Fic: Friend or Foe (1/3)

[melyanna]

Title: Friend or Foe
Authors: AngelQueen, Miera, and Melyanna
Rating: Older kid-friendly
Summary: Weeks after the coronation, the Wraith lay waste to a village on the Atalanian coast, setting in motion a sequence of events that could prove disastrous to Queen Elizabeth's reign.
Notes: The authors are appropriately contrite about the delay, but this is what happens when three perfectionists get together and take on a project like this. ;)


The sun was rising in the eastern skies with a splendor the likes of which Katherine Heightmeyer had never before seen. The sight of water turned golden by the sun’s first rays was almost enough to make her wish she could rise early and be out at sea by dawn every day for the rest of her life.

Aboard the Queen Margaret, Kate was wrapped up in a warm, woolen cloak that shielded all but her face from the autumn morning’s chill. The sea spray was almost icy, but she rather liked the feeling. Though it did remind her of that time that Laura had woken her by splashing frigid rain water on her face, somehow it was refreshing all the same.

She glanced across the deck and smiled, seeing Laura hovering near the rigging and knowing that her friend was aching to climb up and stand on one of the yardarms. Lord Jack had already caught her by the waist and dragged her down once, with a stern admonition and a question of what her betrothed would do to them all if she went tumbling down. Kate had to wonder if Jack had ever watched Laura move. She had an innate grace, the likes of which Kate had never seen in another woman. There were times when Kate almost believed that if Laura wished to, she could fly.

For now, Laura’s feet were firmly on the deck, but it was obvious that she was thrilled to be there anyway. What surprised Kate more was that Laura was not the most excited one there. That distinction went to Elizabeth.

Three weeks had passed since her Majesty reached her eighteenth birthday and was crowned Queen of Atalan. There was still a deep sadness in her eyes whenever Sir Marshall Sumner was mentioned, but she had emerged from mourning him with an energy and zeal that Kate was quite happy to see. Atalan needed both her strength and her love, after all, and Kate had little doubt that she would deliver both to them.

Just as she sometimes wondered if Laura could master flight, Kate now found herself wondering if it was too much to think that her sovereign could single-handedly defeat the Wraith, eliminate the Goa’uld threat, and forge an alliance between Atalan and Caldora. Her countrymen were finding it difficult to resist her fervor to restore the land to its former glory, and it was well that they were joining in her enthusiasm.

Along the northern coast, the Wraith had been abnormally silent since the coronation. But to the west rumors were spreading of a planned Goa’uld incursion into another territory, a desperate bid to regain the slave labor they had lost when the struggling Jaffa nation, now bordering Atalan, broke free of their masters. And to the south was Caldora, Atalan’s ancient rival, though the two nations had never formally gone to war with each other. Caldora had yielded to the Ori while Atalan had paid a heavy price for resisting, and sixteen years later it was still an insult of the highest order in Atlantis to call someone a Caldoran. Though King Henry had sent a letter to Elizabeth upon her coronation, he had not sent an ambassador to attend, something which was being spoken of as a grave insult to the young monarch. Elizabeth remained hopeful, but relations between the two countries were colder than ever.

But on this bright morning, Kate thought with a smile, all things seemed possible.

At the moment, the queen was following Master Rodney McKay of Iolan, who had designed the Queen Margaret, and asking him all manner of questions concerning the ship’s construction and her crew. McKay spoke to her as one irritated with a guest he could not ignore, but Kate recognized what was going through her friend’s mind. While the shipwright rattled off all manner of information, Elizabeth was calculating what would be required for the rebuilding of her country’s once-proud fleet.

Captain Lorne was with her, as were Lord George and Lord Daniel, so Kate stayed back, suspecting that adding another to the entourage would only make McKay more unhappy. She cast her gaze to the bow of the ship and found a most unlikely pair. The presence of either Lady Catherine Littlefield or Sir John, one of the newest knights in Elizabeth’s service, was to be expected, though Kate would not at first have thought that the two of them would have become friends so easily. But Sir John was a charming man, and Catherine was easy in anyone’s company.

The two were laughing when Kate approached them, and when they noticed her, Catherine said, “Lady Kate, Sir John was just telling me of his time on a merchant ship a few years ago.”

“Which story is this, Sir John?” Kate asked. “Your daring rescue of a young boy, or your crewmates throwing you overboard as a joke?”

