Ruined Terra (Book 11 of The Empire of Bones Saga)

by Terry Mixon

  “The stunned horses should be awake by the time we get there. The ones here are already up. It must be because they have more mass than a person. Take a break while we get the last details right. You’re going to need more of those than we can give you by the time this ride is over.”

  Her smile had faded as she’d spoken, and he knew she was speaking nothing but the truth. The next few days were going to be hell.

  Julia rode between Scott and Mertz. Unlike the two of them, she had experience in the saddle and sat easily. Since none of the marines, Fleet personnel, or scientists, except Carl Owlet, had any experience on horseback, she’d chosen one of the more recalcitrant beasts. She had the strength to control him and the skill to not need it.

  Her doppelgänger had chosen a relatively docile beast—or as close to it as a warhorse got—for Mertz. Even so, his mount had already tried to bite his leg several times and had successfully thrown him once. Scott’s horse had done even worse, having thrown him and then tried to stomp him.

  She turned her head and looked back over the trail of horses scattered out behind them. They’d made their way back to the building and picked up the horses that had been stunned and the last of their people. Most people were doubled up, but they all had rides. Now they just had to get to the outpost alive.

  Clarice Beauchamp’s people were spread out along the line of riders, trying to keep anyone from being injured or run over by the horses they were forced to ride. Olivia West, Elise Orison, Carl Owlet, and her doppelgänger were helping, but the group was a sad, straggly sight.

  The local riders were also responsible for maintaining the security of the march as they tried to keep the group’s speed up. They’d been on the trail for a couple of hours now and had taken more breaks than she was comfortable with. If they were going to beat the horde to the outpost, they were going to have to pick up the pace.

  “My ass is killing me,” Scott complained. “Please tell me this gets easier.”

  She nodded, but her smile was anything but reassuring. “It gets easier, but not until it gets a lot worse. You’re going to be really sore tonight, and tomorrow is going to be agony.”

  “It doesn’t matter how bad we feel, we’re going to have to do better,” Mertz said.

  Jared, she mentally corrected herself. He was not the Bastard, and she needed to get out of the behavior of referring to him by his last name. Either she needed to attach a title to it, to increase the respect that she was presenting—even in her head—or use his first name.

  If she’d housed any remaining doubts over what kind of person he was, the stories of how he’d fought with his people to protect the building against the horde had put that notion firmly to rest.

  The Mertz from her universe was not selfless. He’d have stayed downstairs and let others do the fighting for him. He wouldn’t have risked his skin to save those under his command.

  “Let me tell you how it’s going to go,” she said. “Right now, you’re feeling sore. It’s because you’re not sitting properly. That means that every time the horse moves, rather than moving with him, you’re slamming into the saddle. You’re also abusing muscles that you’ve never had to use like this before. If you want to have a smoother ride, you need to learn the right seat and use it for an extended period.

  “That’s not going to happen today, and it’s not going to happen tomorrow, but it is going to happen, if we live long enough. Focus on not fighting the horse. If we have to ride all the way to the Imperial Palace, you’re going to be accomplished horsemen by the time we get there. You just need to live that long.”

  Scott grimaced but nodded. “Living in pain is better than dying. We’ll manage. Do you think we’re going to get to the outpost ahead of the horde?”

  She shrugged. “I have no idea. We don’t really know how far away it is, and we don’t know where the horde is going to come from. Or if they’ll come after us at all. They may stop at the camp and decide that we’re just not worth the trouble.”

  Jared laughed cynically at that. “Oh, I think they’ll come after us. We’ve used advanced weaponry, and we came down on ships from the sky. They’ve got a bug up their butts about that, it seems.

  “The prisoners we captured wouldn’t talk very much, but just the presence of Talbot in armor was enough for them to try to kill everybody in the building. They associate us with the System Lords, and they tried to kill every last one of us. Seeing the pinnaces is going to provoke an extremely hostile response from them.

  “They’ll use whatever force they can scrape together to bog us down until an even larger force arrives with more heavy weapons, I’ll wager. If they bring enough heavy weapons, they’ll feel comfortable dealing with us. As Kelsey is so fond of saying, ‘ten men with clubs can beat a man with a flechette pistol, if they’re prepared to bleed.’

  “It’s going to be a race. If we can get to the outpost before they can catch up with us, we’re probably going to survive for a little while longer. If we don’t, we’re going to be making a last stand tomorrow.”

  Julia turned in her saddle to look back down the line of riders again. Based on her experience, they’d pick up some basic skills in the next couple of hours. Not enough to be comfortable and not enough to avoid pain, but enough to increase the pace. With lives at stake, people were going to grit their teeth and ride through whatever troubles they came across.

  One of the riders caught her eye. Carl Owlet was moving up the line of scientists, giving them advice. The way that he sat his horse spoke of years of experience in the saddle. She was surprised to see that and pleased. He was a man of many talents and surprising depths. The more she found out about him, the more interested in him she became.

  Again, she wasn’t going to encroach on Angela Ellis’s territory. The man was her husband, and he was safe from any interest that she might have. But that wasn’t going to stop her from spending a good amount of time with him and learning what she could about him.

