Selvina wiped the tears from her eyes for the umpteenth time since returning to her room. She had struggled to say something about Jack to Rhiannon but worried it may just make things worse. As terrible punishment for freeing Amalthea, the empress may seek out the ship Jack was on and ensure it was destroyed fully with no survivors. Selvina thought she was probably overthinking it but she didn't fully know the empress. She had always seemed so much in control but after discovering her plans, Selvina had her doubts.
Giving life to a god? It was a remarkable endeavor but one that could yield unwelcome results. Amalthea was certain Iktarosh would turn on Rhiannon and Selvina found herself agreeing with the unicorn woman. King Arthur had no good things to say about the god of conquest and what better way to begin his conquest than to claim the world's strongest nation as his own? In order to do that Iktarosh would have to kill its leader...which did not put Rhiannon in a good place.
But, Selvina, reminded herself, Rhiannon had been adamant and assured that all events would happen as intended. Even if they didn't, she had plans for that as well.
All the thoughts of Iktarosh steered Selvina's mind back to the empress and subsequently where she was presently heading. Tears built up and dripped freely down the young woman's face but she didn't care.
She stood outside on her room's balcony, leaning into the balustrade and watching her tears drip down the hundreds of feet to the ground, landing somewhere at the base of the gigantic castle.
"I should have stopped her," she said aloud, still looking down. "I should have told her to stay."
Amalthea stood nearby, silent as a statue, her expression solemn. She stepped towards Selvina and spoke softly. "She is the empress of Noyr, Selvina, and thus has a duty to defend her nation. She did not leave to endanger Jack's life. She left to stop a fleet belonging to her rivals. There is nothing you could have done to stop her."
"I could have done something, Amalthea!" Selvina slammed a fist on the stone balustrade, not feeling the pain. "I could have threatened to kill myself or something. I could have given her no choice!"
"She would have placed you somewhere where you couldn't hurt yourself and gone anyway. I worry for Jack's life as well, Selvina, and it pains me to see you in such torment. Was I stronger I may be able to reach out to Jack but even so, it would have done little."
"Why do you say that?" Selvina asked with a frown. "It would have warned him the empress was coming! He could have the ship break away from the fleet and be safe!"
"Would the captain believe him?"
"Hook would, Amalthea. I know you've never met him but he's like a second father to Jack. If Jack said that you had warned him about Rhiannon's arrival Hook would do something about it."
Amalthea sighed sadly. "In that case, I am even more saddened."
"Are you sure you can't reach him? Have you tried?"
Amalthea eyed Selvina and nodded slowly. "I have... I nearly faint with every attempt. I am sorry..."
Tink fluttered in and landed on Selvina's shoulder. "If I flew faster I'd go warn him. Captain Hook is talented, Selvina. I'm sure he'll save his ship and his crew, including Jack, when he sees the empress."
"He attacked her when she was in Arababyl," Selvina said. "If she sees him there she might head straight for him and sink his ship first." A fresh onslaught of sobs assaulted Selvina and for several minutes she could do nothing but weep. "I'll never see him again!"
"Don't say that," pleaded Tinkerbelle. "It's a fleet, Selvina. The chances of Rhiannon recognizing Hook among all those other ships and captains are slim. You'll see Jack again."
"You don't know that!" Selvina's face was red and sopping wet. She sniffled and wiped her nose on her bare arm. She was a wreck and she knew it. She had every reason to be. Jack was going to die and there was absolutely nothing she could do about it. Absolutely nothing.
Long minutes passed in silence as Selvina recovered herself and settled down somewhat. Her heart felt like it had been torn and shredded, her entire body ached, and she had a great urge to curl up and cry forever but she was as calm and collected as she'd ever be.
Someone needs to invent the cellphone in this world already, she thought as her mind rummaged about frantically for a solution. Rhiannon was gone, taken wing and most likely many upon many miles away by now. She had sent all her corvugriff scouts ahead of her, which meant there were none left at the castle to steal. Selvina had no idea how to fly those creatures but she'd have given it a shot for a Jack. She'd do anything for him...
