Chapter 30: Prince Alfred’s Palace

Vernon, Lord of North Harbor, stayed with us for a couple more days as the army crunched its way through Mountainside City and up the Royal Road towards Prince Alfred’s palace. He wanted ships and we certainly had more than we needed. However, he wasn’t willing to do what I demanded as payment.

I wanted him to stand as Prince of the Isle and to renounce piracy. He was willing to rule Mountain Isle and promise me that he wouldn’t support piracy any more, but I wanted him to stand behind his words. He’d lost his appetite for power when I’d made it clear that we would hold him responsible for what his ships did; if his ships raided Hunter Island we would come back and replace him the same way we were replacing Prince Alfred.

What did we care who the Prince of Mountain Isle was? All we cared about was that the Prince was a strong man who would control his people. Vernon wasn’t what we needed. Vernon was a weasel who happened to be in the right place at the right time to take over as Lord of North Harbor.

If it was up to me, I’d choose Lord Black. Andrew was smart enough to realize that his power base was too small, though. Maybe in a few years, if he survived all the backstabbing, he would be well-known and respected enough to stand as Prince. If he turned out to be a reliable friend or even just a stable neighbor, I could see us helping him. Not now, though. He had to spend some time establishing himself first.

If he made it, I could see him becoming King of all the Isles. Andrew was smart. He was a leader. He had courage. And, he had six years of service on Hunter Island learning how to cooperate and get things done. And learning what happened when you did something stupid like attack people who could fight back.

For the last year or so, he’d gotten a graduate course in government from King Tom, his wife, and their advisors. I wasn’t sure about his morals, but he didn’t need morals to become Prince or King. He just needed to be trustworthy. Oh, and somehow stay alive here in the snakepit. I laughed out loud when I realized that his safest course was to take his ship and ask Widemouth or Jayport for asylum!

Anyway, I made a couple of hints that perhaps Vernon’s hundred-man bodyguard could be put to use here in this battle for Mountainside City, but Vernon wasn’t about to take a chance on them getting wounded or killed in a battle that didn’t involve him. That settled it in my mind. If he wasn’t willing to invest in his own future then we certainly weren’t going to invest in him.

After a couple more days of asking for ships, Vernon gave up and asked if he could go home again and try to build some ships from what was left of his harbor. I granted that, and asked Aldo to return to the waterfront with him. I needed him to tell our ships that the Lord of North Harbor was going home, and he had my authorization for safe passage. While Vernon was organizing his guard for the march back, I talked with Andrew.

“Lord Black, you are a free man and can go wherever you want and do whatever you want, but I don’t expect you to keep your ship for very long if you stay at North Harbor with Vernon.”

“I think you are right, but this island is my home.”

“Can you stay alive long enough to establish yourself, maybe becoming Lord of North Harbor or another holding?”

“I would need far more men than one ship’s crew before I could take and keep a safe base.”

“How secure is Lord Vernon’s position as Lord of North Harbor?”

“I think that men like to eat. If he were to return home without any ships, then anyone who could provide food for the people would be well on his way to gaining their loyalty. The problem will be keeping my life and my ship while returning Lord Vernon to his home.”

“Would those two ships that escorted you be enough of a threat to keep you alive, or would you need more?”

“I expect Lord Vernon’s guard to kill me as soon as we are clear of the shore. Then, he will try to capture the two ships you have sent with us.”

“Really? And what will happen when Lord Vernon reaches our fleet up at the strait with Lord Black’s ship and two of our ships, but not Lord Black himself?”

“Oh, he and his men will all be slaughtered, of course. I don’t think he will be able to capture your two ships, either. He doesn’t believe that, though. He believes that his guard can defeat anyone.”

“What do you suggest, then, Andrew? What should we do, if we want Lord Black to stay alive?”

“Lord Vernon will not want to be separated from his men. We would need a good reason. Perhaps you could give him some food to take home? That food would need several ships to carry, and those ships would need his guards. If we had four ships with food, his guard would have to be split up between them, and of course you would want enough men on each ship to keep his guard from trying anything silly. That would get us all home safely.”

“We can do that. I take it that you don’t want to just kill him?”

“If I don’t have a good reason, his men will kill me. I must wait until he does something. Then, if I live, I can kill him and his men will follow me if I can provide food and leadership. I could be Lord of North Harbor. I don’t think I want to be Prince of the Isle.”

