That was stretching the truth. You could even argue it was mangling the truth beyond all recognition. But for the moment, Erik didn't care-and who was there to dispute his claim? The surviving staff officers had been placed under arrest and taken away. The tavern keeper and his servants were so petrified they could barely speak.
'You can go look at his body yourself, if you don't believe me,' he added, jerking his head toward the far door. 'He's in a room just beyond.'
Wettin shook his head again. 'No, no. But…what do you want me to do'
Erik shrugged. 'How should I know? I'm just the king's cousin. You're the prime minister of the nation. It's on your head now.'
Luckily, Gustav Adolf recovered consciousness within an hour. After he was told of what had transpired, a sad look came to his face.
'So, my fault again. First Anders, now Axel.'
'It was not your fault, cousin. For one thing, I'm the one who decided to shoot him.'
The king's thick shoulders shifted on the cot, in what passed for a shrugging motion. 'What else could you do? But if I hadn't lost control, Axel would still be alive.'
Erik was tempted to ask: For how long? Gustav Adolf had made clear in their earlier discussions that he was inclined to simply have Oxenstierna stripped of his posts and sentenced to internal exile for the rest of his life. What Americans called 'house arrest'-except the house in question was one of the finest mansions in Sweden.
But whatever the king's personal preferences might be, he'd also ordered Erik to launch a thorough investigation of what had transpired with Maximilian of Bavaria. If that investigation turned up proof that the chancellor had been involved in the treasonous plot-and Erik didn't have much doubt it would-then Gustav Adolf would really have no choice. He'd have to order Oxenstierna's execution.
Now that it was over, Erik decided it had all worked out for the best. His cousin's guilt for having lost control was a pale shadow of the anguish he would have felt, had he been forced to order his chancellor executed himself. He and Axel Oxenstierna had been good friends for many years.
Erik, on the other hand, had never liked the bastard anyway.
Wettin floundered. But the king was back, and took charge himself.
'First-there is a radio station here, yes?-the news must be broadcast to the entire nation. Along with the following…'
That and what followed was the jabbering from Berlin that Noelle had been listening to when Denise and Minnie returned from the airfield.
'Oh, wow,' said Denise, after Noelle filled them in.
'Interesting times,' said Minnie.
Denise shook her head. 'No, that's a curse. Doesn't apply at all. God, I hate to think what my life would have been like without the Ring of Fire. Can we say 'boooooorrrrrring?' '
Noelle stared at her. Much the way she might have stared at a Martian. Or a mutant.
Chapter 53
The United States of Europe All of the major newspapers in the country and many of the smaller ones came out with the story the next morning. It didn't matter what day of the week they normally published. It didn't matter whether they were morning papers or evening papers. Even if the edition was just a two-page special edition, nothing more than a broadsheet printed on both sides, they all published something.
The headlines varied from city to city and province to province, but the gist of them was essentially the same: the emperor recovers chancellor oxenstierna executed for treason hundreds in berlin arrested prime minister wettin freed and returned to power the emperor orders a halt to all conflict the emperor offers a truce to king wladyslaw the emperor to return to magdeburg
The festivities and the parades died down, although they didn't die out entirely. People of whatever political persuasion understood that the coming days were going to be a time of hard bargaining. Most of them figured they'd wait until they saw the end result before they started celebrating again.
Or started crying in their beer.
PART V
March 1636 The thunder and the sunshine
Chapter 54
Magdeburg, capital of the United States of Europe Gustav Adolf arrived in Magdeburg five days after Oxenstierna's killing. His advisers-that mostly meant his cousin Erik, right now-had had to talk him out of flying to the capital. Why take the (admittedly not great) risk, when there was no point to it? There would be no way to start any serious negotiations until Mike Stearns arrived in the capital, after all. Given the situation in Dresden and his responsibilities there, it would take him most of a week before he could leave for Magdeburg.
Besides, Gustav II Adolf-the full and formal name was needed here-could spend a useful two days or so dealing with the men who'd been arrested in the palace. Oxenstierna's minions, as Colonel Hand was wont to call them.
Deal with them he did. The emperor was sorely tempted to have the ringleaders summarily executed. But Wilhelm Wettin talked him out of that. The prime minister pointed out that given the chancellor's freewheeling abuse of power, it would probably make a nice counter-example if the emperor displayed a great deal of restraint at the moment.
Gustav Adolf was a bit dubious of the logic, but since Erik weighed in on Wilhelm's side, he decided to accept their advice. He was still shaken by the results of his temper tantrum and not as inclined as he normally would be to trust his own instincts.
Having ruled out summary executions, however, he drew the line at summary punishments short of removing heads. No way would he accept timid restrictions!
He started by stripping von Ramsla and anyone else whom Oxenstierna had given any sort of official position of all of his noble titles. Then, of all his lands, if he possessed any.
As a strictly legal proposition, his right to do any such thing was eminently disputable-and there was no shortage of lawyers in the USE ready and willing to argue the case. The problem was that Gustav Adolf did not extend the punishment to the heirs of the punishee-but made it very clear that he would do so the moment any of them tried to challenge him.
That made the whole thing a very risky proposition. A man could bow his head, accept the penalties, and slink back home-where, at least for most of them, their families would maintain them in more-or-less the same comfort they'd been accustomed to. Or, he could challenge the emperor in court. If he lost, though, he risked being out in the cold with his entire family.
Most of them accepted the punishments. Only three indicated an intention to file a legal challenge. In all three cases, because their families detested them and would be pitching them into the cold anyway.
That done, the emperor ordered any of Oxenstierna's minions who might conceivably-remotely, at the far edges, barely, tangentially, it didn't matter-have been involved in the plot with the Bavarians to be kept under arrest until such time as Erik Haakansson Hand got around to interrogating them and deciding they were innocent.
At which point, of course, any other penalties would kick in.
That done, the emperor levied heavy fines on anyone who had participated in what he chose to call the
