The Zenda Vendetta (TimeWars 4)

“Falcon’s dead. My son got away.”

Lucas nodded. “Good. At least we didn’t blow it.”

“Just rest easy, kid. I’ll assemble the border circuits and slide them underneath you.”

Lucas nodded again. He swallowed hard. “God, I’m tired,” he said. “Just want to get some sleep.”

“Go ahead,” said Forrester. “Lord knows, you’ve earned more than that.”

But Lucas was already fast asleep. Forrester smiled. “Sweet dreams, soldier,” he said. “You’re going home. Until the next time.”

Elm woke up in Rudolf’s bed. His shoulder was heavily bandaged. Sapt and von Tarlenheim were standing by the bed, looting down at him anxiously. He smiled.

“Good morning,” he said.

Sept grimed. “Morning it is,” he said. “You’ve slept through all the day and through the night. You had nightmares, but last night you broke your fever. The doctor says you will be well. The king has had him sworn to secrecy. You’ve done it, Cousin Rudolf. You have saved the king and you have saved the nation. We are forever in your debt.”

“Think nothing of it,” Finn said. “It was fun to be a king, if only for a little while.”

“Heaven doesn’t always make the right men kings,” von Tarlenheim said, softly. Sapt glanced up at him quickly, as if he were about to reproach him, then he pursed his lips, looked down at the floor, and nodded.

“There’s someone waiting to see you,” Sept said. With that, both he and Fritz turned and left the room, A moment later, Falvia came in.

“Thank God you are all right!” she said, rushing over to the bed and taking his hands in hers. “I’ve simply been beside myself with worry.”

Finn smiled at her. “Never fear.” he said. “The short stay in Michael’s dungeon did little more than dampen my spirits.”

“There is no point in going on with the pretense, Rudolf Rassendyll,” she said. “You see, I know.”

“How-”

“Rudolf and I talked all through the night. He told me everything. And I told him that you are the only man that I have ever loved. The only man that I will ever love.”

“Flavia-”

“No, please, let me finish what I have to say and do not speak. I know that what you did, you did for Rudolf and for Ruritania. It was a very noble thing. I know that you made love to me for Rudolf, in his name and for his sake and I do not blame you for it. Rudolf, also, understands. He knows that I do not love him and he, in turn, does not love me, but perhaps, with time, we will learn to like each other; royal marriages have been made upon much less. He says that you have shown him how to be a king and he will not forget you for it. You cannot stay in Ruritania, otherwise we would both beg you to remain, but know that if you ever have need of anything, you have but to call on, us and we will move heaven and earth for you. There, I have finished.”

Finn took his hand away train her and touched her cheek. “Since we’re being so honest with each other,” he said, “I will tell you that I may have made love to you in the king’s name, but I did it for my own sake.”

She took his hand, turning her face into it and kissing his palm. “We will probably never see each other again,” she said. “What might have been with us can never be. I will always think of you, Rudolf Rassendyll. And I wish that you would take this in remembrance of me.”

She handed him a ring with the crest of her family upon it. “Goodbye, my love,” she said. “They told me I was to have only a few moments with you. They would even have denied me that, but I insisted. Time was ever our enemy.”

She leaned forward, her eyes wet, kissed him briefly on the lips, then ran out of the room.

“You’re right, love,” Finn said to himself, feeling miserable. “Time is the enemy. Always was, always will be.”

Behind a door, in a small room with no windows high atop the Headquarters Building of the Temporal Army Command, there was a collection of artifacts the like of which could not be found in any museum anywhere. Upon one wall hung a shield emblazoned with an uprooted oak. Upon another hung a surplice with the gold cross of the king’s musketeers embroidered on it. In a small frame on a bookshelf, there was a lorgnette and a star-shaped red flower called a pimpernel mounted against a dark blue-background. And beside this frame with the lorgnette and the flower, there was a small glass box inside which, resting on a bed of purple velvet, were two rings. One was a signet ring that had been removed from the finger of a woman who had led many lives until she had run out of lives to live. The other was a ring with the crest of an old, noble family upon it. A princess had removed it from her finger to give to a man who cherished it, yet felt he had no right to wear it, having gained it under false pretenses.

During the quiet times, when a great wistfulness would come upon the Time Commandos, they would meet in this small room, which had once admitted only one of them. They would take their seats in the crammed quarters and Forrester would pour their wine for them while they would sit in silence, gazing at the collected artifacts. Sometimes they would smile as the memories flooded back to them.