Since I know someone is reading this, here's the next chapter in this novel. I do have a lot more already up on Wattpad, which I've linked to on my profile. This chapter is the one that got the most revisions, because I kept getting new ideas for the kids and their toys. And they already have their own ongoing adventure on my blog.
The lunch went on as planned, which embarrassed King Ajax far more. Lady Daffodil chattered as usual. Diantha matched her and soon drew her into pleasant conversation. The children several times asked about her place in their uncle's house. Sara, the most precocious, was especially suspicious. She finally asked, "Are you marrying Uncle Ajax?"
"I am his Attending Maiden," Diantha answered. "Every year, six of us are sent by each of the Houses of the Kingdom. A seventh is chosen from those who came the previous year. We serve the king, to learn how to better care for our own houses. Each night, one of us stays as his Night Attendant. On his Days of Rest, the King chooses one of us to attend him and gives leave to the rest."
"Do you read him bedtime stories?" Lily piped in.
"Sometimes," Diantha said.
"Do you sleep in his bed?" Sara asked, still suspicious.
"If the King asks, we can," the Maiden answered.
"Has a King ever married a maid?"
"It has happened, in the old days," the Maiden affirmed. "There was a long time when we did not have a king, so everything is still new."
Sara turned to her mother. "Do we have Attendants?"
"Of course," Daffy said. "You know Amaryla and Rosa. They are just a little older. And they come when I call them." Out of the blue, she said directly to Diantha. "Anyways, you're much too young to get married. Take it from me. My man is wonderful, but I wish we had waited. I was still just a girl. I definitely wasn't ready for kids… Oh, but then we wouldn't have Lily." Her oldest squealed and ducked away as Daffy tried to pinch her cheek.
Diantha, in turn, said abruptly, "You know, there's a doctor in my House's Lands who found a way to test for Lindorm blood without side effects. I have an aunt who tested positive, and she says she's happy she found out. Have you thought about getting tested? You know, after what happened with Lady Pruna…"
Daffy just laughed and took Hector's hand. "Oh, we never worried about that," she said. "She's really my half-sister, of course. Her father was a baron from the Red Desert. He stayed behind when the Expeditionary Force withdrew. Mother always knew about him."
Robert began to fuss. Daffodil beckoned for an Attendant to bring him to her. "Here's Mama, here's mama," she cooed. "Mm, can you say Mm-mama? Mama?"
"Mmmmm-mffflgah," Robert said, blowing bubbles.
"Oh, you tease..." Daffy said. She looked up at the others. "Oh, we're waiting for him to talk. He's just shy." The Prince watched attentively as she reached into one of her favorite purses, shaped like a brooding frog, and produced his favorite toy, a smaller beaded frog purse that had been an accessory to the first. To Bell, she gave a doll in the likeness of Ajax, to the King's discomfort, and to Sara. Sara declared that she had outgrown her toys. She shook her head as her mother offered a series of beloved toys that would be sad to be put away, until she got to a fierce but adorable Lindorm clearly modeled on Naam. The Princess still mustered her resolve, until Bell held up her doll. She magnanimously said that she would still play with the little kids. She took the Lindorm and operated a subtle mechanism which made a credible imitation of a Lindorm bellow of challenge. Bell posed the doll in a fighting stance, and they all laughed as they raced off to play.
As lunch wound down, Ajax and Hector stepped out into the Palace Garden, where the minstrels played selections from the Heavy Metal soundtrack. "So," the King said to his brother, "how is true love?"
"Oh, wonderful," Hector said, beaming with joy. "The children are wonderful. Lily started school last Harvest, Sara will this year. Little Robert is walking and… I'm sure he'll be talking any day. And my Lady… Mm. I love her more now than I did then. She is still beautiful. Isn't she?"
By then, Daffy and the children had made their way to the Grand Balcony. Ajax followed Hector's gaze upward, and considered his brother's Lady with detachment as she chatted with Diantha, over the children's arguments as they reenacted Ajax's duel with Naam on the railing. Her flowing dresses had long since been replaced with a suit-coat and a knee-length skirt that she wore now. It was the best presentation of the cherub-like figure she had grown into. "She is lovely," he said.
Hector elbowed him. "Oh, you are just used to the Flower Girls who are barely out of school," he said. "Don't think we don't hear the stories!"
Ajax shrugged. "The Lords and the people say it is tradition," he said. "Here, it would be more of a scandal if I neglected them." His eyes shifted briefly downward as Nopalina patrolled the courtyard below the balcony. Sure enough, the toy Lindorm dropped and the doll of Ajax followed, with a cry of dismay supplied by Prince Robert. The Maiden acted surprised as she caught them both, and took it in stride when the frog landed on her head. She promptly moved to walk away, pleased with her new toys.
"They are telling you it is tradition to get a queen, and some heirs to the throne," his brother said. "Why don't you just pick one, one of these years? Are you still waiting for the right girl?"
"It's not that simple," Ajax said. "If I had done it at the start, they would have been happy. Now, they would think I am trying to save face, or win favor from one of the Houses."
"Maybe," Hector said. "Just remember, it's not getting better."
As they returned, Diantha met them just outside the door to the dining room. Ajax remained with her while Hector hurried inside to catch up with his Lady. "I heard about your decision," the Maiden said. "I can see now, I was presumptuous. Persephone and I agree, it is for the best."
Ajax nodded, but paused in his half-thought pleasantry. "Agreed? To what end?" he queried.
