Chapter 22

Wendhom, Anglii Territory, Germania

In spite of the warm mid-summer temperatures, Lucilla pulled her cloak tightly against herself as she stepped off the gangplank. As soon as they docked, she could see that the vast majority of the ships here were unloading cargo and not passengers, making her appearance noticeable. It was made all the worse by Modius and Cynwrig following behind her. Even cloaked and not armored, neither could hide what they were, which made Lucilla glad she’d stood firm against Modius’s insistence that they bring even more of her people along.

They’d barely stepped off the ship and already she felt like every eye in Germania was on her. It wasn’t until she got to the bottom of the gangplank, however, that she realized that at least two of those eyes were definitely staring directly at her. Although she might have kept her head down anyway, to keep from being recognized, she’d been forced to keep looking down as she walked off the ship, focusing on keeping her balance as she made her way down the rickety gangplank.

She finally looked up as her foot hit the dock and found herself staring directly into the face of Yrsa, the Scandi captain. She stopped so suddenly, in surprise, that Modius and Cynwrig almost slammed into her, both being forced to hop off the gangplank and onto the dock on either side of her to avoid the collision.

“Captain Yrsa,” she said, quickly recovering her composure. “What are you doing here?”

Yrsa gave a bow, smiling slightly, and said, “I was actually on my way to Britannia to see you when I heard that you were, in fact, already on your way here. I thought it easier, for me at least, to come straight to Wendhom and meet you when you docked.”

“How did you know I was coming here at all, let alone which ship to meet?”

“Come now, Your Majesty, you must know how sailors like to talk, and nearly every vessel that trades between Britannia and the continent has some kind of connection to one another. The old trading families are so intermarried, at this point, that we’re all essentially one people now. There was little to no chance that you could board one of those ships and the other captains not find out.”

Lucilla pressed her lips together, annoyed. She had paid well for the ship captain’s discretion, above and beyond the exorbitant cost she’d agreed to pay for the transportation itself. The fact that he had talked anyway was more than a little unsettling. Beside her, she could feel Modius shifting, probably checking for the dozens of assassins he was now sure lurked among the dockhands and sailors.

“Don’t worry, Your Highness. They wouldn’t have spoken about it to their crews. Captains are a gossipy lot, but usually only among other captains. It’s difficult to maintain discipline among these rabble if you socialize too frequently,” Yrsa said, waving indistinctly at the various sailors scattered across the docks.

“I see,” Lucilla said, not entirely convinced. “I guess since you found me, I should hear what you needed to speak to me about. I assume it has to do with the mission I sent you on to your Scandi countrymen.”

“It does. I’m afraid my efforts met with little success. While eager to maintain free and open trade, most are reluctant to officially back either side in the war. Some because they don’t want to become embroiled in it themselves, and others because ... well, because they want to keep selling to both sides.”

“They understand if Carthage wins, it is only a matter of time until they make it north to your homeland, right? To the Carthaginians, there are only two types of people, subjects and victims.”

“I did explain that. Most have their heads buried below decks, refusing to look out at the horizon. The ones selling to both sides, I believe, think they will be the exception to the rule. In fact, I believe some of those have already begun selling some of the things they’ve learned from you. I believe they were the source of the Carthaginians’ swift copies of your inventive sail plans.”

“Do you think they are behind the sudden appearance of gunpowder in Carthaginian hands?”

“I don’t think so. I’ve heard rumors that it isn’t resold Britannian product. Some of the men who’ve seen it have pointed out how much lower quality and volatile it is. And I don’t think my people could have copied it like they did the sail plan. While that was inventive, it’s not that much different than the sails we used before. Once we saw them in use, it wasn’t hard to work out what you did and what made these sails different. The gunpowder, however, is completely foreign, like nothing we’ve seen before. Even though I know what goes into it, I would have no idea how to make that into actual gunpowder. So no, I don’t think my people did that.”

“I see,” Lucilla said.

Part of her wished they had, simply because it would explain the mystery behind the Carthaginians’ possession of it, which had baffled even Ky. Yrsa was right that it was a lower quality, but the fact that they had it at all was concerning, since both Ky and Sophus had thought that the ‘reverse engineering’ of it, to use their phrase, was unlikely.

