A Princess Who Defied Kings

by J. Kirsch

  Lady Vaela shot back, unperturbed. "My son must have been watching through your eyes. He uses that ability, especially when someone he loves is on a dangerous journey. At any time of day he can see through the eyes of people he trusts. He saw that you were going to die through your own eyes, and he summoned the black dragon. He used his most cherished artifact of power, and it can never be used again. That dragon will tear down that forest and destroy every last shred of it, and then it will disappear, Najika. It can be used only once, and Drake just used it to save you."

  I thought back to the black dragon on the pommel of Drake's great-sword. It had seemed so lifelike, so poised to leap out and spread its wings. Its dormant form must have been a tiny version of its true self.

  "Are you talking about Drake's great-sword?" I asked.

  "Yes!" Lady Vaela shouted. "He used it. He summoned the only champion that could have saved the Black Kingdom from invasion if we became so desperate. That was our safety net if the ogres had failed us. And now not only has my son used it up, but he's ensured that the ogres will become our enemies."

  "Hold on." I put my hands up, the pounding in my head receding, but not enough. "You're going way too fast for me. What do you mean?"

  "The ogres revere the Dreamgiver. They're immune to it, so they can afford to worship it as a god. They see it as a protector. Now we've just murdered it, and the ogres will blame us." Lady Vaela's eyes sharpened into spear points. "By rushing off headlong into the Dreamgiver's welcoming arms, in one stroke you've managed to destroy any hope we had for preserving the Black Kingdom. The combined armies of the other Kingdoms will come, and when they do what hope will we have? Now if you'll excuse me, I have a wounded girl to look after."

  She swirled like a departing storm and left me, dumbstruck, to ponder her words. The sergeant gave me a sympathetic look, his hand resting on my shoulder.

  "You'll have to forgive her, my Lady. She has a great weight on her shoulders. She's no longer the Queen, but she still thinks like one. Takes her Kingdom's welfare and her son's welfare very personally."

  I glanced up at the sergeant. I swiped at the stupid tears slipping down my face. How had I messed everything up? Maybe it had been all my fault.

  If Drake hadn't married me, his brother Ecthor wouldn't have had the excuse he wanted to rebel. If Ecthor hadn't rebelled, then the conspiracy with the Red Queen would never have happened. And if the Red Queen had not arranged for those assassins to kill and replace the ambassadors from the other Kingdoms of Arkor, then Drake and his people wouldn't be fighting for their lives, waiting for an invasion launched by the Knights from all the other Kingdoms.

  All roads of fault lead somewhere, and that somewhere was me.

  We didn't try to soldier on and make for ogre territory that day. Instead we camped that night on a hilltop crowned by boulders large enough to provide convenient shelter. During my time blacked out the knights had gotten us onto the horses and made good distance to get us clear of the forest path. We now had a breathtaking vantage point on our hilltop as the sun glazed the dimming sky. Brighter than the waning sun, I could also see the walls of flame dancing in the distance. The fires seemed to eat away merrily at the forest like a starving newcomer at a holiday festival.

  I sat still, my legs tucked up to my chest, just staring. Staring as if I could find comfort in the flames.

  "This wasn't your fault, Lady Najika. It was mine."

  I whirled to my left, peering at the sergeant's face. Go away.

  "It's been getting smarter. I should have taken it more seriously sooner. Maybe if I had, none of this would have happened."

  "Look, I don't know how you even think you know what's going on in my head Sergeant, but—"

  "Forgive me, my Lady, but this needs to be said. It doesn't take a scholar to see that the haunted look in your eyes comes from guilt. Oh, and by the way, you not accepting a single bite for dinner was also a pretty good clue. I am a soldier who follows orders, my Lady, but I'm not stupid."

  I gave him a dark look. This was the last thing I needed right now, the sergeant growing a backbone and ignoring his Queen's orders.

  "If I told you to leave me in peace, would you?"

