She Who is King

8 | marred by heat

England

"...AND NOW the Saxons are advancing again," an unknown man was sitting in a group of more unknown men, and Alfred was desperately trying to keep the peace.

When I walked in, everyone glanced up, but no one said a word. Arthur and Merlin were nowhere to be seen.

"Who is this?" the man who had spoken before asked, looked away from Alfred.

Alfred looked anxiously between me and the man before responding. "Well, she's the king."

The man laughed. "Alfred, you jest. Where is the king?"

I lifted my chin and squared my shoulders. "I should hope I am the king, as I have been running this kingdom for the past couple days, ever since I pulled a sword from a block of marble that men twice my size could not get to budge." I glided to the replica throne, and sat down. "I am Lyra, soon to be King of England. Anything you must say of the Saxons should also be mentioned in my presence."

The men were dumbfounded. Including the one who had spoken up.

The thought sent a silent thrill up my spine, and I had to keep a grin from my lips. This was no time to act as though I was kidding.

Because I wasn't.

"She does not lie," Alfred said, gesturing towards me. "She will be crowned king within weeks, so it would be in our best interests if you would keep her gender a secret. We do not need the widespread confusion it would cause should the people find their king is a woman too soon."

The men nodded along to what Alfred was saying, but their eyes didn't leave me. 

There were four men sitting along the table, each in dark clothes with an odd crest on their chests. 

"Majesty," the one who had been speaking said stiffly. "I am Silas, a field marshal in the army. These are my majors; Jasper, Elijah, and Cree. We will vow to serve you and the crown. Forgive me for my initial rudeness."

As Silas was speaking, I noticed his facial expressions did not match the pretty words leaving his mouth. It seemed I would have to keep an eye on him and his majors to make sure they did nothing foolish.

"Majesty," the three majors chorused, not meeting my gaze. And they had seemed so attentive to Alfred when I had walked in...

"Continue with your report, Marshal," Alfred said, his uncertain gaze darting to mine for a moment.

Silas looked at me, and I nodded with a growing sense of pride. At least he was respectful of my title while I was in the room.

"As I was saying, the Saxons are advancing once more," Silas began. "They're gaining ground from the west, and we're not certain that they won't split and try to take the south as well."

Jasper nodded along to this. When Silas finished talking, Jasper began his account of what was happening. 

"We don't have the numbers to cover the south and the west, especially because the Saxons add to their ranks everyday. We need to get permission to advance into the south west, so that we may cover from both directions."

I pursed my lips, thinking hard about what the men were asking of me.

"And they are currently only advancing from the west?" I asked, knowing my answer if the men responded with an affirmative. 

"Correct, Majesty, but we have reason to believe they will attempt to move to the south," this time it was Elijah who spoke up.

"So cover the west until they do move south," I decided, meeting each of the men's eyes. The decision seemed obvious to me. If we didn't have the numbers, we wouldn't move until they did. Until then, we could cover the land they were currently trying to overtake.