Destiny's Queen

by J.D. Rogers

  Chapter 18

  The day I spent my whole life dreading finally arrived. It was time to face my oldest sister, Bedonna, in a duel to the death.

  A little over a year after my mother died, I returned to Adan soil, leading the Sorean Army into battle. It was early morning and Bedonna was marching her army toward the Dark Forest, the heavy thump of their boots shaking the ground beneath our feet.

  The Sorean Army stood in front of the forest, remaining close enough to the trees so Bedonna wouldn't know how many more men might be hiding in the forest.

  If things didn't go as I hoped, General Tronzo's men would launch a volley of arrows, then drop back into the forest, forcing Bedonna's superior numbers to fight on unfamiliar turf. Adan soldiers were trained to fight in open fields, not forests. The career soldiers would adapt without too much trouble, but I suspected the new conscripts would have problems.

  When I surveyed Bedonna's army, I noticed that she had placed her conscripts in the middle of her line, with the career units flanking them on the left and right. If war broke out, the Sorean Army would launch their first volley at the middle of Bedonna's line, trying to rattle the conscripts.

  The sight of the Sorean Army standing at the edge of the Dark Forest brought Bedonna's army to a halt. All they could see were two lines of soldiers. The lines were as long as theirs, and they could only guess at how many more men were hiding in the trees. Little did they know that we had no more men.

  We waited to see what Bedonna would do. In short order, a soldier galloped out of the middle of her army carrying a white flag.

  "The Queen of Adah wishes to speak to whoever is in charge of this army," Bedonna's man shouted, speaking the language of the traders. "She will meet you where I plant this flag."

  The man, who I recognized as a member of the palace guard, turned his horse around and rode back toward Bedonna's army. Halfway between the two armies, he planted a spear with a white flag on its end into the ground. The flag flapped in the early summer breeze, designating our meeting point on the grassy plain that separated the two armies.

  "It's time," I said.

  I climbed aboard the horse General Tronzo gave me and set off at a leisurely trot. General Tronzo accompanied me, as did my cousin Gano, Bokham, Vomeir, Sardis, Miletus, Derbe, Patera, and Patera's men, all on horseback. Botek, Solek, Tolek, and the rest of Botek's men remained in Vassa, serving as Iderra's personal guard.

  I wore all black, black riding boots, black leather breeches, and a black silk shirt. My silver and gold cutlass was around my waist. My hair was in a ponytail. The Ruby Crown was on my head.

  Bedonna rode from the other end, accompanied by a dozen soldiers. She was dressed in silver, silver shin guards over sandals, a battle skirt made out of silver strips that stopped just short of her knees, a silver breastplate over a tunic made out of silver chain mail, and the crown she had always coveted, the solid silver Battle Crown. Her broadsword was strapped across her back, the hilt of the sword sticking up over her right shoulder. Her brown hair was still cropped close to her head, and she was just as big and as strong and as scary as the last time I saw her.

  Bedonna gave no indication of recognizing me, although I hadn't changed that much. Her men certainly recognized me, not to mention the Ruby Crown I wore.

  The man that planted the white flag rode between the two parties, and in a loud voice, announced, "Her Royal Highness, Bedonna Tadmore Haran, the thirteenth Queen of Adah."

  Vomeir rode forward, and in an even louder voice, announced, "Her Royal Highness, Lila Marie Haran, heir to the throne of Sorea, and holder of the Ruby Crown by way of her mother, Bella Justine Haran, the twelfth Queen of Adah."

  He didn't mention Vassa, Dunre, or Landish because I told him not to. I promised Idy that I wouldn't mention her or the lands that lay beyond the desert.

  Bedonna rode toward the white flag and I did the same. When we were face to face, she squinted at me. "I thought it was you, Mouse, but I figured my eyes must be playing tricks on me."

  Bedonna was so big and strong and intimidating that I all but forgot about her one weakness, her eyes. Her eyesight, which had always been bad, must have gotten significantly worse if she needed to be right next to me to recognize me. I knew right then why she was in such a hurry to conquer the world.

  "You're going blind." It was a statement, not a question. "How long do you have?"

  "Court physicians aren't sure, one year, maybe two. Certainly no more than three."

  "How long have you known?"

  "Too long. Way too long."

  "That's why you've always been in such a hurry."

  "I don't want to be remembered as Bedonna the Blind." She nodded at the Dark Forest. "So, how did you end up as Queen of Sorea?"

  "My father was their last king. And I'm not the Queen of Sorea. The crown has a curse on it, so I refused it."

  "A technicality," Bedonna said. "You know I killed Salisha."

  "I saw. I also know about the assassins she sent after you."

