Patrick said, “How are you going to proceed?”
Calis smiled. “Come at them from behind.” He crossed to a large map on the wall, one redrawn many times over the last twenty years as new information came from the continent on the other side of the world. “We’ll sail from the Sunset Islands, as usual, but here”—he pointed to a seemingly empty place on the map four hundred miles south of the long island chain—“is an uncharted bit of land with a lovely harbor. We’ll meet there and transfer to another ship.”
“Another ship?” asked Patrick.
Nicholas answered. “By now our enemy has an inventory of every ship in the Western Navy. They can probably identify the outline on the horizon of each one from their rigging. And I have no doubt they know which of our ‘trading ships’ are really royal warships in disguise.”
“What have you got down there?” asked Patrick “A new ship?”
“No, a very old one,” said Calis. “We’re going to go as Brijaners.”
“Brijaners? Keshian raiders?” said William with a half-smile.
Nicholas said, “We have one of their dragon ships. The navy of Roldem captured one during a raid two years ago.” Roldem was a small island kingdom to the east of the Kingdom of the Isles that was a longtime ally. “The King of Roldem has agreed to ‘lend’ it to us. It was quietly sailed around lower Kesh.” Nicholas smiled. “A couple of times, according to reports, other Brijaner dragon boats sailed within hailing distance. The Roldem captain waved and smiled and kept right on going, no questions asked or answered.”
William laughed. “The arrogant swine couldn’t imagine someone sailing in their waters who wasn’t one of them.”
Calis said, “I’m hoping we get the same reaction.”
“What?” asked Patrick.
“I’m not sailing west to get to Novindus. I’m sailing east under the Horn of Kesh, then across what is now known as the Green Sea, to a small village near the city of Ispar.” He pointed at the map as he spoke. “We’ll be sailing in from their west. I hope if they’re looking for our ships, they’re looking in the other direction. We have always sailed out of the City of the Serpent River. If we’re intercepted, we’re Brijaner traders who were blown off course and are working our way around their landmass.”
Patrick said, “Do you think they will accept that?” Calis shrugged. “It’s happened before, I’ve been told. There’s a fast-running current that moves eastward down near the ice floes, and if you catch it south of Kesh you can ride it across the Green Sea to a great mass of ice that points like a finger right at Port Grief. We won’t be the first party of Keshian sea raiders to show up there, but they won’t have been so common that locals will notice any differences.”
Patrick said, “Then what?”
Calis said, “We buy some horses, change clothing, and sneak out of the city one night, and head north.” He pointed to the south end of the mountain range that ran down to the sea west of Ispar. “I can find the entrance we used to get out of those caverns on our last journey, without too much trouble.”
No one doubted him. His tracking skills were considered legendary. Calis’s heritage was unique and in no small measure supernatural.
Patrick said, “Very well. What then?”
Calis shrugged. “The destruction of the Pantathians.”
Patrick’s eyes widened. “How many men were you planning on taking?”
“Ten squads. Sixty men.”
“You plan on destroying a nation of these creatures, magic users from every report I’ve studied, with sixty men?”
Calis said, “I never said it would be easy.”
Patrick looked at Nicholas. “Uncle?”
Nicholas said, “I learned twenty years ago that if Calis says a thing can be done, it can be done.” Looking at Calis, he asked, “What is your thinking?”
“My thinking,” said Calis, “is that the bulk of their forces will be with the armies of the Emerald Queen.” He made a sweeping motion with his hand on the map between the city of Maharta and the City of the Serpent River. “We’ve never seen them in numbers. The squad I saw in the caverns was no more than twenty in one place, and that was the single largest concentration we’ve encountered. We’ve judged them by their ability to visit evil on us, but never have we questioned their strength of numbers.” He let a distasteful expression cross his face. “When I caught sight of one of their crèches it was poorly guarded. A half-dozen adults, a dozen or more infants, and a score of eggs. I saw nothing of their females.”