Seize the Crown

by Gemma Perfect

“You’re not eating either?”

  I know Weaver is like me. He’ll feel too sick. The anticipation and excitement that comes before a fight or a battle.

  He shakes his head. “Can’t.”

  “How was Ginata last night? When you took her back to the castle? Did she say thank you?”

  “Behave.”

  “What?” I try to make my voice innocent, but Weaver knows me better. He punches my arm. I laugh, but don’t press the issue.

  We need to get our heads ready for today. We have made a plan. Kind of. We’ll wait for the announcement. Then we’ll all go to the castle, but me and Weaver will stay hidden. Everleigh will talk to Millard but use some magic to keep him back. Like a fire or a storm or something. She doesn’t really know what she can do, so we’ll see.

  Then Weaver and me will lamp Wolf, get him out the way, so he can’t do Millard’s dirty work. Then we’ll wait for the rope to go on Will and shoot it down, or something. And then we’ll capture Millard, somehow and...

  It’s not the best plan I’ve ever worked with and like me and Weaver told everyone, plans don’t always go according to plan, but, we are all going to go and somehow, we’ll rescue Will. It would be nice if we got hold of Millard too. But I reckon he’s a slippery snake and might get away.

  Getting hold of Wolf will be good and we can do that while Millard is talking to Everleigh. We are trying to convince Addyson to stay here. She’s too young to get in the middle of this fight.

  But if she’s anything like I think she is, she won’t listen.

  The door opens and Finn comes out and grins at Weaver. They’ve become good friends since we got here and it’s nice for Weaver, with Archer gone...

  I can’t think about him today. It’s too sad.

  We need to fight today. We need to battle today. We need to win today. I can’t be moping around or distracted.

  I go inside the cottage.

  Everyone is quiet. Tense. Addyson looks like she’s been crying.

  “What’s up?” I ask.

  “Everleigh says I can’t come today.”

  “You shouldn’t.”

  “I’m nearly twelve. I’ll be fine.”

  “I watched your brother kill someone yesterday without a second’s hesitation. He killed your brother, his own brother. He didn’t care. If he gets hold of you today, he’ll kill you.”

  “He wouldn’t.”

  “He would. He locked you up but you got away. He’s be so angry...”

  “He won’t hurt me.”

  “It’s not just that. Have you ever been in the middle of a fight? A proper fight to the death?”

  Addyson shakes her head.

  “It’s scary. There’s shouting and screaming and swearing, and thuds and clashes of swords, and blood. So much blood. Half dead men dragging themselves across the floor towards anyone who might help them-”

  “That’s enough!” Della rushes to Addyson’s side. She’s gone white and she’s crying.

  “Sorry. But I thought she should know.”

  “She should.” Everleigh’s voice is firm. “Addyson, I love you and I need to keep you safe. I don’t know what Millard will do today. He might capture me; he might kill me.”

  “No!”

  “He might.”

  “Not if I can help it.”

  Everleigh smiles at me. “You wanted to kill me yourself when you met me.”

  I lower my head, embarrassed, but then I laugh. “People change.”

  And I have. So quickly. I hated Everleigh before I even met her, and when I saw her I wanted to hurt her so badly. But now we’re on the same side. The same team.

  The morning drags and just as we are wondering if Millard has changed his mind, there’s a clatter of horses and the noise of the herald.

  Everleigh turns white but we shut her firmly inside and rush out. There are three little cottages across and down a fair bit from Ginata and Della’s cottages, but I can see the owners are all outside, listening like us.

  There are ten horses with liveried guards atop and the herald, blowing his little bugle. “Announcement from the King. The fool will be hanged today at noon, unless the King’s sister, the Kingmaker, Everleigh, makes herself known. For those who hide her, leniency. For the fool, his life.”

  They ride off and repeat the words further away. They will continue doing this all morning.

  Noon.

  It doesn’t give us long.

  We wait until the last rider is out of sight before going inside.

  Everleigh is crying. “I heard. They’ll hang him at noon.”

