Vankara (Book 1) (7 page)

“We are on
important business for the Queen, madam,” Gabriel told her as we slowly
shuffled our way out of the room with our unconscious passenger in tow.  The
women quickly formed a line in front of us completely blocking our way, with
Dora slightly out in front as their spokeswoman.

“You drugged him
or bewitched him or somethin’ didn’t ya?”  Dora accused, standing her ground
before us with clenched hands on her hips as if she were preparing to wrestle
our unconscious passenger from our clutches.

The overpowering
fetor of the captain and the burden of his weight were almost more than I could
bear.  I didn’t think I could stand there much longer without either dropping
him or fainting from the odorous fumes wafting from his unclean armpit.

“Ladies, please,”
I implored.  “The Queen is completely heartbroken from the captain’s many
refusals to see her.  She’s tried for a very long time to mend things with him
but he’s just been too pig-headed to listen to her.  The Queen is just a woman
who wants to make amends with a man she once cared a great deal for.  I’m sure
you can all sympathize with her cause.”

The women were
silent for a moment mulling over my argument for safe passage through their
ranks.

“He is pig-headed,
that’s for sure,” Dora agreed, the hostility in her stance visibly fading as
she lowered her arms to her sides.

“He should let her
apologize,” the young rouge cheeked brunette agreed.  “It ain’t right to refuse
to see the Queen when she asks anyway.”

There seemed to be
a general consensus of agreement among the group of women regarding the young
brunette’s statement.  Before we knew it, Dora and the young brunette picked up
the captain’s legs to help us carry him out to the Queen’s airship.

Once we reached
the ship, Inara sauntered down the steps to help us carry the captain the rest
of the way up while the two ladies of pleasure made their way back into town.

“He won’t be very
happy when he wakes up!”  Dora called as she waved good bye.  “Good luck to
ya!”

“That’s an
understatement if I ever heard one,” Inara agreed as she reached down and
picked up both of the captain’s legs by his ankles.  We quickly made our way
back into the Queen’s compartment.

Beside the Queen’s
bedroom was another compartment which proved to be a small bathroom.  There was
a round white porcelain bathtub sitting in the center of the room and a toilet
in the far corner.

“Aqueous,” Gabriel
said as we sat the captain in a wooden chair by the tub.

I stood in
amazement as the bathtub began to fill itself with steaming hot water from an
invisible spout at the bottom of the tub.

“All right ladies,
you may want to leave the room while I undress the good captain,” Gabriel said
to us while he tugged a sand covered boot off of one of Fallon’s feet. 
Gabriel’s face scrunched up in disgust.  I couldn’t imagine how the captain’s
feet could smell worse than his armpits, but apparently they found a way.

“It’ll take all
day if you’re the only one washing him,” Inara argued.

For the first time
since I met her, the airship commander looked me straight in the eyes.

“Why don’t you go
on outside?  I’ll help Gabriel.  It’s not like I haven’t seen a naked man
before.”  Her eyes looked me up and down as if she were making a snap
judgment.  “But you don’t look like the type who would have without a marriage
bed being involved.”

“Are you sure?” I
asked.  It was true.  I hadn’t seen a naked man before, but I wasn’t about to
admit it to someone like Inara Irondale.  “I don’t mind helping.”

“No, go on out. 
We can handle him.  Plus, if he starts to wake up, we might have a bit of a
fight on our hands.” Inara grinned and her eyes glittered with gleeful
anticipation of such an event. 

“No fighting,
Inara,” Gabriel lightly reprimanded.  “Emma wants him in one piece and able to
think straight.”

Inara shrugged
nonchalantly as she sauntered back towards Gabriel and the captain.  “I didn’t
say I would start it, but I’ll sure as hell finish it if he wants a tussle.  I
owe him a couple of black eyes for the way he’s treated Emma.”

Gabriel turned to
me.  “Why don’t you go on out, Sarah?  Oh, and could you go into the Queen’s
chambers for me?  There is a new set of clothing hanging in her wardrobe for
our good captain here.”

