by Alma Boykin
She blushed and ducked, embarrassed and angry both. You are so… arrrrgh! “No, your grace. Major, continue as you are.”
“Yes, my lady.”
Elizabeth turned Grau off the road, then began riding back along the long line of wet, tired, cold men, Archduke Lewis following. She reached Lt. Todd’s men first. He saluted her as best he could and she raised her baton in reply. “Lt. Todd, you and your men are dismissed to your homes. Thank you for your service and Godown be with you.”
Todd managed a weary smile and raised the stump of his left arm. “We’re dismissed. Thank you, my lady colonel.” He’d caught a bullet that shattered his elbow. Wound fever set in and the churigons had taken the arm off just above the joint. She’d written to Axel to make sure Todd had a place when they returned.
She nodded and rode on, dismissing each group of Donatello men in turn, except for the teamsters. They’d bring everything to the manor and arms depot for inventory and storage before she dismissed them. Some men began falling out, turning up the small tracks leading to their hamlets and homes. The Peilovna men she greeted in turn. “His grace will escort you to your land,” she told them. “Leave your heavy weapons in the wagons, unless they are your personal arms, and they will be returned to Crownpoint.”
A few men, unwilling to return to Peilovna, had already made arrangements to stay at Donatello, bringing their families later. She did not like it, but Archduke Lewis had overridden her. “Let them stay,” he’d written. “Donatello needs people and Peilovna can spare them. Count Theobald will not protest.” Was that silence the price for Starland’s silence about Lord Jan? Elizabeth shook the thought out of her mind much as she cleared the water dripping from her hat brim.
Although exhausted, they pushed on to Donatello Manor, reaching it at sundown. The men who lived farther away, and the Peilov troops, camped outside the walls. There had been a little less rain at the manor’s headquarters, so camping out once more was not as much hardship as it might have been. The ground only squeaked instead of squelched underfoot. Archduke Lewis had already been there and warned the residents of the army’s arrival. Large pots of food, including fresh bread and meat pies, came down the hill from the manor so the men could have at least a warm, if not hot, meal.
Lazlo, Elizabeth, Lewis and others rode into the manor courtyard. Master Simms took charge of their horses. “He’s there,” he pointed, and Elizabeth detoured into the stables.
“Hello Snowy,” she called.
“Hee-haw! Hee-haw” rang out, almost deafening in the enclosed space and stirring a chorus of equine protest. She opened the stall door and hugged Snowy’s neck, then gave him a reject apple that she’d purloined from the barrel near the door. He gobbled it from her hand and snuffled her for more.
“You’ll get fat again,” she warned.
“He’s hairy, not fat, my lady,” Lazlo laughed, defending the mule’s honor from the walkway between the rows of stalls, well clear of Snowy’s teeth and hoofs.
She shook her head as she patted Snowy’s flank and saw a ripple of flesh. “No, there’s fat under that hair.” She hugged him again, scratched along his crest, and left him to enjoy his supper.
“You like mules, my lady.”
She nodded, scooting out past the dribble of water dripping from the edge of the roof. “Mules are predictable and honest, in their own mulish way. Mules don’t surprise you like people do. Annoy, irritate, infuriate, yes,” and she smiled as she forestalled his usual plaints. “But not surprise.”
He gave her a shrewd look. She ignored it. “Good night, Major. Go get dry, have hot food, and get some sleep. That’s an order.”
“Yes, my lady colonel,” and he wasted no time crossing the courtyard to his quarters in the barracks.
The manor house door opened and she saw Lady Ann, irritated, and Mistress Annie Lei, resigned, watching. The housekeeper brandished a pair of slippers and a bootjack. Despite her exhaustion Elizabeth laughed.
She slept the next day, ate supper, took another bath at Mistress Lei’s insistence, and slept again.
The following morning she found Lewis in her office, going over the books. Not your office, his office, she reminded herself, fighting down a surge of anger. She’d already found her father’s portrait, her personal books, and her Lander artifacts in a box in “her” room the night before.
