Crown Princess Leonore, heir to the queendom of Dranath, likes women, obviously. The Queen Mother Carmilla marries her off to Sir Gabriel, obviously.
So when she finds out Sir Gabriel is a woman...
Dranath; queendom of mystique, bordered by jealous...
The journey back to her estate at Irve was uneventful, seaborne and overland alike, but the arrival presented something new. Leonore figured that every time she returned here, something was new.
In the late afternoon, Albert welcomed them with strained enthusiasm, which already gave it away. She let herself be drawn to the sitting room, where he broke the news.
"Terry? Where?"
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Leonore thundered down the halls, heading into the room where Teresa was. Gabriel followed at her heels; she didn't know why, and Gabriel looked like she didn't either.
She swung the door open with urgency, to reveal Terry sleeping in the bed. She hadn't even stirred. The footman posted in the room jolted in her seat at their entrance.
Leonore perched on the edge of the mattress and made eye contact with Gabriel. The knight said, "I'll leave you to it."
Her and the other soldier left, closing the door behind them. When she was alone, she brushed Terry's hair away from her face. Her friend looked worse for wear, and more than a little gaunt. In her slumber, her brow furrowed just the slightest.
Leonore must have disturbed her too much, because she woke up with a start and her eyes swiveled around the room, adjusting to the fading light.
"Leo? Leo, is that you?" She said, and crawled to Leonore.
Heart heaving, she cradled Terry's head as she lay on her lap. "It's me, Terry. What happened to you?"
"Don't leave," she said, through tears.
They cried for a while in each other's arms. Leonore was happy to see her, but she knew that something had befallen her.
Terry never got comfortable nor consoled, but told her story nonetheless. They sat side by side against the headboard, Leonore's arms around her.
"When you left, I went home." Teresa had five brothers, and her father was a general. They held command over the northern bastion in the White Peaks—the Hiercze mountain range, at the chokepoint of the border between Dranath and the Hierstag territories.
"We saw it first, the Hierstag offensive. Came in the early autumn and starved us out. My father had us all stay put until winter, they had no siege weapons and there was nothing to forage. But they kept coming, and they were different."
Terry shivered; Leonore held her closer. "Ceaseless, Leo. They had these berserkers, nothing could stop them. Not hunger, not the encroaching cold, nothing. One of them got caught in the oil and kept besieging, even when his skin was melting off."
"That was the day Father sent me away. His decision had been the wrong one."
"Sending you away?"
"No, the decision to hold position. We were the ones starving in the fortress, and every day the Hierstag got closer to breaking us down. He couldn't flee, there would be nothing to stop them then. At this point he had already been writing to the Queen. The Queen sent provisions, but no men. It didn't last. People were defecting, we were outnumbered."
"That's treason," said Leonore, numb.
"Fealty to the House of Thorn doesn't mean the same to everyone, Leo. Some of those soldiers have families in the Hiercze. Why would they stay on the losing side when they could join the enemy and have a chance?" There were independent tribes in the Hiercze mountains, of mixed lineage. Sometimes they would seek Dranasti citizenship, primarily through the army.
"Father had us all leave, to save us. All my brothers stayed to fight. I would have, too. I'm not brave, I can't fight, but I would have stayed."
"What changed? Why are you here?"
"Nothing changed. They put me in a crate and sent me out with the last messenger to the Queen City. My brothers, they said, You can die if you want but we don't want to see it happen."
Terry fell silent, and Leonore mulled over the probable fact that her entire family died in the siege. She held her tighter.
"I'm here, you're safe."
"But we're not." Before Leonore could say anything, Terry continued her story. "I made it to the Queen City. Along with the messenger, we told Her Majesty about what happened. She thanked me for my family's sacrifice, Leo."
That was typical Queen Carmilla, which Leonore nearly said. Terry spoke, "I almost got executed."
"What? Why?"
"Well, I shook her. After she said it."
"You shook my mother?"
"I took her by the shoulders, and I shook the Queen, and the guards swarmed in on me."
Leonore shook her head, in wistful disapproval, though she smiled. "She had it coming."
"I couldn't stop myself. I asked her why she sent no men, why she left everyone in the bastion to die. I was ready to die. I thought I'd find my peace in dying at her feet. That the blood spilled in the north would flow all the way to the royal carpets."
Terry put her head on Leonore's shoulder. "She stopped her guards. She held me and took me away to her chambers. I thought I'd get the cord by then, but instead she told me why."
"She said she and my father had been in correspondence. That they could send men to the bastion, and that they could send men to evacuate the northern cities, but not both at the same time in any effective way. We were outnumbered, and he decided to stay. And carry the weight. Everyone blamed him, nobody said it, but everyone blamed him." Terry fell quiet, hands knuckled in the blankets. "I did."
Just then came a knock on the door, and in went Gabriel bearing a tray of food. She said, with eyes averted, "In case you were hungry."
The knight left as quickly as she came, and Terry reached for water. "What about you, Leo? How are you and Sir Gabriel?"
"We're fine," said Leonore, glossing over the whole thing. "Continue your story."
"I was welcome to stay, but there was nothing for me there. Especially that Frank didn't want to go with me."
"Frank's still there?"
"Yes, she stayed tending to the Queen since you left. The Queen gave me a task, she knew I needed it. To come to you and tell you what's been happening."
"Why didn't she write?"
"Your location is a secret, Leonore. She didn't want to risk even the smallest danger of letters being traced. And she figured you wouldn't believe it if it was just a letter."
The sound of Kabran's self-satisfied laughter rang in Leonore's ears. She shook her head, just as Terry kept going.
"She told me where you were. When I left, they were amassing knights and soldiers to put up a stand at the Queen City."
That's a question answered for Gabriel; Leonore filed it away for later.
"That's all I know. The Hierstag have made it to the Queen City, but I don't know what happened after." Terry tore into the bread. "And he's looking for you."
Helping herself to the loaf and putting a piece into her mouth, Leonore said, "Who?"
