The Lord and Lady in the White Tower
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: I own none of this. No, really. Rating: K Time: This is a sequel to the Lady in the White Tower and begins some months after that story ended.
Sorry for the delay, but my internet connection died a horrible death on Monday.
"That's probably why their defeated army prefers to fight to the death." Castle said. "Sooner or later the former slaves would track them down and they would not have an easy death."
"We did seize their baggage train." Polito said, quickly moving the conversation on. "De Ming became quite rich as the messenger of their god. He had not only gold, but silver, jewels, costly silks, spices and much, much more."
Castle thought for a moment.
"Once the slaves settle down, we'll offer them clothing, weapons, food and some money. If any want to accompany us to the Golden Coast, they may. Otherwise, they can return to their homes, if they still exist, or go where they will."
Few wished to accompany Lord Castle and his army. Most were determined to return to wherever their homes had been and begin life again. The ones that did wish to go with Lord Castle were usually young men who wished to see more of the world than their small villages and do more than raise hogs and chickens and grow fruits and vegetables. Most proved quite useful to the new colony.
Lord Castle led his victorious army back to the Free Republic of Stassen. The citizens were grateful and a bit amazed that Castle had defeated the "invincible" army of De Ming. But they were happy to do anything they could to help Castle.
Later, as Rick and Kate were in bed on the flagship, the Emperor Paulus. Rick was curious about something.
"Kate, how could such a poorly armed, equipped and led army have gained a reputation for being invincible? They were hardly that."
"I can't be sure, but I did talk to some of the freed slaves. One, De Ming was ruthless. He slaughtered his foes and enslaved any who survived. That was not that hard as they always fought foes that were weaker than they. Two, they had good propaganda. They lied a lot. They told everyone that they were victorious because their god turned their enemies' arrows, javelins or spears to perfumed water. And that city walls would fall at the wave of De Ming's hand. In fact, the walled cities they attacked had nothing but mud walls with perhaps some timber to protect the town. However, they began to believe their own lies. If a man was killed by an arrow, it was not because their god had failed to turn the arrow into perfumed water, but because the man had not chanted his prayers properly or some such nonsense. And the fact that they believed they were invincible led others to believe that was true. So, do not listen to your own propaganda."
"Do we have our own propaganda?" Castle asked.
"Never. We simply tell the truth." Kate said with a laugh.
Food and water were purchased and loaded onto the ships. Lord Castle's army also boarded their ships and sailed south. For nearly two hundred miles, they found little sign of life. De Ming's army had destroyed most villages, towns and cities, although a few small villages of fisherfolk on islands off of the mainland had survived.
At last, they began to arrive at cities that had heard of the great battle between Lord Castle and De Ming. They were happy to see the victorious army, but a bit afraid of what the army might have in store for them. However, Lord Castle only bought provisions and then sailed further south, leaving the cities behind to breathe a sigh of relief.
"There!" Cried Admiral Deese on one fine day. "There in the distance. That's Candlestick Rock, looking like a fancy silver candlestick from some palace. That's the northern boundary of what was and will be the Golden Coast."
"It doesn't look silver to me." Said Duchess Ann.
"But it does look like a candlestick, Your Grace." Deese replied.
"And we are near the end of our journey." Kate added.
"Aye, "said Deese, "if the winds hold, we'll be at Aurum the day after tomorrow."
But the winds did not hold, and it was a week before the vast fleet slowly crept in sight of the city of Aurum at dawn.
"Lord Castle! Lady Castle!" Cried Deese. "You must come at once and see this! At once!"
"We shall as soon as we are dressed, unless it is some catastrophe." Castle grumbled.
"No, not that, but you should hurry."
Fifteen minutes later, Lord and Lady Castle strode upon the deck.
"What is it?" Castle asked, still somewhat grumpy.
"There." Said Deese, pointing towards the city. "Look at that. Just to the left of the spire of the cathedral."
"It looks like a large white tower." Kate said.
"Aye, Lady Kate, a white tower it is. And there was no white tower anywhere in the city when we were here. It looks like your tower back in the Capitol."
Princess Arran arrived as well with Sir Karl by her side.
"I have books and maps from the days when my family ruled the Golden Coast. There's no mention of any white tower of any sort. How did that get here."
Everyone looked at Lady Kate.
"I have no idea. However, I'll make every effort to find out."
As the wind had almost died, two smaller ships were kedged forward. This involved sending a small boat out with a small anchor attached to the ship by a rope. The anchor was dropped some distance from the ship and the line was hauled in by the ship's windlass. Slowly the two ships moved to the iron chain which Deese had re-positioned barring entrance to the harbor when he had left many months before. The small boats were manhandled over the huge chain and the crews went ashore to lower the chain and allow the fleet entrance to the harbor of Aurum.
It took the better part of two days to get the fleet in harbor and as soon as the last ship had anchored, a nice, stiff breeze blew up.
"We could have used that two days ago." Lord Castle said.
"We can't be grumping." Lady Kate said. "We need to see how the city is. Especially this tower."
When the boat carrying Lord and Lady Castle, Princess Arran and Sir Karl, Duchess Ann and Duke Ranald II and Sandrall. Of course, the pretty kitty, Lotus, went along too.
