Crown of Crowns

by Clara Loveman

  “That sounds appropriate,” I said, nodding in turn to my councillors. “Yet what do you say about job losses in Krug?”

  “There will not be any,” Hagan said. She was very confident. “The plant in Krug will be under VBione Corp management, but the workers will stay to help us. We will continue to employ all qualified workers.”

  “That is acceptable,” I told her. There were some hushed whispers from my councillors, but no one could openly argue with keeping jobs and advancing research. Hagan’s proposition was solid.

  “Your time is up,” I told her. “Are there any final remarks you wish to make?”

  “Yes. On behalf of VBione Corp, we would like to thank you for your time, Your Most Supreme Majesty. We urge you to think of the future, of the cooperation between Krug and Gaard. With the extra money placed into research and development, we will be even more capable of combating the ever-mutating viruses and bacteria that threaten our society. With our innovative data repository, linking with Medseet will enable fast-paced antiviral development and response time, should an outbreak occur.”

  “Councillors,” I said, “any final thoughts before I pass judgment?”

  “I don’t like how powerful VBione Corp will become after this acquisition,” Nnati said, defiant as always. It was nice to have someone with Nnati’s commoner upbringing on the council. He always called it like it was when the noble-born council members sucked their thumbs and remained quiet. I respected Nnati for that, but it didn’t mean I had to agree with him.

  “Noted,” I said.

  Aska Xi spoke up. “I think it’s a good thing. Superbugs have been a threat since the beginning of time, and our defense against them is tenuous at best. Our medicines are regulated no matter what happens here today. To have more effort put into the development of new drugs to help our citizens is an opportunity we can’t ignore.”

  “Thank you, Xi,” I said. Then I looked down at Hagan, standing patiently and with supreme confidence, as if she already knew her case was won. “I side in favor of VBione Corp,” I announced. “This case is closed.”

  Hagan didn’t whoop or smile. She simply said, “Thank you, Your Most Supreme Majesty,” and walked backward from the room with her burly associates, bowing deeply.

  I could feel Nnati’s anger. He had his arms folded, staring straight ahead. I wanted to comfort him, to say it was the right decision and I was sorry, but Torio spoke up in his loud voice. “Next on the docket,” he said, “the commemoration of Lordin. The clans would like to build a monument in the capital. People could visit, see her work, remember Lordin for—”

  “Skip,” I said. I didn’t want to think about Lordin. I was sure Zawne was visiting her binightly in Shiol. I had resolved to speak with him about it but hadn’t found the time. I’d been too upset about Roki and too busy being queen.

  “Skip?” Torio sounded confused.

  “Skip,” I repeated. “On to the next, Torio. I’ll deal with Lordin later.”

  Zawne and I ate dinner quietly that night, nothing but the sound of our knives scraping against our plates. I needed to broach the subject of Lordin without coming across accusatory. I started with something neutral.

  “What do you think of the rulings?” I asked. “Do you ever consider ruling differently from what the Crown of Crowns recommends?”

  “I wouldn’t dare,” he said, very matter-of-factly. Then Zawne did something I hadn’t expected. He got up and moved around the table, hunkered down next to me, and cupped my face in his hands. It made me feel delicate, priceless, like he did still want me.

  “I’m sorry we have been so stressed,” he said, and kissed me on the lips. “I want us to be okay together.” He kissed me again, his breath delicious, his voice raspy.

  “Me too,” I said. I was lost in his voice, spellbound by his beautiful eyes. It felt like forever since we had spent quality time together. I still hardly knew him, yet I was drawn to him nonetheless. I wanted to explore this draw, explore our relationship together. But I was worried about Lordin. I needed to know … was our marriage authentic?

  I moved to kiss him more deeply, helpless in the moment; Zawne had already gotten up and moved toward the door. “I have to go,” he was saying.

  And I just blurted it out. I had to say something before it drove me to insanity. “Have you seen her?”

  “Who?” His face was scrunched up.

  “Lordin,” I said in a mousy voice. I was fearful of provoking Zawne’s wrath. I didn’t want to cause any more problems than we already had, especially now that Roki was out of my life. My husband was all I had left.

