Fallen Queen (Mariposa Book 1)

by Y. R. Shin

  The first majestic trumpet of victory resounded. But to her, it was a signal of being forced to face an unfamiliar confusion and a kind of fear she hadn’t imagined before.

  The first time she ordered her army to butcher the innocent, she realized from now on, all the roads she set foot on would be drenched in red.

  Passing through mounds of bodies of people she did not recognize, their frightened eyes staring into space, she voiced her fear for the first and last time.

  “Hansen, they were people the patriots of this country strived to protect, weren’t they?”

  Hansen, following her on his horse, vaguely answered, “Probably.”

  Hansen found Peijak coming back with a group of soldiers, the king’s head in his hand. He lowered his voice to a whisper. “Do you pity them, Your Highness?”

  “I cannot lie that I rejoice at this sight.”

  The man was annoyingly relaxed, standing dignified and alone in the midst of hell, as the cries of battle and the smell of blood whirled.

  “Then why not turn back, Your Highness? A conquest is…not an easy thing.”

  The queen was neither enraged nor did she scold the knight for daring to give her uninvited advice.

  “I will not eat my words.”

  This was the path of patriotism she had chosen. The great united under swords and spears.

  She slowly closed her eyes, blue as the faraway sky covered by black smoke, and opened them again. The shard of emotion revealed a moment ago disappeared with the blinking of her eyelids.

  Hansen gazed at the back of the queen as she let her red hair sway with the wind in the red light that swallowed life, or that spilled life. He turned his head to take in the sight of hell.

  “Yes, Your Highness. Do as you wish. The result at the end of this war will tell right or wrong. Once you reach the end of your ambition, all your questions and confusions will be resolved.”

  “Dear sister.” Before she could notice, Peijak came near her and dismounted his horse, holding the head of an old man that was still dripping blood. He sheathed his blood-covered sword and offered the poor king’s head up to his queen. “The lives of the people of Rarke you saved.”

  The queen looked down at the face of the cowardly king who’d left his body in this world and run away to the other. “Yes, it is so. My people will live in peace, for this man is now dead.” Her lips smiled without her command.

  Why was it? When the queen looked back at Hansen, his deep green eyes were full of pity, gazing at the undignified head of the enemy king. When Peijak finally threw the king’s head down on the ground, Hansen looked over at Swan. And smiled a smile as blue as a smile can be.

  “Congratulations on your first victory, Your Highness.”

  Reuyen’s dream of her past had ended with her sensing another person at the far side of her consciousness. Funnily enough, the first thing she saw as she opened her eyes were Jacalrin’s evergreen eyes, as young as fragile cotyledons.

  Now, in the tent filled with the familiar smell of a battlefield, she was confused if she was Swan or Reuyen. She even struggled to discern if the eyes that were looking at her were Hansen’s or not. She finally stationed her mind in the present when she noticed her injured legs.

  She was perplexed.

  Living as Reuyen, she had never before been influenced by a dream this clear. She even felt a slight fury at her feeble self who couldn’t distinguish between her past life and her present life. However, it seemed as though Jacalrin interpreted her perplexity in a different way.

  “What’s going on now?”

  “It wasn’t a nightmare, but a—”

  Suddenly, a wooden tray was shoved into her face.

  “Yeah, yeah, okay. Eat this first. It was probably disgusting to begin with, but now that it’s gotten cold, it must be even more disgusting. Do you even know how pale your face is right now?”

  Jacalrin was holding up a bowl of cold vegetable soup that had a layer of oil on the surface, like it had been sitting outside for a long time, and a loaf of black bread that looked crumbly on the tray. Reuyen sighed as she took the tray and looked up at Jacalrin. He was pretty cute when he acted like he was free of the characteristics of nobles. Probably because he was still young.

  “I thank you for your kind gesture, but right now is a little…”

  “Oh, please. You think I’m worried about your health?”

