Deadly Lovers (The Prussia Series) (9 page)

"This is my list," says Robert, slowly handing me a handwritten piece of folded parchment.

I snatched the piece of parchment quickly away from his hands, my fingers leaving bloody streaks and prints on the soft brown colored paper. I unfolded the paper and glanced briefly at the names just before I began walking out of my office, list still in hand but eyes on the door.

"Well?" Robert called after me as I headed down the hallway, "Which ones are on your list?"

"They're all on my list," I barked over my shoulder as my eyes narrowed and I made my way down the hallway towards the marble staircase where the vampires of the court still gathered.

I stormed out of my office, the Duke
’s blood still caked on my hands, and I headed straight for the podium. The Queen had been right. No one had left. They had all stayed, waiting to hear the fate of the high ranking court officials. If I hadn't hated him as much as I had, it would have been hard to really care. Politics, treason, it all seemed so very...trivial.

This wasn't what I ever imagined myself doing. I had spent most of my young adult life as a cashier and barely managed to do that. Now I stepped up to a podium in a castle where I had been placed in line as heir to a throne I hadn't known existed a couple of years ago. I felt a few drops of blood fall from the tips of my fingers as I stood there, in front of that podium, and looked out at the pensive faces waiting for my words to fall on their attentive ears.

"The Duke has been executed after an excruciating but informative session," I said, biting the words that translated barely into the truth.

He had been tortured until his last breath.

"Names have been named. I have a list and I will not hesitate to drag you out of your warm coffins in the middle of the night if I get the slightest inclination that there is merit here," I finished.

The room began to churn with the murmurs and exclamation of a court in complete shock. I couldn't tell whether the shock had been the result of the death of the Duke, who held a position of power and respect in the court, or if it had been because of the mention of a list of treasonous lords or ladies.

"Who’s on the list?" asked Quinn.

He didn't look very nervous, more curious than anything. I bit my tongue for a moment, wondering what exactly I wanted to do with the list of names. I knew his name wasn't on it. He spoke from a place of curiosity and maybe even excitement. But there were names on this list that I might be more prone to believe. And a few of them, I had a feeling, had been named for nothing more than the opportunity to dispose of a few enemies. I didn't dismiss the Duke's manipulative political prowess. It made me question every name on the list. But what would I do with it? What
should
I do?

"It is currently a list for my eyes only," I said as loudly and clearly as I could.

"What will you do with this list, then?" asked someone in the back of the room, a woman's voice that had a vague familiarity to it but I couldn't place.

And as I tried to think of what a good ruler would do, I had a thought.

"What would the old Chancellor do?" I asked.

I finished asking the question and the room went completely quiet. I could have thrown a box of pins into the middle of the floor and heard every single pin hit the ground, it had become so quiet. I saw a sea of faces shrouded in memories and fear, fear so thick you could light it on fire and it would burn through the night. I heard a person clear their throat and step out of the crowd of faces. I knew this face better than almost any other face in the crowd.

"As he was my husband," said Lydia very flatly, "I think I know better than most what he would have done with a list like that,"

I waited a moment for her to finish but she didn't. Leave it to Lydia to soak up the attention and ramp up the theatrics. But I did want to know. I wanted to know what the person that had previously held this position would have done, would have thought would be fair. I rolled my eyes and played along. I took the list out of my pocket, my hand still coated in a dead Lord's blood, now reduced to ashes, and held it over my head. What little blood had been still wet on my hands began to streak down my arm toward my elbow.

"Tell me then, Lady Lydia," I tried to command an official voice but it sounded more hollow than I had intended, probably a result of such a large room with an echo that played off of the walls, "What would your late husband do with a list like this, a list that is said to contain the name of every traitor and threat to the Queen that hides within our royal court?"

Lydia stepped up a few steps so that more of the court could see her and she turned to them all, looking not at me but at them. And as the fear lay over the court like a curtain of mourning and pain, I could tell by the slope of Lydia's thin shoulders that they weighed heavy with her own memories of the late Chancellor.

"That's easy," Lydia said loudly to the crowd, "He would have tortured them out of pleasure with no rhyme or reason to it and then execute them, without question."

I watched as heads nodded and a quiet and careful murmur, still cloaked in fear, rippled around the room and echoed back to me. It crushed me to see the amount of fear in them all, these monsters I had hated and feared myself for so long. What kind of monster could have instilled such fear in them?

"If he got more names out of them," said Lydia, with a disgusted smile on her face, "He would have been thrilled, whether they were guilty or not,"

I could see the coldness in her eyes, the hate that burned there for her late husband, and in that look I could see that he had probably deserved to die. Lydia had a hate in her eyes that didn't come from simply seeing the injustices of a court official. I could relate to only a small degree and it made me wonder what had put that fire in her eyes. It made me wonder what had really happened.

I pulled my hand out of the air and unfolded the list. I had known the name as soon as I had read it and I hadn't doubted the possibility of its truth in the least. Looking down at the scrawling list of names I found Lydia's name at the top. I looked back at Lydia, now climbing slowly down the steps with her head down back to her spot just at the base of the steps. When she turned back she had her head high. I couldn't ignore the list. But I couldn't follow in the footsteps of a corrupt Chancellor, either. I looked back at the list and knew that it would be very difficult to tell who had or who hadn't been working against the Queen. It would be almost impossible. But there had to be a way.

