Iron Champion (Legend of the Iron Flower Book 5)

by Billy Wong

  "He doesn't need me."

  "Yes he does. You're the only family he has." Changing the subject, she asked, "Can I see your mace? It looks almost as heavy as my husband's!"

  He handed it over, and Rose honestly did admire its craftsmanship. A sturdy, well-balanced weapon, made from fine materials. What made her eyes widen in surprise, though, was the weaponsmith's mark near the bottom of the haft. It matched the mark she'd glimpsed on Danica's halberd. "Wait, did you get this from the royal armory?"

  For a moment, he only stared at her with alarm in his eyes. Then he stammered, "N-no, I got it as a gift! I have no idea who made it!" But Rose didn't believe him.

  The Fanteian army arrived shortly, and Rose fought through day after exhausting day of battle. For some reason, Regis and Julian were not seen among the enemy. The struggle would be pivotal in determining if Terlon continued to survive, as Polier was one of its most vital centers of trade, yet none of either side's royal leaders directly involved themselves. Though Rose understood why Gregor was absent, she wondered fearfully at the warlike Fanteians' motives for abstaining from the fight.

  #

  Sean leaned comfortably against the wall of the great hall, the position having become a familiar one. He knew his country to be in grave danger, but didn't expect to face any immediate peril here in the manor where the king had taken up residence. For now, being a royal guard proved an easy job. Watching Gregor eat exquisite looking glazed meat dishes with the lords who accompanied him, he paid little mind to the cloaked, tall but stoop-shouldered men who clunked into the room, assuming them supplicants or messengers. He only realized something was wrong far too late, when the smaller man straightened, pulled a wicked sword from beneath his cloak, and stabbed Gregor in the chest. Nobles screamed in panic. The larger man drew a sword of his own and began to slaughter said nobles, splashing table and carpets with bright blood. Now Sean realized these could only be the Fanteian emperor Regis and his brother, Julian.

  Guards rushed to protect what was left of Terlon's leadership, but Julian kept them from disturbing his brother's work with little effort, cutting down man after man while Regis continued to butcher lords. Summoning his courage, Sean yelled, "You'll never get away!" His words were met with apparent disinterest as they ignored him, but thankfully followed by a new pack of Terlonian soldiers rushing into the room.

  Julian seemed undaunted by the increasing number of foes, killing one every couple of seconds until more grew reluctant to join the fight. Meanwhile, Regis had backed the last old noble into a corner. He smiled and raised his sword. To his shame, Sean realized that he had stood frozen since the beginning of the attack while his comrades gave their lives in defense of the realm. But he was also well inside the room, the last living guard to be so. With Regis focused on his goal which lay within reach, an emboldened Sean thought he saw his chance. And he remembered the voice he'd heard in his sleep, telling him, "Heed your dreams. You have the power to clog the rivers of blood." He rushed the emperor from behind, raising his sword to cleave his neck.

  Before he could get into sword's reach, Regis spun with lightning speed. The sword slammed into Sean's shield, swatting him away through the air so that he landed hard on his shoulder and cried out in pain as the joint dislocated. Not bothering to finish him off though his eyes lingered curiously on Sean for a moment, Regis turned back to the noble and stabbed him through the throat.

  "Good!" Julian said, eviscerating the last two soldiers at the entrance before grabbing Regis' arm. "We're done here, let's go." They ran from the room, the clangs and thuds of continued battle echoing through the halls while they hacked their way to escape, leaving Sean alone with the dead.

  Not quite all dead, he realized as he spotted one chest's rise and fall, though blood oozed from between its owner's lips while it did. King Gregor still lived.

  #

  Rose lifted the slain general of the fleeing enemy army over her head. With a grunt, she threw his huge dead weight far out over the battlements to join the pile she'd made of his officers' bodies. Having finished her work for the battle, she sighed and sat to inspect her new facial scars. She had taken a direct morningstar hit to the face, and the spikes ripped her right cheek open.

