Hostage Rescue (Princess Rescue Inc Book 2)

by Hechtl, Chris

  It would be smart of Cadius to get a job sweeping chimneys or clearing and fixing roofs. He'd get quite the vantage point up there. She wasn't sure how to approach him about it though.

  ~~~^~~~

  Dominus Fenton scowled as he looked at the report. Of the 198 surviving dominus, half were out of reach. The northern dominus hadn't even come to the last Thing . One or two had sent a knight but that was it.

  For the moment, they were relying on the domains of the dominus around the capital and along the long road south. That meant Siegfried, Percival, Rasmussen, Berg, Hansen, his own, and their lesser lords and knights.

  The road to his own demise had been opened, but he had yet to get there himself. Instead, he'd sent letters to his wife and stewards. They had sent letters back with a bare tithe on what he'd demanded. He knew they could find more, but since he wasn't there, he couldn't see for himself what they were running into.

  Half of the lesser dominus refused to support them. Even those who had just had a turnover with a new domina or had a regent in charge refused. Percival had sent a group of their soldiers around to convince them to see reason.

  Two knights, Ward and Malakai to the northeast, flat-out refused to let them in. The legatus had reported that they had fired warning shots but could do little to force the castle open. That was something no one had considered. Olaf was factoring it into his defensive planning. There were mutterings though that the infernal thrice-be-damned Terrans had turned over heavier weapons though. Something about cannon.

  If it factored into other holdouts, they could have a rebellion on their hand. In fact, they already did to some degree.

  He looked at the scroll in his hands. And now this , he thought. Dominus Shaw, his northern neighbor in the gold valley in the mountains, had refused them. He'd not only refused to side with his kinsman and the clans, he'd made it clear he would back the Imperium.

  It was all that princess's fault, her and the smith. The news of the mines being upgraded in the Imperium had probably reached Shaw. He had always been about innovation. He had dozens of mines in the mountain area. That meant they couldn't count on that pecunia to fund their efforts, nor men, nor the metals from the mines. Shaw controlled nearly a third of the mines in the kingdom.

  He scowled blackly but looked up and cleared his expression as Percival and Olaf came into the room. Percival was slapping his gloves against his open hand as they walked and talked.

  Olaf rumbled something and then they turned to Fenton. “You heard the news?” Olaf asked.

  “Which one?” Fenton said. “You have your own copy?” he asked, waving the scroll.

  Olaf and Percival looked at each other and then at him. “I believe we … what do you have?” Percival asked as the difference in tone registered.

  “Have a look for yourself,” Fenton said, pushing the scroll over to him across the table as he poured himself a goblet of beer.

  Percival read it and his face turned red. He scowled, fingers clenching around the scroll before Olaf teased it out of his hands to have a read. “Those …”

  Olaf grunted as he read the news. “To stay neutral I understand. But to call us out and side with the Imperium?” he rumbled, stroking his beard as he put the scroll down gently. His splayed hand and fingertips rested on it though.

  “Strategically, he must know he can't win,” Percival said.

  “No, but he's an ally of Farragut and Wesdt. He gets his grain and some of his other supplies from them. He doesn't want to antagonize them,” Fenton said.

  “They'll fall,” Percival said. “Like Stirling.”

  “Stirling?” Fenton asked, brows knit.

  “Stirling fell. We sent a maniple to take the southern lily from the castle and kick him out. They managed to arrive and he let them in. He apparently hadn't heard the news!” Percival said, grinning. “They hung him from the top of the tower.”

  “Stirling,” the dominus said, looking at a map. He found it as one of the newer entries in the east. It was straight above Rasmussen. “Huh. That had been abandoned, had it not?”

  “Aye,” Percival admitted. “For some time. The lordling's family sent enough men and pecunia to get it sorted out apparently.”

  “Ah.”

  “We are considering holding it or abandoning it,” Olaf rumbled.

  Fenton frowned. “To hold it …?”

  “It would draw the tribute from the surrounding villages and towns. Not many, no more than four. Plus the farms in that area. But it would mean leaving men and weapons there and supplies.”

  The dominus scratched behind one ear as he considered the problem. The itching was coming back. Some said because the bugs were. The castle was less clean than it had been.

  “Keeping it open would mean a strategic strong point the enemy would be forced to take in time. They wouldn't want it in their rear when they came for the capital,” Olaf explained.

  “Ah. Long term,” the dominus said, catching on. “Short-term expensive, long-term military gain and economic gain?”

  “Slight gain,” Percival stated. “But, as you mentioned, Shaw and don't forget Farragut and the western dominus and clans. We do not know where they will sit on this.”

  “For us neutral or siding with us is our best hope,” Olaf stated. “Farragut will side with the princess or remain neutral. He can browbeat the others into remaining neutral or even actively hostile to us,” the drott stated. “Which would put us between two forces.”

  “Two can play that game. We have time before the Imperium finds out about us and marches north. We can sweep through and deal with them. All of them,” Percival stated.

  “Not when we have only so many men to go around; we still need them to garrison south. And we only have so many of the weapons.”

  “What of them? The new ones?”

  “The old ones are bad enough,” Olaf said with a grimace. “Half are no longer usable.”

  “Half?” Fenton asked, staring at him in shock. “Why so many?”

  “Poor maintenance,” Olaf said, looking at Percival.

  “Which is on me. We were warned; I didn't train for it,” Percival sighed. “It is a problem I admit. I understand we have a few spares?”

  “You mean other than the ones found in the princess's personal collection?” Fenton asked. Percival winced. “To date we've gotten six. One works.”

  “One?”

  “It seems that they are tougher to make than we thought,” the knight admitted grudgingly. He'd had visions of a cavalry unit or outfitting his Titan with larger weapons. Now he wasn't sure it would happen.

  Olaf grunted. Fenton turned to him. “What?”

  “We … can run a bluff,” the old drott said. “Put the weapons together and make them look real. From a distance, they will appear real. We can use them to make others think we have more weapons and trained troops than we have. That could work in some small situations.”

  "We can make the metal shot," Olaf rumbled. That was something they'd found; the metal shot was made out of lead. A few of the Imperial troops had carried casting equipment. Those had been copied, and they had plenty of shot.

  “But we do not have much of the powder nor the brass things,” Percival stated. “Our stocks are very low there too.”

  “What of that?” Olaf asked looking at Fenton.

  The dominus shook his head.

  “That bad?”

  “They know the powder has things that catch fire. They have confirmed charcoal as an ingredient. They have some ideas about the others, or so they say, but so far nothing has worked.”

  “That is … not good,” the drott growled.

  “No, I'd say not.”

