Elf Boy's Friends

Elf-Boy's Friends 56

Northern Sarmantia

by George Gauthier

Chapter 1 The Armed Coast

Over the next two days the flotilla remained at anchor while flying wings from the aerocraft carrier, the Sovereign of the Seas, conducted long-range reconnaissance of the coastline to the East out to a distance of three hundred miles. The maps made from their observations would allow the Commodore and his staff and captains to plan the next phase of the expedition.

The coast ran fairly straight a little south of east. Running parallel with it was a string of islands about eighty miles out. The mainland was all low cliffs and rocky headlands with occasional inlets, bays, and coves, at the mouths of small rivers, some of which looked like good harbors. Inland were prosperous looking farms and fields and villages with the occasional town connected by unpaved roads. The most striking feature of the landscape was a series of small and squat bastioned towers sited on headlands and islands to command the harbors, beaches, and landing grounds.

The commodore convened a conference of his commanders plus the Corps of Discovery. It was held ashore under a sunshade erected on poles. The conferrees sat on folding camp stools around four planks pressed into service as a table which held maps and terrain sketches prepared by the scouts.

"Clearly this is a country at war or at least under the threat of raids from the sea, hence the bastioned towers intended to deter raiders and to disrupt their landings. The weapons in the towers would make a shambles of any amphibious landing, thus protecting the inhabitants inland from seaborne predators."

"Sir, how are these towers armed?" Nathan asked. "It is hard to believe that catapults and ballistas could command whole stretches of coastline. With their relatively short ranges, they would be useful to defend the towers but not to threaten landings. It would take something with the range of our magnetic cannon to do that."

"And thereby hangs the tale, Captain Lathrop. We got lucky that a scout overflew one harbor while a tower was taking target practice. No doubt this was something they were well trained in given the accuracy of their shooting."

"From the reports the scouts made it looks like these folk are equipped with heavy cannon from which solid shot or shells are propelled by combustion gasses, something we ourselves have experimented with but ultimately rejected in favor of magnetic cannon."

"How do they work, sir?"

"These cannon are thick tubes of bronze or iron or steel which are open only at one end. Bags of guncotton are loaded into the muzzle then pushed to the back of the tube. The shot or shell is then rammed home. A flame is applied to a touchhole near the back which ignites the gun cotton. Its rapid combustion generates a huge volume of gas under high pressure which pushes the shot or shell down the short bore and propels it down range."

"What exactly is guncotton?" Nathan asked for all of them.

"It is a recent invention of industrial alchemists which is also used for blasting rock loose in mining. Guncotton is made from strips or scraps of cotton fabric treated with acids to make it super-combustible and then with other chemicals to stabilize it so it does not ignite spontaneously. Its combustion is so fierce and fast that it acts like an explosive. The range of these combustion cannon is considerable. Also their gunners do not need to be mages with the magical gift of control of magnetism."

"So why did we not adopted them ourselves?"

"You are asking all the right questions, my friend. Combustion cannon must be thick to resist the great pressure of the gasses they must contain during repeated firings which can induce metal fatigue. By comparison the barrels of our magnetic cannon are thin lightweight bronze tubes which merely guide the shells."

"With cannon that heavy, gun decks must be stronger to support their weight. Even worse, these cannon are not emplaced on rotating barbettes and have no true elevating and traversing mechanisms but are supported on heavy wheeled carriages which must be manhandled to aim left or right. Wedges at the back control elevation, so aiming is clumsy and slow."

"Another major problem is recoil. As you must realize the force which pushes a shot down range shoves the cannon back just as hard. Now its backward speed is much smaller, proportionate to the difference in mass, but the momentum is the same except for frictional losses as it rumbles across the deck. After recoil pushes the cannon back, the crew uses ropes and pulleys to get it back into place, reload, and then aim all over again."

"It's a laborious process. Guncotton cannons are muzzle loaders rather than breechloaders like ours so their rate of fire is much slower. After each shot, they have to be swabbed out with a wet sponge on the end of a stick to douse any tiny scraps of burning silk left over from the propellant bags. Then comes the loading of charge and shot."

"Another problem with combustion guns is that their bags of propellant take up more room in a ship's magazine than the shells themselves do, thus limiting its combat load. Then there is the problem of accidental ignition of the highly inflammable and touchy guncotton whether as propellant or as the explosive in the shells."

"Our own shells are filled with binary incendiaries which are inert until fired whereas guncotton is a perpetual threat to any ship, especially since the stuff might be touched off by an enemy firecaster. Then again a firecaster might use his gift to prevent ignition of an enemy's guncotton propellant, effectively disarming an enemy fortress or ship at the most critical point in a battle."

"Those were the reasons why we ourselves have not equipped our navy with such problematic cannon though some consideration has been given to using guncotton in explosive shells, which would give us three kinds of projectiles: explosive, incendiary, and the antipersonnel canister shell. Now none of what I just told you is a military secret so you can write about it in your journalism or in your next book, young Altair."

"What is our next move, sir?"

"Caution must be our watchword. Before we make open contact with the locals we need to know the lay of the land. So we shall wait till both moons are down then slip a small recon team ashore via autogyro. Liam, you will do triple duty as team chief, pilot, and heavy hitter if the team has to fight its way into the clear. Your abilities with Concealment will keep the recon party hidden. And Aodh, if there is anyone stealthier than you are, well I haven't met him, so you are on the team."

"Lord Dahlderon, I'd like you to use your Mind Speech to surreptitiously eavesdrop on conversations and gain intelligence that way. Moreover your ensorcelled amulet makes you immune against hostile magic while your druidical powers should be able to handle almost any threat except a cannonball."

The young druid shrugged.

"I can neutralize their cannon easily enough by denaturing their guncotton propellant, making alchemical changes that render it noninflammable."

"You druids are just full of tricks, aren't you?"

"We should go too." Jemsen volunteered. "My gift of delving can penetrate the walls of the bastioned fort to reveal the layout, cannon emplacements, magazines, barracks, and so forth. And even in pitch darkness, I'll be able to draw plans of what I sense."

"Aside from being an experienced military scout, I don't know exactly how I could help," Karel added, "but where Jemsen goes, I go."

No one argued with that. They all know how inseparable the twins were.

"I'd like to volunteer too, sir, for a supplemental mission." Nathan ventured. "Drew Altair and I could take the submersible close in to shore to chart the harbor and its approaches. We wouldn't want to be surprised by hidden reefs or shoals if we decide to sail in openly."

"This is a job any sounder could do; it does not require a ship's captain. For that matter, any fetcher could propel the submersible. Uh why are you shaking your head, Drew?"

"On that point sir, I have to disagree with you. Maybe any fetcher could be trained to propel the submersible, but your naval fetchers have had no such training and experience. They either fly aerocraft or propel torpedoes. With Liam committed to the night mission that makes me the best fetcher for this job ."

