"Even so, doing the best that we could, doing it as carefully but still as fast as we could, it took us the best part of eight years to make ready for the great adventure. Using ancient maps and charts, I laid out our course for North America, and, late in August of that year, we set sail out of our jam-packed harbor- nearly twelve thousand men aboard seventy-eight ships, leaving almost as many men to follow in a second wave whenever enough bottoms were built or taken from others to bear them. And even aswe sailed out into the Atlantic, more of our kind were sailing in from the Mediterranean, fleeing the wrath of the savage Turks.

"The voyage, unlike my terrifying solitary one two centuries past, was relatively easy and almost serene.

We did not begin to lose ships until we had sailed into the coastal waters and begun to run up against un-marked shoals and other dangers that were not, of course, shown on the two-hundred-year-old charts. But, recall, please, Milo, this all occurred more than two and a half centuries prior to that horrible spate of seismic disturbances, volcanism, tsunamis and land sub-sidences, so the coast was basically unchanged, with few swamps worthy of the name along them, so land-ings were effected with a fair degree of ease and we began to acquire a few mounts and send out some parties of scouts to see what lay before us and allow us to carefully choose initial objectives, for it was plain that the lands were not deserted as I had recalled them from so long in the past, but that certain numbers of folk were living on them, exploiting them in various ways.

"We had landed on the Atlantic coast of that area once known as the State of Georgia. There were many ruined places, yes, but there were also quite a few agricultural settlements, two of these large enough to be considered small cities, by then-current Mediterra-nean standards, and these were called Savannah and Brunswick. We knew that both must fall quickly were we to gain uncontested possession of the rich crop-lands between them; also, we needed harborage for our fleet, lest the autumnal and winter storms wreck it.

"I decided to first attack the larger, stronger of these little cities. I personally reconnoitered, lying hid-den and still in many places for days, but finally emerg-ing with a sound plan of action.

"With the weapons and equipment then available to us, Savannah sat impregnable atop its bluff, impregna-ble by river, that is. But still I sent elements of the fleet up the river, where they created a noisy distur-bance just beyond the ranges of the defensive engines mounted atop the bluffs. All but a handful of the foolish, painfully naive Savannanans rushed to the walls atop the bluffs, and that was when I led my men against the landward walls. We swarmed up them on our a.s.sault-ladders, flung open the gates and let the rest of our men in to begin a b.l.o.o.d.y ma.s.sacre of the inhabitants. Understand, Milo, I did try to control my men, but a single man cannot be everywhere at the one time, you see. Some few escaped the city, natu-rally, such things happen in warfare, so we well knew that the other city, to the south, Brunswick, would be warned and very watchful.

"The river harbor below Savannah was roomy enough for our fleethaven for the season of storms, so we moored the most of the ships therein and let Brunswick wait and watch and worry while we spent the autumn and winter and early spring in consolidating our gains and moving by both land and water against the smaller centers between us and the other city. I had managed to convince my bloodthirsty minions that live slaves were far to be preferred to decomposing bodies, so we oversaw our new-won lands planted in the spring, then the most of us marched off southward and westward to win more land and slaves and loot.

"With all of the countrysides surrounding it in our hands and all of its vessels sunk or driven off sea and river, besieged Brunswick fell to our arms a year al-most to the day after Savannah had fallen. Therefore, with a firm foothold established on that coast, I took four ships and set sail back to the east to fetch back the second wave of Mediterraneans to conquer yet another part of the lands.

"On my return from Portugal, Milo, my starting fleet of some fifty-three ships was storm-scattered, and only forty-one still were With me when we laid over, briefly, on the coast of New England. We were bound for the lands just north of the originally invaded area, but another terrible storm drove us into the southern end of the Bay of Chesapeake, and so we made our base among the shattered ruins of thathuge complex of ancient cities and commenced to fan out south, west and north.

"However, after two signal defeats of my Mediter-raneans in the north and northwest, I ordered that all expansion head south and southwest, directions in which the indigeneous resistance seemed both weaker and less well organized, while I took thirty-two ships and set sail for Portugal and more men.

"I arrived back at the Portuguese base to find that thousands more folk, both pirate-raiders and more peaceful ones, had come to the base just in time to swell the ranks of the defenders in a war against invad-ing Spaniards from the southeast and swarms of sea-raiders sailing up from Morocco and other points along the west coast of Africa.

