The Broken Council (The Guardian Chronicles 1) (10 page)

“Queen
Kishi, over here,” beckoned Harley Tenanden.
 
Standing next to him was the powerfully built Jaali Thrarias.
 
He was an elf that no one would ever dare to
upset.
 
His temper was only matched by
his unimaginable strength.

“Jaali,
Harley, I am so glad you are here,” she said as she ran up to them.
 
She threw her arms around each of them in
turn.
 
She felt that these high elves
were comrades, her equals.
 
“I am sorry
to come to you at such a late hour.
 
I
assume Lord Aellenas has explained what will take place tomorrow?”

“Yes,
we are prepared for the dissenters to arrive tomorrow.
 
We have made arrangements with those who wish
to depart to pack their belongings during the night.
 
They will then leave when the council meeting
is in session.
 
The queen’s guard will be
focused around the chamber, and that will leave the soldiers at the gate for us
to deal with.
 
The departure will go
unnoticed until the meeting is done,” Jaali stated as if he were making a
report to a superior.
 
He was, in fact,
the consummate military man and could not help such behavior.
 
He would be the perfect leader for Kishi’s
army.

“Who
will lead the people?” asked Kishi.

“I
will lead the people from Alanderas while Harley watches our rear to ensure no
one follows after us.
 
Lord Dükker will
wait here to receive your faithful followers,” reported Jaali.

“Excellent.
 
We are ready to proceed then.
 
I will return now to finish preparations for
what I will say to the council and my impetuous sister.
 
I will see you soon, my friends,” she said as
she reached out to embrace Jaali and Harley again.

“Lord
Aellenas, any last words of advice?” she asked.

“Yes,
I do in fact have some last-minute council to give,” the warlock said
gruffly.
 
“You must remember to direct
everyone’s attention in the council room to your sister and her husband.
 
Their union is not against the law of the
high elves, but it was consecrated by an elemental.
 
They never interfere unless it is to torment
or punish the peoples of middle Tuwa.
 
This line of logic will persuade those that we need and plant seeds of
doubt in the rest.
 
If you do this, you
will be most successful in your argument.”
 
She will be able to sway those
fools!
 
Then they will see what real
power is all about.

“That
is wise council indeed. I will definitely use your approach.
 
Be ready for my triumphant return tomorrow
then,” she said with a bow to her teacher.
 
She turned around and went back down the path she had come without
glancing back.
 
She had her plan, and she
would execute it without any further hesitation.
 
At this
time tomorrow, I will be the queen of the true high elven nation and I will be
the one with real power
.

The
sun rose high into the sky as the heat of the day increased gradually.
 
The air was thick with moisture as storm
clouds began to gather from the north.
 
This combination made for a very humid and unpleasant feeling for anyone
who decided to venture outside.
 
Princess
Kishi walked purposefully toward the council chambers in the capital city of
Alanderas.
 
The streets on this
particular day were void of life.
 
The
pending storm had driven everyone into their homes for cover.
 
As the black clouds rolled in, the sound of
thunder boomed and lightning crackled all about the mountainside.
 
The sun disappeared as the winds sped the
storm with great velocity toward the city.

As
she neared the meeting hall, she could see the queen’s guard in their jet-black
armor surrounding the building.
 
She
looked more closely around the scene, and she noticed there were archers
stationed on the rooftops.
 
Horsemen were
positioned on the opposite side of the courtyard and were armed with swords and
spears.
 
She had never seen such security
for a council meeting and knew that her sister must be scared.
 
She also knew that her friends had been right
in their decision to move the people at this time.
 
There would be a very light guard at the
outer wall, which would make the evacuation of the loyal high elves relatively
easy.

“Princess
Kishi, the council and her majesty are waiting for you inside.
 
Please proceed,” the guard said as he opened
the door for her with a slight bow.
 
The
double doors opened inward to admit the crowned princess of the high
elves.
 
She looked around the room while
carefully hiding any hint of her intentions or feelings.
 
She smiled graciously at the council members
and bowed slightly to her sister as she neared her seat at the round
table.
 
She sat directly across from the
queen, which pleased her because she wanted to look her in the eye for what she
was about to do.
 
She wanted to make her
mentor proud of his faithful pupil.

As
she took her seat, the doors of the domed hall slammed shut with a resounding
boom.
 
Silence engulfed the tense council
room as Kishi continued to look at the members in attendance.
 
This meeting place was very different from
the elven high council’s chamber in the Black Forest.
 
The ceiling was made of magically reinforced
glass that could withstand whatever the elements could throw at it.
 
The round table in the middle was made of
solid black oak from the northern edge of the Forest of Renshaw.
 
There were etchings of gold, silver, and
precious gems inlaid in the intricate carvings in the wood.
 
The walls had murals of elven history and in
particular of the recent division of its people.
 
It clearly outlined the rise of the high
elves and displayed pictures of Queen Kira and her husband, General Yukio.

Kishi
fought hard to hide her loathing.
   
She
needed to present her case for the throne carefully as to not give away her
hidden motives.
 
She really did not care
to rule over all of the high elves because she did not believe that all of them
would be accepting of her.
 
She was here
to convince as many members of the council as possible.
 
