by Kat Zaccard
That afternoon, I dressed in what I thought of as business-casual: pencil skirt, white silk blouse, and blazer. I added an extra swipe of mascara for extra confidence. I was nervous about seeing the queen again. I shivered as I recalled the ice daggers she’d glared at me the night before.
Now, I had to sit in on a council meeting. Nadia had prepped me at lunch, reminding me which diplomats would be there and speculating on who might support my claim to the throne should I petition for an annulment. She reminded me that Logan’s grandfather, Prince Ulric, would be there. But she smiled and said that I would be avoiding Jillian’s grandmother, at least. Barbara Reynolds was escorting her granddaughter to London this holiday. I counted that small blessing as I struggled to remember the council members’ names. I needed a cheat sheet and wondered if I could take notes during the meeting. I decided to slip a small notepad and pen into my pocket, just in case.
When I entered the council chambers, several of the members were already seated around an enormous oval table. I recognized Duke Aleksandr, the royal diplomat from Russia. Logan’s grandfather, Prince Ulric was dressed in an impeccable and expensive suit, and sat tall at the far end of the table. Nadia stood up to greet me and guide me to my chair. She smiled a warning at me, and I remembered her advice at lunch. “Listen and observe. Think of the council like an unusually powerful bunch of teenagers fighting for popularity; no one is who they seem.” Great, just great.
I was seated to the right of the queen. I had not expected to be so near the center of attention. Apparently, that was the story of my life. The queen’s throne was empty, but the chair on my right was occupied by an elderly gentleman I didn’t recognize from the party the night before. He was portly, with a thick shock of red hair. He wore simple but elegant black robes and had a curly orange beard. His eyes twinkled, and I thought he’d look equally comfortable holding a rosary or a beer. He smiled at me and said, “Your Royal Highness, it is a pleasure to finally meet you.”
“Thank you, and you, um … I’m sorry, but who are you?” I was worried I’d offend him with my tactlessness, but he merely chuckled.
“That’s all right, my dear,” he said to put me at ease. “I’m not the head turner I once was. I am Prince Liam from the Clan O’Cleirigh. I’ve sat on the Council since before your mother was queen. She was a fair and just ruler, and I look forward to seeing how her daughter will fare. I must say, you do look so much like her.”
I smiled my gratitude for his kindness and seeming support, but didn’t have a chance to respond. The queen had made her entrance with her usual flourish. She briefly welcomed the council members and began the meeting without mention or even a glance toward me.
The initial proceedings were fairly boring, and I started to get lost in some of the mundane details like lower shipping rates and travel restrictions. When I felt lost, I’d try to remember what I did know and worked to mentally sort the various families’ interests.
Logan’s grandfather, Prince Ulric Dolph, sat at the far end of the table. His stark white hair contrasted with the sheer strength he exuded, and I was somewhat relieved to go unnoticed by him. He seemed quite adamant about lifting the fruit embargo, whereas Duke Aleksandr stood dead set against it.
“Surely, the threats are exaggerated, Aleksandr, hmm? Perhaps it is funding for your program you are more concerned with?” Subtle, Gramps. I smiled to myself.
Aleksandr was not amused and pounded his fist on the table. “How dare you insult me! My only concern is for the safety of the Great Pack. You, sir, come to Russia and see if the threat is real or not, then we will see how quickly you vote to keep your grandchildren from travelling abroad.”
“Grandchildren?” I didn’t mean to speak aloud, but suddenly all eyes were on me. Cheeks burning, I inquired, “I thought we were discussing fruit?”
Tension broke as a few people politely hid their chuckles. Nadia looked pained, but Aleksandr answered, “Fruit, yes, Princess Alice of the Royal Clan Luna. The fruit of the Great Pack’s royal families. The question is: Should royal children be allowed to travel abroad and continue student exchange programs. Currently, these programs are on hold.”
Study abroad sounded awesome. Clearly, I was missing something here. “Is there an increased risk?”
