The map made for grim reading. Western Helberion had a large patch of red reaching from the Steel Curtain a hundred miles into the country, pushing towards Marboll like the point of a dagger. Arrows had been pinned to the map, showing the direction the Carrow invasion force was heading, and Leothan was alarmed to see one of them pushing up towards the north. They were going for Adams Valley, he knew. They wanted to destroy the new Institute of Electrical Research, so new that it hadn't even been opened before being half destroyed by a Radiant, but that splinter force also threatened to cut across the route Princess Ardria would be taking, on her way to meet with King Nilon and try to make him see the truth of the Radiants.
They won't interfere with her, he tried to tell himself. The Carrowmen know she's there, know where she's going. Leothan had talked to Nilon himself, by telegraph, and had told him that she was on her way to negotiate a ceasefire, diplomatic code for a Helberion surrender. Nilon had, of course, suggested that Leothan surrender there and then, but Leothan had said that they wanted to negotiate favourable terms for himself and his people. Nilon had agreed to allow Ardria and her party to enter the country, therefore, and would ensure that no harm came to her, but that finger of red reaching up to the route his daughter was going to take still sent a chill up his spine.
“They're through the minefield,” said Field Marshall Amberley, bringing the King back to himself. “It did its job, took a heavy toll of the enemy, until the Radiants caused a small earthquake that detonated most of the remaining mines. They're going much slower now, checking each newly ploughed field before crossing it...”
“But still pushing onwards!” pointed out General Glowen. “The damned balloons tear up any place we try to fortify with earthquakes, and then the damned mutton munchers just walk all over them!”
Mention of earthquakes made Leothan look up at the ceiling, where the plaster was missing in large patches revealing the thick oak timbers that formed the very bones of the palace. Some parts of the palace had been placed off limits until repairs could be made, the surveyors having declared them to be unsafe, and to the King's annoyance the residential wing was one of them. When Leothan retired from his official duties for the day, be would have to go to the Ministerial Building across Liberty Avenue, where rooms had been assigned for him and the Royal Family. It was aggravating, but Leothan wasn't going to complain when so many people had died during the attack. Nine in the palace alone, eighty two people in the rest of the city and thousands more homeless, having to sleep in a large tent city that had been hastily erected in Manners Park. He'd gone to visit them that morning, to give some words of comfort and a promise that they would be properly rehoused as soon as the money and resources could be found. The cheer they'd given him had almost broken his heart.
“They're capturing our artillery pieces, using them against us!” added General Lanier. “They were under equipped when they started, but if they keep this up they'll bring themselves completely up to strength with our own damned equipment!”
“Don't our boys have orders to sabotage any piece of kit they have to abandon?” asked Brigadier Kinley.
“You try sabotaging something when the ground’s lurching under your feet and there're damned balloons in the sky cursing anyone who doesn't get away quickly enough!” said Glowen. “We need more incendiary ammunition! They're the only way to stop the things!”
“How are we going with finding a good source of phosphorus?” Leothan asked General Pavok.
“The chemistry guys are talking to the geography guys,” the Minister for War replied. “We know what minerals contain phosphorus, we know where to find those minerals and we know how to extract it, but getting a supply chain established takes time. And, of course, any factory we build is likely to be targeted by the Radiants. In the meantime, we've been scrounging every scrap of phosphorus we can find in the country, enough to make another three hundred rounds...”
“We need a thousand times as much!” said Lanier.
“Yes, I know that!” snapped Pavok. “Connery, one of the geography guys, says the best place to get the stuff is Jonwell.” He strode over to the map on the far wall of the War Room, stabbed a finger at a spot in the east of the country. “Nice and far from the front line. The Carrowmen will have to take Marboll before they can strike out towards it.”
“So we just have to worry about the balloons,” said Lanier. “We need incendiary rounds to defend the place where we'll be making the incendiary rounds, and so far we have a grand total of fifty.”
“We used up pretty much our entire supply defending Marboll against eight Radiants,” said Kinley, “and they’re apparently able to send hundreds when they want to!”
“Any sign of a mass movement of Radiants?” asked the King.
