by Candy Rae
Beth’s sister Marcia gave birth to her third child. She was christened Elisabeth after her missing sister.
The marriage of Crown-Prince Xavier and Contessa Geraldine Cocteau was postponed for a year at the insistence of his father on the grounds that both were too young.
Jess and Mlei were transferred from the Seventeenth Ryzck to the Seventh with the rank of Vadryza.
* * * * *
Lokrhed (Third Month of Summer) – AL166
Queen (2)
Queen Anne left the Conclave Chamber in high dudgeon. Really, the Dukes were impossible. Since David’s illness had manifested itself they ignored everything she said. She ground her teeth with frustration.
Lord Gardiner’s last comment had summed it all up, with its undercurrent of ‘go away and play’, even the supplicant’s audience scheduled for the afternoon would be a farce. The people knew where the real power lay, with the Dukes, and it would only be the most trivial problems that would be laid before her, selected to keep Anne busy.
The nobility had respected David, aye and feared him but now they were beginning to savour the taste of power again and would not be keen to give it up. This gave Anne even more to worry about. When she died, Xavier would ascend the throne and she did not want to bequeath him this. Xavier was seventeen; a fine lad and he would be a fine king, provided he had the guts to stand up to the Dukes.
She composed herself before entering David’s bedchamber. He would be fretting she knew, tossing and turning in the large canopied bed. If he knew what the Dukes were planning he would force himself to rise from his sickbed and he was going through a bad spell right now. The cancer was spreading throughout his body, painkillers helped, but they made him drowsy and unable to think clearly.
Anne knew that there was nothing that could be done to save him. Once upon a time, doctors had known of a cure for the disease but that knowledge was lost and had been for decades, at least here in Murdoch. Perhaps if they had remained in Vadath something could have been done, the medical facilities in Argyll had managed to retain a certain amount of knowledge but, even if she was permitted to seek aid there, Anne knew in her heart that it was too late. The disease was too advanced, the prognosis was a year at most and then Anne and Xavier would be at the mercy of the Dukes.
David was awake when she entered, he was sitting reading, his illness had not affected his mind and as he looked up he knew by Anne’s thunderous face that there was trouble.
This trouble was the impending marriage of their youngest daughter Ruth, still known as the tomboy princess.
“We have to get her out, but how I have no idea. Perhaps the underground could help,” said Anne.
David shook his head. “The palace is too well guarded. If we could get her to the royal manor in Smith things might be different? When has the marriage been scheduled?
“Summer equinox.”
“Might be possible. Let me think about it.” He yawned and his eyelids fluttered.
Anne sighed.
When David woke they discussed it again and then Anne spoke once more about her dearest wish.
“I do want to visit the North, see Jessica again. Letters aren’t enough. She’s twenty-four years old, a young woman and I haven’t, we haven’t seen her since she was fourteen and she brought Tana and Beth to visit us. Remember?”
David and Anne’s eyes met.
“The Dukes will not be happy,” he said, his eyes gleaming in his white face as he imagined their reaction.
“Again!”
“They complain that you’re always gallivanting about.”
“Nothing else to do my love as you well know and it’s important that our people see me. I try to bring the people together, to find a feeling within them that it should be Kingdom first, Duchies second. It’s not easy.”
“They all love you, as I do.”
“Not quite the same,” Anne twinkled.
“So what do you have in mind? The court?”
“Course not. Just me, you, Annette can’t come of course with her being pregnant again. Xavier? Do you think they’d let him go? He’d love to see Jessica again.”
David shook his head, “Conclave will never allow it. They’ll let us, perhaps Ruth, but not the boys.”
“Xavier will be disappointed.”
David thought about his sons. Prince David, now almost eight, was a happy-go-lucky little boy, unlike his elder brother Xavier. Anne and David had done their best to mitigate the worst of the traditional training of young noble and royal males. Xavier was not like his predecessors. Limited though their influence had been, Anne and David had managed to ensure that their son knew everything they could teach him about the kingdom he would inherit. His governors had obeyed the Prince Consort’s instructions. Xavier knew how other countries were governed. He had a conscience. He knew about the dispossessed, the degradation of slavery and the excesses of the nobility. He also had first hand knowledge about how women were treated.
David and Anne could only hope that they had done enough.
* * * * *
Quartet (8)
Hannah was humming to herself as she and Kolyei journeyed the last miles through the rtathlians of rtath Whendei towards their domta. She was in the last month of her peripatetic tour as a doctor covering an area in the centre of the rtathlians of the Lind and after this, she would return to Vada to take up her duties as a fully-fledged Holad doctor.
Lost in pleasurable anticipation of the fulfilment of her greatest dream she nearly fell off when Kolyei stopped in his tracks.
: There is trouble : he vouchsafed.
: I had guessed that. Where? :
: At the domta. There is a birthing that is not going well :
: Run Kolyei, as fast as your paws will take us :
He bounded forward : Janisya, their Holad says that if we do not get there soon she fears the mother will die :
: Run : Hannah urged : run like the wind :
Talmanya raised agonised eyes in Hannah’s direction as she and Kolyei entered the daga. She was too weak to do more. Janisya hovered anxiously over her.
