In the Name of the King (R)

[itsallinthespelling]

that was crazy. Lois is going to be furious. it's nice to see bruce treating clark somewhat nice now. can't wait for more. ppms

[LetMeGo]

That was unexpected! That girl has got some issues. I hope she doesn't cause too many problems for the prince in the future... especially when it comes to her sister.

On the bright side, Bruce seems to be warming up to his squire.

[shortcircuit85]

What a wonderful chapter! I am really starting to enjoy Bruce and Clark's relationship. Bruce comes off as a hard as nails type knight, but is starting to have respect for the future King. Nice of Clark to take the beating for Lois, but will it be worth it?

Thanks,

[NYC300Z]

lol a little surprised Clark took it so easy on Lois....can't wait to see Lois get more ticked off then she already must be! Interesting chapter to say the least

PPMS!

[kentfamily]

Keep up the good work. Keep writing!

[kewl]

this is such a whole new story card! awesome! keep those updates coming

[Cardinal]

Chapter 6

Underway

Clark had spent the entire day of his beating resting, but surprised everyone, including Bruce, by dragging himself out to the waryard for hand-to-hand combat practice the next morning. He was stiff and sore, and Bruce tried to get him to go back to bed so he could conserve his energy for the long ride ahead of them on the next day, but Clark wouldn’t have it.

“It would take something away from the honor of that beating if I then hid myself in a soft bed like some weak-kneed prince. I made my choice. Teach me something useful…if it please you, Sir Bruce.”

Bruce’s admiration for the young prince grew with each day, but once Clark loosened up with some prolonged stretching, Bruce let him have it with a full workout that centered on throws. Clark was in pain from the first, and by the time the workout was over, he felt like his bruises had bruises. And though he wanted nothing more than to rest, his duties as a squire intruded, so he had fetch water for Bruce and then help arm him for the practice session he was going to hold next for the twenty men who would be accompanying them south the next day.

Only then was Clark released to see to his own comfort, and he greedily sucked down a couple of dippers of lukewarm water before finding a shady spot to sit in. Now that he was done fighting, his abused muscles began to stiffen, and he knew that standing up again would be a real challenge.

Lois had heard about the young squire’s attempt at rejoining his morning training session and had watched from a shaded window high over head. Lois blamed Clark, at least partially, for the loss of her weapons, and was thus still a bit angry with him, but seeing his determination to train, despite the beating she’d given him and the way it hampered his mobility, forced her to admit he was tough, and was someone she’d want on her side when things got desperate.

But then she recalled the public apology she was going to have to make to him the next morning. She didn’t want to, but her father’s castellan was in charge of what happened in the castle and he had ordered her to apologize, so she would. Knowing the squire was responsible for another humiliation caused her to turn her back and drift off into the castle, looking for something to do.

By the time Clark was ready to make his way to the waryard for his lesson on fighting with weapons, he was beginning to seriously wonder if pride had gotten him in over his head today. The only good thing about this workout was that he was a talented swordsman and knew it, and thus should be better able to defend himself. Still, almost every muscle ached from the start, and today’s training involved him using a long sword in one hand and a small shield made entirely out of iron, called a buckler, in the other. Both implements felt like lead in his arms once Bruce was through with him, and only the fear of not being able to get back up kept him on his feet. Clark ate heartily that night, the largest and most solid meal he’d had since leaving the palace three weeks earlier, and then made sure he had everything laid out that Bruce might need before moving into his closet of a room and sleeping the sleep of the dead.

The next morning, Bruce led a party of twenty-four riders and any number of packhorses on what was to be a two-week trip. Three days to climb Stein Pass and ten or eleven days from there down the pass and through the Grand Duchy of Krakovia to the large manor house and associated lands that Lord Lang had leased.

That same day, at the far end of Alemannia, a strong, hard-looking man in his mid-forties ran a hand through thinning, graying hair and stooped over a large table that dominated the room in which he was standing. With steel gray eyes the man reviewed the disposition of military forces on the map spread over one end of the table. Located high in the central keep of Walachia Castle, the Map Room was where Dru-Zod, Duke of Walachia and Lord General of the King’s Legion spent most of his time when on one of his rare stays at home.

Today, the brightly painted wooden counters signifying the units of the King’s Legion and all the smaller forces belonging to the various nobles of the kingdom meant little to him; he knew their locations and strengths by heart, and was only looking at them to have something to do while he waited for a special messenger to arrive from his spies in the summer palace.