As soon as they landed, Princess Arran fell to her knees and kissed the dock.
"I am home, at last, and I swear that I will never leave the Golden Coast while I still breathe."
"As do I." Added Sir Karl.
Castle and his party headed for the white tower. Castle sent others to survey the extent of damage to the city's walls and gates.
"It looks exactly like my tower back in the Capitol." Kate said when they arrived at the tower.
"Let's see if we can go in." Rick said.
"We'll stay out here, just in case." Sir Karl said, putting a protective arm around Princess Arran. Ann and Sandrall made no move towards the tower. Ranald wanted to, but he was riding Lotus who staunchly refused to move.
The door opened without a sound when Rick and Kate stepped forward. Once they were inside, the door closed.
"This is identical to my tower in the Capitol. At least so far."
"Should we try the elevator?" Rick asked.
"We may as well."
The elevator took them to the area where Kate did her work.
"This is different." She said. "My paints, brushes and canvases are all here, but none of the paintings I had done or were working on are here."
She checked her laboratory.
"Again, very much the same, but nothing I was working on is here. But, all of my supplies, chemicals, rare earths, and such are here. We should check out living quarters."
They went to the next floor and found things to be much the same.
"We had the rose pattern linen on the bed when we left. Now the bed has the light green linen."
Castle shrugged,
"All I notice about the bed is whether you're in it or not."
She opened a large closet.
"My clothing is here. Ah! There are the riding boots that were worn out in our trip around the world. However, they're the very same boots, but brand new."
Castle checked his closet.
"This looks like my clothing. But wait! My weapons are here. Including the sword and dagger made of the old metal which none can make anymore."
"None on this planet, love. I think our friends and family on Newton have been busy. We should see if we can talk to them."
Kate opened the door to a second, secret elevator, that took them to the lower floors and basement of the tower. Rick recognized the device that had allowed them to go instantly from the planet Serendip to the planet Newton. Kate made some adjustments, then took his hand and they walked forward. They found themselves in the same room.
"We didn't go anywhere." Castle said.
"Yes, we did. There's dust here and some cobwebs. We need to go back upstairs."
Which they did and looked out a window.
"We're in the Capitol." Rick said.
"Indeed, we are. So, there are now two towers here on Serendip. One in the Capitol and one in Aurum. Interesting."
"What now?"
"We go to Newton and see who did this."
They returned to the basement and Kate again made some adjustments to the machinery. They stepped through and Rick found himself once again in Jim and Johanna Beckett's home on the planet Newton.
"Dad! Mom! Are you home?"
Getting no reply, Kate went to the kitchen table and picked up a device Rick knew as a telephone. Kate called her dad.
"Katie, is that you?"
"Yes. Where are you?"
"On our way home. We'll be there in ten minutes. Can you wait or is this an emergency?"
"We can wait."
"We? Is Rick with you?"
"Of course."
"We'll be glad to see him. See you soon."
In less than ten minutes Kate's parents came through the door.
"Kate!" Johanna said, hugging her daughter. "I hope this is news about our grandchildren."
"Mother! No, I'm not pregnant. It's something else."
Johanna turned to Rick.
"Rick, you do know how grandchildren are made, don't you?"
Rick just blushed.
"We got to the city of Aurum and found a duplicate of the White Tower there. Everything is the same, except a few things are newer. Any ideas on how that happened?"
Jim spoke.
"We, that is the people of Newton, knew you'd be in Aurum a long time and we thought you'd be better off having your White Tower there. We couldn't very well just remove the one in the Capitol without causing a huge fuss, so we just made a new one and put it down in Aurum. There isn't anything wrong with it, is there? We didn't put it in the wrong place or something?"
Kate shook her head.
"No, according to Princess Arran's books and maps that used to be a large formal garden. According to Admiral Deese, it was a lot of dead plants. No, it made quite a stir when everyone found another White Tower there, but they'll get used to it."
"It'll just become part of the legend of the Lady in the White Tower." Rick said, smiling at Kate.
She winked at him.
"It's the legend of the Lord and Lady of the White Tower now, dear."
"Can you stay for dinner?" Johanna asked.
"We'd love to, but we should be getting back to Aurum. People there are probably worried about us."
They were worried about Rick and Kate, but soon calmed down.
"Lord Castle, "said Baron Jomini, "we've examined the walls of the city and the gates. The walls are in very good shape. There are a few small cracks and some other minor damage, but nothing we can't easily repair. The gates are another story. There are three wooden drawbridges, and all have rotted away. The wooden gates to the city have also rotted away, although the portcullises for the three large gates are made of iron and are fine. A bit of oil and they'll be fine. However, there are two smaller gates with no portcullis where the gates and the bridges across the moat have rotted. A determined attacker could send infantry across the wrecked bridges."
"I believe we can use wood from two of the pirate ships we captured to repair the gates." Admiral Deese said. "There are problems with their masts, but the hulls are sound."
"Then we should get to work." Lord Castle said. "I hate the idea of being in a walled city with open gates. In the meantime, barricade the gates, all of them and put a company of infantry at each gate. Put sentries on the walls, have archers standing by and I want a squadron of armored cavalry at the ready at all times. Everyone else works."
"I have some good news as well." Princess Arran said.
TBC