979. Chapter 979

After Captain Kate and the Sorceress

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: Je ne regret rein, except not owning Castle. Rating: M, here and there. Time: 18th Century

"Venkoji, the Maratha coward, it is I, Princess Jasmine. You will only fight from behind your great army, while I stand here ready to fight you one on one. Are you afraid of a woman? Do your bowels turn to water at the thought of actually fighting someone yourself? Do you long to rush back behind the safety of your army? Look at me! I am a woman, but I challenge you. Why won't you fight me? Are you a coward?'

Venkoji had heard enough. He turned his horse and spurred it towards Jasmine. He was initially contemptuous of the mere woman who confronted him. He spurred his horse past her as she galloped towards him. He slashed at her, but she ducked and he missed her, drawing cheers from the Malabarian army.

Jasmine turned her horse around to find Venkoji rushing at her. He had been able to turn his horse faster than she had imagined. He slashed at her head, but her helmet stopped the blow, but it left her a bit shaken. She was able to slash him across his side, but her blade skittered across his chain mail.

They drew apart and then charged again. This time Jasmine swung herself to the side of her horse, leaving Venkoji with very little of a target. She did manage to slash at his boot, cutting into the thick leather, but not injuring the man.

Venkoji decided to try to ram his horse into hers, in hopes of knocking her off her mount, or at least injuring her. At the last second his horse shied away leaving his horses head almost in her lap. She slammed the hilt of her sword down on to the horses head as hard as she could, injuring the animal. As the horse bucked uncontrollably, Jasmine brought her sword down onto his wrist with all the force she could manage. She didn't penetrate his chain mail, but she heard a satisfying crack as a bone broke. She saw his sword slip from his grasp, although it was still attached to him by a steel chain lanyard. She swung again and was rewarded with another broken bone.

Realizing his danger, Venkoji tried to turn and flee to the safety of his army. His horse was still not under control, allowing Jasmine to rain blows down upon the Maratha's helmet. The helmet held firm, but Venkoji was being concussed by all of the blows.

Jasmine reached over and tore the helmet from his head. His hand went towards the pistol at his waist, but he had to reach with his left hand and it was just too far. Jasmine's sword separated his head from his neck, ending the duel. Jasmine reached down and grabbed the severed head and rode between the two armies, holding it up for all to see, and yelling that the women of Malabar were more deadly than the Maratha men.

At last she rode back through her cheering army and rejoined her friends.

"Good god, that was dangerous." Sorenson said, but with a smile on his face.

Jasmine smiled at her friends. "We needed something to change the odds. With the loss of their leader, perhaps the Marathas will think again about attacking us."

"Perhaps not." Said Kate. "Look."

With Venkoji now dead, both Ismael and d'Schlemming had ridden out on front of the army. Being careful not to get too close to Princess Jasmine, of course. They were haranguing the army, but they were too far away for anyone to hear what they said.

"What are they doing?" Alexis asked.

"I think that the two of them are offering the army the opportunity to loot all of Malabar if they can just defeat our army." Jasmine said.

They sat there for several seconds until Kate spoke. "We need to present the other side of the argument. We should start the artillery bombardment."

Jasmine thought for a second and then nodded. "What do we have to lose?" She turned to Ryan and Singh. "Colonel Ryan, will you take charge of the artillery? And General Singh, will you please see to the infantry?"

Both men nodded and galloped off. In less than a minute, the artillery began firing on the Marathas. Round shot tore through the lines of closely packed infantry and into the cavalry as well. The Maratha artillery returned the fire, but as Ryan had said, they lacked the range to reach Jasmine's troops. Some of their balls did skip over the dry, hard ground and roll through the lines of infantry. Some men got out of the way, but some didn't.

Through their telescopes, they could see officers, both European mercenaries, and Marathas, coming together in groups, coming apart and then reassembling somewhere else.

"They're trying to decide what to do." Kate said. "I doubt if anyone trusts the military judgement of either Ismael or d'Schlemming, so the officers are trying to decide among themselves what to do."

"Someone has decided something." Priscilla said, pointing to the left flank of the Maratha army. A regiment of cavalry had moved out of line at a walk and was headed for the Malabarian army. But then, the long line of cavalrymen began turning and soon had turned away from the battlefield. The regiment rode away to the jeers of both armies.

"Someone else is moving." Cried Jasmine.

Another regiment of Maratha horsemen rode out, turned and left the field of battle. That began a wholesale retreat of the Maratha horse on their left flank.

Nothing happened on the right flank for a moment, but then in ones and twos, Maratha cavalrymen began to turn and ride away. Soon troops, squadrons and then whole regiments were heading north to the Maratha homeland.

"As the cavalry retreats, the flanks of the enemy infantry are exposed." Jasmine cried. "We must attack now." She spurred her horse towards where General Singh was. Kate followed her, and then was followed by everyone else.

Before Jasmine arrived at Singh's headquarters, the infantry had begun advancing and the cavalry began to head for the enemy infantry's exposed flanks.

