At the Queen_s command cc-1

by Michael A. Stackpole

  "And given my aunt's often mercurial personality, it would likely have changed, or changed back, since you sailed." Vlad laughed. "There are times when the ocean is welcome insulation from her guidance."

  Owen smiled politely, not knowing what else to do.

  The Prince waved him forward. "Come, let us get you cleaned up. I can do at least that. Eli, my wurmwright's son, serves as my squire and will get most of the mud off your coat. Those breeches are beyond salvation."

  Owen ascended the short ladder onto the walkway. "Please, Highness, I appreciate the offer but will decline. Colonel Langford will take some pleasure in seeing me thus."

  "You mustn't tell him that Mugwump did this. The man has forever desired to see the wurm. Petty, I know, but denying him that pleasure is one of the few means I have of irritating him. I suspect that speaks well of neither of us but, as vices go, it is hardly the worst."

  "I will tell him I paused by the river and slipped."

  The Prince smiled as they closed the doors to the wurmrest. "Clever man. You might actually succeed in your mission."

  "Thank you, Highness."

  "I think you will find, Captain Strake, that my assessment will make your life more difficult than you imagine."

  "Highness?"

  The Prince matched his stride as they headed to the front of the estate. "Let me ask you… No, no, let me tell you: You are a clever man. No need to deny it or hide it. You have a goal. You have a reason for coming here, one beyond your orders. You're too smart to be looking at this as a grand adventure-though you do realize it will be the greatest adventure of your life. There is something more there."

  Owen shivered. The image of his beloved Catherine swam into focus. "Yes, Highness." He almost continued speaking. He almost told the Prince his reason, but in glancing to the side, he saw a steely glint in Vlad's eyes that told him whatever it was, it was unimportant.

  "Mark my words, Captain Strake. Your mission and its successful completion will be the first step in determining the future of the world." The Prince's eyes narrowed. "There will be many who do not want you to succeed, but for the sake of the world, you must."

  Chapter Five

  April 27, 1763

  Bounty Trail

  Temperance Bay, Mystria

  O wen stopped by the Benjamin River to wash wurm-mud off his clothes. His jacket and waistcoat had gotten the worst of it, so he scrubbed them as best he could, and washed the grime from his boots. He splashed water over his breeches and, after removing his shirt and boots, waded into the river to clean the rest of him.

  Whereas others might have been disgusted, Owen smiled. He almost shouted out happily, but refrained. The unspoiled wilderness didn't need his voice disturbing it.

  All the stories he'd heard and read about Mystria had not prepared him for the pure delight of the land. In just one day he'd seen so much. There will be many more strange adventures before I am home again.

  A crashing in the brush off to his left brought him around. He swam back to shore and reached for the horse pistol. Owen brought the gun up, his thumb resting on the firestone. He looked toward the sound, steadying the pistol with his left hand. Images of stalking jeopards filled his mind.

  Idiot. That predator would be the whisper of death.

  There, thirty yards away, a massive beast on long legs emerged from the brush and onto a small sandbar jutting into the river. Brown in color save for its long, buff muzzle, its head was crowned with a huge rack of thick antlers. Its stubby tail and brown ears flicked about. The creature surveyed the riverside, then cropped some of the grasses growing at river's edge.

  Owen lowered the pistol and released the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. At that range he couldn't have hit the beast. No matter. Such was its size that a single lead ball wouldn't bring it down. Even a jeopard might think twice.

  The monster looked in his direction for a moment, then ambled into the river and swam across the deep center channel. Once it had its feet under it again, the creature strolled toward the far shore, nibbling as it went. It never cast a glance back.

  Owen shivered, not so much out of draining fear, as the pure joy of seeing something so different. Yes, it distantly resembled the sort of deer his father and uncles hunted on the family estate, though much bigger. The deer were another product of the estate, more cattle than wild beasts. This, on the other hand, wandered boldly across the countryside as if it were a king.

  Definitely regal and apparently fearless.

