And, of course, on top of all of that, Adeline’s evident hostility towards Esther caused a troublesome amount of tension as well. Esther had tried to simply push aside her own emotions and had assumed that Adeline would do the same and act in a logical, rational manner, but Adeline’s constant barbs and emotionally charged insults, insinuating a nefarious motive to everything Esther said was a major impediment to getting anything done, and the lack of ability to manage those emotions on both sides contributed to the problem.
Esther felt her frustration level rising again as she recalled those moments. She stood and began pacing back and forth next to her bed, her arms folded across her chest. Adeline’s depiction of Esther as a power hungry traitor who had abandoned her nation of birth to live a life of luxury and privilege, combined with Admiral Marsena’s accusations, blaming her for the difficulties that had developed during the negotiations and questioning her loyalty by accusing her of deliberately compromising Hadiq’s position because she was born and raised in Ardmorr, had caused such anger and frustration to boil up inside her that she felt like she was going to explode. She had exploded a bit when the Admiral had accused her of disloyalty. He had probably expected to cow her into submission, but her anger had boiled over and she had stepped up to stand toe-to-toe with the significantly taller Admiral. She had spoken to him as if she were looking down at him and had told him that while she would tolerate his dissent, and even his implied insults, she would not tolerate him questioning her motives and loyalty, and if those terms weren’t good enough for him, then she would remove him from command and deal with the repercussions from his backers among the nobility later, after she had gotten a treaty between Hadiq and Ardmorr signed.
Surprisingly—and Esther still couldn’t help but smile and laugh a little at the memory—Admiral Marsena had seemed a bit shocked and had apologized to her, stating that it was honestly not his intention to insult her like that, regardless of how it had sounded. Esther had accepted his apology as graciously as she could manage given how frustrated she had felt at the time, and had even commented on how it was going to be a long war and she was going to need all of the allies she could get, and how she valued the Admiral’s input and wished to think of him as an ally. She had been even more surprised when the Admiral—after pausing for a moment—had simply said, “I would like that as well, Your Majesty.”
Esther uncrossed her arms and sat back down on the edge of the bed, smoothing her skirt with her hands. Hopefully, that event would go a long way toward resolving some of the problems, but she still needed to discuss what their respective roles would be with the Ambassador and the Admiral, before negotiations started again tomorrow morning. She resolved to have Marigold setup a meeting with them both to take place immediately after breakfast. For now though, she thought, reaching up and undoing her dress, I’m going to go and luxuriate in a nice warm bathtub and not think about admirals or alliances. Maybe I’ll even ask for a pen, ink, and some paper to write a letter to Asserius.
- - -
The large Madrausan’s boots reverberated loudly off the tile in the high ceilinged hallway. He wrung his hands nervously as he approached the guarded double door entry to the throne room in the Emperor’s summer palace. That the Emperor was still here in late November didn’t help calm the man’s nerves any. He knew the Emperor would rather be staying at his larger palace in southern Madraus where he customarily resided, but the pending war kept him here.
The man walked past the two guards flanking the tall doorway and leaned forward as he pushed them open. The Emperor and High Warlord of all Madraus stood behind a large table, looking down at a detailed map of the region with its models of military assets positioned at various locations. His current favorite concubine was rubbing oil on one of the Emperor’s large, scarred, muscular biceps. The Emperor looked up as the man entered and the man dropped to one knee, head bowed with his fist raised to his chest as a form of salute.
“Yes, what is it?” the Emperor said impatiently. He did not like to be disturbed when he was concentrating on something.
“Your Lordship,” the man said, standing, “a messenger just reported that Admiral Bahramdad’s fleet has been defeated. Survivors of the battle are even now arriving in Kashmir.”
The man noticed the Emperor’s daughter, Yvonne, perk up from where she had been sitting with her long, bare legs draped over the arm of the chair. She was very beautiful and wore shorts low on her hips and a half-shirt that revealed surprisingly light skin for her heritage, with a toned musculature softened with just enough fat to maintain her sensual curves. She obviously wasn’t wearing anything under the shirt, which proved to be extremely distracting, especially while he was reporting to his Emperor.
“What?!” shouted the Emperor, slamming a fist down onto the table. “My advisors were positive that the Hadiqan fleet would not engage!”
“According to reports,” the man said, prying his eyes away from Yvonne, “when a raiding party detached from the fleet, a trio of Hadiqan ships attacked, and the rest of the Hadiqan fleet followed.”
The Emperor gave the man a look of disbelief. “A trio of ships broke formation of their own volition and the rest of the fleet followed? That sounds highly unlikely. This sounds like someone making excuses. Where is Admiral Bahramdad?”
“Admiral Bahramdad was killed in the battle, High Warlord…” the man paused a moment. “It…it was the Queen’s ship that led the assault, High Warlord.”
A look of bitter distaste crossed the Emperor’s face. “This is the same girl that thwarted the assassination a few months ago?”
The man nodded. “Your Lordship, our spies have also reported that she is pregnant.”