"Why am I so useless all the time?!" she shouted. "Why can't I ever do anything about anything!" She slammed her fists onto the balustrade over and over until they were numb and then slid down to her knees, shedding more tears.
Amalthea knelt beside her and placed a hand on her head. Selvina, wanting comfort of any kind, leaned into the other woman and felt her arm wrap around her. She was surprised that Amalthea, weak and thin as she was, could support her but was grateful that she could. She sobbed into the woman's chest and emptied her heart, spirit, and soul onto her tattered gown. Tinkerbelle was hugging Selvina's neck during it all, her tiny fingers gripping tightly.
"Jack loves you as much as you love him, Selvina." Amalthea said. "He will come back to you. No enemy cannon or dragonfire will stop him. I saw it, Selvina, when I met him. He will return to you, I know it, just like how I know you will stop the Writer."
Selvina sniffed and sat up. "Do you think so?"
"I know so, Selvina."
"How?"
"I am tied to the spiritual realm, Selvina, and I can feel his tie to you. It is how I could communicate with him, had I the strength to. As long as that tie remains linked to you, I know that he is alive."
Selvina looked at the ground as she asked, "Would you tell me if that link broke?"
"I would," Amalthea replied without hesitation. "But it will not break."
"Jack would journey across the world to come back to you," Tinkerbelle said. "He already sort of did and he'll do it again if he has to."
Selvina took a deep breath, calming her nerves ever so slightly. "I appreciate the support. I really do. It won't stop me from worrying but...it might....stop the crying, at least for now."
Selvina stood up and took another long breath of fresh air. She wiped her eyes and blinked away any moisture still in them. Now that her mind was clearer, she veered her thoughts to a different direction. She may not be able to save Jack, but with Rhiannon gone, it gave her a chance to do save everyone else.
She looked at Amalthea with an expression of determination. "Are you certain Iktarosh will not help us stop the Writer?"
"Absolutely certain," she replied. "He is not to be trusted and is a danger to all of us. I think Rhiannon is bringing doom to the world by reviving him."
"Then let's do something about it," Selvina state strongly. "Rhiannon isn't here to stop us right now. I say we go down to that chamber where Iktarosh is and break those chains supporting him. They seem to be feeding him life somehow and if they're broken, he should never come back to life."
Amalthea nodded. "I believe this as well, and I fully support you."
"Then let's get going!"
Straightened and strengthened with purpose, Selvina marched into her room and reached for the door. She opened it with force and stepped out into the hall.
Only to be blocked by crossed halberds.
Two burly guards stood on both sides of her door and immediately stopped her progress. They looked down at her and shook their heads.
"We are under strict order from the empress," said one, "that you are to remain in this room at all times."
"No exceptions," added the second guard.
"Let me go!" Selvina shouted. "You can't do this to me!" She glanced back at Amalthea for support.
"We have urgent matters to attend," said the unicorn woman. "Please let us pass."
"That will not happen," said the first guard. "Return to your room now."
"Or what?" Selvina snarled as Tinkerbelle buzzed by her ear, nail-sword ready.
"We are instructed to throw you into the dungeons if you give us trouble."
Tinkerbelle can unlock us easily enough, and it would be closer to Iktarosh anyway, Selvina thought deviously. "Fine," she said, smirking. "You're going to have to because I won't stop."
"The condition requires the fairy and white-haired woman to die," added the second guard. "The empress made it clear that only you, girl, would be the one in a cell."
Selvina's face paled. Would Rhiannon really do that? Would she so easily kill Tinkerbelle and Amalthea? If she truly believed Iktarosh was the answer then she didn't need Amalthea and she must suspect that Tinkerbelle could work the locks. Selvina's resolve plummeted and she reluctantly stepped back into her room and closed the door.