  He almost turned back to the Prince's estate to ask after it, but if that became his pattern, he'd never get back to Temperance before nightfall. He grabbed up his wet clothes, wrung them out as completely as he could, then went back to his horse. He draped the red coat over the back of his saddle, fitting the tails around his horse's tail, and pulled the damp waistcoat back on.

  Riding back toward Temperance, Owen looked again at the countryside. The Prince's words resonated in him, so he began his work immediately. If the war on the Continent was to spill over into Mystria, armies would somehow have to be brought together in a cohesive manner and set to battle. It was his job to find a way for that to happen.

  Within the first mile, several things became readily apparent. Owen had marveled at, and doubted, the feat of marksmanship that brought the jeopard down. That a man could kill a target at a hundred yards, even with a rifle, strained credulity. Even granting it was during the winter, when trees had been stripped of foliage, Owen wondered how the hunter had even seen the target at that range.

  The forests he rode through-and it was all forest save for swaths cleared around small farms or the occasional meadow-barely let him see thirty yards. The beast he'd seen at the river could have been moving through the woods parallel with him, and he'd never see it. He might hear it, but manage a clean shot? Impossible.

  The trail slithered through the countryside and doubtless had its origin in a game trail which many feet expanded. In places where water seeped up, or flowed down from hillsides, the road should have been impassible. In those spots, people had cut trees to shore up the road. They laid eight-foot lengths of log across the path, providing a modicum of stability in what would otherwise have been a marsh of stinking black mud. His horse preferred riding around the makeshift bridges when possible. The logs themselves showed some signs of wagon-wheel wear.

  Though caution had been taken in the wettest areas, the rest of the road hardly remained dry. Men and horses might be able to tolerate little uphill jogs and downhill runs, but a team of oxen pulling a cannon or a supply wagon would never make it. The single virtue of fighting in the Low Countries had been a system of well-maintained roads that made transport easier. Here, moving troops and supplies would be a nightmare.

  Unbidden came the memories of the last campaign on the Continent. The rain had fallen for days over roads better than this track, reducing them to mud. The Mystrians had taken to the hardship better than most. It struck Owen now that might have been because the only way they could feel superior was by refraining from complaint while their Norillian betters wailed and moaned. And the Mystrians hadn't had any qualms about setting their guns aside to pick up axes and shovels to clear routes and shore up roads.

  But this countryside would take a battalion or more of laborers to widen roads and build bridges. While that would make troop movement easier, it made surprise impossible. Reaching an advantageous position from which one could engage the enemy was important. If the enemy could tell from which direction you were coming, chances were they would occupy that position before you ever could.

  Of course, that is putting winter before fall. Owen had to wonder if there were any suitable battlefields in all of Mystria. The farms he'd ridden past might have, at most, a dozen acres cleared and most had little more than two. That would be enough ground for a battalion to fight, but battalions do not decide battles.

  Aside from the cleared fields making a quilt of the countryside, most of the land was far from level. F
armers had terraced some spots, but mostly left hillsides for cattle and sheep to graze. And the ground was filled with stones, as evidenced by those gathered to form walls at the fields' edges.

  No, the land was decidedly inhospitable to war. But I will find a way around all obstacles.

  Another shiver shook him. He wanted to put it down to a damp vest and the coming dusk, but a profound wave of isolation washed over him. His wife, his beloved Catherine, had always said that he could find a way around all obstacles. She'd intone the words with reverence, and smile at him in a way that made him feel like a god striding the earth.

  He shook his head, smiling. I so hope you are right, darling, for the sake of our future.

  The sense of isolation bled into caution as the world darkened. He drew the horse pistol and weighed it in his hand. Heavy dark wood, brass fittings binding the steel barrel to stock and brass for the stonelock, the pistol was standard issue for cavalry soldiers. Owen's thumb fell naturally to the blue firestone at the barrel's base.

