The Born Queen

"Raiders, I suppose," Neil replied.

Her melancholy little smile broadened, and she made her first move. He saw now it was more than her gaze. There seemed to be something slower about her, dreamier. Not stupid, but calculating and diffident.

"I'll answer all of your questions, Sir Neil," she said. "I've nothing to hide from you anymore."

Neil made his own move mechanically, unable to concentrate on the game.

She tsked softly. "You're better than that," she said.

"I'm distracted."

"As am I. I didn't know I would be so nervous at this meeting. I've thought about it often." She shifted the king a few spaces.

He remembered their kiss months before. It had been soft, inexperienced, tentative, and at the same time frighteningly sincere. It was more real at the moment than anything else in his recollection.

"No," he said, moving another raider. "It's not silly."

"Now you know what tower I was trying to escape from and why I couldn't tell you at the time."

"Yes," Neil replied, watching her capture a double-headed ogre. "And no. Why were you fleeing your own father?"

She studied the board. "It wasn't just my father I was ru

"I'm sorry," Neil said. "I know it was because of me. But I still don't understand why." He sent a lizardish monster down the board.

"I was born in this tower, Sir Neil. I have lived all of my life here except for the few months of freedom in which we met. I will die here, in this place with one window."

"What about the rest of the castle? The city? The countryside?"

"All denied me," she said.

"Then you are a prisoner."

"I suppose so," she said, moving another of the kingsmen to block Neil's weak stratagem.

"Again, why?"

A frown pinched her brow. "I've been watching you, Sir Neil."

He had the sudden feeling of the very sky growing heavy and fragile above them, a huge plate of glass pressing on the tower, crushing them and breaking under its weight.

"At the battle of the waerd," he said. "I thought-"

"I was there," she said. "I saw you fall. I did what I could."

And then he knew.

"You're the Hellrune," he said.

"What a fu

"Wait," Neil said, closing his eyes, trying to put it all together. A

Bri

"Don't look at me like that," Bri

"How long have you been doing this?" he asked.

"Don't," she said. "Please."

"How long?"

"They knew when I was born. They started giving me the drugs when I was two, but I was nine before I was of much use. Move, please."

He did so, a reckless attack that she swiftly crushed.

"And how old are you now?" he asked.

She paused. "That's an unfriendly question," she said. Then, more softly: "I had nothing to do with your father's death, Sir Neil. I have twenty-three winters, but you don't imagine I was seeing for a band of Weihands."

"And yet you know-"

"I have seen it now," she said, "The death of your father, your first hard wounding. As I said, I have been watching you, past and present."

"Nevertheless, in these years you have caused the deaths of many friends," he said. "The fleet at Jeir-"

"Yes, that I was responsible for," she replied. "You understand? I will not lie to you."

"I lost an uncle there."

"How many uncles did you slaughter, Sir Neil? How many children did you leave fatherless? It was war. You ca

"This is hard, Bri

"For me as well."

"And now you're waging war on my queen and country."

"Yes. Because it is my duty. We discussed duty, didn't we? You approve of it if I remember correctly."

"I did not know what your duty was then."

"Really? And would you have advised me differently if you had? Is my duty less relevant when it conflicts with your own?"

He looked at the game he'd just lost, trying to find something to say.

"Or would you have sacrificed yourself and killed me?" she asked very softly.

"No," he managed. "Never that."

"Then you still consider yourself obligated to me."

"I consider myself more than obligated," Neil replied. "But that puts me in an impossible situation."

"I had escaped," she said. "Do you know that? Even after the delay taking you to Paldh, we sailed through the straits of Rusimi. My father would never have found me."

"What happened then?"

She sighed. "You."

"What do you mean?"

"Sir Neil, I found you nearly dead, hurt to the heart by betrayal, yet still steadfast in your duty even to those who betrayed you. That grew in me. It was because of you that I returned. You and a vision."

"A vision?"

"I'll tell you more about that later. May I tell you why I left in the first place?"

"Of course."

"You're beaten in two moves," she said.

"I know. Why did you leave?"

"I have two roles in this life, Sir Neil, two obligations deeper than birth. I enjoy neither of them. One obligation is to be my father's haliuru

"What was that thing?"

"I broke the law of death."

For a moment Neil was speechless. "My queen, Muriele. She believes she did that, with a curse."

"Oh, she did the worst of the damage. But my brother Alharyi was dying, and my father always loved him best. He commanded me to stop his death, and I managed it before understanding what I had really done. Once I knew, I tried to mend the law, and I think I might have done it, because I only stopped him from his rightful death, I didn't bring him back from it. But then Muriele made her curse and brought Robert back, and the law was well and truly breached."

"What about your brother?"

"He went to Vitellio after A

"And willingly returned. Because of me. Because of duty to Hansa."

"Because of duty to the world," she replied. "I am in part responsible for what is coming. I must do what I can to stop it, although I don't think there's much hope."

"Stop what?"

"Your queen, A

"Why? I know your father wants Crotheny."

"Oh, yes, he does," Bri

"Then why?"

"Because if she isn't stopped, A

The forest smelled fresh, of evergreen and rain. Muriele tried to focus on that, on seeing beauty at the end of her life, trying to not have fear be her last feeling.

Everyone dies, she thought. If not now, later. There is no escape.

But that was not what her gut told her. She wanted to beg, and every moment brought it closer to the surface.