The duke had received a terse report almost two weeks ago stating the crown prince had disappeared from the palace. This worried Duke Dru-Zod somewhat as it came so close to the launching of his plans, but without more specific information, he could not hope to choose a correct course of action, so he sent a request for clarification back to his spies.

The limiting factor here was time. Such a message took nearly a week to reach his people in the palace, and then two or three days for them to gather what information they could, before their gleanings could make the nearly week long journey back to Walachia Castle. By then, roughly three weeks would have passed from the time the original message had been sent from the palace, three weeks in which the boy could have gone anywhere.

The one thing that was obvious was that the boy was not gone on any official function. No goodwill trip to a neighboring kingdom, no visit to the royal dockyards with his sister to christen a new warship, not even a visit to his future seat of power in Borussia. Any trip like that would have drawn attention like blood draws flies, and I would have known about it before he left the palace.

Shortly after a lunch of red wine and redder beef, the long-awaited messenger made the long climb up the keep’s stone-flagged spiral staircase and waited to be shown into his master’s presence.

The messenger approached within three steps of the duke and then dropped to one knee while holding up the oiled leather message pouch where the duke could take the message at his leisure.

“Rise, Boy,” Dru-Zod said, roughly. “I’m not the king.” Not yet anyway.

Reaching into the pouch, the duke found two rolled up sheets of vellum. A quick look showed both to be written in the small, precise hand of his spymaster in the royal palace. Both were written in code, but the code was known to Dru-Zod and the mental transposition required to read it was easy.

Both sheets were read twice and then Dru-Zod held them out in his hand and stared at them with eyes that were blazing red. Any powerful emotion triggered his heat vision, and right now he was feeling anger. The beams of heat that shot forth from Dru-Zod’s eyes incinerated the vellum sheets almost as quickly as if they were paper.

Not only is it confirmed that the prince is gone, and has been for three weeks now, but his sister has been gone from the palace for at least two weeks. Not only that, but no one seems to have seen them leave or know where they might have gone. He pounded his fist on the map table and watched the counters jump in reply. Damn it! The only way those two would disappear so completely, at the same time, was if my intentions have been discovered.

My only choices are to go, now, with all that I have at hand and try to take the throne by force of arms, or sit back and wait for a more opportune moment. But I must go for the throne before the boy becomes an adult and takes his place as Duke of Borussia. With that strength at hand to support his father…no, I must go now. No more waiting.

Not having been dismissed, the messenger had moved to one side of the room and awaited his lord’s pleasure. Dru-Zod summoned him now.

“Find my Chief of Staff, and tell him to convene my full battle staff in one hour here in the Map Room.”

The messenger bowed low in wordless acknowledgment, and backed his way out of the room before hurrying off.

Dru-Zod wasn’t the only person busy making plans. Lana, Marie the head housekeeper, and their escort of twenty had reached the manor house the day before Bruce led his party south to join them. From her father’s estimates, it should take him and his long wagon train roughly twice as long to complete the trip, so she had roughly three weeks to get the manor house and the extensive stables in ship-shape condition.

After their midday arrival, the soldiers spent the first afternoon cleaning the small family stables near the manor so their horses would have a proper home. Lana and Marie immediately began an inventory of the manor house and the soldier’s barracks, which were a good distance beyond the family stables, to see what was needed in the way of materials and staffing.

The next morning, Marie and Lana went to the nearby city of Varshova, which was Krakovia’s capital, with an escort and their one wagon to buy both food and cleaning supplies. A second trip was made after a hasty lunch to begin the process of hiring some help.

Lana and Marie had agreed on making all initial hires temporary ones, and telling them all that any permanent jobs would be given to the temporary hires who proved themselves as being most worthy. Marie had asked around a bit while they were shopping for supplies earlier and had discovered what the prevailing wage for house servants was. Lana had then authorized going higher than the prevailing wage to give them a shot at the best people.

After that first afternoon, the soldiers didn’t do much more cleaning, because the twenty of them were primarily tasked with providing security for Lana, Marie, and the money chest, all three of which stayed in the same room at night, with two armed guards immediately outside the door, and two patrols of four circling the house. The other ten men were on duty during the daytime.

No one was looking forward to the arrival of the Baron and his additional seventy armored horsemen more than Lana’s escort was. She figured they’d be worn to a frazzle by twelve hour days in full armor by the time they were relieved of their lonely duty.

