All The Queen's Men

[Jarom Skelda]

“One of them ‘apan women broke a man’s neck with her thighs.”

The words had barely passed Genwynd’s cracked lips when he lurched forward, thrown off balance by a clip to the back of the head. “Shut it,” grunted Orand, striding forward into the midst of the group, gloved fist still raised in threat of further violence. A titter of laughter bubbled up somewhere ahead of him, until as if conspiring with the old Onderonian, an uneven patch of earth caused the laughing boys to stumble.

“And watch your damn feet,” Orand added, his Onderon-green cloak snapping in the wind with a noise like a whip-crack as he marched on ahead, setting a new pace for the others to follow. Up until that point, most of the group around him had been looking ahead, looking towards the shape of Villa Solis. It was veiled in mist and fog, which parted from time to time to reveal the alien outline of Hapan architecture and the equally alien silhouettes of the so-called Queen’s Select Commandos. The women with the deadly thighs who might well be nine feet tall, if Genwynd was to be believed.

Jarom didn’t know what to think. Just about everyone on Onderon knew what at least one Hapan looked like, and Tristan Alastor was neither nine feet tall nor in possession of vice-like thighs, at least as far as Jarom could remember. Then again, Tristan wasn’t a woman. Was it just the women who were huge? If that was the case, why did the Hapan Queen need a squadron of Onderonian’s to help protect her? The shuttle from Onderon to the Hapes Cluster had been full of rumours that there weren’t even any wild beasts on Terephon, and the absence of beasts to ride would make Orand’s band of men (and some boys) even less useful to the Hapan monarch.

“We’ve already got a Queen. What’re we supposed to call this one?” asked Raurik, another younger member of the group who walked in step with Jarom.

“You don’t call her anything,” Orand said, not looking back over his shoulder. “You keep your daft mouth shut and let your betters do the talking.”

Raurik glanced left at Jarom then right at Genwynd with a smile, but said nothing. A wise move, Jarom thought. Orand was surly at the best of times, but ever since he’d been chosen to captain an Onderonian garrison in Hapan space he’d been saltier than a sack of fambaa jerky.

“If the wind’s blowing our way, all we’ll be saying is so long and fare-fucking-well. The sooner we’re off this blighted rock and back in the light of Dxun, the better,” Orand added, the last of his words a mutter.

Jarom squinted at the horizon and wondered what kind of greeting the twenty-strong party of Onderonian would get from their soon-to-be-hosts.

[Lira Terranova]

"Forgive me, Tadin Terranova." A lovely housemaid in a Hapan blue silk day dress, which she had held aloft about the ground, approached. Lira knew the girl's name to be Odette. She had traveled to Terephon with the Royal house staff, and was not part of the staff of Villa Solis.

With one arm around the middle of Chume Beatrix's abdomen, cradling her safely as she stood on the rails of a fence to observe a paddock of gray striped falumpaset. They were some of the beasts that had been brought from Onderon to Terephon, for the pleasure of hunting. Although, Lira could say what fun there would be in hunting one of these. They were more of a pack animal, perhaps they meant for dragging larger kills back to the villa. Either way, the queen was fond of watching them graze, and absolutely delighted when one of them loosed it's deafening call.

"Yes, Odette. What is it?" Lira asked.

"There is a party on foot approaching. I have been asked to let you know they wear the colors of Onderon."

"Oh? How interesting. What do you say, my chume? Would you like to return inside for your lunch?" Lira looked down at the dark haired child in her arms.

[Beatrix]

"No. I would not."

Beatrix tipped her head back to look up at the face of Lady Lira, and shake her queenly head. "I'm coming too.", she announced.

"Of course, my Cherished One. ", Lira immediately conceded, before pleading her case. "It's just, I am not sure who they are yet. Wouldn't Your Magnificence be safer inside?"

"No. He can protect me." Beatrix's head rolled slightly to the side. She couldn't see him with her back to Lira's chest but she knew he was there. He was always there. The Captain.

One did not argue with the Queen Mother.

Beatrix held her arms out at her sides so that Lira could put her down and they could be off.

[Jarom Skelda]

The more they walked, the more Jarom noticed how alike the moors of Terephon were to the wild lands around Iziz. The landscape was empty, but not barren. Off to the left in the distance, heather rippled in the breeze. All the horizon lacked was an inviting wall of woodland, though there was every chance that the fog was merely concealing that from view. To top it all off, they soon came alongside an enclosure of familiar looking animals.

"What's your girlfriend doing here, Genwynd?" whispered Raurik, ducking behind Jarom to elbow Genwynd in the side before nodding off towards the paddock of falumpaset. Genwynd's answer came in the form of a thump to the shoulder that would leave a sizeable bruise, about as sore as the topic of Genwynd's girlfriend had been ever since they'd departed Iziz.

"Watch yourselves," Jarom said in a low whisper, shoving Raurik away as the smaller boy weaved in to return the favour Genwynd had paid him. "You've seen what mood Orand is in."