  "I don't know what happened to Iderra. She seems to have disappeared."

  "She's probably studying something somewhere. Idy was always more interested in learning than in ruling. Wherever she is, she's no threat to you."

  "As much as I love this reminiscing. It's time to get down to business."

  "Fine," I said. "I have an offer for you."

  "I'm listening."

  "You can have mother's throne if you give up your dreams of conquest."

  "You would give me the Ruby Crown?"

  "If you agree not to attack Sorea, or any other country, you can have Adah. The rest of the world is mine."

  "Lila the Conqueror?" Bedonna sneered. "It doesn't have as good a ring to it as Bedonna the Conqueror."

  I felt like telling her that I didn't need to conquer the rest of the world because it was already mine. I wanted to tell her, but I didn't. I made a promise and I intended to keep it.

  "You can't defeat me," I said. "I have powers far beyond what you can imagine. If you're smart, you'll accept my offer. You'll have a long healthy life as Queen of Adah with nothing to fear from me or Idy or anyone else. When you finally pass, perhaps they'll remember you as Bedonna the Benevolent rather than Bedonna the Blind."

  “Big talk for a small girl.” Bedonna dismounted and drew her heavy broadsword. "But I have an alternate proposal. You order the Army of Sorea to lay down their arms, and I'll make your death as quick and as painless as possible. I'll even let your people bury your body wherever they wish. If you reject my offer, I'll make your death slow and painful and will toss your lifeless carcass in an unmarked grave next to Salisha's."

  Bedonna wanted to fight. No surprise there. Fighting was what she did best. I dismounted and drew my cutlass. I moved toward Bedonna and pictured eleven more copies of myself surrounding her. One by one, the images began to appear until there were twelve of us forming a circle around Bedonna, each looking like the next. I had the twelve of us circle around her. With Bedonna's bad eyes, it didn't take long before she had lost track of the real me.

  "It's hard to kill what you can't find," the image that faced Bedonna said.

  Bedonna swung her sword at that image. She tried to lop off its head, my head, but her sword passed harmlessly through the neck.

  "I don't want to kill you," a second image said, this one directly behind Bedonna.

  Bedonna spun around and swung her sword at that image. Once again, her blade passed harmlessly through my image's neck.

  "Mother's throne was enough for her," an image to Bedonna's right said. "Why isn't it enough for you?"

  "Because I'm not mother." Bedonna swung her sword at that image. Once again, with no effect. "Mother had the kind of face that people love. I don't. I have the kind of face that people fear."

  "People fear you because you want them to fear you," another image said.

  Bedonna swung at that one, once again with no effect. To keep her confused, we circled around her agai
n, so she couldn't tell who she had attacked and who she hadn't.

  "You realize that I could've killed you already," I said, when I was directly behind her. "Struck you down while you were attacking one of my images."

  As I suspected, Bedonna didn't spin around and attack the real me. Instead, she tried to second guess me by attacking the image directly in front of her. Once again, her massive broadsword passed harmlessly through my image's neck. Before she could spin around and attack the real me, we circled around her yet again.

  "That's why you don't deserve to be queen," Bedonna said. "Not Queen of Adah, not Queen of Sorea. Queens need to make life and death decisions, and you don't have that in you, Mouse, you never did and you never will."

  "A queen needs to be both strong and compassionate. Mother lectured you for a full hour on the need to temper strength with compassion, yet it's obvious you didn't hear a single word she said. That's why she didn't give you the Ruby Crown."

  "Why don't you face me like a normal person, or are you afraid?"

  "Your gifts are your size and strength," one of my images said as we circled Bedonna.

  "Unfortunately, I'm not blessed with the gifts of size or strength," another image said.

  "So I must use what I've been given," a third image said.

  "And this is one of the gifts I've been given," I said.

  "But not the only one," a fourth image said. "I have others."

  I showed her my other gift, my power to move objects, by sending the sword of one of her guards right at her. It flew out of his scabbard and through the air, passing harmlessly over the head of one of my images. Bedonna didn't see it coming until it was almost too late. She managed to knock it out of the air a second before it would have struck her.

  "What the hell are you doing?" she said, turning and glaring at her guard.

  "I didn't do it," the guard said, holding up both hands. "Someone pulled it out of its scabbard."

  "He speaks the truth," I said.

  I ripped a sword out of the scabbard of another one of her guards and sent it flying at her. Once again, she didn't see it until it was almost too late. This one slashed her right bicep as she sidestepped it, drawing first blood.

  "You have two choices," one of my images said, as we circled around Bedonna yet again. "You can be content with mother's throne, or you can die."

  "I will not be known as Bedonna the Blind."