Once Lana and Marie had hired a suitable number of employees, they brought them back to the manor house, where their first jobs were to clean their own sleeping quarters in the basement level. While Marie was overseeing that, Lana conferred with the knight in charge of the guards over how much grain and hay would be needed to stock the stables for their horses now, and then how much would be needed to stock the family stables and the much larger soldier’s stables for when her father’s party would arrive.

All in all, Lana and Marie had things well in hand, as Lana had no trouble working with a talented commoner like Marie on a virtually equal basis. Making the best use of the talents and knowledge of those around her was second nature to Lana, who rarely paid attention to things like rank and nobility, thus allowing her to achieve results others could not. But despite the satisfaction she derived from doing her work, Lana was looking forward to seeing her family again. After three weeks apart she was even beginning to miss Lois.

[Nemu]

Well you know... I am waiting for that battle for the throne very much... Lara is a force to reckon with so I wonder how it will go...

Glad that at least Mara and Clark's movements are still unknown to evil forces...

Man Lois is annoying..

I think Lana and Clark would make a very good pair in leading the country... With her ability to see the strength in anybody and all that...

I am pretty sure there are more personality traits you havent shown us yet that will come into play...

Lois would be more of a commanding officer in the army... a warrior...

Alicia would be more of a nurturer... a caretaker... someone to help with the healing...

And Lana is more of the strategist... planning and coordinating every aspect of a campaign...

At least that is how I see it...

PPMS!!!

[kewl]

can't wait till clark & lana meet
great update card!

[itsallinthespelling]

another great update cardinal. can't wait for clark to finally get to the mansion and meet lana. ppms

[Cardinal]

Chapter 7

First Meeting
Bruce’s smaller column of travelers met up with Lord Lang’s larger, slower column two days’ ride short of Varshova. Clark was riding comfortably by then because Bruce had allowed him to take off the amulet a full week into their trip, as he figured the bruises had faded enough by then. He just told Clark to make sure he kept his clothes on until they reached their destination so no one could see he was bruise free.

The first meeting with Lord Lang had been polite, but neither he nor Bruce wanted to talk about his mission out in the open. That would wait for later, when they could achieve a modicum of privacy. Lord Lang had raised an eyebrow upon seeing his eldest daughter without her usual short swords, but one look at her face let him know that explanation would have to wait also.

On the last day of their trip, with the manor almost in sight, and the long line of wagons, horses, and people strung out along the dusty road, Bruce looked across the wagon train and saw Lois. He spent a moment admiring her beauty before she felt someone looking and glared back at him. He politely dipped his head toward the lady, who replied by jerking her head back to the road in front of her.

“Pretty woman,” Bruce said, to Clark, who was riding on his other side. “But lots of anger. I still say you should have let her apologize to you when we left the castle.”

“She didn’t mean it, so what was the point? If she’s ever truly sorry for what she did, I shall be glad to hear her apology.”

“But that’s not the point I was trying to make and you know it.” Bruce looked around hastily to make sure no one was listening in. “There she was…a lady of the house, going so far as to humble herself in public to apologize and ask your forgiveness, which is more than I thought that old castellan could have gotten out of her, and you went and added to her humiliation by refusing to hear her apology.”

“It is my right,” Clark pointed out stiffly.

“Squire Clark is not in a position to let his pride rule his actions. Here, in this place, making that woman an enemy is dangerous. There are any number of men in her father’s service who would consider seriously injuring you to be a badge of honor right now…especially the ones who did not see the beating you took from her.”

“Good luck to them, I’d like to see them try.”

Bruce led Clark off to one side of the traveling column, far enough that no one could hope to hear them.

“Damn it, Squire, they’ll either come after you while you’re training, in which case you or I might have to kill someone to make it stop, or else they’ll try to get you when you’re out running errands and aren’t wearing the amulet, in which case, your Kryptonian heritage will be revealed and your cover will be blown.” Bruce gave Clark a glare that was reminiscent of one he had given on the day they first met. That gave Clark pause. “If that happens, we may have to leave here, even though I doubt Dru-Zod would try to send someone to kill you here, since doing so risks the anger of the Grand Duke and might bring him to actively support your father.”

“The Grand Duke ought to be supporting father anyway,” Clark said. “He sent his oldest son Harry to live with us for a year. Word has it he was interested in a possible match between Harry and my sister, and that sending him to us was just to see if they suited each other.”

“Well…did they?”