  Zawne’s demeanor grew cold. He stomped across the dining room, grabbed a chair, and dragged it loudly across the floor, flipped it around in front of me, and sat down, leaning and glowering into my face. “I don’t know,” he said. “Have you seen your boyfriend, Roki?”

  My heart stopped. I bumbled, “I … Roki …”

  Lordin must have told him about Roki and me! No wonder Zawne had let me be depressed the last week or so. He had known the whole time.

  “That’s what I thought,” he snarled. “And yes, I have seen Lordin. She was my fiancée before you, remember? She came to me one night after we were crowned. She told me about you and your sweetheart. She told me everything.”

  “We never touched!” I said, feeling humiliated. It was worse because we had touched. I had touched Roki’s sweet face, held his strong hands …

  “It looks like we both have secrets,” Zawne said.

  I felt I needed to explain myself. Maybe if Zawne heard the truth from me, we could get past it together. Maybe we could still salvage our relationship. “Roki was my first love,” I stammered. “I never knew he was a Min. He came to me around the time of the coronation, and I agreed to be his friend. But nothing else happened. He’s not my sweetheart, as you say. I haven’t even seen him in almost two weeks.”

  “Sure,” Zawne scoffed. He didn’t believe me.

  I knew it was unfair of me to demand anything from Zawne, but I had to know if he had gotten back together with Lordin. “Are you done with me?” I asked. “I know I screwed up, so I understand if you’ve gone back to Lordin. Just please tell me, have you? Are you seeing her again?”

  “I’m not going to answer that,” Zawne said, standing up angrily and moving across the room. He stopped at the door. “You knew what had happened to Lordin this whole time, about her death, about how she had chosen to become a Min over ruling the kingdom. But you hid that from me just like you hid Roki from me. How does it feel to be kept in the dark?”

  I started to cry. I had never imagined Zawne could be so icy, so heartless. Yet it was my own fault. I had lusted after two men, and now I was paying the price.

  “I didn’t betray you,” I said, but my words came out weak. “I’m not going to see him again. I am yours, Zawne. I am only yours.”

  But a part of me wondered, Am I only saying this because Roki turned out to be a scoundrel?

  Zawne saw my pain, and his anger faltered. His expression changed to one of compassion. He wasn’t so heartless after all. “We will work it out,” he said, his voice softer. “We are set to be king and queen for the next forty years. We will be together.”

  “When?” I asked. I hated how I seemed to be begging my own husband for time together.

  “We’ll find opportunities,” he said. He sounded sad, unsure. “We’re both busy between council meetings and visiting Shiol, but we will find time. We’ll find a way.”

  Then Zawne left. I was alone, tears spilling onto my untouched meal.

  I needed Tissa. I had Nnati available to me every day, since he lived on the other side of VondRust in the advisers’ mansion, but my sister-in-law was on the other side of Gaard, ruling the Ava-Gaard alongside my brother. It had been ages since we’d talked. One night, after a long series of council meetings, while Zawne drifted off to Shiol, I fired up my visin and called Tissa.

  “So good to hear from you,” she exclaimed. �
��It’s been too long. How are things?”

  “Things are things,” I said. I was ready to unload. “It’s a bit chaotic. Everyone in the kingdom is waiting for me to rule on Lordin’s commemoration, the monument they want me to approve in the capital. It’s been weeks and I’m still undecided. All I can say is that I’m glad the ex-queen and ex-king are coming home early from Shondur. They decided to live in VondRust, and they’ll be back tomorrow.”

  “It’s good to have a confidant,” Tissa said, reminding me of how Roki had been just that before the betrayal. “But why are you so undecided about Lordin?”

  I groaned into my visin. How could I possibly explain to Tissa that I was competing for my husband’s love with a dead woman? “It’s complicated,” I said. “I’m just unsure what to do. I don’t know if Lordin really deserves a monument. It doesn’t seem very humble, if you ask me.”

  “No,” Tissa said, “it doesn’t. What does Nnati think?”

