To Doravan’s surprise, there were still nine of the sixteen council members alive. Three had never gone to the feast at all, and the other six had returned when they deemed the Black River uncrossable. Amalla stood at the head of the council, and her eyes widened when she saw Doravan.
He bowed to her. “Vimos Yetaria has passed the seal of the Treasury to me and has asked me to represent the coffers at this council.”
Amalla turned to her council. “Any objections?”
“Where is Eremis?” the Dragon Minister demanded. “The council meeting is null and void without the king.” Other councilors began to protest.
Doravan slammed his fist on the table, and the protests quieted to murmurs. “The king is dead! We have called this council to officially determine if the council is willing to make Amalla, the sister and heir to the king, the queen of Mengor.”
To his shock, the entire table erupted in shouts. Amalla rubbed the bridge of her nose between her fingers as the councilors pointed and yelled, arguing and looking nearly ready to physically attack each other. Doravan heard the princess mutter under her breath, and her dragon charged in through the side door. The councilors turned from shouting to screaming, although Doravan was sure some of those sounds were actual words.
“The king was no mage,” the dragon boomed. The councilors finally quieted and sat back down. Amalla’s dragon came to the princess’s seat at the head of the table and nodded her head. Amalla finally sat down, and the dragon continued. “Like it or not, Eremis was not a worthy heir to the throne. You had your moment of puppet control, but now he is dead. Amalla is endorsed as the ruler of Mengor by the dragons, and you would anger us by not accepting her.”
The councilors murmured to each other, glancing up at Amalla and whispering across the table.
Doravan sighed. “They agreed to let you be the heir.”
“They’re old,” Amalla said. “They know things are different under a queen. We’ve got a fight ahead of us if we’re going to convince them to let me rule.”
“If you’re all done,” Doravan said. The councilors glowered at him. “We have another urgent matter to discuss. Calling Amalla to be the queen is a crucial matter, as we are facing an attack from the Hoarder.”
Amalla sighed. “I don’t have to be declared queen yet. We can call it a temporary rule until the Hoarder threat has been eliminated, and then we can have an official council with sixteen members and we can negotiate about it then. Does that sound fair?”
The councilors shuffled uncomfortably, except for the Dragon Minister. He stood.
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“It is wise to heed the dragons,” he said. “Much as I do not want a queen regnant, we have little choice at the moment. Eremis did not leave an heir of any kind but his sister. We can select a single member of the council to become king after the war with the Hoarder is over. All in favor of Princess Amalla becoming queen regnant of Mengor?” He raised his hand and peered at the other council members.
Most of the hands hesitantly went up. A few crossed their arms, refusing to acknowledge Amalla as the new queen; Doravan noted that one of them was the War Minister, another of Eremis’s favorite advisors.
The Dragon Minister nodded to Amalla. “There is a majority. You can be overwhelmed by the council in a vote, Your Majesty, but when we crown you, you will be the Queen of Mengor.”
Amalla nodded and let out a huge breath she seemed to have been holding. “Thank you, Minister. I will see to it that we are protected.”
Doravan’s face reddened as a million intrusive thoughts barreled into his mind. He controlled the coffers; King Eremis was gone and one of his closest friends was in the little fop’s place as ruler of Mengor. He knew they had to take care of the Hoarder first. He slipped his notebook out and began a new plan.
“Amalla’s Reign.”
Although he would have to sit down and think about it later, he knew the basic outline: defeat the Hoarder, undermine the Council until it was full of Amalla’s supporters, and use her to pass all of his legislation ideas. In case he couldn’t convince the councilors to vote each other out one by one, he would need a backup plan for getting as much legislation through Amalla as possible.
Or, Doravan thought, I could always try to get friendly with the councilors. Each of them wants to be king, but if I make them some pretty promises, I could get them to back me up. I would have a better chance than any of them–,
He cut off his thoughts. That would be a remarkable betrayal of Amalla’s trust.
But the thoughts continued. Is Amalla’s trust more important than making Mengor what it could be? What it should be?
The moment the Dragon Minister lowered the crown of Mengor onto Amalla’s head, she stood. Doravan noticed her trembling, but her voice was powerful and commanding. His traitorous thoughts dissipated into pride; she was taking on a mantle she never thought she would be forced to carry.
“Councilors, my first act as queen is to declare war against the Hoarder of Crowns, Ka’lyl.”
The table erupted again, and Doravan rolled his eyes. Maybe he couldn’t convince them to back him up; they were so volatile and illogical.
“Declare war?!” the Peace Minister shouted. “We are the only kingdom left! We don’t stand a chance against a Southern dragon!”
“We have avoided his gaze for centuries,” another minister said. “We would do best to lay low until he dies of old age. Then Mengor will be the only power in the region.”
Amalla slammed her fist on the great council table, and the shouts slowed to murmurs. “We have hundreds of refugees from Shyyda and The Ganton flocking to our borders, possibly thousands! We wanted the Hoarder to ignore us, but that plan simply isn’t good enough anymore.” She gave Doravan a veiled glare, and he bowed his head. “And it was never good enough in the first place. Council of Mengor, I suggest to you that we take the fight to the Hoarder. Hunt him down and hang his horns as a prize in the castle.”
