Someone Else's Kingdom, BOOK I - Chapter 37
The King of Tunid was still in a state of anger and turmoil, but by now he'd pushed that beneath the surface. He'd also shared with Maleeva the contents of the communication he'd received. Overwhelmingly his thoughts were concerned with the boy who'd been taken captive, but understanding that there was little he could do just yet, and with a large effort, he pushed it to one side and focused on more achievable aims.
The communication also contained the tale of the western isle ship, the Dew Elizabeth, that was sent to the ocean floor in flames, by the fiery arrow from the large ballista. "Why are we not using things like this here?" he immediately probed, impressed by the small victory, "If we can't access black powder ourselves we should at least be using it against them, utilising the things we do have. Fire the oceans, oil the waters. We need to stack the entire western coast with weapons like this."
Maleeva too felt roused by the tale, and with immediate vigour she began barking the same questions at various aides. As she did this it also struck her how dim and incapable of thought the mainland islanders were. After months of conflict they'd simply been ploughing the same furrow. Throwing man after man, and ship after ship, at the problem. Completely devoid of innovation. Yet, those on the small island of Tunida, when faced with the problem unexpectedly had already taken a scalp with a novel mode of attack.
"We need to put these weapons on ships too," added the king, as he paced back and forth with purpose. Maleeva, again, in turn, passing these thoughts directly to people lower down the pecking order.
"Using siege weapons on ships. Why didn't I think of that?!" cried King Brijsk, as he lumbered into the room. His mouth moving faster than his trunk-like legs.
"Why indeed," responded Maleeva, with aimed condescension.
"It's true," he laughed, "We're not the most wily in the Northern Kingdom, but still, I don't recall you ever suggesting anything like this either. You had ample opportunity."
The annoyed Maleeva pretended not to hear, and continued on.
The communication also contained the tale of the western isle ship, the Dew Elizabeth, that was sent to the ocean floor in flames, by the fiery arrow from the large ballista. "Why are we not using things like this here?" he immediately probed, impressed by the small victory, "If we can't access black powder ourselves we should at least be using it against them, utilising the things we do have. Fire the oceans, oil the waters. We need to stack the entire western coast with weapons like this."
Maleeva too felt roused by the tale, and with immediate vigour she began barking the same questions at various aides. As she did this it also struck her how dim and incapable of thought the mainland islanders were. After months of conflict they'd simply been ploughing the same furrow. Throwing man after man, and ship after ship, at the problem. Completely devoid of innovation. Yet, those on the small island of Tunida, when faced with the problem unexpectedly had already taken a scalp with a novel mode of attack.
"We need to put these weapons on ships too," added the king, as he paced back and forth with purpose. Maleeva, again, in turn, passing these thoughts directly to people lower down the pecking order.
"Using siege weapons on ships. Why didn't I think of that?!" cried King Brijsk, as he lumbered into the room. His mouth moving faster than his trunk-like legs.
"Why indeed," responded Maleeva, with aimed condescension.
"It's true," he laughed, "We're not the most wily in the Northern Kingdom, but still, I don't recall you ever suggesting anything like this either. You had ample opportunity."
The annoyed Maleeva pretended not to hear, and continued on.
"Your captains have to start using a bit more thought. So far that's been lacking. You'll have to learn to play cat and mouse, drawing the western isle ship in to our own fire."
"We wasted all our best captains in the early days of the conflict," rued King Brijsk, but with another trademark half-laugh, "We have fine ships captained by fools now. It's not their fault though, you can't make great sea captains overnight. We'd have much preferred to bed our sailors in in the eastern seas. To let them learn their trade, but you - and Mizmeam too - kept pushing these idiot-boys into battle."
"Well they'll have to learn quicker."
The King of Tunid listened to all this, but added nothing. He was too eager to get to the coast to see some of these plans in action. As for the young boy, he expected to receive some kind of ransom note soon. Either that, or that he himself would have to reach out diplomatically to negotiate a release. This was all assuming the boy was still alive, of course - a question he refused to even ponder. Knowing he needed to be negotiating from a position of strength though, he understood it was essential that they exercised themselves from the current paralysis, and began putting the western islanders firmly on the back foot.
"We wasted all our best captains in the early days of the conflict," rued King Brijsk, but with another trademark half-laugh, "We have fine ships captained by fools now. It's not their fault though, you can't make great sea captains overnight. We'd have much preferred to bed our sailors in in the eastern seas. To let them learn their trade, but you - and Mizmeam too - kept pushing these idiot-boys into battle."
"Well they'll have to learn quicker."
The King of Tunid listened to all this, but added nothing. He was too eager to get to the coast to see some of these plans in action. As for the young boy, he expected to receive some kind of ransom note soon. Either that, or that he himself would have to reach out diplomatically to negotiate a release. This was all assuming the boy was still alive, of course - a question he refused to even ponder. Knowing he needed to be negotiating from a position of strength though, he understood it was essential that they exercised themselves from the current paralysis, and began putting the western islanders firmly on the back foot.
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