Vere’s local siege starship took the bait we dangled like a hungry fish. We sent conflicting coded messages that made it sound like the Raven was under direct attack, and their comms were part of the struggle. Despite the order to ignore messages, I was sure they’d be listening, wondering what was going on with the Raven. The only thing they’d be sure of was that eventually Vere would come personally.
Relying on this state of confusion to keep their triggers in check, a few Angel volunteers ran toward the ship, wearing uniforms “borrowed” from some of Vere’s less-lucky legionnaires and waving wildly, with a few of our own legionnaires in hot pursuit, firing to miss, adding to the theater. They got close enough to eliminate the exterior guards easily and set up in their place. Within minutes, they’d swapped out enough legionnaires to sneak in a mechanically-oriented Ancellary to disable the ship’s drive.
With the starship in critical flying condition, a full frontal assault was all that was remained. The Ancellaries fell back and the Angels, with the help of the local legion, attacked. Without mobility, Vere’s force had little choice but to engage. Their inferior legion training showed, and the Angels overwhelmed them. Some tried to flee the starship, only to find a circle of farm equipment boxing them in, keeping them exposed to fire.
The flight risks surrendered easily, once they realized they were trapped.
Over the course of the day, we sent more coded messages, this time from his siege starships to the Raven, to keep Vere confused, so he wouldn’t really know what was going on, either. Our local siege opponent lost numbers in a trickle, but lost numbers, to the point their fighting force was simply overwhelmed.
Mercifully, they surrendered before dinner and, unknown to Vere, we had the first of his starships.
***
With the immediate threat neutralized, I had another mission that couldn’t wait any longer. Flying back to the hidden jumpport to pick up the Phoenix, I made the short hop to Telsor jumpport, which was luckily uneventful. According to plan, his Angels had ensured the jumpport was free of Vere’s men, so I had no problems landing there and finding my way into the Redwing mansion.
I smiled when I spied Lady Phoenix, but she didn’t look happy to see me, her clear blue eyes icing over at my sight.
“Euclid,” she said, pursing her lips into a thin, bloodless line and stepping back, “what’s going on? Why do the Angels want me to leave here?”
“We need to leave now. Please come.”
She took another step backwards. “Why?”
I sighed. “Please, Phoenix—”
“Did he send you?” She eyed me warily.
“No,” I said and advanced on her cautiously. “It was my idea. I came because you’re my friend, and I don’t want you to get hurt.”
I understood why she was reluctant to go with me, and I was surprised she was willing to listen to me so patiently, but when I was done explaining my plan, she just nodded and stood.
“Let’s go, then,” she said, flipping her long red braid forward over her left shoulder. “It sounds like we’ve run out of time.”
I watched, openmouthed, as she walked out the door without a moment’s hesitation, much less a few seconds of fond remembrance, and marveled at this enigmatic lady’s willingness to trust the outcome of such an unlikely plan as I’d explained to her. We were already deep in the middle of a war, and yet she was willing to leave everything she knew behind her, to aim her starship to the skies and leave Oasis, for who knew how long.
I’d expected, frankly, to be forced to overpower her and take her with me, but she came willingly, because she had faith in my plan.
Faith in me.
Chapter 24
Surrendered
AT THIS POINT, I COULD FLY THE PHOENIX INTO THE EMERGENCY JUMPPORT BLINDFOLDED, with my hands tied together. I landed with Lady Phoenix and her retinue and went out the hatch alone, burner drawn just in case.
I was greeted, as expected, by Lord Oswald and several Angels. While the Angels took their luggage aboard, my Lord took me aside.
“Great news! We captured most of Vere’s ships, all but three, but those got destroyed.”
My Lord jabbered on excitedly while I steered him onto the starship and led him to the captain’s cabin as the starship shot out of emergency port. Immediately, Lord Oswald flicked on the comlink and hailed General Zanuck.
“It worked, Oz,” the general said, clearly surprised. “We used Vere’s own ships to attack the Raven and brought it down damaged. Vere’s reinforcements arrived within the hour and joined in. Seeing their own ships attacking their command ship just confirmed the message we sent. We’ve got the prince and his wife — you want to talk to them?”
