The War Queen

by Jane Merkley

  When they had gone, he released her, the fine lace of her sleeve snagging the calluses on his palm.

  “I would speak to you,” he said. “I think you will find help in my advice.”

  Advice? The last thing she would expect this tyrant to say. Perhaps it would be terrible advice in order to make her stumble?

  She was surprised when he laughed. It was a sound that briefly resembled that from what she remembered while on their way to Athenya.

  “You know I can read every expression on your face? My first advice… turn whatever storm is going on inside you off. Now follow me. I think best when I am not in a war room, beit dueled even with breakfast.”

  He turned for the door and Altarn paused before reluctantly falling in step beside him because she would be damned if she let him lead her.

  Altarn let the tense mood between them soften as much as it could before she spoke. “Why did you release me?”

  He made a noise in his throat, like a mix between a chuckle and a growl. “I know you won’t believe that I have a conscience, but enough people convinced me they were traumatized by your inequitable absence that it nagged at me enough to feel guilty for holding you longer.”

  “You’re right. I don’t believe it.”

  “Because I promised Jasper I’d help look for you after the war.” Byrone turned sharply left down a corridor that faced the east. Sunlight streamed through like a golden spear and had faded the red carpet. Dust speckles glinted in clouds and gave away the disuse of the corridor. “And I frankly didn’t want to do something that pointless when I knew where you were. If I refused, then it would look like I was heartless toward another monarch, and my reputation is not worth you.”

  They reached an enclosed stone stair case on their right. Altarn’s dress whispered behind her and she had to pick it up to ascend. This was probably one of the last areas of the castle that hadn’t been modernized.

  “Why not just pretend to look with Jasper or fake my death?” Altarn asked. “Clearly you captured me to have a clear shot at stealing Blindvar. I don’t believe you give in so easily to your moral warfare.”

  “Because then I’d have to feed you for the rest of your life and I’m not willing to kill you for the purpose of taking what you own. I kidnapped you on a whim. I didn’t have time to think of the future of it.”

  She looked up from watching the steps to find him looking at her before he looked away again. Even if it didn’t sound sincere, it was convincing, and even if he didn’t have any scruples kidnapping and making plans to steal her land, she couldn’t see him giving in to gratuitous murder for self gain. For now, she’d believe him.

  He pushed open a door at the top and revealed a garden beyond open to the sky.

  She was certain he had employed every servant in his house to care for this garden, for it was as lush as the jungles at the western edge of Blindvar.

  Wooden lattice framework stretched overhead from one side to the other, swathed in green vines and vine flowers. More flowers bloomed from beds of dirt piled on the stone floor hemmed in by wooden edge keepers. Green foliage fanned in front of them and crept across the stone path. A fountain bubbled further into the garden and a stream fled from it over the unguarded edge of the room to cascade below into the river at the castle’s base. A pump must be at work under the fountain to bring that same river water up to be recycled through the fountain again.

  “Ruidenthall’s last king built this castle,” Byrone offered as he mulled slowly about the garden. “We call him the Tyrant King. Ruids always threatened that this castle was a tomb he built for himself since it was built out of their tax money and many civilians died from forced labor for its making. He’s buried in this garden.” He looked at Altarn briefly to note her surprise. “Somewhere here in the dirt; it’s not marked. And when they brought in the dirt and buried him, they planted flowers on him to prove that good things would grow on his dead empire, and the flowers looked so nice they brought in more dirt and planted more flowers to further prove that they could plant as many flowers as they wanted on his dead empire. Ruids hold a lot of anger.”

  Byrone sat at the edge of the fountain and waited for her. Reluctantly and cautious of this strange new act of equality, she came closer and sat slowly, doing her best to read his intentions. They were too far from the open edge for him to simply push her over into the river. She sat with him between her and the edge to increase the difficulty just to make sure. Her knife was affixed to her thigh but the skirt was too long for her to deftly reach under and pull it out, so she had made a small cut in the fabric right above the hilt.

  He chuckled again and it sent shivers up her spine. In no way did she want to remember what he was like before she knew who he was. It hurt too much in more ways than one. “You can’t get any further from your house and you are still sour.” His comment was light but Altarn did not relax. She would speak the obvious.

  “It does not sit well with me to be kidnapped, drugged, and imprisoned in your house,” she said daggardly, and flowered the comment with a smile.

  Byrone pulled at a dandelion ball, blowing the seedlings away so they fluttered over the edge of the open room.

  “Truly.” Altarn was shocked that he wouldn’t try to down play any of it. “You do well to guard yourself against paltry attempts at niceties. But if you would, we must work together and it is easier if we are on equal acceptance of each other.”

  “I think we are in equal acceptance of each other.” She quirked an eye brow.

  He sighed through clenched teeth. “Equal pleasant acceptance of each other.”

  “Well, of course that starts by not dodging my title. You have to convince me you are going to respect my station before you can convince me that you mean well, and that your acts of kidnap and imprisonment were only fits of a jealous Lord.”