Catherine swatted John’s arm affectionately. “You had told me neither of those stories,” she protested.

Kate grinned at the way John’s eyes widened. “It is your own fault,” she said, “for having told the queen in my presence.” Since rescuing Elizabeth from an assassination attempt in the hours just before the coronation, John had become something of a fixture in Atlantis, often seated near the queen at meals and entertaining her with stories of his travels.

John made a face and sighed melodramatically. “Why do I stay in this country?”

Just then, the ship lurched forward with the waves, and a great spray of cold water splashed over them all. Kate stepped behind John almost out of instinct, but that did not keep her dry. While he helped steady Lady Catherine as the ship righted itself, Kate remarked dryly, “Why, for our temperate weather, of course.”

Lady Catherine laughed. “How did you get such a tongue, child?” she asked. “I do believe your mother would be horrified.”

Kate stiffened involuntarily at the mention of her mother, but thankfully, before she could dwell on that topic long, the queen approached, a smile on her face. “My lady,” Kate said, “is there something you need?”

Elizabeth shook her head. “I am merely looking over my ship,” she said, her eyes sparkling.

“You seem pleased, Majesty,” Sir John remarked.

Her smile turned enigmatic as she inhaled the sea air deeply. “I feel free,” she replied.

Kate felt quite certain that had the queen’s cousin, Lord Daniel, been standing near enough, he would have been unnerved by how open Elizabeth was being with the knight. Indeed, in the course of the last three weeks Kate had already begun to hear whispers about the unprecedented favor Elizabeth had bestowed on this stranger. Those who were practical about such matters were at least willing to admit that the young queen had been so sheltered even from the royal court that they had never seen her in a position to grant favor to anyone, outside of the small circle of young ladies who had been her only peers and friends during the regency.

The less charitable, though, were suspicious of the man, knowing little of his background or his intentions. And his intimacy with the young queen had raised more than one rumor of impropriety on Elizabeth’s part. Kate knew the rumors were flatly false and always would be. Elizabeth knew that part of her duty now was to marry and produce an heir, and she was too well aware of that responsibility to endanger her honor, even with a man she seemed to appreciate and admire as much as Sir John.

But Kate’s observations were cut short when the boy perched atop the mainsail cried, “Sail ho!”

She looked up to see where he was pointing and followed the gesture down to the water. Halfway between them and the mainland was a small vessel, having far more difficulty with the choppy seas than they were. They were on the wrong side of the isthmus to be from the village of Athos. “Master McKay,” Elizabeth said, coming around Kate to stand at the railing, “tell the captain to bring these people aboard.” While the shipwright left to follow the queen’s instructions, she asked, “Lord George, were we expecting anyone from the mainland this morning?”

“No, your Majesty,” he replied. His tone suggested what Elizabeth’s had also implied, that this news from the other side of the channel was probably unpleasant.

Elizabeth folded her lips together tightly and they waited. Within a few minutes the boat had come up alongside the Queen Margaret, and three or four of her passengers came aboard. Elizabeth approached them with Kate and the rest following, and immediately the older man in the group bowed to her. “Your Majesty,” he said, “I fear I bring terrible news.”

The queen frowned. “Your name, sir?”

“Druhin,” he replied. “Mayor of Hoff. We were attacked by the Wraith last night.”

Kate looked at Elizabeth, who exhaled and closed her eyes. “I feared as much. How bad is it, Master Druhin?”

He shook his head. “There is not a building left without need of many repairs,” he said. “Two months ago we would have had the time to rebuild, but winter will be upon us soon. We have neither the time nor the resources to build shelter for the elderly and the children before the first freeze. As it is, I fear that enough of our crops were destroyed or stolen that we will not have enough food to sustain us all. We were coming to Atlantis to beg your Grace for assistance.”

“I understand, sir,” she replied, her voice soft but commanding. “Are the survivors still in the village?”

“Yes, milady.”

Elizabeth nodded. “Sir John will take you below,” she said. “You must be weary, and I would have you rest while I discuss this with my advisors and decide how we can best aid you and your people.”

Druhin was visibly relieved. He bowed to her again. “Thank you, your Majesty.”

With a glance, Elizabeth gave Sir John his orders. He nodded to her and directed the men away while the queen turned around to face Lord Daniel and Lord George. By then, Lord Jack had joined them as well. “What manner of assistance can we give them?” she asked quietly.

