“Yes, sir, it does. One learns to avoid strong drink in the evening when one will be praising God the next morning.”
“Splendid.” Bumble clapped his hands. “You know, of course, that Beecher and I stand ready to minister to any of the men and address their spiritual needs.”
Ian forced himself to smile to cover his wariness. “This is appreciated. I do have Pastor Wrenfold with the Fifth as our chaplain. Until his return, your assistance would be most welcome.”
“As you need it, General.” Bumble smiled broadly. “I so love hearing that new rank, sir. Most fitting, I assure you.”
“You are too kind.” Ian greeted Livinia Bumble, their niece Lilith, and Beecher, then turned immediately to Prince Vlad. “I hope, Highness, you found this display pleasing.”
“Indeed. Very impressive.” The Prince smiled, but it seemed forced. He looked haggard.
Ian lowered his voice. “If you don’t mind me saying so, Highness, you look as if you have not slept. Is there something the matter?”
“There is, in fact.” The Prince nodded toward Government House. “If it would be convenient for you to join me in my office in an hour, I would be appreciative.”
“Of course, Highness.”
“Thank you.” Vlad led his family away and Ian chatted with others who came to pay their respects. Most were the landed and successful. A few were men who appeared to be shaking his hand on a dare. He suspected most of them were veterans of the Anvil Lake expedition. It wasn’t in anything they said, but how they looked him up one side and down the other. They were measuring him against their memory of other Norillian leaders. If they made any judgments, they did not share them.
Ian smiled. “Mrs. Strake, how good of you to stay for the parade.”
“I wouldn’t have missed it.” Catherine had mounted the Cathedral steps. Agnes waited at the base with Miranda and Becca, both of whom were smiling. Ian gave them a salute, which made them dissolve into giggles.
“I noticed your husband was not with you at services this morning. I trust he is well?”
“I trust he is, too.” Catherine allowed an apprehensive expression steal over her face. “The Prince sent a messenger in the early hours. Owen had to go west on some urgent business.”
Ian managed to smother the smile that tried to burst forth. “You are fortunate the Prince trusts him so. Will he be gone long, do you know?”
She shook her head. “I do not, but he said he would see us again at Strake House when he was able. How far to the west he’s going, I don’t know, but from the looks of it he will be heading into the teeth of a storm.”
“Well, if it would not be inappropriate, I should call upon you.”
“You are too busy a man, General.”
“Never too busy for friends, Mrs. Strake. And while your husband is gone in the Prince’s service, please do not hesitate to ask for help as needed.” He smiled. “While my troopers are all gentlemen, some are given to being layabouts and some honest labor would not hurt them.”
“Again, you are kind, but I should not take up your time.”
“It would be no burden, I assure you.” He clasped his hands at the small of his back. “You would relieve me of the tedium of filling out reports, to which there is never an end. Such drudgery will be my nights for the foreseeable future.”
Her brown eyes flicked up knowingly. “You poor man. I hope you will find a diversion.”
“As do I. Good day, Mrs. Strake.”
Catherine withdrew and with children and nanny in tow, headed off to their apartment. Others offered thanks and praise to Ian, which he accepted with a frozen smile and polite replies, though his mind was in no way engaged. He should have been concerned with Regimental affairs, or his meeting with the Prince, but all he could think of was Catherine, naked, her body slick with exertion, sliding over his. He longed to touch her again, to taste her, to feel her nails rake his skin as she bucked beneath him. To yet again see the fierce love burning in her eyes became his reason for living.
Soon enough he extricated himself from the crowd and made his way to Government House, responding to an invitation from Prince Vlad which he’d received before the parade. Clouds began to roll in from the west. His winter in Mystria had taught him how ominous a portent this was. Warm breezes from the sea had melted much of the snow in Temperance, but within a day the city would again be quieted by a blanket of white.
Chandler, the Prince’s man, conducted him to the Prince’s private office. Ian had not met with him there before. Usually they used the audience chamber, but it had been reconfigured for the Colonial Assembly. The Prince’s throne had been pulled out and desks had been arranged. Ian felt certain the Bishop’s announcement of the Shipping and Commerce Act would fill the Assembly with oaths and plotting, but he did not believe the potential for rebellion was the reason the Prince had summoned him.
The Prince waited for the door to close before he spoke. “I should ask you for two things, General. The first is understanding, and the second is forgiveness. I realize that social niceties dictate that I spend longer earning each from you, but I fear we have not very much time with which to work. I’d like you to take a look at this.”
Removing his hat, Ian approached the Prince’s desk. The image of a strange creature almost twice as tall as a man, with claws and horns appeared sketched in a notebook next to the silhouette of a man. “Yes, Highness?”
“I know you’ve not seen one of these before. This is an image Owen Strake drew. It is a creature he and the others saw in the ruins, in the Temple, on their return journey.”
Ian lifted his chin. “Highness…”
The Prince held up a hand. “I do not need you to tell me that this creature cannot exist. I have it on very reliable authority that one was slain last Thursday. It will be back here soon. It exists; it is not the last of its kind. It is the harbinger of a coming disaster which the Crown has already informed me it does not accept as real and will not provide funding to defend against.”
The Prince then proceeded to explain to Ian all that Strake, Kamiskwa, and Woods had learned from the point when Rufus Branch grabbed Ian and Ian ceased to remember anything. Ian stood there, listening to point after point, cataloguing everything. Not only were things odder than he could have imagined, but he learned the Prince had withheld from him information that would have proved valuable in his report to the Crown.
“Yes, I know, General, that I did not tell you everything. Consider my position, however. You were a witness to none of this. While you might have reported it, you could not confirm it, which would have made it even easier to dismiss. Not that the Crown needed your help in this regard.”
“You could have told me once I’d sent my report in.” Ian fought to keep his face impassive. “I am a trained military man, Highness. You could have used my expertise to plan a defense. We’ve wasted the winter.”
Vlad snorted. “Not to be insulting, sir, but if I had asked you to help me plan on how to defeat monsters from beyond the mountains based on hallucinations caused by a Shedashee ritual-which point to a previously unknown people using magicks which we know cannot exist-I suspect you would have been less than forthcoming with your best effort on my behalf.”
“I must admit, Highness, that this all still sounds highly improbable.”
The Prince nodded, then clasped his hands behind his back. “I’ve calculated that Happy Valley was approximately two hundred miles, west-southwest from here.”
“I am aware of that.”
“And you know the date you were felled, and the date you woke up at Prince Haven, yes?”
Ian nodded.
“Did it never occur to you to ask how you got back so quickly?”
“Traveling two hundred miles in ten days is hardly unheard of, Highness.”
“On the Continent, perhaps, where there are roads.” Vlad exhaled slowly. “To demonstrate the gravity of the situation we are facing, I am going to share with you a confidence which I shall consider you honor bound to keep.”
“Of course, Highness.”
“It did not take you ten days to return.” The Prince smiled slightly. “You made the journey in five hours.”
Ian’s jaw dropped. “Five hours is impossible.”
“Not if you are flying on a dragon.”
