Chapter Five On Meeting Your Heroes #2
I could only focus on my chance to set the story straight.
I needed Queen Elthra to shorten her war campaign and bring Issa and Ariana to the forefront to set them up for proper endings, so we could get to what was really important—where Ironclaw would be sleeping that night.
Then in the morning I could gently convince him he needed to be more attentive to the queen and call for Sorrel to take me home.
Wait...that wasn’t good. I didn’t want to use my night with Ironclaw as leverage, sleep with him only to turn around and accuse him of being a bad fiancé. That needed workshopping.
The room was quiet—the queen had not yet arrived—so I looked around for some social cue as to what we should be doing while we waited.
“Fascinating map, yes? One must hope our enemies never see our plans laid out so neatly.”
I nodded at Draw but dropped his arm. I wasn’t a spy and I wasn’t playing.
A pair of women came in, manuscripts of some kind in their arms. They went to a far table and began spreading the papers out. I made my way to the fire, the hearth here much smaller than the dining hall. It had been a warm enough day, but these rooms in the center of the castle were chilled.
Draw circled the map, his attention off me at last. I surreptitiously tugged the top of my dress up, trying to manage the showcase of cleavage on display. It certainly wasn’t uncommon among the other women here, but I was wholly unused to feeling so exposed.
The queen entered on Lord Parable’s arm in her elegant gown, Issa shortly behind, and then Ariana with an older woman with the same rich brown complexion and lovely eyes. I caught only snippets of their conversation—numbers, of soldiers and hosts, I assumed.
I continued watching the door, my chest flushed pink I was sure. My hands shook as I tucked them behind me, as if I was warming them at the fire. He was coming. He had to be.
Loud footfalls rang through the hall and I straightened.
Moments later, Ironclaw rounded the doorway and began speaking at once.
His brow was tight with thought. “My queen, the Dark Mage is drawing his entire battle host to him. We must increase our efforts as well. If we’re going to win the warriors of the valley lands to our cause, we’ll need support from the south to subdue them. ”
Lord Parable clasped his hands over his paunch and interrupted Ironclaw. “One of our soldiers can take down two of theirs any day, Your Grace. Further, we already have four of the six houses to the south. Taking more would leave our borders open. Amédée is not our only enemy in the world.”
The queen wrinkled her delicate nose. “Enemies? That implies we have a difference of opinion. These threats are evil. There is no middle ground.”
Ironclaw nodded at a thin woman with ink splattered across her hands—or grease, I realized when she pulled a lever, sending a wooden arm out in a circle that triggered a number of items on the board.
The gears brought the painted-black armies closer, while another wooden dowel knocked several of the queen’s blue pieces over.
At the end, the host of the Dark Mage was great and they were squashed.
Everyone stared at the fallout as if reading chicken bones.
Ariana spoke from the queen’s side. “What does the witch’s...cohort say?”
I looked up to see the queen and her group watching me shrewdly. Ariana, for her part, seemed curious rather than hostile. I smiled back at her.
“Thank you, Lady Ariana. The witch spoke of an astute friend of the queen’s. That must be you.” That’s it. Build up her confidence so she became essential to the workings of the plot and got an ending she deserved.
As for me...
Pages turned in my mind. In book five, it was just as Ironclaw proposed: the queen sent him south for reinforcements before meeting him en route to subdue the valley lands, after which they brought the entire host north for the last series of battles with the Dark Mage.
It was a lot of dreary campaigning and chapter-long battle scenes.
To me, the racing around the queendom spreading blood and gore needed to go.
Plus, I needed Ironclaw to remain at the queen’s side.
Readers wanted book five to feel like their favorite romantic fantasy.
That’s what I had to deliver. It just so happened I’d be there too.
I tilted my head dramatically before I spoke. “The heart of the queendom cannot be protected by trading its own heart. Southernly support comes at the expense of a trade from childhood.”
That was quite good, I thought. Sounded like something a seer would say.
Everyone stared at me.
I sighed. “If Your Grace asks the south to rally more fighters, it puts Castle Range at risk. This war does not go south again.” I knew her childhood home of Castle Range was something she wouldn’t want to gamble and I saw that realization click around the room.
Ironclaw frowned. “Send me directly to the valley lands, then. I will win them back to your side, Your Grace.”
No. He couldn’t set off on his own—that would defeat the whole purpose of my visit. However, it still stood that the queen needed to nudge those valley lands into line before the battle with the Dark Mage. Ergo, we all had to go. Together.
“We do not need to subdue the valley lands by force,” I said. “If you go yourself, Your Grace, they will heed the queen’s true words and follow you north to the final battle.”
“Do you hear that, beloved?” Queen Elthra said. “You don’t get to race off on your own again.”
Beloved? I did not like that one bit but neither did Ironclaw seem particularly moved. The good news was, he had his eyes on me at last. I returned the look and lifted my chin. Wondered how my flushed chest looked in the firelight.
We had the start of a really nice moment when a voice broke it.
“Final battle?”
Oh, so Lord Draw decided it was the perfect time to lend his opinion, by questioning me.
I wasn’t ruffled though. I knew the overall movements of the army hosts backward and forward.
“The great Witch of Mayfair has foretold the final battle against the Dark Mage Amédée will happen this fall. He’s cowering in the northeast forest so that’s where we must go once we secure the valley forces. ”
“Nonsense,” Issa said, coming to the queen’s side. Her blue eyes were less striking than her sister’s but shrewd. “Why are we putting stock in this stranger?”
I didn’t like how they all turned to assess me, yet it was a valid question. What always happened in fiction? The newcomer had to prove themselves.
I knelt by my bag, sincerely hoping to come up with something. What was I going to do, fling the “varench lace” at them all?
