Josie listened to the people sharing the table with her. She let Lois explain what they

had been doing in the city the whole day. She didn’t say anything about Case and

Caroline snuggling closer as the queen talked. She had given June a list of things she

wanted from her place, a copy of her house key, and some emergency paper in case

she needed it.

June had gone upstairs to talk to Jack. Elaine had come down with Emily. The two

women stood on the edge of the crowd for a moment, before Elaine went back

upstairs.

Josie wondered how much longer she should give the Queen before taking her back

up to the Capitol. She would be in just as much danger as Caroline if anyone else

came out of the woodwork to try to stop the King from doing whatever he planned

to do.

She would have guards to keep her safe in the castle. And she would be with the King

and his guards. Two layers of security should be enough. It hadn’t been enough to

protect Caroline.

Should she give the Queen a guard of her own to protect her while things were going

on.

“Girls,” said Josie. “Please clean up and go over your homework. Aviras, I will get

you your ice cream after I get things settled with Lois.”

“Yes, missus,” said Laura. “We’ll get it done.”

“I wait with anticipation,” said Aviras.

“All right,” said Josie. “Everyone ready for tomorrow?”

A choruses of yeses went around the tables. She nodded at the affirmation. She stood

at her place. She smiled quietly.

“I am going to send you home, Case,” said Josie. “This is where you kiss the girl until

you see her tomorrow.”

“I can?,” said Case.

“Unless you think she won’t like it,” said Josie. She waved her hand. “One kiss

should be enough for now.”

Case looked at the girls looking at him. He looked at the Queen frowning at him.

Boim Russ sat with her elbows on the table with raised eyebrows.

“If you can’t kiss me now, you might never be able to later,” said Caroline.

Case leaned over and kissed her, hugging her close. He broke away after a minute.

Caroline smiled.

“Can I kiss you later?,” asked Case.

“If you can do it like that,” said Caroline. She smiled at his face.

“Mush,” said Alicia. She crossed her arms under her frowning face.

“It’s romantic,” said Matilda. “I wonder if I can find a boyfriend that can do that.”

“You’re eight,” said Melanie. “You have plenty of time for that.”

“I want someone perfect,” said Matilda.

“Good luck with that,” said Laura. “You’ll be lucky to find a boy that survives the

first talk with Jack.”

“You only get to keep two fingers,” said Melanie in a good imitation of Jack’s dad

talk voice. “You don’t get to decide which ones.”

“That’s good,” said Jack. “I didn’t know you could impersonate voices.”

“Oh,” said Melanie. She blushed.

“I’m going to take the Queen home by bird,” said Josie. “June?”

“One of the Society took her home,” said Jack. “I guess we’re clear for the rest of the

night. Did Mister Warner come by?”

“No,” said Josie. “Do you think he ran into trouble?”

“It depends on whether or not he was able to use his watch,” said Jack. “I can try to

call him and see what happened. Do you want to hang out here, Boim, or go home?”

“I think I will go home and wait,” said Boim. “I will keep an eye on things like I said.

I doubt that I will be able to locate another chopper unless he is really obvious.”

“Don’t forget to call for help if you need it,” said Jack. “We have the gate, and we

have the Enterprise. We can be up where you are in minutes depending.”

“I won’t forget,” said Boim. She made a face. “It’s strange how things have changed.

Four days ago, I was living on the street. Three days ago, someone wanted to cut me

up for my eyes. Two days ago, I was fighting monsters with the first friends I have

made. Yesterday, I moved into my first house with a friend. Today, I start waiting for

my friend to come back. What will tomorrow bring?”

“Tidings of comfort and joy,” said Jack. He grinned quietly at his own joke.

“It would have to, wouldn’t it?,” said Boim. “I should go. The dragon boat will be

waiting on June to come back. I will have to explain that it might be a while.”

“Would you like to take some food home with you?,” asked Angelica. “I know June

can’t cook.”

“Thank you, Angelica,” said Boim. She stood. “Let’s sort that out while we are

cleaning up.”

“Say good night, Case,” said Josie. She transformed. “Be at the Hole in the Wall in

the morning if you want to go on this fishing trip.”

“Remember we’re going skydiving first,” said Jack. He grinned. “I still have to test

my gadget.”

“I suppose that is all right,” said Case. He bent and kissed Caroline again. She smiled.

Then he appeared in his quarters. He looked around the tiny room. It had been big

enough for him at one point. He wondered if he should buy bigger quarters for

Caroline.

It was another thing he had to put on his list.

“We’re next, Lois,” said Josie. “I promised the King to get you home before the sun

goes down in the Capitol.”

