without modern medical care, Kristina lived until the year 1689. For those of you who can't count readily, that's more than a half a century from now.'
Gundelfinger grinned. 'And she was tough as nails throughout. You're not the only one who looked her up, Constantin. I was particularly charmed-and appalled-by the story of her celebration of the pope's birthday, after she abdicated, converted to Catholicism and moved to Rome. She threw a huge party in her villa. The party got too wild for too long, the guests ignored her orders to leave, so she had her household troops open fire on the celebrants. Eight corpses later, they did as she'd bade them. That's the girl we're inviting here, comrades-and, as Constantin says, giving our seal of approval. And if you're not familiar with Prince Ulrik, he's the young prince who personally almost sank an ironclad.'
By now, Achterhof was looking alarmed. 'Wait a minute! I think we need to consider this a bit more.'
Rebecca nodded. 'By all means. You have the floor, Gunther.'
There was silence, for perhaps a minute, as Gunther tried to marshal his thoughts. Eventually, though, he threw up his hands.
'Ah! I suppose if we don't, we're just dragging out the misery. I'm not happy at the idea of being under the Vasas the rest of my life, but I really want Oxenstierna brought down. Um. Broken on the rack, actually, and then disemboweled and hanged. But I'll settle for brought down.'
'Move to a vote,' said Ableidinger immediately.
The vote was unanimous. Achterhof was probably tempted to abstain, but he didn't.
Rebecca hadn't thought he would. Gunther could be aggravating sometimes, but the one thing the man never did was dodge issues and evade responsibility.
'I'll send the message,' she said.
She sent two, actually. The second one went to the radio station at the Third Division's headquarters near Ceske Budejovice in Bohemia.
Less than an hour later, a radio message arrived from Third Division headquarters to the radio station of the Hangman Regiment in Tetschen. It was addressed to the commanding officer, Colonel Jeff Higgins, and consisted of one word: Soon.
Chapter 29
Berlin Wilhelm Wettin was surprised to hear the door open. Since his arrest and confinement in a small room in a corner of the palace, he'd had almost no visitors. The guards brought his meals regularly, did the same for emptying the chamber pot, provided him with wine at his request, and otherwise did not speak to him at all. The last time he'd seen anyone other than a guard had been several weeks ago, when Oxenstierna sent one of his agents to check on the prime minister's wellbeing. The chancellor hadn't bothered to come himself.
Still more to his surprise, the person who came through the door was Colonel Erik Haakansson Hand. The emperor's cousin was not perhaps the last person Wilhelm had expected to see, but he certainly wasn't anywhere near the top of the list. The two men barely knew each other, except by reputation.
'I haven't much time,' the colonel said. He was speaking very quietly, although not in a whisper. 'In the nature of things, bribes only last so long'-he pointed over his shoulder with a thumb-'and those fellows on guard out there are from the Dalana Infantry Regiment, whose former commander was none other than Oxenstierna himself. Not quite my still-close boyhood companions.'
Wilhelm stared at him. Why would the king's own cousin be needing to bribe anyone?
'Something is rotten in the state of Sweden,' Hand continued. 'Or at least in one of my greedy cousin's three realms. I want to know what it is. Why were you arrested?'
He waved his hand abruptly. That was his left hand, the one he usually employed. His right arm couldn't be straightened due to the terrible injuries he had sustained while leading a brigade against Wallenstein a few years earlier.
'And let's skip over the twaddle about conspiring with unknown-what was Oxenstierna's phrase?-ah, yes, 'seditious elements.' Such a vague term. On his bad days, I suppose you could accuse my horse of being seditious, and he's presumably elemental.' The colonel's familiar cold grin appeared. 'At least, I've seen no sign that he's sprouting wings.'
After a moment of silence, Hand shook his head impatiently. 'Come on, come on, tell me the truth. My loyalty is entirely to my cousin, Saxe-Weimar. No one else.'
Wilhelm made a quick decision. It was always possible this was a trap, but…
Not likely. Erik Haakansson Hand's personal attachment to Gustav Adolf went far back. Besides, what difference did it make, at this point? If Oxenstierna wanted him executed, he didn't have to use an elaborate subterfuge involving the emperor's own cousin.
'Maximilian of Bavaria's attack on the Oberpfalz was arranged,' he said abruptly. 'By that bastard Oxenstierna himself. He used the count of Nassau-Hadamar, Johann Ludwig, as his intermediary.'
'How did you find out?'
'Two of the count's associates let it slip while they were drunk. I suppose they assumed I was part of the conspiracy. One of them was-'
'I know who the baron and the guildmaster were. They left Berlin the day before you were arrested. I wondered why, at the time. It makes sense now. When they sobered up and remembered the conversation, they must have started worrying what would happen if you took it to Oxenstierna. So, as rats will, they went scurrying for their holes.'
The colonel tugged on his beard for a moment. 'All right. I'll do what I can. Just stay here and don't do anything foolish like trying to escape.' Again, the cold grin appeared. 'If it will settle your nerves at all-I warn you, I know the castle involved, so it certainly wouldn't settle mine very much-our precious chancellor is not planning to have you executed. No, you're for exile in St. Olaf's Castle in Finland as soon as things settle down.'
'And are they settling down?'
Hand sneered. 'Of course not. What were you fools thinking, anyway? And then Fool One had Fool Two arrested! Talk about piling wood onto an already out of control fire! Or what's that up-time expression?'
'Pouring gasoline on the flames,' said Wilhelm, his jaws tightening. He resented the insult. On the other hand…
Sadly, he couldn't disagree with it. In the weeks since his arrest, he'd come to much the same conclusion about himself. Although he had avoided terms like 'fool.' He thought 'made some very bad mistakes' was sufficient, thank you.
The colonel turned to go, and then stopped. 'And here's something else to settle your nerves-or make them worse, possibly. I'm almost certain that everything is about to explode.'
'Why?'
Hand snorted. 'Why do you think? You left Stearns with an entire division at his disposal? After you let Gretchen Richter steal Dresden from under your noses?'
A moment later, he was gone.
All of it made sense, the colonel thought, as he walked back toward the wing of the palace where his cousin was kept. At least, if you were the sort of schemer who was too clever for his own good; which, in his estimation, was a pretty fair description of Sweden's chancellor. It would be just like him not to be able to resist ladling an unnecessary scoop of treason onto the pile.
Stupid, really. To begin with, Maximilian of Bavaria probably would have invaded the Oberpfalz anyway. And while neutralizing the army of the State of Thuringia-Franconia would certainly be handy for Oxenstierna's purposes, it was not critical. So why add the risk that outright treason would be discovered?
Erik Haakansson Hand did not and never had shared in the general admiration for Axel Oxenstierna. An admiration, unfortunately, shared by his cousin the king. Such was life.
He spent a bit of time wondering if he should protect himself in some way from the possibility that the two guards he'd bribed would report the matter to anyone. But it was not likely at all that they would. Bribees generally didn't confess their sins except under duress, after all. And even if they did, what could he do to prevent it? The only two solutions he could think of-bribe them some more or murder them-would be cures worse than the
