Heart of a Kingdom Read online

  “What is wrong with you?” screamed Leia, her dark curls bouncing around as she gestured wildly. The only woman in the history of the Royal Knights, she was barely five feet tall, and a fierce warrior who had been friends with Libby since they were teenagers. It didn’t take much for her to get fired up, and since most men didn’t expect the cute tiny woman to be a berserker on the battlefield, she always won. Geoffrey routinely warned new knights to underestimate her at their peril. She should have been a member of the LIWs, but had a Scrappy Doo complex that forced her to compete with men on a level playing field. If she were forced to be truthful about it, she loved it. It was fun.

  Geoffrey motioned for her to stop before she got started and ran through several responses in his head before speaking. She sat back down muttering under her breath, daggers shooting from her eyes.

  “John, we sometimes forget that you’re still new. I appreciate your loyalty to the Queen in spite of the fact you don’t fully understand the seriousness of the situation.”

  Geoffrey raised his hand to cut off John’s defensive rebuttal.

  “By all rights, if the Queen fails, we will probably all die soon.”

  John looked bewildered. The Queen? What was it that she might fail at? His mind was racing. He was regretting not paying more attention to the Knighthood 101 studying that had been thrown at him when he’d accepted her offer.

  Geoffrey continued. “Out in the Normal world, have you heard marriage described as two hearts become one?”

  John nodded, still confused.

  “Well, that’s based on fact. When a royal marriage occurs, it’s not just a contract or love oath. The King and Queen are bound by a magical covenant both to each other and to the Kingdom as a whole. It’s complicated, painful, and permanent. The Royal Wizards complete a heart graft. They each have a part of the other’s heart permanently grafted to their own. They make each other whole. This process makes them even stronger when it comes to protecting the Kingdom. This is what enables the force field to surround the Kingdom like a snow globe. The barrier is quite literally tethered to, and powered by, their combined life force.”

  By now all the knights were listening intently. Outside of the wizards, the Senior Knight and LIW, and the King and Queen themselves, no one really knew any details about how the force field worked. Not even heirs to the throne were trusted with this information until shortly before they assumed the throne.

  “Can you imagine feeling the same pain you cause your spouse? It only happens once, and you spend the rest of your life avoiding doing anything to hurt them. To hurt the other is to hurt yourself. This magical bond is why Libby and Dale stayed together even after their monster fights. They were better, stronger, and more powerful together than they could have ever been apart. The marriage contract solidified that magically. Separation meant death.

  “The risk to the Kingdom if one dies is too high and it’s why the King and Queen are always protected at all costs. It’s also why the details of the heart graft are a closely guarded secret. People know that there is a magical component to the marriage contract, and a link to the force field, but not the particulars. That is too high of a risk. You are the first outside of that list to hear how it works. Our situation is unique. And your loyalty is not in question or I wouldn’t be sharing it with you now. Even Skarra didn’t know that, which is why she thought she could just replace Libby.”

  Geoffrey paused to take a breath. “Normally, the link to the force field is transferred to the heir before the King and Queen get too old to put their dying of natural causes at risk. That’s what happened when Libby’s father retired. The marriage of the heir is always tied to the retirement of the reigning king and queen. That’s when the transfer happens. It’s why the forcefield survived the death of the elder King. As you know the elder Queen passed not long after her husband. That’s because surviving with half a heart is next to impossible. Since Dale and Libby never had children of their own, and since their niece and nephew were born much later, the traditional training of the potential heirs never happened. Both are far too young to even think about marriage and, as you well know, Dale and Libby never got around to identifying the heir at all.”

  He paused and looked pointedly at Kurtis. The young man, and one of the potential heirs, flushed as he felt the surreptitious glances of the rest of the knights.

  “Wait, you mean that… We all die when the King dies?” John demanded incredulously.

