by M. D. Laird
“That could have gone better.” Eleanor sighed.
“They’re thinking about it,” said Mr Hallward. “That’s positive.”
“Could you take on my father’s armies without the rebels?”
“It would not be a good idea,” said Son Myron. “Not just because the king has adamantine weapons but because we need the support of the people. It would be hard enough with the support of the rebels—many Axandrians are happy with the king’s rule.”
“Only because he has his people spin the news to make him look good.”
“But they don’t know that.”
Eleanor sat in silence for much of the journey. She thought about trying to meet with the rebels again, about trying to explain things differently.
No, we said everything we could. It’s in their hands now.
Arakiel met them when they landed and gave Thomas a letter.
“Hallward.” Thomas growled. “Look at what your damn queen has done.”
It hadn’t taken Eve long to discover an adamantine bunker after she had explored the king’s desk and found information regarding a cache of weapons hidden in an adamantine drawer. After a few hours’ rest to recover from her Cloaking, Eve had her guards fly her to the bunker. They were less reluctant to agree to this as it was outside of the king’s home, though the captain expressed that he did not think it wise to sneak around any further without informing the quorum.
They were stood amongst the king’s guards, who were oblivious to their presence, discussing their next move.
“It looks like it’s sealed,” said Leliel. “I can’t see a key hole or a door.”
“I can make a hole,” said Eve. “One big enough for us to see what’s inside. We need to find an unobserved section.”
The group scoured the perimeter of the bunker. It was hidden beneath the ground, but the terrain was uneven, and there were trees and rocks to hide amongst. They found what looked to be a suitable spot. It wasn’t guarded as it was surrounded by a steep, hard rock cliff face. They spent some time monitoring the guards’ movements while Eve ate. It sapped her energy to maintain the Cloak. To keep the Cloak up and perform alchemy required vast amounts of food.
She wolfed down glucose tablets and heavily layered her clothing until she was sweltering.
“I think we’re ready,” she said, pulling on a third woollen hat. “Keep a look out.”
Eve first started work on the outer layers of rock. She transformed the rock into a viscous, pliable state and she could easily move it away from the adamantine and put it back quickly if a guard approached.
It had taken Eve a few minutes to clear a path to the adamantine, and after taking on more food, she began to manipulate the adamantine wall. She transferred it to a pliable state and form a door which she could push open with her power.
With half her guard keeping watch, Leliel lifted Eve into his arms and flew into the hole she had made with the rest of her guards. They remained airborne to avoid burns from the adamantine floor.
Eve’s thorian vision allowed her to see into the darkness, but she could hardly believe her eyes.
“I need light,” she said.
Her guards used the torchlight feature on their voxes to illuminate the bunker. It was huge—bigger than she had assumed from the outside and it was filled with thousands of swords, daggers, throwing knives, adamantine tipped arrows and crossbow bolts.
“Holy shit,” she whispered.
“They have balverine skin handles and sheaths,” said Barakel. “They’ve thought of everything.”
“We can’t let the king keep these,” she said, horrified.
“We can’t take them with us, Your Majesty. There’s too many.”
“I can melt them.”
“The king will have his alchemist make them again. He’ll know it was you.”
“You should seal it back up, Your Majesty,” said Leliel. “We should report your findings to the quorum and make a decision there.”
“Yes,” said Eve. “Let’s go.”
The guards flew out of the bunker, and Leliel set Eve on the ground. Her anxiety, close proximity to demons and her dense layering of clothing made her hot and sweaty. She sacrificed body heat to begin to close up the hole in the bunker.
“Just a moment, Your Majesty,” a voice said sharply.
Eve whipped her head to see Prince Henry and the King’s Guard standing behind her.
What! How did that happen?
She checked her Cloak—it was intact. She looked at her guards, and they appeared dumbfounded.
“I know you’re there, Your Majesty,” said the prince. “Reveal yourself.”
“They can’t see us,” said Eve. “Where did they come from? I thought you were keeping watch.”
“They just appeared,” said Kyriel.
“From the midspace?”
“I don’t know. We can’t sense anything outside this Cloak.”
“Damn it.” Eve snarled, keeping her Cloak up.
“My father knew you would notice the adamantine in his desk and it was only a matter of time before you turned up here—especially once we left you a few obvious crumbs to follow.” The prince laughed. “You may as well reveal yourself, Your Majesty. You can’t pretend it isn’t you.”
It was a trap, and I walked right into it!
“Perhaps Her Majesty needs some incentive.” The prince grinned. “I took the liberty of picking up a friend of yours in case you were reluctant to cooperate.”
Calab! No! Not again.
The prince jeered and looked to his right as William Farley appeared next to him. He was bound, gagged and bleeding from a cut on his forehead.
Eve dropped the Cloak.
“Let him go.” She snarled.
Will disappeared once more.
