Homage and Honour (52 page)

“I’ll never do
it,” groaned Ruth.

“Yes you will.
I was just as cack-handed, or should I say cack-knifed as you when
I started. Remember, I was brought up much as you have been. Anton
was patient and I persevered. As I said, I’ll have a word with him
and you’ll find that he’ll treat you much as he did me, especially
if he sees that you are trying.”

“Everyone is
very kind and friendly,” said Ruth. “Will I try one now?”

“Tell you
what,” answered Beth, “you go get a dish and clear up all the mess.
I’ll finish the filleting and don’t worry, you won’t get into
bother. Anton has noticed me and he knows I know what I am doing.
He taught me how to gut and fillet and I’ve done it hundreds of
times since.”

She waved to
Anton who was at the other end of the kitchen and he waved
back.

Ruth went to
the dish store, selected a suitable bowl and returned.

“Will this
do?”

“Ideal. Scoop
up the bits and watch as I finish these off.” Her fingers and knife
were working at top speed as she prepared one after another.

“Why did you
leave Murdoch?” asked Ruth.

“My father had
arranged a marriage to someone I did not like.”

“So you left?
Just like that?”

“Yep.”

“What was his
name?” asked Ruth with interest.

“He was heir to
one of the dukedoms.”

“Really? I was
going to marry one of them as well. My sister Annette is married to
a Duke, at least he is now; he was the heir when she married
him.”

“I remember
Annette. She rode my Xei to the woods once. Who did she marry?”

“The Duke of
Baker, I don’t like him very much and I don’t think Annette does
either. Was it him you were going to marry?”

“No it wasn’t.
It was the Heir of Brentwood, Tom his name was.”

“You’re kidding
me,” exclaimed Ruth, wide-eyed. “Why, that’s the man I was supposed
to marry and would have had to if Tana hadn’t come to get me. He’s
old, sixteen years older than me.”

“So he’s not
managed to find a wife yet,” laughed Beth, “now that’s the best
news I’ve heard for many a tenday. He was so bumptious and sure of
himself. What a joke!”

“He hasn’t
changed. He’s going bald!”

Beth stopped
what she was doing, smiled and gazed around the busy kitchen.

All was well
with her world and she said as much to Ruth. She belonged here,
with Xei, in Vadath, serving the North. She realised that she
hardly ever thought of herself as a southerner now.

Still smiling,
she said, “you’ll fit in fine, give it time. One morning you’ll
wake up and know deep inside that this is home.”

“That’s what
Andrei says too.”

“A wise Lind
your Andrei. Start paying attention to him and stop worrying about
things that don’t matter. Now let’s go see Anton about the stuffing
for the fish.”

She placed a
hand on Ruth’s shoulder to steer her and felt a warm glow inside as
Ruth raised her own and placed it on top of hers.

Jess might be
gone but here was her little sister, she could not take her place
but she could help to fill the void left by her passing.

All was
well.

* * * * *

Aftermath
(3)

The Seneschal
looked with fondness at his queen.

“She will not
make the same mistake the first Princess Ruth did,” whispered Anne.
“They will never find her or her descendants. Thank you for what
you did that day. David and I knew that you knew more than you were
telling.”

Anne closed her
eyes.

“It will soon
be over, the sacrifice at an end.”

She did not
speak again.

Crown-Prince
Xavier sat beside his mother as her grasp on life began to fail.
Her breathing grew shallow, then stilled. Queen Anne of Murdoch was
dead.

“What was it my
mother whispered to you?” asked King Xavier. “I thought I heard my
sister’s name mentioned.”

The Seneschal
looked at his King.

“Princess Ruth
is gone, best to let sleeping rudtka lie,” he advised. “You are
King of Murdoch now, focus on that.”

King of
Murdoch. Xavier sighed a deep sigh. He didn’t want to be a king.
His own sacrifice was about to begin.

Xavier leant
over his mother and with a gentle hand that trembled only a little,
closed her eyes.

He stood up
and, after one last backward glance at Anne’s peaceful face,
squared his shoulders and made for the door. Along the corridor he
walked with measured step towards the throne room full of expectant
nobility despite the lateness of the hour. The Fealtatis Ceremony
would begin immediately he knew, he was now King, the crown was his
blood-right and he must accept the homage of the Dukes, the Counts,
the Margraves and the Barons of the Kingdom of Murdoch.

