Enchantress 2 - Warrior Duchess

"Yes sire!" cried an eager young guard. Sidwell was new and barely experienced, but he was big and strong and painfully honest, he reminded King Verence of an over eager Carrot Ironfounderson from the Ankh-Morpork city watch.

"Trooper Sidwell, escort Mister Carnarvon to the detention center then notify Mister Morose and let the royal investigator know that I want answers.

{When given a task to find information, the Royal Investigator uses everything in his means to find that information, including opening up the detainee and seeing if the information is hidden inside of him somewhere}

The king continued, "If Mister Carnarvon does not arrive at Mister Morose's office mostly or at least partially alive, please lock yourself up there." The King then turned to Shawn Ogg. "Trooper Ogg, you are assigned to Duchess Worblehat-Stein, see to it that she wants for nothing." Then he looked at the witches in attendance. "Nanny Ogg?"

"Yes yer kingliness?"

"Gytha, the Duchy of Wægn is without their witch, I know you are retired but could you help for a short while?

"Yes, yer lordfulness."

"And you Esmirelda Weatherwax, could you act as an advisor to the Duchess? She has another mission to complete."

"Yes your highness," said Granny Weatherwax primly. It was the first time a king had ever asked her for any assistance, he was going to learn the hard way that this was not going to happen again... but for now the girl needed help. The girl in the cute gingham dress had a grip of the generals breastplate with her left hand, and her razor sharp blade was in her right hand, the tip of the blade was at the former general's throat. "Come girl, we have work to do." Octavia looked at Granny with a questioning look. "Let go of the general and let's go."

Octavia slowly sheathed her blade and released the General's breast plate. "It's what Nick wanted to do."

"Yes, and you acquitted your girls nicely, Nick will be sad he missed this, now let go of the general," but Octavia just looked at Granny. "With your mind girl, let go with your mind." Octavia nodded and the former general slumped to the floor. As young Sidwell dragged the twitching former general to the rack, Octavia stepped up to the King and sadly quiet queen.

"I'm not sorry that I did that, but I needed to do it while Nick is still alive. I don't think I could have done it otherwise," said Octavia.

"I understand. Right now, Queen Magrat and I need to find a quiet space." The king was heartbroken, all these years together and she never told him about her abuse at the hands of the army... his army. "Let us hope our next meeting is under better circumstances."

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The Bear Mountain Army of the Duchy of Wægn began to assemble around the pond at Nana Partridge's cottage, rows of small tents popped up, and local farmers donated produce and livestock to feed the troops. Librarians from Four Ecks and the Unseen University manned the bookstore constantly so it wasn't needed to be locked up, and support began to pour through, a full dozen blokes from Four Ecks and men from local farms and businesses were trailing into camp in twos and fours. None had any military experience except the blokes from Four Ecks who always seemed ready to pick a fight.

Then on the final morning Feeney MacTavish and the men of Creel Springs were standing on the lawn calling, "MISSUS OCTAVIA! WE WANT A WORD WITH YOU!"

Octavia peeked out the dormer window and saw the usual suspects, Feeney and Linda MacTavish, Tiernan and Sorcha Brighid, Homlette and Ophilia d'Marhk, Trei and Coleene Metsker, the boys, all the merchants from Creel Springs. "Guys!" she called out the window, but there's nothing that can quiet down Feeney MacTavish when he's on a roll. "I'll be right down!"

She didn't want to wake granny who was sleeping on a cot in the future nursery, but Granny was up, she had tea made and her bag packed. Octavia pulled her robe around her and stepped out on the porch with Gaspode and her wizards staff Virga. "What do we want Feeney?" Octavia sighed.

"We heard you are going out for Nick today," said Linda, Feeney's wife. "We want to go with."

"No."

"WHY NOT?" demanded Feeney.

"Because it's going to be very dangerous. I'm supposed to protect you, all of you, and I can't do that AND let you put yourselves into harm's way. Let me fight the battles, you take care of the home front."

"YOU'RE GOING TO LET THE LITTLE GUYS GO!" roared Feeney.

"What little guys?" asked Octavia who realized that according to Feeney, everyone is a little guy.

