Confused, Esther chose to remain silent. This obviously had nothing to do with an alliance between Ardmorr and Hadiq, so what was the Crown Prince getting at?
“If you would be willing,” Hektor continued, “We would like for Gregory to serve aboard your ship, in whatever capacity you see fit.”
“My ship?” Esther said, raising her eyebrows at the unexpected request.
“Yes,” he replied. “Your ship is diverse and full of young people such as yourself, but who are responsible and can show Gregory what life is all about.”
It seemed like the prince was having some troubles figuring out his youngest son and he wanted to pawn him off on her to learn a little discipline, but where the Crown Prince thought he would be safe and outside of his normal comfort zones. Unfortunately for Hektor, the Retribution had not been a safe place to be and was not likely to become safe anytime soon.
“Hektor,” she said, noting a look of discomfort on his face at her use of his given name. Propriety dictated than anyone of equal or higher rank may drop the use of a title before the name, but obviously he didn’t like it—probably because she was so much younger than him. “I’m not sure the Retribution is the best place for your son,” she continued. “As you know, we just came through a major battle where several of my crew were killed and many others wounded. This war is likely to be long and bloody and I absolutely will not, and cannot, guarantee the safety of your son, or that I won’t put him in harm’s way if the situation calls for it.”
“I understand, Your Majesty,” he said. Esther smiled inside at the Crown Prince’s requirement to use the more formal honorific to address her since she was technically higher in rank. She knew that her feelings were a bit smug, but for some reason, the Crown Prince’s attitude irritated her. “But my wife and I believe that this would be a good experience for him. Maybe it will cause him to ‘grow up’ a little more.”
“But will you and your wife really understand, Prince Hektor, when your son comes home with only one arm because it was destroyed by shrapnel from cannon fire and had to be removed, or possibly even something worse?”
The Crown Prince blanched at her gruesome description, but nodded his head. “We understand the risks of service, and you forget that Frederick will be serving as well.”
“I did not forget, Your Highness, I just chose not to lay the fact that we face an enemy that is many times more powerful than Ardmorr before you. Ardmorr’s very existence hangs in the balance.”
The Prince seemed a little affronted by her statement. “If this is some sort of ploy to help in the negotiations,” he began, “I—”
“Prince Hektor,” Esther said, trying to be patient. It seemed a bit incongruous that she was having this discussion with someone so many years her senior. Perhaps life experience counted for a bit more than she had originally thought. “This has nothing to do with the upcoming negotiations,” she continued. “I just wanted to make sure that you understood the dangers. If it is you and your wife Elsa’s wish for Gregory to join my crew, then I would be happy to help out. I just wanted you to understand the risks involved. A war the likes of which we have never known is about to begin, and I don’t know if any of us will live through it.” Perhaps she was being unfair to the Crown Prince, but she was beginning to wonder what kind of King he was going to make once King Cedric and Queen Eliza died or abdicated their thrones when they grew too old. Most likely, he was just having a difficult time with her age and didn’t normally react this way. She hoped so at least.
“I assure you that we have thought about the risks,” the Prince replied bluntly.
“Then I would be more than happy to have Gregory join my crew,” she said.
Chapter 11
The Sword
The crisp morning air felt invigorating and Esther exhaled slowly, her breath turning to steam. There would already be snow on the ground in Tewksbury, but here on the coast they didn’t get much.
She stepped forward and brought her practice sword up and around, swinging it with precise strokes. She turned and thrust it forward in a move that she had developed to meld the destructive nature of swordplay with the grace and beauty of dance. She used it to exercise every morning, or to warm up just prior to practicing with Oluchi or Geoffrey. This morning she would be sparring with Prince Frederick’s fiancé, Adeline, who was said to be an accomplished swordswoman. She and her father had come for the alliance negotiations that were scheduled to begin tomorrow.
Esther had hoped to begin with those negotiations right after the Ball four days ago, but the sudden defeat of the Madrausan invasion fleet after weeks of maneuvering had been unexpected and the chosen delegates for the negotiations needed to be recalled to the Capitol. Adeline and her father had been in Manchester seeing to the construction of another major shipyard to supplement the one just north of Lancaster. They had arrived last night. Frederick had chosen well by courting Adeline. That shipyard would make her father one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in the Kingdom. Having bonds of blood between their families could only be an asset to the Kingdom.