  While Owen was considered a very good shot among his peers, the pistol would avail him little against the hazards of Mystria. He could easily bring the pistol to bear on an enemy, invoke the spell that would ignite the brimstone and thereby propel the lead ball at his target. But that horned creature, or the jeopard, would shrug off such a shot.

  And so his mission loomed before him, gigantic and possibly insurmountable, just like Mystrian fauna. If he failed, many would expect him to use the pistol to blow his own brains out. It would be the honorable thing to do, after all. Wouldn't be proper to have the family's name besmirched by his failure.

  They'd expect me to take a gentleman's way out. Owen laughed to himself. And then would claim I'd never been a gentleman at all. In fact, if his uncle had the means to do it, the story would be changed so that a Ryngian assassin had killed Owen. The tale would ennoble his death, allowing Owen to enhance the reputation of a family that had little earthly use for him.

  No matter what I do, the Duke will find a way to make it serve his purpose.

  Owen laughed again, the sound disappearing into the forest. Since his uncle would turn anything to his advantage, Owen needed to make sure he succeeded well enough that it benefited him and Catherine as well. Only then could he escape his uncle's influence and find true happiness.

  He slid the pistol back into the saddle scabbard and looked over Temperance from the hill above it. It struck him that perhaps this new world-so far away from and alien to his uncle-would give him the chance he'd not ever had before. Catherine was certain of it. He chose to believe in her dream, and that had him smiling all the way back into town.

  Night had fallen by the time he reached the Guards' headquarters. He slid out of the saddle, surprised. The building was shut up tight with no sign of life. There wasn't even a guard stationed nearby.

  A young man detached himself from the shadows. "You'd be Cap'n Strake?"

  Owen nodded. "And you are?"

  "I'm to take you to your billet. Colonel Langford had your things delivered." The young man shrugged and began walking off along Generosity.

  Owen ran after him and caught his arm. "Wait. Where is Colonel Lang-ford?"

  "Don't know. Home, I imagine."

  "And the guards?"

  The man turned. Clean shaven, tow-headed, tall, a bit on the gangly side, he gave Owen a lop-sided grin. "Don't do things here quite as they might across the water."

  "Meaning."

  "Likely they's down to the Queen and Crown slaking a thirst." He turned again and started walking. "You'll be wanting to come along. Mother's got some supper for you."

  Owen ran back, grabbed his horse's reins, but didn't climb into the saddle. He sensed this was what the man expected him to do. First rule of winning any fight was not to do what the enemy expected. He caught up with the young man after a short run.

  "I've been billeted at your house?"

  "Were it my house, you'd not be staying." The man slowed a bit so Owen could pull even. "It's my father's house."

  "And your father is?"

  "My father is the smartest and the most honest man in this here whole colony. You'll not be treating him like a servant. And you'll not be rude to my mother, you won't beat the young ones, and if you so much as look at my sister…"

  "Sir, I am a most happily married man."

  "Didn't seem to make no nevermind to t'others."

  "So, if I look at your sister, you'll leave me for some jeopard?"

  "No, I like jeopards." Despite the adamancy of the man's clipped reply, the hint of a smile crossed his face.

  "I shall take it, sir, that I am not the first Queen's officer who has been a guest in your home."

  "My father is thinking it's his duty to host officers."

  "This guest, he was a noble who was arrogant and rude?"

  "The last one, the one before that, and the two before that."

  Owen chuckled.

  "Being as how you think this is funny…"

  "No, sir, I take your warning seriously." Owen forced his smile to broaden. "Those noble officers purchased their commissions. I earned mine on the battlefield. And I've seen Mystrians fight. I was impressed."

  "Was you?" The man's eyes tightened, but he nodded.

  "My name is Owen." He offered the man his hand.

  The man hesitated, then did his best to crush it in a grip of surprising strength. "Caleb. Caleb Frost."

  "Pleased to meet you, Caleb." Owen matched his grip firmly, pumped his arm, then freed his hand. He let Caleb see him flexing it. "If I could trouble you…"

  Caleb arched an eyebrow.