"All right, Drew, the assignment is yours. And I suppose I must let you go along too, Nathan. I know you wouldn't want to sit idly by while your boyfriends went in harm's way."

"Thank you, sir. We'd better wait till the recon party gets back then go in about dawn. With the morning sun in their eyes, the sentries on the tower won't spot our underwater approach despite the clarity of the water."

Commodore Dekker turned to Commander Grayson, his chief of staff and said:

"Make it so."

Chapter 2 Reconnaissance

That night the autogyro landed silently in a location which the druid's psychic senses told him was not occupied by people or indeed by any creatures which might be startled and so give the alarm. They landed about a half mile from the fort in a field of sweet-smelling alfalfa surrounded by a thorny hedge intended to keep animals out but which would also conceal the aerocraft from observation. They left a sailor on guard as the rest of their small party made their way single file toward the bastioned tower.

The recon team crossed a dirt path, but did not take it since its route would bring them too near to the farmsteads of the local inhabitants. Instead they went cross-country. Twice dogs started barking, but Dahl's druidical powers put them to sleep. In just a quarter hour they arrived at the inland base of the bastioned tower or rather of the rocky outcrop atop which it had been built.

Jemsen invoked his earth magic, psychically delving the structure and the rock outcrop, sketching the layout in detail even in pitch dark.

The tower was a square building with four corner turrets. It was fifty feet tall, with walls twelve feet thick, and it stood on a platform twenty-five feet high surrounded by a ditch and glacis over which traffic could pass via a drawbridge.

Cannon in the corner turrets commanded the harbor and the shore of the bay to the East while the high angle fire of mortars emplaced in the inner courtyard could drop explosive shells on both the landward approaches and the ground immediately around the tower, turning them into killing grounds.

The earth wizard's magical senses were keen enough to pick out the concealed exit of a sally port, by which part of the garrison could slip out unobserved by an enemy force assaulting the front gate and fall upon them in a hit and run raid.

As Jemsen reconnoitered the fort the druid listened in on the conversations among the garrison. The first importance piece of intelligence was that their language was related to the Anglic which was the remote ancestor of the common tongue of Valentia. That meant that with concentration they would be able to speak with the locals rather than rely solely on the druid's Mind Speech.

Now most of the talk among the small garrison of forty men was idle chitchat about the usual things which occupied the minds of bored soldiers in isolated posts: the bland if filling rations, sergeants and discipline, gambling, and sex. They were just marking time till the next call to arms.

The raids might have been scripted, they ran so similarly. Propelled with paddles by a crew of thirty and with only the raiders aboard, the canoes were fast and maneuverable. One they reached the beach they would fan out to seize valuables, slaves, stores of grain, and the smaller sort of livestock.

These so-called Sea Wolves would time their attacks to take advantage of high tide to thread through or pass over the reefs, shallows, and shoals which might otherwise impeded their withdrawal.

The Sea Wolves were basically thieves who did not slay wantonly nor did they engage in wholesale arson of farmsteads or crops. That would be counterproductive to their long term interest in periodically shearing their victims, something the raiders could do time and again if they left the locals enough to rebuild with. The Sea Wolves were astute enough to know that a shepherd could get mutton or lamb from a sheep only once, but could shear a sheep year after year.

The garrison was too small to engage the enemy on the ground. Their job was command the harbor and beaches and to sink or disable the enemy's sea-going canoes, to whittle their numbers down while the local militia formed up to face the raiders. Lookouts atop the tower watched day and night since nighttime raids were not unknown though rare. At need they would toll a bell and light signal fires. Those who had the gift would Call Light and zip their cool blue-white globes of light along the beach and over the harbor till they found the raiders.

Only a month earlier the fort had seen off a raid by sinking four of seven large sea-going canoes. How much longer could the raiders keep accepting such losses?

Voices of the garrison carried to the watchers below.

"No raiders will show up on a night with both moons down. It is so dark you can hardly see the hand in front of your face. So how could they navigate their big canoes without running onto a reef or a shoal?"

"Don't be so sure about that Danny. Some raiders have magical senses or maybe they could land a pathfinder during the day down the coast, a spy who could light a shielded lantern on the beach to guide them in. These Sea Wolves are crafty, make no mistake."

"Yeah, well this is what I think about those sea-going bastards and their craftiness."

The young sandy-haired soldier named Daniel stepped atop the wall and pissed over the side to show his contempt for the enemy. Unfortunately in the dark he misstepped, lost his balance, and toppled forward.

His friend let out one anguished cry of "Danny!" then rushed to the wall and Called Light, expecting to see the broken body of his friend and lover on the rocks below. But Daniel was safe and sound, rescued as Liam reached out with his telekinesis to catch him and set him gently to earth.

"I'm alive! But how? And why would Sea Wolves reveal themselves to save the life of an enemy?"

"Because we are not those Sea Wolves of yours at all. Your enemies would have let you fall to your death. The fact that we did not shows that we are friends not enemies."

"Your foreign accent tells me the same thing, which is fine by me, but you'd better have a good story for the captain. Speaking of which, here he comes."

A dozen soldiers had exited through the sally port and taken positions around the recon team cutting off retreat, oblivious to the presence of the stealthy shapeshifter who had taken a position directly behind them.

The captain was a man of middle years with an authoritative air.

"We number more than a dozen, all professional soldiers armed with crossbows and short swords, while the four of you don't have any stand-off weapons, just those clumsy spears slung on a strap from your shoulders or that quarterstaff the elf-boy is holding."

"Normally I would just order my men to fall upon spies and slay them out of hand, but you spared my soldier's life when you could have let him die and slipped away in the dark. I need to know why. Who are you, and what are you doing here? You're obviously not Sea Wolves. If anything you look like a gaggle of rent boys."

"Obviously we are not Sea Wolves," Liam began, "nor, despite our looks, are we rent boys, though you are not the first to jump to that conclusion. We are explorers from a far off land which lies on the other side of the ocean. Our intentions are peaceable, but out of caution we sent in a small party to reconnoiter to learn out why the entire coast needs the protection of a string of fortresses."

"You call it reconnaissance; I might as easily call it espionage, though since we are not at war with your country I am willing to set that issue aside for now and hear you out. Will you surrender your weapons and enter the fort?"

Liam shook his head.

"Surrendering our weapons would be a pointless gesture. Our blades and spears as you call them are the least dangerous thing about us. As a war wizard of the Commonwealth of the Long River I could single-handedly level your fort with white fire. The blond boy on your left is an earth wizard who could bring your tower down with an earthquake. His twin is an air wizard. It's hard to make out in the dark, but he has already put up a shield of hardened air between our parties making us invulnerable to your crossbow bolts. If he were in a killing mood, his monomolecular air blade could slice the bodies of your soldiers in half."

Left unsaid that both he and the druid has impenetrable missile shields of their own.

