The Past is Prologue
Chapter 36: It's On
I never knew if my father really thought that the Pretender Princess was Isabel Castillo Flores or if he was just using her. I asked him once why we should even care about Avalor; it's not like Shuriki was invading our country. Before stomping off the way he always did, he merely replied, "Not yet." – King Hector XIII of Hectoria, A People's History of the Reign of Queen Shuriki, compiled by Professor Catalina de Torres
When Rafa watched that idiot Rocco Villalobos make his ridiculous speech, she rolled her eyes. Now was the perfect time to take him and his misbegotten crew! What were the guards waiting for? It was times like these that Rafa was forcibly reminded just how young the queen and her administration were. Oh, they had worked miracles, and the carpenter was proud of all of them. Queen Elena for being the most compassionate and just ruler in Avaloran history, Naomi for being the People's Chancellor and ensuring the common folk had a voice, General Núñez for reforming the Guard and making them a force for good rather than evil, and most of all proud of her son Mateo, the Royal Wizard. He had almost single-handedly brought back magic to Avalor after Shuriki's repression. Her precious wizard boy had all of her father's talent and none of his aloofness. And he still came home every Sunday to spend time with his mamá.
But sometimes it took experience to win the day. And this was one of those times.
She looked about for someone to advise, but she need not have worried. Her son came to her, like the good boy he was. "Madre," he said in a low, serious voice. "Do you remember how to get into the secret biblioteca?"
"Of course, mijo," she answered at once. "Do you need something from there? Tell me what it is and I'll fetch it for you."
Mateo put his hands on his mother's shoulders. "No, mom, I don't need anything from there. I need you to go hide there so you'll be safe." He kissed her on the cheek and without giving her a chance to answer strode off, leaving a fuming Rafa in his wake.
A low chuckle interrupted her thoughts. "How about it, doña Rafa?" the ever-annoying Pablo Agama taunted. "Are you going to hide? Be safe?"
"Certainly not," she snapped. "I think it's time to put into motion Operation Ojo de Cerradura. Only in reverse."
That brought Pablo up short. "Really?"
"Why not? Cristobal's ruffians are attempting the same thing we planned to unseat Shuriki. That means we know best how to thwart it."
Pablo chuckled again, but this time appreciatively. "Glad to see you out of retirement, boss."
Block, parry, riposte, smash...Elena found herself grateful for Gabe's early morning sword drills. At least her stamina held up. When Elena had impulsively offered to host Paloma's and Julio's wedding at the palace, she had expected conflict. She just hadn't anticipated literal combat.
At least no one had dies, and Elena fervently hoped to keep it that way. It was her job to protect everyone, and that included these fools who had fallen for Cristóbal's lies. She'd thought her treacherous cousin harmless, locked away in his tower. How had he gotten so many followers?
Through sheer instinct Elena brought the hilt of her sword down on the wrist of an opponent. She winced at the sound of bone cracking, and at the man's shriek of pain as his sword clattered to the floor. Two wedding guests rushed over to take charge of the man and bind him next to the other prisoners. Elena had hated to do that; she remembered that just such an injury had ended her mother's fencing career. But at least Elena's opponent would live to repent.
Gabe shot her a worried look. He'd already tried to convince her to take cover and hide while he, the guard, and their allies took care of the problem. He'd even called her "Your Majesty," his code for saying, "I'm not speaking as your friend; I'm speaking as your general."
"This can't be the only ploy Cristóbal is using," she said quickly to forestall another request that she protect herself before her people.
Gabe expertly disarmed two opponents, who were immediately grabbed by Gabe's parents. Elena knew that Gabe had asked them to hide, but they had refused just as, well, she had. In fact, many of the wedding guests and servants, despite not being fighters themselves, had stayed to help and were surprisingly useful. The queen was so proud of her subjects.
"The biggest threat is by sea," he replied grimly, "although we don't really know what invention that kid Javier put in place. Isa should be able to dismantle it. Sra. de Alva told me about a plot she'd had to try to overthrow Shuriki involving a secret back entrance to the palace – "
"An entrance Cristóbal knows about."
"So I deployed Sra. de Alva and some old members of the resistance to that arena..."
From behind they heard an appalled voice, who said, "You deployed my mom?!"
