Princess Valerie's War

by Terry Mancour

  “Lovely people, you Sword Worlders,” Bentfork murmured, shaking his head.

  “We’re just people,” Karvall shrugged. “With the same heroes and villains as anyone else. Unfortunately, we tend to inflict our villains on other people. I want you to get this evidence back to the lighter, head back to the pinnace, and then take word of this instantly back to Admiral Harkaman.”

  Bentfork looked troubled. “And what about you?”

  “I’m going to stay here and continue to scout the area,” Karvall decided. “For a couple of days at least. I’ll take all the notes I can, and leave them in a rock cairn where we parked the lighter.”

  “Alexi?” Bentfork asked, cautiously, abandoning the niceties of rank and title. “What are you planning?”

  “Just as I said,” Karvall shrugged, nonchalantly. “I’m going to get as accurate a map of the compound as possible, and get exact numbers on the guards and defenses. And then,” he said, just as casually, “I’m going to get myself captured.”

  “What?” Bentfork asked, surprised.

  “I’m going to let them take me prisoner, I think. I’ll think of some subterfuge – she can’t know that I’m sworn to Prince Trask and Tanith, now. The last time I saw her, she was being led away in chains. Don’t worry,” he assured his skeptical friend, “I won’t do anything to endanger the princess, you have my word. But this is a golden opportunity to get someone inside. Look, leave me all the rations and the maps and survival gear, okay? You can pilot back to orbit easily enough, and our host ship will be happy to speed you back to Tanith, once he knows he’s getting paid so much to do it.”

  “I don’t know,” Bentfork frowned. “I’ve never flown solo before,” he admitted.

  “It’s just like your training,” Karvall insisted. “The ship does most of the work. And all you have to do is get to orbit and make the rendezvous. You can manage it, believe me.”

  “What about you?” Bentfork asked, not looking convinced. “I’m just going to leave you here on a rock with a million neobarbs with nothing but a couple of carbines and a knife?”

  Karvall flashed him a small, quick grin. “I’ll be fine. Believe me. The Princess is our primary concern, and we have a lot better chance at rescuing her if we have a man on the inside. Trust me: I have a plan. I think I know just how to talk my way through those thugs. You just come back with a couple of ships and a platoon of Golden Hand, and we’ll be back in Rivington in time for the Winter Ball.”

  Chapter Five:

  The Rescue Of Princess Elaine

  Valerie was sweating profusely as she drove her fist into the air, ostensibly at the mid-section of the soldier in front of her. It seemed like such a primal, basic, couldn’t-possibly-miss shot – and then the man lightly deflected the blow by doing no more than tapping her wrist a little. That threw the shot off-target and Valerie off-balance just long enough so that he could turn the tap into a tug. Then Valerie was suddenly flat on her back, staring up at the ceiling of the private gymnasium.

  “You over-extended your blow while you were out of balance,” the man explained as he helped her up. “If your feet aren’t firmly placed, then you can’t get the leverage to land a proper strike. And if you do it right in front of a free hand that can deflect it, then you’ve as much as handed the bout to your opponent.”

  “Excellent advice,” Valerie admitted, as she took her position again. “Let’s try it one more time.”

  She had been doing this daily for the last five days. After wallowing in self-pity, despair, and volcanic rage, she had finally pulled herself back into the land of the living. Lucas was still gone. Elaine was still a captive. Valerie had no idea when or how either of them would eventually resurface, but until then she needed to be strong, and make Tanith strong. Because she could imagine a day where that strength would be needed, and she wanted to be prepared.

  So she had Colonel Festersan send over his top hand-to-hand combat instructor for private lessons, and they spent two hours in the gym every day on the various ways to fight without weapons. She also had begun practicing with pistol, carbine, and submachine gun at a range she’d had created off of the west wing – it had originally been a sculpture garden of dubious art, but it served admirably as a wide open space where she could perfect her aim.

  Today she was working through some more advanced techniques, and Captain Edmonsan was adept at gently showing her how to strike and disable a man without offending either her feminine sensibilities or her royal dignity – mostly by ignoring the fact she had either, and treating her like any other recruit.

  This time she waited until Edmonsan twisted by before she dropped to one knee, drew back her right hand, and pounded it into his muscular thigh.

  “Well done!” he howled. “Hard enough so that I almost felt it!”

  “Two inches to the left and you would have,” she agreed.

  “Which is exactly where you should have struck – though I’m grateful you restrained yourself. Again?”

  She was about to agree when the door to the room opened, admitting Lady Ashley, still in a sling, and Countess Dorothy, the Royal Physician, Minister of Health, and best doctor on the planet. She’d also become a close friend, over the course of Valerie’s pregnancy. She was still monitoring her post-partum condition, but Valerie knew that the exams were more of an excuse to determine her mental and emotional state.

  “I think we’re finished for the day, Captain,” she said, bowing respectfully. “Same time tomorrow, please.”

  “As you wish, Highness,” he said, bowing deeply. “And you’re impressing me with your progress.”