"I offer immunity," I said.

I looked back up to the faces shrouded in fear and saw the flicker of shock.

"You can't be serious," said Lydia from the bottom of the steps, her gaze unbelieving, "Treason is death, everyone knows that,"

"I give my word," I said, "Any person on this list that comes forward with information on treason against the Queen, names of others are welcome but not needed, will be offered immunity and pardon,"

"Do you really think that wise?" asked Queen Victoria from behind me, her voice full of disapproval.

The room lost a bit of air all at once as the people watching waited to see how the Queen felt about my promise.

I turned around to face the Queen and kept my back straight, my face as emotionless as possible, and tried to match her graceful demeanor.

"I've heard whispers and seen documents that point to an extreme corruption of the man that previously held the office of Chancellor," I said, loud enough so that the court could hear as well, "And I wouldn't be surprised if the voices raising up to remove you from the throne were really a means to an end. To the end of the Chancellor that enacted his own brand of justice for too long without question or challenge,"

I watched as Queen Victoria's eyes went from a gracefully pleasant neutral to offended.

"I personally selected the Chancellor as I found him to be the most honest and trustworthy politician I have known my entire life. He-" but the Queen didn't finish.

"Any one that precedes the word politician with the word trustworthy is out of touch with reality," I said, cutting the Queen off.

I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I might have pushed just a little too far. I kept my back straight and found that even if I had wanted to, I couldn't move. I found myself holding my breath. I didn't want to turn my back on Victoria and find that my life really could be ended while I looked elsewhere. I waited for her to lash out at me, to have me taken off to a dark room and tortured until she was satisfied, much like the Duke. But after a moment I saw her face relax. In my stomach, I didn't feel like that meant I should relax too. It felt like the calm before the storm.

"I respectfully disagree," said Queen Victoria, "But I placed the justice of this court in your hand and I hope that leniency does not become the legacy of your time in this court,"

I wanted the Queen to leave and half expected her to. It seemed her favorite way to leave a room, with a grand statement that held
finality to it. But instead, Queen Victoria came to stand behind me as I stood in front of the podium. I turned to face the court and still the hair on the back of my neck stood up. I didn't feel more at ease. I felt as though I had triggered a watchful eye, one that had decided to stand right next to me and remind me of her own vision for her court if I needed to be reminded. I tried to recompose myself. Small whisperers continued to be exchanged between the lords and ladies in the room and I used the only thing I really had to use, the list of people that were offered up as other spies in the court.

"I offer immunity," I repeated, trying to keep my voice strong and not hollow with the Queen behind me now, "But you must come forward in the next 6 hours and confess any wrong doing. Anyone on this list that does not come forward will be investigated fully and thoroughly, though fairly,"

The room stayed silent. I could see some talking among the small groups created within the crowd but they talked so quietly that I couldn't hear them. Doubts crept in about how wise this really was. We were on the verge of war. There would be no telling when that war would take place and every traitor we had in the court presented us with an internal threat we couldn't afford, not now.

"Define fair," called a man from the back.

I heard a few agreeing shouts and saw a lot of heads nodding, waiting on an answer. I licked my lips and tried my best to answer and define what I saw to be fair.

"Fair means a trial. Fair means a fair trial with a defense," I said, small cheers going up around the room, "But that also means a guilty verdict results in the maximum sentence for an offense for any on this list,"

I heard a rustle behind me and I turned to see a smile on the face of Queen Victoria. I turned back to the court and saw heads nodding and the murmurs became loud.

"The maximum sentence is the true death," shouted someone.

I nodded my head and decided to take a play from the Queen's own playbook.

"True death to any that fail to choose immunity and are then found to have been plotting against the Queen," I said, "Those of you on that list have 6 hours. I will be in my office,"

I walked away from the podium and made a beeline for my office. I welcomed the sanctuary away from prying eyes and craning necks with super hearing. I closed the door and rested my back against it. The door was solid and my only defense against the persistent problems that surrounded this court that might some day be mine. I had mixed feelings when I gave my mind time enough to think about that concept, becoming a Queen. I couldn’t imagine it. I couldn’t imagine past today, past each day.

I closed my eyes and listened to the steady beating of my heart. I really had no idea what it took to be a judge. I had no idea how to rule over anyone. I barely had the capacity to rule over myself and had even died only to wake just as terrified and weak. Whatever I had become didn’t mean anything. I didn’t have claws or talons, fangs or speed, strength or agility. I patted myself on the back when I maneuvered a room without breaking some priceless vase or other useless decoration in this polished and excessive castle.

And as my heart returned to a steady pace and my mind tried to settle. I felt a repetitious thud through the door right through my body. I opened my eyes and looked at the velvet curtains that hung, blocking the light from the windows across from me at the other side of the room. My dimly lit office had been a chamber of slaughter in years past and I could still make out the passing smell of ash. Something told me that smell had lingered in this office for years. Something told me, judging by the number of visitors my door had seen since becoming Chancellor, that this room might as well have the mark of death on the door. Which only piqued my curiosity as to who might pound on it so quickly after hardly any visitors at all.