  “They won’t, because we’ll rescue him. We just need to make sure you’re safe too.”

  Addyson speaks up. “I’ll stay here, then.”

  I give her a big hug. It’s hard to feel left out, but she needs to be left out of this.

  The tension is thick again. We are all quiet. Lost in our thoughts, worries, concerns.

  “I’ll stay too,” Della says and I agree with her. She was only ever an extra pair of hands.

  Weaver and me will be the main fighters, Everleigh will distract Millard and we have to risk taking her so he doesn’t kill Will. Ginata will give us any aid or information without blowing her cover. We don’t really need Finn, either, but he’s sweet traipsing after Weaver and I won’t offend him and that shows exactly how much I have changed!

  Offending people has always been my favourite thing to do.

  28

  WILL WAKES UP IN THE tower, surprised that he even managed to get to sleep. He is alive which is good but he has a feeling of doom and fear which is not good.

  What will Millard do? He wants to draw Everleigh out of hiding to kill or capture her. Surely, he needs Will alive to do this? But he could hurt him, parade him around with his injuries on show, who knows? Not him.

  He can only sit and wait. All the foolery is gone from him; he doubts he could make anyone laugh if a knife was at his throat. What will this day bring? His freedom or his death. He’s sure enough that it will be one or the other.

  MILLARD WAKES UP REFRESHED and excited. Today is the day, he is sure, he will kill or capture his little sister and then he will have free reign over the Realm and all who reside within it. This is all he wants and it’s not a lot to ask. Girls have never ruled before and regardless of some stupid prophecy he doesn’t see why they should start now. Everleigh could have lived alongside him as a royal sister, a princess, married to some good and wealthy man, maybe someone from the North of the Realm. Everyone would have been happy, but no, she had to be awkward and greedy; hankering after everything that is rightfully his. He didn’t kill his brother to give away his throne to a girl. It’s just ridiculous.

  GINATA DREAMS UNHAPPY dreams of hurt and betrayal, love and lust and wakes in a sweat. Today is the day she will redeem herself and atone for a sin she committed without choice, a sin that was foist upon her. She will help Everleigh kill or capture her brother and end the day by placing the crown upon her head.

  JUST BEFORE NOON WOLF and Brett come for Will. “Come on, fool. Let’s see how funny this is.” Wolf revels in doing Millard’s bidding. The more heinous the better.

  Brett takes hold of one of Will’s arms, but doesn’t pull him as hard as Wolf does.

  Out in the courtyard they present Will to his future; the hangman’s noose.

  Will keeps his face blank, refusing to breakdown or cry. He has to believe he will be rescued or he’ll go mad.

  The wooden frame for the hanging was set up overnight, Will vaguely recalls the hammering he heard from the tower and dismissed as nothing important. Will Everleigh come? He knows she will, and wants her to; he wants to be safe. But he wants her to live and rule more. If rescuing him leads to her being imprisoned in his place, then he would rather die.

  And he might.

  Millard comes to join them, all looking at the wooden frame and the thick rope hanging down, the noose ready for a neck of Millard’s choosing; he’s nodding his approval. “Mo
rning, Will.”

  Will manages to bow low. “My King.”

  “My fool. I know my sister. She’ll come, and you won’t hang. I’m sure of it. I have no desire to kill you. I find you funnier than your father – and that is a compliment indeed.”

  Will bows his head in thanks, and smiles at the farcical nature of needing to thank the man who wants to hang him.

  “We’ll have to set it up to look real, though. The villagers love a good show.”

  The courtyard is already half full of men, women and children thrilled to watch a good killing. It’s a long time since there’s been a hanging in the courtyard; the old King wasn’t one to dole out punishments for public delectation and neither is Millard really. If someone deserves to die, then they deserve to die now, not in a day or two when the wooden tower has been erected, and the villagers informed of the show to come.

  “I understand.” Will looks directly at Millard but sees nothing in his eyes but a glint of mischief; he’s enjoying this.

  “String him up, Wolf.”