"Leaving my fleet and that of the base to combat the Moors, I led out the army and, after a lengthy campaign of maneuver, caught, cornered and virtually exterminated the Spaniards, for all that their force was larger and stronger than my own. My victorious forces came back just in time to meet and drive back into the sea an invading army of Moors whose fleet had cun-ningly led mine off on a wild goose chase and thus left the base vulnerable and thinly defended. The one fortunate result of all this was, however, that we man-aged to capture a good two-thirds of the Moors' ships, more or less undamaged, so some ten months after I had returned to Portugal for the second time, I sailed back toward North America with almost a hundred ships.

"The Chesapeake base lay empty of life, and through the tales of the survivors, by then holding lands along the coast of what is now called Karaleenos, I learned that a huge, well-armed army had marched down from central Virginia to join with another army of indigenes in southern Virginia and move against the base, crush-ing it and slaying all who were unable to crowd aboard the few ships I had left behind.

"The hearing of these tales bred a rage of ven-geance in the men I just had brought over the sea.

Therefore, deciding that such combative rage should not be wasted, I once more pa.s.sed over the more southerly lands and led all of my fleet and forces up the rivers and into the heart of the Commonwealth and Kingdom of Virginia.

"Milo, that was a long, grueling war, the conquest of Virginia. Yes, we had cannon, but then so, too, did they. As you no doubt recall, small arms had become very rare by then, repeating firearms almost nonexis-tent, because of the lack of self-contained cartridges. Most guns as did exist by then were flintlock-muzzle-loaders. The King of Virginia had a corps of two hundred gunmen, perhaps eight hundred bowmen and crossbowmen, a thousand hors.e.m.e.n-about half of whom had at least one flintlock horsepistol-and sev-eral thousands more infantry armed with pikes, spears, swords, poleaxes and suchlike. A strong army, well and innovatively led, good morale in the beginning, hard fighters, most of them. But we defeated them, in the end. We took very few male slaves, though, for those men were of the sort who will fight to the very death rather than surrender while still a drop of blood remains within their veins; you have to admire such men . . . but, also, you have to kill them, all of them, are you to retain that which you have won from them.

"As in all of the other lands we conquered, the few units that did run fled to the mountains or took refuge in states not yet conquered by our arms, to the north or the western parts of the south. Again leaving men employed at cleaning out pockets of resistance and otherwise consolidating their conquest, I took some ships and bore back to Europe for yet another wave of my new-style immigrants.

"The base in Portugal was filled to overflowing; so crowded was it become in the three years I had been absent that folk were living perforce in tents and hov-els outside the walls on every hand or aboard ships in the harbor. "The Turkish sultan, stung to the point of malicious rage by Greek coastal-raiding, had first taken most of the islands, one at the time, then had launched an invasion of the mainland of Greece itself, and refugees--whole families of them-were pouring into any place or land that might give them permission to make landfall.

"Aware as I was that, even by that time, the states that had been known collectively as New England still owned only spa.r.s.e populations and so would likely not be long or difficult in the conquering, I a.s.sembled the leaders of the Greek horde and, after extolling the beauty and richness of the lands, put forth my plans for helping them acquire a new home over the sea. Their straits in Portugal were no less than desperate, and so I had no difficulty in filling all of my then-available ships with displaced Greek families."

"Hmmph!" grunted Milo. "So that's why Kehnooryos Mahkehdonya has not only a different culture but even a different dialect, a Greek purer than the tongues of all the other Ehleenohee-settled lands.

"Since you were mostly responsible for settling the distant ancestors of these Ehleenohee here, Clar-ence, do you have any sense of ... say, paternity, of beingpater familias toward these, their very distant descendants?"

Bookerman-Laskos smiled lazily. "Why, of course I do, Milo. Just which of your schemes are you trying to lure me into, eh?"

"Refill your goblet and I'll tell you, Clarence," Milo replied.

Epilogue.

Perforce, the one time pirates of the Pirate Isles knew every inch of the still-sinking coastlines of the former kingdoms of Karaleenos and that now of the ConsolidatedThoheekseeahnee in some detail, so lo-cating safe anchorages in which to lie up and await the summons of the High Lord had presented no slightest difficulty to Lord Alexandros or any of the captains.

Referring to the maps and charts they and their predecessors had drawn over the recent years, they had decided in advance just how many of their ships each place could comfortably hold, a.s.signed certain vessels to each of the ones farthest south, then worked out methods of staying in good contact, that none might be left behind when the time came to sail.

Of a day, a half-dozen of the long, low, lean raiders, lashed one to the other at port and stern boards, their masts all unstepped, were rocking gently in a sheltered cove well hidden behind treacherous shoals and a spit of swampy, much overgrown land, more than a fathom of brackish water beneath their keels and a steady Seabreeze sweeping most of the noxious insects inland, as well as helping to dispel the muggy heat.

