Royal Rescue

by A. Alex Logan

  “Traditional does not mean right,” Nedi said with a frown, and Gerald knew she was thinking of her own kingdom’s traditions.

  Arika held up a hand and Sosha deferred to her, closing his mouth around whatever reply he had been about to make. She leaned forward across the table and met Nedi’s eyes, then Gerald’s. “I will admit the dragon’s condition is troubling. So often spells are cast without proper regard for the consequences. As my colleague said, this system has been in place for centuries; we—the current Council—did not create it, but our predecessors did; and we do enforce it. Perhaps we have not done our duty in evaluating that enforcement appropriately. But the treatment of the guardians can be evaluated without disrupting the entire system. It does work well; it accomplishes its purpose.”

  Gerald shook his head. “It works after a fashion,” he said. “It is assumed to work well because this is how it has been for us, for our parents, our grandparents, our great-grandparents. It is assumed that because it has lasted, it is not only the best way but the only way. Please, tell me—what does this system accomplish? What are all of its benefits?” he asked. “Tell us that, and then we will list not only the drawbacks of your system, but also how our proposal not only maintains the same benefits but also adds new ones.”

  “You haven’t even said what your proposal is,” Ivan pointed out.

  “We’ll get to that,” Gerald assured him.

  “Very well,” Arika said. “But we will critique your proposal in turn.”

  “Of course.”

  After exchanging glances among themselves, the Council members began to speak, going around the table from one to the next and then back to the first to begin again.

  “Well, marriage, obviously. Love.”

  “Travel—visiting other kingdoms.”

  “Friendship, alliances.”

  “Practical experience in planning and carrying out tasks.”

  “The bond of a shared experience.”

  “Independence.”

  “Self-reliance.”

  “It broadens the royals’ horizons.”

  “Strengthening alliances.”

  “Maintaining peace in the Kingdoms.”

  They started to trail off then and exchanged more glances with one another. Pejman shrugged. Arika sighed. “I trust we can add to the list if something more occurs to us?”

  At Gerald’s nod, Ivan broke in. “So what’s your proposal, then? And how it is better than this?”

  “Well,” Gerald said, “The reasoning behind the quest system is, essentially, to have the royals prove their worth, right? It can’t be too easy to find a spouse; each royal has to prove to their partner’s parents that they’re a good match, worthy of becoming part of the kingdom’s ruling family.”

  “Exactly,” Arika said. “Other classes, the merchants, craftspeople, farmers, and servants, even the magicians of the Council, they may marry with no consideration for the worth of their spouse, but royals must be able to show their strengths and the benefits they will bring to their new kingdom.”

  “Our proposal,” Gerald said, “is a showcase. Contests and demonstrations of skills. Any skill—every skill. Diplomacy, dancing, etiquette; singing or playing an instrument; needlepoint, embroidery, cooking, metalworking; horseback riding, archery, wrestling, swordplay. Royal skills, practical skills, and whatever else anyone can do well and is proud of. Everyone can show off what they can do. They can find a partner who likes the same things they do, or who has skills that would complement their own. Surely that is a better demonstration of what a royal will bring to their new kingdom, a better way to prove their worth. Especially because with the current system, only the rescuers actually show anything. The rescuees demonstrate, what? That they can sit quietly in a tower? They don’t get to prove themselves at all.”

  Pejman was smiling again and Sosha had quirked an eyebrow. Arika steepled her fingers together and leaned over the table. “That is true,” she said meditatively. “The kingdom must trust the rescuer’s judgment as to the suitability of the rescuee.”

  “For as much as you say this system is traditional,” Nedi broke in, “its traditions have still changed over time. It used to be that all princesses were sent to the towers and all princes were sent to rescue them. It was thought the women didn’t need to prove their worth because they had none. All that mattered was that the men were strong and smart enough to find the tower and defeat the guardian. But military skill is no longer in such demand. We have been at peace for so long. There are other skills that are more valuable for today’s royalty.”

