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BONCHANCE
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The men were loading things from the palace into the carts, and I had sent down to the slaver’s row to let the people we had freed earlier that it was safe to come out. Many of the former slaves were going from building to building, searching for their fellows.
One of the newly freed came up to me, “So this Duchy of Ceedo, where is it?”
“Northeast, we will be looking for trading partners,” I replied. Mara had anticipated this question.
“You’re not keeping this place?”
“We’re not expansionist. However, we will be leaving some people here with a method to contact us in case one of the Dark Warrior compounds comes a calling. We are also not abandoning you until you get organized.”
“Oh!” he was surprised at that.
“You’ve got good farmland and water, and these buildings are well-made and defensible. This is all yours now.”
He nodded and walked off to talk to some others.
“Will that work?” Clea asked me. She had clearly overheard the conversation.
“I don’t know. They are better off than they were, and the Dark Warriors’s raiding is not likely to be as effective. The choice is up to them.”
“Not expansionist indeed.”
“What’s the point?” I replied. “Trading with them would get just as good results as ruling them and has the added benefit of not worrying if they’re angry with your rule. So what are your plans, reporting in to your masters?”
“Hardly. I have found some of those that were taken, and a caravan is being arranged to transport many of the displaced back to their homes. They will be delivering my report. I was thinking of visiting this Duchy of yours.”
“Really?”
“Lady Mara makes me very curious. I like getting answers…Also, I would like to invite you to the Rock Republic. I know the Chancellor would like to meet you two…That will have to wait until the Spring, though. The caravan is just going to beat the first mountain storms, and when those arrive, it is impossible to cross. So, I was going to request permission to winter over with you, and in the Spring, we head west.”
“An interesting offer indeed. Well, we’ll have to see what the Duchess thinks.”
“So she really is the one in charge?”
“Completely.”
“She doesn’t act like any noble I’ve ever met…Not that I’ve met a lot, just some of the Pine Empire.”
“Where is that?” I asked.
“North and west of Rock, it’s along the Pacific Ocean.”
“The True Empire is along the Atlantic; we’re both far away from home.”
She nodded, “We are. So, why does she want that corpse?” Clea nodded at the tarp-wrapped body of Lord Malcolm.
That was a tricky question: Could I trust her? After a moment, I decided I could; it was not unreasonable, given what she had seen, that she already had strong suspicions about things, and not telling might get her searching and finding out other things. “Apparently, he’s filled with Old World technology, and the Duchess is very curious who made it. She doesn’t think it came from the same place as hers.”
“So she’s going to what?”
“Take him apart and look for maker’s marks is effectively how she described it to me.”
“Like a craftsman’s chop?”
“Yes.”
“It is simply not possible that I will not be returning with you to your Duchy. When are you…we, leaving?”
“We’re leaving some men and equipment behind just in case…”
“I did hear that.”
“So as soon as we’re finished packing up and they are situated, we are going…Four hours? The Duchess will call us when we’re ready.”
“Time enough to get a drink.”
“Actually, yes.”
She looped her arm through mine, and we returned to the tavern where we had started the fight. One of the bartenders who was rinsing blood off the stoop looked up at us; his slave collar was gone.
“You were the ones that broke their hold!” he exclaimed.
“Not by ourselves; we had a lot of help,” I replied. “Are you and the others well? Do you need anything?”
“We’re well…now. Thank you. We were wondering, if it’s not too much trouble, of course, if we could get a couple of beers?”
He smiled, “I think so.”
Walking inside, I doubted if there was any unbroken furniture left. Reaching into my jacket, I removed the last of Feder’s money and handed it to him, “For the drinks and a contribution to the rebuilding fund.”
He looked inside the bag and nodded, “The rebuilding fund thanks you.”
We sat on two only slightly cracked stools and sipped our beers. A few minutes later, Cal entered with his team, “Milord! Fancy meeting you in this den of inequity.”
