Arakan sat on his horse with the other heads of the noble houses, lingering behind Shaela and her entourage. Like others, his eyes also stayed on the paved main road leading to the northern-western palace entrance. Seven majestic white horses climbed up the road, dragging an enormous chariot behind them. It was an epitome of extravagance made of jewel-encrusted gold. Green and silver silken curtains hung down from its dome-shaped roof, from which a short pole bearing a green flag depicting a silver hawk flying over mountains.
Three horses left from Shaela’s entourage just as the carriage came to a halt before the entrance. An old man in his nineties sitting on the horse at the forefront dipped his head towards it. “Welcome to the queendom of Robera. Your presence this day honours us, king Undril.”
“Sir Giraldi,” came a joyful voice from the inside the curtains as they slowly parted, revealing the interior of the carriage. A middle-aged man with an athletic build reclined on a grand throne of wood curved like the body of a great hawk. A golden leafed tiara sat on his dark brown hair hung till his shoulder, framing his diamond-shaped face that was quite handsome.
“To have the renowned sir Giraldi welcome us personally, I consider the honor to be mine,” he said, with a slight smile as he lifted his hand and gave a signal to the four veiled women standing on four sides of his throne, before standing up. The women nodded, busying themselves with various tasks such as sending signals to the entourage of knights accompanying the chariot to get into formation, as well as the slaves to bring forward his majestic, white stallion to the vehicle.
He mounted the horse straight from the chariot with practised ease, along with the women who climbed on their own horses behind him and escorted by Giraldi and the two Roberan knights, advanced towards the palace where Shaela waited.
“Greetings, my queen,” he said as he arrived before Shaela’s horse. “You look as beautiful as ever.”
“Oh please, do not flatter me, king Undril,” Shaela waved her hand dismissively.
“It is no flattery, my queen. I just speak from my heart.”
“I am grateful to the broadness of your heart then.” Shaela smiled. “And once again, let me welcome you to the queendom of Robera. Now come let us head inside the palace. After you have rested appropriately, I have prepared a grand feast in honour of your arrival.”
----------------------------------------
The great hall of the palace of Valar had never been as bustling as today. And for good reason. The instances of a foreign king visiting another king in their home where there might be no concrete guarantee of their safety was a rare sight in the land of Clover, where hostilities between kingdoms were practically never ending. Today the giant crystal pillars that reached the arched roof of the hall were shining brilliantly from not only the lights of the enormous chandeliers but hundreds of specially prepared colourful crystal lanterns hanging between them. Even the marble walls had a polished look and were decorated with various fresh flowers, filling the room with their sweet scent. Servants and maids walked amongst guests with trays full of wine goblets, musicians played music on a corner before an opening prepared for the dance.
“This truly is a grand preparation, my queen,” said Undril from his seat beside Shaela on the dais as her guardians escorted the nobles of the kingdom one by one and introduced them.
“Please do not embarrass me,” Shaela said. “As the richest kingdom in Clover, even the normal feasts in Undreil’s golden palace can only be greater than this.”
“No, no, it truly is not much,” Undril smiled. “Besides, our kingdom would only have been the second richest if not for you dethroning the previous king, and I am certain you will make Robera the richest in no time at all.”
Shaela smiled and said nothing as another prominent noble came forward to introduce himself. She looked around at the faces of the invited. They all looked happy, at least on the outside. Who knew how long that would last. After all, so much would change after today.
“I don’t see sir Giraldi anywhere,” Undril said after the noble had left.
“That is because he is not here,” said Shaela. “He does not really like attending crowded events such as this.”
“I see,” Undril sighed. “That is a pity. I would have liked to converse with him some more. After all, it was due to him that the previous kingdom lasted as long as it did.”
“Indeed. He is an interesting person for certain.” Shaela nodded. “Maybe you will have the chance to meet him later.”
As they were conversing, Dame Irene came up to her and brought her lips closer to Shaela’s ears.
“The preparations are done, your majesty,” she whispered.
“It is about time, too.” Shaela sighed. “Let me personally introduce, king Undril,” she said, gesturing towards the young man following behind Irene. “The rising star of Valar. The newest head of house Sergel, Arakan Sergel. He is a youngster I have great hopes for.”
Arakan bowed towards the Shaela and the Undril. “A pleasure to make your acquaintance, your majesty.”
“Ah yes, Arakan Sergel.” Undril nodded back at him. “I have heard many good things about you.”
“Oh? You have?” Shaela raised her eyebrows. “Your knowledge is quite surprising then. And here I was hoping to tell you about him personally.”
