Her Majesty's Blade (closed)

[UncleJunior]

The palace flickered with golden light from the thousands of candles above and along the great hall. Blood-red silks adorned the marble halls and thick carpets covered the gleaming floors. The hundreds of people in attendance danced and swayed with the horns, drums, and cymbals that played in the grand theater. The quality of the stone, as well as the shape of the inner court itself, carried sound throughout the palace grounds. Even the poor sections beyond the palace walls, where the cook fires brought the smell of meat and onions, throbbed in time with the dance of the great hall.

Aladria swayed in step with the song that echoed through her palace. Her swinging hips pushed and twisted the her dress into scandalous shapes. On either side of (but several steps behind) her the royal advisors followed. The royal treasurer and minister of culture chattered endlessly as the greatest party the palace had seen in anyone's lifetime went unnoticed all around them. Suddenly ending her step and turning sharply toward the minister of culture, she cut him off in the middle of a tirade about the 'unwashed poor'.

"The merchants tossing coins to the poor is more than some tired peasant tradition Sir Yadwin, it is a law passed down from the first king. It keeps the farmers and laborers at their toils all year without complaint."

The minister of culture, perhaps thinking that the queen hadn't been listening to him (a fair assumption, as she rarely did) stammered for a few moments before attempting to change the subject to the traditions of a different king. The queen cut him off again.

"Agram the seventh is beloved by historians and the wealthy, and for the same reason. The chaos and incompetence of his reign changed the shape of our map."

"Some would say for the better," the minister returned.

"Not many," the queen replied coldly.

In the courtyard far below, a cheer rose up, accompanied by the sound of coins striking the stone streets of the commoner's square. The queen simply smiled at her minister, ending the argument. The treasurer, who had agreed with everything the minister said up until that moment, helpfully reminded him that the work output following the Founder's Festival was three times greater than at any other time of the year.

Queen Aladria was young, unmarried, and powerful beyond measure. For some reason people thought she was someone who could be spoken over, or for. She'd made embarrassing such people into a game she'd learned to play terrifyingly well. It was hardly any wonder that almost every one who truly knew her wanted her dead.

The Queen waved her ministers away, gently but firmly advising them to enjoy the party without her. Once they had turned the corner, Aladria turned to face the shadowy place between a stone column and a gold-fringed silk curtain and gestured toward it.

"Come my nightingale, I have need of you."

 

[siobhancan99]

Stepping out from the shadows, Tamsin looked the queen over and sketched a little bow. "I am, ever, at your service." Her tone was warm and perhaps a touch familiar. The sentence may or may not hold promises beyond her normal duty of being the queen''s bodyguard. Tamsin was all, lean, well muscled for a woman but not thickly built like a man. More like a gymnast or a runner. A rapier hung at her side, as she was one of the few to be allowed to go armed in the queen's presence outside of the normal palace guards. Her brown hair was cropped short, to keep from being a distraction in battle. She was dressed in leather breeches that accentuated her legs, and a billowy top, reigned in by a black vest. She fell into step along the queen as they made their way through the halls and towards the queen's chambers where they might speak more freely. As they went, she took note of the various places an assassin might hide themselves, always a half step ahead of the queen, lest her services be needed.

Finally ensconced in the queen's chambers and satisfied they were alone, she moved over to a nearby table and poured herself a glass of wine "And what is it my queen needs of me?" tone infinitely more playful now that they were alone.

 

[UncleJunior]

"I require an audience nightingale," the queen replied just as playfully. She was no warrior, but she'd learned from growing up in a palace when she was alone. She made no move to remind Tamsin of this. The way her smoky gaze swept the hall was adorable. It was all she could do not to reach out and caress her cheek.

"Follow my swallow," Aladria sang as she rudely pushed past her champion and friend since childhood and stepped further behind the curtain. Hidden behind the stone column that appeared to be holding up the inner court wall was a staircase. The stones were old and rough-hewn, intended to be used in a siege. The queen hiked her silks up to her waist and bounded up the stairs like she did when she was a child. She let out a royal titter, just barely a giggle, as a cool breeze swept between her thighs.

Up and around and deeper into the palace they climbed until they reached the queens' private sola. Water gurgled from fountains and splashed into a bath the size of a peasant cottage. Steam hung thick in the air. The queen's favorite incense burned in brass lamps and braziers that dotted the room. Nothing could be heard in the center of the room but Tamsin's breathing.

"Are you still my bird Tamsin? Do you still sing for me?"

The queen then unfastened the serpent clasp at the back of her neck, and her festival gown fell to the floor, the silver collar that held it up clattering between their feet.