Aboard the flagship, some seamen-raiders performed necessary cleaning and maintenance tasks-one detail being hard at work roving fresh ropes into the small but powerful catapult mounted just behind the fore-peak of the vessel, another using a small boat to ferry garbage and sewage ash.o.r.e to be dumped for the delectation of the huge crocodilians and other, lesser scavengers, lest dumping it in the waters of the cove attract the unwelcome company of sharks. With a deafening din of metal on metal, a muscular smith worked at a small forge on deck, straightening blades of swords, cutla.s.ses, boarding pikes and the like, re-storing proper curve to the hooks of grapnels and boathooks and speedily fashioning odds and ends of needed hardware from bits of sc.r.a.p metal. Nearby to the smith, using the heat of his forge-fire to keep fluid a pot of reeking fishglue, a fletcher with a sack of feathers, a number of small and very sharp knives and a stack of dowels went about his task of feathering new shafts for arrow and hand-dart, ignor-ing the bright, hot sparks that often flew around him from the blows of the smith's hammers. Within easy reach of the fishglue pot, a pointer fitted carefully chosen and smoothed sharks' teeth of a range of sizes to the dart or arrow shafts; with practiced skill, he wrapped the threads of soaked sinew just tightly enough about shafts and glued heads to dry to optimum tight-ness without cracking or warping the wood. Those destined to become fire-arrows he mounted with min-uscule chips of shark tooth sunk into tiny slits in the wood just behind the heads and secured them with droplets of the fishglue.

Also sharing the heat of the forge-fire was another seaman-specialist who squatted with a long-handled ladle, a set of molds, a small axe and a couple of big ingots of lead; his task was that of melting the soft metal and casting sling-bullets.

Underlying the clang-clang-clanging of the activities of the smith, a constant soft rasping, were the sounds of edges of steel and bronze blades being whetted. And, in the lee of the steersman's deck, under a sc.r.a.p of awning that stopped the rays of the torrid sun, two persons sharpened their personal armaments with handstones and light oil.

One of these was a slender but very wiry man of early middle years, clearly akath'ahrohs Ehleen of pure or reasonably pure lineage-his skin much dark-ened by sun and weather, seamed with the cicatrices of old wounds. A faded strip of cotton cloth was lapped around his head to keep the salt sweat from out his dark eyes; otherwise-like the most of the ships' crews-he was naked save for his rings, armlets and a blob of amber-encasing a fly-set in ruddy gold that hung from the lobe of his one intact ear. Squatting with his back leaned against the wooden bulkhead behind him, he was using a very fine stone to bring the blade of a heavy dirk to razor keenness.

Beside him, using a coa.r.s.er stone to smooth out nicks along the cursive edge of a heavy-bladed two-foot cutla.s.s, lounged a woman bearing an unmistak-able racial resemblance to him, though their two sets of features were dissimilar in numerous other ways. To see her long, lithe, flat-muscled body with its proud, upthrusting b.r.e.a.s.t.s, flat belly and unlined face, one unknowing would have taken her to be a young woman of certainly less than twenty-five years; in actuality, Aldora Linsee Treeah-Potohmahs Pahpahs, wife of the Lord of the Sea Isles, was easily old enough to have been her husband's grandmother.

Of a sudden, she stopped her whetting of the blade, closed her dark eyes and just sat, motionless. Then she opened her lids again, turned to her companion and said, "Lehkos, Milo is farcalling me. This may be our call to action. I'm going back to our cabin and lie down, relax enough to more easily receive his beam-ings fully."

In far-distant Mehseepolis, relaxed on the bed in his suite, two long-fanged prairiecats flanking him, his hands in contact with their furry heads in order that their powerful telepathic abilities might meld with and strengthen the range of his own, lay Milo Morai, High Lord of the Confederation of Eastern Peoples. He looked to be asleep, but he was actually in silent converse with the High Lady Aldora, who at that moment was lying on a bed aboard her husband's warship,Pard, some four hundred miles distant.

"Aldora," he beamed, "the present fleet anchorage of what navy thethoheeksee have been able to patch together in the past few years is at the mouth of the river they call Ahrbahkootchee and is capaciousenough for all of Alexandras' ships as well as theirs. Tell him that I said to sail through the Florida Straits ... no, he'd call that the Dragon Pa.s.sage. Tell him to main-tain a tight formation and maximum safe speed and not to let his corsairs go gallivanting off on any side forays. He should keep his eyes peeled for one or more small fleets of low, rakish, felucca-rigged ships, with permanently fixed masts, most of them painted a dull brownish grey with random patterns of dull green.

