His working plan called for the supplies going out first, accompanied by his first recruits. These were all going to be people no younger than fourteen, and no older than thirty; ideally single and ideally around twenty. They were going to be a mix of farmers and people with at least some experience with weapons. Some of them were coming straight off the Valdemar Ducal farms, because most, if not all, of the Chargers, the Tow-Beasts, and the Heavies were going to be needed to haul all the barges. Kordas intended to drain the Duchy of its resources before his household and the heads of all the other households took the final trip through the Gate.

This was going to be aided by the fact that the Emperor’s birthday would be in a couple of moons, and the Emperor celebrated his birthday with a Regatta, a boat procession from one side of Wolf Bay to the other. The various components of the Empire were all expected to supply decorated boats and barges. The largest and most splendid of these went on display inside and outside the Bay at anchor, and of course included the warships that were part of the Bay’s defenses. The rest paraded through pairs of Gates on either side of the Bay in a solid formation of craft so dense you could walk from shore to shore without getting your feet wet.

It was ingenious, really. The Gates set their destination by talismans carried by whoever was crossing. So participants decorated their barges, put their talismans for the Bay and back on the prows of their crafts, and lined up for the nearest Gate on the nearest canal (or rarely, river or lake). They’d go through and find themselves staged up in line, each craft given a shove by pole-men on the other side. Each craft would be connected by rings mounted on the front and back, and the continuous shoving in of boats behind would carry the entire line across the Bay to the exit Gate, where hook-men would flip each craft free and pull it through, and participants found themselves back where they started. There were prizes for decoration, though never in anyone’s memory had a craft from Valdemar won such a thing.