~~~^~~~
Convoy master Bernardus left to return to the Imperium with a small guard force three dies or days after their arrival. They returned light with a small load of furs, salt, some rare metals, and material as tribute and trade goods. Since he was running light and now knew the passage, he expected the run to be quicker.
In order to lighten the load, he only took the carts and wagons; the carriages and their draft beasts were left behind. Bernardus was distressed at the state of the royal stables and warned Zara that something had to be done about the fodder situation or the beasts would starve in the long winter.
Given the parlous state of affairs in the capital, Zara was in grim agreement. There was little she could do to rectify it though. She put her people to work though. Agnes and others complained about not knowing where to begin. Zara reminded them that they had a plan. They sat down to break the problems down into more solvable chunks.
Tacitus, her technical smith, managed to get the HAM radio temporarily set up before the first snows hit and buried them. It took patience for her to get through to the capital. When she did, she called in a report of the events she had endured and was heartily glad to hear a scratchy report of another convoy on the road north. This one carried food and material. Her sister had rushed it to her after hearing some bad stories.
The convoy arrived two hafta after Bernardus's departure, just on the eve of a great blizzard. Some said it had been a gift from the Aegir, the Duluthian gods. She didn't care; she only blessed that her sister had the foresight and charity to send it. She was certain that it would make a world of difference in the near future.
~~~^~~~
Hakon Earling grimaced as he ran the angles. He had been sent to the capital by a wealthy client but could not fulfill the job. It was oh so simple in theory but very much complex when he tried to execute it. Too complex for his tastes at the moment.
Simply put he couldn't get a shot at the princess; she had too many guards or kept too far away from areas he had set up to target her. He couldn't get into the castle, so he was stuck outside playing the patient hunter.
Eventually, he knew the imperials would lower their guard in some way. But not yet. Not for a while at least.
That was fine; he was being paid a stipend until the job was complete. The prices of food and lodging were spiking, but he could camp out in an abandoned building and he had no problem robbing others to supplement his income.
His time would come.
~~~^~~~
Among her many duties, Agnes, the lead lady-in-waiting of the princess oversaw some of the women and children spinning wool to make thread in the castle. They stayed together near enough the fire to enjoy its warmth. She had been surprised by the supply of wool.
The northerners had wool animals that they sheered for their hair and milked for dairy. Some of it was incredibly soft and highly desired in the Imperium. Some of the beasts were occasionally slaughtered for meat. There were a variety of cheeses in Duluth; she knew that much. They were big on cheese and beer. The cheese was also highly prized in the Imperium.
She had once seen an animal shorn. The rusticus workers used giant scissori , which they had to sharpen periodically. Some used a single flat blade to do the job, but it was messy and not a good shave.
She made a note to look into that technology later. She knew that the Terran master smith Max had talked about electric clippers and such. Well, Duluth needed them more since they were more reliant on wool than in the Imperium.
She needed more hands though, especially with Euphrosyne immured in their rooms with one ailment or another. She knew the woman was malingering and wished she'd gone with back to the Imperium with the convoy. She hadn't though, so she was stuck here for the winter.
She let out a suffering sigh. Heads turned to her. "Not you," she said, rising and adjusting her skirts. "Carry on," she murmured as she made her exit.
~~~^~~~
Princeps Augustus Devitus had used Duluth recruits from the convoy and recruits from the castle and surrounding area to restore order to the capital. The capital sheriff was still in the precinct; he had refused to leave though he had sent his family away.
After much consulting with the princess, Augustus agreed to establish a larger police force in the capital and to loan some of the troops to do patrols. They were outfitted with badges and truncheons for the moment. A few had blades. He turned a blind eye to those.
He wasn't impressed with the design of the castle. He wanted to make changes but those would have to wait. It was half the size of the castle in the Imperium capital but with a thicker outer wall and more buildings in the courtyard. His men had a barracks made of stone and a thatched high-pitched roof in the courtyard.
One corner of the castle had been designated for the princess and her retainers as well as some of the higher-ranked guests. The staff was concentrating half of their work there and in the kitchens.
Of the group of prisoners, several had died, many from their wounds despite Eudoxia's ministrations. They were the last to receive the medicus care for a reason and he felt no pity for them. But when four died under mysterious circumstances, that bothered him. He wanted to press them for answers on who had hired them, but it seemed most were ignorant backwoods fools. They had only known of the aging knight, the late Petersen. No other leaders had emerged in the ambush plot.
Well, they could rot in the dungeon until they loosened their tongues some more then.