"The elf-boy is a druid and one of the most powerful magical wielders on the planet. He could blind all of you with a thought and is a deadly close quarters fighter. The final member of our party is quite a stealthy fellow indeed. You cannot see him since he is a shapeshifter who has taken on the form of a black panther, but he is quite capable all by himself of taking out a dozen armed men in close combat, as I saw him do not so long ago."

"So please disabuse yourself of the notion that you hold the upper hand. You don't. We do. But we are willing to talk and will accept your invitation to the fort, but this is not a surrender, nor will we let you bind us."

"I am forced to accept your terms. But we have ignored the proprieties, I am Captain Darrow. That young soldier you rescued is named Daniel; he is well-liked by his fellows, so you won't have to worry about hostility from my men, now that we can see that you are not our traditional enemies the Sea Wolves."

Liam then made the introductions calling out to Aodh to reveal himself, which Aodh did, shifting his form from that of black panther to that of a naked youth with exquisite features, raven locks, and milky white skin, the mark of shape shifters who never burn or tan from the sun's rays.

"Whoa!" Danny breathed entranced by Aodh's beauty.

"I've never seen boys as lovely as you five. Uh, no offense to the rest of you guys, but if I had my druthers, I would choose the exotic shape shifter who has just revealed himself."

"And maybe you will get your wish, young Daniel," Captain Darrow told him, "if our visitors stay long enough, but only if I lift the rule against fraternization. Is that understood, soldier?"

Danny nodded glumly.

"I can readily appreciate your personal interest in such an exquisite boy Daniel, but my military mind is struggling to believe that such an unwarlike youth managed to kill a dozen armed men."

That put a wry smile on the war wizard's face.

"Believe it. I was there and saw it for myself how even put on alert those men died in little more time than it takes to tell the tale."

"There's a whole lot more to our shape shifter friend than meets the eye," Jemsen assured the captain

"For one thing magic has given him tripled his natural strength and faster reflexes. And he has other gifts beyond those of a shape shifter, but for tactical reasons, I shall forebear to mention them."

During their discussion in the fort, both sides were circumspect in their revelations. Liam spoke of only one small exploration vessel currently standing out to sea rather than of a flotilla of naval vessels with unmatched combat power. He did not mention their autogyro at all, and he and Dahl made no mention of portals.

Captain Darrow was quite forthcoming about his enemies the Sea Wolves, though he was reticent about his immediate tactical situation or his ability to communicate with his headquarters. Meanwhile Dahl used Mind Speech to bring Commodore Dekker and Commander Grayson up to date but kept his telepathic ability a secret from the locals. Who knew what he might glean from their unguarded thoughts?

The raiders who called themselves the Sea Wolves lived on the chain of offshore islands, the Seaward Isles, some of which were sizable enough to support populations of thousands. The soils of the islands were thin and sandy, so crop yields were much lower than on the mainland which benefitted from the alluvial soils deposited over the ages by the many short rivers which drained a tableland to the South.

The islanders had arrived a couple of centuries after the mainlanders seeking fresh lands to settle on, having abandoned the desiccated lands of their origins. Now the mainlanders were willing to share the land they called Severna, to let the newcomers settle among them as immigrants, that is as individuals who sought a place in their existing society. That meant that the newcomers would have to adopt their ways or at least to adapt to them and to agree to live under the existing laws and political arrangements in Severna.

The newcomers refused to become mere immigrants. They had always ruled themselves and had no intention of submitting to rule by others. Theirs had been a migration of an entire people in search of a new land where they would be masters in their own house. Why should bold seafarers like themselves submit to the rule of unwarlike landlubbers like the earlier settlers? No, what the newcomers wanted was to seize, rule, and settle fertile lands already cleared and put to the plow by the earlier arrivals. Overplaying their hand even more, the newcomers expected the Severnans to pay them an annual tribute for the lands they were allowed to retain on sufferance.

The mainlanders found those demands intolerable. Those were terms for a conquered people, which they were not. A spontaneous mass rising drove the newcomers away, forcing them to settle on the islands and to farm the soils as best they could all the while raiding the mainland to supplement their poor yields. Meanwhile their population doubled then double again.

The ports on the islands became naval bases for continual low-level warfare which pitted the naval power of a sea-going folk against a population without a maritime vocation other than inshore fishing and no navy to speak of. Some of the coastal statelets paid tribute so that their lands and their fishermen would be left alone. Most refused since the tribute include annual levies of youths and maidens destined to gratify the lusts of the islanders.

The raiding strategy had served the islanders well until twenty years earlier when the Severnans developed guncotton, cannon, and explosive shells and built the bastioned forts to command the sea approaches. That gave them the upper hand ashore and sharply reduced the depredations of the raiders, though the system of forts was costly to man and maintain.

The Severnans had no warships of their own nor could they have mounted their heavy cannon on ships or hit anything with them, not while both target and firing platform were in constant motion, especially given and the difficulties of aiming the clumsy guns.

Liam summed up.

"Within understandable limits you have been candid with us and we with you. We shall leave now and return to our ship and report what we have learned. Then it will be up to the diplomats as to where we shall go from here. I trust you will not try to hinder our departure."

"Nay, we pledged safe passage. Go in peace."

The recon party knew that though the garrison would not stop them, they would no doubt shadow them as they returned to their ship. Liam and Dahl teamed up to fool the watchers. Liam used a concealment and gave Captain Darrow's scouts a false trail to follow. The soldiers followed the phantom party in the wrong direction till the concealment evaporated from their minds and left the scouts mystified by how the recon party had vanished into thin air. Meanwhile the recon party stepped through a portal Dahl had opened directly to the autogyro which then flew them out to the flotilla.

Chapter 3 Resolution

At the next commander's conference Dahl reported that while their mainland informants had held some things back they had told the truth as they knew it. Dekker was inclined to believe them so he postponed Nathan and Drew's planned recon by submersible and directed that a second party check one of the offshore islands to learn the viewpoint of the raiders.

One problem with the reco was that both moons would be up that night, one early and the other late. The islanders would likely spot an approaching autogyro silhouetted against the moonlight sky or the phosphorescent waters or might come upon it after it landed. So Drew, Nathan, Dahl, and Liam went in by submersible. In a sheltered cove Liam surfaced just long enough for the other three to slip out of the submersible and swim ashore. He then let the submersible sink so that its deck was a dozen feet below the surface to await their return with just the snorkel poking above the surface invisible in the dark.

The druid's assignment was to investigate how the raiders subsisted on their sandy islands. If the druid could find a way to increase their food supplies, then the raiders would not need to steal from the mainlanders. Calling up an orca, Dahl held on to its dorsal fin as it swam along the coast, much of which was an estuarine environment with islands and peninsulas partially enclosing shallow bodies of water such as bays, bayous, coves, lagoons, inlands, sounds, and marsh. Red and black mangroves lined the shores.

