As a pile of parchments slipped off his desk and fell to the stone, floor, Phidestros watched in disgust. Requisitions and muster lists were still piled chin-high, and he was spending yet more precious time jawing with the Holy Investigator, who kept sniffing around the Grand Host for heretics! He was coming to the conclusion that Grand Master Soton was right about appointing junior officers to take care of the detail work.
The forward arm of the Grand Host was stalled outside, while the remainder wintered in Tarr-Harphax and Tarr-Aeygos. He couldn't wait until they entered Hostigi territory so Roxthar would stop climbing over his shoulders.
He was still beating his head against his desk trying to figure out how to break into Tarr-Locra, the most fiendishly designed castle he'd ever encountered. The tarr was built in the shape of a multi-pointed star, with long killing lanes for gunfire that would decimate any siege train that approached the walls-another of Kalvan's innovations, he was sure. Sometimes he thought he was fighting for the wrong side in this war.
If the Grand Host couldn't get past Tarr-Locra they'd have to go around through the rolling hills of Beshta to the steep and high ridges of the Besh Valley, Sashta, Sask and Hostigos, which would be expensive in both men and animals. He was pushing his hand through a pile of parchments to find his tinderbox when he heard a knock at the door. "Come in," he responded.
General Geblon came into the room leading a haughty man in the fur-lined robes of a nobleman. Geblon winked and said, "I'd like to introduce Baron Sthentros, late of Hos-Hostigos, and the cousin of Prince Ptosphes. He has come to share his knowledge of Kalvan's army, fortifications and weapons."
Phidestros bolted upright in his chair. "Your Lordship, I'm pleased to meet you."
The Baron looked at Phidestros as though he were looking down rather than up. "Yes, I'm sure. I've only come to you because I believe that this man who calls himself Great King Kalvan is a fraud, and is not of noble blood. He has bewitched my uncle, Prince Ptosphes, and married my cousin under false pretenses!"
Phidestros watched as Sthentros actually sniffed in disdain, then he paused to remove something from inside his robe-a move that had Phidestros grabbing his hideaway gun. He only stopped when he saw that it was a snuffbox. The Baron never noticed.
Geblon looked flustered, then quickly made the motions of patting himself down behind the Baron's back, letting Phidestros know the Hostigi had been frisked. Phidestros let out a deep breath.
"Would you like a drink, Your Lordship?"
The Baron nodded, while Phidestros motioned for Geblon to bring some winter wine. Geblon might be a general in the Harphaxi Army, but he was still Phidestros' right hand man and understood that Phidestros didn't trust, or feel comfortable, around civilians, one of the reasons that he still resided at the One-Eyed Boar rather than a manor in Harphax City- despite his new wealth.
Phidestros used the interruption to pull out his tinderbox and light his burl pipe. After drinks had been served, he asked, "Why do you believe that Kalvan has risen above his station, Your Lordship?"
"When King Kalvan arrived in Hostigos, calling himself Lord Kalvan- Lord of what, I ask you?-he refused to give me any information on his lineage save that he was a 'Blue Blood' and born with a 'Silver Spoon.' What kind of nonsense is that?"
Phidestros didn't bother to reply: the fool didn't know when he was being given wet powder. Still, Sthentros might prove to be the best door out of the blind alley he found himself in. "Maybe you can answer some questions for us?"
"Of course, why else do you think I'm here? However, I would like to ascertain what my position will be after the war is concluded."
Phidestros clenched and unclenched his hands, while putting on a false smile. "I'm sure a suitable position will be found for you within Hostigos after the war."
"Good. Since I am a member of the princely family, I suggest that I would be the ideal candidate to rule as Prince of Hostigos."
Lysandros had even less love for traitors than Phidestros. But Phidestros had no trouble letting this treacherous swine believe whatever he wanted to think. "I personally could promise you a title of nobility equal to your own in Beshta after the war, provided that your information is of value. Anything beyond Baron is the province of Great King Lysandros; however, I can promise to arrange a Royal Audience."
Sthentros looked smug. "I thought so. My wife didn't want to leave Hostigos, but I told her that the information here," he paused to point to his skull, "was worth its weight in gold. I also want to assure you that I've always been a follower of the True God, Styphon, despite the persecution we believers have suffered in Hostigos."
Phidestros struggled to keep a smile off his face. He couldn't wait until he introduced Sthentros to Roxthar.
"Now you can ask me any questions you have about Hos-Hostigos and the Royal Army and I will do my best to answer them."
"How many men has Kalvan mustered out for his armies?"
"Thousands upon thousands. They crowd us out of Hostigos Town! It's a crime. It's getting so that one can't even find a willing wench who will take less than three pieces of silver. The taverns are so crowded that everyone has to sit together!"
