"Exactly, Mona Louisa," Mona Sera said mockingly. "Which is why I called this special Council Meeting. I wish to have my daughter" — she purred the word with rich satisfaction—"recognized and acknowledged as the first Mixed Blood Queen before the High Council."
"An abomination!" hissed another Queen to my right whose hair was the color of orange flames. A Fire Queen in temperament as well as in coloring.
"No," Mona Sera replied with a taunting smile, "she is a Queen that everyone here, including you, Mona Teresa, can sense and feel."
"Can she Bask?" asked the man sitting to the Queen Mother's immediate right, an older gentlemen with salt-and-pepper hair who wore a gold medallion chain. A sense of solid power emanated from him, as well.
Mona Sera inclined her head. "I have witnessed her Basking myself, Warrior Lord Thorane, this last full moon. She drew the light down from the moon and shared its glory with her new guard, Gryphon, formerly of my court."
The council members murmured among themselves. Lord Thorane inclined his head to the Queen Mother, speaking softly to her. The Queen Mother nodded.
"What other gifts does your daughter possess, Mona Sera?" the Queen Mother asked, addressing us for the first time. She spoke slowly, with care, her voice rich and resonant with authority.
"Most venerable Queen Mother." Mona Sera bowed ceremoniously low once again, then flung her arms dramatically open as if presenting a gift. A real showman, my mother. "She can wear silver against her skin and not have it affect her strength. Neither does it contain her. She tolerates sunlight as humans do and has passed on this ability to one of her men for certain. Perhaps both of them." All eyes turned toward the doors to study Amber and Gryphon.
They were easily picked out. Their brown skins made them look like sun gods against the paleness of Mona Sera's men. A few brave souls turned to look at Halcyon also, as if to compare the color of their skin with his. Halcyon smiled sardonically and clicked his long, sharp nails gently together. They looked nervously away.
Mona Sera's dark eyes glittered with pleasure as a new wave of mutterings arose. "Of most interest," she continued, delivering the coup de grâce, "she bears the Goddess's tears."
All eyes suddenly stabbed me like sharp knives. I had to brace myself against the intensity of their gazes.
"Show us your palms, child," Mona Louisa, the pale blonde Queen, commanded. I gritted my teeth at the condescending order but chanted to myself, Befriend. Not alienate. I needed the Queens' help for Gryphon. I took a deep breath of control and smiled. I could be every bit as good a showman as my mother. After a brief, deliberate pause, I threw out my hands, presenting my palms with a graceful flourish.
Gasps. A sea of murmurs. A muttered "Unnatural!" from fiery Mona Teresa. And the sharp, assessing gaze of the Queen Mother and all the men present. The two Queens eyed me with cold hostility. But the other women—some dressed in gold-trimmed white robes, the rest in rich maroon—looked upon me with speculative interest.
A lady in maroon addressed the next question to me. "Have you any special abilities with these?"
"I can determine injuries below the skin's surface. I also have a minor ability to ease pain."
"How old are you, child?" the lady asked kindly. Somehow it didn't grate as much when she called me "child."
"Twenty-one."
She turned to Mona Sera. "Have you borne any other children?"
"Only a Mixed Blood male child from the same father," Mona Sera said dismissively.
Her answer made me jerk in surprise. I had a brother?
"And where is this Mixed Blood who fathered your children now, Mona Sera?" Lord Thorane asked.
"He died fifteen years ago," was Mona Sera's devastating reply.
Tears stung my eyes and I looked down at the floor. One given, one taken in a casual statement of fact. She hadn't told me, damn it. She hadn't told me. And she should have.
"A pity." Lord Thorane murmured. Coming to a decision, he straightened. "I second Mona Sera's petition that Mona Lisa be recognized and acknowledged before the court as a new Queen."
A count was taken with a majority vote cast in my favor. The Queen Mother abstained. The two Queens were against me—surprise, surprise. But despite them, I was now, officially, the first Mixed Blood Queen, ever.
"Several of our laws regarding Mixed Bloods will have to be amended," Lord Thorane broached carefully.
"Any change in our laws will unfortunately have to wait until our next session, when we have at least two-thirds of the Council present," Mona Teresa said in a pleased purr that subsided under the Queen Mother's stare. "We have less than half the Council here today," she finished in a whine.
"It is our Council law," Mona Louisa spoke up, supporting her.
"So it is," the Queen Mother acknowledged slowly.
I had a feeling I was missing something important here.
Lord Thorane cleared his throat. "Mona Sera, the Council deeply thanks you for the addition of this new Queen to our ranks. Mona Lisa will abide here at High Court until the Council next meets twelve days hence, at which time a territory shall be assigned to her. Council is adjourned."
Outside the Great Hall, Mona Sera turned to me with pleased satisfaction. "Fare thee well, daughter. I return to my territory tonight."
"She needs more guards, milady," Gryphon said quietly beside me.
"She has two of my gowns and two of my strongest men. More?" Mona Sera's lips twisted. "I think not."
"It is your responsibility as sponsor to provide her with protection," Gryphon dared say.
"And I have done so. Her protection is now your problem."
"Where is my brother?" I demanded.
Mona Sera's gaze turned to me with amusement. "He was given over to the humans as you were, at birth. I do not remember when. And I do not know where."
"My father's name?"
"I do not remember," she said, and somehow I knew that she lied.
Mona Sera tossed me a little smile. "Do your best to stay alive."
"That's it?" I said. "Why did you bring me here?"
"To have my fertility and Queen-bearing status recognized, which will weigh heavily in any future concessions I may desire from the Council. Whether you live or die now is of no concern to me."
Plain-speaking, indeed. For some reason, that made me think better of her, twisted though that may be. Perhaps I was indeed her daughter—scary thought, that—looking upon that beautiful, heartless countenance with her flat eyes more dead than alive.
"One last word of advice," Mona Sera said, glancing from me to my men. "Only the strongest survive in our world. Rule them. Or they will destroy you."
A real cozy mother-to-daughter chat. And then she was gone.
The Councilwoman in maroon attire who had addressed me A was a healer who invited me to her abode. Amber accompanied us while Gryphon begged off, saying that he wished to rest and give me the chance to talk freely with the healer.
Janelle was her name. She had kind, brown eyes like Sonia, with a few gray strands sprinkled in her sandy hair. She lived in a small, comfortable cottage a few buildings away from the Great House. Dusty, musty books lined floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and several heavy tombs lay open on the long center table, buried beneath various herbs and flowers scattered among pungent jars and bottles filled with interesting-looking concoctions. She remarked upon some of their medicinal purposes, then took my hand and rubbed her thumb over my mole, making an hmming sound.
"You have potential, undeveloped as of yet. But you are young. Quite young, actually. Most healers do not begin to develop their powers until their third cycle of ten. Some even later."