Hardly any of these waters were exploited, as the druid learned by listening in on stray thoughts of various inhabitants. Fishing was an afterthought, deemed suitable employment only for boys with fishing spears. Instead the raiders farmed the higher ground inland.

To Dahl this was a mistake born of transplanting the farming practices from their old country to quite a different environment. Their food crops were simply ill-suited to the sandy soil and the oceanic environment of the islands. Instead of living in semi-starvation the raiders should have exploited the estuaries which were one of the most fecund and productive ecosystems on the planet. A hundred species of fish such as mullet, skipjack, sea trout, and redfish swam above thousands of acres of sea grass meadows in search of prey like crabs, shrimp, and smaller fish. Everywhere were beds of oysters, scallops, and clams, there for the taking.

Instead of crops the islanders might rely on fish and shellfish. If they changed their practices, they would not need to raid the mainland for foodstuffs, which was the main though not the only motive for their depredations. The question was how to motivate such a drastic change in their way of living. Clearly stopping their raids would be the first step, but the druids had to give them an alternative way of earning an honest living.

Nathan and Drew's job was to eavesdrop on the locals. Nathan and Drew weren't sure how the locals dressed so they went in naked, figuring that would let them pass for rent boys. They certainly looked the part, a pair of slender youths totally glabrous with nary a feather on them anywhere. Both were impossibly cute red-heads: Drew with auburn locks and Nathan a carrot top and both looking to be no older than their mid teens, a pair of walking wet dreams.

The boys carried their weapons on a strap held low in one hand so as to be inconspicuous. Nathan was armed with his naval cutlass. Drew's strap had three pouches, one with a pair of steel spheres, the other with three glass globes packed with finely ground chili pepper, while the third held a supply of soporific darts to put foes asleep instead of killing or crippling them. After so much experience in combat, both were heartily sick of killing and hoped to avoid it if at all possible. After all, the raiders were products of their culture, which did not necessarily mean that they were evil persons as individuals.

Their recon went off almost without a hitch. The boys listened outside a local tavern as rowdy Sea Wolves in their cups bragged about their raids. Some were proud that they had counted coup, merely stunning enemies rather than killing them out of hand. One raider told the story of how he and his band had helped put out a fire started accidentally by the mainlanders themselves, then withdrew, leaving the locals unmolested except for the loss of a few chickens. The raiders after all were after loot. Killing and wanton destruction would serve no purpose.

Older raiders complained that the hunting had not been so good since the mainlanders had invented their infernal cannon. Many a raid had had to return empty handed with half their canoes and crews lost. The younger sort were turning to fishing rather than raiding for a vocation. Their chatter essentially confirmed the Severnans' version of events.

The pair retreated toward the shore but ran into a trio of three rough looking types clearly the worse for strong drink.

"My oh my! What do we have here? A couple of naked beauties out for a stroll. You must tell me where you two work. I'll be sure to come by during working hours."

He companion scowled.

"Has it escaped your notice my friend that it is during hours right now?"

"Now where do you two mainland boys think you're going? Your evenings should find you on your backs or knees or all fours in a brothel or upstairs in a tavern entertaining a lusty clientele."

"Maybe they're a pair of lovebirds who are just slipping off for a private tryst. Is that it boys? Not to worry, I'd not begrudge you a bit of joy in your lives, but make it quick or you'll be in trouble with your masters."

The third guy was a little less under the influence and spotted the scabbard of Nelson's cutlass which he had been trying to keep out of sight behind his legs.

"By the gods, these boys are armed!"

The trio pulled out wicked looking dirks and spread out the better to come at the boys from three sides, but Nathan snapped a single electrum spark at each of them, distracting them long enough for Drew to get his soporific darts into play. The boys left them sleeping where they had slumped to the ground though Drew did adjust the posture of the kindly raider to make him comfortable during his drug-induced slumber.

With his gift of sounding Nathan had no trouble locating the Albacore. The boys swam out and tapped on the hull to signal Liam to surface and take them aboard. Moments later Dahl used Mind Speech to let Liam know he had finished his mission. The trip back to the flotilla was uneventful except for Drew and Nathan's celebratory victory shag.

Following a shower, a meal, and a good night's sleep, the recon party made their report which confirmed Dekker's earlier understanding of the situation. At another conference he explained what he intended to do about the raiders.

"This is not our war, but even without taking sides we ourselves inevitably would come under attack by raiders. An eastward course would find us running a gantlet between the warring parties, so we will not be heading eastward. Instead we will strike out across the open ocean in a northeasterly direction and see what lands lie between the new found continent of Sarmantia and the South coast of Valentia."

"Still I intend to make the mainlanders a gift of a single military technology which would help them counter these never-ending raids, a technology that is within their technical capabilities. Anyone care to guess what that is?"

The twins frowned.

"Hmm, it wouldn't be autogyros. These folks don't have the industrial base and precision manufacturing techniques to make airfoil rotors and wings, wire wheels, bearings, and so forth."

Liam nodded.

"Their cannon are clumsy but they do a reasonable job of defending their coasts. Without a sea-going navy they don't need magnetic cannon which they could not produce anyway, especially the precision elevating and traversing gear."

"It's flying wings, isn't it sir?" Nathan asked.

"That is an astute guess, Captain Lathrop. You are correct."

"Flying wings would let airborne scouts bring early warning of raids, making the defenders' task that much easier. Early warning would greatly reduce the likelihood of successful raids which depend on surprise."

"This means that we will have to reveal ourselves fully so we can contact their political and military leaders. So we might be on this coast for some weeks while we set things up for the technology transfer. During that interval we will send our aerial scouts as we always. If we see raiders heading toward the mainland we will inform the local authorities and let them handle it. We ourselves will not give battle."

The flotilla approached but lay offshore rather than under the guns of the fortress while Dekker made the arrangements with Captain Darrow. It was arranged that in a few days they would sail to the headquarters of the coastal defense forces.

Meanwhile the young soldier Danny got his tryst with the exotic shapeshifter he fancied. Danny proved to be a fine lover and an all around nice guy. No wonder he was popular.

After a few days the flotilla sailed to a broad bay fifty miles to the East. The flotilla chose an anchorage well out of range of the guns of the twin fortresses guarding the military headquarters for that whole stretch of coast. The next day Dekker sent a trio of flying wings aloft to demonstrate their utility for scouting.

Since Nathan was the inspiration for the flying wing, he briefed the leaders on its construction and use. Even artisanal manufacturing techniques were capable of turning out perfectly good aerocraft using Commonwealth blueprints. While local manufacturing geared up to produce scout planes, their fetchers went through flight training under the guidance of Navy flyers. Over the next few weeks the locals proved themselves ready to stand on their own two feet. It was likely that in a matter of months the raiders would realize that further raids were suicide missions and cease.