  "On my ride back from seeing the Prince, I encountered a beast, eight foot at the shoulder, dark brown, long legs, huge rack of antlers."

  "Bowled or more like branches?"

  "Bowled, with spikes coming off them."

  "That's a moose, most like."

  "'Most like?' There's more than one creature answering that description?"

  Caleb laughed. "Have to wonder at the wisdom of the Crown."

  "I beg your pardon."

  "How is it they send you out here for scouting, and you don't know the first thing about Mystria?" Caleb slapped his thigh. "But you'll just be sitting on your tuffet here while others do your work, I 'spect. Just like the others."

  "Did any of the other scouts ride out to see the Prince directly upon their arrival?"

  Caleb's brow furrowed. "Don't recall them much leaving town."

  "So, perhaps, I'm not much like them."

  "Perhaps not."

  Owen scowled. "So, how is it you know why I'm in Mystria?"

  "It ain't as if the Ryngian war is any secret. What with them building forts to the west, we expected something would be done. But more to your point, Sergeant Major Hilliard told my father about you when he brought your things. And Cask and Branch been spreading it around that Langford has hired them to see you upriver. Easy work for them."

  "What are you saying, sir?"

  "Well, Captain Strake, it works this way." Caleb grinned broadly. "Colonel Langford pays Cask and Branch to guide some Norillian fop around. They take him out into some of the nastiest country they can find. The officer comes back, the boys go out hunting, trapping, trading. They talk to the Twilight People, get told what the Ryngians are doing, and that gets written up in the report. They include maps and the like, which is mostly worthless. And half the Twilight People trade with the Ryngians, so they're not inclined to be telling the whole truth, if you catch my meaning."

  "But the Colonel has his duty."

  "Sure, to himself. The trading Cask and Branch do is for him. He sends skins back under military impound. A friend in Norisle brokers them for him. No duty on them, you see. I hear tell he has a thousand pounds waiting for him in the City."

  And Langford expects I will do the same as the others.

  "Thank you, Caleb, for this information."

  The Mystrian nodded. "So you'll be enriching yourself, too. Lo
ng as you treat my family right, it'll be soft duty."

  "No, sir, I did not come here for soft duty."

  Caleb shot him a sidelong glance. "You can say that now, Captain Strake, but the road to the Prince's estate, that is about as civilized as Mystria gets. Where you want to go, if there have been a dozen Norillians through there, I'll be surprised."

  "But surely men have gone…"

  "Mystrians, sure. Maybe a hundred." Caleb grinned glowingly. "Something for you to sleep on, Captain Strake. Norillians, maybe a dozen; and considerably less than that made it back alive."

  Chapter Six

  April 27, 1763

  The Frost Residence, Temperance

  Temperance Bay, Mystria

  C learly Caleb meant to terrify Owen, but the words hadn't had quite that effect. Owen did not fear for himself. If what Caleb said was true, the wilderness remained truly uncharted. Specifically, the maps back at Horse Guards were worthless. If a strategy was being planned based on them, none of the details would be relevant. Any military expedition would be doomed.

  Which makes my mission even more important.

  Owen looked up, thinking to ask Caleb a question, but was struck by two things. The first was that a remarkable change had overcome his guide. Caleb had straightened up and moved more tightly-not nearly as loose-limbed and gangly as he had first appeared. He'd also tucked his shirt in, buttoned his coat, and had combed fingers through his hair. The transformation effectively disguised him as a gentleman.

  Second, they had come to a house at the top of the hill at the corner of Diligence and Virtue streets. The square house rose to three stories with a captain's-walk atop the roof, and a balcony above the door. The house faced the bay and had been constructed of granite blocks, and trimmed with another, lighter stone at the corners. It had a slate roof and two chimneys, one at either end. A granite wall surrounded the house. Well-tended bushes and a couple trees shaded the front.

  Caleb pushed open the dual iron gates and beckoned Owen in. A servant came running up the drive from the side of the house and took charge of the horse. He led it off toward the back of the property where, Owen presumed, a stable and carriage house lay.