The King's Queen

Chapter 54

"I'll try to get in touch with Emilio tonight." Ashton decided. "In the meantime, I'll ask Beau to go to Nalway when he's finished moving his family. He'll be the ambassador between me and my grandparents. We'll need an alternate plan if it's not possible for us to meet with Emilio. By tomorrow, we'll know if we're going to Lydia or Nalway."

***

Emilio responded within two days. It might have only been a few hours, but for us it was an eternity of uncertainty. Still, our patience was worth it.

Emilio's family had gone into hiding and had pleaded with him to come with them, but after receiving Ashton's call, he decided to stay behind and help us. He would be waiting for us on the continent of Lydia.

Cyrena, Garrett, and I didn't encounter the mysterious person lurking about, but the paper that we'd left in the shed had disappeared. That was confirmation that someone was indeed keeping an eye on us, but they seemed to have no intention of revealing their identity.

Garrett had spent last night uprooting and gathering all the Nightshade plants he could find. That was to aid in my plan of ingesting low doses of Nightshade to develop tolerance to the toxins, but I didn't dare to attempt something so risky until we regrouped with Emilio.

Beau's response came shortly after Emilio's did. Ashton had assigned him the responsibility of traveling to Nalway to meet with his grandparents, Queen Indra and Prince Stellan.

Beau reported that the internal turmoil in the palace was worsening and slowly becoming external.

The power struggle was intensifying, and Origen families were dividing into factions. There were those who believed that CaVaughn was the rightful heir to the empire and that he should rule instead of Ashton. They were suspicious of the fact that Emperor Caden had chosen his middle child to be his successor.

The prime minister of Crysauralia, Ron Michaels, who despised the royal family, kept adding fuel to their suspicions. His ultimate goal was to overthrow the monarchy and declare himself as president.

Things had been bad before, but the emperor had always had a way of keeping everything under control. However, the turmoil was snowballing after Prinarch Cole took over the empire and Emperor Caden's loyal subjects refused to once again be under his rule.

This was now a public issue. Royals, nobles, and commoners alike, were all confused as to why Prinarch Cole had come out of retirement to rule the empire.

This has only happened once before in Crysauralia's history, about three hundred years ago. Prin Martha had returned to the throne after a three-year retirement to lead the kingdom following the tragic death of her heir and his wife. She ruled until her granddaughter came of age to take over the role.

The story the prinarch was going with was that the emperor had contracted a severe and highly contagious illness that prevented him from performing his royal duties. But his actions violated royal protocol, because if the emperor was unable to rule, Empress Arabella was supposed to be the one to step in as queen regent and reign in her husband's place until he recovered.

Queen Indra and Prince Stellan were also carefully monitoring Crysauralia's affairs. They would ensure that their daughter and grandchildren did not end up as victims in the crossfire.

The government was lobbying to depose the royal family. The internal affairs of Crysauralia were going up in figurative flames.

I gently placed my hand on Ashton's as we pored over an expansive map of the Spade Kingdom. He looked over with a smile and placed his other hand on top of mine.