The Everborn - Nicholas Grabowsky [115]
How could that not be? As far as the soldiers reasoned, any man with the powers of a god knew what he was doing.
And he was using the Queen even more than the Queen was thinking she was using him.
This was what the soldiers feared most: their queen was being set up.
Then came the rumors that the Queen was with child.
***
It happened very late one night, when the Queen went to visit the stranger for the final time. More than five months had passed since the night she’d made her last visit, but to the watchful sentries she appeared as a woman would appear on the verge of labor.
And, indeed, she was.
When she arrived, she commanded the latches and locks of his vaulted cedar door to be opened, and afterwards entered the bed chambers of the stranger. Disappearing into the room, she left the command that the door be shut behind her, and it was.
It shut behind her with a foreboding thu-ud, and when it did, the Queen found herself at once isolated within the corner cold candlelight of her captive’s room. She held herself close, her bedclothes hemming her evening gown like peasant mantle decor as she clutched her elbows bitterly and gazed out into the bed chamber’s opposite corner.
In this opposite corner was the bed, and upon the bed sat a figure in a likewise flowing evening gown of crimson red which reflected and sparkled amidst the rampant flickering of the several surrounding candles.
The figure rose; when he did fully, his stance was elfin, as though his height had remained the same as when he sat upon the bed.
The Queen hadn’t laid her eyes upon him since during her last visit when he had frightened her enough to close her eyes to him completely for so long a time. It was then when she first came to realize his purpose with her and her utter helplessness to do anything about it… she couldn’t, because it was already too late to avoid it.
And now...
...now, it was too late to do anything but to remain afraid.
“You don’t seem yourself, Your Highness.” The rich baritone of the stranger, smooth and serene, broke the silence and startled the Queen, as though purposely meant to. The voice flooded the room in such a manner that it seemed to come from everywhere and not just the stranger’s lips...but from behind her and before her, above and below her, and the Queen trembled at the unnerving expectation of the she-demon appearing if only to torment her.
Instead, the stranger continued. “Tell me, how does it feel knowing that your way of life is in jeopardy, knowing this but not knowing if it will stay the same from one day to the next, that in your vast power you’ve been rendered powerless to assure control of your own future?”
The Queen would’ve responded in slight defense if not for her hesitation and if not for the sudden painful restlessness from within her womb.
“Tell me of your kingdom,” the stranger probed further. “How are your efforts progressing? What of the surrounding empires in relation to your own?”
“Those empires are at war with each other,” the Queen exerted. “As for my domain, it is in a state of...”
“...of stagnation,” cut short the stranger. “You’ve entrusted others in your court to run your country for you and no wonder…you’ve become way too involved in matters that are more inward than they are outward. You’ve become less capable of dealing with the concerns of the big picture and have been forced to focus in on your own private you. Frightening, isn’t it, to live out your aspirations in pursuit of conquest when all along the real conquest would be in whether you could gain control of yourself? I taught you these things from the moment you desired the secrets to my power and how much more can a woman be forced to face her intimate self than to be with child? It is in this that you will not only know my power, as I had promised, but in order to know it you must become it!"
“What do you know of true power without your she-demon to protect you?” said the Queen