The Ashen Queen

by Sidney Gray

  There were a lot of noble families in Arandale, but the largest and oldest were the Hallewell, Emsworth and Sutton families. The Sutton’s were in charge of the mines while the Emsworths’ controlled the sea, they had one of the largest fleets in Latheria, and the Hallewells’ were the blacksmiths. Well they owned blacksmiths, their ancestors had been blacksmiths, now they just hired people to do the work for them, but they made all the weapons used by the guards and soldiers of Arandale. They also created specialized weapons suited to different abilities.

  The Daltons were considered the oldest noble family and had ruled as far back as anyone could remember. She had read stories of uprisings from other noble families but thanks to the support of the priestesses, that hadn’t happened in a long time. Nobody would dare defy the gods.

  There were also a few smaller noble families, like the Hanleys’ and Bartons’ who both owned a lot of farming land, while they weren’t large families they were old, and that meant a lot in Arandale. Then there were those like the Richmond family who were rarely at court and hated the politics. Others nobles considered them improper and looked down on them while they in return did their best to act as uneducated and un-noble as possible or so her mother told her. She was actually quite excited to meet people who disliked court as much as she did.

  Sofia’s family were not noble, they were strictly middle class, but because of the day, she was born her family had immediately risen to noble status. Her father had been born in the city and had become a King’s guard when he was a child. Her mother was from a village in the far north of Arandale but she refused to talk about her childhood, she didn't even know how her mother and father had even met.

  Some noble family members chose to spend most of their time in the city, especially if the had daughters, but the majority of the noble families of Arandale were not often in the same room together, only at the tournament every six years. There was a lot of history between the families, so there was a high chance arguments would break out. They spend a fair amount of time discussing the various feuds between the noble families, and there were a lot of them. Some she knew about, but others spanned decades and had been forgotten by most, except the families involved. They often involved land, or love or lack thereof.

  After a couple of hours, her head was swimming, and she was itching to get up and move. She was looking forward to her training session and hurried out the door as soon as the Queen dismissed her. Before she could escape though, Queen Marianna brought up the subject of her own guard, when Sofia was Queen she would be expected to have her own personal guard, just as the King and Prince had and just like Alex's mother had had before she died. Queen Marianna was the replacement, as some called her, so she just had members of the Royal Guard rotate around as her personal guard. She had heard rumors that the High Priestess had advised the King that the Gods would frown upon him allowing Queen Marianna her own guard, it was bad enough he remarried, according to the High Priestess.

  Queen Marianna had given her a list of potential guards a couple of months ago, and she had been avoiding looking at it.

  “You need to choose them as soon as possible Sofia so they can start their training.” Queen Marianna reminded her.

  She nodded, “of course, I'm just reviewing the list you gave me.”

  “You will need to decide by the end of the tournament, Sofia.” The Queen said dismissing her.

  She winced inwardly, that would only give her another week, and she still had no idea who she was going to choose. She didn't mention to the Queen that her mother had already picked out the girls she wanted Sofia to choose as her guard. Of course, she had chosen the worst girls possible from the list. Not that any of the others were much better. The problem was she barely knew any of the girls on the list, and she was annoyed at herself for putting it off for so long. Once she chose them, they would be her constant companions, and they would be with her for the rest of her life. This wasn't a decision she could make on a whim. She would have to pay extra attention to the girls on the list during the tournament. A lot of them would be competing, and it would be a good time to observe them. As Mal always said, the way a person conducted themselves during battle said a lot about them. How they placed in the tournament would also mean a great deal, if they were knocked out in the first round they were hardly fit to be a guard. Hopefully, she would have a chance to meet them during the tournament as well.

  It just felt like it was all happening so fast though. It was only a couple of months until Sofia’s eighteenth birthday, and she would be married to Alex soon after and she would probably be expected to have children soon after that and on Alex’s twenty-fifth birthday when they would be officially crowned. She felt overwhelmed at the thought.

  CHAPTER 3

  Sofia walked quickly from the Queen's sitting room, down the many halls until she reached the entrance to the Royal wing. The two guards opened the door, and she hurried through, once out of sight of the guards she looked around quickly before making herself invisible. There was something she had to do before training, and she didn't want anyone to know. She also had to hurry, or she would be late, and it was unacceptable for a lady to run in the palace, as her mother had told her on numerous occasions when she caught her.

  Luckily, while growing up in the palace, she had had plenty of time to learn all the shortcuts and secret passageways, so she was able to make it to the kitchens in no time at all. The kitchens were packed with people, more than usual, because of the tournament. The cooks had been trying out recipes for weeks, trying to find the perfect dishes to serve. She had been allowed to try some herself with the Queen. She carefully dodged around everyone taking small rolls and pastries here and there as she went so no one would notice them missing, being careful to avoid the pots and pans the telepaths had flying around. Once she had enough, she went out the back door where there was a large garden full of herbs. She pulled off leaves from various plants, again being careful to only take a few so no one would notice.

