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been quite
protective, for their own reasons, of certain small states which
the Khan is not very fond of.” These included a couple of
republics, an emirate and a principality, as yet independent. “Yet
until the present, his power has always been in his land army,
which as we know, is estimated by his closest observers at
something on the order of two and a half million men.”
    While the Empire of the South wasn’t an
active threat to the Horde, they would meddle quite a bit in the
affairs of small neighboring states, states which the Horde might
have an interest in themselves.
    Over the last two years, the Khan had
been building ships in a great naval yard not far from his capital,
Artesphihan. This lay at the eastern end of the Great Sea,
dominating the choke-point of the narrows, and which ultimately led
to the South Arm. Artesphihan’s harbor had been greatly expanded,
which offered many commercial advantages to the Horde. To one such
as the Khan, this was secondary to military considerations. Armies
always had to be paid for—and he had recently increased all the
manifold and often petty excises and tolls along trading routes he
controlled.
    Most of the soldiers would be on
garrison duty. A good proportion of the total were troops raised by
his retainers. There was little doubt that the Khan would field a
formidable force. With the acquisition of Sinopus, he had a strong
advanced base, with good access to the northern sea and a
ready-made fleet at his disposal. Sinope was another trading city,
and not considered barbarians. Their seamen were as good as any.
Located at the northern extremity of the Great Sea, on the landward
side, there was not much between here and there. Loosely-organized
barbarian states in the middle would either be swept aside, taken
under the wing of the Great Khan as allies and auxiliaries, or
simply flee before him. To take a solitary stand wasn’t exactly in
their best interest. One of the principles of statecraft was to
always understand the other fellow’s perspective. They would follow
the path of least resistance and, in any pinch, they could be
counted on to adhere to their own interests.
    Lowren had been right on all counts,
Eleanora wasn’t particularly pleased to discover. But her most
trusted ministers were all agreeing with him.
    The Minister of Foreign Policy spoke
next. Eleanora had always seen the sense of not having a Minister
of War, but then her policy was not aggressive. It wasn’t passive
either, but relied on collective benefits and therefore collective
security. Her policy and her alliances had always been in response
to major powers such as the Horde, the Empire of the South and
other powerful neighbors. The neighbors weren’t necessarily
unfriendly, they were merely powerful. They had their own best
interests at heart and it didn’t pay to be too weak amongst them.
Then the Great Khan had risen above his brethren and welded
together a hundred disparate and petty little kingdoms. He had an
empire of his own now, and he was only thirty-four years of age.
Kullin, Emperor of the South, was in his sixties. According to
reports, he did not look well. He had three sons, one lame and one
a cretin, only the oldest brother showing any real promise. The boy
was only seventeen years old, although he’d been invested with many
powers. The Emperor had seven or eight daughters, by three
different wives. Most had been married off into families that for
the most part had some relatively-clear claim on the throne in
their own right. Politically, it was a situation rife with disaster
in the event of an early demise on the part of Emperor
Kullin.
    Eleanora’s heart was sinking faster by
the minute.
    The time for speculation was at an end.
It wasn’t too difficult to see which way that situation was headed.
The Empire had aided and comforted the Great Khan’s enemies. Some
of the many kings, queens and princes displaced by the Khan were
still finding refuge in the Emperor’s own