The Queen of Tentacles Part 7

 

"Do you know what's wrong with it? Can you fix it?"

The creature  who asked Yillia the question stood  about 4 feet tall.  His lush fur was dark brown, streaked with gold, red, and more than a little grey.  He carried a well crafted leather folder, and wore an expensive  black wool suit. Someone who had never seen an Ursan, and didn't know better,  would think  they had met a cuddly, living teddy bear dressed in  corporate attire. Yillia had been forewarned by Glob not to misjudge these people. She was, by nature, very polite.  So the apparent mechanical failure was disconcerting, but the social aspects of the encounter were going very well.

"It's fine on this end, sir,  the problem is on the other end." Yillia had been trying to get the lift to work. She was familiar with machinery, there was quite a bit of the old stuff back on the mainland, and the populace had dismantled as much of it as they could, then reassembled it,  to use for their own purposes. 

"And there's no way to get down there aside from this?" 

"Not that I know of." Yillia replied. "We aren't allowed to come here, per the orders of the Not King. I have never been on this island before." She looked down at the ground and shuffled her feet. 

The Ursan gave a tired sigh, took off his spectacles, and rubbed his eyes.  

"It appears that we  have arrived too late..." he began, when a rumble of machinery shook the platform.There was sound of swiftly moving water. Gears creaked.   Yillia grabbed the control bar, turned the switch on the faceplate to "Ascend", and yanked a lever which had been in the downward position, upward. 

"Got it!" She crowed, and smiled at the others on the platform. "It's coming back!" Four Ursan attorneys, who had been standing  behind the older one who was obviously in charge,  applauded, and picked up their briefcases.  A tall, terrifyingly beautiful, almost  human looking woman in a  tailored black silk suit gazed at Yillia intently. Her black eyes were large, and looked even larger behind her round, black rimmed glasses, her long black hair carefully tied back in an elegant ponytail. Yillia had found it difficult to look away when she had first encountered this woman,  after leaving Silver's ship to speak with the delegation. There was something posionously gorgeous and fascinating about her.  Her long slender arms ended in thin fingers, each  manicured fingernail a sharp point. Yillia didn't want to look at those hands too closely.  The attention she was paying to Yillia now made her uncomfortable, but she didn't squirm,  looked her in the eye, and held her ground. Glob had said  there was nothing to fear, and Glob had never steered her wrong.  However, these people were very well dressed, clean,  wearing high quality clothing, whilst she was  underfed, under washed, and wearing filthy rags. She felt embarrassed, but she held her head up. And none of them had looked down on her. 

They had been stuck on the platform for a while, and the Elder Ursan, who  Yillia learned was a Senior Vice President of the Ursan Merchant's Guild, had taken advantage of the delay. He wasted no time, and had been  questioning her about her experience on the mountain. Yillia had an artist's memory for detail, and answered with perfect recall. It didn't take long.  

When she had finished, the Ursan shook  one of her tentacles, and thanked her. Turning to his colleagues, he cleared his throat, and addressed the group.

" Ahem. It is clear," he said, "That this "Not King" person, is the current Duke of Ocea. Whom our intelligence has warned us about." The woman in the silk suit nodded in agreement. 

"According to  our new friend's excellent testimony," he smiled at Yillia, and continued. "This Duke has murdered one of our people. He  slaughtered her like an animal, and  was planning on devouring an esteemed Jellian co-pilot. When he couldn't find it, due to the courageous actions of  this Cephlapodian, Yillia, he left it behind for dead.  If Yillia hadn't hidden it, then successfully rescued it, there would be two counts of murder against  the Duke. As it stands now, one count of opportunistic murder, several counts of theft and destruction of Ursan property, embezzling, forgery, plotting against the legitimate leader of the Cephlapodian people, violation of fair labour laws, and interfering with the advancement of  Ocea society to enrich himself, to the detriment of all other beings. We have the  information. All we need is the evidence."

"And he took all of that!  He's still got it!  He put my drawings in his bags."  Yillia exclaimed.

There was murmuring from the attorneys, and the Arach woman smiled. Yillia nearly fainted.  She had  tiny fangs. The Ursan continued speaking.

"This Duke will be taken into custody, and charged. Miss Webb, " he nodded at the Arach, "Will be in charge of apprehension and containment.  You four," "He nodded at the attorneys, "Have drawn up all the proper paperwork, have you not?" 

"We have." Spoke  one of the attorneys. "Everything has been checked, double checked, and triple checked. There is no dubious legality on the part of the Guild, the Ursans,  or any Cephlopodians except the Duke and the guards loyal to him. The Queen also, is innocent. She is not involved."

"We may have prevented another murder, then." Said the Vice President. "Several, in fact."

