The Radiant War

Chapter 4b

      Lacurnia was in the living room, a very small, sparsely furnished room compared to the kind of residences they were accustomed to. She had Prince Bowen on her lap and was tickling him absent mindedly behind one ear while he purred contentedly. His eyes were closed in an expression of pure bliss and he was plucking at her dress with his claws, the Queen ignoring the fact that he was pulling out small threads of the expensive material.

     Princess Stephanie, meanwhile, sat in another chair on the other side of the room, looking at herself in a mirror and touching her newly formed lips with stubby, half formed fingers. She was barefoot, not yet being human enough for shoes to fit her, and the four original toes of each foot, still bearing long yellow claws, had been joined by a small, pink human toe bearing a tiny, perfect toenail. The Queen smiled as she remembered how proud and overjoyed the Princess had been when those toes had first appeared, and how she'd showed them off excitedly to every maid and servant in the palace.

     “Daddy!” she croaked with relief through vocal cords that had only recently become human enough for speech. “You're back!”

     It should have been a normal, happy family scene, the kind of scene that was being repeated in thousands of homes across the human world, but when the Queen turned her head to look at him she saw the concern on his face as he saw how her eyes were red with recently shed tears. She'd taken Lady Dwen's death hard, it was true. It had only been a few weeks since the nightmare of Princess Ardria's ordeal had come to an end. A few precious weeks of heartfelt relief, normality and happiness in which the friendship of the Gildon ambassador had been invaluable. Leothan tried his best to fill that role, but his duties required him to be away from her for most of the day, leaving her alone with the children and her anxiety at the new danger into which her eldest daughter had ridden.

     Leothan sat next to her on the sofa, took the Prince from her lap and sat him on his own lap, where he stood uncertainly for a few moments before sitting. “I'm sorry I've been so long,” he said, putting an arm around her and pulling her close. “There's so many things that need my personal attention...”

     “I know that. You're the King. I knew what it would be like when I married you. The Kingdom comes first, and that's how it should be.”

     “But you've got no-one to talk to any more. First Dwen, then Ardria...”

     She forced a smile. “I'm not going to curl up and die just for lack of gossip. Besides, I've got the servants to manage and the children to look after. If I lived in some other country I might have my own circle of spies keeping me informed of all the palace intrigues. Who's doing what to whom, who’s plotting against us, but everyone here is so damned loyal!” She felt a sudden spike of guilt. “Except for Darniss, of course. If I‘d had my circle of spies, maybe I'd have spotted her for what she was before she... Before she did what she did.”

     “If Balhern didn't spot her, how were you supposed to? She was good. Very good.”

     “And now Ardria's with her. Alone with that monster!”

     “Hardly alone. She's got twenty four armed men to look after her. If Darniss does one thing they don’t like, well, they have their orders.”

     “What good will twenty four men do if Nilon decided to take her hostage? I still can't believe we agreed to this.”

     “The good of the Kingdom...”

     “I'm sick of hearing about the good of the Kingdom! We're talking about our daughter!” She ran a trembling hand through her hair. “I'm sorry...”

     Leothan squeezed her against him. “I know you’re scared. I'm scared too, but she’s not just our daughter. She's a princess and the heir to the Kingdom. People tend to think that that just means dressing in ball gowns and going to state ceremonies. People bowing and waving. In some countries that might even be true, but here, in Helberion, it means duties and responsibilities. Her duty now is to go to Carrow, and my duty is to let her.”