“Yes,” Lord Oswald said, smiling.
Within seconds, Prince Vere’s hologram materialized in the room, followed by Willow’s.
Vere looked crestfallen and a bit angry, but unhurt. Willow stared directly at me with a strange fascination. She folded her arms across her chest.
Lord Oswald glanced at me, then stepped back. “Your honor, Euclid. It’s your plan.”
I smiled.
Prince Vere said testily, “What’s going on? What are you going to do with us?”
“That depends,” I said, formally, “on your wife’s answers. We’re relaying this interview for transmission to New Rome.” I nodded at Lord Oswald, who dropped a datadot into the dotdrop and started a simultaneous recording and transmission.
“What?” the prince said, taken aback, his voice rising. “What does she have to do with anything?”
“If you’ll be quiet for a minute, you’ll find out,” I said calmly. “Now, Lady Willow Vere, for the record, earlier this morning did you in fact send a message to ... us?” I gestured at Lord Oswald, including him as well. So far as I knew, Prince Vere still didn’t know about my relationship with his wife, so there was no reason to alarm him at this point.
“Yes,” she said, ignoring her husband’s shocked look.
“And would you repeat what you told us about your husband’s relationship with Lord Jagumal Noir, please?”
Willow gazed at Prince Vere. “Lord Noir forced my husband to attack Oasis. Noir used some of Hunter’s own men against him, making it look like Hunter ordered them to do things. Noir had a bunch of heirs killed using Hunter’s men, most recently Lord Sumter. He even sent some of Hunter’s legions to Oasis to start a civil war, so that he could take over Oasis while Prince Oswald was in New Rome.” She looked over at me. “And Noir said was going to kill Prince Oswald afterward. We thought he’d kill us, too.”
Prince Vere looked away, his face reddening in shame.
Lord Oswald smiled evilly, clearly enjoying this unexpected reversal of fortune. “And how was Noir blackmailing Prince Vere?”
The Veres both went pale. I had avoided that question intentionally. Revealing Prince Vere’s indiscretions with the empress were liable to get him executed, which wasn’t what I wanted. Frankly, I was surprised that my Lord mentioned it. But he seemed so tickled to have the upper hand over Vere for a change that he may have spoken without thinking it through.
In any case, the question was out now, and New Rome would expect an answer.
Prince Vere looked indignant. “What? Who said anything about blackmail?”
“Stop,” Willow said sharply, grabbing her husband’s wrist. “Stop it, Hunter.” She looked directly at me. “Does it matter how? Hunter is the victim here. Noir’s actions are at issue. Noir threatened Hunter's favor with the emperor, and he believed him. Noir only asked to borrow legions now and then, so Hunter gave in. He had no idea he was killing heirs and claiming Hunter ordered it. By the time he found out, Noir used the assassinations to force Hunter to invade Oasis.”
There was dead silence for a while. What she said was essentially true, but more importantly it was convincing. I expected New Rome would agree.
Lord Oswald switched off the transmission to New Rome, but kept the datadot recording.
“Now that the formalities are over, Vere,” my Lord said harshly, “we’ve got some other things to discuss without New Rome, don’t you think? For starters, where’s Noir?”
“He took an escape jumper from the Raven after you damaged the stardrive.” Prince Vere nodded at his wife. “Willow landed us safely.”
Willow nodded her agreement.
Lord Oswald looked at General Zanuck.
“It checks,” Zanuck said. “A jumper did get out in the middle of the shooting. Nobody reported seeing it escape clear, but nobody remembers downing it, either.”
So, Noir might still be out there. We couldn’t hand him over to New Rome personally, but at least we’d made it awfully inconvenient for him to return there on his own.
“You know,” said my Lord, “this all worked out better than I expected. I almost want to stay.”
Vere’s eyebrows shot up and his eyes bugged out. “What?”