  Valerie wiped the sweat from her face with a towel as the beefy officer strutted past the two women with a respectful nod.

  “Great Ghu, did you see those . . . that . . . arms, shoulders, back, legs . . .” Ashley said, reverently. “My goodness, you grow them . . . firm on Tanith!” Her pretty eyes were wide with appreciation.

  “Our biggest export,” Valerie grudgingly agreed. “Big, strong, manly men.” She couldn’t help but think of Lucas. Though he was no muscular giant like the good Captain, he was as well-formed as anyone, and had a handsome face to boot. Not that she cared that much what he looked like – he’d won her over with his compassion and grace as much as anything. She missed him desperately, and worried about him incessantly, and she often felt guilty that she was so focused on Elaine when her father was just as missing. But she knew he could take care of himself.

  At least, that’s what she kept telling herself.

  “That’s what got me to sign the recruitment slip,” murmured Countess Dorothy with a snort. She was easily twenty years Valerie’s senior, but she had the earthy outlook of a young woman, combined with the experience and perspective of a middle-aged professional. “Back home on Marduk, you couldn’t find a man who looked like that who didn’t already have a boyfriend.”

  “Tell me about it,” Ashley declared expressively. “Five bookish, spineless bores for every decent man. I had more poetry read to me in college . . . here they can barely read anything other than a battle order, and it’s so, so —”

  “Refreshing?” offered Dorothy, cocking an eyebrow.

  “Yeah,” Ashley agreed, with a giggle.

  “If you two are done acting like lust-struck schoolgirls,” Valerie frowned, “we can get on with this.” She sat down on the massage table at the edge of the gym and waited while Countess Dorothy set up her portable scanners – and inevitably exchanged looks with Ashley. Valerie rolled her eyes. “I can appreciate a good man as much as the next girl, but my good man is not here right now, if you recall.”

  “Sorry, Highness,” Ashley said, guiltily biting her lip.

  “Relax, Val,” Dorothy said, dismissively, as she glanced at the monitor. “Your blood pressure is spiking a bit. Okay, good, good, and good. Any pain?”

  “Just from falling on my arse half the morning,” she admitted. “The good Captain doesn’t pull punches.”

  “Y
ou’ll get used to it,” Dorothy nodded. “My first two weeks of basic training for the Navy, I was bruised head to toe. Of course, I didn’t have the luxury of a personal trainer and a nice soft padded mat . . .”

  “Yes, I’m such a hedonist,” Valerie said, dryly.

  “But Captain Biceps looked pleased,” she continued. “Apparently you’re turning into quite the street fighter.”

  “I just want to be in shape for when we catch up to Spasso,” the princess said, quietly. “I might decide to personally beat him to death. I want to be prepared.”

  “And here I thought you were trying to fit into your gown for the Winter Ball,” Ashley said, rolling her eyes. “I couldn’t believe you didn’t cancel it, under the circumstances.”

  “I can’t,” Valerie said with a sigh. “Life in Rivington has to go on. Besides, it’s a benefit for the new hospital. Can’t disappoint my Minister of Health.”

  “Your Minister of Health is done with you,” Dorothy declared. “You’re healthy as one of those big ugly bisonoids the Gram people are always talking about.”

  “My milk has dried up,” Valerie said, quietly. “Almost completely.”

  “Don’t worry, sweetheart,” Dorothy assured her with a matronly pat as she put her equipment away, “I can give you a hormone shot that will have you lactating again in no time once we get the baby back. I—”

  “Excuse me, Highness,” came the discreet voice of her maid, Lishia, at the doorway. “War Office on the screen, Admiral Harkaman. There is news,” she said, simply, but with just enough urgency to compel Valerie to action.

  Valerie sprinted across the mat and into the next room, an amusement room that she had barely used, but which had the closest viewscreen available. The bearded face of Harkaman was on the screen, his hair looking even grayer than usual. But there was a look of excitement in his eyes and a twist to his lips that made her heart race.

  “We’ve found her!” he said, his eyes gleaming triumphantly. Valerie’s heart skipped a beat, as Dorothy and Ashley crowded in behind her. Harkaman’s eyes opened a little wider in surprise, and he nodded respectfully to the others. “Lady Ashley . . . Countess.”

  “Your report, Admiral?” Valerie prompted him.

  “One of Alvyn’s ‘friends’ arrived just moments ago, with one of the Golden Hand: Bentfork’s son, Nogal. Apparently Karffard’s guess about Spasso paid off: the recon team reports a 99% certainty that Princess Elaine is being held in a neobarb fortress on Mertha,” he reported, gleefully. “We even got a blurry photoprint image,” he said, holding it up.

  It was a baby, no doubt about that. You could barely distinguish the eyes, nose and mouth, from the grainy picture. But for some reason – call it maternal instinct – Valerie knew without a doubt that it was Elaine. She’d know that baby from any other in the universe. Suddenly her frustration and anger welled up, replacing the sorrow that had haunted her for weeks, and transforming it into adamant resolve. Harkaman continued, “Not enough for a positive identification by itself, but according to the recon team the baby in the picture was in the same room as this woman,” he said, holding up a second photoprint to the screen.