  In her universe, his doppelgänger would be very similar, though less experienced. Just like the Kelsey in this universe, the man she was looking at had been put through the fire. He’d come out the other side forged in a different way than her doppelgänger or herself, but he was still a warrior scholar.

  The man back in her universe would probably be a bookish nerd—a word she’d picked up from Carl, ironically—who wouldn’t realize what he was capable of. That was fine by her because she didn’t necessarily need a warrior at her side, but she still knew that he’d react well under pressure and that he had a backbone.

  That was really important. All too many people in the nobility ended up being self-centered, spineless jerks. Seeing that this young man was none of the above made him an excellent candidate for her consort.

  While she wouldn’t know for certain until she got back home, she thought Ethan would like him. Eventually. He’d be shocked at her choice, of course, but he always had been. Not that she’d ever had an active dating life, but Ethan wouldn’t guess a mousy scientist would interest her.

  She didn’t know what was going to happen in her universe, but the odds were high that the AIs were going to arrive at Avalon before she returned home. When they did, they’d force the New Terran Empire to surrender.

  Her job, when she returned—if she couldn’t stop the AIs with the override—would be to work behind the scenes with whatever forces she could pull together to free them. If she could get people like Carl Owlet to help her, to understand all the technology that they were being given, then the Empire might have a chance.

  Right now, he was just a student. He wouldn’t stand out on anybody’s scanners as a threat. That meant he wouldn’t be locked away—or killed—like Ethan would. Like she would. He’d still be free and approachable.

  Much like the people of Terra had formed a guerrilla movement, that was what she was probably going to have to do when she returned home. If she could bring enough information and technology with her, Carl Owlet would be a very potent all
y in a fight like that.

  She turned and looked ahead of them. “If you gentlemen are ready, I think it’s time we picked up the pace a notch. We need to get to a good camping ground by dark, and I’d like to make it as far away from the first camp as possible.”

  With that, she used her heels and a flick of her reins to move her horse into a canter. Groans sounded behind her as the two Fleet officers followed suit.

  17

  By the time they’d stopped riding for the day, Jared’s legs and thighs were solid bands of pain, while his rear felt like lead. He’d needed help getting down from the saddle and could barely walk. It only took a single glance around their campsite to see that everyone else without training on horse riding was in just as bad a shape. Or worse.

  “Everyone listen up,” Kelsey said, waving her arms in the growing dusk. “You need to walk it off. I understand that everything hurts, and I have bad news. It’s going to get worse if you don’t move around. Walk the campsite, do some stretching exercises, and work those muscles as much as you can. We’ll get something together for dinner, and then you’re going to have to get as much sleep as you can, because we’ll be up before dawn and doing this all over again.”

  Her announcement was greeted with loud groans, and Jared felt like adding his own to the chorus, but long training as a Fleet officer had taught him that that wasn’t wise.

  “You heard Her Highness,” he said in his best command voice. “We’re going to have a long ride tomorrow, and we’ll have people that want to kill us right on our tails. I suggest you loosen up as much as you can, because there’s not going to be nearly as many breaks tomorrow. Colonel Talbot and Commodore Meyer, take charge of everyone.”

  His people, with the exception of the scientists, knew better than to groan back at their commanding officer. Kelsey, though, was more like everybody’s little sister, even though everyone knew what a badass she was. They’d give her a little back talk, but not him.

  The place they’d stopped at looked like every other piece of the grassland that he’d seen this far, except perhaps just a little bit higher in elevation than the surrounding terrain. Beauchamp had had her people gather the horses into a picket off to the side of the camping area.

  She had some of her people digging fire pits. Not just places to keep the flames from catching anything on fire, but deep holes so that the light wouldn’t go out to the sides. No riders in the distance would see them. Thankfully, there were enough scrawny trees scattered around to provide firewood.

  Based on what he’d seen last night, it wouldn’t be getting very cold tonight. They were in the middle of the summer season, so the temperatures would be moderate. That had meant that riding during the day had been a hot, sweaty affair though. Jared desperately needed a shower that he knew he wasn’t getting anytime soon. The marine fatigues had materials built into them that kept the smell down, but there were limits to what even that could do.

  While he was trying to work the worst of the pain out of his legs and back, Elise stepped up beside him, looking as if she’d just had a refreshing and enjoyable day out riding. He tried not to glare at her, but from her expression of amusement, he’d failed.

  “I think I hate you,” he said matter-of-factly.

  She laughed and pulled him into a hug. Then, after a moment, she pushed him back, her nose crinkling in distaste. “You stink.”

  “Thanks for that,” he said dryly. “You’re no spring shower either. You don’t just smell like sweat. You smell like horse. Then again, I suspect I do, as well. Neither one of us is going to be able to fix that for a while, so you’re just going to have to get used to it.”

  She grinned at him, showing that she wasn’t hurt by his commentary. “After a day on the trail, everyone needs a shower. On this planet, I suspect our noses are going to go numb as to how bad we smell after a while, which will be a blessing.”

