by Jaymin Eve
Sabina made her way across the room and met my eyes briefly. I liked the queen’s magic born. She was mature and level headed. I’d never had a single reason to fear her, or worry for my queen. But now that the Red Queen had fallen, was there more to the magic born that I’d never seen? Did I miss something there – more importantly, did the Red Queen? Did the magic born have a desire to rule? Could they?
Sabina stood with the council and closed her eyes, breathing deeply. No words were exchanged, she knew what needed to be done. When she opened them again they were a glowing ice blue, and as she raised her arms up to the ceiling, she pushed lightly with her hands and a burst of energy shot out. Within moments, a thousand aged scrolls were dancing across the upper eaves of the high ceiling, many feet above us. The sight filled me with both fear and excitement, the wash of emotions trickling across my skin and mingling with the magic in the air. Maybe it was that we’d just been connected to the mecca through our blood, but I would swear the energy was so much stronger than usual. Or maybe this is what it felt like to be almost queen.
Torine stood straighter, his dark eyes locked onto the scrolls whooshing above. He had the honor of selecting the first task, the first step to one of us earning the right to govern the mecca and all wolf clans.
The ancient wolf crooked his finger at a scroll, and somehow the scroll knew it was the one wanted, because with one flick of his wrist it descended into his hand. I could barely contain myself, my emotions inside were a mess. I wasn’t sure I’d ever been such a mix of scared, excited, nervous, and exhilarated – compounded by the constant sorrow permanently etched into my heart. Three deaths I must avenge. One could never forget.
Torine took an unnaturally long time to unroll the aged parchment.
“The first task,” he said, his voice booming across the silent packs, “is war strategy. This is a game of cunning and intellect. Brute strength will serve no course here.”
My lips quirked into a smile and I saw Calista give a slight grin. Breanna gave me a side look and there was nothing but fear in her large hazel eyes. It was common knowledge that I was best with strategy among us, besting all of the other heirs in the few tournaments where we’d played mecca chess. I’d been playing the popular shifter game with Calista since before I could talk, and for the most part liked logic and reasoning. Selene might survive this round; she wasn’t completely useless, but Breanna was screwed. I had no doubt in my mind that I stood a good chance of winning.
There wasn’t much to say about Breanna. She was pretty unremarkable. She was the smallest of us all at five feet three, with plain brown hair. She was one of those no personality or true power wolves. She did the bare minimum at all times. Lazy, really. Oh, she had some skills, especially in one-on-one fights, but nothing compared to most heirs. I really wasn’t sure what it was that triggered someone like her to be born with heir status and receive her familiar, but I think a mistake was made.
There was shuffling around on the floor below us and the guards began backing up and lining the walls, making room for the council to prepare the test. Greggor, a council member and old wolf from the Purple Hearts pack, had disappeared, but was already returning with a giant rolling mecca chess board. Now I was really smiling. I hadn’t been totally sure that war strategy would be played out on the mecca chess board, but thankfully it was. Selene was also grinning. Breanna let a curse word fly but stood tall.
Torine’s voice bellowed and carried throughout the great hall: “This test has two parts. Part one is worth fifty points to the winner. Part two is worth twenty. These first few rounds are very important in building points. Whichever two heirs have the highest points before the final round will be the ones in the final battle. The winners of each round will also be awarded with gold, and special spell books for their pack’s magic born.” The mention of spell books got me excited. A long, long time ago, when witches still existed, some of them inter-mated with our wolves and the result was the magic-born wolves. Over time, the witches began to die off, and their knowledge was lost. All that was left were these highly coveted and guarded magical spell books. It was a prize far more valuable than gold.
Despite the tremor of my muscles, and the churning deep in my gut, I held on to the confidence that I could do this. For my pack and late queen.
There was nothing worse than losing and going back to your pack as a failure and living the rest of your life as a failed heir. The only honorable thing an heir kicked out of a Summit could do was produce more heirs. And who would want that as a destiny? Not this shifter, that was for sure.
