13: The New Lady of the High Council

"Milady, may I sit?" Kenia asked, the papers with the alphabet that Ivailo had created in her hand.

"Come and sit here." Amaris moved over a little and patted the duvet next to her. "It will be a lot easier for me to see." Kenia sat on the bed as instructed and crossed her legs. The pair spent the next half an hour like that, Kenia holding up the pages covered in letters and Amaris reading them out loud, with Kenia correcting her if she got the pronunciation wrong. After that half an hour, Amaris was getting so good at reading her letters that Kenia decided that her ladyship had done enough practicing of the letters to pass for today.

"You are getting good, Milady." Kenia said as she stood, putting the papers back on the desk and picking up the hairbrush off the dressing table. "Now, all we need to do is get you freshened up and then you will be ready for your first day as the Lady of the people."

"Thank you for your help, Kenia. I do not know what I would do without you." Amaris replied, as she rolled off the bed and sat at the dressing table.

"You certainly would not look half as good without my help, Milady." Kenia said as she started brushing her ladyship's hair. When she was done, Kenia put the hairbrush back down on the dressing table and went to the wardrobe. "Which one do you want to wear, Milady?" She asked, pulling out a few different options. Amaris pondered the options.

"This one." Amaris pointed to a light blue dress made of cotton.

"Are you certain, Milady? It is rather plain."

"Yes, I am certain Kenia. If I am going to be the representative of the people, then I might as well look somewhat like the people, even if it is just in my clothing."

"Yes, Milady." Kenia said, helping Amaris pull off the emerald green gown she had been wearing.

Amaris took a deep breath as she stood before the enormous doors that lead to the throne room. This was it. Behind these doors was not only a new job, but a chance to make Acad a much better place to live for both werewolves and vampires alike. Kenia stood beside her, showing her to the small chamber that the high council met in. With a nod from Amaris, Kenia opened the doors into the cavernous throne room. It was just as glorious as it had been before sunset, but now the room was lit with the pink hue of the sun going down through the enormous windows, rather than the riot of sunshine that had lit the chamber. Kenia led Amaris through the many pillars and up the stairs of the dais to a much smaller but still impressive door on the left side of the dais.

"This is where the high council meets, Milady." Kenia said.

"Thank you for showing me where they meet. You may go now." Amaris dismissed her, feeling the anticipation and nervousness of her first day on the job.

"Yes, Milady." Kenia left. Amaris took a deep breath and opened the door. The room beyond was possibly the plainest room of the entire castle. It reminded Amaris of the great room of The Bitterhead Inn, only instead of many tables there was one table, with seven chairs showing where each member was to be sitting. The table was adorned rather simply, with only a bunch of what Amaris knew to be lavender by the scent placed at the center of the table. She was alone in the room. Evidently, she was the first member of the council to show up. She heard the door open and spun around as Ivailo entered the room.

"There you are!" He exclaimed. Amaris, remembering her manners, quickly curtsied as Ivailo approached. "I went to your chambers to come and get you, but neither you nor your ladies' maid were there."

"I am sorry that we worried you, Your Majesty. Kenia and I were not anticipating you to turn up to collect me, so we made our own way here."

"I am just glad you are okay." Ivailo said, grabbing Amaris's shoulders. Butterflies erupted in her stomach as he started to pull her into a hug, but stopped and jerked his hand back when the door opened once again, revealing Lady Lyra and Lady Kafei. "Greetings, Lady Lyra, Lady of Laws and Lady Kafei, Lady of War."

"Greetings to you, Your Majesty." Lady Lyra said as she and Lady Kafei curtsied. "And to you, Lady Amaris, Lady of the People." Amaris smiled.

"Greetings to you too, Lady Lyra, Lady of Laws and Lady Kafei, Lady of War." She repeated, curtsying in response. The door opened again, revealing Lord Arheim, Lord Wolfram, and Lord Brass. "Greetings to you, Lord Arheim, Lord of Finances. And to you, Lord Wolfram, Lord of Infrastructure. and to you, Lord Brass, Lord of Spies." She curtsied, facing them.

"Why is the wench that my spies spent so much time hunting to kill standing in this room as if she were one of us?" Lord Brass asked. Amaris tried not to look incensed, though she was not sure how successful she was.

"She is here because not only was she a wench and a barmaid, she was a slave." Ivailo responded flatly, slumping into the chair at the head of the table. "And now she is not only my guest, but she is The Lady Of The People, and it would be a good idea to pay her some respect, unless you want to be labeled as a traitor to the crown." That seemed to shut the lords up. "Now, greet her and my sisters properly."

