Blackbird (The Colplatschki Chronicles Book 7)
Page 26
Lady May’s arrival saved Paul from having to deal with a crying woman. His wife appeared, took in the scene, and swooped down on the two strangers. “Paul Michael Kossuth, what are you thinking? Come with me, please, you must be exhausted,” and she and one of her maids bundled Barbara and Sarah out of the room before either man could defend himself.
“Thank Godown,” Gerald sighed, running a hand through his hair. “My lady was not as welcoming.”
“I can imagine.” Gerald’s wife was, well, Paul thanked Godown every time they crossed paths that Gerald had married her, so he’d been spared. She was a good duchess with a tongue that would flay the hide off stones when her temper flared, which happened too frequently for Paul’s taste. “You did the right thing to bring them here.”
“Thanks.” Gerald sat, leaning forward, elbows on knees. “A few of Blackbird’s loyal men, the ones his older son could spare, escorted the women as far as Evesdale. They found my agent there, and he sent me word. Lady Barbara and Sarah managed to keep the books secret until I got there, and I hustled them to Starheart as fast as I could, since you were a little busy.”
Paul snorted at the understatement. He’d been fighting off some of the nastiest raids in a decade. “Well, now we know why I was busy. The vultures were too busy carving up Morloke to be bothered defending the eastern passages.” He poured himself some wine and played with the ring. “Where is Duchess Malatesta?”
“From what I gather, safe in Revanaar with her daughter and as much of Blackbird’s treasury as she could take with her.” The cold bitterness in Gerald’s voice made Paul sit up. “She didn’t even bother trying to organize a defense. As soon as his body touched ground, she packed everything in reach and fled. Barbara, her oldest son Anthony Lee, and one of Blackbird’s men, ah,” Gerald waved one hand, “Kazmer something, tried to organize a defense, but without most of the duchy’s funds, and since no one will recognize the boy as Blackbird’s legal heir …” Both men glowered at the fire, neither willing to say aloud what they thought about Alois Babenburg’s intransigence and pride.
Paul shifted in his seat. “So Lady Barbara collected his library and ran north. What about the children? You said his other daughter is in Revanaar and the oldest boy is trying to defend Morloke?”
“Yes. The sons, the younger one’s soldering in the Thumb, trying to earn funds and a reputation enough to help his brother, and the other is still trying to organize a defense of some kind against the Tillsons and the Turkowi. Barbara confessed that he doesn’t think he can hold on much longer, and he told her to flee while she could, and rally help if possible. I asked sideways: it’s not possible.” Gerald dropped his voice, glancing around, and Paul leaned closer. “Rumor has it Duchess Malatesta is going to wed her daughter to Michael Tillson, since his wife died in that riding accident.”
“Damn.” Paul threw himself back against his chair, fist clenched around the ring. “She’s throwing away everything he fought for.”
“You blame her?”
No, not really, but he still glared at his friend.
Gerald shrugged and finished the tale. “And as soon as the Blackbird died, Sarah’s husband threw her over, tossed her out with the clothes on her back. Told her she was too dangerous to have under his roof now, and he appealed to the church for a full revocation of their marriage.”
“May St. Michael gallop over him and grind him to dust.”
Lady May’s return interrupted the men’s conversation. She shut the door behind her. “My lord, both women are asleep, after begging me on their knees for help finding serving positions. What is going on?”
Paul handed her Blackbird’s last letter. She read it, lips tight. “You are giving her shelter, Paul Michael, or you will sleep in the paddock for the rest of winter.”
“I had already planned to, my lady my love. I can’t on good conscience turn them out, not after all they and Blackbird have done to buffer us from the Turkowi.”
“And you are not taking their gems and possessions, either.” She wagged a short, strong finger at him. Paul caught it and kissed her hand. “Or you,” she told Gerald.
Gerald sat back, hands spread to ward off her ire. “My lady, that is why I braved wind, weather, and foul beasts to come here.”
“You wouldn’t have foul beasts if you bought more of my horses,” Paul teased. Gerald stuck his tongue out and made a rude noise.
“Boys.” Lady May ruffled her husband’s hair, what remained of it. “I’ve needed a new lady’s maid, someone older, dignified, and experienced, for a while. Lady Barbara should suit, her informal relationship with the duke notwithstanding. And we’ll find a place for her daughter. Godown knows we have enough single men to find her a good husband.”
“No worries about the Diligence turning up a surprise,” Gerald pointed out. “And she’s born a son. The father kept the boy when he threw Sarah out and revoked their marriage.”
May hissed a very eloquent description of the man, using words Paul wasn’t aware that she knew. Then she sighed, “As terrible as it sounds, that will make it even easier finding a husband.”
Paul rubbed her hand a little more. “What happened to Blackbird? Did his lady say?”
“Barbara says he’d had some bad teeth, like the rest of us.” Gerald frowned. “But one got worse and worse. He took sick, developed a high fever, then started fading in and out. He began having seizures just before he died, and she thinks the wound rot went into his brain.” All three made saints’ signs. “He was what? Forty six?”
Paul felt his wife tighten her grip and he kissed her hand again in reassurance. He’d survived a bout of wound fever two summers before, and still had special services offered up in thanks on St. Misha’s feast.
