A Court of Queens

Bon Voyage

Aldini was escorted into the main hall by the guards. As soon as Jazlyn could lay eyes on him she ran to embrace Aldini and squeezed him tightly. "I'm so glad you're okay," she said.

"Yeah I'm fine, what the hell happened?" Aldini said.

Jazlyn leaned close to him and whispered in his ear. "The Batavic Royalty have there own families secrets and I accidentally let their's out."

Aldini looked at her strangely. "What the hell does that mean? Are you okay?" he said.

"I'll explain later, I don't want to talk about it in front of them."

Snow approached Jazlyn and Aldini. "You guys should get ready to travel, we'll be riding out tomorrow at sunrise."

"We? Are you coming with us?" Jazlyn asked.

"Yeah, I haven't been to Gallia in a while. I fancy a visit." Snow said.

-

When Snow said 'leave at sunrise' she wasn't speaking rhetorically. The sky was still dark as the Batavic servants loaded supplies for the journey into the carriages and hitched the horses to wagons. Jazlyn noticed an unfamiliar pair of soldiers preparing to travel with them, the soldiers wore rose-colored jackets decorated in medals with white trousers and black boots. The men carried a long wooden box on their shoulders, a rose shedding it's petals was painted on the sides of the coffin. The soldiers hoisted the coffin into the back of their wagon and shut the doors. They simultaneously closed their eyes and recited something akin to a prayer in unison. They were too far from Jazlyn to decipher what they were saying but respect for the dead looks fairly identical across cultures and creeds. They stepped onto the stagecoach and lashed the horses forward.

The sun was just beginning to bloom, painting the morning sky in a pink hue when a Batavic servant showed Jazlyn and Aldini to their designated carriage. The servant closed the door and the wagon began to move. Jazlyn would have preferred the carriage to have windows, watching the terrain pass by and staring at clouds relaxed her and distracted her from the reason they were traveling in the first place. It was a minor grievance though, a nitpick, at least she didn't have to ride a horse or coach the carriage for hours. Well worth the trade-off.

"So what was the lockdown about?" Aldini said.

Jazlyn explained what happened with Godmother and releasing Raphael from his confinement, she muttered quietly as she recounted the events, not particularly proud of what happened. "I just keep messing everything up wherever I go." Jazlyn said.

"Are you sure because it kinda sounds like you're the hero of that story," he said.

"What do you mean?"

"Snow got her brother back. No one got hurt, I think, and everyone lives happily ever after." Aldini nudged her with his shoulder. "Cheer up."

"But now Snow doesn't trust me, and if she doesn't trust me then the Queen of Gallia won't either... I'm not even sure why she's still helping me."

"Jazlyn I think you need to take it easier on yourself. Queens are complicated people with complicated problems but we're still alive and we're safe. So as my Queen..." Aldini put his palm on his heart. "...I think you're doing a fantastic job." he said.

"Thank you, that means a lot," she said.

Jazlyn laid her head on Aldini's shoulder, which he didn't mind. He was bothered however when Jazlyn fell asleep and started drooling on him

The caravan came to a stop and the coachman opened the door. "We're going to stop for the night and continue on tomorrow morning," he said.

Jazlyn stepped out of the wagon. The carriages were parked in a wide circle with a roaring fire in the center.

It was quite a cold night so she warmed herself by the flame. While everyone ate and drank Jazlyn orbited the Gaellic soldiers. She eavesdropped and listened to them name restaurants they wanted to eat at again and women they missed spending time with. Jazlyn approached the Red Knights and sat on a log next to them. The men largely ignored her and carried on their conversation. "My condolences about your comrade."

"Qui?" one of them said.

Jazlyn pointed at the caravan the Red Knights traveled in. "The man in the coffin, I'm sorry about-"

"Oh, oh Emilio." the Red Knights realized. "Don't apologize to us we hardly knew the man." he said sipping some wine.

"It's not like he did it for nothing. His family was compensated handsomely for his service, I'm jealous of him honestly. Batard Chanceux." The other Red Knight laughed.

Jazlyn was taken aback. She expected them to be bitter for having to travel all this way and resent her for indirectly killing their fellow countryman. The pair seemed to be unbothered by the whole ordeal, but not in a callus way.

"H-how did he die?" Jazlyn asked, afraid of the answer.

The Red Knight tapped his breast pocket. "He used his rose."

Jazlyn looked at them strangely.

The Red Knight sighed as he realized he'd have to explain some of this to her. "The rose we carry is a weapon but it can only be used once, and it costs us our lives."

"That's awful, so every Gaellic soldier is just waiting for their turn to die?" Jazlyn said.

The Red Knight sputtered. "No, not every soldier, only the Red Knights have the Queen's Blessing."

"So how many Red Knights are there?" she asked.

"Seven, well six right now, but it's normally seven."

"Isn't it sad knowing that at any moment your Queen may call on you to-" Jazlyn didn't finish her sentence, she couldn't bring herself to mention death in front of them.

The Red Knights just giggled at her. "You shouldn't pity us, dear. I live a good life, I live a great life in fact. I wouldn't change a thing." he said.

"This might be hard for a foreigner to understand but this-." The Red Knight tapped his breast pocket. "-comes with status that young men can only dream of, I know I did." he said. The other Red Knight nodded his head in agreement. " Some men work their entire career's to get this rose. So it's a sacrifice but it's also an honor and a privilege."