"Yes, Your Majesty. Greetings, Your Majesty. And to you, Lady Lyra, Lady of Laws. And to you, Lady Kafei, Lady of War." Lord Arhein said, bowing to every single person he greeted. "And to, Lady Amaris, Lady of the people." He added, his voice dripping with disdain, bowing comically low, evidently trying to insult Amaris in every way he could. The other two lords followed his example, each making their bows comically low and their voices drip with venom when they greeted Amaris, trying to make her feel small. Fat chance of that happening, she thought; They haven't spent a day working for Montego, who absolutely loved to insult his vampire staff members, especially the women and even more so when he was drunk. Amaris was glad that she had worked at The Bitterhead Inn. It had given her a skin thicker than most would imagine. If only it had given her copious amounts of energy as well.

"Good. Now that everyone is here, let's get started." Ivailo said as he motioned for people to sit down. Lady Kafei and Lady Lyra sat down on his left-hand side, and the lords settled themselves on his right. Amaris, taking the last seat available, sat next to Lady Kafei, who sat between her and Lady Lyra. As much as she was a member of the high council, Amaris felt like the Lords of the high council did not want her to be there. No matter, she would just have to become the most invaluable member of the council.

"Lady Kafei, how are the plans for war coming along?" Ivailo asked.

"Very good, Your Majesty. All we need is for the high council to sign off on the paperwork." Kafei responded, pulling out several pieces of paper and giving them out to the rest of the council.

"Very good. Lord Arheim, do we have enough in the treasury to afford the proposed plan of attack?"

"We do, Your Majesty. But I will not sign this piece of paper, nor will I allow any money to come out of the treasury until Lady Amaris is off this council and executed for the crimes of her father!" Lord Arheim shouted. Ivailo started to argue, but Amaris cut him off.

"Your Majesty, I think it is more appropriate for me to answer."

"Go ahead." She turned to Lord Arheim. "If you think you can scare me like that, my Lord, you have another thing coming. Right now, my appointment to the Lady of the people is the very reason that you still have a head. From what Lady Lyra and Lady Kafei have told me, I am surprised that your own servants have not killed you, as you treat them worse than my father treated his servants. Also, you were not in that set of chambers at The Bitterhead Inn when His Majesty first came to me. If you were, you would know that I am nothing like my father, and agree that the old system of doing things was just that, old. So do me a favour, and judge me for what I do and not the mistakes of my ancestors."

The utter chaos that Amaris had unleashed on the Lords of the high council was absolutely glorious. Ivailo had never seen her be so full of spunk, and he liked it. Her ferocity was new and very attractive. Why am I thinking like this? He asked himself, bewildered by his train of thought.

"But your appointment," Lord Brass started. Good heaven, Ivailo was so over the pettiness of the Lords of the High council. Why couldn't they be more like Kafei and Lyra? It would certainly make things so much easier.

"Is an indicator that His Majesty is better than my father, by doing something that should have been done a long time ago. Bringing the other race to the table so that we can work together to make Acad even better." Damn, her savageness was becoming distractingly attractive.

"Enough. Lady Amaris is here to stay, and if you do not agree with her appointment, I would suggest that you keep quiet or I will act on my temptation to label you three as traitors." Ivailo said, trying to bring the room back under his control. A tense silence followed, only broken when Lyra spoke.

"We do not need the signature of Lord Arheim to release the funds." She turned to her older brother. "Your Majesty, you are the emperor. As long as you have an imperial decree, you can do pretty much anything you need."

"He cannot do anything unless he has either the support of all the high council, or he has an outsider support him." Lord Wolfram reminded them.

"You know what, I now no longer have a Lord of Finances, Lord of Spies or a Lord of Infrastructure. Lords, I am tired of your bullshit!" Ivailo shouted. "Be grateful that I am not throwing you in prison right now. Leave!" He barked, scaring them into submission. Getting the message that they were no longer welcome in the high council chamber, Lord Arhein, Lord Wolfram, and Lord Brass left.

Finally, he could breathe a breath that was not being observed. No longer was someone counting down the seconds till he died, and the first thing that he wanted to do was to kiss the little spitfire that was Amaris. Wait, why am I thinking like that? She is my subject; I am not supposed to fall in love with her. Wait, is this love? Is this feeling what love is? Argh Amaris, why are you sending me into such a knot?

"So now that we only have half a high council, what do we do?" Amaris's question pulled him out of his own head.

"We find people to fill the spots that the previous lords left." He responded. "Amaris, come and sit here, I don't like that I have to yell out to you." He motioned to the now vacant seat on his right-hand side. She obeyed, coming to rest where Lord Arheim had once sat.

"Filling the spots back up again could take months, even years to find the right candidates." Kafei pointed out. "If you want to go to war, the sooner the better."