~~~^~~~
Olaf put a stop to the debauchery in the castle the best he could. When he encountered a group of soldiers’ intent on gang raping a servant girl, he stopped them and ordered them back to their posts. The girl looked shattered, but he gruffly told her to get cleaned up and back to work. She bobbed a curtsy and then left in tears.
When the drunken idiots began to fire the weapons into the air, it startled him and others into thinking they were under a counterattack. When he found out what was happening, he angrily ordered the weapons to be confiscated. Until they had a steady supply of the powder and weapons, they had to treat each as a precious item.
~~~^~~~
Legatus Tycho kept his people in the farmhouse for as long as he could. Several of his miles were out in the fields and near the cave exit; they guided others who had managed to escape the madhouse of the capital out and to the farmhouses.
For the moment, the group of Imperials had managed to escape the net in the chaos and hide, but he knew it wouldn't last for long. They had been forced out of castle and capital; he knew it would be near impossible to get back in.
Fortunately, everyone had their winter gear along with fur-lined Duluthian cloaks.
He wanted to send a rider south with the news, in fact he should, but he needed to confirm a few things first. That meant risking the word not getting out and possible capture until he got as much information as possible.
Getting it into the right hands would get harder the longer he waited, however.
~~~^~~~
Olaf and Percival worked hard to get the celebrating troops and supporters back in line. Their warnings that the work wasn't done, just started, fell on some deaf ears until they cuffed their seconds into getting the men into line. They organized patrols and searches of the castle and capital, and a group to head south to alert other supporters and to close the road from anyone attempting to escape.
Fenton and the others managed to sleep but were up early the next morning as the group met to discuss what to do next. The subject of the princess came up almost immediately. Stephan wasn't the only one who wanted to proudly show off their trophy.
“We should parade her through the capital in chains,” Sir Percival stated. He was looking forward to stripping the girl, breaking her will. Bow cowing to a child half his age had burned him long enough. He ached to prove his manhood. Only the provision that they not touch her from Fenton and Rasmussen had stopped him for the moment.
“Naked,” Stephan added, nursing an injury. He had been cut on one arm. The cut was not deep though. Freya had sewn the wound shut and bandaged it.
The domina shook her head.
“Why not?” Percival protested with a frown. He'd looked forward to that, to show the people that they'd won.
“Because we need her alive,” Domina Rasmussen stated flatly. “She's no good to us dead.”
“Well, the occasional bruise from rock or beating might be good for her,” Freya said nastily.
Again the domina shook her head. Fenton shook his as well. “We need her alive, undamaged. A rock, like oh, to the head or her body could kill her. We don't want that. Again, she's no use to us dead.”
“So, what do you propose?” the drott asked.
“We display her in a safe way.”
“And we do it so perhaps any supporters she still has can expose themselves?” Percival asked hopefully. “We didn't get them all,” he warned.
Stephan nodded grimly.
“Agreed,” the drott said. “But we have to preserve her. As the domina and dominus said, she is no good do us dead. If some fool shoots her with a bow or a sling, her value ends.”
“And with it our protection against her sister come vers ,” the domina stated. “The whole point of this is to keep her alive and her sister at bay so we can build weapons of our own. With Zara humiliated or killed, she will come for us. She will tear our lands apart.” She shivered.
The drott looked at her.
“They won't. Not with their weakling of a Terran there on the throne with her,” Freya said nastily.
“That same weakling gave them the weapons to beat us once,” Fenton stated. “They have spent time investing in new weapons. You all saw the different ones. How many of the new ones do they have?”
“So, was this all for naught?” Freya demanded.
“Ask me next hiems , if we live that long,” the drott said as he left them.
Chapter 28
Once they had clear control of the castle and capital, the conspirators trotted Zara out to be shown as alive and a captive. She stood at the balcony, wane and silent. A knife was pointed at her back as a warning to behave. She lifted her chin and tried to put on an air of defiance but her insides quavered. She wanted to curl up into a ball and deny it was happening to her again.
Again , her errant mind kept thinking over and over when it wasn't kicking herself over not seeing the coup coming.
She was privately surprised that a handful of people remained mute as Sir Percival waxed on about how they were taking back their country. A few of the merchants and rusticus even looked worried. The baker was one; she always liked to do business with him since his ingredients had been fresh. The cheese maker looked deeply troubled as did one of the smiths. She didn't see any Imperial in the crowd. No doubt they'd been rounded up if they'd survived.
A chant began to draw and quarter her. She shivered and not at all from the chilly wind. She saw a few of the guards smirk nastily in her direction. A couple of people tried to throw things. They were dissuaded by the guards at ground level.