~~~^~~~
With Agnes running part of her duties with the stewards in the castle and Euphrosyne immured in their quarters complaining of one ailment or another, it left Zara a bit short. The red-haired girl she had hired, Freydis, spent a bit too much time with her lover to the point where she turned up pregnant. The locals handfasted the couple on the third hafta of their time in the castle. It was a brief happy point in their time before they threw themselves back into the work.
Agnes chose and hired another lady-in-waiting as an attendant. This one, Emma, was a teenager only slightly younger than the princess whose family had died before the war and her intended had died in the war. Her intended's family had fled the capital, only she had remained. She had proven she was a woman of some sophistication and education though—able to read, write, and do simple math. She also had spirit and fire to go with her deportment so the princess took an instant liking to her. She also sympathized with her, but the young woman was a bit stiff over that.
When she had time, Zara worked with her ladies. They strategized from time to time. Most of the time she scandalized the natives by helping out with the drudge work and insisting on teaching classes of Yoga, self-defense along with science, reading, technology, medicine, and other things. She wanted them to be well rounded, with the hopes that they pass on what they learned to others eventually.
The ladies found that the exercise did have a small benefit. It burned calories and it warmed their muscles up. Sitting for long periods made them feel terribly cold.
Despite her spirit the girl, Emma, kept mostly to herself though she was quite good at listening. Sometimes she would go unnoticed as others conversed. She rarely smiled. She did help out the kitchen staff however, and she knew enough of the capital to feel safe enough to go out on errands without a guard.
~~~^~~~
Augustus heard about an old drott who'd wanted to fight them when they'd come to the castle. As the story went, he'd had followers but his daughter and granddaughter had gotten him drunk on the eve of their arrival. They'd dosed him pretty heavily; he'd woken up with a wicked hangover a day later in a taberna in the capital.
He had recovered but then sent his daughter and granddaughter away in a fit of rage.
He'd brought the news to the princess, but the princess had refused to throw the old fool in the dungeon. He thought she was courting long-term trouble to let a snake lie at her feet, but she had hopes that he'd come around and be an asset in the future.
He hoped she was right.
/> ~~~^~~~
Zara had traded some of her supply of food or wood for various things of medium value initially. Even furs, though people tended to keep those due to the bitter cold. They huddled together under fur blankets for warmth near a fire if possible. The closer you were to a fire, the higher rank you were.
So with supplies dwindling, she ordered the hunters out. Augustus used rifles to hunt deer, boar, and other animals in the snowy woods and areas nearby. They brought the meat back, sometimes killing two animals a day. It still wasn't enough to ease the stomachs in the capital. That meant a lot of soups and stews were served to make the food last as long as possible.
It still didn't stop the begging or the poor from sucking and boiling leather for food or the dead being dragged out to the street to freeze. Pets and beasts in the stables were eaten. She worried of cannibalism, having nightmares from time to time.
Each time they had a surplus, she ordered soup to be given out. One bowl was allowed to each person once a week while supplies lasted. It allowed her to get to know some of the people. Many were surly despite her charity. She managed to do a little recruiting but the charity didn't change some looks. Had the guards have not been there, she most likely would have ended up dead many times over.
She paid the gatherers and cutters to cut wood, ice, and to find edible plants as well. She had the ice stored for later, something that confused many. Loads were brought in by sledge. It was a hard business even with the new Terran-designed woodcutting axes and tools. Those were in short supply and highly sought after.
Branches and other material were brought back for firewood by children. She was troubled at seeing children in cloaks dragging branches back only to be sent out to get more. She had no idea how many never returned, either due to succumbing to the cold or to beasts, or fatigue. She wasn't sure she ever wanted to know.
~~~^~~~
Despite the lack of supplies, a trickle of people returned to the capital between storms. Many were haggard with stories of deprivation, fighting off predators and amongst each other, and in general nearly freezing to death during the long winter. Problems with looting and coming back to looted homes were rampant. Augustus worried about some of the other survivors turning bandit. He heartily wished he could trust some of the locals to hire them but dared not.
~~~^~~~
The medicus Eudoxia was kept busy, trying to work with the sullen castle medicus Decius, while also attending to people in the capital and surrounding area.
Occasionally, she stopped from time to time just to breathe and center herself. She tried to find something of beauty around her to take her mind off of the crushing weight of her job and of the bitterness of the natives. She found herself drawn more and more to admiring the carvings. Timbers stuck out from the ends of the buildings; the ends had faces and things carved into them. Some looked like people, some like great beasts. It was impressive to see.
Twice she was called out to attend a birthing, and once to the great barns. The barns were mostly empty of beast; most of the rideable beasts had been taken south with the army. A small herd remained; they were severely depleted by the desperately hungry people, however. Only a few of the pregnant beasts remained.