 

[siobhancan99]

Tamsin tilt's the pretty young queen's face up with a gentle push if a fingertip under her chin "How like a barrister you are, asking questions you already know the answer to. I sing, but softly your majesty, that others might not hear my song and think ill of you and the throne for liking the music of a common bird, and a female at that." She smiled and brushed her thumb along the rouged lip of her sometimes lover and ever sovereign, her eyes holding the gaze of the powerful young woman. "And I will sing for you, till you send me away as you must some day. But till then, aye. I sing to you. I sing of you. I sing with all of me, even if in secret. For it is in secret that my song is sweetest."

 

[UncleJunior]

Aladria brushed Tamsins lips with her own and felt her belly clench. Tamsin was perfect and she was hers. Nothing could stop her from exploring every inch of the young warrior's body. For a moment, she considered pulling her bodyguard into the bath and spending the rest of the festival with her there.

"I need you," she said, running her hands over Tamsin's body, feeling her tense and relax under her queen's caress.

"I need you to do something for me," Aladria said finally. "There is an assassin in the palace."

Aladria spoke quickly and directly. Partly because she knew better than to think there was anywhere in the palace where they would not eventually be found, but mostly because she would not finish if she didn't say everything at once. She explained the delegation that was sent from a neighboring country, sometimes an enemy, sometimes a friend, depending on which families were in charge. The families currently in charge were not friends.

The queens' spies warned about an assassin among the diplomats they sent. Aladria set her mouth in its most queenly position and asked her nightingale to find the assassin, isolate them, and turn them. The last part pushed an icy dagger into the queens heart when she said it.


"I only know it is a man. No blades. No poison. You must use...your other weapons to turn him to our cause."

 

[siobhancan99]

Her eyes narrowed. How like the queen's recently dead father the request was. To ask for something outside the bounds of decency and to know that the ties of loyalty would still lead to a yes. Her jaw set a moment and she shifted her weight. "So I'm to what? fuck every man in the court, ask him not to kill you and then tell him i'd love to stay but I need to move on to the next man in the hopes of getting them all in time?" Her tone was sweet, almost saccharine, the tone she used when she was mad at her friend and sometimes lover and always regent. Her nostrils flared and she kept her eyes on the queen's for a long moment before sighing "you know I will do what must be done."

She stepped back, her eyes on the queen's, ignoring the attraction of the naked flesh she knew so well, and so often. "I will do whatever your majesty requires. I always have."

Turning she moved over to a nearby table, grabbing an apple from the silver bowl. She bit into it, taking the moment of distraction to let the queen compose a reply, or to give herself time to move on and hope that the less that could be said the better. After a moment of silence she chose the latter. "So what do we know? A man that wants to kill you is hardly much to go on. Do we know who sent them?"

 

[UncleJunior]

Aladria smiled sweetly at Tamsin, but shuddered visibly. The thought of any man touching her songbird, much less entering her, pushed the queens' stomach into her throat. Aladria held her warrior in embrace to break their gaze. The cool sting of Tamsin's buckles and coarse warmth of her hardened leather pleasantly pricked the queens' alabaster skin.

There was a secret word they'd come up with as children. It would lead to Tamsin grabbing a fistful of the golden curls spilling down the queen's back, pulling her to the cold marble marble floor, and taking everything she wanted from her majesty. The queens wet lips were inches from Tamsin's ear and she choked on the word she wanted to say but kept it down, not even a whisper.

"It is the Balmorans. The ruling family has sent a delegation of merchants instead of the entertainers and jugglers they usually send."

The queen pouted briefly. She'd always loved the jugglers and missed them at this year's festival. If it wouldn't have made her out to be the petulant child her enemies said she was, she'd liked to have had them tried for treason just for that.

The queen continued, "They set up shop on Poor Street where they can better hide from our spies and avoid running into any of our better-skilled guards. I was informed an hour ago that the shop is gone, along with the 'toys' they were selling to the local children."

The queen then looked apologetically at her champion, lover, and friend.

"I think I tipped them off when I ordered a second search of their wares," she said, averting her eyes. "I was trying to do what I thought you would do."

 

[siobhancan99]

Tamsin did her best not to look. She never could refuse the woman anything, but she had to come to terms with the fact that Aladria wasn't Aladria the woman any more. She was Aladria the queen. She was the state and the state would always have its needs. She sighed and drank, then turned back to the queen. She was curious, but now professionally curious. "What was it you thought you'd find?" She leaned back against the stone wall, trying her best to not look below Aladria's eyes. To the body she knew so well, and so often since they'd had the courage to confess their wants to each other. To the lips she'd kissed so often, and had been on every inch of her body. She tried to disconnect that voice from the voice that whispered her name in their furtive groping. "That you could not have found simply by examining the toys they sold."

