Queen's Ransom: The Golden Bulls of Minos

by Isabel Wroth

  "The boy from Kaetonia?" Jalia could hear the frown in Dhega's question and looked up to see his brows tightly drawn together, the last of their gorgeous morning fading away as his responsibilities began to intrude once again.

  "Yes. Croft has struck up a friendship with Iscarion, and while I don't know what kind of life a kid like him could have as a mercenary, he wants to go.

  “He has no family left, no desire to run the labyrinths—not that I blame him—and he wants to start fresh."

  Dhega grunted, his gaze thoughtful and far away, still tracing patterns across her skin.

  "With mercenaries..."

  Jalia could hear the doubt in his voice and had a whole host of concerns as to why she thought it was a bad idea, but Iscarion was an adult, a young adult, but old enough to make his own decisions.

  "Croft has told him stories of all the adventures a mercenary can have, and to a lonely boy seeking someplace to belong, it probably sounds like heaven.

  “Boudreaux is one of the more honorable mercs that I encountered, Iscarion could do so, so much worse, and with Tom staying here, Boudreaux will appreciate a new set of hands. He's old enough to decide for himself, and he wants to go."

  "Well, then he should. Too many of our people are ignorant of the universe; perhaps it will work out in his favor." A faint smile made crinkles appear at the corner of Dhega's eyes.

  "When the meeting is over, I want to be back here with you, just like this."

  "I'm certain I can arrange that for you. Is there anything I can do while you're gone?"

  Up went one of his eyebrows, his faint smile turning into a mocking grin.

  "You believe you're exempt from this meeting? I think not, little human. You're a ruling monarch now, and I'll have you by my side every step of the way. You're surprised by this?"

  "A little. I haven't been made official yet, so I thought—"

  "You may not be officially my queen for another three days, but you survived the Nine. That makes you one of the Golden Bulls. Thus, you have a seat at the council table."

  "I see. Can I wear my horns then?" she teased, loving how his entire face softened with laughter.

  He let her taste the beauty of his mirth with a long, hungry kiss. "Wear whatever you want. I advise something loose and comfortable, as this may take all day. Several days, if the princes are in a disagreeable mood."

  Jalia snorted indelicately, finding the strength to sit up, purposefully rocking back on the still hard rise of his cock, biting her lip when his nostrils flared, and his eyes darkened to a deep, sensual gold.

  "If they haven't said all they need to in a day, they can wait until the next queen comes along to voice their opinions. I have an important appointment tonight,"

  "Appointments must be kept," he bit out, cupping her hips as she began a slow, easy ride. Their responsibilities could wait just a little longer.

  *****

  "This is farking ridiculous," Jalia muttered under her breath.

  She looked around the long oval table, at the forty-three princes who were acting like they were on some kind of debate team.

  Half the team had one opinion, the other half opposed it. The opinion? Minos was fine as it was, and no changes needed to be made.

  They'd been going on and on for hours now, and though she had one hell of a headache and her patience was wearing mighty thin, Jalia had to hand it to some of these bulls.

  They threw down insults with magical grace and left gaping wounds in their opponent's ego.

  For instance, Prince Simo—who Jalia had erroneously thought to be more like Phelestes with his kind disposition and constant smile—was insanely passionate about his stance on whether or not the security of the planet was at risk.

  He was convinced it was not, had not been, and would not be invaded.

  Ever.

  End of.

  "Every single ship that has ever come to Minos trying to penetrate the nebula has failed! They cannot navigate it!" Simo roared, shaking his fist at Turju who sat across from him looking only mildly annoyed.

  Turju pressed his fingertips together and gave a small shake of his head,

  "There is no need to repeat yourself, Simo. I ignored you just fine the first time."

  Jalia rolled her lips together and choked a little on her laughter, because that was only the beginning of the feudal argument between the two princes, and they weren't the only ones.

  Farther down the table there was a whole group of princes with the same attitude as Simo, on their feet, hands waving, so convinced nothing bad would ever happen to them from outside sources it bordered on fanaticism.

