Bishop Excerpt

Chess Series: Book Three

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Chapter 1

“With all due respect, Your Majesty, that’s a terrible idea.”

Oh, boy. Alecks had used the formal address when telling me that getting married again was a bad idea. When he pulled out the ‘Your Majesty’ I knew I needed to pay attention. I looked at him across the poker table, then around at my other friends who were playing with us to see what they thought of his statement.

They all looked like they didn’t want to incur my wrath by agreeing. Smart.

An eyebrow raise would have been completely appropriate in that moment, but I’d never been able to master the trick. Instead, I narrowed my eyes at him and asked, “Getting married again is a terrible idea? Are you really saying that?”

He sighed and shook his head. “You know that’s not what I’m saying. You guys deserve it. No, I’m saying getting married in two weeks is a terrible idea.”

Our friend Piers nodded. “Retta, think of how bad that will look. The king’s only been gone for two days. Then you turn around and get remarried in another two weeks. Doesn’t that look like you setup Lucian?”

Anders, my fiancé, said, “I hate it. But they do have a point. After all that work, the last thing we want to do is turn everyone against us.”

Dart nodded. “More rumors. And we know how much you love rumors.”

I aimed a mock glare his way too. “Who says you get a say? Shouldn’t you be cuddling your newborn or something?”

He snorted and shook his head. “She’s being changed. Don’t want any part of that.”

Anders glared at him — although I’m pretty sure that glare was real. “No way — she’s your daughter, you have to do that stuff too. Do you think I like changing Ronan’s diaper?”

“Seriously? Your son has a governess and you still change diapers?”

I shook my head and said, “Enough — we’re getting off topic.” I turned to Alecks. “So, great and wise Alecks, when should we get married?”

He rolled his eyes at me. “Great and wise? Well…my child…perhaps if you were to end the war, the country would be so happy they would overlook that you’re marrying the man who’s been connected to you in rumors for over a year. Happy people will forgive a lot of crimes.”

Anders said, “Including treason?”

Alecks shrugged. “For your sake, let’s hope especially treason.”

I said, “Oh, sure. Let me snap my fingers and make that happen. It’s not like we haven’t been trying to win the war for four years.”

Piers said, “Technically, you haven’t been trying for four years. You’ve only been trying for a month or so.”

I sighed. “Anyone want to volunteer to go and ask the Elves to please leave Jador peacefully?”

Dart snorted. “Not it.”

I answered, “Right, it wasn’t a serious question. But, I do have a serious question — how do you fight a force who doesn’t have any demands? That just keeps coming no matter what you do?”

Anders added, “And who may have a god on their side.”

“As if I didn’t need any more obstacles to ending this war,” I said.

He put his arm around me and kissed my forehead. “I have faith we’ll figure something out.”

“I like the we’ll in that sentence, at least.”

The door to my study opened and Celeste, my best friend and Dart’s wife, came in carrying their two day old baby. He reached out to take Anastasia, and Celeste handed her over, but then smacked his arm.

“What was that for?” he asked.

Anders looked at Celeste and asked, “Because he needs to change diapers, right?”

Celeste nodded. “Damn straight he does. But, what are we really talking about?”

I said, “How to end the war so Anders and I can finally be together openly.”

She laughed and took her seat at the table. “So, your typical light conversation. Got it. But, seriously, why don’t we get help?”

“From whom? Frapane? If Dad was going to send troops he wouldn’t have sent me to marry Lucian.”

Piers said, “Whatever happened with the Chakrir?”

I shrugged. “They declined to help. I didn’t get a real clear answer, but I suspect Lucian pissed them off somehow.”

Dart said, “AKJ probably called them orcs.”

I shook my head. “First, we can’t keep calling him AKJ — he stopped being an asshole and he’s not the king of Jador anymore. As for calling them orcs, surely he wouldn’t have?”

Alecks shook his head. “That’s unlikely. Doesn’t mean someone else didn’t, though.”

“Petidar?” I asked, then I looked around and everyone nodded — we were all thinking the same thing.

The door opened again and Eve, my son’s governess, and the seventh member of our gang, came in carrying Ronan. “He woke up and I figured you would like to see him.” Anders reached out and took Ronan so Eve could take her seat.

For Eve’s benefit I said, “We don’t know for sure, but we wouldn’t be surprised if Petidar insulted the Chakrir when they were here last year, which is why they aren’t helping us in the war.”

She said, “Why not try again? The king — sorry Lucian — isn’t here any more and Petidar’s dead.”

