‘If the wealthy can buy your favor where is justice for the poor? The poor will always be with us, but there are ways to ease their plight. The ministers want to use the poor to make their own situations better by exploiting them.’
‘But they do not understand that the people are the lifeblood of the kingdom. Wherever you can you must make their plight lighter. Ease their burdens. That’s what makes a great ruler.’
She would’ve made a perfect empress. So why did I have to lose her before she ever had a chance? I knew what I had to do, had known it all along. But how can I bring myself to say the words? I can’t.
In the end I didn’t have to. The Empress dowager somehow got my poor bereaved mother to join her cause and it was the last straw. I couldn’t stand in the face of my mother’s grief. So as abhorrent as the thought was, I had no choice. For now!
“Your majesty.”
“What is it eunuch Van?”
“The…Princess Rowena has entered the palace.” I didn’t answer. What was it to do with me? I hadn’t given my consent one-way or the other, could never bring myself to say the words.
“There’s something else. She’s requested to stay in the Orchid Palace until the nuptials.” I tore out of my chair and ran from the throne room where I’d been sitting in contemplation. I hadn’t been kidding when I told my brother I’d rather abdicate the throne.
I got there just in time to see her alighting from the palanquin. “Stop!” She turned that same sticky sweet smile my way and my gorge rose.
“No one gave you permission to stay here.”
“But I thought…”
“You thought wrong. Anyone enters this palace will lose their head in the same hour. All of you, get away from here and never return to this place again.”
I saw genuine fear enter her eyes and got a small spiteful joy from it. Petty I know, but I hated her in that moment. How dare she, how dare any of them?
I watched her maids hustle her back into the palanquin before they all hurried away.
“Your Majesty you must calm down. She’s to be your…” I turned angry eyes his way.
“I only have one wife.” I headed back to my palace angrier than I’ve been since my Princess’ death. With anger came purpose and clear thinking. No matter what, I will never give them what they want.
“Dunal Morgana is still my father in law right?”
“Strictly speaking, yes Your Majesty.” The smile that formed on my face was the first genuine one I’d worn in a very long time.
“Call my brother to the palace.” A plan was forming in my head. I’ll let them think they were getting what they wanted, that was the only way to put them at ease. But there was no way I was going to let the people I suspect of causing her death win.
Prince Javan showed up at the palace the next morning and I shared my thoughts with him. “What are you grinning at brother?”
“Welcome back, you had me worried there for a while.”
“So you agree?”
“It’s an excellent plan.”
“Good, I will call Dunal to the palace tomorrow and share my plans with him. I’ll leave you here in the capital in case he needs you.”
“You know the ministers would never agree…”
“I refuse to be a tiger without teeth. I’m the Emperor, they’re my subjects. It’s time they understood what that means.”
That night I put the last touches of my plan together and the more I thought of it, the better it sounded. It was perfect. Why hadn’t I thought of it before? No matter, I was thinking now.
I dismissed everyone except eunuch Van and a few handpicked court ladies from my palace without explanation. I had no doubt that my actions would set off a barrage of questions and whispering wonder. That’s exactly what I wanted.
When my father in law arrived at the palace later the next morning, I took him into the Emperor’s chambers and laid everything out for him. In my grief these last years I’d overlooked his own loss. Something I mean to rectify as well.
We’d both lost something special that day, something the world will never see again. I believe that between us two we were the only ones who knew just how beautiful a creature she truly was.
With her mother whom she loved she’d had to be a certain way, but with her father and I, we got to see the real Mia, my Mia. The one I still loved as though she was a living, breathing thing.
“Are you sure you want to do this Majesty?” I grinned at him, feeling lighter than I have in forever. “Absolutely!” I haven’t felt this sure about anything since I saw my wife for the first time and knew she was mine.
“Then if you’re sure I will get everything ready.”
“Remember, you must be careful. These people are vicious without any heart. You must always be aware of their every move.”
He nodded his head but I could see on his face that though he had not expected my actions, he was pleased. “I know very well what they’re like. Have no fear Majesty, I shall take the utmost care.”
By mid afternoon I had everything in place and my enemy did not have a clue. Their usual spies were left out in the cold since I’d purged my palace of everyone but a special few, thereby keeping my movements hidden.
“Have the people gathered?” Eunuch Van nodded as he added the finishing touches to my royal robes. He placed the crown upon my head last and passed me the scepter.
As I left my palace for the royal court with my still substantial retinue following behind, I saw Princess Rowena headed to the imperial garden. “Did you have the Orchid Palace boarded up like I asked?”
“Yes Your Majesty.”
“Good!” Though I’d ordered it to be guarded night and day by men I knew would follow my orders regardless of anyone else’s wishes, I’d gone that extra step to make a point, to send a message if you will.
She saw or heard me passing and stopped to stare. I kept my eyes straight ahead not even willing to acknowledge her presence. What I am about to do will pull the rug out from under her, her grandmother and her father. At least for a little while.