Meeting with the leaders of the mainlanders, Dekker told them that once the sea lanes were cleared of raiders, then merchants could establish commercial ties with the Benign Coast, represented by councillors Nottmeyer and Ulliel. The Commonwealth had shown them the way around the Northwest Cape. The future looked good for all the lands the Corps of Discovery had encountered on its long mission to the Southern Ocean.

Before the flotilla left for Valentia Dekker staged the firepower demonstration which the mainlanders had asked for. They wanted to see how magnetic cannon compared to their own guns. Sailing his ships in line of battle the flotilla blasted away at a tiny islet with both shells and bombs from aerocraft. The locals were duly impressed.

Dahl spoke of future years when the islanders would finally accept that they had to change their ways and allow the druids to help them transition to a new economy which would end food shortages by exploiting the estuaries which could supply all the food the islanders needed. The druids would also introduce crops which would do well in their sandy soils.

In the fullness of time, the Corps of Discovery pointed its bows in a northwesterly direction. They sailed through largely empty waters and discovered nothing they had not already seen, finally reaching the shores of Valentia at a point just beyond the Eastern Dividing Range. It was time to return to their home port, so Liam opened a space portal to the naval base at Southport.

Mission accomplished.

Chapter 4 Dreadnought

Months later a follow-up naval expedition called at the Benign Coast.

"So this is the port of Argyll. I see few signs of the battle that raged here just months ago." Admiral Van Zant commented to his flag captain Nathan Lathrop aboard the Arctic Tern.

Nathan's heavy frigate and her escort the sloop Sandpiper were on approach to the port on the Benign Coast having passed through a rift opened by Nathan's shipmate and lover the war wizard Liam. Also aboard was another boyfriend of theirs the naval architect Karl-Eike Thyssen plus a passenger, a dwarf, a representative of the wily business agent Lennart.

This was no voyage of discovery like the first time the two ships had visited the Benign Coast. On this mission the Admiral and his favorite naval architect represented the Navy and its Bureau of Ships of which the Admiral was the chief. The purpose of the mission was to secure berthing rights for the Commonwealth Navy so that the port would provide a friendly haven for naval patrols and civilian shipping.

Unlike a naval base which was owned and controlled by the military, with berthing rights the navy's ships would tie up at civilian docks and would obtain goods and services on commercial terms from local suppliers. It was a win-win situation which provided security along the coast to protect trade and fisheries and also created businesses and jobs in shipyards, chandleries, warehouses for naval stores and comestibles, dock workers, etc.

The admiral would handle the negotiations. Meanwhile the naval architect would assess the ability of the locals to supply the Navy's needs. He would also start a transfer of technology to local shipbuilders. They would soon have a chance to learn how to build the style of sturdy ocean going vessels which the Commonwealth itself had learned from the people of Nordstrand on the northern coast of the continent.

"I am so glad you picked me for this duty, sir," Eike enthused. "I so seldom get to travel or to set aside my duties at the Bureau of Ships."

"For very good reasons, though the Navy has let you travel to far off lands when we could be sure you had proper protection as you had in Nordstrand and later during your lightning visit to the Western Dividing Range. Otherwise the navy is loth put at risk someone who is not only its most promising naval architect but also the Commonwealth's most important inventor."

"Not to mention sir, that he is one of our richest citizens as well." Nathan pointed out.

"Rich beyond the dreams of avarice, is what Lennart promised with my very first invention, the wire wheel, and he has made it come true."

"That is my cue to thank the navy for granting me passage to Argyll," said the dwarf. "Lennart expects that this new flavoring called vanilla will be lucrative for all involved in the trade. My job is to see how soon the locals can ramp up production and what quantity of extract they can export to the Commonwealth. So I will be staying on for a while in town."

"Look sir, tied up at the dock serving the fish market you can see a couple of deep water boats hailing from the Commonwealth. I understand that such vessels fish the waters of the Great Gyre, then salt or freeze their catch of tuna, cod, and hake and bring it both to Valentia and here to Sarmantia."

"Oh, I always thought fishermen put their catch on ice to keep it fresh?" Eike asked.

"That is true for those who fish offshore who are only hours or at most a day or two from market, but fish would spoil over a voyage of many days. Instead these fishermen land their catch on the small islands we discovered, gut them and either salt them down or have firecasters freeze them solid. During the voyage the firecasters monitor the temperature of the catch and keep it cold. Fresh frozen fish is a whole new industry with natural markets on both sides of the ocean."

Over the next three weeks Van Zant made the arrangements with the local authorities including their military, the harbor master, trade factors and others. He also installed a small naval purchasing staff in offices near the harbor. In the fullness of time a Commonwealth war wizard opened a rift though which the rest of the flotilla sailed. The plan was for the flotilla to operate out of Argyll on a six month rotation with other flotillas from Southport.

The flagship of this flotilla was not an aerocraft carrier but a dreadnought, an entirely new kind of ship, the first of her class. She was designed for both naval combat and shore bombardment.

The Sea Dragon, as she was called, bristled with guns. She carried no less than twenty-four magnetic cannon with bronze barrels twenty feet long for extended range. They were set in pairs on twelve rotating barbettes. Eight of these were set amidships abeam, fore and aft of the main mast. Four more barbettes were set on the centerline of the ship, one pair toward the bow and another the stern with the rear barbette of each pair standing higher than the barbette in front of it, allowing it to shoot right over its twin.

All guns could traverse through a full one-hundred eighty degrees. That gave the ship a broadside of sixteen guns while eight guns could be trained on any target fore or aft. And they could shoot not only incendiaries and canister shot but also the new exploding shells packed with guncotton. Each barbette was equipped with an optical range finder, a tube with prisms at both ends and an eyepiece in the middle which relied on triangulation to calculate range to target. Maximum range was two and a half miles though hits at extreme range were as much a matter of luck as good aim what with the wind and all.

She had the same hull as an aerocraft carriers which made the dreadnought five hundred feet long, flush decked, and junk-rigged, her battened sails raised on three short solid unstayed masts, which meant there was no standing rigging which might have interfered with the traverse of the guns. Another advantage of a junk rig was that it was simple and required few hands to sail the ship. Indeed her sails could be reefed from the deck by pulling on hawsers.

She did embark modest aviation assets: three flying wings for scouting and a pair of autogyros stored in a hanger below decks. The autogyros were utility aerocraft not bombers.

For extra punch as well as defense she had a contingent of wizards and mages including a war wizard, fetchers, weather and water wizards, and a firecaster. The weather and water wizards helped sail the ship whereas the others had little to do except during combat. The fetchers did help load stores, and the firecaster kept the beer cold. Sailors were rationed two pints a day, one with the midday meal and the other with supper.

