The Siren

After managing to find a pair of shoes and socks that not only fit but matched the suit, the two of us headed to lunch, the photo still burning a hole in my pocket. I wanted to ask him why he’d lied to me, but I decided to wait until after his interview in the afternoon. If I talked to him now about it, I was going to be angry, and the last thing the public needed to see right now was the pair of us arguing. I also couldn’t begin to formulate the words needed anyway. My head was way too messed up with the whole situation.

Even though I’d spent practically the whole morning with him, we’d barely spoken. I felt more nervous than I probably should have as we walked into the dining hall. My heart thumped as we opened the door and I made sure not to be standing too close to him.

My mother stood and came running over to us. She shook Cynder warmly by the hand.

“I never had a thing against the Magi, you know. I just picked out the best men for the ball.”

I knew my mother was referring to a TV interview she had been part of the previous year where the interviewer had pointed out how no Magi had been invited to my ball despite there being a hundred men to choose from. I tried not to smile. My mother had always been a woman of the people and hated to upset anyone. I’d be extremely surprised if Cynder had even seen the TV interview in question.

“It’s fine, Your Royal Highness. I’m sure you picked the best men in the land, and who wouldn’t want the best for Her Majesty? She deserves the best.”

If my mother blushed, it was nothing compared to the flaming red color my cheeks felt likely to be.

“Good thing she found the best then, really,” said Luca strolling over and clapping Cynder on the back a little too strongly. I began to wonder if Luca’s motivation for inviting Cynder was what he told me it was.

Elise ran over and hugged Cynder so hard, she almost knocked him over with her enthusiasm, and Leo shook his hand although I noticed he was hesitant to do so.

If Cynder was nervous, he didn’t show it. Even when the waiters came in to serve our food, he sat back and waited patiently until it was his turn as though it hadn’t been him on the other side just days before.

When I looked at my plate, I was surprised to find that I had chicken, whereas everyone else had salmon. I was just about to inquire as to why when I noticed a sly grin on Cynder’s face as he quickly hid his wand under his jacket. He’d made it a point to serve me plain chicken last year when I told him I preferred it to the lobster and pheasant that were being served at the ball. He’d remembered.

As he was seated at the further end of the table from me, any conversation I had with him would have been heard by everyone else around the table, so I turned to Leo instead, while Cynder chatted with my mother and Elise.

“I’ve not found out anything else yet, but I have someone looking into it,” whispered Leo. “What did he say? Did he deny it?”

I sighed. “I’ve not asked him. I’m worried if this all comes out before the interview, it will mess everything up. I was going to speak to him about it later.”

Leo opened his mouth to reply when the palace sirens went off. I’d not heard them since the day of my wedding to Xavier, and that had signaled a riot where a lot of people died. Before that, we’d been sent to the safe room because someone had set off a bomb. My family jumped up, leaving their food half-eaten, and Luca took my hand. I let him guide me to the entrance to the basement in the hallway, but as one of the guards opened the door, I halted.

“You go in. I’m going to find out what this is all about.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. If there is a threat, let the guards deal with it,” hissed Luca, trying to pull me to the stairway.

“The sirens have gone off over nothing before,” I replied, remembering a couple of times last year when they went off just because there was a demonstration outside the palace. On that occasion, my father had stayed out to find out what was going on. As much as I hated most of what he stood for, I always admired his bravery in times like this and I was damned if I wasn’t going to equal that bravery.

“You don’t know that it’s nothing! Come down, I’ll stay out in your place and let you know.”

“I’m the queen! Let me go.” I pulled my hand from his roughly. He responded by picking me up, putting me over his shoulder, and carrying me down the basement steps. Behind us, the basement door closed.

The others headed past the shelves of antiques to the small living space at the end while Luca finally let me down.

“How dare you!” I hissed, under my breath. “I’m the queen! You’ve completely embarrassed me in front of my family, not to mention the staff.”

“Not to mention Cynder is more like it.”

“What?”

“I didn’t expect you to be spending the whole morning with him.”

“Is that what this is about? You picking me up was your way of showing him that you own me? Some male dominance thing?”

“No. I picked you up because I care about you and don’t want you getting shot or blown up.” He raised his voice. “If you remember, it was only a few days ago that someone tried to assassinate you outside my parents’ castle.”

He didn’t give me time to argue back; he stormed off towards the others who were all watching.

I felt ashamed, but angry at the same time. I needed to get away and find out what was going on, no matter what Luca said.

At the top of the stairs, the guard let me out. I instructed him not to let any of the others follow me. The last thing I needed was Luca pulling me back down the stairs again.

The entrance hall was empty, leaving me unsure of what to do. It hadn’t occurred to me before, but a meeting with the head of the guards was something I should have done a long time ago.

I heard someone barking orders and followed the sound until I found Turner, our current head of the household guards, in the main hall.

“Turner, can you tell me what the siren is going off for?”

“You need to be downstairs Your Majesty. It’s not safe up here for you.”

“You would always speak with my father during an emergency,” I pointed out. “I’m asking you to do the same for me.”

Turner sighed as though I was some stupid little girl, which irritated me further.

