A Cat at Bay Read online

  As the measures of the first dance started, Rahoul Khan yielded to the inevitable and led his wife onto the dance floor, followed by the Graf and Gräfin. Commander Na Gael contented herself with watching for the moment. Her friends and the other soldiers and diplomats looked like a jewel box of black evening dress, formal uniforms, and glittering evening gowns. Rachel had always enjoyed Vienna, even during the sometimes-stultifying formalities of the Hapsburg court, and part of her wanted to violate protocol and coerce a hapless officer or junior minister onto the floor for a couple of turns, like she used to do. The rest of her cowered, afraid of the touch of an unfamiliar hand and worried about the crowd and who might be hiding in it. She told herself to calm down and not worry, but had minimal success. She looked down at her Azdhag Imperial Court finery and shrugged a little. She wasn’t dressed for dancing, Rachel told herself, so it didn’t matter.

  “My lord?” Adele inquired during the third song.

  “Hmmm?” Joschka glanced down at her, then back up at the other couples around them.

  “Has Commander Na Gael come onto the floor yet?”

  “No, but Rahoul is talking to her. Apparently Panpit found a willing partner,” he said.

  Col. Khan watched his wife disappear into the dancers during the energetic strains of the “Tritsch-Tratsch Polka.” Rachel tapped him on the sleeve with her elaborate black fan and looked mildly disapproving. “Didn’t you check to see what her hobbies were before you signed the lease?” she twitted him, a hint of her old humor in her eye and voice.

  He shook his head in mock-exasperation. “You’ve been on this planet how long and you still don’t know how courtship and marriage work? Perhaps I should ask Major Monroe to fix you up with a nice Intelligence officer some weekend,” he threatened, referring to the British Branch’s former matchmaker.

  As soon as he said it he cursed himself, because her laughter died and she stared down at the floor. He couldn’t tell through her gloves, but it looked as if her hands had started trembling lightly and she clasped them in her lap. «Something is still very wrong with you, isn’t it?» He asked mind-to-mind, taking Rachel’s hand and drawing her to her feet and towards the dance floor.

  “Sorry sir,” she apologized as they started moving with the music. “Still over sensitive about some things,” and she gave him a ghost of a smile. Khan didn’t push the matter, but worried about her as they turned and swung through a foxtrot. The brunette gave him an amused look. “Colonel, when you aren’t thinking about how much you hate dancing, you’re very good on the floor,” she observed. “Perhaps I should tell your bride,” and he cut her off.

  “Don’t you dare, or I’ll see if the Graf-General will make good on his threat to lobby the Secretary for a GDF base in Antarctica and have him assign you to the staff for a ten-year tour!”

  “That might be what I need, Colonel,” she mused, completely serious.

  Panpit Khan cut in as soon as the last bars of the foxtrot sounded. “Ah ha! You’re mine now,” she threatened, winking at Rachel and capturing her husband’s hand.

  «That’ll teach you to leave the twins with visiting grandparents,» Rachel sent Rahoul, then ducked away before he could respond to her.

  Joschka and Adele decided to sit out the next dance, and Rachel began making her way back to where they were sitting. She’d almost reached them when the room seemed to shrink and grow warm and the Wanderer felt a surge of adrenaline starting. It was too crowded, too many people, and she fought the urge to run. Only ruthless self-discipline allowed her to weave a path between the dancers, smiling politely and nodding to the three or four people she recognized from other events of this sort. I wonder if the painkillers are part of this she thought, almost free of the people around her. It’s not been this bad in weeks!

  Joschka and Adele took one look at their friend and bustled her outside into the quiet and dark of a balcony normally occupied by smokers. “Show us,” the Graf ordered. She hesitated, expression haunted, as she hunched in on herself. “That’s an order, Commander,” Joschka repeated, this time with all the weight of his rank and his House behind it. Rachel touched their hands and opened her memories, leaving out as much as she dared. Even so, before she finished she could feel the heat of the general’s anger and the Wanderer cringed. She started to turn away, feeling guilty for having exposed her friends to her agony and shame. The other two broke the contact and left her reliving hell alone.

