Eleven days had passed since the death of Queen Karlise. It had been a blur to the new young queen. As a princess, she could offer a casual ear to matters of the kingdom. But as queen, now the matters of the kingdom rested solely upon her small shoulders. After the fifth day, it was customary for the full Army of Twells to break the Kuft to return to duty. However, the Army of the Crown held to no such custom. During King Odonnah's death, the entire army kept the Kuft for six days. Katrina observed her mother’s body in the center of the courtyard from the window of her chambers, but Marlon and the Army of the Crown, hadn’t budged. Still lying on their stomachs in the formation of the Kuft. They had held the Kuft through days of extreme heat, and battering, cold rains. It was indeed a most unusual sight to behold. They appeared to have joined her in death, refusing to be separated from her lifeless body.
Clad in a blue silk royal gown; her long, dark hair draped across her slender shoulders. While standing silently observing the behavior of the army, she discovered something, odd. She was envious of them. For the past few days, she'd felt unsure of her role as Queen. Bored with matters of the treasury and laws, she fought desperately to keep heavy eye lids from closing. Sessions with long-winded members of council often ran well into evenings.
She sucked in her breath with each slight agitation of the wind upon the shrouded body of her mother, foolishly hoping that the fluttering fabric was a sign of her mother waking from death. Rescuing her from this dreadful plight. She imagined a place for herself along the side of the army. Those who truly loved her mother as much as she did. But as Queen, such open behavior would be out of character for one who wears the crown. But as a daughter, there was no other place she desired to be. Anywhere would be a more pleasant place to escape the clamor that was taking place behind her.
Madeline and the head council leader, Titus, were in a heated discussion about the behavior of the Army of the Crown. Titus, chief among the council, was very distrusting of the Army. Secretly, the gray-haired leader feared them, he saw no difference between the Talek and the curse that spawned, vampires. A requirement of the Talek demanded those who partook in it were to three times of the year, under a new moon, drink the blood of elderly humans to maintain their youth and gifts of the Talek. Because the Army of the Crown were much more powerful than the army that guarded Twells, he, along with a minority of others, came to fear that if one day the Army chose to feed off it’s own people, there wouldn’t be anything that anyone could do to stop them.
With wild gestures and raised voice, he argued to Madeline that the Army had yet to eat and was still in full sight of the citizens of Twells. If word got out among their enemies, the advantage would belong to them. The mournful warriors would be too weak and distraught to put up a fight against a full scale attack. But Madeline saw the truth in his eyes. He, like the other cowards of Twells, were afraid that the Army would rise and feed off of them.
“Besides, as great as our King Odonnah was, we as a kingdom only mourned for him six days,” the scornful leader reminded her. “Shall the Army of the Crown open our king’s memory to shame, because they mourn the death of his daughter, more than his own?” he protested.
Madeline's thin brows were drawn together. “They have done no such thing,” she shot back. “To them, she was more than just Queen, she was their mother, their sister, the only family any of them ever knew.” Her voice was covered in sadness.
“If they desire to mourn thirteen more days, what is this to you? Or to any of those who’ve never lifted a hand to protect Twells?”
They began to argue around Queen Katrina, whose vacant gaze continued to rest on the still bodies of the soldiers lying on the hard pavement of the courtyard.