“The college can be persuaded to supply their lack as far as food goes,” Daniel said. “If all else fails, Langford has had a good year.” As the duke of the province of Langford, one of the largest and most prosperous in the country, Daniel was second in rank only to the queen herself.

Elizabeth shook her head. “I will not put that burden solely on your shoulders,” she replied. “But for now I believe the more pressing concern is what we will do with the refugees, and how we will help them rebuild the village as quickly as possible, that they may return to their homes and resume their lives.”

Jack nodded, crossing his arms over his chest. “We could host them in the palace for a few days,” he offered.

“And in the meantime we speak with Lady Teyla,” Elizabeth continued, “and see if the villages in her province would be able to shelter them until they can go back to Hoff.”

“A few days will give us time to ensure that we can divide them into groups that still keep families together,” Lord George said, “and will give us time to assemble a work force to begin the rebuilding.”

Elizabeth looked to Jack. “Can we spare some part of the army in that endeavor?”

He hesitated, and Kate could see the wariness in his face. Atalan was surrounded by dangers these days, and this latest Wraith attack could not have done much to ease Jack’s mind. “I cannot give you an absolute answer now,” he replied, “but it is possible.”

“Find out,” she ordered. “In the meantime, we have a ship large enough to transport the people of this village to Atlantis. Let us do so without delay.”

As the leader of Atalan’s armies, Jack had seen many wars in his life, too many. He had fought the Goa’uld, witnessed the destruction wreaked on his homeland by the Ori. He had seen the results of Wraith attacks before.

The smoldering ruins of what had been the village of Hoff made him ill. This was not a battle. It was a massacre.

Fires still burned in some of the rubble. Smoke clouded the area, and under the smell of burnt wood was the noxious odor of those who had been unable to escape or purposely left to be consumed by the fires when the Wraith were through with their slaughter. Jack’s stomach turned over in revolt at the stench and he willed himself not to be sick.

Wraith raids usually killed a few people. While they would kidnap villagers on occasion, their goal was always food and supplies. Except here. Last night their goal had been to wipe the village of Hoff from existence. He could think of a number of reasons for this action, none of them boding well for the new queen.

Beside Jack was the young stranger who had caught the queen’s attention these past few weeks. Though Sir John was in service to Elizabeth, he was not officially part of the military. Still, when Jack and Daniel had been organizing who would stay on the ship with the queen and who would venture to the shore to gather the survivors, Jack had summoned the younger man to go with him.

Even then, John had hesitated and looked to Elizabeth silently for her assent before moving.

Now he stood transfixed. His jaw was tight but his eyes were cold. Jack could not guess what he was thinking precisely, but he knew John had been in the Athosian village during a Wraith attack a month ago. Was he looking about and seeing Lady Teyla’s people, crushed and burned, their blood soaked into the earth?

Movement in the trees along the outskirts of the site caught Jack’s eyes. The small number of men and women who had managed by luck or skill to escape the onslaught were hovering in the shadows. Like terrified animals, they seemed afraid to emerge into the bright light.

He could do nothing for the dead except wait for the fires to die and bury the remains. There were living, breathing people who needed help more.

Jack waved to his small group, and pointed them towards the tree line. He turned to tell John to post a guard to ensure no surprises were waiting in the rest of the forest, but the man was no longer there. Jack whipped around and spotted John. He had taken one of the small landing boats and was rowing furiously back toward the ship.

Daniel was attempting to help the queen draw more information from Druhin when footsteps clattered down the hall and Sir John hurried into the room. He had gone to the mainland with Jack to recover the survivors, as Kate, Catherine and Laura were preparing the ship’s hold to accommodate the villagers for the journey to Atlantis. John’s sudden appearance made everyone jump in alarm, but the young man’s eyes focused on the queen and he spoke to her as though no one else was in the room.

“Majesty, you need to come with me.”

Elizabeth blinked for a moment. “Sir John, is something amiss?” It was clear she meant something beyond the Wraith attack.

He shook his head. “Forgive me, Majesty, but I believe you need to see the village yourself.”

Daniel and Captain Lorne both began to protest, fear for Elizabeth’s safety making Daniel somewhat frantic. If any of the Wraith had remained behind, or if this was some sort of trap...

Elizabeth allowed them to speak for a minute before she raised a hand to call for silence. Her gaze locked with John’s and for a long moment there was no movement in the cabin as the two looked at one another. It unsettled Daniel that he could not grasp precisely what was passing between his cousin and this man.

