Six Heads One Crown (The Pearl of Wisdom Saga Book 3)

by Jason Paul Rice

  Elisa told him, “I need to know. You said we can take care of this problem. You’ve saved my life. I want to at least help you in the planning. I know things that might be valuable to know.”

  Brehan spoke gently, “Obviously, the only way to prevent a person from offing you is to get to them first. We won’t directly say what needs to happen, but we both know.”

  Elisa suggested, “Perhaps he drinks a liquid that turns his face purple and black?”

  Brehan looked over and shook his head. He paused for a moment and said, “I can’t do that. That’s the device of a coward. I need to find out when he isn’t being guarded, which is probably only when he sleeps.”

  Elisa warned, “No, he is heavily guarded in his sleeping pavilion. However, he dismisses all guards when he relieves himself during the night, I’ve noticed. He always walks off into the woods by himself. But those areas are still being watched by general guards.”

  Brehan kissed her hand again and said, “I’ll just have to stealthily lure him away somehow.”

  He smiled at her and even in the dim moonlight and starlight, she saw a hideous beast. She tried desperately to see the man she had always loved. She tried with all of her icy heart, but she only saw an ugly bastard from the Pearl Islands. She saw a man she could manipulate. Has my heart run this cold? He doesn’t have the duties that come with being a queen. I’ve had every responsibility thrown on my aching shoulders. Anyone would change. Everyone would change.

  Elisa had tried to validate this line of thinking but never truly convinced herself. Brehan broke the brief silence and asked, “What does the man hate?”

  Elisa immediately answered, “He hates the Wamhoffs, enthusiasm and anything that resembles a fun time.”

  She smirked at Brehan and listened as he said, “That gives me something to work with, I suppose. Remember the night, our first night, when…”

  Elisa butted in, “Goodness, I’ve lost myself here with you. I must return to my pavilion or suspicion will be raised.”

  She put her nightdress back on and Brehan got dressed and grabbed the blankets. She gave him a quick kiss and rushed away before he could say anything except goodbye.

  She entered her pavilion and heard Telly snoring lightly. Her heart raced from the secret encounter and she dove into her bed. She didn’t want Brehan getting too sentimental and decided to end the affair before it became too emotional for her. She felt like she had to use Brehan to survive, but she had no plans for a grand reunion. She didn’t want to think about the loving memories of the past. She validated her actions by convincing herself that she would be expelled from the kingdom for marrying a foreign bastard.

  She had lied to Brehan, telling him that they would rule together, but she had no intentions of carrying out that plan. She intended to use her lover to take care of a few matters before she eventually revealed her true intentions. The Ellsworths had turned her into a cold, vindictive creature who remained perpetually paranoid. Most of her nervousness stemmed from the evil reputation Lord Ichibod carried. She had felt empowered after standing up to him several times, but now she understood how that could make him resent her. With the knowledge of his vast sanctioning of killing for silly reasons and Telly’s eavesdropping report, she remained constantly on edge. She didn’t sleep very well anymore because she knew it would be easiest to kill a still object. She also felt a responsibility to protect her younger sister and knew Ichibod didn’t seem to have a problem killing females.

  The queen slept terribly again and rose with hopes of hearing some good reports about the wall. She left her pavilion shortly after the pink sun rose above the blue-lined gray clouds. Lord Ichibod and Lady Victoriah were already seated around a small fire, warming their black-gloved hands. Winter couldn’t wait to arrive and Elisa saw her breath in the air as it shot from her nose like steam from an angry bull’s nostrils.

  She asked the Ellsworths, “Any word from the scouts yet?”

  Lord Ichibod looked at her with a face full of madness and said, “No cracks. Not one damn crack. The men rode as far as they could, north and south, and then they followed the wall to the west. There isn’t one compromised spot to exploit. He built a wall around a damn wall. They can trap an army of men in between and then let the slaughter ensue.”

  Elisa debated not speaking because of Ichibod’s mental state but went ahead and asked, “What if we go through the wall?”

