by Brad Clark
Melanie leaned out the window next to her and let out a gleeful screech. If anyone was not meant for travel, it was Melanie. Although she spent so much time complaining, she would have to admit that getting away from the castle in the middle of winter was actually enjoyable.
Their drivers led them straight towards the open gates and paused only slightly for the city guard who manned the gates to give a proper salute to the returning queen. As they passed under, a trumpet blared five times, formally signaling the arrival of the queen for all the city to hear.
To Melanie’s dismay, Elissa left the window open while the carriage drove through the city. She didn’t just poke her head out, she leaned all the way out, her entire torso out the window, waving to everyone she saw. Within minutes, the streets were lined with revelers who cheered the queen’s arrival. Most probably did not know that she had left. But the excitement of seeing the queen in the middle of a cold and snowy winter day rose their spirits. The queen laughed and smiled all the way to her castle.
The portcullis dropped the moment the carriage rode under. Hardly a moment later, the carriage came to a quick stop and the side door was opened. Arpwin stepped back to allow the ladies to step down into the courtyard.
“Your Majesty,” Arpwin said with a smile and a dip of his head. “Welcome back.”
Elissa returned the smile. “Thank you Arpwin.”
Arpwin fell into step with her as they walked towards the main doors of the castle. She glanced over at him and caught an odd look on his face. Although his lips were still lifted in a smile, his eyes had lost their luster. It lasted only for a moment when he thought that she wasn’t looking. Clearly something was wrong.
She stopped and asked, “The preparations for the masquerade ball. They are all in order?”
Whatever thoughts that had crossed his mind were now gone. Arpwin’s bright eyes and sharp smile were back. “Of course, Your Majesty. On schedule. Five days from today, the courtyard will be filled with carriages from around the kingdom to celebrate you!”
“Is there anything I can do?”
“Of course not! The plans are all set. You just need to come with your beautiful smile.”
“And Marik?” she asked, too anxious for news about Conner to acknowledge the compliment. “Has he returned?”
Arpwin hesitated for only a moment, and the look flashed back across his eyes. Elissa knew that whatever was about to be said would be a lie. She didn’t know why she felt that way, but every ounce of her being was telling her that.
“Oh…no,” Arpwin replied. “There has been no word. I would not expect any word until spring when travel is less dangerous. I would expect he is holed up in some warm tavern, doing whatever it is that old soldiers do.”
A commotion and shouting brought her attention away from her thoughts of Marik and Conner. After some pushing and shoving, the soft, plump form of Lord Martin emerged from the crowd that had gathered around the queen. Two soldiers clad as city guard were trying to get between him and the queen, but the lord was persistent. If not for his rank, the guardsmen would have drawn their swords and threatened life and limb, but Lord Martin was as important an official as there was.
“Queen Elissa!” Lord Martin shouted as soon as he made eye contact with the queen.
“It is okay!” she called out. “Let Lord Martin pass!”
Instantly, the two guards stepped aside to let Lord Martin approach. He huffed and puffed his way past the guards, casting them a harsh look. But even as the guards allowed Lord Martin to come forward, there were many others calling her name, shouting for her attention. She waved and wanted to greet them all, but the look on Lord Martin’s face was not one of casual greeting. He had the sour look of bad news all over him. She felt Hollin and Kern, still relegated to escort role, move casually to her side. Their mere presence made her suddenly feel safer, even though she was in her own castle, protected from the outside world by a heavy iron gate.
With her attention centered now on Lord Martin, the servants and other courtiers that had gathered to greet her slowly dispersed. They remained in the courtyard in their own clumps, awaiting the next chance to present themselves to the queen.
The queen smiled a greeting and said with a friendly, diplomatic voice, “Lord Martin, it is good to see you.” She looked him up and down and even accounting for a large, warm cloak, his girth seemed to have expanded since she had left. Or at least since she had last noticed. The tinges of gray that had been apparent at his temples had not yet taken over his entire head of hair, but it was clearly turning from its original solid jet black. The interspersed gray actually made him seem more aristocratic and noble, but his plump cheeks were tinted a bright red, which made him look like a chubby child.
“My queen…” he started, but he had to catch his breath before he continued. Sweat dripped from his hairline, despite the frigid temperatures. “My queen, it is about time that you returned! The kingdom is in disarray!”
In as royal of a voice as she could muster, she replied, “Lord Martin, I am weary from my journey. I would like to take a rest before I am inundated with the problems of the kingdom.”
At that moment, she wanted to laugh. A smile even crossed her face. She had said the words, but they did not seem like her own. They would have been something that her father would have said in his stiff and serious mannerisms. But the words had been hers, and they rolled off her tongue as if she had been trained to use them her entire life. She felt oddly comfortable saying them and liked how they rang in her own ears. Maybe she truly could be royal and regal even though she still felt like she was still a little girl.
Lord Martin placed his hand on her arm as a father might do to a young child to get their attention. He didn’t grasp or pull hard, but the mere touching of the queen sent all the soldiers to twitch their hands towards their swords. Elissa casually pulled her arm away, out of his reach.
