Of Limited Loyalty cc-2

by Michael A. Stackpole

  To conduct their survey they’d started from the Count’s home and worked west, paralleling the Benjamin River. They would pick a point, then test for ghost rivers in a circle at one hundred yards. If they found something, they’d mark it, then test further along that line. When they lost any sign of it, they’d work to locate the split, then use that as a starting point to see where ghost rivers radiated from there. This method had sent them on a zigzag course to the west, and had produced a trickle of leads for ghost rivers shooting off in all directions along that path.

  Owen had hoped the Prince would give them a thaumagraph to take into the field, but he didn’t have many of them, and didn’t want to chance losing one. Owen understood, but he wanted the Prince to get the information as fast as possible. As it was, they had one more day in the field, and had to be back to Temperance inside a week.

  Not having a thaumagraph is likely best. Owen had been one of the first trained on the thaumagraph which, until November, had consisted of wheels that clicked and spun. Depending on the power of the person sending, the wheels might jump about, and recording a message required the operator to watch a wheel, then look at paper to jot the number down, and back to the wheel. That made it easy to miss a number.

  He’d trained Bethany Frost and her brother, but she’d been the one to suggest the substitution of notes for clicking wheels. The Prince had recalled thinking of how he first thought the thaumagraph might amount to nothing more than a remotely played pianoforte, so had little trouble redesigning along the lines suggested by Bethany and his wife. Bethany had mastered the new model quickly, and ended up teaching Owen how to work it.

  He’d found something soothing in how her messages had sounded. Words encoded as numbers produced discordant music, but she managed a rhythm to the notes which made her messages easy to listen to. There had been times when she was in Temperance and he was in the Prince’s laboratory where they abandoned the codes and just spelled words out using a simple five by five grid to relate numbers to letters. To practice they chatted about everyday things, silly things, and he often found himself smiling or laughing aloud, even if a story might take a tortuously long time to unfold or ghost messages interfered.

  There had been nothing improper in their chats. Either or both would mention his wife freely. They discussed his family, including Becca, who had become part of his household. Bethany would mention times she’d seen Catherine in Temperance-always at a distance and always polite. The discussions tended largely to be matter of fact, but he found it easy to imagine her listening, smiling, her eyes twinkling. He even took to writing out some messages in his journal in code, so he could send them quickly, and they reduced certain phrases, like common greetings, to abbreviations that only they could decipher.

  Catherine really had been doing her best through the winter. She’d stopped nagging him and accepted that he could say little or nothing about his work for the Prince. She devoted herself to caring for Miranda and Becca. She often took them into Temperance-especially when he was traveling for the Prince-and they all sat together in the Cathedral for weekly services.

  She had become the wife he remembered, save in sharing the marital bed. Granted, in the winter, when winds howled and the house became very cold, there was little reason to stop Miranda and Becca from joining them in bed. But even when they had time alone, Catherine appeared fatigued. Owen attributed it to her putting out a tremendous effort to make Mystria her home. She always seemed happier after a trip to Temperance. She loved city life and her being forced to choose between it and her husband was exhausting her.

  Sex had trickled to nothingness as the winter moved into spring. That wasn’t much of a surprise. Their physical relations had always waned as sailing season approached. Even though she remained pleasant and didn’t even hint at traveling to Norisle, he suspected past resentment lurked in her heart. Becca’s addition to the household obviated the need for another child immediately, but he and Catherine played the game with well-wishing busybodies, claiming they were working on increasing their family one way or another. The lack of lovemaking he could accept as the price of a peaceful home.

  Owen shivered, then glanced at Hodge. “Does Miss Felicity know you are intending to ask her to marry?”

  Hodge stirred a pot in which he was melting snow. “Well, sir, I’m not sure that she does. Being the winter and all, and half of that spent in Plentiful helping them rebuild, I didn’t get to see her much. But Mr. Caleb tells me that, according to his sister, Felicity’s not being courted at the moment. I might imagine one of the Fifth might take a shine to her, so I will not lament our returning direct to Temperance. I was hoping, in fact, we might run across a deer or tanner or something I could shoot and bring her a bit of, you know, to show I can be a provider. Do you think that plan will work?”