* * * * *

Aftermath
(4)

At the
beginning of this Chronicle it was written;

‘
In the
decades to come glorious tales would be told and songs would be
sung about the exploits of this quartet but in this, the summer of
the year of landing one hundred and fifty-six, they were but four
anxious young girls in their early teens travelling east, west,
south and most surprisingly, north.’

Two of the four
pairs had gained the Silver Honour Star, one pair was dead but Jess
and Mlei became famous for another reason. During Ruth and Andrei’s
cadetship, and despite her mother’s hopes, the secret that she was
a runaway princess leaked out together with the knowledge that she
was the deceased Vadryzka Jess’s younger sister. Jess and Mlei’s
service records were amended to read;

‘
Jessica
Crawford of Vadath, Princess of Murdoch and her Lind Mlei from
rtath Gyneya’

Ruth and Andrei
served many years with the Vada. When they retired from patrol
service they ran one of the Supply Stations in the south-west of
the Lind rtathlians. Ruth never married nor did she have any
children. She and Andrei died in AL206.

Beth and Xei
stayed with the Fifty-first Ryzck on attachment with the Avuzdel.
She too never married although in AL169 Xei took a mate. His
offspring were very like him; in fact they grew even taller than
their sire and could run even faster. Most of them paired, many of
them became Express operatives while others served with the Vada.
Beth and Xei died in AL212.

Hannah stayed
with the Holad and with the Vada. In AL169 she married Malin, the
doctor whose life she had saved when she and Xei had been cadets.
They had seven children, four of whom became doctors, the other
three served with the Vada, the youngest vadeln-pairing with the
young Lind whom she had saved that birthing-day, Hannahya by name
and who became Susa of the Vada. Hannah and Kolyei died in
AL208.

Hannah’s sister
Lucy, despite their father’s best efforts, never forgave her sister
for, as she chose to call it, ‘stealing her dream’. She insisted
that the flag be flown from the mast as year followed year but
although the Lind visited, none chose her. In AL170, she bowed to
the inevitable and married a widower from a nearby farm. She
refused to allow the blue flag to be flown on the farm’s weather
vane. She died in AL228, a lonely, sharp-tongued and embittered old
woman.

Tiffney, Qenei,
Jen and Trnslei served with the Ryzcks and all four retired to an
honourable old age as did Petar, Whiskya, Tamir, Whalya, Iain and
Luya.

Harld and Alya
returned to their Supply Station after the battle, full of pride
that Rhian and Tadei were now Susa of the Vada.

Tana? After the
Battle of Fountains Head, she, Tavei, Philip and Radnya returned to
Vada. Tana continued as a cadet trainer and Philip joined her after
a stint with a Ryzck in AL169. In AL170 Tana was appointed Ryzcka
of the Fourth Ryzck and led her Ryzck on patrols in Vadath, Argyll
and Lind for the next five seasons. She took a break to raise her
and Philip’s son David, their only child. In AL184 Rhian and Tadei
retired as Susas and Tana and Tavei were appointed in their
place.

Tana and Tavei
died in AL224. Their names are on the list of Vada Susas on the
wall of the ‘Inner Sanctum’ at Vada headed by Francis and Asya then
Tina and Daltei, continuing to the thirteenth Susas, Lynsey and
Bernei, the fourteenth Rhian and Tadei and the fifteenth, Tana and
Tavei.

In AL607 a
Prince of Murdoch, travelling incognito through the North on his
‘Grand Tour’ in the months before his marriage gained access to the
‘Inner Sanctum’ and standing straight and tall before it, read
their names aloud to his companions. He also read aloud the Vada
motto, emblazoned in gold gilt above the window;
‘Truth, Duty,
Courage and Honour’

He marvelled.
There was nothing like this in the Kingdom of Murdoch. Prince
Elliot thought that he would have liked to be part of this instead
of being heir to his grandfather’s throne.

His ancestor,
King Xavier the First, would have agreed with him.

* * * * *

The Southern Continent –
AL234

Anslei, Susa of
the Avuzdel of Lind, grandson of Alei, arrived in the isolated
inlet far to the west in the Southern Continent, many leagues away
from habitation centres of both human and Larg.

Angvr the Larg
was waiting for him. He was alone.

