“You ready?” Cali asked.
“Never been more ready,” I responded truthfully. I was never more ready to take the crown and devote my life to ruling Tamporlea. I was ready to forget about being with Tyran and I was ready to leave the past behind me.
“Good morning everyone,” Orion said. “Thank you again for coming to the crowning ceremony of Tamporlea’s fourteenth Queen. I know that this is a most unusual situation considering the technical heir of Tamporlea is not Miss Jasmine. However, Miss Jasmine is the true heir of Tamporlea. She has shown a love for our kingdom that cannot be broken. I believe her intentions are true and I know that she will serve us well. Miss Jasmine, would you like to say a few words?”
I had to make a speech? I had nothing prepared but maybe speaking from my heart without a script would serve to be a better choice. I stood up and looked at everyone sitting in the crowd with their eyes on me. “My mom used to tell me that I was bound to do something big with my life. She had more confidence in me than I ever did in myself. When I was brought to Tamporlea, I didn’t think I would ever stay. Even when I was told that I could be your Queen, I didn’t find myself worthy of accepting. It wasn’t until I felt the love of Calalilly, Orion, Guard Tyran and so many others that I realized that this is where I belong.
“I will never forget that I’m not the technical heir to Tamporlea. If I were to forget that, then I would forget the fact that it was you all who spoke up and chose me. Being your Queen is a true honor and I will forever be grateful that you ignored tradition and went with your heart. I will spend the rest of my life making sure that you all never regret that decision. I promise to lead you all with my heart and my head as we take on whatever is to come our way. With Calalilly by my side, we will serve Tamporlea in a way that will make you all proud.”
When I finished, Cali and Orion stood by my side and Orion spoke again. “Miss Calalilly Cross, you have been chosen to serve as the personal assistant of the fourteenth Queen of Tamporlea. You have agreed to remove yourself from your duties as a Reader and use all of your knowledge to help our Queen on her way to achieving greatness. Miss Calalilly, are you ready to serve our Queen to the best of your ability no matter what that entails?”
“I am,” she said confidently.
“Miss Jasmine Rae Taylor, you have been chosen to serve as the fourteenth Queen of Tamporlea. In doing so, you leave behind the real world to reign here for the rest of your life. Miss Jasmine, are you ready to be responsible for the well-being and prosperity of our kingdom, no matter what that entails?”
“I am,” I said just as confident as my assistant.
Orion lifted the oak box that held the crown and opened its lid. “Miss Jasmine, please remove the crown of your ancestors and place it upon your head.” I did as he instructed and when it was secure, he said, “You are now officially crowned the Queen of Tamporlea.” He turned to the crowd and announced loudly, “I give to you all, Queen Jasmine Taylor of Tamporlea, and her assistant, Miss Calalilly Cross!”
The crowd irrupted in joyous applause, everyone was smiling and some were crying. Children clapped with all their might as I stood before them. I looked to Tyran who was joining in their applause with no reservation or regret on his face, he was truly happy for me despite the fact that this was truly the end of us.
Cali and I led the way with Orion and Tyran right behind us, followed by the rest of the kingdom. Everything felt so surreal like I was floating through my movements, as if I were in a dream. Inside the kingdom there were several small tables with a bit of something to eat at each one along with chairs where people could stop and rest their feet. I was shaking hands, hugging and chatting with everyone who came to offer their congratulations. Everyone seemed to be in very high spirits offering toasts with their sparkling white grape juice with raspberries in flutes which apparently was my signature drink now. There was classical music being played and people were dancing over the inlayed jade T. I hadn’t seen anyone have this much fun since arriving in Tamporlea.
I noticed Tyran sitting alone at one of the tables and went to join him. When he noticed me, he stood up and smiled. “Queen Jasmine, congratulations. So glad this ceremony went off without a hitch.”
“Thank you. Me too, I don’t know what I would do if this ceremony was interrupted as well.”
