Praises for Victory
You are so glorious
I want a victory
Make me victorious
And all the kings will come
And bow before your throne
You're like the luminous sun
But much more brightly shone
The people lift their hand
And your praises sing
They shout out recognize
Here comes the king
Applause rang out in the room and Princess Hortense curtsied. Looking among the faces she noticed that her father was not present. Leaving the guest to their meals she sought out the king who had made her sing the song in the first place.
She made her way to his study and stopped just outside the door.
"Well, it happens." She could hear her father say. "People have made attempts on my life. Not just my own people but people from Gath and Gilboa alike. They want me to pick a side, they say I'm straddling the fence, sort of speak. I call it keeping peace."
Hortense entered the room using her innocents to her advantage. She deliberately walked by her father and his sister and played with the globe in the corner.
"All I'm saying is, be careful. If people are brave enough to behave this way under King Silas, how much more so you?"
"Naomi, I don't need my own sister telling me this." The King said
"Well would you rather her it from the people?" Naomi huffed and walked the length of the room. "They are sighing and groaning, demanding a king who is brave enough to go to war."
"War devastated Victory under my father; I will not repeat his history Naomi. You know how terrible that was. Besides you were the one who told me, avoid war with Gath and or Gilboa at all times." The king said.
"That was before, before people like Silas and before all of these terrible battles." She slammed her hands on his desk. "What's going to happen when Gath and Gilboa decide to rip each other's throats out? Huh, little brother? Victory will be crushed in between." She began walking the room again becoming animated with her hands.
"The only thing that protects us from a land invasion are your three little seas and the mountains to the back. Your land alone saves you from invasion." She put her hand on her forehead dramatically. "Think the damages that foot soldiers could do. Think of your children." She gestured to Hortense who looked blankly at her aunt.
The king stood in defense. "I do think of my children!" He shouted. "and refusing war is the best thing to protect them." He coughed long and hard.
Naomi shook her head at her brother. "You're dying Elisha. How do you expect Mordred to carry this burden?"
Hortense saw her father's distress and how her aunt, who could have ruled the country single handedly, was making him feel guilty. Many times she had insulted the king's pride. She was so pushy and arrogant but she was right. However the king was her father and she was his daughter.
Before her aunt could go on Hortense put her feet together stood tall and sung at the top of her lungs.
Praises for Victory
You are so glorious
I want a victory
Make me victorious
And all the kings will come
And bow before your throne
You're like the luminous sun
But much more brightly shone
The people lift their hand
And your praises sing
They shout out recognize
Here comes the king
Naomi shook her head and left the room. Hortense went over to her father and sat in his lap. He kissed her hair. "That's my daughter." He said, "A true child of Victory."
"You're not really going to die, are you daddy?" Hortense asked.
"You're going to have a very important job to do." The king said instead. "You'll have to look out for this nation, as if you were a body guard protecting your king. You're brother may be king but you will be the image of Victory."
"What's that?" Hortense asked.
"You'll be the nation's bride." Her father replied. Hortense leaned her head against his chest. "
"Daddy, I want to marry Jack." She said, "Can't I marry Jack and be the image of Victory?"
He kissed her forehead and smoothed down her stray pieces of hair. "You can't slave for two masters."
With a heavy sigh Hortense slid off her father's lap and left his study. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the silver bell. Absentmindedly she walked the halls examining it in her hands. Unintentionally she made her way back to the odd portrait painting.
She was looking at the bell when suddenly all went black. "Guess who?" A voice said. Hortense pulled the hand from over her eyes and whirled around.
"Cross!" she exclaimed. Looking down at her hands she held up the bell. "I've convinced myself that it does ring. Does that make it a bell?" She tired to offer it back to him put he gestured for her to keep it.
"You really pondered that question for nearly three years?" He asked. Hortense nodded her head with pride.
"I think that…it's not our place to decide what is and what isn't." She said. Cross started walking so she did too.
"Answer this for me." She said. "What is required of the image of Victory?" She looked up into his eyes desperately wanting an answer.
"I think if you father wanted you to know that he would have told you." Cross replied. Hortense crossed her arms and pouted.
"Are you going to make me wait three more years?" She sassed. Cross stopped walking and turned around. "And you're not even going to leave me with a broken instrument." She shook her head.
"You don't know what you're dealing with, do you little girl?" Cross asked. Hortense's mouth dropped open. No one just called her little girl. She was a princess.
"I'm not so little , and I'm very smart for my age." She said stretching herself to her full height. Cross laughed under his breath and shook his head.
"I guess your questions will be answered when you're older." He said, "But don't be in such a hurry to get there." He said petting her head."
"But I want to know so much, and I want to know now!" Hortense said.
"Well that shows that you're too curious. Cross said, "Say, you try standing in the sun and rain. I bet you'll grow as quickly as a flower in a garden, eh little gardener." With that he was gone; leaving Hortense staring in wonderment.
Not missing a beat. She raced into he room leaned against the wall and marked with crayon just above her head. Then she ran outside totting a bucket of water searching for the best spot in the vegetable garden. Digging her feet in the earth she faced the sun and poured the bucket over her head.
She blinked the water out of her eyes and waited, and waited and waited. The sun bore down on the garden and Hortense wiped the sweat from her forehead. There was a ringing in her ears and her breath became heavy. Swaying a little to the left her eyes rolled back and she collapsed.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"You seem to have known so much, but still you were as gullible as any." Joyce Baker said.
Hortense shrugged, spreading her hands apart as far as the cuffs allowed. "When I woke up I was in my room and my mother and Brice were there. She was son confused at to what I was doing and I knew I couldn't explain." Hortense watched the tape recorder wind for a moment then continued. "But, when they had gone, I climbed out of bed and measured myself again. To my surprise I was shorter. I guess I should have taken my shoes off." She laughed despite herself.
"Let me guess," Joyce then said. "Despite all that you still wanted to listen to him."
"Yes."
"Even after your father was bedridden?"
"Even more so then. He made sense and he didn't talk about Mordred they were everyone else did. They were all exited about him becoming king at such an early age." Hortense shook her head as she remembered.
"What about Jack?" The guard asked. Hortense and Joyce both looked at him funny.
"Pull up a chair." Hortense said. The guard did just that and sat in it backwards. "You've already heard things that no one should." She racked her memory.
"Jack," She began. "We continued to keep in touch but we both were changing. I never understood what he was going through and I was too wrapped up in my own political crises to help out. Every time we talked hr said he was confused, but he would never tell me why, it's not like he had something to be afraid of."
Joyce and the guard exchanged glances and cleared their throats.
"Anyways, my sister Dianna was of the age when children are corrupted by TV. She proceeded to fornicate with Gath." Hortense made a disgusted sound in the back of her throat. "I was my father's favorite daughter, and that contributed to me becoming the Duchess of Victory." She said in a loud voice and swept her bound hands dramatically.
"That's about the time foreign relation fell apart." The guard said. Hortense nodded. "Morbid Mordred was inheriting ting a kingdom in distress. However, my father had a gift for keeping friends close and enemies…he ignored them."
"And what about Cross, was he friend or enemy?" Joyce asked. Hortense leaned back in her chair.
"Took me seven years to find out." She said, "I suppose it could have happened to a more disciplined princess. You could say, Dianna or myself asked for trouble in our own ways, but not marry." Hortense paused and fiddled with her cuffs.
"People always liked her—aside from Mordred—I envy her for it still"
"You shouldn't envy the dead." Joyce said.
Hortense smirked and said, "Well I sure don't envy the living."
