Hostage Rescue (Princess Rescue Inc Book 2)

by Hechtl, Chris

  Chapter 18

  Duluth

  It wasn't until midafternoon that the dominus and domina began to leave. Only those who lived nearby left immediately; those who lived further away would wait another day to get a fresh start. Zara was maliciously amused by the reports of the hangovers and upset bellies. Many had overindulged on her hospitality and were paying for it.

  She was on hand for each departure though and made sure to give each party a small parting gift that she had arranged with her sister. Each was given a printed binder with various concepts from Terran improvements in the forge to farming. A separate binder was filled with material for their medicus and alchemists. She hoped they used it wisely.

  ~~~^~~~

  Eudoxia had thought she'd get a chance to try the free clinic once the Thing was over but she and Destrius were kept busy helping those who had over indulged. She felt no pity for them; they'd earned their pain.

  She reserved her potions to relieve their pounding heads and aching bellies for the worst and for those that favored the Imperium. After all, she only had so much in her supplies to begin with. Perhaps the lesson would be driven home to moderate themselves in the future.

  Not that she could count on that.

  ~~~^~~~

  Agnes came out of a room and curtsied to a domina in passing. The woman had color in her cheeks and seemed vexed at being made to clean up after her mate. Apparently, they had brought only a handful of servants but the servants were not about.

  "Can you send for the medicus? And fetch something to aid his stomach? I believe the retching is over," the woman said.

  "Yes, Domina. Right away," Agnes said. Her feet and calves ached from going up and down the stairs but she trotted away to obey.

  ~~~^~~~

  Euphrosyne was heartily glad to reclaim their quarters but reared back in pain at the atrocious smell when she opened the door. She kicked it wide with her foot but the smell only got worse, not better. She gagged and then delicately pulled out a scented handkerchief to cover her mouth.

  "Send for a rusticus to open the windows and clean this mess up," she said, turning to a guard.

  When he didn't move, she turned and walked over to him. "Did you hear me?"

  "I heard. I can't leave my post," he said stiffly, eyes staring straight ahead.

  Her lip curled in contempt and then she turned and gathered her skirts and stomped off to find someone herself.

  ~~~^~~~

  Once the Thing was over, Tacticus and the other technical smiths packed away the demonstration models and worked on the new systems feverishly before the cold and snows truly hit. Each time they had dusting, it spurned them to greater efforts. They were wearing out though, but they were making progress.

  He needed to get the water wheels set up before the rivers froze in order to get the power looms running. The existing looms were primitive, far more primitive than the ones that the Imperium had used before the Terrans had arrived. That explained why much of their cloth was rough.

  The princess had one small powered loom stored with plans to copy it once the prototype was up and debugged.

  The problem was the weather. The north was hit with winter several hafta earlier than the south. Harvest time was winding down and with that was the draw on the rusticus' time. There was so much to do! So many projects and not enough time in the day to get it all done in time.

  It was all exciting though; the smith could see why the Terrans liked helping and making the changes. He saw it in some of the wonder people had, and the smiles and eagerness they came in with. It could be intoxicating; hell, it was.

  He went into the local smith and hid a scowl at the sight as his eyes adjusted. The blacksmith had promised to complete the straps he needed and pins but was instead busy working on a line of shields.

  He had his apprentice hammering out the rough iron shield boss dome for one. That would fit in the center of a wood circle or other shield design. From the look of the staves, it was to be round.

  The outside of the shield would be covered with thin ironwood or rawhide. The boss protected the hand. A ring of metal had just been placed on another shield; it was steaming and smoking slightly as it shrunk back down over the edge to clamp it tight. Another apprentice was holding a set of spanner bars to keep it all together.

  He stood there, arms crossed as his critical eye watched the older apprentice complete the handle within the boss. A boy who looked like his brother was busy shaping staves into another shield. The wood was soft; it could absorb hard hits better than a hard wood, which would most likely shatter.

  He looked across the group to a set of shields that were near completion. They had wet leather rawhide, and they were being dried by the forge fire. The leather would tighten as it dried. He wondered idly if the leather had been treated for rot and fire. Most likely not to his expert eye. An old stein with a broken handle and what looked like the handle of a brush told him that they were to be stained and painted.

  Duluthian warriors usually carried three shields into a campaign. They'd seen a lot of the things in the battle. The shields had not stood up to the withering fire of the Terran weapons though. He had no idea why they continued to make the things.

  Then again, not everyone had the Terran weapons.

  "My apologies," the master smith said, wiping his hands on his leather apron as he came over to him. "I was reminded by a dominus of an old order he had paid a deposit for."

