A Mighty Fortress by David Weber Read Free Book Online

himself. If he had any doubts about Eastshare’s loyalty, he wouldn’t respect him, either, no matter how flexible the Duke might be in a professional sense. So the fact that he doesn’t want to answer is an answer .
    “I understand, My Lord,” he said out loud, rather more formally than had become the norm for his conversations with Green Valley. The baron looked at him for a moment, then gave an almost imperceptible nod, and his frown vanished.
    “So, overall, you’re satisfied?” Merlin continued in a more normal tone, and Green Valley nodded again, more firmly.
    “Overall, I’m very satisfied. I wish—and so does Duke Eastshare—that we could have provided even more Marines as cadre, but we both understand why Their Majesties had to leave General Chermyn a big enough garrison force in Corisande. I also wish we could get the new rifle shops and cannon foundries set up here in Chisholm more quickly, but Chisholm simply doesn’t have the pool of experienced mechanics and craftsmen Old Charis does. At least the first couple of shipments of rifles have already come in, so not everyone is drilling with broom handles.
    “On the plus side, in addition to everything else we’ve just been talking about, I have to admit that the Duke and his officers seem to have a better grasp of the realities of fighting on land than we do—than I do, and I’m the fellow who developed all our new infantry tactics.” He snorted. “They pay me a flattering amount of attention, and they listen damned carefully to everything I say, particularly given the fact that, unlike them, I actually have field experience with the new weapons. But the truth is, they’ve already pointed out a lot of places where my ideas—and not just about tactics, either; they’ve got a lot more experience with army logistics than we have—could stand some improving. In some cases, a lot of improving.”
    And it says very good things about you, My Lord, that you not only recognize the truth when you see it but that you’re willing to admit it—to others, and not just yourself, too, Merlin thought.
    “So you think I’ll be able to go back to Cherayth and tell Their Majesties the great army integration project is going well?” he said out loud.
    “Yes,” Green Valley said, looking steadily into the seijin ’s blue eyes, making it plain just how many levels he was actually speaking on. “Yes, I think you can tell them it’s going very well.”

.III.
    Royal Palace,
    City of Talkyra,
    Kingdom of Delferahk
     
    What do you think they really want, Phylyp?”
    Irys Daykyn’s tone was calm as she gazed across the dinner table’s empty plates at her legal guardian, but the hazel eyes she’d inherited from her dead mother were darker than could have been explained solely by the lamps’ dimness.
    “Mostly, I think, what they’ve said, Your Highness.” Phylyp Ahzgood, Earl of Coris, shrugged. “Oh, I don’t doubt they’ve got more in mind than they’ve actually said so far. But as far as what that ‘more’ might be, your guess is almost certainly as good as mine,” he said. And he meant it, too. Irys Daykyn might be only seventeen years old—not quite sixteen, in the years of the planet upon which humanity had actually evolved—but she was scarcely a typical seventeen-year- old. Not even a typical seventeen- year- old princess.
    “I don’t expect they’ve issued their . . . invitation, let’s call it, because of their vast concern for Daivyn, though.” Coris’ tone was biting. He wouldn’t have let anyone else hear him using it about the Group of Four, but neither he nor Irys had any illusions about that particular quartet, and no one else was present. “At the same time,” the man who had been Prince Hektor of Corisande’s spymaster for so many years continued, “I think it could probably be worse than it actually is. At least they’re not insisting the two of you accompany me!”
    “Why should they bother to invite me, what ever