  This wasn't going as well as Jalia had hoped, and when she glanced at Dhega, she found him pinching the bridge of his nose with an extremely frustrated look on his face. He held her hand, and when she took hold of his wrist he looked her way, a wry smirk on his face as though silently asking, 'isn't being queen fun?' and at this moment, her answer was decidedly, no.

  "You said I have a voice at the table, may I say something?"

  He immediately lifted her hand and pressed a kiss to her knuckles, "Of course."

  "You won't like it," she warned, pretty sure no one at the table would like it.

  "Does it need to be said?" Jalia nodded gravely, "Go on then."

  And who said the king of Minos was not a reasonable creature?

  Jalia squeezed his hand and stood up, placing her fingers to her lips and was glad to see every prince at the table jump and wince at the high, loud whistle she gave to get their attention.

  Forty-three pairs of eyes rolled her way, mostly all of them round with surprise, some with their mouths still open, paused mid-sentence.

  "Gentlemen, I have to commend you. I have never heard such creative insults in my life." Jalia heard a few chortles, and for a split second, she waffled with uncertainty.

  Wanting to speak, wanting their attention, was markedly different from suddenly being the very center of attention with absolute silence waiting to be filled. By her.

  Jalia had thought about this, if she should be delicate and kind, would it make more of an impact? Or should she follow Dhega's lead and be cold, brutal even?

  Most everyone thought she was going to be the staying force that tempered Dhega's cruelty, but in truth, so far, she'd just been flying by the seat of her pants. Reacting to him instinctively and being herself as much as possible.

  Now came the time to step up, and she was nervous as hell. She tried to think about it like a high-stakes game, looking around the room to read her opponents, weighing and measuring them to say who would be the biggest challenge, who would fold the easiest.

  After a few strained minutes of silence, it came to her and flowed with far more ease than she expected.

  "How many of you at this table have been outside the nebula? In space at all? Come on, raise your hands."

  Cautiously, curiously, the princes obeyed, and she was shocked by how few of them put their hands up. Ten, out of forty-three.

  "Alright, how many of you have actually—with your own eyes—seen the nebula surrounding your solar system?"

  Five hands went up.

  Well, fark.

  "Before the king asked for alien brides to be brought to Minos, how many of you had ever seen a species other than your own?"

  Three hands. Now Jalia wanted to pinch her nose in frustration.

  "Tom, I need my plasti—"

  Jalia had barely finished asking for it before Tom was handing her the thin, transparent sheet that felt like glass in hand but was the most up-to-date personal computer on the market.

  There were smaller ones, the gold cuff bracelet around her wrist was one and could produce a fairly good-sized hologram, but for everyone's benefit, the bigger, the better.

  "Angel Eyes set up the link?" Tom gave a short nod to confirm, and before she had to ask, he started going around the room to pull the drapes. Bless him.

  Jalia lifted her skirt out of her way, planted her foot on her
chair and climbed up onto the table, wanting to smirk as several of the princes gasped at the impropriety of it.

  "Your highness," Jalia said to Simo with what she hoped was an easy-going smile, he certainly smiled back and gave a little bow from his seat, "You are very certain as to the protection the nebula provides."

  "I am, my lady," he declared, shooting a glare around her at Turju.

  "Mm-hm. Your hand didn't go up when I asked how many of you had seen the nebula, so if you haven't seen it with your own eyes, how do you even know it's there?" Simo's glare faded almost immediately, morphing into an uncertain frown,

  "I'm just trying to clarify before I start, so I'm not making any egregious errors. Do you believe it's there and too powerful an obstacle to overcome because you've been told it is by people who have seen it? Or because you believe in it the way people believe in divine beings they've never laid eyes on?"

  Simo floundered for a minute, acting as though no one had ever questioned him on how he knew the nebula was so all-powerful, or why he thought so. Finally, haltingly, he admitted the former was most accurate.

