The Queens of Ida

6

Mara watches as the Queen's eyes begin to turn red, blood seeping into them. She's heard about this. She thought it was just a myth. But the Queen's eyes, in her anger, are beginning to succumb to her magic. Which isn't good.

It's too bad the library door is closed up. Mara was hoping that Queen Raya would actually have a conversation with them. Mara's good at conversation. If she had had the chance to talk to the Queen in a two-sided way, she was sure she'd be able to convince her that her family isn't as bad as Queen Raya seems to think they are, saying they aren't actually royals and all.

But the worst thing imaginable in the twins' situation is happening: the Queen has become enraged, and combined with her fatal magic...well, Mara now has to reconsider the things the rumors about Ida that she never believed say. Her and Penna are very likely in serious danger.

"Get the nails out!" the Queen suddenly screams at them. Then she pauses, takes a breath, and says quieter but in a lower, more sinister voice, "Now."

"Take them out? How?" Mara hears Penna gasp out. She knows Penna is terrified. She's been right all along, and she knows what this queen can do. Right now she's clutching Mara's arm. Mara supposes at this point it's up to her to negotiate something with Queen Raya. She's good at negotiating, but Penna's always been the brave one. And Penna's the one who knows the most about Ida, it seems.

"We'd be happy to take the nails out, we don't want part of ou–the castle boarded up any more than you do, but we have nothing to take them out with. How about we go back up the stairs, find some tools, and–"

"No!" Raya says, again losing her calm. "You have hands. I don't care if they get ripped to shreds! Use them!"

"Al–alright," Mara says. She moves herself toward the door, but before she can take more than a step, a hand grabs her shoulder, gently but firmly.

"Raya, I hardly think this is fair. Your ring isn't behind that door," Mara doesn't recognize the voice, and she doesn't dare turn around–she's walking through a minefield here–but the caramel color of the hand on her shoulder, and the way she says the Queen's name...Mara thinks it's probably Queen Morkana.

"This isn't about my ring!" Queen Raya says, glaring behind Mara.

"Was it ever?" Queen Morkana responds, then, "Never mind, you obviously have your ring back, since you're wearing it, so let's go back to the chambers that the Udle royal family has kindly let us use."

Queen Raya lets out an angry stream of words that Mara doesn't recognize, though she can't tell if she's just angrily screaming sounds or speaking a different language. Probably a different language, she thinks, when Queen Morkana responds calmly with similar words.

Mara watches Queen Raya. She doesn't seem to be calming down in the least bit. Her eyes are pools of deep red, her fists clenched, her magic pulsing around them.. Her white hair falls in mussed swirls to her waist, and her cloak flows behind her, baring her emerald-and-ruby-encrusted, ankle-length skirt and tight, low-collared bodice. It isn't the same gown she was wearing on the tour, but it isn't a gown someone would generally wear to bed, either. She must have changed into it when preparing to bring the two princesses down to the library. Strange. It didn't seem like something she would be able to move fast in, which is what Mara would have worn if she was planning to corral two teen girls to a basement.

"Why don't you two go back to your room and get some rest," Queen Morkana suddenly says, squeezing Mara's shoulder with the hand that still rests on it, then dropping the hand.

Mara and Penna both nod their agreement, and scurry away from the two queens. Queen Raya does nothing to stop them, but the one time Mara looks back at her, she's glaring with her strange, blood-filled eyes, and Mara quickly turns back to looking up the staircase.

Penna collapses onto her and Mara's bed, rubs the soles of her hands against her eyes, then sits up and looks pointedly at Mara.

"We have to tell Mom and Dad. Right now," Penna says.

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea," Mara agrees. "But won't they want to confront Queen Raya or something? Considering how powerful, and mad, she is, I don't want them to do that."

"We can tell them to let her cool down first, maybe? But I think they should just get it over with. The Ideans obviously want something, and I doubt Queen Morkana isn't in on it. She seemed kind enough, but if she's so kind, why would she marry a person like that? Remember how they were talking in a different language to each other? I bet she was only pretending to be calming Queen Raya down, while actually she was telling her that she agrees with her or something. No, Mom and Dad need to do something right now. We don't know what the two queens are doing now that we're not there."

"Aisha just gets mad sometimes," says a small voice.

The twins whip around to find a little girl, probably no older than five or six, standing in the doorway of their room. She has her hand on the doorframe, and is looking up at them with wide, unblinking, eyes.

"Mom's good at calming her down, she doesn't only pretend to," the girl continues, shaking her head vigorously on the word 'doesn't'. "Don't worry, she won't be mad forever. That's what Mommy always says."

"Are you Princess Emeline?" Mara asks.

Penna looks at her sister, frowning. "Who?"

"The queens' daughter," Mara responds. "She wasn't at the arrival with them, or on the tour, so I thought she wasn't here at first. But are you her?" She directs the last part at the little girl.

"Yeah, I'm Emeline," the little girl says, smiling widely. "But don't get mad at my aisha. She doesn't do bad things so much anymore, only sometimes, so it wouldn't be fair for you to tell your parents to kill her."

"Kill her!" Mara utters, startled.

"Yeah, for getting mad," Emeline says. "That's what my mothers would do, I think."

"I thought you said your aisha doesn't do bad things much anymore," Penna says. She's confused, but, unlike Mara, whose mouth is hanging open, she keeps herself together. She opts to talk calmly and clearly despite her racing thoughts. "But if she kills people when they get mad, doesn't that mean she kills people often?"

"Sometimes killing isn't bad," Emeline explains, "But sometimes it is and sometimes my aisha does that."

"When is it good to kill people?" Mara says, her mouth still hanging open in surprise.

"When you need to make an example of them, or when they've done something terrible to you," Emeline says matter of factly. "But it's bad if it's unnecessary or unjuz-unjuztifybly cruel. My mothers don't kill people every time the people get mad, but they said things are different here, so maybe you do."

"No," Penna replies, still staying composed. She crouches down to eye level with the princess. "We don't ever kill people. At least not on purpose."

"That doesn't work," Emeline replies, still talking in that matter-of-fact way. It's beginning to get on Penna's nerves. You don't just matter-of-factly say that people need to die. "Then how would people who try to take over your kingdom learn their lesson?"

"Well, nobody has ever tried to take over our kingdom," Penna says gently. "So we don't need to kill people."