Schemes

by Krista D. Ball

  Arrago clenched his jaw in irritation, but ignored Edmund’s attempt to start an argument. He picked up his glass from the floor and filled it again. He guzzled this one, too. It was that kind of day. Already, his head was starting to fog, which was exactly what he wanted.

  “Why are you here?” Arrago asked.

  “I was looking for Bethany.”

  “She’s not here.”

  “I noticed. Arrago, what’s wrong with you?”

  There was plenty wrong. So much so that he wouldn’t be able to pick only one problem to answer the question. If he stopped to think about his problems, he’d end up hiding under his bed in a gibbering mess.

  So he answered Edmund’s question the only way he could. “There’s nothing wrong.”

  Edmund folded his arms across his barrel chest. “I’ll ask Bethany.”

  “She won’t tell you,” Arrago muttered. “Stop being so childish and get out.”

  Edmund grabbed Arrago and pinned him up against the bedpost. “What is going on, Arrago? Is this Magic? Did Bethany heal you and extend your life? Are you just going mad? Fucking tell me or I swear on Apexia’s holy name I am walking out of here and never helping you again.”

  “Let go of me,” Arrago growled.

  “Going to hit me, Majesty?”

  “I might.”

  That was the moment Bethany chose to walk into the bedchamber, unannounced. She stared at them for a moment before saying, “I had no idea.”

  Arrago shoved Edmund away. “Get out.”

  Edmund shoved Arrago back and turned on his heel to storm out of the room. Bethany stepped in front of him. She was significantly taller than him, and had a glare that could freeze oceans. “What’s going on?”

  “Get out of my way,” Edmund said.

  “No,” Bethany said calmly. She closed the door behind her and crossed her arms. “What is going on?”

  “I’ve done everything I can for him,” Edmund spat. “My neck is in as tight of a noose as his, but he’s too self-absorbed to notice.”

  “Fine! You want to know so badly? Ask Bethany. See what she says.” With that, Arrago collapsed in a chair in the corner of the room. He stretched out his legs and crossed them at the ankles. He crossed his arms for added effect.

  ****

  Bethany was exhausted beyond words and her patience for everyone else’s worries and stress was at an all-time low. Intellectually, she knew squabbling and grandstanding was one way to relieve stress, but she was tired. All she wanted was to collapse into bed face-first and not wake until the morning.

  “We don’t have time for this,” Bethany said through a yawn. She tossed the helmet she was carrying on the bed. “There are a lot of new servants in the palace preparing for the ball, and it’s impossible watching them all. Brennus has his hands full watching the baby elves and is pretty much convinced all of them are about to snap and kill us all. Jackson is ready to arrest anyone he doesn’t know, and I’m ready to burn the palace down as a pre-emptive measure. So what is going on between you two?”

  “Go on, tell her. I want to see this,” Arrago said, still in his defiant stance.

  “Arrago said he has millennia to fix the problems of Taftlin, but he won’t tell me what he meant. So, what’s up, Bethany?”

  Bethany gave Arrago an icy glare. “You idiot.”

  “Don’t call me names,” Arrago snapped. “I don’t have the patience for it tonight.”

  Bethany lowered her voice and said, “Arrago, you have to be careful.”

  “I know,” Arrago said through clenched teeth. “I’m tired and I’m...I’m tired, all right?”

  “What are you two talking about?” Edmund demanded.

  Any other night, Bethany would have told Edmund to stop asking questions. But tonight, she was just too damned tired to care anymore. They’d tried to hold the secret close and what did it get them? Nothing but a world of trouble coming down upon them.

  “Do you want me to tell him?” Bethany asked quietly.

  “Fine,” Arrago said, turning his head away.

  She told Edmund. At first, he laughed and said she was shitting him. Slowly, however, his outburst eased and comprehension settled as she explained how Apexia killed herself using Bethany’s own sword. How her grace went to Kiner, Erem, Jovan, and Arrago. And a bit more into her. How they were changed forever now. How the world was not ready for this. How they were not ready for this.

