At the Queen_s command cc-1

by Michael A. Stackpole

  "You came to my realm. What is it you wanted from me?"

  "We came wanting nothing."

  Bass notes thrummed through Owen. Laughter?

  "Men always want something."

  "I just want to go home."

  "Of course you do." The creature climbed to one knee, towering over them. "You brought my children playthings."

  Owen looked back, but aside from the dancing officer, he could see none of the other soldiers. Laughter echoed from the hillsides, and Owen braced himself for screams of terror.

  "What will happen to them?"

  "Do you care?"

  "They are men like myself, I must care."

  More deep laughter thrummed through Owen. "You say that because you think you must. You think yourself superior because you have risen above the other animals. Even though these men wished to kill you, you think you must care because you share a kinship. But, in truth, you do not care. You fear you will die as they will. Admit it."

  Owen nodded. "And I pity them."

  "You tell yourself it is pity, manling, but you disguise the true reason. Guilt. And this is what sets you apart from the animals, this feeling of guilt. Your most useless emotion, sour and bitter, yet one you are trained to accept as inescapable."

  Owen did feel guilty. Whatever pain and terror the Tharyngians would know was the result of his leading them onto the winding path. But he had not forced them to follow. They were rational individuals who had made a decision to follow. They were fully responsible for their own actions, and the consequences fell fully on their heads.

  The creature leaned forward. "You are a bright one, aren't you? You have figured it out."

  Owen shook his head. "Guilt is not useless. Without it, we would do horrible things again and again. We would be lawless."

  "You would be wild, as you once were, free to own the world. Free to be our favored pets again, instead of a pest which must be exterminated."

  "I don't understand."

  "No, you refuse to let yourself understand." The creature sat back. "You believe you know the way of things, the way things were intended. In your creation stories, man knows the forest-the garden- existed before he did. He places himself above it, to hide his fear of it.

  "No matter. You wish to know what will become of them." The arms swung wide. "They will know the greatest pleasures, and then the greatest fears. They will be alone, and terrified, and after we have drained them of all emotion, they will die. Their flesh and blood will nourish our bodies as their emotions feed our souls."

  Owen watched the Tharyngian officer and read the pure delight on his face. He turned away again. "It won't be fast, will it?"

  "Excruciatingly slow."

  "And us?"

  The giant creature stood. "I find myself in your debt. Not sufficiently that I can release you, but if you would perform for me a service…"

  "What? Lure more in?"

  "You will do that, and more." The creature swept a branched hand down, clearing away snow and a layer of wet leaves. He revealed an oval sheet of ice. "I require a drop of your blood, and for you to peer into this frozen glass."

  Owen nodded.

  The creature extended a branch and probed his wound in a manner not wholly gentle. Owen winced. The creature offered no apology and dabbed a drop on the ice. The rest of the blood, as nearly as Owen could tell, sank into the branch and a green bud rose in its place.

  "Look, manling."

  Owen knelt beside the translucent ice, hands on either side, and stared down. It shifted to a mirror. For a heartbeat he did not recognize the reflection. Ragged beard, unkempt hair, sunken eyes. Captivity had not been kind. Then the ice cleared. He saw his wife, Catherine, standing, staring at him, her face full of hatred.

  "No, Catherine!" He thrust a hand forward to touch her, but his fingers crumpled against the ice. It became translucent again, the droplet of blood having vanished.

  Owen looked up. "She doesn't hate me."

  "It is not what is, but what will be, because of choices you make." More laughter rippled up through the ground. "Her love withers, but you shall remain ignorant until too late."

  Owen's stomach collapsed in on itself. He pounded his fist against the ice, trying to shatter it. Neither it nor his hand broke, but he fervently wished for either. He wanted to destroy that future, and if he hurt himself, so much the better.

  Because, as the image became clear, and as he saw the woman's face emerge from shadows, for a heartbeat, just a heartbeat, he'd feared it was Bethany. And when it turned out to be his wife, just for another heartbeat, he felt relief.

