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49.
As Tedda lay shocked and numb in the twilight of her tiny bedroom, she heard more gunshots and singing all around. As she staggered to the window to close it and tie the curtains shut, she saw that other hunters were rolling in. She saw different guidons, other colors, even dark-skinned hunters in various shades of the racial colorings of the Gotha world. Something big must be happening, Tedda thought drowsily. They look flush with victory and ready for a bigger fight.
Tedda fell asleep.
Much later, a low but persistent knocking woke her up. She looked about in surprise. It must have gotten dark outside, for the room was pitch black. The knocking brought her to the door, and she turned the big fat wall knob that turned on the electric light overhead. Shielding her blinded eyes, she swung the door open. There stood a smiling Amy von Tedda. Beside her in a wheelchair sat Gretchen, and behind them with head bandaged stood Hanno. "We came to thank you," Amy said.
Gretchen muttered and babbled as she took Tedda's hands in hers and kissed them again and again. Tedda felt the old woman's tears and saliva wetting her hands, and pulled them away to wipe them on the back of her skirt. "You are a princess," Gretchen mumbled toothlessly. "You are truly a sister of our Amy."
Hanno stepped forth. "Miss Tedda, the hunters want to thank you for saving the estate."
Tedda rubbed her eyes again, with fingers that smelled of the old woman's gums. Gretchen knotted her hands together in the wheelchair and shook them in prayerful thanks under her aged chin. Nurses wheeled sobbing Gretchen away down the gloomy corridor.
"Truly," Amy said, "we owe you a great deal." She said sharply: "Hanno, I will send her to you. Go now."
"Thank you," Hanno said. He lowered his head in obeisance with closed eyes, and strode away in that wide gait of his, so much like a great war horse. The corridor rang with his footsteps.
"The hunters have prepared a feast in your honor."
"It's not necessary," Tedda said.
Amy put an arm around her. "Tedda, darling, many things seem not necessary, but we do our Pflicht, our duty." She gave a squeeze. "Do you understand?"
Tedda nodded.
"We don't control them," Amy said, "the hunters. They are a law unto themselves. Hundreds of years ago, when the emperors were weak, the forest meisters ruled in their own strength as a loose union. The cheddar was only a figurehead. My ancestors employed a thousand hunters at the time, who swore undying and eternal allegiance to this house. At the same time, they continue making their own laws within our own. They obey, but they also demur."
"I don't understand," Tedda said standing in her doorway.
"I know you don't." Amy released her from her embrace and started for the main house. "Go up to the third floor and enter the hunters' parlor. They will sing for you and drink a toast. I will join you shortly."
"Very well," Tedda said.
"Tedda."
"Yes?"
"I wanted a moment alone to thank you in my own way." She raised an imperious finger to shush Tedda's protest. "You did a great thing today, and we will all thank you in our own way. Later tonight, you and I and Watka will be removed to a safer place. My own, on the edge of town. Already, the hunters have declared against Moss, and the generals are following. The Junkers are resurrecting the Redensort, or parliament, and we just got word that Tonsonby's intelligence services are turning against the regime. At my own fortress, we will negotiate with the East in a secret pact to stand down the war for a time, so we can negotiate at least some kind of armistice. After all, we were one nation until the Moss and Gruen Syndicate took over a century ago."
"It sounds as if there is hope for your people," Tedda said. "I still don't want to remain here."
"I know, my dear. That brings me to you. I cannot allow your world to continue growing, because the energy curve of all the West and East digging in femtoworlds will soon reach critical mass as the separate digs flow together into one larger entity. You see, it is hopeless anyway. The East's underworlds, plus the fortress world where you lived with Moira's rule Lindy, plus this place you speak of—"
"—Monopol City—"
"—Yes, Monopol City, will all slam together and annihilate each other in a great burst of subatomic energy. That in turn will cause a chain reaction that will set our atmosphere on fire and possibly disintegrate that top hundred miles or more of earth's surface. I can offer you one thing that you've said you wanted."
"Yes?"
"A day with Alton-Edgar Hedrock."
Tedda forgot her gloom and brightened at the thought. "Yes?"
Amy smiled. "Yes, Tedda. I would do anything for you, but it seems this is the limit of my abilities to thank you."
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