My pack didn’t need the gold from winning. We were one of the richer boroughs, but I had to get some of those spell books. Violet would be so overjoyed. It always annoyed me that the council was so reluctant to share with the packs, but I also understood their reasoning. This magic was far beyond our knowledge and abilities. We didn’t want our magic born killing themselves or anyone else in failed spells. So they exercised caution in allowing this information out into the packs. Clearly the Summit was the one place they thought worthy to give the extra awesome prizes.
Greggor gestured that we should approach the board. I unbuttoned my sleeves and rolled them up and a few of my wolves started chanting my name softly. One look from Torine shut them up. I took a second to give them a wink and small grin as I passed close to them. They wanted reassurance from me, to see my confidence. I couldn’t give them much, but I could give that small gesture before again focusing on the task.
The mecca chess board was nothing like real chess. It was similar in that you had two players and the ultimate goal was to guard your queen, but this was a specially designed board that represented the five boroughs of New York. There were vortexes that would transport your character just like ours in real life, and even a small, grotesque-looking bear king holding dominion over their two boroughs. The point was to protect the territory of the three boroughs at all cost while also protecting the queen.
A council member, Lucille of the yellow clan, took a seat then at the head of the bear king’s boroughs. Crap! That meant I would be playing against an extremely wise council member and not one of the other heirs like I thought.
Torine locked eyes with me and said: “You’ll each get a chance to play, but Arianna, since you’re the Red Queen’s descendent I’ll allow you to choose if you want to go first or last.”
This was a test. I knew it. I felt it in the way he asked the question like he was shrewdly choosing each word. These bastards would be adding up points throughout this entire thing and weighing how we did, deciding where we stood. If I said last it might make me seem weak, but I would also be able to see how the other council members played, get clues on their faults and weaknesses. If I said first, was I being too cocky or hasty?
I met Finn’s gaze, and he gave me a nod, but there was no voice from him. He was letting me make this decision with no influence.
The answer came from my wolf inside … her instinct. “First,” I said clearly, and was rewarded with a head nod from Calista. Two councilwomen came across then and escorted Selene and Breanna from the room. Ah, excellent, they would not allow us to watch each heir. I had made the right choice then. Torine gestured for me to sit and I took a steadying breath and joined Lucille at the board.
Finn settled his huge weight close to my feet, on constant alert to the shifters around me. He was in guard mode. Like the rest of us he was unhappy with all the attacks. He wanted justice for our fallen.
It will be done, my friend, I assured him.
I know. Now win us this Summit.
Ah, my old friend, always big with the pep talks.
As I focused on the board, my fingers itched to touch the pieces. This game calmed my mind for some reason. Even sitting here, I felt slivers of tranquility washing over me. This was my usual spot when I played, that of the queen, and Calista usually played the bear king. Unable to hold back any longer, I ran my finger along the Red Queen figurine.
The boar
d was about three feet by four, in the exact shape of the five boroughs. The Hudson River ran right along Manhattan and was represented with tiny bits of blue shimmering glass beads. There was a whole network of dials and compartments underneath the game that would take your pieces and move them or keep them if your character died. Each side had a control panel so we could type in our instructions. The small replica buildings stood tall, and I recognized my own apartment building as I gazed at the Bronx.
“Ten minutes on the clock,” Torine said as he tapped into his keyboard; the clock immediately began to count down. The person in the strongest position at the end would win.
“Your Majesty, Queen Heir, has first move,” Torine added, before taking his seat on the side. He held the position of official overseer of this trial. Without hesitation, I placed ten of my fifty fighters in kayaks along the waterway separating Manhattan and Brooklyn. They spanned out to also protect parts of the water from Staten Island. These waterways were a large vulnerability for the queen and by placing warriors there, it would hopefully force the bears to stick to the vortexes for travel.