I sighed. “Anyone got any Chakrir contacts we can reach out to?” Everyone shook their head and I rolled my eyes. “Well, that’s super helpful.…Who’s deal is it?”

Alecks reached for the deck of cards and I filed away Eve’s suggestion. Just because none of the seven of us knew someone, that doesn’t mean I was out of luck. Surely one of the perks of being the queen was assigning the task of finding someone who did?

∼∗∼∗∼∗∼

I stared down at the huge map of Jador and the scattering of model soldiers representing our troops and the troops of the enemy.

There was more red — for Jador — than there was blue — for the Elves. But, the last time the models had been repositioned was weeks before. We were in a holding pattern — the Elves weren’t taking more, but we weren’t pushing them back either.

Lucian had sent emissaries to try and speak with the Elves — if they came back alive, they reported no one would talk to them, and just sent them back to the Jador side of the line. I’d tried again after Lucian was deposed, and had just gotten back the message that morning — they didn’t want to talk to me either. It seemed they just wanted Jador. All of it? Part of it? Who knows? Maybe they didn’t like humans and thought we should be wiped from the planet?

I sighed and amused myself by tipping over the models so they were all lying on their sides. I made quiet explosion noises as I did so. At three months, Ronan wasn’t quite old enough to laugh yet, although I hoped he was getting close. I’d always loved the sound of a baby’s laughter. But maybe watching his mother exploding toy soldiers would get him to start?

While I was debating whether or not to go get my son, there was a knock on the door and Alecks opened it. I looked up with a question and he said, “Retta, I don’t know what’s going on, but Anders got a letter and now he’s shooting at targets as fast as he can load his pistols.”

I stomach dropped and my heart sped up. That was completely out of character. “Where is he?”

“At the garrison.”

“Take me there.”

He nodded and we hurried to the stables. The garrison was on the other side of the palace gardens, seemingly close, but the road between the two would take at least a half hour to walk. Going by horse was much faster, especially when you could kick them into a gallop.

We arrived at the garrison less than ten minutes after Alecks had come to get me. He was right, Anders was blasting away at a target — and not hitting the center every time. Anders was the best shot in the regiment — there’s no way he would miss the center that often unless he just didn’t care. That was almost more upsetting than the shooting was in the first place.

I slid down off my horse and slowly walked over to Anders. He didn’t look at me when I stopped next to him, and the look on his face was completely blank. Something was wrong — really, really wrong.

I took a deep breath, then said slowly, “So, are you aiming for a different target than the one I can see? Cause you’re not hitting that one very well.”

He said nothing and reloaded his pistol. It wasn’t clear how many times he’d fired his pistols, and I only saw the two, yet I doubt he was cleaning them every several shots. Which could lead to a dangerous situation. He raised the pistol again and I turned so I was facing him and reached out to put my hand over his. “Hey, look at me.”

He shook his head and went to pull the trigger, and I reacted quickly. I dug my nail into his hand, trying to get some response. That at least got him to look in my direction, although I’m not sure he was actually looking at me, so much as through me. “Where’s the letter?”

He inclined his head towards a table off to the side of the yard where his jacket was laying. I nodded and dropped my hand, then said to Alecks, “Please give him some pistols that won’t blow up in his hand because they’ve been cleaned recently.” Alecks nodded back and pulled the two from his belt, then gestured at a couple of other guards around the yard.

I went over to the table and looked through Anders’s jacket until I found a crumpled letter. Although, it wasn’t clear if he’d crumpled it, or if it had gotten abused on it’s way to him, since it was quite dirty as well. I smoothed it out and started to read.

The first part of the letter was clearly from a friend of his, telling him how they were doing and what was happening in their life. I glanced at the bottom to see who it was from, but there was no signature, just a postscript in different handwriting. I skipped the rest of the letter and read the postscript.

 

Marta was dead? Shit, no wonder he was so upset. And wait — wasn’t Fa’rod a Chakrir name?

I refolded the letter and put it back with his jacket, then walked over to him. As I had instructed, Alecks was making sure that Anders wasn’t using the same pistol over and over and fouling it with gunpower residue.

I looked at Anders and said, “So, we’re going to the Sacred Mountains.”

He shook his head, but didn’t look at me. “No, I’m going to the Sacred Mountains. You’re staying here.”

I choked back my snort. Was I now? “You really want to face this on your own?”

He fired the pistol again and at least it was close to the center of the target this time. He said, “No, but you didn’t know her.”

I felt like I’d been slapped. I set my shoulders and replied, “I didn’t have to know her to know how important she was to you.”

