He sometimes fantasized of her loving looks, her smile. It helped him pass the day from time to time. He'd even taken to writing poetry to her. He didn't feel it was good enough though and didn't want to show any to her for fear of being embarrassed and rejected.
There were a lot of looks at him though and a lot of people were armed. Suddenly, he remembered something else the domina had said, about taking back their country. The domina played the motherly card briefly but then became sterner as he fidgeted and expressed a desire to leave. She saw through his attempt to mumble about another engagement.
“Stay,” she said, placing a hand on his and giving it a squeeze. “Hear me out before making any … rash decisions,” she said.
Her eyes cut to a couple of massive men near the door. Each was armed. He realized he had to agree with them or he wouldn't get out of the room alive. He was frustrated, jealous, angry, and now frightened. He turned back to the domina and nodded. “You know what? Yes, I'd like my kingdom back in our hands.”
At the least he could hear them out, get out of there, and tell the princess. It might make her welcome him again. Or, he could listen, and it would amount to nothing dangerous.
“Does that mean you agree?”
“I suppose so.”
Her eyes narrowed. “You are either with us or against us,” she warned.
“I won't help you if the princess or others are harmed.”
The domina smiled. “Harming the princess is actually the last thing on our minds. We need her.”
Siegfried cocked his head, still suspicious. “What do you propose?”
“Once we have things more to our liking, we push for what the imperatrix proposed anyway.”
“And that is?”
“Why do you think the princess was sent here? Young, unwed? To wed one of us of course,” the domina said with a snort. “She would prefer to wed a man of her choosing, but we all know that is not how it works. If not a young buck,” her eyes lingered on him for a moment, “then a wiser and steady hand. It may come to that soon.” She noted the lad's alarm and snorted mentally. He was falling right into her clutches.
“A marriage between her and one of us legitimizes their claim to the throne. Their blood will mingle with our own. That is why she passed that law that all who come here from the south must wed one of us, remember?”
He nodded. He'd heard a lot of the other men folk grumbling about the competition from the southerners.
“So, once we have things … more to our liking we'll need someone to wed her. Someone who has her best interests at heart as well as those of our kingdom.”
Siegfried nodded.
~~~^~~~
Eudoxia recruited a local medicus who liked what Doctor Carter had called dermatology. He had specialized in ailments of the skin and had a steady hand in order to do simple surgeries and tattoos. He came around after one of his patients got an infection he couldn't solve.
He stayed when she had gotten an answer for him and the treatment had worked. He had become hooked and had come by to ask questions and to learn of the new tools and techniques. He'd even gotten a local blacksmith to make copies of some of the surgical implements.
Her attempts to draw him in to run a medical board failed however. As did her attempts to recruit Decius. The old man just wanted to continue his practice in the castle. He was willing to listen and learn though.
Even though she didn't have a lot of local medicus willing to join her, she did have a dozen native students. She planned to send a couple of the students to the Imperial capital for training in the vers . She had kept many since they had been needed.
Start small she thought, in reminder to herself. Build off of everything, success and failure. Learn from both.
Surprisingly, with good food and some care, Tolgen rallied. He was still a bit lost, but the images and discussions helped some. The medical care, however modest, helped to ease his pain. He had his good days and bad. On the bad, he would stare out the window. On the good, he would talk with people, even play games and help keep the medical bay clean.
Everything seemed to be going great right up until they lost a patient in a routine surgery. What should have been a simple operation turned into a nightmare when an abdominal artery was nicked and the patient bled out before they could find the torn vessel and stop it.
~~~^~~~
Zara was dismayed when more lordlings showed up at the capital gates after abandoning their holdings. Some had stripped what they could from them before leaving. Anything of value had been taken, but there had been little to begin with anyway.
She found out over the course of several dinners that many had done little to make repairs. They'd hunted, lorded about, and hadn't overseen the rusticus throughout the year. Now that the hiems was upon them, they were coming to her to be fed like lice through the winter.
It made her unhappy, disappointed, but in some ways, unsurprised. Some of them wanted to go home but they couldn't. She shook her head when a party of them came to her with the request for a convoy.
“The last convoy left some time ago. You are here for the duration unless you wish to ride your beast or walk.”
Zara found out Baron Farragut had taken a couple of them in. That at least was a relief. A few others had disappeared, their holdings vacant.
She made it clear that not all would stay in the castle over the long hiems . They would need to seek lodging elsewhere, quite possibly work. There were protests from that. A call to Deidra had some of the lords promising letters of credit to their children. They spent several hours sorting that out.