“I do believe, however, that I have a plan that might work, but I wanted your input on it before I tried. Which is why I was heading back to Britannia when I heard word of your coming here.”

“What exactly do you have in mind?” she asked.

“I think we should speak to the merchant captains who’ve been benefiting from trade with Britannia. The captains and most of the larger merchant concerns are run by families that wield a lot of influence across Scandia. While the village leaders might not listen to me, as I’ve always been something of a cast-off, they have to listen to the families. Most of the taxes and trade through their villages are at the whims of these merchant families. If one decides to pack up and move to another port, it isn’t unheard of for the previous port to dry up and become abandoned. If they can convince their home villages to assist us with manpower, I suggest we offer them some of the things we’ve offered the Germanic tribes.

“Such as?” Lucilla asked.

“For one, the same lower tariff that tribes in Germania have been receiving. It’s something they’ve been grumbling about all winter, since the local Germanic traders have often been able to undercut them since getting that benefit.”

“Which they got in exchange for supporting our war effort,” Lucilla pointed out.

“Exactly, which is why it is a good opening offer to the families. Beyond that, I think we also need to allow them to buy muskets and gunpowder. I know,” he said quickly, as she began to protest. “I know the sales of it have been limited because you didn’t want to face your own products but with Cormac selling them in Hispania and the sales we’ve made here in Germania, you’ve lost control of that. Even gunpowder is being sold second-hand. Not a lot, but some. I’m assuming that is why you’ve only sold the muskets, and not your much better rifles, or the newer cannon that just started showing up. What Hortensius’s factors called howitzers, I believe. You knew this was inevitable.”

“Fine, anything else?” Lucilla asked.

He was right, of course. Ky had already pointed out that no matter how much they restricted it, the proliferation of those weapons was inevitable. As much as she liked Captain Yrsa, she didn’t want to admit that to him, though. Especially now that she knew how free he and the other Scandi merchants were about sharing information with one another.

“Yes. I know it’s not practical to do now, with the navy still growing, but we could promise, once the war is over, to allow Scandi merchants, or really merchants of any of our allies, to buy caravels or other new ship designs that come along. I see the way my countrymen look at those massive ships. As much envy as there is toward my schooner, the idea of the mass that can be transported on one of those ships is mind-boggling. This, I think, would be the thing that pushes them over the edge to really put pressure on the villages where they’re based.”

Lucilla was quiet for a minute, thinking. It wasn’t surprising that he was asking for similar provisions to those they were already giving out to others. Lucilla hadn’t offered those up front, because it would be harder to control on a village-by-village basis, which was essentially what Scandi was. Not pressured to form more comprehensive alliances with neighbors the way the people of Germania and Hispania had been, there was too little cohesion to force controls she wanted in place for the sale of weapons and tools that could be used directly against them.

“I agree that allowing Scandi merchants access to our muskets and gunpowder is sensible,” Lucilla said. “You’re right that we’ve already lost control of the spread of that technology. I’m also amenable to lowering tariffs, eventually allowing access to our ship designs, and the other concessions you outlined.”

“Good,” Yrsa started to say, before Lucilla held up a hand.

“However, I do not want to negotiate agreements piecemeal with individual villages. If one village goes rogue and violates our arrangement, I want recourse beyond just cutting off trade to that specific village. We learned that lesson already in Hispania. When Cormac allowed tribes to purchase weapons individually, some used them against neighboring tribes, despite promises to the contrary, and it has caused unrest across the entire region. The tribes that upheld their word had no power to stop those who did not. I will not repeat that mistake here.”

“Then what would you accept?”

“I am willing to make an agreement with a coalition of Scandi villages and merchants. Sell to any traders who are part of that organized group, that way there are consequences if any village breaks their word. If one village betrays our arrangement, tariffs return and sales halt for the entire coalition until amends are made. It is the only way to give your people incentive to police their own actions. Additionally, any Scandi village must be eligible to join this coalition, and none can be barred from entry. But any can also be removed by vote if they undermine the greater good.”