"He is not to fight them unless attacked, but if push comes to shove, I'd like to have a few prisoners in relatively sound condition. Stay well clear of the coasts of that long island to the south of the Dragon Pa.s.sage, the one called Koobah; I've learned that the Witchmen have several stations there with offsh.o.r.e defenses that not even the Ehleen pirates could overcome without losses of more ships and lives than I'd care to see."

"How much time do we have to get there, Milo?" the woman beamed, her unbelievably powerful telepa-thy never having needed bolstering of any kind for either receiving or sending, no matter how great the distances involved. "The ships are scattered in a num-ber of coves stretching southward along the Atlantic coast, and it will no doubt take a little time to collect them all."

"Don't worry, my dear," Milo a.s.sured her, "there's little rush involved, here. I'm setting out with selected units of their army on the morrow, leaving others to follow after. Those who know the country that lies between here and the westernthoheekseeahnee esti-mate that it will require two or, more likely, three weeks for cavalry to get there and as much as six weeks for the slower units to arrive in place."

"Then why in h.e.l.l did you call me so soon?" she demanded.

"Because, Aldora," he patiently beamed, well fa-miliar with her impatience and intemperance, "I want to be certain that our fleet is within quick sailing-time of the Neos Kolpos. The last thing I want to see is the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds getting out of the little trap I'm setting for them and us having to a.s.sault their bases in order to put paid to them, once and for all. Besides, knowing Alexandras and his captains as I do, I am certain that they'll want to sneak in and take soundings in the areas of intended combat well ahead of having to sail their fleet in, so time must be allowed for that, you see."

"All right, Milo," the woman replied. "I'm sorry, I should have known after all these years that you had it all planned out. We'll set sail as soon as the tide rises enough to allow us deep water over the bar and the shoals. How far is it from the southern coast of Karaleenos to where you want us to be, do you know?"

"Roughly twelve hundred nautical miles," he an-swered. "Unless you follow the coast, which I'd prefer you not do."

"Well, Milo, with favorable winds, we should be standing into this fleet-anchorage in six or seven days . .

. maybe even less. Will that be good enough to your purposes? And we wouldn't coast-hug, anyway, not as frequently as sand shoals form and disappear along that coast."

"Fine," was Milo's reply beaming. "In seven days, wherever I am on the march, I'll try to farspeak you, probably in late afternoon or early evening."

At an informal meeting held later that day in the headquarters of the army, Milo told his audience, "I ride at dawn, gentlemen, along with my guards, two hundred Horseclansmen and Captain Bralos' squadron of lancers.Thoheeksee Grahvos, Sitheeros and Vikos have all indicated a desire to ride with me, as well, and they and their guards are more than welcome . . . just so long as they all understand that I make it ausual practice to travel light-no wheeled transport, nothing that a mule's back can't carry easily.

Every-thing else will have to follow with the army and baggage-trains.

"The army will march west in three or four days under command ofStrahteegos Thoheeks Tomos Gon-salos. It will consist of the scouts, the remainder of the brigade of cavalry undersub-strahteegos Thoheeks Por-tos, the Keebai pikemen, the light infantry, the foot-bowmen, the dart-men and the slingers, the artificiers and all other specialists that the commander thinks will be of need."

"How many elephants, my lords?" asked Captain Nathos respectfully.

"What point in taking along any?" asked Captain Ahzprinos, adding, "After all, we'll be marching into the very Land of Elephants."

"Quite so," agreed Nathos, "but you still had best have a few of mine on the march for emergencies.

Else, how are you going to get a wagonload of grain out of a mudhole without unloading it, eh?"

Tomos Gonsalos nodded. "There is that, of course; you've a good head, Nathos. How many would you recommend?"

"For the projected numbers of troops and baggage, my lordStrahteegos ,"replied the elephant-captain, "a minimum of four, but six would be better, that there always be one available in need and that they none of them be worked too hard or for too long."

Gonsalos nodded again. "So be it, Nathos. Six ele-phants will go with me and the army. Will you com-mand, or will one of your lieutenants?"

Captain Nathos grinned. "Turn down a free visit home? Not me. Yes, I'll command the contingent that accompanies your force, my lord."

"All right, gentlemen," said Milo, "now that that is all settled, we come back down to another reason we are met here this day. Soon, your army will be meld-ing with the Army of the Confederation. Before it can, we must standardize your systems of ranks-which is archaic, clumsy, repet.i.tive and most unwieldy in practice.