“Are you sure about this, Care?,” asked Lois. She looked at her daughter smiling at

the table.

“Mother, even if this doesn’t work out with Case, I have people who will protect me

and help me with things,” said Caroline. “It will be fine. Tell Father I love him.”

“I will,” said Lois. “This has been strange all around.”

Josie cast out a bird for them. It would take a few minutes for it to cross the miles.

“Let’s go, girls,” said Josie. “This place won’t clean itself. You can moon about Case

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later, Caroline. Also don’t try to sneak him into your guest quarters. The security

won’t like it.”

“Really?,” said Caroline. She didn’t protest the thought.

“Maybe when your courting has reached later stages, I will make an allowance,” said

Josie. “Right now, anyone coming into the office other than us will have some

problems.”

The bird reached the castle’s throne room. She felt the spell lock on. She vanished as

Caroline was asking what kind of problems. She left Jack to explain what kind of

consequences as she and the Queen appeared thousands of miles away.

“I will never get used to that,” said Lois.

“I like it, but it is power intensive,” said Josie, changing back to recharge. She noted

her drawing was still in the tile. She stepped on it and her watch started charging

faster. “Rickard must be working.”

“He has an office, and a planning room,” said Lois. “Let’s try them.”

Josie followed the queen as she went to a door behind the throne. She pressed the

release and the door opened in the wall. They stepped through to a corridor with a

lamp on the hook next to the door.

“The offices and administration is that way,” said Lois, indicating the direction with

her head. “We’ll go down and talk to him. Then you can do the next thing you are

responsible for.”

“Caroline is as safe as I can make her,” said Josie. “The girls and Emily will look

after her.”

“She has always been more sensible than this,” said Lois. “Just taking up with an

adventurer. It’s so unlike her.”

“It’s because Case seems sincere and is a pudding head,” said Josie. “He must be

good at his job for Eric to keep him around, and he has seen action before the Fighters

hired me and after so he is decisive enough when his life is on the line. The main

thing in my mind is what happens if they can’t pull things together. I’m not in the

business of fixing broken hearts.”

“Will your Society object to any of this?,” asked the Queen.

“I don’t know,” said Josie. “I doubt it as long as they get what they want. Mister

Warner was their agent for years, but he didn’t try to live here and settle in. I’m sure

if they had other agents, some of them did what we are doing. I just don’t know how

successful they were.”

“I understand,” said Lois. “We can step out of the corridor up ahead and be in the

public halls. I will send a page to find Rickard to let him know that I am home.”

“I’ll wait,” said Josie. “I want to make sure I can hand you off without any more

trouble from Rustam’s other allies that we haven’t seen yet.”

“Do you think he has other allies?,” said Lois.

“I would be surprised if he didn’t,” said Josie. “You might be fighting the nobility

until Caroline takes over for you.”

“Ropel did say that there was going to be problems,” said Lois. “I wonder how

accurate his foresight is.”

“Hopefully it is good enough to keep the Village out of trouble,” said Josie. “If Mister

Warner has settled in there, he has been showing us his grumpier side, and it wouldn’t

be good for anyone testing his patience.”

“I saw what happened when he and June arrived to help us,” said Lois. “June asked

him not to kill our attackers so we could question them. It was a near thing. I could

see it in his eyes.”

“He has been fighting monsters for a while,” said Josie.

She knew that he had put people down just as fast as he had the goblins from their

quest. June stepping in was probably the only thing that had kept those attackers

alive.

They stepped into a corridor full of people going about their business of pushing

papers and trying to find out the answers to the questions keeping them from finishing

their jobs. A quiet alert went out as someone noticed the Queen in their presence.

Everyone started snapping to attention. Josie hung back, eyes examining them for

possible threats.

If someone went for the Queen, she had to be ready to do something to stop them.

The Queen walked to a door that looked like every other door in the hall. She tried

the handle, and walked in. The office stood empty. She frowned. She had really hoped

Rickard was here.

She turned to one of the officials in the hall. He paused when she raised her hand.

“Your Majesty?,” asked the man. He had a clutch of papers in his hands.

“I was away for a bit,” said the Queen. “Do you know where the king is?”

“He is in the planning room, Your Majesty,” said the official. “He has asked for us

to send our reports there. There is a rumor that we will be going to war.”

“Thank you,” said the Queen. “We will go down and talk to him.”

“My pleasure, Your Majesty,” said the official. He bowed before walking away.

The Queen led the way down the halls toward a large room with guards standing at

the door and messengers going in and out. She paused as the guards bowed their

heads to her.

