The Queen of all Spain

Chapter 23

Scotland

It's been months, Aaron and I have traveled back and forth between the two countries, constantly waiting for Thomas to attack. He hasn't shown aggression, but one of my spies say he is building his army, still nothing to compare to my own. 

A servant comes into the throne room; "your majesty, a man has arrived asking for to see you."

"Send him in."

Only a few minutes pass before the face of a man I have never met enters the throne room, he wears the plaid of a Scottish clan and bows, a wild look in his eyes.

"Queen Lana, I have traveled down from the highlands to meet you."  His accent is thick, more so than Aaron's or any of the Scots near Edinburgh.

"I am honored, you must have an important reason to come so far, the king isn't here if it is him you truly want to see."

"I meant what I said, it is you I ask for."

"Good, it would take half an army to bring Aaron back to the castle while on a hunt."

The man laughs, "any good man enjoys the annual hunt, but Queen Lana, I have a dire need for your help."

"What is it?"

"The clansman have never bowed to the Scottish monarchs for hundreds of years, but we have seen your bravery in England and here in our own land, we ask for your aid in return for our own undying loyalty to you. The Clan Ross will be loyal to the crown for centuries."

I stand from my throne and go before him, as his equal like Aaron told me when I first came here. "And you are this Ross, I suspect?"

"Yes, Queen Lana, and we need you in the highlands to help my clansman with a blight and famine that has befallen them. Foreigners ransacked my land as your first born died, we didn't come since you were in mourning, but we have no food, we need your help."

"I would be happy to send wagons of supplies to the highlands with you."

He walks to the stain glass window, then turns back to me. "Thank you, Queen Lana, but they need to see the face of their queen."

"I'm sure my husband would like me to ask if I should travel so far."

"Forgive me for my words, but aren't you a very independent woman? You beheaded a man twice your size and another monarch as well, I thought you could make a simple decision on your own."

"You question my judgment?"

"Not at all, your majesty, I simply believe that the Queen of Spain and Scotland can travel without asking permission."

We both stare at each other, an unspoken contest to see who will blink or back down first.  I let a smile come over my face, holding my gaze still without stirring in my feet, I won't show myself to a clan leader as a queen without a mind of her own.  "Alright, we leave at dawn."

"Thank you, Queen Lana."

"I'll have a servant show you to a room for the night, your horse will be taken care of in the stable."

He leaves the throne room in a confident stride, something about him is off, something Aaron would certainly warn me of.  He won't return until tomorrow afternoon, until then I'll have to guard my own life.

England

"So you are the cousin Lana exiled?"  Thomas laughs, slapping the Spaniard on the back.  "Letting a little girl push you around?"

"Lana doesn't let anyone stand in the way of her reign, not even the people she loves."

"Seems rather fond of her husband."

"They rule as equals, she trusts him completely."  A sickening grin comes over the Spaniard, Phillip's, face. 

"That's heart warming, and will be used for my own personal gain, but I'll wait until they produce another heir, preferably a daughter I can wed once I kill them both, I'll use her for Spain and Scotland."

"Instead of waiting for more than a decade for a daughter to even come of age, I have a proposition."

Thomas raises an eyebrow, "tell me."

"I have a blood claim to the Spanish throne, with both of them dead and Scotland without an heir it would be handed to me."

"That still leaves me with only England, I want more, it seems only you would gain."

Phillip nods, pacing the room as he thinks.  "Then we join forces, with the Armada we can easily conquer all of Europe."

They stare at one another, saying unspoken words between their evil and broken souls.  "Perhaps we have a plan then," Thomas says.

"Kill the queen and her precious husband, but I want to take my cousin's head like she would most definitely take mine today."