Through Fiery Trials by David Weber

Author:David Weber
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

* * *

“Damn, that’s a big boat,” Sir Rainos Ahlverez, Duke Dragon Island and commanding officer of the Royal Dohlaran Army, observed as Thunderbolt glided smoothly across Queen Zhakleen Harbor towards the Gorath waterfront. “It’s lots bigger than anything you’ve got, Pawal!

“It’s not a ‘boat,’ damn it!” Pawal Hahlynd, Earl of Kaudzhu, commanding officer of the Royal Dohlaran Navy, hissed back at him. “She is a ship, you cretin!”

“A boat’s a boat.” Dragon Island grinned unrepentantly. “Although that one’s big enough even someone like me probably wouldn’t get seasick if I went aboard it.”

“I know you’re only an ignorant, landlubber general, Rainos,” Kaudzhu growled, “but if you embarrass me in front of Cayleb and Sarmouth, I swear to Langhorne I’ll bring in ringers from the Gorath Gulls for the next Army-Navy baseball game.” Dragon Island looked at him, and Kaudzhu shook a finger under his nose. “I mean it! Their manager’s my cousin, and I’ll swear his entire starting lineup into temporary service!”

“Lywys probably would’ve appreciated my behaving myself, too, wouldn’t he?” the duke said after a moment, and shook his head with a fond smile. “Who would’ve expected that to matter a damned thing to me?”

“He had that effect.” Kaudzhu’s smile was sadder than Dragon Island’s. “He always had that effect, even on bastards like Rohsail. And Rohsail was a much harder case than you were!”

“So I’ve heard. Not as hard as my dear cousin Aibram, though.”

“I wouldn’t want to speak disrespectfully about a member of your family, especially one who’s deceased, but if Duke Thorast’s brains had been Lywysite, they wouldn’t have been enough to blow a gnat’s nose. On a good day.”

“That’s not the way a mere earl should describe the man who held one of the Kingdom’s most ancient and venerable duchies,” Dragon Island said severely. “Especially not since it’s overly generous.”

Kaudzhu snorted and shook his head at the man who’d once been one of his bitterest enemies simply because of his family’s hatred for Lywys Gardynyr. No one outside his immediate family had missed Aibram Zaivyair, the previous Duke of Thorast, when overindulgence, too much wine, and pure bile carried him off. His son was only a minor improvement, but at least the current duke had learned not to challenge the united front of Thirsk and Dragon Island. Or, Kaudzhu acknowledged, his own contribution to that team.

There were days—many of them—on which he deeply regretted Caitahno Raisahndo’s death, and not just on a personal level. Not only had Raisahndo been both a friend and a trusted colleague, he’d had a far better head for politics than even he himself had realized he did. A lot better one than Pawal Hahlynd had ever had, at any rate. He’d been the only real choice to command the Navy when Thirsk became First Councilor, and he and Rainos Ahlverez had been pillars of strength for Thirsk and Bishop Staiphan Maik as the earl withdrew Dohlar from the Jihad and fought just as hard for peace as he ever had against Charis.

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