CHAPTER 23 QUESTIONS AND QUEENS
Sir Cas, are you ready yet?”
“Lady Katarina, I’m only halfway through my sandwich.”
“But you keep talking with Conrad! You’re taking forever!”
“Why don’t you fight Sir Marin again?”
“He says he’s too tired!”
Sir Cas sighed.
He was regretting revealing to the redheaded noblewoman that he had been holding back his skills with the sword.
The woman had always been driven to learn about sword fighting and improving beyond human bounds, but the voraciousness with which she desired to be as good as, if not better than, Sir Cas had her nagging him constantly to spar with her and teach her more.
Meanwhile, the Troivackian knights had slowly been acquiescing to sparring with her, realizing that there was no shame in doing so, as she had technically beaten one of their elite knights.
Though some discovered this was a poor judgment call on their part because they left sparring with Katarina Ashowan more tired, sweaty, and bruised than they had after actual skirmishes …
“Lady Katarina?”
Kat turned toward the voice calling out to her from the courtyard entrance.
Sir Cas, who had been seated on the stairs and enjoying his lunch with Conrad, turned around to look at the king’s assistant as well.
“Our king and queen have asked that you attend an inner council meeting today,” Mr. Levin called out, his gaze resting stonily on the redhead.
Kat had never really understood why she always had the impression that Brendan Devark’s assistant hated her … At first, she had assumed he felt antagonistic toward her because of her being a witch or because she was Daxarian.
However, he was perfectly fine with Mr. Kraft and Alina …
Sheathing her sword, Kat made her way up the stairs to the assistant who waited for her, and she gave a brief wave of farewell to Sir Cas and Conrad.
“What is the meeting about?” she asked while Mr. Levin fell into step beside her.
Kat observed that his escorting her at her side was meant to be a slight, as it was common practice in both Daxaria and Troivack that he would be expected to follow behind her unless given permission otherwise.
“The meeting is pertaining to Sir Herra’s alleged attack on you and a few other matters I’m not at liberty to share at this time.”
Kat’s gaze cut to the assistant, her golden eyes gleaming a little brighter. “I thought the hearing of Sir Herra was to be discussed with my father present. He left this morning to attend to matters elsewhere, and I find it especially interesting that you call it an ‘alleged’ attack.”
“That is what the council is deciding today, Lady Katarina. A man is not made guilty before the council meeting.”
“Then do you keep innocent men locked up in the dungeon just for fun?” Kat wondered frostily.
The assistant fell quiet, though from the way his jaw shifted, Kat could see he was trying to control a larger emotion.
“We needed to observe him, and given that it might have been an attack on you, the future queen of Daxaria and the daughter of a duke, we took extra precautions.”
Kat raised an eyebrow and kept staring at the man.
“We didn’t get the chance to chat much last time we met in Daxaria, but have I done something in particular to offend you?”
Mr. Levin stopped in his tracks and gave a shallow bow. “Not at all, Lady Katarina. I did not realize I seemed hostile.”
Kat’s eyes narrowed as she stared at his bowed head.
He was full of shit.
Then again, considering Kat had just barely started getting the knights to train with her, acknowledged that, yet again, Mr. Levin may just be someone that took a while to win over.
That is unless Kat fought dirty …
“Mr. Levin, have you met my familiar, by chance?”
The assistant straightened in a hurry. “I do not need to meet Pina Colada.”
A slow grin started to climb her face.
“Lady Katarina, I am allergic to cats.”
The redhead continued smiling devilishly at the assistant until she turned and resumed her journey to the council room.
The assistant let out a grumbling huff before mastering his expression again.
However, his control was tested when they arrived at the council room doors and found Pina sniffing the nose of one of the guards who was lying on his stomach and smiling at the little kitten as she inspected his face while the other guard (also lying on his belly) watched her with his chin propped up in his hands.
Mr. Levin cleared his throat angrily.
The two men jumped to attention in a hurry.
Kat hid her smile from the men as she bent down and scratched Pina’s cheek.
