Enlightened Empire

Chapter 302.2: Decoys

Today, the waves of the Verduic Sea were rough. To protect himself from their influence, Phuyu had hidden below deck. Otherwise, he would have been singled out for his sea sickness again, like he always was at sea. It was a great point of shame for him, who was one of the Verdant Folk.

According to their own myths, they were all children of the sea, formed from of water and foam. If those old stories were true, he must have been an orphan. After a while of silent suffering below deck, he realized that the swaying of the ship had stopped, so he stretched his back and made his way up towards the light. This time, he was the one to sway, though somehow, he managed to brave his way above deck.

Outside, he was once again embarrassed to see the land-dwelling Medalans stand there hale and hearty. Even their king seemed to be in good condition as he leaned on the railing along the ship's starboard railing, a creepy grin on his face.

“King, where are we?” advisor Phuyu asked.

The king showed no surprise as he turned towards him. He looked thoughtful for a moment before he replied.

“Uhm... on your maps, this should be the so-called Tiwrun Cliffs. I think we have a different name for them though. By the way, how are you feeling?”

Though they were a bit off course, they were still roughly on their way to the Mullu Atoll. Maybe the Medalan navigators had made some minor mistake, which wouldn't be a big surprise to Phuyu.

“I'm not sure what King means,” he pretended. “This old man feels fine.”

“Weren't you throwing up earlier? I'll have someone get you a ginger tea or something. That stuff's good for nausea, or so I'm told.”

“You have this old man's gratitude, King.”

Ginger tea was a recipe the Verdant Folk also used to combat sea sickness, but he hadn't expected the foreign king to offer it. Maybe this king wasn't as rude or strange as everyone in Rasacopa said. Then again, Phuyu thought back to the king's eerie smile from earlier and paused. At the very least, he would be careful when he drank the ginger tea, just in case.

While they were waiting for the servant with the tea to come, there was an awkward silence, at least for Phuyu. The king didn't seem to care, and once again stared at his own fleet in the distance through a copper tube. Since the king seemed to be easier to converse with than usual, the advisor tried to persuade him once again to change his course.

“King, right now we are still half a day away from the atoll. Even if King will not turn back, King needs to be careful. Otherwise, horrible things may happen. Though this old man tried his best to prevent the worst, the future is impossible to tell.”

“Say, buddy, do you think I'm an idiot?”

In response, the king removed the tube from his eye and turned towards Phuyu, an annoyed look on his face.

“Of course not,” the advisor replied.

“Then what makes you think I didn't understand you the first ten times you tried to give me a cryptic warning about the horrible danger? Seriously, you were better company below deck. At least you didn't bother me then.”

Phuyu was confused. All this time, he had tried to prevent the worst for the king. Unlike Tayali, the experienced advisor was far less optimistic about their chances in a war against the other islands. Although he was worried about the foreign king's influence on their internal politics, he preferred to keep their allies around and defeat the outside threat together. However, the foreign king simply wouldn't believe him.

In the end, the problem was that Phuyu's warnings had been far too vague, and thus looked too much like the stalling tactics Tayali's warriors had used in Rasacopa's harbor over the past days. However, the advisor also couldn't be any more concrete with his warnings. No matter his shortcomings, Tayali was still a warrior of Rasacopa, and the leader of their fleet.

Despite Tayali's ambitious plans, he wouldn't sell the captain out to a foreigner. Considering the possible revenge of Tayali should Phuyu get involved too much, he was even less inclined. Thus, he struggled for an answer that would convince the king, but wouldn't offend the captain.

“But... in that case...”

Before he could gather his thoughts, the king interrupted him as he so often did.

“Of course I know that something's not right, and that someone's plotting against us. That's sort of the point of this little journey. I have no idea why you're being so vague about this, but you can stop trying so hard. We have a handle on things. Just look at what we're doing over there.”

The king pointed beyond the ship's railing, towards the place he had previously observed. When Phuyu followed the king's motion, he realized that the numbers of their fleet had increased since he had gone below deck. In fact, now there were a further three brigantines that had met up with them and were currently anchored in the shadow of the cliffs, surrounded by the rest of the Medalan fleet.

“Reinforcements?” he asked, though he was sure to be correct. It seemed the king wanted to surprise their enemies in turn. With their reinforcements, they surely planned to crush the ambush through superior numbers. However, only three extra ships wouldn't be nearly enough. And sure enough, the king denied the simple plan that Phuyu had been imagining.

“Not quite,” King Corco replied. “Here, take a better look, and check it out for yourself.”

The king held the thin copper tube from before towards him, but Phuyu didn't really understand.

“It's a spyglass,” the king added and shoved it into the advisor's hand. “Makes distant stuff look bigger. Just point the wide end at what you wanna see and look through the narrow end.”

Once he had learned how to operate the device, Phuyu was astonished to see the distant ships as if they were right before him. With this kind of magic, he could see better than even the great outlooks of Rasacopa's fleet. Fascinated, he observed the men on the ships the Medalans called 'brigantines' and noticed a few odd things right away.

Diligent in their work, they hastened back and forth, though their purpose was a mystery to Phuyu. As he observed them in more detail, Phuyu realized that they were transporting heavy bags below deck. Others seemed to be doing something to the ship's hull, working it with hammer and chisel. Though rather than repair it, they were shaving off strands of wood, before they painted over the exposed area.