"THESE GUYS," and the crowd parted and standing in the pre-dawn gloom Octavia saw over a dozen dwarfs outfitted for battle and standing out front with her shield emblazoned with Octavia's favorite flower, the Poet's Daffodil, was Eryri Brawnkin. She had trimmed her beard short and was wearing eye makeup, but she was the same dwarf that Octavia shared tragedies with.

"Low queen Blodwen Rhysdottir wishes to send her best," said Eryri.

"But instead, she sent us!" called out a dwarf in the back causing the dozen or so dwarves to start laughing.

"We are all escapees from the Bear Mountain dig," said Eryri as she hugged Octavia, "we all have a reason to want justice on the hubward side of your mountain."

"I'm so sorry, I didn't know..." said Octavia, "I should have been there for you."

"Now we need to get going or you may suffer the same fate."

As the sun came up, Octavia's army assembled and headed to the turn wise side of Bear mountain, a remote and heavily wooded area that has seen scant exploration, not since the wars of the second age of man. Octavia led the way, she and Granny had scouted the route for a week, dropping octarine flares as they flew low over the forests {Granny's old broom wasn't able to gain much altitude, especially when compared to Octavia's sapient pearwood walking stick that now doubled as a flying broom} Octavia led The Bear Mountain Army of the Duchy of Wægn made up of a dozen dwarves, and a dozen blokes along with Shawn Ogg representing the kingdom, Bertie and Dexter as Octavia's protection, Granny as Octavia's trainer, and Gaspode representing dogs which made thirty.

The thirty {including Gaspode} made exceptional time because as they hiked, a road appeared before Octavia. Trees stepped aside and paving stones rose up through the soil to become a solid six foot wide roadbed then as they passed the trees leaned in and gave cover for their passage. The only time they had to halt for the road to construct itself was for the occasional bridge and here and there a side route was installed for future exploration, the first one ended at Horner's Lake where large blocks of ice were cut in the late winter for Lancre use, the rest further up the mountain led to beautiful mountain lakes or hot springs that Granny or Octavia found as they scouted the road last week.

The Turnwise side of the mountain was wilder, more difficult to travel than the widdershins side of the mountain which is why Octavia chose this side, she didn't expect scouts from Peregrine and Aegir Mining to be looking for them, and she was right. The road that appeared before them didn't seem to care about the rough countryside, stone bridges, tunnels, cuts, fills whatever it took to make the travel easy for the travelers appeared before them. Wonders of nature were revealed to the army, incredible waterfalls, glaciers, and amazingly in the distance they saw abandoned fortresses and castles from long forgotten races and civilizations poking up through the trees.

They crossed under Broken Heart Pass, a low pass through the Ramtops so remote it was only discovered a few decades ago but it was so steep that the road didn't go over the pass, it followed a mile long tunnel under the pass. The tunnel was clean and dry but as they emerged they found that the tunnel mouth was ancient. Broken Heart Pass wasn't recently discovered, it was recently rediscovered. They were on the downhill side of the pass and less and less of the road looked new. Granny nodded in appreciation, the girl was wiser than she expected, she wasn't expending energy on creating a new road, she was reclaiming an ancient existing road, but where is her power coming from?

Coming up to the last section as they descended toward the mine the road wove back and forth across the turnwise face of the mountain. At night while the army rested Octavia flew at tree top level through the pines to avoid notice from those on the ground to scout the situation at the Bear Mountain mine... dear gods, they now have a Clacks tower! The last reports she got from Alphie and Carl were that Peregrine and Aegir Mining were on the verge of financial collapse, this is a fully functioning operation, sacks of gemstones were set aside for grading, tons of coal were piled up in bins including the precious anthracite that Nick had spoken about. The "black diamonds" gleamed in the faint starlight, and she saw evidence that this coal wasn't being sent to Creel Springs or Lancre Town, it was being hauled to barges on the Gjorgiev river and being taken downriver to Pseudopolis or Ankh-Morpork.

She returned to the encampment and found Granny and Gaspode waiting for her, the rest of her army was gone. "Where did they go?" she asked, terrified that her help was gone.

"It started to rain so they moved deeper into the forest and found a cave," said Granny leading the way. They soon came to a cave entrance and deeper in they found the entire army reclining on stone furniture in a beautifully carved dwarven conference room.

"Duchess!" cried Eryri, "come see what we found!"

"Dwarf bread!" growled another dwarf happily, his beard and mustache covered with crumbs.

