Wildly he grabbed the boy by the hair and put a dagger to his throat. "If I die, he dies!" he snarled.
Agnes looked at the legatus, but Tycho was intent on the image of the captor in his sights. "What do we do …?"
Her question was cut off as the guy's head exploded and he flopped to the ground. The boy made an eep sound and stood there shaking.
Tycho hand signed to his men. "Check the kid and the house. Get what we can and then hide the bodies," he ordered as he brought his weapon slowly down. "Move quickly, people, we need to get well clear of this area quickly," he ordered.
His men and women nodded grimly and then got to work. “Galius, check the barn and paddock! Find their beasts and tack.” Galius waved to him and then waved to his partner to come with him.
Tycho nodded and then adjusted his scarf, then took out his spent round and pocketed it.
Agnes stared at him, realizing he was thinking several steps ahead. Tycho turned to her. "You too," he ordered softly. She nodded and moved out to obey. She set her sights on the boy, however. She had no idea if his family was still alive. Somehow, she doubted it.
~~~^~~~
Duluth countryside
With beasts, fresh provisions, and weapons, the resistance took a survival cabin and waited out the storm. It was too crowded and dark to do much.
When the storm cleared, Tacitus had them gather saplings and wood. “Why?” Tycho demanded. “We're not starting a fire. It will signal all around that this place is occupied.
“No, but I have another idea in mind,” the smith said, then coughed. Despite his injuries, he had rallied and managed to stay alive. He intended to keep that up, if only to spite their enemies.
Once they had a collection going, he had them bring the wood in to warm it, then pick off the small branches and shape it.
It took a bit of work but he managed to make a snowshoe after an hour's work. “Max told us of this. Actually, he asked if we had them. I know some in the mountains do. He showed us an image when the translator didn't work. I remembered,” Tacitus said as he handed the shoe over.
Tycho examined it and then lashed it to his boot and stomped. It held up. It felt odd though.
“It will distribute your weight over the snow so you won't skin in so easily.” That made Tycho look up sharply and study him. “It won't last long. But it should help from time to time. It is easier and more efficient to walk over the snow, then plow through it,” the smith said. Agnes hugged him. The boy did as well.
“I have one other idea. I heard about Garmr sleds from the stories,” another smith said.
Eudoxia frowned and then nodded. “I too. I remember a story, a movie? Balto ?” she frowned, puzzled. “I did not understand the idea of a talking Garmr. But Doctor Carter explained that it was a story about how people in the north of Patria used Garmr to drag sleds with vaccines to an isolated village to save the children there. It was a true story.”
“Ah, so the Garmr talk there now?” a miles asked with a snort.
She shook her head. “No, that part they made up to entertain children.”
“Ah.”
“We'll look into it,” Tycho said with a nod. He patted the smith on the arm as the smith and his fellows worked on a second shoe with their nimble fingers and knowledge.
He turned to Agnes and Exudia and winked. They might be cold, hungry, tired, and angry, but their people were beginning to think again, to do more than react and fear. It meant they were turning a corner; he could feel it.
~~~^~~~
Kattegat
Zara gathered snow from the small window. She melted it and boiled it for water for her and her imps.
Up until the ice had come, the imps had bought her bits of food for her, usually bugs and mice. With the ice and snow, they couldn't get through the snowpack to their prey. The bugs and mice were dormant anyway. They cleared out the rafters of bugs early on. She had to feed them from what little food she was given.
Emma fed her when she felt like it. When the girl was caught eating the food for the princess by Domina Rasmussen, she threatened to whip her. She ordered someone else to bring food to the princess.
Sullen, Emma began to feed her once a day, usually in the afternoon. She complained about the stairs, the heavy tray, the wood, and her aching knees. Out of spite, she spit in food in front of Zara. Usually it was gruel, stew, or leftovers, most of the time already partially eaten. Zara couldn't care less; she had to eat it as a matter of survival.
One time Emma laid the tray on the floor and made a show of hiking up her skirts and urinating in the stew. The girl was positively sadistic, taking pleasure from tormenting her Zara thought as she let the imps have that meal.
Everything she did was about survival. She was pretty sure those in the dungeon were having a worse time than her; at least, she had heat. She wanted to stay alive, if only to see the traitors fall and get their just deserts when her sister and Eugene came for her.
Chapter 34
The science expedition pushed as hard as they could after enduring their second light snowstorm to get to the capital. It was that or be held up in some town for most of the winter at great expense.
They drove on through the night and managed to get to the capital despite some harrowing experiences in the pitch dark along the way. They hadn't been attacked by bandits or predators, but it had definitely been an experience none wanted to repeat.
