and Her Serenity minds us, and that’s all I need to know.”
There was a rumble of agreement, and although Rokus’s expression was discontented, he didn’t argue with the speaker. Arman drew back, and slipped away before they noticed him lurking.
Interesting. He’d heard these rumours of men with supernatural powers before, of course. The Darshian myths were part of their primitive animistic religion, and Arman had long dismissed them as unfit for an intelligent person to pay any attention to. So, apparently, did the Darshianese, who had readily adopted the religion of their masters as self-evidently superior. Arman was only concerned if these myths were to affect morale in any way, but he found it encouraging that his soldiers’ common sense overruled the fanciful.
However, he knew something they did not. The blocking of Kurlik Pass had not been a simple rock fall. The pass had been mined with powerful explosives and when the Prij had invaded and taken over Urshek, the mines had been triggered by the retreating northerners, sending thousands of tons of rock into the narrow pass, effectively cutting northern Darshian off from contact with the south, save by sea, which traffic the Prij dominated with ease.
The loss of the land route had been a blow, but the temporary setback had proved in the end most beneficial to the Prij in closing and defending the border. Nonetheless, it had irritated Her Serenity’s father, then sovereign, that the Darshianese had a weapon the Prij did not. He had ordered, as had his daughter after his death, that all efforts be made to discover the nature of the mysterious explosive, one far more powerful than the uko powder the Prij used in small bombs and their ship cannons. In the twenty years since the pass was blocked, the Prijian armourers had not been able to recreate it. It was thought to be the same explosive which powered the huge cannons which overlooked Darshek’s harbour and which, together with the natural mountain barriers to the sides and behind Darshek, made the northern capital impregnable while at the same time allowing it to dominate the trade to the north, especially with Andon.
At least until now, Arman thought grimly as he walked back to his tent, keeping to the shadows. The discovery of a previously uncharted route through the southern range had suddenly made Her Serenity’s long-held ambitions possible, and a plan had been drawn up by the Lord Commander to choke off Darshek’s supply routes from the interior to its south and from the sea. Arman’s forces were the first phase of the attack to secure control of the main inland trade route and the seven large settlements along it which acted as trading centres for the surrounding farming lands. Rare mineral ores were mined at Albon, Darbin and Vinri which were important to Darshek. Through these settlements and the access through the Kislik range to Darshek plain, the Prij would control both grain and mineral trade, as well as communications between north and south. Once these had been taken into Prijian hands and the supplies diverted south to Urshek and beyond that, to Kuplik, a siege would commence seawards, with the Prij navy creating a blockade outside the range of the mighty cannons, preventing goods and boats from Andon and other ocean trade routes entering the territory.
It was a long-term strategy, but a sound one so far as it went, and Arman’s qualms were for after the success of the siege and Darshek’s capitulation, rather than the possibility of that capitulation. He had his orders and he would obey them. They were to sweep forward through the trade route to Kislik, the last village before the northern mountain range some hundred miles from Darshek, where a defence fort would be established under Jozo’s command as a northern barrier against incursions from Darshek itself. Troops would be left at the villages between there and the southern border, and thus communications and supply lines would be
There was a rumble of agreement, and although Rokus’s expression was discontented, he didn’t argue with the speaker. Arman drew back, and slipped away before they noticed him lurking.
Interesting. He’d heard these rumours of men with supernatural powers before, of course. The Darshian myths were part of their primitive animistic religion, and Arman had long dismissed them as unfit for an intelligent person to pay any attention to. So, apparently, did the Darshianese, who had readily adopted the religion of their masters as self-evidently superior. Arman was only concerned if these myths were to affect morale in any way, but he found it encouraging that his soldiers’ common sense overruled the fanciful.
However, he knew something they did not. The blocking of Kurlik Pass had not been a simple rock fall. The pass had been mined with powerful explosives and when the Prij had invaded and taken over Urshek, the mines had been triggered by the retreating northerners, sending thousands of tons of rock into the narrow pass, effectively cutting northern Darshian off from contact with the south, save by sea, which traffic the Prij dominated with ease.
The loss of the land route had been a blow, but the temporary setback had proved in the end most beneficial to the Prij in closing and defending the border. Nonetheless, it had irritated Her Serenity’s father, then sovereign, that the Darshianese had a weapon the Prij did not. He had ordered, as had his daughter after his death, that all efforts be made to discover the nature of the mysterious explosive, one far more powerful than the uko powder the Prij used in small bombs and their ship cannons. In the twenty years since the pass was blocked, the Prijian armourers had not been able to recreate it. It was thought to be the same explosive which powered the huge cannons which overlooked Darshek’s harbour and which, together with the natural mountain barriers to the sides and behind Darshek, made the northern capital impregnable while at the same time allowing it to dominate the trade to the north, especially with Andon.
At least until now, Arman thought grimly as he walked back to his tent, keeping to the shadows. The discovery of a previously uncharted route through the southern range had suddenly made Her Serenity’s long-held ambitions possible, and a plan had been drawn up by the Lord Commander to choke off Darshek’s supply routes from the interior to its south and from the sea. Arman’s forces were the first phase of the attack to secure control of the main inland trade route and the seven large settlements along it which acted as trading centres for the surrounding farming lands. Rare mineral ores were mined at Albon, Darbin and Vinri which were important to Darshek. Through these settlements and the access through the Kislik range to Darshek plain, the Prij would control both grain and mineral trade, as well as communications between north and south. Once these had been taken into Prijian hands and the supplies diverted south to Urshek and beyond that, to Kuplik, a siege would commence seawards, with the Prij navy creating a blockade outside the range of the mighty cannons, preventing goods and boats from Andon and other ocean trade routes entering the territory.
It was a long-term strategy, but a sound one so far as it went, and Arman’s qualms were for after the success of the siege and Darshek’s capitulation, rather than the possibility of that capitulation. He had his orders and he would obey them. They were to sweep forward through the trade route to Kislik, the last village before the northern mountain range some hundred miles from Darshek, where a defence fort would be established under Jozo’s command as a northern barrier against incursions from Darshek itself. Troops would be left at the villages between there and the southern border, and thus communications and supply lines would be
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