Valour and Victory (45 page)

Robain and
Susan’s eldest daughter Zilla married Duke William of North Baker.
Their fourth child Derek married Kellessa Charlotte Dubois. Philip
married the Daughter-heir of the Duchy of Graham.

Robain and
Susan’s youngest child, Rilla, married a prince, Prince David of
the cadet line of the royal family, son of Prince Pierre. Their son
was called Robain, the first Prince of Murdoch to carry that
name.

* * * * *

Robain was a
successful and popular Duke. The mine owners at the beginning of
his tenure were very antagonistic but they realised his value and
good sense eventually.

The mine owners
who refused to comply with his edicts Robain fined heavily, the
coin going into the ducal coffers to help fund other projects.

The early years
were hard for Robain. As happened elsewhere in the Kingdom some
rose in rebellion against their new Duke and Robain had to call in
his friend, the Lord Marshall, Baron Philip Ross to put them down
by force. Philip responded each time, sending in the Regiments to
quell the riots. They did this with efficiency and minimum loss of
life.

By AL 616, even
the smallest mines were beginning to show a profit and the owners
began to realise that this way was better for all.

Once things had
settled down, Robain began to introduce his other reforms, some of
which were later copied, with varying success, elsewhere in the
Kingdom.

He brought in
his brother Liam to set up hospitals and health facilities, mining
being a dangerous occupation and mining related illnesses and
accidents a constant hazard. He set up schools for the worker’s
children and to educate the adults who as slaves had been kept in
ignorance.

This all cost a
lot of coin but his duchy was a prosperous one and King Elliot was
lenient with his tax demands.

Robain’s people
loved him, this was a new type of ducal rule, a benevolent one,
never before seen in Murdoch, except once, now over six hundred
years ago when the original Duke of Duchesne had tried, failed and
fled.

Robain remained
as forthright and as true to his beliefs to the end. He also
remained Elliot’s closest and most loyal friend. He continued to
tell the truth, however unpalatable to Elliot.

He and his wife
Susan were frequent visitors at Court. Their children played with
those of Elliot and Zilla in the gardens at the Citadel and they
shared their governors and governesses. Both their sons, Robain and
Liam became Boy Companions to Crown-Prince Elliot and Prince
Paul.

Robain’s
brother Ansell remained as a serving officer in the Argyllian Navy.
He was a Captain assiduous and famous for destroying privateers,
especially slavers and ex-slavers. He became Admiral of the Navy at
the age of forty-five.

* * * * *

Robain’s sister
Aline lives on the family farm on the Island of Hallam with Padrig,
the farm where she, with Robain, Liam and Ansell were brought
up.

She is a
farmer’s wife, as her mother was before her. Padrig has become a
respected member of the island government, a government free of the
priests who used to rule it.

Aline and
Padrig have a troupe of children.

No privateer
ever attacks the Island of Hallam. It is know that it is the home
of the sister of the Admiral and not even the bravest Privateer
Captain would dare attempt it.

Aline and
Padrig never leave the island. They refuse every invitation.

They are free
and safe. Their children are free and safe.

The four
damaged Larg who accompanied them to Hallam live with the Padrig
family. This might also have something to do with the reluctance of
any privateer to attack the island. Even four not quite whole Larg
are formidable opponents when their anger is up.

* * * * *

Julia

Julia and Alyei
remained as Susa of the Vada until old age, accompanied by the
joint-ache forced them to retire in AL 638. Julia was eighty-two
and Alyei eighty-five. They were the longest serving Susas.

Their names can
be seen on the honour boards in the Inner Sanctum above the names
of Charles and Wlya, the Susa duo who succeeded them.

Julia and
Alyei’s names are also inscribed in bright silver leaf on the
small, dark board that sits above the entrance door. They are in
prestigious company; the only other four names are the other two
Susyc, Jim and Larya then Lynsey and Bernei.

Their names
were added after their deaths, Julia especially wishing to forget
her months as Susyc when she led the Armies of the North to a war
that few thought they would win. She had led just under two
thousand vadeln-pairs with her and Alyei to the southern continent
and less than thirteen hundred returned to Vada.

It was Julia,
who after the battle, decided that every vadeln who had been there
should wear a bronze Honour Star, a new award and which became
known as ‘Julia’s Star’. Before this the only gallantry awards
within the Vada were the ‘Silver Star’, awarded on very rare
occasions for acts of supreme sacrifice and courage and the ‘Black
Star’, a posthumous award sent to the next of kin of all vadeln
pairs who had died on active service.

The Bronze Star
is smaller than either the Silver Star or the Black Star. It looks
more like a stud and is very discreet.

No Silver Stars
were awarded during the campaign in the southern continent. As
Julia informed Field Marshall Bruce Johnson Jones, all members of
the Vada were equally deserving, even the young cadets and old
vadelns. Some might have fought more bravely and desperately that
others but they had all fought and all had been prepared to lay
down their lives for the greater good.

The graves in
the war cemetery are testament to this.

The Field
Marshall had wanted an exchange of medals between Garda and
Vada.

Politely but
with much firmness, she had said no, telling him that in her
opinion medals were a glorification of war and that war was not a
glorious business. She had been eyeing the strips of colour on his
chest as she said this with barely concealed contempt.

And that was
that, bluster the Field Marshall might, she would not be moved. The
Vada agreed with her, they had fought, bled and died and that was
an end to it.

Julia and Alyei
died in AL 642.

Their beloved
Vada continued to prosper in the years that followed, defending
those they had sworn to protect and helping those in need from
disasters natural and unnatural.

Some might say
that there is no longer any need for the Vada but they are few and
far between.

The vadeln of
the Vada hope that there will never be another war but know that
the universe is a big place and nothing is certain in this world or
the next.

