👑👑👑👑 Six 👑👑👑👑

The Queen's Gambit

The next morning.

High Queen Deamonia stood on the main road just outside the castle alongside her shadow, lotus agent Arthur. The street held dozens of soldiers, mages, and royal guardsmen. The blocked-off citizens yelled greetings and blessings to the Queen of Regalia.

A carriage pulled up, trailed by about two dozen knights on black destrier horses bearing her lotus banners. The caravan also held some of the noblemen and servants of her court. The driver of the lead carriage was Randal, a young horse handler whose father was a known beastmaster. The lead carriage opened, revealing a butler who wore an old fashion gothic long coat. The butler had a sharp, white beard along with greying hair.

“Your highness, are you ready to depart?” Brutus held the door open for Deamonia.

The regional emergency meeting, which also played the part of a glorified ambassador meeting, brought the queen discomfort and distrust. Deamonia was a warrior, politics was not her preferred suit, but she was smart enough to know that fighting with words would always be better than fighting with swords. However, the Queen must handle this meeting delicately as it will be a battle of discussions.

“Yes. Let us go.” The Queen of frost stepped into the carriage, followed by Brutus. Arthur hopped onto the driver’s bench and sat next to Randal.

Brutus peeked his head out the window, motioning to go, and the caravan took off. The sounds of powerful horse hooves echoed off the road as the High Queen’s caravan departed Regalia.

High Queen Deamonia gave the appearance of impatience,

“How long until we get there, Brutus?”

The butler sat across from her, sitting upright and statue-like, replied:

“Please, your highness, the trip to the Valsayan ancient grove is two days from the Regalia kingdom by caravan. Furthermore, It has only been twenty minutes.”

“I should have taken a horse there myself. I would have been there in less than a day.” The Queen remarked.

“Yes, you could, but you need to show the people who are leading them, and coming here with your entourage establishes the awe-inspiring presence that we will need.” The butler smiled.

Deamonia pouted like a child.

Brutus analyzed her mood.

“Besides, the insect kingdom needs extra time to get there since they live on the opposite end of the country. So please use this time to relax and let us go over the inevitable topics that will be discussed during the meeting.”

“Fine, whatever.” Deamonia kicked off her shoes and leaned back, throwing her feet up on the opposite bench. She unhooked her armored bust and chest garment, gaining some much-needed slack. “That’s much better. Gods, I despise dresses.”

Brutis shut his eyes for a moment before he responded, “you cannot look brutish, or they will take you for a brute, your highness. Now then, let us begin with the main topic...”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

The caravan had ridden west on the main travelers’ road for almost a day with few stops until breaking north towards the forest’s edge. The Elven Forest appeared in the distance just past the icy hills.

Brutus looked at the frost queen; she was asleep. They had a long history together. It felt like yesterday when she had just started leading her group of warriors and rescued him from his old master’s yoke.

She was the only guardian figure he had in his life. He stared at her face. Deamonia did not age; besides the scars and white hair, she looked the same. She used to be his caretaker. Now, it is time for him to watch over her. The only reason he pushed for the caravan was not for the image or any other silly reason than protection. Brutus knew the state of affairs of every kingdom. He knew nothing good could come out of this meeting and something was amiss. He would not see her come alone.

Brutus’ finger inched towards one of Deamonia’s out-of-place hairs when suddenly-

“WATCH OUT!” Randal yelled as Brutus and the sleeping frost queen were thrown to the side of the carriage. The carriage made Almost a ninety-degree turn, and a massive explosion rang behind them.

They were not stopping. The carriage kept riding, speeding up as more explosions went off while the carriage shifted left and right violently. Some knights yelled as if they got caught in the explosion. The Queen had woken up confused. Brutus put his head out the window to see what the hell was going on. He looked back to see huge boulders three times the size of their carriage littering the road; some had blood splatters underneath. The culprits were wild giants; there were a lot, about twelve of them on the upper hill overlooking the highway. Randal yelled, commanding the caravan following his reigns: “Keep riding toward the trees!”

Lotus agent Arthur was shooting fireballs toward the giants towering over them up the hills.

“I did not expect her to be this bold. Unfortunately, it looks like you were right, Brutus.” Deamonia leaned back with her arms crossed. “Gods damnit. She will have the perfect excuse if I use my power here.”

The carriage shifted and dodged more until they reached the forest’s edge at the end of the highway; fallen trees completely blocked the entrance to the great forest. Randal had no choice but to turn off the road down the steep hill.

“Hang on!” Randal yelled. The carriage was bouncing and breaking, almost flipping over with each swerve. Brutus and Deamonia had to hang on to keep from flying around, the carriage barely dodging spiked trees and rocks, all while the barrage of meteoric boulders was not seizing. The carriage came inches to flipping over with each turn.

There was a river below. Randal tried his best to pull control of the panicked horses. When control was yielded back to Randal, one of the horses tripped, and the carriage flipped over, breaking off the horse yokes. The Queen’s carriage tumbled down the hill and crashed into the icy river below.

When Brutus came to, he was at the bottom of the river. The river floor felt like gravel, fishes swimming past him. It was dark but peaceful. Then, the floor started getting farther and farther away, he looked to his side, and the Queen was holding him and Randal. Randal was unconscious. Brutus found it hard to move from the impact of that crash. The Queen appeared to be unscathed. Her grip was cold, and her blue eyes pierced through the darkness. Deamonia kicked off effortlessly as she swam them up to the surface with inhuman speed.

They emerged from the water to see about half of the knights ready to jump in after them. “THEY’RE OVER HERE! the knights ran to them and helped pull them out of the water. “Are u ok, your majesty?” they questioned the Queen.

“I’m fine!” Deamonia replied in anger.

The rest of the knights and mages were fighting the giants, and some were getting eaten by them. The giants were seemingly immune to magic. Whatever magic attack they got hit with seemed to just get absorbed. These knights were specially trained in both magicry and swordsmanship and still seemed to be losing terribly. The biggest of the giants picked up the carriage horse that had tripped and broken its leg and bit its head off, munching loudly. Daemonia laid Randal down on dry land next to Brutus and called for Arthur.

“Arthur!”

A mirage manifested next to her, revealing Arthur.

“What is your order?” The lotus agent awaited an order.

The Queen looked to Randal, who was still unconscious, and then to the giant swatting her knights away like flies. She had to make a choice.

“My daughter would never let me hear the end of it if the boy dies.”

“Got it.” Arthur summoned a large flame in his palm and began to strip the soaked clothes off Randal’s body.

Deamonia looked to one of the knights that were on standby.

“Give me your sword.” Deamonia commanded the knight. He obediently handed it over as she yelled, “everyone on me!” She charged uphill at the giant, trailed by all her knights.