Chapter 8
Chapter eight
Kaiser
Once again, I am woken my Wilcox calling out my name. My irritation is immeasurable. This is quickly becoming a trend. One I’m not particularly fond of.
“Your Highness?” A knock sounds at Ava’s door. “Your Highness, wake up.”
Beside me, Ava grumbles and wraps her pillow over her head. Clearly, she’s not any happier about being woken up this way than I am. I do the same with my pillow, hoping that if I ignore him long enough, Wilcox will eventually go away. Another knock, louder than before, shatters that illusion.
“Your Highness, wake up,” Wilcox repeats. “It’s an emergency.”
That gets my attention. Ava’s as well by the looks of things. Sharing a nod with her, I lean up onto my elbows to answer Wilcox’s call. “What is it, Wilcox?”
There’s a pause. “It’s…difficult for me to explain. Can you come out here and take a look for yourself?”
I bristle at the words. Wilcox knows Ava’s with me.
If he wants me to leave the room that means that he’s purposely trying to leave her out of the conversations.
That’s not going to work for me. I’ve already decided Ava will be my queen, so as far as I’m concerned, she needs to hear this just as badly as I do.
“Anything you need to say to me you can say in front of Ava. If she’s not going anywhere, then neither am I.”
Ava looks touched by my show of support. A pleasurable rumble echoes deep inside my gut as I realize I’ve made my mate happy. Her cheeks redden at the noise, and she leans over to kiss me. I can’t help but grin. Whatever’s going on, I’m sure we can handle it together.
“…Alright, fine. If you look outside, you’ll be able to see it for yourselves.”
We exchange shrugs as we look towards the window.
It’s not too far away, so it’s worth a look.
Ava tugs the sheet with her as we walk towards the window.
She wraps it around herself as we go. I don’t bother to do the same.
I shift so often around here, every servant in the palace has seen my naked body at least once.
Ava’s face whitens as she peeks outside.
Curious as to what could have drawn a reaction like that out of her, I do the same.
My whole body stiffens as I take in the sight of my yard.
Overnight, every flower, every shrub, and every blade of grass seems to have shot up at least two feet.
The overgrowth in my yard stretched as far as the eye could see. There seems to be no end to it.
A pit of hateful fire burns within my chest at the sight.
There’s only one species I know of that has this sort of control over flora.
Fae. There has to be at least one fairy somewhere in the castle.
They’re being so overt about it too. Clearly, they’re rubbing it in my face that they’re here underneath my nose.
A rumble sounds from deep within me. Smoke begins to flare out of my nostrils.
Ava blanches at my reaction, and I make a mental note to calm myself.
I’m furious, but I don’t want to scare off my future bride.
I take a few calming breaths before smiling at her.
“Sorry. I’m okay now, though. I need to go call an emergency meeting to get this whole thing sorted out. Do you want to come with me?”
Despite my reassurances, Ava is still as white as a sheet.
Was I really that frightening just now? I’m a little disappointed, I thought Ava was made of sterner stuff than this.
Fear over a small bout of rage isn’t a good quality in a future queen.
She seems to need a few moments to compose herself.
I wait for her to calm down as I await her answer.
Finally, she plasters an insincere smile across her face and shakes her head.
“It’s no trouble. I appreciate the offer, but I think I’ll stay here and try to piece together the puzzle. After all, the last round is tomorrow, right?”
I nod my head. Somehow, I don’t believe she’s being sincere, but I don’t know enough about her to call her out on it. I’m not familiar with any of her tells. Since I have no proof, there’s no choice but to accept things as they are for now.
I leave her to her puzzle with a small shake of my head. Before I leave, I pick my breeches up off the floor and put them on. Wilcox is waiting for me when I leave. He frowns at the door, clearly expecting Ava to be accompanying me.
I shake my head at him. “She’s not coming. Ava has decided to work on her puzzle today instead of attending the meeting.”
