by Iona Laing.

Chapter Thirteen.

That afternoon the Queen entered the palace infirmary. Glancing round she saw her nieces Ayne and Urna both fussing around a small figure asleep in one of the beds. Sitting alongside the bed was an older, grey-haired woman, who was holding the hand of the prone figure, this woman also appeared to be asleep.

The Princess Urna approached the Queen.

“Hello Aunt, I take it you have come in to see Jena?” she whispered. “And our current new recruit, Rusan?”

“Yes Urna, but I see both are asleep, please, don’t wake them on my account. How is Jena?”

“Not good Aunt, not good at all, it’s almost like whilst she was struggling to survive at the hands of her captors, her will to live knew no bounds, now? Well, now that she feels some degree of safety, well, she feels she’s relatively safe, so it is as if her survival instincts have reached the end of their tether and her body has relaxed, and now, well now her injuries and infections are taking hold and gaining the upper hand! We are doing what we can, but she’s touch and go at the moment and I really fear for her survival. She doesn’t want to eat, we can hardly get her to drink much either!”

It was at this point that Rusan woke with a start, as she became aware of a new visitor to the infirmary. She stood straightening her simple shepherdess dress around her and walked to the foot of the bed occupied by Jena, and looked at either of the two princesses to introduce her, although she had a very good idea who this new woman was.

The Princess Ayne nodded to her aunt, “Your Majesty, may I introduce Rusan, whom I am sure you have already heard so much about, Rusan, may I present Her Majesty, the Queen Adred!”

Rusan did her best to perform a curtsy, something she’d never thought she’d have to do in her life, let alone to the Queen in person.

“Your Majesty, I am deeply honoured!”

“Rise Rusan, relax please. I have heard so much about you from my daughter, my nieces and my senior officials! We must have a chat a little later, especially about the difficulties in raising strong willed daughters!”

They both exchanged rueful smiles!

“However, I take it this is the child Jena?”

“Yes your Majesty, I would indeed be deeply honoured to talk with you later! But this is indeed our Jena, a fragile waif! Such an abused wee soul! She has suffered so much in her short, hard life, and now, just when she’s within touching distance of some sort of normality, her body is giving in to all the abuse and torment she has suffered. She’s riven with nightmares, things no-one should have to experience, I am not sure what is going to happen to her, she, she’s losing her spark! It seems she’s overwhelmed now! She won’t eat or even drink much; she’s almost giving up, or her mind has reached breaking point and is shutting down, I don’t know what a poor shepherdess like me can do, I have little education and have learned what I know purely through experience of life, but Jena seems to need me, and I will not let her down, and I will do all in my power, such that it is, to help her heal, but your Majesty, she’s a long tough fight in front of her!”

The Queen put her hand on Rusan’s shoulder.

“Book learning and practical training count for part of a person’s education, but we both know that without common sense, all a person’s knowledge can be wasted. You strike me as a really well grounded woman, someone who is probably the most important element in Jena’s ongoing treatment and recovery at the moment. She obviously feels a deep connection with you from what I have been told, and I witnessed it myself just as you were both asleep holding hands, you are her anchor in this current storm, it’s up to my nieces to provide medical assistance to help her recover!”

Just then Jena stirred, it seemed she’d missed her connection to Rusan.

“Rusan! . . . Rusan, . . . . where are you?” her hand waving around in the air.

Rusan rushed back to the young woman’s side.

“It’s okay Jena, I’m here, I’m here, shush now, here’s my hand sweetheart, see there’s nothing to be afraid of, you just need to get better. However, Jena, you have a very, very important visitor!”

“Oh Rusan, I am sore, . . . . .I hurt, and I am so, . . . . so very tired!”

“I know Jena, I know, but I am here with you like I said I would be, but the Queen of Granaria has come to see you, in person, she doesn’t do that to just anybody, see, she’s stood by the foot of your bed!”

Jena’s eyes roamed around the room before she focused on the figure stood next to the Princesses Ayne and Urna.

“I am sorry . . . your Majesty, . . . but it seems . . I . . . I cannot stand in your presence . . . at the moment, . . . . I am a little tired!”

The Queen sat in the chair on the opposite side of the bed to that occupied by Rusan and looked at this small individual, bruises evident on her face and arms along with various cuts and scratches.