  “I don’t know her,” Valerie said, shaking her head.

  “Pretty, though,” Countess Dorothy admitted.

  “She looks mean,” Lady Ashley said, wrinkling up her nose.

  “She is,” confirmed Harkaman. “And there’s no reason why you would know, I suppose. Luckily, our scouts on the ground recognized her. One even stayed behind: Alexi Karvall. He’s the one who figured out who she is. Her Majesty Evita Ward, former Queen of Gram. Angus’ second wife. Widow, now. It appears that she’s been tasked with taking care of Princess Elaine.”

  “And she’s been working with Spasso?” Valerie declared, excitedly.

  “We believe it’s too much of a coincidence not to pursue,” Harkaman nodded. “The timing is right. From what Alvyn said, we know she fled Gram about the same time he did. Your orders, Highness?”

  “Admiral Harkaman,” Valerie said, her eyes narrowing, her nostrils flaring as she squared her shoulders, “Prepare the fleet for immediate deployment. Leave sufficient force behind to secure the planet, but every other ship we can spare should be armed, loaded, and ready to depart by this time tomorrow. Have your people draw up a battle plan that ensures the safe return of my daughter. I’ll expect a progress report in six hours.”

  “As you command, Highness!” Harkaman said, with more energy than the old man had shown in weeks. Indeed, he had a visceral growl to his voice that almost made Valerie shiver.

  “Oh, and Admiral?” the Countess added, as he reached to switch off, “You are long overdue for your physical. Do I have to come up to the Corisande to do it?”

  Harkaman frowned. “Is that really necessary?”

  The countess shrugged. “I can mention it to Her Highness,” she said, ignoring the fact that her sovereign was still sweating right next to her, “and she can order you. I’m simply trying to be nice about it.”

  “When we get back from Mertha,” he agreed, reluctantly.

  “That will have to do, I suppose,” the Countess nodded. “Good hunting, Admiral.”

  Harkaman started to say something, then thought better of it and gruffly signed off.

  “Oh, my,” Ashley giggled. “He didn’t like that at all. I heard a rumor that he’s got a mistress somewhere in Rivington.”

  “Who would want an old coot like that?” Dorothy asked, annoyed. “With a bunch of strapping young fellows like Captain Biceps around?”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” Ashley said, amused, “Admiral Harkaman is quite distinguished. A real gentleman.”

  Valerie rolled her eyes but didn’t comment. Ashley had always been a little boy crazy, especially when they were in school together on Marduk. She couldn’t argue about her attraction to Harkaman, though. He was as manly a man as you could ask for, even if he was old enough to be Ashley’s –and Valerie’s! – grandfather. Still, if the Royal Nanny wanted to daydream about men, that was a harmless enough pastime, especially since she didn’t have much else to do since the abduction. She might seem a little flighty, but she was one of the best child development students Valerie had seen, outside of herself. She had been her top pick for a nanny. And only days into her tenure with darling little Elaine, she had been shot up by mercenaries who’d abducted the baby princess.

  Four submachine gun bullets had hit her – yet she had refused to be shipped back to Marduk to recuperate . . . and find a new job. She seemed confident that little Elaine would be returned, and while Valerie suspected that part of her enthusiasm was designed to keep her optimistic, she also knew few other nannies could handle that kind of workplace violence and still stay on the job.

  “I’m going to pack,” Valerie said, as she led the two women back towards the residential part of the manor. “Doctor, I’d like you to accompany us to Mertha, if you can be spared.”

  “There’s nothing that can’t get done without me,” she assured. “I’ll be happy to come.”

  “You, too, Ashley, if you’re up to it. I don’t know what kind of—I don’t know what we’ll find,” she said, carefully, “but I want to be prepared for all contingencies.”

  “Why me?” Ashley asked, confused. “You want me to go on a rescue mission?”

  “Because you’re my friend, you’re my nanny, and I might need to trade your virtue to a rapacious neobarb warlord in order to get my daughter back,” Valerie said, with a straight face.

  Ashley’s eyes got wide and she paused in her stride. “As my Princess wishes,” she squeaked, mildly, and continued.

  Valerie wanted to kick herself for that completely uncalled-for jibe. Ashley had tried to protect her daughter by throwing herself at a mercenary twice her size, and had been grievously wounded for it. And she was still wracked with guilt that she hadn’t been able to stop the attackers . . . even though five highly trained Golden Hand guardsmen, including their veteran Captain, had died try
ing the same thing.

  “Oh, don’t take me so seriously!” Valerie groaned. “We just had a break in the case, and I’m starting to feel a little like myself again. And I doubt your virtue would be enough, anyway.”

  “What if you get there and Spasso isn’t willing to bargain?” Dorothy asked, quietly. “Or what if he demands your crown in exchange for Elaine?”

  “I’m not going to Mertha to negotiate,” Valerie assured her. “I’m going to get my daughter. And when I finally catch up to Garvan Spasso, he’s going to wish his father and his mother had never agreed to a price. Damn him!”