  Though she'd stopped the bleeding with a minor healing spell, her meager skills didn't allow her to do more, and she'd bear reminders of the nasty blow probably for the rest of her life. Oh well. Getting wounded in the face made her feel queasy, but she knew in her heart it wouldn't make her look much worse than she already did. She had plenty of scars there, like everywhere else, already. At least they'd won and she lived, as did Sean's uncle.

  Kelvin limped over next to her, having taken a spear to his calf. He winced at her new scars to be and rested a hand comfortingly on her shoulder. "He hit you that hard? I thought it just grazed you. Amazing how you kept going."

  "You don't need to flatter me about my resilience, I'm used to that to the point of boredom. He wouldn't have done it if not for all his friends who attacked with him, though. They were pretty good. I hope this will be a bad blow to Fanteia's army."

  He looked up and down her blood-drenched body and nodded his approval. Some of it was undoubtedly hers, but the vast bulk of her reddish-brown coat of dried blood belonged to the countless enemies she'd slain. "I'm sure it will. Everybody's already talking about how you've saved the kingdom. Of course, that's exaggerating a bit considering Regis and Julian are still out there, but they're going to have to raise a new army after this. The one they sent here, well..."

  Neither of them could fail to see the myriad bodies strewn around the city and on the walls, and Rose couldn't help a shudder as she recalled just how many of them she was personally responsible for. She had slaughtered over a hundred men every day, and they'd fought for more than ten. What a monster she was. But then, she did what she did because of the enemies who forced her hand.

  She noticed now a slim messenger dressed in Terlonian colors rushing towards the gate. What was so urgent that this man hopped over bodies and stepped through blood like they were nothing more than rubble and water? The man wore a bewildered look on his face, but not from seeing the horrors of war, which he somehow seemed not to notice. Rose hurried to hear his message, dreading what dire news it might be.

  The news he soon revealed proved worse than Rose imagined. "King Gregor lays mortally wounded, and many of his vassals dead. Regis and Julian attacked them while they dined, and escaped before they could be stopped."

  Rose's jaw clenched in anger. "How could they have escaped? Shouldn't it have been a simple matter to catch them?"

  The messenger frowned. "I know no details, but it seems they had help planning their raid from someone who knew the manor and its secret pathways. Alas, the king's guards did not know the place as well." He paused. "Gregor asked to see you before he dies. Come with me, quickly."

  Rose wasn't surprised by the king's request to see her, but wondered what he had to say now. Did he just want to thank her, as she thought he might, or did he have a last task for her? If the latter, she'd try her best to fulfil his wishes. She thought him a good man, and she'd invested too much in this land to abandon it, even if right now, Terlon seemed like it might well be doomed to fall at the hands of the treacherous Fanteians.

  The trip to Belar wasn't long, and servants promptly led her to the king's bedside, where he lay surrounded by the royal doctors. Yet their grim looks and stiff movements made it evident they could not save him, and Rose's heart was heavy as he beckoned her to sit. "Your Majesty," she whispered, "I'm here."

  White with pain and blood loss, Gregor could barely move his lips to talk. "Rose, I heard what you did. You truly are the greatest of warriors. Please help me."

  "How? I'll do whatever I can."

  He did not answer directly, but instead began to explain his motives in a distant voice. "My daughter Danica is missing, probably dead, and I have no other heirs. I must pick someone else not of my family then, to pass my crown to
. I have advisors and vassals who are good politicians and good men. Some are even good warriors as well. But I fear none of them has the strength to take on my role in this time of crisis, and carry on the duty of preserving this nation in the face of such as Julian and Regis."

  Somewhere in the back of her mind, Rose knew where this was headed, but she couldn't bring herself to accept it until she heard the words explicitly spoken. "I see before me a warrior who has never been conquered," Gregor continued, "who has defeated the greatest of obstacles. Through endless suffering, you've endured. So I believe that here too, you have the ability to prevail and save one more nation from destruction." He placed a shaking hand against her forehead. "I name you—my hope, the strongest of the strong—queen."

