in case they were next.

Derryth spent the morning equipping the Kerchian wiga with new armour, swords, lances, bows and saddles – basically an entire new kit. Caledonia had sent enough for an entire battalion of five hundred men – and he had three hundred.

Conn had been to see them in their new uniforms. Derryth waited for him at the gate of the barracks.

‘So are they still insisting that they should go with us into Utika? I don’t want to kill them all.’

‘They are – they are the Marquis’s troops and since the Marquis is going, so are they. You shouldn’t worry too much – they are much better that some wiga you have led into combat before. Besides you have the company of very capable Meshechian Sagittari – and only have odds of five to one.’

‘You are being sarcastic again. Anyway, there will be a couple of hundred in Rasadi – as well as the walls.’

‘If we get there in time. The walls will only last a day or two.’

Getting there was indeed the major problem. It would take a month on horseback – not taking into consideration any opposition they might meet on the way. Going by ship was definitely quicker, and he had eight junks in the harbour unloading cargo. Each was designed to carry thirty horses, so two trips and he would be there within a week. To do that, he needed somewhere to land – without being attacked doing so.

Not long after Njil had departed for Rasadi, Egwahl also departed. He was to visit Utika again – and although seemingly just for the purpose of buying more theow because they were so cheap, he had a secondary mission of meeting with Renoth il Bahal and his Mundbora, Akelda il Utika, and pass on a request. Conn was calling in some favours.

In the days that followed, as Derryth and Brictdred trained the wiga until they dropped, Conn supervised modification to the junks for horse cargo. They were built to be used in a variety of ways so it was just a matter of attaching the necessary panels to create the stalls. More work was required on the docks to build a loading ramp that would allow the animals easy access to the deck and then down the gang plank into the hold. The junks also had treadmill cranes on board but that was a slow way of loading and unloading horses, so they built an unloading ramp to assemble when they arrived. The craeftiga in Kerch were able, and they learnt quickly.

Conn was overseeing the final modifications to the last junk when Egwahl returned ten days later.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.