Wilcox nods. “It’s for the best, sire. Even if you’ve made up your mind, there’s still a procedure in place that must be followed. The other advisors won’t like it. It’s best to give them some time to get used to the idea.”
I give Wilcox a stiff nod of my own before I start walking towards the meeting room.
He follows me without hesitation. I consider going back to my room to put on a shirt, but ultimately, I shake it off.
Every one of my advisors has seen me this way at some point.
The situation is far too dire to bother with such useless trivialities.
I speak to Wilcox in a low voice as we continue making our way towards the meeting room.
“As long as Ava passes through the competition, they have no reason to complain. After all, it’s not like they can outright forbid me to take a commoner as my wife.
With all the commoner deaths leading up to the competition, it would cause an uprising if they dared to say such a thing. ”
Wilcox gives me a pointed look. “They’ll be a lot more subtle than outright forbidding it. I wouldn’t underestimate them just yet. They’ll be pulling out all the stops in the final round.”
We round the final corner to the meeting room and pause outside the door. “Does anyone know I helped Ava during the previous round?”
Wilcox purses his lips. “They’ve guessed, I’m sure, but they don’t know. I chased everyone off before they saw they two of you in that cave.”
I nod at him. “Good. Then I should be able to run interference in the final round if necessary.”
“Your Highness, despite the unfairness, the rules of the competition exist as they do for a reason. A queen must be able to make it through to the end on her own.”
“Ava is plenty capable,” I argue, bristling at the suggestion that Ava is weak.
Her fearful face flashes in my mind, and I shake it off.
“She was the best during the target competition and the only clue that tripped her up in the second round was the one that was rigged. If this competition was fair, I wouldn’t bother to get involved.
I’m one hundred percent certain that Ava is the most talented dragon in the bunch. ”
Wilcox seems pacified by my reasoning, so I let out a sigh of relief. Approaching footsteps signal the arrival of the other advisors. I enter the meeting room so I can be seated at the head of the table when they arrive.
One by one, the advisors file in. Most seem worried by this latest occurrence, but others merely look exhausted. Clearly, we weren’t all on the same page as to how serious of a threat this is. As soon as everyone is seated, I clear my throat.
“Thank you for coming everyone. I know that all of you wanted to wait until I was married before we had a conversation about the Fae, but in light of the current situation, I think we need to start right now.”
There is a general murmur of agreement. Only the ones who I noticed weren’t taking this seriously earlier are shaking their heads. They’re in the minority, so I choose to ignore them for now. I continue speaking.
“So, I think we should start with the obvious. Does anyone have any idea how this spy could’ve gotten in?”
Reeves, one of my advisors that wasn’t taking this seriously, raises his hand. I nod my head at him, allowing him to speak. “Isn’t it obvious, sire? They’ve snuck in alongside the audience. If we test all of them with a truth stone, I’m sure we’ll find our target amongst them.”
Wilcox shakes his head. “It wouldn’t be wise to assume that. We know very little about the abilities of the Fae, aside from their control over nature. Disguising themselves could be one of their abilities. In that case, they could have been here for a while now. They could be anyone.”
I nod my head at the man. “I agree. The Fae are not to be underestimated. But Reeves has a point as well. One of the audience members is the most likely. I say we should test everyone in the castle, but we should start with the audience.”
Percival, another one of my advisors, nods glumly. “That will take quite some time, there are over a thousand people currently staying here. But I agree there’s no better option. We need to be thorough.”
I drum my fingers against the table. There’s something I want to know, but I’m not sure I should ask. “Is it possible that whoever this is the same person that killed my father?”
There’s some uncomfortable shifting at these words. The subject of my father’s death is still rather taboo. Nobody wants to think about how the enemy was able to invade and kill the king without anybody being aware.
In the end, Wilcox shakes his head at me. “I doubt it, sire. The culprits were seen fleeing from the castle soon after the incident. If they have the power to disguise themselves, it’s always possible, but I don’t think it’s likely.”
