Ninth Euclid's Prince

by Daniel M. Hoyt

  Given the choice, I’m sure my Lord would accept life as the emperor, despite the inherent dangers from would-be usurpers, over having his head displayed on a spike.

  Of course, the whole question was irrelevant, now that we had no transportation to New Rome.

  “Prince Oswald.” The port master appeared again — in the flesh this time, not as a hologram — bowing to my Lord. “A starship is requesting permission to leave the planet from the Telsor Jumpport.”

  My ears pricked up, and Lord Oswald looked very interested. Why was a starship leaving this close to the attack on my Lord’s personal jumpport?

  “Where’s it going?” my Lord snapped.

  “Eternity III.”

  That could only mean New Rome. I asked, “What ship?”

  The port master scowled. “The Phoenix. That’s why I thought you’d want to know. It’s one of Lord Redwing’s yachts.”

  Named after his daughter, no doubt. But why would Lord Redwing be going to New Rome?

  Lord Oswald must have read my thoughts. He glanced at me once before ordering the port master to delay approval. “I want to speak with Lord Redwing personally,” he said.

  We dashed to a comlink in the nearest room, and the port master ordered the hologram in that room.

  Redwing materialized wearing a dress. This was best explained by the fact that it was a hologram of Lady Phoenix Redwing, not her father.

  My Lord and I both breathed a sigh of relief, even as I saw him flush with anger.

  “You!” he shouted. “You! What are you doing?”

  Lady Redwing looked nonplussed. She held out a hand and inspected her nails. “Going to New Rome. Why?” She looked up at my Lord challengingly.

  He sighed and muttered, “That’s not likely.”

  “What?” Lady Redwing asked, her expression all innocence. “I couldn’t hear you.”

  “Nothing,” my Lord mumbled.

  The lady’s intentions were admirable, if not a bit foolish. The Mallard was the fastest starship on Oasis. Did she plan to arrive a few days after Lord Oswald? Lord Oswald could be gone by then. It made no sense.

  Fortunately, Lady Redwing answered my unspoken question. “I can keep up,” she said defiantly. “Daddy had a new stardrive installed last month. It used to be in a much bigger ship. The Phoenix may be smaller than your Mallard, but she’s just as fast now.” She batted her eyelashes and inspected her nails again. “Maybe faster.”

  The lady’s hologram turned away suddenly, answering someone unseen and unheard by those of us on the other end of the hologram. “Yes, Orrin, thank you. You may go now.”

  Lord Oswald’s face reddened to a tomato color. There was an Orrin that was one of the missing staff, part of his intended retinue. “Was that my Orrin?” he demanded.

  “Of course, silly,” she said, ignoring his obvious anger. “I needed some help packing, so I took some of the staff. They’re on their way back as we speak, on one of Daddy’s jumpers.” She waved a hand dismissively at my Lord. “Can we go now? I’m just dying to show off my new gown to the emperor.”

  One thing that could not be said of Lady Redwing was that she was frugal with clothes. At least not since she’d moved into my Lord’s palace. Lady Redwing did not seem to believe in wearing clothes more than twice in public. While I marveled at her taste, I secretly thanked anyone who’d listen that she bought her own clothing. I didn’t think that her monthly stipend would cover even half the bills — assuming, of course, that my Lord didn’t have me redirect that stipend to more appropriate endeavors in the household.

  Still, I had to admit that Lady Redwing certainly wouldn’t disappoint in the emperor’s court. If I knew the lady, she probably had matching outfits for every one of her own retinue, too. Upon approaching the emperor with a knot of identically-clad men and complementing women, I bet they’d rival the close-order drill precision of my Lord’s Angels. Old Seraphim would probably make her an heir on the spot.

  “—cute in their little uniforms, with all the gold braiding,” Lady Redwing was saying. “And the pearls I picked out for my ladies are just adorable.”

  Lord Oswald’s eyes were glazed over and half closed. At times like this, I expected to hear him start snoring. “I have an idea,” he said with a start, as if he hadn’t realized he spoke until the sound came out of his mouth on its own and awakened him from his trance.

  “What?” Lady Redwing asked, and waited patiently for an answer.