  “Yes,” Geoffrey continued. “And not just die. Our entire Kingdom implodes, taking the entire living world and spirit realm with it. By all rights, the Queen should be killed when he dies, taking all of us with her. If it had been the reverse, our demise would be a certainty. Dale is my best friend and a strong stubborn man, but he would never survive her loss. Queen Aisling Elisabeth has more abilities than most people realize, and her sense of duty was second only to her father’s, but this burden is too much for any one person, especially in her weakened state.”

  “There is only one other Queen in the historical records who has ever survived in this situation, so we know it’s possible, albeit unlikely. All we can do is everything in our power to give our Queen every opportunity to do the same. It’s why the wizards, the LIWs and the knights are here. But even with our help and support, only Libby can save us. As powerful as she is, it may be too much for her.”

  “What?” exclaimed Leia. Even Sean’s head had snapped up at Geoffrey’s bombshell. No one had really believed it was possible, and now they learned there was precedent for their success. Geoffrey knew he shouldn’t be sharing this much information without the Council’s blessing, but at the moment he didn’t care about the repercussions.

  “Yes, there is a Queen who survived. The wizards have a plan. Oh, and the Spirit Council has been convened. This is end-game serious. We all have assigned roles to play. It is unlikely we will succeed, but we have a plan, and that’s something.”

  John and the other knights sat in silence and sorrow. But, for the first time since they’d acknowledged that the King would die, the knights had hope. It had been done before. Just once, but that was precedent. If any Queen could do it, it would be their Libby. Geoffrey gave them the rest of the briefing and they dispersed to their quarters and began implementing shifts to protect the palace from any physical threats during their rulers’ weakened states.

  Only Sean kept up his quiet conversations. He’d go down fighting and would do whatever it took to protect Libby. Assuming she did the impossible and survived, both the Queen and the Kingdom would be vulnerable to attack. It was up to the knights and LIWs to protect them from any physical harm. The wizards had the burden of protecting their borders from magical threats. And the Spirit Council had to help the Queen survive.

  As soft chatter resumed in the Tower, John left the knights’ headquarters and went outside for some air. When Libby had asked him to be her Knight Grand Champion, she’d explained that once he left his home in the Normal world it would be difficult for him to return often. He was always up for an adventure, and there was something about the Queen that made him want to protect her. He couldn’t explain it. He loved his wife and was faithful to her. His relationship with the Queen was purely platonic, but there was something there that was more than friendship. Libby called it Destiny, but he hated that mystical bullshit. He laughed at himself. “So says the guy living in a magical kingdom being given instructions by ghosts. For fuck’s sake Morgan, what kind of mess did you get yourself into this time?”

  He’d signed on and taken the oath without regret. He paced around the quad and tried to decide what he thought about all this. It had been easier to accept that Libby was a queen than to accept magic was real. Did he regret his decision to accept her offer? He thought about it. No. Being Libby’s Champion had brought excitement and adventure back to his life, the kind worthy of a descendant of Captain Morgan. He was where he needed to be, in the middle of all the action. He felt horrible for her. He’d had no idea how muc
h she shouldered. He wished he could hug her and make it better, but propriety wouldn’t allow for that here at the palace, and he didn’t want to intrude right now. Anyway, he hated the emotions, so it worked in his favor. He liked making her laugh but didn’t think he could bear to see her cry.

  He thought back to how they’d met. A mutual friend had introduced them at Harp Bar in Belfast, and they’d hit it off, surrounded by good music, good craic[1], and that god-awful red velvet. They shared a love of travel, adventure, and learning other people’s stories. And drinking. They both enjoyed drinking a lot. They were two sides of a coin. Tall and short. From two different worlds, literally. They had different cultures and sometimes spoke different languages. She cursed like a pirate despite having been raised to be a proper lady. He was descended from pirates, but was loyal and honorable, in his own rogue way. He loved being in the middle of everything, and she preferred to stay on the fringe. When they’d go carousing in the non-magic world, she’d often tell people they were twins separated at birth. Maybe on a metaphysical level they were. Champion. Twin brother. Whatever it was, their connection was instant and real. John could get away with saying things to Libby no one else could, and she took his counsel seriously.