Fortunately for them, the last three miles into the capital had a plowed road thanks to Max and his people. They noted in the early dawn light the windmills dotting the countryside and the changes to the distant city. Nate was too tired to really appreciate it, but Mary pointed some things out like the power station and the new parliament construction site.
The convoy master saw to the beasts with the grooms while the rest of the expedition oversaw the unloading. Nate refused to leave until all of his precious findings were stored. He kept his laptop in its case on his shoulder. Mary did as well, but she had paper journals she had accumulated, complete with samples of plants between the pages.
They ate a breakfast and then bedded down as the storm hit later in the morning.
~~~^~~~
Eugene and Deidra were heartily glad to get the science expedition back. It was one less group to have to worry about. Not that Eugene felt Deidra was focused on them; she was pretty intensely focused on her sister's plight. He didn't blame her.
News was getting out about the radio report. It hadn't been on a classified channel so anyone with a HAM radio who had been listening had heard. People were calling in, demanding answers and asking what was to be done. Some were demanding that they rally to torch Duluth in the spring.
~~~^~~~
Nate and Mary woke at roughly the same time but for different reasons. Nate had to empty his bladder; Mary had heard people talking outside her door and it had disturbed her.
Both found themselves dressed, showered and then in the kitchens eating a meal. Mary made it clear as she munched that she was heartily grateful for the shower and tub. Nate grinned. That had been a familiar complaint for the entire trip. He'd managed to wangle a turn tub for each of them to use once, and it had been heavenly.
Once they were fed, they tracked down their students and got to work. They started the group on going over their notes. Some of their students were out visiting family. Some of the staff in the castle stopped by to listen as they watched and organized the movies, samples, and pictures. Nate winked at Mary as she noted they had an enthralled audience. “We need to organize our notes and do a proper presentation,” she mumbled.
It wasn't until evening when Nate stumbled into news of the Duluthian coup and Zara's capture. That changed things for him. "What can we do to help?"
He finally tracked down Eugene to ask that question.
“For the moment, work with your team. This storm is predicted to last a couple more days,” he said, indicating the window. Nate went over to the window and looked outside. As he got
closer, he noted it was relatively silent, and the window was double paned with a crisscross of trams inside it to keep up with tradition. “Nice,” he murmured, touching the frame. Then his eyes refocused outside and the blizzard. There were lights on outside, even a guard huddled under a shed, but it was bad. “Not so nice,” he murmured.
“Yeah. We can't do anything, and believe me, Deidra is not happy,” Eugene said with a grimace. “We're working on it though,” he said. Nate nodded.
~~~^~~~
Since they were snowed in and Eugene couldn't do much at the moment, he sat in on a meeting of the science expedition as they debated what they found. Nate insisted on a species relationship between the giraffe species.
The Toucan, Woodpecker, Anteater, and Bella giraffes were all easily grouped together; there were too many similarities for them not to have a common ancestor sometime in their evolution. But some of the students debated adding the Sandhopper and where it was linked.
Nate brought up the material on the Hippolow and then opened a debate on the relationship with it to the Moonstroller.
Eugene listened idly as the scientists debated the animals. He was more interested in the images at the moment than their findings. Obviously the six-limbed creatures were related. But some of the aliens had four limbs. That generated a side debate about parallel evolution or something else afoot.
"You know, we didn't look at the paleo record," Mary said thoughtfully.
"Another expedition!" Nate said brightly. "A fossil hunting expedition!"
That earned a chuckle and a shake of his head from Eugene.
"Why not?"
"Not saying no, just amused by the idea and enthusiasm behind it," the king stated.
"Oh."
“It'll be a while, Nate.” When the biologist looked to object, Eugene snorted. “The weather?”
“Oh.”
“And yeah, we have a potential second war on our hands. I know science takes a back seat during those times. There is only so much money to go around.”
Nate winced but nodded.
Mary changed the subject and got Eugene and the others listening and laughing at some of the names they had tagged to the beasts. The chuckles continued even as they showed their audience more of the images. "I see why you named them that way. Descriptive."
"Some of the natives had other names. We have them in parenthesis in the notes. They are in a mix of Latin and other languages," Nate explained defensively.
"Good to know."
"And here I thought you'd be bringing back heads and entire carcasses," Deidra said from the doorway.
They all turned to look at her in surprise. They went to rise, but she waved them down. She went over to Eugene, running a hand over his shoulders as he looked up at him, and then stood behind him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders.
"Ahem, we try to tread lightly on the land. And we didn't have room to cart them around. And we didn't want to have to cut them up, deal with the dissections, and then haul the carcasses around with the potential draw for predators," Nate said.