In fact, the ships themselves seemed quite strange now that Phuyu got a closer look. Since he wasn't an expert on ships, he wasn't too sure on the details, but they seemed... poorly fashioned, as if they were made from cheap wood, hastily nailed together by lesser quality shipwrights.

“What are they doing?” Since he couldn't make heads or tails of the strange actions on the other ship, Phuyu decided to simply ask.

“They're putting some fault lines into the hull, mostly. Only above the waterline though, for obvious reasons. They're also putting some nitroglycerin bottles next to all the sawdust and fine ground flour those ships have loaded already. Right behind the hull, we wanted to put all the old, rusted metal from Saniya. You know, the stuff that's not useful anymore. But we didn't have enough, what with our foundry being so good. So we replaced most of the metal with slate, obsidian... basically anything that's dense and will explode into nice, sharp pieces. Oh, they're also reinforcing the ship's deck as well as the stern. To direct the blast, you know? Those parts are already made from solid wood, just like the hull below the waterline, but some extra insurance won't hurt I think. Really, we only gave our shipyard a few days to get these done, so there's still plenty of work left to make them look convincing.”

“This old man is dull, and fails to understand.”

“That's fine. It's more of a surprise that way. For now, just think of these three brigantines as decoys. You didn't think we'd really run head first into an ambush, did you?”

“To be precise, it is still uncertain whether there will be an ambush at all.”

Phuyu thought back to the last order he had given before he had been dragged along on this journey. If Tayali had any sense, he would convince the other kings to abort their attack. Though he wasn't sure just how much sway the captain had with the colored kings.

“That so?” King Corco seemed disinterested. “Well, if there is one, at least we'll finally prove that there's some competent traitors in Rasacopa. To be honest, I really hope there are. Or all that work would have gone to waste. No fireworks. Wouldn't that be a shame?”

Some time later, the sailors were done with their enigmatic work, and had transformed the decoys into more convincing copies of the vessels around them. At least from a distance, others would be fooled by them. After, the three brigantines were manned with skeleton crews, leaving only the most fewest men necessary aboard to operate the vessels. With all the work done, the reinforced fleet continued on its journey.

During their subsequent travel, their formation was a bit strange, though not surprising. Like they probably were intended, the three decoy ships were traveling a long distance ahead of the main fleet. Only the extent of the gap surprised Phuyu. At this distance, he couldn't even see the brigantines anymore.

At first he had been confused as to why this king had been so confident in defeating the impending ambush. After all, a simple trick like a decoy could be seen through and turned around in favor of their enemies, and quite easily at that. The other kings had more raidships available, and the captains of the other colored islands would know the Verduic Sea far better than the king's own captains, who were strangers in these waters.

However, when Phuyu looked at the equipment used aboard King Corco's flagship, he understood that the king's words had been more than mere empty talk. While he wasn't particularly fond of seafaring, even he would pick up a thing or two over the years. However, although he had grown up among sailors, he had never seen most of the strange tools these people were using. His biggest impression was still with the telescope. With this device, they would be able to keep an eye on their decoys from a distance, and spot their enemies long before they would be spotted themselves. Even if someone had laid an ambush, they would still hold the initiative.

Like this, evading the ambush would truly not be a problem, assuming they were careful enough. However, it seemed like simple survival wasn't enough for the foreign king. Considering the extensive preparations the decoys had gone through, Phuyu was sure that they planned to initiate the war in the Verduic Sea with a large victory.

As a result, the three decoy ships sailed into the Mullu Atoll by themselves, while the rest of the fleet split up in three parts. Four ships lowered their anchors and were left behind. The remaining fleet split in two and began to circle around the atoll in a wide berth on either side, either to scout for enemies or to get into position for an ambush of their own.

The atoll itself was a long, curved line of islands and rocks, forming a half-moon shape that almost closed into a circle. Although the gaps between the islands looked large, the water here was shallow, and underwater sandbanks and tricky currents made navigation much more difficult. Once inside, getting out of the Atoll wouldn't be that simple. It was the perfect place for an ambush, for either side.

With a telescope he had been handed, Phuyu stood besides the king and observed the decoy ships travel into the atoll for a while. His tension rose, expecting something to happen at any moment. After a while, decoys anchored close to one of the few islands in the center of the atoll. After they had come to a stop, they lowered a small boat into the water. One of the people in the boat wore splendid, purple robes, and the bronze crown of the Medalan kings.

Surely this was another decoy, since the real King Corco stood next to him with a tense look on his face. Only when he looked again did he realize that the king wasn't wearing his usual crown and wore a green headband instead. Had he given up his crown just to make the fake more convincing?

No matter what Phuyu thought of such disregard for tradition, he didn't have much time to consider. Foreign sails suddenly appeared behind the islands of the atoll, just as the little boat was halfway to the shore. By the time they were spotted, the enemy ships were a mere fifty ships-lengths or so away.

With a dry throat, Phuyu observed as the sailors atop the decoy ships scrambled to prepare their defenses, while the boat with the fake king struggled to return back to his fleet. Before the enemy ships could even get close, Phuyu's attention was robbed by a low rumble of thunder. His eyes went to the sky, but he could spot no dark clouds. Only when he focused on the enemy fleet again in confusion, he realized that the dark clouds had not formed in the sky, but in front of the enemy cannons instead. Thus, the first shot of the Verduic War was fired.