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Chapter 20: Feremir
The queen's study was more spacious than any other rooms intended for the same purpose, but it did not look empty. She had many shelves of books lining the walls, large windows to let the sun in during the day, benches with cushions circling a large coffee table, a table to eat at, and a wide desk to study on. Her writing desk, which was separate from the studying desk, was lined up with spare parchments, feathers, and an array of ink colors.
“As you are well aware,” the queen said, waiting for me to catch up as she reiterated the point she had made earlier in the letter. “The war that necessitated the assembly of your forces has come to an end before it even began. Thus, it is in your purview to administer the payment of your soldiers for their valor and eagerness.”
My fingers ached as I wrote down what she said. This was the tenth letter she had me write down, each letter focusing on similar issues regarding the disbanding of the armies that were supposed to attack the Unseelie. The lords, I gathered from her responses, thought the treasury should be compensating for the time of the soldiers. The queen believed otherwise.
There were other issues in the letters too. The distribution of food and trade items across the realm, her replies to the balls she had been invited to in other cities outside of Terlyth, orders to lords who appeared to be less inclined to gather the resources she asked for...
As the hours passed, I had come to realize that my eagerness about this task had been based on erroneous assumptions. Surely the queen would not let me in on her deepest and darkest secrets. And what I knew about the relocation of fae and things, would not aid the resistance like I had hoped.
The only thing about tonight that kept me intrigued was the letter that the queen had been writing when I came into her chamber. She had dropped it on her study when we relocated to her study room and it had stayed there, without a seal. I tried not to look toward it in case the queen got suspicious, but it was the only letter in the room that piqued my curiosity.
“This is going much quicker than normal,” the queen said. “If you weren’t a talented diviner, I would have monopolized you and kept you with me as a scribe.”
It was a compliment. I forced myself to smile.
“I would have liked that very much, my queen,” I said.
I didn’t actually mean it. This was quite boring.
Still, the queen smiled. When she went on, her tone was much softer. Another hour passed as she spoke and I wrote everything she had said.
“I kept you up quite a bit,” she said. “I shall let you go back to bed, now.”
I looked up to see her eyes on me. At first, I was relieved to hear that I could go to my room to sleep, but then, I realized that she had seen me yawn and was releasing me only because of it.
My cheeks heated with embarrassment.
“It is quite all right,” I said.
“No, no,” the queen replied. “You are a young boy. You need your sleep. We dealt with all the important and urgent letters anyway. I expect my personal scribe to come back and take care of the rest.”
She offered me another smile. It was odd seeing her come up with those so often when I was sure none of them were sincere.
“I shall go to bed now too,” she said, getting up.
This was my chance.
“My queen,” I said, meeting her gaze and trying to look innocent. “I am ashamed to say that I have made some minor mistakes in this last letter. If you do not mind, I would like to stay here for a bit longer to copy it.”
“Of course,” the queen replied, barely listening. “Take your time.”
She sounded sleepy. Perhaps I had been wrong in thinking she had stopped this session because she had seen me yawn. Perhaps it was she who was too tired to go on.
It suited me well.
“Thank you,” I said, quickly grabbing a fresh parchment out of the bundle and opening it wide. I did not look back as I listened to the sounds of her footsteps, instead I wrote quickly and efficiently.
The footsteps stopped. When I looked up, my heart skipped a beat.
The letter that she had initially hidden for me lay on the study table, forgotten. In her haste to go to sleep, the queen had left it behind.
The first letter I wrote had been perfect already. I folded the incomplete transcription and hid the copy in my pocket.
I got up. The study room did not have a door, but the hallway on the other side of the threshold which would lead me back to the antechamber was lit up and I could see no one there who might have witnessed my act of treason.
I walked silently toward the table and picked up the folded letter. My heart beat fast as I quickly read what was written on it.
