The Kidnapping of Katarina

Make a bad one good, make a wrong one right

Power of love will keep you home at night

~ Huey Lewis

Chapter 5

Revenge is the law of the outlaws. ~ Laura Blumenfeld

For the second time this month, Katarina woke up with no immediate recollection of when she'd gone to bed. But at least this time she woke up in her familiar dorm room and Anne was making determined noises that suggested it was morning and Katarina would be doing her a favour by waking up.

"I'm up," she declared, deciding that she should appreciate her maid more and not try to go back to sleep. No matter how tempting her soft fluffy pillows and nice warm blankets were.

Perhaps if she just lay here, and stayed awake…

Her eyelids decided to try to sneak down and close on her, so Katarina took them by surprise and jumped out of bed!

"Lady Katarina!" Anne exclaimed as Katarina fell to the floor, legs still tangled in the blankets. "What are you doing?"

"The bed is a cunning wrestler," she explained, trying to get free. In the end it took Anne's help and Katarina amused herself through her morning bath by imagining her bed taking on masked wrestlers in a grand tournament. They used tables in matches, so surely a bed wasn't out of the question?

"How are you feeling today?" Anne asked her once Katarina was dressed.

"I'm fine…" But she paused. "Although… it seems all like it's been some kind of strange dream?"

The maid tilted her head quizzically to one side. "How so?"

"Well, all sorts of far-fetched things have happened. First I'm suddenly having to replace Clarice in the play."

"You were her understudy, Lady Katarina."

"Yes, but then I'm mysteriously abducted…"

"Please don't remind me."

"It did all happen, didn't it?"

"I remember it very distinctly," her maid assured her. "It was a terrible thing to happen."

"And then I fought my way out in a knight-armour."

"Fought?"

Katarina paused. "No, there wasn't a fight." Although to hear some tell it, she had apparently battled her way through the Berg family's guards to rescue Selena from the vile butler who had been using her to kidnap Katarina. The fact that the butler was behind it… or at least, behind everyone except Marquis Mason… shouldn't surprise anyone - wasn't it always the butler who did it? But anyway, having people telling stories that didn't quite match her own recollection was probably why Katarina felt so muddleheaded about events. "I was getting confused."

"I'm very glad you returned safely, my lady." Anne made a very rare exception to her usual decorum and hugged Katarina tightly. "Very, very glad."

Katarina patted the older girl reassuringly. "I'm ever so glad to be back with you, Anne." She thought back to the people she'd met. "What happened to them anyway? The people who did the kidnapping? Rufus the butler, Lana the maid and Nanaka the…" She wasn't quite sure what to call the demihuman boy. Her mother had some harsh words about contract servants, but Nanaka was just a little boy, a few years younger than Katarina.

The maid released her and tried to return to putting the various cosmetics and make-up tools away. "Well, I believe Lana was an agent investigating the Berg mansion on behalf of the Ministry of Magic. Why they were doing so, I do not know, but I would imagine she returned to the ministry and has some other assignment."

"Gosh! She was some kind of secret agent!? I never guessed!"

"I would imagine that makes her good at her job." Anne pursed her lips. "Although I would rather she hadn't pretended to be a maid. It casts my profession in a poor light."

"She wasn't as good a maid as you are," Katarina said loyally.

"Thank you, Lady Katarina." The maid patted her shoulder. "As for the other two, they both gave testimony that helped bring Marquis Mason to justice, so they're being allowed to work off their debt to society. I'm not sure what the butler has been set to work at, but I've agreed to help reform the other one."

"You have!? How are you going to do it?"

Anne smiled mysteriously. "Lady Katarina, you don't want to be late for breakfast, do you?"

"Oh no!" Katarina straightened up sharply.

"Nana, Lady Claes is off now." Anne called, opening the door. "You can begin cleaning the bedroom now."

The young noblewoman stopped at the door to let the new maid in. ...wait… wait… hadn't she seen this maid before? "You! Oh my gosh, you're the maid from that night! You really were dressed up as a maid!"

The little demihuman flushed in embarrassment. "I'm very sorry," he mumbled.

Katarina looked him up and down. "It's alright, it turned out well in the end. But why are you wearing it now?"

Anne gave her a little push towards the door. "I believe that the punishment should fit the crime."

"I know, breakfast!" Katarina exclaimed. "But you look so cute, Nana! The maid uniform really suits you!"

"I'm a boy, you know!"

