The Lost Princess

by K Bledsoe

  “Your Ma- Highness,” he stated. Perhaps the slip was another deliberate sop to his ego, but he didn’t care. He would be called Majesty soon enough.

  “You may rise,” he intoned. “Inform me of your progress.”

  “All of the messages have been delivered successfully; all are ready to carry out your wishes at the appointed time. The package for the king has been arranged and will be delivered at your command.”

  With Mannon’s careful wording, Hahn’s eyes glanced up at the monitors in the outer suite and considered whether to take the conversation into his unmonitored bedroom.

  No. Time for me to take a stand on my invasion of privacy.

  “Very good, Attendant. Here are my instructions for today.” He lowered his voice and turned away from the monitor, palming his scrambler on. “Fire the remaining reviewers and close down the security system. Blame the virus that Jonah never eliminated and let everyone know we will he hiring an entirely new staff soon.”

  The man nodded. “It will be done.”

  “Next, find Endon. He disappeared late yesterday afternoon, and he knows too much to be allowed out of reach. If he doesn’t return, you know what to do.”

  The guard nodded again without hesitation.

  “One last thing.” Despite the jammer and low tones, he was taking no chances with this request. He pulled a paper out of his desk drawer, scrawled something quickly and folded it to give to his attendant.

  “On this paper there is a name, an address, and an item I need you to procure.”

  The guard opened the paper and for the first time showed a bit of reluctance. “I—are you certain of this, Your Highness?”

  “Absolutely, Mannon. Do as I command. In a few days, I will be the one with all the power and that item will not matter.”

  The other’s face blanked of all expression before he bowed low. “Your will shall be carried out as you command.”

  A knock at the door from Lavan’s bedroom interrupted the heady rush of power Hahn was beginning to feel. With annoyance he spoke to Mannon.

  “Return as soon as you have completed the tasks, especially that last.” The guard rose and was out the door.

  “Hahn, what’s up? I’m hungry.” Knocking harder.

  Hahn made sure to slowly turn off the scrambler, straighten his desk and tunic until Lavan knocked twice more. That will teach him to interrupt me, thought Hahn as he sauntered over to unlock the door.

  ***

  “Dad?”

  Diarmin was concentrating so fiercely on trying to fix Lenore’s implant, he barely heard the soft address. He looked up, blinking through his magniglasses at the blur of wild hair he knew was Allison.

  “Yes?” he asked as he took off his glasses.

  “Can I show you something?” She eased into the workshop with her special hand comp clutched to her chest, her demeanor strangely subdued.

  “What is it, little bug?”

  The endearment usually made her smile, but not this time. He didn’t like her closed expression.

  “I found something. It’s very important. Can you look at it?”

  “Of course.” He held his hand out for the pad. Instead of handing it over, she sat next to him on the workbench and began scrolling through images and documents. As the contents of the data began to sink in, he felt an unusual bewilderment.

  “How did you get this Allison? And why did you come to me instead of your mother?”

  “Well, Mom said the discussion was closed. She wouldn’t even let me say that I had already figured out what Jonah was telling us.”

  “You did? You cracked the code that quickly? Without even reading the book?”

  “Of course. It had nothing to do with the book. I think that was for Lavan’s sake. The numbers were just his personal access codes. I knew it immediately because the last two numbers, written in block form weren’t numbers at all. They were letters, his initials to be exact. Well not his initials as Jonah, but his real name. You know, SB for Sundeep Barad. The ‘S’ is the five and—”

  “I get it, Alli. To the data.”

  “Ok, well, that code not only gave me access to his personal accounts, but I also was able to hack into the palace security cameras.”

  Diarmin opened his mouth to comment, but she was back to her old animated self and in her “explanation” mode.

  “At first I thought whoever replaced Jonah was terrible at the job. She only blocked me once, but I found another way around. Maybe she thought it was Jonah because she stopped trying. But then I saw this.” She tapped and swiped at her comp until the camera showed someone coming in, forcing a woman to gather her stuff and leave. The last image was of someone reaching behind the screen and everything going dark.

  “It’s a good thing I saw it coming because I managed to insert a hook that helped me reactivate the system after it was completely shut down. These images,” she indicated a data file on the computer, “are things that I picked up from old files and new. Now, if I’m right, it looks like we need to find someone important to tell. Maybe even the king. When you go see him.”

  “Is that the reason you came to me?”

  “Partly. But I didn’t want her to yell at me for doing something she told me not to.”

  “Since when has that ever stopped you?” He grabbed a twisty curl and gave it a gentle yank. “Let’s tell her together then.”

  “Good. She won’t yell at you.”

  Diarmin chuckled. “Oh, you’d be surprised.”

  ***

  Lenore didn’t yell, but the thin-lipped disapproval was just as difficult for Allison to face. She squirmed slightly in her chair on the bridge, watching her mother scroll through all the information. She knew she had done the right thing, but she hadn’t known how to convince her mother. And especially Quinn who, up until these past weeks, usually agreed with his sister on the subject. Allison concentrated on mentally urging the disapproval off her mother’s face.

  Lenore’s lips began to return to normal, her eyebrows raising so slowly that if Allison hadn’t been observing closely, it would not have been evident.

