Chapter 14

King Peter ran into troubles the moment he led his small army out of his little castle. It was June and that spring brought cold rains. His troops fell knee deep into the mud on the roads. Only he and his son

Prince Felix were on horses which labored in the mire too. Peter was a large man while his son was puny taking after his mother. With mud and never ending rain, they managed no more than two miles away. Oddly they claim Isaiah's old house as their first night to stay. What was a week's march to Billingsly fortifications would turn into two if the rains persisted. His ninety or so men grumbled at the fact that they had to stay in the barn that still had not been cleaned out since the plague.

The horses and cattle that were house there had been dead a long time and their bones lay where they had died.

"Billingsly, his wife and son are dead," he told his son many times before. "That wench that has been crowned queen will be yours for the taking."

"What if I don't want her?" Felix asked.

"You'll want her all right," Peter grinned. "From what I hear she is very beautiful and her red hair is as bright as the sun."

"Isn't she supposed to be good with a bow?"

"For a woman, yes. But any of our men can outshoot her. After all, she is only a female and can't be as strong as our bow men." This brought a laugh to both King and Prince as they drank more wine than usual.

Alexis lay in her bed, thinking. Both her husband, children and Lord

Billingsly had been dead for just over two years. She felt lonely. She would rather meet this Prince than fight him. Maybe there was something there she missed when she was in that tournament years before. She was only a girl of fifteen when she saw him. He was supposed to older than she but looked so much younger. His small stature might have had something to do with it. She was taller than most men except for Mark and Billingsly. The only one that came close to matching her height was one of her generals, Thomas. And she was half a head taller than him.

Not being able to sleep, Queen Alexis climbed out of bed guiding her feet into her fur slippers, pulled a heavy chair close to the fire and sat down looking at the flames.

'Why oh why oh why did everyone she loved have to die from the pestilence that attacked Billingsly that terrible spring. If one had lived, she could have given her love to the survivor. Mark or either one of her children. But it took them all while she never even had any symptoms from the disease. Alexis wondered if she would ever love again? She needed a man to adore. She prayed a silent prayer that such a man might loom in her immediate future.

Peter and Felix arrived ten days later exhausted. The blasted rains had stopped for a week but came back with a vengeance two days prior to their arrival. Under a white flag, a messenger was sent to allay once more the ultimatum that if Billingsly didn't surrender immediately, the price they would pay was death to all who put up a resistance including the Queen. Alexis had the man flogged with twenty lashes and told the messenger that his back was her answer. Peter went berserk and sent some men to the dwellings to set them on fire. He was unsuccessful because of the rains. "We attack at dawn," he ordered.

King Peter and Prince Felix had no idea what awaited them. When they attacked carrying ladders to scale the walls, they were met by a cloud of arrows cutting down twenty of his men. He watched from what thought to be a safe distance as a red headed woman fired arrow after arrow hitting its mark every time. Next to her was a man doing the same. He gnashed his teeth in anger not knowing he was within Alexis' range until he was struck down when a missile pierced his armor and going right into his heart. As he was falling from his horse, Alexis shot Felix in the shoulder. With no leader to follow, the rest of the men surrendered on hopes they would receive mercy from the Queen. The battle lasted for less than thirty minutes.

"He must have been a fool," Queen Alexis waded through the fallen, looking for any injured to be taken care of.

"Yes Your Majesty," Edgar agreed. "He had no plan of attack. If I were in his place, I would have attacked under the cover of darkness where we would have stood a better chance of scaling the walls."

"I agree," Alexis said, finding Felix passed out from loss of blood. "Get this one to the physician right away."

"Yes Your Majesty," he signaled for a stretcher team.

"Give the survivors enough food and water for a week an send them to their homes after they are finished burying their dead," she ordered then walked back to the castle for a hot bath.

Six weeks later, Felix had recovered enough for the Queen to visit him.

"Well Prince Felix, are you ready for your journey back home?"

"You're not going to put me in the dungeon?"

"Now why would I want to do that?"

"We made war against you. My father said you would be given a choice.

"And what is that?"

"To marry me and be the ruler here or the chopping block."

Alexis threw back his heavy blanket to inspect his naked body. He was skin and bones, some that was due to his injury. She gazed at his flaccid cock and saw that it was tiny, like a little boy's. "I most likely would have chosen the chopping block," she said, throwing the cover over him. "Go home and rule justly," she advised, walking away.

"Send Thomas to me," Alexis told Mary, upon returning from church. It was a very hot day and the castle had gone from cold to cool. It seemed refreshing after being in the heated sun going to and coming from church.