37. Eryk of Threlland
Eryk sat with his back to the fire, glowering at them all in turn, eyeing their freshly-scrubbed features.
"Six hundred, you say. In the Barak-nor."
"Aye, Sire." Rak said softly.
Eryk snorted. "Six hundred, staying alive by eating…I shall not say it. It is too unspeakable."
"Aye, Sire."
"But you didn't see them. Doing that. Eating…things."
"No, I was spared the horror. But Captain Sarek did."
Eryk snorted again, and stared up at the Tarn officer, standing by the door next to Gawain and Allazar. Only Rak, Elayeen, Merrin, and the thalangard were seated before the king.
"And so you would have me mobilise against them, husband of my niece. Send my troops against them, and smash them back into the Teeth whence they came. Something like that?"
"Aye, Sire." Rak said softly again, but he looked a lot less sure of himself than he had whilst describing all they had witnessed.
"Six hundred of these…these…Morlochmen…sitting in a hole in the Barak-nor…"
"A crater, Sire…"
"…It matters not where they sit, dammit! What shall I hurl at them? Rocks? Shall I have my piddling honour-guard stand atop the cloven hill and throw stones at them?"
Rak blanched as Gawain's eyes flickered black for the briefest of moments. Nor was it lost on Eryk of Threlland, who sighed and explained with great reluctance:
"I have a standing army of three hundred men in town guards and patrolling the borders. A mere fifty in my honour-guard, and their duties are mostly ceremonial. You've seen them. They can fight, all of them, and I mean no dishonour to you and your men, Captain Sarek, I know you serve the crown well. But you would have me pitch my three hundred and fifty untried guardsmen against six hundred blackhearted Morlochmen who live in a blasted poisoned land and eat…survive on…dammit I still cannot say it."
"Yet they are there, Sire." Rak announced.
"Mobilise, you say. Mobilise what? By the Teeth, Rak, you know as well as I there's been peace in all the southlands since Pellarn. We border Mornland and Juria and both are friends to Threlland. What need have we had for an army since Pellarn?"
"Yet we have need of one now, uncle." Merrin said quietly.
"Indeed. But if my brother your father were alive, Merrin, would he not say 'what would you have me do, give hammers to all miners and say go, smash, kill, destroy!'? Our people have only just recovered from the joys of our liberation from the cursed Ramoths and the removal of threat from Morloch's Breath. And you would have me send them against six hundred Morlochmen?"
"With Juria, and Mornland, and all the southlands united…" Rak began, but Eryk simply snorted again.
"United! You and your dreaming, Rak. Even if I could persuade them all to gather in council, which I doubt, could I count on Callodon for support? Why should they send their army, if they have one to send, to aid Threlland? Can I count on Elvendere?"
"I cannot speak for my father…In Elvendere I am…" Elayeen began, her head low.
"Yes yes I know all about that," Eryk grumbled, "Merrin explained it all to me. But you're not in Elvendere now. Your father's Thal-Hak of Elvendere and you're his daughter, and in my land that makes you my most royal guest your royal highness Elayeen, and that's that."
"I thank you, your Majesty." Elayeen said, looking up into the king's eyes. "But I still cannot say that Thal-Hak will render assistance."
"No. You see? You see, Rak, my dilemma? With Elvendere's archers at my back I could send the guard against those blackhearted bastards and not worry a jot. But I have no archers at my back."
"We saw no horses at the Barak-nor, Sire." Sarek announced, firmly. "Other than those of the Black Riders. We face an infantry, not a cavalry."
"I shall be sure to tell General Karn that all is well, we may send our trifling force of mounted guards at the six hundred Morlochmen without fear of loss. Did you happen to see any weapons in evidence in that crater? Longbows, perhaps, that could knock you out of your saddle at three hundred paces?"
"No, Sire." Sarek admitted.
"Then I suggest you leave the military planning to Karn and myself, though Karn will doubtless want your field experience at hand. As for the rest, this general call to arms you suggest is out of the question."
"But Sire…" Rak protested.
"But nothing. Were we to send our entire force to the Barak-nor, and this other western army you speak of should appear across the farak gorin, what then? What forces we do have, we will most certainly not permit to become the meat in Morloch's sandwich."
Sarek and Rak winced.
"I chose my words deliberately." Eryk asserted. "I shall not send our forces against such odds without the slightest chance of success."
"You may have no choice in the matter," Gawain said ominously, speaking for the first time, "If the breach occurs…"
"The breach." Eryk scowled. "You have shown my people the enemy in the Barak-nor. That I can scarcely believe as it is, and were it not for Rak and Sarek I would laugh at you all for madmen. This breach you speak of may not be broached for years, if at all. This western army you speak of may not exist for that matter, though I'll grant it's prudent to imagine it does. But I will not invite all the crowned heads south of the Teeth to council on the suspicions of a boy."
Gawain's eyes flickered again. "A boy?"
Rak cast an imploring look towards his friend.
"A boy." Eryk announced firmly. "Brave, doubtless, and fearsome, no less doubt in that. But would you face those six hundred alone? In truth?"
"No."
"But that is what you are asking me to do, in mobilising my pitiful forces against them. They do not have your skill, nor your long sword. To send them into battle against these Morlochmen would be the same as sending you in there alone. Futile."
"Then summon the other lands, and with their assistance…"
"Summon? Summon! Warrior of great repute you may be, Traveller, or Longsword, or whatever your name is, but you do not summon crowned heads thus!"
"I am Gawain, son of Davyd, King of Raheen."
The thalangard gasped, and stared from him and then to Elayeen. Eryk paused, thoughtfully, and then said quietly:
"Then you have my sympathies, Raheen. And now you have said it, I do see a resemblance to Davyd. But unless you can bring five hundred cavalry astride Raheen chargers to this battle, you're still nothing but a boy with a long sword and a reason to hate Morloch, and with much to learn about southland kings and their politics. Threlland is not the only land which can boast so small a force of untested warriors."
"But united…" Gawain protested, flushing.
"United? Even if united, what then? Who would command? You? I? Can you see Thal-Hak of Elvendere allowing me or you or Brock of Callodon to command his archers? And how many could he bring to the fight? A hundred? Two hundred?
"Mornland grows grapes, and has perhaps the same number of general guardsmen at its command as I. Arrun weaves its fabrics and raises sheep. It is a principality, and cannot boast a king, much less an army. In generosity to them, we'll say two hundred infantry. Juria? Perhaps four hundred men at arms, some on horseback. Callodon, another four hundred.
"Even if crowns could be persuaded to place these forces under a single and united command, what would we have? Some two thousand men under arms, men not tried in battle, accustomed only to patrolling friendly borders. And ranged against us, as you would have it, twelve hundred of these vile Morloch vermin, with more ready to pour through this imminent breach of yours.