“I want you to know that I really am happy for you. You deserve this you know.”
“About last night,” I whispered.
“I don’t regret a single second.”
“You don’t?”
“No, we’ll have our chance,” he said with a wink.
“You really believe that don’t you?”
“Of course Queen Jasmine.”
“Don’t focus on that, okay? We still need our Guard Tyran.”
“As you wish. Oh, I think your assistant is looking for you,” he said pointing to Cali.
“Oh, I’d better go.”
“Sure.”
When I caught up to Cali, she rushed me to the tunnels where Orion was there waiting for us. I figured we were meeting in there so that no one would see us going into one of the meeting rooms. I wondered what could be so important.
“Queen Jasmine, I’m sorry to take you away from the festivities.”
“That’s quite alright. What’s wrong Orion?”
“I’ve received intelligence that Queen Aella is going to declare war on Tamporlea. She knows you were crowned.”
“She can’t do that. We have a peace treaty with Pyrencia,” Cali said.
“Yes, well, it seems that the Queen is going to break the treaty.”
“Orion, are you sure she knows I was crowned or is she just assuming?” I asked.
“She knows. I don’t know how, but she knows.”
“When do you think this attack will happen?”
“I don’t know. Not tonight, but very soon. Probably within the next week. What do you suggest?” he asked me.
“Oh, uh. I suggest we go back to the party. There’s no sense in spoiling everyone’s good time, especially after yesterday’s upset. Orion, if you don’t mind, you could pull the Heads aside and let them know that there will be a meeting immediately following dinner. I think for right now, it’s important that the rest of the palace sees that we are happy and having a good time. We better get going before we are missed.”
Chapter 14
The 15th Treaty
Going through the next couple hours until dinner was hectic. In between talking with just about everyone in the kingdom, I was thinking about a strategy. I only had a limited knowledge of the other two kingdoms and only enough about Tamporlea that could be crammed into two weeks. I was sure that Orion would help me along the way but real decisions were going to have to be made by me now that I was Queen.
At least when we were seated for dinner, I had other things to focus on as everyone still wanted to talk to me. The mood was still exciting and although everyone was seated the different tables that were set up, keeping the conversation going was easy with the enchantments that had been set. It was strange addressing everyone the way Orion usually did before eating. I even waited for Orion stand up and talk, but he leaned over to me and said, “This is your thing now.” I don’t even remember what I said, other than thanking everyone for a lovely reception.
Once everyone had eaten the beautiful dinner and dessert, they started making their way to their homes after saying goodnight to me and Cali. When just about twenty people were left lingering, and the Commoners were all in the kitchen to clean up, Orion, Cali and I made our way to the platinum room for the meeting. I had not been in this meeting room before and I realized that this was the Queen’s meeting room. It was the biggest open room I had seen, almost like the downstairs dinner space. There was a large table in the middle with maps of Tamporlea, Jarnay and Pyrencia laminated on the top. Orion pulled out the chair at the head of the table for me to sit in and Cali was sitting to my right as Orion took his seat to my left.
“He
llo everyone. I’m so sorry that this is going to be an extremely long night for us all. Unfortunately, I’ve received some information that must be shared with you all. It appears as though Queen Aella knows that I was crowned this morning and she has made plans to attack our kingdom.” There was an immediate chattering around the table over this announcement.
“Queen Jasmine, that can’t be right, we have a peace treaty with them,” Tyran spoke.
“Yes, but for some reason Queen Aella is going to break that treaty. We all know how adamant she was about Lilliana being Queen.”
“I was thinking about this and I really think this all has to do with the 15th Treaty,” Calalilly spoke.
“But that treaty hasn’t expired yet. That‘s what we‘re all trying to say,” Enchanter Kelly spoke.
“What’s the 15th Treaty?” I asked.