Lucille’s turn. She sent ten bear warriors to her vortex point on Staten Island. It was a good strategic move because all the vortexes were connected and from there they could travel to any of my boroughs. If I wasted men at each vortex point and she had a larger attack in mind, I would leave the queen vulnerable. I had to protect Manhattan at all costs. The queen was the most important person and her borough must be an iron shield for our people. I decided to send ten guards to the Manhattan vortex, leaving my remaining thirty in the royal house. If the bear king sent his men there, I would strike them down.
My stomach turned as Lucille sent thirty bear warriors on foot to the Brooklyn Bridge, giving the bears a direct connection to our Manhattan territory. That was more than half of her warriors, and I only had ten in the water to fend them off. Was this her attack, or a distraction? Should I go after the bears at my border or the bear king? I had my warriors at the vortex; I could send them through, but then there’d still be thirty of the bears at the queen’s feet waiting to pounce on Manhattan.
Don’t panic. I had thirty warriors left in the castle and the Manhattan vortex was safe – the queen was safe. Then I got an idea. Schooling my expression, I sent instruction for the remaining thirty of my warriors to go on foot to the border of Manhattan and face off with the thirty Brooklyn bear warriors. Now each of our warriors were facing one another. In order to make them engage in a fight, it would take another turn.
Just as I expected, Lucille used her turn to engage war. The game would simulate fighting for the duration and predict losses based on statistics. Thirty against thirty was even. Both sides would suffer heavy bloodshed.
My turn. I took my Red Queen from her safe castle and placed her on the Manhattan vortex. Lucille was trying to hide her look of pride, but I saw it. Sometimes if you wanted a task done right, you had to do it yourself. The game knew the strength of each player. One warrior would kill one warrior, but it would take thirty warriors to stop the powerful Red Queen. With only ten bears at the Staten Island vortex, I could easily send my queen through and kill them. Any time you moved your queen, you got two turns. I used one to move her to the vortex and my next to send her through to the Staten Island vortex right in front of the bear king’s palace.
Lucille could send her remaining ten warriors from inside the palace to the vortex to fight my queen, or use her turn to engage the fight with the guards who were already there. She surprised me by doing neither. She instead pulled her king from the castle and placed him at the vortex facing my queen. Smart. He would be better protected with his measly ten guards there. I knew that if my queen could kill the bear king, the war would be over, because the bear king’s power would begin to drain just as ours had the moment the queen fell.
Because Lucille moved her king, she got two moves, and she used her next one to engage war. I sat back calmly, watching it play out as my Red Queen began to pulverize the ten warriors protecting the bear king. The mecca board knew that the Red Queen was more powerful than the bear king because she had three boroughs in her power – more power running through her veins.
It was my turn but I had no more moves to play out. This would end soon; I had faith in my queen’s power. Just as I thought it, the game opened a panel at the Staten Island vortex and ten dead bear warriors fell down. I smiled. Now the bear king and my Red Queen were locked in a vicious battle. My queen did have some depleted energy from killing the ten warriors, but nothing that would compromise this battle.
A player could sit idle for two minutes before being forced to choose their next move. I had one minute left. I wanted to give my queen all of that time, because if Lucille was allowed to play again she would bring her final ten warriors out of the castle to protect the king, and then I might really be in trouble, forced to retreat back to Manhattan – a coward. With ten seconds left, I held my breath as my queen raised her mighty arms and took off the king’s head with her sword. This weakened the remaining bears on the board, and the battle at the bridge began to turn in the wolves’ favor. I smiled. The game board opened up and swallowed the bear king and that was it.
I had won.
The two councilmen stood and bowed to me. “Well played. Not many people move their queen from the safety of her castle.”
I returned the bow. “Sometimes you have to make a bold but calculated move for the bigger picture.”
I’d never lost faith in the strength of my queen.
The council exchanged glances, and while it was hard to read anything on their faces, I could sense approval. I was then dismissed, but not before passing my Bronx warriors and getting a cheer. I gave them a half smile and left the room feeling a lot better than when I walked in.
