One True Queen

“Oh my... What the... How?!” I yell. Chloe covers my mouth.

“Shh... You’ll distract them. Come. I called a car to pick me up and take me straight to Queen Leah. I guess you’ll have to come. Being Silver, you can’t be here.” Chloe whispers. A long fancy car arrives, with a sleek white body, with shiny doors.

“One car for Lady Chloe Barslow.” The chauffeur says in a deep, bored voice.

“Is he a Red...?” I start to ask and Chloe nods before I finish. She opens the door and lets me in first. As we sit inside the limo and close the door, it starts to leave the war zone. Chloe finishes up with my wrist carefully.

“Where did you learn to do that?” I ask with surprise at her precision and delicacy with the bandage. “All Ladies are trained at being graceful, all Lords are trained to present the Ladies and be wealthy. But all Silvers are trained to treat wounds. People think we leave everything down to maids. We have maids, but they don’t do much at all. They do most of the cooking, but Silvers are still taught how to cook. It’s a simple survival skill.” Chloe says calmly.

“So... you aren’t totally helpless and lazy?” I ask.

“Not at all. We are always incredibly busy.” I look out of the tinted window to see a magnificent castle!

“That’s Queen Leah’s castle.” Chloe points out as we pull into the large circular driveway which circles around a large fountain. Chloe steps out, and steps back to allow me out. The guards standing either side of the hefty double doors stare at me as we approach them.

“Welcome back Lady Chloe Barslow. Who accompanies you?” They ask with suspicion. They know I’m a Red. But I’m not a Red...

“This is Lady Bekka. We request audience with Queen Leah immediately. It’s urgent.” Chloe says. She called me a Lady! The guards let us in, but they don’t take their eyes off me for a second. Chloe leads me through twisting hallways and up staircases until we reach the throne room. Chloe enters immediately and indicates for me to follow. An old woman sits on the throne, her silver hair is short and curled, her blue eyes are welcoming. Her skin is like rich coffee. I know because I saw a little puddle of coffee once, but I’ve never tried it because Rachel had a bit and it made her hyper for a while and very sick the next day. It could have been because it was on the floor, but I didn’t want to risk it. Queen Leah smiles warmly at Chloe.

“Chloe Barslow! What’s your report?” She asks, and then her eyes lay on me.

“And who is this?” She asks with a smile. Who is this. That’s what she said. Not why have you got a Red, she said who is this. Why does that make me happy?

“This is Bekka, your majesty.” Chloe says, with a small curtsy. Queen Leah stands from the throne and walks over to me. She looks me up and down, analyzing my clothes, the mess of my hair, the elastic band that ties it back and the bandage on my wrist.

“You brought her from the war, didn’t you?” Queen Leah asks. Chloe nods. Queen Leah examines me again.

“She hasn’t fought much, so there must have been a reason you withdrew her from duty... She’s not Red blooded, is she?” Queen Leah asks.

“No. She bleeds Silver.” Chloe replies. Queen Leah looks at me with warmth and fascination.

“Tell me Bekka, tell me about your family.” Queen Leah says.

“My mother is Red blooded, as is my twin and little brother. My father was a Red, but he died three years ago.” I reply, and Queen Leah nods. She indicates for Chloe and I to follow her. We follow her through three different rooms until we reach a room with a massive tree painted on the wall. “Welcome to the Magical Family Tree. This tree tells you as many family members that can fit on this wall, and their blood type. We will see if there’s any difference.” Queen Leah says, nodding me forward.

“How do I...?” I start and Queen Leah replies quickly.

“Just say your full name. First, middle and last.”

“Bekka Aria Carpenter.” I say and the tree starts to form a new shape. The shape of lines and letters. Queen Leah examines the tree and points.

“Here’s your name. It’s beside the names of Rachel and Tyler Carpenter.” She says. I nod. Those are my siblings.

“Your mother and siblings are most certainly Red, and you are definitely Silver. No one else in your family are...” Her voice trails off and Chloe steps forward.

“What’s wrong your majesty?” Chloe asks. Queen Leah points to the tree, right at the centre. There is no Silver in my tree, Queen Leah was right, but there was something that wasn’t right. Chloe nods and looks to me.

“It does make sense. If that’s true then...” Queen Leah turns to me.

“Bekka. It’s something we’ve been told before. A Silver legend. We promised, we swore on our existence that we’d never tell a Red, so we’ll have to tell a lie that you are related to a Silver somehow, but Bekka, we’ve been waiting for you for a long time.” Queen Leah says. Chloe obliges to continue.

“Many years ago, during the reign of the first Silver, a witch with extraordinary powers came to the throne. She told our Silver leader that one day, the real ruler will come to power. A Silver hidden with the Reds. The Silver king grew anxious. He didn’t want to lose his power, so he began to eliminate the Reds. But he could never locate the Silver. He caused chaos in the land. Over centuries, each Silver ruler has tried to clean up after the mess he made, but he caused hatred to be spread about the Silvers, which made each new King or Queen a hard decision. Eventually, when Queen Leah first came to rule, the harmony between Reds and Silvers have strengthened, but it’s hard to make everyone happy when we’ve never lived the Red life. We’ve searched high and low, and eventually gave up hope and assumed it was a legend or the witch had played a cruel trick on the Silver king. But here you are.” Chloe says. Queen Leah points to the centre of the tree once more. I read it out slowly.

“Bekka Carpenter is the one true queen...”