Yillia  had been listening quietly, but couldn't keep still any longer. "What about the dragon? She interjected. Silver isn't involved in anything illegal either. She and Glob are doing everything they can to help,  if it weren't for them, I wouldn't have  been able to save the little Jellian.  Time was against  me, and, and..." she stammered.  A tear ran down her cheek. The Vice President reached out, and patted her shoulder.

"There there." He said. "We know.  We had gathered most of the information already. Yours was the missing piece of the puzzle, and now we are ready to take action, but not against innocents. We appreciate your assistance, given earnestly, in spite of your fear of strange folk from other worlds."

He took a  linen handkerchief from his breast pocket, and handed it to Yillia, who was sobbing openly now. Yillia nearly refused it, but he pushed it into her tentacle, and she wiped her eyes. 

 "And no need to worry about Silver," he added,  "She and her co pilot, Glob, are on our side. They have been for quite a while. So fear not, little sea cub." He smiled at her.  Yillia stopped snuffling.

The sound of rushing water brought their attention to the rapidly rising platform.

"Alright, people," said the Vice President. "Showtime."  

 The Duke was in his chamber, celebrating his victory.  All of the walls were lined with mirrors. At every angle, he could see that which he loved  the most.  He now stood at the open doors of his massive closet, and pulled out a robe of gold silk. 

"Ah. This will do nicely." He  shoved some hangars out of the way, found an ornate headress, with long green feathers from some  extinct exotic mainland  bird, and a sash woven of  the finest mussel silk- a fabric even more precious than gold. There was a knock on the door.   Surprised, the Duke turned around. "What  do you want!" He demanded. "Furrier, your Grace."  came the quiet reply. "The neck piece  you requested is finished.""It had better be." shouted the Duke. "And you had better get used to calling me 'My King.' In fact, you had better call me that, right now." There was  muttering from the other side of the door. "My King" came the  faint, muffled response. "That's right, squid. Now give me that fur."  He wrenched the door open and the furrier handed him the neck piece. The furrier had put a lot of work into it, making it look lifelike, with brown glass eyes. And he did it very quickly, too. The Duke had handed him a skin within fifteen minutes of his return from the surface, and threatened his family with death if the piece wasn't ready in an hour.

 The Duke was counting on public ignorance. No one in Ocea had ever seen an Ursan before. Had they? He shook that thought out of his head,  slammed the door in the furrier's face, and went back into his chamber to dress.  "The squid probably expected payment." He sneered. 

The Duke was riding high. Everything was going according to plan. The lift was safely at the bottom of the shaft. The guards were on his side. The ones who weren't, would be executed very soon. He would marry the Queen, crown himself King then make sure her corpse would go out with the morning tide along with the others. Including that pesky dragon. The bags with the loot from the mainland expedition were hidden beneath his bed,  full of valuable technology  from the wreck, some gold, and  the drawings he had confiscated from that wretched female. All except one. The drawing of himself, with the  injured Ursan in the background. That one was framed already, and up on the wall.   He turned around, admiring  himself from  every angle. "You're so magnificent." He said to his reflection.  

The atmosphere in the palace was electric.   Courtiers, guests, and servants alike were burbling happily about the banquet.   Silver and Amathea were trying to get to the  hair salon, to do something nice with Silver's hair, but they kept getting interrupted.  

"Oooh, how lovely! How innovative. So interesting. Not even slightly boring!" Gushed a young noble, accompanied by several of her friends, who had ambushed Silver and the Queen in the hallway.  The young cephlapodian plucked at the twigs and leaves in Silver's hair, then turned to her coterie, and winked.  She  curtseyed politely to the Queen,  turned, and the whole group flowed away towards the ballroom. 

 When Silver and Amathea finally reached the hairdresser's salon, no one was there. "I don't know what we're going to do about this." Huffed the Queen. " Where's the hairdresser?"  A shriek came from the ballroom.  "No! No! Leave my floral arrangements alone, you're destroying them!  Hey! You! Get away from there, that's the head table! NO!  Put that back!

Amathea and Silver  ran back down the hall, and reached the ballroom just in time to see the crowd of young noblewomen running out giggling,  with leafy twigs,  pieces of coral, seaweed, and flowers in their tentacles. The royal florist was shouting, and stomping about trying to repair the damage, but the florals looked as if a herd  of ruminants had gotten to them.  The young cephalpodians were  mussing up each other's hair, and sticking the  purloined pieces of the arrangements into them.  Silver sighed. "We may as well not bother with the hairdresser now." she said. 

"It appears, my dear, that you have started a trend."  replied Amathea. She picked  a long  twig with green leaves from Silver's hair, mussed  up her own a little bit, stuck the twig into it, and smiled."It's just as well. I hear the orchestra starting.  The banquet has begun!"

