Chapter 207

Astraka watched the orcs compete against the trolls, they used the severed head of a thief, and what they 'did' was kick the head around in a curious form of sport. The thief had long hair, so it was used to sling the head around and throw it from one player to the next, with the other team trying to intercept it. Curiously, nobody could take more than two steps as near as he could tell before they were forced to throw it. The sport required abundant teamwork, and leaders emerged very quickly.

Shouts, sweating and swearing were the norm, but when one side got the severed head to the far end of the field and threw it past the meaty hand of the one guarding the goal, cheers went up from those who watched.

"How are you finding our sports, Duke Astraka?" The Frost Queen asked as she walked silent as death up beside him.

He jumped in his skin before turning to look down at her, the chill breath she emitted wafted over his skin, setting his hairs standing up on the back of his neck, but he answered with calmness at least. "It is… something else." He said as an orc and a troll left the field and a stone spitter and spriggan took their places.

Neia nodded politely and glanced up at him with her hands folded behind her back, his comment was neutral, but she felt, held a note of intrigue. "It's a team building exercise and a display of the power of the law. Steal from your own, end up as sports equipment. A little harsh perhaps," she shrugged, "but these are the days that must be harshest of all. In addition, these games I helped make provide an outlet for their energy and competitive spirit. It helps me find the leaders in their numbers and builds bonds without body counts. I can't use the Holy Kingdom's ways on so many different types of people, so this," she swept a hand out in front of her, "is how I've adapted."

The human nodded again, it was disconcerting, those last few weeks, watching the castle rise and grow slowly around the throne of the Queen of Frost. Seeing the dragon go out to sea and return with enormous deep water animals to provide for massive feasts and an abundant supply of oil from them which he had to envy.

The dark dwarf furnaces blazed without stopping, the building went on day after day, hour after hour as the first true demihuman city in the Abelion Hills began to rise.

Questions whirled in the head of the broad shouldered warrior noble, his hands were held tense in front of him, but so many things came to mind that he was unable to ask any of it before a spriggan approached them both and went down to one knee. "My Queen… news." The voice of the creature 'crackled' almost like the wooden body had a fire within, the green glow that came through the cracks was so filled with magic that Astraka, despite having no affinity for it, couldn't help but notice.

The head of the spriggan was not at all human, despite the face having eyes and mouth, though it was the whole jaw that moved, not lips, the head itself was elongated upward giving an impression of even greater height, and the thing was nearly as tall as the Queen even when kneeling. It had no 'muscles', but the wooden limbs were bulging like thick tree limbs on a great old oak, and it smelled slightly of grass wet with morning dew. Green leaves sprouted here and there, and trembled despite the lack of a breeze. Before spending some time here, that trembling would have meant nothing. But now, after weeks among the demihumans, Astraka sensed something was amiss by it.

"Go on, Astraka is our guest and if I have to send him away over this, he should at least know why." Queen Baraja replied and reached behind her to scratch her back. The horns growing out of the side of her head must not have itched, or so he concluded since he never saw her scratch there anymore, they were rising up to a jagged shape that crested just over head height, and were as pale as the rest of her body that he could see. The Queen's words allowed his body to relax despite the spriggan's tension, and he flashed an indulgent smile toward what he 'assumed' was a particularly big male.

"To'Raven is dead, my Queen, and so is his party."

Neia took that in, she closed her eyes and a chill cloud of fog took form from her breath. She accepted what he said… seemingly well, then asked, "How?" She tensed her body visibly, "Was it the Queen?" Neia asked, and the spriggan shook his head.

"No. The riders say Remedios Custodio is the one who gave the order. In my time in the forest near the wall, we sometimes treated with the riders in peace, they have never lied to us." The spriggan's voice was heavier than Neia expected.

'Did he know To'Raven?' She wondered briefly and then set the thought aside.

"Has his family been told?" The Queen asked, and Astraka had to restrain himself from raising a brow at the compassionate question. When the spriggan again shook his head, the Queen nodded. "Have them brought to me, I will tell them." Her hands went behind her back and one fist closed tight into her other, more relaxed palm.

"Go." She said to the spriggan and turned away to face Astraka instead. "You will be leaving us now, I have a task for you. Abide by it, give us control of the wall, and we have a bargain, human."

The Duke stepped back, her eyes were a constant source of anxiety that made it easier for him to look at the demihumans themselves instead of her, but now, trapped in their violent pull, they threatened the beating of his heart with death by sheer terror. Still, he mustered his courage and opened his mouth to speak.

Nothing came out, the words died in his throat.

The Queen of Frost didn't wait for him to catch up to his fleeing will, "I assume you have an excuse to be in the North of your kingdom… even if nobody knows you're here with me, perhaps an isolated hunting lodge? A loyal relative?"

Duke Astraka nodded.

Barely.

"Then when you go back," the Frost Queen drew a hand from behind her back and rested the palm on his shoulder, and despite him wearing pauldrons on his shoulders, when her talons clicked against the metal, the flesh beneath felt no safer, "you will be my voice. You will tell them that my messengers broke into your cabin after finding it by chance while they avoided human patrols, and told you to convey a message to the Queen on my behalf."

Astraka finally found his voice, "Shouldn't you just send her messengers directly?" He coughed and tore his gaze away when her ice blue eyes hardened further.

"They already killed one group of messengers. I will not risk another. I have my justification for war right now… but I don't believe the Queen was involved, or even knew of it. So let her have a chance to atone. Tell her that if Remedios Custodio's head is not sitting on the wall in a fortnight as a punishment for the unjust execution of my envoy, I will come over and put it there myself."

Astraka shivered as he contemplated what he was facing, a full blown demihuman invasion was the stuff of centuries old nightmares. 'Did I make a massive mistake…?' He wondered, but as it was… 'I'm committed. I turned traitor just by being here… there's no other option now but to see it to the end…'

"I-I, yes… yes, I'll do as you ask, Queen Baraja… I swear it. She will refuse. But I will carry your message." Astraka vowed, and Neia's hand came away from his shoulder and lowered to become an offered hand.

"Before I was a Queen, back when I was a human… I was a soldier, Huntress of the Wildlands, the Terror Eyes, the successor to the Mad Eyed Archer… but still, just a soldier. I offer my hand in that spirit."

Astraka furrowed his brow, "They say the first King was a lucky soldier, I suppose it's true of Queens too." He looked down at her hand, wavered a moment, and clasped his into hers. "I'll see you on the battlefield."

Neia looked away, tilted her head up, and whistled.

"I'll provide you with an escort past the wall, from there, get going, pass my message by magic or horseback, but I won't be giving the Holy Kingdom a lot of time. So don't waste it, and don't waste the time of the South either." She instructed as a magelos approached. "Get him home." Neia said without giving him a chance to respond. "Oh," she added, "and try to get my parents to safety, I don't want them used as bargaining chips against me when the Queen learns who I am."

Astraka bowed his head, and departed.