Intrepid

''Slow down, fellow. I'm one of the good guys,'' Kris said, less worried about gender issues at the moment. ''I've got a friend of yours here with me. Andy! Andy, could you come have a word with a very angry redhead who's got a rifle jammed up my left nostril.''

Andy slid to a stop beside Kris. There wasn't much space in front of the view, what with Kris kind of unable to make more room for fear of getting another hole in her nose.

''Jamie, that you. Jamie, it's me, Andy. Are you down there, Jamie?''

''Andy? Are you in cahoots with these bushwhackers? They done captured you?''

''No, Jamie, these aren't bushwhackers. This is Princess Kris Longknife of Wardhaven, and they've come to help us.''

Jamie frowned, nothing even close to conviction on his face. ''A Longknife, huh. You know what Grampa says about Longknifes.''

''But this one is on our side.''

''As I heard the stories, they usually were,'' Jamie said, but the rifle came out of Kris's face, so apparently Grampa Ray had not come off all that bad in this family's stories.

''Jamie, we need to talk to Pa, and Grampa, too. They okay?''

''Yep, and so are Glenda Sue and Gracie Ann.''

''Gracie Ann?''

''Yep, the cutest little thing on two pudgy legs. You get over to the cool house, and I'll see that they let you in. Now close this thing back up and quit messing with my lookout.''

The man was gone, crawling backward into the dark. Kris had shivers just thinking about wiggling around in such close quarters. Still, she did her best to put the weeds back and smooth the earth as she got to her feet. The ground cover here was the perennial that seemed to pass for both cover and crop. The grain had recently been harvested, and there was nothing but stubble.

Standing, Kris took a moment to reevaluate her situation. Andy pointed, eager to get on his way, to a low hill about fifty meters from the burned-down house. Cool room. Or cool warehouse. Kris was hardly less eager to be off and find out what wonders lurked in its cool insides.

But there was this matter of a war between her and Thorpe.

''Lieutenant, I'd like two squads to take everyone's store of hoppers and beat a slightly visible track to the south, say in two groups. Try to make it look like more than just eight troops,'' Kris said.

''Distract the orbital sensors from here,'' the young lieutenant said.

Kris projected a map of what lay to the south. ''But don't give them any real targets. Five minutes before Thorpe pokes his nose above the horizon, go to ground and get hard to find.''

''I understand, Your Highness. If you don't mind, I'd like to take this team, ma'am. Once we're down there, we can set up our watch on the road. Let you know if anything comes up it and do something about anything bite-size and chewy.''

Kris glanced at Gunny. He had a fatherly smile on his face for the young officer, and a quick nod for Kris.

''Set up some tight-beam repeaters along your path so we can keep in touch,'' Kris said, and left the youngster to organize his first command. No, second. He'd had half the company dropped in his lap when the last CO nearly bought the farm on a lovely and violent evening back on Eden.

The LT was whistling softly as he went off to do his duty.

Kris turned to Gunny. ''It seems there is a magic door to all the glorious treasures under the hill if we but go there,'' she said, pointing at the hillock.

''I had a good friend who swore by the little people. Or at them, depending on which way he thought they were leaning,'' Gunny said.

''I had a good friend like that, too, once upon a time,'' Kris said. ''Word is, these people under the hill are our friends. Let's hope they stay that way. See what you can do about getting our troops in there without leaving anything pointing too blatantly at where we went.'' And with that in mind, Kris signaled Andy to lead the way.

Behind her, Gunny went noisily about the business of getting the platoon in single file and having the engineers sweep down their tracks. Kris would have to tell Grampa Ray about this next time she saw him and they were on speaking terms. The Marine engineers were using brush to sweep away the tracks just like Apache warriors of old Earth. It had worked for them in their desperate battle against the odds. What ain't broke, hardheaded Marines didn't fix but stole from with pride.

As Kris approached the cool room, she had to smile. At least the door into the hill was a solid, respectable rectangle. That lowered Kris's expectations for meeting halflings or elves. On the way, she had removed her helmet and gauntlets. It didn't seem quite friendly to make her first acquaintance with an ally encased in armor.