by Kiki Leach
The Unholy Alliance
“I wish for the tables to be at least two inches apart,” stated the queen to a nervous and shaky servant. He rattled the plate and goblet, both made of pure gold, against one another as she moved toward him. She raised her hand to his face and pressed her fingers together, leaning in. “No more than this. No less.”
He nodded. “Yes, yes.” He quickly placed them on the table and scurried back into the kitchen in the manner of a frightened mouse.
We stood in the grandest of all ballrooms located in the east wing of the palace, as the rest of her servants finished preparing the rooms and corridor for the arrival of General John Devereux the following day. Eliza wished for my help in arranging matters for the banquet, not because it was needed, but because no one else was willing. And more importantly because she had somehow hoped to make a decent impression with me at her side; something of a united front against a purported common enemy.
I folded my arms as we traipsed around the room and groaned the more I was asked for even the most simple of inputs on the decorum, much of which had already appeared overdone.
She continuously peeked at me from the corner of her eye as I refused to inform her servants of a single thing, and crinkled her brows at my annoyed reactions. I wished like hell to escape her presence, but if I had, she was sure to know something was indeed wrong. I was essentially trapped like a fly in her venomous spider web.
“I haven’t seen my son in quite awhile,” she blurted. “Twice he has missed breakfast with the king and I. In fact, neither of you have come since Wednesday. Norvack appears to be spending more and more time away from the palace. What seems to be the trouble with him?”
I cleared my throat and stared down at the floor. “There is no trouble,” I assured her. “He is only preparing to meet the General and is in need of time away from everyone. Especially the king.”
“Yes, the king, I may understand. Yet, he also chooses to ignore me in the process as well?”
“You can also be quite a distraction from time to time.” I shrugged.
“Hmm--”
“This is a difficult and unusual time for him. I only believe he wishes to remain completely focused on John’s arrival.”
“Does he?”
“Yes,” I retorted harshly.
She looked straight ahead and sucked in her cheeks. “Brigita informed me that he has not slept in your marital bed as of late.”
My jaw stiffened and I widened my eyes. As I turned to her, she glared at me and slightly smirked. It made me despise her even more.
“I beg your pardon, my Queen?” I asked her in a light and airy tone, as if I were completely unbothered by her words, compared to my expression.
“Your Queen?” She nodded. “Yes, well, your Queen is keenly aware of all things that occur within, and outside of this palace.”
“I see.”
She stared at me for a long time, and in such a peculiar manner.
I somehow regained composure and exhaled. I clasped my hands together and eyed the room to avoid her face. “How would Brigita become aware of any of this as it is?” I questioned. “I haven’t spoken with her regarding it. And, why on earth would she inform you of such a thing?”
“Regardless of informing her or not, as your handmaiden, she is apt to know more than you wish. And I am assuming that she informed me because Norvack is my son.”
“He is indeed your son, there is no denying such as much as we both would like to do so,” I said. She sneered. “But he is also my husband and as of this moment and those of the future, that trumps being your son. Norvack sharing our bed last night should be of no matter to you or anyone else, and means nothing.”
As I turned, she slid her hand around my elbow and drew me back toward her. She glanced around the room to smile, then turned back to me with venom in her eyes.
“It means everything, Cinderella,” she said under her breath. “My son lives and breathes for you! If he is not properly prepared to meet the General tomorrow because of some little spat between the two of you --”
“Norvack will be prepared.” I gently released my arm from her strong grip and squint. “Does Belarus wish to replace him with this man?”
She diverted her eyes.
“You may as well inform me aloud. He is already quite aware of this as it is,” I stated. “The king wishes to dethrone his own son.”
“As long as he is prepared, my son shall not be stripped of his power.”
I frowned. “Stripped … ?”
She looked into my eyes once more, then quickly diverted again. It was as if she were a stray kitten in search of its mother. Or a safe place to hide.
And then I stood back, realizing the truth of her reaction to my temporary separation from her son.
“My God.” I covered my mouth. “My, God. That man is abhorrent! Deranged!”
“Cinderella--”
“No!” I gulped and moved closer to her, searching deep into her eyes for more unwanted answers that lay behind each one. “Your husband wishes death upon his own son and is using the General to make it so?” I rattled my head. “How can you be so calm over this, knowing this truth? Your husband wishes your own son were indeed dead!”
“Keep quiet!” she hissed through her teeth. “I informed you of this before.”
“Not in this manner! You informed me as a sort of speculation on your part, not as fact! Or was it?” I shook my head. “Either way, you never informed me of HOW! This man has been brought here to end Norvack’s life, not just his place on the throne? I must warn him.”
She violently jerked me back into her chest. I tripped over the edge of my gown and looked down at her hand.
I clamped my teeth in a fury and snarled. “Release my arm.”
“Not until you listen to me first, Mistress.”