  His wife stepped close to him again, tilted his head down, and kissed him. “We’ll just have to get used to it. Call it your warrior smell or something.”

  Their moment of closeness was interrupted when someone softly cleared their throat beside them. He turned his head and found a smiling Kelsey standing beside him, with Beauchamp at her side.

  “I’m sorry to interrupt your moment, but we’ve got some things to discuss,” his sister said. “It’s time for us to get to know one another. We can’t ride in the dark and, even though we need to get some rest, we need to take the time to introduce ourselves.

  “Captain Clarice Beauchamp, this is Admiral Jared Mertz of the New Terran Empire Fleet and his wife Crown Princess Elise Orison of the Kingdom of Pentagar. Jared is my brother, though the family tree is somewhat… convoluted. The man who raised me was his father.”

  Jared repressed a smile. The part his sister was leaving out was that Emperor Karl Bandar hadn’t actually been Kelsey’s biological father, though he was Jared’s. Kelsey’s mother had been somewhat… free with her favors.

  He extended his hand to Beauchamp. When she took it, her grip was firm and professional.

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Captain. Thank you very much for helping us get out from under the heels of the horde.”

  The woman smiled slightly. “I’m not exactly certain what an admiral is, but your sister has explained to me that you don’t belong to the same organization that works for the artificial intelligences. If you’re fighting them, then it serves the interests of my people to help you.

  “What we’re going to do now is make certain that’s true. You could’ve lied in order to get my assistance. And if you cannot convince me of your honesty, then I believe the officials of my government are going to have some very ugly questions for you.”

  The woman turned and gestured toward one of the fires. “My people are preparing enough food for everyone. It’s not the best tasting, but trail rations rarely are. We’ll eat and then we’ll talk.”

  Jared considered putting the discussion off until Sean and Talbot were done but decided that this needed to be settled as soon as possible. He and Kelsey would be the best choices to state their case. The others would probably arrive before the story was done.

  He rubbed his backside. “That sounds good, though if you’ll forgive me, I think I’ll stand for a bit. I’ve done a little bit too much sitting today.”

  Kelsey stayed close to the two as they walked over to the fire. She wasn’t surprised when they arrived and found her doppelgänger already seated on the ground and sipping something out of a metal cup. The other woman made an expression that said she didn’t particularly care for what she was drinking, but she didn’t stop consuming it.

  “Julia, how are you feeling?” Kelsey asked. “And what have you got there? Something good?”

  The other woman waved her cup around slightly. “It’s been a while since I’ve ridden, but it came back to me just fine. This coffee, on the other hand, I don’t think I’d use the word ‘good’ in reference to it. It’s hot, has caffeine, and is hitting the spot, but it’s far from good.”

  Even as her doppelgänger was saying that, Elise walked out of the growing darkness with a cup of her own. “Oh, it’s not that bad. If all you’re used to is something from the palace, then it’s pretty rough. If compared to army coffee, it’s better than average.”

  Kelsey raised an eyebrow. “What would you know about army coffee, and how do I get some?”

  The Pentagaran noblewoman grinned at her. “I just took a small detour to the next fire over, where I could smell it brewing. I’m surprised that you didn’t figure out where it was before you got here with that enhanced nose of yours.

  “As for getting around, part of my father’s legacy revolves around that kind of thing. As you know, he believes in getting out among the people and did so when he was younger. I took full advantage of that when I was growing up, and I’ve been to all sorts of places and sat down with a number of people that a woman of my social status probably shouldn’t have been associated with, strictly spea
king. It’s all been very illuminating.”

  That made Kelsey a little bit jealous because she’d been somewhat closeted as a child. It wasn’t that her father had blocked her from going places, it was that her position insulated her from the same kind of people that Elise had been able to visit.

  Before she could say anything further, Olivia came out of the darkness with two cups of coffee and handed one of them to Kelsey. “Here you go. Like your sister-in-law said, it’s not awful.”

  Kelsey accepted the hot metal cup from the other woman and took a sip. The coffee was black, unsweetened, and exceptionally strong. The bitter flavor threatened to overwhelm her for a moment until the wash of caffeine smoothed things out.

  After a few moments, Kelsey nodded slowly. “This works. Olivia, would you do me the favor of getting Jared a cup? I’d imagine that he could use one right about now.”

  The other woman nodded and headed back toward the other fire.

  Kelsey settled down near Jared and listened as her brother explained their people’s history. He was starting back at the beginning, where Lucian fled Terra for Avalon while Emperor Marcus led the final fight against the AIs. Or the rebels, as they’d called them back then, simply because the Old Empire had had no idea what they were really facing.

  By the time he’d finished his story and gotten to the point where they were fighting against the AIs in the modern age, all of the other leaders of their group had arrived. Each of them had found the coffee and sat. One of Beauchamp’s people had brought food around, and they’d eaten while Jared continued telling the story.

  Beauchamp might’ve only expected a brief introduction, but she didn’t stop the story. Telling it took a couple of hours, even without questions. By the time her brother had finished, full night had fallen long ago, and the glory of the stars dominated the sky above them.