Amelia Merlin and the Game for Okamila

Part 65: Lochside

They sat in Amelia's tent. Silence stuffing the space like a toxic gas. Filling their lungs with the poison that prevented anyone from speaking up. The pale blue fabric of the tent cast each of them into a ghostly light. The queen took a deep breath and stood up.

"So how bad is it exactly?" she turned her attention to Al who was sitting beside her brother.

"Pretty fucking terrible to be honest. They out number us three to one now. There's no way we can go into the Gentle Forest now." Al shook his head. His brilliant green eyes stared at her in a sort of pity.

"What's the plan?"

"Look, the whole point of this army was to get the kingdom on your side. We don't have to go after the lizards just yet. We can pursue our primary focus of gathering more people for your side. We can go to villages, find more tribes like the mountain people, so when you finally face Akkedis all you have to do is defeat him and the kingdom is yours." Al stood up and paced the tent as he spoke. Amelia was always transfixed by him while he was talking, his animated voice and hand movements made everything he said extraordinarily compelling.

She looked up at him and despite all the others in the room she had ears only for what Al had to say. "But what about Okamila? The Lattantio's have that, even if I do defeat Akkedis, I won't get my city."

"Your grace," Al smiled slightly. "By the time we get the last two remaining cities and secure the rest of the kingdom's smaller tribes, the Lattantio's could easily no longer be with the lizards. We should take this one step at a time."

Amelia breathed. "What do you think we should do now?"

"We should split up. Send portions of our army around the country until every corner is ours. Write a thousand letters to be delivered to the people. And then you can go to one of the Great Families and secure their loyalty." he sat back down. The attitude in the room had shifted, it was no longer afraid.

"No." Amelia said and Al raised his eyebrows at her. "The smaller communities are just as valued to me as the Great Families and I haven't done anything to prove that."

She hadn't seen Al grin like that in a long time, which forced her to smile a bit. "Very well, my queen."

The next morning the word spread like wildfire among the troops. The Queen was going to the countryside and they couldn't have been more pleased. On the way Amelia rode beside different soldiers as to get to know them better. She stepped off her horse at one point and walked the rest of the way so the man with a bruised knee didn't have to hobble anymore. Her dark blue dress got soaked in the mud and she walked beside the foot soldiers. She didn't mind, the soldiers were absolutely hilarious and more than once she had to tell them to shut up because her sides were hurting so much. They were walking along fields that stretched out like the ocean when a boy approached her. He must have been a year older than she was but no more than that.

"Your grace?" his voice was lower than she had expected it to be, it didn't suit his face which was soft and pointed.

"Yes?" she smiled at him.

"I think what you're doing is brilliant." his brown eyes were wide and she could see feel how nervous he was.

"Well they don't make me queen for nothing." she winked.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Of course."

"Can you really do magic?"

Amelia smiled, the wind was so soft she had barely noticed it until it blew a streak of hair in her eyes. "What's your name?"

"Ilya."