“But...” Eric stammered. “He said he wrote to you regularly, that you were his beloved.”
Medren broke out laughing, grinning and sitting down in a chair to bury her face in her hands. On the floor, her father Corvel stirred and awoke.
“You won’t believe what’s happened.” Medren looked to him. “Sir Wotoc the Wanderer has sent starmen to rescue us!”
“Wotoc?” Corvel blinked and stood, smoothing out his fine robes. “A fine man, if a bit insistent.” Medren rolled her eyes. “Well, what are we waiting for?”
“Yes, we do not have unlimited time,” Zandra said as Corvel grabbed a knapsack and shoved a tabletop’s worth of parchment into it.
“You have a plan; I take it?” asked Corvel.
“Indeed.” Eric raised his scanpad. “Rachel, you ready?”
The brisk reply came: “Yep.”
He continued, “Felden, go. All packed?”
Outside the window, a bright-red flare shot up from the nighttime landscape, rose skyward and began its slow descent. Eric urged Corvel and Medren to the door. “Act normal, head for the gate.”
Zandra had already departed from the window, Eric followed the other two humans down and out of the tower. From across the castle’s walls and grounds, guards and servants came running at the strange sight, soon joined by a second flare which Felden sent up from his position far outside the walls.
They almost made it to the open gate before a servant woman pointed and said, “Hey!”
Eric clicked his stunner at her and took off running, hauling Corvel along by the elbow. With a great rushing of wind, Rachel’s gryphon went arcing over the wall with Ed following behind. Crossing the drawbridge, he stunned several more people who looked ready to pursue, and headed out into the darkness. The gryphons landed up ahead.
“How can you see?” Corvel asked, stumbling.
“Starman tricks.” Eric adjusted his flight goggles to night-vision mode, approached the gryphons and scratched Ed on his head.
“Where will we sit?” Corvel said.
From above, three more gryphons spiraled down: Ralbor’s and two others following without passengers. He’d begun his approach upon seeing Felden’s flares, and swept into an expert landing.
“Get on!” Ralbor barked, not bothering to dismount. Shouts wafted from the castle in the distance, Eric saw lanterns moving outside the walls.
Rachel helped Medren onto one gryphon, told her to hang on, then grabbed the knapsack from Corvel’s hands and threw it to the ground. “Too heavy!”
“But, my letters!” he protested. “This could be the key to defeating Caesar Dulane!”
Eric’s eyes widened. “How?”
“I am—was—an Arztillan Senator. I still have friends, supporters!”
“All right, just lose anything you can live without.” Rachel picked up the bag and removed a silver goblet, ignoring Corvel’s whimpering as she tossed it away.
The gryphon shifted uneasily under Corvel’s weight as he climbed on the saddle, he was no doubt near if not over the usual limit for gryphon-riders. Eric passed his knapsack to Medren and hoped it’d at least work until they were out of danger. Then he climbed up on Ed’s back and they charged forward, taking off into the starlit sky. A horse and guardsman reached their former position mere seconds later.
“You have supporters back in the Arztillan capital?” Temerin poured Corvel a glass of wine as they sat at a table in one of the Beastspeaker Temple common rooms.
Corvel nodded. “More than a few of my peers are disturbed by Dulane’s unprecedented power, the authority he has given himself, and his extreme methods. Not to mention his support of that hag Norla at the Flame Temple.”
“We’ve run into her.” Selva stood nearby, arms folded.
“And with the Freeholds openly resisting his conquests—and succeeding—I believe there is real hope an overthrow can be organized.”
“A coup!” Eric said. “Take him down from the inside!”
“It would be difficult,” Temerin refilled his mug, took another swig. “A strongman such as he will command a great deal of loyalty.”
Corvel replied, “He has the allegiance of the Black Legions under General Fuhran, and the Dread Riders of Orus. But the Senate was already beginning to tire of his adventurism, even before you intervened.”
“The lords took my suggestion of pushing north to liberate lands Dulane had conquered, and so far it’s been working well. Perhaps a non-imperialist coalition could negotiate an end to all this mess?”
“Perhaps.” Corvel turned the pewter goblet in his hands, doubtless wishing he still had a fancy silver one. “Though Caesar tolerates little dissent. And if we overthrow him, who’s to say even greater evils shall not be the result?”
“If I understand it right, Dulane broke the rules to assume power in the first place. We’ve had similar things in our ancient history—yours, too, though the Keepers didn’t tell you about it. You could portray yourselves as restoring things to the way they were.”
“And after that? Before Dulane declared the Panarchy, the starmen who came to us spoke of bringing their inventions here, putting this world under their protection. Will you be our new tyrants?”
“Never by intention,” Selva said. “Our goal to ensure peace and orderly development, so that one day Meridian will be advanced and free of war. We can support your government against Dulane, if you agree to assist us in that regard.”
The door thumped open, and Sir Wotoc strode in, grinning and bearing a bouquet of flowers. He looked to Medren. “I told you I would never forsake you!”
“I suppose I owe you my thanks,” she replied.
“I composed a poem for the occasion.” Wotoc handed her a small scroll.
Temerin turned to Selva. “Thoughts?”
“This is likely our best chance short of resorting to Patrol intervention. I got a message yesterday saying the new wormhole had arrived in the system and a stargate’s being built. It won’t be more than a few weeks before ships get here.”
“So why not wait?” Eric asked. “At least for the sake of having backup?”
“Ordinarily, yes, however I fear the imminent threat of a Patrol intervention may drive Norla to take drastic actions in order to ensure Keeper control of the planet. If she manages to regain control of the replicator ships, she could threaten surface bombardment to get the Patrol to back off.”
Eric gulped.
Temerin said, “But if we strike at her now, we may be able to stop that.”
Selva nodded. “Ready to cut the head off the snake?”