  ~~~^~~~

  When he finished with the plumbing repairs, the domina demanded the smith work on the electrical system. Herb insisted he visit the prisoners and princess again, to make sure they were holding up their end of the bargain.

  She relented and waved the guards off to escort him to the dungeons.
<
br />   He found that the prisoners looked better. They all had blankets. The dungeon was cleaner than he remembered. Their midden didn't smell as bad, and the chamber pots were emptied regularly. They had enough rags and blankets for each of them to make a bed of padding to get off the cold floor. Augustus passed the coin when Herb told him that he was going to see the princess next.

  “Tell her she knows,” Augustus said meaningfully, looking him directly in the eye.

  Herb frowned but palmed the coin.

  When he visited the princess, he knelt and passed the coin to her as he kissed her hand. “Augustus said to tell you she knows,” he said softly.

  Zara frowned slightly but otherwise didn't react other than to curl her fingers around the round object he'd passed to her.

  Herb wasn't sure what it meant but went back to his duties reluctantly. They had him working on restoring the wind turbines and copper lines.

  ~~~^~~~

  When Herb and the guards were gone, Zara looked at the coin. She looked at one side, the image of the castle embossed in it, then the other side where the image of her sister was.

  She ran her fingertip around the rim and frowned. It had a knurled edge, something Eugene and Max had mentioned was important to keep people from shaving coins …

  Suddenly she remembered that they hadn't implemented that yet. She looked at the coin again and found a maker's mark, the date. She stared at the image of her sister and her eyes shimmered with tears as her fingers curled around the coin. She held it to her chest.

  “She knows. She knows,” she whispered, rocking forward and back gently. That simple statement was a balm to her bruised and aching soul.

