Questionable Queen Read online

  Ursula blinked. "Don't you want your children to be able to deal with merchants without being cheated?"

  Caroline sighed and shook her head. "I trust my neighbors more than I trust some noblewoman I've never met. I know the shopkeepers in town, and I don't appreciate the palace telling me and my kids that they are out to cheat us."

  Her heartbeat pounding in her ears, Ursula stared at the other woman. Words failed her. Did all the people in the region think the palace was again telling them something they didn't want to hear?

  Ursula's father had not been loath to lie to the people of the kingdom when it suited his purposes. Elements above, he'd lied to his own children to keep them from finding out Mariana was the product of an illicit affair and a Chaos Sensitive.

  Perhaps Ursula's shock showed on her face, because Caroline's expression softened. "Princess, I know you mean well, but a school is not what any of these children need. They need to learn the value of hard work and how to run a farm."

  "But Patsy is only five years old. Surely, it wouldn't be a hardship on the crops if she learned how to read?"

  "With all due respect, Your Highness, you have no idea what it takes to run a farm or what Patsy needs to do around here. The Elements know the whole village needed the extra food you sent, but we can't get used to the idea that the Royal Princess is our friend."

  "I am your friend," Ursula said, "or at least, I want to be."

  Shaking her head, the other woman said, "Well, that can't happen, can it? You're royalty, and I'm a poor farmer's wife." She barked a short, humorless laugh. "Not even a real wife anymore. Not since Malimond left me with four children, and two of them still in diapers. Chaos take it, Patsy was still at my breast the last time I saw my husband or any of the other men his age. They all jumped at the chance to fight in your father's war."

  She slapped a tear from her cheek. "My children don't need to read as much as they need their father back. All the energy you put into that useless school should have been used in getting my husband and the rest of the prisoners returned."

  Caroline murmured something to her son, and they hurried away without saying another word.

  For a moment, Ursula stared at the woman's back. Her whole body felt as though she'd been crushed by a collapsing wall. Trembling, she turned to face the road.

  "I don't want to talk about it," she said, seeing the expression on Traren's face. "Take me home."

  They rode in silence until the farm was out of sight. Ursula knew Traren watched her from time to time, but she refused to look at him. Her heart was too hurt from Caroline's words, and she feared she'd start to cry if he said anything.

  "All I wanted to do was help the children," Ursula said. "They are the ones who suffer the most from these wars."

  "You are helping. Some of them, anyway." Traren kept his eyes on the horses, probably to give her some privacy for her tears. "Education is never a bad thing."

  "But you heard Caroline. How many other families won't send their children to the school because there's too much work at home?"

  Traren shrugged. "I suppose it's inevitable that some families would feel the same way. Working a farm takes a lot of work. Building a school doesn't change that."

  Ursula sighed. When Mariana became Queen, Ursula became the Royal Princess, first in the line of succession. That should have given her the influence she needed to change the lives of the people.

  "I was so certain this was the right thing to do," she said.

  Silence fell between them, but after a moment, Traren said, "What is this all about? You saw how many children were at the school. You should be happy."

  "It isn't enough."

  "Why not? Did you think you could change everyone's life at once?"

  "Not everyone's but..." She let her voice trail off, not wanting to tell him what she was thinking. He'd laugh at her.

  "But you wanted to change Patsy's life."

  She snapped her eyes to him, but he wasn't looking at her, focused instead on the road, as though the trip back to the palace was something he had to concentrate on.

  "You didn't think it was a secret, did you?"

  Now he met her gaze. "You've done nothing but talk about that little girl since the day you saw her at the hospital."

  Ursula felt herself deflate, and tears filled her eyes. "You didn't see her, Traren. Lying in that bed, so weak from being sick."

  "That was when you began to see the prisoners' families as real people." He looked at the reins in his hands.

  "I always..." But she couldn't lie to both of them.

  If her sister, Princess Liliana, hadn't dragged her to the Queen's hospital that day nine months ago, Ursula could have gone through the rest of her life believing as their mother had that the people were somehow not as important as the royals and nobles of Valborough.

  Traren shook his head. "When you started asking questions about the prisoners and what Orlando and Mariana were doing to get them home, I knew something had changed. You softened. I like this new you."

  "Patsy's mother doesn't seem to share your opinion."

  "You can't blame yourself for Caroline's anger. She wasn't mad at you."

  "It sounded like she was," Ursula replied, not meeting his eyes, "but, in my head, I know you're right. The whole situation is awful." She sighed. "I thought having a proper school with a proper teacher would help the people."

  "It will," he said, taking her hand again. "Eventually, but these people have been suffering for so long, they're looking for help now. The school is wonderful, and given time, those seats will be full and the people will see the advantage of having their children read and write."

  The Princess nodded but in her heart, she didn't believe him. "Did you know they would feel this way before we started?"

  He didn't meet her eyes when he responded. "I suspected they wouldn't embrace the idea of a 'proper school' the way you did."

  "Why didn't you say something?" Had he set her up to be hurt? Was he still harboring resentment toward the royal family, even after all Mariana had done to solve the problems of the kingdom?