“Mmm…not really. Harry and I got on famously, and he seemed to have fallen under Mara’s spell like every other male over the age of twelve and under the age of ninety, but she didn’t warm to him at all.”

“Oh, that’s too bad.”

“Why?”

“I was hoping we could lean on that future connection in an emergency.”

“Well, if it’s a future connection you’re looking for, it’s a well-known fact that my father lusts for a marriage between Harry’s older sister and myself. Mother’s not quite so sure.”

“Your mother scares me,” Bruce admitted frankly.

“You‘re not the only one. She’s all sweetness and light most of the time, just like Mara, but cross her at your peril.”

“So that’s where you get the temper from.”

“Temper?” Clark scoffed. “You haven’t even seen me slightly angry yet. I‘ll have you know I’ve been on my best behavior ever since we left.” Curious now, Clark asked, “Who told you I have a temper?”

“It was a big part of my briefing when I was given the job.”

“Hmmph. Traitors,” Clark said, with a good deal of humor. “I suppose they’re right. I do have a hair trigger temper. Only Mara has never been the object of it.”

“She’s that sweet, huh?”

“Sir Bruce…men will be fighting for her hand like they fought for that of Helen of Troy in days of old.”

Bruce chuckled. “I don’t know much about ancient stories, but I do know how that one ended. A faithless wife, a thousand-ship armada, and a ten-year war of retribution.”

“Well then, maybe you should marry her. A ten-year war sounds like something you’d relish, and I know she’d be able to make you smile once or twice.”

“And have you as my brother? God spare me. Anyway, back to you. Why is the king so hot about marrying you to some minor princess. The Grand Duchy is nice, but it’s not your largest, wealthiest, or most powerful neighbor.”

“Yes, but it’s the only neighbor that has a woman as its heir.”

“You mean…?”

“Yes, Krakovia is too small to waste half of its best and brightest just because they were born women. They long ago dropped male primogeniture, and thus, because Princess Chloe is older than her brother, Prince Harold, she is the heir to her father's throne.”

“Ah. That explains your father’s interest in the marriage. If you marry the princess, your kingdom and her grand duchy will combine and be ruled as one kingdom by your offspring.”

“True…but there are a lot of obstacles. Chief among them is trying to reconcile our way of doing things with their way.”

“Sounds unlikely then.”

“Maybe…in any case, just before Harry left to return home, I ‘borrowed’ my bank plate from my parents’ rooms and then commissioned and paid for a huge emerald and pearl necklace. Harry took it home with him to give to his sister Chloe as a token of my esteem.”

“Even though you’ve never met the girl.”

“Exactly.”

“I’ll never understand the nobility, not if I live to be one-hundred.”

The manor appeared in the distance, with one of the two mounted patrols raising the call once they saw the banner of the House of Lang flying proudly at the head of the column. Showing a golden tiger on a rich purple field, with the purple field then edged with a thick golden border, this particular banner was fresh and clean and had been brought out just for today’s arrival.

Lord Lang rode ahead with his banner right behind and Alicia’s carriage immediately behind. Once inside the extensive grounds of the manor, both Langs pulled out of the way and then turned to watch as their people entered and headed for the manor house beyond. The people with Lord Lang’s column had been on the road for six weeks solid and were thoroughly tired of road dust, uncomfortable sleeping accommodations, and riding on either a horse or in a wagon.

Due to Alicia’s unstinting efforts, the food had been plentiful and surprisingly decent for something on the road, which everyone in the party took pains to thank her for as they entered the manor’s property and passed by her carriage. As on the road, Lord Lang stood back, this time allowing his youngest to bask in her just reward for completing the arduous, if not overly difficult task of feeding everyone.

Lana had been overseeing the cleaning of a last few chimneys when the patrol alerted her to her family’s impending arrival. Even though she hadn’t been doing the cleaning herself, she had gotten close enough to be coated with a fine layer of soot. As usual, she had dressed very plainly that morning and had just thrown her hair up in a messy bun because she thought the constant preening her social class tended to do was unnecessary for her as it just kept her away from the things she needed to be doing.

Lana raced to her father’s side in time to see most of the wagon train pass by, and after a warm exchange of greetings, which included a hug between the dusty lord and his sooty daughter, she nodded toward her little sister, and said, “So I see Alicia was up to the task after all. I normally hate to say ‘I told you so,’ but not when there’s money on the line. That’s fifty gold Crowns you owe me.”

“You were right, Lana, and I was wrong. I thought Alicia’s nervous disposition would be her undoing, but once she had that first day under her belt, it was like she had been doing that job her entire life.”