“Not yet,” replied Amberley, “but the place they're most likely to come from is Wilterland, and that's pretty barren country. There might be a force on its way already and we wouldn’t know until it was right on top of us.”
“So let’s get some spotters down there, with pigeons. Tell them to send a bird back the moment they see anything.” Amberley nodded and made a note of it in his notebook.
“While we're on the subject,” said Minister Larren, “I can't stop thinking about the way the Radiants behaved when they attacked us. Are we agreed that the Radiants that attacked us were just regular Radiants? They weren't soldier Radiants or anything, I’ve got no idea whether there is any such thing. They were just Radiants that happened to be in the city when they received an order to attack us.”
Leothan nodded. The same thing had occurred to him. “All but one of them died,” he said. “Even after the first two or three had died, the others continued to attack, knowing they were probably going to die as well. The one that survived didn't flee to save its own life. It left when it realised it no longer had any chance of killing me or my daughter. If it had still had a chance, I'm pretty sure it would have died in the attempt as well.”
“They're willing to sacrifice themselves,” said Amberley, nodding. “They don’t have the same sense of self preservation that we do.”
“Is this relevant?” asked Pavok. “We can study Radiant psychology when the current crisis is over.”
“Understanding your enemy is the first step to defeating him,” replied Amberley. “We've been assuming that they think more or less the same way we do, that their motives and world view are more or less the same as ours. I don’t think we can assume that any more. Their minds may be as different as their bodies. Understanding in what way they’re different may suggest a strategy for dealing with them.”
“Look into it, will you?” said Leothan. “Get the psych warfare boys to work on it. Not quite what they're used to, but maybe they'll relish the challenge.” The Field Marshall nodded and made another note in his notebook.
The King went back to the map. “Is there any realistic chance we can win this war?” he asked. “With our better equipment we thought we were about evenly matched against the Carrowmen alone, but with the Radiants helping them?”
“If we can take the Radiants out of the war, we can still give a good account of ourselves,” said Amberley. “Some of the men have been arming themselves with bows and arrows, tipping them with burning tar. How effective they'll be I have no idea...”
“Radiants have to come close to cast curses,” mused Larren. “The question is, how close do they have to be to cause an earthquake? The eight that attacked the city were all pretty low to the ground, but that may just have been so they could attack the palace. If they have to come low to start an earthquake, they'll be vulnerable to attack from the ground.”
“If we've got something to attack them with,” said Pavok. “Bows and arrows? If they’re not scared of death and are willing to commit themselves in large numbers, I’m afraid I don’t see bows and arrows being of much use.”
“They served our ancestors well during the Brey War...” pointed out Amberley.
“The Brey’s were only armed with spears!”
“They were a formidable cavalry force that outnumbered our ancestors three to one. Infantry against a cavalry force three times the size is supposed to be suicide, but they threw them back, left thousands dead on the field...”
“Perhaps now isn't the time for a history lesson,” said Leothan. “Bows and arrows that the men are making themselves probably aren't the best quality. Is there any chance we can manufacture quality weapons in numbers and supply them to the men?”
“We may not have to. Archery is a popular sport, there are probably hundreds of bows in the city right now!”
“Sporting bows, not proper weapons,” protested Pavok. “And it takes time to learn how to use a bow and arrow.”
“A Radiant is a big target, it'd be like hitting a barn door, and how different is a sporting bow from a proper weapon? They both throw arrows.”
“A sporting bow is all about accuracy, while we need range and penetrating power. Still, I suppose they might serve as a stopgap until we can get the incendiary ammunition.”
“Exactly!” Amberley thumped the table with his fist. “They might not have the same sense of self preservation that we do, but I bet that if we kill enough of them the rest'll keep their distance. Then it'll be just us and Carrow in a straight up slugging match!”
He was trying to sound upbeat and optimistic, but everyone in the room knew just how desperate their situation really was. An awkward silence fell, and Amberley tried to break it by making his excuses and leaving to carry out the King's instructions. Everyone else remained, though, and the meeting went on for another hour or so. Everyone was hoping that someone else would come up with some brilliant idea that would save them all, Leothan realised. Himself included. It was a depressing realisation, because it meant that they all believed that their eventual defeat was inevitable. They would do their best, of course. They would make plans and give orders, and if necessary they would take up arms themselves in a last desperate defence of the King, but none of them really thought they had a chance of victory. Leothan dismissed the meeting, therefore, wishing he'd done it the minute Amberley had left, and a pair of guards fell in beside him as he made his way back to the Ministerial Building.