Gerald shook his head. “And so Lady Barbara, their daughter, and most of his books are here. She grabbed all of his Turkowi books, and most of the others that she could. She says she left the most common ones.”
“Why?” May asked.
Paul answered. “To buy sanctuary. Blackbird asked us to protect her from the duchess, in his name and memory, and he gave her these as proof,” he handed her the ring and broach. “She didn’t know that, and so she brought as many of his books and art works as she could, to try and trade for protection from His Majesty or the church.”
Light dawned in May’s muddy green eyes. “Ah. That explains her panic.”
Paul looked at the shelves on the other side of the fireplace. “I think, given what is in his collection, that it would be wise for me to sort the books before we send them north.”
“So she doesn’t get arrested as a spy or heretic? Oh, I know,” Gerald waved off the protest. “That’s why I brought them and her here. You know what would just duplicate what His Majesty already has, and what might cause difficulties with certain individuals. Like that technical manual did.”
May snorted. “Is Fr. Paul still fulminating about that? By St. François’s books, he needs to come down here and see what real trouble looks like.”
Gerald studied Duchess Kossuth as if she were a horse. “Do you have any unmarried sisters, my lady? As lovely, generous, and sensible as you, perhaps a touch quieter?”
“Now, Gerald, you know that taking a second wife is frowned upon by the church. And by your current wife.” She chuckled.
His loud, theatrical sigh and dramatic slump made the couple laugh. Paul nodded. “Right. Thank you for bringing her, Gerald, and I’ll take care of it from here.”
After showing Gerald Starland to a guest chamber, and kissing his wife and shooing her off to do woman things, Paul began looking at the books. Every Turkowi work he added to the Kossuth family’s special library. Several duplicated what they already owned, but a dozen at least he’d never seen, and the illuminated copy of the Book of Nights left him marveling at the paintings. He also tucked away a few of the theology volumes as well, and a few saints’ lives that Fr. Frank would like. The others he divided into books for Emperor Alois, and those for the imp
erial library.
“Oh Blackbird,” he sighed after he added the last work to the pile. “I wish I could have seen your library. I wager we’d have stayed up all night talking books and tales. Godown be with you, my friend.”
That night after supper, Gerald and Paul raised glasses to the Blackbird’s memory. “He bought us thirty years,” Paul repeated.
“At least. I think, not this generation, since even the next two children are already promised to name patrons, but my first grandson will be named for him.”
“Matthew or Charles?”
Gerald shook his head, then hurled a nut shell into the fire. “There’s an ancient word from Old Terra that I read in one of the Lander-era books some years ago. Their word for what we call a black-tailed eagle is ‘aquila.’ I like that.”
“Ah-kwih-lah?” Paul repeated
“Yeah. Because we have too many Matthews running around.”
Paul counted in his head. “True.” He grinned. “Grandfather said that Fr. Mou Marcy went by Mou because Mou’s father had named every boy in the family François something. All five of them.”
Gerald made St. Gerald’s bridge. “Godown forefend.”
After Gerald went to bed, Paul sat in his reception room, watching the dying firelight reflecting on the black stone of Matthew’s ring. “Godown grant you peace, my friend.”
It is said that to this day, when their children act up, Turkowi mothers whisper, “If you don’t be quiet, Matyasa will hear you. He’ll snatch you up and carry you off to feast on your bones.” The threat never fails to make the children behave.
—Margin note in Matthew Starland’s copy of Commentary on the Statutes of Tayama, a gift from the Kossuth family on the anniversary of his accession.
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
The Colplatschki Chronicles
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.
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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.
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Elizabeth of Vindobona
Book 3 of the Colplatschki Chronicles
Ten years after Elizabeth reaches the Empire, court politics and military command aren’t the only things she has to deal with. A marriage proposal, an assassination attempt, and a siege on the Imperial Capital bring new challenges… and new opportunities.
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Elizabeth and Empire
Book 4 of the Colplatschki Chronicles
Twenty years after the events of Elizabeth of Vindobona, an untried emperor sits the throne while courtiers scheme. Elizabeth must navigate politics, religion, her relationship with Lazlo, and the Frankonians’ wrath in this fourth book of the Colplatschki Chronicles.
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Peaks of Grace
Book 5 of the Colplatschki Chronicles
Margurite deSarm knows that she cannot govern the Sarm lands alone. But her husband, Gregory Berlin of Louvat, refuses to fulfill his duties. As Marta attempts to undo her marriage, Odile Rheinhart discovers her own unique calling. In their own complimentary ways, over ten years the two women work to keep the Sarm Valley free from the machinations of Phillip of Frankonia while balancing family, duty, and desires.
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Circuits and Crises
Book 6 of the Colplatschki Chronicles
The Turkowi begin their advance from the south as a fight between brothers threatens the Empire.
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Blackbird
Book 7 of the Colplatschki Chronicles
Charles Malatesta will defend his inheritance or die trying.
And more…
Keep up with all the latest books by Alma T C Boykin on her blog: AlmaTCBoykin.Wordpress.com
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.
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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 peopl
e and tries to keep her head, and the rest of her, intact.
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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.
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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:
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