Indeed, it had. Kitchen workers were carrying trays loaded with  the first course, and guests were  being seated at their tables.  There was a gasp, as a group of strangers entered, escorted in by the Queen's personal guard. One was a  ragged cephlapodian.  The others were even more peculiar.  And one was downright frightening."The Ursans!" Silver exclaimed. "Come with me, My Queen."  She led Amathea over to the delegation. The Elderly Ursan bowed deeply. "Good evening, Your Majesty, Please allow me to introduce myself. I am Mr Bruno Fairburrow,  Senior Vice President of the Ursan Merchant Guild.  This is my legal team, and my  chief of security,  Miss Ariachne Webb. You were expecting us earlier, but we were delayed. My apologies."  The Queen looked at Yillia, who bungled an attempted curtsey, and nearly fell down.  The Queen beheld her, kindly. "And who  are you, my dear?" 

"My name is Yillia, I was the illustrator on a clandestine salvage mission." She replied.

 "But she's no pirate, she's our star witness!" Broke in one of the lawyers. "If not for her, we would have a much less solid case." The elder Ursan shot a glance at the younger one,  who stopped talking.

"We have good reason to believe you are in  mortal danger."  Mr Fairburrow continued. " A murder of one of my pilots has been committed by a member of your Royal house. We have uncovered a plan to assassinate you, tonight. This shall be prevented, of course." He looked towards the Arach, who stepped forward. "I'm your bodyguard for the evening, Queen Amathea. "She said, and winked at me.  

My heart nearly stopped. Gods, she was beautiful. And  confident. And deadly dangerous, and intelligent, and... A shapeshifting giant spider.  I took a deep breath, and winked back. 

"Well." replied the Queen. I can't say this comes as a surprise. I was warned about this, and some preparations have been made, but not enough. I am also aware of the salvage mission." She smiled at Yillia.  "I appreciate your concern, Mr Fairburrow. Thank you. Miss Webb,  you honour me." 

 Maybe this came as no surprise to Amathea, but it sure was a surprise to me. Another bodyguard? Not enough preparation?  A dragon is not enough preparation?   But then I realised my  ego was conspiring to get in my way.  Keeping my draconic identity secret was the actual plan. I mean, people knew, but  nobody except Amathea had ever seen  me in  dragon form.  I  looked like a human woman in a blue gown, with freaky foliage in her hair.  And Miss Webb looked like  a human supermodel with a Gothic streak. No one on Ocea had ever seen an Arach, except  the Ursan delegation, and me. I  sincerely hoped Miss Webb would continue to  hold her supermodel appearance until the end.  Amathea turned to Yillia. 

"You are also welcome at the banquet." she said softly.  She waved a tentacle at one of her guards, but two came over. "Please take this nice person to  the Queen's Guard quarters, let her use the bath,  do her hair,  and find her a  gown that fits well. She is our guest. Treat her with kindness and respect, please."A look passed  between them, and they smiled at Yillia

 I could overhear them talking as they exited the ballroom. One of them was  saying, "You're about my size, I have a nice dress that will fit you, I wore it to the Kelpie faire last  season. It's pretty, and I only wore it once." "I know your voice!" Said the other. "Are you from South Seaglass ? Tidewater? I'd recognise your accent anywhere! How is the old place? We're from North Seaglass, but when we joined up we  left from Tidewater. Haven't been back.  Since the glass works  closed, we haven't heard from our brother,  not for months. So there's no reason to go back." 

 "Tidewater." replied Yillia. " What's left of it, anyhow. And the glassworks hasn't closed down, where did you ever get that idea? It's  the only thing running on the mainland now.    Tidewater's nearly washed out to sea, but North Seaglass is  still there, and so are the glassworks." The young guard looked confused. "We were told it was  closed. No work for anyone there, so we had better stay right here."
"Who told you that?" Asked Yillia. " Andsor." replied the guard. "He's one of the Duke's personals."  She said. Their voices faded as they walked away.

Amathea  bent down and whispered in my ear. "Well, that does come as a surprise." She said. "I was told the glassworks  had shut down too. By the person whom I had given charge of them.  Mostly to keep him on the mainland, and be rid of him. But then, he said the sea  reclaimed the  coast town, and the glassworks were underwater. I feel foolish now. I didn't check up on that."   She sighed. Her face looked tired and worn. 

"This is almost over." I said, keeping my voice low. "Remember the 9 of Cups. A Chef awaits you." She brightened up. Waving  a tentacle towards the head table, she instantly became the gracious hostess again. "Gentlemen? Miss Webb? This way, please be seated, and enjoy our hospitality."