  “Not to mention that every benefit you listed for the current system is also present—to a much greater degree—in our new one,” Gerald said. He ticked each point off one by one on his fingers as he spoke. “Travel—the rescuees don’t travel at all. They’re transported to their tower, and they stay there until they’re rescued. They only travel when they return with the rescuer to their kingdom. Even the rescuers don’t see much of the Thousand Kingdoms. They may cross three or four borders, but how many visit more kingdoms than that? With this system, every single royal would travel to the showcase. Every single royal would plan and carry out a journey; they would be responsible for transporting themselves and their supplies; they would need to read maps, be adequate riders, and be independent and self-sufficient.” He paused to make eye contact with each Council member. Pejman was stroking his beard thoughtfully and Arika was nodding along. Even Ivan seemed to be listening, although his eyes were narrowed as if he were listening for flaws.

  Satisfied he had their attention, Gerald continued. “Then, if the trip itself wasn’t sufficient to broaden their horizons, being exposed to dozens of fellow royals, from dozens of Kingdoms, with a wide variety of different interests, skills, home languages, customs, and modes of dress, would certainly be horizon-broadening.

  “Not to mention that what better way is there to find a compatible spouse than to be exposed to every possible candidate? In the current system, how many rescuers visit any given tower? No more than half a dozen, on average. How many towers does each rescuer visit? It can’t be much more than that. How many royals settle for the first adequate option because it’s too time-consuming and difficult to examine all of them? What better way to forge friendships and alliances than by interacting with one’s entire cohort? It takes all of the randomness out of the current system, where the rescuees are limited by who comes to their towers, and the rescuers are limited by which towers they manage to reach.

  “Not to mention,” he said again, thinking of Padma and Natali, “that the rescuer/rescuee system automatically takes half of one’s potential partners out of consideration. If you’re a rescuer, you can’t marry another rescuer, and the same for the rescuees. What’s to say one’s perfect partner will be on the right side of the equation? Really, it’s kind of amazing anyone ends up married at all in the current system.”

  Erick coughed when he said that, a strangled-sounding cough that was desperately trying to disguise laughter. Gerald had to bite his lip to keep from laughing himself when he realized what he had just said. Of all the people to be advocating for getting us married off!

  But the Council didn’t appear to find any of it amusing. Indeed, they were taking it all very seriously. “He has a point,” Pejman said. “Several, actually.”

  “He does,” Arika allowed. “On paper, at least.” She leaned forward. “How exactly do you plan to implement this showcase of yours? This is no small undertaking, to feed and shelter a hundred-odd royals, to tend to their baggage and laundry and mounts, to provide all the supplies for the showcase… And if everyone is demonstrating a skill, who will they be demonstrating to?”

  Nedi produced a sheaf of papers from her saddlebag. “I thought you’d never ask,” she said with a grin. “In this instance, there are no mounts to worry about, since the dragons helped with transport. But there is plenty of space for stabling in the future, when the royals will be expected to make their own
way here—”

  “Excuse me,” Ivan interrupted, frowning. “Did you say dragons? That is, plural?”

  “Oh, yes. That’s right, you don’t know,” she said innocently, as if she hadn’t been deliberately hiding the fact from them. “The showcase is in the dragonlands. It’s their spell on the borders, by the way, and they’re quite confident no human magic will be able to break the spell or breach the border. This parlay is really a bit of a formality, you know; we’re all already here, and you can’t actually stop this showcase from happening.”

  That got a stir out of the Council, but Nedi continued to speak over their murmurs. “However, as we said, we’re concerned with the future royal cohorts, and with the guardians. We’d quite like to convince you all that this is the way forward. So, where was I? Oh, yes. There is plenty of fodder and grazing and there are also ample supplies for humans. The dragonlands are also inhabited by a race of humanoids called piedlings, who are very skilled in all manner of domestic issues. They’ve been more than happy to help with cooking and cleaning and generally welcome us to the dragonlands.

