The Cerberus Rebellion (A Griffins & Gunpowder Novel) by Joshua Johnson

constant complaints that flowed from his nation’s merchants grated on Eadric’s nerves.
    Peter shuffled his ledgers and flipped through the pages for a moment. When he found the page he was looking for he nodded.
    “ They made claims of one hundred and twenty-five gold crowns profit per ship per month, Your Highness. That would put their total costs, for the ships they have offered, at approximately forty-five thousand crowns for the three months that we have requested their use.”
    “ Excellent. Peter, make the twenty thousand gold crowns available to Admiral Talbot. Oliver, go to the merchant houses and tell them that they can take the twenty thousand crowns, or they can have their vessels seized by the crown and receive no compensation.”
    “ Yes, Your Majesty. That will bring our total movement up to approximately seventy-two thousand soldiers.” The admiral frowned. The difference between the available ships and the total levies was still nearly ninety thousand soldiers. “If we were to ferry half of our troops across the sea at a time, we would be able to use the available ships at little less than twice the time we had anticipated.”
    “ Not enough,” Eadric proclaimed. “We cannot afford to have half of our forces left here on our shores while the rest march to war.”
    “ We cannot hope to find the ships to sail another sixty thousand soldiers across the Straits. Transport for only fifteen or twenty thousand would be much less difficult to arrange.”
    “ Why would we only need to find transport for only fifteen or twenty thousand troops?”
    “ If we were to leave your forces here in Ansgar, as a defensive force…” Alden’s voice trailed off in suggestion.
    Eadric rubbed his chin in thought and leaned back in his chair.
    He had promised the ambassadors of Welos and Istivan his full levies. But he could make the argument that sending his full levies would leave no trained soldiers in Ansgar. With a conflict with Franta still recent in the minds of his western lords, he could not be expected to send all of his trained troops across the Vast Sea.
    “ I will think on that,” Eadric said with a nod. “In the meantime, start looking for a way to transport the full levies across the Straits. If I decide to leave my personal levies and our standing forces here, then all the better.”
    “ Yes, Your Highness,” Oliver Talbot said.
    “ Then there is only one matter which we will need your assistance with, Your Majjesty,” Lord Hanley announced cautiously.
    “ Very well.”
    “ Lord Ambassador Alwin Steinhauer came before the small council with an offer,” Alden said, and Eadric’s eyes narrowed. “His Majesty King Penn has proposed a match of his second son, Prince Kelvin, for Her Highness the Princess.”
    “ Which Princess? I have an unmarried younger sister and three unmarried nieces.” Eadric’s patience was completely eroded now, and he wanted this meeting to be done.
    He had turned down previous marriage contracts from lesser lords and nobles for both his sister and elder nieces. Political power could be gained by marriage, but there was little that could be gained from one of the lesser princes of Nordahr. The heir was already married to one of the high ladies of Nordahr and Eadric’s own sister Allison was married to the King Penn’s brother.
    “ Your Majesty, the proposal is—”
    “ For Kara,” Altavius finished the sentence.
    For a moment, Eadric was speechless. On one level, he knew that as his daughter approached the age at which she would be married, betrothal offers would begin. But she was still his little girl.
    “ It is too soon to betroth her,” he announced briskly.
    “ Your Highness, it is too soon to marry her,” Altavius corrected. The other lords nodded their assent, but the elf would be the only one who could make this argument. “She will be a woman in a few short years. You must begin to consider offers for her hand.”
    “ Not Nordahr,” Eadric