  «Never alone, Hairball, not while Adele or I are alive,» a rich baritone mind voice sent very privately and Joschka pulled her against his chest as Adele rested gentle, warm hands on Rachel’s shoulder and back.

  Rachel shuddered, fighting her first reaction: to pull away from them, to try to escape the man’s grip. No, this is Joschka and Adele, you’re safe, calm down, you’re safe with Joschka and Adele. She repeated it over and over, forcing herself to relax into his arms as Adele stroked her back. Tears flowed from Rachel’s good eye and she gave up any pretense of hiding her pain and fear. Joschka shifted his position so he stood between her and the door, shielding her from curious eyes and holding her head against his chest. Adele made shushing and soothing sounds, keeping her hands on Rachel.

  When Adele touched Rachel’s lower back, the Wanderer went rigid. “Easy Rachel, easy. You’re safe, it’s Adele and I’m a Healer. Just let go,” Adele murmured.

  Rachel finally stopped shaking and looked up into Joschka’s face. Ancient golden eyes looked down at her and she ducked her head. “No, meet my eyes,” he ordered. The Wanderer gathered her nerve and did, letting herself sink into their molten depths. Soon she was in a light trance and Adele let her hand drop for a brief moment to where Rachel’s tail had been before placing both hands on the Wanderer’s shoulders.

  Adele sighed and studied her friend. “I’m amazed that she’s still alive, let alone making herself work and serving as Guardian.”

  Joschka met his wife’s eyes, his own back to a human blue. “She would have finished what the monsters started if Khan hadn’t gone after her that night, beloved. As it was, we barely reached her in time and had to force her to swear not to try it again.” The couple turned their attention back to Rachel, still lightly entranced by draconic power. “Shall I release her?”

  The Healer made one last quick check, then stepped back. “Yes. Thank God you and Rahoul laid enough of a foundation for her to start healing, my love and my lord. Let her go.”

  The tall man gently turned Rachel so her back was to him and closed his eyes, whispering an ancient phrase. Rachel sagged, then woke up, tensing again before making herself lean against the noble’s chest. He put his hands on her shoulders, slowly pushing her away to stand on her own. She took a few steps and turned to face her friends. “I—Joschka, Adele, I’m sorry for dragging you through this.”

  Adele frowned and snorted in a most unladylike fashion. “Commander, you have no call to be apologizing. If anyone still living owes an apology, it’s Rahoul Khan and Brigadier McKendrick for not seeing that you got proper care.”

  “I can’t help what I don’t know about,” Rahoul stated, joining the Austrians and his former advisor on the balcony. “And I seem to have lost my wife to my commanding officer, my lord General. Do you have any suggestions?” he continued lightly as he walked over to Rachel. He laid an arm across her shoulders from her blind side. She stiffened a little, then deliberately relaxed her muscles as he pulled her closer, loaning her a handkerchief so she could blot her tears.

  “Make her jealous by dancing a turn with your advisor, who is a much better dancer than she will ever admit,” Joschka suggested, taking one of his wife’s cold hands and rubbing them between his own. “And who does not seem to be having any trouble getting around, for a change,” he continued, a speculative look in his eyes.

  “Does this mean you finally found a doctor to look at your leg?” Rahoul asked as he led Rachel back into the hall just as the orchestra struck up “Roses of the South.”

  They swung ont
o the floor and Rachel shook her head, looking up into his brown eyes. “No. I took the last of my painkillers so I could enjoy the evening,” she admitted. Beside them Joschka and Adele both made noises, then subsided into the complicated turns of the waltz.

  Panpit recaptured her husband for the next piece and Rachel started to leave the floor when an Italian diplomat approached her. “Signora, may I have this dance?” She smiled graciously and gave him her hand, slipping into the rhythms of Strauss’s “Wine, Woman, and Song.” Her full black skirts billowed and swirled as they turned around the dance floor, lost in the music. A few couples nearby applauded the show and His Excellency the Italian Foreign Minister raised her from her curtsey, then bowed. After two more rounds with a Spanish diplomat and an Italian general, a tiring Rachel began making her way to her seat.

  Grafin Adele caught her. “Are you up to one more?”

  “Yes, I think so my lady,” Rachel smiled, fanning herself lightly.