I wanted to keep the snacks for myself, so I opened the toiletry pouch and found a small box of hairpins and jewelry, all things from my own home. They looked stark here, clearly out of element.
Then I saw it. “Have you ever consulted a mood ring, Your Grace? The stone comes from the moon.”
“The moon?” Lord Parable spat.
I nodded, happy to see I had Ironclaw’s attention again. I shot him what I hoped was a flirtatious but demure look from where I knelt, then stood, the ring pinched between two fingers, and moved toward the queen.
Lord Parable stepped in front of me and cleared his throat. “Now see here—”
“Oh, step aside,” the queen said, bored. “I’ve seen all the gems in the world. I’m not like to be impressed by something that fell from the sky.”
Lord Parable looked like he wanted to say more but moved.
My legs were thick as I approached Queen Elthra. How quickly she could have my head chopped off... Wait. Did that mean I’d go home? Game over? Or would I get to try again? I pushed the thoughts away for later, when I could spin them properly.
The queen held aloft her right hand, several large gems dotting her fingers.
I slid my childhood mood ring upon her pinkie.
She pulled her hand back to take in the curious make of the ring—a mass-produced product for fifth graders.
The stone was a cheery green, but now on her finger, it slowly bled dark blue.
The queen wrenched it off and looked at the underside of the ring. By the time she turned it back, the stone was green again. She resettled it on her left pinkie this time, and it turned dark blue again. “Well?”
Oh right. “Dark blue means—” Hell, what did blue mean? “—that you’re calm.”
“Calm?” the queen echoed defiantly.
“Your internal body is getting ready for sleep.”
The queen harrumphed as if she didn’t believe any of this, but still, she held her hand out before her quite stiffly and I knew I had her.
“We leave in two mornings,” she finally said, still staring at the ring. “We’ll rally the valley, then head north to take on the Dark Mage. All of us.”
It was exactly what I wanted, but I didn’t want to leave a castle with the fictional man of my dreams for mud-splattered tents. I had to make my move that night.
Everyone was dispersing, the queen’s orders given, and some of the court was already at the door. I walked closer to the board to get a good look at the pattern of pieces, try to memorize the map. Then I saw it.
“Your Grace!”
Queen Elthra spun, furious. “What, Lady Dottie? My internal body is trying to calm itself!”
I pointed at the black piece that hadn’t fallen with the others. “Aren’t you worried that the Dark Mage’s apprentice is this close by?”
Ironclaw stepped around me to look, grazing my upper arm with his elbow. I shivered.
“What of it?” The queen drew my attention back. “She’s nothing without the Dark Mage. Probably fleeing north as we speak.”
I shook my head. It was true the Dark Mage’s apprentice wasn’t a major threat until she returned to Amédée’s side and completed her training in the hours before the final battle, but she still had enough umph to harass the supply lines and cause minor chaos.
More than that, an event was going to happen sooner than I thought.
Earlier, I didn’t know exactly when it would because it was only referenced in the books as a background event.
For whatever reason, the ghostwriter had passed over it, but I’d always thought it should have been a full chapter.
I could make that happen right now. Looking at the map, it was clear tonight was the night.
“The Dark Mage’s apprentice is going to attack—here.
It won’t be a defining blow, but they’ll move under the cover of night and take one of your greatest supporters to use against you. ”
Her blue eyes blazed. “Who?”
“Lady Issa.”
“Issa?”
There was a rumble through the room.
This was a perfect way to give Issa more screen time.
Issa’s voice was light enough. She tucked a blond curl behind an ear. “You hear that, sis? I’m your greatest supporter.”
“Oh, shove it. All right.” The queen nodded at two guards. “Put her in—”
“The Vale Tower is fully fortified.” Sir Aaron Key put forward.
“—the stable,” the queen finished.
The handsome Master of Horse stepped forward, a line between his brows, tugging his embroidered doublet straight as he spoke. “But she’ll be utterly unprotected.”
“Issa loves horses. It wouldn’t be unusual for her to wander the night in order to see her only friends in the world.” The queen smirked.
If I was going to make this happen, give emphasis to Issa’s character development, I needed to voice support. “I, for one, support the queen’s good strategic judgment.”
Lord Draw shot me a look. He clearly thought putting the queen’s sister in the stables to be kidnapped by the Dark Mage’s apprentice wasn’t a compelling idea.
“We’ve been trying to get a spy in among Amédée’s convoy for ages,” the queen said. Her blue eyes widened with an idea. “Give her a talking mirror or something. Or one of those stones that glows. She can send back a message.”
“I...don’t have anything of that nature.” I tried not to sound like an amateur.
She rolled her eyes, then looked at her sister. I had to give Issa credit—she looked a little excited at the thought of being captured by the Dark Mage’s apprentice. “You think you can figure out a way to send news back?”
“No need to worry, sister. I’m your greatest supporter, remember? I’m sure I can figure it out.”
The eagerness in her face reminded me of one of the few chapters in Issa’s POV deep in book five and I nearly groaned. She would come up with a way to persuade her captors, all right.
For his part, Sir Key seemed unfazed by the series of events—he’d seen Queen Elthra take greater risks—but Lord Parable couldn’t help but try one last time. “Your Grace, you’re going to willingly allow the Dark Mage’s soldiers here? They’ll kill anyone they come across on sight.”
“I’ll protect Her Majesty,” Ironclaw said.
“Don’t be so daft,” Queen Elthra said. “We’ll all simply go to bed early. Issa, do try to make yourself visible. There’s no need for them to tear the whole castle apart.”
Then it really hit me for the first time—the deadly apprentice of the Dark Mage was going to be here, in Castle Creneda, tonight.
I turned to Lord Draw. “Can I by chance get a bedroom with a very heavy lock?”