To Rescue a Princess Read online

  To Rescue a Princess

  The Chronicles of Cornu Book 2

  L. J. Dalton Jr.

  Copyright 2020 All rights reserved

  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to people or places is coincidental.

  Cover Design by James, GoOnWrite.com

  I can be contacted at [email protected]

  Contents

  The Assassin’s Guild

  Seldin

  On the Road

  The Ambush Site

  Else Where

  The Ambush

  To Rescue a Princess

  Waiting for Rescue

  Reaction

  Assassination Attempt

  The Resting Lion

  Planning the Sweep

  Heading to Midport

  Midport

  The Abbot

  Seeing the Sights

  Temple

  The Sweep

  Waiting for Roddrick

  Another Attempt

  Getting Evidence

  Panic and Capture.

  Cleanup

  More Revelations

  The Choosing

  Starting to Settle In

  The Explanation

  Bart’s Valley

  Conversations Continue

  The Wedding and The Abbot

  Dancing

  Thimotie

  On the Road

  On to Nordport

  Duke Marvon

  The Research Station

  The Wedding

  The Assassin’s Guild

  Eons ago, when the continent of Landia formed, one-piece raised up some mountains. By the time life from earth started to arrive, they were on the decline. Three thousand years ago, all that was left were some hills in western Porfia. These hills were several hundred feet high and formed several valleys. About that time, a preacher, with a few followers, came and settled in the valley.

  To say that this preacher was eccentric would be putting it mildly. He preached that he was the messenger of the God of Death. Death must come to all things and men, and we should worship that God. Since women were the bringers of life, they couldn’t become part of his congregation.

  They built a settlement in one of the valley’s that had a good-sized river running down the middle of the valley. At first, the settlement was some huts pressed against a limestone cliff that had been exposed on one side of the river. Eventually, they started to make caves in the cliff. These were expanded into an extensive gallery of rooms. The stone excavated from making the rooms was used to make mortar and build a substantial stone wall surrounding the cliff dwellings.

  Each leader of the sect took the name of the Messenger. Over a thousand years ago, someone asked the sect if they would kill someone for money. They agreed. Once that was done, more people asked. Eventually, the sect started to train its members in the art of assassination. They became experts at it. The use of knives and poisons was raised to the status of an art.

  The alchemists of the sect knew more about poisons than anyone else on Cornu. They also knew a lot about various drugs as well. One particular drug that was used sent the user into an ecstatic, hypnotic trance that lasted for hours.

  The one problem was recruiting members to the sect. Eventually, they took to kidnapping young men after they had gone through the ‘Choosing.’ This might mean killing their parents. If there were young girls, they were sold off. If there were infants and toddlers, they were given to underground baby brokers to sell to the highest bidder.

  The young men were fed a series of drugs and indoctrinated into the teachings of the cult. If any objected, they became teaching items, and others used them to learn how to kill. At times they bought people, both men, and women who had been found guilty of crimes serious enough that they were banished. They too, became people who the trainees practiced their techniques on.

  Once sea travel had progressed to the point where voyages between continents were possible, small groups set out to form guilds on the other continents. The guild charged high prices for its services and soon grew very wealthy. Wealthy enough to corrupt some local officials. Although in Porfia, that was not difficult.

  The current Messenger had agreed to take the assignment for the possible assassination of the Nordian Royal Family. It had paid quite well. It also fit in with the sect’s plans for the future.

  Seldin

  Seldin had been Porfia’s chief spy for several decades. He had power, but with power came danger. His job was to ensure that the troublemakers in the kingdom were controlled or eliminated. These eliminations were mostly done sub rosa, and on occasion, publicly with gruesome executions. The danger was always the king would decide that he was no longer needed or had become a liability. Now the heir and his mother added even more danger. The king was ambitious but vain. The heir’s mother was both smart and ruthless; she was the power behind the heir. Eventually, she would see him as a liability, and that would be his end.

  The King always had large size ambitions, and mostly they had been dreams. However, two years ago, the heir and his mother concocted a scheme to give him what he wanted. A way to gain influence over Nordia. The richest and best-run kingdom on the continent of Landia. It was bold and had a chance at success. The plan was simple. They would kidnap the crown prince and his family, degrade them and then destroy them. This afront to the king of Nordia was meant to shake the confidence of the other kingdoms as well as the principal nobles and merchants in his kingdom.

  Seldin had been tasked with finding the facilitator to organize the plot, and he would provide the funding - that he’d done. There were enough cutouts that it would be difficult to trace it back to Porfia. Difficult, but not impossible. If Nordia were looking for suspects, Porfia would be high on the list. He feared that no matter how it turned out, his life was in danger. If it failed, his life would end very painfully. If it succeeded, he would die, not as painfully, but he would die none the less. This was the thing that he had feared and planned against for years. He knew eventually that he would become a liability to the crown and would be disposed of, just like he’d disposed of so many.