Some of the rest of the beasts had been used for food or stolen. She had to go with a guard at all times, something she was getting used to. Bandits were common. Once a group had tried to rob her despite her guard. She had shown them that she was a medicus. Only when the guard had fired his pistol killing a charging man had the others retreated in terror.
It bothered her. It bothered her a lot. But there was nothing she could do to change the past so she tried to focus on the future.
~~~^~~~
The more Augustus heard about the bandit and theft issue the more he pressed to work with the local sheriff. The man was sullen though, but he had two things going for him—he'd stayed and he was respected. He did hire a couple of the ex-soldiers and one ex-palace guard, Stephan, to help out.
They still had issues, one of which was that the sheriff was quick to anger and to beat or punish someone no matter their guilt or innocence. And he frequently pocketed valuables. That sometimes added up to more than what the thief had taken. Apparently, that was normal.
He walked away troubled by the experience. When the sheriff expressed disdain for working with him in return, he ordered Legatus Tycho to be his liaison.
~~~^~~~
Each time she took on a guest, Zara brought out her laptop. She had gotten the precious thing from Eugene and keeping the battery charged was a pain. But she saw the use of its precious energy as necessary. Each time she had someone new she played a short video recorded by Deidra and Eugene. She preferred to bring it out to groups. She noted in amusement that she occasionally had repeat customers.
Stories of the magical thing quickly made it around the capital and surrounding area. The thing genuinely shocked them, a feeling she was familiar with. They were awed by the technology. Some compared it to the gifts Loki gave to the other Aesir . That amused her further since she had been told that the device was somewhat common on Patria , the homeworld.
It was hard to explain the workings of the device so she kept the details vague. She preferred to discuss the things the Terrans had passed on to improve things.
"Our people, all of our ancestors, came here and shared knowledge. They did it to survive. Each generation brought new wonders and stories. Now the Terrans have harnessed the gateway. They have opened it so it swings both ways. Some have returned."
"What is this term, Terrans?" a merchant asked.
"It is what they are called. People of Patria, " she explained.
None stayed for more than a hafta , a week. She was most annoyed by those who claimed to be entertainers but were nothing of the sort. Most told stories. She at first listened to them but they grew repetitive quickly.
Each time she had a visiting domina or dominus, she explained the plans for the government again. For the next few annus , years, in Terran, Duluth would be ruled by the edict of the queen. The local dominus would rule their clans and lands so long as they bent a knee to her. At some time in the future, she would begin to gather them in a Thing , a gathering of dominus to discuss the affairs of the land and to vote on goals and laws. The queen held final approval of course.
Eventually the Thing would be balanced out by what Eugene and Nate called parliament, a lower house of elected people called the House of Commons. Most likely they would be made out of merchants, tradesman, and great speakers among the common people.
The queen held the monarchy and would continue to do so but would release some of her power over time to the Thing . As her representative, Zara spoke with her voice.
Trying to explain that to the lords and how the new system would eventually work was a bit of a trial for her. Many didn't understand and questioned the wisdom of changing the system. Some were questioning their good fortune in being allowed to continue to hold their titles and pass them on to their heirs.
One of the tricky things to get through to them was the end of thralls . Thralls , or as the Terrans called them slaves, were to be freed. They could still be treated as a rusticus, a serf though.
She picked up a wine goblet and toyed with it. She had found that all of the spirits had been taken—not that she would have trusted much food and drink in the castle. She had an official food taster, one that she occasionally rotated. Eudoxia checked her every hafta for issues.
She glanced to the side where a guard was near. Another was near the hall doors. Augustus was ever wary of an assassination attempt. The attack on the convoy on the long march north told them that there were some hot heads still remaining in the north.
~~~^~~~
Despite the bitter cold, Tacitus worked steadily on making improvements. It was slow going though. He had to train any smiths that remained, and there were few of them. Those that returned found their shops somewhat looted.
The princeps set him up with a wor
kshop, but he had little support from the local artisans and smiths. Many smiths had gone south with the war and had not returned. Those that had remained were barely out of their apprenticeship. Some were stubbornly clinging to their old ways and refused to listen or attend classes he threw together. Those that did come just came for the warmth from the forge.
He started to make some progress when he broke down and convinced the princess to let them build a power hammer. He couldn't power it directly with water but he had a limited alternative. At great personal risk, he carried and pieced a generator together in a mountain creek nearby. The creek was too steep to freeze for long, and it was one of the first to thaw. It was also one of the few that was flowing properly, something he was supposed to look into in the future.
Hostage Rescue (Princess Rescue Inc Book 2) Page 2