"Na-na!" Anne snapped.

The demihuman snapped to attention, eyes wide.

"A proper maid must address their employer with respect."

"...yes, Miss Anne." Then the little maid turned towards Katarina and bowed deeply. "Thank you for the compliment, my lady. I would prefer to dress as a manservant though."

Anne swatted 'Nana' over the head with one hand. "Choosing how to dress is a privilege, and one that you haven't earned yet. Now, you have a room to clean, and Lady Katarina has breakfast."

"Thank you for your hard work, Nana!" Katarina exclaimed and darted out of the room.

"Wow," she mused. "I would totally have believed that I'd just made up a backstory for a cute maid if Anne didn't tell me that he was really a spy." The girl shook her head, and then picked up her skirts to dash towards the dining hall before anyone turned up to tell her that she shouldn't.

I guess maybe the only part that was a dream was Gerald saying he loved me, she thought. Because it's not like he'd ever say that to the villainess.

"It is confirmed, Master." Luxion sounded smug. "Only one of the four students you mentioned is on this trip."

Leon took a deep breath and leaned on the rail of the large skyship that would be ferrying students to the southern island. "Well I was pretty sure that it would happen. Given how events have diverged already from what I expected, something allegedly random going differently isn't that much of a surprise."

The drone bobbed along next to him as he turned, thrusting his hands into his pockets, and started walking along the deck. "Will this affect your plans for this trip, master?"

"No," he decided. "I was aware of this possibility already. I don't see how the exact events of this trip could take place with the steps I've taken anyway, but that doesn't mean we can rule out the possibility of another kind of attack on the trip. If anything, losing the flutes might make them more desperate and a ship full of potential hostages might be enough for them to flip the allegiances of a number of noble houses in a war. Even if they just stand aside, that would help level the numbers."

"Do you believe that they would dispense with their princess, who is still within the Kingdom?" asked Luxion.

"I wish I could rule it out," the boy said, feeling tired. "But if the leaders of her council were willing to push the princesses into using the flutes to unleash the titanic spirits they did in the book and the game, fully aware that it would kill them…" He shook his head. "For that matter, she might be planning to escape the kingdom in the prelude to an attack, gambling that Marquis Field and the other border lords will have their guard down while they believe she's here."

The drone remained silent as they went past another group of students. "I assume you have considered the risks."

Leon closed his eyes for a moment. "Yes," he agreed, opening them again. "I know you can't monitor the drones while we're far away, but if Fanoss does launch an attack, I wouldn't have enough firepower with just my knight-armour to face them. They do have a slight advantage in their equipment over most of the kingdoms, and it's likely that Vandel Him Zenden would be present."

"If you fear that new human so much, an assassination may be in order."

"I don't know where he is. Hertrude said he was guarding her sister, remember? They're touring Fanoss and I don't know their itinerary. Or if there is an attack, we'd have to find their forces."

"Most inconvenient."

"It's almost like he doesn't want to be killed," Leon agreed wryly. "If we do cross paths with him, I'll do everything I can to get rid of him. He's incredibly dangerous."

The AI sounded frustrated. "It is regrettable that we could not secure his sword for analysis. Your description suggests that it may remain a viable threat even to the reinforced armour of your knight-armour."

The boy nodded. "His skills and his signature blade aside, he's a tremendous morale boost to Fanoss: no one's managed to do more than slow him down in battle, and even that's rare. We can hardly count on some mysterious masked knight to turn up just because he's needed. Throw in his fanatical hatred of the Kingdom… and he's one hell of a rallying point for Fanoss. I don't see the slightest chance of ending this conflict except over his dead body."

"I have no problem with the death of a new human."

I would have been surprised if you did, Leon thought. You're just as fanatical as he is. The only difference is, you're basically immortal so you're willing to be patient. Vandel is getting old. If he's to destroy the kingdom and avenge his family, he's running out of time.

If it wasn't for him - and those who take their lead from him - Fanoss might be just another nation. Hertrude conquering Holfort would be bad, but it wouldn't necessarily be a disaster. A change of dynasty and borders… nothing I couldn't live with as long as my family and a few friends made it out. The trouble is, Vandel means to see the kingdom destroyed in a literal sense. He'd shatter the entire continent at the heart of the kingdom, kill hundreds of thousands… and be dissatisfied because the other islands still existed.

"Leon!" he heard someone call. "Look, Mary! I thought I saw Leon!"

