King Henry

Chapter 47 - Preparing for War

There was a roar of shouts as the entire cathedral full of soldiers and knights stood to their feet, cheering for Henry and raising their swords over their heads too. Some of them started beating their swords against their chest plates or shields and stomping their feet to make a loud rumble.

Seeing them supporting Henry like that made Eleanor's eyes water and it gave her chills down her arm. She knew this was a moment she would never forget. Watching Henry standing up there in front of his soldiers, inspiring them and rallying them together over to his side made her feel so proud of him. He really was a great King, one that his father would've been very proud of.

"Thank you all," Henry said with a smile. "You have no idea how much your support means to me. For the rest of your lives, each and every one of you will be in my debt."

"This is what your father would have wanted us to do! You're the rightful King!" someone shouted from the crowd and others agreed with him, loudly shouting, "Here! Here!"

Someone else started chanting, "Long live King Henry! Long live King Henry!" and the rest slowly joined in until the chant was echoing through the tall cathedral ceiling, making it almost sound like a song.

Lord Buxley walked up and shook Henry's hand with a smile, saying, "It looks like you have your army. Now we just need a plan."

"We can talk in my office," Father Lawrence told them, and the three of them walked away, followed behind by Merlin.

***** Henry's Point of View *****

Lord Buxley laid out a map on the table and pointed at it. "The Spanish fleet of warships have been spotted approaching here from the Southwest and there are reports of a massive army building up in Calais, France directly across the channel from us. My spies have informed me that it has both French and Spanish soldiers in it. They also said that ships pretending to carry cargo have been secretly transporting soldiers across the channel into London for days now."

Henry nodded. "I'm not surprised. I expected this. I just hoped we'd have more time. Have there been any sightings of the Roman army yet?"

"No, unfortunately not," he said, shaking his head. "What do you think we should do?"

Henry rubbed his chin and let out an exhale, thinking. "Without Rome, we're outnumbered three to one at least." He looked at the map and said, "The first thing we need to do is make sure the Spanish warships can't get close enough for their cannons to reach the castle. I want the canal narrowed so a large ship can't fit through it and we need to put some sharp boulders across the entrance of the canal just under the water so they can't be seen. If the smaller ships try to go through, they'll hit them and sink."

Lord Buxley nodded. "That's a really good idea. I can get my soldiers on that right away."

Henry looked over at Merlin. "Can you use your magic to conjure up boulders and make the canal more narrow? That would save us a lot of time."

"I can," he said hesitantly, "but doing magic like that, right out in the open in front of everyone, would attract a lot of attention to me."

Henry nodded. "Unfortunately we don't have a choice. There's no time to waste."

Merlin looked hesitant but he nodded and said, "Okay. I'll do it. But it'll probably use up all the magic my wand has in it for several hours."

"That's alright. It'll be worth it," Henry told him.

"What about the army on foot? Do you have any thoughts on that?" Lord Buxley asked Henry.

Henry nodded. "The first priority has to be protecting the castle. I want you to raise the drawbridge and lock all the castle gates immediately. We also need to widen the moat around it to make it harder for them to get across it to storm the walls. I had been telling my father for years that we needed to do that."