“Pull up a seat. Master Bartender, can the rebuilding fund spare enough to stand these brave men a round?”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
He smiled, “I believe it can.”
“No need, milord, we can pay our own way.”
Over the next few hours, people began stopping in and chatting, some to thank and some to ask questions. We appreciated the compliments, answered what we could, and traded stories about what had happened to each other during the battle. Clea and I minimized a lot of what we had done and what we had seen, and Cal and his men followed suit.
“The observation post is set,” Wallace’s voice came over our commsets. “Lady Mara is ready to depart.”
I looked at Cal, and he nodded, “Finish them up, boys! We’re getting ready to go back home. Cart team, we’ll switch off as often as we can.”
All of us downed our mugs, thanked the bartenders, and said goodbye to the now-crowded bar. Cal then said, “We’ll be back if you need us or even just for a visit.”
“That’s true,” I added. “The Duchess will be keeping watch for trouble.”
Walking out, as I had had the least amount to drink, I would be driving one of the Guts with Mara driving the other. We let the two ox carts set the pace, and we drove out of town. Then, I noticed a group of about a hundred people following us.
“Duchess, I think the Duchy is growing in population.”
“Stop the vehicles.”
We halted, and she organized the injured to ride on the carts and the others to rotate riding on top of the Guts. As we traveled, she called back to the bunker and informed Peter that some temporary housing would be needed.
Eventually, our troops also walked, with Lawrence, Cal, Mara, and I being the only drivers; we would switch off as well so more of the new residents of Ceedo would get a chance to ride inside.
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CLEA
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It took almost two weeks to return to the Duchy of Ceedo at a walking pace, but it did happen. I looked around as we approached a small town on an Old Road, just below a ridgeline in extremely rough terrain. The town had a series of large and, apparently, hastily thrown-up buildings on the edge, and a man in his late middle age was standing there waiting.
“Master Peter!” Bonchance said. “Good to see you.”
Bonchance and Mara had insisted on walking as much as the others, and at the moment, she was driving one of the Gut vehicles while he was on foot out in front, with me beside him.
On their trek, I had not gotten any full answers from either of them, but I had found that Bonchance knew a great deal about technology and history, and Mara was an encyclopedia on military operations. Bonchance was also very self-deprecating, and I had amused myself by getting the Duchy’s soldiers to tell stories about his skill and daring, including the fact that he had tackled a soc and held it down until the Duchess could kill it.
“Did that really happen?” I had asked him.
He sighed and nodded, “But I didn’t really hold it down. I just kept it too busy to think about standing up.”
I had looked over at Calvin Galway, one of the senior members of the Duchy’s troops, and asked, “Is he always this dense?” in a comically enhanced, exasperated tone.
All those listening had laughed, and Calvin had replied, “Only on every day of his life. Lord Bonchance is the best fighter with the worst self-image we have.”
Now Bonchance looked embarrassed, and I decided to have mercy on him and leave him alone.
Now he was speaking to this Master Peter and waving Calvin over. The two men embraced each other, and it was clear there was a family resemblance between Peter and the younger man.
“Masters Galway!” Mara called out. “Can you get our new friends established? Bonchance, get Sandra down here to record their names and occupations. Master Lawrence, gut the carts to SURFACE and get them unloaded. Once they’re empty, we’ll put the Guts inside and on the chargers. All deployment troops, great work. Help with the unloading of the carts and the guts, and then get your gear cleaned and stowed, weapons to the armory…Mistress Clea, could you come with me?”
The two women climbed into one of the Guts, and Mara drove it up a narrow road and through a log gate into a small fortified area atop the ridge. There were several log buildings, and she parked it next to one of them before climbing out; I followed. Walking inside the building, I saw that they had used a cliff as one of the walls, and as Mara approached, it slid to one side, revealing a cavernous circular room inside the ridge itself.