There is another general murmur of agreement, and I’m not sure how I should feel. On one hand, I’m happy that the culprits are no longer a danger to us. Yet on the other, I would have liked the chance to slay the killer with my own two hands. I clear my throat again.
“How extensive is the damage to our yard? I couldn’t see the full picture from the window, does anyone know how far the magic has reached?”
“Quite far, Your Highness,” Cameron answers, speaking for the first time.
Though as the advisor in charge of the grounds, he’s the most likely to know.
“It reaches out across the entire property. There’s even traces of Fae magic in the trees of Darkwood Forest. I’m not sure you can classify what’s been done as ‘damage’ though.
Aside from some extra work in the garden, the problem is easily resolved.
It may even be a good thing, as all the nearby crops are nearly finished growing as well. We’ll have a double harvest this year.”
I choose to ignore the last bit of this statement. I don’t want to consider the presence of a fairy to be in any way a good thing. Plus, it’s not like the palace even needs a double harvest. The lower-class area fiefs are the ones that will need the extra food.
“Spread the extra harvest amongst the peasants, then,” I eventually decide.
A slew of angry murmurings follows my statement.
I hold up my hand to cut them off. “This latest assassination attempt proves their discontent towards me as their future leader. Though food won’t be enough to make up for the loss of a loved one, it will at least soften the blow. ”
Reston, my oldest advisor, clears his throat to speak. “The peasants are always upset over the results of the competition, Your Highness. If we give into them now, there will be no end to their demands.”
Another general murmur of agreement follows this statement.
I swallow down the pit of anger that forms within me at his words.
Maybe it’s because I’ve just lost a loved one myself, but I have a lot of empathy for the pain the common people are suffering through.
They deserve some compensation for their loss, no matter their station.
“We’re not giving in to anything, Reston,” I disagree.
“We’re not overturning the laws of the competition, we’re showing them the lives of their loved ones have merit.
I overheard one of their conversations while I was in that forest. They tried to assassinate me because they saw no other way to make the loss of their loved one meaningful.
Don’t you see? Everyone feels the sting of loss the same.
If we’re not going to honor their deaths like we do with the nobles, it will seem like we don’t care about them.
If they believe that, then it’s only a matter of time until we have an uprising on our hands. ”
Almost everyone is swayed by my heartfelt speech. I can tell by the gleam of compassion in most of their eyes. There are still a few naysayers, but that’s to be expected. Change won’t happen with a single speech.
Reston snorts. “Do you really believe a little bit of food will be enough to quell an uprising? That’s a little na?ve, Your Highness.”
I shake my head. “I don’t believe anything of the sort. But limiting the number of deaths this winter due to starvation will at least demonstrate that we’re not ignoring their plight. More steps will be necessary, but I think this will be a good first one.”
This time, it is Reeves that speaks out. “Speaking of other steps, Your Highness, do they perhaps include a certain serf girl?”
Percival seems astonished by the suggestion.
“Have you planned that far ahead, Your Highness?” He seems genuinely impressed by my foresight.
So do the other advisors, come to think of it.
There is a general murmur of praise for my intellect as they consider the reasons behind gifting Ava the Amulet of Tarragon.
They’re completely wrong, but it suits my purposes to have them believe it.
It’s far more likely that Ava will be accepted if it’s believed it will prevent a future uprising.
Wilcox interrupts the praise to fix me with a steady look.
“Regardless of your reasoning, Your Highness, I believe you should stay in your room until we find the hidden Fae in our midst. Until this kingdom has an heir, we can’t risk your safety.
You should stay away from your amulet-bearer for the time being. ”
Everyone seems to agree with Wilcox. Even I have to admit that he makes a good point.
Besides, now that I’ve ensured that no one will try to sabotage Ava during the last round of the competition, she should be able to handle the rest on her own.
The remaining girls will be an obstacle, but I’m certain she can overcome them.
I clear my throat one final time. “Very well. Now that we’ve got everything sorted, I officially call this meeting to a close. Get started with those interrogations as soon as possible. As you all know, there’s nothing I hate more than being stuck in my room.”