  Rose opened her mouth to argue, but before she could speak, she realized that Gregor had died with his palm still resting against her head. She backed away slowly in numbed shock, and his limp arm slid down. The king had spent his last moments passing the throne to her. This was too crazy to even be a dream. How could Gregor pick her for exactly the thing she was least suited to?! Rose would never make a decent queen. She was just a big old brute, and far from royalty material!

  Chapter 5

  "This can't stand," Rose said as she discussed the latest turn of events with Sean and Kelvin in the hall outside Gregor's room, her words rushed and hands trembling. Her world felt like it'd been turned upside down, and she, who had been stabbed through the very heart without fainting before, felt quite close to passing out. "I mean, he must have been delirious. I'm just going to abdicate the throne, that's all. There's got to be someone better suited to rule than me. I can fight and look scary, that's about it."

  To her dismay, Sean replied, "I think you'd make a great queen. I do think that Gregor couldn't have been in his right mind when he decided to give you his crown. Nothing like this has ever happened before; we've barely known you for a month!"

  "It is unprecedented," Kelvin agreed, "and in my opinion, unwise. Though we can hardly blame poor Greg..." He wiped away tears which surprised Rose. Had he been closer to Gregor than she knew? "But I don't think you should step down just yet."

  Rose stared at him. "Why not?! I've never had any experience in politics. I'm not exactly the image of royal grace and beauty, either."

  Kelvin raised his hands. "Settle down. No, you're not easy to picture as a proper queen, but then, would Danica be? You're the people's champion now, the person who they look to to save them from Fanteia. Gregor put his faith in you at the last, even if his mind might've been a bit clouded when he did. If you break that trust now, you'll destroy the nation's hope. And without hope, what is there? What Terlon needs now is a strong warrior to lead them to victory over the enemy, not some snobby master of court politicking—and that, Rose, is you."

  "Yes, I'm a good fighter, and proud of it. But my expertise in combat is limited to that of fighting as an individual. I'm no great general. If that's what you want me to be, I'm afraid I'll disappoint you sorely."

  Sean smiled encouragingly. "You'd probably surprise yourself. You can't have been in so many battles without picking up on some strategic knowledge."

  Rose saw Kelvin nod and shrugged. Maybe they were right. She hadn't done too badly on the occasions she'd been forced to watch out for a small group of less experienced warriors on the battlefield. But she dreaded the burden of making decisions for so many men, and the consequences the wrong ones would have. She wasn't as strong, in this at least, as her friends wished. "It just isn't for me."

  "I could help you," Kelvin said. "What if I would be your general?"

  She put her hands on her hips and frowned. "And you think you're any more qualified than me? Who are you, really?"

  He looked to his nephew, back at her, and exhaled. "Before I left the military, I was an officer of high standing. One of the best, Gregor even told me."

  When she had finished gaping at him, Rose breathed, "You were his friend, weren't you?"

  "Yes."

  Sean still stood slack-jawed at the revelation. "Uncle, I never knew..."

  "Yeah, cause I never told you. I didn't want you to think me a coward who'd abandoned his king—which I was. But I won't fail Terlon now."

  Rose sighed. "Okay, so you've got one thing covered. Now, how am I supposed to do everything else a monarch is supposed to? I've never in my life been good at talking to highborn folks, and it'll only be worse if I'm expected to act like one of them. What's worse, I have just about zero knowledge of this country's laws and customs. And you want me to take the lead in its politics?"

  Sean grinned. "It's not like Gregor didn't have advisors and courtiers working for him. I'm sure they can do the talking for you. You can sit around and look, uh, pretty. I think all we really need from you is your strength and your inspiration. Not your fabled political savvy."

  Fabled? More like nonexistent! She laughed now with relief. "So you just want me to be a figurehead, then?"

  They both nodded. "We don't really expect you to be a queen queen," Sean said.

  "So," Kelvin asked, "will you help us?"

  It wouldn't matter too much whether she held the title of queen or not until Terlon was secure. As for after... "Once the threat of invasion's gone, I'll be free to abdicate and leave, right?"