A grumble from the far end of the table sounded like, “We can’t have a frank discussion in front of minors.”
The queen cleared her throat loudly and suggested we move on, to which the room exploded into everyone talking at once.
“We can’t keep putting this on hold!” demanded Aleksandr.
“This is hurting business!” shouted Gramps, rather the Royal Clan Dolph.
“This is killing our children,” Aleksandr growled at Prince Ulric. “We must increase patrols and fund additional training!” He pounded his point home with his fist.
A woman cut in. “We need to discuss this if the threat has increased. Perhaps the Princess should adjourn—?”
“Olympia, she is heir to the throne,” Nadia piped up, “If there is a threat to our people, then we must discuss it here and now. Please, Princess Luna is not a child, and I won’t delay necessary relief efforts due to red tape.”
“She needs to know the whole story,” said a middle-aged man across from me.
“Nonsense, Caleb. She’s not a full member of this council yet,” said the woman sitting next to Aleksandr.
“But she is sitting here,” Nadia interjected, “and may I remind the council that I, myself, am not quite eighteen.” Her jaw twitched. She looked at me pointedly. If she’d been close enough to kick me, she would.
“She is the last of her line,” added Liam.
I cleared my throat, and said, “If I may.” I paused as the group turned toward me. I looked at Nadia for confidence and to tune out the rest of the other faces that showed various degrees of skepticism, especially the queen’s. I took a deep breath. “I am here, at this table, and with this esteemed council.” I glanced around quickly. “I am young, but surely you remember being nearly seventeen, a breath away from adulthood, when you yearned to be taken more seriously?” I smiled at the queen. “It wasn’t so long ago, was it?” Then I turned to the rest. “I may be young, but I am capable. And I won’t instantaneously gain your respect when the moon turns me eighteen, anyway. No, that I’ll have to earn. Trust must be earned. So allow me, council members, to begin to earn it now. I am the last of the Luna Clan, and my place is on this council.”
I took one last look around at the faces regarding me, some more expressive than others. A few scowled, but more than a few smiled or nodded. I turned back to Nadia. She looked as composed as ever but with a glint of pride in her eyes. She had prepped me well. She stood. “I move that Princess Alice Nacht Luna, last of the Royal Luna Clan, heir to the throne, be allowed a seat on this council, including voting power and all rights therein.”
A heavy pause filled the air, then the screech of wood on marble as Liam O’Cleirigh stood. “I second,” he sang out clearly.
The Queen Regent clacked what must have been the Great Pack’s version of a gavel, though it looked more like a polished marble egg. “All in favor,” she said, though her voice held little favor.
I waited and looked around the room as Aleksandr and Liam raised their hands, the woman to Aleksandr’s left scoffed and turned away, but the man next to her smiled and raised his hand, as well. I noted Logan’s grandfather’s hand in the air, and I was still looking around to count when the gavel clacked again. “Motion carried.” The queen smiled tightly. “Welcome to Court, dear niece.”
“And now to business, Your Majesty. We must discuss the upyr,” Aleksandr said.
Then he turned to me and, for my benefit, explained, “The upyr is a race of beings older than the Pack. They live off the flesh of others, and until recently, they were seen as rogue, wild creatures of the far north.”
“Fairytales to frighten children,” scoffed the woman I’d secretly dubbed Grouchy.
Aleksa
ndr’s eyes turned steely as he glared as her, “They are not fairytales.” He rolled up the sleeve of his left forearm to expose a strange silvery scar that resembled an odd-looking bite mark.
Grouchy rolled her eyes, clearly unimpressed. Logan’s grandfather was not so foolish. “They are very much real, Hanna, and denying their existence will only further their plans.”
A laugh from the queen interrupted her retort. “Plans? Really, Ulric, do you think the mindless beasts have organized?” She smiled around the room.
Aleksandr now turned to her. “Yes, Your Majesty, I do.”
“If I might point out, there was a time when the same was said about us.” Liam’s voice carried weight with the council. I could see several skeptical members begin to nod in agreement.