  She didn't want to believe that. After all, she and Traren had become friends in the past year, something she'd never have believed before Orlando had entered Mariana's life. Didn't he feel that way, too?

  He gave her the grin that had the younger maids in the palace making fools of themselves. "I would have been much too afraid to speak to a Princess in such a casual way."

  She gave him a playful slap on the shoulder. "As though you've ever been afraid to speak your mind." Then she sighed. "What am I going to do? How can I help them?"

  "It's a good start that you're thinking of them as 'our' people. Not too long ago, that wouldn't have been the case."

  "We have to get the prisoners home," Ursula said as the palace came into sight. "If education isn't the answer, I'll have to find some other way to make the people's lives better."

  Chapter 3

  The wind found its way through the spaces between the boards in the dilapidated hut that served as the office for Tivadar, the foreman of the mine crew. Grand Princess Veronica, twin sister of the King of Heyton, kept her expression neutral as she waited for the man to brush invisible dirt off the chair he offered.

  "I think you'll be pleased with what the miners have collected this week." He tried to appear happy but the attempt at pleasantries was marred by his gaunt face and the sores on his neck.

  She wondered if the man had a skin condition that was irritated by the prisoners' shackle he wore when he wasn't here. Perhaps the doctor could give him a salve. The small, oozing wounds were not something she wanted to look at.

  "Did you find a marbled stone?" she asked, taking the seat and keeping her eyes on his so as not to see the disfiguring marks.

  "Well, no, Your Highness, but as I said, it is extremely unlikely to find such a stone in this mine."

  "But not impossible?" She raised her eyebrows.

  "Well, no." The man fidgeted. "I
suppose it's not impossible. However, given that—"

  "Perhaps your men need to work harder. I'm sure I could come up with some kind of motivation." She clasped her hands together on the desk, interlacing her fingers. "I wonder if the men have too much free time. Maybe they need a cut in their rations."

  "No, Your Highness. Please. My men are working at the limits of their strengths as it is. If anything, more food and water would help."

  "More food. Hmm." She tapped her forefingers together. "The problem is I have two other mines to provide for. Who knew men from Valborough could eat so much?"

  "Grand Princess, each man has less than a cup of water to drink a day and only a bowl of broth for meals."

  "Perhaps I need to cut that back to two meals a day until I get what I want." She tilted her head and raised an eyebrow. "Surely that would motivate them, don't you think?"

  He let out a huff of air. "Your Highness, it won't matter how hard my men work if the Elements chose not to put such a stone in these hills."

  "But we, I mean, I won't know that for sure until the mine is exhausted, will I?"

  In response, he shook his head without speaking.

  "Thank you. Now, what do you have to show me?"

  A black velvet cloth was spread on the table in front of her. In contrast to the splintered, weathered wood in the rest of the room, this cloth was immaculate, without even the smallest speck of dust or dirt to draw attention away from any stones that would be displayed on it.

  Tivadar pulled a small burlap bag from where it hung from a rawhide string around his neck under his tunic. Carefully, he untied the string around the top and poured a pile of green and blue stones on the cloth. Then he arranged them so they were displayed by some rationale she didn't understand.

  "These are all?" she asked, looking at him.

  He blinked. "These are some of the best quality stones we've taken from the mine since it was opened. Even Dalton Amin said he has never seen stones of such clarity come from this region."

  "Dalton Amin is an excellent gem expert," Grand Princess Veronica conceded, "but he knows little to nothing about magic. I have all the Flora and Air stones I can use." She picked up one of the larger green sapphires and brought it closer to her eyes. "This one might be useful." She set it to one side of the table.

  "Even my merchant says he has more of these colors than he can sell. He's resorted to setting some in jewelry and sending them to exporters to sell to kingdoms across the ocean." She shook her head. "As though those heathens would know what to do with Elemental magic."

  "Your Highness, this mine seems to hold only blue and green sapphires," Tivadar said, his voice shaking as though he feared what she might do or say in response, and Veronica smiled.

  Fear was an excellent motivator.

  With a sigh, she ran her fingertips over the remaining stones. "And you've found no pink or yellow stones?"

  He shook his head. "I've said this every time you've visited."

  "I suppose I can still sell these stones, but if you're not willing to look for the pink and yellow ones, I may be forced to..." She let her voice trail off with the suggestion of retribution.

  The man said nothing, but she saw the fear in his eyes. Good. At least he understood the stakes.

  She had to look at this situation realistically. If there were only green and blue stones in this mine, there was no point in destroying her workforce in a futile attempt to find what wasn't there.

  Smiling at him, she said, "I think it's time we closed this mine."

  "But, Your Highness, the men just found a rich vein of green stones."

  "I don't want green stones." She slammed her hand on the table, causing the gems on the cloth to bounce. "I want marbled ones."

  "Please, Grand Princess, understand. What you're asking for is quite rare. I've only seen one in my whole life, and that was in the mountains of Pledan when I was an apprentice. The Gem Master wouldn't even let me touch it. He kept it in a glass case in a heavy iron safe under the floor of his work room." Tivadar shook his head. "The men could work for another ten years and never even get close to finding a vein where such a thing was possible."