“I said I almost want to stay. Almost.” Lord Oswald’s face resolved into a sly grin. “But I won’t. You see, I could just send you home now, but then I’d have to clean up this mess here myself. Now, why would I want to do that?”
“But—” Vere started, but my Lord silenced him with a wave of his hand.
“We’re still recording, Vere,” my Lord said, shaking a finger at him in warning.
“Prince Vere,” I said, “I imagine you’d do pretty much anything to get out of this mess, right?”
Vere nodded.
“We got you out of it, but at a substantial cost, which you can pay. This is what we expect in return.” I ticked off our demands on my fingers. “You got us into this mess, you fix it. Our planet is crawling with your legions, and they’re all suspicious of comlink messages now, thanks to our solution. You’re going to go and see all of them personally, and you’re going to undo the damage they’ve done. That means you’ll need to get them united again, and that’s going to take some time. We think we deserve a vacation in the meantime, so we’re going to Greengarden.”
“With my legions,” Lord Oswald added.
“With Oswald’s Angels,” I repeated. “And we’re going to take all your starships with us — not just the ones we’ve captured, but the new ones that came this morning — just to make sure you fulfill your obligations on Oasis.”
Prince Vere started to protest, but I put a finger to my lips and glared at him. “You’ve got reinforcements on the way. By the time they get here, we’ll be on Greengarden. Of course, you could send them back out after us, but that will just start a war neither of us wants. Besides, you’ll want more legions here, believe me, once you start tangling with Dwelman, Vynger and Templar.”
“Not to mention,” Lord Oswald said with a grin, “that you’d look pretty silly whining about the situation after we send a joint announcement of our agreement to New Rome, along with the relevant parts of this recording.”
Prince Vere sighed, his proud chest deflating. “Okay, I’ll do it. All of it.”
I let out a breath slowly. Vere was, if nothing else, bound by honor. We didn’t need to worry about retribution for the time being.
“Great!” said Lord Oswald. “My man there has a statement for you to read, and he’ll take you around to surrender your other starships. Then we’ll be on our way. It’s been a pleasure doing business with you, Vere.”
***
Once again, the Phoenix was full of Angels. This time, however, Lady Redwing and her retinue were there, too. It all made for tight living quarters for the three day journey to Greengarden, but I didn’t mind sharing the captain’s cabin with the prince.
Lady Redwing’s rose scent permeated the hallways, so it seemed as if she were everywhere. By the time we settled into our beds for the first good night’s sleep in a long time, even the captain’s cabin smelled of the lady’s roses.
The next morning rolled around eventually, and my Lord and I lazed around the ship, exchanging pleasantries with whomever was at hand, chatting about nothing in particular. Sometime in the early afternoon, I suggested we call a strategy meeting and formalize our plan for taming Greengarden.
“Later,” the prince said distractedly. “Maybe tomorrow. Right now, I want to talk about Lady Redwing.”
“Phoenix? What about her?”
Lord Oswald raised an eyebrow at my familiarity with the lady. “Yes, Phoenix. While I was in jail, I thought about her. A lot. About what she means to us, our household, that is. What she means to me. Why I’ve been fighting her. When the emperor thought she was my fiancée, I realized only then that she really is, isn’t she? I mean, it didn’t start out that way, but she keeps trying to drag me to the altar, and I haven’t thrown her out yet. That means something, right?”
My Lord’s expression softened, and his eyes blazed contemplatively.
“When last Thursday came around, and she wasn’t there, I was disappointed. No, more than that. Devastated. After a while, it came to me that maybe I did want her after all. Maybe I even loved her. After Karla left me, I couldn’t imagine my life with a wife. But now, I just can’t imagine my life without Phoenix. I won’t fight her three o’clock attempts any more. But since we came back, she seems a little ... different now. What happened while I was in New Rome?”
I gulped. I wasn’t prepared for this discussion, even though I knew it would come eventually.
Seventh Euclid taught me about honesty. Once, when I was too young to be thinking about the opposite sex, First caught Seven sneaking into one of the barns with a girlfriend. He hauled them both by the ears into the house — Seven without his shirt and the girl with her panties hanging off one ankle — and First called for Daddy. Five, Three and I were in the kitchen at the time, and did our best to fade into the background when Daddy stormed in.