“Well,” Undril smiled awkwardly. Though he really did hear some things about this Arakan Sergel, most of the things he said were just as a formality.
“If you know him,” Shaela said as the next guardian led another noble with jet black hair and a well-groomed beard, “then no doubt you must also know sir Ares Ancrombe.”
“Yes, I have,” Undril nodded as he greeted Ares back. “How can I not know the head of one of the prominent houses of Robera?”
“Your majesty flatters me,” Ares said.
“Oh, I do not think he is merely flattering you.” Shaela shook her head. “I’m sure he should know you. At least, better than most other nobles here, I would say.”
A slight frown appeared on Undril’s face, but before he could say anything, another guardian had led someone else. Introductions continued one after another for some time, and at last, the time for the feast began. As every noble took their seat around the long round table in the middle of the hall, rows of servants carried in huge silver platters full of various kinds of luxury edibles from the whole land of Clover and beyond. And after a brief toast from Shaela and Undril, the feast finally began.
“I must say your offer for an alliance was a surprising one, king Undril,” Shaela said as the servants began clearing out the platters after the feast. “You even personally came to the queendom as a sign of goodwill, despite both of us harbouring hostile intentions towards each other all this time.”
“I have grown tired of fighting war after war all these years. So now I merely seek respite from that and wish for the betterment of our land.” Undril sighed, his eyes containing a faraway look. “I wish to break the curse of the land of Clover. And this alliance is the first step towards that,” he said, looking towards the queen. “So I sincerely hope for this alliance to succeed.”
“I see.” Shaela tapped her chin. “A noble goal indeed, though considering what is happening currently, I find it to be surprising. Especially from you.”
Undril frowned. “What do you mean, my queen?”
“Your Majesty,” Irene, who was standing behind Shaela, came up and handed her a wooden box the size of a handspan. “Everything is in here.”
“Thank you, Irene,” Shaela said before turning to Undreil. “Please worry about those things later, king Undril. Right now, if you are willing, I need your help with something.”
“My help?” Undreil seemed slightly surprised. A ruler so openly requesting another ruler’s help was… unprecedented. The situation felt somewhat off, but…
He glanced at the hall around him. Shaela had not hidden her voice, and now every guest was looking this way, trying to understand what was happening.
“It would be my honour to help you out, my queen,” he said at last.
“Your answer relieves me.” Shaela exhaled as she ran her fingers along the gilded edge of the box. “Now allow me to tell you an incident that happened recently in our city. A few months ago, a new noble house from the outskirts of the kingdom had based themselves in Valar. A merchant noble house by the name of Scarva.”
As soon as the words left her mouth, the entire hall became abuzz with a low murmur. Due to the recent incident, that name had become somewhat well known amongst the people of Valar. Their eyes turned towards a stout man sitting on one of the seats, Alanis Scarva. The new head of the Scarva house. He had been sitting with a somewhat downcast expression before, but hearing Shaela mention his house, he could not help the look of surprise.
“It was not an unusual occurrence, thus not significant enough to note,” Shaela continued. Her voice somehow projected around the entire hall despite the light conversational tone she had, gradually took on a serious note. “But the head of the said house had recently ended up deceased. He was… murdered.”
“Murdered!” Undril’s eyebrows shot up.
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“Yes, murdered. And quite viciously at that. More than a hundred knife wounds appeared all over his body. It was as if the killer went on a stabbing frenzy on his body. His living chamber was practically painted in blood.”
Undril’s eyes narrowed as Shaela described the crime scene. Unable to help himself, his eyes took a furtive glance towards the four women he had brought standing around him. “I see. Truly a tragic thing to happen. I would like to offer my condolences to him and his family,” he said, frowning at Shaela. “But this is your city, and you should have a grasp of its happenings. So truthfully speaking, I do not see how I can help you in this situation, my queen.”
Shaela gave a calm smile. “Please be patient, king Undril. I am getting to that,” she said. “Besides, the help I require from you is just to confirm a few things for me. Nothing major. You see, normally, the incident of his death would not have been a cause of major concern. As we found evidence of robbery all over the place. But a few concerning things made it difficult to ignore. First, the victim himself was under suspicion for a recent incident in the Segel house.” She turned and looked towards Arakan. “Since the incident happened in your house, you should explain the incident, lord Arakan.”
Arakan stood and bowed towards Shaela. “Thank you for your consideration, your majesty,” he said, before gesturing at the person sitting beside him. “However, since I was not present at that time, and do not understand many of the details, I would like my uncle, Egregor Sergel, to have the honour if that is agreeable.”