The boy turned and saw a familiar face. "Well, if it isn't my fellow giant robot pilot."

Katarina beamed happily and pulled the pen-like transmitter out. "I brought this with me, just in case."

Mary clamped her hands over the device. "Please don't do that, Lady Katarina! Your knight-armour -"

"The Big Stein!"

"The big Stein, yes. It's only in the hold. If it just takes off then it could tear a hole in the ship."

"Try to keep that to emergencies," Leon asked Luxion quietly.

"I know, Mary. I won't use it unless I absolutely have to."

"You were going to use it to get to the cake shop in the capital, just so you didn't need to wait for a carriage to be available."

"But that was for cake. And I was going to land at our mansion, then walk the rest of the way. I wouldn't have torn up the street!" Katarina protested.

"In your piloting gear?" asked Leon, curiously.

The brunette nodded. "Of course. Piloting a knight-armour in a skirt is harder than it seems!"

"I'll be sure to remember that," Leon told her. "But there's nowhere on the ship that you'll need it so keep the summoning device safely away unless we get attacked by pirates or something."

Mary looked grateful as Katarina complied. "I don't think pirates are very likely. Did you even bring your knight-armour along, Leon?"

"Just in case," he confirmed. "You never know."

Katarina gestured to a table, one of several on deck that were in easy reach of a cafe catering to the passengers. The skyship wasn't as big as the Dreadnought by length, but it was still huge, reminding Leon of a luxury liner from the age of steam. Fortunately it wasn't called the Titanic or he'd have snuck off and travelled on his own ship entirely. "Why don't we have tea together?"

"Leon might be waiting for someone," pointed out Mary.

"Not really," he admitted. "Clarice took this trip last year, Scarlet and Violette wound up drawing both the other trips… Honestly, most of the people I know on the ship this time are some of the lads from our class, and they managed some sort of dodge to get themselves and their young ladies aboard so they're... otherwise involved."

"It's so romantic," Katarina agreed, taking a seat. "Don't you wish Alan was here with you Mary?"

"Just luck of the draw," the other girl said, pointedly taking the middle seat so that she'd be between Leon and Katarina.

Luck might have controlled that, but Leon had made a point of seeing that the first year boys who he'd set up with girls were with him for the trip. In a crisis, they'd listen to him and that might be critical. The ladies, mostly recluses, had been less enthusiastic but it wasn't as if Leon had asked them about which trip they wanted to go on and it kept the boys happy.

Sacrifices have to be made, he thought with self-conscious sanctimoniousness. The girls will just have to bear with being doted on by their young men - and I wind up here with few of my actual friends.

Actually, he really should have asked. "Luxion," Leon subvocalized. "Which of the four students I asked about wound up on this trip?"

"Deirdre Fou Roseblade."

Of course. Actually, why had he even bothered to ask? Now that he thought about it, as a third year she must have been to both the other destinations for school trips so her presence hadn't been random in the book either.

"I hear they have rice on the island," Katarina exclaimed happily once they'd ordered their preferred desserts. The ship was just pulling away from the port and so there was a nice view of skyships coming and going as they waited for the waiter to return. "And noodles. And octopus!"

"You can't eat octopus," Mary said tiredly.

"I'm pretty sure it's just a matter of preparing it correctly." Leon wasn't sure if the island in question would in fact be serving octopus as food, but given it had a culture not dissimilar from traditional japan, it sounded possible.

"Ugh." Mary shivered. "I'm not doing that."

"Octopus is delicious!" Katarina declared.

"I refuse to believe that your mother has ever served octopus for a meal, so how would you know, Lady Katarina?"

Leon leant back in his chair. "You're not usually this sour, Mary." Or at least, not to Katarina. "Are you alright?"

The girl slumped face first on the table, in a very unladylike fashion.

"...that bad?"

Katarina lowered her voice. "Her sisters got disinherited."

"...no!"

The long-haired brunette nodded in confirmation, patting Mary sympathetically on the shoulder. "It's horrible."

"Is it because of…" Leon trailed off, not sure how much Katarina knew about the 'great elf mischief' that was causing so much havoc across the kingdom.

I may have been wiser to be a little more careful with that one, he thought. I knew it wouldn't be a secret forever, but it's gotten out so quickly that I don't think the crown has a prayer of managing the problems it's causing. There are people fighting and dying over it.

Mary nodded morosely. "It turns out all three of them aren't father's real daughters. Father's been petitioned for divorces, but he refused because technically none of the three of them caused their mother's infidelity."