She nodded once. “Master Druhin, we shall proceed to the mainland together. Captain?” Daniel watched as Lorne swallowed any remaining protests and accepted the queen’s decision. Daniel wished there was some way to prevent Elizabeth from seeing whatever catastrophe was on the mainland, but the look in her eyes warned him that this was not the time to test his cousin’s patience.

Years of training were all that kept Lorne from being distracted from his duty by the carnage around him. His sole purpose was to protect the queen’s safety. And there was nothing he could do for the poor bastards of Hoff at this point anyway.

The queen did not venture into the village but stood on the outskirts staring at the rubble with a handkerchief pressed against her mouth. Lorne remained behind her, unmoving, even though his stomach rolled unpleasantly. Lady Laura became violently ill and had to be escorted away by Lady Katherine. They had retreated to the boat, which was being guarded by two of his own men.

Lord Daniel had gone to converse with Lord Jonathan, so the queen was alone save for Lorne and Sir John, who was standing respectfully two steps behind her.

When at length she turned from the ruins, Lorne saw tear tracks on her face, but her expression was one of terrifying rage. Even John seemed to wilt slightly under it.

“I am sorry, Majesty, but I felt... what the Hoffans said did not convey...” he sputtered into silence as the queen raised her head.

“I understand,” she told him quietly. “You should have spoken to Lord Jonathan before returning to the ship, given the circumstances, but you were right.” She glanced over her shoulder and her eyes narrowed. “Otherwise I might not have received this message,” she added cryptically.

Jonas Quinn had come to Atalan two months ago, when the new queen’s coronation was imminent. Though not able to get work in Atlantis itself, many of the villages across the country held smaller celebrations in honor of their new lady’s long-awaited ascension, and that meant work for traveling players and musicians like him.

He had stopped in Hoff on his way towards the great city of Atlantis, intending to at least see the famed towers of the palace for himself. He had been well paid these past several weeks, and had seen and heard much of Atalan. The ancestors had blessed him with a near-perfect memory, and he soaked up the new places eagerly.

He wished at the moment that his mind would be able to erase what he had seen last night. He’d heard tell of the Wraith long before he had ever set foot on Atalan soil, but living through an attack had been beyond terrifying. The enormous warriors had slaughtered anyone who fell in their path, while their leaders cut off escape routes from the village, trapping the Hoffans like cattle.

Meril, who had been hosting Jonas during his stay, had died fighting against two Wraith, in order to open a way out of the village for Jonas to take the man’s wife and two children out into the shelter of the forest.

He sat with them now, huddled in the shadows of the trees, watching as men in uniforms approached the line of survivors standing guard. Jonas had Meril’s small daughter in his lap. She had crawled into his arms as dawn arrived, and he had been humming absently. As he began to sing quietly, others had come, the women and children who had escaped the village, drawing around him in a loose semicircle. Now they watched apprehensively as the men stopped just outside the trees.

A tall, thin man with graying hair, wearing a uniform different from the others, drew nearer. He was speaking to one of the women, Perna, who had organized the frightened survivors once the Wraith had gone. “We will move the women and children to the ship first,” the man said to her. “We can fit six or seven people per boat.”

“Yes, my lord,” Perna said, beckoning to Meril’s wife and the others to get up.

“We are going to take you to Atlantis,” the man called out. “There are row boats at the shore to take you to the ship. Once you reach the city, the physicians will tend to the injured.”

More men, these dressed in black uniforms, approached along with a tall man who seemed familiar to Jonas somehow. Like the lord speaking with Perna, he was not dressed in black, but carried a sword and wore the tunic of a knight of Atalan.

Before Jonas could discern from where he knew the man, a young woman stepped into the small clearing. Several people gasped and Perna curtsied. The rest followed suit. Jonas started, realizing this could only be the young queen.

Queen Elizabeth looked about at the tired, dirty faces of the ragged group. Her own face was grave. “My countrymen,” she said, her voice low, but carrying through the stillness, “I cannot begin to express the pain I feel at this sight. I know it is nothing compared to what you all must be feeling, having lost your homes and your loved ones so brutally.” The queen glanced towards the ruins of the village. “I will not promise you vengeance. I will not promise that you will never face such evil again. But the blood of our people cries out, and I do promise to do all in my power to free our lands from this scourge. You have lived with the terror of the Wraith for far too long, and it is past time that something was done.”

