Queen of Hearts (The Risen King) (20 page)

Arthur stepped out of the woods and walked toward the gates of the castle. The faeries parted before him, staring at the bundle in his arms.

“
The queen,” one whispered, and the whisper traveled through the ranks.

Titania gathered what little strength remained and forced herself to sit straighter in Arthur's arms. She raised a hand and waved, a brave smile plastered across her face.

“The queen,” another faery shouted. “She lives!“

The defeat laying heavily across the soldiers evaporated. The South had been lost, but the queen was saved. Hope remained. Cheers ebbed and flowed as other faeries flooded into the field and heard the news. Even Arthur's spirits were raised by the time they reached the gates.

“Open,” he commanded the stone guardians. They jumped down from the walls and parted the gates wide enough so he could walk through with the queen and his knights. He turned just inside and let Titania continue to wave to the crowd until the gates were shut, then she sagged into his arms once more.

“
I need to rest,” she whispered.

“
Of course, my queen.” Arthur carried her into the castle and up to the room at the very top.

Aiofe lay in the bed, propped up on pillows. Lilia hovered around her like a hummingbird.

“What happened?” Aiofe cried as Arthur carried Titania across the room.

“
Go retrieve the physician.” Lilia bowed at Arthur's command and scampered out. When she was gone, Arthur laid Titania on the massive bed. “Leanansidhe, of course. That woman is evil. She will suffer for what she has done.”

Aiofe grabbed a wet cloth from a bowl on her night stand and squeezed some of the water out. Then she scooted across the bed and began to pat at the blood on Titania's face. Arthur and the other two knights stood over them, unwilling to leave, but at a loss for how to help.

The purple-haired physician scurried into the room. “Move move move,” she cried before she was halfway across the floor.

Arthur shooed his knights out of the way and they went to stand beside the window.

“No,” the physician said. “Out.” She pointed to the other side of the room and fixed the men with a glare. “I must examine her in peace.”

“
But I--“ Arthur started to protest, but the woman cut him off.

“
Men are annoying,” she claimed. “They hover. Always in the way. Go there.” She pointed to the other room again.

Arthur glared at her, but did as he was told. Once Lancelot and Galahad joined him, he pulled the curtain shut to give the women some privacy. He found himself once again next to a window. The field outside was filling fast.

“Do you think they made it?” Galahad stood beside him. The young man's brow was knit with worry as he searched the faeries below. It was nearly impossible to pick out a particular person from that distance, but it didn't stop him from trying.

“
I don't know. I hope so.”

They fell into silence, each man sinking into his own thoughts as they watched the remnants of the four greatest armies Arthur had ever seen admit defeat.

A throat cleared behind them sometime later. “Your highness?” The physician's head poked out through the curtain.

Arthur turned from the window and walked over. He found Titania tucked into the bed next to Aiofe. Her face was still swollen and she looked terrible, but the blood and dirt had been cleaned and she was breathing softly beneath the blankets.

“How is she?” he asked as he walked over to perch on the edge of the bed next to Aiofe.

“
She will live,” the physician said.

Relief flooded over Arthur and audible sighs came from the other side of the curtain as the two other knights listened in. The woman's voice held an edge, though.

“But?” Arthur asked. There was always a but.

“
But she will not rule again.” The woman's face was a mask of sadness, pity, and a touch of fear. “She is broken, in both body and mind. She will not heal completely, and she will never have strength enough to lead as she must lead. She can no longer be queen.”

The lead weight that dropped on the room was stifling. Aiofe's hand snaked out and gripped Arthur's. “What do we do?” she whispered. “The South has to have a queen.”

“Mother!“ Zela's shout echoed up through the castle. Her feet pounded on the stairs as she raced up them. Lancelot and Galahad stepped aside as she entered the room and pulled the curtain apart to allow her to pass. “Mother,” she cried again as she flew to the queen's side.

Kane wasn't far behind. He paused at the curtain and watched his sister fall to her knees beside Titania.

“Is she...” He couldn't bring himself to say the word.

“
No,” Arthur said as he squeezed Aiofe's hand. “She's alive.” He pushed himself to his feet and kissed Aiofe's fingers before walking over to stand beside Kane. “But we have a problem.”

“
What is it?” the other man grumbled.

“
We need a new queen.”

Kane spun on him and took a step forward, closing what little gap was between the. “Repeat that.” His lip was curled into a snarl as he issued the challenge.

“Kane, stop.” Titania's voice was soft, but firm.

Arthur's hands slowly unclenched as Kane spun to face his mother. Titania held out a hand to him and he crossed the space between them in swift strides. His fingers gripped hers and he fell to a knee beside his sister.

“Mother,” he whispered. “Mother, I'm so sorry.”

Titania's smile was small, but visible. “Now is not the time for sorry, my son. It is time for action. You must help them choose a new king and queen. You know what the South needs. You know what the people need. You must help them make a wise decision and choose rulers that can do what they must.”

“But Zee--“

Titania shook her head. “No, not Zee.” She patted her daughter's tear-stained cheek. “Zela would be a wonderful ruler, but her heart is not in it. It never has been. She is a warrior, a leader on the battlefield, but not on the throne. Politics would not suit her.” Titania's smile quirked. “Plus, she is in love with a human. A human cannot rule.”

Zela straightened and her cheeks colored. “Mother, I'm sorry. I failed you.”

A small laugh escaped Titania's cracked lips. “No, darling, you did not. I have known you would not rule since you were a small child. I trusted you completely with my army, but I would never trust you with my throne. Percival is a wonderful boy. He compliments you very well. You have my full blessing.”

