by Randi Darren
“Someone is going to discover that there’s a massive number of forged silver coins. A truly massive number of them.
“They’ll weigh the same as regular silver coins. Look the same, too. You wouldn’t be able to tell them apart without cutting them in half and melting them down partially. I really pulled out all the stops on that one. They look identical to Hefen silvers. Identical.”
“You… what?” Glint asked darkly, lifting his head up to look at Alex.
“I spent Saoirse’s dowry on forging silver coinage. Your entire economy is a single conversation away from probably collapsing,” Alex said. “We forged… a lot of silver coins. Then I had a massive number of true silver coins shipped back to Brit, removing them from circulation. With food prices skyrocketing, coins becoming untrustworthy, and a war just starting… well.
“Your country is doomed, Glint. Doomed, all for your own greed. You shouldn’t have come looking for a fight. You shouldn’t have involved my family.
“You shouldn’t have angered me. You only have one way out of this.”
“And what’s that, hm? What way out do I have that you haven’t already closed off to me?” Glint shouted. “What avenue can I take that would preserve my throne?”
“Preserve your throne? None,” Alex said. “Your throne was lost when Alanna died. You could probably save your life. Definitely save your country.
“But that’s up to you. In fact, if you do what I’m about to propose, I guarantee that your name will be remembered as that of a monarch who did what he could and failed in a war. Rather than Glint the Greedy, as I’ve already prepared,” Alex said. “I’ll even let you see your grandchildren, if Harold or the emperor doesn’t have your head stricken from your shoulders. You could be a part of your daughter’s life. Even if only a limited part.”
Glint’s eyes were locked on Alex. There was anger and hatred there. As well as a strange hopelessness.
There was more here than even Glint could say.
“Well?” Glint asked after waiting for several breaths.
“Surrender to me,” Alex said. “I’ll take you to Regina, and then we’ll take you to Harold. This war could be over in a day’s time. Perhaps with only some reparations to be paid. It isn’t as if we’d argue for punishment against Gaelis. He’d been disloyal.
“You would of course abdicate your throne to your daughter, but you might make it out with your life. Your country would continue on.”
Alex watched Glint for any response at all to his words. They seemed to have hit him perfectly.
Correctly.
But he needed just a bit more.
“Or continue this fight, and your country becomes little more than a debtor to Harold. Your daughter a duchess, and her child grows up without a father or grandfather. You suffer the fate of the Glint I spoke of and are remembered for all time as that. Strike a deal with me, surrender here and now, and I’ll do my best to see you live through this. To see your country safe and your history remembered only as a monarch who lost a war,” Alex finished.
Turning away from Alex, Glint shook his head slowly.
A full minute passed like this, until the king finally looked back to Alex.
“Then… I surrender, and accept your terms” Glint said, his tone sounding absolutely broken. “Please conduct me accordingly to your duchess.”
“Of course, of course,” Alex said. “First, though, let’s swear on the goddess of deals. Leah. That way we’re both protected and insured to our deals.”
Grimacing, Glint nodded his head.
***
Slumped over in the carriage, Alex missed the point where they rode through Regina’s defenses.
He didn’t wake when numerous soldiers checked the contents, only to conduct them further along toward the duchess with celerity.
And he managed to sleep right up until Regina’s hand gently shook him awake.
So groggy was he that when he opened his eyes, he couldn’t quite place where he was or how he’d gotten there.
“Alex,” Regina said with a bright and wide smile. “Just what have you done? My guards tell me there’s a very grumpy man in the coach behind yours. That he won’t speak with anyone but me, and in your presence.”
Rapidly, Alex’s mind caught up with where he was. He’d only left the camp this morning after a very small and meager breakfast for himself.
To Alex, he still had no idea what was going on or how long he’d been gone.
“Hi, Gina. King Glint,” Alex said, sitting up slowly. “It’s King Glint. He’s come as my prisoner. I’m turning him formally over to you, my Duchess.
“I promised him I’d argue for his life to be spared, and that the only concessions asked of him would be to abdicate his throne to his daughter. Abdicate for his daughter and reparations to you and Harold.”
Regina laughed lightly at that, then hiccupped as her eyes widened.
“You did what?” she asked, her voice catching. “And… are you okay? You really don’t look well. Your cheeks are hollow, and you look really pale.”
Alex rubbed a hand over his face. He felt sick, tired, and he hurt all over.
“I was starved while a prisoner. Then I made King Glint surrender to me,” Alex said. “And now I’m turning him over to you. Can-can you please take me to a bed? I feel absolutely awf… awf—”
Alex felt like the world was spinning. He couldn’t finish his sentence, and his tongue went numb.
Slowly, Alex felt himself collapse to one side. His body slid into the space between the seats, and his body felt too heavy by half.
Everything went dark then, and Alex lost his grip on consciousness.
Epilogue
Alex’s eyes flicked open.
He couldn’t see a damn thing.
No matter which way he looked, it was all inky darkness, formless. There was nothing to be seen, and he could see nothing.
Groaning, he lifted his head up.
“Alex?” asked Regina in a soft voice. She sounded tired and worn.
