By Schism Rent Asunder by David Weber Read Free Book Online

Harbor’s had been. “I don’t imagine they’ll be particularly pleased. Especially not with your personal log for the fire, Maikel.”
    Several of the other men sitting around the table smiled back at him. Some of their expressions were even more kraken-like than his own, Merlin noted.
    â€œI don’t imagine they’ve been ‘particularly pleased’ about anything that’s happened in the past few months, Your Majesty,” Gray Harbor agreed. “Frankly, I can’t think of any message you could have sent them that could possibly have changed that. ”
    â€œOh, I don’t know, Rayjhis.” Admiral Bryahn Lock Island was the commander of the Royal Charisian Navy. He was also one of Cayleb’s cousins. “I imagine that if we were to send them a mass suicide note, that would probably cheer them up immensely.”
    This time there were a few outright chuckles, and Cayleb shook his head admonishingly at Lock Island.
    â€œYou’re a bluff, unimaginative sailor, Bryahn. Remarks like that demonstrate exactly why it’s such a good idea for us to keep you as far away as possible from the diplomatic correspondence!”
    â€œAmen to that!” Lock Island’s pious tone was at least eight-tenths sincere, Merlin judged.
    â€œSpeaking of ‘bluff, unimaginative sailors,’” Ahlvyno Pawalsyn said, “I have to say, although I’d really rather not bring this up, that your current plans for expanding the Navy worry me, Bryahn.”
    Lock Island looked at the other man and cocked his head. Ahlvyno Pawalsyn was also Baron Ironhill … and Keeper of the Purse. That made him effectively the treasurer of the Kingdom of Charis.
    â€œI assume that what you mean is that figuring out how to pay for the expansion worries you,” the admiral said after a moment. “On the other hand, what’s likely to happen if we don’t continue the expansion worries me a lot more.”
    â€œI’m not trying to suggest it isn’t necessary, Bryahn,” Ironhill replied mildly. “As the fellow who’s supposed to come up with a way to finance it, however, it does leave me with some … interesting difficulties, shall we say?”
    â€œLet Nahrmahn pay for it,” Lock Island suggested. “That fat little bugger’s still got plenty tucked away in his treasury, and he’s got damn-all for a navy at the moment. We’re already camped in his front yard, and he can’t be any too happy about the way we’ve sewed Eraystor Bay shut like a sack. So why don’t I just make his day complete by taking a couple of squadrons in close and sending a few Marines ashore to deliver a polite request from His Majesty here that he finance our modest efforts before we burn his entire miserable waterfront around his ears?”
    â€œTempting,” Cayleb said. “Very tempting. I’m not sure it’s a very practical solution, though.”
    â€œWhy not?” Lock Island turned back to the king. “We won; he lost. Well, he will lose, whenever we finally get around to actually kicking his fat arse off his throne, and he knows it.”
    â€œNo doubt,” Cayleb agreed. “Assuming we add Emerald to the Kingdom, however, we’re going to have to figure out how to pay for its administration. Looting its treasury doesn’t strike me as a particularly good way to get started. Besides, it would be a onetime sort of thing, and just expanding the Navy isn’t going to solve our problems, Bryahn. Somehow we’ve got to pay for maintaining it, too. With the Church openly against us, we don’t dare lay up large numbers of ships. We’ll need them in active commission, and that means we’ll have a heavy, ongoing commitment on the Treasury. We couldn’t rely on regular ‘windfalls’ the size of Nahrmahn’s treasury even if we wanted to, so we’re going to have to