A/N: I own nothing but plot. Enjoy!
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When the day of the Harvest of Bounty arrived, the weather was the perfection of a summer day. The palace staff had been busy running errands, making sure that precautions were taken place. Percy especially wanted to make sure that no one could take advantage of the hustle bustle to make trouble. Every time there was a large event, there was an opportunity for enemies to insert spies or make assassination attempts.
Blackjack and Guido were brought out from the stables after being curried and primped. The king and queen were symbols of Eldoris, and their horses were also seen as representatives.
"Are you ready?" Percy asked the queen.
The queen nodded. She had been training for a few weeks now, enough to stay on a horse properly. There was no need for her to take part in the equestrian competition or archery competition. She could learn the advanced skills later.
"Are you going to participate in any of the competitions, Your Majesty?" The queen asked as she swung herself onto Guido. She looked like Hippolyta with her new riding outfit.
Percy shook his head to get the image out of his mind and followed suit on Blackjack. "I haven't participated in the equestrian since I was proclaimed king, but maybe I'll join in the polo competition. But I did win in all the equestrian competitions that I competed in."
Annabeth laughed. "How humble of you," she joked. "What about archery?"
Percy laughed. "Trust me, you don't want to be anywhere near me if I'm holding a bow and arrow. Skills with a sword do not translate well into skills of archery."
The procession carried out of Eldoris Palace and into the capital. The capital was decorated with blooming flowers and banners. Hawkers were yelling their specialties while children darted about watching plays and dancing to music.
The king and queen sat aside their horses, waving at the people who had gathered out onto the streets to watch the colorful parade of knights in neat columns behind the monarchs. The queen waved her hands at the cheering people, reminded of when she first entered Eldoris on her carriage.
Finally, the royal procession ended in the meadows just outside the capital of Eldoris. Colorful tents were set up, dotting the green fields like colorful flowers. Bright red and white targets were set up by the edge of the meadow for the archery competition while another section of meadow was set aside for the equestrian and polo competition.
Out of the corner of his eye, Percy spotted the blonde head of the crown prince of Tynan heading their way. Of course, as part of his daily reports, Percy knew that the lady-in-waiting of his queen was in frequent contact with the prince of Tynan. Well, it wasn't too bad to nurture this relationship. There were a few things that Percy wanted to negotiate with Tynan, and using the upcoming engagement of the crown prince of Tynan could be quite useful.
"I greet Your Majesties," Prince Jason said.
"I greet Your Highness," Percy returned. "It has been some time since we last met."
"Indeed. Thank you for inviting me to enjoy the festival."
The queen turned to Lady McLean. "Perhaps His Highness is in need of an escort. Would you mind showing him to his designated tent, Lady Piper?"
"I would be honored to." Lady McLean curtsied gracefully.
Lady McLean led the prince away who walked away with a subtle spring in his step like an obedient puppy. Subtly when the two thought no one was watching, Lady McLean put her hand behind them and the prince quickly laced their fingers together.
"Come on, don't gawk at them." The queen chided.
Percy smiled and lace his own hand with hers. He led Annabeth to their own designated tent, decorated with the colors of Eldoris.
The hunting horn soon rang out, signifying the start of the archery competition. A shadow guard secretly dressed as a knight bent and whispered into Percy's ears. Percy nodded.
"Just go on as we planned."
"Understood, Your Majesty." The knight bowed and exited the tent.
The queen raised an eyebrow questioningly. Percy patted her hand.
"Just a report about the competition. Some people were complaining that they were not allowed to use their own arrows."
The queen furrowed her brows. "Why would that be a complaint?"
"Some competitors will naturally have better arrows than others, especially those who are nobles. The commoners would never have had the advantage, otherwise. That is a result of privilege, money and status. But to test whether they are truly skilled in archery, then winning must not be based on the instrument but on technique and talent." Percy explained.
"Ah, I see."
Percy picked up the teapot and personally poured the queen a cup of her favorite jasmine milk tea. He cast some of his magic and formed some ice cubes in the drink before passing it to the queen. It was good to have some fare to eat to watch the good play he had prepared.
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Artemis coolly tightened the strings of her bow, not caring that some of the other competitors were laughing at her.
"Well, well, well, who is this?"