  “He didn’t tell you because he didn’t want anyone to know.”

  “Yeah,” Arrago said quietly. He’d emptied the wine bottle into his glass during her speech, but he’d done nothing more than swish it around and stare at it.

  “That’s what Arrago has been hiding from you, and that’s why he didn’t want you to know.”

  Edmund broke into nervous giggles. “You’re pulling my leg.”

  “No,” Bethany said. “I wish I was, for Arrago’s sake.”

  “It’s okay,” he said gently. “You need someone to always watch your back.”

  “Now I always will.”

  There was silence between them before Edmund said, “This isn’t a joke. Truly?”

  Bethany nodded.

  “Is this why the Elven Council came after you, and the others?” Edmund asked.

  “Most likely.”

  “Because you’re lying to them?”

  Bethany nodded. “Yup. They know I’m lying, but they don’t know how or about what. It’s a necessity for now. I have lived like this my entire life. Arrago and the others have not. They needed time to adjust. I’d assumed I would take the brunt of their anger. I hadn’t anticipated the depth of their anger.”

  “No one could,” Arrago said to her. He looked up at Edmund. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. It was for our own safety.”

  “Well. Shit.” Edmund stumbled back until he found a chair. He sat. “Fuck, Arrago. Can’t you stay out of trouble for one week?”

  “Apparently not,” Arrago said.

  “Can I tell Amber?” Edmund asked.

  Bethany shook her head. “If she hasn’t asked either of you about it, leave it be for now. Let’s deal with this crisis before we deal with the next.”

  Edmund had more questions, but between the bottle of wine catching up to Arrago and Bethany’s exhaustion, answers were scarce. Bethany answered for Arrago, who refused to offer up more than a shrug. Eventually, Edmund took the hint and left them alone, promising he wasn’t done with the subject.

  When Edmund closed the door behind him, Bethany asked, “Are you all right?”

  Arrago was stretched out on his sofa, one leg crossed over his knee. He kicked at the air absently. “I’m worried.”

  She dumped her sword belt and back harness on the bed. She left everything else on, however, and lowered herself to the floor next to Arrago. She leaned against the sofa and reached up to take his hand. “I am, too.”

  “You’re never worried about anything,” Arrago said, his words slurring.

  Bethany smiled. “I worry about you and Henry. And Edmund and Amber. Opal. I’m worried about my sister, about my friends. I’m so worried about Erem. So, yeah, I worry. I don’t let it get to me, though. I have a job to do, so I’m going to do it. We’re going to find whoever is coming after you and we’re going to make them pay.”

  “What about those coming after you?”

  She didn’t answer because she was still hoping she was very wrong about her own situation.

  Chapter 10

  It was the day before the ball and Bethany had very little to show for her work beyond muddy boots. She sat on an overstuffed chair in Arrago’s study and listened to the important men argue about very important man things. She focused on getting the dried mud off her boots.

  Jackson and Jonas had Rose watching some new arrivals who didn’t quite sit right with them, but beyond that, nothing. Brennus wanted the baby elves sent back to Wyllow on the next boat because he was certain they were all plotting a coup. Kiner found no evidence of tam
pering with the palace to cause a fire or explosion. There were no mass troop movements in the area.

  It all led to an armed attack tonight. Poisoning was possible, maybe, but there were food testers. Plus, knights and trusted militia would be stationed throughout the corridors and kitchens; it would be difficult to pull off.

  “Majesty, I know you wish to be lenient, but any attempt on your life is a treasonous action and must be dealt with swiftly and harshly. Else we risk appearing weak,” Lord Rayner said. He was standing near the large balcony windows that overlooked the palace’s back park. As they were on the third floor, no one would notice her.

  It had been difficult doing her job being unable to be identified, but she trusted the people working with her to protect Arrago. She got the feeling that the others saw it as protecting her, too, but she wasn’t losing any sleep over the elves. She would soon, no doubt, but for now, she was focused on Arrago and Celeste’s little boy.