  "I suppose I have relied on counsel wiser than mine,"

  Jalia inclined her head to him with a genuine thank you and keyed up the live feed being transmitted from the LUX. "For those of you who have not been outside your own solar system, this is the view of Minos from space right at this very moment.

  “The image is coming from the scanners of my ship, which I'll explain about in a moment. Basically, it sees everything and records it for later."

  She pulled a fat candle from its holder to discard, setting the tablet on the candlestick top, allowing the beams of light to appear all around them.

  Well over half the princes threw themselves back in their seats out of surprise or fear when the hologram rushed past them, showing an expanse of black, star-studded space and a riot of color that was the Minoan nebula, while others seemed fascinated by the spray of colors and lifted their hands to pass through it.

  She let them all get a good look, using her wrist unit to work the image, illuminating and enhancing the view of some very dangerous items hovering just outside the nebula.

  "You'll notice these little machines here, just hanging around, innocuous enough, right? No big deal? Wrong. These are satellites, over a hundred of them.

  “Think of them as mechanical spies, sent here by anyone and everyone who desires to know what lies beyond the nebula.

  "They just hang there, orbiting the system, drawing maps, memorizing movements and taking atmospheric readings of the material that makes up the nebula itself.

  “Penetrating through it with invisible beams of light to scan the planets and inhabitants, looking for a way in.

  “Some of these are old, I'd say at least ten to fifteen years, while some have only been there a few months. Your nebula, your incomprehensibly ancient spaceship, are being watched."

  Jalia let that sink in, looking now at some of the louder voices who had insisted they were perfectly safe behind their 'impenetrable' wall, and finally saw indecision. As he was closest to her, Jalia looked down at Prince Simo.

  "Simo, how certain are you that in ten years, this satellite hasn't reported back to its master as to whether or not the nebula can be infiltrated?"

  The prince looked up at her and very carefully phrased his response. "I have no knowledge of these satellites, my lady. I couldn't say. But in the past ten years, no one has penetrated our airspace."

  Jalia gave a hum, clasping her hands behind her back to rock a little on her toes. "Does Minos have any sort of remote tracking system scanning the sky that you can say with one hundred percent certainty, that's a true statement?"

  "Remote tracking system?" Simo asked blankly, giving Jalia all the answer she needed. Dear gods.

  She shook her head in exasperation, using her hands to explain. "I want you to think of it as a fisherman's net, cast around the entire planet. It has strings that trap fish, and if a fisherman is any good, he can feel the tug when he's caught something. Yes?"

  She was given rumbles of assent to say everyone was following,

  "A remote tracking system is like the net, the strings are made up of light or sound that we can neither see or hear with our own senses.

  "They are programmed to feel disturbances, such as an enemy ship or drone, or even a rogue asteroid hurtling toward Letau at this very moment.

  “If a disruption is felt, an alarm is raised, and if a planet has proper defenses, the enemy ship or object is destroyed before it can do any damage.

  "Minos has no protection beyond the nebula, and I can confirm to all of you, it's been penetrated repeatedly over the last several days by my ship without help from your pilots.

  “Did anyone see it? Hear it? Get a report from one of your people that a huge silver spear was seen cruising around the sky? No! You know why?

  "You have no way to tell whether or not other people have been here because only ten of you in this room have even gone into space!

  “Please argue with me to explain how the people of Minos are safe when the ruling body of their planet knows next to nothing about the universe beyond the nebula. I dare you."

  She looked around the table, waiting for someone to speak, but all she saw were trouble looks and some that were mildly hostile towards her.

  Jalia picked up a piece of fruit from the table, giving it a bounce in her hand.

  “"Will someone please describe to me, the deadliest weapon on your planet?" Turju lifted his hand and claimed there was nothing more dangerous than the poisons within the Labyrinth of Thorns.

  "So, you go to battle throwing vials of poison, your highness? Or does everyone come to Islingrane to settle disputes, getting shoved into the labyrinth one by one until someone decides a victor?"