“The queen’s business is never done,” Lord Martin said, trying to ignore his indiscretion. “While you were out socializing with our enemies, I have been struggling to keep the merchants at bay, the former knights from fighting the former Royal Guard, and making sure that the food stores are not depleted before spring.”
“Socializing?” the queen responded as delicately as she could. She held her tongue, as she wanted to snap back at him for insulting her twice in such a short time. But even though she was tired, cold, and cranky, she remembered she was still queen and needed to act as one. “I don’t know what you think I was doing in Thell. But I was doing the kingdom’s business. The Tarans have made themselves into a threat that we must not ignore. King Toknon…”
“King?” Lord Martin interrupted.
“Yes, king. Toknon is now the ruler of Thell. King Lorraine fell ill and did not recover. King Toknon was officially coroneted in a private ceremony just before I left.”
“That is most distressing,” Lord Martin said.
“Why?”
“Is it not clear? If you had been properly trained in the ways of the world, you would understand.”
“Lord Martin!” Elissa exclaimed, astonished at the words that came out of his mouth. She could not hold her emotions in check any longer and lashed out at him. “Was it not you that pushed to get me the throne after my father died? And now you say I’m not trained for it? How dare you talk to me this way?”
“I am sorry, my queen,” Lord Martin said with a slight shake of his head. “I fear that I may have been wrong. You are a fine young lady, but it is clear that you are not ready for ruling Karmon.”
A gasp and quiet murmuring spread through the crowd. With each passing moment, the small groups of onlookers moved together to better hear the exchange between queen and lord. Each knew that even a respected man such as Lord Martin would never have spoken in such a way to King Thorndale, or to any king. But he was a man, and the queen was still a woman. And a young woman at that, barely old enough to bear children.
Elissa wasn’t sure how to respond.
In one aspect, Lord Martin was right. She was unprepared. Her entire life had been spent in comfort and ease. She had been trained in reading and writing, but that was about all. No one had talked to her about politics or governing of the kingdom. But in the time that she had been on the throne, she hadn’t sat idly by while the kingdom went on with its business. She had many people advising her, including Lord Martin, on how to act, how to behave, and about the politics of being the ruler of a kingdom. She had learned much, probably more than her father knew when he had taken the throne as a young boy. Maybe she should have been angry, but she wasn’t. It was one of the things that Marik had told her. When it came to politics, never take anything personally, and never get angry. Those emotions will only lead to bad decisions.
For more reason than one, she wished that Marik was here to help her through this. Of all the people that advised, her, she trusted Marik the most. It wasn’t because he knew the most, or was the smartest, but he always had his words of wisdom rooted in simple terms that she could understand. Maybe it was because he hadn’t been raised to be politician, but a soldier, and that gave him a perspective that no one else could give. Plus, she knew that Conner liked and trusted him as well. He was the only one that she had trusted to find Conner and bring him home, but maybe she should have kept him here at her side.
Elissa wished that she had a quicker response, and she knew that her silence was not helping her cause, but was further supporting Lord Martin’s words. But she also didn’t want to say something that she would regret later. In the end, the shock at being verbally attacked by Lord Martin saved her throne, for if she had responded with emotion, she might have lost all her supporters. Instead, she chose her words as carefully as she could.
“I took the throne,” Queen Elissa said, emphasizing the word took. “Because I needed to. Not because I wanted to. Not everyone wanted me or even thought that I could do a good job. But I have done a good job.” She looked at the crowd that had gathered around them. Everyone become silent and was watching her closely. “Yes, I am young. And there is much that I do not know. Everyone here has helped me in some way, and I have listened to all of you. Sometimes I agreed with you, sometimes I did not. But this kingdom is my responsibility, and I will make the final decision. I can live with that, even if it is the wrong one. I did not go to Thell because it would be a fun vacation, I went because we need to befriend our neighbors to the north.” She ignored the whispering that followed. “The threat to our kingdom is not from them, it is from the Taran Empire. Whatever their reasons are, they have started something with us, and we will not sit idly by and let them conquer us. An alliance with Thell can only help us survive as a kingdom.”
Lord Martin shook his head. “Taran is no threat. The plot of one man does not mean that their armies are marching towards us. We have commerce with them. Even in the middle of the winter, their caravans arrive at least weekly with spices and other goods that help our merchants survive. We in turn send pelts, furs, and animal hides that you cannot find anywhere else. You simply do not understand how the world works. This naiveté of yours will be your downfall. I cannot, I will not, stand by while you make treaties and pacts with our enemy.”
“Thell is not our enemy,” Elissa repeated, trying desperately to hold her anger in. She could not understand how Lord Martin could not see that. Maybe it was because he was much older than she was and was so entrenched in his beliefs that there was no way for him to see any other way.
Elissa turned and scanned the crowed, studying the stunned faces that were gathered around her. She could not understand why Lord Martin had assaulted her in such a way, right out in the open courtyard, only moments from returning from her journey. Her instincts told her that it was not accidental. As her eyes drifted back to Lord Martin, who stood smugly in front of her, her hands shook as she thought about what her father would have done. “Maybe it’s you who are our enemy. Are you my enemy, Lord Martin?”