"That's got to be thousands of years old!" gasped Octavia.

The happy dwarf nodded and said, "Aye, and it's still good!"

"It was never good," muttered Dexter.

"Made with limestone," sniffed another dwarf, "Just like me dear old grannie used to make."

"Look at this," said an Ecksan Bloke and he showed Octavia a handful of small round balls of Dwarf Bread. "They call 'em combat cookies and battle biscuits. A pouch full of these and a sling and you can take out a pack of dingaroo before they know you're there."

"Do you have anyone with a sling?"

"Yess mum, we all carry a sling. Ya never know what's going to try to kill ya back in Ecksas."

"Ok, rest up!" called out Octavia, "tomorrow is one last march then we take back what is ours!" Her army was shocked, this is the first time they've heard Octavia speak since they left Creel Springs. "Is there a problem Bertie?"

"No, yer grace, we just though you wanted to stay and look for something, the dwarves say that this is Rkund Keep."

"Rkund...!" Octavia dropped to the smooth, polished rock floor of the keep and placed her hands flat on the cold stones and she searched, soon in her mind was a map of the underground warren that extended for many miles deep beneath them, and in the deepest, most hidden vault her prize awaited her. It's still here and Rifty Peregrine is nowhere near it. For the first time in weeks she smiled, there's no way that those bastards can win now. She's going to leave it right where it is, safe, secure, and far out of dwarven hands. "Time for that later Bertie," she stood and dusted off her robes. "First things first."

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It was the night of the new moon and Octavia's forces were ready to strike. Dwarven crossbowmen were in position and anytime a sentinel or guard was spotted there would be a twang of a crossbow firing and the pop of a gas filled crossbow bolt releasing its noxious party trick and another dwarf or two slumped to the ground.

Octavia wanted to find out why the intelligence reports they were getting suddenly stopped so she flew over to Alfie and Carl's office among the treetops. When it was first built their cabin was far back in the woods, now it's on the edge of the forest because Peregrine and Aegir Mining has been illegally stripping the land of trees since Nick was captured.

She slowed and landed behind Alfie and Carl's office, the wooden shed that they built months ago to monitor the dwarves. Quietly she crept up to the front door and found that the door had been locked with a huge padlock. "Alphie? Carl?"

"Is that you m' lady? We have Halldór in here, we think he's dying."

"Ok stand over by the door, I'm coming in." Alphie and Carl moved next to the door and waited for her to open the door, but instead they saw the gleam of a sword slice through the back wall and draw straight down like a hot knife through warm butter. Two more cuts were made silently and a door size section of the back wall silently lay down on the forest floor.

Alphie and Carl, or as Octavia thought, the skeletal remains of Alphia and Carl came out of the reeking cabin carrying the gruesomely injured Halldór Ditchfather in a blanket between them. The dwarves had locked them up with no food and very little water and left them to die. "Where's Marcasite?" asked Octavia.

"They killed him," gasped Halldór, "they chopped him to pieces."

"It was awful," groaned Carl. He pointed to an opening in the trees and said, "the shiny bits on the ground, that's all that's left of him."

They were soon surrounded by dwarves and blokes of the Bear Mountain Army of the Duchy of Wægn who fought hard against the shock and revulsion that overwhelmed them, how could dwarves or men do this to someone?

"Someone take them to granny then get back in place," whispered Octavia. "I need a couple of crossbowmen to cover me." Soon Octavia was flying silently through the mining camp holding Gaspode tightly. Occasionally a crossbow bolt would fly past her and strike a building or piece of equipment and go off showering a hidden sentry with magically enhanced Doctor Skidwell's Magic Sleep Potion. She landed at the clacks tower and rapped her knuckles on the counter and cleared her throat.

"I got a few messages that need to be sent now," said Gaspode. The goblin at the clacks handles turned and saw what appeared to be a masked musketeer holding a dog standing at his counter. He sent a quick BRB to his friend and smiled.

"How can I help you?"

"I have three messages that need to go ASAP," growled Gaspode.

"As you can see, I'm already sending..."

"You're shooting the shit with your buddy in Daft Cattle down in the grand Duchy of Louikki. These messages are Priority Apex from the court wizard of the King of Lancre."

"I answer to Mister Rifty Peregrine of the Peregrine and Aegir Mining..."

