The Cerberus Rebellion (A Griffins & Gunpowder Novel) (28 page)

“
My Lords, I do not believe that this is the proper venue for this argument,” Magnus interrupted. Each of their parts had been carefully planned to give the right impressions to the messenger.

Magnus drew his dagger and slid it through the seal. He unfolded the letter and looked over the terms. They were as he expected and entirely unacceptable to anyone who wanted to maintain Kerberosi independence. He made a show of reading the letter slowly and then passed them to Alger and then Oskar in turn. Each of his nobles read the terms and passed the letter back to Magnus, who read it once more.

“
We wish to discuss these terms in private,” Magnus said after a pause. “Rorik, please show Lord Wherry out and ensure that he is looked after.”

“
Yes, Your Grace,” Rorik said, and signaled his sergeants to escort the lesser lord out of the pavilion.

Magnus and his council spent nearly six hours planning their response to the terms offered by Eadric. Alger suggested that they present equally unacceptable terms to Eadric, but Magnus decided against it. His lack of a resolute response and the knowledge that he was present would be enough to give the king pause.

When the messenger was finally allowed back into the pavilion, it was well past midday and Magnus had dismissed his generals; only Algers sat beside him. The lesser lord did not fail to notice the absence of the military members of the council, and he watched Magnus carefully as he walked back to the center of the main room.

“
You have come to a decision?”

“
I believe that the terms that you brought before me were not made with the knowledge that they would be presented to the King of Kerberos,” Magnus said after a pause. “I would like you to return to your king and inform him of my presence. I will expect your return by evening so that I can review them and discuss them with my council.”

“
As you wish,” the man sad sullenly before being escorted from the tent.

“
And now we wait.”

Chapter 21 - Eadric

“Your Majesty, the messenger has passed through the gatehouse,” Payton Shield announced from outside of the small tent that served as Eadric’s forward command post.

“Inform me when he has passed through our own lines,” Eadric said. He accepted a flagon of wine from his steward and sniffed at it.

The wine was a local vintage, the sharp notes of cherry made that apparent. It would likely be sweet, as many of the fruit wines from Kerberos tended to be. The Kerberosi favored beer and honey wine over the fruit of the field, but one hundred years of intermingling with the Ansgari people had resulted in a handful of vineyards that crushed grapes and cherries. Eadric had tried the famed honey mead of Agilard and the beers of Hilldale, but neither had been so satisfying as an Aldenburg red wine or a Kerrville brandy.

Eadric waited until his steward had slipped out of the small tent’s back entrance before he slid his hand inside his jacket and retrieved the usual tin of dragonsalt. He twisted the lid off of the container, sniffed it once, and then took a heavy pinch and dropped it into the flagon. He swirled the liquid briefly and finally poured some into the griffin-talon chalice that sat beside the flagon.

He took a sip of the wine and was not surprised by its contents.

“They had him over there for quite some time,” Eadric said to William.

His chief advisor sat across from him at the small table. He had spent so many of his years in the Founder’s Keep, where ancient magics kept the heat and cold at bay, that he had been hard hit by the heat and humidity of the late spring. Sweat seemed to permanently dot his forehead and he was constantly dabbing at his cheeks and neck with a handkerchief. He had draped his jacket over the back of the chair and had unbuttoned the top of his linen shirt.

“Yes, Your Highness. Perhaps they have reconsidered their position on the matter and have accepted your terms?”

“From the look in your eyes, I would say that you don’t believe that particular bit of drivel,” Eadric said and took another drink from the cup. “They are stalling for time. They are outnumbered by two full divisions of infantry, if our scouts are correct, and their cavalry contingent barely counts five thousand. I would like to know what their artillery batteries boast, but I’ll have to be content with knowing their position.”

“Spies would be hard to come by in such a time as this,” William agreed.

In fact, Eadric’s spy masters had been entirely unable to turn anyone in the Kerberosi camps against their fellows. The men he had assigned to the task had argued that it would be a difficult task for anyone to turn a man against his blood and his neighbors; the history between Ansgar and Kerberos made it nearly impossibile. Eadric had allowed the men to continue to try, of course, but the gold that they kept throwing at anyone that would listen seemingly had no effect on the loyalty of those that took it.

“Do you suppose they will offer counter terms?” William asked.

“No. Lord Wherry was instructed to be explicit in the fact that those terms were offered directly from my hand. If they are foolish enough to think that they, mere nobles or lesser lords, can offer counter terms to a king, then this battle will be over far sooner than you might think.”

Even facing overwhelming disadvantages, the Kerberosi could be tenacious warriors. The Battle at Gregory had given him that insight and it was his duty to remain cautious when approaching any conflict with the Kerberosi. Only a stroke of luck had caused the Kerberosi commander at Gregory to grow impatient and launch his attack, mere hours before Eadric had ordered his own forces to charge across the blood-stained valley. Had the situation been reversed, Eadric’s advance into Kerberosi territory would have been halted until still more soldiers could be called up and moved to the front.

The gods had been smiling on the armies of Ansgar that day, but Eadric was not foolish enough to assume that they would be with him for the entirety of his campaign against these rebels.

Payton Shield opened the tent flap once more. “Your Majesty.”

“Yes, what is it?”

“Lord Hanley wishes a word with you,” the guard replied.

“Very well, send him in,” Eadric said.

Alden stepped past the guards outside the small tent and into Eadric’s presence. Landon and Radnor Shield followed him and took up their places inside the entrance to the tent.

“Your Majesty.” Alden bowed before his son-by-law and king.

“Rise, Father. Here, sit beside me,” Eadric said.

“Of course,” Alden took the offered seat.