Lord Martin’s red cheeks suddenly got redder. His eyes got wide, and his words stammered out. “Of course not, Your Majesty. I serve you, of course, as I serve the kingdom. I only am doing what is best for our kingdom.”
Her heart pounded in her chest and she knew that she could not speak at the moment, as the nervous excitement was almost too great for her to handle. She turned to Kern, who stood just to her left, poised and ready to act at her command. She was glad that it was Kern on her left rather than Hollin, as Kern’s sword was smaller and hopefully lighter. With sweaty palms that she hoped would not cause her to lose her grip, she grasped the handle of Kern’s sword and unsheathed it. The leather wrapped around the handle was worn and soft, having been used for many years. Any sweat that was on her hand was instantly absorbed by the soft leather, making her grip solid. She thought the sword would be heavier than it was, and almost threw it from her grasp as she drew it out of its scabbard. But she used the momentum of the sword in a showy manner, letting the point come to a stop aimed directly at Lord Martin’s heart.
“Are you challenging my throne?” Elissa asked, not hearing the gasps around her, but only hearing the pounding of her heart in her ears.
Lord Martin visibly shook and sweat poured down his face. He opened his mouth to speak, but he was too scared to say anything. The entire courtyard fell silent. Any conversation had stopped mid-sentence. No one moved. Everyone waited for the sword to fall. No one, not even a prominent lord and advisor to the king could get away with challenging the king. The rules about challenging the queen were now about to be established.
***
Marik stepped forward out of the shadows as soon as the sword was drawn. It was the most unexpected thing that Elissa could have done, but the moment it happened, he knew it was the only thing she could have done to save her throne. He had committed to staying away from the queen until after her masquerade party, as promised, and it was still a fact that he was struggling with. He firmly believed that she needed to know as soon as possible, and putting it off would just make it worse. It seemed it was always the case. But Arpwin’s counsel was always wise, and deferring to his judgment seemed like the right thing to do.
Conner had come into their lives for a special reason. The way he carried himself as a boy turning into a man was what he would have expected out of the best squires, but Conner had not been raised to be one. Discipline and sacrifice had not been drilled into him from an early age, and yet he still lived it in his everyday life. If hadn’t known better, he would have believed that Conner was on track to be a knight. But he was just a commoner, a simple young man who just happened to be in the right place at the right time.
Death was not an uncommon occurrence to soldiers. He had dealt with many friends dying in battle or even from strange training accidents, but those had been men who had given their lives to the kingdom. The sacrifice of their lives for the kingdom was the ultimate way to go out, and it was an honor to serve and die for the kingdom. Even though Conner had made a commitment to serve the queen as her champion and knew what that meant, dying for that purpose would have been acceptable or understandable. But to die in the gladiator arena as a prisoner was hard to process. It was an empty and unnecessary death.
The bright star in the sky caught his eye. It had been there for so many months he was now used to it. When it had first made its appearance, it had both enthralled and scared everyone, including himself. No one knew what it was and could only speculate at what it meant. But when days of it in the sky turned into weeks, and those weeks turned into months, it was just something else up there with the sun and moon. They had become so used to something special that it had become ordinary.
He would not let that happen with Conner. Marik was not going to let his life become ordinary. As much as it would hurt the queen, she needed to know about him now.
From the edge of the courtyard, he watched Elissa stand in the midst of the crowd, sword in hand. She held the blade high and strong, its sharp point inches from Lord Martin’s chest. The point di
d not waver or shake, which meant she was strong enough to hold it up and was likely also strong enough to drive it through his chest bone.
After hesitating for a moment longer, Marik pushed his way through the gawking crowd. “Queen Elissa!” he shouted.
Kern and Hollin, who had remained poised to jump in, snapped their heads at him, relief on their faces. They did not know what to do. She was the queen, and if she wanted to kill the plump lord, that was her right. But they also felt a need to step in and stop the queen from killing the poor lord, who was clearly terrified. The smell of urine confirmed his fear.
Elissa did not flinch or even turn her head towards Marik. She kept her eyes directly on Lord Martin. Only when Marik stepped between her and the lord did she avert her gaze. When she recognized him, her eyes softened, and dropped the point of the sword. Marik quickly took the sword from her grasp and handed it back to Kern.
“Marik!” she exclaimed. She pulled him into a hug, which he accepted with embarrassment. “You have returned!”
Her quick change of emotions caught him off guard. One moment she was ready to kill, and then next, she was crying tears of joy.
“The queen has had a long journey, Lord Martin,” Marik said. “Now is not the time for this discussion.”
Lord Martin stiffened at being addressed in such a direct manner from a scruffy man in a dirty cloak. “The business of the kingdom…”
“Can wait!” Marik finished with a raised voice. When Lord Martin began to speak again, Marik lifted a finger and shook his head.
He turned to Kern and Hollin and gave a slight nod. They stepped forward to provide an escort for them to leave the courtyard. Marik motioned for Elissa to follow.