1636 The Kremlin Games (53 page)
Read 1636 The Kremlin Games Online
Authors: Eric Flint,Gorg Huff,Paula Goodlett
Tags: #Science Fiction, #General, #Fiction, #Alternative History, #Adventure
Definitely a bit ragged. It was strange. Tim should have been scared and, in a way he was. But the effect it had on him was weird. He just noticed things. Every detail became intense and distinct. The stench of the air, not just the acrid smoke of the burned powder but the smell of the river’s muddy bank, combined with the dew on the grass. The patterns the smoke made as it wafted away under the light breeze. And, most of all, the enemy across the field. It was almost as if he could see their faces. Feel the fear that was eating away at the little discipline they had. He was honestly a little amazed that they had held this long.
Then the
Czarina Evdokia
appeared over the roofs of Bor.
It was massive and it was flying. It wasn’t the first time these men had seen it. It had made several test flights and some of them had gone over Nizhny Novgorod. But in this case, it meant that their last reason for being here was floating away.
“Next rank! Forward five paces!”
The Nizhny Novgorod force scattered. Tim let them. Honestly, he had nothing against those men. They were following the orders they had been given by their lawful lords.
Ivan came over. “So what now, Tim?”
“We go to Ufa.”
* * *
Czarina Evdokia looked out the window of the
Czarina Evdokia
, awash in conflicting emotions. Staying alive in the bear pit of Russian politics wasn’t ever easy, and her habit—along with her husband’s—had been to keep her head down. That hadn’t worked. Apparently it had in the other timeline, but not in this one. Now they were out of position. They couldn’t keep their heads down and Evdokia wasn’t at all sure that Mikhail would be able to handle being his own man. Or that she would be able to handle it. What would Sheremetev and the
Boyar Duma
do now that Mikhail had escaped the relatively comfortable prison? It was safe to assume that the gloves would come off, but how? Would they declare that Mikhail was False Mikhail, like the False Dmitris? Would they depose him in favor of Sheremetev and his family?
Evdokia didn’t know. All she really know was that she was scared to death and at the same time thrilled to be alive and flying over the countryside in a dirigible named in her honor. She looked over at her friend and confidant, Natasha, and wondered what the future would bring.
* * *
Natasha didn’t notice. She was holding Bernie’s arm and wasn’t quite sure how it had happened. Some time, while she was watching the battle of Bor probably. But she had no desire at all to let the arm go.
Nor the man it belonged to. So many other customs and attitudes were being cast aside, why should she worry about this one any longer?
And so many things would be changing for them, anyway. She thought about what Filip had said to the czar, when he compared him to a Cossack. He’d been joking, but the more Natasha pondered the matter the more profound that jest became.
Everyone knew there were noblemen out there in the Cossack bands, not just runaway serfs. One of them, the Polish-Lithuanian nobleman Aleksander Józef Lisowski, had even invaded Muscovy twenty years earlier at the head of an outlaw army. He’d besieged Bryansk, defeated two Russian armies sent against him, burned Belyov and Likhvin and taken Peremyshl, and then defeated another Russian army at Rzhev. He’d finally left at that point, but not before burning Torzhok also.
Lisowski himself had died not long afterward. But his men still remained and still considered themselves an army. The
Lisowczycy
, they called themselves; “Lisowski’s men.”
There were possibilities out there in the frontier lands of eastern Europe; eastward as well as to the south. People came to such lands for many reasons; usually running from something but also looking for adventure and fortune. Former serfs, former free men, former noblemen—the distinctions became blurry in the borderlands; sometimes, to the point of vanishing altogether.
What could happen in such lands, if there were a true czar to serve as a rallying point?
She didn’t know, but she planned to find out.
Cast of Characters
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Chapter 81
Chapter 82
Chapter 83