The dreadnought's captain was the Dekker's old chief of staff Commander Grayson, recently promoted to Captain. For this peace-time deployment the Navy had not put the flotilla under the command of an officer of higher rank. Instead Grayson wore a second hat, that of flotilla commander, which came with a brevet promotion to Commodore which might become permanent depending on Admiral Van Zant's report on how well he handled command of a flotilla.

In contrast with Commodore Dekker's mission of exploration and discovery Grayson's mission was coastal patrolling, protection of the sea lanes, and showing the flag. One of its tasks was keeping a weather eye on the lands of the Communalists in the far south. Another was patrolling the new shipping route around the Northwest Cape to Severna as the lands along the northern coast of the continent were called.

Since the naval architects and shipyard workers with Eike would be spending some weeks in Argyll they took rooms at the same inn on the outskirts of town where Liam and others had stayed on the first voyage. Lennart's representative Taggart stayed there too. The food was tasty and the service unobtrusive and supportive.

Eike's wants were simple though he did like his creature comforts. One thing he emphatically disliked was household chores. During five years as a castaway he had had to do everything for himself. These days, as a man of means, he saw no reason why others should not be paid to do the cooking, cleaning, laundry, hewing of wood, and hauling of water. He had better uses for his energies whether at the shipyard, tinkering in his workshop, or for quality time with his lovers.

Liam shared his room while Nathan was a frequent overnight guest whenever he could get away from his ship. Whether as a pair or as a threesome, the boys made love with abandon, a glorious, acrobatic, athletic, and loud expression of their passionate love for one another.

The boys and the other guests liked to sit of an evening on the terrace facing the snow capped mountains. The boys were comfortably dressed in the square-cut low-rise short shorts the twins had made popular. The boys favored that fashion because the shorts displayed to advantage so much of their trim, taut, and tanned bodies. And with fine clean limbed bodies like theirs would it not be selfish if they did not share such youthful male beauty with the world at large?

Lounging on the terrace was the perfect way to close out a busy day. The chairs were comfortable, the service attentive but unobtrusive, and the company congenial. As they relaxed over a desert wine the dwarf Taggart asked how the boys had met.

"Ah, thereby hangs a tale, or rather two of them," Eike replied. "I'll go first."

"For reasons I won't bother with I became a solitary castaway on an uninhabited island starting when I was ten years old, after my folks died and left me alone. It was Nathan who rescued me after five lonely years and reintroduced me to the wider world."

"I was utterly naive, a sexually innocent fifteen year old with no idea about love and sex. Nathan cautioned me and protected me from the unwanted attentions a cute blonde boy like me would draw. Lest I be inveigled into pleasuring sweet talking sailors he warned them to keep their hands off."

"Once settled on the mainland I blossomed and come into my own. In time I discovered my sexuality and made my own choices. I realized that I preferred boys to girls and that I fancied one particular boy: my rescuer and mentor and best friend Nathan Lathrop."

"That is such a sweet story of romance blossoming slowly from friendship to love. Was it that way with you Liam, you and Nathan?"

"It wasn't anything like that at all." Liam said shaking his head. "With us it was love at first sight or maybe lust while love came later. When we met aboard the Petrel we both were thunderstruck with an instant and overwhelming physical attraction. We stood there staring, our faces marked with longing. I clenched my fists in an effort to keep himself from making a complete fool of himself over the beautiful boy standing in front of me. I opened my mouth to speak but nothing came out but an inarticulate squawk."

"Ha! I wasn't any better off myself," Nathan allowed. "Liam had been on lookout on the crow's perch, relishing the wind in his hair and the kiss of the sun on his bare skin. So there he stood stark naked, all slender ad muscular and bronzed and glabrous. I bit my lower lip and blushed furiously. In Liam I saw the kind of boy I had always hoped to meet, a boy I could give my heart to. Captain Dekker could not help but notice. He looked over to sailing master Crawley and rolled his eyes, but he indulged our love affair as long as we were discreet, not that we fooled anyone. Our first voyage on the Petrel was our honeymoon cruise."

Eventually the ships of the flotilla deployed to their initial patrol zones. Grayson sent the Gull and a sloop south and ordered the Cormorant and a sloop to operate out of Argyll. That left the Arctic Tern and the sloop Sandpiper to escort the Sea Dragon to which Van Zant shifted his flag for a voyage around the Northwest Cape to the northern coast of Sarmantia. That made for crowded cabins and a crowded wardroom, which had to accommodate the admiral, the commodore, and their staffs plus the dreadnought's own captain and officers.

Unfortunately what was intended as a show-the-flag operation turned into a full-fledged naval battle.

The three ships sailed out to sea so as to round the Northwest Cape well away from its reef, tricky currents, whirlpools, and islets made of iron ore which played havoc with their magnetic compasses. They dropped anchor at the most westerly of the coastal forts, the one the Corps of Discovery had visited which was commanded by Captain Darrow. His news was grim.

The mainlanders' defense of their shores had succeeded only too well. Scouting with flying wings had cost the raiders the vital element of surprise. Reports the scouts provided were immediately relayed along the new infrasound messaging network which the Commonwealth Navy had helped the locals establish. By the time the raiders reached the shore, the forts were on high alert and militias fully formed to repel them.

Unable to raid the mainland, the raiders on their overpopulated islands were on short rations. Scouts reported that the sea going war canoes of the Sea Wolves were massing not for a raid but for an all-out invasion. They meant to make a landing and establish themselves permanently on the mainland, killing or expelling the current inhabitants of the target district and seizing their homes, fields, livestock, and goods.

It looked like the invasion would kick off any day now. The mainlanders' defenses against raids would never withstand an all out assault by hundreds of war canoes concentrating on one stretch of coast. About all that they could do would be to make the invasion as costly as possible and resettle refugees from the lands the invaders would occupy.

"That is not going to happen." Admiral Van Zant declared. "Our Governing Council anticipated this contingency and addressed it in our orders. If there is one thing the Commonwealth of the Long River does not abide it is invaders whether they be trolls, barbarians, centaurs, Communalists, or Sea Wolves. Nature may be red in tooth and claw, but the Commonwealth would like human society on Haven behave otherwise. So we will intervene with the full might of our Navy to protect our friends and trading partners."

"I am sorry I have to invoke the combat contingency clause of our orders, Grayson, but pursuant to those orders I am assuming command of the flotilla. Until I relinquish command, you will concentrate on fighting your ship as my flag captain."

"We both understood that your role as commodore of the flotilla was provisional and predicated on a show-the-flag mission, not a full-fledged naval engagement. In the coming battle we both must play to our strengths. Mine is experience in command of a flotilla and of a squadron in more battles that I care to remember. Your is your ship handling and ship fighting ability. Indeed you are far better qualified to command this dreadnought than I. The Sea Dragon is a type of ship I myself have never sailed on before much less captained. You know your ship and your men, and they know you."

Grayson nodded.

