Saving the Princess

by Helena Newbury

  Garrett took my hand in his big, warm one. I looked up at him and he nodded. Wherever this led, he’d be with me.

  I dialed. It was midnight, but in the army there’s always someone on duty. I got a series of supervisors out of bed, gradually going up through the ranks until I found someone who had the answers. “We do still keep Garmanian weapons in storage, for training purposes,” I was told. “But as to exactly what and how much... unfortunately, Your Majesty, that information is classified.”

  “Not to your Queen, it’s not,” I said sternly.

  I could almost hear him gulp. Then the tapping of computer keys. “Incendiary mortar rounds…” he muttered.

  I held my breath.

  “No, Your Majesty,” he said. “We don’t have any of those.”

  I let out a long sigh and leaned against Garrett for support. I was a mess of emotions: embarrassment, that we’d been wrong. Relief, that we had been. And despair that I hadn’t found some last minute way out: we were going to war. I politely thanked the officer and apologized for being terse with him.

  “That’s quite alright, Your Majesty.” I could hear that he’d relaxed. “Pity you didn’t call a few weeks ago. Our records show we had fifty-two of those rounds then. But they were all signed out for a training exercise.”

  I jerked upright. “On whose authority?”

  “General Novak.”

  I hung up the phone. Garrett and I stared at each other as ice water sluiced through my body. “Novak wants a war,” I whispered. “He never wanted the first one to finish. He thought we should have gone ahead and wiped them out. It was only my father who stopped him.”

  “But how would he get in touch with Silvas Lukin?” asked Garrett. “He’s Garmanian, he’s the enemy.”

  My mind was racing. “Lukin was a war criminal. He was in a special military prison right here in Lakovia... until he escaped.”

  Garrett caught on immediately. He was a lot smarter than he thought. “And as head of the military, General Novak could visit Lukin in prison. The son of a bitch. He offered Lukin his freedom in return for helping to restart the war.”

  “Lukin agreed, Novak arranged the escape, gave Lukin captured Garmanian weapons and told him to put his old squad back together.” My stomach lurched. “And then he sent them after me and my father.”

  I didn’t want to believe it, but it made perfect sense. Lukin and his squad would assassinate my father and me and Novak would step into the power vacuum. With the royal family assassinated by Garmania, the public would be baying for blood. They’d want war. And once we were victorious, Novak would keep the war going until he’d destroyed Garmania: every building, every child. The plan was elegant and perfect. And it would have worked, if Garrett hadn’t been there to save me on the plane. He’d ordered Lukin to keep trying to kill me... and meanwhile, he’d convinced me to start the war.

  I wanted to be sick. I’d completely bought the story he’d sold me about Garmania wanting to invade us. I’d been terrified we were going to lose. Now I was terrified we were going to win. Garmania was innocent: they’d been nothing but peaceful and now we were going to wipe them out: that would be the legacy of my reign.

  I could hardly believe that the man I’d trusted so completely had betrayed me. What convinced me was that, in his mind, he was being loyal. Loyal to his country. To him, my father and I were the traitors for making peace. “We have to stop him,” I croaked.

  “That’s going to be hard,” said Garrett. “He’s got troops all over the city... and in the palace.”

  I put my face in my hands, fighting the urge to scream. “I’m an idiot. I let him put troops on the streets! He’s halfway to seizing power already!”

  “We’re going to need help,” said Garrett.

  He was right. We couldn’t just accuse the General, not when he was surrounded by gun-toting troops. He might just take the final step and order them to shoot me, clearing the final obstacle from his path. For the same reason, I couldn’t just stop the war, not until I’d removed him. “Aleksander,” I said at last. “He’ll be able to help.” I dialed him.

  Aleksander listened silently as I told him what we’d found out. “Novak has troops everywhere,” he said, keeping his voice low. “Meet me at the dam. We can work out a plan there.”

  I hung up, jumped off the bed and started scrambling into my clothes. Then I cursed as the clock tower struck two. We had less than eight hours to stop the General... and stop the war.