"Their infantry isn't running away." Rick said as he rode beside Kate.

"They can't outrun cavalry. They're smart enough to know that if they break, they'll be cut down by our horsemen. Their only hope is to try to make it too costly to destroy them and arrange some kind of a truce. But they have to fight first."

"Stay with me, Kate. This isn't our fight."

"But these are our friends."

But Rick, Kate and the girls remained well behind the infantry. Fifty yards from the enemy, the red-coated infantry stopped and poured a volley into their enemies. The better trained Malabar infantry was able to get off three shots a minute to the enemy's one shot a minute. Soon, the opposing ranks began to break up as every man sought to save himself. That's when Singh released his cavalry.

Princess Jasmine trotted her horse through lines of surrendering infantrymen headed for a group of gorgeously uniformed men. Seeing her headed for him, Ismael tried to get away, but his horse was blocked by masses of Maratha infantrymen surrounding him. Jasmine pushed her way through as men tried to surrender to her.

"Jasmine. I am your brother." Ismael cried as he tried to draw his sword.

"Half-brother and a traitor." She screamed.

Ismael managed to draw his sword but as he looked up, he saw Jasmine's sword slashing towards his neck. His head flew off his body and dropped to the ground below. A red coated soldier saw a huge ruby in the center of Ismael's turban and reached for it. Then he looked up to see Princess Jasmine looking down at him, a sword dripping blood in her hand.

"Take the jewel, soldier, but hand me the traitor's head."

The man smiled, and did as he was told. "May Allah protect you, Princess."

"May He protect you as well."

Jamine tucked Ismael's head into her saddlebag and was about to return to her friends when she saw a man in European clothing a few yards away. She spurred towards him.

He raised his hands. "I am a representative of the King of France. You cannot harm me without…"

He got no further as Jasmine's sword sliced through his neck. For just a brief moment, d'Schlemming saw his torso, seated on his horse, spouting blood and the face of a vengeful woman. Then there was nothing.

A month later, Sultan Hassan was formally crowned and Princess Jasmine was also formally invested as the head of the regency council. After the coronation, Rick and Kate as well as everyone else from all of their ships went to a large party to celebrate Hassan's coronation. The party was so large that it spilled out onto the grounds of the palace. There Rick and Kate were walking arm in arm. Rick dressed in a sober, dark broadcloth suit and Kate in a red silk dress that has been given her by Princess Jasmine. Both Alexis and Priscilla had been given red silk dresses to commemorate their service to the Sultan's army.

"Ah! There you two are." Jasmine said. "Will you join me?"

"Of course."

"What are your plans now?"

Rick and Kate looked at each other. "None, right now." Rick said.

"However, we were sent on this diplomatic mission as much to not embarrass the King of France as to do any actual diplomatic work. I've sent a report to M. Foucoult and how he'll react is unknown. Plus we've become well known here and sooner or later, our enemies will hear of us and come after us."

Kate reached out and took Jasmine's hand. "Sooner or later, we'll have to leave."

"Best that it be later. "Jasmine replied, now taking Rick's hand in hers. "You must stay for my wedding."

"Wedding?" The two said as one.

"Captain Sorenson has agreed to convert to Islam to marry me."

Kate frowned. "I wasn't aware you…had feelings for each other."

"We don't actually." Jasmine saw the looks on their faces. "It is a political marriage. Sultan Hassan will preside over a glittering court here in Mahe. He will attract writers, poets, and scientists from all over. But, Hassan does not have the type of fire that would make him a leader in battle. He is far too gentle. That job will fall to me. But even now, men say that the victory over the Marathas was won by General Singh, and Colonels Ryan and Esposito. Some even deny that I killed the three men whose heads now hang over the throne."

"Speaking of that." Rick said. "As a doctor, I feel those heads are unsanitary. As a person, they're disgusting."

"And as one who must act like a queen, I say they are necessary. As is my marriage. Orders, decisions of mine, will seemingly come from Sorenson and will be much more easily accepted."

"Will the court accept Sorenson as your husband?" Kate asked.

"Not at all. Every faction in the court will oppose him. That way he'll remain loyal to me and me alone."

Rick bowed. "We would be honored to attend your wedding, assuming no English fleet shows up looking for us."

Jasmine laughed. "If they do, I will tell them that you left long ago, for places unknown." Jasmine nodded and walked off.

"I would not want to be a queen." Kate said.

"Nor would I want you to be one. But come, Sultan Hassan has an excellent selection of maps. We should try to decide to which unknown place we'll go to next."

Rick held out his hand. Kate took it and they walked off into the Indian night.

Author's note: This story about Captain Kate is done, but there will be more. Next up will be After Once Upon a Time in the West, which is almost done. I have some ideas for more Castle fics, but I do have a Farscape/Dominic Flandry of the Terran Empire crossover I've been working on for years that is close to done, so I may work on that. But I'm sure you can count on at least a thousand chapters of the After…stories.