  "Not until I've said my piece," the sergeant replied. "The truth is that the Dreamgiver has been getting smarter. Bolder. When I was a knight just come of age we could walk that path and get no more than a few fleeting images. A few temptations here and there. But we resisted it. As time went on, the Dreamgiver's images became more lifelike and more of my men were tempted. I devised ways to cope with it, though. The rope system worked well enough. Has for years. I underestimated the thing, though. The Dreamgiver pulled you in, but it was able to do it while still letting your conscious mind perform complex tasks. Tasks like cutting a rope."

  The sergeant grimaced. He sat beside me, then, and his hands pressed over his crumpling face.

  "That was new to me, my Lady. Today I saw the Dreamgiver learn its next new trick and use it on you. I should have been prepared. I knew it was intelligent and that it could learn. I should have at least warned everyone. But I didn't, and you know why? Wishful thinking. I'd become set in my ways, believing that the same strategy would work again just because it worked before."

  His hand clenched around my shoulder, forcing me to lift my face and see his anguish.

  "It was my job to protect all of you, Queen Najika. To keep you safe. I failed. I failed. So, if you want to find blame, this is where it belongs. It belongs here." He pointed a finger at his heart. I wanted to protest, but that protest died in my throat when I felt his fierce conviction hitting me like an aura.

  My thoughts collided, part of me not knowing what to believe anymore. Then a tiny voice in my head tried something else.

  How much does it matter whose fault it is for what? Will it save your Kingdom if you find out? Wallow in hopelessness some other time, when lives don't hang in the balance. Some things have been lost, yes, but you aren't dead yet. Your husband loves you very much. He sent a dragon to save you and used up his Kingdom's most precious resource. Are you going to throw all that away?

  Sometimes I made a really good argument, even with myself. Sometimes I actually listened to myself too. I leaned over and kissed the sergeant's cheek, my hands gently resting on his shoulders as I stood up.

  "Whatever fault you think is yours, I forgive you Sergeant. I'm turning in for the night. Time to see what sleep I can get, the kind not laced with nightmares preferably." With a firm nod I walked away.

  Chapter 18

  "Sir Kennian." I caught the knight's attention. It was his turn on watch, and everyone else slept in huddled lumps by the fire. His tired eyes tried to firm up as he snapped to awareness. I was wearing my night gown instead of armor mainly because I couldn't be too obvious about what I was about to do, in case anyone else woke up and saw me. I could hardly believe what I was about to do, anyway. Sometimes the only move was a drastic one.

  "I wonder if I might have a word with you, just for a moment." The knight didn't seem suspicious. To the contrary, he seemed flattered that I wanted to speak with him. I set him at ease using the best way I knew how.

  "Are you a bachelor, Sir Kennian?" The knight sheepishly nodded. He was a young man, maybe a year or two older than me at most. His face was clean-shaven and his eyes lacked the world-weary quality I saw in more seasoned fighters.

  "I have noted your bravery during the journey. A man like you isn't easy to find. There is a noblewoman in the White Kingdom, a friend of mine whose family is very wealthy. Lady Palanai. I think she might make a good match for you." I told a half-truth there. I did know a Lady Palanai. Her family was fabulously wealthy. We weren't friends. More like frenemies…unless you counted her conceited parents' friendship with my father as a friendship by proxy.

  I sighed. Might as well get this over with. Time to gauge his interest and see how bribable he was. "I was hoping you might tell me more about yourself. I was planning to write Palanai a letter, and
your name might come up."

  The knight gave me a rueful smile. "My Queen, I cannot thank you enough for the compliment, however I—"

  "Please, call me Najika."

  "Err…Najika. Look, my Lady, it is kind of you to offer, but with our Kingdom soon to be at war with all the other Kingdoms, I think it highly unlikely that any lady of her standing would be interested in a man whose Kingdom is her sworn enemy. The White and Black Kingdoms have never been friendly, my Lady."

  "And yet here I am, wedded to your lord." I gave him a bold look. My dignified stare silenced him, and then I went on. "I have a plan which requires your help. You must tell no one and do exactly as I say. The alliance with the ogres depends on it."

  Sir Kennian looked at me gravely. We seemed to both become suddenly aware of the sleeping figures bunched around the embers of the campfire not far off.

  "Lady Najika, I'm not sure what you mean. I have strict orders."

  "And I am countermanding those orders, Sir Knight. Will you listen to your Queen or to a sergeant?"