 

[UncleJunior]

Aladria had a maid when she was a blossoming teen that taught her how to stand, how to walk, how to flirt. This maid was uncommonly beautiful and made the male guards and servants stumble and embarrass themselves in her presence. Even though it was scandalous for a young queen, she taught Aladria to do the same.

Feeling Tamsin's eyes on her, Aladria's smile sweetened. She could still make her stumble when she wanted to. The way Tamsin strained not to look at her reminded her of the stableboy who tended her first horse. His neck tightened the same way when he tried to keep himself from looking down the queen's blouse. Aladria always hated undergarments and still avoided them whenever possible.

"The little metal trinkets they were selling looked suspicious. I..." Aladria trailed off. Suddenly she doubted her spies. It was her own suspicions that set everything in motion and maybe she was wasting Tamsin's time. Maybe she was ruining one of the few quiet moments she would be able to steal from Tamsin with the endless scheming that had recently become the whole of her days.

"Am I a fool songbird? Am I hunting a toymaker when I could be with you?"

 

[siobhancan99]

"There are many pejoratives I'd like to throw in your direction at the moment my L..." She started to save love and stopped "My Liege." She shook her head "But fool is not one of them. When are you ever wrong about these things?" The queen had been an avid student, and had learned at the feet of the late king. He had been a master manipulator. He could see the plots within plots and unravel a spider's web. His daughter was no different. It was what made her so damned attractive. So special. Pretty girls and handsome men abounded. Clever, that was what made Tamsin weak when she thought about her friend. How damnably clever she was. Tamsin sighed and closed her eyes "So enough with your doubts. You did what you did. That they fled seems to indicate that you hit on something, even if it was as pedestrian as a smuggling ring. So, what was it that made you look, what was it you were looking for? What did you find and what did you not find? More importantly, who remained? If none remained I doubt there's anyone you would have had in mind as a target for my... charms."

 

[UncleJunior]

Aladria blinked and straightened her face. She fully expected Tamsin to give her a pat on the head, tell her she was a fool in the kind way she had, and take her to enjoy the party, or perhaps just take her.

Aladria could see the hunter return to Tamsin's eyes. Tamsin did not hide her scheming, but showed it in her face like a soldier. Aladria wondered if that was the difference between strategy and tactics. Aladria carefully laid out what she knew.

Reports were that the shopkeepers that set up in the square didn't look like shopkeepers. There were a lot of missing eyes, noses, and limbs among them. While it might have been dismissed at first due to their selling machines to the poor, those were not the injuries one would expect a group of merchants to acquire, and in such high numbers. There was also talk of words and phrases they used among themselves that only they understood. At first, it sounded like the whining of nobles forced into close proximity with commoners but as more updates came in, the queen grew restless.

"There is one we are still aware of, an architect carrying a sample case of clever little devices and engines that he's been showing off to the nobles all day. They've been...protecting him from our spies by insisting on private conversations in hidden places all over the palace. Right now, we don't know where he is and they don't either. The rumor is that we have him."

 

[siobhancan99]

"So 'we have' a man who we don't know who he is, or what he looks like, or how to find him. With respect, Majesty" Majesty was a word she used when she was angry with her lover and friend, and being asked to fuck someone else made her angry enough to let Aladria know. "We don't have anything. There's hundreds of Balmoran men in the capital, and it's not like we keep a list or follow them. Who is new? Who is not new? Is this architect new to the city or has he been among us orchestrating some sort of attack for years or decades? For all we know it's the Balmoran ambassador himself and all we can do to the man is expel him or go to war over it." She grumbled "Have your men compile everything they actually do know and make a report. Please. Majesty. Start with our own people who have had contact with the foreigners. We can persuade them to talk through an appeal to their patriotism and we can get a sense of who might be a traitor in our own ranks."

She gestured "you may wish to get dressed. You've court functions and now I have work to do." She sketched a bow, staying low, the better to keep her eyes off the queen and keep the anger in her heart. It was petty, but she was feeling petty at the moment and indulging herself felt good enough to balm the wound in her heart. "So if I might be excused."

 

[UncleJunior]

Aladria knelt while keeping her back royaly rigid. She picked up the collar of her dress with two dainty fingers and placed it around her neck. The garment was exquisitely crafted and draped her body as it fell to the floor. The steam, the heat, and her other distractions had served their purpose. It had been Tamsin taught her to pull her best weapon from it's sheath last, but to return it first.