  I laughed. “You know Nnati. He wonders how we can spend all that money on such a thing. He doesn’t think one person deserves to be raised up so high. She was righteous and fluent in Decens-Lenitas, and people all over Geniverd looked up to her, but Nnati questions the morality of the project.”

  “As he would,” Tissa said with a smirk. “We’ve always known Nnati thought Lordin was too self-righteous, using her fame to reach for the stars. Sometimes I wonder if he isn’t a secret Gurnot.”

  “As if!” I said. “Not in a million years. Besides, Nnati has too much work to be running around with those scoundrels, setting fires and wreaking havoc. Not to mention he’s loyal to me. There’s no doubt about that.”

  Tissa nodded her agreement. “No doubt at all.”

  “Anyway,” I said, “the clans want a monument, so I suppose I will have to build one. Really, there are too many important things I need to focus on besides Lordin. It’s a relentless barrage of problems here. It seems like everyone has a grudge with everyone else. And Surrvul is always involved in one way or another.”

  “It’s the same here, on the other side of Gaard,” Tissa said. “Every day is something new. Raad and I try to deal with the problems as quickly as possible, but even with our council, decisions are tough.”

  We both went silent then, letting the gravity of our new appointments weigh upon us.

  Then Tissa said, “By the way, I meant to introduce you to Rein and Forschi.” She shifted her visin from her face to her bed, where two big dogs with puffy white coats and little black eyes sat quietly. The dogs lifted their paws and waved at me. They were adorable.

  I waved back. “Hello!”

  And then Tissa’s face zoomed back in. “Aren’t they just the cutest?” she said. “Raad had them made specifically for me. I got them yesterday. You’d never guess they aren’t real, right? They are smart replicas. They understand everything I say; they can dance; they can cuddle me; they can follow complicated orders. Plus I can turn them off when they get annoying! They don’t even need to use the toilet. I’m supposed to keep them clean, but I just make one of the Protectors do it for me. I really can’t be bothered with cleaning anything but myself.”

  “Do people have real pets?” I asked.

  “People do, Kaelyn, not nobles. Nobles get smart replicas. They’re better than natural animals, which can be unpredictable and stinky. The last thing I need are muddy paw prints all over the new carpets in our chamber. That would be a disaster, and I simply don’t have time for it.”

  Tissa sighed. It was as if the mere notion of a dirty carpet stressed her out. “Things were so much easier, huh,” she said, “back when we worked from our office in the city. Our only concern then was helping the less fortunate. Now a whole new team is running GMAF. I’m ruling over Gaard with your brother while you try to mend the world with Nnati whispering in your ear. Things sure have changed.”

  “They sure have,” I said. Things were tough. Even with the Crown of Crowns’ recommendations to guide me, I repeatedly had trouble making firm judgments. I worried that my council was beginning to question my indecision.

  I began to ask, “How’s Raa—?” but my visin bleeped in my ear. It was Torio. He had never called me so late before. My heart dropped like an anvil. What could Torio possibly have to tell me in the middle of the night?

  “I’m sorry, Tiss,” I said, “I’ve got to go. It’s Torio on the other line.”

  She made a sad face. “Okay, I understand. Duty calls. We’ll talk later. Raad is missing you.”

  “And I’m missing Raad. Please tell Papa I love him. Bye, Tissa. Bye, Rein and Forschi.”

  The dogs yipped in the background as I ended the call and picked up Torio. His face appeared on my holographic screen. He looked agitated.

  “Torio, what’s wrong?”

  “People are dying,” he said—no pause, no formalities, straight to the point. Torio didn’t beat around the bush. “Twenty deaths in Nurlie since yesterday. Five deaths in Surrvul. Three deaths in Krug. It’s an outbreak, Kaelyn. It’s a viral illness unlike anything Geniverd has ever seen. We’re hours away from a pandemic!”

  Chapter 12

  “What do you mean, an outbreak? What’s going on, Torio?”

  I was suddenly very awake, hunched on the edge of my bed, shouting at the screen of my visin. Zawne was sprawled out behind me in la-la land, probably in Shiol with Lordin.

