Dragons of War by Christopher Rowley

clerks shall have to work around the clock, for the fleet must sail by Fundament if they are to make passage of the Cape of Storms before the bad weather begins."
    Sausann of the Temple had her hand up.
    "May I say something, a word of caution perhaps?"
    Again the emperor smiled graciously, "Of course, Sausann, of course."
    "May I suggest once more that we consider sending a smaller fleet than this. Six great ships, three frigates plus other smaller vessels. This is a great force that we risk."
    "We must take risks to succeed, Sausann," said the emperor.
    "This is understood, Your Majesty, but our forces are stretched thin as they are. We cannot afford any great losses."
    "Which is one good reason for sending a sufficiently large fleet," the emperor responded. "Admiral, please, your comments again."
    Cranx tugged briefly on his white beard.
    "Stands to reason, Lady, if we send six white ships with some frigates for ranging around them, then no force in the world can challenge them, or even catch up to them. They will overawe any opposition, and thus more effectively extinguish any hostility before it can be expressed."
    Sausann listened. "And still we do risk them, do we not? There may be some quite unknown danger waiting for them. Six great ships could be lost."
    Cranx tugged on his beard some more. "Dear Lady, what danger can there be to a well-crewed white ship built in Cunfshon yards? They can outsail anything else on the ocean."
    "A storm, a waterspout, who knows what perils there might be?"
    "Dear Lady of the Temple, know you that the white ships have faced and survived every peril of the oceans, and have done so for many years."
    "Hear, hear, Admiral, a good point I think," said the emperor.
    "And yet ships have been lost," said Sausann stubbornly.
    Pascal nodded. "Of course, Sausann, of course, but our ships have plied the oceans of the world for centuries now, and our losses have been few and far between in recent decades."
    "Your Majesty." It was Lessis, raising her hand.
    "Ah, the Lady in Grey, yes, please tell us your thought." The emperor beheld his greatest ally on the council. Now he could relax and let Lessis sway the conservatives on the council.
    However, Lessis's words were a complete surprise, and not only to the emperor.
    "For once I must agree with Sausann," she said, and Sausann's eyebrows shot up. "At this moment it may not be the wisest thing to give up the use of six white ships. The voyage to Czardha should be made, of course, but perhaps we must wait another year to send such a large force. Perhaps for now, we should send only a single ship, or a pair of frigates, no more."
    The emperor's brows knitted.
    "But," he began, "I thought we were all agreed that this year was to be the year?"
    "Your Majesty, we in the Office of Unusual Insight have voiced our concern that the great enemy prepares some stroke against us. I know that we have no positive evidence, except the word concerning the enlargement of the breeding pens in Axoxo. However, with that concern in mind, it would be dangerous to weaken in any way our ability to reinforce the Argonath in the event of an emergency in the coming campaign season."
    "What are you suggesting though? That all commerce come to a halt? That we hold white ships here in harbor in case they are needed to transport a legion?"
    Lessis never employed witchcraft in her dealings with Emperor Pascal. She knew how sensitized he was to it. If she tried, he would never forgive her and their relationship would be forever changed for the worse. But now she wished that she could, because she feared his resistance. Of course she still refrained, she could not use any spell with an audience of Great Witches and not have them know at once what she did. It was forbidden.
    "Your Majesty, we have examined the schedules of the larger white ships, and we are sure there will be sufficient bottoms to carry a legion in an emergency. But not if we send six of them halfway around the