  His lip twitched and he looked away again and she was frankly surprised he didn’t abandon whatever it was he was trying to do and leave the garden. The fact that he remained spoke volumes that maybe he was trying to make amends.

  “True again, Lady,” he said, and the title was like a knife of shock in her chest because he wasn’t trying to poison her by saying it, as if he might have laced it with arsenic first. “I cannot erase what I have done but I can treat you better from here.”

  “So is that an apology?”

  “I never said I regretted what I did, but that I have rethought my actions and moved on. Fact is, you are here – by my doing,” he amended, “and I need your army to fight our common enemy. Truth is, I did my best to do without you. I had tried almost to the point of force to make Jasper lead your army, but he refused. And it turns out your people actually love you.”

  “Well, that’s a surprise.”

  “Your servant Kyree stopped me on the street to relent about the sadness of her losing you. That is why I let you go. Not because I needed you, but your people did. So I am not as cold as you think.”

  “Forgive me if I’m not convinced.”

  “The point is,” he continued, more than willing to leave the subject behind, “is you are awkward as a leader and you will not lead those people that love you if you continue to be awkward.”

  Altarn knew it was the truth so she did not argue, but she did scarlet under the statement.

  He continued, reading her thoughts again. “You have all the skills to lead, have done all the schooling and training. You live in the State House and people call you Lady… you have everything that makes you a leader but,” he paused, leaning toward her as if he had captivated her and she was hanging on every word, “lack everything that make you a leader.”

  She wanted to say that didn’t make sense, but it did. Made perfect sense. What she was lacking in a leader was replaced by a void in her that people standing too close could feel the devastation. Her people were a bucket of white paint she smeared across her inner demons to mask them into something else she could handle.

  “And what do you think I lack?” she
dared ask him though she feared the answer for her void was empty and he looked sincere enough to fill it.

  “Respect,” he said. “They love you for sure, they trust you for sure… They love you because you smiled at them once, they trust you because their tax money goes right where you say it will, but you have not commanded respect and that is what your nation needs right now. Knowing you the short time that I have,” he somehow made the statement sound like that time started this morning, “it appears to me that you wield your emotions like a weapon and people have to back away or they will be stabbed with it. It might be legitimate what you are angry or sad about, but that is a weapon that must always be sheathed, less people believe you don’t know how to wield it without hurting those people that are on your side. If you saw a man or a woman on the street, swinging a sword about with wild abandoned, you would stay away from them too and hope to gods they are not in your army. Hate me for this next part; this is a fault with most every woman and I think it is only fair you were warned about it. Women are emotional. That’s not a problem until you turn those emotions into a sword and stab those around you with it.”

  “I fail to see why you even care,” she said with a snarl. Her exposed weakness was leaving her more nervous than she already was about leading an army, and the bucket of white paint was so obvious now and Jasper’s comment to it laid her entire self open so she saw herself for what she was, and she agreed with the rest of her house.

  “I care,” he said more poignantly, lifting a finger to her face as if he could shove the understanding into her skull, “because you showed up to a war council in a dress. A very nice dress with curled hair.”

  She lowered her eyes and felt the heat of her embarrassment might burn the dress right off her.

  “Knowing you are not home to pull from your own clothes,” he offered as an escape, “you still had the option to not dress like damn princess. I don’t know about Blindvar, but we killed our princesses long ago. You frankly looked like a swan in a pig pen. True, you were the best dressed in there, but pigs are supposed to be dirty and no one will believe you are willing to get dirty either if you continue to preen your feathers.”

  “So you suggest I show up un-bathed in a tattered servant garb?” It was all she could do not to break the words against him.

  “Close.” Altarn’s eyebrows shot up and he had the decency to look away. “All I’m saying, is your people don’t want a princess. They want a war queen. I know you don’t believe me, but I was concerned for you in the war room. The only reason why my vultures did not pick over your bones was because you are Lady and it was your first – second – appearance before them and they are trying to decide just how much they can pick off you.”

  She looked away in disgusted and distracted herself with her clean nails.

  “War is a game.” He stood and paced lightly with his hands behind his back. “And it is played both on the field and in the house because there can only be one winner.” He fixed her with a hard stare to clarify that he meant to be the one with all the rewards. She was still starkly aware that her state was in peril and not because of their common enemy.

  “Take or leave my advice, but I highly recommend you play the part that is demanded of you.”

  Altarn stood, also in an act to show Byrone she would not be beneath him. “Thank you, Lord.” She surprised herself when she did not falter with his title. “Now may I give you advice?”

  Byrone smiled and folded his thick arms. “And what advice does a princess have for a war king?”

  His mockery slid easily off her. She realized just how much had slid off her. Was she so willing to ignore daggers directed at her?

  But she smiled. “I suggest when you send a man to stage an assault on me, you don’t send ones that break so easily. Turns out, he was the one that needed saving.”

  He dropped his smile. “That is off topic.”

  “But it really was brilliant. Staging those two attacks on me so the Lord of Ruidenthall could rush in at the right time and save the Lady of Blindvar is quite romantic. If this gets out, people will start to write stories about us.”

