Hostage Rescue (Princess Rescue Inc Book 2)

by Hechtl, Chris

  Even as he watched, someone released the beasts on the port but they went after his wounded men, not after the people with guns. Guns! Who had guns! He shook his head in disbelief as the snipers that had cut down his men did the same with the beasts one by one.

  He felt his side, unsure of the wound. It might be serious; then again, it might not. He wasn't sure if he should hope for the enemy's mercy nor not. He and his men had not given any before.

  ~~~^~~~

  Licinius received the second hot-wash report and then sent a radio message to inform the king before the king could come down to impatiently see what was going on. Licinius begged off on the king coming down until they had a second sweep of the village, just to be sure they had gotten everyone.

  Eugene listened to the report, congratulated the commander, and then signed off. While he waited, he used the HAM radio to call the success in to the capital.

  "Good news!" Deidra replied. "Now get your ass back home!"

  Eugene laughed. "I think that's the title to a song, dear."

  "I don't care. I'm the queen, and I've been neglected by my husband for too long."

  Eugene stared at the radio and then snorted. "Well, can't have that," he said playfully. "Just remember, absence doth make the heart grow fonder."

  "Hell with that!" she replied and he chuckled.

  ~~~^~~~

  The following morning the decurion and the cavalry unit helped the elders and villagers back into their homes. There was some damage from the fighting that they worked on setting things right. Some of the pirates had tried to set fire to a few of the buildings; those had to be assessed and repaired or torn down and rebuilt. It was rather late in the season to rebuild them, however; the neighbors offered to take the families in.

  Licinius had a third of the men on stand-down, a third on guard or helping out with the port and people, and another third actively helping the villagers. They only had a short time there, and he hoped to make the best of it. One unit of soldiers worked on the map and roads while another worked on helping the villagers with their winter preparations. The villagers were grateful enough to feed and house them while also throwing a celebration over the victory.

  Only a handful of soldiers had been injured in the fighting, the medicus insisted they would be ready to ride in another day. So they stayed one more night. Along the way, the soldiers told stories in the inn and village of the changes in the capital. That got the villagers interested in investing in the new Terran technology and innovations.

  Licinius was surprised when one, then two, then three and four, and then more young villagers came to quietly ask to return with them to the capital. Some wanted to travel; some wanted to go to the college. A few wanted to join the military.

  He ran it past the king who agreed to take them on. "Most likely not everyone is traditional. It is normal. Some want the traditional life; they cling to it. But others want to explore, to see beyond their limited life. They are young and flexible enough; they'll adapt. And eventually, some will return home with what they've learned."

  Licinius nodded. He had heard similar things in the legions.

  "They'll need a cart or mount. I've got some credits; we'll use them and maybe get a cart for the prisoners."

  "Yes, sire. We have a lot of prisoners though," the decurion warned.

  "We'll drop off some with the sheriff and local dominus and get a wagon in the nearby town of … Kent?"

  Licinius frowned as he imagined the map and then nodded.

  "There are what, ten towns named Kent?" the king said with a bemused shake of his head.

  "Tis a popular name in these parts I assume," the decurion replied.

  "Ah. Well, anyway, we can sort them out. I want the leadership and any with loose tongues to come to the capital."

  "Ah, as spoils of war?" the decurion asked, already considering chains and manacles, plus a prison wagon.

  "I understand you folks do that but I was thinking more of the intelligence value," Eugene stated. "Politics of course is important, but I want to know about where they came from. Who is leading them there, and most important of all, how many ships and men they've got and if more are coming."

  Licinius studied him as he considered that and then nodded dutifully. "Wise, sire. Very wise."

  "Yeah, I have my moments," Eugene replied with an indifferent shrug.

  ~~~^~~~

  Cao had his wound doctored, something that surprised him. He kept a low profile, even going so far as to dirty his face and clothes to look like someone else. Most of the men who were with him in the locked room didn't know who he was; they were from the other ships.

  He couldn't help but be shocked by the use of firearms and tactics. He couldn't help but feel bitter and betrayed too. Here he was, finally living the dream and it had turned into a nightmare.

  The following morning he was even more shocked when the local blacksmith put them in irons and they were inspected by the Imperium officer and of all things, the king.

  He kept his head low, playing the beaten, chastened fool until he could find an opportunity to escape. His ears perked when he heard the king speak in English. When he circumspectly glanced over, he was amazed to see a radio of all things.

  His heart filled with renewed hatred and bitterness. Again, the Americans meddle in affairs that were not their own. Typical he thought as they were led away.

  It took him half the day to realize there was one benefit to that. The Americans were squeamish; they did not beat or kill often. Oh, some did from time to time but not all. If he played his cards right, he might just see freedom once more.

  He began to plot a story, to come up with something to hook them, some sob story of being a sailor, no, a poor fisherman, no, perhaps someone on a liner? No, best to play the poor isolated fisherman that the native pirates had forced into their ranks …

  ~~~^~~~

  On their way back to the capital, the legion bought a wagon and refitted it to carry the prisoners. Eugene authorized Licinius to turn over some of the low-level pirates to the local dominus and sheriff.