“Your grace,” and she curtsied. It felt so good to be back in skirts, even plain, gray and brown shahma wool. Not in the mood for her wig, she wore a dark gray head cover with a white band on the edges.
He gave her a quizzical look. “Good morning, Lady Elizabeth. Are you married?”
“No, your grace.” That was an odd question. He knew she remained under vows.
“Then why the widow’s cap?”
She touched the simple, folded cloth. “Because it keeps my head warm and because it is also a postulant’s headdress, your grace.”
“You did not get any letters, did you.” It was a statement, not a question. “Which explains this,” and he lifted a leather bag full of papers from beside the desk. “Go eat, then you need to sort through these and see which are mine and which yours.”
Only three of the reports and letters went to Lewis, as it turned out. She’d taken the bag to the reception room and spread the contents out on a large table by the fire, sorting the documents into piles for business, personal, social, and manor while Laural, her maid, sat closer to the warmth and knitted. Elizabeth found two letters from her mother and debated tossing them into the fire. Instead she tucked them into her pocket to read later. She laughed at the letter from Kemal Destefani, warning that his and Lazlo’s father was hunting for a bride for the “baby” and that Master Destefani hoped Elizabeth would order Lazlo to marry if he balked. “Good luck,” she whispered under her breath. Filial duty had its limits, and she of all people would not force anyone to marry against their will.
The letter from his Excellency the Archbishop she read with shaking hands. “I hereby release Elizabeth von Sarmas from her vows as postulant of Godown. Should she be called to a vocation at a later date, she is welcome to apply for the novitiate and postulancy once more. May Godown guide and bless His daughter.” She stared at the letter, confirming the seal and address.
Now what? She’d never thought beyond this moment. She had no home, no property aside from Snowy, her father’s portrait, and her Lander trinkets. She could no longer claim shelter from a convent. After the last military campaign, she suspected that she had no money, either, since she’d had to buy supplies and they’d captured no loot. Elizabeth felt utterly lost for the first time in her life.
Someone coughed, waited, and coughed again, breaking her out of her trance. “Hello?” Archduke Lewis waved his hand at her, then plopped down in a chair that had appeared on the other side of the table. “You look as if a wall fell on your head.”
“Ah.” She looked around for Laural or Lady Ann, and saw no one. They were alone and that would not do. “Ah, excuse me, your grace.” Ann’s warning whispered in her mind. “I don’t think, that is, these are yours,” and she pushed the three reports at him. “I’ll leave you in peace, your grace,” and she started to get up and leave.
“Sit.” She shook her head and got halfway out of her chair. “I said sit,” he commanded, stabbing at her with one finger. “That is an order.” A decade of training took over and she sat. He got up, still pointing. “And stay sat.” He paced a little.
“What is going on, Elizabeth?”
She held up the message from the archbishop. Lewis plucked it from her cold fingers and read it, then returned it with a smile. “So you are free. Laurence the Louche, or anyone else, cannot invoke your vows and order you confined against your will. And you are of age to own property, manage a business, or marry, all without needing the consent of your father, uncle, guardian, or older brother. Although in this case, crown consent might be necessary, depending on the match, since you are a sort of ward of the crown.”
&
nbsp; She shook her head. “I have no place to go.”
“Excuse me?”
The words spilled out. “I have no family. I have no property. No purpose.” She sounded scared to her own ears, and looked down, ashamed at losing control of herself in Lewis’s presence.
“You what?” She looked up to find him staring at the ceiling and shaking his head. “You are as stubborn as the killer mule, Countess Colonel Elizabeth von Sarmas. You are a free woman, an officer and noble of the Empire. You own some of the finest war horses and mules in that Empire, plus half of Donatello House, and a quarter of Donatello Bend. And do you have any idea how much that Lander timekeeper you found is worth?”
She shook her head. “It’s pretty.”