  Ichibod rapidly shook his head and said dismissively, “I don’t believe we can craft a ram to bust through that thick a wall. Did you see the size of those stones?”

  Elisa suggested, “Do you think the elephants could bust through, if we could get them to work together?”

  This seemed to brighten Lord Ichibod’s mood momentarily until he blurted, “I…I’m not sure. I’m going to the war council meeting to see if we can come up with a solution.” The lord stormed off like a spoiled child.

  Elisa turned to the lady and asked, “Shouldn’t we be in the meeting? I just came up with the only viable option up to this point.”

  Lady Victoriah said, “You’ll have to excuse my husband. Patience, they say, is a grand virtue; however, it has never graced our good lord. This wall has him obviously agitated. I know it’s impossible to believe, but he was such a happy man, not too long ago either. Oh maybe it has been a little while.”

  Elisa took off her veil and said, “I can easily believe that. I used to be that way too, until you taught me to throw away all emotions.”

  The lady removed her veil. Her bright blue eyes had dulled and Elisa could see wrinkles that she had never noticed before.

  Victoriah said, “Yes, well lately, I’m not so sure if that is sound advice. My, how times have changed. Do you know that Lord Ichibod risked being ousted from his family to marry me?”

  A confused look came over Elisa’s face and she asked, “I thought you were from a proud and noble family?”

  The lady looked old in the unforgiving sunlight that unmercifully highlighted all of her blemishes. She said, “That’s what everyone was ordered to believe. My father was a swineherd, my mother, a tavern wench. Lucky for me she was a beautiful tavern wench and passed on her looks to me. I don’t fool myself. I know he picked me because of my looks and only my looks. I knew I could provide so much more but that wouldn’t come until later. Once he took rule after his father’s death, anyone who talked about my true upbringing had his or her tongue cut out. He said that I was his princess and people should mind their own affairs.”

  Elisa sported a fake smile as she said, “It’s a murderous way, but a nice gesture nonetheless.”

  The lady told her, “He’s performed very nice gestures for you as well.”

  Elisa looked confused and asked, “And how is that?”

  Lady Victoriah looked around to make sure nobody would hear as she said softly, “Early on, his main advisors told him not to include you in the plan for the crown. They all told him to usurp the crown for himself. He said no. He said you held the claim for a reason. The Gods meant it to be. Lord Ichibod told his advisors that he would only serve as Falconer and advise Queen Elisa.”

  Elisa shook her head and said, “I’m not sure I can believe that.”

  Lady Victoriah looked at her with a smirk and responded, “I only believe it because I heard it with my own ears, my queen.”

  Elisa wanted to believe the story, but couldn’t tell if Lady Victoriah had made it up to obtain sympathy for her husband. Elisa’s head was going crazy with all these games.

  You barely supported any of his decisions back at the castle and now you blindly follow his every move and cheer him on all the while. You scarcely call me your queen either. Don’t think I would miss a slip like that. You never pander to anyone, especially not me.

  As the week moved on and the party stood still, bad news kept arriving. The double wall seemed endless in all directions.

  That day all the queen could do is worry. Nothing seemed to be working out and she felt her time was r
unning out. Elisa’s head hurt when she lay down to sleep later that night. Flashes of good memories of Lord Ichibod flew into her head. She remembered the falconing, feasting and puppet shows.

  What if he did stand up for me? What if Telly didn’t hear him correctly? What if Brehan should fail? It will be obvious who put him up to it. Maybe I should call off the entire thing. What have I gotten myself involved in? All this is becoming too much to handle.

  Her mind shifted back and forth a thousand times before she got out of bed and went to tell Brehan to call off the plan. The cold night tested her triple layered nightgown and fur-lined cloak. She shivered as she made it to Brehan’s tiny tent. She pulled the flap open but nobody was visible. The small area was empty.

  A-BREHAN

  Brehan lurked along the tree line, just inside the woods, near the Ellsworths’ Pavilions. He hadn’t noticed any movement, and rubbed his palms together to warm them up. He exhaled into a rag to conceal his visible breath from being detected by the wrong person. The former knight of Mattingly finally had the love of his life back and everything seemed so right.

