Should I have told him that I feel a connection to my past life too? Rosslyn asked herself for the fourth time since her meeting with the caterpillar Adon. And again, she shook her head and dismissed the idea. I would just sound like a fraud. I have only flashes of memory and vague intuitions. It sounded as if he remembered most of his past life. Enough to be a defining element in his present identity. And maybe even multiple lives?
She had been replaying the encounter with Adon in her mind for days since it happened. It seemed to her perhaps the most consequential meeting between a human and nonhuman in a century or more. At least since the last treaty with the Demon Empire.
The demon race weren’t monsters or mystic beasts, though. They were humanoid. To some scholars, it seemed as if they were just creatures placed in the world to test humanity’s faith in the Goddess.
The mystic beasts were more mysterious. Rosslyn had searched the library for records of previous contacts with the creatures over the last few days, and she had visited the garden hoping to see Adon again. But neither effort had borne fruit.
Records of previous contacts were sparse, and Adon had been completely absent from his birth plant when Rosslyn returned to visit it. She regretted that she had not asked more questions about his life in the garden—like something as basic as where he and Goldie lived.
And now Rosslyn stood outside, the rain lightly pitter pattering on an umbrella held by a servant over her head. About to leave the palace for weeks. Perhaps longer.
When would she be able to resolve the mysteries of this caterpillar? Would he even be here when she returned? He could conceivably become a butterfly and leave before the journey’s end. Since she had not told anyone about him, there was no one to talk him out of it.
Rosslyn sighed. Stop worrying about the things you cannot control.
“Are the horses ready yet?” The Queen sounded annoyed to be here—but she had packed and prepared. She was going. At least that much was going right.
She truly does love father, or she would resist. No one can make the Queen go anywhere, even the King. I know she does not acknowledge the severity of the threat, but she agreed to go anyway.
“I think it will be nice to spend time together, stepmother,” Rosslyn said.
Carolien looked back at her thoughtfully. “Do you truly think so?” she asked.
“It will be our first trip alone since the Radzin sea, I think.”
Carolien’s eyes took on a faraway look as she clearly remembered that vacation. “That was a splendid trip,” she said finally. Her face took on a slightly guilty cast. “You were, what, only fifteen years old at the time?”
“Fourteen,” Rosslyn said, smiling.
“It has been too long,” the Queen agreed.
Lord Baranack stepped out of the royal stables.
“My dear Queen and Princess!” he said. He wore an ebullient expression, as if he could not contain his happiness at seeing them, but Rosslyn thought she detected the same falseness that she often thought she read in his face. “I am so pleased that we will be traveling together, though I respectfully question the wisdom of sending two such important personages to accompany me to the Demon Empire.”
Of course you do, Rosslyn thought. You question my father’s wisdom with all the respect that requires whenever you can—along with mine. I just bet you will be “questioning” more and more of father’s wisdom, the further away we get from him. We have not even departed yet. This was far from the first time that Rosslyn herself had doubted the logic of sending such a man as Lord Baranack to represent the Kingdom anywhere. But at least her father’s plan would get him out of Claustria. Out of their lives for a while.
“Are the horses ready yet, Lord Baranack?” Rosslyn asked.
“I think not,” he replied.
They waited the rest of the time for the carriages to be ready in silence.
Fortunately, it happened quickly. The palace was constantly running smoothly, operated by people to whom keeping royals waiting was almost a sin.
This was despite the fact that this particular voyage was theoretically a security nightmare.
Two royals and a newly appointed ambassador traveling into the most dangerous border region on the continent. Normally that would merit the mobilization of a small army, but the royals were traveling incognito, which meant they could not openly travel with a very large escort. It would be too suspicious.
The solution that the King and Lord Baranack had arrived at was a small, inconspicuous contingent. Light defenses. Six carriages was the maximum that could be justified as a defense for Lord Baranack, so that was what the palace staff prepared. Six carriages carrying more than the usual number of soldiers—but that was something that would not be noticeable at a distance.