"Much as it pains me to give up my role of commodore, if only temporarily, I accept the logic of the situation, and will not let my personal feelings affect my performance in the role you have assigned me."

"I knew I could count on you, Grayson."

Van Zant had Liam contact the Cormorant and Gull via infrasound messaging, directing them to designated positions on their charts. Liam then opened rifts for the frigates and accompanying sloops, letting them join up with the Sea Dragon and her escorts bringing the flotilla up to its full strength of three frigates, three sloops, and one dreadnought. All together the force mounted no less than fifty-four rapid fire magnetic cannon plus the small swivel guns, more than enough firepower to blow the Sea Wolves invasion force out of the water.

Van Zant briefly considered asking for reinforcements from Southport, say an aerocraft carrier plus escorting frigates and sloops, but decided they would not be necessary. Besides he very much wanted to test the combat power of the new class of dreadnoughts. He planned on a running battle with the invaders where the Navy would have all the advantages of surprise, speed, maneuver, firepower, and combat magic.

Thanks to his weather and air wizards his ships would always have the wind in their sails and the weather gage. That would let them sail faster and more nimbly than canoes whose paddlers would have to work in relays lest they all tire at once.

The admiral's plan took advantage of the key weakness of war canoes which was that they were not really naval combatants at all. Oh some of them mounted a small ballista at their bow but even that was intended against militia formed up on land to resist a landing. Basically war canoes lacked anti-ship armaments. The war canoes were really intended for ferrying raiders across the narrow sea between the islands and the mainland. The Sea Wolves had never fought a naval battle. They had no training or experience in boarding tactics which was their only real option against the flotilla -- other than turning tail and running away.

The three sloops were sent out as bait to attack the vanguard of the enemy force. Now three sloops did not look like much of a threat to a force of over four hundred war canoes with crews of thirty warriors each so at first they were ignored. That changed when the sloops harried the war canoes in an effort to enrage the raiders and get them to follow them westward into the trap Van Zant had set for them.

At first the sloops used only with the six torpedoes each carried, sinking fifteen canoes. The invaders tried to close the distance, but the crews of the sloops taunted the invaders with rude gestures then turned away as if to flee. The raiders paddled furiously finally getting close enough to engage with the ballistas mounted in their bows which shot large arrows, none of which hit anything vital. Most missed entirely, as the fetchers who had propelled the torpedoes had raised a missile shield which redirected the flight of most arrows and made them plunge into the sea. The same tactic worked against the bolts fired from the raiders' crossbows.

To provoke them further, mages on the sloops attacked war canoes with levin bolts and ball lightning sinking a dozen more. The only weather wizard on the sloops directed a waterspout at a group of war canoes and swamped or capsized a couple of dozen of them.

Though the battle went largely as the admiral had hoped, it was not entirely one-sided. The raiders had mages too, though they were ill-trained and dispersed throughout their force so they could not concert their powers. Some war canoes actually got close enough to lob fireballs at the sloops. Only one sloop had a firecaster who could snuff out the fireballs flung at his ship. The crews of the other sloops manned the hand pumps and their water wizards their fire towers to suppress the flames while their gunners dealt with the threat.

The raiders also scored hits with levin bolts on the two sloops that did not have a war mage able to block them with ball lightning. As damage control parties put out the fires and patched the holes in their hulls the sloops trained their guns and countered with canister shot, raking the enemy vessels with a storm of lead bullets, turning them into a bloody shambles.

One sloop had to repel boarders when fetchers on two war canoes telekinetically lifted teams of raiders onto her deck. The ensuing close action was fast and furious, pitting the raiders' swords against the airguns, bayonets and cutlasses of the crew. In addition, the high pressure stream from the sloop's fire tower flushed those who had boarded amidships back into the sea.

The war canoes abruptly veered off, heading south toward the mainland, abandoning a fruitless fight that had already significantly diminished their invasion force. The leaders of the Sea Wolves reckoned that they could thwart the naval attack by breaking contact and making for the mainland, there to carry out their true mission which was to effect a landing, then head inland to seize territory.

Warned of the change of course by his aerial scouts Van Zant changed his plan. If he could not lure the enemy into a trap he would use his speed advantage to place his flotilla athwart the enemy's axis of advance then lie in wait for them behind what looked like a light haze but was really a concealment raised by Liam. Hidden by the magical screen Van Zant's warships were arrayed in a shallow arc with the dreadnought in the center and the frigates on its flanks.

With the coast in sight the raiders thought they were home free, but just then the flotilla's war wizards dropped the Concealment, and the ships opened fire. The frigates concentrated on the enemy's van while the dreadnought took advantage of its longer range to attack the rear of the invasion force. As the sloops caught up, they too attacked the rear of the formation. The raiders were trapped between two fires as explosive shells and incendiaries rained down on them.

This was an attack for which they had no counter except to close with, swarm, and board their enemy. Thirty canoes on either flank targeted the sloops which had only two guns each. Taking them out would open an escape route.

Though armed with only two magnetic cannon, the crews of the sloops also had shoulder fired airguns which they discharged at canoes which came within small arms range, taking a frightening toll of their crews.

Grayson came to their aid directing the Sea Dragon to lob her shells high enough to arc over the intervening ships and rain down on the enemy trying to close with the three sloops. This was where the optical range finders really came into their own.

As the formation of war canoes thinned and broke up, Grayson urged a change in plan.

"Let's get right in among them, sir. My forward guns can blast a path into the center of their formation. Once we have them on all sides we can bring all our guns to bear on the enemy at once, shooting in all directions except aft. The frigates would follow and shoot in every direction except forwards."

"Talk about thinking outside the box! Grayson, this must be the first time in naval warfare when deliberately letting yourself get surrounded was used as an offensive tactic. Still, it would make our guns that much more effective if we were able to train all of them on the enemy at the same time. Make it so."

The Sea Dragon took the lead and charged at full speed into the ragged formation of war canoes, blasting a path with the eight guns which could be trained forward. Her mass and momentum let her crush canoes which did not get out her way fast enough.

As she moved deeper the dreadnought began firing to port and starboard as well with incendiaries, explosive shells, and canister. Missile shields held by a fetcher and air wizard largely protected the dreadnought's crew from ballista bolts and crossbow quarrels so they could work her guns and her sails with near impunity. Her twenty-four guns tore the heart out of the enemy force.

War canoes that got close enough to the dreadnought so as to be under her main guns fared no better. The Sea Dragon's water wizard used Dekker's old standing wave technique to keep the war canoes at arm's length, momentarily held stationary with respect to the ship. That made them sitting ducks for grape shot from the warship's swivel guns which were emplaced in sponsons along her sides. The swivel guns also swept away teams of raiders lifted telekinetically for an attempted boarding.

Following Sea Dragon's example the three frigates advanced into the melee adding their broadsides to the furious sea battle while the two dozen naval infantry aboard each frigate shot their airguns at war canoes that approached to board.