  She’d made a promise to the late queen that she’d protect the boy and help raise him to be a kind and strong man. She meant the promise when she’d made it, and had no intentions of failing any of them now.

  “Rayner, we can be firm without being cruel,” Arrago insisted.

  Bethany yawned, only half paying attention to the argument. She’d spent too much of the previous night outside with Kiner, Brennus, and Jackson, investigating ways the palace could be assaulted. As the palace was in the middle of the capital, surrounded by a stunning five thousand acres of land, there was rather a lot of ways to get on to the grounds. There were plenty of guard towers and the entire property was surrounded with a short stone wall.

  However, the guards and the walls were created to protect against poachers, not invading forces. Bethany was increasingly convinced this was going to be a small team using either fire or brute force. It wasn’t like an army could simply march through the capital without being noticed. Likewise, it would be impossible to hide that kind of movement for very long, and there’d been no communication about a massive force.

  For all of Rayner and Stanley’s worries, Jackson and Jonas had both assured her Arrago was popular. Perhaps not with anyone who made their living off the flesh of others, but every day people loved him. Arrago had passed several laws protecting the poor, including setting bread prices low enough to be affordable but still profitable for bakers and farmers alike.

  The more she’d heard about him, the prouder she was. And, more importantly, she knew a servant or a rising yeoman would alert someone if there was a significant move against their new beloved king.

  “Majesty, see reason. We don’t have the facilities to handle these kinds of prisoners,” Stanley said. He glared at Bethany flicking mud on to the floor. “Lady Bethany, please. We have servants for that.”

  “I’ll clean up the floor when I’m done, relax,” she said, not bothering to look up from her work.

  “It isn’t proper for you to be...cleaning!” Stanley said.

  “It won’t get done right if I don’t do it myself,” Bethany countered. She looked down at the mess she’d made on the floor. “I’ll sweep it up.”

  “Majesty, please speak to her,” Stanley said.

  Arrago smiled and said, “The best way to get Bethany on your side is to let her do whatever she wants. Then, when you need her to absolutely do something different, you use guilt as a weapon.”

  Bethany made a face at him. “I need to supervise your visits with my friends, I see.”

  “They’re my friends, too. Now, tell my advisors that they’re wrong.”

  She stopped brushing. “I don’t see the problem there. We catch them. We hang them.”

  “See, Majesty!” Rayner said, pointing at Bethany.

  “Bethany...”

  “Don’t give me that look, Arrago. You can’t let assassins roam free as rats in the streets.”

  “Majesty, please listen to her,” Stanley said.

  “I wasn’t planning to let them go free, but...”

  “But what?” Lord Stanley asked. “We do not have the prisons built to handle these kinds of offenses. Lady Bethany, normally we either execute them or sell them into slavery.”

  She grunted her understanding.

  “Killing them only turns them into martyrs. And I do not want them sold into slavery. I’ve made this point very clear.”

  “So what do you suggest?” Bethany asked. She put her brush and boots down on the floor and crossed her ankles.

  “The crown owns land that is sitting unused. Why not turn that land into profitable enterprises?”

  “On the backs of traitors?” Rayner asked.

  “It is very elven,” Bethany said with a shrug.

  While they argued that proposal, Bethany went back to brushing her boots. She ignored their legal bickering and turned her attention to the plan for the ball. Kiner was assigned to the kitchen and lower cellars. If any fire or, Apexia protect them, black powder would be used, it would be down in the kitchen’s storage cellars. Rose had already been down there several times and had seen nothing out of the ordinary. However, it was still a likely place to attack, so they would keep a vigil of the entire area.

  Rose was now spending part of her time running around the palace and the city on errands. The two duchesses used their reputations thoroughly, and Rose was being admitted into places that a servant would normally never have access. In doing so, she was privy to a lot of conversations. Servants were too often invisible to those of high rank, and Rose exceled at blending into the wall tapestries.

