Shards of a Broken Crown Read Online Free PDF Page B

won’t
keep him from doing it.” Patrick was silent a moment, dien
said, “Can Duke Carl’s forces save LaMut?”
    “Yes,”
said Owen. “If we can assume we’ll have no trouble from
the Brotherhood of the Dark Path”—he used the common term
for the moredhel, the dark elves who lived to the north—”and
count on the elves and dwarves, and the Free Cities keeping the
western front stable, then Carl can strip his garrison, leaving what
he must along his eastern flank, and move the bulk of his men south
to LaMut. He should be able to hold Fadawah under those
circumstancs.”
    “If he
does, can he then retake Ylith?” asked Patrick.
    Akee glanced at
Erik and Arutha, both of whom nodded to him. Akee looked at Patrick
and said, “No, he cannot. He would need three times the number
of swords he has at his call to stand a chance of retaking Ylith. He
can hold where he is, unless this General Fadawah turns his entire
force northward—which he won’t do if he’s moving
soldiers south to hold Krondor—but Duke Carl cannot retake
Ylith.”
    “My lords
and gentlemen,” said the Prince, “LaMut is, by necessity,
die anvil.” He looked at Owen Greylock and said, “My Lord
Marshal, your army must by needs be the hammer.”
    Owen said, “It’s
a small hammer, Patrick.”
    The Prince said,
“Indeed, but Kesh is arrayed in force along our southern
border, what’s left of our fleet is keeping Queg and die Durbin
pirates at bay, and some of the eastern kings are getting ambitious.
You’ll have to make do with your current force.”
    Owen said,
“That’s barely twenty thousand men, against how many? A
hundred thousand?”
    Patrick said,
“We can’t just let them keep what they’ve taken
until we resolve these other issues, can we?”
    His question was
greeted by silence.
    Patrick looked
from face to face in the room. “I’m not ignorant of the
flaws of my own ancestors. We took every inch of land from somebody
else to make the Western Realm. Only Yabon joined the Kingdom
willingly, and that because we saved them from the Brotherhood of the
Dark Path, else they would have fallen.
    “But the
only reason there’s a Baron von Darkmoor in the first place is
the bandit ancestor of your own Captain Erik was too tough a nut to
crack, and it was easier to make him a Kingdom noble and let him keep
the land he had already taken than it was to kill him and put some
king’s idiot nephew here in his place.” Patrick’s
voice began to rise. “And several other accommodations have
been made over the years, allowing former enemies to become valued
vassals.” Now his voice was raised to the point of yelling.
“But I’ll be damned to the Seventh Hell if I let some
murdering bastard set himself up as ‘King of the Bitter Sea’
and rule over my Principality. If Fadawah does, it will be with one
foot on my dead body!”
    Dash and James
exchanged glances. They didn’t need to say anything. The
message was clear. Owen Greylock and Erik von Darkmoor, and what
remained of the Armies of the West, would have to retake the
Principality without any outside assistance.
    Owen cleared his
throat. Patrick glanced at his Knight-Marshal of Krondor and said,
“Yes?”
    “Is there
anything else, Highness?”
    Patrick was
silent a long moment, then said, “No.” To the men in the
room he said, “My lords and gentlemen, you are all under
Marshal Greylock’s command from this moment on. Treat his
orders as if they are my own.”
    He lowered his
voice. “And may the gods smile on us,” he said. And left.
    The nobles in
the room began muttering comments to one another, then Owen said, “My
lords!”
    Silence returned
to the hall.
    Greylock said,
“We move in the morning. I expect to have advanced units in
Ravensburg by nightfall, and scouts to the walls of Krondor by the
end of the week.” He glanced from face to face, then said, “You
know what to do.”
    The men began to
file out of the room, and Erik came to stand before Dash