  "Then they will work that long." She stood. "I'm sending you all to the Sazem Hills. There is an old abandoned sapphire mine there. Rumor has it pink stones were found deep in the eastern tunnels right before the war."

  Tivadar stared at her, and she wondered if he were going to fight her. After a moment, she saw resignation fill his eyes.

  "As you wish, Your Highness. I expect my men will be given more blankets and water for the trip to the Hills. It is farther north, and their rations now are not sufficient for the colder weather."

  "Spring will be here eventually," she said, but she knew he was right. It was one thing to allow the men to believe the war raged on; it was another to allow workforce to freeze or starve to death.

  "I will see what I can do. Get your men out of the mines and close things down by the end of the week. More soldiers will come with wagons to take them to their new work."

  She gathered up a handful of the stones still left on the velvet and strode past him without another word.

  When Veronica arrived back at the Sapphire Palace, her First Maid, Chandra, hurried out to meet the carriage.

  "His majesty is waiting for you in his personal quarters." Chandra was breathless as she curtsied.

  "What does he want?" Veronica stepped out of the carriage with a sigh. She had things she needed to take care of. Foremost was to examine the stones she got from Tivadar.

  The Grand Princess knew that most of the stones would contain nothing more than weak Flora-enhancing magic, although sometimes she found one that would work on Water Abilities. While she couldn't use those, she was able to sell them to her contacts in the dark markets.

  "He said he'd made a decision and wanted to discuss it with you." Chandra hurried after Veronica as they went into the palace and down the hall to the Grand Princess's residence.

  "What decision?" What had Killian done now that was so important he deigned to summon her like she was one of his lesser subjects? When would he figure out he needed her assistance before he made any decisions that would affect the kingdom?

  Shaking her head, she stopped at the door to her apartment. "Tell the King I will attend him presently. I wish to refresh myself after my journey."

  Chandra seemed uncomfortable and even fidgeted before responding. "He seemed quite insistent you come quickly."

  "And I will go to him as soon as I can." Veronica tilted her head and raised one eyebrow. "Now, go tell him what I said."

  The First Maid curtsied. "Yes, Your Highness. Shall I send your Wardrobe Lady?"

  "No. I can care for my needs myself this afternoon."

  "As you wish."

  Chandra hurried away, and Veronica went into her apartment. As she closed the door to the entryway, she listened to see if anyone else were there. All her servants should have been in their own quarters, doing whatever they did when she didn't need them.

  Josiah would have been with Killian, preparing to take the crown at the right time. Only the Elements knew where Damien was. Probably drinking at some alleyway tavern in town or wasting time with a cheap woman he found there.

  Veronica shook her head, forcing the troubling images of her younger son out of her mind. She had enough trouble getting the sapphires to respond to her without her thoughts being distracted in worry about when some gold-digging wench would come to the palace with a babe, insisting it was Damien's get.

  How that hadn't happened already was a mystery, since she'd lost control of him about the time he found out boys and girls were different and what could be done about that.

  After using her private water closet and checking her hair in the mirror, Veronica took the stones out of a pocket hidden inside her bodice. Short of stripping her naked, no bandit would ever find anything she put there.

  She'd sooner give up her gold signet ring than ever let someone take s
apphires from her.

  Spreading the stones on a table covered with cloth similar to the one Tivadar used, she inspected what she had.

  Her magic wasn't the right kind to feel the power any of the gems might have, but she tried nonetheless. There was always a chance that if one of them was strong enough, even she could tell.

  A hurried knock on the door to the hall came to her, muffled as it was a room away, and she scooped the stones into her hand, then shoved them back into the pocket.

  No one was here to answer the door, so she refastened her bodice and went to the entryway.

  Before she took a step into the room, the door flew open.

  "You're back." Princess Yamina of Ibrini, friend of the late Queen Charlotte, burst into the apartment.

  "Evidently," Veronica said with a sneer. "I suppose you've never learned to wait until you are admitted. What if I'd been with someone?"

  "Trane is out with the guards, looking over new horses from Sotopia. I knew you'd be alone." She hurried into the sitting room Veronica had just left. "Where are they?"

  The Grand Princess sighed. Yamina, whose title was honorary, had come to Heyton when Killian married Charlotte. With the Queen's death, she managed to make herself Killian's official mistress, but even he didn't know she and Veronica worked together.

  It was a necessary arrangement because Yamina's magic was not from the Elements, which meant she had an affinity to sapphires that Veronica needed.

  When the Grand Princess got her hands on marbled stones, Yamina's usefulness would be over and something would have to be done about her.

  Reluctantly, and because she had no doubt Yamina would do what she needed to find the stones, Veronica took them out of her hiding place. The other woman sat down at the table and waited for her to spread them on the cloth.

  "These are exceptional stones," Yamina said, hovering her fingertips over them. "So strong in both Flora and Water." She closed her eyes and hummed to herself, Veronica had to lean closer to hear her.

  "Leaves and coral, apples and kelp, the sparks are eager to be released. Strong, but angry." Yamina opened her eyes. "You must be careful if you want to use these stones for magic, my friend. Bad things will happen."