  “I think,” he said, blinking his eyes. “Um ... that ... my idea is....”

  “We need your starship,” I said, in an attempt to prevent my Lord embarrassing himself further.

  “What?” Lady Redwing narrowed her eyes. “Why?”

  I sighed. We were too close to our deadline now to mince words. Like the bird it was named for, her father’s starship would resurrect new hope for us from the ashes of this tragedy. “The Mallard’s been bombed. We need to be in New Rome in two days. The Phoenix is the only starship that can do it.”

  Her hands flew to cover her mouth. “Bombed? How terrible. Of course I’d be happy to take you to New Rome—”

  “Good,” interrupted Lord Oswald. “Bring it to Oasisis Jumpport right away. We’ll meet you there.”

  “—for a price.”

  The silence was thicker than the fog in the baths at the Butterfly Palace.

  “It seems to me,” said Lady Redwing slyly, “that we’ve put off our wedding for too long.”

  I swallowed. Lord Oswald went pale instantly. His eyes lost their characteristic sparkle. His beard seemed disheveled somehow and I’m sure I saw a few short, fuzzy red strands of his hair fall out. He’d never seemed the marrying type to me, and I suspected this was the first time the lady had actually used the word in his presence.

  “I think we should consider a date very soon,” she continued, oblivious of the reaction her statement had made on the prince.

  “He’ll consider it, my Lady,” I said quickly. “Just come.”

  I motioned for the port master to end the comlink.

  ***

  We took a personal jumper to Oasisis as quickly as I could find an undamaged one and guide my shocked and dazed Lord into it. By the time we reached the jumpport, Lord Oswald seemed a little less stricken. At least he was able to talk.

  His retinue followed us a few minutes later in several other jumpers, with instructions to grab a single day’s suitable court clothes. One of the staff accompanying them went in search of my Lord’s and my clothes.

  Arriving at Oasisis, my Lord put a hand on my arm, staying my departure from the jumper. “I won’t actually have to marry her, will I?”

  My immediate reaction was anger on behalf of Lady Redwing, but I suppressed it for the sake of my relationship with the prince. Still, I didn’t understand why he didn’t want the lady. Were I of a suitable class, I’d marry her in a heartbeat. Sure, she was a little bossy at times, and liked to get her own way, but weren’t most ladies worth marrying like that? What’s the point in marrying a lady just to turn around and treat her like a servant? Servants were easy to find — and just as easy to replace if they didn’t work out.

  “Would that be so bad?” I asked, tentatively.

  “Did I ever tell you,” my Lord said, slowly, “that I was engaged once?”

  I stared, dumbstruck. This was almost as unexpected as the mandatory fishing lessons before being allowed to see the lovely misses at Mistress Bates’ Fish Camp.

  “It was before you, before I became a prince, while my father was still alive. He insisted that I find a bride, to ensure the succession, and I did. I thought Karla loved me. I thought I loved her. But when it came time for the nuptials, she was gone. Not even a note of explanation. A month later, I read that she’d married another heir in New Rome, some cousin of Vere’s.” He sighed heavily. “I guess she thought he was a better bet for the succession.”

  I searched my memory. “Lady Karla Trentant?”

  My Lord’s eyes brighte
ned. “Yes! That’s it.”

  “I think Lord Trentant is due to be executed, my Lord. Something about a tryst with the empress, as I recall. Lady Karla disappeared shortly after his arrest, I’m sorry to say.”

  The prince’s face fell. “She hardly deserved that, I dare say. But it’s good to know she was wrong, at least.”

  He was silent for a long minute.

  “Still, Lady Redwing may not be like her, but I just can’t—”

  “No, of course not, my Lord,” I said reassuringly, as calmly as I could manage, “we’ll figure something out.”

  Lord Oswald seemed satisfied, released my arm and hopped from the jumper. I shook my head in disbelief and followed. My Lord could be so blind to the obvious sometimes. There was no question of Lady Redwing’s devotion to him.

  The Phoenix was landing as we came into the bay, so we went to meet it while we waited for our retinue and clothes.

