by Lyza Ledo
~~~
“Your majesty,” Philip said loudly as he banged on my bedroom door.
“It’s six am, Philip this better be important.” I said sitting up pretending to rub sleep from my eyes, but knowing I was fully awake thinking of my night with Jayde.
“It is King Sy, he has doubled his soldier numbers at the boundaries we believe he is preparing to attack.”
“Doubled? Have you notified all of my men?”
“Yes, a meeting will begin in ten minutes. Should I awaken Lady Jayde?”
I flung open my closet as I talked to Philip. “I’ll wake her up. Please get the coffee started I feel like today’s going to be a long day.” I found linen pants and an already pressed shirt. I grabbed my tie and headed down the hall to Jayde’s quarters still buttoning my shirt and securing my tie.
“Lady Jayde, it’s urgent.” I said opening her living quarter’s door and knocking on her bedroom door. I opened it and found her, sitting up, frightened.
“What happened?” she questioned standing and finding her robe and heading to her closet when she saw my dire expression.
“Sy has doubled his men at the boundaries, we believe he is preparing to attack and break the treaty.”
“Are we positive?” She asked as she slid a navy dress over her head.
“He hasn’t attacked yet so no we aren’t positive, but we need to start coordinating our defense.”
“Right,” she said as she pulled her hair off her neck and wrapped it in a bun. “Let’s go,” she said sliding into a pair of matching flats and following me outside her quarters where Philip was waiting.
“So we’ve called the defensive team, most have already arrived, we are still waiting for some stragglers. Coffee and a last minute breakfast are being served in the meeting room. Lovely to see you, Lady Jayde.” Philip said always cordial.
“Let’s get everyone in the meeting hall and just have the latecomers come as they arrive.” I said walking in and grabbing a cup of coffee for myself with a danish. Jayde was beside me her eyes were wide with worry. “Calm down.” I said with a slight nudge. She smiled, but it didn’t quite reach her radiant eyes.
“This is all so nerve wrecking. I don’t know how you handle it.”
“I have a new relaxation system that does wonders for my stress levels.” I said with a wink. I don’t know what possessed me to say it, but the whisper of a smile and the slight blush that came to her face made me feel better.
“Thanks, Kohl.” She said and took a seat beside me at the head of the long table. Men were arguing and shouting about how foolish it was to lower our numbers.
“Quiet.” I said exasperated at the lack of attention being paid to what was really important. Silence swept the room. Everyone was looking at me. “From all of the correspondents we have heard from, it seems that Sy has not attacked yet. We will increase our numbers at all boundaries until otherwise notified. Does anyone have any other information for me… us today?” I said remembering Jayde was with me.
“Questions, your majesties, if he has increased his numbers, shouldn’t we consider this an end to the treaty and be preparing to attack?” Gustav, an older more surly gentleman that seemed to always be out for blood and gore.
“No, this does not mean an end to the treaty until Sy attacks.”
“Why are we always waiting for Sy to attack why can’t we just attack and defeat him?” Ronaldo countered angrily. It was too early in to morning to be dealing with gung ho war morale.
“Kohl is right why dissolve a perfectly good treaty when nothing has occurred? Why increase the violence when you are striving for peace? It sounds like opposites to me, gentleman, and you must choose sides. War and death or peace and unity.” Jayde said speaking up for the first time.
“Jayde is right, we are presently at peace and I will not be jeopardizing that until Sy breaks the treaty. Meeting adjourned.” I said standing and walking to the window as my military officials left to be replaced by my operations team. We had to get to the bottom of what Sy was planning and have a good defense prepared and practiced for each man on the front line. I hated days like these but looking over at Jayde’s wide eyes as a new set of men assembled at the table made me feel like I could handle this.
“So has everyone been informed of what’s been going on?” I asked breaking up the side conversations and getting to the point once again.