  “Maybe that’s why Sean doesn’t like me. He thinks I’m a threat. Oh, my God! I bet that’s it.” John laughed out loud and started back towards the Tower in a slightly better mood. He respected Sean but found this idea entertaining. Poking the bear would be a good diversion from the disaster looming ahead.

  “I don’t want to die, but this is still one hell of an adventure. I guess we all gotta go sometime.” He thought about his family back home. He now understood that if Libby failed, their world would also disappear. He wished he could hug his wife and son but being here was the best way he could protect them.

  Geoffrey watched in silence from his fourth-floor office window. He’d always said he had faith in John, despite Sean’s doubts, because he had faith in Libby. He didn’t realize he’d been holding his breath until he watched John head back to the Tower and he finally exhaled. He could tell John had decided to stay by his body language. That was good. The Queen couldn’t handle any more loss right now. Something about John made the Queen laugh. Since John didn’t have any background info or preconceived notions, the Queen could trust that he liked her for who she was, not her title. “John Morgan,” he said under his breath, “I hope you can be the Champion she needs. The one we all need.”

  Geoffrey turned back to his desk and picked up the phone to call Awen. Now that they were both back at the palace, he hoped they might steal some time for each other. While they still had time.

  Chapter

  The King Dies

  Less than 24-hours after Libby told him he could let go, the King died. Libby was deep in her trance, Dale’s hand still clenched in hers. As much as the waxy yellow eyes had haunted her nightmares, she was spared witnessing the final gruesome end. Those in attendance weren’t so lucky. In the final hours of his life, Dale began to aspirate. As his organs shut down, he could no longer clear fluid from his lungs. As the fluid accumulated, it sprayed out of his mouth, covering his face and chest, and sometimes Libby, with a layer of foam spittle. The nurses continued to clean him up every few minutes. It felt disruptive, but they couldn’t bear to see him like that.

  It would get worse. So much worse. At the moment his heart stopped beating, Libby collapsed, falling unconscious over her dead husband’s body. The wizards, doctors, knights, and LIWs had been ready for this. Because she was in a deep meditative state, she didn’t even know they were there. The LIWs immediately took up defensive positions around the Queen and all entrances to the rooms they were in, weapons close by.

  Scarlett, Awen, and Sophia rushed to the Queen’s side and carried her to the neighboring bedroom, while the knights locked down the palace. They quickly got her set up on oxygen while making preparations for magical surgery. She didn’t have to be awake to witness the blood pouring from the King’s open mouth, or the gasps of the medical team tending to him. She’d seen it in her nightmares for months. But for the rest of those present it was horrifying and felt like an omen of things to come. The knights and LIWs couldn’t get out of there soon enough. They needed an enemy they could fight. They couldn’t fight death or the grief and terror that accompanied it.

  At the moment of Dale’s death, a wave of energy rippled through both the living and spirit realms. No announcement was needed, the entire Kingdom knew their King had died. So did the kingdom’s enemies. Deep in a cave in Northern China, far from the force field border, the shock wave was enough to awaken the great black dragon, Jasper, from a deep sleep.

  He gave a big stretch and a sleepy smile and started chuckling to himself. “Finally, Queen Aisling is mine for the taking.” The dragon was a serial collector of strong women, and Libby definitely fit the profile. He’d been wanting to add her to his collection for years, but that damned force field was too strong. Oh yeah, she was going down. He dozed off again with an evil grin on his face and purred like a 747 engine.

  Chapter

  Long Live the Queen

  From the spirit realm, the Council watched in silence in the Queen’s bedchamber. The Queen couldn’t see them, but they had linked arms. Well, not really linked arms, since they didn’t technically have any, but had joined together to share as much of their spirit energy with her as possible to protect the force field while they stabilized her. It was working but couldn’t last forever. Kokichi, the newest spirit on the Council, was already starting to flicker.