  She watched that familiar twitch in his jaw and she could see the debate dance behind his blue eyes. Then he ducked his head as he spun around to leave the room.

  Altarn laughed after him, reveling in her small victory that she had chased him out of his own garden. If she had nothing else, she had blackmail since he had just admitted that his attempts to woo her on their way to Athenya embarrassed him to the core.

  Altarn’s Chain

  Altarn changed out of the apparent atrocity of a gown and back into the pale green, ill-fitting dress loaned to her. It was not flattering on her at all, but it was all she had until she acquired more. She checked out a horse from Byrone’s stables and rode to the refugee camp. She sat at its entrance and looked about for familiar faces. To her extreme delight, a thin woman whose long red hair flared behind her like a battle standard ran toward her with a joyous shriek.

  Altarn dismounted and embraced Kyree whose arms around her were stronger than they looked.

  Kyree drew away. Her face was flushed with cold rosy cheeks and she tucked her wild hair behind her ears. Altarn hadn’t seen Kyree outside of her servant duties since she first started in Altarn’s employ a year ago, so it shocked her to see Kyree wearing dirty pants and a thick coat. Kyree always had her hair wrapped up too. Altarn didn’t realize it had grown so long.

  “Jasper told us all that happened to you!” She grabbed Altarn’s jaw and inspected her like a mother would do to a child. “Remarkable you were found and brought here!”

  “Yes,” Altarn said, trying to hide the wry in her tone between clenched teeth. “Very fortunate.” Altarn tied her horse to a post there. “But what of you? Jasper told me what happened as far as he witnessed, but what of you, your family, and my house?”

  Kyree took Altarn’s arm in hers and began escorting her down the muddy row of tents.

  As Kyree prattled on, Altarn studied the camp. It was kept clean, minus the mud that was everywhere. Hygiene tents were set up every so often along with food store tents. The people milling about stared at Altarn, most never having seen her before but noting she was different from them because of her clean clothes. Those that knew her face smiled warmly and went back to their tasks.

  They love you. They do not respect you.

  Jasper was doing a remarkable job taking care of her people and Byrone was most generous to help in their time of desperate need. But that still did not earn him the right to steal her land, a voice reassured her.

  Kyree led her to a tent and tossed the canvass away noisily so Jasper spun around to look.

  “My Lady,” he greeted with a smile as he stood from a wooden crate he was using as a chair. “Glad to see you.” Mud speckled his pants up to his knees and the bottom of his cloak was wet and heavy with more.

  “I came to see how the camp is fairing. You are doing a remarkable job, Captain Jasper.”

  Jasper blushed under the new title. “Thank you. But Lord Byrone has done the hardest part,” he said with a curt nod of his head. “Food, clothes, water, and tents have been provided by him. I just make sure no one dies and keep a tally of who is here. More Blindvarns arrive daily.”

  Altarn sneered gently so Jasper would not see. She was generally opposed to anything Byrone did out of kindness because he was bound to use it as leverage against her. However, that was currently unavoidable.

  “I am grateful for both of you.”

  “I recovered your arms and armor, Altarn,” Kyree piped up cheerfully and went to the back of the tent where she rifled nosily through one of the several trunks there. Kyree and Jasper were the only ones she allowed to call her without her title. Privileged by association.

  “Kyree! Why would you spare even a second on my behalf when I am not there?”

  Kyree returned with a chain mail sack in her arms. “Because the more weapons we have to fight this enemy the better.�
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  Altarn took the bundle and held it gently, like it was as fragile as what she needed to represent once she put it all on. “I would have you come back with me to the castle. I need a friend that is not required to be here.” She threw a glance at Jasper who nodded. She hated making him sleep in the tents, in the coming cold just as much as she hated not doing it with everyone herself. She had always despised her commanders during her service in the army, because their tents would always be warm and dry but the troops beneath them were made to deal with the mud, snow, rain, and insects. That to her was not respect. But she had to be close to Byrone as they hashed out plans for the coming war. But she would be sure to visit the camp often to help out with various tasks to show her people that she was not above any of them.

  Kyree put a hand in her hair. “I have my two children and Haymiel hunts during the day.”

  “Bring your baby. Of course I don’t want to cause any hardship on you or your family.”

  Kyree gripped her arm reassuringly. “I will make it work. I can send my other child with a friend who has kids and who have been playing with each other every day. As long as I can bring my baby, it is doable.”

  “Glad to hear it. I’ve missed you both.” Altarn reached her arms to encompass Jasper as well. “I’ve been sorely lacking in friends as of late. And what of the rest of my court?” She directed this question to Jasper who pursed his lips.

  “I cannot account for the rest aside from the two already here. They are currently keeping order in the farthest western line of tents. More and more tents are erected daily.”

  “Byrone is only housing half of Blindvar,” she said lightly. “Inform Perseth and Icnar we will hold court here tomorrow in this tent, you included.”

  “Yes, Lady.”

  “How is your family doing?”

  “I put them in a tent three tents down. I practically live in this command tent so people can find me and not bother my family. They are doing well. Thanks for asking.”