The prince laughed. “You’re not the only one who knows a few tricks with alchemy, Your Majesty. Now my father did so want an alliance with you. He wanted a grand alliance between two powerful monarchs. Could you imagine it? You would literally rule the whole of Anaxagoras with your power and his weapons. But no, you had to throw a tantrum and stand on your pedestal declaring that you will not help. Then my new brother-in-law wouldn’t supply my father with any adamantine and with this stuff all sealed away where no one could get to it—well, my father had no choice but to trick you into freeing it for him.”
Oh my God. It was sealed away, and I’ve just unlocked it.
“I can reseal it,” said Eve, removing the panic from her voice.
“You could.” The prince laughed. “Though, if you did, bad things will happen to your little ex-guardian friend. You’ve seen what my father did to my sister, and you’ve heard about what he did to her lover, right? Thorian are much tougher than this fragile hominem, and he still broke them, which makes me wonder why we use them for guardians. A ridiculous practice and one I often wonder why we bother with here. But—just in case you had any ideas about sacrificing little Will here—we have done our research well, and we have people in Lycea waiting for the word before they kill your friends and family.”
Eve’s panic soared, and she wanted to vomit the enormous amounts of food she had consumed. Sweat was pouring down her face, and she felt the world blur. Leliel put his hand on her to steady her and removed the hats from her head.
She took a breath.
“What do you want?” She snarled.
The prince laughed again. “The queen is not so moral after all. She just needed the right motivation. My father will not trust you in an alliance with him anymore. He won’t trust you to marry me either, which is a shame as I was looking forward to it—even if you are a dud. Now he simply wants you to create a door, a lock and a key for this bunker so we can access our weapons. Do this, and I will free your guardian and tell our people in Lycea to stand down.”
Eve calmed her expression. She looked at her guards—their faces were passive.
Help me. Give me som
e idea what to do! I could kill the prince—I could take him hostage. Listen to yourself, Eve. You’re not taking hostages or murdering people, and your family and friends will still die.
“Let Will go first,” she said.
The prince grinned and nodded to his right. Will appeared and was thrown towards her and caught by Leliel.
Eve syphoned off far more body heat and food energy than she needed to form the door, lock and key, and a boulder which could be moved in front of it. It made her weak, but the energy made her sick, and she wanted to be rid of it.
The prince checked the key worked and placed it in a balverine skin pouch and put it in his pocket. “By the way,” he said, “my father issued an edict when he found you had been snooping in his office. Axandria has declared war on Arkazatinia. Goodbye, Your Majesty. Oh, one more thing. Return here, and we will destroy your family. Put any spies on here, hide anyone in the midspace and we will destroy your family.”
The prince disappeared. Eve felt the weight of the adamantine crushing her.
What have I done?
She dropped to her knees, unable to stand any longer. She was aware Will was at her side.
I should destroy the weapons. I should melt them into one lump of metal.
She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t risk her family.
But my country. I have just brought war to my own country and handed the enemy the weapons they will use to slaughter us.
Will put his arms around her and she fell into them and cried.
Eve calmed enough by the time she boarded the vector to realise the devastating impact of her actions.
I’ve got to do something.
“Programme the vector for the Guild of Sonneillon,” she said. “Captain, may I borrow your vox.”
She called Calab. Tears sprang to her eyes the moment he answered. “Calab, I’ve done something awful.”
“I’ve heard,” he said calmly.
“What?” she asked. “What have you heard?”
“Prince Thomas had scouts on the bunker.”
“Get them out,” Eve screamed in panic.
“Calm down. They’ve gone. Come to the Guild of Sonneillon. We’ll talk there.”
Calab didn’t show it, though Eve could tell that he was furious.
“You should have told me you were coming here. Why are you sneaking around behind the quorum’s back?”
“I wanted to be sure what we were dealing with.”
“You knew that I was working here with the Axandrians. You must have realised that you would compromise us by coming here.”
“I’m sorry.”
Thomas sneered at her. “You know, you wouldn’t have this problem if you weren’t so emotional and you could make sacrifices for the greater good.”
“Thank you, Thomas,” she snapped. “The irony is not lost on me.” She softened. “I’m sorry. I am the only person to blame for this, and I deserve the backlash, but none of it will help me to put what I have done right. Please. Help me.”
Calab settled into a seat in the parlour. “We are trying to rally support for a revolution to remove the king. We are waiting to hear from the rebels, but the demons and angels will join it.”
She sighed.
“Of course, the rebels will be harder to convince now they have to fight against adamantine,” said Thomas. “You could have cost us our chance.”
Eve felt nauseous.
How could I have caused so much damage?
Calab frowned. “We thought they had them anyway. We didn’t know they were sealed away,” he said to Thomas.
“Well, she’s cost us our advantage.”
“What can I do? I need to help put this right,” said Eve, holding back her panicked sobs.
“Genevieve, you need to return to Arkazatinia,” said Calab. “Speak to your people, speak to your quorum.”
“No, you can’t send me away. I have to put this right.”