  “As you can imagine,” she added, gesturing to the dragon behind them, “space is not an issue for those our size. Now,” she said, sliding a pair of papers across the table, “these are the diagrams of the showcase set-up. As you can see, we’ve roughly divided the floor into sections based on the category of skill being displayed. All the weapons in one place, all the crafts in another, all the musical or spoken displays in a third. The royals have been divided as well,” Nedi continued, holding up another sheet of parchment covered in columns of names. “Everyone has been assigned to a group, and the groups will rotate through the showcase: one day as a performer, one day as an observer, and so forth. Even within groups, further divisions can be made—performing in the morning versus the afternoon, for example—to ensure every royal has the opportunity to both see and be seen by every other royal. There is also mingling over meals and in guided tours of the dragonlands. If by the end of the showcase someone has failed to meet and speak to every single other royal, it will have been solely due to a deliberate effort on their part. This should lead to much better matches among the royals than the current random nature of the quests.”

  “You’ve certainly taken great pains with this,” Arika said, examining Nedi’s charts and diagrams, “and my colleague is right that you’ve made many good points. At the very least, we must evaluate the way the guardians are treated. You’re quite right that the current system has grown to be unnecessarily cruel to them. But the four of us here cannot simply say, yes, go ahead, change everything. This needs to be taken to the Ten, and then to the Hundred, and perhaps even to the full Thousand. We cannot give you an answer today.”

  “We expected as much,” Nedi said graciously. “How much time do you need? We can return to this site at your convenience. But in the meantime…the showcase is ready to go. Is there a reason why we cannot run it while you are debating? If nothing else, it will provide more data for the Council to base its decision on.”

  Arika exchanged glances with the others and then smiled. “As you pointed out, I don’t believe we have a way to stop you,” she said lightly. “Although… I would be very interested in observing your showcase in action. You’ve set it up as a multi-day affair; perhaps we will have reached an agreement before the end of it.”

  “I am sure arrangements could be made for a small Council audience,” Nedi allowed.

  “Then we will be in touch. This has been a very…educational morning.” As one, the Council members pushed their chairs back and stood, the secretary joining them a beat later, his papers hastily gathered up. Arika raised her hands and the five of them vanished smoothly and silently—and without the painful light their arrival had brought.

  Nedi looked altogether smug as she gestured to the others to get back on the dragon. Erick opened his mouth to say something, but Nedi shushed him. She tapped her ear as if to show the Council might be listening in. “Talk at the caves,” she mouthed. “Let’s go!”

  Omar helped Gerald up and Gerald winced when he tried to put his weight on his right leg. Sitting for so long had made his knee lock up, but he smiled reassuringly at Omar when he frowned with concern.

  But by the time they got back to the amphitheater, as short a flight as it was, Gerald was ready to lie down again—which was just as well, since Calin, who had been pacing around the reception area, was determined to cart him back to bed as soon as the dragon landed.

  “I won’t be held responsible for you backsliding into another fever,” she said, even though Gerald hadn’t said a word in protest. “If you three want to keep talking to him, you can do so in his room.”

  Omar followed Gerald and Calin, but Nedi said, “I have to make sure the most recent arrivals are on the list. We have permission now, we might as well go ahead and get the showcase underway tomorrow!”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  IT WASN’T UNTIL they all sat down to dinner that night to go over the final details that Nedi said, “Gerald, you haven’t signed up for anything.”

  Gerald looked down at his plate. “I know.”

  “Well? What would you like?”

  “I, um, wasn’t planning on signing up.”

  She gaped at him. “It’s your idea! How can you not participate?”

  “There’s no point,” Gerald said. “I’m not… I can’t get married. There’s no point in doing the showcase.”

  “It’s not going to look good if you don’t,” Nedi persisted. “And what do you mean, you can’t get married? Of course you can. You have to, as a matter of fact.”

