Sadly Sings Destiny

12

Twelve months to the day after Queen Andretti the Silver was executed on the grand balcony, Verona Conroy woke up in the queen’s chambers of the Swallow’s Nest. A human servant had woken her by ringing a bell outside the door. The pink light of early morning streamed through the gaps in the velvet curtain hanging over the window. Verona was slow to crawl out of bed, taking her time in pushing off her blankets and dropping her feet to the cold stone floor. She dressed quickly and without any help from her servants. She chose to wear a dress of exceptional make in a style typical in Albion. She didn’t deck herself in gallium the way her predecessor did, and instead opted for a crown of spring flowers and a tasteful silver amulet that didn’t cost an extreme amount to most nobles, but seemed excessive to the poor girl. The heavy oaken door opened, and Verona greeted the serving girl with a warm smile and a handful of kind words as she stepped into the hallway.

“Grandmaster Valerian Tretyakov the Fourth has invited you to join him in his airship with King Charles the Twelfth.” The serving girl said as she led Verona down the carven hallway, “If you wish to attend you’ll still have more than enough time to prepare for your coronation.”

“I think that’s a good idea.” Verona replied with a smile, “There’s always something to be said about friendliness.” The serving girl nodded and took the lead, guiding Verona through the same underground passages she had stormed a year before. Verona had spent enough time in the Swallow’s Nest to be familiar with the maze of tunnels, but she preferred to travel with someone by her side in the dark catacombs. She had the strange sensation of being watched, seeing shadows move when they had no right to move. She assumed that it was just from the memory of charging through, expecting enemies at every turn and junction, but a more wistfully offensive side of her whispered to her that she was seeing the ghosts of the women and men who had been killed in her name.

In the year that had passed since Andretti the Silver was executed on her balcony, nothing had really changed in Lotherania. The constitution that limited the monarchy required that the cabinet be replaced with newly elected officials, and indeed that extended down the order to almost every elected official in the national government. It was a slow process, but given her violent and controversial arrival in Rachedale, Verona knew that it would be foolish for her to try and force changes too soon. She even humored the people of the country and ran for her position as monarch in the hopes that she could avoid being called a tyrant herself. However, there were still rumors that Verona had used an assassin to put an end to dozens of people she deemed evil, so there was no one willing to risk their lives opposing her.

Verona raised her hand to shield her eyes from the light of a clear morning as she stepped from the tunnels and into the pathed common square where the engineers from Sabbistahn were working to rig their netting of electric lights as they had over a decade before for another woman. This time, however, the engineers had added colored bulbs. It wasn’t a huge change, but it was one that had generated some conversation around the city. Verona dismissed her servant as she walked into the daylight. She didn’t need help finding the conspicuous airship moored in the Rass River. Valerian’s craft was old, but it still looked far more regal than the one that she had paid for, and that she was still paying for. She smiled, she had met Valerian on several occasions, but this was the first time she was invited onto his ship.

The guards, young faced fifteen and sixteen-year-olds, saluted Verona as she climbed the gangway onto the polished and well-maintained deck of the purpose-built craft. A guard slightly older than the others and in a servant’s livery and with a civilian’s mannerisms greeted her and guided her below decks to the same grand dining room where Valerian had hosted Andretti years before. Valerian turned when he heard the door open. He looked as if he hadn’t aged in the decade that had passed since the last time he had moored in the river, if anything, those who know him would say that his red-eyed gaze was colder. Charles, on the other hand, appeared as if he had done the aging for both of them, his once youthful face was now weathered and looked as if it was a map of the valleys and rivers of his nation, and his golden hair was streaked with rich veins of silver and a dusting of snow.

“Good morning Verona Conroy,” Valerian said with a slight nod of his head, the type that she had come to understand as his bow. Verona smiled at him and greeted him in kind. She had come to know him to a relatively decent degree, and his uncanny gaze didn’t send shivers down her spine anymore. On the other hand, Charles’s blue eyes seemed cold and unfriendly as he looked her over. She had worked more closely with Charles since she had dethroned the previous queen, and through all of that time, it seemed as though the experienced King of Elsideria had not warmed up to her in the slightest.

The meal itself went well, and both of the rulers were relaxed and far less intimidating than they usually were. Verona was able to relax around the Elsiderian King for the first time, however, Valerian seemed to be his usual aloof and disinterested self who took little seriously, which made the queen-to-be have second thoughts about all of their previous meetings. When the meal was winding down, and the conversation was dwindling, the Angel of the Four Lands excused himself, leaving Verona alone with the Grandmaster of Sabbistahn. Valerian took a moment to light a pungent cigar and lean back in his chair as he took a drag.

