Shoot the Messenger

*King Maximus Lupus*

Five Days Earlier…

“This is what he was trying to send, Your Majesty,” Geoffrey’s messenger tells me, handing over the letter.

I flick the seal open and read the contents.

Regent Zeke Winters,

I wud like to negoshiate the imediat sirender of Shadowglade so as to stop the bludshed.

Pleese reply soon.

King Geoffrey Brodcraz

I slap my knee and laugh, then cackle. At least he managed to spell his own name correctly. “And I’m sure he asked for you to stay until Regent Zeke Winters pens a response?”

The messenger bows with a snicker of his own. “Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Well then, I think we should let him stew for a bit. Get him really riled up and angry that the other side hasn’t sent a response,” I say. “They’re monsters, after all. Monsters will let their people suffer while dithering over their answer.”

He smirks. “Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Good job bringing this here and not to Shadowmanor Castle. Who knows what might have happened?” I muse. If they sat down together, Geoffrey would surely realize sooner rather than later that I’d lied to him about the nature of Shadowglade’s rulers.

Unfortunately, the boy isn’t a complete idiot. Just uneducated.

“I thought it best to bring his correspondence to you instead of to wherever he sends it,” the messenger replies. “I would not want him to ruin your plans.”

“Yes. He is a bit of a problem. Perhaps I’ll kill him after all.” I drum my fingers on the desktop. “But that will have to wait until I get him on the throne. I need a legitimate ruler to stop any uprising.”

“Your Majesty is very clever,” he says.

As though I need praise from a peon like him. “Go now. You’ve done your duty.”

He bows. “Yes, Your Majesty.” He leaves.

Another messenger comes to my office moments later, breathless. “Your Majesty,” he wheezes. “King Rafe Poe has crossed the southern border.”

I growl, my eyes wide in horror at the news. “Who let that happen?”

He shakes his head. “Your Majesty, he was able to cross with Longclaw forces.”

My blood runs cold. So, they had managed to rope in Longclaw somehow. This did make things a bit trickier.

I see the pinched expression on the messenger’s face, and my eyes narrow. “And?” I prompt.

He swallows. “Your Majesty, the whole southern province of Rallegrad is swearing fealty to King Rafe Poe.”

“Pardon?” I hiss.

“Word of his escape has reached the southern province. They are aiding him because he has released a good number of the men we were counting on for our armies. They are rioting in the streets, Your Majesty, and since the army has already passed the area, we don’t have the forces to stop them. That is what General Horace says.”

I am starting to like this messenger less and less. It doesn’t help that he just happens to be a vampire. We should’ve sent all of them to the front, the bastards. “Summon a fresh messenger. I have a letter to send to General Horace.” A threatening kind of letter is needed, it would seem.

“Yes, Your Majesty,” he says.

When he doesn’t leave my office, I growl, “Now.”

He runs out.

I slouch into my chair, anger churning in my gut. How dare the southern province rebel against me?

I have half a mind to recall the Rallegrad army just long enough to quash this uprising. But my aim is Shadowmanor Castle. I will have it, no matter what these bumpkins in the southern provinces decide to do.

My hand twitches over the paper as I pen a response to General Horace. I’m so angry I can hardly keep my pen from vibrating.

I try to think of the perfect way to respond to Geoffrey. I want him to stop trying to make peace. Perhaps I can stir his anger as well and make him see that mercy is not the way to accomplish anything.

It is the mark of a weak king.

I start to write a letter to tell him so, then a thought occurs to me. I grin to myself.

Several days later, I summon the two messengers I now most dislike in the world and sit them in my office. “I need to send a message to King Geoffrey Brodcraz. One that will make an impression.”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” Geoffrey’s messenger says eagerly. “How can I help?”

I nod to a guard behind him. He grabs the man by the hair and then slits his throat, continuing to move his blade through the flesh until he’s cut his head clean off.

