Kings of Clonmel Read Online Free PDF Page A

nodded.
    “You understand it fully?”
    Again, three heads, three nods.
    “So who wants to have first crack at it?”
    There was a moment’s hesitation, then Nick’s hand shot up. Will nodded to himself. He’d known Nick would be first.“Very well, Nick, let’s hear your thoughts,” he said, motioning for the young apprentice to proceed.
    Nick cleared his throat several times. He shuffled his pages of notes and then, head down, he began to read in a breakneck gabble of words.
    “ Very well the problem facing us is that we don’t have sufficient numbers at our disposal to effectively mount a standard siege operation so we have to—”
    “Whoa!” Will interrupted him, and Nick looked up nervously, sensing that he’d done something wrong.
    “Slow down!” Will told him. “Try to bring it down to a gallop, all right?”
    He saw the boy’s crestfallen face, realized that he was worried he’d be marked down for the mistake. Nick was an overachiever, Will thought to himself. His gabbled words reflected the same intensity that had caused him to hold the bow in such a viselike grip.
    “Just relax, Nick,” he said in a more encouraging tone. “Let’s say you were called upon to submit a plan like this to King Duncan.” He paused and saw the boy’s eyes widen at the enormity of the thought. He added, gently,“It’s not impossible, you know. That’s what Rangers do from time to time. But you’d hardly want to go dashing into Castle Araluen’s throne room and gabble out, ‘HulloKing Duncanletmerunthroughafewideasforyouhereandyoucantellmewhatyouthinkofthemallright?��” He managed a pretty good impersonation of Nick’s breathless, rattling delivery, and the other two boys laughed. Nick, after an uncertain moment, joined in as well.
    “No, you wouldn’t.” Will answered his own question. “When you outline a plan, you need to speak clearly and precisely, to make sure the people you’re talking to have the full picture. You have to have your own thoughts organized and present them in a logical sequence. Now, take a deep breath. . . .”
    Nick did so.
    “And start again. Slowly.”
    “Very well,” said Nick. “The problem facing us is that we don’t have sufficient numbers at our disposal to effectively mount a standard siege operation. So we have to find a way to (a) recruit troops and (b) offset the inferiority in numbers, compared to the garrison.”
    He looked up expectantly. Will nodded.
    “So far so good. And your solution?”
    “I propose to recruit a ship’s crew of thirty-five Skandian sea wolves to act as an attacking army, under the command of the mounted knight already at my disposal. The Skandians’ prowess in battle would more than compensate for—”
    But once again, Will had his hands up in the air, waving them in an effort to stem the flow of words.
    “Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!” he cried. “Back up the oxcart a little! Skandians? Where did these Skandians come from?”
    Nick looked at him, a little puzzled by the question.
    “Well . . . Skandia, presumably,” he replied. Will noticed that the other two boys were nodding agreement, frowning slightly at Will’s interruption.
    “No, no, no,” he began, then a thought struck him and he frowned at the other two boys.
    “Did you all decide that you’d recruit a force of Skandians?” he asked, and Liam and Stuart nodded wordlessly.
    “Well, what made you think you could do that?” he asked. The boys looked at one another, then Liam answered.
    “That’s what you did.” His tone said that the answer seemed self-evident.
    Will made a helpless gesture with his hands.
    “But I knew the Skandians,” he said. “They were friends of mine.”
    Liam shrugged.“Well, yes. But I could get to know them too. I’m told I’m quite a personable type of fellow. I’m sure I could make them my friends.”
    Stuart and Nick nodded their support. Will pointed to the Assets and Resources list.
    “But there aren’t any Skandians here!” he