Nathan's Arctic Tern did sterling service protecting their rear. The raiders soon learned to their sorrow that a frigate could bring six of her eight guns to bear in any direction including directly aft. She did not have any blind spots or weak points. Besides, the two dozen naval infantry embarked and her crew with both armed with airguns. Arctic Tern's actions that day won Nathan a fourth Mention in Dispatches.

To add to the enemy's woes Liam took to the air in a flying yoke and directed streams of white fire no less eight times at a concentrated wedge of war canoes trying to break out of the entrapment. Spent, the war wizard sank wearily to his station on the quarterdeck of the Arctic Tern.

It was all too much for the raiders who by then had lost two-thirds of their fleet of war canoes. Casting their weapons down at their feet though not overboard, the raiders raised empty hands, pleading for quarter, which Van Zant granted, ordering an immediate ceasefire. He was satisfied that the destruction of their invasion fleet had broken the power of the sea raiders once and for all. The admiral had never wanted a battle of annihilation, as he would have against trolls. Besides, Van Zant needed the survivors to report the fate which befell the invasion. After plucking their shipwrecked comrades out of the sea, the remnants of the once mighty force of war canoes limped home.

"Hell's Bells!" the admiral exclaimed jubilantly as the extent of their victory became apparent. "That's the last we'll see of the damned Sea Wolves -- Sea Curs is more like it."

"Congratulations on your victory sir!"

"It's our victory, Grayson, yours and mine, as the record will show. I'll make sure of that."

"The Lords of the Admiralty will be pleased with this proof of the dreadnought concept, that a ship with lots of guns can hit as hard as an aerocraft carrier can with its bombers. The dreadnought can deliver more sustained fires whether in naval combat or for shore bombardment. Bombing quickly tires pilots whether they are using flying yokes or autogyros to move themselves and their payloads. The gunners have a much easier task. They just push shells down a long tube to impart the momentum which carries them to the target. That's something they can keep up all day."

Grayson nodded then added:

"It is also easier to recruit gunners than flyers. Masters of magnetism have limited employment options in the civilian world whereas fetchers can find lucrative employment in aviation, iron roads, and long distance trucking. More than a few of our pilots join up for aviator training but leave once they have fulfilled their service obligation."

"What is really great about a dreadnought is that unlike a carrier the Sea Dragon looks highly dangerous, bristling as she is with two dozen magnetic cannon in twin barbettes and swivel guns in sponsons. At a glance you know she is a warship capable of raining death and destruction on her foes. Aerocraft carriers lack that intimidation factor. Without guns or even old fashioned ballistas and catapults they don't look much like naval combatants at all, nor is it any wonder. Carriers are really just ferries for their aviation assets, aren't they?"

"Ha! Be careful you don't voice that opinion where a carrier officer might hear it and take umbrage."

"I won't start it, but the next time I hear some insufferable carrier type brag that there are only two kinds of naval vessels, namely carriers and targets, I will lay it on him."

"In our enthusiasm for the dreadnought, let's not lose sight of the fact that carriers are damn powerful warships able to exert control over a huge area of sea out to their radius of action which is much greater than the range of naval gunfire. A carrier can sink a dreadnought long before she gets within gun range. Besides, carriers don't need to be heavily armed. Their escorts defend them from attack leaving them to conduct flight operations unhindered by the enemy."

"Hmm, sir, someday we will run into an enemy capable of aerial bombardment, whether from shore or from a carrier. What then? Has the Admiralty even thought about defense against aerial attack?"

"Yes, my friend, but without a real threat work at the Bureau of Ships is still at the conceptual level. I expect we will eventually design anti-air guns which might be twice as long our magnetic cannon but with a bore only half the size. A longer tube and a lighter shell makes for greater range and ceiling, enough to reach out and up to any threat."

"They would likely shoot a shell packed with gun cotton and steel ball bearings paired with a dual action contact and clockwork fuze. If the shell didn't hit something, it would go off anyway, hopefully at the right altitude and near enough to do damage. The ideal fuze would be somehow triggered by mere proximity to a target, but no one has any idea how to make that work."

"Anti-air guns would also need a robust traversing and elevation mechanism to move not only the gun but also its gunner, letting him keep his target in his sights. Time will tell."

"What do you think will happen to the islanders now?" Grayson then asked.

Van Zant shrugged. "It's out of our hands now, and not a proper military concern at all."

Van Zant did not care all that much about what might happen to the islanders. Having seen what the extermination of the islanders of the Great Inland Freshwater Sea at the hands of the trolls and their genocide in Amazonia the admiral was heartily sick of bloodthirsty invaders, and raiders, and pirates, and barbarians of any stripe. Were it in his power he would gladly send them all to the bottom of the sea.

In the long term the admiral thought that with no alternative but slow starvation, the inhabitants of the Seaward Isles would accept an offer of help from the druids. Their plan would reorient the economy of the Seaward Isles away from their familiar crops which were unsuited to the islands' soils. The alternative the druids would offer was to exploit the rich resources of the estuarine environment along their shores.

The aftermath was anti-climactic. The flotilla paid a visit to the Severnan military command headquarters down the coast where they accepted the grateful thanks of the locals for saving them from invasion. The locals granted the Commonwealth Navy local berthing rights.

Before returning to Argyll the admiral restored full command of the flotilla to Commodore Grayson and put him in for a major decoration. Van Zant also urged the Admiralty to make Grayson's brevet rank permanent and assign him a proper flag captain. His boldness and flawless execution of the battle plan had contributed mightily to their victory.

As for Grayson's innovative immersion tactic, that was well worth an article in the Naval Journal under the rubric: Lessons Learned. Authorship in that most prestigious of professional publications would make Grayson's name known to the naval community.

At Argyll Liam opened a rift directly to the Bureau of Ships in the capital for the admiral and his staff, Eike and his fellow naval architects and shipwrights, plus Lennart's representative the dwarf Taggart. Liam himself stayed deployed aboard the Arctic Tern with Nathan Lathrop.

Author's Note

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This story is entirely fictional, with no resemblance intended to any person living or dead. It is one of an occasional series about the further adventures of the characters introduced in the fantasy novel 'Elf-Boy and Friends' and published by Nifty Archive. The chief protagonist of the novel, Dahlderon, elf-boy and druid, usually appears in these stories in a supporting rather than starring role. Each story in the sequence focuses on several of the large cast of characters in the ongoing saga which now exceeds Tolstoy's War and Peace in word count, if in no other measure.

Readers who like these stories might want to try my two series 'Daphne Boy' and 'Naked Prey' in the Gay/Historical section of the Archive. My 'Jungle Boy' series of Hollywood tales is posted in the Gay/Authoritarian section. The series 'Andrew Jackson High' relates the trials and tribulations of five of its gay students. For links to these and other stories, look on the list of Prolific Authors on the Archive.