'What about Kara?' Anana asked him as they mounted their horses.
'That ship is coming for Kara!' Roman replied as they got underway. 'But more is at stake here than the life of one young woman. The tyrant has come once more to bend us to his will. He comes with soldiers and modern weapons and mechanized warfare, to take by force the freedom and liberty of a free people.
'The invention of the cannon made the castle and the fortress virtually obsolete, and as castellans my family long ago learned to adapt: we learned that the true castellan is the keeper of a people's spirit, and that if the spirit holds true, the people can never be beaten.'
'Many will die,' Santiago reminded him.
'Perhaps,' Roman conceded grimly. 'But better to die free than live under the yoke of tyranny.'
'They're evacuating,' the captain told Savalas as he gazed through his telescope. 'It doesn't appear as though they intend to man the guns. Even the fortress on the hill above the port . . . they're leaving in droves. No one is going in.'
'So much for the legendary bravery of the inhabitants of Isla Fiero,' Savalas said sarcastically. 'The scum obviously don't have the character or the fight of their ancestors. A few shots fired and they're already running for the hills! Begin shelling the roads!'
The captain turned to him, his face stony. 'They are not running! They are removing themselves in orderly fashion from the range of our guns. And we cannot shell the roads. You see those hills to the left, and to the right? The roads run behind those. Other than the port, there is no target for our guns.'
'Then shell the damned port!' Savalas yelled, his face blackening with anger. 'Every ship, every dock, every building! Reduce it to splinters and rubble!'
'We need the docks ourselves!' the captain said, letting some of his own anger show. 'Look, there is a high wall surrounding the entire port, and there is but one opening that is accessed by the main dock. If that is destroyed or set ablaze, then our men will have no point of entry.'
'Then shell the town, damn you!' Savalas yelled, becoming apoplectic.
The captain reluctantly gave the order as Savalas left him to survey the destruction being wrecked upon Port Haven.
'Sir,' the first mate said quietly as the ship began to shudder with volley after thunderous volley, 'that port is built upon a steep hillside. Our men are going to be faced with picking their way over the rubble, and they will be vulnerable to attack from the hills on both sides. Even with bows and arrows and catapults, the inhabitants are going to prove difficult to dislodge. By all accounts, their farmlands are far removed from here. They will not want for supplies-'