I left the room
and went into the Queen’s bedroom as noiselessly as I could since she was still
fast asleep.  I walked to the ornately carved cherry wood wardrobe found against
the inner wall and gently pulled the doors open.  Hanging within were two
dresses, one black and one scarlet red with a matching hooded mantle trimmed in
ermine fur with a matching muff.  In between the two dresses hung the clothes
Gabriel had asked me to retrieve.  I saw a pair of calf high black leather
boots and picked them up as well.

The uniform looked
similar to the leather attire of the Queen’s guard except in color.  This
uniform was burgundy instead of black.  I felt sure the distinction signified
something important but didn’t know what.

I stepped out of
the Queen’s room as quietly as I had entered.  When I knocked on the door to
the bathroom, Inara answered.

“Thanks,” she said
taking the clothing and boots from my hands. I could hear the splashing of
water and wondered how long it would take them to scour Fallon’s dirt encrusted
flesh clean.

“Could you take
these outside and toss’em?”  She asked handing me the captain’s old clothes. 
“I don’t think any of us want his creepy crawlies hitching a ride back home
with us.”

With those parting
words she closed the door, leaving me there holding Fallon’s filth-ridden
clothes.  I felt a phantom itch start to creep along my arms as my imagination
ran wild with images of small vermin attaching themselves to my exposed flesh. 
It only took me a moment to reach the door of the ship and toss Fallon’s
garments down to the desert sand.

The three of them
were in that little bathroom a long time.  I heard a lot of grunting and
moaning but only from Gabriel and Inara.  I could only assume they were having
trouble lifting the captain to dress him in his new uniform.  Gabriel appeared
in the doorway sometime later looking disheveled, like he had just fought a
bear single handedly and somehow made it out alive to tell the tale.

“Would you mind
helping us get him out of here, Sarah?”  He panted.

When I walked into
the bathroom, I hesitated for a moment as my eyes fell on the newly cleaned and
much improved Captain John Fallon.  Now that I could see his face clearly, I
could well imagine our Queen as a young girl, totally immersed in her
infatuation with her personal body guard. Without the scraggly beard obscuring
his features, a strong angular jaw, dimpled chin, and high cheekbones were
visible now.  Either Gabriel or Inara had also given him a much needed
haircut.  His once long and unruly dark brown hair had been trimmed revealing a
naturally wavy short hairstyle, very much the fashion of polite society.  They
had managed to dress him in the burgundy leather uniform making his form look
sharp and crisp, a stark contrast to the slovenly state we had found him in.

“How long before
the sleeping potion wears off?” I asked, grabbing his legs by the ankles while
Inara and Gabriel lifted him under each arm causing the leather of his outfit
to creak against the strain.

“The enchanter
wasn’t sure,” Gabriel answered as we made our way back into the sitting room.
“She said the effect was completely random and depended on the person.  I have
some smelling salts we can use if it becomes necessary.  But first, I think
Inara should have us far away from here and on our way back to Iron City.  I don’t want to take the chance of him waking up and hopping off the ship
before Emma can have her say.”

We laid Fallon on
the settee in the living quarters.  Inara returned to the navigational
compartment and Gabriel brought up the stairs as we embarked on our journey
back to the capital.  We must have traveled for at least an hour before Gabriel
pulled out a small black vial from his coat pocket and gingerly waved it
underneath Fallon’s nose.

The captain’s eyes
flew open.  He quickly sat up and took in his surroundings in a single glance
before hopping up from the settee.

“What the hell’s
going on?”  He barked.  His eyes went to the window staring at the setting sun
on the horizon.  He looked down at himself and brought his hands up to his
face.  “What in blazes did you do to me, man?”

“Cleaned you up,”
Gabriel told him, not an ounce of apology in his voice as he stood across from
Fallon.  “We couldn’t very well let Emma see you in the state you were in when
we found you.  She’s sick enough.  She didn’t need to see what you had let
yourself become and feel any more guilt over what happened to you.”

I could see the
muscles of Fallon’s jaw tighten.  He was trying to keep his temper in check but
it was obvious how angry he was.

“I had no
intention of ever seeing that woman again,” he growled.