  His two wives, Fryja and Erikia, were both children born into harems. As such, they were adept at the arts of sex and some other womanly tasks but had not been trained in anything else. They were physical toys for their husband’s pleasure. That was all well and good, but Seldin desired more. Luckily both were intelligent and willing to learn. They were taught to read and write. One thing they had learned in the harems was cunning. They bore Seldin four children, two boys, and two girls. The two boys were somewhat unusual given the male-female ratio on Cornu, but certainly not unique.

  The boys were given a good education, which was normal for a high-born male in Porfia. What was unusual was that the girls were given the same education. Seldin was convinced that educated women appealed to the men from the northern kingdoms, and he wanted his daughters to marry into families from there. They wouldn’t appeal to the men of Porfia, which suited his desires. The farther away from Porfia, the better. Then they could not be used as hostages against him. Their mothers also taught them the arts of sex from the harem. A more extensive education in that subject than was typical for Cornu. His eldest son, Ornin, would succeed his father in his business. Seldin owned profitable tea plantations in the south and ran a profitable trading business out of the capital. He would not succeed him at his position at court.

  His oldest daughter, Settlla, married the son of a prominent merchant family in the northern kingdom of Leeland. The young man had been in Porfia to establish trading relationships. The attraction between he and his daughter was strong and mutual. The young man, Kasper, was also impressed with her education and intelligence. He said on more than on
e occasion that he hadn’t expected to find such a woman in Porfia. Seldin agreed with him. He secretly thought that her education and intelligence played a role in their mutual attraction. Kasper was looking for a partner in life, and his daughter was trained to be that, and it was what she wanted as well. They were betrothed, married, and moved back to Leeland.

  Before his daughter left for Leeland, Seldin talked with his future son-in-law. “Kasper, I’m very pleased with you and my daughter getting married.”

  “Yes, she’s a wonderful girl. She’s also very well educated and knowledgeable, especially about trade. If you don’t mind me saying so, I didn’t expect to find this in Porfia.”

  “No, you expected to find women who could bear children and be good bed partners, I know. I didn’t want that for my daughters. I wanted them to be more like northern women, partners with their husbands, and co-wives. Being a good bed partner is merely an added attraction. But what I want to talk to you about is the future. I want to expand into the northwest part of Landia, and Leeland is a good place. Also, I’m high up enough that our mercurial king could, at some point, decide that I need to be eliminated. I know that in many kingdoms, that’s not an issue, here it is. If it is acceptable to you, I’ll be sending funds for investment.”

  “No problem, they will be invested profitably. If needed, you’ll have a comfortable and safe place to go.”

  Over the years, Seldin sent them shipments of tea from his plantation. Inside specially marked bags, where valuables. Gold or silver bars, jewels, and other things that could be used to establish himself in Leeland when needed. He didn’t tell either his daughter or son-in-law his profession as a spymaster, just that he was always worried about the unpredictability of the king.

  His second daughter became the second wife of a noble in Sorbia. That established her and put both his daughters well out of reach of the king or the heir. Once the plot started, Seldin increased the amount of gold and silver he was shipping to Leeland. He also quietly sought to sell his profitable tea plantations. As the time for the Grand Tour in Nordia approached, he became more nervous. Finally, he found a buyer and got an excellent price for the plantations. A good portion was sent on to Leeland, and the remainder was kept in his house in Porfia to fund his escape.

  When the Grand Tour finally started. He told the king that he was going to spend some time on his plantation. That would throw suspicion off Porfia if their spymaster were away from the capital while this was happening. The king thought that was an excellent idea.

  Seldin, his two wives, and sons, along with their families, left for the south. A half-day out of the capital, they turned east and headed for the Middle Pass across the Sud. It connected Sorbia with the south of the Sud, much like the Nordia pass connected Nordia with the south. Once he reached Sorbia, he joined a caravan heading to Leeland; this provided both cover and protection.

  Once he was gone, Bartrum, the heir suggested to his father that perhaps bandits should strike Seldin on his way back to the capital. It would sever the link between the crown and the fate of the Nordia royal family. The king approved of the idea. Seldin had promised to return in three months; the king would make sure that ‘bandits’ intercepted the family and killed them all.

  In the meantime, King Leonades could hardly wait for the royal family to be brought in chains before him. The king was a cruel and vengeful man, and it was not surprising given that he’d killed his two brothers and gleefully took his mother into his bed. Having the Nordian Royal Family in his grasp would be the start of the culmination of all his dreams and plans. The first big step in gaining control over Nordia. A slave carriage and guards dressed as regular slave caravan guards would be sent to the valley where the royal family would be brought. It would take three weeks of hard travel for the carriage to reach the valley. The family would then be loaded into it and brought to his palace. They would live in filth until they arrived. Then filthy and in chains, they would be brought before him, and he could tell them exactly what would be done to them. The thought of that simply made him ecstatic, and he was in a jovial mood the whole time.

  The king’s agents in Nordia would let him know when the royal family left on the tour. He could then estimate when they would be at the valley with the bandits. He would send thirty of his guards dressed as regular guards with the slave wagon. They were supposed to deliver the rest of the gold to the bandits, and the other gold had been paid upfront. There was no way he could recover that, but there was no reason to give the gold to the bandits. No, once the royal family was in the slave wagon, the guards would kill the rest of the bandits.

