13 XIII. | 'O, blood of noble birth...!'

The drawing room was quiet. Helen merely continued reading in silence as the young man on the other side of the broad writing table shifted uncomfortably for the twentieth time.

Helen had forgotten his name. "V"-something, perhaps. Highborn. Ties to her cousins in the House of Carthrace. Both attributes which disqualified him.

After a while of fidgeting, the young man finally grew bold enough to pose a familiar question. "F-forgive me if I sound impertinent, Your Majesty, but is there a purpose to this visit?"

She smiled. Your Majesty was how commoners addressed her. He should have said Your Highness. It made no difference to her, of course, other than providing amusement. "What purpose need there be?" she said.

The boy's face spoke of difficulty. "Begging your pardon, Your Majesty, but it seems very strange that you would invite so many of us to sit with you individually... without purpose."

"Why should it be strange?" she said.

He had no answer, and the silence returned.

She looked at her clock filigreed in silver. "You may go now," she said. As the boy stood, she added, "Please send in the next person as you leave." She watched him go.

'It's finally the girl's turn, isn't it?' said Mehlsanz. 'Please tell me it is. I'm so sick of this waiting.'

Helen glanced at the reaper by the furnace. To her eyes, Mehlsanz was a ghostly gray thing, vaguely feminine in form, and perhaps even beautiful, in a haunting way. 'Indeed,' Helen said. 'I honestly do not care much for the waiting, either.'

'You couldn't come up with a plan that required less patience?'

'I would have thought a reaper of death to be well-suited to the task of waiting.'

'Suited. Not pleased.'

When the large doors opened once more and a young woman entered, Helen stood to greet her. "Please have a seat," she said.

The girl sat. She removed the sheathed sword from her belt and rested it by her side--a respectful gesture, if a bit antiquated due to the decline of swords among the Queen's Guard.

Lynnette Edith was her name. Only nineteen, according to her file, but her sharp eyes and harsh cheek bones made her look older. Her caramel brown skin clashed against the white-and-blue uniform. She kept her wavy, raven hair in a braided ponytail that came over her shoulder, and she was clearly not afraid to look the Queen in the eye.

"Do you carry that weapon wherever you go?" Helen asked.

"Yes, I do, Your Highness."

Helen did not let the silence last. "You are curious as to your presence here, no?"

"Yes, ma'am. Everyone is."

"It is all a ruse," the Queen said.

"Ma'am...?"

"To organize this very meeting with you," she explained. "If I met with you out of the blue, everyone would wonder why. You would be given far too much attention, which would ruin everything. If I meet with all one hundred and twelve of my Guard, however, then this meeting here becomes a matter of course."

Lynnette's posture stiffened. "Why would Your Highness wish to have a secret meeting with me? What could I possibly--?"

"You are one of the few people in this castle whom I believe I can trust. Most of your peers carry obligations toward their families, which exist within a sphere of complications and nuisances, to put it mildly. Your family, however, affords me no such trouble."

"My family, Your Highness?" said Lynnette. "Because I am lowborn...?"

"Indeed," she said plainly. "Lowborn families are rare, and while I am under no delusions that this alone renders you without ambitions or unequivocally loyal to me, I believe the fact that you are also ostracized by your comrades splits the difference."

The young woman's ice blue gaze hardened. "They don't ostracize me, Your Highness. I ostracize them."

"Oh? And why is that?"

"Because... ah... I must apologize, Your Highness. I spoke carelessly."

"No," said Helen, returning to her chair of velvet and rosewood. "Please speak candidly."

Lynnette took a moment to become certain again. "They are undisciplined, elitist fools, Your Highness. They think every minor effort they put forth deserves praise and rewards."

The Queen's hands came together at their fingertips. "I knew I would like you." She could hear Mehlsanz chortling.

The girl's expression betrayed nothing of her thoughts.

Helen decided to move on. "So. What have people been saying about my sudden interest in my guardsmen? What rumors have you heard?"

Lynnette seemed reluctant but answered nonetheless. "Most people seem to think you're looking for someone to investigate the assassination attempt in secret, because you don't trust the official investigators."

"Ah. I thought as much. Is that what you believe, as well?"

"In all honesty, ma'am, I don't really listen to rumors. I find them tedious."

"That is unfortunate, because you are going to start," said Helen. "You are my secret ally. You will tell me what others are afraid to. Listening to rumors is now very much worth your time."

"But, Your Highness..."

"I believe I have made myself clear."

She straightened, and then nodded. "Yes, ma'am."

"You must tell no one of your work. Not your family. Not your friends. Not your superiors. No one can support you in these endeavors, except me."

"What endeavors, ma'am?"

"Two days from now, you will begin to observe my brother Nathaniel's chambers in secret."