  Quarante-neuf pulled him back upright, then faced the creature. "You would have the same of me?"

  "No." The creature reached out and touched the green bud to Quarante-neuf's forehead. In the space of three heartbeats the bud flowered fully, leaves sprouted green and huge, then became red and gold and dropped away.

  Quarante-neuf staggered, sinking to his knees. "I understand."

  Owen turned. The pasmorte' s face had become a lifeless mask. "What did you do to him?"

  "Accelerated a process which you had begun." The creature stepped back. An avenue opened to the east. "I know you both. I know your lives will be full of misery. I shall enjoy that, therefore I shall let you live."

  Owen stood and helped Quarante-neuf up. "You said that what I saw was the future. Is there a way to change it?"

  "A few ways, if you choose carefully. If you remember what you truly are. But you won't. It is that friction, between what you want to think you are and your true nature, which will be the source of your misery." Laughter trembled up through the earth and snow. "You torture yourselves so well."

  The creature pointed along the path. "Go. You will find your world different, but much the same. Go, sons of Mystria, knowing your future has earned your freedom."

  Owen threw an arm around Quarante-neuf's waist and led the pasmorte up along the path. He didn't see any other dryads lurking around trees, and did not bother to look back. The creature would be gone, all traces of the Tharyngians would have vanished. All he had of the winding path was its truth-misery-not the illusion of peace.

  "What did it do to you, Quarante-neuf? What did you see?"

  "It does not concern you, Captain. As it said, it made faster what you had started."

  "Are you dying?"

  Quarante-neuf managed a short laugh. "Not a task that requires doing twice. No, my vitality is not ebbing."

  "Good." Owen stopped and hunched over. "I'm afraid mine is."

  The pasmorte straightened up. "I can carry you."

  "No, my friend, just let me rest. A few more steps. Let us crest the hill and then I shall rest."

  Quarante-neuf threw his left arm around Owen and looped the man's right over his shoulders again. The pasmorte 's steps remained strong. He held Owen up easily. With each step it seemed as if he was becoming stronger, showing no fatigue or consequences of having been shot.

  Then Owen laughed. It is because you are becoming weaker.

  They crested the hill and everything changed again. An east wind blasted them full in the face, driving wet snow. Owen staggered back a step, hoping to return to the winding path's sanctuary, but it no longer existed. Instead of being on the side of a hill, they had just emerged into a meadow.

  "I don't understand." Owen shielded his face with a hand. He had to scream above the shrieking wind. "This can't be."

  Quarante-neuf laughed. "Where we just were could not be, Captain. This place is. Luckily, I know where we are. Come."

  They kept walking. Quarante-neuf, anyway, walked. He dragged Owen through drifts and kept him moving when Owen wanted to stop. "You cannot, Captain, you'll freeze. You will die if you do not keep moving."

  "That's better, my friend, than causing what I saw. My wife hating me."

  "Is that truly what you saw?"

  "The expression on her face. My fault."

  "But you can change it. He said that."

&nbs
p; Owen collapsed, curling into a ball. "I can't take another step."

  "And I can't let you come to harm."

  Owen patted the pasmorte' s leg. " That is du Malphias' magick speaking. Save yourself. If you save me, I will kill him."

  Quarante-neuf knelt, and gathered Owen into his arms. "What I feel is not his magick. It is the magick of what a friend feels for a friend."

  How long he traveled in Quarante-neuf's arms Owen could not say. The blizzard had made the world a timeless, silver-grey tunnel. When night fell it became colder. He would have frozen to death, save for the pasmorte 's warmth.

  Finally Quarante-neuf set him down. Owen opened his eyes and found his surroundings vaguely familiar. This place. This is the Frost house. "How did you know?"

  Quarante-neuf did not answer. He stood over Owen and pounded on the door. He waited and pounded again, then backed down the steps.

  Owen reached out even as he heard footsteps on the other side. "No, you cannot go."

  The pasmorte shook his head. "I am dead, but I remember. For this reason, I must go."