  Edmund had rallied a number of people he trusted for guarding the actual ballroom, plus the corridors and surrounding rooms. He planned to corral guests into only one wing of the palace, as opposed to allowing them to roam as they’d normally be allowed. Further, all rooms not in use would be locked. It would sadly interfere with illicit affairs, but it would reduce the foot traffic within the palace.

  Prince Henry would be smuggled to the far end of the palace, down with the male servants. It was too risky to leave the safety of the palace—until they knew who’d paid for the attack against Bethany, she didn’t feel safe having the young prince travelling—but they could keep him out of the way. If things went very badly, Amber was instructed to get Henry to Castle Gree. Both Arrago and Bethany trusted Sir James; he would help protect the young prince if Arrago wasn’t alive to do it.

  Chances were, it would be a small team of infiltrators who’d try to carve their way through the ballroom to Arrago. They’d kill a lot of nobles along their path and, even if they didn’t make it to the king, they’d do enough damage to weaken Arrago beyond repair. After all, what would the good nobles of Taftlin say if so many of their own were killed? If it were her, she’d attack all of Arrago’s supporters first, removing the strength of his regime.

  That meant the Dowager and Cassandra, Edmund and his family, Rayner and Stanley...She would talk to Kiner to ensure there were adequate eyes on all of them.

  “Majesty, your life is in danger!” Rayner sputtered. “Don’t you care?”

  Bethany snorted.

  “I am so pleased we are entertaining you, Lady Bethany,” Rayner said, throwing his hands in the air. He hit Stanley’s wine glass in the process.

  “Watch it,” Stanley protested. “This is elven spring wine.”

  “Lord Rayner, Arrago has been in plenty of dangerous situations before. He can take care of himself.”

  “Thank you, Bethany.”

  “Do not encourage him,” Rayner complained.

  “Besides, I’m here. Nothing’s going to happen to him.”

  The Dowager and Cassandra, along with Lendra, Myra, and several other knights would be poised for attack in the main ballroom, but she’d bolster the guards all the same. The upper balcony, behind the orchestra, would house swords and bows. Several knights would be playing in the orchestra. The flute had been invented by elves, after all. All those compulsory music lessons would be put to good use.

  She would bring the a
ttention all on her, as she entered the ballroom. She would dance with Arrago—he swore he knew how to. She vaguely remembered the steps; she needed to find someone tonight to practice with. Maybe Cassandra could give her a few pointers.

  By dancing, she’s be close at hand to protect him. If any attempt was made on her life, well, that was why she would be wearing armour underneath her silk ruffles.

  “But what about Bethany?” Arrago asked.

  “What about her?” Bethany asked, looking up from her work.

  “It’s treason if someone tries to kill me. It’s not if someone tries to kill you,” Arrago said. “Like that elf we have tied up in the gatehouse. I don’t have a clue what to do with him.”

  “Strap him to a bed and throw an oil lamp on him,” Bethany said bitterly. “Do to him as he did to me.”

  Arrago made a frustrated sound. “I’m not burning people alive. Apexia’s mercy, Bethany.”

  “Why are you even talking about him? What does he have to do with this?”

  “Forgive me for having to state the obvious here, but I’d like to punish someone who tries to kill you. I’m rather attached to you.” Under his breath, he said, “Though I don’t know why.”

  Bethany snickered. “I’ll be fine.”

  Arrago folded his arms. “The last time you said that, you were drugged, beaten, and dragged behind enemy lines.”

  “And look at all of the fun I had while I was there,” Bethany countered. She glanced at Arrago’s advisors and back at him. “We already have a plan to protect me, anyway. We just...we need to talk about it.”

  “What plan?” Stanley asked casually. He was topping up his empty wine glass.

  “Oh, that,” Arrago said, running his hand through his hair. “I thought it would be best to wait for your answer and all, in case...you know how you get sometimes.”

  “What are the two of you discussing?” Rayner asked.

  She ignored Arrago’s little dig at her and said, “Well, you know. How Arrago asked me to marry him.”

  Stanley and Rayner, at the same time, both exclaimed, “He did?”