  Millard steps back and Wolf steps in. Will offers no resistance but Wolf still drags him roughly to the tower, hauls him up onto a small wooden stool, and slips the rope around his neck, pulling it tight enough that Will wonders if he’ll choke to death before the stool is pushed away. He knows that’s not how it works, but the reality of the situation is making his brain fuzzy.

  His neck is bent at an uncomfortable angle, so that he’s staring at his feet. If he lifts his head he can see the crowd, and the first time he does so, a bare foot boy throws an apple at his head and the crowd burst into laughter. He keeps his head down, determined not to look up again until this is all over, but he lifts his head again when he sees his father’s feet.

  He doesn’t even know how he knows his father just by his feet, but he does.

  “Son, what is wrong with this King?”

  “He’s definitely mad. But I’m alright. I know Everleigh won’t see me die.”

  “She saw her brother, her father, Halfreda and that boy she loved die.”

  “And Lanorie.”

  “Well, then.”

  “She’d have saved them all if she could.”

  Will’s father doesn’t answer just kisses the top of his head. “I would save you if I could, son, and that’s as much use to you. I’ll go now, I’m going to drink the day away. Hopefully at night fall it’ll be you that finds me passed out drunk down at the inn and throws me in my bed. I love you. Always have. Always will. But I cannot stay and watch this.”

  “I understand. Have one for me, too.”

  Will’s father laughs. “I will, Will.”

  His shoes shuffle away and Will watches his tears drop onto the dusty floor where his father’s shoes had been. He hopes he will be the one to find him drunk and unconscious.

  GINATA IS WATCHING Millard and Will from near the castle wall. She’s not ready to face either of them yet. She took breakfast alone in her room, which she hasn’t done before and now she’s watching for any sign of Will’s rescuers. She wishes she was with them, instead of on the other side. She’s not even sure if she should go to Will’s side or if Millard will see it as a betrayal. She makes her way over to her King.

  “Morning Ginata. How great is this?”

  “It’s certainly a clever idea.”

  “Do you think it will work?”

  “I think if Everleigh hears about it, she’ll come. What will you do?”

  “Take her prisoner.”

  “Kill her? Kill him?”

  “I won’t kill Will. I wish I didn’t have to use him like this. It’s the handmaiden’s fault, she shouldn’t have tricked me. But I don’t know about my sister...what would you do?”

  “I think letting Will go free is a good idea. He’s a good fool. I cannot judge what to do with your sister, my King, but I will say that she is beloved of the people. And it never hurts for the man with the ultimate power to be seen as kind, to be forgiving.”

  “What’s the point of power if I don’t use it?”

  “You do use it, you used it yesterday, but Everleigh is different to her handmaiden. Everleigh is the Kingmaker.”

  “Was the Kingmaker. Some say she should be Queen.”

  “Do they?”

  “Don’t you agree?”

  “I have said before that it was what Halfreda wanted, but I also believe we have the power to change things. We don’t have to do what a prophecy says.”

  “You don’t think it’s inevitable? That she will be Queen regardless of what I want?”

  “I don’t know, my King. I wish I had answers for you. My powers aren’t what they were, I’m nowhere near the level of Halfreda...”

  “I am sure you will get better in time.” He touches her cheek briefly. “Right, is there any sign of my lovely sister? Wolf!”

  Wolf rushes over to them, shooting a dark look at Ginata and shaking his head. “I can’t see her yet. I think we should get you up on the platform, start talking, see if we can flush her out.”

  “Good idea. Do one last sweep around the perimeter of the castle with Brett and then we’ll start.” Wolf bows and backs away, looking around for Brett.

  “My King, may I speak to Will, to reassure him?”

  “If you like.”

  Ginata leaves the King’s side and walks over to Will. He looks pretty pathetic, standing there with the noose around his neck, his clothes wet from the ale and food people have been throwing at him.

  “Will.” Ginata’s voice is soft and he lifts his head a little. It hurts to hold it up, his legs are buckling and he is desperately trying to stay upright, not to hang himself by accident.