  At Jacalrin’s sneer, Reuyen put the tray down on her lap. Then she silently picked up the bowl and started drinking the murky soup.

  “I’m worried you’ll drag us down, since you’re moving with me.”

  Reuyen halted in the middle of gulping down the soup.

  She put the half-empty bowl down and wiped her mouth. She was preparing herself to train with other knights-in-training and to live according to their schedule once her legs were all healed. But moving already?

  “I have been warned by the doctor to rest because my wounds have not healed yet, sir.”

  “We really can’t not fight because of your situation, you see.”

  “Is the main army moving, sir?”

  “No, we’re dividing, so just a part of it.”

  “Dividing…”

  “Mhm.”

  Reuyen’s eyes cooled down.

  Sidan was to remain in the rear echelon at the main camp. What was happening to him, then? Jacalrin threw a straightforward answer at her voiceless question.

  “You won’t be able to move with your brother, but that was your condition to begin with, so don’t complain.”

  Reuyen drooped the ends of her lips. She had been given the rights, so she had to fulfill her duties. She especially had to watch herself, since she was under special attention.

  Many had come to take a look at her this afternoon too. The doctor had a different assistant following him around every visit, and even the guards glanced at her and tried to strike up a conversation. Someone sneakily approached her and showered her with praise. Of course, there were those who showed great dismay at her entrance itself. These were all results of the duke’s brassard now in her possession.

  She turned her head and looked at the red wolf brassard neatly folded in the corner of the tent. A sighing laugh escaped her lips. The woman who’d ruled over the wolves now crawled under a wolf and kneeled. How cruel life was.

  “When do we leave then, sir?”

  “No questions. I came to ask a couple questions of you today, not to answer yours.”

  Last time, Jacalrin had answered all her questions as she asked them, with additional explanations, like he was bewitched, so he cut her off defensively. But Reuyen simply rubbed her temples, a pensive look on her face.

  “Would it not be dangerous to head to Itaka, since there aren’t many places to take cover, sir? I don’t know for sure about the area right now, but…”

  Jacalrin shrugged. “Well, all you have to do is follow as you’re told.”

  But Reuyen was already contemplating the geography of the area and the time of year. Rarkian reinforcements were joining their main force not even two months away from the rainy season. The main camp had remained quiet even without an encounter, except for the Anf region. The enemy’s reinforcements were said to not have arrived yet. If they were dividing the army into more than two at this point…

  “A feint attack… Are you planning a large battle, sir?”

  “Boy, do you have a lot to say.”

  Jacalrin didn’t confirm anything, but Reuyen read a definite confirmation in that. A large battle would be possible in Amarze, the region that Paseid said had been renamed Itaka. But that area was a dry, open lowland. If the Rarkian force was headed there, it would be equivalent to blatantly revealing their plan.

  Unable to shake off her vague anxiety, Reuyen said, “If we divide the army to head toward the lowlands, the enemies will deem this an opportunity as well, sir.”

  “Obviously, Miss Know-it-all,” Jacalrin replied irritably at last, like he couldn’t keep his mout
h shut anymore.

  An unidentifiable chill ran down her spine. Her body stiffened as though struck by lightning when a sudden question emerged in her head. When she winced, the tray sitting on her lap tilted and spilled everything on the floor with a clatter. But it didn’t matter.

  Then where were they headed?

  Reuyen barely managed to open her mouth. Her voice was fading away, as though she was speaking to herself. “Olzore?”

  Jacalrin affirmed the question by not denying it. Reuyen’s eyes went as cold as ice.

  Olzore.

  The home of the devilish fort that had destroyed the queen two hundred years ago.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The next day, the knights at the main camp and a fraction of the soldiers followed Paseid, the early morning light following them from behind.

  The small woman, the only one wearing a red wolf banner among the knights, definitely stood out. Countless men looked at the brassard on her left arm with admiration or question, but none of them were audacious enough to strike up a personal conversation where the high-ranking knights could see. Thanks to that, Reuyen’s mind was burning into ashes with frustration.

