3 - The princess-servant

"Just look at her blossom like a flower in spring." The queen in distaste said as she watched Theresa from one of her windows. She was walking out of the castle with a gathering basket on her arm. “I hate to admit that with the physical attributes of Adolph and that nymph, she turned out to be the fairest in the kingdom… but she still comes second place to me.” She finished haughtily.

Lucas who was scribbling something down on a scroll, looked up for a moment. "She's seen eighteen winters, Ursula, what do you expect?"

The queen turned away from the window and stared at him. "Eighteen winters and yet she finds no mate." Her voice was laced with mockery.

Lucas sighed and put down his quill. "Yeah, and thanks to you influence, no lycan will woo her because of you. They all avoid her as if she is the very plague."

Ursula snorted and poured herself a drink, then sat down on the furry-long, one-arm couch in the lounge. "I believe my subjects fear and respect me and so do they towards my wishes. Besides, she's not quite really one of us, so don't blame me for her misfortune of being an ostracized hybrid." She sipped from the goblet. “It is no fault of mine that she’s yet to have her lunar call. Maidens are peers had theirs as young as six winters.”

"Every man out there with sight will testify to Theresa's priceless beauty. As far as I'm concerned, she's the fairest maiden in the whole of the realm; you just said that yourself too. She’s the fairest of both her kind and ours combined. The men only won't come near her because you spread the rumour to the elders that her mother was mentally ill and suicidal, and that she attacked you while you were asleep in your chambers. And when you fought her off, she attempted to throw herself off the building with her child which you claimed to have saved on time before her mother plummeted to her death. Now, they are all scared that she carries the same mental illness and do not want her in their families."

Ursula looked away. "Her mother’s death is deserved. Do not remind me of that, Lucas. If I hadn't done what I did and word had gotten out about our affair, you'll have your head on a pike for daring to defile the king's bed and I will be disgraced and banished to be a vagabond forever and that's a fate I'm not willing to face. It's been eighteen winters already and I'm happy to be rid of both my husband and his concubine."

"You sent Crocottas after the king who imitated Alethea's voice to lure him out and they devoured him and his men. The elders are still investigating the issue even after eighteen winters. They are still of the belief that the attack is not ordinary and some dark magic must be involved."

"Why go down the memory lane of the bitter past?" She asked in irritation. "Would you have preferred a Manticore, the Cyclops, or perhaps the Keres to get the job done?" She waved a dismissive hand, "you couldn’t bear to drive a dagger into the king’s heart because you were soft and incompetent, so, I did the job for you to save both our heads, especially yours from the executioner’s blade.  If you are becoming remorseful about everything that happened eighteen winters ago, well, it's a little bit late for that now because not even the accusing venomous tongues of the Erinyes will bring them back..." she gave him a suspicious look now "or..." she stood up, "do you occasionally talk me to death about this because you have grown weary of me and are now beginning to find Theresa fairer than I am?"

Lucas lifted his brows in shock. "What!"

The queen quickly cut in with an accusing tone, "I knew you had an eye all along for Alethea, but your cousin, the king beat you to it and got to her first! Is that why you asked me to spare the child’s life so that you could have the replica of her mother and fulfill the desires the dead king destroyed?"

"Ursula!" Lucas called sternly. "How could you even think of that! If I had eyes for any other woman, I wouldn't remain unmated to be by your side."

The queen smiled, approached him and caressed his face. "You are a loyal subject, Lucas. A very loyal one and that's why I elevated your royal position when I became Queen Ruler of the realm... but!" She tore her hand from his face and went around him. "I'll still take no chances. I'm not going to let Theresa's presence ruin what we have; what we have painfully built over the years."

"And what do you plan to do?" He asked suspiciously, feeling her presence behind him.

"As the Queen of the realm and her supposed mother, I'm liable to marry her off to anyone I so choose." She chuckled. "Perhaps, I should give her to the satyrs; they always appreciate invaluable beauties."

"Their lot is lecherous!" Lucas huffed. "Those hooved perverts will defile and devour her innocent body without mercy."

"The centaurs then, or the giants? Any creature who's willing to take her off my hands and make her his." She chuckled and walked past him to refill her goblet with more wine. "I wonder if her thighs will also be irresistible like her mother's, perhaps, that was why the king chose to dwell there in the first place."

"You despised his touch." Lucas said. "You were like a cold stone underneath him any time he laid with you."

"Well, maybe but I was like boiling lava any time you made love to me, dear Lucas! Don't you see the difference?!" She exclaimed.

Lucas sighed and looked away. "You have turned a princess into a serving wench, Ursula. The least you could do is find her a worthy husband that would provide for her and bring her under his protection now that the veil separating the two realms is getting weaker by the day and viler creatures are slipping into our realm. It still baffles me how you even got to the Crocottas. No one can control those beasts…but you could…”

"Worry not, my dear Lucas about those poor beasts. All you need to know is that they are loyal to only me. And as for the weakening veil, I'm sure that the Were-Guardian at the border of the veil are doing their best to keep that veil intact...even though I know that their loyalty is not completely sworn to me. They are the most unbending lycans that I have ever come across and that's quite distasteful," she said coldly.

"What are you going to do about Theresa?" Lucas asked again.

"Aha!" The Queen exclaimed, back to the half-nymph. "The earlier I find a mate for her far away from here as possible, the more relieved I'm that I'm finally rid of Adolph's shameful seed." She paused as she walked back to the window. A dark cloud was gathering from afar, indicating an impending heavy downpour. "Do you know that her Chaperone says she has never shifted? Not even the moon could bring out the lycan in her with all its lunar charms and prowess. Her gift is dormant and even if I did nothing to keep the people away from her, she would never have belonged."

"She never had anyone to guide her Ursula. She might not be fully one of us but our blood still flows through her veins. She’s part werewolf"

"Yea..." She said drily. "Adolph's seed has always been weak. It's a good thing I'm barren or I might have been wallowing in the guilt of ever birthing a weakling, or perhaps, a spindly child who would sit on the throne and make such a disgrace of me."

Lucas regarded her quietly then finally said what he had been keeping in for years. "We have been making love for nineteen winters, Ursula, and you have never for once taken in, so will you also term my seeds weak too?"

Ursula smile waned a bit, besides the hurt, there was also a hint of wickedness in it. "Poor, poor Lucas. Don’t you know that tongues will wag if I take in for you? The people will suspect what's going on without a second guess. The Queen of the realm, pregnant without a mate. I'd not like to start explaining myself to an idle bunch of old men who hide under the guise of elders who lazy around and put their noses in businesses that they shouldn’t meddle in..." She placed the goblet on the table and approached him as the wind of the impending rain slipped into the lounge and fluttered her hair and gown. "Come my love." She took Lucas' hand and pulled him out of the seat. "It's time to do your duty by me. You know how needy I can get when the rains come.  You know how the rain compels my body to its will so much. Come." She led him to her chambers immediately and began to peel off his clothes.