Irah of the Seven Dominions

Chapter.9: The Summit (Part-A)

Irah checked her watch again as she exited into the white-paneled hallway of the hospital wing. It was already 15 minutes past 1 in the morning, which meant that in half an hour she would convene with the kings of the other dominions to discuss the security situation of the country.

Roderick, who had sunk into a bow when Irah had exited the hospital room, immediately returned to his friend's room as Irah and Reeves left the hallway.

Irah walked briskly through her palace, her mind too agitated by the events of the evening to be focused on much else.

Too much had happened. The poisoned cup had definitely surprised her but the shooting had been the real shock. No assassin had ever dared to try and harm her within the palace walls. And now that they had, an innocent man had taken the bullet for her.

She had been surprised by this. Lord Wilder didn't exactly approve of her. Yet he put himself in harm's way to save her. She was really grateful to him for that. Had she been hit...who knows what would have happened.

After Haynes had been shot, the palace had been put on lockdown to apprehend the culprit, who had somehow turned up dead in the confusion. Irah had immediately directed the palace staff to move Haynes to the hospital wing where  her team of doctors had operated on him.

During this time, Reeves had managed to catch the waiter who had almost poisoned her, empty the palace of all the guests after lifting the lockdown and issue a statement to the media where rumors that Irah had been shot, had already spread like wildfire.

To make matters more complicated, Irah had to delay  the summit from its scheduled 12 am session, because the whole point of holding a summit, in secret, in the middle of the night was to prevent people from finding out there was a summit in the first place. With guests and servants still milling about in the palace, there was no other option.

In any case, Irah would not have held the meeting until Haynes had gained consciousness. The blood of 11 other people who had given their lives to protect her's already stained her hands. She could under no circumstances focus on a summit had he become the 12th.

However, now that the doctors had reassured Irah that he was better, there was only one matter that remained to be solved.

"Reeves?", Irah spoke, as she climbed the staircase onto her own floor.

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"Lord Wilder and Lord Spears need to be sent home in the next half hour. I can't host the summit with them in the palace." Irah said, her voice slightly ragged from walking quickly across the hall and speaking at the same time, "Have them escorted to their homes, though tell the guards not to make it look too obvious."

Irah paused in front of the door to her bedroom and turned around folding her arms. "I'm worried that whoever tried to kill me tonight might try and target him for interfering. Until he recovers have him and his family monitored by our agents. Just don't let him find out."

"Of course, Your Majesty." Reeves replied, raising his hands to readjust his glasses.

"Wait", Irah said and he paused midway, raising his eyebrows. The expression looked so comical that Irah let out a small graceful laugh.

Her laugh made Reeves smile too. For two years, Irah had not celebrated her birthday. This year when she had made the decision to do so was only as a cover for the summit. To their horror, the evening had turned out to be catastrophic and Irah had almost been killed twice. Not to mention the fact that an innocent man had been injured.

So for someone who saw Irah as a daughter, who had seen her less-than-perfect childhood and her suffering in the past two years, Reeves knew that this small laugh was a blessing.