  Confident she was still alive, Teruyo looked at the Council and with a quiet, “Now,” they directed all their energy in a single beam at the dying piece of Dalen’s heart in the Queen’s chest. It slowly burned away, cauterizing the wound and leaving an angry pink scar that could only be felt and not seen. Once they were confident it had been removed, they severed their connection, spent. It had to be removed in order to make space for the Queen to regrow her heart the way a lizard regrows its tail. Being unconscious was a blessing. They couldn’t risk drugging her right now.

  The Council faded out, except for Michie, who lingered. She alone knew what the Queen would be up against and the pain she’d have to survive. “Fight, Granddaughter,” she whispered. “You must fight with everything you have. Even when you don’t want to. You must fight even when you want to lie down and die. Fight. Remember everything you have been taught. Remember your duty and honor. I will not leave you, but you must fight.” Then she too faded out back to the spirit realm to rest and regroup.

  Sophia, Awen, and Scarlett continued to work on the Queen. They didn’t hear a word of what Michie said. That’s the thing about the spirit realm. They had to let you see them, and you had to be willing to see them. At this moment the Queen had 100% of the wizards’ attention.

  Libby survived the night, but the pain was indescribable. She faded in and out of consciousness. In her waking moments she was aware of the LIWs, the wizards, her sisters, Geoffrey, and even her friend Fintan. She could hear them talking but couldn’t latch on to any of the conversation. She saw her sisters quietly talking at the foot of her bed but couldn’t make out what they were saying.

  She dreamt of the samurai woman. Libby knew she was talking to her, but her words were blurry. It felt important and she strained to hear her, but the warrior woman disappeared before she could say anything.

  Libby was also pretty sure she saw Dale.

  Am I dead? she wondered. Reality was phasing in and out, like looking through a wall of water. She saw Dale, flying around above her, with the sun behind him. He was so shiny, she had to squint to see him. He was laughing hysterically. Happy. The relief was what led her to believe it was real. Oh good, he made it to the good place, she thought as she drifted back to the quiet relief of unconsciousness.

  On the third day after Dale’s death the Queen was finally able to remain awake for a few hours at a time. Sophia had her full of acupuncture needles to h
elp with her energy flow and pain, Krystal surrounded her bed with a grid of protective and healing crystals, including placing them on Libby’s body. And there was a steady stream of musicians rotating through, even when she was asleep. With instruction from both Maggie and Michie, they were doing everything they could to keep the Queen alive. As uncomfortable as she was, they needed her as alert as possible.

  Adding insult to injury, Libby now suffered from fainting spells. Even without the searing pain and overwhelming grief, without a full heart to pump oxygenated blood to her brain, she was prone to fainting and the doctors had her on full-time oxygen therapy. Since she was a fall risk, she was restricted to her bed. The warrior Queen who hated being told “No” was now too weak to care that she’s wasn’t allowed to leave her bed without help.

  Geoffrey and Scarlett arrived at the Queen’s bedroom while the wizards were there. The five of them looked at each other, and then at Libby.

  The whir-pump-whir-pump of the oxygen machine was the only sound as they stood there trying to figure out how to begin.

  “What?” she wheezed. “What is it?”

  Scarlett cleared her throat and spoke for the group. “Sweetie, we can’t imagine the pain you’re in right now, but there are some important things we need to do.”

  Teruyo chose that moment to appear.

  “Grandma?” Libby whispered. “Grandma, I’ve missed you.” Libby assumed she’d fallen back asleep and that she was dreaming.

  “I’ve been here the whole time. And I’m not alone.” The rest of the Council shimmered into view. All royals knew of its existence, but they almost never encountered the Council. Since Libby had been able to see ghosts since she was a child, she didn’t realize it was the Council at first. Of course, she already knew how bad it was. She could barely breathe, could barely stand the pain, and the force field was collapsing.