  She was growing frustrated, which wasn't surprising. Bedonna wasn't used to losing fights. She was used to winning, used to being in control. For the first time in her life, she wasn't winning a fight, nor was she in control.

  I knew that she was about to snap, so I doubled the number of images surrounding her, until there were twenty-four identical images of myself forming a much wider circle around her. Sure enough, Bedonna went crazy, swinging her sword at every image within her reach. Fortunately, I was standing on the other side of the circle when she attacked.

  While she tried to find the real me in a maze of fakes, I used my power to pull her knife from the scabbard on her right hip. She was so busy attacking my images that she never saw the knife coming. It struck her in the side of the neck, going in deep enough to make her scream and drop to one knee.

  She pulled the knife from her neck, looked at it, and smiled. "My own knife. Nice touch.”

  She tossed the knife on the ground and rose to her feet, ignoring the blood that was running, and not just trickling, out of her neck. I let the images of myself fade away, leaving me to face Bedonna alone.

  "Why can't you be content with being the Queen of Adah?" I raised my cutlass and braced myself for Bedonna's attack. Even though she was bleeding heavily, I knew better than anyone that she was far from finished.

  "Now that you've wounded the bear, you're prepared to go against her one on one?"

  "You always assumed that you were better with a sword than Salisha, Iderra, or myself. In point of fact, you were never a better swordsman, you just had enough strength to overpower us. All I've done is sap some of your strength and even up the odds. Now, we'll see who's better with a blade."

  Bedonna raised her sword in front of her. I noticed that she was holding it in both hands, instead of just one hand, which was her usual preference. That meant the wound in her neck had already sapped some of her strength. Not that it stopped her from attacking me.

  She rushed at me, swinging her broadsword in a slashing blow. I went on the defensive, parrying her blows while retreating. It was the same style of fighting I had practiced every day for the past year, letting a bigger stronger opponent go on the offensive while I defended with my left hand. The wound in Bedonna's neck continued to bleed and after several minutes of fighting, she began to breathe through her mouth instead of her nose.

  When she did that, I switched my cutlass to my well rested right hand and went on the offensive, forcing Bedonna to retreat while maintaining the furious pace she had set at the beginning of our duel. For several more minutes, iron clanged against iron. No more blood was drawn, although the blood on Bedonna's neck was now running down the front and back of her silver breastplate, staining both sides.

  I began to wonder how she could lose so much blood and continue to stand up, let alone continue to fight. But fight she did, even to the point of going on the offensive again. I switched my cutlass back to my left hand and went back on the defensive. Sweat began to appear on my brow. It trickled down my temples and into my eyes, making it hard for me to see, making me wonder if I had underestimated my big sister, or overestimated my own stamina.

  Just when I thought I might lose, it ended. Bedonna's sword slipped out of her hands and fell to the ground. She followed it, collapsing to her hands and knees.

  "Kill me." Blood bubbled out of her mouth and ran down her chin.

  "I can't." I sheathed my cutlass and picked up Bedonna's broadsword, holding it in front of me. It was so big and heavy that my tired arms could barely lift it, making me wonder how she had wielded it for so long.

  "Why not?"

  "Because you're my sister."

  "What will you do with me?"

  "You will be taken to the palace in Sorea, where you'll remain a prisoner until your sight is gone. When your sight is gone, and you're no longer a threat to me, you'll be allowed to return home, to live out your days as you wish."

  "I don't think so," Bedonna said.

  She pulled herself to her feet, rushed me, and impaled herself upon her sword, which I still held in front of me. The massive blade pierced the front of her silver breastplate, penetrated her stomach, and came out her back, piercing the back of her breastplate.

  She looked at me and smiled. "I will die a warrior. Not a helpless blind woman."

  She collapsed onto her side, her sword skewering her, her front and back drenched in blood. I rushed to her side, dropped to my knees, and cradled her head in my lap. I took the Battle Crown off her head and placed the crown I was wearing, the Ruby Crown, upon it. "You will die the Queen of Adah."

  "You will place a statue of me in the hall of queens?" Bedonna said, spitting out blood.

  "I will."

  "What will you engrave," she paused to spit out more blood. "What will you engrave beneath my name?"

  "Bedonna the Brave, for that is what you have always been."

  "I'm sorry I didn't make a better sister."

  "You were an excellent sister," I said. "You forced me to learn how to fight and taught me to fear nothing, not even death."

  I don't know how much she heard, for she died while I was still talking. I was surprised to find a tear running down my cheek, surprised because Bedonna was never my favorite sister. In point of fact, she wasn't even my second favorite sister. But she was my sister, and if I didn't shed a tear for her, I suspected no one would, certainly not the generals, commanders, and guards that sat silently on their horses watching us, certainly not the twenty thousand soldiers that stood silently behind them.

