The Lost Heiress Of Ladin

Chapter 2

Queen Nevaeh walked into the court room and took her seat at the head of the table while waiting for the Council to arrive. With King Edward away from the Castle, the responsibility of rulership fell on her.

She did not have to wait long, only a few minutes later, the table was full save for the one seat on the opposite end of the table. The men and women of the Council talked among themselves ignoring the presence of the woman at the head of the table, they only occasionally glanced at the three maids behind her.

Queen Nevaeh was just about to start since Queen Rowan was taking too long but as soon as she raised her head, the doors to the court room swung open and a woman dressed in a purple gown with jewelry adorned on her head walked in with an entourage of six female servants and four Royal guards.

The people of the council rose to bow to her as she took her seat at the opposite end of the table with a smile on her face.

“Take away their seats” Queen Nevaeh suddenly ordered and her three maids immediately moved taking away the seats of all the Council men and women who had risen to bow to Queen Rowan.

“What is this?”

“What are you doing?”

“How dare you!?”

The Council men immediately protested, it was a great dishonor to lose their seats in the Council. Standing means a subservient position and they didn’t even know yet if this was just a symbol of Queen Nevaeh kicking them out.

“Nevaeh, what is the meaning of this?” Queen Rowan asked mockingly with a grin on her face.

“Watch yourself or you could lose your head” Queen Nevaeh replied calmly and one of the maids closest to Queen Rowan suddenly drew out a sword from her thigh pointing it at Queen Rowan’s neck.

The atmosphere of the entire room suddenly became tense as everyone turned shocked and confused. Queen Nevaeh had always been calm and easygoing which as precisely why it was easy to mock and bully her. What got into her today?

While Queen Rowan was feeling confused, the Royal guards behind her all drew out their swords ready to fight Queen Neveah’s maids.

The pupils of the council men’s eyes shrunk at the sight of that as they figured out what Queen Neveah’s goal was.

“Where is the Royal Guards Captain?” Queen Nevaeh asked looking around the Council men. She didn’t recognize any one of them because every time she was in charge of a Council meeting, she would just seat there at work on documents alone while they chatted away. She never bothered to determine who was who.

“I am” a man in a simple Royal coat bowed lightly causing Queen Nevaeh to grin.

“You are a really smart man” she said to him. No one bowed to her and she had gotten used to that. But this seemed to have figured her intentions for today.

“Your men have their swords drawn against my enforcers, what’s the appropriate punishment?” she proceeded to ask.

“The determination of the law is decided by you, My Queen” the Guard Captain replied.

All this while, Queen Rowan remained silent, glaring intently at Queen Nevaeh. She realized that something bad was about to happen and she remembered the letters from her father that warned her continuously against offending someone of Royal blood. Her father always said that something bad would happen someday but she ignored him because to her he was just being paranoid. She used to hold Royalty in such high regard like they were lord’s over her life but she was one now and she saw them to be human like everyone else. That was where her boldness and disrespect came from. Today though, she had a bad feeling in the pit of her chest.

“Good, off with their heads” Queen Nevaeh ordered coldly and sat back on her seat waiting to see what the guard captain would do.

The Guard Captain was shocked by the order and he became even more confused. Who did she think she was to ask him to kill his own men?

“Forgive me, my Queen but…” He had to show some respect even though he was refusing an order.

“Kill him, and them” Queen Nevaeh ordered and returned her attention to the documents before her.

The order had only just left her lips when the three maids moved. One threw a knife right into the forehead of the Guard Captain causing him to fall back dead, the four guard however already had their swords drawn and seeing their Captain die, they struck out against the maids.

The first maid removed her sword from Queen Rowan’s neck and three loud clanging sounds resounded in the room as she made time for her two colleagues to draw their swords.

“Don’t spill blood in the court room” Queen Nevaeh frowned at the subpar results of her maids.