“What do you make of the delay in answering our terms?” Eadric asked.

“They have much more to consider now that we are on their lands and threatening their castles. If the Kerberosi were a rational people, I would expect that they were seriously considering your offer, but if history tells us anything it is that the Kerberosi, of all of the peoples native to this continent, are anything but rational. They may be stalling for time, or they may be trying to send a message in the way that they ponder how they wish to deny our terms this time.”

“I thought they might be trying to buy more time,” Eadric confessed. “They are outnumbered and outmatched, but perhaps they hope that reinforcements will arrive just in time to save their lives, and they have the responsibility to provide as much time as possible before we crush them.”

Alden had been one of the strongest advocates for their current path of invasion, along the southern coast of Kerberos into their fertile farm lands and away from Hilldale, where the Kerberosi would have been able to mount raids and ambushes in the rolling hills and low valleys. William had advocated a more measured approach: less direct confrontation with the Kerberosi armies in an attempt to lessen the amount of resentment felt by their rebellious citizens.

The southern path would allow them to cut off any help from the Earl of Forest Glen and the Kerberosi Isles; the ability to split a large part of the opposing army had been a major factor in Eadric’s decision. Being able to move supplies across Alder Bay had been another.

Eadric’s navy—or what remained of it after the Kerberosi and Western squadrons rebelled and sailed back to their home ports—would be tangled in a vicious fight with the coastal fortresses in Forest Glen and the Kerberosi ships in the Straits of Steimor. If Eadric’s forces were able to break through the Kerberosi naval blockade, they would bring the fight straight into Hellhound Harbor and threaten Agilard directly.

As yet no reports had arrived from Admiral Tallert and the major contingent of the Ansgari Navy that he had taken with him to clear the Straits of Steimor for Ansgari merchant traffic. Eadric had resisted the suggestion that sending the ships to the Straits was more important than maintaining security in the waters surrounding the mainland of Ansgar. When merchant ships started disappearing, however, the major merchant houses had demanded that action be taken to ensure the security of their fleets. Three quarters of the remaining Ansgari Fleet had sailed under Tallert’s command with a confidence that Eadric’s battle at Gregory had quickly taught him was misplaced.

He could spare a schooner or a corvette to run a message to Aetheston,
Eadric thought as he sipped the wine.
It wouldn’t take this much time for a telegraph or even a rider to reach us
.

“Milord, the messenger has passed through our lines,” Paxton Shield said. At least, Eadric thought it was Paxton; he had trouble telling Paxton and Payton apart, especially if they weren’t standing next to each other.

“Thank you,” Eadric said and then turned to William and Alden. “I’d like for you to hear their response.”

“Of course, Your Highness.” William nodded and the two set in to wait.

Another twenty minutes passed before the messenger finally stepped through the tent flaps; he was red faced and sweating from his long, hard ride. He fell to one knee in front of Eadric and presented his satchel to his King. Lord Tramaine Wherry looked tiny between the twin mountains of Payton and Paxton Shield.

“Did they refuse my terms?” Eadric asked. He set the satchel aside. He would not learn anything from its contents that his messenger would not already know.

“Your Majesty, they refused to provide an answer.”

“Refused to answer on what grounds?” William asked.

“I presented my terms directly to the traitor king,” Tramaine said, and Eadric sat up in his chair.

“You will refer to him by his rightful title, Lord Wherry. He may be a traitor, but until he has had a trial and is sentenced as such he is still a noble of Ansgar,” Eadric said. “What did the Duke of Agilard say?”

“His Grace said that the terms that were presented were prepared without the knowledge that they would be presented to him,” the messenger reported.

“He’s stalling,” William said.

“Of course he is,” Eadric agreed. “What else did he say?”

“That was all he said about the terms. I observed, however, that when he gave his answer he was not joined by the same men that he was with when I presented the terms.”

“Continue,” Eadric instructed.

“I presented the terms to His Grace, a man that, by his garb, I would think to be the Baron Hilldale, another noble whom I could not guess at, and two commanders of his army. When the duke provided his answer to me, he was joined only by Lord Greenbow.”

“They are preparing to attack while we consider whether or not to offer terms directly to Magnus,” William suggested.

“No, William, I think not,” Eadric disagreed. “Lord Wherry, thank you for your service. My steward will see that you are taken care of.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty.” The lesser lord bowed low and left the tent.

“Magnus knows that if he were to attack us he would lose. The only advantages that he has right now are the trenches that his men hide in and the cannons perched behind his lines and on the walls of that castle. Attacking us leaves him without both of those advantages.”

“Then why bother demanding new terms?”

“He knows that by the rules of diplomacy I must present him with new terms,” Eadric said. “If we were to attack without offering him terms, it may be enough of a breach of honor that he could use it to convince Beldane and Steimor to throw in on his side. However, while we must play his games and submit new terms, we do not have to wait until they are discussed and decided upon.”

“What are your orders?” William asked.

“We will draw up new terms, terms that will decide the fate of this entire rebellion right here and now. We will send another messenger across the field to present those terms to the duke. However, we will not request a response. Instead, we will tell him that if he is still arrayed for battle come dawn, that we will assume that he has refused our terms and we will consider the negotiations ended.”

“What if he offers counter terms to stall further?”

“If he dares to offer counter terms, they will either be so absurd as to be rejected out of hand or they will not be offered in good faith,” Eadric said with a shrug. “He has already made it perfectly clear through his actions and the words of his nobles that Kerberos will never willingly submit to Ansgar again. Any offer to do so will be a lie. We will have every right to declare the negotiations ended and to attack regardless of his protests.”