  57

  Kristina

  We didn’t have time to bother with armored SUVs and palace drivers, plus the less attention we drew, the better. So Garrett signed out one of the plain black Mercedes the guards used for palace business and we started up the twisting road to the dam. My phone rang: Caroline.

  “Sorry to disturb you,” she said, “But I didn’t know who else to call and I thought you and Garrett might still be awake.”

  I glanced at Garrett. Even now, Caroline still knew how to make me blush. “We were. What’s up?”

  She sighed. “It’s nothing, just...this guy’s calling from New York and he’s demanding to speak to someone in authority. He won’t go away and he won’t wait till morning. I can’t reach Aleksander for some reason and Sebastian is….” She broke off, her voice beginning to shake.

  “I’ll take it,” I said firmly. “You get some sleep.”

  She thanked me and a second later, my ear was assaulted by a gruff male voice with a New York twang. “Finally! About fucking time! This is Officer Tashiro, airport security. Am I speaking to someone high up?”

  “You’re speaking to the queen,” I said politely.

  His manner changed abruptly. I had to get through almost a minute of apologies before I found out what he wanted.

  “It’s your security passes. I need ‘em back. I’ve been asking for days, but no one’s got back to me and it’s my fu—It’s my job on the line.”

  “Security passes?”

  “Two of your guys walked off with theirs after their inspection. God knows how they managed to get past my guys without handing them in, but they did, and it’s my ass if I don’t account for ‘em.”

  I furrowed my brow. “Where did you say you worked?”

  “JFK.”

  New York. Where our flight had taken off from. “And when you say two of our guys….”

  “Two of your security guys. I issued five passes, so your security team could inspect the aircraft before it flew. But only three of them ever came back to me.”

  I went cold. The two assassins on the plane: they hadn’t been smuggled on board at all. Five men from Lukin’s squad had been welcomed aboard, posing as our security, and two of them had simply stayed on board. “Who organized this inspection?” I asked, my voice shaking.

  He paused while he checked his paperwork. “A. Popovic.”

  Aleksander.

  I heard myself thank the officer. I hung up and sat staring at the phone in a state of total shock. That made no sense, unless….

  Something was forming at the back of my mind, huge and dark and cold, so horrific that I didn’t dare look around and see it. But there were too many loose ends. And following each one suddenly seemed to lead me in the same direction.

  We never found out who was leaking information to the assassins, when we were in America. I quickly dialed FBI Director Gibson. “Did you share your information with our military?” I asked breathlessly. “With a General Novak?”

  “No, Your Majesty,” said Gibson. “We sent all our information to your parents via the palace, but that’s all.”

  “Via who at the palace?”

  “Your chief advisor, Aleksander.”

  I thanked him and hung up. Ahead of us, the dam came into view. My mind was racing, now. A memory came back to me: Caroline, sobbing and hysterical, unable to believe her beloved Sebastian was a traitor.

  What if he wasn’t?

  I called the dungeon and had them get Sebastian out of his cell. He was a qu
iet, slender man in his twenties with glasses, always polite, a little shy. But when he spoke now, he sounded as if he’d aged thirty years, his voice brittle with exhaustion and fear.

  We were driving along the top of the dam, now. I could see a lone figure standing waiting for us, right in the middle. My knuckles went white where they gripped my phone. “Sebastian?” I asked. “Did Aleksander have access to your phone? Could he have read your messages?”

  “We work in the same room,” he said. “I leave it on my desk….”

  My heart was thumping in my chest. “Did he know you were sleeping with Caroline?!”

  Sebastian sighed. “I told her that no one knew, but... you know Aleksander. He knows everything that’s going on. He guessed. But he said he wouldn’t tell anyone. Your Majesty, what’s going on?”

  I could hear the confusion in his voice. He hadn’t even considered the possibility that his boss, his friend, was a traitor. I couldn’t believe it either.

