At the Queen's Command

by Michael A. Stackpole

  The solid wall of blue raced on and Owen braced himself to receive the charge.

  Then a volley roared from behind him and the Ryngians staggered. Unstone and the Third had come to plug the gap. The first two Ryngian ranks went down, but rest of the Platine came on hard. Owen screamed defiantly and met their charge. He parried the first thrust, then drove his own bayonet home, plunging it deep into a man’s belly. The soldier vomited blood and sagged. Owen ripped the bayonet free and swung the butt up, catching another soldier in the face, shattering bone and scattering teeth.

  The first wave passed by him, intent on the Third. The Ryngians flowed into the gap beyond Owen, leaving him free in the rearward ranks. Soldiers there weren’t yet prepared to meet the enemy in the sea of blue coats before them. Owen’s lack of a bright red uniform bought him a heartbeat before they realized he was the enemy.

  One man lunged. Owen parried the bayonet wide. He brought his musket butt up with a stroke that should have snapped the man’s head back. Unfortunately his target stumbled, ducking beneath the attack. As Owen’s blow slipped past the man’s shoulder, the Ryngian whipped his musket’s butt around and caught Owen square in the stomach. Owen, his gun lost, sprawled on the ground.

  The Tharyngian rose up on one knee, raising his musket high for a killing thrust.

  Then another bayonet stabbed forward, catching the Ryngian high in the chest. Hodge! The bantam Private yelled as he thrust, driving the other man back. He yanked his bayonet free and a single geyser of blood shot into the air.

  Owen rolled to his feet and grabbed the dying Ryngian’s musket. He spun it around, leveling it at another Tharyngian soldier. He thumbed the firestone. The musket roared. The soldier fell, his waistcoat growing dark. Another butt-stroke, another lunge and, with Hodge beside him, Owen broke through to the back of the Ryngian formation.

  For a heartbeat he felt relief, then he glanced toward the river and felt as if he’d again been struck in the stomach.

  The First Cavalry battalion had collapsed. Its colors fell as bluecoats swarmed. The best Tharyngian troops in the world had taken the Norillians in the flank. The scions of Norillian nobility loved playing at parade or riding down fleeing infantry. War had been more a sport for them than a serious pursuit, but the Ryngians had brought them blood and fire. Such intensity had never been inflicted on them before. Not for the first time did it occur to Owen that horsemen on foot had surrendered the smarter part of their partnership. Fleeing soldiers, their panic infective, ran headlong into their Second battalion, destroying any hope of defending against the pursuing Platine battalion.

  And to make matters worse, a Ryngian sloop had appeared on the river drawing parallel to the cavalry position. It had run its cannons out. Nothing could save the Norillian right, and once those men had been scoured from the field, nothing could stop du Malphias from winning the day.

  Chapter Sixty-Four

  August 1, 1764

  La Fortresse du Morte

  Anvil Lake, Mystria

  The ship’s cannon—sixteen pounders every one—erupted with fire and iron. They’d been loaded with grapeshot and lit off inside thirty yards of their target. All four spoke in unison. A hail of hot metal jetted from the billowing smoke clouds. Men vanished in a bloody mist. Balls sailed through them, their speed unabated, tearing legs off or blowing open chests, revealing hearts as red birds fluttering furiously in shattered ivory cages.

  Nathaniel Woods and a company of Mystrian Ranger sharpshooters crouched at the gunwales. “Officers first! Officers first!” He turned to the Summerland boys. “Run those guns out again, boys. Give them another taste of Hell!”

  The sharpshooters poured more fire into the Platine battalion’s flank. Scattered return shots splintered oak planking. Thomas Hill brought the bow swivel-gun around and pounded the battalion’s back ranks. Nathaniel twisted, tracking a man with a saber and braid. He caressed the firestone.

  Gunnery crews hauled on ropes and ran the reloaded cannon out again. The sloop rolled as they fired. Where there had been ranks of blue-backed soldiers now existed a red swamp dotted with bone and dying things writhing in the mire.

  One of the fortress’ batteries fired at the sloop. Grapeshot mostly rattled off the hull, though a few balls careened over the deck. Several men went down—two clearly dead and one with a long splinter through his leg.