“Well young lady, you have been through some rough times haven’t you?” She said, taking Jena’s other hand. “But as Rusan says, you are safe here, I promise you that! You just need to get better, then you and I can have a long chat about your life, life in Masonville and how you may be able to assist us to help others! Others who like you were sentenced to such abject misery, I am sure you want to help others don’t you?”

“Yes, . . yes your Majesty, I would really like to help others like me but, what can I do?”

Well, young Jena, first I need you to show that determination you had to survive what you were subjected to, I need you to show me that inner spark you have, that shear cussedness that nothing nor anyone is going to stop you from getting better, we all know you have it, and you need it now more than ever to get better. Rusan is here by your side, and will it be acceptable if I visit you again tomorrow?”

Jena lay there speechless, then all she could do was to nod her head.

“Good!” responded the Queen. “I expect you to do exactly as you are told, that’s a Royal command mind! “She smiled at Jena. “You hear me? You are to eat, even though you may not feel like it, but you need to fuel your body, and that means eating but even more importantly, drinking, do you hear me young lady, you need to drink lots to help flush out all the nasty bugs that are invading your body?”

Jena softly nods, “Yes, your Majesty, . . . I will try, . . . I promise!”

“That’s good Jena, now if you wake up and fancy something special to eat or drink, no matter what time of the night or day, you ask and someone will fetch it from the kitchens for you. Even if you want, hmm, let’s see, I know, a slice of drizzly cake, and a glass of warm milk at two in the morning, ask, okay young lady? You understand me, I’m the Queen, and I can get a bit bossy!” Smiled the Queen down at Jena.

“Yes your Majesty, I promise to try, but, err, your Majesty, can I ask a question please?”

The Queen stroked Jena’s cheek.

“Of course Jena”

“Erm, I just wondered, what is drizzly cake?”

“Oh dear me, how stupid of me, okay Jena, I will get you and Rusan a slice each of drizzly cake and a glass of milk brought up immediately, just try and keep Ayne or Urna from eating too much of it themselves!” With that the Queen winked at Jena and kissed her forehead. Drizzly cake is a soft sweet cake that has lots of different colours and flavours of toppings spread over the top here. The kitchens here make the best drizzly cake I have ever tasted, I am sure you will love it, so I expect you to tell me what you think of it when I see you tomorrow.

“Now, I’ll come back to see you tomorrow, but I expect you to be doing much better, don’t forget, eat something and drink lots, what sort of command is that?”

“A Royal Command your Majesty, I . . will . . try, . . yes your Majesty I, . . will, . . try!” replied Jena yawning, “Excuse me your . . . Majesty, . . . I . . . am tired!”

Queen Adred just smiled at their patient, then brushed some hair from the girls brow, kissed her forehead again and then she rose and walked off talking to Rusan, Ayne and Urna before leaving the infirmary to pay a quick visit to the loading dock to inspect the artifact which was being held under close guard.

Rusan returned to her chair alongside Jena, who settled down once she had her guardian’s hand in hers. Some twenty munts later, both Jena and Rusan sampled drizzly cake for the first time in their lives, neither could stop the smiles that were glued to their faces, even if the younger of the two was asleep before she’s had the chance to sample too much of this incredible delight. She did however drink most of the milk before passing out which was a good start.

Chapter Fourteen.

Two days later the ambassador of Masonville sent a message to the Court of the Queen seeking an audience at her Majesties earliest convenience. In due course a deputation was admitted to the throne room to await the arrival of the Queen.

In the main receiving room doors swung open and a herald banged his mace on the floor.

“All stand! All observe Her Royal Majesty Queen Adred the Fourth, Queen of Granaria, all observe The Duchess Pellinore, Prime Minister of Granaria, all who seek audience please make themselves known to Her Majesties Chamberlain!” thundered Chamberlain Glessa.

A small broad-shouldered man approached the Queen and made a marked, obsequious bow to the Queen.

“Your Majesty, may I introduce myself as the new Ambassador to your court, I have the honour to represent the country of Masonville, and its glorious leader President Signi. I am Major-General Clercq, at your service!” and again he made a deep bow towards the Queen.

“Welcome to my court and to my country Major-General, but I am confused, where is the gentleman I spoke to a few days ago, Ambassador Marchal, I was under the impression he was your nation's representative!?” asked the Queen.

