The Fire Queen

Chapter 12

The Overseer turned around and walked back down the tunnel. "I'll be waiting for you at the palace," he'd said before leaving. Behind me the phoenix and her chicks were still trembling. I understood their fear; unlike me they were aware that they were in the presence of a divine being.

"You don't have to be afraid of him," I walked over to Myra and said to her. Myra was the name that I had decided to give to the phoenix, "I want you all to wait here for me, I'll come back for you soon."

I left the mine and went back outside with only one thought on my mind: Anbu. Before I spent any time thinking about what the Overseer had said to me I needed to know if Anbu was okay.

"Anbu!" I called out once I was outside. I waited a few moments for Anbu to respond in some way, but he didn't.

"Anbu!" I called again, and again I got no response.

I began fearing the worst when, without announcing his arrival, Anbu ran up the side pass of the mountain. I got down on one knee to embrace him and was almost knocked over by him when he jumped into me. I was so happy to see that Anbu was okay that I couldn't stop myself from being overwhelmed by my emotions.

"Good boy, good boy," I said to him again and again, burying my tear streaked face in his coat.

We returned to the village and without delay I set about addressing the things that I needed to get in order. First I visited the beastmaster to show him the symbol on the gem stone that was on the necklace that he'd given me when I'd bought the binding stone which was proof that I had successfully formed a contract with the phoenix. I told him that the phoenix had chicks and that I needed to be able to transport them somehow. After asking me to name my price for the chicks, an offer I refused, he came up with the idea of a large basket that the phoenix could carry in its talons. He also advised me to get a saddle and a harness for riding the phoenix. He said that he could arrange both for a fee and I told him to get to work.

Next I returned to the administration building and showed the necklace to the official that I had dealt with earlier. I told him that I was no longer interested in citizenship and asked if he could arrange for me to have a meeting with the mayor. The mayor's office was in the same building and the official took me straight to him. He opened the door to the mayor's office, told him that the phoenix had been dealt with and that the person responsible for dealing with it wished to speak with him. The mayor was a portly man with a bald pate and a handlebar moustache. He greeted me effusively and welcomed me into his office.

"I can't tell you how grateful to you we are for what you've done; things have been slow in this town ever since activity at the mine stopped. Whatever it is that you want, tell me and I'll make sure to arrange it for you."

"I'd like you to provide the refugees with horses, wagons and provisions so that they can return home."

"Why would they want to go home?"

"The king is dead; the Overseer has chosen a new ruler, a new dawn is about to dawn for the kingdom."

"Are you..."

"Just arrange for the wagons and provisions," I said and left.

The news about me capturing the phoenix spread through the town fast, as did the rumor that I was the new Aseronian queen. These stories reached the refugees that were living on the outskirts of the town and that made it easy for me to convince them to return home. The mayor came through with the horses, wagons and provisions and when we presented them to the refugees I addressed them and reassured them by explaining to them the situation in the kingdom.

"You may all return to your homes in the kingdom. The king is dead, a new ruler has been chosen and soon the queen will be deposed and the nobles dealt with. There are enough provisions here to last you for the entire journey; the mayor has generously provided these wagons and provisions, you are to repay his generosity by leaving as soon as possible."

"Is it true...what we've heard, that you are the new queen?" One of the refugees stepped forward and asked me with an expression of enormous expectation on his face.

"By this time tomorrow you are all to be gone from here, is that clear?"

"Yes," the refugee answered.

"Once again I am in your debt," the mayor said to me when we were back in the town, "is there anything that I can do for you to repay you for getting rid of the refugees?"

"I'm grateful enough to you for what you've done in providing those wagons and provisions; there is no need for you to feel in debt to me."

The mayor returned to his office and I returned to the inn. It was time for my daily visit to the mountain to see Myra and the chicks, and today was special, today was the day that I was taking Lucy to see them for the first time. Anbu had been coming with me every day to see them and he enjoyed playing with the chicks every time we went to see them.

The time for us to travel to the capital city was fast approaching. Cyrus, the beastmaster, was nearly done with the items I'd asked him to make; once he was done it would be time to leave. Whether I was ready to assume the throne I wasn't sure. Since my conversation with the Overseer in the mountain I had been spending my time at the inn making notes of as much as I could remember from what I had read in my father's books and diaries. Those books contained a treasure trove of information about the makeup of the king's court, the responsibilities of the members, the personnel and systems through which the king's directives were carried out, the details of the kingdom's relationships with its neighboring kingdoms and details about those kingdoms' leaders. I sat in my room at the inn and wrote feverishly, doing my best to get as much of it as possible down on paper. There had been dozens of those books; all of them were burned during the massacre of the settlement.

By writing down only the most essential aspects of what I could recall I was able to fill two notebooks. I paid particular attention to recalling the names of the court officials that had been the most helpful to the king. My intention when I returned to the palace was to locate them wherever they were and bring them back to the palace to help me get to grips immediately with the issues plaguing the kingdom. There were four officials that were of the greatest interest to me: Stanis Hentleman, the hand of the king; Uther Wenman, commander of the paladins, the highest rank in the army; Alfred Winthrup, royal treasurer; and Boris Graff, chief ambassador. All four men had survived the first round of purges that had seen us sent to the Northlands but they had doubtless since been removed from the queen's circle of advisers.