  The door cracked open, yellow light pouring into the storm. Of Quarante-neuf, Owen could only see a dim silhouette being devoured by the storm. Snow had filled his footsteps and, by the time Owen had been stripped of his clothes, bandaged and lowered to bed, there would be no sign of Quarante-neuf's passing.

  1764

  Chapter Forty-Five

  May 13, 1764

  Government House, Temperance

  Temperance Bay, Mystria

  P rince Vladimir had always found the long delay in communications with Norisle to be a blessing. The swiftest response he had ever had to a missive had been three months, and that was on a matter of no consequence. In general, the more serious the request, the slower the response. And while that suggested due deliberation at the highest levels of government, the replies most often had an offhand quality that suggested no one read his reports nor did any sober thinking on the problem.

  Within a day of Captain Strake's miraculous return, the Prince had interviewed him. Within a week, Owen had come to the estate and helped update the model of du Malphias' fortress. The Prince had written a fully detailed report with all cogent facts included-he left out specifics of Owen's escape since that would have undercut the reliability of his testimony-and sent it with Colonel Langford back to Launston on the tenth of December.

  And then he had waited.

  And waited.

  News trickling in from Norisle had not been good. The war in Tharyngia did not go well. General Ahab Smalling had made Lord Rivendell look very much the master of war. Smalling had managed to squander the few advantages the Laureates had given him. Lord Rivendell had led through neglect; Smalling managed every tiny detail, demanding reports on powder and shot expenditure by soldier-expecting unit survivors to provide that data for their fallen comrades. He wasn't above flogging those who failed to comply. This included the dead sergeant of a squad that had been wiped out in a rearguard action.

  The Prince learned those sorts of details through private correspondence. The official records praised the casualty figures. Smalling was given a knighthood and posted to Her Majesty's colony of Xue Vang, on the Han coast, where he would parade local levy troops before races and other events for Norillian expatriates.

  The Mystrian winter was not passed unpleasantly. Though the weather was bitterly cold, with more snow than usual, Gisella's presence brought Vlad great pleasure. She purchased a home in Temperance and the Count took up residence nearby. She often entertained and required the Prince to attend her parties. She invited other friends, including Rachel Warren, for they had become quite close.

  Watching Owen Strake's progress toward full recovery had been a joy. Owen had looked horrible when the Prince first saw him. A bullet had passed all the way through his flank and doctors thought bleeding him would help drain toxins from the blood. Prince Vlad outraged them when he dismissed them in favor of Chief Msitazi and Altashee medicines.

  Of greatest concern was the magick that filled Owen's steps with pain. Msitazi had managed to unweave du Malphias' magick, but doing so had not been easy. The Altashee Chieftain suggested that had du Malphias been closer, or had chosen to fight him, he might not have been able to accomplish the job.

  The gunshot wound responded well to poultices and unguents. Kamiskwa and Nathaniel supplied ample amounts of mogiqua. Because they'd had to dig it out from beneath the snow, it wasn't at full potency, but they made a poultice from the leaves and a bitter tea from mashed roots.

  Bethany Frost made certain Owen drank the tea, and she changed his dressings. She also barred any visitors she felt would irritate Owen. The Prince credited her presence with much of Owen's recovery. She and the rest of the Frost family watched over him. Doctor Frost opened his library to Owen, and Caleb even came to treat him decently.

  Within two weeks Owen had gained enough strength to walk without more than a cane. Now, in mid-May, one had to look to notice his limp, and that came only after a long day's walk. The Prince had seen pain occasionally on the man's face, but a decoction of pussy willow eased it quickly enough. The Prince admired how the man pushed himself, regaining the weight he had lost and refusing to give in to weakness.

  The Prince had only seen Kamiskwa and Nathaniel briefly. This was not unusual, since they both wintered with the Altashee at Saint Luke. Vlad assumed that Zachariah Warren's presence in Temperance made meeting Rachel all but impossible. When they did come around the estate, they generally brought useful news, like that of a Tharyngian ship that had tried to sail up the Argent River to Lac Verleau. A blizzard drove it aground on a sandbar near Fort Dufresne on the east end of Salmon Lake. Before they could get it off again, the lake began to freeze over, crushing the ship's hull. Most of the cargo was saved, but if it was meant for du Malphias, it would take a very long time to reach him.