Outside the palace, the gardeners were still cutting up a fallen tree and they stood and bowed as the King went past. Four more guards joined him as he walked the short distance along the gravel drive, past neatly mown lawns and perfectly arranged flower beds, to Liberty Avenue where uniformed men held back the traffic for him. Balhern had tried to persuade him to use a carriage whenever he made this short trip, but Leothan was determined to show the people of the city that he wasn't afraid of Radiants or Carrow assassins. By doing this I'm demonstrating my trust in them, he thought, and my confidence that we’ll win this war. I'm demonstrating my confidence that peace and prosperity will return. Also, the sight of him walking to his temporary quarters was a reminder to those living in the tent city that he had also lost his home, even though the hardships he was suffering were as nothing compared to theirs.
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The people appreciated it and waved and cheered at the sight of him, some of them waving little flags. Leothan waved back, trying not to think that there very well might be a Carrow assassin hiding in the crowd, even now aiming a pistol at him. There were guards in the crowd as well, of course, scanning the crowd for anyone moving suspiciously, and the men of his escort were doing the same, ready to throw him to the ground and cover him with their bodies at the first sight of something they didn't like, even though the King had been well trained in several forms of combat and might well be better able to handle an assassin than any of his guards.
It was a hot day with a cloudless blue sky, and Leothan was struck by the fact that, for the first time he could remember, the sky was completely empty of Radiants. Other people were feeling the same thing, he saw. Several of the people in the crowd were looking upwards, scanning the sky with their eyes, looking both relieved at the absence of the floating creatures and fearful that they might suddenly return. If they did, the guards surrounding him had several of their precious incendiary rounds, ready to turn the creatures into balls of red fire. Others had been given to the guards around the telegraph room, to protect their communications with the rest of the world, and more were even now being taken to Adams Valley by their fastest rider, to protect the scientists who would, the King hoped, soon create the device that everyone had begun calling the Electric Messiah. The final eight were being carried by the guards accompanying Princess Ardria to Carrow. He spent a moment in aching worry for his beloved daughter, then remembered that the crowds were still watching him and made himself give them a cheery wave. Upholding confidence and morale might well be the most important thing he was doing right now.
The Ministry Building had also suffered damage in the earthquake, although less than the palace, which had been at the epicentre, and the King knew that work was going on inside to make repairs. The first priority, though, had been to remove all external sign of the attack, for morale purposes and to give the impression of normality. Even so, though, there was still indentations of bright, clean stone, starkly visible amongst the dark, grimy pollution that covered the rest of the building, where several decorative gargoyles had fallen.
All but two of the guards accompanying him stopped at the doorway as the King went in, past bowing doorman who held the door for him. Inside was a bustle of activity as junior officials went about their business, pausing only to bow as they scurried along the oak panelled corridors and in and out of committee rooms and private offices. He made for the stairs by the quickest route, not wanting his mere presence to disturb the business of government any more than necessary, and went up to the guest rooms normally used by politicians visiting from distant parts of the country.
Lacurnia was in the living room, a very small, sparsely furnished room compared to the kind of residences they were accustomed to. She had Prince Bowen on her lap and was tickling him absent mindedly behind one ear while he purred contentedly. His eyes were closed in an expression of pure bliss and he was plucking at her dress with his claws, the Queen not seeming to notice that he was pulling out small threads of the expensive material. Princess Stephanie, meanwhile, sat in another chair on the other side of the room, looking at herself in a mirror and touching her newly formed lips with stubby, half formed fingers. She was barefoot, not yet being human enough for shoes to fit her, and the four original toes of each foot, still bearing long yellow claws, had been joined by a small, pink human toe bearing a tiny, perfect toenail. Leothan remembered how proud and overjoyed she'd been when those toes had first appeared, and how she'd showed them off excitedly to every maid and servant in the palace. “Daddy!” she croaked with relief through vocal cords that had only recently become human enough for speech. “You're back!”