  “It has things to recommend it.” Owen stopped himself from chuckling. “Of course, you might ask Caleb to ask his sister what Miss Felicity likes, and you could obtain a sample thereof to catch her eye.”

  Hodge took the pot off the fire and stirred in some tea leaves. “Now there I was knowing you would know what to do. Was that how you won your Catherine’s heart?”

  Owen hesitated. At one time he would have answered in the affirmative, but from time to time he’d been given to ask himself why she had married him. That caused him to recall, with a certain amount of embarrassment, that she had actually come after him. It wasn’t a question of his winning her heart, but that she let him believe he had won it.

  “Different circumstances, I think, Hodge, but you can’t go wrong there. Women like a provider, but they also like to know a man is thinking of them even when they aren’t there.”

  The smaller man nodded. “Wish I hadn’t gone back so soon from the ruin. Ever since the Gazette printed that story about the dire wolves, and General Rathfield decided to make his wolfskin into a pelisse, well, they’ve been all the rage. If I had a skin or two, no question she’d be mine.”

  “You’re welcome to the ones I have in the attic.” Owen smiled easily. The Shedashee had cleaned and preserved the wolfskins and had sent them east. Owen had stored them in the attic, figuring to sell them in the spring. “I have five of them, and no real use for them.”

  “No, sir, I didn’t shoot it, I don’t want it. Not that I don’t mind the offer.” Hodge strained tea from the pot into two battered tin mugs, then handed one to Owen. “And I’d not be liking to see any of them wolves on our trip back. If it were to happen, though…”

  “I’ll give you first shot.”

  “Obliged, sir.” Hodge raised his cup in a salute. “It does surprise me though that your wife hasn’t had them skins made into a coat. It would make her the belle of society in Temperance.”

  “That’s why she doesn’t do it, Hodge.” Owen blew on his tea. “She won’t ever let herself show up the Princess. Since the Prince has not made his wife a coat of wolf-pelts, Catherine won’t ask me to make her one.”

  “That the same reason she hasn’t told you to make a pelisse like General Rathfield?”

  “That sort of short cloak looks good with a uniform, Hodge, not over Church clothes.” Owen sipped tea, then sighed. “The General does cut a dashing figure, doesn’t he?”

  “I think, sir, some will say that, but few will have been at Anvil Lake.”

  Owen laughed.

  “What, sir?”

  “Hodge, at Anvil Lake, you were serving Her Majesty.”

  “As were you, sir.”

  “And that’s why I laugh.” Owen opened his arms. “Look at us. It’s been four years. We’re wearing homespun and skins. We’re both counting ourselves as Mystrians, and judging men from Norisle by the same standards Mystrians would.”

  Hodge smiled. “I’m thinking of marrying a nice Mystrian girl.”

  “Right. What happened to us, Hodge?”

  The smaller’s face scrunched up a bit, then he nodded once, curtly. “I think, sir, that when we were from Norisle, we spent a lot
of time being told what to do by men who thought they knew best what that was. Out here, we’re asked to do the best we can, doing the things that are best for Mystria. That kind of freedom, sir, is something one can come to enjoy. And I don’t see any reason here and now or hereafter, to be going back to the other way of life.”

  Chapter Forty-seven

  5 April 1768 Temperance Temperance Bay, Mystria

  Prince Vlad leaned forward over the map table in his laboratory, supporting himself on his arms. A million things banged around in his head. He should have been rejoicing. He had a second wooly rhinoceros in his pen, a totally new species of creature scattered over a long table, numerous jars, and a drying rack, and his surveying efforts were proving wildly successful.

  The problem is that all of those things point to our being on the brink of a devastating war.