"Prince Nathaniel? May I ask why?"

"At that time, I am almost certain that someone will attempt to plant evidence that implicates him as the assassin. I want you to remove said evidence and then follow the person who planted it."

Lynnette blinked. "Why would someone want to frame him?"

"Because he is guilty."

Lynnette blinked again. "W-what? I don't understand..."

"I have seven brothers," the Queen said. "Nathaniel is by far the most foolish. And while that does not allow me to forgive what he has done, there is no doubt in my mind that someone is using him. I want you to help me discover who my true opponent is."

The young woman's expression wavered for only a moment. "I understand, Your Highness. I will do as you command."

"Thank you, Lynnette. However, I must tell you, your circumstances will temporarily worsen, and I will not be able to improve them without revealing my intentions to my enemies. I am going to have you demoted to nightly patrols, where your absence among the Guard will be least problematic, but it will still not go unnoticed. Your superiors may have you removed from the Queen's Guard entirely."

"I understand..."

"Endure this hardship for me, and I shall show my gratitude as only I can. You and your entire family will want for nothing. That is my promise."

"Thank you, Your Highness."

"Please recite your task back to me."

"In two days, I will begin observing Prince Nathaniel's bedchamber. When someone arrives to plant evidence, I will remove it and follow the perpetrator, where I will attempt to learn the identity of the person responsible."

"It will likely be one or more of my brothers. I merely need to know which."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Now be on your way. If anyone asks what happened during our meeting, tell them that you sat with me in silence, just like everyone else."

"As you command." Lynnette stood and returned her sword to its place on her belt.

"And please send in the next person on your way out."

Lynette nodded and exited the drawing room.

Helen eyed the reaper. 'I would like you to accompany her when the time arrives.'

'You don't trust her to follow your orders?'

'This is not just about finding my enemies,' the Queen said. 'I need new allies. I hope you will be able to tell me if she is as trustworthy as I think she is.'

'Alright. I suppose I don't have anything better to do.'

The next member of the Queen's Guard entered, and Helen bade him sit, allowing the quiet to return in force.

Mehlsanz floated around the new guest, eyeing him and soon growing bored. 'Do you really have no idea who convinced Nathaniel to kill you?' she asked.

'I fear I do not know my family as well as I should. I have often wondered what my father was thinking when he chose me as his successor. Surely, he must have known the ire it would earn me.'

'He must've really believed you were the best person for the job.'

'Perhaps,' said Helen. 'But the tradition of primogeniture is not so easily ignored.'

'Well, yeah. I doubt your father intended for the succession to get you murdered.'

'Given my circumstances, it now seems more likely that my father appointed me not because he believed I would do well, but because he believed others would do evil.'

'Hmm.'

'The most irritating part of it all is that I saw the assassination coming in time, and yet I could not save myself. Suddenly, my most trusted subordinates were nowhere to be found. I died, because I misjudged the true characters of my friends.'

'Ah. Hence, your determination not to make that mistake twice.'

'Yes...'

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

Sitting in his room, Hector scratched his head as he struggled over his algebra homework. Garovel floated next to him, reading the newspaper sprawled across his desk.

The rest of the school day had gone rather strangely. His new group of lunch friends had been extremely apologetic, even though he couldn't imagine what they had to feel sorry for. They ended up discussing television and pudding, afterwards, though Hector mostly just listened.

Carpentry club had been the real surprise, however. Word had gotten around of Hector's tumble down a flight of stairs, and when he had hobbled into the clubroom, thinking he would get a bit more work done on his helm, he had been assailed with a slew of inquiries and concerns about his health from everyone in the club. People who had ignored him for the past year were suddenly talking to him again. He handled the situation the best way he knew how. By running away. Or waddling briskly away, at least.

'Turn the page, please,' said Garovel.

He did so. "How much do you know about the Queen, anyway?"

'Not much. I know she's quite young for a functional monarch. Still in her early thirties, I believe. And I know it was a big deal when she was appointed by her father.'

"Oh yeah, I remember that. It was only like four years ago, wasn't it?"

'Yeah. She's the youngest of eight direct descendants, and all seven of her siblings are male. The King broke Atreyan royal tradition in a big way by choosing her.'

"That's right... I remember 'cause everyone thought she'd rule in name only or just... have her power taken away as soon as her father died... but he died like a year later, and nothing's changed. Well... until now, I guess..."

'I wonder if one of those siblings is responsible for the attempt on her life.'

Hector's brow receded. "One of her own brothers...? That'd be so fucked up..."

'Well, when you have that kind of power within your reach, and you're raised to believe it's your destiny or some stupid shit like that, only to see it given to someone else... I mean, who knows if that's really the case? But it's not hard to imagine, given what a huge fuss was made over her appointment initially.'