  It took a few minutes after the hatch opened before Lady Redwing bounced out. She ran to my Lord, happier than I’d ever seen her, and threw her arms around him, even though he stood stiffly. She kissed him on the cheek, but he didn’t react. She let go of him only long enough to grab his hand, then led him to her ship. At the hatch, my Lord stopped, jerking the lady to a stop as well. He looked at me pleadingly, his emerald green eyes full of fear and uncertainty.

  “Lady Redwing,” I said soothingly, prying her hand from my Lord’s and taking her aside as the prince continued through the hatch. “May I speak candidly?”

  “Of course,” she said.

  “This is a bad time to go to New Rome.”

  “Yes, yes, I know,” Lady Redwing said. “But that’s exactly why dear Adrian needs me there.”

  I tried another tack. “Heirs are dying left and right.”

  “I know. It’s in all the news.”

  I stared. Either she truly didn’t understand the gravity of the situation, or she simply didn’t want to admit it to herself. I really would need to be candid. “Okay. There’s not enough room on the ship for the Lord’s retinue and yours.”

  “We’ll take mine, then. Well, they’re Daddy’s really. But they know me, they’re trained in court manners, they already know this ship inside out.” Lady Redwing looked up at me appraisingly, as if she were gauging my readiness for the coup-de-grace. “And they have clothes for court.”

  She had me there. Her retinue, while not part of the prince’s household, might show better at court than his own retinue. I decided to accept that part of her offer.

  “Okay, we’ll take yours. But, we need two members of Lord Oswald’s retinue as well.” I was thinking specifically of two Angels that my Lord kept in his retinue as a security precaution. At the worst, if my Lord didn’t trust any of the lady’s retinue, we could appear with the two Angels alone, a bare retinue, but acceptable in emergency situation, which this became as soon as the Mallard blew up.

  As we spoke, the other jumpers landed, and my Lord’s retinue trooped over to us. I selected the two Angels and ordered them inside the hatch, along with the additional clothes for my Lord and me.

  After I dismissed the remainder of the surprised retinue, Lady Redwing turned and headed for the hatch herself.

  “Lady Phoenix?” I called.

  She turned around and came back to me. She smiled and put a warm hand up to my cheek. “Thanks, Euclid. My name sounds so lovely from your lips.” She looked back at the hatch, clearly wishing she could say the same for my Lord’s lips.

  I took her hand gently from my cheek and held it, and I circled around her so that I was nearer the hatch. I shook my head and took a step backward, holding her hand at length.

  She understood. Her eyes welled up. “He doesn’t want me?”

  I swallowed. It went against my nature to hurt the lovely Lady Redwing, and my heart ached to do it now, but I knew I had no choice. “I’m sorry,” I said, and looked down at the ground. “It’s very dangerous right now. There’s been an attempt on the prince’s life. And New Rome is no place for a lady such as yourself.”

  I looked up and met her eyes. Tears streaked her face. She nodded her acceptance without a word. Pulling closer to me, she buried her face against my chest and wiped her tears on my shirt. She looked up and sniffed, then reached a hand up to my head. I had to bend over a little so that she could reach the top of my head, which she rubbed softly.

  “Why’s your hair blue, Euclid?”

  I smiled. “’Cause the rest of me’s all one color, Lady Phoenix. Without it blue, I look like a big inkblot.”

  She choked on a giggle mixed with a sob, and I pried myself away from her. I went into the hatch and closed it, leaving her standing there all alone, crying, and feeling like I’d just betrayed my best friend.

  I went straight to the cockpit, and told the pilot to lift off.

  “Can’t. Hatch isn’t closed.” A warning light blinked on the console. The pilot flicked the warning light with a finger and it went out instantly. He smiled at me apologetically. “Must have been an electrical glitch.”

  The pilot lifted off without any more glitches, and soon the Phoenix was on its way. With all the delays, it was midmorning. Barring a great deal of luck in New Rome — which didn’t look very likely on this particular journey — I hoped that Lady Phoenix was right about her ship being faster than the Mallard. We’d need it to make it to New Rome in time for breakfast on Friday.