As I reached the courtyard outside the royal court where my ministers were gathered for their daily dose of annoyance, I saw that the commoner’s gate had been opened as I’d ordered and my people were lining up for an audience with their Emperor.
I walked to the dais and a silent hush fell over the crowd as all eyes looked up at me. “As you all know, I have been asked to seek an empress for the throne. I have heard your cries and pleas and your Emperor is not immune to your wishes. I will give you what you want to settle the unrest among you.” I listened to their cheers and cries of approval.
“But first.” I looked out over the ministers now, some of whom wore the biggest smiles as they saw their dark machinations coming to pass. Now for the blow.
“First, as you as well may know, the royal family has suffered many great losses in a short period of time. I have heard and understood your fears and I too wish for this dark cloud to be lifted from the kingdom.”
“With that in mind, I will leave the palace and the capital city for an extended trip. I will visit all the provinces of my kingdom and meet with my people. I will listen to their woes and their needs and set things to right so that not only I can live in prosperity, but my whole kingdom.”
The cheers from the crowd overshadowed the murmurings of the ministers. I got a special kind of joy from the befuddled looks on their faces. Damn them!
“In my absence, my father in law Duke Morgana, will rule in my stead as the internal prince.” That one sent the ministers into a tailspin, but the commoners, those of them who knew my father in law, were once again cheering and passing on his attributes to their neighbors who may not have heard of him.
“The Grand Empress dowager who is still in mourning for my father the Emperor will recuse herself from all official affairs in the inner palace until such time as I return.”
By the time I left the dais, my people were smiling with joy, while the minister
s, those black hearted reptiles were stone faced with anger. I had one more thing left to do before taking my leave and I got as much pleasure from that as I did the other.
In the throne room where I had the ministers gathered, both good and bad. I passed the seal to my father in law, giving him de facto rule over the kingdom in my absence.
Their murmurings fell on deaf ears before I handed down a warning. “This is my edict, anyone who defies the Emperor will not only lose his freedom, but his whole clan will suffer the consequences of his actions.”
I looked over them now, barely leashing the anger I felt at their manipulations over the years. And to my father in law I said within their hearing. “You have complete rule. If anyone defies or goes against my edict, they must be punished to the full extent of the law.”
I left the throne room after looking over them one by one. Some tried to disappear into the wall behind them, some looked to the floor refusing to meet my eyes, and yet others smiled. Pleased to see their Emperor come back to life.
Emperor Jai
I saw my mother in her chambers where she hardly ventured out these days and had a few softly spoken words with her.
I did not share my real reasons for the trip with her, but still she was pleased to see her son showing an interest in his kingdom, and wholly approved of the steps I was taking.
I knew her heart was broken, never to be mended. Who can understand better than I? After all, when the other half of your heart goes missing, how can you expect to find joy in anything around you?
That is something we share that I wish we didn’t, but alas there’s nothing you can do to defy heaven. I left her in the care of her court ladies and headed with my retinue for the Emperor’s gate.
My brother awaited me beyond. “Brother!”
“Your Majesty. I’ve come to accompany you as far as the city gates.” Though he was happy with my plans to visit the provinces, he was not happy with being left behind.
But I needed him here as my eyes and ears outside the palace. He and Duke Morgana will be working in tangent with each other while I was away, though no one knows it.
As I rode out I tried not to think of my Princess and my wish that she was here with me. That we were taking this trip together for different reasons. I felt the sun on my face and looked towards the sky, hoping she was up there somewhere, looking down on me.
NARRATOR
“He did what?” The Empress dowager slumped down on her chair as the bite of fruit she’d just taken got lodged in her throat. Her eyes widened and her heart raced in fright as her ladies rushed forward to help.
Once she was out of danger of choking to death she pushed them all away from her in anger. “How did this happen? How did you let this happen?” She raged at her son Prince Loren who was both upset and afraid.
Things were not turning out the way they’d planned. His nephew had shown more teeth than he’d expected. While they’d thought him a cornered hare after years and months of defeat, he’d shown himself a tiger.
“What did the ministers say, why didn’t they stop him?”
“They couldn’t, no one knew what he was up to until he made the decree. Now that Duke Morgana is in his place.”
Sweat gathered around Prince Loren’s neck as he remembered his part in the framing of Dunal Morgana all those many years ago.
“How can he relieve me of my duties without a word to me?”
“Do you think he knows?”
“Of course not, how can he? We’ve been careful.”
Her mind raced for an answer but there was none forthcoming. All knew that the women of the palace were not allowed to outwardly meddle in the affairs of the court.
But by making that statement about the back palace he’d affectively clipped her wings. What could she do? Dunal Morgana was a formidable foe.
One she’d faced before and lost. She felt weak at the thought that once again all her hard work had come to naught, but she wasn’t about to give up that easily. But what could she do?