"True," Eugene said with a nod.
"Though we did drop some samples off and picked them up later. On that last run here over half of our dead weight were samples," Mary admitted.
"Disappointed?" Eugene asked, looking at the queen.
"A little," she admitted. "Some of the heads in the den are looking a bit tattered."
"Poor preservation methods," Nate murmured.
"True."
"Well, we did get some samples, and we did pick up some hides and skulls," Nate said. "Is that okay?"
Deidra nodded.
The group looked relieved at being let off the hook.
"You can keep the samples if you do 3D scans and we can print a copy for the taxidermist," Eugene stated. He turned to his wife and nudged her. "No doubt she'll want some of the hides for some of her fashion projects," he teased.
She shot him a look but couldn't hold it. He just grinned at her, disdaining any attempt at an innocent expression. "You know me so well," she murmured.
"But I'm going to pay for that later," he said.
She hugged him tighter until he pretended to choke. "Too right you will," she murmured. That generated a polite laugh from the others as Eugene squirmed.
~~~^~~~
“Hermione sleeping?” Eugene asked Deidra after the showing.
Deidra nodded, hugging herself to his side.
“No news?”
She grunted. “I'm going stir crazy sitting in that room staring at the radio, hoping for something,” she admitted. “And the calls from all over are just as bad! I get angry because I think they'll drown her out.”
“Her, you think Zara can call?”
Deidra shrugged.
He paused and then pulled her into a nook for a moment. He rested his hands on her shoulders. She looked at him but then her face fell. “Were you hoping they'd call with a ransom demand?” he asked.
She hesitated and then nodded.
“You were hoping to hear her voice, to get further proof of life,” he murmured. She nodded again. He could tell she was fighting a sob. Her fingers played with each other. He let go of her shoulders and then pulled her into his arms for a hug. “We'll get her back,” he said.
She hit him a few times then hugged him back. “Promise?”
“One way or another, we'll get her back. And we'll make the people who took her pay for it.”
“Good,” she said in a muffled sob as she relaxed a little.
~~~^~~~
With repeated air drops when the weather cooperated and daily talks, the medics managed to finally get a handle on the outbreak in Troy. The storms helped in that it forced people indoors and enforced the quarantine. When no further outbreaks were reported, Sue considered the Measles outbreak contained for the time being.
She ordered more MMR and other vaccines to be made to resupply their depleted stocks. That was easier said than done, the process was tricky and a bit expensive. But she was adamant that the vaccine be administered as a mandatory measure for all children, medicus, government, and police throughout the Imperium.
Deidra was a bit distracted but agreed. That had been one of their goals anyway.
~~~^~~~
The king and queen found themselves regaled with stories of the science expedition over dinner. When Nate brought up another Kent town, Charlie stopped him.
“Yeah, what's the story with those?” the chemist asked, looking from Nate to the queen and then back.
Nate snorted, clearly amused. Deidra smiled.
“What?” Charlie demanded.
“According to legend a merchant and accomplished builder was forced to marry a woman he didn't care for—an arranged marriage,” Nate said. Deidra pursed her lips. The story suddenly had a few too close parallels to her own marriage.
“Okay …?”
“Ah, ahem, a rather … unique looking woman. Warts, pear shape, and all,” Nate said, coughing into his hand.
“Oh.”
“Oh, boy,” Eugene said.
“Yes, a rather … large woman. One who loved him and was possessive. He got a deal to build towns and refugee stations along the king's road as well as several river ports. He got smart and named them each Kent for the family.”
Charlie's eyes widened as she caught on. “Oh, wait, so …”
“So, anytime someone asked where he was, he was in Kent. She'd go find him and was in another town. Oops, sorry.”
That earned a laugh from the group.
“She chased him all over from one town to another,” Nate said as Mary glowered at him.
Charlie chuckled. “Did she ever catch him?”
Nate snorted. “Who knows?”
“At this point, who cares,” Deidra said. “One would like to think true love won out in the end, but it is long in the past,” she said.
Nate nodded and decided it would be best to change the subject.
~~~^~~~
Eugene g
athered General Tacitus and the military leadership into the counsel room for a briefing and planning session. Most of the military officers considered the best way was to take back Duluth was to mount a full conventional campaign in the spring. Deidra was adamant that they do something now.
Her anxiety and impatience were a problem.
Eugene pulled in Max to see if they could pull in some force multipliers out of his bag of technical tricks. He had one in particular in mind. Charlie tagged along to their surprise. “I decided to crash the party. Zara is my friend too.”
Hostage Rescue (Princess Rescue Inc Book 2) Page 46