"You could be answering to King Verance's buddy Mister Morose of the slice 'em and dice 'em school of interrogation if you don't send these messages," said Octavia. Her voice was low, firm, and impossible not to obey. Gaspode had to fight an urge to start sending the messages himself.

The goblin's attitude changed quickly. Mr. Morose has a reputation that is known far and wide. "Let me see those messages... first one to Duke Samuel Vimes copied to Commander Carrot Ironfounderson, Agent Marcasite murdered, Agent Ditchfather critically wounded, search for suspects underway, that one is good... next one to... Blodwen Rhysdottir... Peregrine and Aegir Mining... violation of contract... all assets seized... company officers wanted in connection... human trafficing ... trafficking is spelled with a K... that one is good... last message... to King Verance of Lancre... search for missing duke... battle starts now."

"Could you tell me when that last one gets sent?" asked Octavia. "The timing is terribly important."

"Ok... this second message is a long one... just about there..." the clacks shutters banged and flashed their messages as the sun started to peer above the far horizon. "It has been sent!" proudly announced the goblin.

As Octavia drew her musket and fired a flare into the air signifying the battle of Bear Mountain has begun, she set Gaspode on the counter. "Thank you," said Gaspode, "Now shut it down, this station is now property of the Duchy of Wægn.

"This station is here by contract with the Peregrine and Aegir Mining company," said the goblin firmly standing on his stool, hands on hips, totally oblivious to the sounds of battle now filling the air.

"That contract is cancelled," said Gaspode, "you may want to find a place to hide." Gaspode jumped off the countertop and disappeared into the pre-dawn gloom as the sounds of battle started to fill the air.

The battle at the mouth of the mine was fast and furious, the human slingers from Four Ecks fired volley after volley of Dwarf Bread Combat Cookies and Battle Biscuits into the dwarves trying to defend the entrance of the mine, knocking the dwarves over like bowling pins. Dwarves were piled up by the side of the coal storage bin and many more that were knocked out by the sleeping gas equipped crossbow bolts and were being dragged into a pile.

Finally, Octavia stood in front of the sealed mine entrance and used the voice she used in the throne room when she revealed the army's recruitment tactics. "Send out Rifty Peregrine now!" Her words boomed and rattled through the mine penetrating its deepest shafts, all who heard put their tools down and listened for the outcome.

Behind the closed door on the mine entrance Octavia could hear laughter then, "Why don't you come in and get him princess?"

Octavia pointed to her crossbow dwarves then held up 2 fingers indicating she wanted 2 shots fired into the mine. When the crossbows were cocked and loaded she drew her rapier and held it in front of her, soon it began to glow, first red, then orange, then yellow. Once it was at the color she wanted Octavia stepped up to the metal door over the mine entrance and sliced it open like it was made of warm butter. The dwarves inside the mine tried to hold the door in place but it fell outward and when that happened the crossbows fired.

In moments the outer mine entrance was devoid of conscious dwarves and the blokes and dwarves of the Bear Mountain Army of the Duchy of Wægn dragged the unconscious dwarves out of the mine and tied their wrists and laid them out alongside the road between the mine entrance and the river dock. Tied up at the dock was an empty collier, a barge used to haul coal. As they hauled the unconscious dwarves out, Granny Weatherwax moved among the tied dwarves making sure they could breath and that their wrist restraints were not too tight. "What is she doing here?" Eryri asked Octavia.

"She's my conscience," sighed the lonely duchess. "She's here so I don't kill every one of these greedy pickaxe lickers." She looked about her, so many people were here because of her and she's so lonely that she wanted to cry. Ever since that day she watched Nick fall from the sky she's felt horribly alone. She can't have this baby by herself, she just can't do it...

"We found him your grace!" cried a dwarf and immediately Octavia snapped out of her morose musing and thought the dwarf was referring to Nick, but two blokes dragged a struggling Rifty Peregrine out of the mine. Another dwarf gave Octavia a scrap of paper, and she thanked him with a hug before turning to Rifty. "Mister Peregrine, we have thirty five of your people above ground they're either unconscious or tied up, and in the mine we have twenty six unconscious, that's fifty one. How many more do you have here?"

Rifty glared at her, his eye was starting to swell. "It look like you may have fallen down at some point, I hope that swelling doesn't become a liability to the way you answer our questions." Rifty simply glared at her.