The three maids could tell their mistress was displeased so they immediately struck against the guards, their swords were only fleeting images to he guards, they had not seen anyone use short swords before and they fell at a loss on how to defend themselves from it. Their swords were longer but their skills were severely lacking, it took less than a minute for the maids to bring them down. While one moved back to stand behind Queen Nevaeh, the other two took out the passed out guards to kill them outside the room.

“Nevaeh, what is this?” Queen Rowan asked, her tone much colder as she realized that at some point she had pushed her colleague over the edge. Her heart however was not as firm as her expression, she was beyond terrified! She was a merchant, they would never resort to violence, it was the last step of the last step. Blood wasn’t good for business. She was yet to realize that the Royal Palace was a castle built on bones and not gold.

“Queen Rowan, you continue to address me directly. You don’t seem to treasure your life very much” Queen Nevaeh replied without looking up.

The men of the council exchanged worried glances. It would be within Queen Nevaeh’s right to kill Queen Rowan if the latter continued to remain obstinate.

“My Queen, Queen Rowan is only the daughter of a merchant, she has yet to be trained in the Royal etiquette” one of them immediately interjected to prevent Queen Rowan from saying something that would cause her death.

Queen Nevaeh looked up at the woman who spoke. “You are?” She asked.

“Minister of Finance Bosie, My Queen” the woman replied. She had a covering over her head and was dressing in a milk colored silk.

“Alright, whose responsibility is it to teach the women of the castle proper etiquette?”

“The Chief Maids”

“Queen Rowan how long have you been in the castle of Ladin?” Queen Neveah turned to Queen Rowan.

The hearts of the council people immediately stopped beating and they prayed in their hearts that for her own sake Queen Rowan adopted a brain this time.

Queen Rowan noticed the pale faces of the council members and she could instantly tell what was going on. Her mind couldn’t fathom why Queen Nevaeh was authorized to kill her but she knew that all her ‘Sister’ was waiting for an excuse to kill her.

“Six years” she replied.

“For six years, the Chief Maids have failed us, they will be hanged and their families kicked out of the castle. As for the rest of you, for bowing to a lesser Queen and ignoring the authority of the Great Queen, you will be whipped a hundred times after which you must sand a years wage to the castle. Queen Rowan please appoint a new Captain to carry out my orders.” Queen Nevaeh rose up taking the documents with her. As she got to where Queen Rowan was seated her stopped and looked down at her.

“How is your father doing? You might find it wise to speak with him more often” she whispered softly but the room was so quiet that everyone heard her.

Queen Rowan immediately felt a chill go up her spine and her heart seized, she was going to stand and ask what Neveah meant by that but she was already gone. The finance minister held her back when she made to follow and she finally calmed down.

“Please take care of your health Queen Rowan, it’s sprouting season” Minister Boise said to her and all the council members left the courtroom with worry in their hearts. A hundred whips would leave many of them half dead, they had no time to care about Queen Rowan.

Queen Rowan stood alone in the room, Minister Boise’s words repeating itself in her head over and over again. Sprouting season? Wasn’t that until another two months? It didn’t take her long to understand that the seed that was sprouting was not hat sowed by farmers but the one she planted when she chose to make enemies with an easygoing woman who could have been a good sister to her.

A few hours later, Queen Neveah met with her three maids at a secret entrance in the back of castle. The three maids had taken off their gowns and were dressed in skin tight trousers and short sleeved blouses. The Queen was dress the same and they all had veils on their faces. Getting on the house prepared for her, the rode out into the forest behind the castle.

Meanwhile, Queen Rowan arrived in her chambers to see a messenger waiting for her. She knew that this must have something to do with Queen Nevaeh but she controlled herself well enough to not display any emotions on her face.

Making her way to her seat, she gestured for a maid to pour the messenger some water. There were no more guards around her which made her on edge but her maids were close and ready to protect her even if at the cost of their lives. Unlike Queen Neveah’s maids, she did not have any female fighter, her guards were members of the Royal Guard assigned to her, while Queen Nevaeh’s were from the kingdom of Idor, young girls bought from brothels and trained into assassination and information gathering by the Royal family of Idor. It was a typical Royal privilege.