“You need to get
over your selfish vendetta against her,” Gabriel almost yelled, letting his own
temper show.  “It wasn’t her fault you were too weak to ignore the advances of
a seventeen-year-old girl.  You should have known better, John.  You were ten
years her senior and supposedly wiser.  Don’t blame Emma for your inability to
control your baser needs.  Plus, she wasn’t the one who sent you to the Outlands. 
If you will recall, it was her father.  And you can’t say she hasn’t made
numerous attempts to make amends with you since Leopold’s death.  You’ve just
been too stubborn and self absorbed to accept her apology.  It’s time you put
your Queen and country first, Fallon, instead of yourself.  She needs your help
whether you want to give it or not!”

I had never seen
Gabriel so upset before.  His usual calm was forgotten for the moment replaced
by a desperate need to knock some sense into the captain and get him out of his
self-pitying stupor.

Fallon’s jaw was
still tense, but he sat back down on the settee bracing his elbows on his
thighs, hands clasped before him.

“What does she
want?”  He asked in a calmer voice. “How sick is she?”

“She has the
plague,” Gabriel informed him, not bothering to sugar coat his words.

Fallon’s eyes
searched Gabriel’s face for any trace of deception.  Seeing none, his eyes fell
down to his clasped hands, letting the information sink in.  “How long does she
have?”

“It’s hard to say
but I don’t see her making it back to Iron City alive.”

“What does she
want from me?”  Fallon’s voice sounded resigned to his fate, no longer having the
will to act the martyr.

Gabriel’s eyes
found mine.  “She wants you to help Sarah.”

I think it was the
first time the captain realized I was in the room.  His head turned to follow
Gabriel’s eyes and he stared at me like I had just appeared out of thin air.

“What makes this
girl so important?”  He asked, his eyes wandering from my hair to the tips of
my worn leather shoes peeking out from beneath the hem of my farm girl dress,
trying to figure out in a glance why a nobody like me should be so important to
a queen.

“Have you ever
heard of shifters, Fallon?”  Gabriel asked, coming to sit beside the captain on
the settee.

“No,” Fallon let
his eyes drop from my face as he looked back at Gabriel.  “Should I have?”

“Not necessarily,”
Gabriel admitted.  “What I’m about to tell you might sound preposterous but
every word will be the truth.”  Gabriel took in a deep breath.  “Sarah and I
are shifters.  We can take the form of people at the moment of their deaths. 
Sarah will be taking the Queen’s form when she dies.”

“
What
?” 
Fallon stood to his feet in outrage.

Gabriel kept his
place on the settee, a calm presence in the face of the captain’s anger.

“It’s the Queen’s
own plan,” Gabriel assured him.  “She fears what will happen to her daughter
and to the country after her death.”  Gabriel went on to explain to Fallon what
parliament was planning and the possibility of Aleksander Chromis becoming
Royal Regent.  “That is what will happen if Emma’s passing is made public.  Do
you really want to see our country put through so much turmoil?  Haven’t the
people been through enough already?”

Fallon sat back
down on the settee.  Gabriel’s words had forced the strategist in him to
surface.

“No, I see the
wisdom in her plan.”  Fallon looked at me again.  His eyes seemed to roam over
every inch of my body making me feel naked and vulnerable under his scrutiny.

“And this little
girl is supposed to take Emma’s place?” He scoffed before turning his eyes away
from me as if dismissing me as nothing more than an inconsequential piece in
the Queen’s puzzle.

My back
involuntarily snapped straighter.

“I am not little
and I’m certainly no girl, Captain Fallon,” I told him, not feeling any need to
hide my irritation with his openly condescending opinion of me. 

One of his
eyebrows arched imperiously as he looked back at me.  “Well, you’re certainly
no Queen, miss.  No matter what form you take.”

His words bit into
the heart of my insecurity opening a wound I knew would be hard to mend.  He
was right.  I wasn’t a Queen.  It wouldn’t matter that I looked exactly like Queen
Emma.  I would always be an imposter trying to pass myself off as royalty and I
felt the sting of truth from his statement. 

“That’s enough,
Fallon,” Gabriel said, quickly coming to my defense.  “At least show Sarah some
respect for doing what her Queen is asking her to do.  It’s more than you’ve
done in quite some time.”

Fallon’s eyes fell
from my face at Gabriel’s none too subtle reminder.

“Can I see her?” 
Fallon asked in a low voice.