  "Of course. I'm sure we'll be able to find a worthy successor for you by then." With a wink, Kelvin added. "Or more than worthy, politically speaking."

  The whole thing was still crazy, but at least she wouldn't have to stay much longer than she'd planned to anyway. Of course, she yearned for home already, but she was used to sacrificing her own wants for the sake of stopping those who would do injustice to others. "Fine, I'll play at queen for now. It'll certainly be a very new experience. You guys better not disappoint me with your help, though!"

  "Have we so far?" Sean asked.

  "No, you've done well by my side in battle. I expect nothing less, and if anything, more in court—gods know that's one situation where I can't handle myself too well!"

  #

  Rose went through the motions of her coronation with some difficulty. She walked exactly the wrong way and had to be guided through every symbolic gesture, many of which came out badly twisted. But at least she didn't break anything she wasn't supposed to, with one exception. For a woman who'd killed thousands of men, she felt surprisingly uneasy about the ritual stag sacrifice she was obliged to perform, and wound up forcing herself to kill the beast not by cutting its throat, but breaking its neck. Despite the "break" with tradition, her audience cheered, and she knew why—it gladdened them to see that their new leader was very strong indeed.

  Still, the crown just felt so wrong on her head. Though its weight should have been nothing to her thick neck, she perceived it as being very heavy. Not only had she never held political office before, but she barely had leadership experience at all, usually letting others make the bulk of decisions even when she was named leader or co-leader of a group. And her first step into politics would be to rule a whole nation? She longed to end the war soon, for she couldn't wait until she'd be able to take the crown off for good.

  Walking to her chambers with the excuse that she needed a rest after the festivities, she found herself thinking about Danica. She hadn't given much thought to the princess since her last meeting with Gregor, but now realized that despite being missing for some time, Danica might yet live. Though she'd been badly wounded, she was known for being resilient. What would Rose do if she returned? She figured she'd just hand the crown back over to its rightful owner, as Danica would surely demand. The Terlonian people shouldn't mind the return of their true queen, after all.

  She went through the motions of her new station in stride, most relieved that Kelvin and Sean did not break their promises. Those they asked for aid gave her great support so that she only had to perform the barest minimum of necessary formalities, leaving others to run the court as if King Gregor was merely on leave, rather than dead. Rose really felt more lik
e a little girl playing pretend than a real monarch, for which she was glad because she wasn't a real monarch and she knew it.

  Some of the more traditional members of the nobility insisted she wear a tight, restrictive dress in the custom of Terlonian queens, but she adamantly refused. Regis and Julian could attack again, or send others to do so. If that happened, she wanted to be ready to strike them down, not get stabbed while she was busy trying to tear apart her clothing so she could move. Thus she continued to attend court with armor and sword, and gained the title among the populace of Terlon's Warrior Queen.

  Seeing how busy everyone else was while she sat around doing nothing, Rose began to feel a bit guilty at her own uselessness, and tried to make herself feel better by contributing more opinions than perhaps she should have to serious discussions of policy. To her surprise, some of her suggestions drawn from her own experience were well received, though others were not. She didn't delude herself into thinking she was actually a competent politician, but instead took this as welcome evidence that a commoner's voice did indeed have a place in government.

  When she didn't see much of Sean and Kelvin for several days, she wondered what they were up to. Though they'd promised to help with her new position, she had assumed they only meant that Kelvin would talk to old friends in the government and ask for their help. That was what she'd seen evidence of so far, too. So when Sean finally stopped by her room for a one-on-one chat, he surprised her a bit with what he told her.

  "Hey Rose, looking plump there from the royal food. Sorry for not being here a lot. I've been really busy."

  "Busy with what?" She grinned. "Are you some powerful figure in secret, too?"

  He raised his eyebrows. "Oh, definitely not. My uncle's just been teaching me the ropes of politicking, for some reason. I certainly doubt I'll ever have much use for such knowledge. But it is interesting, so I'm happy to listen. I think he just wants to share it with somebody. He must be feeling old."