"Well of course not," Katarina agreed quickly.

"They did cause it to come out though. Let me guess, one of them got hold of a detector?"

"Lilia, of all people. The one who had the most to lose."

"Mary, I know you were raised alongside them, but your oldest stepsister is an imbecile."

The girl nodded, her head smacking against her crossed forearms. "The only good news, Leon, is it means I'm not related to them at all. But I'm still going to have to deal with them, because once they're divorced, they'll still be our responsibility. Father disinherited them, but he's not going to disown them entirely."

"But I thought that he was refusing to let them be divorced?" Katarina said in confusion.

Leon rubbed his chin. "The marquis can't really stall them forever. The three families Mary's supposed sisters married into all thought their sons were going to be getting a close connection and place in the succession of the Hunt household. Now that that isn't the case, those benefits are gone. The only reason not to ask for a divorce is if the couple really love each other."

"Don't any of them?" inquired the duke's daughter innocently.

"Katarina, you've met my sisters. Two of them had elf lovers of their own before that scandal broke, and June only didn't because she likes demihuman ears."

"At some point, being married in form alone would be worse than a divorce," Leon pointed out. "If the marquis is smart, he'll back down once he has enough concessions offered him by his in-laws that he can minimise the impact on the rest of his family."

"Father can't really press too hard, the three families all made pretty generous concessions to get marriages with my sisters to begin with," Mary admitted. "He's not going to be able to get them twice!"

"Some people would try," the boy observed, "But it's likely not wise. There's going to be enough bad blood. Do you think any of them are likely to do anything stupid about this?" He paused. "Stupider."

"Probably. The only good news is, they're so impatient they'll probably do it while it's father's problem not mine and Alan's."

"In hindsight, Mary, you were tempting fate," Leon declared as he watched the half-dozen warships moving to encircle the liner. There was nothing he could do right now - Luxion was working the two knight-armours out of the cargo hold and he'd already changed into his pilot suit. Until Dreadnought closed within cannon range, or his knight-armour was at the entrance to the hold, he might as well watch.

"It's not my fault my sister Lilia married a cretin!" the girl told him.

Leon arched one eyebrow. "Really?"

"I was twelve when she married, how could I have anything to do with it?"

"Ah." He turned away again. "I guess I was over-estimating you."

She huffed. "Alright, yes, I set them up. If she married someone competent, then her husband might have realised I was playing them off against each other so they'd stop bothering me."

"And now your brother-in-law is an impatient idiot who's offending fifty or so noble families so he can abduct you."

Mary nodded sadly. "I know. But it's not as if I encouraged him to do it."

"That I do believe."

"I'm ready!" Katarina exclaimed, bursting out of her cabin… and very nearly out of her piloting suit.

Leon's current companion made a slight whining noise and blood began to trickle out of one nostril. He himself sighed, committed the sight to memory (he was only human!) and told Katarina: "Team jacket," while touching his own.

"Do we have time?" Katarina looked over at Mary, who gestured to indicate she was fine, pulling out a handkerchief to soak up her nosebleed.

"The knight-armours are both ready to launch out of the cargo hold," Luxion reported, having had to shuffle the contents of the hold to get them near to the hatch. The crew had not been at all happy to load the two giant suits and lord only knew what they'd think when they launched.

"It'll be a moment before we're ready to launch," Leon lied to Katarina. If she didn't put something on, Mary might die of blood loss.

"Gurk," the similarly stacked young lady declared once Katarina was out of sight. "Now I can die happy."

"No rush," Leon told her drily. "After all, if you die now you can't talk Katarina into a pyjama party when you all wear piloting suits."

Mary's mind seemed to go to a happy place and then she shook herself. "You're imagining it," she accused.

He nodded. "Invite Clarice if you want to thank me for giving you the idea."

"I'll keep it in mind," she conceded grudgingly. "Do you think you'll be alright? I think those ships have two knight-armours each, so you'll be outnumbered badly."

"Reinforcements are on the way," he told her. "My skyship has been following ours and I signalled them when we first sighted these scumbags."

Admittedly, he'd thought at first that it might be Fanoss, but these were older skyships. He'd seen Fanoss' own skyships over the summer, and they had shifted to boxier superstructure around their cannon rather than the traditional gun-decks still used by most of Holfort's feudal levies. These ships were even older, with larger forecastles and sterncastles that had fallen out of fashion years ago.