Esther wore the sparring dress that Marigold had constructed, but this time she supplemented it with a short cloak to dampen the chill. She might end up taking it off later, but for now, it was a little too cold to go without.
Adeline would be here soon, so Esther finished up her form by bringing her sword hand up above her head with the sword parallel with the ground, pointing forward, and leaned back, resting all of her weight on her back leg, her front foot barely touching the ground. She remained like that, focusing on breathing and balance. Finally, she stood up straight and pulled the cloak a little tighter around her neck. She looked around, enjoying the outdoors for a moment, then turned and nodded to the Hadiqan marine assigned as her guard this morning. He opened the door for her and she walked inside. Mac met her just inside the door.
“Lady Adeline has just arrived, Your Majesty,” he said, taking her cloak. “She is waiting in your solar.”
“Excellent, thank you Mac.” She dropped her practice sword into a bag full of similar ones, and pulled off her gloves. An Ardmorran attendant picked up the bag and followed after her and her escorts as she made her way down the hall towards the solar that was part of the apartment suite King Cedric and Queen Eliza had set aside for her use.
Esther pushed open the door and stepped inside. Adeline—a very pretty woman with long, strawberry blonde hair who looked to be a year or two older than Esther—was waiting inside. Adeline also wore a sparring outfit, but hers consisted of long white trousers that molded to her frame, emphasizing her slim waist, and a long-sleeved form fitting white tunic that had some sort of semi-hard protective material in front which extended from her waist at an angle up to her breasts, then angled back to the collar around her neck. White gloves completed the outfit. It was a very sleek look and made Esther’s dress seem very provincial.
Esther had always been very impressed with Marigold’s work before and she had been happy with the protective sparring dress that Marigold had made for her, but compared with the sparring outfit that Adeline was wearing, Esther’s looked decidedly dumpy. Of course, Marigold had been required to improvise and hadn’t had the material she really needed, but Esther knew that when Marigold saw what Adeline was wearing compared to her own creation, she was going to have a heart attack. Adeline didn’t say anything, but Esther had seen her glance down at her outfit when she’d first walked in, causing Esther to feel even more embarrassed. This wasn’t a good way to start a sparring match—half of any battle was in your head.
“Lady Adeline, it’s nice to meet you. Please excuse my outfit,” Esther said, glancing down at herself, “I hadn’t procured one before leaving Hadiq and my seamstress had to cobble it together from scraps while enroute to Ardmorr.”
“No apology necessary, Your Majesty,” Adeline said, bowing respectfully.
Esther was impressed. Adeline’s demeanor was self-assured and competent. She exuded confidence.
She seemed to know what she wanted and how to get it. Truthfully, she was a bit intimidating and Esther didn’t like feeling inadequate.
“I was surprised and honored by your request to practice with me this morning,” Esther said, “I don’t have any formal training and I hear that you are quite the accomplished swordswoman.”
“Yes, well, Frederick had a letter waiting for me when I arrived. He mentioned what a wonderful dancer you are and that you also enjoyed swordplay. I told myself, ‘What better way to meet the new Queen of Hadiq, than to see if she would like to practice together?’.”
Esther wasn’t sure, but thought she detected a bit of an edge in Adeline’s voice. “Well I’m glad he did. Do you need some time to warm up? I just finished performing some exercises, but I don’t mind waiting.”
“No, I also just came from exercise.”
Esther nodded, donning her gloves again, and took a practice sword from the bag. “Then shall be begin?”
Adeline nodded, picking up her own sword and stepped back towards the center of the room.
Sergeant Taavi, Esther’s marine sentry, stepped forward in front of Adeline and held out his hand to examine her sword and make sure it was just a blunted practice sword. Given the undercurrent of hostility that Esther continued to sense from Adeline, she was grateful for the sergeant’s caution and thoroughness. She didn’t really expect Adeline to try to kill her of course, but she didn’t know Adeline and it pays to be careful. People do crazy things for crazy reasons. Adeline handed the sergeant her weapon without fuss and he quickly inspected it before handing it back.