It should have been a normal, happy family scene, the kind of scene that was being repeated in thousands of homes across the human world, but when the Queen turned her head to look at him he saw how her eyes were red with recently shed tears. She'd taken Lady Dwen's death hard. It had only been a few weeks since the nightmare of Princess Ardria's ordeal had come to an end. A few precious weeks of heartfelt relief, normality and happiness in which the friendship of the Gildon ambassador, the only person in the palace close enough to her in rank and social status for her to relate to as an equal, had been invaluable. Leothan tried his best to fill that role, but his duties required him to be away from her for most of the day, leaving her alone with the children and her anxiety at the new danger into which her eldest daughter had ridden.
Leothan sat next to her on the sofa, took the Prince from her lap and sat him on his own lap, where he stood uncertainly for a few moments before sitting. “I'm sorry I've been so long,” he said, putting an arm around her and pulling her close. “There's so many things that need my personal attention...”
“I know that. You're the King. I knew what it would be like when I married you. The Kingdom comes first, and that's how it should be.”
“But you've got no-one to talk to any more. First Dwen, then Ardria...”
She forced a smile. “I'm not going to curl up and die just for lack of gossip! Besides, I've got the servants to manage and the children to look after. If I lived in some other country I might have my own circle of spies keeping me informed of all the palace intrigues, who's doing what to whom, who’s plotting against us, but everyone here is so damned loyal!” Then a stricken look came over her. “Except for Darniss, of course. If I‘d had my circle of spies, maybe I'd have spotted her for what she was before she... Before she did what she did.”
“If Balhern didn't spot her, how were you supposed to? She was good, very good.”
“And now Ardria's with her. Alone with that monster!”
“Hardly alone! She's got twenty four armed me to look after her. If Darniss does one thing they don’t like, well, they have their orders.”
“What good will twenty four men do if Nilon decided to take her hostage? I still can't believe we agreed to this!”
“The good of the Kingdom...”
“I'm sick of hearing about the good of the Kingdom! We're talking about our daughter!” She ran a trembling hand through her hair. “I'm sorry...”
Leothan squeezed her against him. “I know you’re scared. I'm scared too, but she’s not just our daughter. She's a princess and the heir to the Kingdom! People tend to think that that just means dressing in ball gowns and going to state ceremonies, people bowing and waving, and in some countries that might even be true, but here, in Helberion, it means duties and responsibilities. Her duty now is to go to Carrow, and my duty is to let her.”
For just a moment the Queen felt the slightest tremble of the King's body against her own, and she put her hand over his. “Stephanie,” she said, “Take Bowen into the bedroom, he needs a nap. Stay with him until he's asleep.” Stephanie looked at her suspiciously, guessing she just wanted her out of the room for a while. For a moment it looked as thought she might protest, but then she looked at her father and nodded. She stood on her half transformed feet, took the Prince in her arms, using her forearms to take most of his weight because her fingers weren’t yet long or strong enough, and carried him into the next room, pushing the door closed with her shoulder.
“Bill,” said Lacurnia gently. “We're alone here now. There’s no-one to see you except me, your wife, the one you can say anything to. The one person in all the world you don’t have to be strong in front of. If I'm feeling alone, you must feel a thousand times more alone! Take this opportunity to lay down the burden, just for a moment. When you’re alone with me, you can stop being the King and just be a husband and a father. Then, when you leave here and take up the burden again, you'll be able to bear it, because I've taken some of the weight from you.”
Leothan hesitated. He wanted to be strong for her, wanted to be reassuring and positive, but she knew him better than anyone else in the world and would see through it in a moment. Also, he did need to stop being the King for a moment. Just for a moment. All of a sudden he was tired, more tired than he could ever remember being before, and he was scared. This is Katherine, my wife, he reminded himself. With her, I'm not Leothan, the King. With her, I can just be William Regus, a normal man, and I need that! I need it so much, even if just for a moment!