“The third Queen of Tamporlea was a twin. This was a time when the heir to the throne lived in Tamporlea waiting until it was her time to rule.” Cali started. “There was no potion prolonging the life of the Queen so on average a Queen would rule about twenty years. Well, although Queen Terian took her rightful place as Queen, her sister Pearl was very resentful. Her whole life she had felt cheated and she thought that Terian had received special treatment. The day before Terian was crowned, Pearl begged Terian to let them rule together. Of course, Terian said no. After Terian was crowned, Pearl left the kingdom and single-handedly built the kingdom of Pyrencia. Knowing most of Tamporlea’s business she waited for the Runners, Guards, Enchanters or whoever to come to town. She convinced them, probably by force, to join her in Pyrencia.”
“Didn’t Queen Terian know what was going on?” I asked.
“Not really,” Cali continued, “Tensions were high in Tamporlea already. People were angry about their living conditions. At the time there were over a thousand people living here. It wasn’t nearly as organized as it is now. People were leaving every day and Pearl was promising them a better life in Pyrencia. Anyway, it took about three years before Pearl had about two hundred people in her kingdom.
“Pearl was training them all from day one that they would take over Tamporlea. On the fifth year after Pyrencia was founded, they attacked Tamporlea in the dead of night. Many were killed from both sides. It took about a year before things calmed down enough for Pearl and Terian to agree on a peace treaty.
“The 15th Treaty states that there would be no wars or attacks on Tamporlea or Pyrencia until the 15th Queen of Tamporlea takes the crown. Pearl only agreed because she thought it would only be 150-200 years before Pyrecia was the ruling kingdom. Although she wasn’t going to see it in her lifetime, she was satisfied that it would be shortly after her time. She had no idea that Tamporlea’s potioners were already very close to creating a potion to prolong life. Tamporlea was hoping to gain as much time as possible so that the feud between the two kingdoms would calm down and there would be no worries over a war.”
“This seems to be the answer, except for one thing,” I said.
“Jasmine isn’t the 15th Queen, she’s the 14th,” Tyran said.
“Under our standards, yes, but not according to Pyrencia. We consider the founder of Tamporlea to be the High Priestess, a supreme being. She was never referred to as Queen by anyone in Tamporlea. However, the very few times she is mentioned in Pyrencia’s history books, she is called Queen, which would make you the 15th Queen. It’s the only loophole. Personally I think Pearl created the loophole as a way to sneak attack us at the fourteenth Queen. We really wouldn’t put much thought into Pyrencia referring to the High Priestess as Queen because Syeira was never Pyrencia‘s High Priestess.”
“Alright, so in their mind, the treaty has been fulfilled,” I said. “I just have two questions. First, why wouldn’t Pyrencia just break the treaty when they realized we had the potion to prolong life? Second, what does this have to do with Lilliana?”
Orion answered, “Pyrencia would never break a treaty that their first Queen made. It would dishonor her and the whole kingdom. I don’t think Tamporlea used the Queen’s Potion until after Queen Terian and Queen Pearl died, solidifying the treaty that much more.”
“As far as Lilliana,” Tyran started, “We can only make assumptions. I think that Aella wanted Lilliana to be Queen because Lilliana would have a loyalty toward Pyrencia. It would make it easier for Aella to take over Tamporlea. She’s being used as a pawn.”
“But they didn’t know if we would have her be Queen or not. That’s quite a chance to take,” I said.
“I don’t think it was ever supposed to happen like that. It’s possible that Lilliana was supposed to take your place before you were ever brought to Tamporlea.”
“What do you mean by that?” I asked.
“This is all speculation,” Orion interrupted. “No one knows what Queen Aella is or was planning. If that were the plan to use Lilliana as a pawn, Lilliana could have figured it out after seventeen years of living there,” Orion argued.
“Maybe, but even if she did know and wanted to resist, where would she go?” Tyran said.