“I am afraid Ambassador Marchal proved to us he was not up to the task entrusted to him, so he has returned to Masonville to ahh, to receive further, err, education, yes, further education!” the new Ambassador said with a sinister smile. “I assure your Highness, Ambassador Marchal will not be a further embarrassment to either of our nations, yours nor mine! Allow me to present my credentials.” With this he handed a scroll over to the Chamberlain who, in turn, handed them over to the Prime Minister who then handed them on to the Queen who quickly perused the document before handing it back.

“Well Ambassador, welcome to Granaria, now sir, do you have any further business for consideration now you have presented your credentials for our approval?”

“Well, your Majesty!” The ambassador smiled, “I wonder if you have determined yet, where our property that inadvertently landed within your realm resides? We, that is the nation of Masonville! We humbly seek the return of our property! It consists of various scientific experiments”

“Well Ambassador Clercq, I am unaware of any property belonging to Masonville landing within our realm! Do you know of anything Prime Minister?” asked the Queen as she turned to her sister.

Pellinore answered “No your Majesty, I have not heard anything as to property of any nature belonging to Masonville landing within your realm, well, nothing, apart from various items of military hardware that are still up in the foothills above Riventon that is, perhaps it is that to which the Ambassador refers?”

“Of course, how forgetful of me! I assume you wish to recover the debris along with the bodies of your armed forces personnel! Individuals who made an armed incursion into our realm, murdering EIGHT of MY subjects in the process! PERHAPS the Ambassador wishes to explain to MY satisfaction! WHAT was the intent of these individuals? WHO sent them into my nation’s territory? And just WHO authorised the use of such unnecessary force? CARE YOU TO EXPLAIN, CAN you explain that Ambassador?” said the Queen in a level but increasingly steely voice.

“I assure your Majesty, that the incursion was purely an oversight due to an overzealous local commander, an incident, we of the nation of Masonville and obviously our leader, President Signi, deeply regret and assure you it won’t happen again, we have, removed, those responsible, and I am authorised to offer full compensation to the families who were wronged, and in such a careless manner!” answered the Ambassador.

“Well sir, YOU WILL indeed recompense those affected, and as much as any financial settlement will do little to ease their grief, I tell you now Ambassador Clercq, that any financial recompense does not absolve those of Masonville who authorised these attacks from blame and we will do all in our power to see those behind these cowardly attacks brought to justice, do I make myself clear Mr. Ambassador?”

He mutely nodded.

“So, you are telling me that all this death and destruction was due to an overzealous local commander?”

He Nodded once more, the colour rising in his cheeks.

“A local commander by the name of General Laffe, was not the general your immediate superior at one point?”

This time he made no acknowledgement of any description, but all the colour drained from his face.

“I have asked you several direct questions Mr. Ambassador, . . . YOU WILL ANSWER ME WITH THE RESPECT DUE TO MY RANK AND TITLE WITHIN THIS SOVERIEGN NATION OF GRANARIA SIR, YOU COME HERE WITH YOUR FRANKLY REPETITIVE AND BORING DEMANDS, SO, . . Mr Ambassador, . . and for how long you remain welcome here in my court is growing more debatable by the minute, SO, DO I NEED TO REPEAT MY QUESTIONS? AND JUST TO CLARIFY THE POSITION WITH REGARDS TO GENERAL LAFFE, YOU WILL FIND IT DIFFICULT TO REMOVE HIM FROM HIS CURRENT POSITION, AS HIS MORTAL REMAINS ARE AMONGST THOSE SPREAD ALL OVER THE HILLS ABOVE RIVENTON!

“My apologies your Majesty, I will need to pass your comments to my superiors!”

“See that you do sir! Now, do you wish us to repatriate the bodies of your citizens?”

“No your Majesty, please dispose of the remains as your authorities see fit.” He answered off handedly.

“Well sir, we SHALL see to their disposal, and we will do so with MORE care and consideration than it seems their own country seems to see fit!” retorted an annoyed Queen as she rose to her feet and moved to leave the throne room.

“BUT your Majesty! A moment more of your time if you please, we consider those individuals as traitors to Masonville, and as such we owe them no further responsibly! Although, we will, of course recompense your nation, as it sees fit to deal with them!” the Ambassador replied almost babbling, “But it isn’t that particular property of ours you mentioned that we are specifically interested in, I assume you are aware of that incident in the skies above Masonville, some five days ago?” asked Ambassador Clercq.