  Nathaniel ran to the bow, reloading as he went. He cranked the lever forward, sealing the bullet into the barrel, then steadied the rifle on the gunwale. If it’s a duel you want…

  The smoke cleared, revealing a gunner standing on his cannon’s carriage, hand shielding his eyes from the sun. Nathaniel dropped the sights on him, then invoked magick. The rifle boomed and bucked. The gunner staggered back, holding his stomach, before pitching down into the fort.

  Without thinking, Nathaniel cranked the lever to the side, flipped the gimbaled chamber up, dropped another round into it, and worked the lever to send the bullet home. By the time he aimed again, a loader was just shoving the ramrod into the gun. Another man held a small cylinder full of grape. Nathaniel hit the firestone again.

  The loader, his ramrod still stuck in the cannon’s throat, hung draped over the gun. The sloop’s swivel-gun roared and grapeshot scattered another cannon’s crew. The remaining two cannon fired back, killing three more on deck, while the sloop’s guns tore deeper into the Tharyngian formation.

  Nathaniel shrieked delightedly. “More boys, faster! Until they’s bled out or running.” Smiling, he worked the lever and began his search for more prey.

  Vlad couldn’t be certain at that range with all the smoke, but it appeared as if the sloop had somehow fired on Ryngian troops! Before he had a chance to double-check, Mugwump leaped from the parapet down into the fort. He landed with the élan of a cat, his right flank to the fort’s open interior doors. He flashed his fangs and hissed, defiant and angry.

  Vlad brought his swivel-gun around. Pasmortes and Ungarakii filled the gateway. The Prince fired, and von Metternin immediately after him. Smoke thinned as it swirled out through the gate. Some pasmortes still came on but many had fallen, convulsing as the iron shot inhibited magick. A handful of Ungarakii lay on the ground. More slithered away trailing blood, but a knot of warriors sprinted forward.

  Mugwump lashed out with his tail. An Ungarakii’s thighs snapped. The man screamed, but the wurm’s hiss overrode the sound. The other Ungarakii stopped, and when Mugwump snatched up a pasmorte child and swallowed it whole, they broke and ran.

  The Prince reloaded as quickly as he could. Numbness had spread up to his right elbow, making the task difficult. His swollen hand throbbed. Purple seeped into his fingers and past his wrist. He loaded with his left hand, jamming the shot home.

  Mugwump sidled back as the men fired again. Their shots raked the pasmortes, scattering them like toys in a child’s tantrum, yet others came. Had they been thinking creatures—had they but one scintilla of self-preservation yet left in them—they would have fled with the Ungarakii.

  It occurred to the Prince that perhaps they wanted to die.

  And then, visible through the gateway, a company of bluebacks came running up hill. “Reinforcements, my lord. Theirs, I’m afraid.”

  “Then, Highness, we shall just have to shoot faster.”

  Vlad leaned on the swivel-gun’s aiming lever to tip it upright. He grabbed another charge and dumped it into the barrel. He worked the ramrod as Mugwump gobbled down another pasmorte. Bringing the gun down, Vlad hunched forward and hooked his right elbow around the aiming lever. He pulled it tight against his ribs, and pressed his left palm to the firestone.

  As a wave of blackness swept his sight from him for a moment, and his left hand tingled, Prince Vlad realized he’d made a grave error. With both hands numb, reloading would be that much more difficult. And I can’t grab the reins…

  He twisted back and watched von Metternin slowly loading again, his right hand dark enough that it might have been gloved in purple
leather. “I am done, my lord.”

  The Kessian laughed defiantly as a Platine company filled the gateway. “It was a grand gesture, Highness! We will live forever in the annals of war.” He brought the gun down, and spelled a blast that trimmed the left edge of the Tharyngian line.

  Mugwump came around to face the Tharyngians, his mouth gaping wide, hissing again. His muzzle eclipsed the Prince’s view of the soldiers. “No, Mugwump!” The wurm might shrug shot off his scales, but his mouth and tongue would get shredded.

  Muskets roared.

  Tharyngians fell.

  The men of the Mystrian Third streamed over the wall, firing as they came. “To the Top!” they yelled as if it would protect them from shot and steel. Men captured the nearest Ryngian battery with a bayonet charge, then levered the functional cannon around to the west. A Mystrian clapped a hand over the firestone. Golden-red flame exploded from its muzzle. The load of grapeshot slashed through the next battery below on the wall. The Mystrian gunner shook his hand as if it had been hit by a hammer, but urged men to reload as quickly as they could.

