Mary sat through dinner in a haze, her mind replaying her encounter with Clarissa. She paid the necessary attention to Tomas or King Henry, but the gears in her head trying to unravel the foreboding riddles drowned out everything else. Finally, with a rough kiss that made Mary's skin crawl, Tomas bid her good night, and she retired to her room in solitude.
The first thing she did was pull open the hidden door. "Clarissa, are you there?" she called softly into the darkness. "Please, I need to talk to you." There was no answer. She tried again. "Besides, it's your turn again. I took another one of your pawns." Silence. Disappointed, Mary sealed the wall and lied down on her bed, going over again what she knew, or what she thought she knew.
"The lion plants lily seeds." The lion was England and the lily represented France. This had to be about the ambush on Outreau where the English covered the field with dead French soldiers before they even made it to their ships. Tears filled Mary's eyes. She had begged King Henry and Francis for the men to help her country and now six companies were dead because of it and Sebastian might not make it. But there was no time to weep, not if France was in danger as Clarissa's shadow show implied.
"How did the seeds grow into poppies? With blood." At first, Mary thought this obvious. The poppy was a symbol for death, therefore the French lilies were stained red with blood when the English slaughtered the six companies. But maybe "with blood" meant something else. Not the soldiers' blood, but some other treachery that could explain how the French had marched straight into that death trap, perhaps? The more she thought on it, the more suspicious she became of the fact that the English knew to strike first at Outreau. How did they know the French prepared to sail from there to attack them at Calais?
And why did Clarissa say "Beware the dragon!" afterwards? What did Portugal have to do with the ambush? Tomas was sending the Portuguese troops to fight the English... wasn't he? It didn't make sense. Portugal wouldn't help the English attack the French, and then attack English troops themselves a few days later. She was missing something. She had to figure it out. Lives could depend on it.
Late into the night, Mary fell into a restless sleep full of dark dreams of bloody flowers and ferocious beasts. After a few hours, though it felt like a few minutes of sleep, she awoke with a start. She sat straight up, processing a revelation that had formed during the night. Tomas sent his men to Scotland to please her. "Eight companies of fighting men," she recalled him saying. But what was he doing with eight companies ready on his ship if he was only in France for a trade negotiation? Unless... unless he was organizing an attack himself!
~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~
A/N: This, like the show, is a piece of historical fiction/fantasy. I tried to avoid being anachronistic, but the historical characters and political plotlines are not based on any research. I do not own Reign. Please review if you like or dislike. Thanks!