  If this man thinks he is going to intimidate my queen, I’ll gladly perform this task. I didn’t risk my life many times over to let some cranky old man kill my life’s dream. Elisa and Brehan will be together in the end.

  He had been scouting out this area for several nights and noticed the lord’s pattern. The guards protected the front side of the Ellsworth pavilion, but Lord Ichibod went around back and into the woods to relieve himself.

  Brehan’s body had almost healed from the latest near-death experience. His heart stood divided as he marched on his father figure, Jon. He often agonized over the change in circumstances that had caused him to oppose Jon Colbert. He tried to avoid thinking about the entire Colbert family, but that always proved impossible. Brehan didn’t even know if he could attack Jon or Ruxin Colbert on the field of battle. He had failed in his task of protecting the family and now they stood as his enemy. He waited nearly another hour before he heard some movement.

  Lord Ichibod appeared in his heavy night robe and walked down the hill toward the woods. Brehan ran over to two horses and untied their reins from a tree. He leapt up on the one horse and lightly heeled the animal while also holding the reins for the other. Brehan slowly approached Lord Ichibod as he was coming back out of the woods.

  The knight said, “Lord Ichibod, many apologies for disturbing you here, but you must know that they’ve found Tersen Wamhoff.”

  This seemed to excite the lord, who said, “Who found him?”

  Brehan pointed behind Lord Ichibod and said, “Some of your men. They were arguing over who would get to kill him before you could show up.”

  “I deserve the right to kill that albino,” said an annoyed Ichibod.

  Brehan told him, “That’s what I said, but they told me they would never listen to a criminal. If we hurry, we can stop them before they kill him.”

  Lord Ichibod looked around quickly and spoke, “Yes, well, I should go get my cloak.”

  Brehan warned him, “There’s no time. I’ll give you my spare cloak when we get there. We can’t waste any more time. I have a horse ready to go.”

  The lord agreed, “Alright, alright, let’s go.”

  The two men rode away from the camps and Brehan kept looking around to make sure no one had spotted them. They quickly reached the outskirts of the soldiers’ campgrounds and Brehan kept riding on.

  They reached an open plain and he acted confused and said, “They were all right here.” He could see the lord shivering. Brehan said, “Over there, maybe they took him over there.”

  Lord Ichibod took off and Brehan followed just behind. The knight reached under his cloak and slowly pulled out Dragon-Bite. He tried to create fake coughing sounds to cover the sounds of the green steel scraping the scabbard.

  “Oh wait, here he is,” cried Brehan.

  As Lord Ichibod turned his horse around, Brehan delivered a swift stroke of the sword with his right hand. The emerald blade mingled with the crimson blood as it sliced through Lord Ichibod’s neck. The head hit the ground but the body slumped forward and remained on the horse. Brehan moved in to knock the body down, but the horse bolted with the dead lord still on its back. The animal headed straight toward the soldier camps. Brehan heeled his horse and rode north as fast as he could. He looped around to the campgrounds and nothing seemed amiss. He tied up the horse and walked back to his tent. His heart felt like it would swallow his chest. He heard a commotion beginning and shut his eyes and pretended to be asleep. He knew that neither horse had any markings that could implicate him, but he still had trouble breathing as he heard the murmurings of the death of Lord Ichibod outside his tent.

  LEIMUR

  The still-reigning Queen warmed her hands over a fire as she wondered if her short rule would continue when they arrived in Goldenfield. Everyone had been extremely understanding about the defeat and that scared her. Leimur expected and wanted someone to scream at her and blame her for the loss. She didn’t really care about life as word about her loved ones still hadn’t arrived. Visions of a bloody massacre of her brothers and Ali-Tiste kept playing through her head. She could only believe the worst had occurred and hoped with an empty heart that news of the defeat would magically reach Ali-Tiste and they would rendezvous on the way home. The Queen couldn’t convince herself that her family was safe and every letter carrying raven they had dispatched had either got lost or been intercepted. She had gone back to not eating and her stomach tightened with hunger pains and the cold feeling settled in, sending chills throughout her body.

