CHAPTER EIGHT
LONG LIVE THE QUEEN
The audience with Wanaxxae Octavia was formal, held in the Great Hall—his Great Hall, Rick reminded himself. Although it was now fitted out as the Queen’s receiving chamber.
The interview was short.
“Welcome, Warlord Rick,” Octavia said. “You are well?”
“Very well, Majesty,” Rick said. And I’ll keep it to myself that you’re welcoming me to my own castle. “Your Majesty is well?”
“Just so,” Octavia said.
“And Prince Adrian?”
“Well enough, My Lord.”
“That’s good.”
But no pleasantries, no stories about the young heir, none of the usual chatter from a young mother about her first born. No questions about Makail and Isobel, even though when they were older they would probably be sent to the royal court for their duties as page and lady apprentice. Interesting.
“Has your Majesty any estimate of how long we will enjoy her visit?” With your train of servants and courtiers eating me out of house and home. Rick had been appalled at the costs. The local treasury was nearly dry, and he would have to send money from Chelm to make up arrears in the pay of his castle guards, not to mention settling accounts with local merchants who were happy to extend him credit at exorbitant interest. It would take a lot of money . . . .
Elizabeth Tudor had used that technique, state visits to annoying subjects. They could hardly plot treason while she was there, and they generally didn’t have enough money to do anything at all after she had left. And I taught that to Ganton, and now he’s using it against me, Rick thought. Well, we’ll see about that.
“That must depend on the will of the Wanax,” Octavia said. “Now that the campaign in the north is ended doubtless he will return, but whether here or to the capital is not decided. Or not made known to me, in any event. My last instruction from the Wanax was to await him here. So I wait, My Lord. With patience.”
“To be sure, Majesty,” Rick said. With patience. With patience. By God I’ll give you patience.
The rest of the interview was much the same. She was polite, thanked him for the use of the castle, and assured him she wouldn’t keep him from his important duties.
* * *
Rick fumed as he strode to his study behind the conference room Elliot insisted on calling the Orderly Room.
“Get me Elliot,” he said to the clerk on duty. “Fast.”
“Yes, Sir!” The young local ran out, and Rick chuckled to himself. No good scaring my own people to death, but—
“First Sergeant reporting as ordered.”
“Come, in, Top.”
“Sir. Colonel, you pardon my saying so, you don’t look happy.”
“I’m not. Just how long has the Queen been putting on airs?” Rick demanded.
“Few days, Colonel. Before that she was polite as anything, apologetic about being here, offered to cover expenses.”
“She did, did she? Good. We’ll take her up on it. I want a bill for everything it cost to put her up. Prepare it and send it on to the Treasurer. Another thing. From now on, anything we requisition for the Queen or the Court, pay for it with a warrant on the Royal Treasury.”
“Can we do that?”
“I can. Sign it by order of the Warlord of Drantos.”
“Yes, Sir. Reckon the Wanax will pay? Hate to lose all the credit we’ve built up with the local merchants.”
“I don’t care. We’re abandoning this place,” Rick said. “Get ready. We’ll pull everything we have back to Chelm. Heavy weapons, mercs and their families, loyal auxiliaries, ammunition, refined product, seeds, trained madweed farmers, draft animals, plows, anything. Everything we need to set up operations in the west. Leave what you can of the madweed operations going here, and we’ll put the best local we can find in charge, just in case they can produce anything. We can use all they can grow, but I can’t count on it any longer. We’ll need a local to be castellan, too. There must be a retired old soldier you can promote. But all our mercs and their families come out. I’m not leaving anyone I care about as a hostage.”
“Jeez. Yes, Sir.”
“You’re not going to ask if I know what I’m doing?”
“Colonel, if you don’t know what you’re doing, we’re all in big trouble,” Elliot said. “Of course, I don’t know what you’re doing, but I assume the Colonel will tell me what I have to know.”
“Well, ostensibly I’m carrying out the orders of the Wanax,” Rick said. “He told me to clear the Fiver armies out of Chelm. I’ll be doing just that. My story is that I need everything I have to defeat the Fivers.”
Elliot nodded.
“Mostly, though, I don’t like the way our little King is acting, and the Queen’s attitude hasn’t made me feel better about it. And then there was something Bisso said,” Rick went on. “Got me to thinking. As long as our interest and the King’s ran together it was fine, but my first obligation is to our own troops, mercs and locals both, and it looks like a conflict coming.”
“Yes, Sir. Colonel, this is going to be expensive. Hell of a lot of transport involved.”
“I know that, Top. Do what it takes.”
“Yes, Sir, but there are priorities to worry about,” Elliot said. “You want everyone out, that’s fine, but that’s hard to do fast.”
“But if it’s not fast we may not be able to do it at all,” Rick replied. “I don’t want to disobey a direct order from the Wanax, and I’d like to get all this done before he sends one telling me not to do it.”
“Yes, Sir. What about the communicator?”
Rick frowned, puzzled by the question.
“Of course we have to take it with us.”
“Wouldn’t surprise me if the Galactics had some way to locate it. From space.”
Oh.
“I’m sure they do. But without it we don’t have any way to talk to them.”
“And with it, they know where we are,” Elliot said. “I’ll keep it close to hand, Colonel. Always do. But you do need to think about this. Wouldn’t be surprised if that’s how they know where to bomb when they’re done with us.”
Rick nodded.
“Me either. I agree we have to worry about the Galactics, but just now the Wanax is closer, and there’s something gone wrong in that relationship.”
“Just like a marriage. Yes, Sir. So the top priority is, everything and everyone out fast.”
“Correct. It’s important that the madweed crops continue to grow here, but first priority is to get everything and everyone important to us out of harm’s way before we get a direct command from the Wanax. I don’t want to be in open defiance, I just want to have our resources where I can control them.”
Elliot nodded again. His look was thoughtful. “Sir.”