Page 45 of Queen Takes Queen
“Not a problem at all, Your Majesty. We’ll always have plenty of prepared food for your Blood, even if it’s justsandwiches.”
“These sandwiches fucking rock,” Daire said around a mouthful. “I should know. I’m the sandwichking.”
“Knock, knock,” Gina called from the front door as she came inside. “I’m glad I stopped for some more of those chocolatecroissants.”
Rik set a bowl of fruit salad before me and I stared at it a moment, my eyes burning. It was the same as yesterday… except Winston had removed the cantaloupe. He’d noticed how I’d picked all them out yesterday and immediately adjusted it. I flashed a wobbly smile at him and picked up my fork as Gina set a croissant by my cup. “You guys. Thankyou.”
Winston bowed slightly, his cheeks pink and eyes sparkling. “Our pleasure, YourMajesty.”
“Shara.”
“Of course, Shara, YourMajesty.”
“Give up,” Gina patted my arm as she sat down beside me, her leather satchel bulging with all the things she needed to go over with me. “He’s a stickler for propriety. Most Britsare.”
“I thought of a whole list of things I wanted to ask you last night. Hopefully I can remembereverything.”
“We have plenty oftime.”
Anxiety tightened my stomach despite the delicious breakfast. “Not really. Not considering how much I don’tknow.”
“Again, don’t worry about all the formalities. Zaniyah’s court won’t be nearly as formal as Skye’s, let alone the Triune. Look at this as practice. She’s inviting you, and she’s not known for that. She’s the one who needs to impressyou.”
We spent two hours going over general Aima formalities. A queen rarely ever did anything herself, and it took skill to read through all the intentions and meanings behind something as simple as who sat by whom at the table, or who came to greet us at the airport. The more I learned, the more I realized how much Keisha Skye had insulted me when she’d sent such a low Blood to me. She’d completely misjudged my strength, for one thing, and she’d compounded that mistake by sending someone so weak on Skye’s prominence ladder to represent her entire court’s interests to a newqueen.
It was a major lesson for me when I thought about my Blood and how I would send them, if needed, to communicate with another queen. I would have considered only their personalities. Like it’d be stupid to send Ezra on a political mission. He’d only piss everyone off and end up causing a war. So would Mehen. But worse, Mehen was known for his destruction and hatred. So if a queen saw him innocently standing outside hernest…
She would assume I meant to raze her court to theground.
And if Guillaumewent…
Her Blood would react like Rik had the first time Guillaume walked into my house in Kansas City. He’d be sweating, expecting his head toroll.
Even more care would be going into the seating arrangements on Zaniyah’sside.
“I’ve already sent a brief listing of our party, including each Blood’s name,” Gina said, her brow crinkling. “I hope that was allright?”
It made me a little twitchy to know the complete list was in another queen’s hands. They had to know about Guillaume now after that television footage, but did they know about Leviathan, king of the depths? Or Xin? All Zaniyah’s consiliarius had to do was pick up a phone and call the Triune. “I trust yourjudgment.”
“It’s polite to do so, but not required from a guest. Our list lets them plan better, but negates your ability to surprise them with who’s on your Blood already. I thought it would establish open communications up front if we exchanged our full list without any secrets, so they can fully prepare for yourarrival.”
I could see how showing up with Mehen in tow without preparing them might cause a bit of a scramble. Incredibly old and powerful, he’d be hard to match up with another Blood, unless Zaniyah had a few secrets of herown.
“She will have secrets,” Gina agreed. “No one knows much about Zaniyah. She’s worked hard to remain cooperative to an extent—but completely unknown. She might be significantly more powerful than anyone’s giving her credit for. She may have a hundred Blood for all weknow.”
“Or an equally old and pissed off Blood like Leviathan,” Daire added, winking at Mehen, who stood glaring at the room ingeneral.
“Maybe I should fly over for a reconnaissance mission,” hesaid.
Gina winced and shook her head. “That would be highly rude and suspicious ofus.”
“And your pointis…?”
“Do we even have a map of her nest?” Rik asked, giving a quelling look at the older Blood. “We should have our own exit strategy in place in case things gosouth.”
He and Guillaume studied the maps Gina spread out on the table. “Nothing of her direct court, but we have the generalarea.”
By the time they were done asking for emergency cars stationed down the road and horses in case we had to go cross country, my eyes were getting heavy. I forced them open, surprised to find Mehen carrying me with Xin and Daire on either side. “Where…”