“That is a fair point.” Shaela nodded, turning to Egregor, who at this point, was looking a bit pale. “If you would, lord Egregor.”
Egregor took a deep breath before bowing towards Shaela and Undril. “As you wish, your majesty.”
As he went on explaining the poisoning incident at Arakan’s grand uncle’s birthday feast, more than a few gasps of surprise and voices of outrage appeared amongst the guests. After all, even though some of the guests were informed of the fact because of investigative reasons, most normal guests had yet to be informed. One by one, they all turned their angry gazes at the people of house Sergel, making them quite uncomfortable. Only Arakan remained unperturbed, paying attention to his uncle’s words. But as the voices around him grew more agitated, it brought the ire of someone else.
“Silence!” Irene’s voice reverberated as she took a solid step forward. “You are in the presence of her majesty the queen and king Undril,” she rebuked the nobles. “So behave yourselves!”
As the hall fell silent again, Shaela opened her mouth. “As you see, king Undril. Such an incident, if succeeded, could have been devastating for the capital. So we simply could not sit by and arranged an investigation to find the culprit. And the recently deceased, Agreis Scarva, was one of the suspected. His house also held some grudges against the Sergel house, so he had motive too. Thus his death has been a cause for concern. Also, some things that were found at the scene of the crime are quite disconcerting. They are the reason that I require your help.”
“I see.” Undril nodded. “I am willing to help, my queen. Tell me, what is it that you wish for me to confirm?”
Shaela opened the box she had been holding and took out an envelope. At one glance, it did not seem anything special, other than the black marks all over it that gave it an incredibly dirty appearance. But the eyes of those with experience immediately recognized the origin of those black marks. Dried blood.
Shaela did not care much about the dried blood and picked up the envelope and extended towards Undril. “This was something found at the scene of the crime. Must say amongst the other things scattered there, we might have missed it, but the marks of blood around it seemed somewhat special,” she said, holding the envelope up for everyone to see. In the place where the usual seal should be placed, the design drawn by the blood really did seem somewhat different. It looked like a crouching cat, the insignia of house Scarva. Alanis Scarva who had been feeling quite uncomfortable after Shaela’s announcement of the poisoning incident looked at the mark and then looked down at his hand. The shape of the ring, it perfectly matched the shape on the envelope.
“Yes, lord Alanis,” Shaela nodded at him before turning to Undril. “The mark was made by the insignia ring that was at that time in the finger of the victim. And it would have passed the eyes of the investigator, like all the other documents, if not for that mark. He opened it out of pure curiosity, and after checking the contents, had presented them to me for verification. Though from my perspective, such allegations should not be true, they still need to be verified.” She opened the envelope and took out a relatively clean piece of parchment and extended it to Undril. “If you would, king Undril.”
Undril hesitated a bit, looking sceptically at the letter. Shaela might have disregarded the bloodstains on the thing, but he made it clear how much he disliked them from his attitude. Still, since she had requested this publicly, refusing would be in bad conduct. So he held it with the tips of her fingers as he unfolded it. And started reading through the contents. A frown appeared on his right from the start and the further he went, his expressions started worsening bit by bit.
With a face as cold as ice, he turned to look at Shaela, who was watching him with a curious expression. “What is the meaning of this?” he asked.
“Meaning?” Shaela tilted her head. “I merely wish for you to confirm the truth of those allegations?”
“Of course, they are false!” Undril said. “I have come here in good faith, hoping to advance our relationship through this alliance. But the way I see it, you are trying to slander me.”
“Slander you, is it?” Shaela smiled. “But I am not the one saying these things. It is written in the letter that the Ancrombe house has been colluding with Undreil in order to overthrow the crown. So the one doing the slander should be Agreis Scarva.”
Her words caused another uproar amongst the nobles. As all eyes in the hall turned to look at the members of the Ancrombe house that were present in the hall, Ares’s face twisted in fear. His eyes darted towards Undril sitting beside Shaela, but the king of Undreil did not even glance at him. He gripped his fist, trying to keep them from trembling, and stood up.
“That- that is a false accusation, your Majesty,” he said. “I would never dare to collude with an enemy kingdom—”
Shaela held up her hand, stopping him. ”Please watch your language, lord Ares,” she scolded him lightly. “Undreil is no longer an enemy of our queendom, but they are now on the verge of signing an alliance.”
Surprised, Ares bowed towards Undril. “Forgive me, your majesty, I meant no disrespect,” he said. “But I can say with complete honesty that I have never colluded with Undreil.”