Chapter Three
Never trust a bear.
Over the next twenty-five minutes we waited outside the large great hall doors. At the moment I was standing with Calista, Finn, and Selene. The overconfident purple heir had already had her turn at the challenge and said she did brilliantly – her words, not the council’s. Now we were awaiting Breanna’s results. Calista stood erect as an alert pinged on her tablet.
Her head tilted to the side as she read through the notice. I could see the slight surprise on her face.
“What is it?” I asked, wondering if something else had happened. Was there another attack?
She lifted her face, and thankfully there was no anger or stress upon it. “Normally one of the heirs would be sent home after the first trial, but it seems they are letting all of you stay because the Summit trials are designed for four heirs.” Her fingers flew across her tablet and I knew she was calculating odds and inputting information for me to read over later. “There will be at least two more trials, and then the final battle.”
Selene shrugged like she couldn’t care less. Her advisor, a non-descript male whose name I couldn’t recall, stepped in and whispered to her. Still the heir’s expression was unchanging. I don’t think she thought for one second she wouldn’t be in the final battle. Just then the doors opened. I could already tell from the red-ringed eyes and the way her head hung in misery that Breanna had not done very well at the war strategy. I didn’t want Breanna to be queen, but I understood her agony. Going back to your pack as a failed heir was the worst thing any of us could do. And if she’d just come last in the first trial, she was already way behind and would have to work extra hard to even have a hope of making it into the final battle. If she failed out of the Summit, when she went back to Queens she would no doubt be challenged for her alpha status from another dominant female. Once she was stripped of her borough and heir title, there’d be nothing worthy about her except her blood.
“There are hundreds of trials which could have been chosen, but no, it had to be the stupid mecca game!” she said, her advisor right behind her. Her hawk familiar, Kanu, sat upon her shoulder, and even he seemed to have his head hung low.
The “stu
pid” mecca game was the most important war strategy tool we had. My opinion of her had just lowered; her statement did nothing but show her immaturity.
“I’m sorry, Breanna,” I offered diplomatically.
Selene wrinkled her face, bestowing Breanna with a look like she was a piece of dirt that was ruining her favorite shirt. “Better start making babies. That’s all you’re good for now.”
Breanna’s hand snaked out with the speed and force of a bullet and popped Selene in her perfect nose. Selene managed to jerk her head back in the last second, but there was still a distinct crunch of cartilage.
“No one likes you,” Breanna spat out, and she stalked off, her advisor at her heels.
I didn’t say anything, forcing my expression to remain in a neutral pose, but I was enjoying the sight of the blood trickling from Selene’s upper lip and nose, not to mention her two black eyes. Of course, my enjoyment was short lived, because within moments the black faded and the swelling around her nose disappeared. Shifter healing in an heir was twice as fast as a non-heir.
Everyone knew physical combat between heirs was forbidden, Breanna had just broken a major rule, but somehow I didn’t think she cared. From the little I knew of her life, it had been common knowledge that she had been best friends with Devina. The heir’s death would be hitting her hard, causing reckless behavior.
As different as they were, they had happily co-ruled the Queens borough together. Devina, I had never had any real quarrel with, except for the fact that she was reckless, and at times an idiot. She had been the most beautiful of us, with long golden curls and huge blue eyes, and she’d often used her body to gain whatever favor she could. I’d almost never seen any male – or female for that matter – turn her down. Just recently there had been a scandal with her and a bear shifter. We did not cross the line with bears, it was forbidden, and Devina didn’t just hook up with any bear, she’d had sex with an advisor to the bear king. She could have leaked important information about our people – not to mention that having sex with a bear shifter as an heir could potentially produce a hybrid. A hybrid heir was a definite no. I knew of no living hybrids, or if they were even possible. We kept the races separate for good reason, but Devina had been careless and promiscuous. If she wasn’t an heir, she would have been beheaded.