Phidestros reined in his temper. "What I need to know are troop depositions, how many musketeers, how many pikemen, how many cavalry, those kinds of things."
"I don't know anything about the military-I served as an officer before Kalvan arrived, but he actually had me demoted to a common trooper.
I left the army, of course. I fear my talent is in leading men, not armies. I do know that Kalvan has abolished the pike; that's all his soldiers talk about at the Silver Stag. I also know the Royal Army is the biggest army I've ever seen."
Obviously, Kalvan not only mistrusted the Baron, which was no surprise, but found him incompetent as an officer. Ptosphes being blood kin, Kalvan had to provide him a proper position; he was under no such obligation to marriage kin.
The fact that Kalvan had done away with the pike was very interesting intelligence. Soton had mentioned that Kalvan's infantry had been carrying firearms during the Siege of Tarr-Ceros, but pikes were not the weapon of choice when going up against nomad cavalry, as Kalvan had done at the Battle of Spirit Grove. He tried to envision what Kalvan was up to: if you converted all your pikemen to arquebusiers then you could double your fire, which would be devastating to an army expecting half that firepower! But what about cavalry? How did Kalvan expect to stop heavily armed cuirassiers, or fully armored Knights? Yes, the Baron was a fool, but he was a useful fool.
"We have heard that Kalvan has a secret technique for getting messages to the borders so quickly. Do you know how he does this?"
"He uses his semaphores. Kalvan's dotted the countryside with those wretched huts. I can't begin to tell you all the things he's done to Hostigos since he arrived from the gods only know where."
Phidestros rose to his feet and began to pace. "Do you know Kalvan uses these 'huts' to send messages?"
"He's put one of those huts right in my barony. He has troopers waving flags and flashing lights back and forth. I can see the ugly thing right out my window. I had to order that window special from Agrys City, and you wouldn't believe how much it cost…"
The chief Harphaxi Intelligencer had received reports that Kalvan was building a series of watchtowers, but no one had been able to discern their use since they weren't placed at the usual watch points. Phidestros had wondered if they were to be used for sending smoke signals, but no one had seen trails or puffs of smoke. However, flags and light signals were faster and more reliable than smoke signals. This sounded important.
"What about Kalvan's guns?"
"The Royal Foundry, yes, Kalvan makes all these noisy big guns there. He imported the most awful foreigners, from Greffa and Hos-Zygros, to tell by their accents-you know what hicks the Zygrosi are, don't you?"
Phidestros nodded, barely trusting himself to keep a straight face. Could the Baron be so ignorant-even being a Hostigi-not to know that he was a former Zygrosi? Killing was too good for the man. Fortunately, for the rest of his body-since it would not live long without the head-Sthentros was providing the most valuable intelligence of the war. Lysandros would be beside himself when he learned that the Baron was kin to Ptosphes and, by marriage, to Kalvan, himself!
"The Foundry women are doubly strange, and take more liberties-of course, it helps that they're Royal Wards-than any decent women I've known. I've heard tales about Grefftscharrer women, but these are strange fowl indeed. This one old bird-Lala, what kind of proper name is that, I ask you?-argues with everything she's told, gabbling like an old goose." Sthentros made a grabbing and jerking motion with his hands. "It took all my will power to keep from wringing her neck the one time we met."
"I understand, your feelings Your Lordship, I truly do. Did you get an opportunity to observe the brass-founders at their work?"
"What, me stay in a smelly, noisy foundry to watch a gang of foreigners and artisans! I should say not. That's another thing that's wrong with Kalvan. He spends too much time at places like the Royal Foundry and that University of his talking to riffraff and giving them airs. One of them, Ermut is his name-the Usurper even named a new potable after him!- was a former Temple-farm slave. Now he's a Master and it's rumored that Kalvan offered him the position of Rector at the University. Posts like that should only be held by those of noble blood!
"The same with his Captain-General Harmakros-his parents were merchants, ran a vegetable stall in Hostigos Town, if you can believe it! The Captain-General even has a bastard that Kalvan's made a Royal Page-the illegitimate get of vegetable merchants parading up and down the halls of Tarr-Hostigos and in the Royal Audience Chamber. I'd rather see Styphoni-I mean worshippers of the True God-in Tarr-Hostigos than lowlife townies and peasant scum."
Phidestros gritted his teeth so hard they ached. This was his penance for losing his temper with Count Sestembar. But when he'd talked about his mother as if she were some drab that had tainted his father's saintly blood-well, enough was enough. This rattlehead would have to be coddled until his wits were poured out, then he could be tossed to Roxthar and Investigated.
But first, there was much to be learned about Kalvan's underlings and the political situation in Hostigos.
"Now, tell me more about his University."