"How long until they catch up?" Mary enquired with a less than detached curiosity.

Her sister Lilia's husband Jack Fou Forton had declared that all he wanted was to bring his sister-in-law aboard and then he'd let the school trip get on. What he'd be doing after that was a mystery - well, to everyone except him and Luxion (who had sent a stealth drone across to follow the lord around as soon as they identified the flagship) and Leon (to whom Luxion had blabbed).

However unnerved Mary was at being targeted like this, Leon thought she might be even more worried if she knew that Lord Forton was proposing to widow himself and marry Mary. What her sister Lilia thought about this would be something to find out in the near future.

But now Katarina exited her cabin once more, this time wearing her coat over her piloting suit, so it was time for them to go.

"Open them up, Luxion," he ordered.

The crew of the liner started to cry out in protest as the cargo hold was opened from the inside. Leon and Katarina watched as the two knight-armours, cockpits already open, pushed the hatch open.

The crew weren't the only ones who objected. "What are you doing!?" one boy exclaimed, rushing to stand between Leon and his knight-armour. "They only want Hunt. Let them take her and we can go on with the trip."

Mutterings of agreement arose from a few other corners and most of the students on deck started to look around, gauging the way the wind was turning.

Deirdre Fou Roseblade stepped in to join the boy. "You really intend to fight all those ships for Lady Hunt?"

Leon nodded. "Yes."

"You really are an idiot," the blonde told him. "But I don't dislike that side of you." Her hand lashed out and the boy beside her screamed as lightning played around him briefly. He fell to the ground, twitching and foaming at the mouth. "Grind those bastards beneath your heel, Lord Bartford. And you as well, Lady Claes."

"Um, thank you?" Katarina looked at the fallen boy. "Is he going to be alright?"

"Probably," Deirdre drawled, obviously unconcerned. "He may have a persistent incontinence problem but who'll be able to tell the difference?"

"Katarina, the Stein is ready," Leon reminded her.

"Oh, right." The brunette hopped into the cockpit of the white mecha and it closed up around her.

Deirdre caught Leon's wrist as he was about to board his own crimson and black knight-armour. "A kiss for luck!" Then she jammed her lips against his, making it clear that it wasn't a request.

Leon returned the kiss, making a mental note to apologise to Clarice later, and then broke away. "You're trouble, Roseblade. Alas, I don't dislike that."

"Hah!" the drill-haired girl laughed proudly, putting her hands on her hips. "You're not Atlee's yet."

"And like that, you lose ground," he said drily and hopped into the waiting cockpit.

The ships surrounding them had noticed the two knight-armours and their own knights were taking to the sky as Leon joined Katarina in the sky. "Just defend Mary and the liner," he told her. "I'll take care of the rest of them."

"I can do that," the girl told him confidently. "Er, Leon?"

"Yes?"

"What's incontinence?"

He blinked. "Wetting himself."

"Oh gosh." She paused. "Deirdre probably shouldn't use magic like that."

"Well, he was willing to hand Mary over to Forton. Between you and me, I think Mary might have had bigger problems than needing a diaper if that happened."

"I suppose you're right." She unlimbered her sword. "Go get them, Leon. I'll protect the ship."

Four knight-armours swept in on them, with the other two of the first to launch from the enemy squadron moving around to approach the other side of the liner. "Be smart, kids," one of the knights called. "We're just here for one of the passengers - collecting her for her family."

"You're not taking Mary!" Katarina shouted, but she was also moving to prevent the separate pair of knight-armours from sneaking up on them.

Leon raised his rifle. "Last chance, fellows," he warned once Katarina was out of easy hearing. "Lady Hunt is engaged to Alan Rafa Stuart. Do you really think the Stuarts'll forgive Forton for raping her - or anyone that helps him?"

"Who said anything about rape?" one of the knights exclaimed - although the other three were suspiciously quiet as they drew their weapons.

The rifle in Leon's hands roared repeatedly and shots blasted into one of the silent knight-armours, at this range punching deep into the chest and into the cockpit. The knight fell out of the sky and Leon went evasive as the others overcame their surprise and tried to close in on him. None of them had guns out, they'd been aiming to disable him not kill.

"You bastard!"

He fired off the rest of his magazine, blasting apart the shield and arm of a second knight, the one that had spoken now. "Technically true," he admitted, and feigned reaching back to re-stow the rifle.

