"It's an honor to meet you, king sashka," Azakar said hesitantly.
"The word is a title, not my name, young human," sashka said gently. "I am not worthy of the honor of proclaiming myself as ruler of the Vendari, so I abandoned my name for the title of sashka when I accepted this duty."
"I beg your pardon, your Majesty," Azakar said, his cheeks flaming with embarassment.
"There is no need to seek forgiveness, young Knight. You did not know before. You do know now, and you are a wiser man for it."
Azakar bowed his head eloquently. "What do you want me to do, Kerri?"
"The same as you've always done, Zak," she smiled. "Stay near me and Miranda and protect us."
"You have fought for her Majesty?" sashka asked him curiously. "You are young, but carry the scars of a man of many seasons."
"He's been wounded in defense of my life, sashka," Keritanima said formally. "He has proven his honor."
"A great honor indeed. But perhaps you need more instruction."
"His scars come from a slaver's whip, sashka," Binter said stiffly. Binter and Sisska both had very grim views of slavery. It was a racial prejudice. "He is the equal of any Vendari in battle. His scars are a symbol of his courage, not marks of ineptitude."
"Not any Vendari," Azakar said under his breath.
Sashka nodded simply at Azakar, then turned to Keritanima. "It would be best if you stood on the dais, your Majesty," he said. "Let there be no doubt as to what you intend."
"I think that's a bit strong, but I'll bow to your superior wisdom, sashka," she said after a moment. That dais was a place where only the monarch could go, and anyone he invited personally. For anyone else to so much as touch it was treason, and was punishible by death. "And because you told me to," she winked.
He stared at her, then simply nodded.
His idea made sense, in a rather direct sort of way, but the many Royal Guards in the Hall about had a fit when she approached the dais and throne. They formed up to prevent her from passing them, and Shan, the Captain of the Royal Guard, bowed even as he got in her way. "Your highness, you know you're not permitted on the dais!" he protested. But sashka was there in a hearbeat with twenty Vendari warriors, forming up behind Keritanima like a wall of death, ready to fall upon the nervous Royal Guard and destroy them.
"You will stand aside now," sashka said in a voice promising a thousand painful deaths for the Captain. The Vendari flanking him raised their universally lethal weapons in a blatant show of force.
There was only so much abject terror one Wikuni could withstand. Shan and the guards melted out of her path after only a short moment, and the path was clear for her.
Just seeing that dais brought a whirlwind of emotions into her. She had labored for this moment for quite a long time, but she fully understood the finality of stepping upon it. She would be abandoning her freedom the instant she put her foot on that stone, giving up her life in service to the kingdom. All this had begun as simply an elaborate plot for revenge, but along the way her eyes had been opened to the grim responsibility that sitting in that chair would impart upon her. There were alot of things wrong in Wikuna, things that begged to be corrected, things that her father and her family line had perpetrated over the centuries. She would be safe in that chair, safe from her father, safe from the other nobles, safe from everyone that would try to kill her, but seeking its shelter carried with it a price that she worried she may not be able to pay. She would take that throne, and then the problems of her kingdom would become her problems, the duty to fix things would be hers, and the hope of millions of Wikuni would be pinned to her skirts. All her life she had prided herself on her strength. She had been strong enough to overcome a nightmarish childhood, to survive against the many who tried to have her removed, had had the fortitude to stand up against what was thrust upon her and reach for what she wanted instead. And she had been blessed in that struggle, blessed with a brother and sister that loved her, friends she could count on, experienced those sweet parts of life that had been denied to her. But her strength would be all she would have to face the challenges of standing on that dais. There were alot of things to do, alot of things to change, things she had already planned as a final way of getting back at her father that, she had discovered, would also be of tremendous benefit for the people.
It was all right there, a raising of the floor about two feet high, upon which stood the Sun Throne of Wikuna. She had been strong enough to reach for that throne, to earn the right to stand upon that dais. Now she wondered if she had the strength to carry out her responsibilities.
In the end, she realized that there was really no choice about it. She would only be safe sitting on that throne. She still intended on getting back at her father for everything he'd done to her, and to be direct about it, sashka wasn't about to let her back out now. It would be a hard road, whose only concellation would be the joy of casting her father down and looking into his eyes when he realized his defeat. But it was a road that she had to travel.
Tarrin had often told her about his little mother, about how thoughts of her sustained him when he felt lost or afraid, was worried about the future. It had been thoughts of her that had caused him to accept the will of the Goddess and embark on her quest. Tarrin's devotion to that little girl was a powerful symbol of the strength that love could give to someone, for it had taken all of Tarrin's strength to turn his back on his instincts and accept the quest, to accept the yoke of another master.
And it was thoughts of Tarrin that bolstered her, made her take that first step towards the dais. Her brother was counting on her. Tarrin needed her, and she couldn't be there for him unless she was sitting on that throne. He had saved her life, and she wouldn't turn her back on him when he needed her help.
Calmly, gracefully, Keritanima-Chan Eram stepped past the guards, raised her skirt modestly, and stepped up onto the dais of the Hall of the Sun. She turned around and looked at the Vendari and the Royal Guard with dignity, crossing her arms beneath her breasts and showing no signs of fear or doubt. "Shan," she said in a gentle voice. "Summon the noble heads of all the houses, and summon the High Priest of Kikkali. There is urgent business to settle."
Shan stared at her, then looked fearfully at the sashka, then blew out his breath. Then he laughed helplessly. "How should I address you, Lady Keritanima?" he asked pointedly.
"You will address her as her Majesty," the sashka said loudly, loud enough for everyone in the Hall to hear. "Anyone who does not will answer to the Vendari."
Some revolutions were settled with a gunshot. Some were settled at the point of a sword, and some were settled in the bodycount of clashing armies. But the Revolution of Wikuna had been settled before it begun, and it had been settled with a single sentence.
"And I thought being landlocked was going to be boring," Sheba Zalan said with an evil smile.
"It's very simple, Duchess Vora," Keritanima explained calmly about an hour later. The Hall was now populated with servants, courtiers, functionaries, and even more military men. From what she had been told, nobody had delivered a message about her treason to her father yet. Indeed, the sashka had ten Vendari blocking the hallways to her father's apartment, preventing anyone from delivering any messages until after Keritanima had explained what was going on to all the noble heads, to give her time to sway them without her father interfering. Five noble heads had already arrived other than Sheba, Duke Oran Alagon, Duchess Sulan Shaen, Earl Mardal Koramon, Earl Tory Pritchett, and Duchess Shewl Dokin. One by one, Keritanima had explained the meaning of the message, and the crushing impact that the noble's decision would have on Wikuna. She explained it again to Vora Plantan of house Plantan, standing on the dais calmly and addressing her as the rest of court whispered excitedly about what was going on. "There is a very old law that was created by King Sathon Eram. At that time, Sathon had only one heir, and he was documented with a mental illness that the priests had to treat. So long as he was treated, Elyas was a stable man, and was a very capable heir. To protect the Eram dynasty, Sathon Eram made a decree that made it possible for the noble houses to remove his son, Elyas, from the throne without having to plunge Wikuna into a civil war, just in case Elyas went insane and the priests could no longer treat his condition. It stated that the king would be forcibly abdicated if three quarters of the noble houses swore before a priest of Kikkali that the monarch was no longer fit to rule. Elyas agreed to this stipulation to placate the noble houses, who were rightfully worried about having a mad king on the throne. When Sathon died, Elyas took the throne, and served as king capably and well for thirty years before he himself died. Elyas' successor, Queen Shamintaria, immediately repealed that law, because her own stability was never in question, and she wasn't about to leave a loophole open for the nobility to force her off the throne.