"Geez..."

'Shouldn't you be focusing on your math, by the way?'

Hector sighed. "I should be meditating..."

'You meditate way too deeply, you freak. I need you to turn the pages for me right now.'

"Maybe I can just... hang the pages from the ceiling, and you can float around them or something..."

'Just do your damn homework. You can meditate later.'

"Ugh... Y'know, I thought you'd be a faster reader than this."

'Oh, I'm sorry. How many non-native languages can YOU read? Because I'm only fluent in about three hundred or so.'

Hector blinked. "Three hundred?!"

'Well. A good number of them are dead, but still.'

"Hmm... You're thousands of years old, though. So that's only like one new language every hundred years. Not all that impressive, really."

'Oh, shut up.'

After quietly agonizing through a few problems with trigonometric functions, he was relieved to hear Garovel begin musing again.

'Hmm...'

"What's the matter?"

'It's just, this article...'

"Are you gonna start spinning wild theories, now?"

'No.' A beat passed. 'Maybe.'

"Ha."

'It says the Queen informed her own guards of the attack an hour after it occurred.'

"Huh... Is that odd?"

'Well. Kind of. You'd think the Queen's Guard would be a bit more on the ball, wouldn't you? Even if they'd been unable to stop the assailant, shouldn't they have at least known there was one? If not right away, then surely within an hour?'

"Well... uh... maybe there wasn't an assailant. Maybe someone just poisoned her drink or something, and no one saw who."

'Hmm. It says here that the Queen was "in a state of confusion" and has yet to remember any details of the attack. What the hell does that mean?'

"Yeah, I dunno about that one..."

'Apparently, she's scheduled a public press conference a few days from now, and they're expecting more details then.'

"Weird... It's already been three whole days, right?"

'This sounds like... a reaper may have been involved.'

Hector reared back. "W-what? What makes you think that...?"

'Mainly, the fact that it took her an hour to report the attack, but also the fact that no one else seems to know anything about it. Perhaps the reason she waited so long was because the assassin actually succeeded in killing her.'

"Damn... a reaper revived the freaking Queen?"

'There could be some other explanation I'm not thinking of. But it's not unheard of for reapers to take on people in positions of power and try to use that person for some purpose.'

"Holy shit... are you saying what I think you're saying...?"

Garovel looked at him heavily. 'If a reaper is controlling the Queen, then we'd better find out what their intentions are.'

"They could... they could start a fucking war, couldn't they?"

'It's a possibility.'

"...What do we do?"

'Hmm.' Garovel moved away from the paper. 'It'll be dangerous, but I think we should go to the capital and try to see the Queen.'

"Really? But, um... should we, uh... should we really just leave Brighton? I mean... what about Geoffrey? He could be hurting people. I feel like we should... uh, stay and... kill him..."

'That's another reason why I want to go, actually. I'm wondering if the Queen's reaper can tell us anything about what Geoffrey is. If they chose to revive a queen, then they're probably more informed about circumstances around the world than I currently am.'

"Hmm. But even still... there's no way we'd be able to get an audience with the Queen. I mean... even if someone hadn't just tried to kill her..."

'I can go in alone.'

Hector just lowered his brow.

'Don't give me that look. Meeting her won't be dangerous. If she's just been revived, then she won't be able to hurt me yet. But I definitely want you to escort me everywhere else. We might not be the only reaper and servant to pay her a visit.'

"You think so? Do you, uh... do you think I'm ready to fight another servant?"

Garovel fell quiet a moment. 'We won't engage anyone like that unless we absolutely have to. But all the same, you'd better start meditating.'

"Right..."

'Oh, but before you do, lay out the classified ads for me.'

"What for?"

'I'll see about finding you transport. Sescoria is a good four hundred kilometers away. You can't just run there.'

"So I'll take a train."

'Yeah... Problem with that is, we might have to leave Sescoria in a hurry. If we're getting chased, you won't exactly have time to stand around waiting for a train to arrive.'

"O-okay, but... I don't even have a driver's license..."

'I'll give you a day to practice.'

"Oh, gee, a whole day?"

'Twenty-four hours of nonstop practice should be more than enough to get the basics down.'

"Uh, but it's still illegal..."

The reaper shrugged. 'Eh.'

He sighed. "This is gonna end with me impaled on a fencepost or something, isn't it...?"

'Probably.'

"Ugh..." Hector rubbed his face. "This whole thing feels like a terrible idea..."

'I know it does. But a hell of a lot of lives could be in danger. And if they aren't, then so much the better. It could still be an opportunity to make a valuable ally.'

"Yeah... I guess you're right..."

'We only have a few days before her public appearance. Let's not waste them.'

He nodded.