He threw his hands into the air. “Are all Frankonian women this strange?” He asked someone, probably Godown, she guessed. “Elizabeth. I read Quill Starland’s reports. You bailed out Peilov’s ass and damn near saved the army from a disaster of legendary proportions, and don’t deny it,” he warned, shaking his finger at her. “You salvaged this estate and restored its people’s faith in the emperor. And you are only twenty-one years old! Once the news becomes official that you are free of your vows,” he snorted. “Forget dowers, you can demand groom prices.”
She blushed so hard that she almost cried from the pain.
“His majesty’s letter is in that pile, somewhere,” and he waved at the table. “He wants you to move to Vindobona and take up Donatello House. You need to study logistics and siegecraft, or so Quill writes.” Now she flushed again. She hated logistics.
“And you have a place on the military council.” He walked around behind her, warming his hands at the fire. “My brother is not well,” he murmured to the flames, so quiet that she had to strain to hear. “Aquila Starland is not young. And Tayyip and Laurence the Louche are.” She shivered, the blazing, snapping fire unable to dispel her growing chill.
She heard hinges squeak as the door opened, and Lady Ann peered in. Lewis continued louder. “The clouds are clearing, Lady Elizabeth. I need you to show me this year’s changes, as soon as it is fit to go out. And the killer mule is getting fat.”
“He is, your grace. I fear he will be frisky, too.”
Lady Ann sighed very loudly. “The first dry day in a week and a half and we have to hide the laundry. Mistress Lei will be so happy.”
Lewis and Elizabeth laughed. He returned to the table, picked up his three reports and turned to go. As he did, he smiled at Elizabeth and said something; his voice so low and quiet Elizabeth that was not certain she’d even heard him correctly. But she could have sworn she’d heard him say, “And I am now free to marry.”
TO BE CONTINUED…
About the Author
Alma T. C. Boykin was born in the Midwest, moved to the Great Plains, and after a brief period living in places where trees almost outnumber people, returned to the plains. She escaped college with a BA, worked for a living, then returned for an advanced degree some years later. When not writing or rotating the cat, she teaches and does a few other odds and ends. Hobbies include cooking, reading, hiking, geology, astronomy, and music.
Visit Alma’s blog at AlmaTCBoykin.Wordpress.com
Books by Alma T. C. Boykin
The Cat Among Dragons Series
(Listed in chronological order from the perspective of Rada Ni Drako.)
Hubris: The Azdhagi Reborn
Book 1 of the Cat Among Dragons prequel series.
When the Azdhagi overreach the limits of their science, only a few individuals stand between them and chaos. Three interlinked disasters start a chain reaction of tragedy and triumph leading to the re-creation of Azdhag society.
Available from Amazon.com at:
www.amazon.com/Hubris-Azdhagi-Reborn-Alma-Boykin-ebook/dp/B00J8UCN9O
Available from Kobo Books at:
store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/hubris-4
Renaissance
Book 2 of the Cat Among Dragons prequel series—coming early 2015
A Cat Among Dragons
Book 1 in the Cat Among Dragons series.
They started it. Rada Ni Drako just wanted to do her job, but her father’s people declared her a corrupt half-breed, one unfit to live. Now she’s on the run and in need of a new identity and a job. When she fled back in time to join an interstellar mercenary company, she did not anticipate becoming the Pet of House Nagali, becoming the student of a mysterious but very well connected Healer and diplomat, and fighting her way into power as the only sentient mammal in the court of a reptilian empire. And falling flat on her face several times in the process.
This collection of short stories, the first in the Cat Among Dragons series, begins the saga of Rada Ni Drako and her odd assortment of allies. Join the adventure as Rada takes on her father’s people and tries to keep her head, and the rest of her, intact.
Available from Amazon.com at:
www.amazon.com/A-Cat-Among-Dragons-ebook/dp/B00AMNB0N6
Available from Kobo Books at:
store.kobobooks.com/ebook/a-cat-among-dragons
Available from Barnes & Noble at:
www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-cat-among-dragons-alma-boykin/1113943157
Hairballs
Short fiction from the Cat Among Dragons series.
Rada, Yori, and some of the other Scouts are unwinding from a mission when they hear that the Division is testing new battle armor. Yori gets the idea that someone needs to put the armor through its paces, and against Rada’s better judgment, Yori ropes her into the adventure.