  ~~~^~~~

  Olaf received an odd report of a soft drone of something in the air near the border. It was reported overhead several times. A distant object had been seen, but it looked like a dragon. He wasn't sure what it was and shrugged it off.

  ~~~^~~~

  Duluth outback

  Tycho felt relief as the point warbled a cresting call; the signal that it was all-clear. He hand signed the team to move out.

  The Imperials had set up in an abandoned fort, one that had been a lordling’s before the lordling had given up on it. The rusticus in the area had come in after the lordling had abandoned it and cleared it of anything of value once more.

  No surprise there.

  He was not at all impressed by the lordling. He hadn't done squat to rebuild the fort. His people under Agnes and Tacitus had done more in the short hafta they'd been there.

  He looked over to the group. They were bringing in bundles of wood and meat, both very welcome additions to the group. They'd picked up more Duluthian refugees with stories of the capital and villages under the control of Dominus Fenton and the others.

  More people meant more mouths to feed. Agnes had them working though. They took anyone in who was a refugee, mainly because they didn't want their location to get out. Everyone had to contribute though, not just eat and complain.

  And everyone did for the most part.

  He saw the occasional wave from people as they went about their business. He waved back. Some of the snow had been cleared; Tacitus was in the small forge. From the sound of metal on metal strikes, he'd found some metal to work with and something to do. Good.

  A trio of rusticus were on the roof working on repairs. Another pair were on the ground feeding them shingles. The shingles were fresh cut but that was fine.

  “Any problems?” Agnes said as she came out to shake out a blanket.

  He shook his head.

  “No sign of trouble?”

  “I'd say something if there was,” he said gruffly. She pinched him for being tart with her. He snorted as he passed her.

  “We need more herbas ,” she said over her shoulder. “The gathers got a bit, and we found some here and there, but not enough. Man can't live on meat alone,” she warned.

  He nodded just as a scout came rushing in.

  He turned from where he'd been about to pour himself a glass of tea. “Yes?”

  “If it pleases you, the scouts to the east said they heard the sound of a motor,” he said.

  “A motor?” the sentence didn't make sense at first. The scout pointed slowly with one index finger to the sky.

  Tycho looked up in the indicated direction and caught on.

  “Ah. We need a work party and soot.”

  “That we've got plenty of,” Agnes said dryly.

  “Some logs too,” Tycho said as his voice picked up with urgency. “There is a hillside with a gentle slope to the east. Did they say if the motor sounds were coming or going?”

  “Going,” the scout said.

  Tycho's face fell as he stopped. “Damn!”

  “Set it up for the next one,” Agnes urged.

  He looked at her and then nodded.

  ~~~^~~~

  Duluth air base

  Decurion Licinius confirmed that the spies had not found any hostages at Berg or Hansen.

  The spies had no direct access to either castle; they had set themselves up in villages nearby. There were a lot of refugees from the capital in the village, which helped them to blend in a bit.

  They did report that both castles as well as several forts that had been occupied by knights were being occupied by troops from the capital. It was whispered that the domina and dominus were virtual hostages themselves.

  The spies in two of the villages outside Castle Rasmussen had confirmed that there were hostages and troops there. They had picked up word that others had been sent to Percival.

  Castle Rasmussen was the closest, however. He checked with high command. The general as well as the king gave the sign-off for the mission to move forward.

  There was finally signs of Legatus Tycho's band. The spies had picked up reports that the band was northeast of them. One plane was out doing patrols in that area once every hafta . But his primary focus was on the hostages for the moment. He finally had a double squad on site and ready to go.

  He passed the word for the team to move forward. A Cesna was waiting nearby. It would ferry the team, no more than four at a time, to a jumping-off point near the castle. From there they would regroup, get their final intel and orders, and then move in.

  ~~~^~~~

  Castle Rasmussen

  Shane checked the lit-up castle and grounds carefully. He was aware that two snipers were setting up behind him. Each had a spotter, but his job was as the forward observer.

  It was still early evening; they weren't going to move until the late evening, most likely after nocte , what the Terrans called midnight.

  It was a hateful time, but it should work in their favor. At least, he hoped so he thought as he checked to make sure he was not visible.

  ~~~^~~~

  Legatus Zane knelt with the spy from the village and went over the building and intelligence. “Now, I didn't get in far to the lower levels, just to make the delivery,” the man said. He refused to give the legatus a name. That was probably for his own protection.

  “But you can confirm they are there and not in a room?”

  “Oh, aye.” He pointed out to a place on the map he'd drawn on the paper. “There was a guard near a door in the lower levels. Most likely there is a pit entrance in that room. I spoke with a couple of rusticus who had worked in the castle. One was pretty bitter; her father had recently died after being whipped.”

  “Huh.”

  “People aren't happy with Domina Rasmussen. She's brutal. She does have her own spies though. According to the woman, the domina is quite crafty. She has a spy network.”

  “Most likely that’s how they got the information they needed to capture the capital,” the legatus said with a nod.

  “Any word on the princess?” the spy asked.

  “Assumed to be in the capital in the castle. Any word on Legatus Tycho?”

  “Northeast. Above Percival.”

  “Ah.”

  The legatus made notes and passed them to h
is radio man. “Anything else?”

  “Once you are done here, will I need to remain? The village has a lot of refugees. But I stand out more than I'd like,” the spy admitted.

  The legatus frowned. “I can ask.”

  “I'd appreciate it,” the spy muttered.

  ~~~^~~~

  The legatus briefed his teams and then had everyone bed down. They had four hora before the appointed time; he wanted everyone rested. Not that he expected much sleep. Everyone was too excited. Fortunately, they couldn't play dice or other games in the lean-to.