"The lowest and the highest and two median ranks in your current usage will be retained, but others will be added between them. Your lowest rank of officer, ensign, will stay just where it is and keep its present meaning and function. Junior and senior grades of the rank of lieutenant will be eliminated and the one rank of simply lieutenant subst.i.tuted for them; furthermore, lieutenants will no longer command troops of horse or companies of foot, only platoons or sections. Captain will henceforth be the rank of commanders of troop or company.

"Above that, there will be no more senior captains, captains-of-squadron, captains-of-battalion, captains-of-regiment, captains-of-brigade and the like. Command-ers of squadrons of horse and battalions of foot will bear the rank of major, and regimental commanders will bear that of colonel.

Brigade commanders will be called brigadiers. As I earlier said, the two grades ofstrahteegos will stay in both name and responsibility.

"When once a complete blending of the armies has been accomplished, there will never again be any sell-ing of ranks within it. Promotions, thenceforth, will be predicated upon each officer's ability, not upon his individual or family wealth and aspirations, nor even upon his civil rank. Thus, you will not be burdened with the risk of valuable troops to the command of some wellborn, wealthy, t.i.tled ninny wholooks very good on parade but who lacks the brains that G.o.d gave a boar-hog and cannot find his a.r.s.e with both hands and a pack of dogs.

"Amongst what you now call the common soldiers, you are going to witness and hear of even more changes, gentlemen. In this army of yours, your rankers are designated only as soldier or trooper, sergeant and a few ambiguous specialist t.i.tles. Within the Army of the Confederation, on the other hand, there are no less than some fourteen gradations of soldiers' ranks, running from recruit up to army sergeant-major, each higher one denoting increased responsibilities, increased privileges and higher pay.

This is what the future holds for your army, too, like it or not. It has worked well for me, since I reorganized the army of Kehnooryos Ehlahs, half a century ago, and it will work just as well for you.

"You see, gentlemen, when well and properly led, after being well and thoroughly trained, your so-called common Ehleen soldier is easily the match of any Middle Kingdoms professional soldier extant, as I dis-covered a half-century and more ago in the north. The two main reasons that he has served you and other Ehleen states so poorly in times past have not been his fault in any way. One of these has been a stubborn application of hidebound, pigheaded traditional prac-tices-crowded, inflexible battle formations; officers' reflexive a.s.sumption that all common soldiers are thick-headed and childish and respect only raw force; an almost total lack of care for the common soldiers, as ill.u.s.trated best by failure to provide more than the bare rudiments of protective clothing or armor for them or to provide them and to train them in the use of auxiliary weapons. The other princ.i.p.al reason has been their leadership, their officers, notably on the level of junior officers.

"Gentlemen, simply because a man happens to be n.o.bly born, trained from boyhood in arms and the hunt, has never meant that he is therefore automati-cally a born leader of fighting men, tactician and strat-egist all rolled into one. Such men have existed, do exist at present, but they are and always have, been exceedingly rare. An army cannot expect to have good units without good officers, and in order to have good officers, candidates must be very carefully selected, well trained in the beginning and subjected to contin-ual training and periodic quality evaluation throughout their active careers with the army.

"Immediately this current campaign is done, all of these changes will gradually be put into effect in your army. You know, many of the changes I have outlined were also thought of and seriously contemplated by your late GrandStrahteegos Pahvlos, too."

"Pahvlos the Warlike?" chorused Grahvos, Portos and not a few more.

Milo nodded. "I've read that old man's journals, you see. Shortly after he took over your army and saw the strengths of Guhsz Hehluh's pikemen, the Confederation-style cavalry of Portos and Pawl Vawn's Horseclansmen, he began to first question, then strin-gently criticize blind Ehleen traditionalism in his own mind, think things through, then set down conclusions and work out solutions to existing problems. Had he gone further along those lines of thought, had that satanic Witchmen's agent Ilios not appeared and be-gun to twist his mind, then you might be very much farther along the way to a truly effective, well-organized, really modern army. It's a pity."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR.

ROBERT ADAMS lives in Seminole County, Florida. Like the characters in his books, he is partial to fencing and fancy swordplay, hunting and riding, good food and drink. At one time Robert could be found slaving over a hot forge, making a new sword or busily reconstructing a historically accuratemilitary costume, but, unfortunately, he no longer has time for this as he's far too busy writing.

HORSECLANS FANS PLEASE NOTE:.

For more information about Milo Morai, Horse-clans, and forthcoming Robert Adams books contact the NATIONAL HORSECLANS SOCIETY, P.O. Box 1770, Apopka, FL 32704-1770.