  “Good, because I’m not! Go keep my husband out of the clutches of that Russian troublemaker’s wife while I order drinks,” and the silver-haired woman laughed as she pushed Rachel toward where Joschka waited.

  He bowed, she curtsied, and they began circling to the strains of “Tales from the Vienna Woods.” Rahoul Khan and Panpit joined the Gräfin as she watched the pair with a fond gaze. Panpit leaned around her husband, “Thank you, Lady Adele.”

  The Gräfin smiled more broadly. “It was a group effort, Panpit. You and Rahoul started the process, Joschka and I just built on your work.”

  The three watched the HalfDragon and Wanderer dance a Viennese waltz. The older officer and Healer glanced at Panpit, standing between them, then returned to watching their friend and the general. “What century is it again?” Rahoul inquired, only half joking.

  “Love, you must be the only staff officer who doesn’t dance,” Panpit teased as the song began winding down. He picked her up and kissed her soundly, to Gräfin Adele’s delight. “Ah, never mind,” Panpit said, face flushed.

  As the music died away Rachel sank almost to the floor in a deep curtsey, leaving her hand in the Graf-General’s as her black-and-silver skirts pooled around her. They held the pose, then he pulled her up and they rejoined their comrades. “Lady Adele, can you rescue me from your lord husband? He has far too much energy,” and Rachel touched both their hands simultaneously. «Thank you,» she sent, with all her meanings and feelings. Then she joined their hands and stepped back, fanning herself.

  “Odd. He’s always tired when I need his help in the garden, or with the grandchildren,” Adele teased.

  “Yours has that problem too, does he?” Panpit said, ears perked. Rachel took her seat, still fluttering the ornate black and silver fan.

  “Not going to help us, are you Commander?” the Graf-General asked.

  “No sirs. I’m neither a miracle worker nor bulletproof,” and she gave them her signature warped grin, then a real smile.

  “Hmmm. I’ll remember that. Two years is plenty of time to plan my revenge,” Rahoul warned her, eyes narrowing.

  “God willing, I’ll be waiting. With all due respect, I’ve a bit of a head start on you in the mischief department, sir.”

  Adele and Joschka smiled at the exchange, then he cleared his throat. “Colonel, perhaps a joint forces operation would be more effective.”

  “I yield to your greater experience, my lord General,” Rahoul said. Rachel smiled coyly and fluttered her fan.

  Adele and Panpit had collected Champaign for the natives and sparkling grape juice for Rachel. The clock began striking twelve and the five raised their glasses. “To the New Year and a new start. May both be clear as crystal and bright as gold,” General Joschka Graf von Hohen-Drachenburg proposed.

  The others met his glass.

  “Prosit Neu Jahr!”

  Alma T. C. Boykin was born in the Midwest, moved to the Great Plains, and after a brief period living in places where trees almost outnumber people, returned to the plains. She escaped college with a BA, worked for a living, then returned for an advanced degree some years later. When not writing or rotating the cat, she teaches and does a few other odds and ends. Hobbies include cooking, reading, hiking, geology, astronomy, and music.

  Visit Alma’s blog at AlmaTCBoykin.Wordpress.com

  Elizabeth of Starland

  Book 1 of the Colplatschki Chronicles.

  Stubborn as a mule? No, stubborn AND her mule.

  Colonial Plantation Ltd. abandoned ColPlat XI, writing the planet off as a tax loss after a series of severe Carrington-type events. Now, four hundred years later, Laurence V of Frankonia wants to write Elizabeth von Sarmas out of his kingdom, but like her Lander ancestors, Elizabeth refuses to roll over and die.

  To survive, she needs to cross the continent, thread her way through a holy war, and find friends in the Eastern Empire—an impossible task for a sheltered gentlewoman. Or is it? Never underestimate a woman with a mission and a mule.

  Available from Amazon.com at:

  www.amazon.com/Elizabeth-Starland-The-Colplatschki-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B00HFEWKXY/

  Available from Kobo Books at:

  store.kobobooks.com/ebook/elizabeth-of-starland-1

  Available from Barnes & Noble at:

  www.barnesandnoble.com/w/elizabeth-of-starland-alma-boykin/1118414557

  Elizabeth of Donatello Bend

  Book 2 of the Colplatschki Chronicles

  Elizabeth grows into her duties as colonel and lady of Donatello Bend, and makes a fateful enemy.

