The High King: A Tale of Alus by Wigboldy Donald

Author:Wigboldy, Donald [Wigboldy, Donald]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2011-04-26T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 28- Messages

Gerid had been forced to retrace his path slightly due to his bargain with Admiral Koort and the need for solidifying his crew. With the addition of the three Klosten ships, his crewmen needed to be shifted between other vessels. He made sure to leave half of the ships nearly full, while adding enough men to the malas to make nearly a full crew as well. Some of the one hundred and fifty Klosten sailors had been drafted into service to help somewhat. It wasn't something that he could do a great deal with for fear of mutiny. Spreading the klostens throughout the entire fleet limited that as well, but still the commander didn't want to push his luck too far.

As they had sailed back in escort to the tseulty port of Daria, Gerid couldn't shake his worries about Admiral Koort either. The man was ambitious. He had to be to become an admiral. With that knowledge, Gerid feared that the man would still try to take the captured Klosten ships, especially the malas.

The commander hoped his fears were unjustified as they neared Daria, one Tseult’s northern ports. If the admiral did have treachery in mind, it would occur at the city. They entered without any trouble though and the men at the docks who checked them in had given them an easy time of it. They had even said that the admiral had ordered leniency to be given to his fleet for harbor taxes.

Even so, discretion led Gerid to only allow shore leaves in limited numbers when his men had asked. He usually allowed nearly full dismissals except for a crew of guards for each ship. Even though Tseult was technically an ally of Rhearden and Daria was one of their cities, the commander felt that he needed to be wary.

A rather large city, Daria was a home to thousands including shipwrights and a great many boat builders. Maybe half the size of the capitol city, Camerton in Rhearden, the Tseulty city was a maze of brown wood buildings with several nearest the water being huge enclosed shipyards. Being a north facing port, it was wise to protect both the skeletons of the ships and the workers building them since the North Sea was often a source for large this far north and west. The Talmoth Sea to the west of Malaiy helped fuel the storms by funneling warmer water from the southwest side of the continent adding to the frequency of storms from the west.

No storms of nature or man came for Gerid’s fleet and thankfully, after three days the fleet was ready to leave. Nothing unfortunate happened during that time other than a pair of sailors who had become drunk enough to start a brawl and get thrown into jail for an evening. As the fleet prepared to cast off and resume the journey, Gerid spied Admiral Koort with a squad of soldiers accompanying him approaching his dock. He groaned fearing that the man had simply waited until the last moment to try something.

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