A young man approached. Artemis recalled that this was the third son of some count's family in Kiran. Count Lecht or something like that? He had been coddled by his family as the youngest, and as a result had gained a twisted and arrogant personality.
"I wondered where you've been hiding all these years? I've never seen such a beautiful lady before." The young man leered, looking up and down Artemis' body.
Quick as a flash, Artemis raised her bow and loosened an arrow. The count's son shrieked, drawing the attention of others.
"There was a wasp by your ear." Artemis merely said.
Behind the count's son was a wasp, pinned dead to a maple tree by Artemis's arrow.
"Countess Artemis."
A voice called. It was Frank Zhang. Artemis recalled that this scraggly young man from the country of Lijian had now transformed into someone with a physique of a grizzly bear but the heart of a teddy bear. He had grown up well. For Lord Zhang to be here at the Festival, did that mean that Eldoris had allied with Lijian?
Still on the ground, the young man paused. The lady he had just hit on was a countess. Technically, she was of a higher rank than he was, a count's mere third son who had yet to inherit any title. But why couldn't he recognize who this lady was? Or else he would have never dared to flirt with her.
"Lord Zhang," Artemis greeted.
The physician glanced at Count Lecht's third son, who was blubbering on the ground. The young man looked to the physician for help. Zhang looked away.
"I do believe that we are not supposed to bring our own arrows to the competition," Zhang said, ignoring the man who had collapsed on the ground.
"Ah. I forgot." Artemis tossed her arrows to one of her attendants.
"Shall we, countess?" Zhang offered. "I do hope we can try our best at the competition today."
"I hope you shall not cry when I win that trophy, Lord Zhang." Artemis said, walking away with Zhang.
A horn blew, starting the competition. Around thirty archers lined up in a long row, facing a row of red targets 70 meters away. Artemis took up a spot on the side of the row close to the king's and queen's royal tent. Lord Zhang took the next spot over.
Lord Zhang and Artemis were well matched in the first few rounds of the competition, hitting the center of the target every time. Suddenly, a commotion started from the left side of the archery line. A wild boar had dashed from the woods and was now charging into the line of targets. Screams filled the air as a few people panicked and started pushing others out of the way. Arrows flew everywhere, dotting the sky.
Artemis narrowed her eyes. Beside her, Lord Zhang calmly nocked an arrow. Artemis already had an arrow in her bow. Her eyes were trained on the arrows flying willy nilly into the air, all narrowly missing the boar that was frantically dodging targets and people. There was foam and spittle around the boar's mouth.
There! An arrow was flying far from her left. To the untrained eye, this looked just like an attempt to try and kill the wild hog. But Artemis had been a secret shadow guard for nearly five years now. Very few knew of her after her family had been framed by the dowager queen. She had escaped her family's demise along with her twin brother and hid among the then crown prince's entourage. For those five years as a shadow guard, Artemis had become the best archer in Eldoris.
In a blink of an eye, Artemis unleashed an arrow and intercepted the suspicious arrow that was aiming for the king's tent. The other arrow veered off from its original direction and snapped into two while Artemis' arrow was pinned securely in another competitor's target. Another arrow whistled through the air and was picked off easily by her.
"Not bad, countess." Lord Zhang praised. "I see I have much to learn from you."
Artemis turned to look at the wild hog which had been killed by an arrow from Lord Zhang straight through its eyes. The hog had been killed instantly. Now that the pig wasn't moving, Artemis noticed that there was foam on the pig's mouth. Had the pig been drugged to induce its rampage onto the archery grounds?
"Not bad yourself. Did you take a good look at who shot those arrows?" Artemis asked.
"No, too many people running about. But it doesn't matter, does it?" Lord Zhang nodded to the broken arrow that Artemis had shot. "That arrow will tell us everything."
When the pandemonium had settled down, the king awarded Lord Zhang a special award for killing the wild hog that had trampled the grounds while Artemis won the archery competition. Artemis didn't mind that Lord Zhang took the larger credit. Her role was not to stand out at this moment. It would soon be her turn to step out of the shadows and pursue the justice her family had been denied.
One hour later, one of the archery competitors was silently taken away. The arrow that had been unleashed towards the king was indeed a competition arrow. However, the secret assassin had not known that while every competitor's set of ten arrows looked similar on the outside, a secret symbol was hidden in them to designate who had which arrows.