The rest merely had to have the seed of doubt
planted in them.

“Princess
Kishi, welcome,” Chairman Merindiel greeted her.
 
“Now we may begin.”

“First
order of business on the agenda today is the legitimacy of the right to rule
the high elves as a sovereign monarch.
 
The eldest daughter of King Ciel, Princess Kishi, has petitioned Queen
Kira to hear her argument for the right to the throne.
 
Her majesty has convened this council to
definitively determine whose claim is most just.”
 
Bronwen had a friendly warm smile as he spoke
to the council members.
 
He had a
particularly kind look on his face when he looked at Kishi.
 
He respected her as a powerful sorceress and
as an intelligent person.
 
He knew that
if she was making this claim there had to be something to it.

“Milady,
will you please present your argument at this time?
 
There will be no questions until you are
finished.
 
When you have reached that
point, please indicate that to me so I do not interrupt you at any point,” the
chairman said kindly.

“Thank
you, most noble chairman.
 
Your kind
words warm my heart and give me the courage to speak to you all this day.”
 
As Kishi was saying the last few words, an
ear-piercing crackle of lightning followed by an earth-shaking boom rocked the
hall.
 
The storm was beginning to unleash
its fury upon the mountainside.

“I
will keep my presentation of what I believe to be the facts as short as
possible.
 
I do not want us to be kept
here while there is such a vicious storm raging outside,” Princess Kishi began
eloquently.
 
“I believe that high elven
tradition dictates that the heir to the throne is the spouse of the departed
monarch.
 
In the event of his or her
spouse passing before them, then the eldest child is crowned to rule in his or
her parents’ place.”
 
Lightning streaked
across the blackened sky.
 
The frequency
of the strikes was becoming more intense and frequent.
 
They were also striking much closer to their
current location.
 
This storm can’t be natural
, she thought.

“As
I was saying, the tradition and the law of the high elves are that the right to
rule is passed down from the parents to the eldest child.
 
If that child is not fit to rule or is
otherwise unable to take over the monarchy, then the next sibling in line would
be crowned.
 
What I perceive to be the
current situation to be is either a misinterpretation of the law or a change in
the law that I was not aware of.”
 
She
did not want to appear to be overtly confrontational, so she continued with her
polite presentation of the facts.

“Many
do not know that my sister Kira is actually younger than I.
 
Though we are twins, I was the first out of
our dear departed mother’s womb.
 
So,
according to our laws, I would be the rightful ruler of this new nation.
 
Noble Merindiel, have I misunderstood the
law?
 
Are the laws and traditions of the
high elves, in this respect, unchanged?”

Bronwen
stood from his seat next to the queen and said, “You are quite right about the
law and its interpretation.
 
Also, we
have not altered or amended the law that you have brought to our
attention.”
 
He nodded slightly to Kishi
to show that he was done and to give her the floor back.

“Thank
you, chairman.
 
I believe the only
possible question in anyone’s mind should be why did we stray from those
laws?
 
Is it because my dear sister
thought of the plan and facilitated all of the necessary elements of it?
 
If so, then why has the law governing the
right to rule not been changed or amended to allow for bravery and foresight to
be requirements for the crown?”
 
She had
reached the point that she had been yearning to get to.
 
There should be a significant number of
council members who would now follow her.
 
The others should have sufficient doubt in their minds to suit her
needs.

“Gracious
chairman, I am done with my presentation.
 
If you please,” she gestured to Bronwen to take over the
proceedings.
 
There would be questions
now, but not too many.
 
There would be a
significant amount of debate over this issue, and she was not going to stick
around to hear all of it.

“You
have presented a strong case for the council to consider.
 
At this time, I would like to open the floor
for questions for either myself or for Princess Kishi.”
 
He looked around the room at the bewildered
looks on everyone’s faces.
 
He was caught
off guard too because of their apparent oversight.
 
He did not see how they could go on
justifying Kira as their rightful queen and ruler.
 
Kishi’s presentation of the facts was too
direct and to the point to be misunderstood.

Silence
fell over the room.
 
The sounds from the
storm were growing worse still and seemed to be filling the silence in the
council chambers.
 
No one had the look
yet of even forming a question on their faces.
 
However, when Kishi looked at her sister, Kira was giving her a look of
mingled indignation and disbelief all at once.
 
The princess did not need the ability to read minds to know what her
younger sibling was thinking.
 
She knew
that she felt betrayed by her older sister and by the faces of those who
clearly agreed with Kishi.
 
She could not
believe that she would ask for the right to rule after doing nothing on her
part to secure it.

Queen
Kira could take it no longer.
 
She was
too incensed to sit quietly on her throne and say nothing after such an
attack.
 
She stood up, and as she did so
her, eyes began to have blue mist coming out of her eyes.
 
No one had ever seen her so angry before that
she would use her magic unknowingly.
 
“You traitor!” she bellowed at her sister.
 
“What gives you the right to come here and
belittle what I have done to save these people?
 
Who are you to question my ability to rule?
 
You are no better than those that we left
behind!
 
They were ignorant fools who
wanted to do the minimum and still reap the rewards of hard work off of the
backs of others!”
 
The blue mist was now
surrounding the queen and seemed to be freezing the very air about her.