Aladria smiled, softly, to herself. Tamsin had taught her well.

"I have heard he has silver eyes. It is how the merchants keep track of him. He's probably hiding in one of their apartments beneath the upper court. I want you to lure him up to one of ours," Aladria said, swallowing hard.

"Do whatever it takes to bring him here."

 

[siobhancan99]

Straightening she met the queen's gaze. She spoke, soft and sincere, but with a hint of resignation. "I will keep you save, Aladria. I will keep your kingdom safe. This I vow."

Silver eyes. Interesting, and easier to track. Such a man would have caught attention before he knew not to. At a time in the game where he was not clued in to the fact the kingdom was aware of him. She wondered if that had any meaning. A few folk were born in the environs around the old elven ruins with purple eyes that signified some elven heritage long diluted. It was academic, really, unless it was something quite special. Still, worth a visit to the genealogist and perhaps to the court wizard. Taking her leave of the queen, Tamsin snagged a bottle of wine from the nearby counter and went up to the Battlements. The summer heat was pleasant enough, and up at that height there was often a breeze. She drank directly from the bottle, looking out over the capital. A city of tens of thousands, snaking along the Caradas River. The city was beautiful. Burned down a century ago in a conflict with Balmora, it had been rebuilt with good solid city planning. Wide avenues, public squares with fountains of fresh water. It was clean and open and spacious and light. In among its streets were the people.

The People. She swung herself up on the crenelations and dangled her feet over the wall, taking another sip of the wine. In her teens, before she and Aladria knew what they were, or could put voice to it as anything other than friends (and could they even have been that? Tamsin's mother was a dance and etiquette instructor. Tamsin's father was unknown. Aladria's parents were the king and queen. But before they had known that they loved each other, Tamsin had been sent to work for the spymaster. For years she'd been among the people, learning to work. She'd been on the front during the brief civil war, tending to the wounds of soldiers. She'd been taught that what she did was not for the crown but for the people.

During that time, the letters had flowed. She and Aladria came to realize their love in all but a physical sense. When she asked why she couldn't be with her friend, if it was because she was a commoner and she was being bainish, Phineas, the old spymaster, took her up here to look down at the city. "You must love them. The people. Because there will be a day when the monarch does something to you that makes you hate them. And you must protect them because protecting them is protecting the people, Tamsin. You must love your country enough to hate your king without killing him."

Phineas had some experience with that. He had a claim to a duchy that the king had passed along to a less meritorious claimant, leaving Phineas a commoner and elevating a man he didn't care for. She'd not understood it. What could she love more than Aladria? Not till Aladria asked her, directly, to seduce someone. She fucked others, it was part of her job, but it was always something she chose to do out of expedience. Out of necessity. She felt... pimped.

Brooding a bit, she stared out over the city until she was ready to lock those feelings away. To never speak of them again to anyone, including herself. Most especially the queen. Making her way down, she assumed no report would yet be ready and so she stopped by the royal genealogist who, due to the tendency of nobility across borders to mate, had to have a great deal of knowledge of the lines of other places.

 

[UncleJunior]

Under the flickering light of an oil lamp he carefully arranged his tools.

There was no shortage of silk within the palace and he found a deep red sheet of it to work on. The fabric made it easier to keep track of the tiny springs and bolts his inventions used. He could assemble his machines blindfolded in a rainstorm but time was not on his side.

Looking out at the forest that sat at the edge of the palace from the tiny window in his makeshift workroom, he could make out the light of three fires. His team had withdrawn from the castle ahead of the plan. They were onto him. He was doubtlessly being pursued.

He pressed a bolt and it fell out of the other side of the little mechanical horse in his hands. The horses legs and tail fell into the silk without a sound and two more bolts fell alongside them. He then turned the horse over in his hand and carefully removed a long needle from the animal's torso. He set this aside very carefully.

A clear liquid dripped from the needle's tip, scorching brown flakes into the silk.

With quick, precise movements, he assembled the rest of his weapons. The horse's body contained wire and a roll of leather with more needles tucked inside. He warmed a bag of marbles in his armpit until the wax softened and he could feel the venomous gel inside. A mechanical fisherman became a small crossbow that he carefully concealed under his wrist.

Stepping out into the hallway, he noted the suits of armor holding massive spears with flags hanging from them. The spear was too ridiculous to use as a weapon in these narrow halls, but each set of armor came complete with an arming sword hung at the waist. Swords that were not only real, but also very sharp.

He smiled. There was nothing so reliable as the hubris of royalty.