  Another Mystrian crew levered a cannon all the way around. They aimed at the Platines. The Tharyngian ranks fired on the Mystrian troops and then evaporated after the cannon spoke. Mystrians, dead and wounded, filled the courtyard. The survivors pressed on, taking the gate. They fired into the main compound while even more Mystrians lined the upper fort’s parapet and fired on the Platine troops defending the north wall.

  Mugwump leaped forward, pouncing on a moving pasmorte and devouring it. He seemed almost playful. He’d dig his nose beneath a body, flip it into the air, and snatch it with his mouth. His tongue gathered in arms and legs, then he’d swallow them whole, ambulatory or not.

  More Mystrians poured over the wall in a muddy river of men. They didn’t organize themselves in ranks as much as they did small teams of three or four. As one man reloaded, another would spot targets and the third would shoot. While their musket-fire was not terribly accurate, the sheer volume of it, aided by the occasional cannon blast of grape, cleared a length of parapet.

  Vlad slipped from the saddle and, hugging his arms to his chest, staggered up to the captured battery. “You see that small hill there, in the middle of the fort?”

  The Mystrian crew stared at him for a moment, then followed his line of sight. “Yes, Highness.”

  “Put some solid balls on it, as many as you can.” Vlad smiled. “It’s a hornets’ nest and I want it smashed.”

  Only with the second broadside could Owen confirm what he’d thought had happened. The Ryngian sloop had somehow fired into its own formation. When sharpshooters started sniping, the fort fired on the sloop, and a familiar figure ran toward the bow, the truth became apparent.

  “By God, Hodge, the ship is ours!”

  Hodge, his face streaked with powder, spat a ball into his musket’s muzzle. “Not so loud, sir, because they ain’t ours.”

  The Platine Guards rear ranks pulled back from the sloop’s assault. Men ran for the fort. Owen picked up a Ryngian musket, then grabbed Hodge by the shoulder. “Come on!”

  They ran with the retreating Ryngians, hidden plainly in the midst of unreasoning men with fear-filled eyes. A Ryngian pulled ahead of Hodge, casting his musket away, and held his hands out as if asking to be bound. Hodge shouldered him out of the way. The man tumbled to the ground and other men stampeded over him.

  “Are you sure this is wise, sir?”

  “Stay with me, Hodge.”

  Owen rounded the corner through the gate. Ungarakii were in full retreat from the upper fort. On the left, cannon-fire swept the ramparts. Another cannon launched a ball from the high fort. It overshot the hill and bounced through the troops packed in the gate. Men screamed.

  Through the chaos Owen ran, and Hodge came hot on his heels. Another cannonball sailed over their heads and hit the grassy stronghold. A couple of soldiers moved to stop them, but Owen shot one and Hodge charged with his bayonet. The remaining Ryngian soldier read the determination on his face and fled screaming.

  Owen ran past the flagpole and straight to the small shack Rivendell had drawn on his map. He kicked the door in. The room beyond it did indeed appear to house a wine cellar, but the back panel had slid open, revealing the passage Owen had limped through almost a year before.

  “Follow me and shut this panel. No one gets out.”

  “Yes, sir.” Hodge shouldered the panel closed and panicked screams dulled, but not so the full-throated cannon roars.

  Owen entered the passage, sparing a glance at his old prison. Blankets, neatly folded, showed where troopers had waited while Rivendell and the others feasted. Owen moved past, going deeper, passing the dark doorway where he’d once believed Makepeace had been imprisoned. He didn’t know who du Malphias had tortured in there to break him down, and could only hope it had been someone like Etienne Ilsavont.

  He turned left at the end of the corridor, down another, toward a doorway to a larger room from which came a shifting orange glow. He advanced slowly, his bayonet at the ready. He hesitated at the opening, confused by what he saw.

  The room had been dug out and down, with steps at the doorway. A large table dominated the room. Maps, many of them, created an overlapping mosaic. Small bronze disks with what looked like firestones set in them all gathered at one spot and jockeyed for position. Some, toward the east, had stopped moving.