Lana looked up at her father who had dismounted from his horse, but still towered over her. “She’s a Lang, Father. That means she can do whatever job she needs to.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” Lewis said, as Lois finally rode by without looking at any of her family members even once. “I’m beginning to think your older sister has done something rash.”

“Why do you say that?” Lana asked, and then she saw the empty sword sheathes and answered her own question. “Her swords! She never goes on a trip without them…never! I wonder if she crossed the new arms master.”

“We’ll find out soon, I’m sure.”

Lana began standing on her toes and craning her neck as she looked for the infamous Dark Knight, but saw no one who matched her imaginings of what such a brutal man should look like. “Speaking of our gift from the king, Father, where is he?”

Lord Lang looked about and located Bruce and Clark on the far side of the wagon train as they finally made their way onto the property. “Over there, Lana. Just riding in now.”

Lana saw two men wearing half helms, chain mail, and other armor. One was larger and looked to be younger than the other, but it was hard to tell ages with the wagon train in the way and all that armor on. “Which one?”

“The smaller one, my dear.”

“Who’s the other one? Seems somewhat young for a knight.”

“I wasn’t introduced when Sir Bruce’s party joined up with us, so I don’t know the boy’s name. But I’ve heard Sir Bruce has a squire, so that must be him.”

Seeing his guard captain ride in, Lord Lang handed his reins over to Lana and asked her to see his horse got proper care. Lana, in turn, looked around for a stable boy, as this horse was intended for the first stall in the family stables. She wanted him to get fed, watered, and rubbed down as soon as possible.

Bruce and Clark dismounted, with each one holding the reins of two horses as they looked for someone who could tell them where to take the horses to be stabled. Neither one had any idea of who to look for here, so they kept a watch for anyone who might be in charge of handling horses.

Clark spotted a horse being led by a dirty young woman in a plain gray dress. He’d never heard of stable girls before, as he couldn’t imagine wearing a dress for stable work, but he figured there was a first time for everything and trotted up to the young woman, pulling his horse and their packhorse behind.

“Hi,” Clark said, “I wondered if you could help me a minute, Miss.”

Lana stopped when she heard a warm, friendly voice. Looking up, she saw Sir Bruce’s squire fast approaching. Since he’d ridden in a few minutes earlier, he had taken off his half helm, which gave her her first good look at his face.

Other than the filth from being on the road for three weeks, Lana had to admit he was handsome…very much so…in fact, the closer he got, the more handsome he became. Suddenly, Lana was embarrassed to be covered with filth herself. She didn’t know this boy, didn’t know if he even came from a good family, though she suspected he did, but nonetheless, she wanted to look nice for him, and failing that, wanted to crawl into a hole and die.

As Clark drew closer to the dirty stable girl in gray, he noticed she was rather pretty, and thought someone who looked that nice should be serving in the house. Realizing he had the girl’s attention, Clark spoke again. “Since you’re obviously going to the stables, would you be so kind as to take my horses, too? They’re good horses and are both rather tired, so they won’t give you any trouble.”

Lana watched in dumbfounded amazement as the squire handed her his two sets of reins and walked off. She didn’t know whether she wanted to cry for looking so bad or go over there, hand the squire all three sets of reins, and drag him along to the stables by his ear.


Feedback please!

[Nemu]

----- Added 43 Minutes later -----



lol... oh man talk about first impressions... Well both of them had excuses for their mistakes lol...

oh and the bet between father and daughter was funny too...

I hope things wont be too rocky between clana...

Oh and I can't wait for the stories to come...

PPMS!!!

[NYC300Z]

lmao I think Clark just made a big mistake....I wonder what will happen! Maybe he'll have to apologize to Lana after Lois appologizes to him! I'm intrigued to see what happens from there!

PPMS!

[itsallinthespelling]

another great update card. lana must be so embarrassed, and if clark knew what he just did, i've got a feeling he would be just as embarrassed, if not more so. look forward to when clark realizes his mistake. ppms

[shortcircuit85]

Wow two updates in less than 24 hours. I'm impressed with your writing ability. I loved that we are starting to get more info about Zod and the uprising. I am really enjoying the relationship that is developing between Clark and Bruce. I liked how the first meeting between Lana and Clark went. Won't Clark be surprised when he learns that she wasn't a stable hand, but one of Lord Lang's daughters? Keep up the great work.

Thanks,