Mara entered, and I continued to follow; the room was lit by glowing electric fixtures in the ceiling and had a number of covered items arranged against the walls, along with several large doors made from Old World materials.
“What is this place?” I asked.
“What do you think it is, Miss Spy?”
“An Old World facility? And one that’s still operational?”
“I knew you were smart.”
Walking across the open space, she stopped by a set of split doors that looked remarkably similar to an elevator. The doors slid open, and I saw that that was exactly what it was.
Pressing the second from the bottom button, Mara waited until the doors closed and looked carefully at me.
“Bonchance trusts you. He says that you are probably a double-dealer, but only to people you don’t like, which is why you’re such a good spy. If he hadn’t trusted you, you would never have been found again because you probably know far too much to be healthy for this Duchy and myself.”
The elevator car stopped, and the doors slid open. I just stood there, “You would have just killed me?”
Mara nodded, “Without hesitation.”
“And now?”
“Now I am hesitating; how long this hesitation will last is up to you.”
“So if I leave now?”
“You can go…but if you speak about anything, especially your suspicions? You will die almost instantly…As you probably can guess, I have the technology to know what you say and to remove you without you knowing it was coming.”
Mara stepped out of the elevator, “This way.”
I followed, feeling very subdued by Mara’s absolutely matter-of-fact tone she had used to describe killing me. Then I looked around at the room we were standing in and gasped.
“This is the operations room of R-34, a Combined Defense Organization Last Stand Redoubt, built during the end of the Final War. It was designed to support guerrilla operations and operate resistance forces against the potential ground invasion plans of the Hi-Siders. It was completed and stocked right before the Pox was released, but never manned because the Pox worked. It sat here abandoned until Bonchance found it, managed to break in, and awaken its one occupant…me.”
“You?”
“Yes, I’m a veteran of the Final War. Master Sergeant Mara Edgerton of the Combined Ground Forces.”
“And you’re just telling me this?”
“Remember my promise? It was a promise because I don’t make threats.”
“I see…You didn’t need to tell me this. You could have fended me off with lies and half-truths.”
“Because I needed to tell you this because I need your skills, and you wouldn’t be able to work to your full level if you started off with bad intel.”
“What?”
“I was military intelligence. An Army counter-spy. All my skills are for a much different time, and I will need those same skills for what’s coming up. I had needed a current spy, and then we met you.”
“To do what?” I asked.
“There is a facility like this, but much larger, next to Harris, the capital of the True Empire. There is an excellent chance that some other people like me are also sleeping there, and I would really like to find them.”
“What’s the problem with just traveling there?”
“The first part of the problem,” the wall flickered, and there was a strangely colored map that filled the whole of it, “is that there’s a war going on between the Empire and the Kingdom of the Southlands; it is also possible that the Kingdom of the Sun is on the Southlands side as well. There are reports that attacks have been made around two hundred kilometers south of Harris. This makes the local defenders very nervous about strangers. The second part of the problem is that the Empire is just shy of being a police state. Security Police, informants, and a noble class that is absolutely terrified of losing their power, so they will do anything to keep it; it’s not helpful if you’re a stranger looking around…and I really don’t want to see Old World tech in a police state’s fascist hands if they find me looking for something and get curious about what I’m looking for.”
“So how then?”
“The whole Duchess thing. I am Lady Mara, Duchess Edgerton of the Duchy of Ceedo, and I would like to pay my respects to the True Emperor. I don’t think he could resist some punk ass noble come lately crawling up to kiss his ring, do you?”
I nodded, “So I think…Countess Lindquist is your personal aide? Is Lord Bonchance coming?”
“Of course, and a personal guard, naturally.”
“We’re going to need clothes. Nice clothes…and jewelry.”
“Which we obtained from Lord Malcolm, we also have fabric to make the clothes and several sewers and embroiderers here.”
“And we’re going to need some kind of gift.”
“Oh, I have some ideas on that…So are you in, or are you a dead woman walking?”
“I’m in."