“I can rule.” Kane's voice held something Arthur couldn't quite put his finger on. It wasn't hope. It was almost like fear, as if Kane were afraid his mother would agree.

“
No, you cannot rule either. You have too many wrongs to right and not enough time to right them. Your betrayal is too fresh and the other queens would never allow it.”

“
Who do you suggest?” Arthur stepped forward from the curtain. “We must have a meeting soon. We must call the queens and their generals together and decide on a ruler.”

“
Two rulers,” Zela said. “Each land must have a queen and a king. They must rule together as one.”

Arthur's eyebrows pressed together. “Titania ruled without a king.”

“Temporarily,” she said. “I was searching for a replacement to my husband. I loved Oberon dearly, but one is weaker without the other. I was running out of time.” Her face fell. “If I had chosen sooner, things may have not turned out the way they have, but I cannot change that now. Things have gone they way they were supposed to, though maybe not the way we would have liked.”

No one knew how to respond to that, so they let it hang for a moment.

“Arthur?” Tristan's voice came from the doorway. “The others have returned. They are waiting in the council room for you.”

“
Thank you, Tristan. We'll be down momentarily.” Arthur gave his friend a nod and the scraggly-haired man disappeared. “I guess it's time to choose a new king and queen,” he said as he turned back to the others.

Kane and Zela pushed themselves to their feet. They each kissed their mother on the forehead.

“Arthur, a moment please.” Titania fixed the king with a smile. He hung back as the others left. Aiofe stayed in bed beside the queen.

“
Yes, your highness?”

“
Take Aiofe with you, please. I need some peace and quiet, if you don't mind.” Her face still held the smile, but the small visible slits of her eyes held something more. She had a plan, but Arthur couldn't quite figure out what it was.

“
As you wish.” He held out his hand to Aiofe and she scrambled out of the bed to join him. “Sleep well, your majesty.”

As they left, Titania whispered behind him, “I'm just Titania now, my boy. Just Titania.”

*~*~*

TWENTY-FIVE

*~*~*

“Over my dead body.” Kane stood up and slammed his hands onto the table so hard that the massive piece of wood vibrated.

“
That can be arranged.” Deklen sat across from him with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face.

Isobel growled. “Enough. You will not be King of the South, Deklen. You are heir to the North. Be happy with that or take nothing. And before anyone else mentions it, there will be no candidates who are not descendents of the South in some way. We have our rules in place for a reason and we will not break them simply because of a small crisis.”

“Small?” Oonagh chimed in from the corner. “It seems a bit bigger than 'small' to me, don't you think?” She pushed herself to her feet and glared at Isobel. “My son is dead. This is not 'a small crisis'.”

“
Please,” Arthur said, also standing. “Queen Oonagh, I understand your pain, and I don't think Queen Isobel meant to belittle it at all. She was simply stating that, while the land may be in turmoil right now, we can overcome it, as we have overcome everything before now. We just need to stick together. The land of Faery is strong. It will not fall to a tyrant like Leanansidhe. Not while I live, and surely not while any of you live.”

The shouts faded to grumbles and several of the generals around the table nodded.

“Now,” Arthur continued. “Back to the task at hand. I am unfamiliar with the rules, but what I understand so far is that there
must
be a king and queen, a partnership. At least one of the pair must be a descendant of a family of the South. And they must pledge their lives to the land for the entire length of their existence until such time as one or both cannot rule. Anything else?”

“
They must be a pure-blood faery. No pixies or imps or anything like that.” Deklen picked at a hangnail as he spoke.

“
That's not technically true. They don't have to be pure-blood.”

The dark-haired faery narrowed his eyes and shot a glance at the woman who sat beside him. “What do you mean, Mother?”

Mab straightened her shoulders. For the last hour, she had sat silently, listening to the argument rage. Now she sat forward and fixed her son with a hard look. “There is no rule that says the king and queen must be pure-blood. The precise rule is that they cannot be of the lower ilk. As you said, no pixies, imps, et cetera. There is nothing at all in the rules about them being pure-blood.”

“
It's basically the same thing. If a pure-blood breeds with any other faery, they are tainted. They cannot rule.”

Zela brightened and the corners of her lips pulled up as she looked across the table at Mab. “It says nothing about breeding with humans.”

Mab's eyes sparkled and she tilted her head in Zela's direction and she leaned back into her chair. “Precisely.”

A strange silence settled over the room as all eyes turned to Aiofe.

Deklen's jaw clenched and his fist pounded the table. “I will not have the bastard child of a traitor ruling my land.”

Aiofe sat up to protest.

“Hold your tongue, young man.” Mab's glare was so hard it caused her son to wilt in his chair. “First, this is not your land. It is
my
land. You are not yet the king, and if you keep on the way you are, you will never be king.
I
am in charge and you would do well to never forget it. Second, despite Kane's former betrayal, he is a son of the South. He is
the
son of the South, and if he had time to right his wrongs and redeem himself, he would likely be sitting on the throne down the road. As it is, his
daughter
is actually the rightful ruler of the South. Kane cannot rule. Zela has declined to rule. Everyone is speaking as if the line dies there. It does not. Not only is Aiofe the daughter of Kane, she is the offspring of Titania's chosen line of servants. Aiofe holds a valid claim to the throne.”

Queen Mab fixed the young woman with her gaze. “And I suggest she take it.”

Aiofe's jaw worked. She had no idea how to respond to that. A month ago, she was an orphaned young woman who just wanted to hunt faeries. Now she was being asked to lead them. “I... I don't...”