The Senate members stood up as Will and Zoe entered, and bowed as they walked the length of the hall to the platform, followed by the Earth-dwellers. Friderts put on a nasty little smile, and made a mock bow as they climbed the steps towards him.
"Welcome back, your majesties," he said sarcastically. "I am pleased to see that you have finally decided to return to this humble planet of your birth. I was much afraid that your alien friends had seduced you into remaining on Earth."
"Alien friends?" Agnes whispered.
"He means us," Patrick said. "I suppose here we are aliens."
"I don't think he means it in a nice way, though," Ruth said worriedly.
"None of that, Friderts," Zoe said. "We've heard your lies to the Senate, that we had abandoned the planet. Lies told when you knew full well that we were on our way home. Oh yes, you knew, because of the dragoon robot you planted in our ship to spy on us. We thought it was dead, but it wasn't, was it? Only your tampering with it's systems sent it insane- a shame you weren't better at electro-engineering! Even after we'd removed pieces, when its' systems came into contact with other dragoons they turned on us and tried to kill us! It would have looked just like an accident, if it had worked. And you hoped that even if it didn't kill us the people at the base would blame us and keep us prisoner, and that nearly worked too. But we got away, only to be attacked again by astroninjas in your pay. Try to deny that; their chief is here to speak for them. But it seems we proved a little harder to kill or imprison than you thought."
Friderts looked from Zoe to Will and back again. "Very well, I won't try to deny what I did," he said. "But I did it to save the planet from the disastrous consequences of a disputed succession."
"What dispute?" said Will. "There is none that I know of."
"Allow me to produce a witness, here before the Senate, and you will know," Friderts said. Will and Zoe looked at each other and shrugged. "Very well," Will agreed. Friderts spoke to the chief ninja, who took a couple of his troops and left the hall. Queen Argent remained standing beside Friderts, tall, fierce and determined.
Will sat down on the steps leading onto the platform, and rested his head on his hands. "What's up?" Zoe asked him, sitting down too. The travellers gathered around them. "Oh, nothing," he said. "I just can't help wondering...I don't really want to be king."
"What?" said Ernest. "But I thought you did. What was the point of fighting if you didn't?"
"Once you've settled down it'll be ok," said Emma.
"It's not that," he said. "But I don't want to be tied down here. I loved Earth. I...I want to go back. I don't want to be separated from you guys." He spoke as if to them all, but his eyes were on Sarah. She moved closer to him. The others looked at one another awkwardly.
"But it's your duty," Zoe began.
"I know," Will said dully. "I must do it."
The chief ninja re-entered the hall. Following him between two ninjas was an elderly woman who looked terrified, as if she expected someone to harm her. She's been a prisoner for some time, Ruth thought. Poor woman.
Friderts turned to Will as he stood up. "This was your nurse as a baby," he said. "But what a story she has to tell!"
Will turned to the old woman. "Tell me," he said. "You don't need to be afraid." She looked up at him without much hope in her eyes and began to speak.
"The royal prince was by the king entrusted to my fond care, ere I grew old and crusted," she said. "But I was a stupid nursery-maid, and my lord Friderts found our about some of my mistakes, and threatened to reveal them to the queen unless I did as he said. He told me to take the baby prince and replace him with another baby, which he would give me. That baby was not of the royal family, or even of this planet, but a human child, stolen from an orphanage!"
There were gasps from the Senate. The travellers watched Will. His eyes were focused on the old lady, his expression shocked. Sarah put an arm around his shoulders, but he barely seemed to notice. Friderts stood by, quietly watching with a satisfied smile on his face.
"I did as he told me," the nurse said nervously, "although I am ashamed of it now. I stole the prince, and put the human baby in the cot instead. His parents never knew. The prince I took to Friderts, who laughed and said that he would send the prince to Earth, where the he would be abandoned to die, or to live in poverty and obscurity in an orphanage. Then, once the prince came of age, Friderts would be able to create havoc by saying that he was not the king's child, demanding a DNA test and proving it, thereby casting shame on the queen's head and jeopardising the succession. But- that isn't quite what happened." she stopped and looked up at Friderts, who suddenly seemed very alert. The smile had disappeared.
"What did happen?" Ruth asked gently. "We need to know the truth."
"The baby and I were aboard the ship, ready to leave, when I knew that I couldn't do it. But Friderts had threatened to kill me if I told anyone else. So I told my sister I was in trouble, that I'd had a baby but couldn't look after him or I'd loose my job at the palace. She worked aboard one of the big interplanetary liners. I gave the baby to her, and she smuggled it aboard her ship, and they left. She kept the child with her until a few years later they were attacked by pirates."
There was an exclamation from further down the hall. Queen Argent's quartermistress came up to the platform as fast as her stout body would allow her. The elderly nurse stared at her and cried out in Bognorian. The two long-lost sisters embraced.
The story continues...
I love the Inez/Ruth lady. Not that I'd ever totally want her role in an opera and get ludircously excited about it. No, not me.
ReplyDeleteWhat, you'd never do that?
ReplyDelete:)