“Alright,” I said. “I don’t know if we will ever have the answer but I think we should do some more research. I want all the Readers searching the histories of the kingdoms, but tell them we are only looking to fill loopholes. Maybe there’s an answer we just haven’t put together yet, like the 15th Queen loophole.”
“What are you going to tell the rest of the kingdom?” Orion asked me.
“Nothing has happened yet. I think its best not to cause a panic. They’ll have to be told soon enough but I think it would be best if we wait to let them in on the full scale of everything.”
“Is there anything else we can do?” Enchanter Kelly asked.
“Yes, I remember the first night I was here, Orion made an announcement that the Enchanters were close to developing new enchantments to protect our kingdom. What is the status of that?”
“Well, we are ready to test them I suppose. We’d have to work around the clock to have everything ready in a week though.”
“Just do what you can, don’t spread yourself too thin though. If a war is started we are going to need you more than ever at that point,” I stressed.
“Queen Jasmine,” Healer Rebecca spoke. “During the celebration, people were already speculating that Queen Aella would be bound to do something.”
“Ok, let’s not entertain those speculations. However, if you do happen to hear people talking about it, maybe try to listen to what they’re saying. They could be thinking something that we have overlooked. Okay, let’s meet here again tomorrow evening after dinner. I don’t think there’s anything more we need to discuss,” I concluded.
When everyone except Cali and Orion were gone I took a deep breath.
“Queen Jasmine, I am impressed,” Orion said.
“Impressed?”
“Yes, you did a very good job in this meeting. I didn’t have to guide you at all.”
“I was just doing what I thought was right.”
“Miss Calalilly and I have some assistant business to attend to. I think maybe you should go relax for a bit. We’ll come find you.”
“Alright. I think I will go for a walk or something. It looks like Casper is ready to run,” I said looking at my dog sitting in front of the door.
“You need a Guard,” Cali pointed out.
“I’ll ask Tyran,” I said. Cali gave me a look of surprise, but I knew that I felt more protected with Tyran than anyone else.
Tyran was speaking with some of the other Guards when I came out of the meeting room. I waited patiently until he saw me and excused himself.
“Do you need something Queen Jasmine?” he asked.
“Yes, would you mind escorting Casper and I outside?”
“Oh, sure,” he said leading the way. We went to the open field and Casper ran off looking for a stick. “You know, you don’t have to do this anymore. You have assistants to do this kind of work.”
“I suppose that wil
l come in handy, but I like spending time with my dog. He’s the last link I have to where I came from,” I said throwing the stick Casper brought to me.
“How does it feel?”
“What do you mean?”
“Being Queen of course.”
“A little weird,” I admitted. “I mean I’m sure I’ll adjust, but it was strange to so quickly taking over what Orion has done since I’ve been here. Even making the simple speech at dinner was weird to me. Orion had to tell me that it was my job now.”
Tyran laughed and said, “You could have fooled me. It seems as though you are a natural at this.”
“Thank you,” I said.
“But, do you….do you feel any different?” he asked nervously.
“About you?” I asked.
“No! That’s not what I meant at all. Do you feel like you might have some magic in you?”
“Oh,” I said thinking. “I hadn’t even thought about that. I don’t think so, how would I know?”
“You would know. Don’t worry about it, I was just curious.”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Of course you can.”
“Do I have to wear this crown all the time?”
He laughed and said, “Not your style?”
“That’s not it, it’s beautiful. I just don’t know what’s expected. I mean Cali and Orion have filled me in on some more major things but it’s the little things I’m not sure of.”
“No, you don’t have to wear the crown all the time. Queen Holly would wear it to major meetings especially with the other kingdoms and she would wear it for celebrations. I think it’s really what you want to do. There’s no rhyme or reason to it.”
“Are you afraid of Pyrencia attacking?”
“I am worried, but not too much. I mean, they don’t have nearly as much magic as we do. They would have to strategize a pretty complicated plan.”
Tamporlea (Tamporlea Trilogy, Book 1) Page 15