The other messenger looks frightened, but I just wave a hand at him. “You’re not going to be killed. I simply need to send a strong message to King Geoffrey. I think this will do the trick.” I take a nondescript, small, silver dagger I’ve chosen for the occasion and stab a scrap of parchment with the simple word “No” on it to the messenger’s forehead as my guard holds the head steady for me.

“Of course, Your Majesty.” The vampire swallows.

My valet enters my office then with exactly what I’d asked him for. “Tell the women they’ve done a good job on such short notice,” I say to him, examining the Shadowglade messenger’s livery.

With a bow, my valet goes to do just that. I like that about him. He doesn’t hesitate to follow my orders.

“You are going to pretend to be a messenger from Shadowglade,” I inform the messenger. “You will wear this and carry the head to the Rallegrad army’s encampment. Don’t disappoint me. I don’t care if the southern province is rioting. You are going to get through.”

He nods vigorously. “Yes, Your Majesty.”

“If you survive, return here and tell me how King Geoffrey took the news,” I tell him.

“If I survive, Your Majesty?” he squeaks.

“Have you ever heard the phrase ‘shoot the messenger’?” I ask.

He swallows again. “Yes.”

“Let’s just hope Boris is in a forgiving mood.” I smile. “Now, put this on and get going.”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” he replies.

I’m sure he knows his chances of returning are slim, but his chances of living would be zero if he tried to argue with me.

I sit back in my chair once he is gone. I would love to gloat with Riley over my machinations, but she isn’t here. Another thing Shadowglade is going to answer for. What better way to torture Rafe than to torture his people, after all?

“Your Majesty.” Another messenger enters my office.

I can tell it’s bad news. “Yes?” I ask.

“King Rafe Poe escaped over the border,” he says.

“That’s old news,” I snort.

He swallows hard. “That is news I received upon entering the castle. I bring news from the north.”

I groan and scrub my face. “Yes?”

“The king was able to locate his son. He escaped over the border with Prince Drake Poe,” he tells me.

I take several deep breaths then throw a glass paperweight at the fireplace. It shatters. “You’re just realizing this now?!”

“I came to tell you the king had escaped the north with his son. Now, I can only assume he broke through the army forces with the prince,” he continues.

“Really? You don’t say,” I snap. I rub my temples. This is bad news indeed.

He bites his lip, and I have a feeling this is going to get even worse.

“What?” I demand.

“The Luna Queen, Your Majesty,” he says. “I met a spy coming from Longclaw. He is afraid to approach you with this news, Your Majesty, but I consider it my duty.”

“Out with it,” I snarl.

He pales, but to his credit, tells me what he came to say. “The Queen is with child.”

“FUCK!!!” I kick my chair back so hard the wood cracks and begin to pace. “Another heir.”

“It would seem so, Your Majesty,” he says softly.

“Do you have any good news?!” I ask.

He smiles slightly. “Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Tell me before I tear you apart,” I strongly suggest.

“The Luna Queen has returned to Longclaw. That is the condition that’s allowed the Longclaw troops to step in to help Shadowglade. Alpha King Howard Bleiz does not trust Shadowglade. She cannot return to Shadowmanor Castle, ever. After this heir, there will be no others,” he grins.

That’s something, I suppose. “All right. You may go, if you have no other news.”

He bows and leaves.

I pace. I now have even more people I need to kill to leave the Shadowglade throne open for my puppet king.

I go back to my desk and start to write orders to my spies in both Longclaw and Shadowmanor Castle.

Not wanting to incur the wrath of Alpha King Howard, I call for a poison tea to be administered to Ainslee, one that will cause her to lose the baby.

As for Rafe, Zeke, and Drake, I have other plans in mind. Oh, yes. I will make that snake eat its own tail.

I chuckle to myself as I summon two messengers, two of my sneakier ones.

“Make sure these letters get where they need to go,” I say to them as I hand them each a letter. “Burn the letters after they’ve been read. I want there to be no screw-ups.”

They bow. “Yes, Your Majesty.” Each takes a letter.

And I wait for the chaos to unfold.