A mother with a child Eudoxia had saved was another troubled face, but the woman next to her with her own child was chanting angrily with the rest of the mob. They called for her blood, and Dominus Percival looked at her smugly. She ignored his look as if he were beneath her.
“Are we done here?” she demanded in an aside to the drott.
He nodded and ordered her to take a step back as he took center stage.
~~~^~~~
Some of the natives cheered the victory. Others were quiet, wondering what it would mean in both the short and long term. There had already been fighting and looting. They had seen dead on both sides. Hundreds had fled the capital, running into an uncertain land and future.
Drott Olaf and the others made speeches about taking back their country. Some of the people cheered at that news. The drott noted that some of the people were not happy and were very troubled.
When he finished, he took a step back and let Dominus Fenton assure them that they would return to business as usual as quickly as possible. “We have captured many of the Terran-inspired devices. We will rebuild the others. We know how they work now,” Fenton assured them. “Soon we will be better than the Imperium!”
That earned a cheer from their supporters, Olaf noted. But not everyone believed that statement. He had a hard time believing it too. It was easy to destroy, far harder to make things. Many of the things that had been destroyed had come from Patria or from the Imperium. He knew that they could not be replaced.
From the look of some of the people in the crowd, they knew it too. And they seemed to know that the Imperium wouldn't take the loss lying down. He scowled slightly. They needed another win, one where the Imperium was stopped cold. And they needed time.
Well, they had some time during the long upcoming hiems and a few hafta into the planting season once the rains of vers passed. But then it would be campaign season once more.
They had to be ready by then.
~~~^~~~
Legatus Tycho watched the speeches from afar. It was too far to hear it of course, but the seeing glasses the Terrans called binoculars let him see details he couldn't see with his unaided eye. He did confirm that they had the princess and that she was alive and seemingly unharmed.
He took special note of the leaders of the coup. He wanted to know them all and did his best to memorize their faces. He muttered the name of each person he recognized fo
r one of the miles to write down on a scrap of leather.
He noted the guards around the princess, the castle, and the mob. “It looks like a trap to draw us into some sort of foolish rescue attempt,” he said.
“So what do we do, sir?”
“We retreat and regroup,” the legatus ordered, motioning his people to move. When they moved, he reluctantly left his post and followed.
~~~^~~~
Siegfried felt the excitement of the moment. He thrust his fist up in the air with the cheers. He placed his fists on his hips, but he quavered inside. He knew the power of the Terran weapons.
But they had been beaten! A part of his mind rejoiced in that.
He heard the cheers in the castle and outside. People were set to party in celebration over the victory.
As they came inside, he saw the poisonous look from the princess. It stopped him in his tracks. Sir Percival bumped into him.
He had heard the statement—if looks could kill before. Now he felt the full ire of a woman betrayed. He couldn't meet her eyes for more than the briefest of moments.
Zara continued to stare at him in anger and contempt and then the guard pushed her none too gently to move along.
~~~^~~~
Once the guards had brought the princess back to her chambers, the leaders met again in the council chamber. It was chilly; Fenton had a servant toss some more wood on the fire. They warmed their hands near the fire as they considered what to say.
“They cheered,” Percival said. “We have their support.”
“But not all,” Fenton replied. Percival looked at him sharply. “You and I both know that.”
“I too,” Olaf rumbled. Percival looked to him. “There were some unhappy faces there. They think of what is to come and some know we cannot deliver.”
“Well, we'll have to prove them wrong,” Fenton stated firmly. “I've already ordered samples of the rifles to be given to our artisans. They should be able to make parts soon.”
“That is only one problem among many. Some of the mills were burned,” Olaf stated.
“Your people getting out of hand and the mob,” Percival said with a shrug.
“I'm not happy about that either,” Fenton replied, looking at them. “You were supposed to keep things in check.”
Percival just shrugged. He went over to the table and picked up some food to eat and took a seat.
“You noticed that some are not happy too,” Domina Rasmussen murmured, looking at Olaf. “Do you believe they will fight?”
Stephan snorted. “If they'd wanted to turn against their own, they would have done so already. They just don't like the idea of the Imperial retribution.”
“This was justified! We were taking our own back!” Freya said hotly.
He nodded. “I know that.”
“As do I. But they won't leave this insult alone, not with their blood spilled. Not after investing so much here and their princess our captive,” Olaf said as he took a seat. Percival offered him some food, but he disdained and instead picked up a horn goblet and took a swig. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
“Some of them most likely are worried about being seen as traitors for doing business with the Imperials. We'll have to watch that,” Fenton said.