“I’ve been summoned by Their Majesties?” she greeted the guards while barely keeping the smugness from her face.
The men, avoiding Mr. Levin’s furious stare, bowed in response and proceeded to open the doors for Kat.
Feeling in too good of a mood to be sitting in on such a somber meeting, Kat did her best to dampen her perkiness as she regarded the long table of serious noblemen, then the king and queen with a bow.
However, there was another figure out of the corner of her eye that she turned to look at and discovered none other than … Rebecca Devark.
“W-Wh—”
“Lady Katarina, Lady Rebecca Devark has been asked to return to court in order to help receive your mother, Duchess Ashowan,” Brendan Devark announced loudly over everyone’s heads.
Kat had gone rigid, her entire body flooded with tingling shock.
She glanced over to Alina, but the queen betrayed none of her true thoughts.
So Katarina took it upon herself to hide her own feelings on the matter as she faced Rebecca Devark and issued a shallow bow.
“Ma’am, you seem to be in good health.”
Rebecca Devark’s dark eyes roved over Katarina’s uniform before she curtsied back.
“Congratulations on your marriage, Lady Katarina. I had just issued my sentiments to His Highness.” The former queen nodded regally toward Eric, whose gaze was sharp on the former monarch from his seat at the table.
Kat’s gaze lingered on Rebecca Devark’s face. The square jaw, the thick, sculpted eyebrows, and her bold mouth. Her hair still wrapped in a dark cloth, and her winter garb of a long sleeve black dress still the epitome of modesty and regality.
She looked well rested despite her severe clothing choices. The time away from court had done good things for her …
If only she had succeeded at pulling the stick out of her—
“Lady Katarina, Lady Rebecca, once you are seated, we can proceed with the meeting,” Brendan Devark called out.
The room erupted in more whispers, and even Rebecca Devark wasn’t able to hide her shock.
“T-The former queen will also be joining in on the meeting?” one of the noblemen spluttered from his seat while leaning forward to stare down the table at Brendan.
Kat noticed that there was an air of hesitancy.
Apparently, removing Lord Ball as the voice of outrage had succeeded in subduing the council.
“My mother will need to be apprised of the situation pertaining to the attack against Lady Katarina in the event that Duchess Annika Ashowan wishes to know more, and we need someone who understands the current status of the castle while my queen attends our meetings and the trial.” Brendan answered the bald-headed nobleman, making him visibly struggle not to hunch his shoulders under the king’s indomitable eyes.
When no one else attempted to argue, Katarina made her way over to the empty seat beside Eric, who stood and pulled out the chair for her.
From her place at Brendan’s side, Alina Devark watched her mother-in-law and noticed with no small amount of satisfaction the utter bafflement on the woman’s face as she realized that no one dared to question Katarina’s presence or think it to be strange.
While Rebecca gradually regained her composure, she made her way over to the chair at the far side of the table that was placed at the very end, opposite to her son and his wife.
Alina took the opportunity to glance at Duke Icarus and noticed that the man was, as he often was, completely nonplussed. It unnerved her somewhat, as the queen started to suspect that the vile man was plotting something else …
However, there was nothing more they could do until they dealt with Sir Herra. Especially as gathering incriminating evidence against Duke Icarus for illegally trafficking people and enslaving them was taking more time than they had hoped …
Alina worried they’d have to try to bring Zinfera into the entire matter, which given their own unstable state, made things even trickier and could prove to bring more troubles than solutions.
Alina turned to look at her husband.
Brendan shared one brief, gentle look with his wife before addressing his council again.
Alina closed her eyes and took a slow breath in.
One step at a time.
Things would work out one way or another … After all, the infamous house witch was on her shores, and she had no doubt that between Katarina and Fin, they would resolve things for the better.
Who knew? Maybe even Kraken would help somehow …
Fin leaned against the desk in Lady Elena’s office, still recovering from the impromptu spiritual journey to his son. He and Kraken had been permitted to use the room in the name of privacy, and the house witch was rather grateful to have less people around him as he gradually finished processing the mold he’d eaten.