Esther put on her helmet and watched with envy as Adeline pulled her long hair up and stuffed it under her own stylish helmet. Esther’s hair was still much shorter than she would have liked—perhaps an inch and half below her shoulders, and whenever she saw someone with long, beautiful hair like Adeline’s, she grew envious, and the fact that Adeline’s helmet was so much nicer made Esther feel like she was wearing a farmer’s cap.
Mac had volunteered to referee the match and held up his hands as she and Adeline stepped forward towards each other. Esther readied her sword, her left arm crossing in front of her to hold the hilt of her sword close to her right shoulder with both hands, the blade extending vertically up next to her face. Adeline held her sword in front of her with the blade tipped slightly towards Esther.
Adeline was taller than her by a good two inches. She would need to try to close and get inside her guard. Fortunately, she’d had a lot of experience with that during her sparring sessions with Oluchi. Still, Adeline was an accomplished swordswoman with formal training and years of experience. Esther exhaled slowly, forcing those thoughts out of her mind. If she allowed herself to feel intimidated now, she had already lost. She cleared her mind and focused on the present—the sights around her, the breath in her lungs, and the wooden floor beneath her feet.
While it was true that Esther didn’t have any formal training, there weren’t really very many formal rules. A strike to the head, shoulders, arms, torso, or legs of an opponent constituted a ‘hit’ and scored a point. The only thing that was prohibited was a strike to the tender areas and to the face.
Mac dropped his arms and she saw Adeline tense for a strike. Esther relaxed her posture and prepared to shift her sword to bring the forte—the strongest part of the sword near the hilt—to intercept the strike.
Adeline lunged forward, swinging her sword down towards Esther’s shoulder. Esther brought her sword up, parrying the blow with ease, forcing Adeline’s sword to the side, trying to unbalance her opponent, then thrusting her own sword forward in attempt to land a hit, but Adeline was too experienced a swordswoman and quickly pulled back to block Esther’s riposte, never losing her balance. She did seem surprised to be put on the defensive, however. Esther guessed that Adeline had hoped to humiliate her with a quick defeat. Esther pressed in with a series of quick attacks, but Adeline blocked each one.
“Did you know that Frederick and I have known each other since childhood, Your Majesty?” said Adeline, lunging forward and thrusting her sword at Esther’s chest. Esther had to perform a quick side-step to avoid the blow.
“I didn’t,” Esther replied, pushing forward to counter attack, but her sword swung through empty air as Adeline danced to the side, swinging out of her sword’s path.
“Yes. Our parents used to set up play dates. It wasn’t official until less than a year ago, but we were, for all intents and purposes, betrothed even then.”
Esther and Adeline circled each other warily. Esther looked for any opening she could exploit. “I’m happy for you,” she said to Adeline.
As soon as the words were out of Esther’s mouth, Adeline rushed forward and initiated a series of attacks that forced Esther onto the defensive and pushed her back as she fought to deflect the flurry of blows.
Esther didn’t understand politics, or people, and she didn’t have the training or skill that Adeline had, but swordplay was something she understood—something that she was naturally talented at. She recognized that Adeline’s skill with the sword was better, and because she recognized that, she was able to compensate for it using her natural ability and the skills she did have to draw upon, such as dancing. It might be sloppy, and a master swordsman might scoff at her style, but it kept Adeline from scoring a hit on her as the two battled about the solar. Esther even felt a slight bit of satisfaction as she noticed Adeline becoming increasingly frustrated at not being able to hit her opponent, whom she knew didn’t have the training or skills that she did. Of course, Esther hadn’t been able to land a hit on Adeline either.
Finally, after sparring back and forth without pause for almost fifteen minutes straight and with both of them breathing hard from exertion, Adeline stepped back, drawing her sword up in front of her to signal a pause. Esther was grateful to see that Adeline’s chest rose and fell at the same frantic pace as her own as they both gasped for air.