  She had not seen even the shadow of Sidan, now repositioned in the rear echelon after leaving the front, since the violent goodbye the siblings had shared. That was bad enough, but Jacalrin’s silence from last night had unintentionally set a painful fire in Reuyen.

  She attempted to ask about the details of the plan on multiple occasions, to get some kind of a sure answer, but that was nearly impossible in her situation.

  On top of all that, when she returned to the main camp, she was forbidden from leaving her tent due to the order to prioritize treating her wounds above all else. The greeting ceremony with the senior knights she rightfully should have had, as a newly ordained knight, was cancelled, and she was trapped in her small tent, unable to even attend the training session with her fellow knights-in-training. After a couple days, she felt like she was going insane.

  At the very least, the blisters and wounds on her feet were getting better day by day. It was a natural and rewarding result for enduring the horrible smell of the herbs. She became very content as walking became less and less of a problem. She tried tentatively suggesting that she could start going around camp now, but everyone was too busy to listen to her. Of course, she did not complain about that. Other than her, all the soldiers and knights were busy as bees because of the upcoming mission.

  Fires were built here and there, carts came and went, and the war horses and their barding were prepared. On top of checking the armor and weapons assigned to each, there were training sessions whenever there was time.

  Just in time, Jacalrin came into view, busy with moving the carts carrying bamboo boxes.

  “Hey, watch it! That’s gunpowder. Hey!”

  The cry of the soldier startled by the young knight’s reproach even reached Reuyen where she sat at a distance.

  Watching the familiar scene, Reuyen felt a sudden surge of fatigue and boredom and went back into her tent. It was time to prepare to march to Olzore. Her steps naturally slowed down at that thought pestering her again.

  So, the furtive preparation for the mission at the main camp proceeded step by step. The surveillance became stricter with the intensified search for spies, and the knights were busy as beavers.

  As Reuyen had observed, Jacalrin was busy carefully packing the gunpowder on the carts so they could signal each other from the other side of the cliffs. He compared every supply item with the lists. Teread and Evinbur, Paseid’s most trusted knights, spent the night seriously discussing the feint attack with Tabajen, who would remain at the main camp. On the fourth day, Sir Olbevin Carvein returned from scouting the situation in the lands of Galabua, which included the Gerad border. Paseid delegated him to be the commander of the main camp.

  These were days busy enough to completely subdue the heat from the unconventional evaluation that took place at Camp Anf.

  Five days later, the council meeting at the headquarters that happened every day finally finished with the discussion of preparations for variables and the repositioning of certain people.

  Order of division of the army: Feint attack with circumvention through Olzore-Tolf

  Nine thousand men for ambush will carry twenty carriages of gunpowder to signal the arrival at the enemy’s rear side, following the circumvention through the Olzore-Tolf region. Two thousand men will remain at the main camp to cause a diversion.

  I hereby delegate the authority to report from the main camp and front to Tabajen and Olbevin. When the encircling troops fire a flare after circumventing Olzore-Tolf, all will secure the road between the cliffs and commence the feint attack.

  Eighth day of the sixth month in the year 899, in the Dothval Jant Calendar 899.

  Commander-in-Chief of the Rarkian defense force, Duke Paseid Calandok Brionake.

  After the order of the mission written on fine parchment and two reports to the royal family were sealed with Brionake’s wolf seal, all the preparations came to an end.

  For various reasons, Reuyen passed her time looking at the familiar campsite and the training ground beyond the fences outside her tent. Whether they were neglecting her because they thought her worthless or because she was a woman, not many people cared about her. There were a couple who looked at her strangely, having heard the rumors of what happened at Camp Anf, but even they often pretended not to see her and hastily walked away.

