But far far away a queen plotted
"Queen Victoria a letter from the underworld has come for you." Ziaden said, as she ran into the room she was one of the few Naiad Victoria had lift other than half the males of her kind.
Walking away from one of her children of the high blue sea council Victoria took the letter from Ziaden and sent her on her way. "I will have to speak to you later Kirsten of the blue council, if you will excuse my rudeness by asking you to show yourself out." Victoria said to one of her most trustworthy council members.
With a low bow Kirsten walked off, her green hair waving in the ocean air.
Victoria had already prepared them for the possibility of her capture. That if it were to happen, that they were not to look for her, but help get their people back. The people she had let down and abandoned, but no more—she would get them back, she knew who this letter was from and what they wanted out of her.
After reading the letter Victoria stood there for a minute. Although she had been right about what the letter was about, seeing that she would have to trade herself for the life of her people was still hard. But she had been wrong on one major detail . . . Of whom sent the letter. It hadn't been the full headed prices of the underworld, but its king, a king that was so dark that the letter itself reeked of his evil.
Victoria knew what she had to do, even if it meant her own life, she only wished she had a guaranty of her getting them all back. "For my people." she whispered to herself, knowing there would be no other way to free them from their bondage.
"You can't do this, I won't let you Victoria." A deep sedative voice said, Victoria barley stopping a shiver of delight at his words. Yet she could feel the dread that followed after the thought of losing him, once again. "I haven't the strength to let you go through with it."
Victoria said nothing, not even able to face him at this moment, Gods of the light, knew she was completely and utterly in love with him. As if he could read her mind he spoke again.
"Look at me Victoria looks at me and tell me you are leaving me, that you don't love me." Riyadh said his voice full of anger and pain, something she knew and felt all to well, with this man.
Slowly turning to him, Victoria put on the face of a queen, not letting any emotion show on her face, knowing if she did he would attack it like a hunger wolf. Making her want to stay and forget everyone else, something she couldn't do, she wouldn't do. Not even if her people asked her to, which they have.
She had to resist his soft angled face, his deep green eyes and even his golden lined white hair. That touched muscles that seem to be made out of a body of hard stone. With a beautiful sun kissed skin it was hard to resist him. But she had to, it's not like he had any trouble resisting her clear water hair or her coco chocolate skin that some say resemble the ocean floor. Not to mention her freaky reflecting eyes, eyes that changed colors with her emotions.
He was the general of her army, a man who had left her to battle so many times and left her heart heavy with worry, was now the one who would be worrying. How ironic was that.
"It will change nothing Riyadh, I still have a kingdom to look after and I intend to do so." She raised her nose a little too high then, giving away some self-doubts.
"Your kingdom needs you here my love, not giving yourself to our enemy." He moved closer, until they were chest to chest his breath running easily down her face. She had longed for this man's touch longed for him so many times, but now she had to fight it . . . Fight him.
Turning her face away from his male beauty, Victoria replied, "I cannot leave them where they are, without trying to get them out."
"That's not what I'm saying and you know it Victoria." Drawing her face back to his, showing emotions so deep and pure that it erupted inside her, bringing pain and pleasure at its touch. A touch that she longed for, but knew she couldn't have.
"Tell me you don't love me." Riyadh pleaded, she could hear it in his voice as well as see it in his eyes, he didn't what her to go and he would play dirty to make sure of it.
"That has nothing to do with now." Moving out of his hands Victoria looked out at her kingdom that had ones been filled with talk and laughter, but was now still and quiet. Reminding her of who she was doing this for.
The people, not her, not the council, not even Riyadh, but her people. Trying to control her tears, Victoria sharpened her eyes then, she didn't need to fall apart now, not in front of him, not when everyone needed her most.
"It has ever thing to do with now." He snapped as he rubbed his hands through his hair, while he walked back and forth in front of her. She knew his mind was working out a plan already, a plan she couldn't let go into action, not with so much riding on her.
"Remember that poem you had read to me the day you knew deep inside that you had fallen in love with me."
Victoria sucked in a breath at that, it had been so long since she had written it, that she had forgotten . . . Addles that's what she told herself.
"Back then I thought I understood it, but I see I was wrong . . . So damn wrong." Riyadh whispered, his words were coming out a little shaky, but she knew what he was saying she would always know, she had named it "the song of a warriors wife" although they hadn't gotten married she had felt that they would be, how wrong she had been.
As if he was reading it from paper Riyadh recited it before her:
With my heavy heart,
And sweet sorrow's,
He rides off;
For new land and more battles,
He rides off;
With my sorrows not of thought,
He rides off;
Upon that horse that have all my hate,
When he rides it away;
Yet all my love,
When it returns him to me;
But one day it shall not,
And all I will have is a heavy heart,
And my beater, sweet sorrows.
Shaking her head, Victoria felt as if she had just come out of an enchantment. The power and emotion of that poem coming just as strong as the day she wrote it. When she was finally able to speak again her voice was withdrawn and cold. "But now I understand you as well, you did what you had to for the people you love. Now I have to do what I have to for the people I love and there's no way to stop me."
"What if I marry you, will you stay then?"
Pain filled her then. This was not how it was supposed to happen. She didn't what him to marry her to keep her safe, she wanted him to marry her because he loved her, because he couldn't live without her. For him to offer like this, only made her see that they could never be, not really.
"It won't change my mind Riyadh so leave it." Victoria said making her voice go as cold as the Atlantic Ocean in the middle of winter.
"Is that an order or a suggestion . . . My Queen?" Anger showed through his voice then. She could feel his emotions with drawing with ever secant that passed. He had given it his all and it hadn't been enough to work.
Victoria froze she had never ordered Riyadh to do anything. Addles not when they were alone, where it really counted. To do so now would be like betraying him, but that was what needed to happen, she had to be cold.
"Yes, it is an order." She said walking to the door that would lead to her freedom, her doom. She could hear him saying something behind her back, but she paid it no mind. "You'll be wise to not bring any of it up again." With that Victoria left the man who had always had her heart, but would never truly have it, she knew it was now out the window.
So what if she never saw him again, that was the price of being a princess, giving up her needs for theirs. So what if he had been the man she had planned to marry. So what that he had denied her for the simple need to stay by her side as a protector. That he trusted no one else to the job, but his self even if that meant sacrificing her love for her safety. Addles that what he had said?
But she knew it was because he hadn't loved her enough to give up what he loved the most, his job, a job that had ran through his family for years and on some deep not emotional level she understood and escaped it, he was a worrier before he was her lover. That is how it should be and how it should stay, even if it meant she would have to marry another.
It was how it should be . . .
"My queen, the council is awaiting your final word." Ziaden said coming from around the north door corner, her face sat in sorrow, a sorrow Victoria knew all too well, if not more. "I will miss you my queen."
"And I you,"