Yvonne stood and her platinum blonde dyed hair—shaved on one side and long on the other—fell straight, with no curls, down just past her breasts. She exuded both danger and a sensuality as she walked towards Jahan that drew the eye of everyone in the room to her.
The man had heard rumors—in extremely unofficial circles of course, never where anyone of rank could hear—that she was here to help the Emperor ‘control’ the warlord’s. She would make an extremely lucrative prize for the one who was able to eventually claim her, both in terms of beauty and as daughter of the Emperor, for the throne would eventually belong to the man who took her to wife. That wouldn’t be an easy task, he thought. He had seen her fight, and she was both cunning and dangerous.
She walked up to her father, almost matching him in height, and looked him in the eye with a directness that no one else besides a warlord of equal rank would attempt. “It seems your little mouse is proving to be even more troublesome than you had first thought,” she said. Her smile seemed both amused and a bit contemptuous at the same time.
The Emperor spat. “This should have been easy. The King’s uncle kills him, throwing Hadiq into chaos, ripe for us to move in and destroy them. Ardmorr was a side note…a non-issue…something to add to our war machine to make cracking Hadiq easier. There wasn’t even supposed to be a fleet large enough to protect Ardmorr there! All of these efforts and preparations, ruined by…by a girl?!” the Emperor said, looking around as if he could see the ruins of his carefully laid plans, and then returning his gaze to the man, boring into him like twin flaming arrows. “I want her dead! Do you hear me? I want that bitch dead!”
“Yes, Your Lordship,” said the man. He bowed and turning away, grateful for the excuse to leave the Emperor and his beautiful, but dangerous daughter’s presence.
Chapter 13
Gregory
Esther stood at the bow of her ship and took a deep breath of fresh air as she stared out into the clear blue morning sky. It was a cold wind that blew across the deck as the last day of November began. She pulled her beautiful, thick cloak that Marigold had made for her a little tighter around her shoulders. Though cold, it was also a refreshing wind, and she felt a tremendous weight lift from her as the Retribution and her escorts left the Ardmorran Capitol behind.
; It had taken a week to finally get a treaty drafted and darn near another week before the Ardmorran Parliament had ratified it—but it had been worth it. Esther was even surprised when her relationships with Admiral Marsena and Adeline had improved after that first, awful day. She didn’t know what had happened on Adeline’s end and Esther hadn’t talked to her about it. They still weren’t what you would call ‘friends’, but the Duke of Manchester’s daughter had come back that second day much more willing to discuss terms and her insinuating insults occurred much less frequently.
For Admiral Marsena’s part, after having the discussion on loyalties that first day, and the pre-negotiation meeting the next morning to discuss the roles that each of them would play, he had been much easier to work with. The delegations had finally been able to hammer out an agreement. The Hadiqan fleet would station the battle squadrons sent to repel the Madrausan invasion fleet in Ardmorr, under Ardmorran command, and the monthly costs for maintaining those ships would be reimbursed to Hadiq. To verify the monthly costs, Ardmorr would send a clerk to review the records. Additionally, Hadiq would have the right to purchase any ships produced at Ardmorran shipyards before any other foreign interest. With the help of Ambassador Admatah and Ambassador Jacoby, they had also come to an agreement on other purely economic issues that had the possibility to greatly benefit both nations.
It was fortunate that both kingdoms had so many shared interests, otherwise Esther didn’t know if an agreement could have been reached given the communication issues they had initially experienced. Esther still believed that even though an agreement and an Alliance partner was secured, a significantly better deal for both parties could have been reached if they had used better negotiating techniques; and she was positive that Scholar Meres’ report would state that as well when it got to her—and King Asserius. However, the treaty had been ratified yesterday and signed by herself, Crown Prince Hektor, and King Cedric, and that was a major victory. Two copies would be sent back to Hadiq for King Asserius to sign and one of those copies would be returned to Ardmorr.
While she had been waiting for the treaty to be ratified, she had finally decided she was ready to face the Madrausan defectors again. It hadn’t been easy, but she believed she had come to the right decision by putting them back in command of their ships after swearing fealty to the crown.
“Requiring us to swear fealty to the Hadiqan crown is only right and fair,” the gray-haired Madrausan leader had said, “but we insist on swearing fealty to you personally as well, Your Majesty.” It had felt strange, but Esther hadn’t objected.
Afterwards, she had given them orders to report to the naval station at Khur where they would be split up and sent to join various naval detachments in less sensitive areas of Hadiq. That way they couldn’t do any harm and would be watched over by the fleets they would be joining. Just before leaving, the gray-haired Madrausan had turned to her and said, “If you ever need us, Your Majesty, we will be ready to follow you.” He hadn’t waited for a response, but simply turned and left. That was just as well, because she hadn’t known what to say to that anyway.
Esther let out a long breath and watched it turn to steam. Now that the treaty had been ratified and her duties fulfilled, she had decided to travel to Tewksbury to visit her family. She heard footsteps walking up behind her and turned to see Oluchi approaching, clothed in his own, thick winter coat. She smiled. He didn’t like the winter weather of the northern climates much.