  When the king mentioned that he was going to kill the bandits and not turn over the gold to his son at lunch, Bartrum was alarmed. “Father, we are taking grave risks already with this adventure. Up until now, we’ve been very careful to provide cutouts between ourselves and the plot. This is the one place that we don’t have them. Sending enough men to kill all the bandits will draw attention, too much attention. Also, the bandits may kill the royals if they are threatened or feel threatened. Besides the loss of the royals, some of the bandits might escape and would probably know that Porfia was behind this attempt on the royal family. That is something we worked very hard to avoid. Is the extra gold really worth that?”

  The king reluctantly agreed with his son that killing the bandits would be a bad idea. So, as Leonades lived in anticipation, Seldin and his family reached Leeland two months after leaving Porfia. There were more than enough funds for him to establish the family in a profitable business there. He felt free of any danger from the king.

  It wasn’t until Seldin didn’t return, and the ‘bandits’ hadn’t found him anywhere in the south did they realize that he’d left, and they had no idea where he went. Since daughters were prized only for their ability to bear children and give pleasure to their husbands, no one cared where Seldon’s daughters went, and now it was too late to find out. Seldin had covered his tracks well.

  Once this was discovered, Bartrum, the heir, became concerned. He discussed it with his mother after a night of sex. This activity gave them the privacy to discuss things that they didn’t want to have overheard. “Mother, Seldin has disappeared. He’s fled the kingdom, and we’ve no idea where he went.”

  “He’s not stupid. This must have been planned for some time. If we can’t find him, then hopefully Nordia can’t either. We’ve got to have a plan if Nordia discovers that we were behind this. It was good that you dissuaded your father from not paying the bandits, but this is just one more danger.”

  “What can they do to us? They won’t attack us. A plot against us using the assassins, I don’t see them doing that.”

  “They have power and can probably cause us great pain. If they find out, they don’t need an army to hurt us. If they have proof, then many of the other kingdoms will turn against us as well. It would be very bad.”

  “So, if they start causing us pain, what do we do?”

  “The whole court knows that your father had designs on Nordia; your part in it was very much behind the scenes. If there are serious problems, then your father is the sacrificial piece.”

  Bartrum was quiet, thinking over the implications. His mother also thought about it. It entered her mind that her son would get the king’s harem; the king’s mother had humiliated her more than once. There were also the king’s late brothers’ mothers, who’d lived under her thumb for years. This could be her chance to put that bitch under her thumb. It was also a reminder not to make enemies of the young women in her son’s harem who would bear his children. He’d already sired one daughter, and another of the harem was with child. She would be sure to be kind to all of the women.

  When it became apparent that Seldin had fled the kingdom, it left Lieutenant Nattin, the man in charge of a special unit of the guards that answered to Seldin with many questions. The special unit carried out all the ‘wet work’ that Seldin needed. It was a small group that was recruited exclusively from select Porfi
an families. Nattin was a complex man. In ways, he was cruel and violent, which would be true of anybody who led such a unit. In other ways, he was a Porfian patriot. He felt that his job, while distasteful at times, was necessary to ensure the stability of the kingdom.

  Nattin knew that there were only a few reasons that Seldin would flee. First, he had a falling out with their mercurial king. The second was that the king had undertaken something truly dangerous. The king was vain, ruthless, and cunning. But in other ways, he was reckless. Another reason was the heir’s mother. He knew her only by reputation, and that reputation was that she was a smart and devious woman who played a dangerous yet brilliant political game. Nattin didn’t know; it could be a combination. Whatever the reason, he would have to be on his guard until he was sure. Like Seldin, he had a plan to escape Porfia with his family if need be. He wasn’t as wealthy as Seldin, yet he had secreted enough funds in other realms to live a modest life abroad.

  Nattin was not the only one who noticed Seldin’s disappearance. Raman, a prominent merchant, also saw it. He didn’t trust the King, and this felt ominous. He thought that it was time to write Duke Marvon. He and the Duke corresponded from time to time. He needed to hear about Seldin disappearing. Raman knew that Seldin was the King’s spymaster. He also knew that the heir’s mother, Solara, was smart and dangerous. She was guiding her son. The two things did not bode well for Porfia or other kingdoms. Marvon should be informed.

  He composed the letter. Making sure that it sounded like routine commercial correspondence. A knowledgeable person, like Marvon, would be able to read between the lines. That done, Raman turned to his own affairs to make sure that he could weather whatever disaster the King was plotting.

  On the Road

  Bart and his men moved down the game trail that ran parallel to the Crystal River towards the River Road. It would take a bit more than two days for them to reach the site of the ambush. His nerves were on edge; this was the biggest gamble he’d ever taken. Success would mean a life of wealth and leisure; failure would mean death. He consoled himself with his belief that the plan was a good one. If the guard was larger than they expected or something else happened, he’d call it off. The three men scouting ahead were his best woodsman. They were good, but men who made their livelihood hunting were much better. Those types could easily avoid them. Hopefully, they would at least flush any danger and give them warning of trouble and any hunters they missed wouldn’t bother to go to any of the towns to sound the alarm.