  The sun hung in the middle of the sky, shining on Reuyen’s long eyelashes and casting shallow shadows below them. She wasn’t unable to understand why the others were nearly abandoning her, but sitting alone amongst all those active people, she started getting wearisome with thoughts from her past infiltrating her mind.

  “You were out here, I see,” said a stately voice.

  It was a man’s she’d heard once or twice before. She slowly turned her head to look at the strong-looking old knight.

  Evinbur Paldago Haldroff. He was Paseid’s most trusted knight, now watching her strangely as they prepared to leave Camp Anf. She couldn’t even estimate how mighty of a house he belonged to, for she could barely recall House Haldroff from her memories. But perhaps because of his strong eyes that seemed to gaze through the years, she was oddly uncomfortable when he looked at her.

  She rose from her seat on the small chair for guards and greeted him like a knight. Evinbur rubbed his ill-groomed mustache and beard.

  “I assumed you would not have learned the code of chivalry and salute of sword yet, but have you?” he asked gently.

  “Barely, sir,” Reuyen answered vaguely. Evinbur crossed his arms like he didn’t care much for Reuyen’s answer and looked at the training ground on the other side of the camp.

  “Yes, now that you have the brassard, I should address you as Dame Detua. Have you been notified that you are to protect me during the mission commencing tonight?”

  Reuyen made a face that clearly conveyed that she hadn’t heard of such a thing. Then Evinbur gave a low chuckle. “Of course, you have not. I am here to notify you right now.” It was a mischief unexpected from a mature man.

  A bitter smile appeared on her lips as she listened to him. A sudden mission to protect a knight. They were taking such an obvious attitude, not even trying to hide their doubts about her, that she didn’t even feel like she was being wronged.

  In the friendly mutual reciprocation of distrust, Evinbur clicked his tongue with pity. “How are your wounds?”

  “Thanks for your concern. They have healed quite a bit, sir.”

  “That’s good to hear. Dame Detua, you were truly astonishing in the last evaluation. The body of the commander you killed in the last battle was traded for twelve prisoners. The other knights are very interested in you as well. I apologize for treating you this way, with the situation being what it is.”

  “It’s all right, sir.”

  “I can guess about your equestrian skills, but how did you le
arn archery, sword fighting, and such?”

  Feeling uneasy, like she’d just swallowed a bug, Reuyen lowered her head. Back in her town, she could get away with everything by simply saying she didn’t know, but a commanding knight of Rarke was asking now, not the resident of a small country town.

  “I just played rough with the local young men using swords and bows, sir,” she said with a shrug.

  “Huh, seems like you are not that good at lying. Don’t you try to fool this old man’s eyes.”

  “I had a great master…”

  “Tell me his name. If he is a man of that great a talent, I must know of him.”

  Reuyen bit her lip for a moment at his eagerness. “I stand corrected, sir. In truth…if you are asking how I learned those things, you would not believe me even if I told you the truth.”

  “Tell me. It becomes easy to consider most things not too unusual at my age.”

  “I have more talent than many others, sir.”

  “But you still would have had to practice.”

  “Though I have not learned much or practiced much, it seems like what I was born with overcomes that, sir.”

  “Oh, how easy you speak of things that would make several knights cry. That much skill without learning or training, huh.”

  The old knight’s benign, easy-on-the-ears laughter resounded. But the distrust underlying it was so clear that Reuyen laughed awkwardly too. Overcome with concern that he would ask something harder to answer, Reuyen changed the subject. “On a different note, I thought Sir Chesa would be in charge of keeping watch on me, sir.”

  “Quite direct you are. Little Sir Chesa has no talent in looking after someone. It would be a miracle if he doesn’t have a heart attack and faint. Of course, I mean the one being looked after, not Sir Chesa.”

  “Is that so, sir?”

  “I heard you had some trouble on the way here because of Sir Chesa as well, Dame Detua.”

  “Yes, I did have some trouble, sir.” Reuyen didn’t even realize the discontent seeping into her words as she spoke.