  I thought back to that night the lights went out, in my room. Aleksander sitting there, advising me to have Sebastian tortured. Could he really have done that, knowing that he himself was the traitor? No. No way. And why would he betray us? Money? Power? He’d never shown any interest in either.

  I sighed. There had to be some other explanation. Aleksander, a traitor? He was practically family! I thought of him as an uncle. I’d felt sorry for him: he’d seemed so lonely, since his son died—

  We pulled up, right beside Aleksander. He opened my door.

  Since his son died. In the war. Oh Jesus. That was his reason. Not money or power. Simple revenge.

  “Drive!” I yelled hysterically to Garrett. “Go!”

  But Aleksander grabbed my shoulder and wrenched me out of the car. And behind him, Silvas Lukin and General Novak stepped out of the shadows.

  58

  Garrett

  I jumped out of the car and raced around, but Lukin was as fast as ever. He grabbed Kristina, slid an arm around her throat and rested the muzzle of his handgun against her temple. I skidded to a stop.

  Aleksander was smart: he’d lured us where no one would see. The dam was deserted apart from our little group and it was pitch black: I couldn’t see more than a hundred yards along the dam in either direction. The feeling of space all around us was unnerving: the sky high above, the valley sides far out of view on either side of us, the reservoir stretching out on one side of the dam and the sheer drop on the other.

  Kristina was glaring up at Aleksander, too shocked and too mad to be scared. “You son of a bitch!” she breathed. “How could you—I trusted you! My father trusted you!” Her mouth fell open as she pieced more and more of it together. “You put the poison in the bath oil!”

  I thought back to the day the King was shot. How Aleksander had been so slow to deliver the warning. “You didn’t get stuck in the crowd that day, did you?” I growled. “You were giving them time to shoot!” I could feel the rage boil up inside me: anger at what he’d done, humiliation at being so expertly played. I took a step towards him, but Lukin pressed his gun harder against Kristina’s head. I froze.

  “You leaked the story about Garmania being behind the attacks, didn’t you?” whispered Kristina. “You knew it’d cause violence and that gave the General an excuse to put troops on the streets.”

  Aleksander spoke for the first time. “I did what I had to do.” The bastard sounded completely unrepentant.

  “Think about what you’re doing,” begged Kristina. “This won’t bring your son back!”

  “It’ll mean he didn’t die for nothing,” said Aleksander coldly. “When we wipe the bastards out.”

  I exchanged terrified looks with Kristina. With them in charge, it wouldn’t be a war. It would be genocide.

  “Let’s get this over with,” muttered General Novak.

  One of Lukin’s men grabbed me and pushed me towards Kristina. We stumbled into each other and I put my arms around her protectively. They pushed us until our hips were against the metal safety rail. Beyond it, the dam fell away into the darkness: I couldn’t even see the bottom of the drop, just hear the water thundering down, hundreds of feet below.

  “You can’t just kill us,” Kristina said desperately. “People will ask questions!”

  “You came here to be alone with your American lover,” said Aleksander sadly. “Love made you foolish: you sneaked out without your guards.” He nodded at Lukin. “A Garmanian assassin had slipped past our security. You died in each other’s arms.”

  She looked up at me, eyes full of hope. It made my heart twist because I’d failed her so utterly. “I’m sorry,” I said.

  She shook her head. But it was my fault. I was meant to protect her and I hadn’t seen this coming: not General Novak or Aleksander. I took a deep, shuddering breath, trying to control my anger. I thought of all the times Aleksander had thanked me, lying right to my face. I’m an idiot. I’d let the politicians betray me all over again.

  Kristina pressed herself to me and I pulled her close, as if I could stop what was going to happen if I only held her tight enough. She rubbed her cheek against my chest. “Please tell me you have a plan,” she said, her voice cracking.

  Think! But I didn’t. I didn’t have a damn thing. I shook my head and squeezed her even harder.

  “Him first,” someone said in the darkness. I think it was Novak. “Then her.”

  I felt cold metal against my scalp. The muzzle of Lukin’s gun.

  “You can kiss her, if you like,” said Lukin.