“Good morning, Your Majesty,” he said.
“Good morning, Oluchi. How are you?” she replied.
“Very well.” Oluchi stepped up to the railing next to her and looked out into the morning sky.
There was a crash and a commotion behind them and Esther turned to look back across the deck to where Gregory—Crown Prince Hektor’s son—had dropped a crate of supplies on the deck. He was supposed to be helping Mr. Aleed, the carpenter, stow some supplies they had received in Lancaster, but the ruffle-haired young man—just two years her junior—was having a hard time adjusting to shipboard life. Fortunately for Esther, she had come across Ann-Marie Graves—a young widowed school teacher who had been petitioning the Minister of Education at the Ardmorran palace regarding school reform, but had been turned away. Esther had just left negotiations for the day and had seen the brief exchange between the school teacher and the Minister’s clerks, and had been intrigued by her enthusiasm. Esther had approached Ms. Graves and it hadn’t taken her long to realize how very intelligent the school teacher was. Esther had a lot of ideas on how to improve her ship, but no time to actually bring any of those ideas to fruition. Since Esther also realized that she might need a mentor and someone to keep an eye on Crown Prince Hektor’s son, Gregory, she had offered Ann-Marie a position on the Retribution as an educator for her midshipmen, tutor for Gregory, and an innovator to help put some of Esther’s ideas into practice. Gregory was pretty sharp and might be able to assist Ms. Graves on some of those projects, as well as keep the young prince occupied and out of Esther’s hair. Things were off to a rocky start for Gregory, however, as he adjusted to the discipline of the Navy, as well as the Hadiqan culture. If he thought life aboard the Retribution was tough, he would find other ships much more difficult where half of the officer’s weren’t Ardmorran.
Having Ms. Graves on board also helped Esther with another issue she had been worrying about. Currently, Marigold and Dani were the only other two adult females aboard—Nkiru was still too young—and neither one of them were what she’d call ‘stable’. Marigold was provocative by nature and was still suffering mentally from the trauma she’d experienced. Dani had been rescued from the human trafficking trade and while she was dealing with her own traumatic issues better than Marigold, it was going to take some time for her to heal. Esther grunted at the thought. It was just last week that she’d been able to convince Dani to quit sleeping on the floor in Joel’s cabin and bunk with Marigold and Nkiru instead. Dani had only reluctantly agreed. Esther needed a good role model for Nkiru, as well as someone besides herself to provide more stability for Marigold and Dani. Esther hoped that having Anne-Marie aboard and bunking with them might help provide some of that stability.
Esther watched as Mr. Aleed strode up to Gregory and hollered at him for his clumsiness. She smiled and shook her head.
“I t’ink the young prince wishes he were back in Lancaster,” said Oluchi.
Esther turned to him and smiled. “Yes. The Retribution is a very comfortable ship, but it is a far cry from the comfort he experienced in the palace…especially as one of the crew.” Of course, the prince wasn’t a normal member of the crew. He had the title of midshipman—the most junior of officer’s aboard ship—but it was still an officer’s rank which enjoyed many more privileges than a regular crew member. However, Esther didn’t plan on having Gregory taught the ways of a normal midshipman—instead, she had created a newly designated career path for the young midshipman Gregory to achieve as a scholar—perhaps one day all ships would have permanent scholars onboard as Officers of Innovation. It probably wasn’t what his father, Crown Prince Hektor, had in mind when he’d asked Esther to take him as a member of her crew, but it was how Esther thought he’d best progress and be of use to her. The discipline he would receive working other tasks under the direction of her officer’s would do him good as well though, so she left him in the capable hands of her officer’s to deal with for the time being. In a few weeks, she’d bring Ann-Marie and Gregory together to discuss what else she had in mind for them. Esther heard another set of footsteps behind her and turned to see Mr. Najafi approaching.
“Your Majesty, sails are set and we should arrive in Tewksbury within seven hours.”
“Thank you, Abdel. I think I’ve decided to head directly for my family’s farm instead of Tewksbury itself. Could you please have the signalman provide that information to the Achaemenes and the Piruz and make the proper course corrections?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
�
��Thank you, Abdel.” Esther turned back to look out at the countryside ahead of her ship.
After a moment, Oluchi spoke. “Somet’ing worries you.”
Esther turned to look at the young Easterner warrior who had become more than just her bodyguard, but also a trusted friend as well. “Yes,” she said, “Something does worry me. I worry if things will be the same when I get back home. Will they treat me differently? I don’t want to feel like a stranger…I don’t want to be a stranger.”
Oluchi paused, then spoke. “It won’t be the same,” he stated flatly. “Much has changed since you left your family. You have changed. But do no’ fear that change. It is inevitable. Sometimes we change together…and sometimes we must change apart from each other. But we all change and that can be good. But they are your family…they will always be your family. And they will always love you.”
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