“Mmm,” Alex mumbled. Slowly, he got himself into a seated position, resting his back on the headboard behind him. “Yeah. What… Where am I? What’s going on?”
“You passed out,” Regina said. “You’ve been unconscious for three days. Well, that’s not true. Not entirely unconscious.”
There was a light tapping noise, and then the faint glow of light entered from what Alex thought was a doorway.
Something was said to someone that he didn’t catch, and then a lantern with its shutters pulled was passed into the room.
The door closed, and one of the shutters was opened, letting light spill free.
He could just barely make out now that he was clearly in a room made of stone. Which meant he was likely in the keep.
Turning his roaming eyes and thoughts to Regina, he tuned back in to what she was saying.
“…awake enough to get some water and broth in you. But it seemed more like you were having fever dreams. Or a waking dream,” Regina said. “You were so thin. You looked terrible.”
“Yes. I was playing a game of chicken with Glint,” Alex said.
“A game of… what? I’m afraid I don’t understand that one.” Regina was doing something with a side table. The light from the lantern was enough to remove the gloom of the room, but not enough to let him see perfectly.
“Err… he was trying to starve me. Was only feeding me once a day, and not very much,” Alex said. “So I stopped eating. Completely. I drank only the water that was left out and refused everything else.
“I’ll not let someone else have control, leverage, or otherwise over me. Ever.”
“That… does seem like something you would do,” Regina said with a sigh. “I wish I could say I was surprised at what you’ve done, but I’m not.”
“Speaking of what I did,” Alex said as Regina turned to him with a tray. As she walked it over to him, he realized it was a lot of sliced-up fruit. Sliced-up fruit with soft, fleshy int
eriors. “How’d it turn out?”
Regina set the tray down next to him and held up a slice of what looked like a pear.
“Eat, I’ll talk,” Regina said. From the way she said it, there was little room for negotiation in that statement.
Taking the item from her fingers, Alex began to slowly eat said pear slice.
It was singularly the best-tasting pear he could remember having eaten.
“Good. Now,” Regina said, sitting down next to his bed. There was a chair there. Apparently she’d been by his side for a while. “King Glint’s surrender has been formally accepted. I acted in good faith based on what he said and turned him over to King Harold. He was overseeing his liege levies as they arrived in drips and drabs.”
“Oh? How’d that go?” Alex asked as he finished the slice of pear. Not waiting for her to instruct him to do so, he reached to the tray and took another piece of fruit.
“I don’t think I’ve ever received so many compliments in so short a time from His Highness,” Regina said. “Or anyone. No sooner did he have Glint in custody, he rode off at full speed back to his capital.”
Alex grunted at that, nodding his head.
“I did inform him of the guarantees that were made to Glint on his behalf,” Regina said. “He seemed annoyed at first, until I mentioned it was you who had done it. That you were singlehandedly responsible for bringing Glint to his knees.
“That Glint had surrendered to you directly, and that you were recovering from what looked like starvation in my keep. After that, Harold looked… Honestly, he looked shocked. Then he immediately agreed to what I’d said. He asked me to relay his sincere thanks to you, and that he’d adhere to your guarantees.”
Damn. That… doesn’t sound good.
My name or presence shouldn’t be high enough to cow a king.
Not if I want to have a normal and easy life after this. Not if I want to fade into the background and become a technological world superpower.
“He also said that he’d be visiting as soon as this was ‘finished’ as he called it,” Regina said. “It’s not a secret that you’re wedded and bedding the princess. But only a few people know that Glint’s entire royal line was wiped out in a series of ‘accidents’ as they’re called.”
“Won’t be private for long,” Alex said, shaking his head. “Glint’s entire army knew about it. That’ll be spreading rather quickly.”
“I’m sure Harold will be suitably panicked then,” Regina said with a smirk. “One of his counts married to a queen, and also married to a duchess of his realm. Not to mention the number of countesses and baronesses he’s married to or has turned into concubines. And let’s not forget Quinn. She’s a terrifying question mark.”
Alex shrugged at that. He had his plans. If Harold didn’t interfere with them, Alex had no reason to bother the monarch.
“Brit will stand at the forefront of many things, but I have no interest in the throne,” Alex said.
“What if I did? Or Anna?” Regina asked.
Frowning, Alex pondered that. He hadn’t really considered anyone else in his plans for Brit. “Bug Saoirse. Maybe she can help you with Harold. I don’t really care. I just want to run Brit. Anna doesn’t care about that kind of stuff.”
Regina only sighed with a shake of her head, smiling. “I’ve heard you say that a number of times, but I think you’re underestimating what you’ve done to the world. And what you’re going to do.
“You’re going to have, or you already have, too much power to just be a count. That won’t last.”
“We’ll see about that,” Alex muttered, finishing off the pear entirely. “If I have to fight someone for my right to remain a count, they’ll regret it.”
“Oh, of that I have no doubt. Your moniker has changed a bit, by the way,” Regina said. “You’re still Count Inferno, and the Butcher of Gaelis, but in polite company you’re just ‘the Count.’
“From the queendom of the Xer to the Imperial courts, and beyond. The Count is apparently a figure of song and fable, and only the foolish or the damned cross him.”
