repaired within a week or two.
Well worth it, Ulrik thought. Cheap at the price.
The palace had a radio room of its own, which Rebecca had ordered closed off within two minutes of hearing Kristina's impromptu party announcement. There were Marine guards at the door to enforce the orders. These Marines weren't wearing fancy uniforms but they were carrying exactly the same fearsome weapons.
'Send it,' Rebecca ordered the operator. This message was going out in simple Morse code. She wanted it transmitted as far and as wide as possible.
Princess Kristina, heiress to the thrones of Sweden, the Union of Kalmar, and the United States of Europe, arrived in Magdeburg today accompanied by her betrothed, Prince Ulrik of Denmark. The entire populace of the nation's capital was there to greet her. Long live the Vasa dynasty!
'Anything else?' the operator asked, when he was finished.
'No,' she said. 'I think that will do.'
Chapter 34
Berlin When he read the radio message, Axel Oxenstierna burst into a rare fury. 'The girl is impossible! Why doesn't she just abdicate now and save us all twenty years of grief?' Darmstadt, Province of the Main The radio message was reported in every newspaper in the USE. That included Darmstadt's own Abendzeitung.
After the mayor finished reading the short account out loud, there was silence in the council chamber. In the streets outside the Rathaus, the sounds of celebration filtered through the thick walls. The city's CoC had organized a parade.
'Well, now what!' said the militia commander. It was not even a rhetorical question. More in the way of an exasperated outburst.
One of the council members shrugged. 'Face it, Gerlach. The Swede's floundering.'
In times past, 'the Swede' would have been a reference to the king, Gustav II Adolf. Today, it was a reference to Chancellor Oxenstierna.
'If only the emperor would come back,' pined another council member.
And so, the status of a dynasty shifted still further. Augsburg, one of the USE's seven independent imperial cities As usual, the commander of Augsburg's militia had a very different viewpoint from his counterpart in Darmstadt.
He'd been reading aloud too. Now finished, he set down the copy of the Augsburger Nachrichten and leaned back in his chair. Less given to formalities than their counterparts in Darmstadt, Augsburg's city council had been meeting in the tavern in the Rathaus basement.
'Good for her,' he said. 'Good for her.'
Herr Langenmantel was still holding a grudge over the personal insult concerning his former betrothed. 'That borders on treason, it seems to me!'
By now, though, Langenmantel was on his own. Even the head of the city council, Jeremias Jacob Stenglin, had resigned himself to the inevitable.
'Don't be stupid,' he grumbled, picking up his stein of beer. 'How can the throne betray itself?'
As Stenglin drowned his sorrows, another city council member spoke up. 'Face it, Adelbert. The citizenship issue is a lost cause. By now, even half the guildmasters are against making any changes.'
'More like two-thirds,' grunted the militia commander. 'Look, it's just not that important. The city was doing well enough, wasn't it?' He waved a thick hand. 'Yeah, sure, the CoC is annoying. So is my wife, a lot of the time. But she's reliable. Things could be worse.' A tavern in Melsungen, in the province of Hesse-Kassel 'Here's to the health of our landgravine!' shouted one of the revelers, holding up his stein of beer. 'Long may she reign!'
The tavern was full, as it often was on a winter's eve. Not a single stein failed to come up to join the toast.
It now seemed almost certain that Hesse-Kassel would weather the storm without damage. Thanks to the landgrave's blessed widow.
Another reveler stood up, hoisting his stein. 'And here's to the empress! Long may she reign!'
'She's getting an early enough start!' shouted another.
Amidst the laughter, not a single stein failed to come up to join that toast either. A tavern on the coast of the Pomeranian Bay 'I'm glad now I voted for the Prince,' said one of the fishermen at the table.
His two companions gazed at him suspiciously. 'You said you'd voted for Wettin,' said one.
The fisherman shrugged. 'I lied. Didn't want to get into trouble, seeing as how the rest of you were so dumb.'
After a moment, the third fisherman said, 'Yah, I voted for him too.'
The skeptic rolled his eyes. 'Give it a month and it'll have been pure magic, the way Wettin got elected. Seeing as how apparently nobody voted for him at all.' Tetschen, near the border between Saxony and Bohemia 'Message just came in from the general,' said the Hangman's radio operator. He set a slip of paper in front of Jeff Higgins.
With a sense of relief, the regiment's commander put down the newspaper he'd been laboriously working his way through. There was no German-language newspaper in Tetschen so he'd been trying to make sense out of the analysis in the Noviny.
With no great success. Jeff's grasp of Czech was rudimentary and mostly limited to everyday phrases you'd use about town. Order a beer, buy a loaf of bread, that sort of thing-not interpret commentary about political developments in a neighboring country.
It was probably a moot point anyway. He already knew what the radio message from Magdeburg said, since it had been picked up by the regiment's own radio as soon as it was transmitted. In fact, the Noviny had gotten it from them in the first place. Jeff had just been hoping he might pick up some further scraps.
When he looked at the message which had just arrived, that became a moot point also. To hell with scraps. The meal had arrived.
The message was one word.
Now.
'Showtime,' said Jeff, heaving himself to his feet. 'Adjutant! We're moving out!'
Chapter 35
Berlin 'What is it?' asked Colonel Hand, as soon as he entered the king's chamber. Gustav Adolf was lying on his bed, asleep.
Erling Ljungberg shook his head. 'It didn't last long, and then he fell asleep again. But for a while there…'
The big bodyguard took a deep, sighing breath. 'He's coming back, Erik. I finally believe that he is.'
'What did he say?'
'First, he looked at me, as if he were puzzled. And then he said, 'Where is Anders'? When I explained that Jonsson was dead, he seemed uncertain as to what I meant for a few seconds. Then-it was just as if a light went on in his eyes, Erik, I swear it was-his face got very sad. He said 'It was my fault, wasn't it? Was I too reckless again?' '
The colonel looked down at his sleeping cousin. Then he also took a deep, sighing breath.
'And what did you say?'
Ljungberg shrugged. 'I told him the truth. 'Yes, Your Majesty, you were too reckless. But that's just part of the job. All of us know it. Anders better than anyone.' Then he looked still more sad. He asked me what happened. He said he didn't remember anything after the rain started. So I told him. Then he started to cry. That's when I sent for you. But he fell asleep after a couple of minutes.'
'Dear God in Heaven,' murmured Hand. Some parsons might call that blasphemy, but he didn't think so