* * * * *

Danal

For as long as
he lived, Danal never forgot Tala Talansdochter but in time the
ache within him eased and he began to enjoy life again. It did not
happen overnight. For months images of her, the feel of her haunted
his dreams, and he woke, crying out her name and shivering.

Danal had
always been a bit of a philanderer, flitting like a flutterby from
one attractive girl to the next, then he and Tala had found each
other and lifelong happiness was, he had thought, within his
grasp.

He entered into
a depression that even Asya could not break. He became
un-talkative, morose and his friends began to avoid him.

Grainne stood
by him, coped with the depressive spells and allowed him to talk,
which was not often, about his loss.

When he ordered
her to go away she refused, when he uttered spiteful words she
ignored them, arriving back at his daga the next day as if nothing
had happened.

Eventually the
depression began to lift and the low times became fewer and
shorter.

He was well
enough the next year to join in the celebrations that marked the
birth of Asya and Inalei’s first lin (litter), three fine, strong
ltsctas who all resembled their dam.

Even when Asya
named the little female Talaya he didn’t break down although he had
thought he would. He watched her tumble around with her brothers
with doting eyes, quite as if he was the father and not Inalei. The
two little males Asya named Danei and Padei, the latter being her
favourite name.

Shortly after
the birth Danal began to take a real interest in life again and he
began to see Grainne, to really see at her as a person, the young
woman who had stood by him during the last terrible months when he
had believed that he might lose his sanity. He realised he owed her
a great debt. He also realised that he liked her and that this
liking was not of a platonic nature.

But he was not
ready to fall in love with someone else and he told her so. Grainne
only smiled, told him that it did not matter and said that if he
had no objections she would remain at the daga with him, Asya,
Inalei and the ltsctas. After all, she pointed out, she had nowhere
else to go and she knew that he liked to have her close by; someone
who had known Tala, who had been there.

The years
passed and Grainne blossomed into beautiful womanhood. Many men
fancied her, asked her to walk out with them, some even proposed
marriage but she refused them all until one day Danal put his grief
behind him, took her in his arms and kissed her. Grainne’s wait was
over.

The love that
they had for each other was nevertheless very real, not the wild
passion that Danal had experienced with Tala. It was one of
enduring love and respect.

They had a lot
of children, Grainne, born in the slave pens of Sahara had never
had a family of her own. She made up for it now.

Their daga was
large, noisy and full of laughter and Grainne made sure Danal was
kept too busy to sink back into depression again.

Danal and Asya
did not go back to serve with the Avuzdel. They accepted Susa Julia
and Alyei’s offer of a training post within the Stronghold teaching
weapons work and he succeeded Jilmis as Weaponsmaster of the Vada
when the old man was at last persuaded to retire.

Danal died in
AL 640 and was survived by Grainne and all of his children.

Grainne herself
lived on for another twenty years, a loved matriarch of, by that
time, an extremely large extended family.

She is buried
in the Vada graveyard, in the same grave as Danal, Asya and
Inalei.

* * * * *

Rilla

Rilla and
Zawlei continued to serve with the Vada.

Neither of them
formed permanent attachments with one of their own kind. This was
often the case when a Lind and a human became vadeln-paired. The
two of them felt that there was no need for anyone else in their
lives. They were content with each other.

In AL 618 she
and Zawlei were promoted to the rank of Vadryza with the First
Ryzck and seven years later became Ryzcka of the Thirty-ninth.

The two of them
served all over the northern continent and beyond - along the
coasts of Argyll and Vadath defending the inhabitants from the
pirates - in the mountains, patrolling the area against the gtran,
the wral and the bandits - in the rtathlians of the Lind, providing
escorts for travellers and members of the Holad who travelled
peripatetically providing medical care.

They also led
the Thirty-ninth Ryzck to one of the larger islands in the Great
Eastern Sea when in AL 628 the pirates and privateers, harried by
the Argyllian Navy set aside their differences and formed a fleet
to begin an organised campaign of raids on the islands.

Thus was the
Vada kept busy after the war.

She didn’t
forget about her family.

She and Zawlei
were frequent visitors to Zala and Matt’s home at Stewarton where
the children and later the grandchildren loved their Auntie Rilla
and regarded Zawlei as a giant furry plaything.

She also
visited her parents at Dunetown but she never felt very comfortable
there. There were too many ghosts and memories and although her
father had forgiven his daughter for what he had once chosen to see
as her desertion of the family, he seemed to blame her, in some
illogical, indefinable way for the deaths of half of his children
in the war. Her mother was always happy to see her.

She kept in
touch with Zilla, by letter for the most part although she and
Zawlei did spend an extended long leave with her and her family in
one of the royal manors in the Duchy of Brentwood.

Shona and
Danei, her friends from day one at Vada met as often as their
duties allowed. Shona was hurt during a fight with the crew of a
privateer in AL 621 and was forced to resign from active ryzck
duties. The two of them joined the Express Service and spent many
years delivering messages, letters and packages throughout the
northern continent, travelling even as far as Talastown.

Rilla’s other
friend Toinette, who was married to her old flame Charles stayed at
Vada, where she was like, Danal, on the permanent staff.

Duncin and
Stasya with whom she and Zawlei had fought during the Battle of
Duchesne never returned to their Supply Station.

Duncin was
considered a great hero by the inhabitants of Duchesne. He had been
the one who had rallied their levies and who had taken over the
recapture and defence of their part of the ridge when their Duke
and his son had been killed.

He and Stasya
became the first Vadathian Ambassadors to the Court of Murdoch.

They died there
in AL 623. At his own request, he and Stasya were buried at the
edge of the war cemetery in Duchesne close to their brothers and
sisters.