Taking advantage, the third of the knights who seemed fully in the loop dived in with his sword out. Leon reversed his grip on the rifle and whirled it, smashing the head of the knight-armour with the butt.

He discarded the weapon, letting it fall away with the knight-armour, whose occupant seemed stunned.

Leon got his axe out in time to bat away the sword of the one knight who'd seemed surprised by his accusation. The man knew how to use a sword against an axe, relying on the lighter mass of his weapon to feint and try to draw Leon into creating a gap in his own defences that he couldn't cover with the heavier axe.

Twisting, the dark-haired boy let his axe swing just a little too far and then dropped his knight-armour so that the thrust aimed for the arm-pit instead struck his pauldron and was forced up. Sweeping his own axe up, he severed a leg at the knee and then the weapon stuck half-way through the other leg's thigh.

Releasing it, Leon grabbed the other knight-armour's wrist, wrenching away its sword and he kicked the falling knight away, turning to parry the sword of the last of his four assailants.

"Who the hell are you? You're no student!" the knight exclaimed.

Leon said nothing, adjusting his grip on the unfamiliar sword.

The crash of something hitting the liner caught both of their attention, but Leon didn't waste time looking. He lunged forwards in his knight-armour and drove the blade deep into his adversary's chest. The blade snapped off, caught in layers of armour - one of the many reasons not to do such a thing, but it wasn't Leon's sword so who cared.

Spinning in the air, he took in the situation. Katarina was flying on the other side of the liner - and now only engaged with one armour. The six ships were all manoeuvring - they didn't seem to have much plan for resistance. As Leon climbed, he saw that they were readying their remaining knight-armours to launch - he didn't have long.

The last weapon in Leon's weapon case was his sword. He'd been profligate in using up what he carried so far. That was fine in a duel, but this was a battle.

Finally he saw the other knight-armour - its legs were kicking helplessly, head and shoulders embedded in the side of the liner. Someone had probably lost their cabins - hopefully they hadn't been in it.

Dropping down, Leon cut the legs off the trapped knight-armour. "Surrender your weapons, and you get to live," he offered.

He didn't expect the voice that replied. "L-Leon?"

"...Rudyard?" What was the one-time first son of the Bartford household doing here? Other than getting his ass kicked by Katarina, that was. "The offer stands," Leon told him. Figuring this out would take more time than he had.

The knight stopped flailing and a click marked the case of weapons sliding away from it. Leon caught it. A rifle and an axe - just what he was missing. Putting his sword away, he took one weapon in each hand. "We'll talk again," he warned.

"I know," the older boy admitted miserably. "Just don't kill me!"

Katarina finished off her opponent, who seemed just as unprepared to fight someone wielding a hoe as Chris had been. "She's getting dangerous with that," Leon muttered.

"It would be less challenging to a prepared foe," Luxion observed flatly. "Dreadnought is entering weapons range."

"Excellent." Leon gave Katarina a wave and then opened his throttle, surging towards the flagship of the enemy squadron. "Get a firing lock on their knight-armours, would you? And fire once they're off the ships."

"If you continue to close with the enemy flagship, you may be in the line of fire," the AI warned.

"Just the other five then."

The knight-armour on the deck was ready to take off, just barely before Leon reached the flagship. It was a new model, sleek and fast moving, with something of a hound motif. Mostly red, it had white trim and the head possessed both a muzzle and pointed ears to go with the rest of the look.

"There's only room for one red knight on the battlefield!" the man inside shouted. Leon recognised the voice from the spy drone's feed - Jack Fou Forton himself. And was that…? Yes, the man had actually equipped his knight-armour with massive claws on the hands rather than fingers.

Without slowing, Leon opened fire with his rifle, shattering armour plating across the red and white knight-armour, battering it to a wreck that fell back onto the deck of the warship, sending crew scurrying for cover as it smashed through half of the forecastle.

In a roar of explosions, shells from the Dreadnought crashed into the battlefield, plucking two knight-armours from the sky as they tried to rally to their leader. The other three weren't in view, but Leon presumed they'd either met the same fate or had found discretion to be the better part of valour.

"Well, conveniently, there's now only one red knight in the sky," he called down once he'd turned around and come back to hover over the flagship.

"You craven!" Forton howled. "What honourable knight brings a gun to a duel!?"

Leon sighed. "You're kin to the Sebergs, aren't you?" He'd heard similarly stupid sentiments from Greg. "Firstly, this isn't a duel. Secondly, given what you're here for, I refuse to believe you have even a nodding acquaintance with honour."