She couldn’t instate her granddaughter as empress when the emperor had refused to even look at the girl, and all her plots to get the two together had failed.
“Where is Princess Rowena?”
“She’s in the chambers you appointed her after he refused her entry into the Orchid Palace.” The reminder left a bitter taste in the Empress dowager’s mouth.
It was a slap in the face that he’d allowed the Morgana girl to reside there before their nuptials, but her granddaughter, of the same royal blood as he, had been denied the privilege.
For three long years the emperor travelled the land mingling with his people. Wherever he saw a need it was taken care of and his fame grew far and wide as his benevolence was proclaimed to all and sundry.
Emperor Jai’s plan was twofold. By leaving the palace he had escaped the clutches of a forced marriage, but he also used his travels to gather more information on his enemies.
Information he planned to use upon his return to the palace. While among his people, he listened to their grievances and showed them his true heart, by staying in that place until their needs were met.
He had his emissaries secretly go into the city of each province, gathering what he needed about the officials of each state, all the while under the guise of inspecting the land.
Meanwhile back in the capital, Dunal Morgana held a strict rule over the running of the kingdom according to his son in law the Emperor’s dictates. He’d already thwarted every move the ministers tried to make.
There was no getting around him as he had his sons and Prince Javan at his back. They were his eyes and ears in the kingdom, keeping track of the goings-on of the officials who had no idea that they were under scrutiny.
The Empress dowager had been, by the Emperor’s decree relegated to her own palace where her network of spies kept her abreast of the happenings in the court, but there too she had been infiltrated.
The Emperor had left nothing to chance and for the first time since her husband’s death, his mother the Empress enjoyed freedom to rule the back palace without much interference from the dowager.
The old woman was not pleased with this turn of events, and neither was her granddaughter who should’ve been married off by now, but was instead longing after the Emperor who obviously had no uses for her.
She’d heard the whispers around the palace. Some laughed behind their hands that the young Emperor had left the palace these many years, solely to get away from her.
She was a woman adrift, no husband, no title but the one she’d been born with and not the one she’d coveted for so long. Each day her hate and anger grew.
Not for the Emperor, but for the girl long dead. How could she still own his heart when she’d been gone for so long? Why couldn’t he see her, the living?
That day he’d forbidden her to even enter the Orchid Palace had been one of the lowest of her life. He’d done it so callously before the servants, who she knew would spread gossip about her shame.
And each day since, whenever she’d tried to gain an audience with him her every effort had been rebuffed. He couldn’t have made his dislike for her more plain.
Now here she was, molting away in the rooms of her grandmother’s palace, not even given the same privilege of a concubine. It was a shame she was hard pressed to endure.
But her grandmother had warned that should she leave the palace now, it would not be so easy to get her back next time.
As the Emperor’s woman she was not allowed to leave. But was she in fact his? He had made no mention of her in his speech about marriage that day before he left. Three years ago.
Three long years of nothing. She’d not expected to hear from him personally of course, but she’d at least expected to learn something.
Instead the only news came from Duke Morgana who seemed to receive monthly updates from the Emperor. And they were all about his progress as he visited the lands and the people. Things she cared nothing about.
He
r hands were tied and she felt she would go crazy if something did not change soon. Her only solace was that the Emperor would be returning soon and then he would have no excuse not to marry her. At least she had that to look forward to finally.
In those three years, Bryony, the name given to Crown Princess Mia by the old seer had grown into even more of a beauty than at the first.
Her time away from the world had seen her blossom without the cares and worries that plagued those in the palace.
Her brother, as she had come to know Des was constantly at her side teaching her all he knew about the art of battle, the same as he’d always done in her other life.
In all these years she had yet to regain her memory, but the seer knew that the day was fast approaching. Though she had no reasons why the child’s memories had evaded her this long, she knew that the prophecy would be fulfilled.
That night after Bryony had gone to bed, the seer took Des aside and told him what she’d seen in the night. She’d kept her ears to the ground ever since word had reached her that the young Emperor had left the palace to travel the land.
Now three years later, he was finally close and she knew what she must do. She knew that the Emperor would be in the forest at a certain time in the coming days and so she must get ready.
“Tomorrow you and I will go into town.”
“Mi… Bryony.”
“She will remain here. It is time.” She looked at him now under the moonlight.
The boy, well man now, had been her trusted ally these past five years. She’d seen his mettle and knew that he was more than up to the task that laid ahead.
“I don’t understand, we’ve never left her here alone before, and I haven’t stepped foot outside of this forest in years.” She knew he was afraid to leave his beloved sister alone for even a second, but this must be done.
“She must return to the palace soon. We cannot avoid this, it is her destiny.”
“But the danger…”
“It matters not, she must face whatever comes. Have no fear, you will be there to protect her.”
Flower In The Palace Page 16