“So, it seems that this whole Andretti business is finally over,” Valerian said as Verona did her best to not choke on the unfamiliar sensation of the tobacco smoke, “A real shame if you ask me. But I’m sure you’ve heard enough rumors for that to explain myself.”

“Thank you for having me over for breakfast,” Verona said, unsure of what else she could say in response. Half the country had known that he and Andretti were involved from time to time romantically and were quite close when they weren’t arguing about politics, and it was a topic that Verona had been able to avoid for the entire time she was preparing to take control of the country.

“I’m going to tell you something that I told Andretti all those years ago,” he said, taking another puff before repeating his speech about service providers and how her country would find another provider should she fail to do what she promised. When he had recovered all of the old points, he continued, “Andretti was a good queen, if you ask me. But, we both know that I am biased, yes? Well, in the minimum, she did what she thought was best, and even through the bad parts, she lived her life to serve the people. Be warned Verona, even your most moral and ethical and good-natured ambitions will be met with resistance by at least one person, and may the gods help you if that one person is anything like you.”

Verona didn’t have a response to him. He wasn’t threatening her, but his words hit her as hard as if he had threatened her. She took the look on his face as her permission to leave. He wasn’t staring her down, but there was something in the way he looked at her as he read the impact of his words. There was something about that searching gaze that made her uncomfortable, and that made her feel unwelcome. She turned and left the room, and when Valerian didn’t say anything, she knew she had made the right choice.

She returned to the castle and did her best to put the tone and his words from her mind as she assisted with the preparations for the coronation. When mid-day came around once more, she returned to the common square where the crowd had gathered, leaving room for the upcoming parade. The priest performed the rights needed, and once more called to the sky, demanding the gods show a sign if Verona Conroy was not fit to be queen. As was typical, no blind beast came to rip her to shreds, and the thousand-eyed black bird did not swoop from the sky to carry her away to her death. From somewhere two hundred feet away, however, a solitary dog was heard giving one howl, and when whispers ran through the crowd that the dog was snow-white borzoi, a shiver ran down the spines of every Sabbistahni guard who stood behind her.

When the traditional processions came, there were many whispers and murmurs of the lack of a full parade from Sabbistahn. Verona’s head priest even whispered to her that they had run in fear from the borzoi, and the two had a well hid laugh at the superstitious foreigners. Instead of the grand parade that was rumored to be scheduled, a single motor carriage ticked its way down the cleared roadway, driven personally by the Grandmaster and the magician required to operate the machine properly. The car stopped at the steps of the dais, and once more Valerian erased all private debts in the country but made it clear that it didn’t apply to Verona as the debt was the price she had to pay for gaining her crown. As usual, Valerian swore his support to the new queen in the same way he had to Andretti, but shortly after, he re-entered his horseless carriage and drove back down the parade route to his moored airship, leaving only an awkward silence in his wake.

Verona took the opportunity to cast her simple hex on herself to amplify her voice and draw the attention back to herself. The woman anointed Queen Verona Conroy the Wolf Hound gave her speech to her new subjects.

“Good morning Rachedale and the rest of Lotherania.” she started with a smile, “And to all of our friends and allies from around the world, even our skittish banker friends who seem to have been frightened off by a dog.” she paused for a laugh that came from the crowd, “This is a new era for all of Lotherania. My predecessor, The Silver Queen, has ruled for many years, reaching into everyone’s lives and taking what she wanted and giving it back to people who didn’t deserve it. I understand the desire to help others in need, but the way to do that isn’t by taking from other people barely able to survive as it is.

“From this day forward, I promise that I will not be involved in your lives. I will reign in the authority of the crown and let the good people of this country live their lives. Furthermore, the insensitive and backward way that the last queen treated everyone with her welfare programs is going to go away forever. I will reduce the taxes until we all pay equally and until we are all treated equally in the eyes of the crown and the remaining agencies. Any of my welfare agents that are caught being involved in any corrupt activities will be put on trial and will be dealt with harshly once proven guilty.”

For over an hour, Verona went on about what she had seen and what she had been working towards in her year between Andretti’s death and her coronation. She outlined her plans to reduce the power that she would have over the ordinary people of the country. She talked about the meetings she had with Valerian and how she had a great admiration for the Sabbistahnian method of government, where Valerian had little actual power over the people. Her new libertarian ideas were welcome, she was later assured, by all that had gathered. For the first time since she had aided in the lynching of government agents, Verona felt like she was bringing about a real change.