The Silk Queen

The Alliance

"Wake up!" Amaris whispered as she lightly shook Andromeda's figure.

"What..?" Andromeda asked with a sleepy voice.

"We're here. Get up," Amaris replied making her sit up. 

   Carlos was already up, he had been for a while, He was scared. He didn't want to seem vulnerable to Lavinia, he didn't want to loose his advantage over her.  He sat staring out the window at the seemingly endless sea for hours. Until Andromeda and Amaris were dressed. He got into his dress wear and stepped off the ship. 
 

  A man led everyone to a gold encrusted carriage, he recognized it since ben always spoke of the gold encrusted everything Lavinia had. The inside was lined with velvet, silk pillows with soft string tassels sat on the cushions. Amaris sat down, Andromeda sat next to her. Carlos sat opposite of her, and stared out the window.

"Lavinia did the exact same thing on our way here," Amaris noted. 

"Don't compare me to her," Carlos replied, his tone expectedly angry. 

"She misses her sister Carlos, Let the poor girl live," Andromeda snapped, her gaze on carlos angry and threatening. 

"Sorry," Carlos replied.

"What happened to that respect you had for her 3 months ago?" Andromeda asked, her eyes on the book Amaris was reading. 

"I only respected her for ben," Carlos said. 

"Oh. So now you're back to hating her for something she didn't do. Typical," Amaris scoffed.

  There was silence. Carlos thought for a while. To keep his mind off of ben, he started to wonder what Lavinia's palace looked like. He had heard she was there for now, as the royal palace would be to open and too known. Ben described it as a golden, jewel encrusted palace that looked like it came straight from heaven.

  Carlos thought about it for a while and started to grow fond of his perception of it. The carriage rode on for what felt like hours, until they stopped at a large stone wall, with two towers on either side of a polished metal gate. A Guard stepped out of a tower and faced the carriage from the opposite side of the gate. 

"The Queen is not expecting any guests, what is the meaning of this?" The guard said. 

"Prince Carlos of England would like to speak to the Queen, My sister," Amaris said stepping out of the carriage with carlos. 

"The English hate the queen, and you betrayed her. I do not believe you," The guard said, taking his sword out of it holder. 

"Lower your sword," A girl said while getting off a white horse on the trail inside the gate, "I am the queen's friend and I can assure you she bears no ill will against the English, only Carlos himself."

"Oh, well my apologies," the guard said, while walking to open the gate for them. 

  Amaris' heart shattered when the guard told her, her sister believes she betrayed her. She regretted staying at English court more then ever now. Carlos hated Lavinia, and he saw her to be a cruel and horrible person, but how could she believe her own sister betrayed her because she stayed to help find someone. 

"Amaris," Freya started, "Lavinia is doing something, i don't think you'll approve."

"Well what is she doing?" Amaris asked. They were walking along a path to the large door of the Castle.

"She's thinking of marrying the prince of Italy for inside information on Ben," Freya said, a tear falling from her eye, "She's doing it to get ben back to make things right, but he's cruel. He's already done something."

"What the hell did that bastard do to her?" Andromeda asked, her eyes flaming with anger. 

"I can't say, she forbid me to," Freya said, her eyes worried. 

   Amaris clenched her fists as she walked, breathing heavily. Carlos was mad, the person he was going to to help England was doing something stupid instead of just fighting. They walked down the gold encrusted halls, the patterns were made of crystals, it was exactly how ben described it. They walked into the throne room, the same room ben had ben in. Carlos looked around, walls lined with marble, gold patterns on the brim of the ceiling, even the throne Lavinia sat upon had crystals and gold on it. 

"Lavinia," Amaris said, "Don't you dare marry him." 

"I'm not dear sister," Lavinia started.

"Wait, you're not?!" Freya squealed in excitement.

"No," Lavinia said, her chin was high and her eyes were tough, she looked emotionless as always, but a different kind of emotionless, "The prince is dead." 

"What?" Amaris said, her eyes widened. 

Lavinia stood and started walking down the steps, her skirt dragging behind her, "He's dead, I killed him."

"The Italians are going to kill you for that Lav!" Amaris yelled. 

"Why would you do that you idiotic queen?!" Carlos screamed.

Lavinia's head turned to face Carlos, the sunlight from the window made her face eerily shadowed, "Because I knew you'd be here, and I'm the one person crazy enough and kind enough to help you."

"You're waging war with the Italians?! Why would you do that?!" Carlos yelled louder. 

Lavinia walked down and drew her sword, tracing Carlos' jawline, "Because unlike you my prince, I am a queen. I don't sit on a throne and let my parents do everything, I do it myself. Because I AM a queen, I have a country to LEAD." 

Lavinia took her sword off of Carlos and put it back in its strap. Carlos cleared his throat and stared into Lavinia's crystal clear blue eyes, "I have come to ask for an Alliance, your grace." 

Lavinia stared back into his eyes and smirked, She stepped closer and held out her hand for Carlos to shake, and he did. They shook hands and Lavinia's eyes softened, she had the look she did the night of the coronation. Almost innocent. She smiled and sent them to their rooms for the night.

    Carlos laid awake that night, thinking about how Lavinia's expressions were so.. different. One minute she could be threatening his life and the next she would be giving him her sweet, welcoming smile and walking off.  He hated how easy it was for her to fake her happiness. But he wondered why she was so good at it. He shut himself up and stared at the ceiling.

  Carlos laid awake for hours until he decided to walk in the open hallway that overlooked the courtyard. He stood there, overlooking the courtyard, and his mind couldn't stop thinking about ben. Until his thoughts were interrupted by a voice.

"If you look under the pillow on your couch, you can find an old picture of ben when he stayed in that room," A soft voice said from behind Carlos, He turned to see Lavinia.

"Generous of you Irvine," Carlos scoffed, Lavinia walked to the railing and stood beside him. 

"I know you hate me, but right now all I want is to find ben and get my best friend back," Lavinia said, her gaze to a constellation in the sky.

"You mean your boyfriend?" Carlos replied, his voice half angry half sad.

"No, he ended it," Lavinia said.

There was silence for a while, until carlos asked, "Why'd you run that day? When you knew he was missing?" 

"Because I would be to blame. He left my why wouldn't I hurt him for it? Well I wouldn't, but in your eyes I would. Because you hate me," Lavinia replied, she looked at carlos and met his eye, gave a smile and walked off.