  “Any sign of anyone?”

  “Not yet, but you know they’ll come.”

  They are both silent and sad and wishing for the end of the day to come, whatever it brings.

  Ginata

  I CANNOT THINK OF ONE thing to say to cheer either of us and so I give up. What we need now is the cavalry.

  I kiss the top of Will’s head; he smells of ale.

  I head back over to Millard, the sick feeling in my stomach intensifying. What sort of man is he? And why is he sneaking in to my dreams?

  “Wolf’s been ages. I’m going to start without him. Tell him to join me if you see him.”

  I nod and a shiver of excitement goes through me. Wolf’s not back; have they got to him already? I cannot stand being out of the loop like this.

  The crowd is rowdy, but not violent, and I am desperate to see Everleigh, to start this thing and finish it. I have no idea if our plan will work, but we have to try. When Everleigh is Queen, I can forget about Millard.

  For now, I cannot. He is standing next to Will on the platform of the wooden tower, calling out to the crowd. “My people, my good people. Welcome, welcome.”

  The crowd give a roar of approval; how quickly they forget. Three days ago, they would have had this King’s head if they could. The disgust for him had been palpable, the barely contained fury, real. Three days later he’s their best King for giving them a spectacle to watch. One small group have pulled up stools and are eating bread and meat.

  Come on Everleigh. Come on Ceryn – she’ll give Millard a run for his money. Come on Weaver. I cannot stand this waiting and I know exactly how Will must be feeling: sick, sick, sick.

  “I am saddened to be here today. But my fool isn’t a loyal fool and so...” Millard gestures at the noose; he cannot tell the crowd the truth; they would mob him, but now they happily boo and hiss at Will.

  Millard is left stalling for time as he waits to see if his sister shows. I, of course, know that she will. Unless something has gone drastically wrong, but I don’t feel that.

  Truthfully, I don’t feel anything. I am of no use.

  I hear the first call of Kingmaker before Millard does and I turn my head. The crowd is parting, like they did in the coronation, and there she is.

  The Kingmaker who will be Queen.

  Della has dress
ed her in one of her own dresses but altered it and it suits her perfectly. The colour is soft pink, and it makes her look beautiful but vulnerable too, which is good. Her lovely long hair is loose, and the soft curls also add to her vulnerability. She looks young and ethereal.

  Just behind her I see Weaver and Ceryn. Ceryn grins and nods at me before walking to my side, letting Everleigh continue onwards.

  “All good?” I ask her.

  “Yes. We’ve got Wolf. Easily. I walked towards him, pretending to have hurt my ankle and Weaver came behind him. Cracked him over the head with an axe handle – he’ll live.”

  “More’s the pity.”

  They smile and turn as Everleigh speaks to her brother.

  “Millard.”

  I note that she doesn’t call him King, nor does she bow to him. She stands directly in front of him, though he is on the platform and she is on the floor. I see Will lift his head, despite the pain, to get a look at her and the smile on his face is filled with love and relief.

  The crowd is murmuring, unsure of what’s going on.

  Ceryn and Weaver have their hands on their bows and an arrow ready each. No one in the crowd even notices; all eyes are on Everleigh and the King.

  “Ah, sister.”

  Millard surprises me then and pulls the noose off Will’s neck. He must be so sure that Wolf or Brett or one of his guards will grab Everleigh that he’s happy to free his bargaining chip, and yet there’s no sign of any of them. Will bows to Millard and then jumps down off the platform, rubbing at his neck. He comes to me and I squeeze his hand. We cannot talk or relax or rest. We aren’t all safe yet.

  Ceryn lowers her bow. “I don’t trust him.”

  Weaver nods. “Stay alert.”

  “Sister, I have freed your friend but I want you in return.”

  The crowd’s murmurs are turning more hostile. The love the Realm has for Everleigh, a tragic figure all her life because of her role as Kingmaker, is still evident and it cheers me.

  “Brother. You have something that I want.”

  “I’ve already freed your friend.”