"Your Majesty, what…why have you brought human children into the court?" staggered Ernun."Frederick, these boys need a room, and have Edgar see to whatever they wish to eat. Ernun, what do you have to report?" asked Aella, moving to the throne to sit in it as Frederick approached the three boys.
They gazed up at the hulking figure, their little mouths hanging open in shock and surprise.
"This way," said Frederick, motioning towards the door for the three boys.
They glanced back at her, before turning and being shepherded out of the room. The moment the door was shut, she teleported behind the two Advisors who had seemed to react the most. Rannaun and Jirga stiffened as they felt the blades pressing in their backs. Ernun made a strangled cry, drawing back from them all in fear.
"The two of you will approach the throne, leaving everything you are holding here at the table," she hissed, watching them carefully as they rose up out of their seats and set the things they were holding below the table, on top of it.
The communication devices they set down were smaller than the one she had seen in her father"s tent in the north, but otherwise were identical. Slashing them with her swords, the two Advisors jumped at the noise, glancing back briefly. The other Advisors looked on in shock as she guided them to the foot of the throne.
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"Did you think I would be like the previous kings?" she demanded, stepping back and putting her sword back in its sheath.
"I don"t…" began Jirga, but Rannaun interrupted her by dashing for the door.
Seifer stopped him with a thrown dagger in the leg. The pink demon went flying, ending up in a crumpled ball against the floor, holding his leg and howling in pain.
"If this one moves, cut her," said Aella to Seifer as he pulled out another dagger and moved next to the older female, giving Jirga a grin.
Jirga fell to the ground, trembling, and placed her hands over her head. Aella ignored her, and moved over to the squalling demon.
"If you don"t shut up, I will cut out your tongue, then heal it back," she snapped.
Rannaun tried to stop his wails, managing to control himself to a sniffing mess. He clutched his leg, where the dagger still stuck out; blood weeping around it. It wasn"t even near a vein, to cause him to bleed out. Weak.
"You will tell me who you have been talking to, and then, when you think there isn"t anything more to tell me, I will have Firion persuade you to tell him your entire life history, from the time you were born," she hissed, crouching down, just out of his reach. The pain in his face was real, so she doubted he was faking, but she had learned a long time ago not to trust anyone.
"I have been reporting to a human by the name of Sebastian," he whispered, his words broken by the frequent hiccups and sniffling that he couldn"t seem to control. "Sometimes there is another human, named Sterling, that answers instead."
"More," she said, tilting her head to the side.
"You"re going to kill me, aren"t you?" he asked, the terror real in his eyes.
"Maybe," she said, rethinking her immediate reaction to say yes.
"I didn"t have a choice in this, you know," he said, moving his leg a fraction, and wincing as he did.
"Aella!" cried Seifer, jumping back as Jirga seemed to expand to twice her size.
The other Advisors jumped up from the table and backed up against the wall.
"No one leaves this room!" cried Aella, glancing at the guards at the doors. They nodded and stood before the doors.
With a roar, Jirga reached out, swinging her arm at the throne, and s.n.a.t.c.hing it into the air, she flung it at Aella. Aella jumped to the side, rolling back to her feet, running at the creature that used to be the elderly demoness. Jirga"s claws had grown to the same length as swords. When Aella got close, Jirga swung them at her, hitting the stone floor and clawing long gouges.
Jumping up and swinging her black blade, she caught the demoness in the middle of her forehead, lodging it in the bones that were the roots of her horns. With a snarl, she went to swing at her again, but Aella jumped back, leaving the sword, that magically returned to her anyway.
Jirga followed her, reaching for her with the claw blades, and Aella jumped high into the air, activating her air walk, to jump higher. Swinging her black weapon, as she spun, she changed it into a huge warhammer, with a blade on the back, and a heavy hammer on the front. It hit the demoness monster on the exact same spot she had already hit, knocking Jirga down to the ground, dead.
"Aella," called Seifer, standing by the spot the throne had landed, and Aella ran quickly to his side.
The demoness hadn"t intended to hit Aella, she was aiming at Rannaun. Pulling the throne off him, they were all shocked to see him still alive. His chest was crushed, and he struggled to breath.
"Fetch my healers! Now!" Aella shouted, laying her hand on his crushed chest to start healing him.
Normally she wouldn"t have taken the time to try and save someone who had obviously been working against her, but the fact that Jirga was trying so hard to kill him, meant he had information the enemy didn"t want Aella to know about. He started to make the death rattle, that signaled he was about to die, when she heard the healers rushing into the room.
"Save him!" she growled, dancing back out of their way as they went to work.
Pacing back and forth, she watched as they tried to heal him, but it didn"t take a genius to know that the demon was dying. With a short growl, she teleported to the spot she had left the heroes. Grabbing the startled Josephine, she teleported back to the throne room.