He nodded, therefore, and gave a great heavy sigh. The tremble was back, and this time he did nothing to stop it. “I love her so much!” he said, “and she’s going into such danger! I'm so scared, Kat! I’m so scared of what might happen to her! I should never have let her go! I thought the War Council would advise against It! I was so hoping they would! It would have given me an excuse to forbid her from going! When they agreed that it was a good idea...” The Queen felt his arm tightening painfully against her, felt his fingers digging deep into her arm, and she welcomed it, welcomed the stress that was flowing out of his body like water from a bursting dam, or like pus from an infected wound.
“I was so angry with them!” he said. “I was furious! More furious than I've ever been! I wanted to lash out with my fists, just hurt them in the simplest, most basic way possible! Punish them for being so willing to send my daughter into harm's way! My daughter!” He realised he was hurting his wife and removed his hand hurriedly. “Sorry! I'm sorry!”
“It's okay!” She rubbed her arm, then took his hand and put it back where it was. “You were scared for Ardria.”
“I was terrified! And I hated myself for setting that kind of example in the first place. All that talk about duty, responsibility, about putting the Kingdom first... When she echoed those words back to me, down in the dungeons...”
“She would not have been your daughter if she hadn't.”
He nodded. “I could have forbidden her from going,” he said. “I didn't need the War Council to gives me permission! I'm the King! I can literally do anything! I can have anyone I want executed on a whim, In could order Amberley to tapdance naked in front of the War Council! I could have ordered her not to go!”
“Then why didn't you?”
“Because I'm the King, she’s the Princess and the good of the Kingdom comes first!” He ran a trembling hand through his hair. “If there's any chance that she and Darniss really can convince Nilon that the Radiants are his enemies as well as ours, then we have to take It, but it’s hard! So hard!”
“Those men would lay down their lives for her,” said the Queen. “If Nilon does decide to take her hostage, there won't be a single one of those men still alive when he does so.”
Leothan nodded. “There’s no point in any of them surrendering in the hope of escaping and carrying out a rescue later. That sort of thing just doesn't happen in real life. If Nilon betrays them, counting on Kelvon being in no condition to carry out its threat of war, they’ll try to sell their lives as dearly as possible.”
“And then she'll be alone, all alone among enemies.” Lacurnia shuddered and a tear ran down her cheek. “Will they keep her in the dungeons, do you think?”
“It won't come to that. Even with its present troubles, Kelvon is immeasurably powerful. Nilon won't risk war with them. She'll be safe. And even if... Even if the worst happens, they won't put her in a dungeon.”
“Why not?” The Queens voice was almost a wail of despair. “We did! We put Darniss in a cell!”
“Darniss was a treacherous palace servant. Ardria is a royal princess. There is a certain...” He paused while he searched for the right word. “Protocol. There is a certain protocol to be observed. If the worst happens, which it won't, they'll give her quarters in the palace where he can show her off to the noble families of Carrow. There'll be guards at every door, of course, but there’ll also be servants to look after her. Servants loyal to Nilon, but servants nonetheless. They may even let her keep Teena!” Teena was Ardria’s personal handmaid and was accompanying her to Carrow. “She'll be treated well, she’ll eat at the King's table, and they'll make absolutely sure that no harm comes to her. She'll be far too valuable to them was a hostage to risk her coming to harm.”
“And if they threaten to kill her unless you surrender?”
“They won't harm her. Killing her is something they can only do once. Once she’s dead, they don't have a hostage any more.”
“But if they do? If they do threaten to kill her?”
“I can't surrender, you know that. I'm the King, and the Kingdom comes first.”
Only Lacurnia could tell what it cost him to say those words. Part of her wanted to cry out in protest, to say he would get her back no matter what, that he'd send the whole army on a rescue mission if that's what it took, but the rest of her, the greater part, knew how foolish that was. “The kingdom comes first,” she said, in a very small, very quiet voice.
“It won't come to that,” said Leothan, stroking her arm gently. “Her mission will be a success. She and Darniss will convince Nilon. Carrow and Helberion will join forces to fight the Radiants, and she’ll come home in triumph. We'll have the greatest party this country's ever had to celebrate!”
“Are you trying to convince me, or yourself?”
“She'll be okay. I promise! I promise!” He said it over and over again, as if it was a magic spell that would make it come true, while the two of them held tightly to each other and cried together, alone together, where neither of them had to pretend to be strong.