“Myr Serbastient? Oh he’s lovely, he really is, I couldn’t have asked for a better Advisor. He’s the real brains of the operation.”
“Yeah, but what does he actually do?”
“Oh, well, any motions that are brought by government ministers or visiting district Lords – like your father – or often by me, are debated in the parliamentary sessions. Then Myr Serbastient and I retire to discuss them. He tells me what he thinks first, and if I agree, then that’s good, the motions are carried.”
“And if you don’t agree?”
She chuckled. “Well then I try and convince him of my point of view, but in the end, the decisions are up to him.”
“What? But you’re the Queen!”
“Yes, but he’s my Advisor, that’s how it works! It’s worked for thousands of years in the Enclaves, and has worked Outside since the Leaving. His wisdom and experience counter my youthful exuberance and all that.”
She told me about her childhood in a fishing village on the coast just north of Allyon. She had been studying history and law at the Allyon Academy when she had been selected. She told me about the election process and having her portrait painted by Ashlu – “He’s quite mad, you know!” – and the other Candidates and her coronation.
“It was the most intense, surreal experience. All those people cheering and going crazy. I half expected it to be some huge, elaborate prank. I couldn’t quite believe anyone had voted for me!”
She told me about her days in the castle, conducting the parliamentary sessions and it occurred to me that for all the attention lavished on her by her adoring public, she led a rather lonely existence. Her closest ally was an eighty-three year old man, after all. I began to see the attraction of wearing the Nea’thi disguise so she could go incognito around the city. I could also see the attraction of having a friend like me, who wasn’t interested in her power as Queen, but who was fully prepared to like her just for being her.
The time must have flown by, because as the late afternoon sun slanted through the Thistle’s windows, we heard footsteps on the staircase and I looked over as Charlie and Anna wandered through the archway into the lounge.
“Oh, hullo Charlie, Anna. Nice picnic?”
Anna certainly looked more relaxed and happy than I had seen her for some time, and she smiled at me, before her eyes drifted to the Queen, narrowing slightly for a second as Charlie greeted us.
“Oh yes, thanks Jas, it was lovely. Hullo your majesty, I like the disguise!”
Thaelique flashed me a rueful grin. “They are perceptive, aren’t they?”
Charlie laughed heartily. “Well, that’s my job! Mind if we join you?”
The Queen smiled and nodded her assent and they sat with us by the fire. O’Malley came up presently with another bottle of the ’83 Shiraz and two more glasses, and Charlie packed the hookah with more Red. As Anna engaged Thaelique in polite conversation I leaned in and spoke quietly to Charlie.
“Um, hey, did you happen to stop by the Hall on your way?”
“Nope, we came straight here from the ferry. Why?”
“Oh, never mind. I was just wondering if you had seen Emma.”
“Emma? Why…? Oh, did you and Sallagh…?”
“Um, break up? Yeah.”
“Oh JJ, you poor lad, are you alright?”
I nodded. I was more than alright, actually. I had spent the afternoon with the woman of my dreams, and had hardly thought of Sallagh the entire time.
“Good! It was about time. Still, poor old Sall, eh? Did Emma threaten to string you up?”
“Actually no, she was rather good about it. She made me buy brandy and cake for them though.”
Charlie chortled. “I bet she did! How did you end up here then?”
“I found Jaseth at the cake shop, laden with chocolate. He asked me for a drink,” Thaelique, overhearing, said helpfully.
“Ha, that’s my boy!” Charlie clapped me soundly on the back. “Now, more Red, anyone?”
We chatted aimlessly for a bit, surprisingly comfortable in each other’s company, although I noticed Anna and Thaelique each sizing the other up. Anna eventually nodded, seemingly having come to some decision about the Queen.
“Now, just because we haven’t had our lessons today, Jaseth, I hope that doesn’t mean you haven’t been practising,” Anna told me, mock-sternly.
“I have so! Look!” Hell, I may have been a bit merry at this point, and if my Hầұeӣ would impress Thaelique, then so be it. I constructed a visibility shield around myself and she gasped.
