In fact, the whole team is standin' here, and I ...
"Your cousin!" I sez, the words finally sinkin' in.
"Don't worry," Pookie sez, givin' me a small smile and a wink. "We aren't at all alike."
"Can you guys keep it down?" Tananda hisses at us. "I'm trying to eavesdrop on this!"
Wrenchin' my attention away from Pookie, I finally start to focus in on what's goin' on.
We are still in the throne room, but the crowds are gone. In fact, the whole place ... floor and balconies ... are empty of people and guards except for us. Well, us and the Boss, who is sittin' on the throne steps chattin' with Queen Hemlock.
"... so everything was going pretty well, until Roddie caught some bug or other and died," she is sayin'. "When I didn't die, too, I realized those rings you gave us didn't really link our lives ... incidentally, I'd get my money back on those if I were you ..."
"You mean the King really did die of natural causes?" I whispers.
"So it seems," Tananda murmurs back. "Now put a sock in it. I want to hear this."
"... and you know I've always wanted to expand our borders just a teensy tiny bit, so I figured, 'Why not give it a try?' ..."
"From what I hear," the Boss interrupts, "the expansion goes way past 'teensy tiny' in anyone's definition."
"I know," the queen sighs, deflatin' a little. "It just seems to have gotten away from me. My advisors • - • you remember Grimble and Badaxe? ... well, they keep assuring me that everything is fine... that as long as I keep lowering the taxes, the people will support me ... but I keep having this feeling that I've lost control of ..."
"Lowering the taxes while you expand your borders?" the Boss breaks in. "But that can't be done! A bigger kingdom means more expense, not less! You still have the cost of local government, plus the cost of extra layers of bureaucracy to manage the local bureaucracies."
It finally dawns on me what has been botherin' me about this "lower taxes" thing every time I hear about it. I also remember that I had to take Econ. 101 three times.
"I know," the queen sez. "I've been covering the extra cost from my old kingdom's treasury, but that's almost gone. Grimble keeps saying that things will level off eventually when the kingdom gets big enough, but ..."
"It's not going to happen," the Boss sez, shakin' his head. "You can't beat the mathematics of the situation. You're either going to have to raise the taxes or pull your borders back ... or go bankrupt."
"Oh Skeeve!" Hemlock sez, givin' him a quick hug. "I knew you could figure it out. That's why I sent for you."
"Sent for me?"
"Of course, silly. The ring. Didn't you get it?"
"Well, yes. But ..."
"I never was much good with letters," the queen continues, "but I was sure you'd get the message when I sent you Roddie's ring ... of course, I had to send a little of him along with it ... you were right about the rings not coming off, by the way."
"That was Rodrick's ring?"
"Of course. You don't think I'd cut off my finger, do you?"
She holds up her hand and waggles her fingers at him ... all of them, includin' the one with her ring on it. The skin on the finger we had gotten had been so soft and smooth, we had all assumed it as a woman's finger. Of course, stoppin' to think about it, kings don't work much with their hands, either.
"Anyway, you got the message, and you're here now ... so everything's going to be all right."
"The message," the Boss sez, lookin' a little confused ... which to my mind is understandable. "Umm ... just to be sure we understand each other, would you mind saying what you wanted to tell me in words instead of using ... graphic communications?"
"Isn't it obvious?" the queen sez. "I need your help to manage things, so I'm offering you a position."
"Well ... I'm kind of busy these days," the Boss sez, "but I guess I can spare a little time to help you straighten things out as your advisor ..."
"... as my consort," the queen corrects.
The whole team flinches at this, and we swap a few worried looks back and forth between us.
The Boss, however, is a little slower on the uptake.
"... of course, the first thing you'll have to do is to order the army to stop advancing until we figure out what to do next."
"Consider it done ... and then Grimble and I will ... CONSORT??!!"
As I have said, the Boss can be a bit slow from time to time, but eventually he catches on.
"Of course," Hemlock beams at him. "I figure we can get married, then if we divy up some of these bothersome duties, we'll still have time to ..."
"CONSORT???"
The Boss seems to be stuck on the word.
"That's right," the queen says, cocking her head at him. "Why? Have you got a problem with that?"
The temperature in the throne room seems to drop along with the chilly tone in her voice.
"... Because if you do, there is another option. I can do what you suggested back when Roddie and I got married."
"Which was ... ?" The Boss sez in a small voice.
"Abdicate." Somehow the queen manages to make the one word sound like a sentence ... a death sentence. "I can step down from the throne and name you my successor. Then you can try to run this whole mess all by yourself!"
Check and mate.
This whole conversation is makin' me more than a little uneasy ... but that is nothin' compared to what it is doin' to the Boss. He looks absolutely panicky ... not to mention sorta green around the gills.
"I ... I ..."he stammers.
"... But don't you think it'll be so much nicer if you just go along with my original idea?" Hemlock sez, all kittenish again. "That way, you get the whole kingdom and me!"
"I ... I don't know," the Boss manages at last. "I've never thought about getting married."
"Well think about it," the queen sez, gettin' a bit of an edge on her voice.
"No ... I mean, I'll need some time to think about it."
"Okay," Hemlock nods. "That's fair."
"Maybe in a year ..."
"... I'll give you a month," the queen sez, actin' like the Boss hadn't said anythin'. "Then I'll expect your answer one way or the other. In the meantime, I'll order the army to stop and you can start going over the books with Grimble. I mean, that will be a good idea whatever decision you make, won't it?"
"I ... I guess so."
This is not lookin' good. The Boss has never been good with skirts, and it looks like Hemlock is gonna be able to lead him around by the nose.
"I think I've heard enough," Tananda sez. "I'll see you guys later."
"Where are you going, little sister?" Chumley sez, voicin" the question for all of us. "It looks like Skeeve is going to need all the help we can give him ... and then some."
"Actually," she sez, "I was going to head back to the home office. I figure I need a little break, so I thought I'd tend the home fires while my hair grows back."
"Really?" Chumley frowns. "Of course," she purrs, flashin' a wide smile, "that will free Bunny from her duties. I think I'll send her back here to lend a hand."
"Bunny?"
"Well you can't expect Skeeve to straighten things out here without his administrative assistant, can you?" she sez, innocent-like. "Besides, Bunny's a lot better at dealing with figures than I am."
She pauses and sends one last dark look at the queen.
"... at least, I figure in this situation she will be."
NEXT: Skeeve tries to unravel the puzzle of the opposite sex in ...
Sweet Myth-tery Of Life.