Hannah took one look and sank to her knees, pulling her medipack off her shoulders.
“We’ve got to get this down her,” she told Janisya, scrabbling round inside the pack, throwing un-needed items out in her haste. “How long has she been in labour?”
“Two days,” Janisya answered. “It is her first.”
“Always the hardest,” agreed Hannah, mixing the medication. “You should have called us sooner.” She scrambled over to the labouring Lind, laid a hand on her distended stomach then moved down to feel around the end of the birth canal.
“The babe is stuck,” she announced and kneed herself up to Talmanya’s head.
“Breathe deeply,” she instructed in a low voice : Kolyei, tell her : “The way out is not so obvious first time, the ltscta needs my help : Kolyei, tell her to concentrate on breathing in and out :
Kolyei did that.
Hannah took a deep breath.
“I’ll have to try and turn the little one. It’s trying to come out wrong end first.”
Slathering her hand with antiseptic cream, she stuck her hand up inside the birth canal, feeling around for the ltscta, thanking the Lai that it was not stuck further up but had managed to get down a considerable way. Her arms were of normal length for a person her size but would not have been long enough to reach the uterus.
“Got it,” she said as she found first one leg and then another. Sweating with the effort, she turned the babe, ignoring the pitiful moans of Talmanya who was by now drifting in and out of consciousness.
The little one came free with a slither and a rush of blood and other liquids and Talmanya groaned.
“Is dead.”
Hannah freed the mucus from its mouth and started to perform artificial respiration.
Breathe, please breathe.
: Two breaths and five heart compressions for a ltscta : Kolyei reminded.
Now that the birth canal was free the other ltsctas began to slither out into the world and Janisya ignored what Hannah was doing as she tended to them,
After what seemed like a lifetime there was a splutter and a cough and the little one began to breathe for herself. Using her jacket, Hannah wrapped up the ltscta to keep her warm until the rest of her lin appeared and they could be put to the teat.
At last the afterbirth emerged and was pawed away by Janisya. Now Hannah could place her burden beside her brothers and sisters.
“It is a miracle,” announced Janisya, gazing at Hannah with wonderment and respect.
“Just plain common sense and a bit of knowledge,” Hannah answered as she watched the five babies suckling from their mother.
: Now can I get my harness off? : asked a plaintive Kolyei : Talmanya says that the little one you saved is to be called Hannahya : He was so proud of her he felt he could burst.
: Tell her I am honoured :
* * * * *
Weaponsmaster (1)
Rhian, Weaponsmaster of the Vada for the last eleven years looked up from her desk and out the office window. There was a loud commotion emanating from the courtyard. She could hear voices, human and Lind. There was a fair amount of higher-pitched, young voices amongst the tumult and that told her one thing.
The contingent of new vadeln-paired from Argyll had arrived at last and just in time for the beginning of term. They had been expected two days ago but wet weather had delayed them. Even Lind could not run fast when they were hock-deep in water and mud.
Rhian smiled as she listened. She could hear her Second, Pieter (Danel had retired some years ago) striving to make his voice heard above the bedlam then all at once it stopped. Pieter’s Lind, Mldisya had taken matters into her own paws and ordered immediate silence. Mldisya was a large Lind; her commanding presence could and did overawe more than a group of recruits.
Rhian put her pen down, stood up and made her way over to the window, the better to see what was going on.
What she saw caused her to smile even more. The recruit duos were lining up into three ranks, each boy or girl standing straight and tall beside their Lind partner, eyes fixed on Pieter and Mldisya.
To one side of the crowd stood Tana and Tavei, the former looking every inch a Vadryza, her kepi at its usual jaunty angle.
“That’s much better,” Pieter said, “soon, some of the older cadets will come to take you to your quarters. Your names are on the cubicle doors and inside you will find your basic uniforms and supplies. You have the rest of the day to settle in, to make sure that your uniforms fit; the quartermaster’s stores will be open if you need to exchange anything. The ‘old’ cadets will look after you today, generally show you around. Their Lind will take your Lind to the hunting area if they need to eat. Believe me; your Lind are just as eager as you to find out where the amenities are located. You will come together again for your evening meal in the cookhouse. I believe the cooks have made a special effort this evening as a welcome. Tomorrow you will officially become Vada Cadets and training starts the day after. I see your guides are arriving. Settle in now. Parade at Third Bell tomorrow. Don’t be late.”
The courtyard emptied pretty well immediately after that, the Lind going off to the fields where the meat herds were kept (they were hungry after their long run west to Vada) and the cadets picked up their hold-alls and followed their guides to the barracks.
This year, apart from the three adult vadeln-pairs there were over sixty new cadet duos, so many that a second barracks had had to be made available to accommodate them. A long low building that had once housed the Stronghold’s infirmary had been made ready. As there were more boy recruits than girls, it had been given over to the boys, with a smattering of final year cadets to keep order.
Only one new cadet was left with Pieter and Mldisya, not a teenager like the others but a rugged, stocky man in his mid-thirties.