He snorted and said, “With all due respect, Your Majesty, you can’t understand. Your best friends are still alive and well.”

Dart and Piers arrived as Anders was speaking and from their surprised expressions, they must have heard what he’d said. And I was about to snap. I got that he was hurting, but I’d never seen him so…nasty before. I wasn’t sure if the ‘Your Majesty’ was because there were other people around, or if he was being condescending. I chose to believe it was because there were others around.

I said quietly, in what I hoped was a soothing tone, “Everyone has experienced loss of one kind or another. Which means we all understand that you’re hurting and need us.”

“What I need, is to be left alone.” He held his hand out to Alecks for another pistol, but I shook my head and Alecks pulled it back.

“Anders —”

“What?” He bit out.

Then, I snapped. I clenched my teeth and set my face in what Anders himself had dubbed my Don’t Fuck with Retta expression — then leveled it right at him. I said, steel clear in my voice, “Lt. Anders, you are relieved of duty until further notice.”

That got a reaction. He looked at me and narrowed his eyes. “You can’t do that.”

Dart stepped forward. “Of course she can. Now, I’ll need your weapons.”

I added, “Unless, you want to apologize right now and then have a reasonable conversation with me?” I looked down my nose at him.

He unbuckled his sword belt and threw it on the ground at Dart’s feet, then started to unbuckle the belt that held the sheath for his dagger and that he hooked his pistols to. I wanted to cry, but I pushed down the feeling and said, “Until you’re ready, the door will be locked.”

Dart’s eyes widened, but he said nothing. Anders scoffed and replied, “Whatever.”

My stomach clenched. Was there something else going on that I wasn’t aware of? “Excuse me? What did you say?” I paused and lowered my voice then said, “And be very careful how you answer that Lieutenant, or visiting privileges with the prince will be suspended as well.” I wasn’t playing around.

Finally — finally — I think I got through to him. He looked at me and I saw pain in his face, not the cold anger he’d been showing since I arrived. He swallowed and said, “I spoke out of turn, Your Majesty. I believe I will retire to my quarters.”

Okay, that was something at least. He could see his son. But I meant what I said about my bedroom being off limits. He gathered his jacket, leaving his pistols, and headed off into the garrison, not looking at any of us.

When he was out of sight, I finally allowed my shoulders to relax a bit. I still had to bite back tears, though. The man who had just walked into the garrison was not acting like the man I knew and loved. He had every right to be upset and angry, but he did not have the right to lash out at others.

Dart picked up the sword and dagger belt from the ground and sighed. “So, do you know what that was about?”

“A good friend of his was killed. Grief I understand, but this reaction? I’m as confused as you are.”

Alecks asked, “What do you want us to do if he tries to leave?”

“Let him go.” I sighed and got a boost back on my horse for a much slower return to the palace. Alecks mounted and rode with me.

About half-way to the palace, out of view of everyone but Alecks, I let the tears start. He looked at me and asked, “Are you going to be okay?”

I nodded and pulled a handkerchief from a pocket in my dress to wipe my face. “Yeah, I think so. I can’t believe that relieving him of duty and telling him he couldn’t see me alone weren’t enough to get him to crack. I had to threaten to deny him access to Ronan to finally get through? I know Marta was a good friend, but there’s got to be something else going on. This reaction is out of proportion to that.”

“Everyone grieves in different ways,” he said quietly.

“Sure, I get that. But why lash out at me? What did I do?”

“Wrong place at the wrong time?”

“Maybe. Let me ask you something. Isn’t the name Fa’rod a Chakrir name?”

“Certainly sounds like it.”

I thought for a moment. “Something’s not adding up.” I explained the letter and the postscript saying Anders should come alone to the temple and signed by a Chakrir. “And yet, just last night he said he didn’t know any Chakrir that I could reach out to.”

“You think he’s lying to you?”

“Goddess, I hope not.” I sighed, and wiped the last of the tears from my eyes. “He said Marta was married, and I presumed to a human. So, who is Fa’rod? Maybe Anders doesn’t know, or didn’t read far enough to ask?”

“I’ve never heard him mention anyone named Marta.”

I gave him a puzzled look. “Really? I didn’t know that. She was someone he knew several years ago. She was…very influential in his life.”

He looked at me sideways. “Is that Retta speak for the first woman he slept with?”

I blinked. “Retta speak?” I smiled weakly “No. I don’t actually know her name, but I know she wasn’t Marta.”

We arrived back at the palace stables where we turned the horses over to the stablemaster and made our way inside.

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