"Save this traitor," she said, pushing the human towards the court healers, who glanced up and jumped away so fast, it was almost comical.
Josephine didn"t hesitate, calling on the healing waters she used, and encased the pink demon. Touching his crushed body with her glowing hand.
Aella watched the healers as they sat on their b.u.t.ts in a mixture of horror and fascination. The other Advisors were also shocked, and unsure of what emotion they should be feeling.
"That"s the best I can do," said Josephine, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, in exhaustion. "He"ll live, but he"s going to be out for several days. It was really close. If you had been a second later, I wouldn"t have been able to save him."
Aella nodded. "Thank you, Hero of Water. Why don"t you wait here, while I fetch the others?"
Josephine looked around, suddenly realizing where she must be, and nodded silently.
Teleporting back to the others, Aella held out her hand to Alfred, who quickly took it. Curt was there, grabbing her other one, with a determined look on his face. Raising an eyebrow, Aella decided to give it a try. After all, she had teleported the three boys, and the human guards two at a time. Arriving with them, back at the throne room, Alfred glanced around curiously.
"You"ve redecorated," he said.
"I wanted a new look. You should honestly give Seifer and Frederick the credit. They"ve done most of it while I was away," said Aella, stepping around the body of Jirga, and sitting in one of the smaller thrones that was for one of her Regents. It was still ridiculously large for her.
"Give me credit for what?" asked Frederick, stepping into the room, then freezing as he took everything in.
"Ah, Frederick. The boys are settled, I hope?" asked Aella.
"They were in the middle of giving Edgar a rather long list of foods they wanted to eat. I"m not sure he had ever heard of some of those things before, judging by his face," reported Frederick, looking around the room still. "Is Rannaun encased in water?"
"Oh!" exclaimed Josephine, waving her hand and releasing the sleeping demon from the water. "I forgot. I could really use a good bath and a bed."
"Well, you"re in luck!" a.s.sured Aella with a wide grin. "As guests, I can see to it you get both."
"Oh, good," she sighed, moving over to the vacated table and climbing into the oversized chairs. They were obviously not made for humans.
"Are we really in the Demon Palace?" asked Curt in an awed hush.
"Don"t sound so amazed, the place isn"t that great," laughed Aella, noticing the obvious fear on everyone"s faces. "Ernun, you were saying?"
"I was saying…" Ernun coughed, looking at her blankly, before clueing in and giving himself a shake. "Ah, yes, well, err…"
Alfred and Curt moved over to the table to sit with Josephine, and Aella sighed. The Heroes were being far too distracting.
"Frederick, Seifer, could the two of you take our guests to a room for the night? Make sure they have access to the baths and tell Edgar to prepare them a good meal as well. If you see Firion, tell him I need to see him here," said Aella.
"Yes, Your Majesty," said Seifer, bowing and Frederick nodded to the heroes, for them to follow.
"Don"t forget to burn that tower," said Alfred, jumping down from the chair to follow the demon Regents.
"Oh, that"s right. I"ll be right back," she said, teleporting to the tower. Glancing around to make sure there wasn"t anything she needed to try and save, Aella released the fire within her. It was hungry and the stacks of papers and books were consumed very fast. She was glad Bridgette weren"t there, because she was sure she would have had a fit.
Returning to the throne room, she turned back to Ernun, who had managed to sit back down.
"Ah, Your Majesty," he said, giving her a weak smile. "My report…"
"Ernun, you seem to be having trouble speaking. Is there anything wrong?" asked Aella, leaning forward and raising an eyebrow.
He hung his head for a moment, then clearing his throat, he said, "My job is to handle the law aspects of the kingdom, in the lack of a king to make those decisions. There has never been a king, before you, who even cared. You have been king for less then a month, and already there is so much improvement, and yet, I wonder if I am cut out for this job. I had no idea those two were spies for the Church, and you have brought the heroes we all fear so much, into the palace as guests. You even bring orphaned human children in. I wonder, Your Majesty, what I am to be doing? I feel lost, as if what I have always known, is unraveling."
"Interesting, Ernun. I think the best thing for you to do, is to tell me how the law in my kingdom is going."
He looked at her for a moment, then nodded, squaring his shoulders and saying, "There are people pouring into the city from all over the kingdom, as word gets out you are paying them actual money for doing real work. The food problem has been alleviated for the moment, so they can buy food while they are here, as well. The traders that you wanted to travel around buying food and such, have been a.s.sembled and left this morning. One went south and the other went north. Your suggested punishment for the guards has been working, and the rest of the guards haven"t had a problem keeping up with the influx of people."
"Spread the word that we will buy any extra food or products, people bring with them. Or if they had to leave things back at their home, if they let us know, we can send people to fetch it. That will help us get through the winter," said Aella. This king thing could be tedious. So many mouths to feed!