Cassarah
Aloud knock at my door snapped me out of my sleep and had me sitting up in bed, panic squeezing my chest. Becka walked up to the door and opened it a crack while May came to stand beside me, her blade drawn and ready to act.
Abbott came over to the bed, waving for me to go to him, which I did quickly.
He strode across the space and pulled me into the dressing room. He kept the door cracked so he could hear what was going on. I could hear Becka’s voice but not what she was saying and the bass tone of another man’s voice in response.
“Please wait, My Lord. Her Majesty isn’t ready to receive a guest at the moment.
If you wait in the sitting room across the hall, I will alert her to your presence, and we will join you there.
I know she has been eager to clear the air with you on the situation that occurred during the feast,” Becka said, loud enough that we could hear her.
“It’s the spymaster,” I concluded. “Here, help me get into this dress.”
I pulled my nightgown over my head and grabbed what I needed for this meeting.
This man needed to know I was queen and to be respected in that position.
The fact that he came banging on my door, already told me he didn’t think I deserved any reverence for my status.
I pulled the gold silk underdress over my head and slipped my arms into the long sleeves.
“Help me with the skirt… this material is rather heavy,” I requested, handing the black brocade fabric to Abbott.
He fumbled a bit, but we managed to get it to work. Once he secured the skirt, he pulled on the bodice of matching black brocade, but this had the Shecan royal crest stitched onto the front of it. If that man thought he was going to play ignorant, then he had another thing coming to him.
“Oh, good. You’re almost ready,” Becka said as she stepped into the room. “I’ll help her finish up, Abbott, if you’ll get the others. I think it’s best if everyone is present for this discussion since he decided to bring her along.”
“That bastard brought his daughter along with him?” Abbott demanded.
“Yes, now go. I don’t want to leave Paxton in there with them longer than I need to,” Becka explained as she shooed him out.
Now, it was my turn to get upset. “Why is he in there alone with them?”
“Cassarah, I need you to trust your man right now,” Becka scolded as she laced up the back. “That wily idiot has some sort of plan going on that I can’t figure out, but the sooner we get you in there, the better. I’m afraid he might kill her himself if she keeps ignoring his brushoffs.”
“You’d think me almost killing her would get the point across,” I muttered.
Becka grabbed my shoulders and spun me around. “Yes, well, one might just believe you put him under a spell and forced him to become your consort.”
“Is that the nonsense she’s spouting?” I demanded, ready to charge out of the room.
“Whoa there. You need one more thing before you go all Dragon Queen on her ass,” she said as she held me back.
Pausing, I took a deep breath and waited for her to set my crown on my head.
“There, now you can go kill the bitch, and she won’t be able to mistake you for anything but the queen you are. ”
I couldn’t help but snort at that as I let her escort me out of the room and across the hall.
All my men were present, standing behind a couch where Paxton sat glaring at the woman across from him.
Percilla looked at him as if she wanted to eat him more than she wanted to kiss him.
Anger seemed to be making her one eye twitch as she turned her gaze to me.
She wore a sickly green color that did no favors to her complexion, but I guess it was the height of fashion right now.
Paxton rose, walked over to me, took my hand, and escorted me to where he’d been sitting to face the spymaster and Percilla. “My love, this is Lord Belin, the king’s spymaster. Lord Belin, the Dragon Queen Cassarah of Sheca, ruler of the mercenaries and friend to the dragons.”
Lord Belin and Percilla remained seated, looking up at me as if I were beneath them.
I turned to Pax and cocked my head to the side in confusion.
“Is it not customary for those of lower stations not to greet a royal properly? Do they not bow or curtsy? I believe I did see that happening for King Thomas and Queen Catharine. One might believe these two mean to slight me when I have done nothing to deserve such treatment.”
“That custom is the same here as it is in all other kingdoms,” Paxton informed me.
Nodding, I turned to look at the two idiots seated before me. “I see, so they do mean to slight me…”
Abbott and Dayson drew their swords, marched over, and pointed the tips of their blades at their throats. When neither of them moved, the blades got closer, and Dayson even nicked the spymaster, a telltale drop of blood rolling down his neck.