  The pirate ships had been thoroughly searched and methodically cleared out of their goods. What wasn't taken for loot was to be returned to former owners. Eugene had no doubt that the local lords would keep it all … whatever the elders didn't find first and hide that was.

  He didn't care; he just wanted to get back to the capital.

  Chapter 11

  Duluth

  Princess Zara made a point of visiting the rusticus, the peasants in the capital and surrounding area from time to time. Augustus Devitis, her princeps guard captain, was not happy about the exposure, and not shy about it.

  She allowed him to plan the outings with her, limiting her time to a schedule and releasing several schedules ahead of time with only one being their true plan for the day. And of course he had at least a quartet of guards with her at all time, with another four on standby.

  ~~~^~~~

  Hakon Earling became vexed with the princess. She was an elusive target. He had been denied entry to the castle. His plan to get in after being recruited as a guard had been stymied when she'd brought her own people in and hadn't recruited the locals.

  He knew better than to attempt to get in as a servant. He didn't have the look. Too many people could tell he was a killer just from the look in his eyes. Attempting to kill her during one of her outings was out; she'd ordered the brush along the roads to be removed. There was no way he could get into range.

  Recruiting a patsy had been discarded; he couldn't trust poison being put in her food or drink. She had to have food tasters guarding her that way anyway. She also had to know she was a target.

  His simple plan to shoot her with a poison crossbow dart had been twisted into knots. She was carefully covered by her guards, at least two had long shields that they carried to shelter her from some of the hostile or indifferent crowds. She also wore armor outside of the palace, which meant he had to hit just the right spot.
<
br />   She had something of a routine but varied it in the most frustrating ways. He had initially recruited a spy to slip him her plans for the day but had found they were inaccurate or varied wildly. He wondered if that was deliberate to throw people such as him off of her scent.

  Weather was also an issue; twice he'd thought he'd had the perfect spot only for her to return to the castle early because of a thunderstorm. The only clear place to strike at her was on the final path to the castle. But there were no buildings to use near the gate, nor any clear ways to exit once the deed was done. He needed both.

  He knew his patron was getting impatient with him. He continued to wrack his brain for ideas on how to get within striking range.

  ~~~^~~~

  Eudoxia, the Imperium medicus who had come with the princess, was kept quite busy. She was officially the castle medicus though she deferred some of her duties to a native elder, Decius. He handled many of the day-to-day scrapes and problems that cropped up.

  Eudoxia for her part had to divide her time between several projects along with teaching the medicus the new Terran processes and tools. She still had nightmares from the trek north and had been homesick during the winter. At the moment though, she was too busy to feel sorry for herself.

  Each morning she checked on the school that had been started in the long winter. It was adjacent to a building that had been appropriated as a hospital until a proper building could be built.

  She constantly ran into problems from the native medicus as well as suppliers. She traded or gave away her knowledge freely, sometimes being called in to consult with someone outside the hospital, but it still didn't help that she was an outsider.

  Some of her life-saving skills occasionally sparked interest. She kept a series of apprentices around her and the castle medicus as much as possible. For her part, they were learning; for Decius they were his hands and eyes since his were withered with age. Agnes helped to run the administration side of things for both the college and hospital.

  During the winter, she had shown her students her precious collection of medical texts. They were quite fascinated with them as was Decius, especially by the pictures. The translations were a bit off, but they understood that the books had been originally written in the Terran's language.

  For her part, she was careful to explain what she learned and what the images meant. She showed them her notes from when she had been in classes in the capital.

  One thing about Decius she liked was that he was into pharmacology. He had a garden of medicinal herbs as well as other sources for his potions and materials.

  It had taken a while to get him used to the idea of the Medicus College, not just teaching someone on the fly or through the apprentice system. In some parts, a medicus was not as respected as they should be. Of that they were in agreement, and they were both in tentative agreement to try to change that.