“I’m not sure why you always feel the need to make a ceremony of things. I could’ve done this back in the other room.”
Fin’s eyes narrowed momentarily as his familiar stared back at him from the floor, nonplussed.
Mr. Kraft, Mage Sebastian, and Lady Elena had gone to continue their discussion on the implications of their discovery of the magical properties the mold possessed.
“Can all cats traverse realms?”
“Yes.”
“All the times I woke you up thinking you had stopped breathing … or asked if you were staring at anything in particular, you always said no … Were you in another world? Why did you not say something?!”
“It’d be wildly annoying and a waste of my precious time to have to explain it to you. I’m only telling you this now, as it seems if I do so, I can start my takeover of Troivack. Though your kitten’s familiar, Pina, is a little bit of a problem on that front. She is quite the little seductress.”
Ignoring the topics of taking over yet another kingdom and his daughter’s familiar, Fin continued interrogating Kraken.
“Why is it cats can cross into other realms?”
“We’re magnificent creatures.”
“That doesn’t answer the question.”
Kraken yawned, already bored with the conversation. “Do you want me to go to the Forest of the Afterlife or not?”
“Yes, I do.” Fin sighed wearily. “We need one of the mushrooms to run additional tests. If you spot anyone there that doesn’t belong, can you let me know?”
Kraken blinked.
Fin knew that was as much of a confirmation as he was going to get.
“So how does it work?” Fin asked while folding his arms.
Kraken turned and sauntered toward the door. “Let me out” the familiar commanded with a chirp before reaching his tufted paw up to stroke the door repeatedly.
Taking a moment to calm back down, Fin pushed himself up off the desk that had at least an inch of dust on its surface, and he crossed the room to open the door for the fluffy feline.
Kraken darted out of the room with surprising nimbleness that he often didn’t show. Alarmingly, when Fin poked his head out the door to ask Kraken where he needed to be in order to cross realms, he found that his familiar had already disappeared.
The Forest of the Afterlife was foggy as usual when Kraken first arrived … though he could tell this wasn’t the same corner of the woods that he had entered when he’d given his warning to the imp several years ago …
As he sauntered over the mossy ground and peered at the peaceful trees with rays of sunlight streaming through the occasional gap in foliage, he took in a small breath.
It was a little unnerving coming to the Forest of the Afterlife, but Kraken would never outwardly admit it. Especially because the reason he became a little less assured was because he could no longer feel the connection to his witch anywhere near as strongly as before.
As he trotted on, he listened to the peaceful birds singing and noted the clean, fresh scent of grass and new growth and tried to find peace in it.
He sniffed the air again.
Hm, the gateway I need is farther away than I realized … Perhaps I should try and hunt down a pixie and force them to take me there to save time …
Kraken had just finished darting under some ferns when the quiet murmur of voices reached his ears.
Turning his head sharply, his pupils widening, he peered amongst the shadowy underbrush toward where the voices were coming from.
Then, after a moment of quiet stillness … he identified who the voices belonged to and began to bound in that direction.
Breaking free of a white, flowery shrub, sending tiny petals fluttering all around him, Kraken peered up at the humans who had long ago left his own realm to join the Forest of the Afterlife.
“Kraken?! Oh, dear, did you board death’s carriage? Fin must be heartbroken …”
Resisting the urge to become irritable over having to reiterate that these particular souls had seen him many times before and had already learned that cats could traipse realms, Kraken silently reminded himself that those in the Forest of the Afterlife did not always have cohesive memories …
“Greetings, I am only here to find some items that might help my conquering of Troivack … and to help my witch sort out a problem that might concern one of his kittens.”
Standing up from the tree-woven chairs and table from where they sat, the two people stepped over to Kraken and smiled down at him.
Kraken peered back up into the kind, smiling faces of Katelyn Ashowan …
And Ainsley Reyes.
The former queen of Daxaria.