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"What an exciting match," the queen murmured, fanning herself from the hot air. She narrowed her grey eyes at the archer that Percy had pointed out. "To use this tactic to try to kill. How bloodthirsty this world is."
Percy smiled cynically. "Large events like festivals and weddings are always opportunities for accidents to happen."
The queen glanced at Percy. "It is good that the king is always one step ahead."
Well, he had learned from the Festival of Bounty from his past life where the assassin had tried to kill not only him, but also one of his loyal supporters and framed another loyal family for the killing. Because the arrows all looked to be the same, it was hard to determine who had truly shot the arrows.
In the end, there was heavy damage produced to both of the two loyal families. This time, Percy had the arrows secretly marked for each competitor and had two expert archers as backup. The hog was a wild card this time, but the secret guards he had placed into the competition took care of it with ease. Still, for a wild hog to emerge at this time... Percy was going to have a talk with the managing steward of the festival grounds.
Percy smiled indulgently at his wife. "Come, have some more of this cooling tea. Too much ice milk tea is bad for your stomach."
Those not working in the palace and unfamiliar with the king's doting on the queen had wide eyes when they saw the king personally serving the queen. Those who did tactfully looked the other way and said nothing about palace protocol being broken. After all, the king was the one breaking protocol. Whoever brought it up would be only be courting political suicide. Wasn't there the example of two court officials who brought up expanding the harem?
The king had been incensed, citing his own father's matrimonial relationship. Then the king had decreed marriages and bestowed the two court officials' daughters to the other as concubines, telling them to experience what it was like to have a harem of women. It was rumored that both officials' wives and the wives' families were unhappy with the officials.
Three low horn sounds blared into the open. The equestrian competition was happening soon.
"Shall we, my queen?" Percy offered his hand to Annabeth.
Though the Eldoris royals didn't need to compete, there was a ceremonial portion to the competition. The queen swung onto Guido with ease like she had been trained from childhood. Percy grinned. No one could suspect that the queen had only been learning horse riding a few weeks ago. He would just have to pat himself on the back for being a good teacher.
Catching his eye, the queen laughed as though she knew what he was thinking. Mounting Blackjack with ease, Percy followed the queen as they headed towards the open portion of the field where the equestrian competition would take place.
Though the attempted assassinations had failed, Percy was still on guard. All security knights were on hyper vigilance, especially every shadow guard who lurked throughout the woods.
Percy scanned the green meadow. The air seemed still and balmy, a perfect breezy summer day. Still, he couldn't shake the feeling off that something wasn't quite right.
The queen had her horse trotting a few feet ahead as Percy slowed his horse down. She turned her head back to find him lagging a little. "What's wrong?" She called.
Before Percy could answer, a shout came out from nearby in the meadow.
"Snake! Snake!"
People began screaming, jumping up to see if the snake was at their feet. Percy growled. First a wild hog, and now a snake? They might as well unleash a menagerie of animals at this point.
Suddenly, Guido reared onto his hind legs as something slithered in the grass in front of the horse. Annabeth desperately tried to hold onto the reins, her body tilting dangerously on the horse. There was a flash of silver as Annabeth appeared to throw something at the snake. But it wasn't enough. Guido neighed frantically and tossed his head wildly as he started forward and panicked towards the middle of the meadow.
"Annabeth!" Percy cried out as he tried to reach out. "Blackjack, hiyah!"
Blackjack darted forward, trying to catch up to Guido as the white horse rampaged. The queen called for Guido to stop, but the horse seemed bent on disobeying as it continued to charge forward into the path of people, narrowly avoiding a collision.
To Percy's horror, the queen's hands began to loosen from the leather reins as her body fell from the horse.
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A/N: Happy New Year's everyone! Let's start 2022 off right with a surprise cameo from Artemis whom I've never written about and some arm exercises hanging off of cliffs!
My winter break is ending, and I've only written 3 new chapters. Oops. Time flies by when you're spending time with family and friends. That being said, updates in 2022 may be a bit slower and not as consistent. Please bear with me as I return back to school.
Thanks for spending 2021 with me, and let's hope 2022 will be our year!