Back In Ambergeldar

Perry's schedule is quite full today. It has been quite full for several days now. And that's for a kingly definition of quite full; Perry doesn't really have days off. But the last week or so have brought meetings stacked back to back, from very early to rather late, straight through most meals.

Amy's not entirely sure why -- there's nothing she's aware of that should require this much of her husband's attention at the moment. (And if there were something like that, she would most definitely be aware of it, and in the meetings as well.) But a lot of minor things seem to have piled up at once for Perry, and Amy's attention is focused, at present, on the thousands of details involved in her mother's upcoming State Visit.

She's asked Parker to visit partly because she's fairly certain Perry will postpone some meeting or other in order to show off his new football field. Amy's worried -- he's looked entirely too tired lately, and he needs a break. Besides, he's somewhat ridiculously excited about the whole football plan, and he hasn't had a chance to visit the field since they finished the moat. (Amy's gone, every day, at his request, so she can dutifully report on the day's progress to him in whatever time they manage to snatch for each other.)

She leaves Parker in her parlor for the moment, and goes to tell Perry that they have company.

The page -- James something? Amy can't remember -- outside the Council Chamber seems very reluctant to let Amy in. "Lord Julius said they were not to be interrupted," he tells her, frowning.

Lord Julius, the Protocol Officer. Not a good person to invoke, when speaking to Amy, who does not like him. Besides, neither Protocol Officers nor pages, even senior ones, give orders to Queens. "Did he? And did His Majesty tell you that he did not wish to be interrupted, even by the Queen?"

The page turns very red. "Ah, no, ma'am. Your Majesty."

"Then stand aside," she says. And pray that she doesn't report this to the man in charge of the pages.

Amy enters the Council Chamber to find Perry sitting at the head of the table, listening to a report on . . . cabbage? Neither he nor any of his ministers notices her right away, which means that either cabbages are much more interesting than Amy thinks, or they've all been lulled into a stupor. She suspects the latter.

"Please pardon the intrusion," Amy says. A dozen men all try to be the first to scramble to their feet (one does not sit in the presence of a standing Queen), and Amy tries not to smile at the sight. "I need a moment of His Majesty's time."

"Is anything wrong, Amethyst?" Perry asks, already halfway around the table.

"No, Algernon. Just something that could not wait."

"Excuse us for a moment, gentlemen," Perry says, and escorts Amy out into the hallway to a chorus of of course, Your Majesty.

Perry glances at the still red-faced page, and then, in response to Amy's slight shake of the head, continues across the hall into an empty stateroom.

"Oh, Perry," says Amy, as soon as the door is closed, "cabbages?"

He nods, glumly. "And before that, it was radishes."

"Oh, Perry."

Perry shrugs. "In light of the problems with the storm and the rationing two years ago, the minister thinks we should pay attention to our vegetables, apparently."

"And a written report . . .?"

"Would not let him hear his own voice drone on and on. Now, what did you need?"

"I wanted to let you know that Parker is here for tea. I thought perhaps, if all matters vegetable can be postponed, you might want to show the field. And see what she thinks of it."

"Now that is a good idea." Perry grins and kisses her. "I knew there was a reason I loved you."

"And I was under the impression there were several," Amy tells him.

"Don't fish for compliments, Amy darling. It's unbecoming," Perry says, and kisses her again. "Give me five minutes to tell Lord Julius to reschedule the next few hours and I'll be right along."

"We'll be in my parlor."

Perry, it turns out, needs only three of those minutes, and comes bounding into Amy's parlor unannounced and looking happier than she's seen him in more than a week. He starts talking about the football field almost before Parker can finish saying hello. Amy, laughing, tells them to go on ahead and she'll catch up; she wants to tell Nurse Marta that Susan will be joining them for tea when they get back.

(She also wants to give Perry a chance to talk through some of his enthusiasm while she's gone -- he talks a lot about the football field, and Amy has heard all of it many times.)

Perry cheerfully tells her not to be long, and offers Parker his arm. She can hear him all the way down the hallway.

Amy grins and heads for the nursery. She'll have to make that up to Parker later.

(no subject)

Amy stays longer in the nursery than she planned to. (Amy always does.)