“I would like to go inside,” said the Queen. “I have to talk to the King.”

“I don’t think this is a good time, Your Majesty,” said one of the guards. “They are

gearing up for a large operation.”

“I know,” said the Queen. “I want the King to know the Princess is in good hands,

and is being watched.”

“I will go in and let him know,” said the guard. He bowed his head again and went

into the room.

Josie saw a bunch of guys in uniform livery, and plain clothes. They were going over

papers with their planning.

The King appeared. He smiled when he saw the Queen in the hall. He hugged her.

“Caroline is doing better,” said the Queen. “We tracked down some villainous guards

and handed them over to the Duke Hent. He is working to get his books in order for

the audit.”

“It’s a pleasure seeing you again, Rick,” said Josie. “I have to get back. Jack tends to

be irresponsible when left alone, and I owe Aviras a ton of ice cream. He will be surly

if he has to wait much longer.”

“Will he be as surly as you?,” asked the King.

“Yes, because I am not surly at all,” said Josie. “I am as pleasant as sunshine, and

flowers in a well-tended garden.”

“I see,” said the King. He tried to school his face not to reveal his impression of the

mass murderer and vigilante in front of him.

“Jack is taking the kids fishing tomorrow,” said Josie. “I am going to try to help clear

the victims from the Goblin Trees from Jane’s lawn.”

“We are shutting the borders with our neighbors,” said the King. “We are going to

start trying to bring in all the Montrose in the country. We are going to try to prove

they were behind trying to revolt against my rule, and fomenting war against the other

countries.”

“I don’t know how much I can help,” said Josie. She frowned. “I really don’t know

if the Society will like the results of this as much as I do.”

“Jack said that you could be replaced by someone not interested in helping out the

general population,” said the Queen.

“Mister Warner only handled missions handed down to him,” said Josie. “Unless the

Montrose came up in a mission, he would have left it alone. Unfortunately I declared

war and now I am stuck with the results.”

“And if you were replaced, your war would not be carried by the replacement,” said

the King. “I understand the position. They want controlled situations that are handled

neatly.”

“They never dealt with Jack before they drafted us,” said Josie. She smiled. “He’s

about as neat as a toddler.”

“He did a good job on the Hangar,” said the Queen.

“I know,” said Josie. “I was surprised.”

“Will you help us?,” asked the King.

“I will do what I can,” said Josie. “I expect the Society to talk to me eventually. I have

to get my girls in line. I want you to do the best you can with what you have. If

something comes up in front of me, I will do something about it. I will try to be as

neat as I can with the solution.”

“Ropel was right,” said the King. “It looks like there is an underlying river of

corruption. We are sorting it out the best we can.”

“I could send out birds, but that wouldn’t prove anything to anyone but us,” said

Josie. “You’re going to have to dig into this, and stay out of harm’s way as much as

you can. Caroline will be safe with me for a bit. The real worry about her being hurt

comes down to how things shake out with Case. If they can get together and work

things out, then Case will have to provide his own security when they move in

together. If they can’t get make it work, Caroline will be back here under your wing,

and you will have to get guards that will look after her.”

“The people who were supposed to protect Caroline were paid by the Exchequer to

hand her over,” said the King. “The auditors have already traced the money through

accounts held by the former chancellor. I think until we straighten this out, Care is

better off in your care.”

“Have you talked to the women I brought in?,” said Josie.

“I have sent the heads of the Watch and the home army to interview them,” said the

King. “Most of the reports turned in say the women and girls were taken from places

to the south. Direction of travel suggests they were going north. Some of them have

asked to be sent back, and I am arranging it.”

“I wonder if the caravans know that I talked to Shemmaria,” said Josie.

“I am closing the borders and arresting any of these caravans my people can find,”

said the King. “If they resist, the armies, watches, and adventurers who are being

hired have been told that they can use lethal force if they have to stop these people.”

“How many do you think will go back to your nobility?,” asked Josie.

“I don’t know,” said the King. “But that is part of the larger problem that has to be

rooted out.”

“I will hold Hawk Ridge,” said Josie. “I have allies there. If you need specific help,

send me a letter, and I will turn Jack loose on the problem.”

“Will he shoot lightning at it?,” asked the Queen.

“The question is how much lightning will he shoot,” said Josie. “I have to go. It has

been my pleasure to deal with you without too much of a fuss. If there are problems

with the Society, I will let you know.”

“Thank you,” said the King.

“Take care of Caroline, Ear Ripper,” said the Queen. “It will be my pleasure to visit

for dinner when all this is straightened out.”

Josie bowed to cover her frown. She changed and sent out a bird to take her home.