"Yet again," she said, still staring at the closed door, "I prove to be completely useless..."
There was a commotion outside the door and then, oddly, there was a knock.
Selvina glanced at Amalthea and Tinkerbelle before opening the door a crack. "Who is it?"
Staring back at her, beaming wide, was the Ice Queen. "It's only the queen of Sworden, handmaiden. I highly suggest you open this door before bad things happen to you."
Selvina could feel the elf-arrow's reassuring weight on her chest and slowly opened the door, her mind filling with questions. "What...brings you here, um, your highness?"
Queen Svala stepped into the room, gave it a quick look around, grimaced, and then settled into a padded chair near the unlit fireplace. "Rhiannon said I should head back home, in case the fleet showed up, and I had started to but once I saw her flying off to it, I changed my mind. She'll burn every ship on the water anyway so I have nothing to worry about." She settled her gaze on Selvina and grinned. "Besides, I'd much rather get to know the empress's handmaiden better!"
Selvina gulped, feeling incredibly uncomfortable. "W-um, may I ask why?"
"Sit," said the queen, though there were no other chairs in the room.
Selvina thought of grabbing one from the balcony but as she moved that way the queen cleared her throat and glared at her. Selvina sat on the ground, loving Tinkerbelle all the more for delivering her the elf-arrow. As long as she wore it, this childish queen could do nothing to her. The fairy had hidden herself from the queen as soon as she entered the room but Selvina knew she'd come out if the queen tried any non-magical means to hurt her.
"As for you, slave, leave the room" Svala said, eyeing at no one in particular.
Selvina raised an eyebrow. "Who...do you speak to?"
"The slave!" the queen exclaimed. "Who else? She may have pretty hair but those rags could only be worn by a filthy slave. I didn't know Rhiannon still had slaves but clearly she does."
"But she's not—"
"—forgive me, your highness," said Amalthea with a low bow. "I am gone." She gave Selvina a smile before turning and heading into the room furthest from where Svala was.
"Much better," said the queen. "How can you stand so close to someone like that? She is disgusting. Who knows what diseases she's carrying..." Svala shuddered before crossing her legs and resting her palms on her upraised knee. "Now, as for you, commoner, tell me about yourself. What is your name?"
She already forgot it? Selvina thought, finding yet another reason to dislike the queen. "I'm Selvina."
"Selvina? How interesting that our names are so similar. Svala and Selvina, sitting together like sisters, though separated from birth, of course. There is no way I'd be caught alive in whatever you're wearing."
Selvina's skirt and blouse were changed from the dress she had worn that morning, which seemed so long ago, and were simple and nondescript but comfortable and pretty in their own way. Her attire wasn't glamorous by any means but Selvina wouldn't call it ugly either. She wanted to say something to argue the matter but decided against it.
"Anyway," said Svala, "what I really want to know is how you know Rhiannon?"
"I...am just her...handmaiden, like you said."
"Yes, but why? Why did she choose you? You, whose hair is the same colour as mine, and whose name is mysteriously similar, and whose age is nearly a match for mine, somehow became Rhiannon's first ever handmaiden. I'd really like to know why. Is she teaching you how to rule a nation? Is she trying to teach you how to read and write and speak Swordenish? IS SHE TRYING TO REPLACE ME?!"
Selvina's eyes widened at the outburst and she gulped. "I have no idea what you are talking about, your highness. I am just a...simple handmaiden."
"I don't believe you, Selvina. I do not."
I don't have time for this, Selvina thought, suppressing her rising frustration. It was late in the evening, she was hungry, tired, and she didn't have the willpower to deal with a spoiled, annoying girl of a woman that Svala was. "It is the truth, I assure you."
"That is exactly what I liar would say. You can't fool me, peasant. I know what Rhiannon is doing. She's going to destroy the Avalonian fleet, come back a hero to both Noyr and Sworden, and then claim all the glory for herself. Once that's done, she'll get rid of me and put you on the throne! I AM THE ICE QUEEN! ONLY ME!"
