by K. G. Wilkie
The King dismissed his concerns, and explained that his deputies were doing a fine job of leading the kingdom in his absence. The many guards standing around the healing bay argued that things were well in hand.
Richard was less convinced. Around his father, sure, all seemed suitably set up. But beyond the royal chambers, he knew his brother Aeron was wondering across the countryside with a select band of his more loyal followers. That could easily lead to trouble. In the palace as well the guards had seemingly been reduced to only working night shifts, and leaving the grounds open to anyone during the day with some crazy idea that the scullery maids or footmen would be able to recognize a rebel force and fight them off with their brooms, no doubt. He’d also seen a most alarming sight that morning, a group of officials were able to use transport spells when it had been decried centuries ago that only the royal families had access to that power outside of a portal point, and for good reason. The portals helped control where people could go, and who could use them. Without the portals the rebels attacking the grand council in an attempt to assassinate the royal family were already too close for comfort for the king to be lying abed like this- the idea that they could move even more freely, and transport anywhere they wanted, was daunting.
Vovin tried to comfort his youngest, explaining that the transportation spells had not been opened for all to access. Only a select few trusted individuals, like the very top magistrates, and the fey queen, and his own queen had been granted that power.
The prince just rolled his eyes. “Father, I love my mother, you know I do. But there’s a reason the law only allows those with royal blood to move freely. What if you got into one of your fights one time, and she got so angry she decided to do something about it instead of sulking at her country estates like usual? What if something happened and you broke up with her like Gabriela? It’s too big a risk. You were the one who made that law in the first place, you should know all this best!”
The king dismissed his concerns, insisting over and over that his advisers were doing a good job leading his people with his queen to guide them.
Nothing Richard said could persuade him to change the way things were. Richard gave a half hearted attempt to push for himself to have that position, though he clearly wasn’t pushing hard in light of his father’s delicate health. It didn’t make a difference though- the man wasn’t willing to turn the helm over to either of his sons.
After paying his respects Richard trudged down the grand stair case, knowing he’d done no good. His father’s health was at risk, and the realm’s security was in shambles, but he had failed to help the old man see that.
CHAPTER SEVEN
The Queen's Grace
Passing the queen’s compound on the floor below he ran into his mother. She took one look at him, and Queen Yami swept up her son in a hug. She smoothed his hair and admired how the color and his build were just like her, but everything else about him was so much like his father the hero.
Richard blushed and pulled away from her. “Certainly there are some similarities,” he said. He looked his mother up and down, saw that she was in her biggest crown, when she often could be find quietly withdrawn to her rooms and dressed to have as little attention from the courtiers she found so annoying as possible. “You look to be in great spirits,” he added.
Queen Yami beamed at him. “I am having tremendous fun, you know. I haven’t been able to do so much ruling like this for centuries, long before I met the king.
“You do remember that this is not for fun, right? This isn’t a game, the kingdom is at stake,” son chastised mother.
She looked down at him, her threads of power rushing over her skin as her human form deteriorated at her anger. “I am well aware, my son, of the weight I carry,” she said. The words were deep, throbbing with power. “I have carried it for thousands of years, and the injuries of one king do not add any weight to my already crippling burdens,” Yami added.
Richard sighed and hugged her again, his fingers creasing the slowly unspooling threads until his embrace calmed her enough that she was once again formed of skin and the substantial substance of spirit shared by all shaped like humanity. “I don’t mean to offend you mother. I’m simply concerned. It seems that an awful lot of security measures have been weakened or completely thrown out since dad was stabbed. I don’t like to see these advisers manipulating you to make less than ideal decisions,” he said.
She smiled and tugged at his ear. “That’s enough out of you, young one. I love my child, but I won’t allow you to treat me like some pushover. The magistrates have their own agendas for the kingdom and their positions, and I have simply aimed higher and better. They only think that they are in charge because it benefits me for them to be misled,” Queen Yami said. When Richard opened his mouth to protest again, she gave him many assurances of her being fully in charge of the situation and the advisers, and promised she was letting them think they had control while in reality she was using them.
Richard left the palace. Every step away he took, he became more and more certain that his mother was being a little delusional. She spent so much time to herself, it made sense that she would be tricked easily if she wasn’t used to the craftiness of courtiers. But he knew, for certain, that there could be no reason to sabotage the kingdom’s security in order to somehow better the realm in this troubled time when he and so many others were still sure that many rebels were still around, simply waiting and plotting for an opportunity to strike once again.
But he couldn’t be the only one who was concerned. Surely there were others, the representatives of the different peoples of the realm, that would agree with him that the way things were was unacceptable. He could either work with them to convince his father to change things, or maybe even oust the rebels themselves. That left only one thing, he had to gather allies. Powerful ones. And though he trusted some of them less than he could throw them, that meant it was time to at least give his brother a chance to work together.
It was time to call the Council once again.