  “You. Found all this.”

  “Yes, Mom.”

  “Decided which was relevant and put it in order.”

  “Yes.”

  “Despite my express wishes for you not to.”

  Allison looked away and resisted the urge to hang her head. “I thought I should at least try.”

  Her mother sighed, but Allison couldn’t quite look back. Her father had said nothing. She thought he would have taken her side against Mom. Her shoulders drooped.

  “Once again, one of my children has outmaneuvered me and shown me up.”

  Allison looked back at her mother, not quite sure what she was getting at.

  “Diarmin. You have done way too good of a job of teaching our children to be highly independent and willful.”

  “No. I merely started them on the path. They get their stubbornness and determination from you.” They both laughed, and Allison felt a huge weight lift.

  “Do you know what you have uncovered my brilliant daughter?”

  “It looks like a takeover plan.”

  “That’s it exactly. Now the problem is we have to figure out who would be best to inform to keep this from happening.” Lenore smiled despite the grim subject.

  “We’re going to help?” Allison jumped up and hugged her parents. “Thanks, Mom, Dad.”

  “No, I should thank you Allison, for showing me that there is more to life than money.”

  “But if the king and everyone around him is killed or removed from power, we wouldn’t get paid anyway,” said Diarmin. Both Allison and Lenore gave him a mock punch.

  “Enough,” he said with a chuckle, but then his face sobered.

  Allison could feel the tension rise in the room.

  “How do we know who to trust with this evidence? Someone who can also help to stop it?” he asked.

  “I’ve sort of researched that as well,” said
Allison as she snatched her computer back from her mother and perched it next to her station. “Jonah’s records are quite extensive and if we work with his data, he has names which are listed as involved, innocent and questionable. If we correlate that data with the most recent findings…” she began tapping and the rest of the room was forgotten as she navigated the world of computers where she was most at home.

  ***

  “Hey, anyone else hungry?” asked Quinn as he climbed the ladder to the bridge. “Shall I fix something for dinner?”

  “Dinner? How long have we been at this?” asked Diarmin, straightening up and arching his back, trying to stretch it after leaning over Allison’s shoulder.

  Lenore shrugged, and Allison kept tapping away, most likely not even hearing the question. Diarmin envied their ability to focus so completely.

  “At what?” asked Quinn.

  “Oh. Right. Sorry. We got really distracted, but I’ll fill you in on what Allison found,” he said.

  Diarmin quickly summed up the plans of the prince and his followers. “And it has apparently taken the rest of the day to figure which people to approach. A few trusted people in law enforcement, and less than half the councilors are a sure thing, but we can watch the questionable ones to see which side they might tend towards.”

  Quinn said nothing but stood with his arms crossed.

  “Hey, it’s not like we left you out on purpose,” said Diarmin. “We just got swept up to the exclusion of everything else. Including food.”

  “Yes, thank you, Quinn, for the reminder to eat,” said Lenore. She turned off her computer and reached over to turn off Allison’s as well. Allison looked as if she were going to swat her mother’s hand away but evidently thought better of it.

  “Might as well eat,” she said. “Ferreting out all the guilty parties is gonna take an entire day of working together with the proper authorities that we have already identified.”

  “And did we ever get a response regarding our message?” asked Quinn.

  Diarmin wasn’t sure if he was entirely mollified.

  “Uh,” he tapped on the console, embarrassed that he had forgotten about that. “Not yet.”

  “Don’t you need to talk to the king even more now, because of this coup?”

  “Yes,” said Lenore and Allison.

  Quinn rolled his eyes. “If you had involved me, I would have helped. My suggestion is for Allison to do one more hack.”

  ***

  Raahi swept her hair back out of her face. A long shower would feel wonderful. She felt awkward working out under the eyes of the guard, but it was the only way out of her room. The last few days had felt more like when she was a slave rather than a princess-to-be. Nice clothes, good food and always someone watching. The only difference was nobody was trying to…she shunted the memory aside. Memories were useless here. She needed to concentrate on the duel.

  She began to strip off her clothing to let the water wash away the past, but a bleep from the communicator startled her. Jagjit had just brought her back from the gym. What could he need already?

  “Yes, Jagjit?”

  “I am sorry, but this is not Jagjit.”

  The low voice was obviously female and held a bit of humor. Raahi knew it belonged to the woman from the ship.

  “Ah, hello. Didn’t expect to hear from you again. Figured you would have left by now. Or are you calling from somewhere else?”

  “No. We are still here. Having trouble getting in touch with the king for an audience. Is there any way you can help with that?”

  What more could they want? Probably something about money. “I am allowed contact with only my attendant, but he can get a message to the king. I will pass along the message that you need to speak with him.”

  “Is he someone you trust? I mean, truly trust. We have some sensitive information that the king needs to see, and we know of no one who is trustworthy enough to make sure he gets it.”

  Raahi blinked a few times, confused. “What information?”

  “It’s better if I do not say anything over the communicator. Again, do you trust this Attendant?”

  “The only person I completely trust in is in jail,” she said, the words coming out a lot more bitter than she meant them to. “But I would say, next to the king, this Jagjit is honorable and completely dedicated to Nirav.”