“If I may…” Aleksandr politely deferred to the head of the O’Cleirigh Clan as well before continuing. “Members of the council, these are the facts: More seemingly random kills have been popping up around our lands in Russia. The attacks appear to be random, but as we plot them out, we are noticing a pattern that cannot be coincidence. This suggests a mobilization among the upyr the likes of which we’ve not seen since Vladimir the Impaler.”
I recognized that name. “Hang on a second. When you say upyr,” I said, “you mean vampires? The Dracula kind, or the Edward Cullen kind?” I wasn’t making fun. I mean, hello, I was a werewolf, after all. I should have assumed other creatures of the night roamed the woods, too. Even so … vampires?
“Vampires.” Aleksandr all but scoffed. “Forgive me, Princess Alice of the Royal Clan Luna, but you Americans have silly romantic ideas of a truly vicious animal.”
Nadia was glaring icicles at me, but if she didn’t want me asking stupid questions, she should have told me about the freaking vampires during our many council prep-sessions. Okay, I can handle this diplomatically, “Forgive my ignorance, Duke Aleksandr of the Royal Clan Ivanov. What I mean is, what are their natural defenses and weakness?”
“They won’t burst into flames in the sunlight, if that’s what you mean.” Prince Ulric leaned forward. Great! That’s the impression I wanted to make with my future whatever-in-law. I smiled to acknowledge his joke.
“The Princess is right to inquire about natural defenses. As you can see, their bite is not lethal to us. Nor, unfortunately, is ours to them. However, as with most living things, a stake to the heart or decapitation will, how you say, do the trick.”
“So they have no venom that we know of, and they are alive, therefore they can die.”
“Yes, Princess, the upyr appear to be alive, but their biology is unknown. They continue to evade capture and seem to have preternatural abilities. They are exceptionally fast and much stronger than they appear. Other than that, we know little about them. They are too vicious to capture, and we have never known them to be organized other than the uprising of 1460. After Vlad the Impaler was deposed, the Pack left no survivors of his nest. In the centuries since, there have been few sighting of them. When they are discovered, usually by unexplained deaths in small outlying villages, we dispatch a patrol to take care of the problem. These deaths often get labeled as animal attacks. Blaming unexplainable human deaths on animals is bad for the Great Pack. When wolves, coyotes, or wild cats become the target of humans, werewolves are at risk of exposure. We must operate under the radar of humanity or risk being hunted ourselves.
“But this is ancient history, and it is the present that concerns me. These attacks are not quite a pattern, but not quite random. This suggests that a leader is organizing the upyr. They could be gaining numbers, and they could be strategizing a more coordinated attack on the Russian Palace.”
“Yes, well, what exactly do you recommend, Aleksandr?” The queen seemed a master at shifting with the wind, now showing seeming support for this ominous threat, as others in the room murmured concerns.
“We must consider allowing some of our students to study here in Canada, at either Mount Henley or the school in Quebec. We must suspend all diplomatic and student visas to our lands until the threat is identified and eliminated. We need an influx of fighters, more aggressive training programs, and resources to equip our fighters and scientists. We must contain this growing threat before it spreads.”
Queen Christina smiled tightly at Duke Aleksandr. “I’m sure the council will vote to send the necessary resources. A restriction on student visas is practical; however, we must still allow our diplomats to travel and conduct business. We cannot appear to be threatened by these sporadic attacks, and we cannot lose capitol if we are to fund this venture.”
She made it sound like she was trading stock, not working to save her people. As I understood it, she was queen of all of the clans, that’s why they called it the Great Pack. Perhaps the fact that the threat was overseas made it less real to her?
Liam stood. “I move to suspend all student visas to the homeland, and allow more student visas to Canada.”
“I second,” put in Ulric, “provided we give top priority to the noble clans.” A murmuring of agreement suggested it was standard operating procedure for the council. I didn’t like the elitism, but a vote was being called for and I raised my hand in favor.