  A huge orange glass sphere hung in a bronze helix lattice above the table. It looked akin to a firestone, but was clearly hollow. It rotated as a light burned inside. Though it gave off light, it put out no heat and, instead, seemed to be sucking warmth from the room.

  And at the edge of the orange glow stood du Malphias. He’d raised his right hand toward the sphere, not even close to touching it. Still, the fire quickened in response to his gesture.

  The Laureate smiled at Owen. “Captain Strake, you look well.”

  “I am very well.”

  The Laureate shook his head. “This pleases me. You know, Rivendell never would have found his way here without you. I am glad you didn’t let his capricious whim keep you from this meeting.”

  Owen, with the bayonet held firmly in both hands, descended the stairs. “Thanks to you, he put me under arrest. He will court-martial me.”

  Du Malphias laughed. “How little you truly understand of the world. He will do nothing of the sort. You have captured me. You will be inviolate. He will, if he survives, write scurrilous things about you. Few will believe him.”

  Owen came around the table. “But what if I don’t intend to capture you?”

  Du Malphias raised an eyebrow. “Kill me? You won’t.” He reached for one of the brass disks at the table’s edge and slid it across to Owen. “Quarante-neuf.”

  “What?”

  “The disks represent pasmortes. That disk is Quarante-neuf.”

  Quarante-neuf’s firestone had a glimmer of light. Others, those that did not move, had blackened, like spent firestones.

  “Is he alive or dead?”

  “He’s quite dead, Captain.” Du Malphias’ smile grew. “You should ask if he is strong or weak.”

  “Well?”

  “Strong, for now.”

  The Laureate traced a fiery sigil in the air. The sphere’s light flared, then the glass blackened and sagged inward. Like candle wax, it flowed onto the maps, which began to smolder. And the disk firestones melted along with it.

  Except for Quarante-neuf’s.

  Owen looked up. “His firestone glows. What does it mean?”

  “I wish I knew.” Du Malphias’ eyes tightened. “I fear I shall not have time to study the matter, for now I am your prisoner. Will you treat me as I treated you?”

  Owen shook his head. “Not that you deserve better.”

  “Not that you could inflict worse.” The Tharyngian gently waved his left hand as if dismissing a rebuke. Owen’s musket moved to the right, trailing steam, offline of the man’s slender chest. “I promise I shall
go as any man would go, with you, to surrender my forces and my fortress. The pasmortes cannot be raised again.”

  “You could raise more.”

  “I shall not.” He smiled easily. “That line of research bores me. There are other things I wish to investigate.”

  Owen looked around the room. “Notes on your experiments? Journals? Books?”

  He laughed. “Concerning the pasmortes? All gone. As for those on the healing concoctions, they are in my private quarters. But do not be in haste to get them. A copy of my research has already been sent to Feris to be published in the Tharyngian Science Journal. You are mentioned as Patient Ten. I shall have a copy sent to you.”

  “You’re so kind.”

  “You know that is manifestly untrue.” Du Malphias raised his hands above his head. “Now, shall we go stop this battle? I have no more use for corpses and I imagine there are a few men you should like to see yet alive.”

  Chapter Sixty-Five

  August 1, 1764

  La Fortresse du Morte

  Anvil Lake, Mystria

  What in Heaven’s name? Prince Vlad stared, disbelieving. As if they were all puppets controlled by the same strings, the pasmortes jerked suddenly in unison. Their backs bowed as if their shoulders were being drawn to the earth. Their mouths gaped open. Those that had eyes stared at the sky. Some even seemed surprised. And then, all at once, they snapped upright for a heartbeat before collapsing in a tangle of limp limbs.

  The Prince shook his head, not certain if in his fatigue he had slipped into some malaise where he was dreaming. He could not believe his eyes. Then Mugwump shuddered beneath him, and vomited forth a black puddle of quickly dissolving bones. The wurm shied from the steaming mire and scraped dirt over it with his tail.

  The Mystrians, finding themselves with no pasmortes to fight, flew to the battlements and angled fire into the fort’s heart. The Fourth Foot finally came over the north wall’s top, toward the middle. They quickly formed up by squads, five men crouching in front, five standing, and hammered the Ryngians with deadly volleys.