"Focus, Mateo!" Elena snapped. He quickly banged his tamborita to levaluq a magical charm out of one of the enemy combatant's hands. There had been quite a few of those charms which kept Mateo, Victor, and Carla busy undoing them once they were cast. No doubt they'd been created by Fiero; the odd thing was none were particularly deadly; they were more of a distraction, preventing Elena's wizards from joining the fight. Which begged the question. Where were the malvagos? There was as yet no sign of Fiero or Ash. What were they up to? Cristóbal would be content to hide somewhere and let others do his dirty work for him.
"Tziloco! Flo!" she yelled. "I want everyone taken alive. Alive!" The crystal bat and alpacamundi made a surprisingly lethal team. And if Elena had known Tziloco could do that with his wings she would never have let Naomi keep him, no matter how "cute" he was.
The queen wasn't concerned with the royal guard. They were used to capturing criminals alive. Ixlan and Sir Finnegas were another matter. Though so far they were obeying Elena's edict as well, and she was very grateful for their help.
As she continued to fight on, Elena kept turning over in her mind one thought – since this couldn't be Cristóbal's only strategy to take over the palace, what was next?
"Don't worry, Chancellor! I'll save you!" Naomi spun around to see her secretary, Billy Higgins, come barreling towards her, sword raised. Also startled was the man sneaking up behind her with a dagger coming for her. She was able to jump out of the way just in time. Her attacker stumbled a bit, only for Billy to crash into him like a human olaball. Naomi kicked the dagger away, and then held out her hand to help Secretary Higgins up.
"You stay down," she told her dazed attacker.
"Yeah, stay down!" Billy echoed and put his foot on the traitor's back. He looked inordinately proud of himself. As he should, Naomi admitted ruefully.
"Thanks, Billy," the chancellor said, clapping him on the back. "You just saved my life."
"I did?" The secretary looked confused for a moment and then beamed. "I did!" Countess Dolores and her husband came to take charge of the prisoner, and Naomi sent Billy off to "capture more bad guys." He was useless with the sword, Naomi knew, but he was very, very good at bumping into people. Maybe they could leverage that.
"Higgins!" she heard Esteban roar. Or maybe not.
David came up to her, weaponless but with sharp elbows to drive away attackers. In the black suit Esteban had lent him he looked so much like Francisco that it took her breath away.
"You know," he mused, "if we had a net we could capture more of these ruffians at once."
"I don't see a net anywhere," she snapped at her brother. "Do you?"
"Look on the walls." The tapestries! Of course!
"Help me get them down." She and David managed to pull one off the wall, and working together managed to catch three traitors, who they left bundled up on the floor. They repeated the process twice more.
"We make a good team," she said, lightly punching David on the shoulder.
He smiled briefly, and then called out, "Carla!" and ran off to help his novia.
Naomi took stock of the room to see how she could best help. She missed her lasso; it didn't really go with the frilly dress she only wore for special occasions. She did have some rudimentary training with a sword, and was at least better than Mateo or Isa, but really she was more of a brawler than a swordswoman. Speaking of which, she managed to sucker punch a creep who'd been about to stab Miguel in the back. Now what could she use as a lasso?
Naomi spotted the decorative silk cord that lined the tables. Perfect! Well, not perfect but it would do. The chancellor ripped the cord from the nearest table and expertly formed it into a lasso. She set to work helping the guards round up Duke Cristóbal's goons.
Toss, catch, release. Toss, catch, release. Naomi soon fell into a pattern and found she was almost enjoying herself. This reminded her of the old days, when it was just her, Elena, Gabe and Mateo going on quests and chasing down malvagos. Certainly more exciting than the requisition paperwork that took up most of her time these days.
She was trying to rope two at once when another, more glittery lasso snaked out and stole her prize. Naomi spun around as doña Paloma expertly pulled her catch to the ground.
"Hey, you're pretty good with that," Naomi commented to the prickly shopkeeper.
"Indeed I am," doña Paloma replied smugly. "Remember your promise, Chancellor." And she flounced off to attack more bad guys.