Meanwhile, Queen Yami watched him go. He was a good boy, certainly, but somehow he had come out a little stupid. She’d overheard it all in the king’s room, of course- who wouldn’t be able to hear that? The full blooded dragons always seemed to be so loud they never even realized they were somehow completely incapable of speaking in an indoor voice. It must be all the roaring they did, she mused. They were just as like to roar something as to speak it, which was helpful when you lived on barren mountain tops miles away from the rest of your kind, but that was ancient history and they really should have adapted to more modern environments.
It wasn’t a major problem though. Richard, poor little Richard, could worry his head and think he needed to charge in to fight the big bad advisers because he was so sure she was at the mercy of their slightest whims and didn’t have the strength of will to stand up for herself and her own opinions in talks with them. How silly. They hardly were able to muster up any defense when she introduced a new security protocol to them. She just stomped all over any concerns they had and they couldn’t help but run away from their little meetings with their tales between their legs. They were as bossy and in control of her as her little maid was, a little human girl sent from Witch City that would scamper if she let the threads take over and resumed one of her true forms. It didn’t bear thinking of what the timid creature might do if she ever took her other form. She’d probably faint from the shock.
No, there wasn’t a single problem for the boy to worry over at all. She had everything planned, everything taken care of. All the little things that concerned him so were just the building blocks in her plan. Soon, he’d appreciate her plan. He’d love it when everything had come to pass and she’d put her boy in exactly the position he truly deserved as her blood. But in the meantime, she might have to keep an eye out for him. He might meddle, go straight to the magistrates and work with them to ruin everything and put things back to the way they were before Vovin
was so unfortunately injured. She’d have to keep an eye out for him before he meddled.
At the door to the king’s room Yami ran into yet another person. At the sight of her, Yami’s fingers unfurled into string reaching to wrap around this most unpleasant visitor.
She laughed. “Oh Yami dear, still up to your little games like this?,” the harpy woman said. She sliced off the ends of the threads closest to her, causing Yami to wince in pain at the injury. “You really shouldn’t fight people you’ll lose against like this, little Yami. You’ll just get yourself hurt,” she added. “Besides, it’s hardly necessary. I came in to visit and play a game of chess. I’m not interested in doing anything else. You know that,” she added.
Yami sneered. “What I know, Gabriella, is that you are a little too close to Vovin. Having second thoughts about the break up? Don’t worry, I can remove any thoughts from occuring again if you try anything,” she added.
Gabriella laughed. “No one likes a woman scorned, dear. Besides, he married you, I married someone else, and we’re just good friends now. I don’t see why you can’t stop being such a dog in the manger about it all. One might wonder if you had something to be so insecure about,” Gabriella added. “It makes one wonder that you might think I’m such a threat because there’s something I offer the king that you can’t, you know. You’d do best getting over it, it’s been two hundred years and you’re as touchy as ever,” she said.
Yami snapped at her. “Touchy? Touchy! I am not touchy at all. It’s a perfectly natural reaction. Besides, I don’t have anything to be insecure about,” she added.
“Oh?” Gabriella smiled. “Nothing? Funny, I seem to recall a little scandal about a half demon marrying into the royal family. A very weak variety of demon, come to that. Many people had much to say about that. And to add to that, you are from the House of Water, the least important clan of dragons there are. But you’re right, I’m sure. It’s good to be brave and try to move on from your humble origins. It’s ever so important to to try to move on from the past. If only you were capable of that,” Gabriella added in a mutter.
Yami squawked and seized the other woman by the carefully coiffed feathers on her head. “Me, incapable of moving on? Why you little brat, you have been a thorn in my side since before the marriage! The nerve!”
Gabriella seized her hands and flung Yami to the other wall. “Be careful dear, you know you are no match against me in a fight. I’m trained in warfare, and my tribe’s leader on the battle field, and all you are trained in is having a very unreliable human glamour that seems to unravel at the slightest provocation. Don’t worry though, as soon as you beg for forgiveness for trying to drown my son in infancy, I might consider being kind to you. Who knows? It could happen,” Gabriella said.
Yami snarled and charged at the woman before a wall of flames sprang up to separate them. “Are you really going to make me mediate between you two from my sick bed,” Vovin called out. “Why don’t you come in My Pearl, and Gabriella may nicely leave now that we’ve had a lovely visit but are done talking,” he added.
Yami sniffed and stomped down the stairs instead. “I don’t feel like it anymore,” she said. “Feel free to spend more time with your lady friend while I’m gone,” Yami said.
Vovin sighed behind her and asked Gabriella to leave. “You know how it is, once she’s in a mood it will take her a few days to get out of it,” he said. “I do wish you two could just get along,” he added.
Gabriella snorted. “She’s the type to think a man and a woman can’t ever just be friends without any romantic connection. I doubt she’ll move on any time soon. I’m not a fan of her in particular either, you know,” she said.
Vovin protested that her one grudge couldn’t still be the bath incident, where little Aeron had been put under water in the tub to clean up because as a water dragon Yami was used to babies that were quite comfortable breathing underwater. Then they started to have a lively conversation about the House of Water, and all the other dragon clans, and Gabriella ended up rejoining him in the sick room to regale him with stories of different battles with different types of dragons.