Available from Amazon.com at:
www.amazon.com/Hairballs-Among-Dragons-Story-ebook/dp/B00B1DR544
Available from Kobo Books at:
store.kobobooks.com/ebook/hairballs
Justice and Juniors
Book 2 in the Cat Among Dragons series.
A collection of short stories following the exploits of Rada Ni Drako in a universe full of danger, excitement, and strange alien species.
Available from Amazon.com at:
www.amazon.com/Justice-Juniors-Among-Dragons-ebook/dp/B00CA95AP4
Available from Kobo Books at:
store.kobobooks.com/ebook/justice-and-juniors
Available from Barnes & Noble at:
www.barnesandnoble.com/w/justice-and-juniors-alma-boykin/1118414531
A Double-Edged Wish
Book 3 in the Cat Among Dragons series.
Rada Ni Drako soars to a new height—a moment of carelessness brings her crashing down. Rada and her business partner Zabet survive a King-Emperor’s anger, a contract that leads to plague and discovery, and motherhood. But when inattention, famine, and a conspiracy from Earth’s future combine against her, Rada proves once again that there’s nothing so deadly as a cornered cat. Especially one who already lost her soul.
A Cat Among Dragons short story collection, including the novella Famine, Fortune, and Justice. 92,000 words.
Available from Amazon.com at:
www.amazon.com/Double-Edged-Among-Dragons-ebook/dp/B00FP46K96
Available from Kobo Books at:
store.kobobooks.com/ebook/a-double-edged-wish
Available from Barnes & Noble at:
www.barnesandnoble.com/w/double-edged-wish-alma-boykin/1118414543
Promises and Powers
Short Stories in the Cat Among Dragons series.
Don’t threaten a HalfDragon’s family: he’ll change the world in order to protect them.
Alien invasions only exist in bad movies. Earth’s militaries know better. That knowledge forces Joschka Graf von Hohen-Drachenburg to make a choice. Will he remain in hiding, or will he risk losing everything in order to protect his family and House Drachenburg? His decision pulls Rada Ni Drako back into his life. She in turn receives an offer she probably should refuse, from a creature as old as Earth itself.
When the Cat and a HalfDragon join forces, everything changes.
A Cat Among Dragons short story four-pack. 24,000 words.
Available from Amazon.com at:
www.amazon.com/Promises-Powers-Cat-Among-Dragons-ebook/dp/B00IOV8L94/
Available from Barnes & Noble at:
www.barnesandnoble.com/w/promises-and-powers-alma-boykin/1118759525
The Colplatschki Chronicles
Circuits and Crises
Prequel to the Colplatschki Chronicles—coming Fall 2015
Elizabeth of Starland
Book 1 of the Colplatschki Chronicles.
Stubborn as a mule? No, stubborn AND her mule.
Colonial Plantation Ltd. abandoned ColPlat XI, writing the planet off as a tax loss after a series of severe Carrington-type events. Now, four hundred years later, Laurence V of Frankonia wants to write Elizabeth von Sarmas out of his kingdom, but like her Lander ancestors, Elizabeth refuses to roll over and die.
To survive, she needs to cross the continent, thread her way through a holy war, and find friends in the Eastern Empire—an impossible task for a sheltered gentlewoman. Or is it? Never underestimate a woman with a mission and a mule.
Available from Amazon.com at:
www.amazon.com/Elizabeth-Starland-The-Colplatschki-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B00HFEWKXY/
Available from Kobo Books at:
store.kobobooks.com/ebook/elizabeth-of-starland-1
Available from Barnes & Noble at:
www.barnesandnoble.com/w/elizabeth-of-starland-alma-boykin/1118414557
Elizabeth of Donatello Bend
Book 2 of the Colplatschki Chronicles
Elizabeth grows into her duties as colonel and lady of Donatello Bend, and makes a fateful enemy.
Elizabeth of Vindobona
Book 3 of the Colplatschki Chronicles—coming November 2014