  Her tales of the budding University in the Imperium and how some of the Duluth survivors and prisoners had asked to stay to learn there had intrigued a few people, including a couple of her students. They'd asked how to go there. She had informed them that once Duluth was solvent the princess had promised to send the best students to the university on a scholarship program. And she had assured Decius that he could go there to guest lecture if he wished.

  The old grump had seemed interested in that idea, especially if it was during the long winter.

  ~~~^~~~

  A famous crèche woman who was great at storytelling was recruited as a teacher a day later. The princess established a modest budget to start the small school. She enlisted the aid of the palace tutor and one of the clerks to help.

  The people with money initially saw the school as a place to drop off their child for care while they worked. She knew it would take time to get them engaged in teaching their children more than the basics.

  She had wanted different disciplines but had to settle for the basics, what Charlie had called the three R's.

  ~~~^~~~

  Zara toured the textile region of the capital. It was organized by cottage industry with people who made the thread from wool, flax, or other materials. They then passed the thread on to the dye makers and from there to the clothing and other makers.

  But she was intrigued by the tapestry industry. Most of the tapestries were made from wool thread with imported silk or other materials for extra pop in high-end pieces. The looms were run by hand.

  The smelly dye works across the street could make many colors. The entire area was made up of tall stone buildings with tall chimneys, some in poor repair. There were no water wheels, no automation whatsoever. She wanted to commission something but wanted the entire textile industry to receive updates first.

  Her guide explained that the client selected paintings from a series an artist created on commission and then the weaver interpreted the painting in thread. Weavers work together to create a complex design. They used crude mirrors to help them see the painting while weaving. Bobbins of color dangled, ready for use. The most experienced weavers get paid very well. A tapestry took years to make.

  During the long winters, idle hands were warmed by the fires in the textile mills. But there was always the threat of a fire. She nodded grimly. They'd had two fires during the winter in the area; they had been scary affairs. One had been lit by someone burning furniture for warmth; another had been in an abandoned dye factory. It was imperative that they get the textiles back up and running soon.

  It was funny, she had always thought the Duluthians as barbarians, wearing furs and raiding. Now she was seeing a more educated side to them and her ignorance was a bit humbling and unappealing.

  She wondered sometimes what else she would learn of them over time.

  ~~~^~~~

  Zara had performed a full inventory of the books, scrolls, skins, and materials in the capital and castle library. She had set guards to protect them, assembling all of them in the castle library. Books were precious things; they were hard to make and hard to come by in Duluth. But some people had been desperate for materials to burn to keep warm; according to some of the staff in the castle, a few tombs were missing. Some were damaged, and some of the oldest were barely legible. Most of the missing were account books, no surprise there.

  Her helpers had worked on scanning the books with a camera and her laptop over the long hiems . It had been tedious to image each spreadsheet and then flip the page but they'd gotten a lot done. The copy of the books so far had been sent on a flash chip to the capital.

  There was very little in the way of writing material despite an abundance of wood around them. The paper had been made out of fibers or wood pulp; the paper makers were missing from the capital. There was a paper shortage. She complained about it in her evening radio report to Deidra.

  "Well, remember, basilisks, sister. That was why it was so expensive here."

  "Yes, I get that in theory, but they cut wood for other things! And they do wonderful things with it! The carvings here are exquisite! The furniture … it's incredible!"

  "Huh."

  "I'll get some pictures for you."

  "And I'll see if I can send you something to read," her sister said soothingly.

  "Please."

  "In the meantime, you can continue to explore that laptop."

  "Oh, I have. The problem is the battery doesn't last long and we don't have reliable power all the time. We have other needs for power now. Balancing the grid is an issue."

  "Ah. Well, I can have a technician look into that. Perhaps one of the students? Hmm …I'll have to check with Max. Anyway, I'll have someone make a note to look into it."

  "Thank you, sister."

  ~~~^~~~

  Drott Olaf Lothbrok shook his head in annoyance. He was an old patriot, and he had planned to die fighting to protect his home and capital. But his own family had intervened and now he had to accept what was there in front of him.

  No matter how bitter it made him feel.

  He had not been a fan o
f the previous king; the man had been a fool to go south for glory. He was determined to win back their lands though, and he was starting to come up with an idea on how to do it.

  He didn't have much to lose, other than his treacherous daughter and she devil of a granddaughter. He'd banished both from his site. They'd been hurt but had left the capital to stay with family.

  He shook his head. It was just his luck that he'd lost both of his sons to the battle in the Imperium. That had been confirmed and one reason he'd drunk so much. They were no doubt in the halls of Valhalla though, toasting their friends. They had plenty of company.

  He resented foreigners ruling over them. He had privately vowed to make their rule a short one.