  “Good. Please tell him to reply as soon as possible to the message from the man who rescued you. Within the hour if possible. If he needs persuasion, tell him his life depends on it.”

  “Does it?” Raahi wasn’t prepared for the jolt of fear that last sentence induced. She’d gone soft and was annoyed at herself. “You need to tell me. I should know.”

  “Again, not over the line. And you have something very important coming up. You cannot get distracted. Know that if we can speak with the king, all will be fine. If you arrange that, you can rest easier.”

  Easier? But not completely. But what could she do? The powerless feeling simply amplified her past again. “I will pass it along. Be prepared for a contact, probably from Jagjit himself.”

  “Thank you, Maya. We won’t contact you again, so we wish you luck in five days. I don’t know the prince, but I know you and, if I were a betting person, I’d lay odds on your success.”

  “That means a great deal, coming from you. Take care of my father.” She reached over and closed the connection. It took a few moments to compose herself before she contacted Jagjit. She was quite touched at Lenore’s confidence in her. The last time she’d felt support like that was from Maya.

  ***

  “Good job, Allison,” said Lenore. “I think we should be expecting a message soon. How about erasing any evidence of the communication?”

  “Already done, Mom,” said Allison who hadn’t looked up from her station for hours.

  “Then what are you doing now?”

  “One more thing I should have done days ago.”

  Chapter Sixty-seven

  The duel was only two days away, and the prince looked like he was ready to tear out the walls. He prowled around the suite from sunrise to sunset, stopping only to eat and talk to his attendant. He had insisted Lavan stay and help him prepare for the duel by looking up all the accounts of former such contests, so Lavan was feeling a bit stir crazy as well.

  “Nervous?” he asked the prince.

  Hahn paused midstride to whip his head around. “What?” His eyebrows were pulled into frown lines with his lips pressed thin.

  “About the duel. I know I would be.”

  The prince gave one humorless laugh. “Of course you would. You can’t fight at all.”

  He continued to the other wall and abruptly turned. “Where is my attendant? He should have been here hours ago.”

  “He was already here twice today. What else could you possibly need him for?”

  “None of your business.”

  Lavan turned back to his book at Hahn’s snarl. He had been going to offer to go find him, but instead buried his nose inside his book. Both needed to get out. Lavan knew the prince would start taking out his frustrations soon, and he was the only target.

  “You could call him. Ask to go workout, practice.” Lavan held his breath, unsure of the reaction. The prince was not skilled with daggers and if he wanted to win, he should go to the gym.

  “Good idea,” the prince said gruffly. “Surprised you came up with it.” He stomped to the communicator and barked into it that he needed to see his attendant to take him to the gym.

  Maybe now Lavan could get out for at least an hour or so. He hadn’t been out since he saw the new reviewer and was glad he managed to sneak the communication to the Baroness. He hoped she figured it out but, unless he could be alone, he would never know.

  One knock was all that was heard before the prince yanked it open. Someone Lavan didn’t know was standing there, arm still raised.

  “Your Highness.” He bowed low. “Extreme apologies, but your previous attendant has become very ill a
nd had to be hospitalized last night. I am Van Hart and will be your attendant until the duel.” His eyes stayed on the ground obviously expecting a reaction.

  Lavan looked at the prince whose face was flushed, hands fisted.

  “Very well then. I wish to go to the gym for a workout.”

  “Again, apologies, but it is currently occupied by your opponent. We will have to wait until she is finished with the facility.”

  Hahn’s face purpled, fists shaking, and a strange gurgle came from his throat. Lavan stood, afraid the prince might actually strike the attendant.

  “Prince Hahn, I have found another interesting situation in the book about a previous duel that might be helpful.” He had found it earlier and didn’t say anything, but now seemed the right time. Lavan took a deep breath and held it.

  “Go away!” the prince yelled at the man. “I will not require your services.” He slammed the door, and Lavan released his breath as quietly as possible. It took several moments for the prince to regain his composure. He finally turned to the companion.

  “Well? I hope it’s better than the last useless thing you found.”

  “Here,” he opened the book to the proper page and began to explain the odd precedent that was presented. Was it his imagination or was there fear in Hahn’s eyes?

  ***

  The meeting with the king had gone very well and, though he was upset that he had been caught unaware, he didn’t seem too sad or shocked. With the weight of the monarchy, everyone involved in the coup had been quietly taken into custody, including those outside of the palace. Some were even working with and within the slave trade, and authorities were confident that interrogations would reveal more criminal activity. And yet, it wasn’t over. The king was arguing with the remaining councilors, reduced to about half its former size.

  “I don’t see why this duel cannot be called off as well. The prince’s guilt is obvious, and we have the evidence to prove it.” King Nirav was feeling the effects of detoxification of the long-term drug but nearly back to his robust self of twenty years ago.

  “Your Majesty. So far, the public appears to remain ignorant of the arrests, focusing completely on the duel. If we cancel it, they will question why, and the coup will likely be discovered. That would be damaging for our government. And the monarchy. If the weakness were revealed, the next election would call for everyone’s replacement and then where would we be?”