  I placed her head on the g
round, wiped the tear from my eye, and rose to my feet. I marched over to the generals and commanders that accompanied her. "You will take her to the Winter Palace in Nadal and prepare a tomb for her next to our mother's tomb. You will tell the royal sculptor that he is to begin making the statue that will be placed in the hall of queens. Beneath her name, and above the year she reigned, he is to carve the words, 'Bedonna the Brave.'"

  General Grutza, a short stocky man with a pug face, and in command of the Army of the East for well over a decade, nodded. "As you command, Your Majesty."

  "Tell the conscripts that their duty to Adah has been fulfilled and they are free to return to their civilian lives, should they wish. Those that want to remain in the army are welcome. Make sure the royal treasurer pays those that wish to leave."

  General Grutza nodded. I walked over to the man that had been Bedonna's second when she headed the palace guard, a tall broad shouldered fellow named Ingram Pugh.

  "I have a special job for you and your men."

  Commander Pugh nodded. "We are yours to command, Your Majesty."

  "You and your men will ride to the Summer Palace in Morchesha. When you get there, you will find a sculptor and have him carve a headstone for my sister, Salisha. On the stone, he is to place the words, 'Princess Salisha Padmore Haran, Salisha the Beautiful.' When that stone has been placed upon her grave, you and your men will set about identifying each and every body that is buried in the Cemetery of Would Be Queens. You will place wooden markers on the graves, naming each and every princess. You will tell the sculptor that he is to replace those wooden markers with stones as quickly as he is able. While he is carving those headstones, you and your men will construct a stone fence around the cemetery. When that is done, you will plant grass and flowers and trees inside that fence."

  "Some of those graves have been there for hundreds of years," Commander Pugh protested. "It will be almost impossible to identify them."

  "There are ghosts on that hill, Commander. Once you've spent some time there, you'll discover that for yourself. They're waiting for someone to acknowledge that they existed, and that they mattered. Once that's done, they'll move on. I'm giving you and your men the honor of helping them do that. Treat them with the respect they have so long been denied, and they'll help you with your task."

  "Nothing will grow on that hill, Your Majesty. It won't do any good to plant there."

  "Once you've done what I've instructed, the grass and flowers and trees will grow. This I promise you." Commander Pugh was getting off easy and he knew it. It was rare for a transition in power to occur in Adah without hundreds, sometimes thousands of people, dying. The people that supported the losing princesses were usually put to death. Even so, Commander Pugh didn't look very happy, which is why I gave him a final admonishment. "Do not take this task lightly, Commander, long ago, the ghosts that reside on that hill accepted me as one of them. Since then, I have long considered myself to be one of them."

  I didn't tell him about the deal I made with those ghosts, back when I was ten years old, the first time I visited the Cemetery of Would Be Queens alone. I told them that if they helped me become the Queen of Adah, I would not only acknowledge their existence, I would make that hill my final resting place, so that one day, a queen would lie on that hill, so that one day, it could no longer be called the Cemetery of Would Be Queens.

  Did I inherit my powers as seer from my father? Perhaps. But who had ensured my powers were greater than his? And who had interceded at the throne of the One God, convincing him to give me the power to move objects without touching them? I owed a debt to those ghosts and I intended to repay it.

  I walked back over to my men and mounted my horse. I took the reins from Vomeir and turned to Supreme General Tronzo, Commander of the Sorean Army. "Take your men home, General. There will be no war today."

  "Or tomorrow?" a hopeful General Tronzo said.

  "Or tomorrow." I turned to Gano and handed him the leather satchel containing my father's crown. "Return this to your council of elders. Tell them their king is dead and his daughter does not want his throne. Tell them that as long as I have anything to say about it, there will be no war between Sorea and Adah."

  Still on horseback, Gano bowed. "As you wish, Your Majesty."

  I turned to Vomeir. "Let's go home, Captain."

  "Which home?" a smiling Vomeir said. "You seem to have acquired a lot of them in the past year."

  "We ride to the Winter Palace in Nadal, so I can pay my final respects to my mother."

  I rode toward the Army of Adah. Bokham, Vomeir, Patera, and the other Adans fell in behind me. Bedonna's generals, commanders, and guards parted to let us pass, then fell in behind us. I noticed General Dacus was among them. Which meant that he was back in control of the Army of the West.

  The foot soldiers, all twenty thousand of them, parted to let us pass. As I rode past them, they removed their helmets and dropped to one knee, acknowledging their new queen.