  The man licked his lips several times. He looked like a mouse caught between two pieces of poisoned cheese. "My Lady, I really don't think there is much we can do this night."

  I knew the only chance I had to salvage this mission, but for my plan to work I had to at least find the ogres in a receptive mood. I had promised Kahg-Hahg, the ogre I'd met on my wedding night, that I would show up alone except with maybe a few advisors and servants.

  The original plan was for the knights to leave us at the border. But after all that had happened, I'd overheard the paranoid sergeant giving orders to his knights. They were to escort us all the way to the ogre Queen. That meant me breaking my promise to Kahg-Hahg. Whatever faults the ogres had, it seemed to me that promises meant something to them. I sensed that this was one of the reasons they disliked humans so much. We broke promises as easily as a piece of bread.

  "I need you to leave with me right now. I must proceed to the ogre camp this instant. We are leaving and we are doing it in secret. I command this as your Queen."

  Sir Kennian gaped at me for a moment before he recovered. "With all due respect, my Queen, your safety is the responsibility of the knights of the escort guard. We are under the command of Sergeant Herveth. In this regard I'm afraid I must stick to my sergeant's orders."

  "That would be a pity," I replied, my voice laced with steel. I slowly drew my sword. Hopefully he wouldn't call my bluff.

  "What are you doing, my Lady?"

  "I have an agreement with the ogre Queen," I lied. "If I do not show alone, she will be greatly displeased, and what slim chance of alliance exists will be torn away. Either you obey your Queen or you destroy the very purpose of this mission. That makes you my enemy."

  I advanced on him, and Sir Kennian's hand strayed to his weapon, but he couldn't quite bring himself to draw it.

  "You have two choices, Sir Knight. You may help your Queen complete this mission. I think any Queen would reward that most handsomely. I think a noblewoman like Lady Palanai could be easily convinced that a man of your courage might make a good match. Or…" I spun my wrist, letting the steel of my sword flash in the moonlight. "Or I will attack you, and you will have no choice but to turn on your own Queen and forever be dishonored for it."

  The young knight put his hands up, palms out, and began to back away. "Please, Lady Najika, this is insane! Can you not simply convince the sergeant of the importance of what you just told me!?"

  I shook my head. "No. After the disaster at the Rotted Wood he cannot be trusted to see reason." Also, he would know I was lying about the arrangement with the ogre Queen, but I neglected to point that out. "We must leave now, in secret, and you will not wake the next man for his turn at the watch. Now is the choosing time, Sir Kennian. Will you betray your Queen or will you show true courage?"

  When the indecision on his face snapped, I could finally breathe.

  "I am up to the task, Lady Najika. I hope you know what you are doing."

  Me too.

  Four hours later I stood with a young knight looking over the steepest descent I'd ever seen in my life. It looked so treacherous that we both gasped as we rounded the curve in the road.

  "We might as well jump into a pit of tar. It would be an easier way to die," I mumbled.

  "I'm sorry, what did you say my Lady?" I waved away Sir Kennian's question. We had made good time despite the fact that we'd had to walk the road's treacherous potholes largely in the dark. Dawn glistened along the outlines of the peaks in the distance. Time was not our friend.

  It took us three more hours, and the sun stubbornly rose to announce morning by the time we reached the foot of the sandstone cliffs. We were now officially in the valley of the ogres, and I hastily put on my chainmail armor before telling Sir Kennian it was time to part ways. I gave him a kiss on the mouth which probably sent heat from his toes to the tip of his nose, at least if his reaction was any clue. I realized that if I was wrong about this and got myself killed, then he'd be dishonored. The poor man deserved more than a goodbye wave.

  Then I mounted my horse and rode until that familiar baking feeling told me that this chainmail armor would have been the perfect culinary tool for cannibals. I wasn't sure whether I'd be cooked medium or well done by the time I arrived. Sweat poured off my forehead, trickling into my eyes as I swiped at it again and again. I was just getting ready to stop for a few swigs of water from my flask when I saw him. His two familiar heads peered over a boulder as tall as my horse.

