He covered the distance to the castle in a few short minutes and was already yelling when he hit the gate. Under a minute later, everyone knew that Miranda Catherine had been kidnapped. The servants gathered around, and Leis’ soldiers began to ready their weapons.
Three minutes later, Lily was informed of the event when Emma flew into her study, wild-eyed and holding a Virman boy by the arm.
“My Lady!”
“Yes?”
“Miranda has been kidnapped!”
“WHAT?”
Lily held onto the edge of her desk to keep herself from screaming. She breathed in and breathed out.
You’re a surgeon. A surgeon never panics during an operation.
She looked at Loik. “Tell me.”
***
The boy swallowed. He had seen the countess before, but she had just changed in front of his eyes. Gone was the nice lady who told them stories and spoiled them with candy. In her place, he saw a wild animal with predatory green eyes and sharp teeth. He knew the animal would catch those bad people; they would be sorry.
He shuddered, but Virmans are hardy folk. It didn’t take long for him to recount how he had found Mirrie, how Calma drew her away from the castle, how he had followed them to the fork in the road over the hill and seen them tie the girl up.
Lily listened to him in silence. Then she told him he could go.
***
Once he was gone, she turned to Emma and issued a single order so loudly that Emma almost hit the ceiling. “Leis and Erik! SEND THEM TO ME!”
Emma flew off to do just that. While she waited, Lily paced her study floor. My child! Kidnapped! I’ll eat the heart of whoever is behind this!
It took less than a minute for Leis and Erik to arrive. They had heard Loik shouting and had been on their way upstairs when Emma found them. They told Lily they wished Leif was there, too, but he was overseeing work at the salt pits. Right behind them was Lons, followed by Taris.
“What happened?”
“Mirrie’s been kidnapped.”
“Who did it?”
“I don’t know. Less than an hour has passed. Can we catch them?”
Before Lily was finished talking, Erik wheeled and ran out the door. His voice could be heard echoing throughout the castle, calling his men to arms.
Lily stopped Leis before he could follow. “I’m coming with you.”
“My Lady, that’s not…”
She took a deep breath. Don’t yell at him. Don’t get hysterical. Don’t get angry.
“Leis, there may be a situation where you need me. I can protect myself.”
Lons spoke up at her side. “I’m coming, too, My Lady.” Lily saw that she couldn’t stop him, so she nodded.
“Be ready in five minutes. And call for Jaimie; I want him, too.”
“What about your Khangan healer?”
“He’s too old to move fast. A ride like this wouldn’t be good for him. Let’s go!” Lily ran from the room before anyone could object.
Once again, Lily rejoiced that she had insisted on wearing pants that looked like a skirt. All she had to do was grab her medical bag, and she was ready to ride
What about a weapon?
That was a problem. Lily had already lost a great deal of her excess weight, but she wasn’t ready for hand-to-hand combat, and the firearms she did know how to use hadn’t been invented yet.
What do I have available?
She grabbed the only thing she could think of—three glass vials in a fur-lined pouch—and carefully placed them in her bag. It was just a little something she had been working on in her laboratory. She had requisitioned one of Leif’s firebombs when she realized by the smell that it contained oil. Leif had objected, but in the end, he poured out a little of the liquid for her. Lily had split the oil between three vials, which she filled to the top with pure alcohol. Then she attached fuses to the homemade bombs. Lily knew that she could light them and throw them if she had to. She had tested a small amount of the mixture in her laboratory and was pleased with the results.
On her way downstairs, she ran into Martha. “My girl! Take care of yourself!”
Lily embraced the old woman and kissed her cheek. “Dear Martha, pray for me…and for Miranda.”
Martha made the sign of Aldonai.
Just then, Pastor Vopler came running up the stairs. “My Lady, you are a woman…”
“It’s my child they kidnapped. Pray for us, Pastor.” And she was gone.
***
Everyone was in the courtyard: two companies of ten men each, half of them on horseback, and around forty Virmans. Erik and Leis glanced at each other when Lily came running up.
Leis spoke first. “My Lady, if you come with us you will have to obey my orders.”
She nodded.
Still unsure, he added, “The least disobedience could end up costing you or Mirrie your lives.”
Lily nodded again. “Leis, I understand, and I will follow your orders. Let’s go. Mirrie’s in danger! I promise I will obey you!” With that, she swung herself up onto her Avarian stallion.
Erik measured her with a doubtful look, but he said nothing. Instead, he pulled on the leash he was holding. At the end was Mirrie’s puppy. Next to it were several more Virman dogs, all the size of small bears.
Leis shouted at his men, and they moved off. There were not enough horses to go around, so Leis and his men rode ahead as fast as they could, while the Virmans marched behind--almost as fast as an average horse. The kidnappers couldn’t number more than twenty, the leaders estimated, or Leif’s scouts would have noticed them. Everyone’s goal was to catch the evildoers as quickly as possible. Leis had two more Virman dogs with him—a puppy in the saddle with him and a larger one that ran alongside. Once they reached the sycamore tree, they would let the dogs try to catch Mirrie’s scent.