Rolling his eyes, Alex didn’t respond. Instead he leaned back into the headrest again and pulled the blankets up to his chin.
He felt full after eating a pear and half a peach.
Full and sick.
“I suddenly consider myself rather fortunate that you didn’t crush me,” Regina said. “Because I think I’d be a fool if I thought for a second I somehow could have beaten or outmaneuvered you.”
“Anna thought you were nice,” Alex said honestly. “So I didn’t pursue it.”
“You’ve mentioned that before. I think I’m going to have to buy our silly little wife something nice,” Regina murmured, breaking eye contact with Alex for a second. Then her head turned right back to him. “And that’s Glint. Though I have other news as well.”
“Do tell,” Alex said, feeling rather tired all of a sudden.
“Quinn sent a messenger,” Regina said. “Twil formally surrendered a few days ago. She didn’t list names, but she said you were right about wanting to marry. Everything down there is secured and… well, mine now. Through you.”
“Good. One less thing to do before I can go home,” Alex said bitterly. “Anything else? Can I go home?”
“For a time,” Regina said. “You have family obligations you’ll have to take care of, obviously.”
Ah. Yes. The pregnancies and the children. I suppose that’s true.
“Other than that, we—”
There was a soft tap at the door.
“My lady, we just received a messenger,” said a voice through the door.
Clicking her tongue, Regina looked at Alex as if she were fighting the very world.
“It never fails,” Regina said. “Every time I have you alone, the very fates try to interrupt me.”
Huffing, Regina got to her feet and waddled over to the door. She looked very pregnant now.
Opening it, she stuck her hand through the door. When she came back over to Alex, she seemed frustrated and angry.
“Oh,” she said, her face smoothing quickly. “It’s from One and Seven. Shall I read it to you?”
“Only if you want to read a letter that reads half love letter, half dirty sex talk,” Alex said with a grin.
“Mm. I suppose that’s true,” Regina said. “I’m sure I’ll get through it fine. And you don’t mind, do you?”
“Not at all,” Alex said. “It might be amusing to watch my prim and proper duchess say such things.”
Sniffing, Regina broke the seal and unfolded the letter.
“Ah… it’s addressed to me and is meant to be sent to you if the chance presents itself. It would seem this was sent before your release,” Regina said. “Hmmm… oh, here we are.”
Regina cleared her throat.
“Dearest love, my husband, we’ve arrived safely at the Imperial capital and have petitioned for an audience. Either with the Imperial overseer or the emperor himself.
“But we couldn’t get a meeting with either. They said that the emperor was handling an issue in the north. That all of his counselors, overseers, and ambassadors were busy with this issue,” Regina said, pausing. “We’re here and doing all that we can to get you free, my beloved. Don’t worry! We’ll get you out as soon as we can, Master!”
Hm. That’s… not good.
If the emperor himself is dealing with something in the north, does that mean everything down here in the southern half of the empire was orchestrated?
Is this all one grander game that I’m missing?
And if it is, how do I sit out? How do I keep my family and friends free of it?
“Alright. Here’s the second half of the letter, and… oh. Oh, I… uhm… I see,” Regina said, her eyes flitting across the paper. “I think… I think I… yes. No. No, I’ll let you read this later.
“Suffice it to say, Seven is fine and misses you. Yes.”
Laughing, Alex closed his eyes and smiled.
“Everyone is fine, apparently,” Regina said, her eyes still moving across the paper. “Though very nervous about you and what’s going on with you.
“I have to wonder, though… if the emperor is this busy… doesn’t this mean you were bluffing with Glint?”
Not opening his eyes, Alex nodded. He’d already realized that.
He’d been counting on the Imperial overseer coming and holding Glint to his obligations.
Alex had been running more than a game of chicken.
He’d been running a bluff with little better than deuce high and the river card on the board.
“Remind me not to press my luck later,” Alex mumbled. “Sounds like I spent it all on this one.”
“So it would seem,” Regina said softly, closing the letter. “So it would seem.”
***
“Congratulations,” said a voice, waking Alex from his nap.
Opening his eyes, he found himself looking at Leah and Rike. They were seated on the bench across from him.
“Hello Leah, hello Rike,” Alex said, smiling. Leaning over, he gave each one of them a hug. Though it felt like Rike might crush him in return. And she didn’t release him until he started pushing at her. “And thank you. I take it I cut it close?”
“Very,” Leah said. “Glint was planning on having you executed. The only reason he didn’t was your silver coin forgeries. You walked a knife’s edge.”
“It was amazing,” Rike said, smiling at him, her eyes practically glowing. “Especially when Coffin started to feel her own self-worth. She’s already on her path to redemption.”
Alex smirked at that, leaning against the carriage wall.
“Shouldn’t you be more interested in a priest or something? Maybe someone who worships you?” Alex asked.
“Heavens no,” Rike said, making a shooing motion with her hand. “Anyone who prays to me, who only follows my tenets because it’s part of their belief, would never be worthy in my eyes. It’s a choice of religion for them. It isn’t… true.
“Certainly, they can redeem themselves and be worthy, but… not to be my husband.”
