The Union

Immediate to his right walked Abraham. A head taller than most of the royal guards, Abraham stood out like a nail among needles. His walk was brisk and his steps were heavy. A lot of people would feel awe and fear seeing a man of Abraham"s stature wearing a royal guard"s armor and weapon. But the giant"s expression was opposite to his looks. Abraham was looking around like a child on a fair.

Timothy couldn"t blame him though. Holm is beautiful. His pride as a Castonian wouldn"t want to admit it but his eyes were not blind to deny that Holm was more beautiful than Nirvana.

Yes the walls of Holm were not impressive. The city guards were few and lax. The gates were made of old iron. Most of the ballistae don"t work. Unlike Nirvana, Holm"s defenses were laughable. But the capital city of Vanadis offered a different approach to beauty. It was a merchant city after all.

The buildings in Holm were lined neatly. Not a single one sported only one story. The minimum was two. Below were the shops and above were the living s.p.a.ces. All of them were made of bricks, some showy ones have portions made of marble. The buildings all have the same color according to their district as was mandated by King Edmund- red for the n.o.ble, gold for the merchant, white for the common people and blue for the palace.

The streets of Holm were wide and clean. The center was designated for carriages and horses. The sides were for pedestrians. He couldn"t see it right now because of the snow but Lucia had told him that the streets of Holm were paved with a black substance they called dark cement- residues from making the famous Vanadian lamp oil and h.e.l.lfire.

What impressed and at the same time annoyed Timothy the most were the people. Most of the people in Holm were merchants. The art of selling and haggling were in their blood. An average person in Holm was twice richer than a counterpart in Nirvana. As a result the people walked the streets in proud strides with their chins raised.

On their way to the barracks, Timothy and the royal guards pa.s.sed by the shipyard of Holm. He could feel the amazement of the royal guards. He himself felt the same. The shipyard of Holm was probably the largest in the world. It stretched widely and took a huge chunk of the coastline. It looked like a behemoth eating lumbers and spewing ships in return. Thousands of professional shipbuilders were busy making galleys out of timber. Each person knew his job and everyone worked in unison. Some were shaping the lumbers. Some took the job of making masts. The sails and flags were being sewed in one place. The oars were being shaped on another.

But another thing captivated Timothy"s attention. It was a building guarded by more than a hundred marines. Timothy knew what was inside and they were right to give it security. h.e.l.lfire was a state secret of Vanadis. He had seen samples of h.e.l.lfire before. It was a sticky liquid that catches fire easily. It was combustible and explosive to some extent. The liquid was one of the reasons of Vanadis" dominance at sea. Hundreds of galleys and thousands of people had already experienced the might of Vanadian h.e.l.lfire. None of the survivors wanted another taste of the treat.

Now that Castonia and Vanadis are, to some extent, united under one rule, h.e.l.lfire would see some action on land. It was such a waste that a weapon with the potency of h.e.l.lfire was only being used in naval warfare. Vanadis only had dominance at sea after all. This would change. He had already talked with Lucia about this. h.e.l.lfire"s use must be expanded. Timothy could imagine castles burning and battlefields on fire in the future. Charges of cavalry could be deterred with a wall of flame. Sieges wouldn"t last months and years under the pressure of fire.

"Would you want to take a look Your Majesty?" Abraham whispered

Timothy shook his head. On his lips remained the smile he had earlier.

"Not today. The Vanadians know more about navies and flammable liquids more than we do. Let them show their expertise on their field while we show them ours. We would look like tourists if we take a look. Our place is the barracks, not the shipyard"

He walked forward to continue to the barracks. The royal guards snapped out of their trance and followed him.

After a while Timothy was standing outside a military camp. It was the barracks of Holm. The arrangements were not even worth comparing to that of Nirvana. The barracks of Nirvana was grand with stone walls bearing paintings of major battles. The moat was well maintained. Nirvana"s barracks also had a library, a courtyard, a garden, three kitchens, two hospitals and a well-maintained bathhouse.

The barracks of Holm on the other hand was just a camp outside the city walled with wooden spikes. A few months back, the mercenaries populated the barracks. Now that a reform was made by the Queen to slowly replace the mercenaries with regulars from the citizenry, the mercenaries stationed in Holm were the first to be replaced.

"What is that smell?" Abraham asked with wrinkled nose.

"Sweat and garbage concocted into an unholy putrid union. That, Abraham, is the smell of an undisciplined camp" He gestured towards the gate "It"s not even locked. No sentries despite this camp being outside the city walls. One night attack and the city of Holm would have fallen"

Timothy entered the camp with his guards and it got worse. Soiled clothing and broken pottery met him. Broken furniture and other garbage were piled on one side. Some of the tents have holes.

There were already people inside. Raw volunteer recruits from the first round of the levy sat on the clean portion of the camp. From their looks and posture he guessed that most of them are sons of merchants.

They knelt facing Timothy as soon as they saw him. Event though their monarch was Lucia, he was still the consort. Timothy walked towards them with his guards still flanking him. He breathed the cold air before talking.

"How many?" He asked the ones wearing marine uniform and armor.

"Less than two hundred for now Your Majesty"

"Sir" Timothy corrected "Inside these walls I am your General. View me as such. Only outside am I the consort of your Queen and the King of Castonia"

He put his hand on the shoulder of one of the recruits. He was a young man about Timothy"s age.

"What is your name?"

"Gerald Your... Sir!"

"Your father is a fur merchant I suppose?"

"How..."

"Just a guess" Timothy smiled "Now Gerald, let me ask you a question. Why did you join the first legion of Vanadis?"

"Honor sir! I want to do my part in the wars to come" Gerald said without batting an eye.

"Ah honor. Such a word. Such a lie. You did not join because of honor. You joined because you are young and you thought, no, you still think that joining would be exciting. You thirst for adventure, for new things. That is why you"re here. Am I wrong?"

Gerald gave a nervous nod. "My father want me to take over the family business sir. I don"t want to. The recruitment looked promising so I thought it wouldn"t be a bad idea to enlist. I"m sorry"

"Don"t be sorry. Everyone starts like that. n.o.body is born honorable. Everyone wants something else at first but soon after they gain the ident.i.ty of being a defender of their nation, they forget what they want to achieve in the first place"

Timothy noticed that some of them were staring intently at him. He must be famous he thought

"You" He pointed at a man a few paces back from Gerald "You are looking at me like you"re about to sell me some spices. You got a question. Spill it"

The man was surprised at first but after a while he nervously asked, "Is it true sir that you can turn into a lion?"

"The only thing I can turn into is a handsome King and I do it all the time" he gave them a smirk.

The new recruits laughed to his jest. Lucia was wrong. His jests were not getting dryer.

Timothy started walking towards the far end of the line of recruits.

"Now all of you are green as gra.s.s in spring. Soft hands and weak heart. I bet most of you never held a sword before. No worries for I have experience in dealing with this kind of situation. I once reformed a garrison of drunken men into the legend that is the Rooster Legion. That took me a year" He paused and grinned "I have a month to do the same with you"