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In practice the Skyls, a dark crafty race of unknown origin, were
uncontrollable. They lived isolated in mountain glens, emerging only when the
time came for dreadful deeds. Vendetta, revenge and counter-revenge ruled
their lives. The Skyls' virtues were stealth, reckless elan, blood-lust and
stoicism under torment; his word, be it promise, guarantee or threat might be
equated with certainty; indeed the Skyl's exact adherence to his pledge often
verged upon the absurd. From birth to death his life was a succession of
murders, captivities, escapes, wild flights, daring rescues: deeds incongruous
in a landscape of Arcadian beauty.
On days of festival truce might be called; then merry-making and reveling
exceeded rational bounds. Everything was to excess: tables groaned under the
weight of food; fabulous feats of wine drinking were performed; there was
passionate music and wild dancing. In sudden spasms of sentiment, ancient
enmities might be resolved and feuds of a hundred murders put to rest. Old
friendships were made whole, amid tears and reminiscences. Beautiful maidens
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and gallant lads met and loved, or met and parted. There were rapture and
despair, seductions and abductions, pursuits, tragic deaths, virtue blighted
and fuel for new vendettas.
The clansmen along the west coast, when the mood came on them, crossed the
channel to Troicinet, where they performed mischiefs, including pillage, rape,
murder and kidnap.
King Granice had long and often protested the acts to King Yvar Excelsus, who
replied in effect that the incursions represented little more than youthful
exuberance. He implied that in his opinion the better part of dignity was
simply to ignore the nuisances and that, in any event, King Yvar Excelsus knew
no practical method of abatement.
Port Mel, at the eastern tip of Troicinet, each year celebrated the summer
solstice with a three-day festival and a Grand Pageant. Retherd, the young and
foolish Duke of Malvang, in the company of three roistering friends, visited
the festival incognito. At the Grand Pageant, they agreed that the maidens who
represented the Seven Graces were remarkably charming, but could form no
consensus as to which was supreme. Thev discussed the matter well into the
evening over wine, and at last, to resolve the matter in a practical way,
kidnapped all seven of the maidens and took them across the water to Malvang.
Duke Retherd was recognized and the news swiftly reached King Granice.
Wasting no time in a new complaint to King Yvar Excelsus, King Granice landed
an army of a thousand warriors on Scola, destroyed Retherd's castle, rescued
the maidens, gelded the duke and his cronies, then, for good measure, burned a
dozen coastal villages.
The three remaining dukes assembled an army of three thousand and attacked the
Troice encampment. King Granice had secretly reinforced his expeditionary army
with two hundred knights and four hundred heavy cavalry. The undisciplined
clansmen were routed; the three dukes were captured and King Granice
controlled Scola.
Yvar Excelsus issued an intemperate ultimatum: King Granice must withdraw all
troops, pay an indemnity of one hundred pounds of gold, rebuild Malvang Castle
and put a bond of another hundred pounds of gold to insure no further offenses
against the Kingdom of Dascinet.
King Granice not only rejected the ultimatum but decreed annexation of Scola
to Troicinet. King Yvar Excelsus raged, expostulated, then declared war. He
might not have acted so strongly had he not recently signed a treaty of mutual
assistance with King Casmir of Lyonesse.
At the time King Casmir had thought only to strengthen himself for his
eventual confrontation with Dahaut, never expecting to be embroiled in trouble
not of his own choosing, especially a war with Troicinet.
King Casmir might have extricated himself by one pretext or another had not
the war, upon due reflection, seemed to promise advantage.
King Casmir weighed all aspects of the situation. Allied with Dascinet he
might base his armies on Dascinet, then thrust with all force across Scola
against Troicinet, and thereby neutralize Troice sea-power, which was
otherwise invulnerable.
King Casmir made a fateful decision. He commanded seven of his twelve armies
to Bulmer Skeme. Then, citing past sovereignty, present complaints and his
treaty with King Yvar Excelsus, he declared war upon King Granice of
Troicinet.
King Yvar Excelsus had acted in a fit of fury and drunken bravado. When he
became sober he perceived the error of his strategy, which neglected an
elemental fact: he was outmatched by the Troice in every category: numbers, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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