  Count von Metternin and Gisella stood on either side of the table. A map of the northeastern region of Mystria covered the table. Plentiful appeared a third of the way in from Temperance, and Happy Valley a third further west-southwest. Rivers and lakes had been drawn in blue ink, and ghost rivers in green. The surveys covering them had been by no means comprehensive, so some appeared as shattered wheels with no rim and broken spokes radiating out for short distances.

  Vlad straightened up, rubbing a hand over his jaw, clutching his other arm to his chest. “I’m certain Piety was built on a nexus. I’m certain a survey team would find a line between it and the ruins. You’ve also noted that both the summer and winter locations for Saint Luke appear to share ghost river lines. Even the preliminary information from Owen suggests lines which would connect known Shedashee settlements and sacred sites.”

  The Count nodded. “You would suggest, then, that Piety was destroyed because it occupied a nexus point?”

  “That, or its location on a nexus point made it easier to destroy.” Vlad frowned. “Until Gisella and I discovered that another medium can be used to make magick work, we believed that it worked at touch only. That was one of two constants to magick. The second was that to use magick was to tire and damage the person using it. Experiments suggest that there are magickal currents, energy currents, in the world. They provide a substrate through which magick can move. It is not unreasonable to suggest that if a sorcerer can manipulate those currents, he could produce a bigger effect with less expense to himself.”

  Gisella nodded. “So that having Piety on a nexus would have supplemented a Norghaest’s power.”

  “Yes.” Vlad squeezed his eyes shut, then shook his head. “So many theories, and so much information to sort out.”

  Gisella moved to his side, stroking his right shoulder. “Beloved, you can only work with the things you know.”

  “Yes, darling, but there is so much I need to know.” Vlad gave her a smile, then pointed toward the wurmrest. “We have determined that a thaumagraph can send a message between units at a speed of roughly fifty miles a day. I have been thinking that this is the rough speed of magick. In a tactical situation that’s a yard per second. Much slower than a musket ball, but potentially more damaging than a cannon ball. The problem is, of course, that Mugwump flew to Happy Valley, I shall assume, because the use of Norghaest magick attracted him. At the normal speed of magick, it would have taken four days for the magick to reach him, but the only manifestations I can verify happened just hours before we headed off. Have I the wrong speed? I don’t…”

  Von Metternin shook his head. “That is not something you will know, not immediately, Highness. Perhaps not ever. What you do know is the speed at which the thaumagraph can function. At fifty miles a day, it is much faster than a man on foot or horseback, and ghost rivers can increase that speed. This is why you have been able to issue summonses to the Rangers, to bring them together so quickly. That is what is important.”

  “You’re right, of course. Still…” The Prince moved to the table on which the troll’s bones had been laid out. Some sections were missing because the rhino’s attack had pulverized them. Others had suffered because Nathaniel’s plan for getting the body back without its scent angering the rhino involved freezing it solid in a block of ice. The rhino had no difficulty hauling the block east, but water had seeped into some breaks, had frozen and further shattered bone.

  “I am most concerned over the damage, or lack thereof, to the creature’s skull. Even with the help of ice formation, Nathaniel’s bullet only chipped the skull.” He shook his head. “I have no doubt a swivel gun or cannon could kill one, but a musket ball?

  Gisella pointed to one of the jars on a shelf. “At least we know Mugwump’s saliva dissolves its tissue, much as it did the demons.”

  “If I had barrels of his spit and a way to spray it, this should make me happier.”

  His wife nodded. “I’d rather you had an army of dragons.”

  “I fear we’ll have to make due with one.” He glanced up at Count von Metternin. “Are you ready to go, my lord?”

  “Yes. I have convinced the Steward that he shall come as my aide, and he has agreed to remain disguised. I do not think any of the Rangers will revolt at knowing who he is, but there is no reason to provoke Bumble unnecessarily.” The Count traced a finger along the green ghost river track on the south side of the Benjamin. “A Ranger squad is already at my home, and we shall head out tomorrow morning, find Owen, and push west with all speed. I will have my thaumagraph with me, so I shall send you information to supplement your map.”