This, surmised Rhian, would be the Argyllian Garda cavalry officer, Captain Johan Williamson who had been chosen by Baltimalya. These days not many adults made bondings with the Lind although the records showed that in earlier times it had been more usual. Pieter walked over and shook his hand. They walked off together in the direction of the permanent staff quarters. The man had taught tactics in the Garda Academie at Settlement and Rhian had plans to utilise these abilities.
Their four-pawed southern neighbours were recovering from the pestilence that had decimated their numbers a century and a half ago and once again the North was under threat.
* * * * *
Sanrhed (Fourth Month of Summer) - AL166
Queen (3)
It was a fine day when the royal ship Geraldine arrived at Port Settlement. Excitement was at fever pitch for this, the first time ever a Monarch of Murdoch had made a state visit to the country of their one-time enemy, Argyll.
With Anne and David was Ruth, the only one Conclave had permitted to come with them. David had been correct.
The journey had done the Prince Consort good. He did not look as ill as he really was; there was a sparkle to him, the lines on his face less pronounced.
As Anne, David and Ruth prepared to disembark those accompanying the royal party also made ready. There were a large number of them.
Two Dukes had decided to accompany their Queen on this all-important visit.
“I’m looking forward to this,” said Duke Jeremy Graham to Duke Henri Cocteau. “Chance of a lifetime? What?”
“Closer ties are necessary, especially in trade,” agreed Henri, “if we are to get through the years ahead of us.” He looked over at the pier to where the Honour Guard was forming. It was made up of infantry and behind them stood a small contingent of cavalry, their breastplates reflecting the sun.
Behind them, he screwed up his eyes to see the better, yes, the Vada. There was around seventy of them; two Ryzcks as he recalled their troops were called. Vadath too wanted to honour Queen Anne’s visit with their presence.
The gangplank was positioned and tied fast to the ribbon-decorated deck rail.
There was a roll of drums and the Argyll band struck up a tune, a jaunty air in keeping with the carnival flavour of the occasion.
Henri Cocteau watched his son Charles walking towards the gangplank, accompanying a sober-looking individual dressed in midnight blue, Councillor Keane, Henri assumed, the senior governmental official in Argyll.
Charles bounded up the gangplank and approached his father and Duke Jeremy.
“My Lord of Graham, Father,” he began, “I am bid to make you welcome. Is the Queen ready?”
At a click of his fingers, one of the pages came running and was sent scurrying off to the Queen’s cabin.
“What’s the form Charles?” asked his father.
“Well, there’s no precedent, but I think we’ve come up with something acceptable. Their Majesties and Princess Ruth and their retinues disembark and are greeted by the representatives of Council. Then Her Majesty will review the honour guards with the Prince Consort by her side. You and the Duke of Graham and the Lord Marshall may accompany them.”
“Her Majesty? To review troops!” spluttered Jeremy Graham. “Surely not?”
“It is different here,” responded Henri Cocteau, his voice calm in response to the Duke of Graham’s visible outrage.
“Bodyguard?” queried Philip Ross. He was dressed in the full splendour of his Lord Marshall’s uniform.
It is forming up now,” answered Charles with an inward grin at Jeremy Graham’s discomfiture.
The Duke of Graham spluttered again when he saw what troops were to comprise the bodyguard.
“The Vada,” stressed Charles, “will take responsibility for the Queen’s person. They believe that she is their responsibility. I did not like to contradict them. Our Queen did originate in Vadath.”
“You cannot be serious?” Jeremy Graham found his voice.
“This is Argyll. I advise that we conform to their way of thinking,” answered Charles. H
e smiled a quick smile at his father, a smile that told the older man just who might be a part of that guard. He drew him aside.
“Is she?”
“Yes and there’s more.”
“Out with it.”
“Remember that daughter of Duke Jeremy that went missing about ten years ago?”
“I do recall something. She was betrothed to Tom Brentwood’s boy was she not? Jeremy scoured the countryside for her. You don’t say?”
Charles’s eyes danced with wickedness.
“The Vada recruits from far and wide it seems, wider and farther than we thought. The Contessa Elisabeth Graham stands with her Lind at Princess Jessica’s side. I wonder if her father will recognise her. She’s not the prim little miss I remember when I visited Castle Graham. Her Vada badge tells me that she’s in the service of Susa Lynsey, on her personal staff no less unless I’ve got it wrong. Her Lind is a long legged creature. They might be some kind of special messengers although they’re not with the Express. I’ll bet my life too that Elisabeth can take care of herself. I watched the Vada in practice the other day, she can run rings round most of them when it comes to using those knives she carries.”
“Knives?”
“Two at her belt and I guess more hidden away. If I didn’t know better I’d say that she is some sort of assassin. I couldn’t think of anyone better suited to guard you all. No-one could get past her and that Lind of hers. What she doesn’t see, he does.”
“Wonder what her father will say,” grinned Philip Ross.
“There’s more,” said Charles, “Graham’s daughter, she wears an Honour Star.”
“Honour Star?” queried the Lord Marshall.
“Not a hundred per cent sure of what the Vada rank badges mean but I do know what one of these silver stars means. I’ve seen one before. They’re not given out for nothing.”