~~~^~~~
Freya latched onto the death of the patient as more fodder for their cause. She pointed out it had been a native and treated the man as a martyr. He had gone in to have his gut checked, and the medicus had sliced him up, killing him.
She fed stories into the fire of rumor and innuendo, turning it into a furnace of slow boiling rage and resentment. But she stopped short of a call for action. That would come later.
~~~^~~~
Siegfried tried to get to Zara again, but she was busy. Agnes just shook her head. “You know how it is; her schedule is heavily booked with the harvests and with the preparations for hiems . Hiems is time enough for you two to get back in touch,” she said with little sympathy.
He muttered something along the lines of agreement and left. He noted one of her guards, Trey, duck in. He was tempted to tell the guard that he needed to talk to her but knew that he'd be redirected to Augustus instead.
And, if he was caught talking to the princeps, bad things could happen. Bad things to him in some dark alley or to others. He wanted to talk to Zara anyway. He wanted to be the one to tell her of trouble brewing.
His frustration grew until his hands shook. After a moment, he let it fall. Fine, if she wouldn't listen to him then let it be on her own head he thought as he stormed off.
~~~^~~~
“Siegfried has come around to try to talk to you again,” Agnes said as Zara looked up from her schedule.
“Honestly? What does he want?”
“Your time obviously. You've been spending a lot of time with the other lordlings. He sounds jealous,” Agnes said with a smile.
Zara rolled her eyes. “I'm glad the worst of them are gone, and I only have to put up with the few here,” she said. “Most are going to be gone soon enough.”
“Yeah, and Siegfried too. Are you going to keep them all hanging?” Agnes asked with a smirk.
Zara snorted. “In a way, I suppose I would have loved the attention. A few annus ago I had been looking forward to it. Now?” She shook her head. “It is fun to flirt, but for the time being, I have no interest in making any … long-term acquaintances.”
“So, I should keep sending him your apologies until he leaves for hiems to his home?” Agnes asked as Emma came in with a tray.
“Please.”
~~~^~~~
Domina Rasmussen was listening to a bard tell stories inc
luding one of Beowulf. The bard plucked at a lyre made of wood and copper to sing and entertain them. She looked over to the little gold, copper, and silver trinkets and jewelry she had accumulated. She was going through her savings fast so either an end needed to come soon or she needed to scale back.
When the note from her spy came in, she read the wording and then smiled nastily. She took a knife and cut out the part quoting the princess and then ordered one of her people to pass it to Siegfried.
Let him stew on that she thought in amusement as she reached over and picked up her wine goblet.
~~~^~~~
Siegfried had no idea who had left the scrap of parchment on his pillow, but he read it when he got into his room and then stared at it.
He read it again and then looked to his gear. He wanted to leave immediately, to throw everything into his satchels and storm off to the stables, but it was raining outside, hard.
Instead he crumpled the paper up, squeezing his fist over and over on it as he shook with rage and then threw it into the fire. He would get his revenge on the snip of a girl. One way or another he'd make her regret spurning him.
It was only later as he got control of his anger and humiliation that he realized there was something else about that note. He had no idea who had put it there, but he knew who had ordered it, Rasmussen. Her reach was in the castle itself.
He frowned as he puzzled it out. A spy obviously. But it was troubling too. A spy could kill him if he was caught talking to Zara. Worse, he had no idea who it was.
No, Zara had no idea what she was doing and the best thing for him to do was to wait and let her fall on her face. Maybe once she'd been burned, she'd learn who her friends were.
~~~^~~~
Stephan and Percival, along with some of the militants, pushed for them to do something. Olaf found himself pushed into planning a coup. When they pointed out that the Terran weapons were limited in number, hard to use indoors, and were locked up in the armory, he finally saw the potential of striking hard and fast.
Dominus Fenton and Domina Rasmussen reluctantly agreed that the time was now. “We have too many hot heads, we can either remain in control and guide the process or we can step aside and let it fall apart,” the domina said.
“You can't have it both ways. The people are ripe for revolt. And the princess has no idea. She never placed spies. Not that any would talk to her of this. They know better,” Stephan said with a sniff.
“I agree. If this movement goes forth and she cracks down, it will show her hand, and we'll have more support. But she'll be wary of a follow-up and will crack down hard.”
“Now or never,” Percival agreed. “The other dominus have left. We're here. We said we'd do something before hiems . Now is the time. Come vers , the Imperials will fill the road with more of their troops and more of their supporters, come to take what is rightfully ours.”
“They'll squeeze more tribute out of us,” Freya said.
“We need to do this right,” Olaf rumbled, eyes alight by the coming conflict. “In order to do this, we need to take her alive and unharmed.”