Daddy slapped Seven so hard his eyes unfocused for a moment, then slammed my brother into a chair to talk to him man to man.
“What were you up to, boy?” Daddy said calmly, even though he was fuming. “Some kind of school project, I suppose?”
Five poked Three in the ribs and snickered, but Daddy shot him a cutting look and he stopped mid-chuckle, his face straightening instantly. I found out later that Three had gotten caught a few years before and tried to convince Daddy that they were studying for a biology test together.
Seven stared back at Daddy defiantly, but said nothing.
Daddy slapped him again.
Seven rubbed his jaw and worked his mouth for several seconds before saying anything. “I was trying to have sex, Daddy,” he said without shame.
Daddy’s eyes popped out and his face bloated up, turning beet red. He raised a hand to slap Seven again, and his hand hovered there, wavering, while Seven cringed, waiting for another slap.
Daddy had strict rules about bringing girls home and the behavior expected of us when we did, and Seven had flaunted those rules blatantly. I cringed myself, thinking about what he was going to do to Seven with his girlfriend there, watching.
Then Daddy imploded. All the air seemed to come out of his face at once, with a single, barking sound, as if a yell had gotten too big for him, and part of the sound leaked out. Daddy’s hand came down on his own leg with a slap, and he laughed loud and hard. He stood up and walked out of the kitchen, laughing, leaving all of us gaping after him.
Three grabbed the shocked girl and whispered something in her ear. Without a word, she pulled her panties up under her skirt and scampered out the door. Seven ran out to the barn to retrieve his shirt, and the rest of us dispersed quietly.
I never forgot that scene. Seven got away with his indiscretion because none of the Euclids had ever just told the truth about their girlfriends before. Daddy was so disarmed by the novelty that he couldn’t bring himself to punish Seven.
It was time to stop the stupid game between Lord Oswald and Lady Redwing.
Closing the cabin door, I sat down with Lord Oswald and told him everything Phoenix had told me.
After I was done, the prince stared off into space, c
onsidering. “Maybe I’ve been a little harsh in the past. I’ll have a little talk with her.” The prince looked away, silent.
“When?”
“Hmm? Oh, sometime.”
I stood up and hauled the prince to his feet. “Now. You know what day it is.”
He rolled his eyes, ignoring my insolence. “Fine. I’ll do it now.”
I marched my Lord to the lady’s cabin, and he knocked on her door feebly. I glared down at him and knocked myself, harder. Lord Oswald shrugged.
After the third knock, Lady Redwing opened the door a crack. “Yes, my Lord?”
“It’s ... um.” Lord Oswald glanced at the time and looked surprised at his fortuity. “It’s almost three o’clock, isn’t it? And it’s Thursday, right?”
Lady Redwing tossed her head. “So?”
“I just thought I’d save you the trouble of tracking me down.” Lord Oswald blushed.
“For what?” the lady said, innocently.
“For ... well ... to go ... so we could....” Lord Oswald looked genuinely flustered.
“I told him, Phoenix,” I said gently. “So you can both stop lying to each other.”
Lady Phoenix narrowed her eyes at me for a moment, then threw the door wide and walked away. At the other end of the room, she turned around, her arms folded across her chest. “I’ve decided not to let you marry me any more,” she announced, glaring at the prince.
“Oh,” said Lord Oswald automatically, then followed up with a weaker, “Oh,” as he realized the implications of her statement. “It’s just that when you didn’t come last week … but if you’re sure, then I guess that’s settled. Great. Fine.”
For the first time in my memory, my Lord looked positively downtrodden and defeated. My heart broke for him.
The prince started to head for the door, but I stepped in his way. “I don’t think you’re done,” I said, steering him back around and giving him a gentle shove in Lady Redwing’s direction. “I think you need to talk about exactly what your relationship is, was and might be.”
Ninth Euclid's Prince Page 29