Tales Of Gallanol : Ch.3 (Part1) Journey To Girithon

Owen spent the rest of that day in the hold of the barge. The warriors were leaving the work of sailing to the river sailors, whose profession was to ship cargoes up and down the Great River on boats owned by boatmasters, merchant houses or individual merchants. The Royal Barges, such as this one, had only two (in this case) permanent officers. The rest of the sailors were hired. There was no need for Royal Barges to have permanent sailors, as they were used relatively infrequently. Royal officials and civil servants would travel on small passenger barges or on merchant’s barges. There were, of course, many barges, which had a permanent crew, and whose owners were their captains, who were contracted by merchants or individuals in need of transportation. Many of the fleet of barges, which lay ahead of Deneldinhew were donated for the cause by leading Baerwysian merchant houses – Owen’s House Gireald and House Cadwallon among them. There were also small boatmasters hired. It was a massive operation, requiring great organisation. Small boats would to and fro from Elladein to Emywid and Girithon, relaying messages of the needs of war – and the bigger boats would continuously ferry food and other necessities, as well as possible reinforcements, up and down the Great River. The River Ella through Elladein was also navigable as far as the city of Morith. Supplies could be brought to wherever they were needed, much more quickly than overland.

One of the main reasons why Owen was so optimistic about the outcome of the campaign was that the Elladeini had far fewer home based barges than Baerwys, Lanardein and Galdellyn. Baerwys was at the centre of the Great River and more barges were based there. King Lew would have found it very much more difficult to mount a similar operation against Baerwys. Merchants in Elladein often tended to sell their goods to other merchants who could better supply the South via the Great River. (However Elladeini merchants monopolised the overland trades with Nardyrria, Norenic and Northede in the North, and with the Telmartans in the East.)

Owen played card games with Hew and Cynan and a couple of Emywid White Guard officers during the afternoon and were joined by Bleddyn and Idwal later. Owen was a good card player who had the uncanny ability to think rationally at all times, with great speed. He rarely made a mistake and rarely lost a game. The others, in particular Bleddyn, easily got fed up with his invincibility. Bleddyn, though a sound warrior and a witty personality lacked the competitive urge required for mastery over the game. He would take a long time deliberating over his next move and be irritated intensely by Owen and others’ complaints of his timewasting.

Deneldinhew remained on deck with Prince Llewelyn, Rhodric, Morgan, and some of the officers, both Lanardeini and Baerwysian, becoming better acquainted. Later they joined the card players in the hold and everyone mixed freely, soldiers and leaders. Towards the middle of the night, when many of the warriors were beginning to sleep, a sailor announced to Deneldinhew that they were approaching Girithon.

Deneldinhew, Prince Llewelyn and Owen led the others up onto the deck, donning cloaks and furs as they went. It was snowing profusely, and the wind was beginning to get up. The barge was heading into the west bank where the wharves of Girithon waited. Four or five fleet barges were tied up there. More barges were anchored offshore downstream and others were anchored near the east bank. It was difficult to see anything in the snow obscured dark. The lights of barges reflected ghoulishly off the low cloud. The lights of Girithon could be seen, and the dim shapes of some buildings.

“This blizzard may obscure us from watchers on the banks as we move upstream. It may hide our movements a little , but it won’t do us any good when we march on Caerella,” said Deneldinhew to Prince Llewelyn.

Llewelyn thought that by the time they got near enough to disembark the blizzards would have ended and the thaw would have set in. In three days we’ll be skirting the Forest of Liedein, but I think the blizzards will be spent. The going overland might not be so speedy, but King Lew won’t be expecting us at such a time,” said the Prince.

“Blizzards last a long time in these parts, my Lord,” said the ship’s captain, a squat dark haired man with a beard. “It’s quite common for the barges to wait in port if they’re heading into the strong north winds like we are. I shouldn’t be surprised if we don’t take a full three days to the far end of Liedein, if the wind begins blowing so hard and blustery.”

Sailors on deck were poised to throw the ropes onto the quay. The captain ordered the tacking sails to be taken down, and from the sides of the hold half a dozen oars on each side were protruded to take the barge right into the quayside. Heavily garmented men were onshore, ready to take the ropes when they were thrown and pull the boat in.

Deneldinhew turned to the captain. “I’ll be back tomorrow morning at first light. We must be ready to move off immediately in the vanguard.”

Then Deneldinhew leaped ashore, followed by his Companions and the Prince, to be greeted by Owen’s father, Orgwain Gireald, Eric Cadwallon, the Falwentine commanders, Jovian of Gorn (The Galdelleini envoy), the Galdelleini commander, and Anarawd, Deneldinhew’s chief military advisor. There were horses waiting for them in shelter at the entrance to a House Gireald warehouse, and they sped off through darkened Girithon, to the Gireald mansion on the scarp behind the city, to spend the night in comfort, while on the quay a barge which had taken on Girithon soldiers that evening was stacked with horses and equipment in readiness for tomorrow’s journey into Elladein.

It wasn’t far, uphill all the way. Deneldinhew had been here before to stay, with Owen’s family, to learn more about river transport and to become acquainted with new places, part of the education his mother and uncles had wanted him to have. In those days there had been other claimants to the throne alive. The Cadwallons had had no thought of him becoming the High King. Everyone expected Denhelew to choose his own successor. Deneldinhew remembered quite clearly the day of his sixteenth birthday, when his mother had taken him into the Palace and told him that when Denhelew died there would be only two suitable claimants to the throne, himself and King Lewden of Paldein. That had given the young nobleman great confidence in himself, and he had made a conscious attempt to get to know Denhelew, whom he had known all his life, on more intimate terms. He had changed the course of his ambitions. Instead of wanting to be a great merchant he had turned more than ever before to athletics, sport, and the art of war. Within a couple of years he had been learning the practical arts of war in the forests and meadows of the Martainian border. He had divided his time between the physical side of military life and the political. He had become a regular at court and he had brought his mother to live at the palace too. He had studied history, at first with Luneid Lenwar, before he had been brought back into Denhelew’s close council, and had attended parties and dances, and made a name for himself as a bright and popular personality, who danced and played cards equally well, and who was very popular among the young merchants, noblemen, and with royal officials’ daughters. His popularity in Emywid had been the ticket to the success of his claim to the High Throne. And now it had brought him back to the Gireald House in very different circumstances from the last time he was here.