"The Queen!"
I walked into the royal hall, my dress trailing behind me. Alongside me was my trusted secretary and family friend, Lord Henry Buckingham. The lords and ladies bowed with their eyes to the ground.
Walking into the council room, my ministers rose up and greeted me with "your majesty" as I made my way to the head of the table. Taking my seat, I began.
"My lords, I understand that some of you are still trying to get knowledge of this meeting, therefore I shall be quick in filling you in. This morning my lady Harper woke me for I had to see something urgently. After dressing quickly, I was escorted by Buckingham to the highest tower of the palace that can see the tall hill that blocks the ocean. At the top we were greeted by two guards. One approached me and told me to look the west hill. When my eyes locked on the sight before me, what I feared worst had come; the distress beacon had been lit. We all know that the last time the beacon was lit was during the War of Kings, which was fought by my great-grandfather against the neighboring kingdom of Torva. We still do not know for sure who lit the beacon. Maybe it can be someone's awful trickery, or maybe someone lit it out of distress. General McCormick, what information have you since the last hour?"
McCormick stood up, all eyes now shifting from me to the liege lord at the opposite end. The man had fought beside my father, his second in command.
"The men have talked to the villagers near the first beacon. They brought with them here the person who lit beacon, having seen the war ships in the channel."
"Bring him forth," I said calmly, leaning forward as they brought in the seer. He was no more than a boy of five years. Clad in a simple peasant's shirt and trousers, his eyes wandered around the room nervously, figuring out his new surroundings. McCormick whispered something in his ear before nodding towards me.
I gave the boy a reassuring smile as he gave a small bow.
"Your majesty," he said in a small voice.
"Come forth, child. You are safe so long as you're inside these walls, if not in the kingdom itself. I am told that you saw the ships in the distance."
"Yes, your majesty."
"Do you remember what were on the sails? Take your time, we are in no rush," I said as the boy began to close his eyes and furrow his brow, trying to recall what he saw.
After a few minutes, my advisors began to grow impatient, trying to keep their temper under control. McCormick then cleared his throat and said, "We can resume this lat-"
"White sails with a bear crushing the head of a lion with its jaws," said the boy.
A long silence filled the room, as if death itself now rested there. My blood went cold as the image filled my mind and memories of untold misery came back. Only this time, the enemy was not Torva.
"Thank you," I said, breaking the silence. "You may go now."
As soon as the boy left the room, the room erupted in loud conversation that one of the older advisors who was asleep nearly fell out of his seat. I looked to Buckingham as he tried to calm everyone down, but to no avail. As I said, this is not what a fairy tale queen deals with, probably because she is busy twirling around in big ball gowns and eating sweets.
I stood up from my seat and breathed in. I'm about to bloody shout at everyone and probably ruin my voice. Ah, screw it.
"Enough!"
The room came to be quiet again and the men looked down in embarrassment, probably because they've been reprimanded by a woman.
"This is not the kind of behavior I expect from men, the men that I appointed under my father's advice, more the less! Yes, there are war ships in our channel, but we must analyze the situation. We know that the bear on a black background with a red stripe is the coat of arms of the royal family of Torva, the Chaillets. But the sails that were seen today had both their bear, but the bear was crushing the head of the golden lion, my coat of arms. Yet, we cannot assume that it is the Chaillets just yet. Besides for them, there is only one other person, not family nor kingdom, that despises us, Alendar. We know him well and we know he has all the right motives -"
"My queen," interrupted Buckingham, "you surely aren't suggesting-"
"I'm not suggesting, Buckingham, I know. Our former prince and heir apparent, my brother Darien Dominelli."
Low mumbles were now being made at my assumption, and I waited patiently for someone to speak up. The royal surname is not Dominelli, but Alagor. Dominelli is the maiden name of our mother, Princess Katarina Dominelli of Bellumigne. Her father was King Christopher, and tyrant, might I add. He was the one to wage war upon Alendar against my paternal grandfather, so I'm pretty sure you know where this is heading. If not, then let me be brief. A treaty was made and Christopher gave my mother to wed my father. In a distant, faraway world, they would have been in love, sure, if that's how you want it to be. But their marriage was more of a business relationship, only that Katarina was required to bear father a heir. And she did her duty, giving him not one, but two, children to secure the Alagorian line. One could easily say that Darien was Katarina's favorite; she despised me, probably seeing me as a waste of her love and affection. So while my brother got pampered and sat high and mighty, my father took up the reigns to be my teacher. I would continue to go against my mother even more as I rode astride, wielded a sword, and accompanied my father to my first battle at age ten. Despite all this, my brother and I got along well. When not in the company of our parents, we would run around the palace and try to do something interesting when we were bored out of our minds. But a dark cloud came to destroy the joy and welcome in the conflict and deceit.
I was soon pulled out of my thoughts as Buckingham spoke up.
"My queen, we believe that your assumption is correct. He would be the only one eager enough to wage a war upon you. Torva is the only enemy nation that Alendar has that actually keeps its end of the bargain. What do you have in mind, Queen Eleanor?"
I looked up to find all eyes upon me, waiting for my word, my command. Hard to believe, isn't it, that all these men are giving their life to a woman, to be exact, a girl?
"Send word to our ambassador in Torva by the time the sun sets. I want King James to know that both our countries are being threatened by a common enemy, and that I propose an alliance to be made between Alendar and Torva."