Shaela waved her hand dismissively. “As I have said. I merely wished to confirm from the mouth of those involved. And if the information about this collusion written in this letter is false,” she turned her head, looking at Egregor, “then the information about Egregor Sergel and your brother, lord Leon Ancrombe colluding to create the poisoning incident must also be an attempt to slander, would it not?”
Egregor stood up. “Ye- yes, your majesty. How could I ever do something like that against my own family?”
Shaela nodded, and then turned to look at Leon sitting beside Ares, who also denied the allegations as swiftly as Egregor. Undril, who had been watching the whole thing unfold, put down the goblet of wine in his hands.
“It seems to me that this… Agreis Scarva, wasn’t it? Was quite a devious character who wanted to cause chaos throughout Valar,” he said. “So maybe, his gruesome death is a punishment from the gods themselves. It is no more than what he deserves.”
Shaela chuckled as she put the letter into the wooden box. “You may be right. In fact, I would have disregarded most of his slanderous accusations myself.” she took out another piece of paper from the box as she turned her gaze to Undril. “But you see, that was not the whole letter, and the remaining part I separated from the letter held a few specific pieces of information. I have investigated them thoroughly, and have found a few people who had also taken part in that elaborate slandering.” she put another small piece of parchment in Undril’s hand, who started reading it again. This time his face turned truly awful.
“These people are outrageous enough to pose as spies,” Shaela said as looked at the guests one by one. “What is more, they dare to indicate that the alliance king Undril has offered for the peace of the land, and is even personally present as a sign of good faith, is actually a ruse. That while he is present here sealing the deal, his army is invading our country.” At last, she turned her towards Undril with a hint of ridicule in her eyes. “Tell me, king Undril. What should we do with such slanderous claims?”
Undril said nothing. Instead, he lifted his hand and snapped his fingers once. Immediately, knives flashed in the hands of the four women behind him as they shot towards Shaela.
“Your Majesty!” Irene shouted, taking out her sword, but one of the four separated from the group and attacked her. The woman’s movements were fast, too fast for Irene to pay attention to anything else. The tens of guardians and some of the nobles present at the hall all drew their blades, but they were too late and too far from Shaela. The three assassin’s blade was about to reach her throat. They were not aiming for her death, but rather to take her hostage. And being so close to her, no one could have prevented their success.
No one except Shaela.
From deep within her body came a glow of golden light, growing stronger and stronger, until it grew so strong, that no eye could look straight at her. The air around her stirred and grew hot as if she were a furnace, and the knives in the hands of those women instantaneously turned red. The burning heat from their weapons was too sudden for them to prepare. The knives dropped from their hand before they could reach Shaela, who sat unperturbed, surrounded by a burning inner glow as if she were the sun herself. The mystical light reflected on the crystal pillars, filling the whole hall with a presence that was divine as well as frightening. It pressed upon the heart of everyone present, filling them with reverence, but to the people who had come with Undril, the nobles of the Ancrombe house, and Egregor Sergel, beams of reflected light bore down like the crystal pillars themselves, nearly suffocating them.
Shaela stood from her seat, and the tremendous pressure from the light flared up, forcing the assassins on their knees. She turned her eyes, now burning with blue flames, rather than their usual golden colour, towards Undril, whose upper body hunkered down, pressing flat on the table.
“Irene,” she called out. “Our guest here is having difficulty sitting up. The people he brought also seem to be sick. Please help them, otherwise, they would doubt our hospitality.”
“As you command, your highness.” Irene knelt down on one knee in front of Shaela before sending out swift gestures towards the guards. They nodded, some coming forward to hold Undril up against the chair, and some started apprehending the assassins. The women were struggling to free themselves, but against the immense pressure exerted by Shaela, their whole body had turned numb.
“So these are the Grey Swallows I have heard so much about,” Shaela said, looking at the assassins. “The personal assassins of Undril, or rather, his broken dolls.” she sighed, shaking her head. “Pitiful women.” she turned around and stood before Undril. “I hope I am not creating any sort of inconvenience for you, king Undril, but there are a few things I would like to ask you,” she said in a voice as calm and cold as a lake on a wintry night. “I hope that you can answer with a bit more sincerity than you have shown today.”
Undril squinted, clenching his teeth as he stared at her. Her glowing golden figure, the blue flames in her eyes, hair whipping wildly in a wind that was not present inside the hall, more importantly, the formless presence surrounding her…
“So it was not just a rumour,” he said. “You really did receive the blessing of the Voros.”