“Naturally we observed the phenomenon, we assumed it to be the explosion of a meteorite or some other such item, or some aspect of weather behaviour, we have not witnessed before!”

“Well Majesty, I can say it was an experiment of ours, the detritus of which was never intended to land within your territories. We wondered if the convoy that returned in the early morning, the other day, did in fact bear some of our property?”

“WELL Ambassador, I can confirm that the vehicles to which you refer, were part of an exercise of ours, an expedition that came under attack by your forces! BUT, then I expect you KNEW that already did you not? However, I can assure you, and the leaders of Masonville, that none of the vehicles carried any property of yours, of any description! Other items of a military nature, along with various pieces of hardware, well, we left all that for recovery at some later date!” replied an annoyed Queen “Along with the bodies of your loyal subjects, individuals that you have now so glibly abandoned to our mercies!”

“I am sorry to labour the point your Majesty, but perhaps some of our property was “inadvertently” collected as your expedition returned to base, I am authorised to offer our expertise from within the embassy to help identify any of our items, if that would help at all!” offered the Ambassador.

“YOUR EXPERTISE you say? Well sir, I take it that it was your EXPERTISE that led to our forces to come under attack within sight of the palace here, within our own capital, likely, once again due to your EXPERTISE, perhaps you could explain THAT to my satisfaction!” demanded the Queen.

“I assure your Majesty, that Masonville had no direct involvement in any perceived attack on your convoy! Of course, we cannot be held responsible for any freelance undertakings of individuals, of possible Masonville origin, particularly within your capital!”

“PERCIEVED! PERCEIVED!! Well sir, I suggest you join us for the military funeral this afternoon, the funeral of our loyal trooper, a young lady murdered by a PERCEIVED SNIPER, THE BODY OF WHICH LIES IN OUR MORGUE ALONG WITH TWO OTHER BODIES OF YOUR TROOPS! A SNIPER WE FORCIBLY REMOVED FROM A BUILDING CONTROLLED BY A MASONVILLE INDIVIDUAL, I see SIR, you have about the same level of comprehension your predecessor displayed, although you couch your language in a slightly more civil tone, but let me say this once again, JUST so we understand each other fully, WE DO NOT, repeat, DO NOT, have any of the property as you call it, that belongs to Masonville, of Masonville or from Masonville, OTHER THAN THAT PREVIOUSLY SPEIFIED, now sir, are YOU clear, or do I need to send a communication to your masters asking for YET another replacement Ambassador, because sir, you are sorely trying my patience?”

“Yes, your Majesty, forgive my impertinence, I meant no insult, I shall, with your permission, retire to my embassy and seek further guidance from my superiors!” replied a clearly annoyed Ambassador.

“Yes!” replied the Queen, “You do that, I think it best you retire forthwith, I assume both of us have better things to do than to keep repeating ourselves! Master at Arms, escort these gentlemen from my throne room” so saying, the Queen swept from the room leaving the representatives of Masonville to stalk from the palace.

Once in the corridor, the Queen stopped and quietly said to Pellinore, “Come on, I enjoyed wiping the smile off that supercilious man’s face, I need a cup of tea, let’s go and see how Jena is this morning, hopefully she will be able to tell us more about herself and what is happening within Masonville at the moment, I really want to know what is going on, from a grass roots source, rather than these jumped up Jackanapes!” saying this they swept upstairs to see how their guest was doing.

Chapter Fifteen.

As Queen Adred and Prime Minister Pellinore were climbing the stairs, the Princess’s Aryn, Caryn and Ayne were rushing down the stairs is a state of high excitement.

“How did your audience with the Masonville Ambassador go Mother?” asked Caryn who was the first of the three youngsters down the stairs.

“Oh, about as well as you’d expect, glad to see you are back Caryn, how did the funeral go?”

Caryn’s face fell a little. “About as well as you’d expect Mother, the fact that I was there was much appreciated, as was Ayleah’s presence! We were both accorded special status, as were all of our escort truth be told. There is a great deal of anger within Riventon and the surrounding communities! Let’s just say that they would dearly love to get their hands on anyone from Masonville at the moment, especially such arrogant representatives as the Ambassador!”

“Anyway, Mother, we’ve just been summoned to the loading dock, there’s been some developments with the artifact, so we’re just heading down to discover what is going on! Do you want to come and look for yourself? Or shall we report our findings to you later?” asked Aryn.