She dragged me from the room and into another as if I were a rabid dog forced to its death on the lawn. Soon after, we entered the same tiny library in which I had previously threatened the Sheriff’s life, and closed the door behind us.
She took her time moving across as I stood back near the door, waiting for the proper moment to escape and warn my husband of his father’s true plans.
The queen dropped her face in her hands and moved her head about in a nervous manner. She began shivering, despite there being no chill in the room. Her face flushed, her eyes watered. Her hands rattled against her gown and her breathing heavily increased.
“If my son learns of what is to come for him --”
“He shall be prepared!” I interjected. “It’s the only way.”
“No.” She took in a deep breath to calm herself. “No. He will not be prepared for anything but his own death before the court and this country.”
“Have you less faith in your son than even the king?”
“Never. I have more faith in my son than anyone, even he, will ever know!”
“Then allow me to inform him! He must know the truth. I cannot keep something like this, a matter this dire, from him!”
“Informing him is risking his life.”
“And not informing him that his own father has sent a man from a rival country to kill him isn’t one and the same?” I asked. “It’s not as if we have time, I…” I whirled away and placed my hands on either side of my waist, anxious. “What exactly is the king’s plan as it stands? I imagine that he has a scroll as long as this room that is filled with ideas post-Norvack. Does he wish to somehow regain England’s trust and combine their armies? Allowing Denmark to surrender to their king’s desires?”
She sighed. “I haven’t the slightest of ideas, Cinderella.”
“You must have at least one! If you are as keen of the going’s on within this palace as you claim to be.” I moved my head about and frowned. “None of this makes any sense.”
“As it shouldn’t.”
She went over to the desk and poured herself a goblet of brandy. I waited a moment then strolled up beside her and arched a
brow at her choice of liquor.
“A drink?” she asked.
“No, thank you. I -- I wasn’t aware you had a taste for liquor of any kind, let alone brown liquor considering the king.”
She grinned. “‘For she who drinks that of a man’s liquor shall no longer be deemed a proper woman’. Yes, I shall never forget my husband informing me of such words before the country as if I were his servant or child, and not the Queen of Denmark.” She poured herself another goblet and drank it all at once. Then she strolled over to the bookcase and trailed her fingers along the wooden shelves, collecting tiny bits of dust in the corners of each one. “If you inform my son of the king’s wishes, not only may he lose his life, but I shall certainly lose mine.”
I snapped my head in her direction. “What?”
“If Belarus learns that I have informed Norvack of his plans, he shall have me beheaded before Denmark alongside him.” She laughed to herself and touched her face in a sort of awe and wonder at it all. “The king believes I should go against my own son.”
“You have in not informing him. Yet at the same time, you haven’t in informing me, thus already creating a tangled web of lies, deceit, and more importantly, manipulation! I must inform him, please! Allow me that much.” I took hold of her am and turned her face toward mine. “No one shall ever know the truth of your actions, as God as my witness, Eliza. Your son is one of the most intelligent men I have ever known. He is already keen on what his father wishes in terms of John replacing him. He deserves to know that this man not only wishes for his place on the throne, but also wishes for --”
“His wife as well?”
I pulled myself away from her and swallowed hard.
“Wishes for his head on a platter,” I muttered. “In regard to the other, I have no idea what you’re referring to.”
“Your reaction to John’s name at the table for breakfast the previous morning. It was quite evident to me that you know this man.”
“Know. Of. I know of him like anyone else within this country and beyond.”
“Are you certain?”
I rolled my eyes a little and nervously clucked my tongue.
“I have already discussed this matter with Norvack.”
“Is that why he has chosen to be away from you?”
“He has not CHOSEN to be away from me, he needed time to prepare and shall return to me tonight! I…”
I inhaled slowly, exhaled deeply and looked to the ceiling in an attempt to silence my growing anger.
I looked at her once more and smiled. “He shall return to me tonight,” I said once more. “Meanwhile, though I heavily applaud your attempt to alter the conversation at hand as it was quite clever, it was not clever enough to toss me from your scent. Trickery or not, I will never discuss a matter such as this with you. And as it stands, that is of no matter at the moment.”
“This is where you are wrong, Cinder. It is of every matter if this man kills my son and chooses you for a wife.”
I scoffed. “And what makes you so certain that I would allow myself to be chosen by John Devereux?”
“Am I to believe that you would leave this palace behind and return to your tiny village of Hadenville? Inside that small cottage with no food or water? No luxuries of any kind or even a proper place to lie your head at night?”
“Yes! I would make due as I have since I escaped the orphanage as a child! Long before your son came riding to my rescue on his grand black horse, and pleading for my hand as his wife. I would indeed return to it all, or nothing, but not until after I slaughtered John for killing my husband first, and that is if and only if I were not dead before he.”