  Once in space, I realized how utterly exhausted I was from the day and night schedule we’d been working over the last few days. After getting directions from the pilot, I stumbled back to the captain’s cabin, which I was sure my Lord would have taken. Sure enough, his two Angels lingered nearby and I heard his light snoring from within.

  I went in search of Lady Redwing’s cabin, which I expected would be deserted now. After wandering aimlessly for a minute, I grabbed a woman from Lady Redwing’s retinue — my Lord’s retinue now, at least temporarily — and made her take me to Lady Redwing’s cabin. She complied, but not willingly. When we reached Lady Redwing’s cabin, I found it locked. I pounded once on the door and rested my weary head against the wall.

  “Open it, please,” I commanded. I swear I heard rustling inside the room while the woman unlocked the door, but I didn’t find a thing out of place once I gained admittance, so I guessed I just imagined it.

  I staggered to the bed and fell on it, instantly asleep.

  ***

  Despite an unending series of disturbing dreams prominently featuring Lady Phoenix in my bed, I slept through most of the day Wednesday, waking only around dinner time.

  Bleary-eyed, I shuffled into the bathroom. It was a sumptuous room, much more nicely appointed than the one I used at my Lord’s palace. The bathroom was a copy of one I’d seen in a luxury hotel, with black marble and gold forming the basis of the furnishings and heated tile on the floor. Someone had drawn a bubble bath for me — recently, I guessed from the gentle waves even now drifting back and forth.

  Rinsing my mouth with a dose of instabrush I found by the sink, I splashed my face with water to help wake myself.

  It took a second for me to realize there was splashing from the bath, too, and jerked my head around.

  “Oh, hi, Euclid,” a woman said in resignation, panting from holding her breath underwater for too long a time. Only her head showed above the bubbles in the water, but even sopping wet, it was unmistakably Lady Redwing’s luxurious flaming red hair. “I see you’re finally up.”

  Chapter 5

  A Lady’s Charms

  DINNER WAS INTERESTING, IF NOT PLEASANT. My Lord Oswald was understandably upset about Lady Redwing’s presence. For all we knew, the prince wouldn’t return from this trip to New Rome alive — if we managed to make it there in time, which wasn’t certain by any means — and the lady was like a migraine on top of an ice cream headache just then. Heirs were dropping like flies, and my Lord had recently received an engraved announcement that he was next on the list if he continued on to New
Rome.

  Lady Redwing had a knack for completely missing the obvious, but now she had a good excuse. Her main concern was her impending marriage to the prince — whether he agreed to it or not — and after years of what she must have considered engagement stalemate, she’d just managed to tip the scales in her favor for the first time. Her euphoria was blinding her to my Lord’s predicament, and she was likely to merrily pursue her principal agenda without care or concern for anything else.

  This meant that my main function during this trip would be to shadow the lovely lady and make sure she didn’t get in Lord Oswald’s way.

  I placed myself between them at dinner.

  By the time dessert was served, I thought I’d go deaf.

  “Why are you doing this?” my Lord yelled at the lady, right by my right ear.

  “It’s my ship,” Lady Redwing said calmly to my left.

  “That’s not the point,” Lord Oswald bellowed, a beet-red flush covering his face and spreading fast. “We needed it.”

  “Of course you did,” the lady said.

  “Do you have any idea how dangerous it is right now?” Lord Oswald croaked, his voice cracking from the strain of yelling for the past ten minutes.

  “As dangerous as taking a jumper to the market, I imagine,” Lady Redwing said casually.

  “No!” rang in my right ear. “I mean the murders!”

  Lady Redwing rolled her eyes. “Oh, grow up. Heirs die all the time. The emperor’ll pick new ones.”

  Deep inside my ear, both of my eardrums started thumping, probably due to the bipolar volume treatment that had been going on for most of the ten minutes.

  Lord Oswald growled, “Why can’t you just stay on the ship and keep out of my way?”

  “I have new clothes, that’s why,” the lady said calmly. “The emperor will want to see them.”

  The veins on my Lord’s neck strained to remain attached and his forehead throbbed with a life of its own. His fingertips grew white from clutching the table. I guessed he would rather have been clutching Lady Redwing’s neck. “Why are you doing this to me? Why can’t you just do as I say?”