  The nasty weather also worked against du Malphias' fortress in the spring. The Argent River took a long time to clear of ice, so any reinforcements from Kebeton or Tharyngia had to wait. Flooding from abnormally high runoff had damaged port facilities in Kebeton and wiped out spring wheat crops. New Tharyngia's year had not started auspiciously.

  Had troops and orders come from Norisle by April, an expedition could have been mounted that might well have taken the fortress. The prince had issued a call for militia units, placing Major Robert Forest in charge of them. He was due up from Fairlee with a levy of their famed sharpshooters. The Prince had resolved to head out on his own come the end of May if he heard nothing from Norisle.

  But then a fast packet boat had arrived at the beginning of May, heralding a coming fleet. The message, for the sake of operational security, had been maddeningly vague, but the Prince followed its dictates. So it was that he'd remained in Temperance and even had Baker bring the model to Government House, so he could brief whomever the Crown had put in command.

  A clerk found the Prince studying the model. "Highness, report from the headland: the HMS Indefatigable will reach port this morning. "

  Finally. "Very good, Mr. Chandler, thank you."

  "Beg pardon, Highness, but will you be greeting the ship or receive the commander here?"

  "Send my coach for him. Also ask Count von Metternin and Captain Strake if they can attend me."

  "Yes, sire, very good, sire."

  Vlad retired to the Captain's Walk with his telescope. He studied the ship. It came into the harbor under one sail only and dropped anchor well shy of the docks. This struck the Prince as curious, for unless the commander had reasons to keep his troops on board, he should have come directly to the wharves. The signal flags indicated no illness, which was the last thing they needed. An epidemic killing Mystrians and devastating troops would be an ill omen.

  Count von Metternin waited for him in his office. The Kessian had dressed in his light blue uniform, having added a red sash with medals and a heavy cavalry saber. His hat he'd set on a chair, its previously jaunty plume replace
d by a turkey feather.

  They shook hands and the Count smiled. "I thought it would help our cause if I were properly attired."

  "To be quite frank, I had hoped whomever they sent would not be overly impressed with uniforms and medals." Vlad sighed. He wanted someone who would take charge and destroy du Malphias instead of an indolent noble focused on his own advancement.

  "I do find curious, Count von Metternin, your use of the word 'our'."

  "Do you?" The Kessian smiled. "I have taken to your Mystria. I find the openness and honesty refreshing. I stand ready to do what I can to preserve this special place, for its own sake, and that of the Princess."

  "Good, a… land like Mystria needs good men." Vlad turned to the model to cover his surprise. He'd almost said country. Suggesting that Mystria could be its own nation was treasonous. Vlad put it down to his having already called up militia without Norillian authorization. He would have made war on a Tharyngian outpost. If successful, the assault would have been hailed as a Norillian victory and, if a failure, blamed entirely on the people of Mystria.

  "Your land breeds good men." Von Metternin walked slowly around the model. "You may not notice these things, but I do. A man like Nathaniel Woods, for example, do you know what he would be on the Continent or in Norisle?"

  Vlad smiled. "A highwayman?"

  "Quite possibly. He certainly would not be the confidant to a prince. All the forces that could be brought to bear would keep him in his place. Yes, he might enlist in the army and would fight well, but rise to rank even as Captain Strake has? This could not happen. And it could not happen because if it did happen-on merit-men like me, men of the aristocracy, would have to destroy him. His existence threatens the system which exalts us."

  "It sounds as if you do not hold the nobility to be special."

  "You mistake me. I think many are. I am, you are, and there are many more examples. But I wonder if a man like Mr. Woods would not be even more special given the opportunities we have had. He is a very smart man, but he does not read. How much more would he understand and be able to offer if he did?"