Chapter Seventeen-Peace Breaks Out.
It took a while to get things sorted out and for Amber's order to stop attacking to be transferred down through the ranks of her army. Whilst the soldiers who used to fight for Queen Yocasta held the Royal Palace, Chancellor Montor and Queen Amber, each with a couple of bodyguards, met in neutral ground outside it.
"I'm willing, for the sake of a quiet life, to give an amnesty to all of your soldiers in exchange for peace, except for those who were involved in that dreadful Princess Training School," said Amber. "The parents must be allowed to look for their daughters. Dracia and..." and here she named six names "must be punished for what they did. Vandersil must be granted it's independence. The other thing is,who is to rule Vallermoore? I was not born here and the rule of an outsider tends to be disliked. I suppose you want to rule, but how can I trust you?"
"How about a compromise?," asked the plump Chancellor. "You rule for five years, with me serving under you, and then you make way for me? We make this public. Of course, Vandersil belongs to you for life."
"Done," said Amber.
That evening the gates of the Royal Palace of Valermoore were thrown open to allow the parents of those daughters who had lost their daughters to the Queen's Princess Draft. They checked the dungeons and soon smelt the stink of rotting flesh coming from a cell. When it was unlocked the cell proved to be full of the decomposing bodies and bones of those who had been taken. The parents began to scream and cry.
As one of Amber's soldiers passed the Chancellor he smelt the smell of women's perfume, so he pulled the soldier's helmet off to reveal the face of Dracia Eldren! "Guards, stop her, she murdered those girls!" Before the guards could interfere the parents of the murdered daughters threw themselves upon her, screaming curses. She managed to draw a sword and chop one of them down before they dragged her to the ground, slipped a rope around her neck and strung her up from the gallows that stood outside the Royal Palace. As they were lynching her she shouted "I'm not the only guilty one here,Chancellor, you're as gulity as me!"
Amber intervened. "I know this man personly and I feel certain that he would not have been involved in this foul plot. I suffered the horrors of the Princess Training School and survived. Now if you want to try and lynch him you'll face the swords of my troops and his guards."
The moment passed. Since they were unarmed the family members backed down. Amber wispered in the Chancellor's ear. "I'm almost certain of your guilt, and the only reason that I let you live, is because I want peace, not anarchy."
For seven days there were funerals and everybody dressed in black. Funerals for the dead daughters, and for the soldiers on both sides who had died in the battle. Amber explained to everyone about the Princess Training School.Queen Yocasta and Princess Chrysta were buried in a single royal tomb together. Three of the Training School guards were captured and hanged publicly,the others escaped and fled into hiding.
On the eighth day Queen Amber was dressed in the scarlet and ermine robes and the diamond and emerald studded crown of Queen Yocasta and swore to rule for a five year term instead of life,with Chancellor Montor standing beside her. She had what she wanted.Independence for Vandersil, her father was avenged, and she had peace.
End.
Comments are welcome, but please don't flame me.
Thomas.