"To help each other and our families," the Maiden said matter-of-factly. "Obviously, you cannot make me your Favorite so soon, without angering the Lords. If you favor Persephone for a time, they will be quiet for a while. It will be a great help to her family. Her sister hopes for a marriage, and her brothers are seeking apprenticeships."
"You are kind," Ajax said. "What is it that you would want, when all that is done?"
Diantha laughed. "Obviously, I would return for another year," she said. "By then, I will have saved up enough to start my own trade. Then I can depart quietly, once you choose your Queen."
"Is that all you would wish?" Ajax asked cautiously.
"Well, we all must be realistic," she said. "A King cannot marry his Favorite. Besides, we all know your feelings toward Nopalina."
"Yes, to be sure," the King answered. He kept himself from leaving in haste.
Hector and his family departed at the 3rd hour of the afternoon. As soon as the shadow of Hector's ship receded, the King marched with his Guard to the Royal Pier adjacent to the Palace. The Clipper and the Caravel were moored at the docks the same as the ships of the sea. Persephone waited, literally flushed with excitement. Nopalina stood beside her, a more enigmatic smile on her face.
The Clipper was as long as the Royal Dreadnought in Hector's hands, though barely half its weight. Its only armament was a trio of cannons on the forward deck. Ajax summoned the Maidens to his side on the Quarter Deck. The lesser screws started first, bringing the skyship to speed as it rose from the water. When only the keel remained below the surface, the main engines engaged. The acceleration sent Persephone reeling. Ajax took hold of her arm in time to steady her. She still laughed in delight as they rose into the air. The King looked over his shoulder at Nopalina. She held steady, shifting with the deck as if dancing in place. "My grandfather was an Admiral, remember?" she said.
Ajax and the ladies took a seat on a bench on the main deck, to one side of the entrance to the Royal Cabin. Persephone turned her head in wonder as he pointed out the landmarks of the Realms of the Red Kingdom, from the Coral Desert to the Umber Mountain where the Grand Lodge of her own House stood. Nopalina, for her part, went along with growing goodwill. When the captain announced that they had reached flank speed, they returned to the quarter deck and used the telescope to survey the further Realms, as far away as the Black Mountains and the ice sheets of the White North.
"We had the great air battle there," Ajax said, pointing to the distant ice. "Naam had retreated to the Ice Citadel. He sent half his fleet to hold us off while he lifted off in his flagship, with Princess Pruna aboard. He managed to get clear of the fight, just ahead of an incoming ice storm. I led a platoon of Sky Marines to intercept him. We came in right below the keel, where their main guns couldn't engage us and their escort Flyers could only come at us head on. But we couldn't use our rockets without risking harm to the Princess. We had to go for the rudders and secondary screws with hand charges and boarding pikes. We lost 30 good men before I finally blew out the arm of the main elevator. They were done, and they knew it. One of the Flyers still came at me. All he did was hit a main screw and set off a chain explosion that blew out the main engine room.
"Naam signaled his surrender, but it was too late. The ship went down straight into the middle of the storm, 200 Leagues from shore. Every launch that tried to bail iced up and went straight down. I saw it happen to two of them before I broke off. I had to stop the Admiral from sending search craft. They couldn't have seen anything if the storm hadn't killed them. It was three days before we had word of Naam or the Princess. It turned out that one of his submarines had managed to reach them before the wreck broke through the ice. He could have gone straight back to his capital. Instead, he ordered his captain to break the surface to signal that they were safe."
Persephone clapped in admiration. Nopalina took his arm. "My Lord," she said, "my Grandfather still tells the story. What he always talks about is how worried you were. It turned out for the best, did it not?"
"Yes," Ajax said softly, "I suppose it did."
As they watched, the sun descended, finally disappearing behind the peaks of the Black Mount. "It will grow cold, quickly," the King said. "We should retire to the Royal Cabin."
The Cabin was directly beneath the quarter deck. To enter required descending a short flight of steps from the Main Deck. In truth, it consisted of several rooms, including a dining room, a kitchen, and at the rear, the bedroom. There was a merry dinner with the Captain and his officers, who left as boisterously as they entered. Ajax insisted on helping the Maidens finish cleaning up. As they finished, he pointed to what looked like a large pantry. "That is the Maiden's Quarters," he said. Nopalina made a show of looking inside dubiously.
"There is only one bunk," she said.
"So there is," Ajax said.
Of course, Nopalina took the bunk. Ajax led Persephone into his Bedroom, which proved to be for all intents and purposes the bed. There was a sound like a bending vine. When the King looked over his shoulder, the Flower Maiden was in the form of a fully human woman, wearing only a filmy slip. It was the first time he had looked at her hair. It was the pale purple of thistledown, and very similar in texture. "Do I have my Lord's favor?" she asked.
"For tonight, yes," Ajax said.
She followed him into bed and under the covers. The mattress was turned sideways in a huge window box, giving a panorama of the sleeping Realms from the comfort of the still cozy bed. The Maiden shifted one way and then another, taking in the wonder. Thinking that she was concerned with privacy, Ajax reached for a control that would close a set of shutters. She stayed his hand. They huddled together. Her soft, small voice could just be heard over the steady hum and thrumming vibration of the screws: "How might I please my Lord?"
The King turned on an overhead light, then reached into a tiny cabinet overhead. He held out a heavily worn book of mythology. "Read me a story," he said.