“You may have to be. If you live, it will be forced on you. That will be in the future, though. All you can do is prepare. If you end up with North Harbor, it might be best to simply defend it, be a good neighbor, and stay out of Mountainside City until everyone else on the island is exhausted by all the fighting. Send food to starving people when you can. If you become known as a fair man with a safe holding and all your people are safe and well-fed, there will come a time when the people demand that you stand as their Prince. Meanwhile, I will have some food gathered up for you. I’ll let you tell Vernon about it.”

Andrew bowed to me. “It will happen as you wish, Lord Jason.”

Meanwhile, our army was crunching up the Royal Road towards Prince Alfred’s palace. They were going far slower than necessary, but that was because we were trying to minimize our casualties. Every building for a block or so on each side was inspected. If it was abandoned, it was looted. If it was occupied, the people were cleared out and then it was looted. If it was defended, it was simply destroyed. The defenders could have the contents when they dug themselves out.

We amassed an amazing amount of loot. Every possible valuable was carted back to the plaza at the shoreline, and then placed onboard our ships as each came in for rest and resupply. Certainly, we had no trouble adding another cargo ship and then loading Andrew’s four-ship convoy with all the food they could carry.

That led to trouble, and I got summoned back down to the ships to sort it out. Our people wanted Lord Vernon’s guard to help load the ships. Lord Vernon and his guards didn’t see that as their jobs. Fine. When I saw what was going on I called everyone in sight together; workers, ships’ crews, Marines, and Vernon and his guards.

“Men! Lord Vernon and his guards are our guests! We have no right to order them to do any sort of work. I think it’s silly that they won’t even help load food that they themselves are going to eat, but it’s not my call. If they don’t want to help load the ships, they don’t have to. Unless Lord Vernon wants to order them to, I guess. Lord Vernon, do you want your guards to help load the ships?”

“No, Lord Jason. They are guards. They are not laborers.”

“Very well. Men, Lord Vernon and his guards will not be helping you load the ships. They are going to stand around watching you work, because they aren’t laborers. With that said, we are under no obligation to feed them, either. Lord Vernon and his guards WILL NOT EAT AGAIN UNTIL THEY ARE SAFELY AT HOME IN NORTH HARBOR. His guards will be split up among the four ships to guard the food. We will provide additional men to each ship, to ensure that they do not steal any of the food we are loading for them.”

I had to stop and catch my breath. “I am now giving you an order. You WILL kill Lord Vernon and any of his men who try to eat anything while they are our guests. I don’t care if they catch a fish on the way home, if they try to put it in their mouths you will kill them. They will not eat ANYTHING until they get home and are safely off the ships. Does anyone have any questions?”

There was a lot of looking around before one of the cargo ship’s captains asked “How long will this take?”

“Well, since we don’t have that many men doing the work, I expect it to take another day to finish loading the ships. Then, it will take two or three days to get to North Harbor. I figure that Lord Vernon and his men will be pretty hungry by the time they get home.”

Another officer asked “Do they get to drink anything?”

“They can have all the water they want. Nothing else. I don’t want them to die on you. I do want Lord Vernon and his guards to gain a new appreciation for helpfulness and cooperation and honest work. Our sailors and soldiers have worked and fought for everything we have. We are still working and fighting. Lord Vernon and his guards have been standing around doing nothing for several days, and I don’t see why we should give them anything while they do nothing.”

“And, before the question gets asked, I don’t care if Lord Vernon’s men think this through and leave his service once they get home. Don’t let any of them do it while on our ships, though. If any of his men renounce his service just to get something to eat, kill him on the spot. If he is that faithless he can’t be trusted by anyone. Going without food for four days isn’t going to kill anyone healthy enough to serve as a guard.”

That pretty much ended that. Lord Vernon and his guards stood around, we brought in more men to keep an eye on them, and our crews -including Lord Black’s crew- loaded the four ships with all the food they could cram in. Our people traded off working, resting, and eating.

Lord Vernon and his guards were given access to a quay so that they could use the harbor water to eliminate, and they were given all the water they wanted to drink. The loading was done by midnight, and in the morning we split the guards up between the ships and sent them off. When I got back to the front lines King Tom told me that I was mean, but he agreed that no one should die from four days without food. None of us were willing to predict how many of them would die due to stupid mistakes made when they were hungry, though.

We got to the palace just a day or so after that. I’d seen bigger complexes here on Chaos, but I don’t think I’d ever seen any place as nice as Prince Alfred’s home. It was just a home, though, not a fortress. It had a curtain wall to keep the riff-raff out, but it wasn’t the sort of fortress it would take to keep us out.