Collision by Alyx D. Vacca (e ink ebook reader TXT) 📖

little meeting up." I was the ass-hole of a guard. He had Henry in one hand with a knife to his throat and on his left was Allen with Riah, with him there was no knife but her arms were tied behind her back with a lead in Allen's hand. "Take us all to the queens," Tobi said, with all of the authority granted to him by being one of the chosen and of Nobility. The two guards looked at each other and shrugged. "Might as well. We were taking the prisoners there anyways," said Allen. I glared at him, so much for thinking that he was nice and just following orders, because, for all of my anger, I did believe that he was sorry for us and that he would help if he could. They tied us all up like we were cattle or something, being lead to the butcher, and brought us to the queens' private rooms.


Chapter Nine

Enter the Queens

When they got there the guards straightened their uniforms and looked at me and Henry like we could have at least tried to change into less shabby prison clothes. Then all fell silent as Allen knocked on the double doors. We all waited in the hallway for what seemed like forever before there was an answer. The right door opened and a woman who looked to be in her late twenties,early thirties, poked her head out. "Can I help you?" She asked softly in a husky voice. The mean guard gulped and bowed low saying, "Your Majesty, I hope we are not interrupting anything! These young ones demanded to see you and Queen Karim." So this was Kate. She did not look like I imagined she would when I first imagined her. She had dark brown skin and a round face, her eyes were wide and brown but if you looked closely you could see hints of red. Her hair was wiry and she wore it in hundreds of little braids. "Well come in then. Let me go and get Karim. She is sleeping right now, had a late night listening to a bunch of high strung and jealous old men." "So she was talking with the American Congress?" I asked. Everyone turned to stare at me except Kate. "Yep. You do not seem to like your officials very much. Why? It is not as if they inherited rulership and you had no say in the matter." "Well it's majority rules is it not? Our old president was good, Obama. But this new one is not one I would vote for. Not to mention I don't get to vote until I am eighteen." For some reason I felt very at ease with this queen. Maybe it was because she used to be just a stable-boy and seemed more real to me than the other queen. But then again, I have not really met the other queen. I mean I have seen her on the dais, but she was being queenly. Maybe queens don't have to act like their not people when they are in their rooms. "I guess that no system is really perfect," Kate said with a shrug, motioning us to take a seat and frowned when she saw the rope. "Why are they bound?" She demanded of the two guards. "Um... I ..." The mean one looked helplessly at Allen. "We received orders not to let any not pre-approved persons talk to, or get near to the Chosen Five," Allen said, coming to his comrades rescue. "But it seems to me as if two of these children are part of the Five. Is that not so?" "It is so." "Then if they wanted to talk to these people why did you not let them?" Karim asked coming into the room,tousled and sleepy eyed. "Be-because they were not pre-approved." Kate put her head in her hands as Karim burst out laughing. "Karim! Is it impossible for you to write clear orders?" Kate asked her soul-mate, exasperated. "Apparently," said Karim between outbursts of laughter. Kate shook her head. "I am sorry about that. It seems like Karim was not clear in her instructions. Pre-approved by the Chosen. If they wanted to talk to each other it should have been fine. The only reason for that was to protect them from persons who were jealous about not being chosen and might wish them harm." She sighed. "Please untie them." Allen and the other man untied us. It was a relief to finally have them off. The blood had been having a hard time getting to my wrists and hands. "Have any of you guys had breakfast yet?" Karim asked brightly. She was obviously not one of those people (like myself) who when woken up, would rather rip anyone's who was in sight heads off before offering them any kind of hospitality. We all shook our heads except the two guards. "Well then you should join us! Right Kate?" Kate grinned and nodded. "Yes! Interesting company at last!" She laughed at our astounded faces. "What? Can I not be tired of dried up persons of state?" Kate held open a door. "Come on, whoever is eating. And quit complaining, it's getting old Kari. Breakfast is getting cold." The table looked to be made out of copper, but I knew better. It was made out of the oar tree. My father, a carpenter, had been making a lot of these