“What? Nay! I say let them!” Stephan said indignantly.
“It will keep our supporters happy.”
“It will feed a civil war,” the domina said harshly, nostrils dilating. “And many of those who worked with the Imperials learned the most from them. If they are persecuted, they will flee and take their knowledge with them. Knowledge we need ,” she said, looking at Fenton and then the others. She rolled her eyes at the indignation on Percival's face and the indecision on Olaf's. “We're behind the Imperium as it is! We will need them. Trust me on this.”
“How many of their smiths did our nets catch?” Fenton asked.
“Two.”
“Just two?”
“Two that lived. The others succumbed to their wounds or fled,” Percival admitted.
“Just two?”
“And both injured,” Rasmussen stated. “The Master Smith Tacitus got away.”
Fenton closed his eyes and inhaled and exhaled deeply. “I thought he was to be captured?”
“He was wounded but got away.”
“Search the capital. He must be found.”
“We will. I mean we are doing it now,” Stephan stated. He glanced at his mate who nodded in support.
“We need him. We need him alive . The same for the injured smiths. Bind their wounds. Treat them gently. We need them.”
Percival's jaw worked. He looked rebellious. Both dominus and domina turned on him. “We do! We only have a small taste of the Terran weapons and devices. We can't afford to throw away any resource!”
Percival nodded a choppy nod.
“We have another problem,” Rasmussen stated.
“Eh?”
“The treasury is nearly bare.”
“No thanks to the princess sending tributerium to her sister,” Fenton growled.
“Not all of it. The looters and our own people took their share,” Rasmussen stated, glancing at Percival and then Stephan. Both men shrugged as if to say they couldn't stop it and had no part in it. “It wasn't what one would call healthy to begin with, what with the previous war. We need those coins to fund the war and to fund the machines and to pay our men,” she said, looking at Fenton.
Fenton grimaced. They all knew that the princess had deliberately lowered the tributerium to very low levels in order to help rebuild their lands. Now they had no source of money.
“We will need to find the money, somehow. My supporters are near their limit,” Percival admitted.
“Mine too,” Fenton said. The domina nodded.
“Well! This is a fine mess we're finding ourselves in!” Freya said with a bitter laugh. “We win but we lose?”
“Not yet,” Olaf said before he started to drink heavily.
~~~^~~~
“Here,” the legatus said as he handed the miles a tightly-wrapped scroll. “Hide this well. Avoid the roads near here; there is no telling how far they've pushed their forces south.”
The lad nodded.
“This as well,” the legatus said gruffly, handing the soldier some coins. They had pooled their resources to scrape that much up. Cassius looked to protest but the legatus shook his head. Slowly he closed his hand and pocketed the coins.
“Get word to the Imperium as quickly as you can. Safely, you fail more than yourself if you get killed so don't.” He looked the lad over. Cassius Bellus was a good soldier, young but he'd done well up to and including during the capital fight. He was dressed in a white cloak over his uniform. He had a civilian outfit tucked away in the supply roll behind his saddle.
“Agreed,” the lad said, gulping. He clucked to the branack. It was a mangy thing, suited for the farm. The muzzle was old, so he knew it wasn't going to be fast or fleet of foot. Riding the gelding was better than walking, however.
“Bellus, good luck,” the legatus said, clasping arms with him. The beast shook itself and then danced back.
“Now go,” Tycho said, slapping the beast on the rump as it turned. Cassius snapped the reins and leaned forward as the beast began to first trot and then speed up into a run down the dirt road.
~~~^~~~
Zara was kept in at the top of a tower. She had no idea about her ladies; she only had a pair of servant girls and Emma as occasional attendants. She was not chained, which was surprising. They needed her alive; she realized that.
Sometime during the first night as the tears had dried, she'd heard a scratch at the window slit. She'd gone in curiosity and had found her pets there. They came in and cuddled with her, helping her tormented heart.
She was past frightened and growing angry. She looked out the rain slicked window to the fires in the city. Some were started deliberately she knew. She had no idea how many of her people had managed to escape the c
lutches of the conspirators.
It was a well-laid plot. She had seen it, yet, had not reacted as she should have. She'd trusted to Eugene and his people's approach, the gloved hand he'd said.
Well, the glove covered a mailed fist she thought. Her sister would see that the glove came off and the fist came crashing down soon enough. "So, we spare them and come here to share what the Terrans brought and this is how they repay us?" she murmured bitterly.
Hostage Rescue (Princess Rescue Inc Book 2) Page 38