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Chapter 5
4th of Coldeven, 588 CY
8th Bell, Forenoon Watch
Leukish, Duchy of Urnst


At the sharp rapping knock Horatio looked up from the papers he was studying, "Come."
Victor peeked into the room, "I have Hansel Bruleigh, sir."
"Excellent. Send him in."
Victor disappeared from the doorway and a moment later a lean, gray-haired man with a devilish grin entered. Horatio circled the desk and clasped arms with the newcomer.
"Hansel, it’s good to see you again."
"Horatio, so the monsters nor fish haven’t eaten your bones yet." Hansel’s grin widened.
"Not yet, old friend." Horatio chuckled, "Would you like a drink?"
"No, I’ve sworn off alcohol."
Horatio raised an eyebrow, "You don’t mind if I take one, then?"
"Not at all." Hansel replied, "Good lad, that Victor. Going to keep him on?"
"I had a mind to." Horatio said, pouring a finger of brandy into a tumbler, "Why, you looking for another convert?"
Hansel laughed, "I’m always looking for a few good men."
"Which is why I asked you here." Horatio sat and motioned for Hansel to take one of the free chairs.
"This morning Duke Karll invested me as the new Admiral of the Navy."
Hansel whistled as his eyebrows rose.
"The problem is, the Navy is rotten to the waterline. The army detachment is worse, if that’s possible. I get the feeling that we’ve been saddled with all the misfits and gallows-bait that other army units didn’t want."
"That’s about the sum of things." Hansel nodded, "I’ve heard it said that it's worth a man’s life to get posted to the Navy, excepting maybe the river patrols, and those are done on land or small boat."
"I believe that. I wouldn’t ship out on any one of those scows they call ships in the Naval Yard." Horatio nodded, "I’ve my work cut out for me with the navy; I really need a good man to work on the army detachment."
"What are you thinking?"
"I am going to institute a marine corps -- an arm of the navy specifically for naval combat, rather than use units detached from the army. I want you to head it."
Hansel shook his head and said with a self-mocking tone, "I’m not a peer, and I’m not even pure Suel."
"Osprem’s tits, Hansel!" Horatio retorted, "I’m well aware of your antecedents, and you’re well aware that I don’t give a rat’s ass. I’ve been given full authority to do as I see fit to get this navy rebuilt from the calamitous wreck that it’s in. I’ll be damned nine ways to hell if I will bow and scrape to the outdated notion of Suel supremacy and put a noble Suloise dunder-head in command of a ship or detachment of soldiers when a fully qualified, experienced non-Suel commander is available."
"It’s good to see that some things don’t change…Admiral." Hansel smiled, and then added, "I want Ficks as my sergeant major."
"He’ll be spitting penny-nails." Horatio laughed, "he swore he’d never go back to the Army after that fiasco in Knife’s Edge Pass."
"I don’t care. He’s the best! Look what he’s done for the Wrath’s boarding crew."
"So you’ll take the job?"
"What is it, specifically?"
"I’ll commission you as the Commandant of the Marine Corps, and you can do what you need to whip the soldiers into shape. From what I’ve seen, even Ficks will be hard pressed to turn that lot into anything other than fertilizer."
"Saint Cuthbert and the Holy Fathers would be disappointed if I didn’t accept this opportunity to win more converts to the cause…" Hansel said slyly.
"Proselytize all you want, just as long as I get a band of mother-killers to crew my ships."
"Where do I sign?"
"Raise your right hand, Commandant," Horatio said with a smile.
"Do you, Hansel Bruleigh…"

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