The Avarian balked at Lily’s commands, but soon he stopped working against her, and Lily breathed a sigh of relief. She was already a more confident horsewoman, and she hoped the horse would manage to keep her aboard, even if the search took hours. She had never ridden the animal for a long period of time because she feared her weight would cause it harm. The stallion was built for speed, not for strength and endurance like the local nags. He was also worth quite a lot of money.
Leis put two men on either side of Lily. They covered the distance to the sycamore in three minutes, and the dogs began sniffing around. In no time, they picked up the scent and began to follow it without barking. Watching them work, Lily understood why the Virmans loved their dogs—none of them barked. They simply raced ahead where the track led them, and only death would stop them from following it wherever it led.
Lily bit her lip. Mirrie, my precious girl! How stupid I was to relax and forget about the danger all around us. This is what I get for forgetting. I’ll never make a mistake like this again if I can just have you back! I have to find my girl!
***
Miranda Catherine Earton was furious. She was so angry that she would have spat if she hadn’t been gagged. Strangely enough, the child wasn’t frightened for a minute. Mirrie had been raised by people who always took care of her every whim—never raising a hand against her—and all of a sudden, some stranger dared to kidnap her. She knew in her mind that they might kill her, but she didn’t feel it in her heart. Like most children, she didn’t believe she could die.
Instead of shaking with fear, she calculated her chances of escaping successfully. She knew she couldn’t do anything at the moment; she couldn’t even scream. She wiggled against the ropes that bound her, and tears came to her eyes. She fought them back; Lily was sure to save her. She was smart; she would find Mirrie, no matter where they took her.
She thought back to Lily’s stories about everything under the sun—about the women who worked as spies for their kings. Little by little, using fairy tales, Lily had given the children some very basic ideas about how to survive anywhere, in any world. As soon as Mirrie stopped crying in anger and cal
med down, she remembered several important things. First, she needed to pretend to be weak and helpless. If your enemies think you are weak, they won’t expect you to do anything to save yourself, which, of course, is a big mistake.
Miranda Catherine had been caught unaware, but not unarmed. Like all the rest of the children, she had started carrying a small knife to use in the games they played. It wasn’t more than a boot knife, but it was sharp enough to cut through rope, as long as no one knew she had it.
She thought quickly. No one would expect the earl’s daughter to have a knife, would they? Calma!
Mirrie almost howled in frustration. She balled her hands into fists.
You stinking traitor! You just wait! When Lily finds out, she’ll get you.
***
Meanwhile, Calma felt quite pleased with herself. Life was full of wonderful and unexpected surprises. On the horizon, she saw the Donter estate, plenty of money and—if all went well—a comfortable role as the baron’s lover. Why not? I’m young, good-looking, well-behaved and an expert in bed. The baron would also need someone to keep an eye on the little girl. Calma would make herself useful right away, and later on, he wouldn’t want to part with her.
If she closed her eyes, Calma could already see the baron’s castle, golden jewelry, the envy of other women… Best of all, she would have her revenge on that damned fat woman who had dared to degrade her position. In all honesty, Calma didn’t even remember all the times Mirrie had been left to her own devices under her care. She forgot about how, on the way to Earton, she ignored her charge while sneaking off to make love with Damis Reis. She forgot that it was her fault the little girl almost got murdered alongside her stepmother. Like most people, she forgot the things she was ashamed of, but no one ever forgets an insult.
The baron was waiting for them off to the side of the road. He had picked a place where he couldn’t be seen from the castle, and none of the local peasants were likely to run into him. The kidnappers were in no hurry. Calma had promised them that no one would notice Mirrie’s absence until that evening. She was right. No one would have noticed. Miranda often skipped lunch and, like Lily, ran into the kitchen later to grab a bite. Martha objected strongly to such irregular habits, but it was impossible to control Miranda now that she had a group of friends to play with. The nanny resorted to feeding the little girl lunch whenever she could catch her and hoping that breakfast and dinner made up for the rest. On a regular day, it would be evening before anyone started looking for Mirrie, and they might not have considered kidnapping as a possible explanation until morning came.
***
Clive was pleased as he could be. Miranda Catherine Earton’s presence meant that he could demand a high price from the Countess of Earton—a very high price. Calma told him that the countess would not write to her husband about the kidnapping since he knew nothing of her latest initiatives on the estate. She had said the last thing the countess would want was for the earl to find out she had let Miranda fall into the hands of kidnappers. Plus, according to Calma, the countess was like a mother to the girl; she would give anything to get her back. There would be no haggling. As soon as the baron reached his home, he would send a runner to name his price to Lilian Earton.
There was a rustling in the bushes, and three people appeared: two soldiers (one of them carrying something wrapped up like a package) and Calma.
Clive, seated comfortably on a cape belonging to one of his followers, looked up at the man. “You got her?”
“Yes, My Lord.” The man placed the package on the ground by the baron. It was sniffling and whining.
Calma placed herself in front of the baron. “My lord, I have done as you wished.”