  She listened to the men hammering away on the tent posts to set up camp for the night. They had started well before nightfall to get everything erected by full twilight. Her mind shifted back to the worry about a mutiny. She believed her fellow officers would never betray her but she also needed the support of the entire royal army. She knew that she had taken the kingdom from her parents so easily because she had secured the backing of the King’s force. Her grip on the soldiers’ loyalty had been slipping and she knew if they banded together, she would have no chance. The mental tension tugged at her exhausted body and centered in her lower back where the pike had found a small chink in her armor.

  She had only really talked to Captain Salina since the battle and didn’t know what to say to anyone else in a one-on-one situation. The Warrior Queen had lost her identity. The victory parade she had envisioned only months ago would have to be put on hold. There wasn’t going to be a third attack to capture Donegal. In her mind, she should have already secured Harbor Valley and Donegal by now. She hadn’t seen her tigers in a few weeks and wondered if they had finally returned to the Animal Kingdom. The cold weather didn’t suit the animals and took away some of their ferocity. She didn’t dare talk to Captain Tetine or General Rigby who had both suffered wounds in the failed attack. The reports of King Jon being in attendance turned out to be false, but they had captured the Prince of Donegal, Ruxin Colbert. Leimur thought she had smashed his head into oblivion and killed the young man. She looked at the long pen containing the Prince and about twenty other prisoners. One of the locked-up men tried to grab at a war horse that was tied close to the pen. The destrier snapped at the man and he jerked his hand back inside the mobile cell.

  Her thoughts went right back to Ali-Tiste and her princes. She reminisced about their time at the palace and wondered why she hadn’t brought all of them with her from the beginning. Her head became flooded with a series of images featuring her failed attempts to breach the castle, and the utter mayhem of the last open field battle washed the sweet memories away. Her brain kept twisting and stressing over the separation from Ali-Tiste Wamhoff. She had never been in love before the red-headed vixen had arrived in her meeting room out of the blue. Since then, she couldn’t stand to not be around her lover. Her hands were finally toasty as the crunching sounds of leaves being crushed by boots resonated from behind her. She turned and saw mo
re than twenty armored guards moving in with their weapons drawn.

  Laruse Cornwell announced, “Queen Leimur, you have been summoned to the strategy tent and we are here to escort you.”

  She replied sarcastically, “I thank you all greatly for your passion to make sure your Queen makes it to her meeting tent safely. I would thank all of you individually but I don’t have the time.” She stood up and said, “You better hope my tigers don’t show up as they are known to do. They have defeated more men than you have here and those were real men, much more skilled than anyone here. It took no time at all, and those men weren’t even cowards if you can believe it.”

  All the men enjoyed a hearty laugh at the Queen’s expense and she promised herself that she would take all of their heads at some point in time. Laruse shoved the resistant Leimur to get her moving and as they neared the tent, she looked in horror to her right at a pile of six dead tigers. The men kept pushing the Queen of Goldenfield along and she saw another pile of tigers to her left. Leimur could only assume that her council had been killed and a low ranking soldier had claimed power. She knew her chance of escaping alive was extremely bleak. One last shove heaved Leimur into the sizable strategy tent.

  She was shocked to see Captain Tetine, General Rigby and several knights with swords drawn off to their right. She didn’t see Captain Salina.

  “Please sit,” General Rigby said as he pointed at an isolated chair in the middle of the room. Everyone else stood up and the only thing assembled in the open area was a small trestle table behind Rigby. He said, “We have many matters to discuss and you have many questions to answer.”

  Leimur responded, “I can plainly see that. You brought more men than my Uncle Marcel so you can rest easy knowing you are smarter than he.”

  The General shook his finger at her and said, “Your cute little quips will help you no longer. You stand accused of treason.”