“If you wish to live, I suggest you recall your manners quickly. Otherwise, you leave me no choice but to end your lives here and now,” I informed them as I sat on the couch, spreading my skirts as if I didn’t have a care in the world.
Percilla let out a sob, and fat tears rolled down her cheeks. “Please forgive me, I was only doing as my father directed me to. He said you were weak-willed and didn’t deserve to be bowed to or shown any respect at all.”
Glancing at her father, I saw his face pale, and his eyes flick in her direction as she spoke those words.
“You lying whore, this was your idea. All I’ve heard since you got back from the feast last night is how the bitch queen stole Paxton from you and beat you up in front of everyone.
You wanted to get back at her by pulling this stunt, and I told you it was an awful idea.
” He then faced me, his eyes beseeching.
“Please, Your Majesty, have your guardian stand down, and I will get on my knees to beg for forgiveness.”
Percilla let out a snarl at her father. Seeing that they were no longer concerned about the blades at their throats, I waved them off. No sense in killing them when they were going to spill their guts.
“Spymaster, ha! You are nothing but a pathetic old man who doesn’t know a goddamn thing going on in this world.
How many times have you brushed off information that was useful, only to have these bastards make you pay them,” she ranted, pointing at Paxton.
“Those spies knew you were useless, so they milked you for all you were worth, leaving us noble only in name and nothing else. You used my dowry to buy back secrets you tossed aside. Then, this bitch shows up taking the only man I ever wanted from me because you didn’t see his value.
He could have been the next spymaster and been brilliant at it. ”
Part of me wanted to let this go on, letting her spill all the ammunition I needed to get the spymaster to tell me what I wanted to know, but then again, maybe he knew nothing at all.
“I think that is quite enough,” I cut in. “Abbott, would you be so kind as to remove Percilla and have one of the palace guards place her in a jail cell? I believe she needs a night to reflect on her behavior toward others.”
Abbott nodded and dragged the screaming woman out of the sitting room, leaving me alone with the supposed spymaster.
The second the door was closed, the man dropped to his knees and groveled.
“Please spare me, Your Majesty. I never should have let her talk me into something so foolish. I’ll do anything to save my life for this heinous way I’ve behaved. ”
“Then tell me everything you know about what the queen has been doing behind the king’s back.
I’m positive someone has brought it to your attention, and the king himself had you looking into things.
” I raised my hand to stop him from speaking.
“Before you speak, I want to know everything. The information you thought was useful and the crazy theories you tossed out. Leave nothing unsaid. Do I make myself clear?”
His head bobbed up and down in silent agreement.
“Then you may speak,” I ordered.
The spymaster moved to sit on the couch again and settled himself back into a person I believed should be given the position he held.
“As you said, the king became suspicious of the queen and situations he discovered after investigating. He asked me to have my men and women look into what she’s been up to.
At first, it didn’t look like anything was going on, but then we started to follow the people around her, like Sir Roulf.
That man is one sneaky rat, exchanging notes with people in the dead of night and helping to coordinate supplies to be sent to Utros.
Through investigating him, it was revealed a network of people had been brought in from other nations to work in the city. ”
“You didn’t tell the king this?” Paxton demanded, cutting into the story.
“Of course I did, but there was nothing about the interactions that I could say for certain were traitorous. They could be exchanging notes with their families for all I knew,” the spymaster countered.
Paxton let out a frustrated growl. “Why didn’t you have someone intercept one of the exchanges, allowing you to see what was written in the notes?
Then you would have had proof you needed, or better yet, just arrest one of them to question them for information.
Clearly, you felt like things weren’t as they seemed. ”
The spymaster’s jaw clenched at the attack, his hands balling into fists with anger rolling off him.
It was almost as if I was seeing the real man for the first time.
This whole thing had been an act. He’d tried to play me into believing he really wanted to help, that his daughter was the problem, not him.
The problem with that was he wasn’t a good actor himself, and this bumbling idiot act wasn’t working for him.