there to remind everyone that the god is watching?'
'Not being an Episcopal anymore, I can't argue effectively. Maybe Bishop LeCroes can explain the difference.'
Brother Candle had lived long enough to be skeptical of dogma. Dogma reflected the human need to believe mere was something bigger and more meaningful than the mayfly individual. That there was a cosmic plan.
Horns called across me water.
The Platadurans signaled between ships using a variety of horns where other navies used signal flags or drums. The Navayan navy had adopted the same system.
The admiral of the fleet was Plataduran. The commander of combined armies was King Peter, who had invited himself along because he did not trust Firaldians. Especially not Firaldians from Brothe. And, least of all, any Firaldian who was the latest in a line of false Patriarchs. Despite his support for the Church as an institution.
Peter's great talent was flexibility. He adopted methods and tools that worked. That included a Patriarch who was not legal but who did control the power of the Church.
The Platadurans and Navayans believed Peter would conquer all Direcia in his lifetime. Many of the peoples of Direcia looked forward to his success.
'What's happening?' Brother Candle asked as sailors flew around, taking in sails. Taro was a broad-beamed, long bireme, like most of the Plataduran fleet. She could fight if necessary but was intended for commerce. She did not normally put out oars while on the deep water, unless becalmed. Sails were Taro's preferred means of making headway.
A Plataduran told Brother Candle, 'The captains have been called to a meeting aboard Isabeth.'
The great lady of the war fleet was named for Peter's queen. The armada reduced speed and closed in. The ships dropped anchor and launched boats that carried the captains and leading soldiers to the flagship.
The Shippen coast was like nothing Brother Candle had seen before. Smaller vessels ran inshore to either hand of a fishing village named Tarenti, which possessed a small but deep harbor. Veteran Navayans isolated the town. Transports headed in to unload.
The same happened at other minor ports. Brother Candle was only marginally in the know. The plan seemed to be to deny Shippen's resources to mainland Calzir. Which should not stand up long if Shippen's produce was not available.
King Peter and Count Raymone meant to subdue an island more vast than half the kingdoms in the Chaldarean world. With Connecten and Navayan forces combined numbering fewer than four thousand men. The Platadurans would not fight ashore.
Brother Candle's military experience consisted of having been present at the Black Mountain Massacre. He did not understand that Shippen need not be conquered in its entirety in order to keep its resources from reaching the mainland.
Local resistance ended quickly.
Historically, Shippen never sustained a fight once an invader gained a solid foothold. The working population did not care who was in charge. The arrogations of the ruling classes had no abiding impact on everyday life. As long as the mines produced copper and silver and the fields and orchards yielded surpluses of grain and fruit. The weather was usually favorable and there had been no natural disaster since a series of volcanic eruptions in pre- Brothen antiquity.
The great disasters in Shippen's past were the handiwork of Man, sometimes a war but more often a demonstration of excess by some sorcerer self-deluded into thinking that he could master the Instrumentalities of the Night.
Only the most brilliant minds could convince themselves that they were capable of exempting themselves from the Tyranny of the Night.
Brother Candle and Taro's connectens next went ashore at Caltium Cidanta. The town stank of decaying fish entrails. Clouds of shrieking gulls swirled overhead. Caltium Cidanta had no modern significance. In antiquity it was important, though. It was from Caltium Cidanta that the Colpheroen general Eru Itutmu left the Brothen Empire to go defend his homeland, Dreanger — after he and thousands who believed him to be a god spent a generation plaguing the adolescent empire. Eru Itutmu killed a quarter million Brothens but suffered defeat, both in Brothe and at home. Those early Brothens were stubborn. They fought Eru Itutmu for decades, and conquered every ally Dreanger found anywhere around the Mother Sea.
Far memories of Eru Itutmu were all Caltium Cidanta had to recommend it.
Bishop LeCroes grumbled, 'This place is like every other damned town on the island. There aren't any boats. There aren't any men younger than sixty or boys older than twelve. And the women come in three types: homely, homelier, and homeliest.'
Brother Candle chuckled. 'I'm just a simpleminded heretic, Bries, but I picked up the notion somewhere that we're supposed to treat the local females the way we'd want our stout Connecten wives treated. Not to mention that celibacy is part of your job.'
'You're a major pain in the fundament, Candle. A total fun-killer.'
'I do what I can.'
The real point was, there were no women of breeding age, however liberal your outlook.
LeCroes grumbled, 'Anything female that might tempt a sinner, including ewes and nannies and sows, is hiding in the mountains.'
Occupation of Caltium Cidanta and its environs was anticlimactic. The sole casualty was a Terliagan slinger who broke a finger while showing off to some local boys. Those villagers still in place betrayed no overt resentment. They did demonstrate a healthy wariness.
Brother Candle sensed a high level of resignation.
'It's part of the culture,' the Plataduran chaplain assured him. He had come ashore because he was familiar with the Shippen dialect 'Shippen has been invaded a lot. The people know they'll get through it.'
'Yet they'll go out pirating.' The fact that they would had nothing to do with how they responded to occupation. The piratical inclination existed because of the island's history.
Most invasions had begun with pirate types who came to plunder and found little worth carrying away. But they did find Shippen to be a good place to hide from their enemies.
The Plataduran chaplain indicated a hazy indigo line of teeth. 'If the boys get an urge to misbehave they'll have to jog all the way over there. They'll lose the mood by the time they get there.'
The occupation of Shippen proceeded without fanfare or much conflict. Nobles of standing had gone over to the mainland to resist the Unbeliever's attack there. They added to and shared in the privation and misery enjoyed by those who served in the armies of God.
On Shippen, natives and occupiers lived comfortably and harmoniously. The Connectens helped bring in the harvest. The women returned from the hills, a few at a time, bringing their livestock. The Connectens were not impressed. 'The joke went that Calziran women explained why Calziran men had picked a fight with Chaldarean Firaldia.
Brother Candle pitched in. And talked about his own beliefs. Local Pramans found him amusing. Native Chaldareans, a third of the population, thought the Maysalean Heresy might be on to something.
Brothe, the Episcopal Church, and the Patriarchy were not beloved of Shippen's Chaldareans.
Brother Candle wished Bishop LeCroes considerable distress. The Bishop was out of his element, a chaplain without a flock. The Connectens off Taro were all Maysaleans, Terliagans, and Episcopal Chaldareans who favored Sublime V over Immaculate II.
'I'm not trying to cause you misery, Bries.'
“I know. I dug my own grave when I decided I'd rather sail with a friend. If I had any sense I'd lay down in it and stop whining.'
'Buy a donkey and catch up with Count Raymone.' It was evening in Caltium Cidanta. Brother Candle was sampling me local vintage, which was surprisingly good. His expedition was turning out to be a vacation from life.