He nodded. “Wonderful. You have done me a good service, woman.”
Calma looked down and curtsied, so she missed the look the baron exchanged with one of his followers. They had worked it all out before she got there. The man came up behind her silently and… Calma didn’t even have time to cry out when he grabbed her by the neck and stuck something sharp through her back, right next to her shoulder blade. It was done neatly, without too much blood.
The baron grimaced. Calma had been facing him, so her eyes were on his until they closed in death. She saw her true murderer. He did not raise the knife, but he gave the order.
He waved a hand. “Get her away from here.”
The men dragged Calma away by the legs and left her in the bushes. The baron looked down at the package. “Open it up. I want to see her.”
The soldiers obeyed. He looked down and saw a little girl, about seven or eight years old, her hair sticking up and her face wet with tears. She was pretty, with blue eyes and dark hair, but her clothes were strange: a skirt, blouse and warm jacket, all cut for comfort instead of for fashion. The baron would never have guessed that the skirt was actually a pair of pants, and Calma was no longer around to inform him.
***
He also had no way of knowing that Miranda wore a boot knife tied to the ankle of one boot and that she could get to it quickly since no one had bothered to tie her hands, just her arms. She might have been tear-stained and disheveled, but her arms and legs would work just fine once she freed them.
Her brain was working just fine, too, so she quickly started crying again.
“Well, well there…” the baron said, patting her awkwardly on the head. “Everything will be fine, my dear, no one will hurt you.”
The crying got louder.
“You’ll be staying with me at my house for a little bit, and then we’ll see how things go…” The baron stopped. He had been thinking about looking for a bride, but there were no fine ladies to be found in that part of the kingdom.
Why ride all the way to Altver if I’ve got this girl right here?
Then he reflected that Miranda might be more than he could lay claim to. Her father was close to the throne, and the king was very fond of Jerrison Earton for some reason. Clive would have to think it over.
***
Lily was confident in the saddle. She didn’t ride ahead of the group, but she didn’t lag behind, either. Her mind was racing, filled with the worst possible images: a child’s fingers attached to the ransom note, children kidnapped to force their parents to do something. Could there be anything worse than blackmail using a child? Her thoughts jumped from blackmail to the extremists who practice it. She remembered a videotape her father had shown her of how “peaceful Islamists” treated people. She began to shake.
I swear to God, there will never be any of that in this world. I will put a stop to extremism before people even get started. And I will never negotiate with terrorists and blackmailers.
Lily surmised that, so far, the kind of extremism she had seen in her own world did not exist in the Middle Ages of Ativerna. She just remembered the explosions and hostage situations she had seen on television, and she remembered her father saying that the government didn’t have the courage to do anything about it. He had used a very short, very bad word to describe the government. Lily had been listening, and what she picked up was that you can’t negotiate with terrorists and blackmailers, no matter what they threaten you with, because they are never satisfied.
Lily knew what she would do to the people who had taken her child. She would destroy them and leave their bodies at the crossroads, labeled for all to see. She didn’t care if the pastor disapproved. She would do as her father taught her. When you respond decisively, terrorists stop taking hostages. He had three rules: never agree to the terrorists’ terms, destroy them like rabid animals, and destroy their families and their villages.
It was a terrible, bloody lesson, but Lily—or Aliya Skorolenok—had every intention of following her father’s advice. Even if it cost her soul, she would not allow the horror of terrorism to take root in her new world.
If only Mirrie is still alive!
Suddenly, the dogs began to growl. It was a frightening sound.
Leis turned to Lily. “They aren’t far away. Stay
in the back, My Lady.”
The countess nodded. Her hand reached for her knife. She had practiced at the castle—alone, with no one watching—and she knew she could still throw a knife-like Aliya. She would rather not fight for her life against a hardened soldier, but she wasn’t completely defenseless, either.
I can do this.
The dogs turned from the road, so the men dismounted. Leis ordered two of them to lead the horses, so Lily stayed back with them. Her Avarian stallion would obey no one but the countess.
When she realized where they were, Lily began to suspect Baron Donter was behind the kidnapping.
Why would he do that? What would he stand to gain? Doesn’t he know what will happen to him once we catch him?
Then she remembered that if it weren’t for Loik, they wouldn’t have noticed Mirrie’s absence yet, and the kidnappers would be much farther away. She imagined riding up to the baron’s castle and demanding that he give back her child. It wouldn’t have gone well. She wanted to ask Leis how people usually treated hostages in this world, but she was afraid to talk to him just then. He was the commander leading the chase, and the men needed to know that he was the only leader. Lily would have to stay out of the way for the time being.
Just then, she heard the sound of swords being drawn. Lily looked at the men who were leading the horses. They hurriedly tied the horses to some nearby trees and reached for their own weapons. Without hesitating for a moment, the countess tied up her own horse. Jaimie was near her, and Lons was already in the fight. She could hear swords clashing up ahead, but she couldn’t see anything because of all the horses and the trees.
Palace Intrigue Page 14