What promise was she talking about? Naomi wracked her brain as she tried to capture more goons. She had a vague recollection of convincing the shopkeeper to let her perform the lasso portion of the wedding ceremony. Paloma had finally relented, but only on the condition that Paloma could return the favor at Naomi's wedding. The young chancellor had laughed it off; like she would be getting married any time soon. But the shopkeeper's comment tugged at something in the back of Naomi's mind. A memory of Gabe popped up unbidden...on the balcony as she'd realized with dawning horror that the palace was under attack, Gabe had asked her something. What had he asked her?
Wait, what had he asked her?!
She spotted her novio across the ballroom disarming an opponent.
"Gabe?"
"What?"
"When we were out on the balcony earlier, did you ask me a question?"
"Yeah." He struck another opponent in the head with the hilt of his sword.
"What was it?"
The general shot her a look of disbelief. "You want to talk about this now?"
"Yeah." If Gabe asked Naomi what she thought he'd asked her, she wanted to hear it.
"I asked you to marry me," he called out over the heads of the combatants.
"Oh." She thought for a moment while elbowing one of Cristóbal's minions who was trying to grab her. "Yeah."
"What do you mean, 'yeah'?"
"I mean, yeah, I'll marry you."
Gabe froze, stunned, causing Elena to call out "Behind you!" as she blocked a sword coming for Gabe's head. The General returned to the fight.
Naomi fought her way closer to her novio – scratch that, her comprometido.
"So, um, did you like – get a ring?"
"Of course I got a ring," Gabe retorted, not taking his eyes off his opponent.
"Can I see it?"
"Now?!"
"Well, if you went through the trouble of getting it and all..."
Still fighting with the sword in his right hand, Gabe reached into his pocket with his left and pulled out the ring which he tossed to Naomi, who deftly caught it.
She dodged a blow, and then took a second to examine the ring. A Norberg promise ring! Naomi had a complicated relationship with her heritage, since though she'd been born in Norberg she'd lived in Avalor since she was two. She knew some Norberg customs and sayings from her parents, but every diplomatic mission to the land of her birth forcibly reminded her she really wasn't from there. On the other hand, growing up in Avalor she was often greeted with taunts of "foreigner" and "girl from the port." So she never quite belonged in either world.
But by giving her a Norberg promise ring, Gabe, as Avaloran as any could be, was saying he valued all of her and wanted to make a life with her by his side, Norberg customs and all.
She slipped the ring on her finger, then punched a ruffian attempting to grab her. "Elena!" she called as he readied her lasso to capture another traitor. "Gabe and I are getting married!"
"Congratulations!" Elena responded with excitement as she crossed swords with an opponent.
"You wanna see my ring?"
"Of course!" Naomi battled her way over to her best friend, and in between bouts of fighting back to back, managed to show her ring over which Elena oohed and ahhed appreciatively.
After that the congratulations came fast and furious. Mateo enthusiastically cheered Gabe and Naomi on between taps on his tamborita, the chancellor- suddenly enveloped in a bear hug from behind – nearly elbowed her future father-in-law in the gut until she realized her mistake, and even a couple of their opponents offered their congratulations as they surrendered, one of them saying, "It's so romantic!"
All was going well until the news got to Ixlan, who called out in a ringing voice, "The General wins mating!"
The guards howled with laughter and shouted raucous congratulations to Gabe, whose face turned as red as Naomi felt her own face to be.
They would never live this down.
Cristóbal chuckled to himself from his corner, safely hidden away by the invisibility spell Fiero had cast on him. Let these fools have their moments of levity. It would be their last.
His cousin's people were winning against the insurgents, as expected. This was meant to soften Elena up; soon Javier's diversion would provide a further distraction, driving the queen into his trap.
The renegade duke briefly wondered where his godson had gotten to, but then shrugged. It no longer mattered; the boy had served his purpose. Soon, Cristóbal would face Elena, and finally get his revenge.
AN: A story cannot contain a song, of course. But if you would like one, imagine this – a dark danzón, sung by Cristóbal, as alone he reveals his true motives. He cares not a whit for Avalor or even Nueva Vista. His play for the throne has always been a convenient excuse to draw useful idiots to him. His true purpose is nothing less than revenge on Elena, whom he felt had betrayed him by keeping him locked up in a tower in his own palace. And now he would make her pay.