Raurik said nothing, though his expression accused Jarom of high-treaosn, and Genwynd sloped off to join some of the lads at the front of the group. A short way ahead of them, a party was moving away from Villa Solis and towards the Onderonians. Jarom picked out about two-dozen figures, plenty of them in armour. They moved in some kind of formation, encircling but not surrounding a handful of seemingly unarmed women and girls.

Suddenly, Orand snapped a clenched fist into the air, the signal to halt. To their credit, Jarom and the others froze. When he called out, the Onderonian captain's voice carried all the way to the Hapan, like it was on the wings of a drexl.

"Is this the Solees house?"

[Lira Terranova]

The presence of Onderonian guards in Consortium space was tolerated, all things considered, but the foreign troops still made many of the Hapan guard uneasy. At least it seemed that way to Lira. There was a tension palpable in the air. One wrong move on the part of her brethren from Onderon and the situation was going to get very difficult. She could see now why she had been asked for.

"This is Villa Solis, yes." Her very agreeable, yet firm tone rang through the space between the groups.

"I am Lira Terranova, the queen's lady.", she introduced herself, eyes scanning the party before her. She stepped forward, less cautious than the Hapans. To her these were not foreigners, but her people.

"Is there... some assistance I can provide?"

[Jarom Skelda]

"Captain Orand Gremyre of the Onderonian Royal Guard. These are my men."

He cocked his head to one side, a half-nod that was apparently supposed to indicate the band of men and boys at his back. Jarom and the others stood to attention, though he could not help but steal a few glances at the Hapan group. There was no denying that they were fierce. Tall and proud, their armour looked like it either hadn't seen a minute of combat, or else they were excellent at maintaining it. At the centre of the impressive group was a woman in a hat that definitely fit Jarom's understanding of the descrption 'Hapan', and beside her... a small girl. Was that...?

Orand called out again, cutting off Jarom's train of thought. "The Queen sent us to, ah, serve... your queen."

[Beatrix]

At Lira's side, Beatrix tugged on the rustling and crisp white fabric of her servant's gown.

"I do not want to hear their vows outside."

A little taken aback, Beatrix looked them over, obviously having heard everything. More guards. They were definitely not Hapan. When Lira had spoken of Onderon, was this who she had been describing? Some of them were.. not quite grownups. Closer to her age than any of the current staff at Villa Solis.

She wore a ponderous expression for one so young.

"They can see me after lunch."

[Renart Al'Gray]

Amongst the Chume’nor arrayed behind the young Chume, Captain Al’Gray fought the urge to frown. They do not pay the proper respects, he thought and though he did not give voice to the words, his jaw flexed in suppressed irritation.

“Bring them in,” said a voice in crisp Hapan. Major Marine Lecavalier, leader of the Chume’doro present on Terephon.

“Yes, sir,” the Chume’nor echoed and as one, Renart included, began to walk towards Orand and the others.

“My men will escort you,” the Major added, louder and in accented Basic for the benefit of the group from Onderon.

[Lira Terranova]

"Of course not, Queen Beatrix." At Lira using her official title, Beatrix looked up. Lira always called her some sweet endearment, or ereneda. It had definitely been done with purpose.

Lira considered herself a patient, good-natured person. There were not many peeves that she had, and did not often get cross but it was a bit much. If this had been Queen Adraudia standing in their midst would they have all just stood there milling about with an offer of.. what precisely..? If they were here to offer their service to Beatrix then they should all be on their knees until she bid them to move, and decided whether she even wished them to stay!

Looking to her Onderonian brethren, Lira wondered when it had happened? Was she becoming snobbish? It was true, she was not the same girl that had left that world. Neither was she a Hapan lady, not really. They all called her ta'din Terranova, but she existed somewhere in the middle.

The whole thing had made her a bit ruffled and that was very unlike her.

It remained unclear if they were going to do the smart thing and accompany the Chume'nor to a more seemly location for them to be, other than in Beatrix's Grace!

[Jarom Skelda]

Jarom kept still, watchful, as the Hapan soldiers approached. They wore full-cloaks that billowed out behind them as they walked, longer and lighter in appearance than the half-cloaks that Jarom and the others had thrown over their shoulders.

“Well met,” Orand grunted, as the ranking member of the Hapan group stepped forward, greeting his Onderonian counterpart with a crisp, curt nod.

“Captain Gremeer,” he said, his accent casting a strange sound to Orand’s name. “I am Commander Maxim Valmont. Please, your men, follow me.”

“You heard the Commander, lads,” Orand said, and so they resumed their march, soon enough within spitting distance of Villa Solis.

[Renart Al'Gray]

Renat and a number of the other Chume’nor watched until Orand Greymyre and his men began to march on towards Villa Solis before falling in step behind them. A couple of the younger men at the back of the group stole poorly concealed glances back at the Hapan commandos behind them.

“They lack discipline,” said the commando to Renart’s side, speaking low and in Hapan. “What do we need them for?”

“That is for the Major to advise and the Queen to decide,” Renart said in reply.

They followed a path to the side of the house, where there was an entrance typically used by the Queen’s guards, along with a number of out building.

“There is a barracks ‘ere,” Maxim Valmont said, gesturing to one of the low buildings attached to the main house. “You may store your… items 'ere, and bathe, if you choose. You will be told when to come before the Chume.”