Selvina struggled not to sigh in annoyance. She was about to debate the matter but instead tried a different tactic. "No one would believe me to be you, Queen Svala. There is only one Queen Svala and I would make a poor replacement. Your people would know immediately that I was false."
"That may be true," Svala said, eyeing her fingernails with a sense of pride. "It doesn't mean I am wrong, however. Rhiannon would try it. I know this."
"I have no magic, your highness. I can't possibly be a worthy replacement."
Svala curled her hand into a fist so tightly it shook. Her lips pursed and her face reddened as she growled and then screamed in irritation. "My magic is gone again!" She glared at Selvina and reached down, grabbing her by the collar of her blouse. Selvina saw Tinkerbelle appear behind the queen, ready to strike. "You did this! HOW? Tell me how!"
"I did nothing, your grace!" Selvina said, trying to look terrified. The truth was that without magic, she was confident she could pummel the queen into a pulp if she needed to. The thought was increasingly tempting. "I swear to you!"
"You swear? To a queen? How dare you?!" Svala shoved Selvina back and stood up, her fists vibrating, and narrowed her eyes at the other woman. "Every time you are near, my magic disappears. I was uncertain before but now I know. I know it is you. Rhiannon will use you to kill me and replace me as her puppet queen. She'll have all of Faeryum, Sworden included." Her full lips curved into a sinister grin. "Unless I stop you now. If I kill you here and now she'll have no replacement. Rhiannon will know that her plan is ruined and will have no choice but to—"
Selvina felt a chill pierce her body as the queen's eyes fixated on her chest, where the elf-arrow now hung over her blouse instead of beneath it. The shove had moved it and now the queen could see it clearly.
"What is that ugly thing?" the queen asked, taking a step toward Selvina.
Instinctively, Selvina moved away, and realized too late that she had just betrayed herself. She stood up and, as casually as she could, replaced the elf-arrow back beneath her blouse. "It is nothing, your highness. It's just a silly trinket. It means nothing."
"Yet you moved away when I approached you," the queen said, that grin of hers returning. "You can't tell me it means nothing if you don't want me close to it."
Apparently this childish queen is more clever than I thought, Selvina thought worriedly. Was the childishness all an act? Was she actually more conniving and cunning than she let on?
"Give it to me!"
Selvina furrowed her brows. "With all the respect I can give you, I can't do that..."
"I am a queen and I demand to have it! Give it to me now!" Svala stomped her foot and extended her open hand. "I want it so give it to me! I am queen! You have to do what I say!"
So much for it being an act, Selvina thought dryly. Emboldened by the discarded worry that the queen was more dangerous than she seemed, Selvina took a step back. "I will not give it to you."
Svala seemed shocked, as if this was the first time in her life that someone wasn't giving her what she wanted. "You uppity little peasant fool! I am queen!"
Selvina frowned and crossed her arms over her chest. "You are not my queen."
"I will have your head for this!"
Selvina chuckled, which clearly unsettled Svala. "I used to know a queen who said the same thing. I met her and she was defeated soon after. You had best be careful, Svala, or I will do the same to you."
The Ice Queen's face paled and she took a step back, alarmed and afraid. "I knew it," she squealed. "I knew it all along! Rhiannon has sent you to kill me! I was right! I knew it! Gua—" She was promptly cut off as Tinkerbelle buzzed in and poked at her eyes with her nail-sword. Svala swatted at her wildly, opening her mouth into a scream.
Selvina, overcome with the heavy weight of feeling useless and incapable, released her sorrow, frustration, anger, and pain at the Ice Queen. She knew it was a bad idea to attack a sovereign. She knew it might get her in serious trouble. She knew it might get her killed.
But she didn't care.