  "Kahg-Hahg, is that you?" I made sure that I was actually seeing the same ogre from my wedding night. Twin sets of red eyes studied me as he urged frantically for me to come as if I were a teleporting sorceress here to do his bidding instead of a Queen. I dismounted and led my horse through the tall grass, finally basking in the shade of the boulder. My guard was up though. The last time we'd met the ogre with two heads named Kahg and Hahg had nearly strangled me. I drew my sword out, ready for anything.

  "You'll have no need for that, silly human woman."

  "I am the Queen of the Black Kingdom. A little respect wouldn't be totally unreasonable."

  Hahg produced a stiff upper lip, but Kahg sighed. "We do not mean to insult. We actually have been watching lookout to see if you would come as you promised. When we saw the Dreamgiver burning all through the night, we guessed that maybe it was your doing. Was it?"

  I nodded, because in a way it was. "What of it?" I was worried how they'd react. I remembered Lady Vaela's words. To my shock, they just shrugged.

  "That's your reaction? I've been told that ogres worship the Dreamgiver like a god."

  Kahg-Hahg smirked at me. "Who told you that?"

  "The former Queen!"

  Kahg-Hahg chuckled. "We used to, sure. Religions can change, silly human. The Dreamgiver was demoted from god to monster by the last reigning ogre priestess nearly 30 years ago. Tell your former Queen she needs to read fewer books and get out more."

  I tried to form words, but my heart was too busy jumping up and down with relief.

  "Listen, Najika. We will tell you the truth because you proved yourself. You said that you would come without an army or men carrying weapons. You were true to your promise. You also said that you would come to talk of a lasting treaty. Is that still true?"

  "That is the only reason I came. I want the ogres and the people of the Black Kingdom to have a real relationship."

  Kahg-Hahg waggled their sets of eyebrows at me and smiled. Smiles were supposed to be comforting, but their blood-red eyes ruined the effect. "You do show a supply of courage, then. I hope you are ready to use it."

  Kahg looked at Hahg. "Do you want to tell her or shall I?" Hahg threw his fellow head an irritable frown.

  "Why do I always have to give bad news? It is your turn." Kahg rolled his eyes but surrendered.

  "Your salvation and your worst enemy can be found in Agtha-Selene. She is our ogre Queen."

  "My salvation and my worst enemy?" I ech
oed. "Is that supposed to be a riddle?"

  "No," Kahg continued. "It is literally the truth. The Queen's left head calls herself Agtha. She is in league with the Red Queen and ordered me to help the assassins kill you on your wedding night. The Queen's right head calls herself Selene. She is interested in making a formal treaty with you and your husband. She ordered me to observe you and give my opinion on whether you could be trusted."

  I gaped at him. "Wait. So you're saying that—"

  "I have been forced to play both sides, Najika. One Queen tells me to kill. Another Queen tells me to be hopeful for friendship. It is no way to live." Kahg and Hahg exchanged commiserating glances like two boys without girls to dance with at a wedding feast.

  I stifled a frustrated scream, settling for an anguished groan. "What am I supposed to DO?!" How am I supposed to kill an enemy conjoined to a potential ally?"

  Hahg shrugged unhelpfully. "You're the Queen. I'm just a lowly warrior."

  I wracked my brain for everything I knew about ogres. It wasn't much. It couldn't have filled a tiny children's book.

  "Tell me this. Does one of your people ever lose a head? I mean, what happens? Can an ogre survive with just one head?" The question seemed ridiculous, but I had to ask. It didn't pay to assume. I'd learned that during my past year in the Black Kingdom trying to reorient my ways to a different culture.

  Kahg-Hahg nodded in creepy tandem. "It happens. Sometimes there is a hunting accident. Sometimes two ogres fight, one loses a head. We usually follow the rule of a head for a head. But for Queens, rules are hazier."

  "Is there some way I could challenge her to a battle?" My mind was racing, wondering if I could target Agtha during the fight and then concede after I'd killed the proper head.

  "You could," Hahg admitted. "This is an ancient right. As the leader of your people, in theory you could challenge her. This is an ancient custom, that Queens may challenge one another."

  "Why do I still see 'problem' written all over your foreheads then?" I said, crossing my arms and giving them the frown they so richly deserved.