“And as many of her smiths and others as we can,” Fenton said. “If we do this, we need to limit the damage.” Stephan looked ready to object. The dominus glared him down. “We will need them to rebuild and to build the weapons we'll need to protect our kingdom!” he said, voice rising.
The domina rested a restraining hand on his. “No one is arguing that point. We need them alive. Are we clear on that?” she asked, lifting her chin and looking at the others.
They nodded.
“Then we begin. The night of knives will begin shortly.”
Chapter 26
With the help of their spies, the conspirators snuck their men in small groups into position in the kitchens and elsewhere. The laundry was plundered for Imperial uniforms for some of them to wear.
In the capital, Stephan had his people on the roster in key positions at the gates and elsewhere. The plan hinged on catching the imperials off-balance when they were sleeping. Surprise was key.
The plan was largely Olaf's. He knew the castle inside and out and planned every stage of the assault. He and Percival would handle the castle while Stephan, Freya, and their other supporters would handle the rest of the capital. The dominus and domina would wait it out in the taberna, sending drafts of men to where they were needed.
It was imperative that they get the opening moves right and take as much of the castle and the first objectives before a shot was fired. To that end the drott had insisted they train ahead of time. They had the advantage of surprise but it would be fleeting. The moment a shot rang out all surprise would be lost.
They had another advantage in that their weapons were silent. Wherever possible Dominus Fenton had insisted they use a truncheon to knock an opponent out. They needed live prisoners not corpses. He wasn't sure if that message got through to everyone though, too many were out for revenge. He was particularly concerned with Stephan's firebrands. But he had no choice but to trust in them.
Once they received the signal that the third wave had gotten into the castle, Olaf and Percival headed out. Percival could march through the gates easily enough. He had a ploy; he'd wave to the guards at the gate and be in conversation with Olaf, both seemingly slightly drunk and querulous. That would make the guards think twice about coming to bother them. You didn't mess with a drunk and angry dominus if you could help it. Two of their men would be with them to make sure they got home safely.
"Remember, we need the princess alive!" the domina hissed to them as they left.
Olaf grunted. Percival just snorted.
~~~^~~~
Augustus realized something was up, but he couldn't put a finger on it. The staff just shrugged it off. None of his people heard so much as a whisper. He could feel the tension in the air though. No, not tension, anticipation. He wasn't sure what it was about. It didn't make sense; it was hiems . The moat had frozen over; the snows had covered the land.
He ordered additional patrols in the castle anyway. He ordered his relief to wake him early so he could check the night guard. He wanted to make sure everyone was at their post including the fire guard. This was no time to get sloppy.
~~~^~~~
Tacitus was too tired to return to the castle after a late night working on putting the finishing touches on a series of projects. Instead, he went to the apartment that the smiths used near their workshop with his security team. Before he left, he set up a deterrent.
Max had recently told him of a trick to deter thieves; they left a battery-powered light on with a revolving cutout of a figure. The figure had a weight system that moved it, and therefore, a shadow and shape around the room that could be seen from out on the street. Thieves usually avoided buildings with someone awake.
It was that or split his guard, and Augustus had insisted they not do that. Staying on the small cot in the workshop was a no-go, the thing was damned uncomfortable.
~~~^~~~
One of Stephan's teams set up outside the workshop. They had strict orders to take the smith when the shooting started and only then. They had just missed the departure of the smith and his team.
They briefly considered sneaking in but the locks on the doors made them hold back.
~~~^~~~
A guard came in with a warning that something was about to go down that night. Tycho was sleepy but listened to the report. It reached him, waking him instantly. Adrenalin shot through him as he remembered his thoughts about something not feeling right, and how smug Stephan had been. He'd had his suspicions of Stephan, now he knew something was up.
He ordered the small group to get ready and tried the radio. He got a garbled response. He grimaced and sent a runner as he got his men dressed, armed, and ready.
~~~^~~~
Emma was wide awake when the night began. She had already cut the wire to the antenna on the roof. At a soft knock, she unlocked the door, one that led to a broom closet. The back of the smal
l room had a secret door that no one was supposed to know about. The narrow unlit corridor beyond led to the princess's chamber. It was the emergency exit in case of fire or trouble.
Now it was a path directly into the heart of the Imperial's layer.
She smiled to the drott and his party and eagerly waved them in with both hands.
“Find a place to hide and stay there until we find you,” the drott said.
She nodded. “As you will it,” she murmured. She handed over her set of keys and then left to find a closet to barricade herself inside.
Hostage Rescue (Princess Rescue Inc Book 2) Page 35