"Shut up! I am the next marquis! It was promised to me!" The redhead dragged himself out of the wreck of his knight-armour. Though swarthier, Forton's red hair was almost the same shade as Greg Fou Seberg's. "Why should I lose that, just because some stupid woman spread her legs for a damned elf!?"

"You probably shouldn't have let your wife play around with an elf-blood detector," Leon pointed out. "Or at least tested it on her before she activated it anywhere in public."

"Jack, you useless idiot!" A woman in a noble's gown emerged from the sterncastle. "What are you doing? Why haven't you finished him!"

Forton turned and glared at her. "Shut up, Lilia! This maniac has killed all our knights!"

"Then turn the ship's cannon on the liner!" the woman told him, hand on her hips. "We just need Mary dead and father will have no choice but to declare me heiress again."

"And we'll make enemies of half the kingdom!"

"Only if there are witnesses! He's one lone knight! If there's no ship to take him anywhere, he'll never reach an island before his knight-armour is exhausted."

"Even if that were true, which it isn't," Leon reminded her. "I have a very obvious solution to that."

"You wouldn't dare harm me!" the woman shrieked at him. "I'm still Marquis Hunt's daughter in the eyes of the law!"

Leon's lips drew back from his teeth. "Only if there are witnesses. Isn't that what you just said?" He lowered his rifle to aim down through the decks at where the ship's suspension stone should be. "How many people aboard want to die for these two? Vote quickly, because if I don't get some answers, I'll assume the outcome is 'all of you' and grant your request."

The officers hesitated, but the sailors knew a lifeline when one was thrown to them. Lilia Fou Forton yelped in disbelief as callused hands grabbed her and one of the sailors found some line to tie her up. Her husband scrambled off his knight-armour, looking for some way to avoid the same fate as his wife and the handful of officers who hadn't seen which way the crew was going and take the lead in that direction. Idiotically, the lord tried scrambling up the rigging, letting Leon reach down and grasp him in one hand.

"That's pretty smart," Leon told the crew. "Who's in charge now?"

One of the officers, at least to judge by his fancy coat, spoke up quickly. "You are, sir!"

"Hahaha," Leon laughed. "I like that. Good thinking. But when I'm not right over you, you're the one in charge." Probably this wasn't the captain, but he'd spoken up first. "Signal the other ships to surrender. If they don't then I'll take that as them volunteering to be sunk, so if any of you have friends on those ships, I do suggest that you be very convincing. They can show their submission by lowering the Forton banners."

The officer saluted. "Aye sir!"

"Luxion," Leon muttered. "If any of the other ships fire on me, on this ship or the liner, sink them. And if any haven't changed their flags in the next fifteen minutes, you can sink one of the recalcitrant ships every minute until there isn't a ship flying the Forton banner in the sky."

"I'll count the seconds, master."

"Let go of me!" Jack Fou Forton demanded, dangling from Leon's grip. "Traitors! I'll strip your families of their lands and titles for this."

"I'm pretty sure that that would be Count Forton's decision, and given you just tried to lead him into a war with the Stuarts," Leon pointed out, "I'm fairly sure your father will disown, disinherit, disclaim you… and every other dis- he can think of. It's barely a month since the last idiot decided to try abducting the fiancee of one of the Stuart brothers. Don't you idiots pay any attention to what happens around you?"

He stowed his rifle. "Hand over this cretin's wife, would you? I want them under lock and key somewhere I control."

"You can't do this!" Lilia protested as a squad of sailors hoisted her up like a seabag and carried her up to the edge of the ship. She was evidently wrong because a moment later, she was gripped in his knight-armour's free hand.

Signal flags were already being hoisted, signalling the rest of Lord Forton's squadron to surrender, before Leon had turned to return to the liner. By the time he reached it, two of them were already lowering their banners - strongly suggesting that Luxion wouldn't get to play further with them.

Katarina was standing guard in the sky above the liner when Leon arrived. "Did that one surrender to you?" she asked, pointing at Rudyard's crippled knight-armour still embedded in the side of the liner. "He seemed pretty miserable."

"He did. I'll need your help getting that suit free, but it can wait. I don't think he'll go anywhere."

The white knight-armour nodded and then peered down at the people Leon was carrying. "Who are they?"