“Oh! Jaseth! Where did you go?”
I laughed, grateful that it had worked. “See? I reckon I’ve got it pretty good now!” I relaxed the shield and came back into view.
“That’s amazing!” Thaelique clapped her hands together. “Did you teach him this, Myn Anna?”
The corner of Anna’s mouth quirked. “Nicely done, Jaseth. Yes, Thaelique, I have been teaching a few of the Bloodkin some defensive techniques.” She was quiet for a while, considering. “You seem to have Saturdays off, yes? Perhaps you would like to join us for our lessons sometime?”
“That’s very kind, Myn Anna, but I’m not Nea’thi-Blood.”
“No, but has anyone ever taught you how to disrupt someone who is trying to use Hầұeӣ?”
The Queen shook her head but was clearly interested.
“What with the current… climate, perhaps it would be prudent to know a few defensive techniques yourself. We meet here on Saturday mornings. Early.”
Thaelique smiled her half-dimpled smile. “Early is good.”
I could have kissed Anna, she had just made a way for me to see the Queen every week! I asked Charlie about this later on, after I’d walked Thaelique back to the castle, her hand resting on my arm in glorious closeness.
“Did you tell Anna to do that?”
“Do what?”
“Ask Thael to come to our lessons.”
“Heh, now why would I go do such a thing?” He grinned and winked at me. “No, actually, she came up with it all by herself. It is a good idea. For the Queen’s safety and all that.”
“Oh, well, yes of course.”
“And you get to see her every week, so everyone wins!”
He was perched on the side of the couch in our room and I gave him a gentle shove, enough to send him rolling off the couch onto the floor.
“Ooh, you’re gonna get it now, boyo!” And with a yell he came at me and grabbed me in a tight headlock, scrubbing his fist into my scalp until we were both shouting with laughter.
he next week passed oh so slowly. Sallagh ignored me completely at the Academy and at the Hall, and it would have been awkward as hell if I hadn’t been totally preoccupied with thoughts of Thaelique. Saturday finally came around, dawning damp and cold. I woke early, without the help of Charlie for once, even though I had been up late the night before practising – I didn’t want to muck anything up in front of the Queen.
After meditating I bathed carefully, then met the others to walk to the Shivering Thistle. Anna had sent a note during the week, requesting that the Mentors come with us, so it was a group of six that set out through the drizzly morning. When we arrived, Anna had banked the fire and Lux was lying on a couch, looking for all intents and purposes to be fast asleep. She opened one eye as we came in.
“The mystery guest still not here? Hmph,” she sniffed. On cue, Thaelique in her full disguise entered the lounge.
“She is now,” she said quietly, and the others spun round to look at her, Telgeth letting out a muffled yelp.
I expected Lux to challenge the Queen, or at least make some acerbic comment, but either she didn’t realise who Thaelique was, or simply didn’t care, as she just yawned loudly and levered herself upright.
“Well can we get on with it then? The sooner we start, the sooner I can leave.”
The lesson was about constructing a shield around something – or someone – to prevent movement. As this was an exercise in de
fence, not execution, the shield had to be able to permit the flow of oxygen, while still being solid enough to freeze the target in place. We had to practise on our own hands first, before Anna let us have a go at immobilising our Mentors. Thaelique sat quietly in the corner, listening and watching, while Anna explained the technique. When Anna had finished with us, she moved off to speak to the Queen. I tried to keep one ear on what Anna was saying to her, but constructing the shield was hard, especially as I was trying not to suffocate Charlie.
I took a break after a while so Lux could have a turn practising on Charlie and sat down to watch the Queen and Anna. She was showing Thaelique how to distract someone who was attempting to use Hầұeӣ. She had the Queen gesture wildly to try and catch the eye, and make a series of loud noises. Anna had brought a small sack of pebbles and had Thaelique throw them at her as she tried to construct an immobility shield.