 

[siobhancan99]

Sweeping her way into the genealogists office she sat, since she had no appointment. There were others ahead of her. Mostly court folk who were looking for eligible marriages for children of appropriate station, but wanting to avoid a degree of consanguinity. That was the premier challenge of the office. Tamsin relaxed, letting her mind drift, waiting to see if any recollection of a silver eyed man came about. No. And no tales, no reports across her desk. It was a giant nothing. Still, as she waited on whatever Aladria's secret police gathered ... ham fisted though they clearly were... this was as good a place as any to relax. Her fingers tapped on the hilt of her sword and she contemplated the problem. She had to find the man, but Aladria didn't want him dead. It was a foolish notion. Maybe she should just kill him and then pretend she never found him. Simple. Easy. Then as she laid in the arms of the woman she loved she'd just have to lie to her, which she was not even remotely good at. Fuck. Fuck Aladria and fuck this mission.

She stopped thinking about it so she could stop being cross.She was ushered into the main office, finally. As the queen's "friend" she enjoyed the attention of the head geneaologist. A middle aged woman of no small degree of comeliness. To be fair, she had to admit, she'd had a brief fantasy of being 'seduced' by the older woman, but she thought after a while that the woman's proclivities lay elsewhere. Sitting across from her, she gratefully accepted some tea to wash the sour aftertaste of wine from her mouth. "So. Tell me what you can about families in Balmora with silver eyes."

 

[UncleJunior]

The lorekeeper smiled, a hideous expression that stretched blackened lips across toothless gums. The old hag set her pipe aside and rose to begin her slow walk to the stacks. Before she had risen fully to her feet, she began speaking the words Tasmin would certainly found in the book.

"Of the Balmoran high families, there is only one known for their silver eyes," the crone croaked.

"A servant clan as old as the throne of Balmora itself, House Silverlight is the only vassal clan to have ever held the throne and ruled. In times of chaos, when kings died without heirs, House Silverlight has acted as regent, ruling in the absence of a proper king.

"Their branch families are a different thing. Some say they have never resigned the throne, only the seat. They are engineers and merchants, so says the family seal, but whispers of secret clans and forbidden arts follow them to this day."

The old woman set the book Tamsin needed down in front of her and turned it to the genealogy section. The open page listed births, but no deaths.

"Saying more would be terribly rude, given they are our guests this fortnight." The old woman sat down and rekindled her pipe,

"Good hunting songbird."

 

[siobhancan99]

"I have not the luxury of politeness, nor does your country or queen." Tamsin folded her arms across her chest and looked the crone that had apparently recently ensconced herself in the position, replacing the attractive older woman Tamsin had thought would be there. "So perhaps we should speak a little more, about men with silver eyes and which among them might be here in our midst. I would hope you understand that I have no great particular need of finding a husband, and so my questions as to who and what might live among us at this juncture are related to matters of state."

She pulled the ledger towards herself, making note of names on the list and turning her attention back to the other. "It was not so long ago Balmoran troops felt they were our guests and we were forced to convince them otherwise. So, let us be uncivil."

 

[UncleJunior]

The old woman coughed as she laughed, a horrible sound that echoed through the corridors. She rose from her chair, bringing the pipe with her, blowing clouds of acrid smoke into the hallway and around the stand where the book sat, obscuring the pages.

"Enemies," the old spy hissed with a grin somehow worse than the first. "I know enemies."

The technique the old hag employed was similar to the queen's, but crude. She seemed to move faster in the smoke, or maybe there was something in what she was smoking that made Tamsin slower. When the old woman whispered, it was very loud to Tamsin but the sound did not pass beyond the smoke that circled around them.

"Edgar Silverlight is a young prodigy with an upbringing that follows the pattern of some of their best assassins. Outwardly directionless and lazy, he has been the "family burden" on numerous diplomatic missions that were supposedly of little importance. These missions have made House Silverlight very wealthy and very influential in the eyes of Balmora in a very short period of time.

"Edgar himself is unremarkable aside from the eyes the clan is famous for. Trained in theatre and puppetry with no apparent skill for statesmanship or war, he's generally considered an embarrassment to the family. There are no portraits of him, but I understand a Balmoran toymaker has made their way into the palace."

The old woman smiled, a faint gesture behind all the swirling smoke.

"Rumor has it he is being privately entertained in the middle gardens where he disappeared with a merchant's daughter. The head of the blacksmith's guild has a fat little pretty one, I'm told it was her."

Waving at the smoke with her hand, the old woman cleared the hallway immediately. Sounds of the festival began to filter in from all around.