The Blood of Queens

Chapter 44

"We've driven the Dans from the coastline but we can't seem to hit them farther than fifty clicks inland. At that point our missiles get shot down and even our best stealth bombers get spotted too soon." The senior officer kept a bright expression, as if to focus everyone's attention on the blue area indicating land the Dans had been expelled from.

"Of course," Queen Victoria said. Her expression was a neutral enigma. When she was sober, at least, the Queen was a master of keeping her subordinates on their toes with ambivalent poise. She wasn't in the gaudy royal regalia customary of these war meetings. In fact, she looked like she had barely been dragged out of bed, with hardly any makeup on her face and little more than a plain white and violet night time gown draped over her slender body. Of course, Tano knew by now that was part of her act as well. It made the officers nervous, and nervous seemed to be how Victoria liked them. "And what of your plans to blockade the Federation, Admiral?"

The officer cleared her throat and looked down at the floor to avoid eye contact with her Queen. "We've stopped virtually all civilian shipping but..."

"But?" Victoria raised an eyebrow at the middle aged Admiral.

"But the Federation has been increasing submarine patrols and... hit the HMS Windsor."

"A Dannic submarine... sank one of our aircraft carriers?" There was no rise in pitch or volume from Victoria's voice.

"Of course not, Your Majesty. It was hit with a torpedo but... the ship did not sink. It's designed to weather hundreds of such attacks and still remain afloat. The Carrier was quickly secured and evacuated before the enemy vessel was sunk."

"But it did land a blow on a Carrier..."

"I apologize for this great failure Your Majesty."

"Alright, that's enough." Victoria burst out into laughter. "This is war. None of us can expect to get through this with unblemished records. Besides, I'm less concerned about naval operations hundreds of kilometers into foreign waters than about reports I've been getting from our own colonies. A Temple of the Church of Angley was destroyed recently, is that right?" Victoria's attention turned to the grey haired woman in plain grey robes on her right.

"As you requested, Your Majesty, we have been working with all due haste with the military to track down the fugitive and traitor Charlotte Dartmoore. We believe she's the one responsible for the attack on the Holy Temple."

"Of course. Any ideas on the motive? My sister isn't stupid enough to draw that much attention to herself without good reason."

"Well... neither myself nor my sisters in the Twelve can say for certain. She did after all kill two High Priestesses without any apparent motive."

"Yes yes, I've heard all of this before." Victoria grumbled and rubbed her temple. She snapped her fingers and pointed at the empty wine glass in front of her.

That was Tano's cue. He stepped forward as quietly as he could, filling the glass up with dark red wine before walking back to the corner where he would sit and wait. The entire time he was up, he could feel the High Priestess's judgmental gaze bear down on him.

"Is that your new cupbearer?" the old woman said with unveiled contempt.

"Yes. Problem?" Victoria took a sip of wine and raised an eyebrow at the priestess.

The grey haired woman, after several seconds of silent glowering, averted her eyes and shook her head.

Victoria let out an exultant scoff. "We live in a new century, High Priestess. There are much more important things to deal with than superstitions about blood lineages. For example, Charlotte is certainly keeping herself very visible but that doesn't deal with the problem that started all this, namely your Paladin Isabella's defiance of a Royal summon and the abduction of one of my own Royal Guards in the process."

"As my sisters have told you repeatedly, Your Majesty, we cannot answer for the rogue behavior of every one of our sworn sisters in the priesthood. If there is anything you wish to know or for us to do, Your Majesty, you need only speak but we cannot take it upon ourselves to enforce the will of the Crown. This was, after all, started with a Royal summon."

Victoria emptied her wine glass. "You Priestesses are so hilarious. Anytime you want something, you invoke the Mother's name to say I'm not important. Anytime you might have to work or get off your fat arses you pretend I'm the one burdened with all the power and responsibility in the universe." She patted the old woman on the head as if she were a dog. "With women like you around, who needs a Royal Jester? Very well, that'll be all High Priestess. Admiral." Victoria gave one look at the Admiral, who was still standing awkwardly in the corner in front of the massive map projection.

***

Once back in the comfort of the Queen's much smaller and cozier living room, Tano could finally let himself breathe again. No matter how often he'd sat in on the Queen's meetings with high Angleyan officials, the experience always felt like a neverending plunge into freezing water.

"Tell me. How much did you want to stab that old bitch?"

The abrupt crudeness of the Queen's tongue nearly made Tano jump. "I... I beg your pardon Your Majesty?"

"I asked you a question. When that useless old bitch looked at you like you were some wet, stray dog, how much did you feel the urge to slit her throat then and there? She was mere inches away from you when you were pouring my wine, and I do believe you still have that knife I gave you."

Tano's hand went over the small dagger he had hidden under his breastplate. The tunic he wore was thin, and he hoped it wasn't too obvious to anyone other than the Queen that there was a weapon underneath it.

"I didn't. Truly, Your Majesty. I might have before but now... I don't really feel like killing anyone."

That got Victoria's attention. She sat upright on her sofa and set her half full wine glass down on the knee height table in front of her. "Really?"

"What good does it do? My mother, your sister, all the thousands I hear about dying and suffering while watching countless hours of horrifying footage at your side... I honestly can't bring myself to care without risking insanity."

"Welcome to the burdens of a throne, young one. Just be glad you don't have to sit in it."

"You're training me to spy on and possibly kill them aren't you?"

"Do you not want to do it?"

Tano opened his mouth to protest, but realized it would have been anything but truthful. The fact remained that in every interaction he'd had in the Palace, the Queen and her Royal Guards treated him with civility. It was always the Priestesses of the Church and their ilk that had given him dirty looks or ignored him outright. Perhaps if they had been deposed sooner his family might be alive...

He banished the thought from his mind. It was pointless ruminating on irreversible events. "My family's already dead," he said.

"What about the families of others like you? How many other frightened boys and girls need to see their parents killed because of superstitious old fools with too much power for their own good?"

"If you hate them so much... why are you letting your country hunt your sister down for killing two of them?"

Victoria furrowed her brow and nodded, as if to acknowledge Tano's point. She didn't speak, opting instead to gulp down another mouthful of wine. "Because I'm not as brave as her. But I'm starting to get over it." She patted Tano on the chest, right where he kept his dagger.