  Most of the palace was surrounded by beautiful lush gardens, but one side held the stables and training grounds which was where she was headed. She stood for a moment soaking in the sun, a light breeze ruffled her hair. It was nice after being indoors all morning. She loved this type of weather; it brought back memories of trips to her grandfather's estate in the summer. The fields of grass and flowers stretching out as far as the eye could see, animals roaming around. Sofia and her sisters used to go swimming in the lake with some of the other children, she wondered if she would ever be able to do that again.

  Reluctantly she hurried on and all too soon she arrived at the entrance to the training grounds. Two guards waved her through, the large rectangular building in front of her looked out of place next to the gleaming palace but it wasn't built for beauty, it was built to house and train the royal guard when they weren't on duty.

  She carefully hid the bag of food under a few bushes outside then she ducked into the changing room to change into her training clothes before she sat down to start her stretches, she could hear Alex and his guards getting ready in the room next to hers. She had started training with them when she was ten, not long after most of the other noble girls stopped their training. Once she had chosen her own guard, they would also train with them.

  The training grounds were in the middle of the rectangular building, open to the air with sleeping quarters at the back, equipment and high ranking officers’ rooms at the front. The others were all waiting for her in the center of the training grounds, standing in a line facing their trainer General Malaby, or Mal as everyone called him. She quickly joined them.

  Mal had served the King’s father as Captain of the Royal Guard for many years. After King Edward had been crowned Mal had been made general of the Arandale Army. Most high ranking generals preferred to let the captains do most of the training but not Mal who spent time working with all the new trainees. When Alex had first started training, Mal had insisted on overseeing it, and he had done the same
when Sofia started training. Mal and her father had butted heads a lot about Sofia's training, but luckily for her, Mal had won out in the end, and her father had stayed out of it. As far as she knew he didn't have any family and spent all of his time at the training grounds, she had often wondered what had happened to them but hadn't ever dared to ask.

  “All right get on with it” Mal barked in his usual no-nonsense way.

  They paired off immediately to fight one-on-one. Since there was an odd number of people, one person would have to fight against two people then they would switch until everyone had fought each other. Mal watched everyone like a hawk to pick out any weaknesses and mistakes, especially Alex, as future king Mal expected a lot from him.

  The Royal families of each country of Latheria were said to have the most power out of everyone, their magic connected to the very earth itself. Some, like the Bordonian’s, considered themselves to have more powerful bloodlines than others, which was part of the reason for the great war. But there was no proof that they were more powerful. Magic was like anything else, it took practice and discipline to master. Mal said the reason that the royals and noble families were often more powerful was that they had money to pay for training, the more money the family had, the better teachers they can afford to train their children, and they usually started training them as early as they could. But there were still incredibly strong people that did not come from wealthy families, some even had multiple abilities or had rare abilities, like Sofia, so there was no evidence to suggest it had anything to do with bloodlines.

  Alex had the ability to manipulate and create light, he could create balls and beams of light to blast at opponents, and he could also create a shield of light to protect himself and others from attack. He had trained hard his whole life and was incredibly powerful because of it.

  Cole had both Fire and Earth magic. He could create fire out of nothing and make the earth shake, he was stronger with fire magic, but Mal had been making him train purely with his earth magic lately, and he had improved significantly.

  Jack could sense, block (at times) and also control others abilities. Although he could only do that by touching someone first so had had to practice his sword and hand to hand combat skills a lot to be able to get close to his opponents.

  Hayden, with his enhanced senses, didn't miss much. He could hear through walls and see for miles, Mal had also trained him to pick up slight changes in breathing and pulse to determine when an opponent was going to attack, which made him an incredibly formidable opponent and a perfect spy. It was rumored that one of the King’s Guards was secretly a spy and that was how the King seemed to know everything that happened all over Arandale. Sofia had long suspected that Jack and Hayden were being trained to be spies as well.

  Blake and Lex, on the other hand, both had physical abilities, Blake could manipulate his body, stretch and enlarge certain areas, which he loved to brag to women about, he could make himself taller, make his fist the size of a dinner plate or reach out and grab something three arms lengths away. It made him an excellent guard as he could easily protect Alex without having to be right next to him.

  Lex, on the other hand, had enhanced agility along with speed, which Blake often said was the reason he talked so much. He was also the best swordsman out of all of them.

  They had all been training practically since they could walk; fighting was like breathing to them. Because magic was like physical strength, it would weaken with prolonged use, and they had to train to become stronger and more controlled. When Sofia was younger, it had taken a lot of energy for her to make herself invisible and she could only hold it for a few minutes before she would collapse with exhaustion but after years of training, she was able to hold it for hours. She was also able to make objects and other people she touched invisible as well.

