First Submission - all characters are 18 or older -- Thank you!
Chapter 1
Queen Marzanna Velcin anxiously paced the royal bed chamber. She was alone. The only other movement was a roaring fire. Above the mantle hung the green and gold Velcin banner and crest. A snake eating its tail. Outside the castle, a wicked thunder storm raged. It was well past midnight and Ser Blant had taken her husband's corpse away less than an hour ago.
The illness had been mercifully swift. The pox had ravaged their coastal kingdom of Trevilan for nearly three months. In his final days, the king's most trusted advisors swore the worst of it had passed, until one by one each of them succumbed to the welted disease.
Marzanna was no fool. She knew that without a king, Trevilan would be severely weakened. Politically crippled and susceptible to attack both by sea and on land, the kingdom was in a difficult position. The uneasy peace they shared with the neighboring kingdoms of Sar Sanrosan and Balmudia rested on the relationship her husband had forged with their rulers over the course of his 30 year rule. Would that peace transcend his death? Would they honor it under the rule of the new king?
Our borders will need strengthening; our people need to know their king will see them through this sickness, Marzanna's thoughts raced. The plague would actually buy us time to fortify the borders and secure the throne. How would that be perceived though?
And then there was her son, Rodmond, to think about. Barely eighteen. Could he suddenly become king to a plague-torn country? Her only son... hardly a man, let alone a king. But such was his birth right.
Rodmond, or Roddy as they all called him, had been born sickly, smaller than they had hoped. He spent most of his days bedridden. Though he had survived childhood and the royal blood was pure, their line secure, he was slow minded and meek.
Generations of royal Velcin blood ran through their veins, in all three of her children. No one would contest Rodmond's ascendency. Royal inbreeding was common among all five kingdoms. Her own husband, the king, had in fact been her birth father, twenty years her senior, and when his first marriage to his own sister had failed to produce a male heir he took Marzanna as his next wife as soon as she had reached child-bearing age.
But Rodmond was not his father...
Could she make a king out of Roddy in such dire times? She shook her head. The idea of her baby boy suddenly thrust into the royal spotlight. He was so weak and tired all the time. How would he know what to do? The boy had no mind for politics and statecraft. He had no way with words to mold the minds of men; or had any skill with a sword for that matter. Would he know how to defend the kingdom should war come to Trevilan?
All of Trevilan knew Prince Rodmond would someday take up his father's sword, wear his crown, but not so soon. Not yet. Not at such a young age...
Marzanna continued to pace back and forth. She could always remarry, she was not yet forty. She could still bare children; the Redeemer knew she had the body for it. Her husband had almost immediately taken to her, years ago when she blossomed into a very full-bodied woman. After three children of her own, she was far bustier than she was comfortable with.
She inspected her curvy form in the mirror. Her breasts were enormous, heavy teardrops hanging low and full on her chest, and it took a well-laced corset to create the expansive cleavage she now looked down upon. Her wide hips, a big bubbly rear, seemed to be expanding every season. Though she knew these were not unappealing qualities to potential suitors. They could now prove to be an asset.
She could take some noble Trevilan lord, from a lesser bloodline, but a secure one. She could be queen regent and groom Rodmond... given the time to have him adequately trained by a team of advisors, physicians, and knights. Oh Redeemer, but this terrible plague, she thought, and my husband's corpse is not yet cold and i think of remarrying. No, i think of it only for the welfare of my kingdom, and my children.
The queen also had two young daughters to think about. Both were nubile and ready to be wed, if not for love than politically. All in service to save the kingdom, of course, she told herself. My girls, Maymon and Gilly.
Gilly was Rodmond's twin. Under normal circumstances, Gilly would be promised to Rodmond, to be his sister-queen and bear his offspring. Would they follow through on that plan now or would new alliances need to be formed through Gilly's hand in marriage?
Raised as a lady of the court, beautiful little Gilly would do anything for her mother, for the kingdom. But Maymon...
Two years older than the twins, Maymon, was her little sorceress. She was piercing and defiant, a gorgeous young woman but as headstrong as her father. Radiant Maymon had a keen interest in the arcane, and was apprenticed to old Tustin, the court wizard, that rascal. And where was he now? Shouldn't he have come up with some cure to the pox by now? He who had served the Velcin Family for four generations, using his dark magic to ensure each of their heirs was safely delivered.
Yes, the wizard, she suddenly thought. The old goat would know what to do! He was an ancient practitioner of the black arts and had graciously accepted her oldest daughter into his inner circle. His teachings would prepare her for her eventual training at the Academy in Gristult, should she pass the required tests.
The wheels began to turn in the queen's mind. Why... if the wizard could whip up some magical stamina spell, or a strength spell or something... even if only to make Roddy appear to be in a ruling state of body and mind...
Marzanna suddenly stopped, snapped her fingers, and turned to face the door. As if summoned, there was a knock. 'Enter,' she spat. It was her captain of the guard and two of his loyal dogs.
Ser Blant approached slowly and Marzanna took a moment to regard him. The captain was well into his fifties now; two years older than her husband had been and easily twice the size of him. Blant was an seasoned fighter, had trained every soldier in the castle and even the king himself, sparring with him since they were boys. Still powerfully built, though now showing his age, with flecks of white on either side of his black hair, Blant was a fixture in the daily life of the castle. He was a rock within its walls and a powerful weapon outside it. She knew she would not be able to go on without him. He had such a friendly way with the children, and had formed an especially close bond to young Gilly.
'Majesty,' he kneeled before her, as he had done a thousand time, 'the royal body is now being prepared for the funeral rites, as ordered. What would you ask of me?'
Marzanna steeled herself against the tears, against breaking down again, and straightened, cleared her throat. 'I must speak with the wizard. Take me to him, Ser Blant. Does he... yet know of the King's passing?'
'I know not, your majesty,' the old knight said, still kneeling, 'but, to be sure, little escapes his grasp...'
***
The wizard Tustin groaned as he fought to maintain a strong grip on the princesses' shuddering legs. Try as he might, from all their thrashing, every once in a while a foot would slap him in the face or a toe would slip into his mouth. Not that he minded much.