“So all must
continue as we have been instructed,” said Angvr after a full day
spent in detailed discussion. “My task is a difficult one.”

“Indeed,”
answered Anslei.

His counterpart
within Largdom sighed, “it is hard to remain loyal to Them and
Largan both. It is also difficult to roam at will within what the
two-legs call Murdoch but we do our best to fulfil the task asked
of us.”

“I understand
and it is a good best,” Anslei said with compassion, “but we must
continue, else North and South will plunge into a war more brutal
than ever seen before.”

“We continue
then?”

“We must.”
Anslei donated on Angvr an approving look, “and I have been
instructed to say that They are pleased with you and your
rtath.”

“I am pleased.
They are pleased,” answered Angvr with secret pride. “You will give
Them my homage and duty when next you speak?”

“I will,”
promised Anslei and added, “it is a great honour to be chosen to
serve.”

“The honour is
yours and mine both my friend,” replied Angvr.

The two, Lind
and Larg looked deep into each other’s eyes and liked what they
saw. Not for them the enmity of eons that was the case elsewhere
and if anyone had been watching, the watcher would have said that
there was little to distinguish them.

They touched
noses in farewell then Anslei turned and bounded away in the
direction of the Graham-Argyll Island Chain.

Angvr watched
him go.

He sat for a
while gazing at the horizon to the northwest before he sighed and,
turning away, began his long run back to his pack range in the deep
South.

CHARACTERS

(For minor
characters from the Noble and the Royal House of the Kingdom of
Murdoch: Refer to Appendices)

(*Vadeln-paired)

Aanya*: A Lind
vadeln-paired to Rick

Adela Knutson:
Mother of Hannah

Alei: Susa of
the Avuzdel

Allan*: Teacher
of knife fighting and an ex-cutthroat (Asniya)

Altei: Avuzdel
Lind

Alya*: A
blue/brown striped Lind with tinges of white, grey and yellow in
her coat and vadeln-paired with Harld

Anders*:
Retired Weaponsmaster of the Vada (Freya)

Andrei*: Lind
from Mlei’s pack waiting for his intended life-partner to grow
up

Andy Knutson:
Elder brother of Hannah who is training to become a doctor

Angus*: Old
vadeln serving with the Seventh Ryzck

Anne Crawford:
Mother of Jessica

Anne Crawford:
Younger sister of Jessica and known as Annette

Anslei: Lind
and son of Alei

Anton*: Vada
Chief Cook (Susya)

Artur
Bernardson: Clerk of Works at the main record office at
Stewarton

Asniya*: A Lind
vadeln-paired with Allan who teaches knife fighting at Vada

Axei*: A Lind
(Holad) and vadeln-paired with Jessali

Aya*: A Lind
vadeln-paired with Ranolf, Ryzcka of the Junior Cadets

Balindifya*: A
Violet Striped Lind

Baltimalya*: A
Lind bonded with an ex-Garda officer

Benya*: A Lind
vadeln-paired to Paul, Ryzcka of the Forty-fifth Ryzck

Bernei*: A
tri-coloured Lind and paired with Susa Lynsey

Beth*: Name
used by Elisabeth when she ran away from home

Canya*: A Lind
vadeln-paired to Kiefer

Cdidya: A Lind
pack from the south-eastern Lind

Dafid
Charleston: Junior Clerk at the main record office at Stewarton

Dainei: Susa of
the Lindar of pack Lainei

Danei*: A Lind
vadeln-paired to Terez, Holad medic of the Forty-fifth Ryzck

Danel*: Elderly
Weaponsecond to Weaponsmaster Rhian when the Quartet were
cadets

David Crawford:
Farmer who owns and runs a farm in southwest Vadath and father of
Jessica, Annette, Xavier and Ruth

Dei*: Lind
vadeln-paired to Melody, Ryzcka of the senior cadets

Delya*: A Lind
vadeln-paired with Jon

Edith Charles:
Old councillor from one of the northern wards of Argyll

Enya*: Female
Lind and member of the Vada

Frieda*:
Vadryzka Fifteenth Ryzck (Salei)

Galansei A Lind
(Avuzdel)

Grdnei*: A Lind
vadeln-paired with Laura

Gunter Knutson:
Father of Hannah

Halland:
Brigadier commanding the Heavy Horse of the Argyll Garda