Eventually, though, she sets out to join Perry and Parker on their tour of Ambergeldar's first football field (with improvements).

She'll cut through the gardens, and she's almost to the door that leads into them when someone takes her arm, firmly, just above the elbow. Startled, Amy turns to find Lord Stefan, commander of the palace guard. "If Her Majesty would please come with me," he says, and Amy's guessing from the grip on her arm that no is not really an option.

"Lord Stefan, what's going on?" she asks.

"Not here," he says, quickly and quietly. And then, with a slight nod to the guard nearby, he says again, "If Her Majesty would come with me, please."

Amy lets him lead her up the back stairs (the ones she used to use when she was a kitchen maid), to Perry's study and then into a small windowless room beyond it. Perry calls it the War Room; it's easy to secure, hard to break into, a place from which the King and his advisers can deal with an invasion. Amy's been inside it maybe twice in her life.

"Stefan, what is going on?" she repeats.

"I'm afraid we don't know, Your Majesty."

"The children? Are they--?"

"Rosalind is getting them," Stefan says. Lady Rosalind is Amy's best friend and Stefan's wife. "I want you all here until we know more."

"Why don't you tell me what you do know?" Amy says, and only a fool would mistake it for a request or a suggestion.

"Not a lot, yet," he says. He pulls out one of the chairs at the small table in the middle of the room. Amy stays on her feet. Lord Stefan sighs. "The reports are confused and contradictory at this time. But it appears there was a sighting of a dragon, who may have . . . made off with His Majesty and your guest." He gestures to the chair again. "Please sit down, Amy."

Amy doesn't so much sit down as she sinks into the chair. "A dragon? Who took Perry and Parker?"

"I'm very sorry, Amy."

Amy waves the sympathy away with one hand. She'll be sorry later. Right now, she needs to be Queen Amethyst of Ambergeldar.

"Hired, do you think?" she asks.

Stefan nods. "They're not native to the area around Amber; we've not seen one near the capital for thirty years, at the very least. I think it's a bit much of a coincidence that the first one to wander this way in three decades just happens to take the King. But I don't know who hired it, or why. Or if the kidnapping was the endgame or just the first step. And I cannot imagine that anyone could kidnap a king without some help from inside this palace."

"So I can't trust anyone here," Amy says.

"You may trust me, Amy," he says. "You cannot imagine I had--"

"Heavens, no, Stefan," she says. "You're Perry's oldest friend. You, Rosalind, Lord Terence. Marta."

Stefan nods. "For now, that's as far as I'd be willing to go."

There are three sharp raps at the door, a pause, and then two more. Stefan waves Amy up and behind him, draws his dagger, and opens the door a fraction of an inch. Then all the way, to admit Lord Terence, the court magician and his father-in-law.

Lord Terence, with a bow, hands Amy a sealed letter addressed to Perry. "This arrived, for His Majesty. In his absence, I took the liberty of delivering it to you."

"Arrived from where?" Stefan asks, coming over to look at the letter.

"It was in the Council room. One of the pages found it."

Amy turns the letter over. The seal pressed into the wax is the Royal Seal of Ambergeldar. Perry's, in other words. She breaks it, unfold the letter, and reads it through.

"It's from Perry's Uncle Maximilian," she says. "It's a ransom note. If Perry wants my safe return, he will abdicate immediately in favor of his uncle. Only he uses a lot more words." Amy hand the letter to Stefan. "I take it things have not gone according to his plan. A bit overconfident, and not a little bit stupid, to send the demands before he's sure he successfully kidnapped the correct target."

Amy paces the length small room, then turns to Lords Terence and Stefan. "Right. Well, Maximilian has not been at court for weeks, which means there's definitely someone else involved, and we don't know who it is. We're going to need outside help.

"Lord Terence, you will wait here, please, for Rosalind and Nurse Marta and my children. You will all stay here until we know more. If anyone tries to break in, if anyone so much as threatens the Prince and the Princess, you have my permission to kill them where they stand. Or at least turn them into frogs or something."

Lord Terence bows. "As Her Majesty wishes."

"Lord Stefan, you will come with me."

"Where are we going, Amy?"

"To my rooms. There's something I need to get."