As far as anyone could tell, almost two-thirds of the regular Army had honored its oath to the constitution and the Lord Protector. Several of those units which had remained loyal had been overwhelmed by the insurgency, unfortunately, and very few of those men had survived, since the Temple Loyalists weren’t very interested in taking prisoners. Between defections, desertions, and combat losses it was unlikely Stohnar could call on more than a third-possibly as little as a quarter-of the once mighty Siddarmarkian Army. Worse, the Grand Vicar had proclaimed Mother Church’s support for the “valiant children of God warring against evil and corruption” in the Republic and extended the jihad to anyone who supported “the apostate and accursed Greyghor Stohnar and his minions.” As a consequence, “volunteers” were prepared to pour into the western Republic from the Border States as soon as weather permitted. For that matter, it was only a matter of time before actual contingents of the Temple Guard turned up.
And, as Cayleb had pointed out, Clyntahn had timed his uprising to coincide with the final stages of the Siddarmarkian harvest. The southern provinces harvested later, of course, but his attack had come before the produce from the agrarian west had been shipped east for the winter, and part of his strategy had included the deliberate destruction of foodstuffs-warehouses, farms, granaries-throughout the eastern provinces, as well. By Owl’s estimates, those provinces had lost almost half the food which would normally have carried them through the winter months. And at the very time the food supply had been interrupted, Reformist and Charisian refugees from the west were pouring east in a desperate search for safety.
“Do you think Stohnar’s going to make it through the winter, Merlin?” Sharleyan asked after a moment.
“I think he’s got a good chance,” Merlin replied. “I don’t know what’s going to happen come spring, though. We’re seeing an awful lot of orders from Maigwair to the Border States and the various Temple Lands military commands. I imagine he’s planning on moving east to steamroller Stohnar as soon as he can put an army in the field. And I expect Clyntahn’s going to be ‘suggesting’ to the Silkiahans that they’d better toe the line on the embargo from here on out if they don’t want the same treatment the Republic just got.”
“What’s driving me and Domynyk, Trahvys, and Bynzhamyn crazy is the fact that we still ‘don’t know’ what’s going on up north!” Cayleb growled. “We can’t do a thing-can’t even establish contact with Stohnar about this!-until we ‘find out’ it’s happening!”
“It won’t be much longer, love,” Sharleyan said, reaching out to lay a comforting hand on his shoulder. “We’re already starting to ‘hear rumors,’” she pointed out, “and all the world knows what a wonderful spy network we have!”
“I know.” Cayleb smiled crookedly at her. “That’s what Trahvys and Bynzhamyn and I are going to be talking about tomorrow morning. We’re going to haul Ahlvyno in, as well, and begin assembling relief shipments of food ‘as a precaution’ at Maikel’s suggestion.” He grimaced. “Our economy’s going to have the crap kicked out of it by the loss of so much Siddarmarkian trade, and if Silkiah does decide it has to start paying attention to Clyntahn’s embargo, that’s only going to get worse. On the other hand, we’ll suddenly have a lot of spare merchant galleons we can snap up to help ship in food and medical supplies.”
“Maybe it won’t be quite that bad,” Merlin said encouragingly. “I’ve got a feeling something may turn up, despite the embargo. And if Stohnar does make it through the winter-and next spring-we may finally have the mainland ally we need.”
“And if he doesn’t make it through the winter-and next spring-it’s going to be at least ten years before any other mainland realm is willing to stand up with us,” Cayleb said sourly. “Assuming, of course, that those ‘returning Archangels’ give us that long.”
“My, you are in a testy mood,” Merlin observed mildly.
“I’ve got a lot to be testy about,” Cayleb shot back. “This hasn’t exactly been the easiest year we’ve ever had, you know.”
“Yes, I do know,” Merlin said more gently. “But Hektor has Irys, Daivyn, and Coris safely back aboard Destiny. They’ll be headed home soon, and it should be interesting to see how Corisande reacts when Coris and Irys tell them it was Clyntahn who had Hektor murdered… and tried to murder Daivyn, as well. And for better or worse, Clyntahn’s come out into the open on the mainland. This isn’t just an overseas war for Howard and the Havens anymore, and that was his decision, not ours. In the long run, I think it’s going to come home to roost with a vengeance, as long as Stohnar does manage to hold. And Ehdwyrd and Seamount have the new rifled guns in production, not to mention Mahndrayn’s breech-loaders. I know we all miss Mahndrayn, but that was a brilliant design approach, and the Church isn’t going to like it one bit when it runs into them in the field. Kynt Clareyk’s about to suggest infantry mortars, as well, and that’s going to come as an unpleasant surprise to our friend Clyntahn, too. And then there’s Ehdwyrd’s first steam engine. That’s going to be a game-changer, especially since we won’t have to waste all that time tinkering and experimenting to improve it into a working proposition like they did back on Old Terra.”
“Are you trying to cheer me up by pointing out that the momentum is on our side?” Cayleb asked dryly. “Because, if you are, allow me to point out that for the next several months, at least, the momentum’s going to be rather solidly on Clyntahn’s side in Siddarmark. And if he knocks off the Republic, we’ll be a long time looking for another opportunity to establish a foothold anywhere on the mainland.”
“You are determined to be gloomy,” Merlin said in a gently teasing voice. “And, no, I wasn’t trying to tell you the momentum was on our side. I’m not even going to argue at this point that history is on our side, although I think it probably is. No, I’m just thinking about something you said a while back, Cayleb. This has been a bad year in a lot of ways… but we’re still here, and we’re stronger than we were the year before. And the reason we are is that you and Sharley and Maikel have laid a foundation here in Charis that someone like Zhaspahr Clyntahn will never be able to appreciate or match. Charis understands what this is about, and that’s our strength, the bedrock that Clyntahn doesn’t even begin to understand. These people- your people-recognize evil when they see it, and they’re not willing to let it triumph. They refuse to see it triumph. They may not know all that we know, and they’ve damned well never heard of the Terran Federation or the Gbaba, but they’re ready to pay the price to buy their children’s and their children’s children’s freedom from what Clyntahn represents, whatever that price is. And when you come down to it,” Merlin smiled crookedly, “we can work with that, you know.”
“You do have a way of finding a bright side, don’t you? What was it they called that back in the old days-a Pollyanna, I think?” Cayleb replied, but he was looking at his wife as he spoke, and he, too, smiled. He cupped one hand over the back of his sleeping daughter’s head and hugged her gently, and then he nodded.
“But you’re right, Merlin,” he said softly. “We can work with that.”