“I think I want to see for myself what all the excitement is about! Those Masonville idiots have me all annoyed and I want to see what has brought our world to the brink of yet another conflict, then, I really need to speak to our friend Jena, to get a grip on the grass roots feelings within Masonville.” replied the Queen.

Five munts later the five women entered the loading dock area of the palace. The artifact was now stood upright on what appeared to be its base. A wooden scaffolding encircled the item, with several technicians busy examining the markings and other panels and dents contained within the structure. The most obvious being the bright glowing green outline of a hand.

Chief Engineer Drows approached the royal group and spoke directly to the Queen.

“Your Majesty Thank you for coming so promptly! As you can see, we now have the artifact in its correct orientation or we think it’s proper alignment and we’ve screened it off from the rest of the loading dock. Plus, we’ve restricted access to essential personnel only. However, about fifteen munts ago, the logo near what appears to be an access panel started glowing with a red light, this changed to a flashing amber hue and has just recently changed to the steady green image you can see now. We didn’t do anything further and we are awaiting your instructions!”

“Thanks Chief!” said the Queen as she turned to Ayne.

“I think, if you have your safety equipment to hand Ayne, it would be best if you approach the artifact, to see what we have going on here!”

“Yes Aunt, I have all my equipment with me ready for just such an eventuality, so if you’ll all step back a little bit, the Chief and I will see if we gain access and finally determine what exactly we are dealing with here!”

Both the Chief and Ayne donned their safety masks and gloves before climbing the scaffold to approach the green emblem. Chief placed her gloved hand over the green outline, but nothing happened.

The access lever would still not budge, even an inch.

After what was an obviously heated discussion up on the scaffold, Ayne was observed to remove the glove on her right hand before placing her hand over the illuminated emblem. No sooner had she done this than it started to flash and with an imperceptible hiss, a panel slid inwards an inch or two before disappearing upwards with a clunk, into the artifact.

Princess Ayne replaced her glove before carefully stepping inside the now open doorway and disappeared from view, pursued moments later by Chief Drows.

Moments later Ayne reappeared in the doorway, removing her mask as she did so, waving the other’s forwards.

“We have two survivors in here! We need stretchers immediately and they need to be up in the infirmary as quickly as possible!”

With that, Ayne disappeared back into the interior, whilst several of her medical staff ran forward, two bearing stretchers.

A few munts later both stretcher cases were carefully extricated and disappeared into the depths of the palace. Signalling the Queen and her entourage forward Ayne handed them over to the care of Chief Drows before she herself rushed into the Palace to follow the stretcher cases and her sister Urna.

“Well, Chief, what have you discovered so far?” asked the Queen.

“Well your Majesty, as you can see there are seats for up to four individuals, even though we only found the two occupants. There appear to be door controls over there, and this must be a control desk of some description, but I have no idea what any of it means or how it works, as of yet! There appears to be some sort of internal power supply, hear that hum? Plus, the control desk is illuminated as well as the hidden lights up near the ceiling! It’s going to take us some time to decipher, what it all means! It does seem that parts of this machine are damaged, especially by fire, as you can see by the smoke streaks up the inside of that side wall. This is going to be quite a conundrum, at least until our two guests wake up and speak to us!”

“Well, at least we have a slightly better idea of what we are dealing with than we did ten munts ago!” replied the Queen “I think we’ll leave you to your investigations, in the meantime, I think we’ll head off up to the infirmary and see how our latest guests are doing! But I don’t need to reiterate Chief, that this is a highly restricted area, after your initial examination, and lets not experiment with this technology, as it seems so very different to our own. It will probably be a good idea to reseal the access panel until our friends just taken to the infirmary can provide us with more detailed information.”

“Yes your Majesty, I’ll see if I can get a few photographs and leave things at that for the time being, no matter how tempting it is to see what some of the controls do, last thing we need is this canister getting out of control, I don’t want to cause further problems than those we already face! I’ll see if I can reseal the hatch for the time being, so that everything will be as those two individuals left things before landing up in the hills!”

“Thanks chief, please bring the photographs to my quarters as soon as you can, if I am not there we’ll more than likely be up in the infirmary!”

“Of course your Majesty, I hope I’ll to see you shortly!”

With that Queen Adred, Prime Minister Pellinore and the Princesses Aryn and Caryn went back into the palace, heading for the infirmary. This day was proving to be even more interesting than any of them expected first thing this morning.