There were murmurs of assent and gratitude. The queen nodded to the tall lord and turned away, escorted by a short, stocky man who must have been part of her personal guard.

Jonas hefted the little girl in his arms, feeling Meril’s wife and son clinging to him on the other side. His entire body ached from being awake all night. He wanted nothing more than something hot to eat and a place to lie down. Perhaps he could rest for a while on the ship.

The dark-haired man was helping organize the children, many of whom were now orphaned. One little girl had been sitting huddled under the shelter of a boulder since before dawn. The man approached her. “Hello, little one. What’s your name?”

Torn between fear and curiosity, she said slowly, “Anna.”

He smiled. “Anna, that’s a pretty name. Do you want to go see the queen’s new ship?”

The little girl nodded and he held out a hand, drawing her from her crouch. When she stumbled, he lifted her in his arms and Jonas saw a dark look pass over the man’s face as he marched towards the shore.

Perhaps when he had rested, Jonas would recall where he had seen this man before.

It was a very good thing that the Queen Margaret had been able to pick up the survivors of Hoff, for a strong wind came from the north that night with a deep cold on its heels. A thin layer of frost coated the island of Atlantis, something Jack noticed almost as soon as he was roused out of bed by a servant. “The queen requests your presence,” the young man said, almost apologetically.

He did not say to the servant that he had held the queen in his arms when she was but two weeks old, when he was new to her father’s service. He found it difficult to imagine that she would request anyone’s presence when the sun was barely up, especially on such a chilly morning.

On most mornings, he and Lord George and Daniel attended the queen in her sitting room, but this morning they were sent to her private audience chamber, not far from the hall where the college met. To Jack’s surprise, Lord Robert Kinsey, Lord Bertram Samuels, and Lord Richard Woolsey were there as well, though the two groups did not mingle. Kinsey and his supporters were smarting a little these days, as it was becoming increasingly apparent that the queen had little use for the former regent, despite his ten years of experience in running the country.

Or pretending to run it, at any rate.

Jack looked at Daniel as though asking him a question; Daniel shrugged. It seemed that Elizabeth had informed no one of the purpose of this conference, though he had a suspicion that it was related to Hoff.

Before anyone could address the subject, the doors swung open and the queen entered, dressed in black with a heavy red mantle over her gown. She looked neither right nor left as she walked, flanked on either side by her ladies-in-waiting and her guards. She simply passed through the group and took her seat in the only chair in the room. Her skin appeared even paler than usual against the black and red, and Jack thought she looked as though she had not slept at all.

“My lords,” she said, without waiting for any of them to address her, “we must act with all haste.”

After a moment of silence from the men, Jack said, “I concur, your Majesty.”

Daniel and George nodded, murmuring their assent, and Jack was somewhat surprised to see Woolsey giving a very small nod of his own. He did not doubt that Elizabeth had noticed. “Lord Robert,” she said, “you were in my place for ten years while the Wraith plundered my people. What would you have done in this case?”

Jack stiffened a little. While he agreed that Kinsey needed to be taken to task for ten years of ineffective defense of the realm, Elizabeth’s chastisement was clumsy and obvious, more likely to breed further resentment and danger for herself.

Kinsey, however, missed not a beat. “I would see first to the survivors, Majesty,” he replied smoothly. “Their safety and well-being should be foremost in our minds.”

“Their well-being I have seen to,” Elizabeth said. “I have had word from Lady Teyla this hour that Athos will be able to shelter them for the winter. But the safety of my subjects is not such a simple issue, and I believe it is a task for which we are ill prepared.”

She glanced at Hammond briefly, who took it as his cue to speak. “We have enough ships to protect Atlantis from any invading force, my lady, and I would be reluctant to remove such forces from the island,” he said. “I believe you were right in interpreting yesterday’s attack as a message to you, a challenge that the Wraith will not stand aside simply because Atalan has a new monarch. We cannot leave this place undefended, lest harm fall to you as well.”

Elizabeth began to shake her head, but a look from Daniel silenced her objection to this. “Very well,” she replied.

“What must be determined is what will be feasible,” Jack said. “I confess I know little of ship building, but your father had a captain named Pendergast who worked in the shipyard as a boy, before he joined the navy. I know of no man of Atalan more intimately acquainted with our own resources, or how best to utilize them to build a great force at sea.”

