Wherever I Am

Chapter 23 - Part 1

A week had gone by, and every meal had been a feast of some sort. It wasn't every year that they got a new Lord Protector, and they'd never had a Maid Protector. Then there were the three new Burgraves to be sworn in. With all the toasting, I'd had Master Tadzi provide the Realm table with watered wine so we could keep up without getting drunk like the first night.

Ellie and I were at the center, with Nathan to my right, then Reginar and Danus. To Ellie's left was Sinense, then Cornelia, Tabitha, and then Lauretti, even though I was sure Lauretti outranked all of the women and, really, everyone here. However, she made the seating arrangements.

Sir Lucien, Gabriel, Stefan, Radu, and Teo all sat at a table behind and off to the right in case they were needed. A similar table to the left had Lady Flavia, Doina, Sorina, Zoe, Mara, Eliza, and Oana. Except for our ducklings, there were no other children, though squires stood along the walls in case their Lords or landed Cavaliers required them.

The unlanded Cavaliers, sans Sir Lucien, were not in attendance for any of the feasts, and I'm sure Chef Tadzi was happy about that. Aside from us Realm people and our ducklings, we had five Burgraves, and in general, each of them had three Primors, and each of them had three Cavaliers with lands, which came to somewhere around sixty, assuming they were all in attendance, and they weren't.

We were at about half that number sitting at the five long tables. The Burgraves were all here, but that would change shortly with them returning to their keeps. Maybe half of the Primors were here, some with Cavaliers here in their places. Many Cavaliers fought in the north, some going against the Sobecks in the east. Like Boian's message about the Sobecks, missives from the north read that we were retaking those lost Primoris now that our forces had been dedicated there.

Reginar and Danus had waved away any ducklings, as had the Realm women, except Cornelia took Oana as her Maid of Honor. Nathan still wasn't sure he wanted a squire. He still wasn't sure what to do with Teo, except that Teo slept in his bed because he had nightmares about the Sobeck attack. Sinense seemed, if not satisfied, at least accepting of having only younger Maids as her Ladies in Waiting for the time being.

Then there was the choosing of the advisors. Reginar and Cornelia were our Realm advisors, but I apparently had to have local noble advisors, and so did Ellie, so we each asked for one from each Burgraviate. Not surprisingly, we got four married couples, each over fifty, older or retired cavaliers and their wives. The Crisan Burgraviate varied only slightly in that their advisors were a widower and a widow.

I then asked for another round of advisors for me, with the main criteria being that they had to be under the age of twenty-five. While the others seemed dumbstruck, Emil laughed and immediately named Doina as his second advisor. I didn't know if Lauretti had forewarned him or if he half-expected this somehow, but I liked his choice. I got a Lady from Baemardis, plus three cavaliers. I didn't have any nefarious plan, but it seemed to work.

And now, the question of when was finally asked. When would we ride against the Sobecks? I wanted Uncle John here before I did this, I think, because maybe I wouldn't need to move forward on this. Maybe he would have some plan or a troop of crack horsemen with automatic weapons and night-vision goggles.

But he was delayed again. Indefinitely, Lauretti said. Still dealing with problems related to those who attacked his estate, though not on Earth, or at least my home version of Earth, and most likely not our Aussie attackers' version either. Sinense had said there were problems in a different county of domed towns on her world, so maybe there, or...Ellie said that the theories involving the multiverses we were finding to be real could mean an infinite number of them, which could explain the lack of knowledge about the Aussies'.

Five days.

That was my answer once I got all the advice I could stomach. Ellie agreed. Nathan paled but said he was going. Sinense was staying, but now Sorina said Sinense was coming along.

"Why the change?" I slipped into bed for the night next to her. Since Oana was now Lady Cornelia's Maid, we hopefully didn't have to worry about her slipping in tonight.

"Mara shamed her," Sorina said. "She told her she was going whether her Realm Maid was going or not, and she was taking Eliza, too. Either that or Sinense would rather risk death than sleep alone," she ended with a laugh.

"Beg pardon?"

"Sinense cuddles Eliza, and Mara sleeps against Sinense. Sinense didn't like it when Mara would get up to be with Eliza when she had nightmares, so this is their solution. Our dome-world Maid of the Realm has never slept alone. Her main Lady has slept with her since she was little, and Lauretti wouldn't allow her to come along. That first night in our world was horrible because she had to sleep alone. She was so happy to get Mara as her Maid when she first arrived. Oh, and Zoe says she's well enough and will be coming."

"Is she?"

"Doina thinks she can make the trip without too much trouble. Everything's healing up fairly well."

"Her brother's staying here?" I could hear the pleading in my voice.

"He's staying here with his mother," she said with a nod, "but Teo's going since he's Lord Nathan's page."

I winced. "I shouldn't have done that."

"Nathan needed a page, and Teo's the right age."

"And Nathan's not sure what to do with a helpful seven-year-old," I said with a chuckle. "But Teo doesn't need to be back with the Sobecks."

Sorina kissed me. "You're trying to save everyone again. You can't, so quit trying. Gabriel, Stefan, and Radu are with you. Doina, Zoe, and I are with Ellie. Then, of course, she now has a new Lady from one of her older advisors, and you the same as your final Cavalier over Sir Lucian. The same for Nathan and Sinense, though at least the older ones aren't traveling with us."

"Yeah, and Cornelia is coming along, and since Oana's her Maid of Honor now, she'll be coming."

"And Lord Reginar, though he's said he doesn't want any squires or pages yet. You should be happy about that."

"I am, and hopefully, we can wait on Nathan's squire for a while, too."

"And how many contingents?"

"Not counting whatever Emil's bringing home, I've got Sir Lucian's contingent, plus each of the younger advisors, so that's four. Emil's giving me two of his once we leave Bacea for Suata, plus all those already with Boian."

"So we're showing up with over eighty people?"

"Let's not leave out Master Tadzi and his cooking crew and their chuck wagon, the other supply wagon and its crew, plus a hay and oats wagon to bring feed for the horses, so we don't have to stop to graze as often. And the tent crew since Boian won't have room for everyone. Even after we leave Bacea, we'll have around a hundred people and about three dozen horses. I wasn't even paying attention to all this when we came here, and now I'm in charge? I'm glad we have a few people who have a clue. When I said I was going, I thought maybe a dozen people. But really, just Ellie, Nathan, Sinense, me, and our ducklings add up to more than that."

"So I'm a duckling?" She smiled, so I kissed her.

"One with very nice tail feathers."

She kissed me back, then grew serious. "And we're going to go and hunt down all of the Sobecks?"

"The plan is to hunt them back to wherever they're coming from. We may not get them all, but we'll at least get most of them, and if they're capturing people as part of a breeding program, we'll free them, too."

"You think that's true?"

"That one you killed was dragging Mara off for some reason. Maybe they were keeping her for live food, but Boian says this breeding has happened before."

"Do you think that's why that other one was bruising Adrian everywhere instead of just killing him? He'd be a good breeder?" Her voice quavered now.

"That or tenderizing him." I'd tried to make a joke, but my voice broke, and she pulled tight to me instead.

"We'll get them," I croaked.