  The prince gave a good-natured scoff, spreading his hands to indicate his peers. "It has been many years since any of our territories have gone to battle, but no. I suppose our warriors use swords and spears."

  Of course, they did. And poison was chosen as the deadliest weapon, over their own warriors.

  "Tom?" Jalia tossed the fruit up over her head, a low pulse of sound and a flash of light zipped through the air, and the fruit disintegrated to ash.

  "Your weapons are fine for interplanetary disputes, but if an army of Duggan's show up, they'll use something like that to decimate any fighting force you have within a few hours.

  “It's a hand-held weapon that shoots a seismic charge and will blow a hole through a man, and the three standing behind him."

  Unsurprisingly, jaws dropped.

  "Over ten years’ worth of satellite reports, word of mouth, exaggerations? I'll be honest with you; I'm shocked an invasion hasn't happened already.

  “And instead of arguing that it won't happen, I genuinely believe it would be in everyone's best interest to take a look at the planetary finances and decide how much there is in the proverbial bank to get yourselves updated to at the very least, provide the planet with some kind of defense system.

  "I'm not suggesting you turn into an industrialized planet, Minos is too lush and beautiful to ruin it with a boom of too much tech too fast.

  “I'm talking outer-nebula defense in the form of no less than three battleships with a full complement of fighter jets. A functioning communication network so Dymigona can call for help should some asshat from Dish show up and want to rain down shit and destruction on the temple.

  “Forty ground shuttles per-territory, so when Islingrane calls for help, it will get there within a few hours instead of a few days!

  "Surface-to-space shuttles for emergency evacuation, four per palace, minimum. A radar tracking system to alert us when an enemy ship gets through the nebula. Because mark my words, it's no longer a matter of if, gentlemen, it's a matter of when and how bad.

  “Minos is the most beautiful, unspoiled, wealthiest planet I know of, and I can guarantee you, every attendant or princess allowed to return home after failing to win th
e crown has taken stories of their time here back with them.

  "It won't be long before someone shows up on your doorstep with hostile intentions, and here we all are, basking in the beauty of Minos with our thumbs up our asses and no way to defend ourselves, because half of you are certain, everything is fine the way it is."

  When she finished, Tyro stood slowly and gave a requisite bow, his intimidating face giving away nothing to betray his thoughts or which way he was leaning.

  He had been one of the very few to sit silently and listen while his peers argued all around him.

  "You are indeed vastly more knowledgeable than us about the outside world, my lady, but we have survived here, flourished even, since we destroyed our overlords.

  “Our traditions and our way of life is indeed simple, but it is ours. Much of what you suggest will change that."

  Jalia bit back her urge to snap at him, repeating to herself over and over, Queens do not scream 'you farking morons' at her peers.

  "Your way of life is beautiful, your highness. I'm not suggesting you change anything except to protect it. I can't imagine anyone in Iros being upset over a few technological upgrades which will enhance their lives and ensure the protection of their families.

  "Right now, all you have is the threat of the nebula's destructive power to keep your enemies at bay, and you have the

  “Labyrinth of Thorns as your greatest weapon to enforce that threat. Not your warriors, not your fighting spirit, a bunch of plants and flowers—no offense, Turju—that even were an enemy to magically choose Islingrane to invade first, could be burned to the ground with one blast of a seismic cannon.

  “I was told every man in this room was a prince, one of the Golden Bulls of Minos because they proved themselves to be the strongest, most intelligent of all the people on this planet. If that's the case, surely you can see the logic in what I'm saying."

  Without missing a beat, Isandros spoke up from his seat. "I do, and I have no objection to enhancing our security measures. It would be foolish and arrogant of us to disregard anything you've said, my lady.

  “My pressing concern is giving us all advanced weaponry. There has been much upheaval between neighboring provinces over the years, battles of such carnage with simple swords and spears, that I cannot conceive of the damage should pistols such as the one your man carries, be introduced into society."