swordpoint diplomacy progress post

Chapter 44

Rose wondered if the roads were treating Vivian, Kian, and Marcel as kindly as they treated her. After a few days of gentle sun and easy riding, the party arrived at the capital without any issue. Of course, they didn’t get very far in amity. The best hours by far were spent in a tense silence, which was less effort than tense diplomatic smalltalk.

That was well enough. They did not need to be friends, they needed to protect their mutual interests.

The drama came after they got off their horses and were escorted to the palace. “Princess,” greeted the head of household.  She curtsied with no eye contact. “Where shall your companions go?”

Rose didn’t look back at them. “Diplomatic chambers,” she said in a tone of finality. “The blue quarters.”

Lady Elaine was too polished to react outwardly. But Rose knew damn well word was going to spread, and it was not going to be kind. She shook out her hair and pursed her lips. There was no way out but forward. She let Elaine set the pace and kept her head high. Courtiers had come to greet her. They formed two lines in the courtyard and bowed and gave courtesies as she passed.

In her wake, whispers started about the foreign faces behind her.

‘Just wait until they hear the King is dead,’ Rose thought wryly. ‘The gossip now is nothing.’

It was bleakly funny to her.

That was the first thing to take care of, however. “Call for an assembly,” she told Elaine, taking off her riding gloves the instant they entered the private wing of the palace. “In two hours. Have baths drawn for my companions, and find appropriate clothing for them to attend as my guests.”

She didn’t have to turn to know that Lady Elaine was quietly appalled by what she must see as a decision that would dangerously infuriate the King. She was possibly even afraid of punishment for complying.

For a moment, she considered just dismissing the woman and getting out of her disgusting travel clothes. She wanted to go to the royal pools and wash away her terrible week. She’d gone from a warcamp to enemy territory to a battle to patricide and now a rush to solidify her position so that people didn’t think she was a murderous beast that needed to be put down.

That was the thing, wasn’t it. Solidifying her position. She would need more allies than Vivian of Treyveylan and Lord Karitta.

‘It would be much more intelligent to maintain good relationships with people whose assistance I need.’

Rose was controlled enough to keep her exhaustion and poor temper out of her attitude when she invited Lady Elaine to come in for a discussion.

“I would be delighted, Princess,” Lady Elaine said, perfectly genteel and controlled. She curtsied as she crossed the barrier into Rose’s private chambers. She waited for Rose to take a seat before she alighted like a butterfly on a chaise.

There were two options at this point. Rose chose to be direct. “We have a crisis situation,” she spoke plainly. “My father the King is dead.”

Lady Elaine froze. “...Princess?”

“It was a training accident in camp,” Rose said, because that was the best interpretation of events that she could spin. If Father- if he’d intended to kill her there, that would have been illegal. He hadn’t disinherited or arrested her yet. She had a right to defend herself. “He took a fatal fall. The body should be on the road behind me.”

The words made her feel exhausted and thin, shamed. But a medical examination would support what she said. They could display the body for a state funeral. Hopefully, that would reduce accusations that she killed him to inherit. She was known as a swordswoman.

She was also known to be her Father’s favorite. Hopefully, public opinion would work in her favor.

Lady Elaine slowly raised her hand and clutched at her locket. Rose eyed the motion and wondered whose token was inside of it, aching to see her little sister. “Where is Esperance?” she asked. “She needs to be here for the coronation.”

Lady Elaine went a little green. “Of course, we must plan a coronation immediately,” she said faintly.  “Princess Esperance is with her usual companions, at the winter estate. I shall have word sent for her immediate return. As for the coronation, has Your Majesty been able to arrange for the retrieval of the ceremonial items?”