“You have great ability, Your Majesty,” said Adeline after they both caught their breath for a moment. “I’m afraid that the time I had allotted for practice has come and gone and I must withdraw.” The words seemed to be bitter in her mouth and Esther knew she would have liked to have stayed and further attempted to demonstrate who the better swordswoman was. “I look forward to crossing swords with you at the negotiating table tomorrow.” Adeline stepped up next to Esther, an angry look on her face. She leaned forward and whispered into Esther’s ear. “I trust you will be more careful in the future when it comes to your interactions with my fiancé, Your Majesty.” Adeline strode swiftly from the room without waiting for her to respond.
Chapter 12
Negotiations
Esther fell back onto her bed with a huge sigh, stretching her arms out and looking up at the canopy hanging over her four-poster bed, thinking about how excruciatingly frustrating the first day of negotiations had been and how quickly it had drained her energy—much faster than an intense day of physical activity normally did. From the moment the delegations had entered the council room this morning it had been a disaster. Esther didn’t need Adurnarseh Meres, the senior analyst in socio-political studies at the Hall of Scholars back in Al Farnaka, to tell her that. She was sure that she would be receiving an in depth analysis report on the negotiations from him eventually though.
Esther sighed again, rolling over onto her side and tucking her arm under her head. She stared out the window. Life had been so much simpler back in Tewksbury and now she wondered why she had ever wanted to leave. She sighed yet again and replayed the day’s events in her mind. Regardless of how much she missed the simple life, she had a responsibility now to negotiate this alliance and she needed to figure out how to fix the myriad of mistakes that had been made.
The Hadiqan delegation consisting of herself, Ambassador Admatah, Admiral Marsena, and their numerous aides had arrived in the conference room first and had stood to one side of the table, waiting in silence. The Ardmorran delegation was led by C
rown Prince Hektor, and included the Duke of Manchester, his daughter Adeline, and Ambassador Jacoby, with their associated clerks and support personnel, and had arrived shortly thereafter, talking amicably amongst themselves. Adeline had glanced in Esther’s direction and favored her with a glare before turning back to the other Ardmorrans.
Ambassador Admatah had leaned over to her and commented on how confident the Ardmorrans appeared, stating that he had wished that she had come to Lancaster while the Madrausan fleet was still an immediate threatening presence. “We could have made almost any terms we wanted,” he had said, “Now that the Madrausan fleet has been defeated, our position is significantly weaker and they will grant us fewer concessions.”
Esther had looked over at the Ardmorran delegation where Adeline stood with her father and the others and doubted that they would allow themselves to be intimidated, even with the invasion fleet breathing down their necks. They appeared very professional and confident…and so they should. They had all been educated in statecraft since they were young. Among her own delegation, Ambassador Admatah was the only one with any negotiating experience and training, and his entire career had been spent brokering minor trade deals. Again, Esther couldn’t help but shake her head at the insane logic of assigning someone to negotiate a major alliance treaty just because of birth or status in society, but it was the Hadiqan way.
Her delegations lack of experience had cost them, however. In hindsight, she realized now that they should have done much more in the way of preparing for the negotiations, but given the situation and the threat that Madraus posed to Hadiq and Ardmorr, she hadn’t thought it would be that difficult. The Duke of Manchester and his daughter had taken advantage of the Hadiqan’s inexperience and lack of preparation. If they had prepared, Esther would have made sure that they all understood what their roles in the negotiations were. She sat up and huffed a sigh as she thought back on how Admiral Marsena had interrupted the discussion several times to flatly state that a certain issue was unacceptable without ever discussing it with her or Ambassador Admatah, and even before that, the Admiral had laid out his demands in a manner which clearly indicated that the Ardmorrans had little choice but to accept his terms. One useful tidbit that Admiral Marsena’s demanding tone had produced was that it revealed what alternatives the Ardmorrans were exploring when they threatened to walk away from the negotiating table and try to hasten the military build-up of the Northern Kingdoms, relying on their technological edge and superior trained naval crews to defend the most critical areas of Ardmorr until help could arrive from the North, leaving Hadiq without an alliance partner, economic support, and access to critical military supplies and materials.
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