“Genevieve, you’re the queen. Your place is with your people.”
“They’re going to hate me,” she cried. “They’ll want to execute me.”
“Calm down. They won’t do that—I’ll make sure of it, but you have to face them. You can’t avoid them. They have to prepare.”
“Come with me.”
“I can’t. I’m needed here. Genevieve, we have to think about the bigger picture. We can’t let our feelings get in the way.”
“You’re angry with me, aren’t you? Because I didn’t sacrifice Will and my family.”
“No, of course not,” he said softly, pulling her into his arms. “I would never expect you to do that. I mean my feelings, your fear and regret. We just have to do what needs to be done.”
“How have you been?” Eve asked Will as they travelled back to Arkazatinia.
“Good.” He smiled. “I don’t miss being a guardian, but there’s not a day goes by when I don’t think about you. I’m almost glad I was taken hostage so I could see you again.”
She smiled at him. “I have missed you too, though I’m not happy you were held hostage. I was terrified when I saw they had you. The king is brutal.”
“Were you engaged to the prince?”
“I was being bullied into it by the king. He was threatening war unless I allied with him through marriage. His goal was to have me allied with him and crafting weapons for him.”
Will shook his head slowly. “Your life has gotten pretty crazy,” he murmured. “I still blame myself. If I’d just told you to go home that day instead of taking you with me to Arkazatinia, then none of this would have happened.”
“I think I would have ended up in this world one way or another, Will. You mustn’t blame yourself.”
He gave a small smile. “Eve…I know you’ve banned me from Arkazatinia, but is there any way we can still be friends? I…I miss you. I had missed you before I knew you were in this world. You’ve always been my best friend, and I hate that things ended so abruptly. I thought I would never see you again and that hurt. I’ve had to grieve for you like you had died. I think ending our relationship was the right thing to do—it would never work long-term with you being immortal—but we can still be friends, can’t we?”
Eve wiped at her tears. “I can’t stop crying lately,” she said. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I cut you off. I thought it would be for the best, and it hurt me too, but I thought it was better for you. I wanted to see you though. I hoped you would be at Kate and James’ wedding.”
“I would have been if I’d known you were going to be there.” Will held out his hand and she took it. “I know you’re busy and I’m not asking for much of your time. Can we work something out?”
Eve nodded, pulled him into and hug and sobbed. She had missed him. She needed him. She needed his friendship. She needed his humour. She needed a connection to her old life. She needed someone who still called her by her name. She needed someone who did not see her as a queen and saw her only as Eve.
She missed being plain, boring Eve. She missed being someone who led a mundane life. She missed having a regular job. She missed being able to go out on her own. But, most of all, she missed being able to make stupid mistakes that did not cost other people their lives and send a country to war.
That was the price for her lapses in judgement. She had made poor choices before, her ex Jason was a very poor choice, but her choices barely had an impact on others. Now they were catastrophic.
Her thoughts overwhelmed her, and she wept in Will’s arms. She could not deal with the pain. She could not handle the pressure. She could not deal with the results of her failure. She wanted it to be over. She wanted her life to be over.
For the first time, she considered her quorum’s position on her fading out.
They would be better off without me.
She sat up and wiped her tears.
Will smiled and brushed her hair from her face. “I get the impression those tears weren’t all for me.”
/> “How in the throne’s name have you managed to make the situation worse?” Avalon snarled. “This is yet another product of your dishonesty. If you weren’t sneaking around and lying to everyone, then this would not have happened.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t expect this would happen. I just wanted to check if he really had adamantine.”
“You knew he had it when you found the drawer. You should have told us then. You cannot be trusted as queen and—as we have already established—it wouldn’t be safe for us if you were to fade. You need to be imprisoned, and as no prison can hold you, it needs to be voluntary.”
“I can help make this right,” said Eve. “I respect that you don’t want me as your queen. I will stand down and promote Lord Tharazan in my place. He runs the Crown with me and will serve you better than I can.” Eve’s heart faltered at the opportunity to get out of the chaos that consumed her life.
Yes. This is right. It’s a compromise. They’ll all be better off with Tharazan. He will make a better ruler than I ever will.
“No, Your Majesty,” said Tharazan. “You’re not running away and leaving me to clean up your mess. You should remain queen. Refuse to be imprisoned. Refuse to step down. Instead, you should work with your quorum to deal with this.”
Eve felt herself deflate. Avalon bristled. Eve glanced around the room.
God, even Thalia looks like she wants to kill me.
“Arkazatinia has chosen you for this role, Your Majesty,” Tharazan went on. “And you need to do it—even if it’s difficult. But you need to be open and honest and tell us when you’re planning something.”
I can’t. I can’t go on like this. I could be here for three thousand years. I can’t bear it.
Eve smothered her inner panic and kept her expression neutral.
Avalon grimaced. “What are we going to do then?”
“We should aid the Axandrians in their revolution against the king,” said Eve. “I can see no alternative.”
