Page 12 of The Forgotten Queen
“That’s impossible. My son, Palmer, saw her dead body lying in a casket two days after the wedding.”
“That was her body, but she wasn’t dead.”
McKane laughed again, but this time the mocking tone behind it dug into Stoddard.
Stoddard’s eyes narrowed, and his fists tightened. “Clearly, you’re not the man I thought you were. You lack vision and imagination. Perhaps, it would have been better to deal with your son, after all.”
McKane’s degrading smile faded into stone. “Don’t insult me.”
“Don’t insult me either,” Stoddard said, jutting his chin out. “Respect. Admiration. Awe. Those are what you should be feeling toward me right now. I alone have pulled off the biggest deception of our dispensation. So big that you can’t even wrap your head around it.”
McKane rubbed his chin. “Princess Seran? Alive?”
“Not only is she alive, but she doesn’t have a clue who she is.”
“She has amnesia?”
“Kind of. Let’s just say that the doctor who kept her alive has created a way to block out certain memories.”
“That’s impossible,” McKane sneered.
“Is it?” Stoddard smirked.
“How, then? How are you blocking her memories?”
Stoddard enjoyed seeing McKane stumped.
“Doctor Von is an amazing chemist and created a drug that blocks the neuron connectors in the brain. Think of it like a drawbridge. The medicine he created blocks the pathway between the brain and the neurons causing isolated or induced amnesia. We’ve selected what we want her to know.”
“How can you selectwhatyou want her to know?”
Stoddard lifted his eyebrows. “Do you really need to know every last detail of how we did this?”
McKane’s eyes narrowed to a slit. “I need to know if it worked.”
“I wouldn’t be here if it hadn’t.”
“So you replaced her old memories with new ones?”
He shook his head. “No. We can’t replace memories or rewrite them, only make them lost inside her mind so that she can’t find them. We didn’t block everything. She still has most of her knowledge. We only blocked things associated with her past, who she is, and where she came from.”
“And what do you want me to do with a princess everyone believes is dead?” McKane asked.
Stoddard thought he’d be meeting with King Marx, but now that this deal hinged on King McKane, he needed to change his tactic—manipulate the plan in a new direction, a direction that hit Meldrum McKane right where he was the weakest. “For years, New Hope has looked down on your kingdom. Cristole has never been good enough for King Bryant. Even your son, Palmer, wasn’t good enough for Bryant’s precious daughter. Now is your chance to change that.” He lifted a calculated brow. “Wouldn’t you like to put King Bryant in his place? Settle the score from years ago?”
King Meldrum McKane
McKane looked back at Commander Stoddard. There wasn’t a trace of joking on his expression. His chin lifted high; pride beamed from his eyes. He had Princess Seran, had a doctor who had created a new drug, and he was ready to strike a bargain.
Years ago, McKane had wanted the princess, but Stoddard was right. Bryant had tossed him over. McKane could still remember the discussions like they’d happened yesterday. It was his last Council of Essentials eleven years ago.
McKane stepped in front of King Bryant just as he exited the front doors of the Appa Ruler’s Mansion.
“Bryant,” McKane said with feigned surprise. “Are you leaving so soon?”
King Bryant tilted his chin down, frowning slightly. He’d been avoiding McKane the last few days of the Council of Essentials and was clearly upset that he’d been cornered.
“The Council is over,” Bryant said. “It’s only natural that I would go back home to New Hope.”