  Gerald wished he could get up and walk away from the conversation, but his leg kept him trapped at the table. “Well, I’ve actually been thinking about that,” Gerald said slowly, “and I can always abdicate. Lila’s the heir, anyway. Andine doesn’t need me. And if I’m not a royal prince anymore, no one can make me marry.”

  Nedi looked like Gerald had announced his intention to learn how to fly. “You can’t be serious. You would abdicate just because you don’t want to get married?”

  Erick sighed. “You can’t simply abdicate, Meathead. The Queens would have to accept your petition, and frankly, I can’t see them doing that. Look, you were the one saying all of that stuff this morning about meeting all the other royals and finding a match. How many of the royals have you actually spoken to? A dozen? Why so convinced you’re not going to find one to marry?”

  Gerald rubbed his face. “Because I don’t feel that way about people.”

  “You don’t feel that way yet,” Erick corrected.

  “No,” Gerald said firmly. “I don’t feel that way. I never have and I never will.”

  “You can’t know that until you try it.”

  Gerald throttled the urge to throw his plate at his cousin. No one ever listens. His hands were shaking. He was so tired of having to defend himself, but it didn’t seem like he had any other choice. “You like girls,” Gerald said. “Only girls. Right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, how do you know you just don’t like boys yet? Have you tried it?”

  “No, but that’s different…”

  “Why? Why is it different? It’s exactly the same. You know who you like. You know who you don’t like. Well, so do I! And I don’t like anyone!”

  “Everyone likes someone,” Erick said impatiently.

  “No! They don’t! I don’t! And I’m tired of no one believing me!” Gerald could feel his face heating up and he blinked furiously, trying to keep the tears welling up in his eyes from spilling down his face.

  “I believe you,” Omar reminded him softly. “Erick, you’re way out of line.”

  Erick shook his head in disbelief. “You, of all people—you’re the one with a crush on him! Don’t you want him to like you back?”

  “It doesn’t matter what I want. I can’t force Gerald to feel something he doesn’t feel, and neither can you. Neither can his parents, or anyone. Le
ave him alone, Erick. Nedi, if you’re so worried about how it’ll look, put down that he’s medically unable to participate. I’m sure Calin will gladly forbid him to participate if you ask her. All right? Does that make everyone happy?” He glared around the table, challenging them to say it didn’t.

  Erick rolled his eyes but kept his mouth closed. Nedi nodded cautiously. She seemed unsure of how to respond to the rest of it. Gerald wondered whose side she was on. Not mine.

  “That’s a good compromise,” she said. “I can do that. Um. I hope you’ll come as an observer, though, Gerald. It was your idea. You should see how it’s come to life.”

  Gerald made a noncommittal noise.

  After a tense moment with the four of them looking at each other, waiting to see if someone was going to start the argument up again, Erick turned back to his dinner. With a quiet exhale that wasn’t quite a sigh of relief, Nedi picked up her fork as well. But when Gerald looked back at his own plate, his stomach twisted. “I’m not hungry anymore,” he said. “I’m going back to my room.”

  He pushed back from the table and tried to turn the wheeled chair toward the hall, but it was stuck on the table leg. That was almost enough to push him over the edge into furious, frustrated tears. I am not going to cry in front of them!

  Omar hastily got up and untangled Gerald’s chair. “I’m not hungry either. I’ll take you back.”

  The chair moved smoothly with Omar guiding it and Gerald tried to relax. His hands were still shaking, and he clasped them in his lap in an effort to hide it. His eyes stung with tears he refused to shed, and he berated himself for even wanting to cry. It’s not like it’s going to help anything. You’ll just look like a child. That’s not going to make anyone think you’re worth listening to.

  “Do you want to talk about it?” Omar asked hesitantly when they were safely back in the bedroom. Gerald settled on the rush mattress and leaned back against the wall. He fingered the blanket folded at the end of the bed and considered pulling it over his head and hiding from everything until he felt less miserable. Because that wouldn’t be childish at all.