  Along with magical training Mal also still insisted on weapons training and hand to hand combat. Mal was one of few people in Arandale that believed that learning how to use a weapon was still important. He said they never knew what was going to happen in battle or when their powers may fail them, so you needed to be prepared for anything. Soldiers in Arandale were all trained with weapons, but higher ranking officers were often chosen for their magical abilities and had only basic training. Mal thought this was ridiculous and had spent a lot of time arguing with the other council members over it, but he was always outvoted in the end. However he had ignored their decision when it came to training Alex and the others, he said it was too important.

  She studied Cole while they warmed up, wondering what the girls of the court saw in him, sure, he was good-looking, but he was just so damn cocky. She couldn't help but tease him about the upcoming tournament.

  “So only a couple of days left,” she said, “Nervous yet?”

  “No!” he replied narrowing his eyes at her.

  “Hmm, if you say so, you know if I were allowed to compete I would easily beat your ass.” She made herself invisible and darted to the left.

  He smirked, seemingly unconcerned, “don’t let anyone hear you say that, that's no way for a lady to speak.”

  She snuck up behind him and kicked his feet out from under him.

  “See,” she said making herself visible so she could glare down at him.

  He glared back up at her and then the ground suddenly shook under her feet and she struggled to keep her balance, hastily turning invisible again while he jumped to his feet.

  “Sofia, stop showing off and concentrate,” Mal yelled.

  Cole closed his eyes for a second and Sofia knew he was using his earth ability to work out where she was so she had to move quickly. They were both fairly evenly matched though neither would admit it so by the time Mal yelled to switch they had each taken the other down a couple of times.

  Lex came over to take Cole’s place while Cole moved on to fight Jack. Mal was training the Cole and Jack extra hard in preparation for the tournament. They were the only two Guards who were competing, so there was a lot of expectation put on them. She wasn't sure why the others weren’t competing, but she assumed they had their reasons.

  The whole city had been buzzing with excitement the past couple of months, but Sofia didn't share in that excitement. She had been too young to attend the last tournament, and she had hated not being allowed to go at the time. She had thought it would be so exciting and had been furious at her parents for months afterward but after years of watching the guards train and training herself, she found she much preferred fighting to watching others fight, she was still annoyed she hadn't been allowed to enter the tournament. Her mother had actually started laughing when she had brought up the subject.

  After they had each fought one another they went and picked up their weapons. They each had specifically designed weapons, Sofia had a set of throwing knives, because of her ability and small size, Mal decided it was the best weapon for her. They spent some time practicing with their weapons before they moved onto magical training.

  Mal had recently been her trying to get her to make objects invisible without touching them. So she stood a couple feet from a practice mannequin squinting her eyes and trying to make it invisible. She gave up after a couple minutes glancing around, Mal was distracted working with Cole, so she took a moment to watch the others. Alex was practicing his aim, shooting beams of light at discs Blake was waving around above his head. Lex was running around Jack while he tried to slow him down, Jack managed to knock him off balance so he crashed right into Blake and they all started laughing. She smiled despite herself. She envied them their friendship. With a sigh, she went back to her own training.

  They practiced until they were all completely worn out. Sofia almost protested at one point that just because Cole and Jack were competing didn't mean they all had to suffer but knew it would do no good. Mal could be a tyrant sometimes. The training ended late, but Sofia was still too distracted to make any progress. She could tell Mal was disappointed and he held her back after.

  “What'
s wrong with you, you're distracted,” he said, to he surprise he didn't sound angry just concerned. “You have been a lot lately.”

  “I know. I'm sorry.”

  “In a battle, distraction will get you killed.” He reminded her.

  She sighed, “I know but when am I going to need to know this anyway.” she said, suddenly angry, “it’s not as if anyone will let me fight, ever, not even in the tournament! I don’t understand why I can’t enter, I'm just as good as any of the others,” she finished and almost stamped her foot in frustration but held back, she was already embarrassed about her outburst the last thing she needed to do was stamp her foot like a child.

  “Well, unfortunately, that's not up to me,” Mal said as he crossed his arms with a sigh, making her wonder if he had fought for her to compete, “but it’s important you are prepared, you never know what will happen,” he continued.

  “I understand that but it's still so frustrating, I'm learning all of this, and I'll probably never get to use any of it, even though I want to. I just don't want to spend the rest of my life dealing with nobles and having children.”

  She slumped down onto the bench behind her and Mal sat down next to her.

  “Sofia, you have a very important role in Arandale, you can do great things when you are queen, just because Queen Marianna acts a certain way and does certain things doesn't mean you have to when you are queen, become the queen you want to be.”

  “That's easier said than done,” she remarked.

  He shrugged, “yes but I believe in you.”

  He stood up and walked away leaving her there to think about what he had said. After a minute she walked back to the changing room still thinking, she didn't know how she was supposed to be the queen she wanted to be when she didn't want to be queen in the first place. And it was a lot easier for Mal to say that, as a man, he didn't understand what it was like being a woman and the expectations and limitations put on her. Besides she couldn't think about that now, she needed to focus on choosing her guards.