“Then why was he not here the last eight years?” Kinsey demanded. “Why did he leave the navy to crumble?”

Exercising tremendous restraint, Jack did not say that if the navy had crumbled because of one man, his old friend Lionel was certainly not that man. Instead, he explained to the queen, “He was injured in one of the few sea battles in the Ori war. When they finally had to take his leg, he went back to his family’s lands, along the border with Iolan.” He did not add that the regency had hardly been a time when soldiers and sailors had been encouraged to remain in service. Jack had been holding the army together by sheer strength of will, but the navy had lacked a strong hand to shield it from Kinsey’s predations.

Elizabeth nodded. “That is reasonable,” she said, with a dark glance in Kinsey’s direction. This time, he did not take it so serenely, instead bristling under her obvious disapproval. “Would Pendergast come here to serve as an advisor?” she asked of Jack.

He nodded. “I believe so.”

Daniel folded his arms across his chest and took a step forward. “Your Majesty,” he said, “Lady Teyla’s offer is most generous, but we cannot expect to trespass on her good will forever. We need a plan to settle the Hoffans somewhere permanently, whether they rebuild their village or find a new home.”

“I cannot imagine the Hoffans wishing to return to that place to live day to day with the memories of such a tragedy,” Kinsey interjected. “This will mean negotiating with some of the members of the neighboring territories to yield parts of their land for a new settlement. Convincing the lords to give up any part of their holdings will not be an easy task.”

There was a tell-tale flash in the queen’s eyes, but Lord George cleared his throat. “The mayor of the village indicated to me that his people wished to return to their own land and rebuild. He seemed to feel that refusing to flee was the more positive approach.”

“I know,” the queen replied, and then she shifted directions slightly. “Yesterday, before we knew the extent of the devastation, we discussed the possibility of having some part of the army join with the Hoffans to rebuild. I see no reason why we could not do so now.”

“For the same reason we cannot send the navy out to defend the coast now,” Kinsey said, sounding more and more irritated. “Every man you send away from this palace is a man who cannot defend any of us here.”

“Kinsey, hold your tongue!” Elizabeth suddenly exclaimed, as though scolding a small child. “If you can speak of nothing but yourself and your own safety and profit, I would have you keep silent in my presence.”

Silence did fall, and it seemed for a few moments that no one in the room was breathing. Jack kept his eyes trained on Elizabeth, who seemed immediately to know her mistake. She was tired and frustrated, and the temper she had worked so hard to master as a child had instead mastered her.

George and Daniel both leaned forward as though to say something, but Jack jumped in first, worried that either of them might scold her for her lack of discretion in front of Kinsey. “Majesty, we have Master McKay with us from Iolan for the very task of rebuilding your navy,” he reminded her. “Perhaps you should speak to him. He would know best the requirements of his designs, and when Pendergast arrives he can also advise you on the execution of these plans.”

For a moment she looked relieved that he had saved her, and she nodded. “I thank you for your counsel, my lords,” she said. “You are dismissed.”

Kinsey, Samuels, and Woolsey exited speedily, and Elizabeth did not sit still long enough for the rest of them to speak to her about anything. She bolted out of the room so quickly that her attendants had trouble getting to the door before it had closed.

“Her first mistake,” Daniel said quietly, though he could not mask his disappointment. “She was bound to make it eventually.”

“She has done what we have all wished to do since Kinsey took the regency from you, Daniel,” Jack replied.

“But in front of two of his closest allies,” George said, “this could either go in our favor or badly against.”

Daniel nodded. “One of us should speak to her.”

“I’ll do it,” Jack offered. When the other two looked at him oddly, he asked, “What?”

George just shook his head with a slight smile.

Jack hastened out of the hall, hoping to catch the queen in the corridors, but she had already disappeared. He headed toward the nearest garden, thinking that she had perhaps gone there for a few moments of solitude.

He was right, as it happened, but when he got there he was too late. Her attendants were standing some distance back when he saw her, for Sir John was standing nearby. His first instinct was to interrupt, but he knew Elizabeth well enough to know that if he disturbed her now, he would get a tongue-lashing the like of which he had not experienced since leaving his mother’s house. But Jack could not shake an uneasy feeling whenever he saw the man with the queen, even when he was not pressing the boundaries of propriety with her. Perhaps it was because the queen seemed to yield so easily to his influence, when no one knew very much about him.