Shaela smiled. “While I did not go around announcing it everywhere, I have never claimed it to be a rumour either,” she said, leaning towards him. “Now, king Undril. Would you tell me which part of my kingdom this army of yours is invading?”
Undril chuckled, a laugh full of ridicule and deride. “Mighty queen Shaela Arnet. You think by capturing me, you will get all your answers? Sorry to inform you, but even I don’t—”
“Yes, I know,” Shaela said as she stood up. “You would not know the answer. After all, you are not the real Undril. That coward doesn’t have the courage to do anything other than hiding in his castle and hatch dirty plots against others. You must be one of those doubles who acts like him in public. But don’t worry,” she directly looked into his eyes, “tomorrow, when we hold your public execution before declaring war against Undreil, you can at least die as king Undril.”
The imposter’s pupils shrunk. “You… what do you—”
Shaela did not wait for his words. She turned around, facing Irene. “Send him and the people he brought to the dungeon. Also, since he might feel lonely, send those of the Ancrombe house to accompany him. After all, I’ve learned that their place of origin used to be Undril before they defected to Robera ten years ago. People from the same place must have so many stories to share.” She looked at a few people on the other side of the table. “Lord Arakan, do you have any objection if your uncle, lord Egregor Sergel, accompanies them?”
Arakan stood up. “None at all your majesty. I am sure he would love to spend time with his friends,” he said as he looked at Egregor. “Would you not, dear uncle?”
----------------------------------------
“The city guards have carried out several forays, your majesty,” Irene said. “from the lower to the upper sections of the city, we have left no stone unturned. We found quite a few places where some suspicious activities had been going on for a while.”
“I see.” Shaela nodded as she leaned back in her chair. It had already been half a day since the feast had ended, but the drawn expression on her face and the dark bags that had gathered under her golden eyes were yet to fade away. The exhaustion that came after using her blessing was no small matter. It might have been fine if she could sleep for some time, but being the queen of a queendom not quite at peace yet, rest was not easy to come by.
“So how many are connected to the information we received?” she asked.
“Most of them. Especially, several bandit groups that were quite well-hidden with the help of the Ancrombe house. It looked like they had been planning to attack during the parade we had arranged for the day after tomorrow,” she said. “We had to send in the Valiar to subjugate them fully. Though I must say some of the houses, especially Sergel, also played a big part. But if left unchecked, the situation could have become truly dangerous. Because as far as we could find out, they planned to cause a huge disturbance in the city and kill the fake Undril during that to create enough chaos. In order to prevent us from directing our attention to the invasion.”
Shaela nodded. “If that man dies here, Undreil would also have enough justification to launch the attack openly.”
“Then your majesty’s order to execute him…”
“It does not matter.” Shaela stood up and walked towards the window of her study. “Like it or not, we are already at war. With his execution, we could at least lift the morale of the citizen.”
“Your majesty is right.”
Shaela looked out of the window of her study, studying the cityscape under dawn’s grey light. “Still nothing about the location of the attack?” she asked.
“No, your majesty.” Irene shook her head. “Among clues we have gathered, there are none that indicate the location of the invasion.”
Shaela sighed. “Send out the riders then. We need to find the location as soon as we can.”
“I have already done so, your majesty,” Irene answered.
“That is good,” Shaela said, returning to her seat. “It seems I can finally rest eas—”
“Your majesty! There is urgent news, your majesty!” The voice from the other side of the door interrupted her words. Shaela raised an eyebrow as she stared at it. Resting… would have to wait, it seemed.
“Come in,” she ordered after composing herself. One of her guardians opened the door and rushed inside. She knelt in front of Shaela with an expression of anxiety all over her face.
“What happened?” Shaela asked with a hint of annoyance in her voice. “Did the city catch fire?”
“Not yet, your majesty,” the guardian said. “But it might soon. A pack of wild beasts are heading for the city.”
“A pack of wild beasts?”
“Yes! A pack of wolves,” she said. “And not just a pack. I have personally ridden there to check out the situation and there are hundreds of them running towards the city.”
“Hundreds of wolves!” Irene’s eyes widened. That was an emergency alright. She turned towards Shaela. “Should I send a cohort of city guards against them, your majesty?”
“I had also thought of that, but...” The guardian hesitated a bit. Even now, she could not believe what she had seen. “A huge wolf bigger than a horse is leading the horde. And- and… there seems to be someone riding the wolf. A woman, from what I saw.”
Shaela’s eyes widened. She sprang up from her chair and turned towards Irene. “Show absolutely no hostility towards the wolves!” she said. “And prepare my horse.”