At lunchtime the weather had cleared and sun was beginning to break through the clouds, so we took a break and went around to our usual café for sandwiches and coffee and a pipe of White. In the afternoon, under the close supervision of Anna and the Mentors, we took it in turns to try and immobilise the Queen, while she used some of the tricks Anna had taught her to try and distract us. Using Hầұeӣ on Thaelique made me nervous, and what with her trying to reflect light directly into my eyes using a little mirror Anna had given her, or throwing the pebbles at me, I was completely unable to even get close to constructing the shield.
By mid-afternoon we were all weary and none of us had even been able to hold the Queen in place for more than a couple of seconds. Anna seemed satisfied with our progress, however, and finally dismissed us.
Outside, Lux made a beeline for the gondola with barely a wave of goodbye. The rest of us walked somewhat more sedately through the Quarter, and at the turnoff to the Hall no one seemed to find it unusual when I carried on with Thaelique. At the bridge to the castle where I usually left her, she paused for a second.
“So, uh, will you be joining us again next week?” I asked her hopefully.
“Oh yes. Today was most instructive, but Anna has a few more things she wants to show me.” She nibbled her bottom lip for a second. “Jaseth, would you like to come in and have a drink with me? I have no official engagements for the evening and could use the company.”
Well I wasn’t going to say no to that, so I followed the Queen across the bridge, under the huge gateway and through the courtyard of the castle, feeling the guards on the walls watching me at all times. From the reception area, Thaelique led me up the grand staircase, then through the warren of the castle’s living quarters. The thick, ancient stone walls were covered in tapestries for warmth, and the corridors were lit with a combination of candles and glowbes. We went up two more flights of stairs, winding our way through the castle until I figured we were at the back somewhere. Finally, in a corner, Thaelique unlocked a heavy wooden door opening onto a flight of circular stone stairs. It appeared that her private rooms were in one of the towers that faced the lake. At the top of the stairs she unlocked another door and we stepped into her living room, before she locked the door behind her.
“Well, here we are,” she said, gesturing around the room. It was a large, square space, with another door that presumably led to her sleeping quarters. It wasn’t nearly as opulent as I had expected. A fire had already been lit in the grate in the middle of the far wall, and was surrounded by two armchairs and a couch much like mine and Charlie’s room at the Hall. A few, bright, interesting paintings hung on the walls, interspersed with more thick tapestries to keep out the cold. Narrow windows were set into all the four walls, offering views of the lake and back over the castle to the city. At one end of the room was a small dining table, surrounded by six dining chairs; the other end had a number of upright chairs and short side-tables, arranged in a formal setting. On the other wall, just down from the door we had entered through, was a large desk, neatly stacked with papers. There was a large glowbe set in a pretty filigree sconce to illuminate Thaelique’s work, and a large jar of a dark teal ink – the Queen obviously had to refill her pen frequently with all the writing she did.
Thaelique motioned that I was to sit by the fire, as she opened a small cooler close to the dining table and began rummaging inside.
“Now, I could have someone bring up something from the cellars, but there’s one or two bottles in here for regular consumption… Ah, will this be sufficient, Lord Jaseth?”
She smiled playfully as she handed me the bottle to inspect. It was a 587 Jaelshead Chardonnay and would most certainly be sufficient. Out of all the varieties that we grew in the Jaelshead valley, Chardonnay was the only one I actively disliked, but nevertheless, I had heard the ’87 was supposed to be a cracker. And if a Queen offers you a drink, you bloody well take it.
Thaelique left me with two glasses and a corkscrew and ducked upstairs to quickly wash off her disguise. When she returned I toasted her health and we drank a glass of the admittedly fine wine. We talked about nothing in particular, though she was rather interested in Lux, so I ended up telling her the whole story of Joey and Charlie’s rescue of the baby Mingle. She looked thoughtful as I told her again about Lux’ father’s theft of the Black moss. When we had finished one glass, I poured another and Thaelique stood, going over to her desk and retrieving a long, silver-handled pipe and a black velvet bag containing her smaller pouches of moss.