“The Magi have turned up outside wanting to be let into the grounds.”

“And?” I waited for him to elaborate. Judging by the rather surprised look on his face, he wasn’t going to. “People are coming onto the grounds to see the show. There are barriers set up. The same ones as yesterday. I don’t understand what the problem is. Has something happened?”

“Your Majesty. We can’t just let them in with the normal people.”

“They are normal people. Do you mean to tell me, that the guards are not letting them in and that the sirens have been set off because of this?”

If I sounded angry, it’s because I was. I was livid. With everything I’d been trying to change, I couldn’t believe that this was happening with my own staff in my own palace.

Ignoring Turner’s protestations, I turned on my heel and headed for the main doors. The walk down the long driveway scared me. I could hear the crowd shouting which only got louder as I got to the front gates.

Behind them, I could see thousands of people. Some were wearing the purple color of the Magi, many were not. All looked angry.

My plan had been to just open the gates, but there were too many people pushing forward with anger in their voices for it to be safe. Instead, I headed to the stage area. The news crews were still setting up in their own section, but Marybelle was on stage, having her make-up retouched by a make-up artist. She seemed quite surprised to see me on stage so early.

“Your Majesty. We don’t go on for half an hour.”

“Where is the sound guy?”

She pointed to a thickset man who was fiddling with a tangle of wires.

I thanked her and walked over to him. He bowed deeply and dropped all the wires on the floor when he saw who it was who had come to speak to him.

“Do you have a microphone I could use that will make my voice loud enough for the people on the other side of the gates to hear me?” I enquired.

“I could run you a microphone to the speakers, yes.” He bowed again appearing nervous.

“Please, could you do that for me, right away?” I asked, trying to sound as pleasant as possible.

He nodded his head and ran to the other side of the stage, where he began sifting through another pile of wires. A minute later, he was back with a microphone.

“Just turn it on and talk,” he said showing me the button on the side.

“Thank you. Do you think you could ask someone to project me onto the screens too, please?”

The screens were set up so that the people in the crowd, as well as people watching on their TV’s back home, could see, but they were currently turned off.

I didn’t wait for his answer.

“Hello, fellow people of Silverwood,” I began. My voice boomed out across the grounds. Almost immediately a thousand eyes turned towards me. “The gates will be open shortly for the interview. I’m grateful to you all for coming out to see me today and to support both Cynder and Luca. I appreciate that tension is high, but the aim of this is so that we can all live together in peace. I’m going to instruct the guards to open the gates now, and I would appreciate it if you could all make your way to the stage area calmly.” I pointed to the barriered section below me, just behind the area for the media. “There is enough space for everyone and those at the back can see us all on the big screens.” I turned to the huge screen behind me that turned on as if by magic as I spoke.

“Please leave your differences behind as you come through the gates and let’s have a wonderful afternoon together.”

I nodded my head to the guards at the gates. They pulled back the lock, and the gates opened. I held my breath to see if my words had gotten through to them. At first, there seemed to be a massive rush, but as the area within the barriers filled up, I noticed that people were being kind to each other. Pushing was at a minimum, and there was plenty of purple mixed in with the other colors being worn. I’d done it. There was no fighting, no riot, just a large group of people out to see their royal family. I gave a huge smile as hope flooded my chest. It was a small step to the unification of the kingdom, but it was a start.

I felt a little better as I made my way back up the driveway. The crowds behind me were still noisy, but it was cheering as opposed to the aggravated tones they were using earlier. Not only were the Magi and non-Magi standing together peacefully, they were doing it because of me. I couldn’t help but give myself a little grin as I entered the palace. Unfortunately, I came face to face with two extremely angry men.

“What do you think you were doing?” Luca hissed. “You could have been killed. Turner told me that you disobeyed him.”

“Disobeyed him? I’m the queen, and I’m the one who gives orders to Turner, not the other way around.”

“When it’s a question of your safety, Turner is in charge. Do you hear me?”

I’d never seen Luca so angry before. I wanted to argue with him, but we were due to head down to the stage at any minute.

“I’ll talk to you later about it!” I replied, using the same tone he had with me. Luca glared at me and stormed past me to the front door. I’d wanted to walk down the driveway with my hand in his, but so much for that idea.

“Are you ready to go?” I asked Cynder, who was standing just behind Luca. I was concerned that he would be nervous. Unlike Luca and I, he was not accustomed to standing up and speaking in front of such a huge group of people. I hated that I still felt nervous for him after what Leo had told me, but it was a habit I couldn’t seem to shake.

“The guard wouldn’t let me out until the sirens were shut off,” he said. His voice wasn’t as angry as Luca’s had been, but I could sense the frustration in it.

“I was fine,” I protested.

“I wasn’t able to protect you. Do you know how that makes me feel?”

He walked past me and followed Luca down the driveway. Now I had both men angry with me, not to mention Turner who was standing silently by the wall but glaring at me sullenly all the while.

Tears pricked the corners of my eyes, but I refused to let anyone see. I dabbed at them carefully so as not to mess up the make-up and headed down the driveway to the stage by myself.