Yami stamped away to her quarters to leave their cheerful conversation behind. What nerve! Once again her husband had supported that woman in a fight. He was always doing that, always choosing that woman before herself. First when they were dating, and he fell in love with that creature and left her. Then their whole marriage had been him sneaking off to spend time “playing chess” with her. She didn’t believe it for a second.
Yami collapsed on the bed and stared at the gilded dragons frolicking on the ceiling. She didn’t believe in her husband, and she certainly didn’t trust that woman. But she had plans. She trusted in the plan. And the plan would see her through to where she deserved to be.
CHAPTER EIGHT
A Fey People
The boundaries of Avalon glowed a rosy hue. It was beautiful here, but also so much more than just beauty. Something in the view, the very air around her, called to her. The part that was fey and strange and as far removed from human as she herself was. Alyss took a deep breath and walked through the barrier to the realm of the Fae.
A humongous line was hung up above her and stretched across the edge of the jungle and abruptly fell at the Cliff that stretched into an arid landscape before her. Large fronds in the canopy above her fell down to wrap around the vine and make a dangling cable car that touched down beside her. She stepped in and rolled down making softness squeaking noise like rubber as it moved. She ignored the benches forms like graceful jewelry to stand and look at the window to catch the view as she moved by.
Alice gasped as tiny dust motes flew around the windows, their bright colors momentarily distracting from their round eyes and smiling faces. They giggled at her reaction and floated away. She stuck her hands flat against the window and pressed her face against the cool glass to catch a better glimpse before she jerked back at the view of a grinning horned lord pawing at the glass. He hopped off the trolley as the trees crowded more densely against the line. Lights glowed amongst the boughs. Faces peered out between the branches as she passed by. A procession was lined up at the final station that stretched through the tight trees all the way up to a suspended building crafted of light that was bound to the heart of the woods. She disembarked and paused on the station platform. She didn’t have time to wonder about her best course forward as the same horned lord came forward And bowed to her before gesturing that she should follow him. She didn’t bow back, but she followed him through the silent gamut of onlookers. When they reached the glowing Hall he pointed up, clearly expecting her to fly. When she protested that she had no wings the moss underfoot rose up like an escalator. It brought her up gently and it nudged her forward when she hesitated to step on, but it was no problem as the light somehow held her weight like any building would.
A fey man came forward to greet her. He looked fairly human, just like she did, but now that her eyes had been opened to her own heritage she could see the power cracking under his skin. Beyond his glamor, She could tell he was still fairly human looking but with sharp fangs and pointed ears matched by oddly squared wings. His face was less than human as well, both more beautiful and more terrible than Earth’s people had ever been.
“Hello,” he said. “I assume you are Alyssandra, the daughter of Titania, and not some random traveler who accidentally ended up in our lands?,” he asked.
She nodded. “Apparently that’s me,” she said. It wouldn’t do to bring up the past where she’d forgotten that detail in this conversation- either the man already knew all about it and was tactfully leaving it unmentioned, or he was cluelessly and revealing it would make her look weak in front of someone she was trying to gain power over. Besides, all the old stories the humans told said the fey preyed on the things they found to be weak, and she knew from her own limited interactions with her species her before that there was some truth to that, even for her.
“I hope you are the l
eader of our people here and not some random stranger,” she said.
Xirzer looked her over first, as if deciding whether she was worth the courtesy of answering. He seemed to make up his mind, then laughed a minute too late and tried to speak to her naturally as if that pause had never happened. “Sadly that’s me. I wish it weren’t though, it’s an awful lot of work, and I hate that. I am Xirzer,” he said. “You are late coming here, but I will forgive that.”
Her eyebrows shot up. How could word have gotten out about a journey she hadn’t even known she was coming on? Someone must have been keeping track of her. Alyss knew better than to mention any of that, though. “That’s news to me, I hardly even knew I was coming here before I did! I don’t see how I could have had a timeline to arrive. In fact, I was very surprised by the greeting party,” Alyss said.
Xirzer laughed again. “I do not mean now. We expected you to return here as soon as he returned to this world. We’ve all been disappointed that you spent so much time with the dragons, and not your own people,” he said. The scolding came in a mild tone, but he had sharp eyes that took in every detail of her reactions. The fey were not known for being fools, and a man like this that had spent so much time ruling so many people would not easily be persuaded to give up his power. No, not even if he claimed to be tired of responsibility, he likely would take the reins quite easily. If he felt any loyalty to his people, he would do his best to make sure only someone qualified would be allowed to take over, regardless of genetic credentials. And if he didn’t feel responsible for them? Then he’d likely be a thorn in her side in her attempts to take the rule going forward just for giggles and his own amusement. This would not be easy, and she would have to do her best to act in a way that would best suit this conversation no matter which side of responsibility he stood on.