“We should go upstairs,” she told me and I gulped, loud enough that I fervently hoped she, with her normal Human hearing, didn’t notice. The Queen’s bedroom was upstairs, was she inviting me to—
“To the balcony,” she continued after a brief pause. Oh hell, did she do that on purpose? Again, I got the distinct impression that Thaelique was amusing herself at my expense.
“Um, yeah. Balcony sounds good.”
Thaelique gathered up her glass and the bottle, leaving me to take up the pipe and the moss as well as my glass. Up the spiral staircase she led me through the left-hand door, and we were out on the balcony.
Before the Leaving, the whole top floor of the tower would have been open. The battlements looked straight over the side of the castle to the lake below, and catapults had probably been set up between them to fend off attacks on the castle by water. Now, however, the half of the rooftop that faced the city had been built in to contain the sleeping and bathing quarters of the current Monarch. The open part of the roof was where we now stood. Thaelique placed the wine on a small round table and gestured to a brazier beside it, filled with new wood, but unlit.
“Jaseth, would you care to light this for me?”
I obliged, sparking the bottom of the brazier with Hầұeӣ until hungry flames licked the wood. That done, I sat with Thaelique as she packed her pipe with some Red moss and handed it to me to light.
“You’re pretty handy with that,” she observed, accepting the smoking pipe.
“Yeah, it’s pretty good now I’m not going around setting random things on fire.”
“Oh?” She raised an amused eyebrow at me, so I told her about the night the Nea’thi assessors had come to Jaelshead and I caused the huge fire in the leaf pile. That had been a bitter memory – just another reminder of my parents’ lack of trust in me, but telling Thaelique about it somehow seemed to drain the poison away, and she laughed gaily with me about the foibles of my sixteen-year-old self.
As the spring sun angled around and began its descent over the lake to the west, we drank and enjoyed the Red and laughed. I surprised myself with the ease of Thaelique’s company. It had only been a few months since I had seen her in person for the first time and could barely look her in the eye. At one point I stood and went to inspect the battlements, arranged in blocks around the waist-high wall that ran the perimeter of the rooftop. From here, you couldn’t even see the city, just the lake stretching out to the south. We could have been anywhere, the two of us, alone. Thaelique came and stood beside me as I ran my hand over the rough, old stone.
“Isn’t it?” She smiled ruefully at me. “Though I get a touch of vertigo when I stand too close to the edge.” She sighed, her mood changing. “It’s hard to imagine a time when Humans needed all this to be safe.” She indicated the battlements with a movement of her wine glass.
“Yeah, well, apparently we loved our wars!” I said, trying to lighten the moment, but she looked at me seriously.
“There were so many wars. Too many. People doing disgusting, terrible things to each other, and for what? Because there were mad, greedy people in charge, demanding their subjects give their lives to acquire that which did not belong to them.”
I was a bit disturbed by this turn in the conversation, and used the opportunity to place a hand lightly on her shoulder.
“Well at least we don’t have to worry about that anymore.”
She looked at me, considering. “But do you really think that?” she almost whispered.
What did she mean by that?
“Well, yes! Of course! There hasn’t been a war since the Leaving.”
She sighed and turned back to the lake. “Has it occurred to you that there could very well be a war in the making right now?”
I laughed, too loudly. Was she serious? “Who would we go to war with? Yhull?”
She shook her head. “I don’t think so. I think our enemy is within us.”
Which didn’t really make sense.
“What, are you worried about the Mingles and stuff?”
She glanced at me quickly, a sad smile on her lips. “Worried? Yes, that would be one way to put it.” She shrugged her shoulders. “I’m sorry, I didn’t bring you up here to unburden myself. Shall we have some more Red?”
I was so pleased with myself, so distracted by the joy of being alone with Thaelique that I didn’t pay much thought to what she had said. Later on, afterwards, I would look back on what she had told me and wonder. Wonder if maybe, had I listened to her, would things have worked out differently? Could I have somehow prevented what happened? Stupid, I know, to think that way, but it kept coming back to haunt me: the contents of a conversation with the beautiful Queen, held as the sun went down one particular spring day.
Bloodkin (Jaseth of Jaelshead) Page 31