  “It starts as a fever,” Torio said. “Then it escalates into vomiting, hallucinations, and eventually death. We think it began two days ago. As of right now, there are three hundred people hospitalized.”

  “Why have they not received medicine?” I asked. “Tell me there’s a plan, Torio. I can’t have widespread disease in my first year as queen!”

  Torio made a face, ran his tongue across his teeth, and said, “Well, Your Most Supreme Majesty, the sick people have indeed received antivirals. However, the ones they need—the ones that can combat this virus—are not being delivered. This is also a mutated strain. We need an antiviral to be produced.”

  “So,” I asked, “what’s the holdup?”

  “We are still waiting for word from the manufacturer. You might remember it: VBione Corp.”

  I gasped. “Don’t tell me …”

  “Yes,” Torio said, a look of deep remorse on his face. “They bought out the other companies. The only other manufacturing plant that could have engineered the right vaccine or produced antivirals was Medseet. VBione Corp absorbed them after you gave them permission. They shut down the plant in Krug, pending change of ownership.”

  A wave of nausea swept over me. I got out of bed and stumbled through the darkness of the apartment. Had I made the wrong decision? Why had the Crown of Crowns made me rule in favor of VBione Corp?

  “Is there no one else?” I asked Torio. “What of the antimicrobial producers in Gaard? There must be some way to stop this before it spreads.”

  “We’ve started to quarantine,” Torio said, “but it may be too late. I’m not sure that you gauge the scope of VBione Corp’s influence. They’ve gobbled up every large antimicrobial manufacturer across the six continents. We’re relying solely on them to fix this, and they aren’t delivering.”

  I was chewing on my lip. I had no idea what to do. How was I supposed to solve a global pandemic?

  “Set up a meeting,” I said to Torio. “I want everyone in my private council chamber in thirty minutes. Got it?”

  “Yes, Your Most Supreme Majesty.”

  Torio ended the call. I paced for thirty seconds in the dark, wishing I could wake up Zawne. But no, he was flirting with his dead fiancée in Shiol. To heck with it, I could run the kingdom myself. I was the daughter of a Gaard-Ma. I had to keep her strength alive!

  Then I remembered Raad. My brother was Gaard-Elder. I figured if anyone had access to the Gaard medical companies, it was him. I dialed his number on my visin while trying to get dressed in my massive dressing room.

  “Kaelyn?” Raad was red eyed, half-asleep. I must have woken him. T
he light from his visin made him look like a ghostly silhouette. “What’s going on? It’s the middle of the night.”

  I spoke in bursts, trying to jam my legs into a pair of pants. “Disease spreading across Geniverd. Emergency. No medicine. People dead.”

  “Whoa,” Raad said, sitting up and rubbing the sleep from his eyes. “What are you talking about? Slow down, sis.”

  I stopped, took a deep breath, and explained as best I could. I told Raad everything Torio had told me.

  My brother gave me a look of resolve, but I could see the fear in his eyes as he said, “You need to stop this outbreak right away, before it gets out of control. Get ready for your emergency council meeting while I make some calls about VBione Corp. I’ve heard about their recent acquisitions, but I also heard you gave them the go-ahead. That’s why I didn’t make a fuss when they swallowed the last of their competitors here in Gaard. After Medseet, VBione Corp was simply too big. No one could refuse an offer from them.”

  I was having serious reservations about my decision regarding VBione Corp. I couldn’t help but feel like I had been played for a fool. Yet it was what the Crown of Crowns had recommended. Did they have a divine plan regarding the outbreak? I needed to have a chat with Riedel and Hanchell as soon as possible. Something here didn’t smell right.

  I thanked Raad and ended the call.

  I was on my personal hover scooter, zipping through the dimly lit pathway toward the government building with Protectors gliding behind me, when Raad called back.

  “Any news?” I asked. There was no projection, just Raad’s voice in my ear.

  “Yes,” he said, “and it’s not good. First off, the spokesperson for VBione Corp claims they are having stability issues with the antivirals. They can’t send them out, because they’re not ready to be administered to humans. There is a batch undergoing testing as we speak. I don’t know. It sounded fishy to me.”