"One of Mary's disowned sisters and her husband," Leon explained. "I think she should be the one to deal with them. After all, they were trying to spoil her school trip."

"They should at least have waited until the journey back," Katarina agreed. For the life of him, Leon wasn't sure if she was serious or if she'd discovered irony. "I'll protect the ship until you're back."

"Thank you. I've asked them to surrender - there's no need for anyone else to get hurt." Well, with a couple of exceptions but there was no need to bother Katarina with trifles - except the sort with fruit, custard and cream.

Leon landed his knight-armour on the deck in front of the liner's navigational bridge.

"Look what you've done to my ship!" the captain shouted, leaning over a rail.

Cracking open his cockpit, Leon gave the man an amused look. "On the one hand, you can put up a sign immortalising the moment this ship won a battle, earning some scars in the process. On the other hand, you could have explained to Marquis Hunt why his heiress was dragged off your ship while you did nothing."

"I am the heiress!" Lilia shouted defiantly. "Father will see reason as soon as Mary is out of the way."

"Firstly, I could throw you off the side right now and no one would do a damn thing," Leon pointed out. "Secondly, I'm not sure why some elf contract servant who probably went home years ago would have any say in the matter."

"You wouldn't dare!" The woman looked incensed. "My husband would report it as a murder."

"Lord Forton was planning to lob you over the side of his own ship and marry Mary as soon as he was a widower," Leon pointed out. "I don't really think he'd mind that much if I did the first part of that for him."

Mary's supposed-sister gave her husband a betrayed look. "You unmitigated piece of trash! After everything I've done for you!?"

"Like what? Screwing me out of the title that I was supposed to get for marrying you?" Forton shouted back. "Your plan would never have worked. Marrying the chit would have!"

Leon gave the captain a tired look. "You really want to go down with these idiots?"

The man shook his head. "I'll leave this to you, Lord Bartford. But please get that knight-armour out of the side of the ship before sundown. I'll need to send men in to move the possessions of the passengers whose cabins were crushed."

"Leon!"

He looked down and saw Mary on the deck, having clearly run from further back on the ship. "Lady Mary. A pleasure. Do you have any preferences on how we deal with these two? If I understand nautical law correctly, by attacking us outside of anyone's claimed airspace, we can write this up as a clear-cut case of piracy."

"How dare you call me a common pirate!" Forton protested. "I challenge you, Bartford. Face me like a man!"

"He did, and you lost," his wife sneered.

"Put him down first," Mary directed, pointing at Jack Fou Forton.

"Okay." Leon dropped Forton without any particular consideration.

Mary walked closer and offered the renegade lord her hand. That seemed terribly ill-advised to Leon, but he had no chance to intervene before Forton tried to use the hand to seize Mary as a hostage. The moment his hand was next to hers, Mary whipped her other hand around and stabbed him in the wrist.

"AAAAH!" the man shrieked, falling backwards and clutching at the bloody wound. "You bitch!"

The girl wiped the blade clean with a handkerchief and put it back in its wrist sheath. "It's coated with a paralytic," she informed him. "You should be getting a tingling feeling?"

Forton tried to get to his feet and fight back, but his legs didn't seem to be cooperating with him. Determinedly, he tried to crawl, but Mary lifted her skirts in a ladylike fashion before kicking him in the face. Rather than her usual heeled court shoes, today she had followed Katarina's example and was wearing some sensible boots.

"I heard everything you just said about your plan," she told him in a conversational tone. "I think I can guess the details of how you planned to force me to marry you… because not even you could be stupid enough to think I'd do so willingly."

Sprawled on his back, Forton coughed. "You wouldn't dare kill me."

"Oh no." Mary smiled. "You're right! I suppose even a stopped clock manages that now and again. But the thing is, my dear Jack. That's not a good thing for you. Because by the time we get back to Holfort, you'll be wishing that I could get away with killing you."

Then she stamped her boot down hard on the juncture of his legs. Leon winced. Forton screamed. His wife laughed.

"Don't be so smug, Lilia." Mary pulled a needle out of her pinned up hair and reached up to jab her sister in the leg with it. "You're next."

"You might want to take them inside," Leon suggested. "Katarina might see them and feel pity for them."

Mary paused and then nodded. "Quite right. I was getting carried away. Thank you for the reminder, Lord Bartford. Captain, if I may trouble you for a nice lockable room where the two of them can be chained up? And some men to drag them there. I wouldn't want to deprive this happy married couple of each other's company."