  "Ah," Tacitus said with a nod. He remembered vaguely that Duluthians considered a shield an extension of the warrior and a shield was usually buried with them.

  "My order?"

  "Ah, I'm afraid I didn't get to it. And I've run out of iron," the smith admitted.

  Tacitus worked his jaw. He'd gotten the iron from his budget. That was annoying.

  "I can make them as soon as I have more," the smith offered. "If you can come back tomorrow? With more iron?"

  "I needed those parts today," Tacitus stated. "You can refund me the deposit …." The smith looked crestfallen. "And add the cost of the iron to it since I'll have to replace it," he said.

  The smith started to argue, saw his stern look and the guard outside, and thought better of it. He deflated slightly, shoulders slumping. "I guess my children will go hungry this eve," he muttered.

  Tacitus just cocked his head, seemingly unmoved. He'd heard that ploy before. After a moment, the smith grunted. "I'll get the money," he grumbled, walking away.

  Tacitus turned to the guard and then to the apprentices. The apprentices were hostile. He ignored the looks. He mentally crossed the smith off of his list for future work and then tried to think of who he could find to do the work in a short time.

  "This is going to put us even further behind, damn it," he muttered in disgust.

  ~~~^~~~

  Zara was out on the balcony when she heard Siegfried talking below. She went to leave but then lingered. She tucked herself in the curtains and listened to him telling others about her zoo proposal and then scoffing at the idea. She bit her lip, hurt by his caustic attitude. She'd thought he'd understood, that he'd been on her side. She had thought he had been a friend, someone she could trust.

  Obviously, she'd been entirely too trusting.

  She froze in hurt and growing anger but forced herself to listen.

  When her imps felt her distress and came, she waved them off. Finally, the men moved out of range and she turned away.

  ~~~^~~~

  Later that evening Zara related the encounter in a report to the capital. "Tell the queen she can safely scratch him off of my list or any list of suitors," she said tightly into the microphone for the radio.

  She paused and then sighed. "They just don't get it. They can't see beyond their nose, beyond the day."

  "Give them time. With more food and prosperity, they will change," came the reply.

  "I think they'll just get worse not better."

  "Oh? How is that?" the familiar voice asked.

  "
Before, they went south to war out of desperation and stupidity. They wanted to conquer our lands and met initially little opposition. With plenty of food, they'll get restless."

  "Ah, so, find a balance?" Deidra asked.

  Zara frowned pensively as she tried to game that scenario out as she'd been taught. "I don't know. It's hard to guess with them."

  "Well, as Eugene would say, they are a different culture."

  "True."

  She couldn't help but hope for more. She looked at the Terran device, the HAM radio that the previous capital operator had told her was in limited production. It sported a new antenna on top of the tallest tower in the castle. The tower roof also sported a lightning rod that was slightly taller to protect the sensitive electronics and the castle. The copper wire had been tough to get; it had come in on a coil in the last convoy from the south. Explaining it to the people had been hard; getting it installed had been almost just as hard.

  The Duluthians still believed that the Terran technology was bringing the wrath of Thor down upon them. But at least their protests were reduced to mutterings when they had seen how the thing protected the building.

  "It's so exhausting. I have to be on guard all the time," Zara said. "Watching what I say, what I do. I've got ladies helping me, but I don't know if I can trust even them."

  "No different than here," her sister said.

  "No, it is different in that these people truly hate my guts and want me dead. I can see it sometimes, feel it. I'm not sure if I'm making headway here. Definitely not with anyone I can truly trust."

  "Ah."

  When her sister didn't say anything further, Zara scowled. "You still there?" she asked, reaching out to play with the knob that controlled something called the gain. She wasn't sure what it did other than to make the signal come in better sometimes.

  "Yes."

  "You don't have anything to say? Some nugget of wisdom?"

  "I'm not there so I don't know the whole picture, sister," Deidra said. "I don't know the players involved, nor the little games they have been playing behind the scenes. We both knew politics are dangerous. You saw it here. No one here had our best interests at heart; everyone manipulated, schemed, or just tried to survive."

  "Not all," Zara said stubbornly.

  "All."

  "Not mom and dad," Zara said loyally and then instantly regretted it. She knew it was a lie but insisted on backing it up. "Not towards us I mean."

  "All, including mom and dad," Deidra stated. "Mother built relationships and monitored schemers. Father had his own plans and schemes. We were a part of them. They taught us and protected us, but we were pawns too."

  "No …"

  "Had you been here you would have been married to someone. A dominus most likely, to get that house to be more supportive of our own. But then we'd have to watch out for that house to betray us since you have a claim to the throne."

