Captain of the Queensguard
ASH
Bregda’s eyes light with flame and he chuckles darkly. “Do I know you princess, for I do not remember your face. What is your name?”
The new captain, for all he is worth hits a knee before my sinister kelpie friend and - Goddess help me - begins to cry. “I am Ansel! Son of Gotham. Only a boy when you first left with my father for the wilds. Oh happy I am to see you!”
Oh. Oh shit.
“Son of Gotham?” Bregda hisses. “Your father was a great soldier. How did you recognize me shifted as a lesser fae?”
He smirks at me and Laksha spouts a burst of laughter as I side-eye him. “Lesser fae? Truly?”
Ansel smiles, his blue eyes practically glowing with admiration for his true captain. “As a boy you were my favorite to watch. You could fight any fae no matter how large, no matter how small. Your swordsmanship could not be beat and my father looked up to you greatly. As did I. Your voice remains unshifted as does your manner. And besides, we’ve been hoping for more and more homecomers all day. With the queen’s return, there should be many. Have you… news of my father? Does he yet return?”
Bregda’s eyes lose some of their usual vehemence and he clears his throat. “I dare say I know not what became of him. For he was amongst the fae that volunteered for a very special, very secret mission. And the day they left was the last I saw any of them. Despite the scheduled debriefings promised. I am sorry, for he was a great soldier.”
Ansel frowns toward the ground, then says, “But there is still hope then. For you never saw them again.”
“There is always hope,” Bregda reassures him, meeting my gaze with one that says the opposite. “Tell me though, Ansel. How is it that you became captain of the Queensguard? To be Queensguard one must undergo years of training by the best in our employ and none were left that suited such a job.”
Ansel frowns again, looking sheepish. “I am not a captain. Not really. And none of the soldiers you saw today are soldiers either. We present ourselves as such to ease fear and stay prepared. But none of us truly knows how to fight. None of us are trained warriors.”
“Good Goddess,” I growl. “You mean your queen is protected by simple tree folk?”
“Not simple!” Bregda warns me, then turns toward the boy and says, “For goddess sake, Ansel, get up. I am no royalty. To bow before me is treason.”
“That it is,” says a strong feminine voice from the top of the curved staircase leading up into Goddess knows where.
I gasp at the sight of the vision before me, but only because I cannot believe her nerve. Despite the likeness of the one before me, I know who she is and I know who she is not.
“Goddess damn it, Klyesque!” I snarl, leaping to my feet from the chair I was seated upon. “Where is she? Where is Daphne?”
“Not her, fake her, so mean to pretend to be queen!” Laksha snipes.
“”Yes, Laksha. I agree. Bloody cruel.”
“Lost prince indeed,” Klyesque laughs, shaking off her glamour to hike one teal eyebrow for the heavens. She scans the rest of us with a grimace. “I don’t see a mortal girl. Daphne will be… devastated.” She glares. “Could you not keep it in your pants long enough to fulfill your promise?” she snaps.
“Ha!” I snarl. “This from the one that turned my betrothed from peasant to outlaw? For Goddess sake Klyesque! They’ve declared you both fugitives.”
“Outlaw? Fugitives? For what? Protecting a queen?” Klyesque shouts as she descends the stairs. “You are speaking of Bardo, the council member that placed his filthy darkness all over your woman? Is that what makes me an outlaw? Relieving the realms of that filth?”
“He… did… what?” A cold fury grips my chest and I realize right then, the council may have had their own agenda after all. “I made myself absolutely clear when I left that they were not to touch her. Not for any reason.”
“Well,” Klyesque snipes as she steps upon the landing and I notice for the first time that she is garbed in nothing but a robe. A very feminine robe at that, “it appears they no longer answer to you. Not that they ever did.”
“Klyesque,” I say, hiding a smile, “have you been playing dress up or-”
Her hand snaps up, her finger pointing at my nose. “Don’t you dare say it! They are laundering my armor and they are taking a bloody long time. I refused to wear a gown, so… well-” she hisses “-oh fuck off!”
“Mi’lady,” Bregda’s voice rumbles, smoother than chocolate and I very nearly balk at the sound. “I don’t think we’ve been introduced. My name is Bregda, I am the returned captain of the Queensguard. Might I just say that that is a terribly lovely robe.”
What the fuck?
“You mean you don’t want to eat her?” I quip, amused when I see the infamously cold gatekeeper blushing.
“Oh I can definitely eat her,” he coos. “And I’ll not waste a drop.”
Klyesque is staring at him as if he has two heads and a dick on his shoulder. “And why did I leave my sword behind, again?”
Laksha and I burst into laughter, but all smiles disappear when I hear the voice of an angel at the top of the landing.
“Ash?!”