“Excellent.” The queen clacked her marble egg gavel. “We will continue diplomatic travel and begin to encourage a one-way study abroad program. Let’s blame humans warring in Europe and the Middle East as our reason for suspending tourism and student visas to Russia and our other northern clans. No sense in causing panic among the masses. Meeting adjourned.”
And just like that, my first council meeting was over. I had wanted to argue with the queen that we needed to tell the masses about the threat if we were to properly train to kill the upyr. But she had a point about causing panic. I needed more information about the upyr and the noble clans.
Chairs were being pushed back; Weres were chatting among themselves. Ulric and Aleksandr seemed caught up in a heated discussion, with Grouchy interjecting from time to time. Next to me, the queen leaned toward me conspiratorially.
“Well done, Alice. You made quite an impression today.” She smiled, her face guarded. I wondered how many werewolf faux pas I’d stumbled into. “Yes, you certainly showed your independence. It gives me pause to consider annulling your betrothal after all. We will think on it, yes?” With that, she rose and went around the table to talk to a few diplomats at the far side of the room. Was that the “royal we,” I wondered, or might I actually get a say in whom I married? Werewolf politics were confusing.
I hadn’t noticed Liam O’Cleirigh still seated to my right until he cleared his throat to get my attention. “I would agree, if a bit more sincerely, that you did do very well, Princess Alice. A word of caution, though, my dear: Any gift of the Queen Regent’s will come very well-wrapped.”
“Well-wrapped?”
“With strings, my dear.” He winked at me, stood, and bowed before making his way through the crowd.
Chapter 16
Our last day at the Winter Palace was a spa day, and I was definitely looking forward to it. After an assortment of treatments I’d never heard of, I went to sit in the sauna before my massage. Yes, there were some perks to this princess gig! I finally felt my tense shoulders relax, deep knots unwinding as I breathed in deeply, maybe for the first time all week.
Then I noticed Nadia was in the sauna, wrapped in a fluffy white towel and sipping sparkling water. I felt myself stiffen and willed myself to relax again. Like it or not, and I honestly wasn’t quite sure how I felt about it, she was the closest I had to an ally for miles around.
“Ah, Your Majesty, very well done, yesterday.”
“Upyr? Nadia, why didn’t you warn me?” I demanded.
Nadia never looked ruffled, and today was no exception. She glanced at me, and smiled. “Classified information. I had no idea they would bring it up, and we needed to get you on the council with full voting rights before anything else.”
She always had an explanation, but I was beginning
to think she always had an agenda, too. “About that. I noticed there were already twelve seats on the council. The Queen Regent is occupying the Luna Clan chair, so adding me makes it thirteen. If I assume the throne when I turn eighteen, what happens to that thirteenth chair? My guess is you’re playing the long-game. Care to fill me in?”
I held Nadia’s gaze until she smiled and closed her eyes, leaning back on the cedar boards.
“Pour some more water on the stones, would you, Alice?”
“Nadia.” She must have heard a note of warning in my voice.
“Alice, please. This whole week has been about getting you seen, noticed, and recognized. I wasn’t joking when I said I think your life may be in danger. The Queen Regent’s hold on the throne is tenuous at best. Every day you’re one step closer to ousting her.”
“I appreciate you giving me just enough information to play your game your way. Might I remind you, though, to consider me an ally instead of your pawn, especially if I am to be queen one day?”
I rose to leave the sauna, tired of Nadia’s cryptic information and political tactics. I couldn’t wait to get home and tell Shea about all of the madness of palace life.
“Alice, wait.” Something in her voice made me pause. “That’s exactly what I want. I want you to be queen, as you’re meant to be.”
I turned back and looked her in the eye, throwing my wolf into the question. “Why?”
She shifted her weight, and breathed, “Because you are our best chance, the rightful queen … and Christina is dangerous.” These last words were a sigh, as if not daring to give the thought full voice. She clamped her mouth shut with an audible click and scowled as if I’d tricked her into speaking. Had I?