  The Prince turned and plucked a wooden tile from a shelf. It had burned onto it the figure of a walking man wearing a crown. “You should use this for the thaumagraph I will bring with me. I’ll leave the other one here, and Gisella will relay information. The thaumagraph from Temperance will also travel with us so we have another way to signal if there is an accident.”

  “I am packing spare strings, Highness, just in case.”

  “A wise precaution. We’ll be following with the rest of the Rangers and a battalion of foresters to build roads as soon as we can. General Rathfield is organizing to join us, but likely will be several days behind. I hope we will travel faster than we did going to Anvil Lake.”

  Again his wife squeezed his shoulder. In asking Nathaniel and Owen to recount their visions, both had provided details that suggested the Norghaest would emerge in the late spring and early summer. The presence of the troll indicated the Norghaest were proceeding on schedule. If the Mystrians were going to locate them and hit them hard before they had raised defenses, they would have to move quickly. But will it be quickly enough?

  The Count sketched a short bow. “I shall take my leave of you, as much as I would prefer to stay. I am mostly organized, but I wish to double-check the thaumagraph and make certain it is well packed. You will get reports in short form, and I shall send runners back with more complete documents as needed.”

  “Thank you, my friend.”

  “It is not just for our friendship or my duty to your wife’s family that I do this, you know.” The man smiled. “I love this land, and I admire your people. The Rangers have come only because you ask, not because you demand or because it is their duty. They are not your vassals; they are your companions. What you have here is unlike anything in Auropa, and fighting to preserve it is a sacred honor.”

  Gisella crossed to him, hugged him and kissed him on both cheeks. “Go with God, Joachim.”

  “Thank you, Highness. Your smile shall inspire me.”

  She closed the door behind, then turned and looked at her husband. “Will you tell him when next you see him?”

  Vlad looked up from the map. “Tell him?”

  Gisella stroked her stomach with a hand. “That I am pregnant?”

  Prince Vlad made no attempt to hide his smile, and even felt the weight pressing on his chest lighten. “I will. I promise he will know before any bullets fly.”

  “But you have not told him yet because he would argue that you should stay behind.”

  Vlad shook his head. “It’s not that h
e would argue, it is that I would acquiesce.”

  His wife came to him and pressed a finger to his lips. “You would not, and you know it. And, no, I do not take that as a sign that you do not love me. At least, not at the moment, but I shan’t always be responsible for my feelings in this matter.”

  He slipped his arms around her and looked upon her smiling face. “It feels as if I am two men jammed together in one body. Part of me knows it is my right, perhaps even my obligation, to choose men like Joachim or Owen or General Rathfield to act in my stead. Were I a Prince in Norisle, my aunt might let me travel with her generals and field marshals, but she would not give me command. They would not allow it. They would be afraid I was just playing at war and that I’d retire when it bored me or frightened me. And part of me might have done that.”

  “Not you, Vladimir. You would not be bored or frightened.”

  “I would become distracted, perhaps, but I would not serve well the cause nor the men fighting beneath me.” Vlad kissed the tip of her nose. “But as the Count said, the men going west are not my vassals, they are my companions. The second man inside me is one of them. Four years ago we fought together, shed blood together, and were victorious together. I am calling them together to face a foe who, I fear, makes Laureate du Malphias look like an errant child. The Crown gives me nothing-Ian Rathfield will be sacked for bringing his troops along whether we win or lose. We have too few troops. I could call up the militia, but I haven’t funds to pay them or enough brimstone or equipment to provide for them. And, frankly, if we fail in the west, they’ll be needed here.”

  “You won’t fail, my love.” She slipped from his arms, then opened hers. “Do you know how I can say that?”

  “How?”

  “You are one of the rare men who looks for truth. Men like Bumble will never understand that because the truth frightens them. I know, when you started to examine magick, you were afraid, but it was your thirst for knowledge that got you past that fear. Now what awaits in the west also frightens you, but you will learn. You will figure out how and where the Norghaest can be defeated. And you will defeat them.”