Carolien and Rosslyn were positioned in Lord Baranack’s carriage, armored and equipped like elite knights. Their cover, if they were to be questioned, was that they were accompanying Lord Baranack as his personal bodyguards, sent to deliver him into the Demon Empire’s protection and return to their regular duties thereafter.
There was nowhere safer for an ambassador to be on the continent than transported safely into the confirmed custody of a hostile nation. No country would dare to harm such a person—or even, through inaction, to allow him to come to harm in their custody. It would be universally interpreted as an assassination and an act of war.
The carriage convoy departed. For several hours, the current Queen, the future Queen, and the Lord rode in dead silence.
It was not entirely for lack of effort on the part of Carolien or Rosslyn to communicate.
Carolien would try to start a conversation, and it would be derailed.
“Is there anything you look forward to seeing in the Empire, Rosslyn?”
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“I understand there are many notable sites of Goddess worship in the Empire,” Rosslyn replied. “I know we will pass through Hermaria if we travel far beyond the Empire’s capital.” This was a country the Demon Empire had subdued several centuries ago.
“I remember when I was a girl, I read that their capital of Dunoch had the most magnificent temple in all the world,” Carolien said. Architecture, Rosslyn knew, had been one of the Queen’s favorite subjects before she completed her education.
Then Lord Baranack chimed in and said that he had heard that most such buildings within the Empire’s territory had tragically been repurposed into government offices or places of worship for the gods the demons believed in.
That got Rosslyn fuming about the demons’ heretical beliefs, and the conversation quickly died. None of them wanted an argument, and neither Carolien nor Lord Baranack seemed to share Rosslyn’s strong belief—common among the commoners of Claustria and anyone who had served in the military—that the Demon Empire was a terrifying threat.
It was going to be a long carriage ride even without political debates, and such incidents might sound suspicious to any spies for the demons who could be observing the diplomatic convoy. Though they were still in Claustrian territory for the moment, the demons historically tended to make commoners in border regions into paid informants.
Their rich eastern possessions sent the Empire rich tribute, it was said. More than enough to corrupt many a poor soul just trying to feed their family.
The next near argument started after Rosslyn broke the silence.
“Do you see the fortifications that are beginning to come into view, stepmother?”
Peering through the carriage’s curtains, Rosslyn could see the distant shadowy shapes of the Demon Empire’s walled border with Claustria. They were only a jagged line on the horizon now, but her father wanted Carolien to recognize the peril they were in. It was time to start bringing that home.
Lord Baranack inserted himself into the conversation before Carolien could say anything at all. “The question that people in my area of expertise—that is, diplomacy—tend to ponder about those fortifications is whether they are truly intended for defense, or primarily to support and extend control over conquered lands. Some experts think they are as afraid of us as we are of them. And then there is the minority theory that the fortresses represent a sort of paper tiger effect. That they have little real defensive value, and are only a symbolic gesture meant to have a deterrent effect against any effort to reclaim the Empire’s conquered lands.”
By the end of Lord Baranack’s theorizing, Rosslyn was almost ready to scream.
Why does this man not live in the real world?!
“Of course the Demon Empire is not as afraid of us as we are of them,” Rosslyn said, barely restraining herself from shouting. “For the last few centuries, the conquests have all moved in one direction!”
“Not quite so,” Lord Baranack said mildly. “Hermaria ably reclaimed some territory previously held by Goddess worshiping nations—”
“Before being conquered by the Demon Empire, their people subjugated and enslaved,” Rosslyn interrupted.
“That is—um, yes, well, that is true. I simply suggest that we not take a reductionist view. There have been many noteworthy military successes in the history of our side’s efforts against the Empire. Which is why there is a school of thought that they are more afraid of us than we are of them. It might explain their tendency toward aggression, as well.”
“You think that they are aggressive because they are afraid?” Rosslyn asked, incredulous.
“It is a reputable theory,” Lord Baranack said with a shrug.