  Available from Amazon.com at:

  www.amazon.com/dp/B00KKY2G1M

  Available from Barnes & Noble at:

  www.barnesandnoble.com/w/elizabeth-of-donatello-bend-alma-boykin/1119608311?ean=2940149210718

  Available from Kobo at:

  store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/elizabeth-of-donatello-bend

  Elizabeth of Vindobona

  Book 3 of the Colplatschki Chronicles

  Ten years after Elizabeth reaches the Empire, court politics and military command aren’t the only things she has to deal with. A marriage proposal, an assassination attempt, and a siege on the Imperial Capital bring new challenges... and new opportunities.

  Available from Amazon.com at:

  www.amazon.com/dp/B00LNE7D2U

  Available from Barnes & Noble at:

  www.barnesandnoble.com/w/elizabeth-of-vindobona-alma-boykin/1120499252

  Available from Kobo at:

  store.kobobooks.com/en-ca/books/elizabeth-of-vindobona/

  Elizabeth and Empire

  Book 4 of the Colplatschki Chronicles

  Twenty years after the events of Elizabeth of Vindobona, an untried emperor sits the throne while courtiers scheme. Elizabeth must navigate politics, religion, her relationship with Lazlo, and the Frankonians’ wrath in this fourth book of the Colplatschki Chronicles.

  Available from Amazon.com at:

  www.amazon.com/Elizabeth-Empire-Colplatschki-Chronicles-Book-ebook/dp/B00PNW640U

  Available from Barnes & Noble at:

  www.barnesandnoble.com/w/elizabeth-and-empire-alma-boykin/1120752229

  Available from Kobo at:

  store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/elizabeth-and-empire

  Peaks of Grace

  Book 5 of the Colplatschki Chronicles

  Margurite deSarm knows that she cannot govern the Sarm lands alone. But her husband, Gregory Berlin of Louvat, refuses to fulfill his duties. As Marta attempts to undo her marriage, Odile Rheinhart discovers her own unique calling. In their own complimentary ways, over ten years the two women work to keep the Sarm Valley free from the machinations of Phillip of Frankonia while balancing family, duty, and desires.

  Available from Amazon.com at:

  www.amazon.com/dp/B00S1XGJSA

  Available from Barnes & Noble at:

  www.barnesandnoble.com/w/peaks-of-grace-alma-boykin/1121023658

  Available from Kobo at:

  store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/peaks-of-g
race

  Circuits and Crises

  Book 6 of the Colplatschki Chronicles

  The Turkowi begin their advance from the south as a fight between brothers threatens the Empire.

  Available from Amazon.com at:

  www.amazon.com/dp/B00UZP7QFM

  Blackbird

  Book 7 of the Colplatschki Chronicles

  Charles Malatesta will defend his inheritance or die trying.

  Available from Amazon.com at:

  www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00YHXJ3A4

  And more...

  Keep up with all the latest books by Alma T C Boykin on her blog: AlmaTCBoykin.Wordpress.com

  (Listed in chronological order from the perspective of Rada Ni Drako.)

  Hubris: The Azdhagi Reborn

  Book 1 of the Cat Among Dragons prequel series.

  When the Azdhagi overreach the limits of their science, only a few individuals stand between them and chaos. Three interlinked disasters start a chain reaction of tragedy and triumph leading to the re-creation of Azdhag society.

  Available from Amazon.com at:

  www.amazon.com/Hubris-Azdhagi-Reborn-Alma-Boykin-ebook/dp/B00J8UCN9O

  Available from Kobo Books at:

  store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/hubris-4

  A Cat Among Dragons

  Book 1 in the Cat Among Dragons series.

  They started it. Rada Ni Drako just wanted to do her job, but her father’s people declared her a corrupt half-breed, one unfit to live. Now she’s on the run and in need of a new identity and a job. When she fled back in time to join an interstellar mercenary company, she did not anticipate becoming the Pet of House Nagali, becoming the student of a mysterious but very well connected Healer and diplomat, and fighting her way into power as the only sentient mammal in the court of a reptilian empire. And falling flat on her face several times in the process.