“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“To hunt a chickcharney,” I add quickly. “Not a wyvern.”
“So there was no wager?” Mom asks. “No competition?”
Neither of us answers. We don’t need to. She’s our mother. She knows.
“If it was truly an exercise,” she continues, “you would have taken an adult hunter to oversee it and ensure you didn’t—oh, I don’t know—attract the attention of a pair of wyverns.”
I open my mouth.
She keeps going. “You left under false pretenses. You said you were going on a picnic to Valles Meadow. You behaved like children. You are not children. You can no longer be children. This was breathtakingly irresponsible, and for the next week, when you are not in lessons, you will both be confined to your quarters.”
* * *
I’m in the hall outside Mom’s sitting room, slumped on the floor, petting Jacko. My mother and Berinon think I’m back in my room while Rhydd is off doing his rehabilitation exercises. Instead, I’m here, listening to them and feeling worse with each word.
“We did the same things when we were their age, Mari,” Berinon says.
“Did we?” Mom snaps. “I don’t seem to recall any wyvern encounters in our games.”
Berinon’s voice drops. “I know you’re upset, but this…it’s Rowan’s…”
“It’s her life? Is that what you’re going to remind me, Ber? That my daughter’s life will be spent facing beasts that can kill her? Because that is exactly what I need to hear right now.”
After a moment, Berinon murmurs, “They’re children, Mariela. Twelve years old. If they weren’t getting into trouble, we’d be worried that they weren’t the kind of rulers Tamarel needs. They must experience the world for themselves and play…just play.”
“Do you think I don’t know that?” My mother’s voice cracks. “Do you think I am not very aware of how unfair this is to them? You’re right. They should be playing. Enjoying the last of their childhood. Instead, Rowan already carries a sword that barely fits on her back. Do you think my heart doesn’t break when I see that?”
Berinon murmurs something I don’t catch. There’s a scuffle inside, as if he moved to comfort Mom and she backed away.
“No,” she says sharply. “I hate this, Ber. Hate it with every bone in my body. Yet what is the alternative? Let Heward’s children take the throne and the sword?” They may be next in line, but we know who would truly wield the power. Heward.
Mom continues. “A man who will plunder our kingdom the way he plunders his own lands. Overtaxes and overworks the people who depend on him, and I cannot do a blasted thing about it, despite the fact that I am queen. Queen.”
This is the way our country works. Tamarel was once a land of clans, with no single ruler. We lie between the sea and the mountains, both of which are rife with monsters. Clan Dacre always had the best monster hunters, so our ancestors made a deal with the other clans. If Clan Dacre drove the monsters back to mountain and sea, the clans would unite under our rule, and in return for the throne, we would keep the land safe.
I am descended from the first king, whose sister was the first royal monster hunter. However, it wasn’t just those two who cleared the land. It was the entire clan. So we rule with their help…whether we want it or not.
Mom is the head of the royal council, with four other clan members who vote on all major decisions. In the event of a tie, Mom casts the deciding vote. If they vote against her, though, she cannot veto their decision. She also can’t interfere with the holdings of other ranking clan members, like Heward.
The restrictions on a monarch’s power do serve a purpose. For a good ruler, like Mom, those constraints are frustrating, especially when she sees parts of her land being mismanaged. However, if we ever did get a bad ruler, like Heward, then we’d be grateful for those constraints.
When Berinon does speak, I hear only the low rumble of his voice. He’s calm, as always, reassuring her.
“I just want my children to be children,” she replies. “That is the one gift every parent should be able to give.”
Except Rhydd and I can’t be children anymore. The country needs us to take the two most important jobs in Tamarel, which means not running off to play hunting games that could get us both killed.
When footsteps pad my way, I leap up. Alianor rounds the corner. She has been living at the castle for the past month, part of a peace treaty between my mother and her father.
Seeing her, I tense. It’s one thing for me to eavesdrop on Mom and Berinon, but Alianor shouldn’t hear their private discussion.
Still holding Jacko, I jerk my chin to say that we should move. She hesitates, glancing toward my mother’s room. I shake my head sharply and motion her away.
When we’re far enough down the hall to speak, she says, “Your mother’s with Berinon.”
“He’s her bodyguard.”
A few more steps. “I’ve heard rumors—”
“And you won’t spread them,” I say, as evenly as I can.
“You know what I mean, then. People say there’s more than friendship between them.”
“I have seen and heard nothing to suggest that,” I say stiffly as I head toward my room.
“Your father has been gone five years. If your mother found someone—”
“Then I would accept it. I’m not a child who expects her mother to live alone for the rest of her days. I’m saying that I have seen nothing, and if you spread that particular bit of speculation, we will no longer be friends.”
Her eyes flash. “You’re threatening me over a silly romantic rumor?”
“No, Alianor, I’m threatening you over a story that jeopardizes my mother’s throne. While some people might think it’s romantic, others spread the rumor to undermine my mother. A romance with her bodyguard? That is beneath her. And the fact he was my father’s best friend is a betrayal of his memory.”
“He was your mother’s friend, too,” she says softly.
“That doesn’t matter to those who wish to make trouble. Jannah always said that we might allow women to hold the throne and the sword, but they are still treated differently. No one would think twice of a widowed king seeking romance. A queen, though? She’ll neglect her duties, too busy with her new love.”
Alianor snorts. “That is ridiculous.”
“Yes, but unless you have a problem with my mother’s reign, I’ll ask you not to talk about her and Berinon. If you choose to, I’ll presume you do have issues with her reign, and at that point, we can no longer be friends.”