If she knew that Lord Baranack thought in this way, she would have registered the strongest possible objections to making him an ambassador to the Empire. What sort of backward impression of the Kingdom’s point of view would he leave on his imperial counterparts? Would he seem like such an empty-headed fool that they would actually hasten any plans for an invasion?
This interaction also caused the conversation to die down for a while. Rosslyn only noticed after the fact that as soon as she and Lord Baranack began disputing the nature of the international relations between the Demon Empire and the Goddess-worshiping powers, Carolien became quiet. She remained reserved throughout the rest of the conversation, which made Rosslyn suspect that she was unwilling to upset either one of them by agreeing with the other.
Fortunately, it was at around this time that the convoy stopped at a small village for the night. Despite the carriages moving quickly through the Claustrian countryside, they were still miles from the border with the Empire. But this would be their only night sleeping inside the Kingdom’s territory. By midday tomorrow, they would cross into the Demon Empire.
This was their last chance to enjoy a relatively relaxed evening.
The trio, along with the full complement of soldiers accompanying them, dined at an inn. Though there was enough space for most of them in the common room, several of the men had to eat outside, and it was clear that there would not be space for everyone to have a bed.
Rosslyn and Carolien decided to bunk together so that a few more soldiers would be able to have a room for the night. This was the village’s only inn, after all.
When they were alone, there was that gradual defrosting of relations that Rosslyn had observed earlier. Stepdaughter and stepmother discussed common wishes for the trip, and they reminisced about past trips. Rosslyn was surprised to find that she and Carolien shared more common ground than she had expected.
The Queen was intensely interested in learning more about the country that had long been Claustria’s greatest enemy, and she was at least not in explicit agreement with Lord Baranack’s apparent view that the Empire was afraid of being attacked rather than intent on attacking.
Away from Lord Baranack’s influence, she seemed to understand that the demons were far from harmless—and even that his views might endanger the Kingdom if put into foreign policy practice, though she was reluctant to express that idea so explicitly.
That was the only frustrating thing about the conversation. When pressed on political points, or any topic touching on Lord Baranack’s expertise, Carolien was loath to give a direct answer. She vacillated, she danced, she obfuscated her true feelings.
Rosslyn was by nature a more direct person. It was one of the ways in which the two women had been forced to get used to each other over the years.
“If you will pardon the question,” Rosslyn said at one point, “why have you and father trusted Lord Baranack with so much, when I think that even in the area of foreign relations, essentially his only specific expertise, he seems to have such dangerous views?”
There. It was out in the open, finally.
“You want to know why we have trusted him with your matchmaking, when you believe he has been ineffective,” Carolien said.
“That, and also, more pressingly, this. Why is this man so trusted that he can be given this assignment, to represent our nation to its most important adversary? A task that many nobles would kill to perform.”
Her stepmother sighed and looked away.
Rosslyn just sat and patiently waited. She was not going to move the conversation on to some other topic. Not when this was the most important matter they could deal with.
At around the time that she had almost given up on getting an answer, Carolien spoke again. “You may find this a rather frivolous reason, Rosslyn. You have always been a harder edged person than me. I admire that. It is a quality that is needed in a ruler. But Lord Baranack was responsible for matching your father and me. It is a match that was as good as anything I might have hoped for on paper, and your father has turned out to be a better man than I had any reason to expect.”
“I see,” Rosslyn said, nodding slowly.
“Yes,” Carolien said. She looked sadder than Rosslyn had seen her in years. “I hoped he might do the same for you. I know his efforts have been a disappointment. I have wondered why ever since you began to complain about them. Perhaps he was just lucky in the arrangement of our marriage. But I do believe he works hard at the tasks he is given. He served my father and my birth country well for years before I asked that we bring him to your father’s Kingdom to help you.
“And I resist the idea that he should be discarded, which seems the natural implication of some of your complaints.” She looked into Rosslyn’s eyes. “I do not say that you are wrong, of course. It is my hope that he will serve us well stationed in the Demon Empire. If he fails, and war comes, it will be no different than you and your father have been imagining for years. Yet perhaps he has another miracle in his repertoire.”