“What message do you have for me?” Queen Rowan asked the messenger who onle had enough courage to take a small sip of the water given him in a silver cup.

With a low bow, he brought out there scrolls from his leather bag and one of the maids stepped forward to take them from him and pass them on to Queen Rowan.

“My lady, the three letters are from the same person, your father Sir Richard Lush of Lush Chamber of Commerce” the messenger reported. Seeing the Queen nod, he continued, “Sir Lush made certain that the letters must be accepted by your eyes and he asked that you see them alone and destroy them after”

“Thank you, and say hello to my father for me. I will send a royal messenger if I need to return a reply” Queen Rowan replied with a nod and the messenger recognized the cue to leave. Rising from his low bow he left the Queen’s Chambers.

Queen Rowan immediately opened the scrolls to read the content of her father’s messages. As she opened them, she perceived an odd smell from the scrolls, it was a pleasant smell but odd because she knew her father and he would not go through the trouble of soaking paper in scented water. At the moment though, that was the least of her concerns, there was a furious Queen rampaging. She paid no attention to the smell of the paper and instead read it’s contents. What she read from it baffled her.

It was her father’s writing style, she was sure of that because there were secret patterns that only her and her father knew about. But the message was a good message, apparently, he got into a partnership with another Merchant organization and was getting closer to the legal weapons trade. The reason for the secrecy was that Merchants allowed to trade weapons with other kingdoms and bring into Ladin were kept secret from the people and even some nobles to prevent anyone from taking advantage of the information.

The question Queen Rowan desperately needed an answer to was, why would Queen Nevaeh ask her about her father? She did not think the woman who was so astute to endure in silence for six years would all of a sudden care about the father of her tormentor. At the same time, while she bullied and tormented Queen Nevaeh whenever the opportunity presented itself, she did not believe that Queen Neveah was weak or that she would make an empty threat.

“Bring in the First Squad leaders of the Royal Guards” she ordered the maid beside her in a soft tone. With Queen Nevaeh killing the Captain of the Royal Guards, the others would naturally default to her side and harbor some resentment against Nevaeh which was a good thing for her. Thus, she would not shirk the responsibility that Queen Neveah gave her to select a new Captain.

The maid left and a few minutes later returned with nine men. Each of them led a squad of twenty men and the Captain led forty. The Royal Guards were made of two hundred and twenty men, skilled in the sword and excellent riding skills. They were devastating in wars to enemy infantry and against other calvary, they were bloody thorns.

Queen Rowan studied them in silence for a while before asking, “Who is the best swordsman among you?”

“That would he me My Queen” one among then stepped out, a young man with a lithe stature.

There was a strange flicker in Queen Rowan’s eyes as she flashed a smile at the young man.

“And you are?” she asked in a slightly teasing tone that only her maids could recognize. They became visible uncomfortable but one glance from the Queen settled them.

“Sir Dillan Age” the lithe knight replied.

“Step back Sir Age” Queen Rowan nodded her tone becoming more serious and the strangeness in her eyes vanishing away.

“Lady Payne, you will be the new Guard Captain” she ordered and another lithe figure stepped out. She was the only one wearing her knightly armor and that to Queen Rowan represented responsibility. She knew better than to appoint a Captain based on personal interests. The security of the Royal Castle was not a joke. That much she knew about Royalty.

“I appreciate the honor, My Queen” the young beautiful female knight gave a knightly bow to the Queen who nodded in reply.

“Good. The Great Queen has ordered the whipping of all members of the Council, a hundred whips. At the same time, send a squad to my father and find out as much as you can about the condition of the Chamber. That will be all” Rowan ordered and rose from her seat. The knights all gave a light bow and left the Queen’s Chamber uniformly.

Queen Rowan watched them leave and a sigh escaped her lips. She was not prepared at all, she did not expect Queen Nevaeh to suddenly show her true self today without any prior warnings. Now, she was facing a storm and had no idea how to deal with it.