  I glared at him. The sick son of a bitch. All those children, dead. The FBI agents, the King... and now Kristina. All so he could get out of jail. Didn’t he realize that Novak and Aleksander would wipe his country out? Or did he not care, as long as millions of Lakovians died as well?

  And then there was my dad. A sweet guy who’d never done anything but fight for his country and try to protect Kristina and me. Lying in a hospital bed, barely clinging onto life. All I need is one good punch. But the gun was mashed right up against my head and the bastard was grinning. He wanted me to make a move.

  And I had to kiss her. Just one last time.

  She tilted her head back and those perfect, silken lips parted. To start with, the rage was pounding through me. I kissed her hard and deep. I wanted her, them, everyone to know she was mine, even in death.

  But as always, she calmed me. As soon as our lips touched, it was like cool water running over my heated soul. It became about simple, sweet love. All the good she’d brought into my life, all the ways she’d changed me. I didn’t give a damn, anymore, that I was just a grunt. We were right together. I lost myself in the kiss, running away with my princess—

  “Enough,” said Aleksander.

  Cold reality returned. Kristina drew back from me, panting with fear, blinking back tears.

  Lukin cocked his gun. The muzzle ground against my scalp.

  And in that second, I saw it. Kissing her had cleared my head. She’d taken away the anger and without it, I could think. I couldn’t save myself. But maybe I could save her.

  My arms tensed around her. I gave her a quick nod, the only warning I had time for.

  And then I heaved us both over the safety barrier and off the dam.

  The muzzle of the gun scraped through my hair. Lukin had been taken by surprise. Maybe there was a chance—

  There was a boom as the gun went off. Blinding pain exploded across the back of my head.

  And everything went black.

  59

  Kristina

  I was falling, head first, into pitch blackness. I could feel the air rushing past me, faster and faster, the only evidence that I was speeding up—

  And then, as my body spun, I glimpsed the wall of the dam, concrete blocks whizzing by just inches from my face, and I wished for the blackness again. If I clipped it, if I even brushed it with a hand or foot and went cartwheeling into it—

  I tightened my arms around Garrett... but he was a dead weight agains
t my body. I was too close to see his face and I didn’t dare loosen my grip or we might be torn apart. And I wasn’t brave enough to get through this on my own.

  Clouds rose up to meet us: I could hardly see them in the dark, but I could feel them. First just a damp in the air, then a mist and then stinging spray as hard as pebbles. The roar of the water surrounded us, growing until it was deafening. My throat ached and my chest hurt: I knew I was screaming but I couldn’t hear it.

  And then we were down to where the water flowed out of the dam. I saw the geyser of water below us, as wide as a bus. If we touched that, its force would grab us and slam us down deep beneath the surface. I screwed my eyes shut—

  We flashed past it, missing it by less than a foot. And then the surface of the river was rushing up to meet us—

  We hit and the whole front of my body flared in pain: it felt like hitting concrete. Then, as we sunk, the cold hit me: the water had come down from the mountains and even in summer, it was freezing.

  We went deeper and when we slowed to a stop it was utterly black. I knew we had to swim to the surface, but I couldn’t tell which way was up and—

  Oh God. Panic gripped me: Garrett wasn’t swimming. He wasn’t even moving. He was just sinking, dragging me down towards the bottom.

  Keeping hold of him, I kicked for what I hoped was the surface, but my dress just ballooned and parachuted. I couldn’t swim! I grabbed Garrett’s belt and held on with one hand in a death-grip while I frantically clawed my dress off my shoulders and down my body with the other, then managed to kick it free. Thank God Garrett had torn the button-up one off me: if I’d still been in that, I’d be dead.

  I got my hands under Garrett’s armpits and kicked again, my lungs burning. For several long seconds there was nothing. Was I even swimming the right way?

  Just as my lungs felt like they were about to explode, my face broke the surface. I hauled Garrett’s head up too, and looked around. We were in the river and the current had already carried us half a mile from the dam.