  "But …"

  "I too would have been wed off to some supporter, and our brother would have eventually taken the throne once he was old enough and father gone. That is the way of things here, or, at least the way they were. We're trying to change things."

  "I … see," Zara said, feeling torn.

  "Think about it. You know I'm right."

  "I will think about it. I hadn't thought you still had it hard there."

  "We do. We have our schemers still; we have people willing to hurt either of us no matter what they say to our faces. You saw the attempts on our lives," Deidra said heavily. There was a squelch of static. "But we will endure."

  "I'm glad you have him," Zara said softly.

  "And more," Deidra said whimsically.

  "More?" Her eyes widened. Did her sister mean she had taken on a lover? Or wait, was she pregnant again?

  Could she mean their uncle, the Duke of Emory?

  "I have Hermione, and I still have you , silly Anca !" Deidra replied with a laugh. Zara blinked at being called one of the avians. She'd seen their V's as they'd flown south for the winter. "And I will always try to listen when I can. At the least it allows you to vent and keeps me informed of things there."

  "I see. So, when can I expect either of you to come for a visit?"

  "Not for a long time."

  "That will give us plenty of time to prepare. The journey here is hard."

  "I know. But Eugene did mention we could fly once they have built bigger and better aircraft," Deidra said. There was a shudder in her voice.

  "You don't approve? They seem faster."

  "They are. And they have many uses. But like anything, they can be dangerous too."

  "Oh?"

  "A storm for one. And remember, a bird can fall from the sky just as it can fly through it. And it can be a long way down," Deidra said darkly. She'd seen a couple of the test aircraft fall. Fortunately, they had been models but it had made her nervous about getting on one.

  In one , she privately reminded herself.

  "Ah. Yes, true. I'd like them here, to see the length and breadth of this land, and to be able to send people out faster. People and information."

  "We'll get there in time. Eugene said it will take a generation for many of the changes to really take root. I hope he is wrong and that it will be shorter, but I fear he is right."

  "We'll get there, eventually," Deidra said.

  Zara nodded. "Let's hope so," she murmured, still unsure.

  ~~~^~~~

  Percival was amused by the grand theatrics that Domina Rasmussen put on to protect the identity of her latest and highest rank spy. The young woman reported to them in a veil and cloak. All they knew was that she was female. She kept her voice low.

  Once she finished her report of the princess's conversation, the domina nodded.

  "You've done well," the domina said, taking a sip of her wine.

  The spy curtsied. "Thank you, Domina," she whispered.

  "Go attend to your duties before you are missed," the domina said passing her a coin. She took it and then left them, shutting the door softly behind her.

  "Are you going to warn him?" Percival asked, then shook his head. "Of course not," he said as the domina's face went from cold contempt to amused. "You don't want to tip your hand and let others know you have a spy. Wise." He cocked his head. "What if she spurns him? What if she dismisses him from the court?"

  "She undoubtedly will to some degree. I see this as an opportunity," the domina said thoughtfully.

  "Oh? How so?"

  The domina took another sip of her wine and then set the glass down. It was a fine glass imported from the Imperium and the last of a set she'd once had. The stem was tinted. The rim was dipped in gold. It had been a wedding gift to her long ago. "We shall see if she can hide her knowledge and resentment. Or if she is so besotted with him that she ignores it."

  "Ah."

  "And if she shows her temper, then we can see her for what she is, a rash child, one who we can manipulate," Fenton stated.

  The domina nodded and smiled ever so slightly.

  "I have to admit, her talks with her sister are troubling. They have been confirmed?"

  "Yes. They talk regularly," the domina said.

  "She has confirmed it with us as well," Fenton replied with a grimace. "I've even heard the imperatrix voice from the contraption."

  "Ah, that could be a problem," Percival said thoughtfully.

  "I agree, but we have an excuse," the domina stated.

  "Oh? And what pray tell is that?" Percival asked, eyeing her.

  "The weather," Dominus Fenton stated. He smiled darkly. "The princeps has mentioned many times that the power for the Terran thing is reliant on the wind and water. With the turning of the seasons, the rivers will freeze and the winds will change," he explained.

  Percival nodded. That actually played well into their hands.

  Chapter 19

  When the Science Expedition found the western coast, they decided to hug the coastline and head north. It was new to all of them, not much was seen
of the coast in the inland capital. The interns and students with them were excited and awed by all that wet stuff having never seen it before.

  They took plenty of pictures of the coastline and animals, video as well when the lighting was right. They spotted some very alien creatures in untouched stretches of coastline.

  Nate saw an almost enclosed ecosystem in a series of isolated coves. There were giant barnacles like mounds, mushroom like things, and animals that seemed to tend to them or feed off of them.