Whatever it was, Jack’s uneasiness only increased as he watched John offer Elizabeth his arm and saw the grateful look on the young queen’s face as her knight led her away.

Jonas Quinn found himself in one of the courtyard gardens that seemed nearly as prevalent as the balconies in the palace, looking for things with which to amuse the Hoffan children. The queen had suggested a ballroom as a place where the children could play, as it was too cold to do so outside, but unfortunately there was precious little for them to do aside from run around and look at the friezes on the walls. The fascination with that was long past, so Perna had gone to the queen’s dressmaker to get a few yards of muslin while he collected anything he could find from the outdoors which might be useful for making new toys for the children. The little ones would probably love just making them, while the older ones would benefit from the distraction if nothing else.

And that explained why he had climbed high up into a huge oak tree in the corner of the courtyard, where he could find long, slender branches which could surely be useful for something. The tree had not shed its leaves yet, and the golden foliage was still thick enough that he could barely see the ivy-covered walls across the courtyard.

He could still hear, however, and when he heard footsteps he froze. He might have climbed down from the tree, but he recognized the voices of the pair all too readily. The queen had entered with the knight who had been on the mainland the previous morning, helping gather the children into the landing boats - the man who had seemed so familiar to Jonas.

“You made a mistake,” he said. “That is not the end of the world.”

“My cousin and Lord George spent so long trying to teach me how to rein in my feelings,” she replied. “It was critical, they said, that I not allow my heart to rule over the facts. And the fact now is that Kinsey still holds sway over many in the college of lords, and I cannot function as queen with them about my neck, ready to hang me at any moment.” She huffed out a breath so loudly that Jonas could hear it. “This was not the kind of mistake I could allow right now.”

There was something about how openly she spoke to the knight that made him wonder what exactly this relationship was. Had Queen Elizabeth been a little older, a little more settled into her reign, Jonas might have thought that she had taken a lover. And the almost intimate tone of the knight’s response would only confirm such an idea.

“He needed to be put in his place, my lady. And only you could do it.” It occurred to Jonas that this man had an accent that was out of place anywhere along this northern coast, one he had not heard anywhere in Atalan, for that matter.

“That is not the point, Sir John. I simply don’t know what to do.”

“About what?” Sir John asked. Jonas had not heard the man’s name previously, and now it troubled him. But the pair were only a few feet away from the base of the tree, and Jonas had to stay as still as he could. He did not wish the queen to know that he had heard any part of this conversation.

“Any of this,” she replied, furiously. “I don’t know the first thing about building a navy. What I know of defending a country I know only from theory. I cannot manage the college of lords, and all I know about the Wraith is that this attack on Hoff was a message to me.”

“Then speak to Lord Jonathan,” the knight said. “He is there to help you defend this country. Speak with that Iolanian shipwright. He will be building your navy, so he is the one who will know what it takes to do so. Lord Daniel and Lord George can advise you on how to handle the noblemen. As for the Wraith. . .” He trailed off for a moment. “Do they not know that this will only serve to strengthen your resolve? I have not known you long, my lady, but I have seen enough to know that you will not be deterred by this.”

“I assumed my throne but three weeks ago,” she replied sharply. “They know nothing of me. I can only guess that they fear I will be utterly unlike Kinsey, an expectation I plan on living up to.” Jonas could hear the frustration in her voice. “And yet. . . And yet I know not what I will do. What can be done to stop men who have no decency?”

“You will find a way,” the man said confidently.

“It is not so easy as that.”

“My family had a saying, my lady,” he replied. “‘In discipline, knowledge, and honor lies true strength.’ You and those around you have these in abundance.”

As John’s words reached his ears, Jonas stiffened. That was a turn of phrase he’d read once before - on a coat of arms on display in Caldora. As quietly as he could, he stretched to the right to peer through an opening in the leaves, and he saw John raise the queen’s bare hand, pressing a kiss to the back of it, his eyes never leaving hers. Suddenly Jonas knew he had met the man before: in the royal court of Henry of Caldora. It had been some years since he’d been there, but John had a face and voice and manner that were unmistakable.

The two left the courtyard, and Jonas was only left to wonder what John, son and heir of the Marquis of Sheppard, one of the most powerful Caldoran provinces, was doing in the service of the Queen of Atalan.

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