recently for rich people. This one looked brand new. Enough about the table, more attention for food lovers like me should be on the spread. There was a basket of freshly bread, baked to perfection. Steaming muffins, bacon eggs, it seems as if they had adapted a little to the American Way, because they had some waffles. "I always love eating in here instead of down in the dinning hall. We get better food." "Why is that?" I asked them. No one else seemed inclined to talk. "Probably because there's less people," Kate answered. "So...How come no one else is talking? Is there some kind of protocol about talking to royalty that I do not know about?" "No, they are just most likely in awe of me," replied Karim modestly. Me and Kate looked at each other and started laughing. "What? I was serious!" Karim demanded trying to suppress a smile of her own. "Although," she said more seriously. "You could be a little more companionable guests." "Come on Tobi," I said. "Be more normal." "Yeah! All of you guys do that," Kate urged them. "We are not going to have you be-headed just for saying whatever!" Karim turned to me, "By the way, what was your name again?" "Jayd." Tobi kicked my shin under the table. "Jaydria Caw," I amended myself. I shot him a look that said 'Happy now?' "Pleased to meet ya!" Karim said. Kate extended her hand like this was a formal introduction. I took it. "Great! Now will you please introduce them if they cannot find their voices?" Kate said with a smile that did not quite fit under the hand that she attempted to hid it with. I waited for a moment for them say their names, then Riah spoke up. "I am Cole Moreo of the Fief Tangpo." That seemed to wake Henry up who then said, "My name is Henry of Fief Tangpo." "I am Tobias Caw, although I would prefer Tobi." We all turned to Allen, the other guard had already left for duty, and waited for him to take the others lead. His ears turned red as all eyes turned on him. "Um..." "Don't worry about it Allen, we know your name," Karim said kindly. "Now! Yesterday I canceled everything until two o' clock, so lets do something fun until then!" "Um... Your Majesty, Tobias and Cole are supposed to work on splitting the worlds apart," Allen said, finally finding his voice again. "Oh yeah! I had completely forgotten." Henry and I looked up in alarm at Tobi and Cole. "Why don't you four, or five if you want to come Allen, come back here tomorrow? We like company like old people!" Kate made a face, "I am not old!" Karim went over to her and kissed her cheek, "Of course you are not! It was a figure of speech." She turned back to us. "So? Tomorrow?" We all nodded except Allen. "I have things that I must attend to at that time Your Majesties." "Oh, maybe some other time then?" Kate said. He nodded, "I will try Your Majesties." Karim snorted, "Enough with the 'Majesty' stuff, OK? Just use our names. Kate and Karim. That applies to you four as well." We all nodded except me who said, "Sure Karim." She smiled. "Well, if you and Henry want to stay here for a while your welcome!" Kate said hopefully. "Sure," we both said in unison.
It was a few hours before we left. "I like Karim and Kate, what about you?" He nodded, he had a thoughtful look on his face. "What are you thinking about?" He shrugged, "Not much, just, I did not think that they would be that human. They liked playing cards and talking about normal stuff. I just find that kind of odd." "Well if you had to spend your life doing paperwork and talking about politics I would think that you would want to do something fun too." "I know that," he assured me. "I just never really thought about it." As we got to the end of the stairs a messenger ran up to us. "Are you Henry of Tangpo and Jayd Caw?" He asked, slightly out of breath. We nodded. "I have a message for you from Her Majesty, Queen Kate. She says that if you two wish it she can arrange it for you to have your own suits here until the Five figure out how to separate the worlds. Do you want it?" Henry looked at me and grinned, I smiled back. "Yes!" He nodded and said for us to follow him. He lead us through a hall and up another flight of stairs until we arrived at a floor that looked a bit like a mid-evil hotel. He brought us to a door and said that this was to be mine and that the one on the right was to be Henry's. He gave us two keys and left. Henry grinned at me and moved to his door and put the key in. I followed suite. We turn the keys and walked into the rooms. They were wonderful! Floors were made out of thousands of different colored stones arranged into a mosaic of a hundred birds taking flight. The ceiling was made out of what looked like the leaves of an oar tree, woven together with copper wire. There was a desk in the corner for what ever work needed doing. The desk was made out