She would not be made a fool by this child of a ruler. She had enough. She had enough of it all.
She tackled the queen to the ground and assaulted her with not slaps or clawing fingers, but solid fists, the ones her brother taught her to make. She pounded them into the queen's face over and over, unleashing herself upon the fallen woman with vicious violence. Selvina saw red and her only thoughts were how to cause as much pain as she could to this despicable excuse for a queen. Bone slammed into bone with thunderous force and blood, spit, and tears soaked the queen's face. Selvina's knuckled cried out in agony but she didn't stop. She couldn't. Punch after punch hit the queen of Sworden in her perfectly maintained face, ruining her makeup, her skin, and her facial features.
When she was finished she continued to sit on the queen's stomach for a while as she caught her breath. Queen Svala was all bruises and blood, weeping and wailing like a punished child. She looked at Selvina through her one good eye, the other swollen shut, and shivered in fear.
"Please, don't kill me!" she pleaded pitifully. "Please! I will not do anything! I will tell no one! Please! I don't want to die. Don't kill me!"
Selvina took a deep breath and then poked a finger at Svala's chest and said menacingly, "Don't you ever come in my room and accuse me of anything again. I am not your replacement. I am not here to kill you but if you keep giving me reasons to, I just might have to. Do you understand me?"
The queen seemed to grow confident and didn't answer. Selvina could feel her tense up beneath her. To put a stop to that, she squeezed her legs together, pressing them into Svala's sides, and grabbed the queen's face in one hand, digging her fingers into her cheeks. She then leaned down and looked the queen in the eye, taking delight at the fear she saw in it.
"Do you understand me?" she asked again.
Queen Svala of Sworden nodded quickly. "I understand. I do. I do!"
"Good," Selvina said before standing up and brushing herself down. "Now get out of my room...your highness."
Queen Svala rolled over and crawled away as quickly as she could before she stood up, stumbled on her dress, and threw herself at the door. She wrenched it open and raced away.
"Queen Svala!" called one of the guards. "What happened?"
"I fell!" her voice screamed back, already far down the hall.
Selvina walked to the door, gave the suspicious guards a pleasant smile, and then closed it. She turned, eyed Tinkerbelle and Amalthea as she returned into the room, and then, cradling her bruised knuckles, cried out, "Holy crap that hurt!"
****
With her fists wrapped in bandage, courtesy of Amalthea, and her stomach full from a delivered meal, Selvina lay down in her bed. She smiled as she remembered the cheering and praise Tinkerbelle had given her for, in her words, absolutely destroying queen Svala. Amalthea had warned that it may lead to terrible consequences but admitted that she was glad someone had finally put that woman in her place.
"The nerve of her calling me a slave," she had said. "After all I've done for this world..."
"Do you think I really screwed things up this time?" Selvina had asked her. "I just beat the crap out of a queen. I could easily die from this..."
"Rhiannon would not let that happen," Amalthea had assured. "She thinks Svala has gone back to Sworden. The Ice Queen was about to call the guards on you and have you imprisoned, inside Rhiannon's castle. She is not the ruler here, despite the empress's absence, and has no right."
"As much as Rhiannon scares me," Tinkerbelle had gone on to say, "she'd probably say it was Svala's fault for attacking one of her guests, not to mention not going home when she said she was going to. There doesn't seem to be much love shared between those two."
I hope they're right, Selvina thought, staring up at her bed's canopy. Now that her emotions were in check, she wished she could have taken back what she had done. The queen of Sworden was annoying and bothersome but had she deserved such a beating? She had been the victim of being at the wrong place at the wrong time, Selvina reasoned. It had certainly felt good to knock some sense into her but Selvina knew it would lead to danger down the road. Svala may leave her alone for now but that would not last for long. Beginning now, Selvina would have to start watching her back.
Despite the increasing worry, Selvina's eyes closed and she fell to sleep, her mind veering to the comforting feeling of being in Jack's arms.