Silence engulfed the room then, nearly suffocating us. She could barely stand to look at me in the face anymore, and we turned away from one another.
“I would never betray your son,” I finally said. “No matter what I know of that man, Norvack is my husband. He is my life and my soul mate, forever. And he also deserves to know that this man has been sent to end his life. If he is to be prepared for a fight, then he must know what awaits him upon John’s arrival.”
I raced to the door and quickly escaped the room as she hollered after me.
On the way back to my chambers, I noticed Brigita speaking with the queen’s handmaiden in one of the corridors leading to the garden. When the handmaiden spotted me starting at them, I nodded to her and she curtsied. Brigita then turned to face me and curtsied as well. As I approached, the queen’s handmaiden scurried away as if I were going to eat her alive, flesh and all. That wasn’t at all normal for her, considering she despised me.
I tilted my head and slightly grinned at Brigita, informing her that I wished to speak with her in private.
“Thank you,” I said as she closed the door to my chambers.
I entangled my fingers and headed for the balcony, staring down at the lawn. The king stood with one of his noblemen just a few feet away, downing goblets of wine and laughing until their faces colored. I wondered if they were discussing Norvack, discussing how stupid his own son must have been to believe his lies. And then I got angry, so angry that I had to release my own hands from one another for fear of breaking one of my own bones.
Brigita cleared her throat. For a split moment, I had forgotten she was even in the room.
“Are you aware of the prince’s current location?” I asked.
“No, Mistress.”
I turned back to her and she stared down at her feet. I wrinkled my nose and took a single step forward.
“Are you sure? You’re not aware of the prince’s current location?”
She eyed me this time and knit her brows. “No, Mistress, I am not.”
“Interesting, as you seem to be quite aware of other goings on within the palace. Such as, you informing the queen that Norvack has not shared my bed in days.”
Her cheeks immediately turned red and her eyes widened like tiny saucers.
“Yes, Mistress.”
“And if I may ask, what on God’s green earth would make you do such a thing? It wasn’t her place to know, nor hers to inform me of what you informed her. Did she force it out of you? Goad you into something?”
Her eyes roamed to the corner.
“She asked if you were with child and feared you had been keeping it from her. From Norvack. I informed her that it wasn’t possible, considering…”
I nodded. “Then she would realize that it would be quite possible, considering.”
She glared at me and sighed. “You have yet to inform him of why you pushed him away?”
Though a clear question, it sounded more as if she were making a flat statement.
“I’ve yet to inform him.”
“He would understand this, Cinder. I’m certain he would.”
“I’m certain he would not at a time such as this. Not when he’s preparing himself for the General.”
“He is bound to learn the truth of what occurred at some point.”
“And yet, he shall never learn it from you,” I stated.
We stared at one another for a long while before she curtsied and lowered her head.
“Yes, Princess.”
“Find the prince and please bring him to me,” I said.
She nodded once more and exited the room.
I went over to the balcony again and enfolded my hands. As I looked out in shame and fear, fear that John being brought to Denmark not only meant the end of Norvack’s reign, but his life, I heard the door creaking open. An elongated sigh entered the room first. And I refused to turn as I was already certain who had come to me.
I groaned. “I’m informing him of this, Eliza.”
“You will not.” She closed the door and moved toward me. I lifted my eyes and turned to meet hers in a fury. “The prince shall never learn of this betrayal by the king--”
“His FATHER. The prince shall never learn that his father has betrayed him and wishes him dead in the name of Willem. My God.” I turned from her and looked across th
e room. “You have done this to him as well, betrayed him by choosing Belarus over his wellbeing.”
“If my son is as prepared as you claim, he shall be fine.”
“No!” I hollered. “He shall not ‘be fine’. He shall be determined. And murderous in his own right, but he shall never be fine no matter how many times you proclaim it or wish it so. He was birthed from the likes of you and your husband, how could he be?”
I traipsed over to the mirror and her eyes followed me like a haunted painting.
“You have no idea the sacrifices I have made for my son,” she said.
“If this is what one considers a sacrifice, I wish to never see you toss a man into the fire pits of hell.”
A beat passed and she tilted her head a little. A tiny smile graced her lips, however, it wasn’t one of jubilation in the least.
“You truly despise me--” she started.
“I don’t. I never have, not as you have me. I just…” I went over to the bed and took a seat on the edge. “I don’t understand you. This man wishes for your son’s death and still, you manage to protect him.”
“Am I to believe that if you were put in the same position, you wouldn’t do the same?”
“No, I wouldn’t. But I shall never be in the same position as you as your son is not his father. Thank God for the tiniest of favors.”
“My son may not be his father, yet in some ways he is. Why has there been such a distance between you two, Cinderella?” she asked. “What has he done to you -- ?”
“Nothing.”
She crinkled her nose. “That was quite an immediate response.”
