The Four Queens
Copyright© 2026 by Uncle Jim
Chapter 18
The following characters return from previous stories:
Dukhot
The Eternal Monk, 5’-4’’ tall (162 cm), 135 pounds (61 kg), an older man, shaved head, tired brown eyes
Dr. Muadhnait Graham
Doctor, OB/GYN, an older woman of indeterminate age, but now appears to be less than 60 years old. She is about 5’-6’’ tall (167 cm) and a bit thin with short, light black hair, her eyes are as black as coal
The Spirits of Magic
The Spirit of Ley Line Magic, the largest of the Spirits, it appeared to be a strong young man of about twenty-five years of age or so. The Spirit of Ordinary Magic, his younger brother appears to be a young man of eighteen or nineteen years of age. The Spirit of Witch Magic, their sister appears to be a young woman of twenty or twenty-one years of age. The Spirit of Black Magic, their cousin is a figure in black as opposed to the others being in white or cream colored clothing. It appeared to be a man of at least thirty years or so old.
The following new characters appear in this chapter:
The Spirits of Justice
These are four Magic Spirits from different Realities, they are the ones who enforce the Law across the several Realities that they represent. One is Human. The other three are typical of those in their Realities.
Maly still has the Narrative
It required considerable time to clear the Audience Chamber of guests. Many wanted to stay and talk with those they hadn’t seen in some time. Others had questions, especially the reporters who had been in the grandstand during the ceremony. Since the entire ceremony had been conducted in the Dragon language, they hadn’t understood any of it. Mike Horn, who had sat in the grandstand with his wife Mliss and his adopted son Kiry, had translated it for them, but they wanted to be sure of what was said. Those from the various Magic Associations had also wanted the translation. The reporters also wanted to know if they could get copies of the video that we had made. We took the names of those who wanted copies and who they worked for and promised to send them copies of the videos with translations.
We learned later that day on the news that quite a number of the departing Dragons had taken off from the Entrance platform and had been flying above the park for some time. This had frightened many of the tourists at the park. Others had changed into their human forms and spread out through the park sampling the various delicacies there, including any willing young ladies.
Finally after more than an hour, we did manage to get everyone out of the Audience Chamber and out of the Nest except for family and friends most of whom had gone down to the nesting area where there was a small celebration in progress. A short time later, Kiry and his family were the first ones to leave the celebration, as they had other things to do that day. Deirdre had gone with them to pass them through the Nesting Ward at the Entrance. They had no more than transferred down to the ground when a member of the Green clan tried to abduct Kiry. That is he did until he encountered his strong Talent and Magic.
“You will come with me, hatchling and do as I demand,” the Dragon told him. He was currently in his human form as an old Chinese man. This was not something that Kiry and his family were about to agree to.
“No, I will not,” Kiry told him and transferred into his Dragon form. However, even at thirteen years of age, he still wasn’t more than ten feet tall (300 cm). Mike Horn, his adopted father, also transformed into his Dragon, but the Green Dragon wasn’t impressed by either of them and returned to his Dragon form also.
Deirdre was still at the Entrance of the Nest and saw what was happening. She sent a problem signal to the other Queens. In less than a second, the Green Dragon was surrounded by three live Queens plus the Spirits of the Queens in the Jewel and the Queens of Old.
“Why are you bothering OUR guests?” the Queens demanded in angry voices. The Green Dragon instantly knew that he had made a huge mistake and tried to worm his way out of it by changing back into his human form.
“I needed some help with things and thought this boy could help take care of them,” he lied.
“Wrong answer, Green. You can’t lie to US,” the Spirits of the Queens of Old told him. “You will report to your clan chief to be disciplined. WE will check to be sure that you have,” they assured him before transferring him to where his clan chief was at the time.
Meanwhile, Deirdre was apologizing to her guests for the unfortunate incident. A number of us had followed the Queens but had arrived too late to be of any help. The Queens hadn’t needed any help, as they are much too intimidating in person for that.
Still, this had been enough to ruin the celebration and many of us returned to the Audience Chamber, where most of those on the video crew were busy working on the production of the coronation video. They were combining the best views from the many minutes of video from the four drone cameras into a coherent whole showing the entire ceremony from the arrival of the guests to the final procession out of the chamber. The final product would be turned into a DVD. Copies would be sent to the various news services and others that had requested them in English, and others would be for sale shortly.
Even though there had been no party following the coronation, the guests at the Ceremony had left a considerable amount of debris behind. It required over an hour to get the large chamber cleaned up. Fortunately, some of us had returned to the nesting area to help take care of the children and prepare them to go home with their parents.
Later, Deirdre did inform us and Kiry’s family of the meeting that she had with the leader of the Green clan. It seems that the Dragon in question was having age related problems and needed assistance with a number of normal daily things. The clan hadn’t been aware of how serious the problem was. The clan chief assured her that they would find a near-Dragon in their clan to assist him, and he would tutor the young Dragon in Magic for his help. Deirdre considered this an acceptable solution to the problem, but she would also check that the assistant did learn enough Magic to become a Dragon on his own.
Over the next nearly five years, my sisters and I continued to assist our mother with ruling her Queendom. This was in addition to having more children. We each wound up having three children: a pair of girls and a boy each. Deirdre also had the same number and gender of children that we did.
During this time, Mother became more and more dependent on us to take care of any problems that developed in the areas that she ruled. She also, little by little, became more detached from the problems that occurred and allowed us to solve the problems in our own way. While this gave us experience in how to rule, it took her out of the picture except for the very worst problems that occurred; those that required her supreme authority to solve. Finally, a few months prior to her fiftieth birthday she revealed why.
“I will be retiring as Queen on the last day of my fiftieth year. I will have been Queen for thirty plus years, and no longer wish to be responsible for ruling over the vast territory that my Queendom has become. When I became Queen, it only covered Tibet and part of China plus Nepal, India, and Southeast Asia. Now it covers half of the world and is too much for me to handle even with your help. I wish to retire to my houses and gardens, and to enjoy my grandchildren, and not to have to deal with male Dragons who are worse than children with their constant bickering and fighting,” she told us.
We were shocked to say the least. We had expected her to continue to rule for, at least, another ten years or more. She is still a young woman and very vibrant, but she sounded old and tired when she made the announcement. The Spirits of the Previous Queens were as shocked as we had been and told us that they would require, at least, two moon cycles to get the word out to the various areas that the Queen of the East now ruled.
“Where can we hold the ceremony?” was the first question on our minds following that. “Is there any place large enough?” was second.
“There is the Audience Chamber,” I reminded them.
“It is the same size as the one in the Stone Mountain Nest,” the Spirits of the Previous Queens told us. “It will depend on how many answer the summons to the coronation for us to know if it will be large enough,” they added.
“Do you think more than a thousand would come?” Daeva asked, remembering the supposed capacity of the other chamber.
“That is possible. There are now many Dragons living in the Dragon Reality. Still, it is a long way for many to come here from where they live. They would need to travel in the Human Reality to reach a place near here. The Chinese are still not allowing many to visit Tibet. They would need to go to India or Nepal to get close to here, and then transfer to the Dragon Reality to arrive close to here before transferring back to this Reality to attend it. We are sure that some will not be able or willing to do that and will just accept the existence of the New Queens,” the Spirits of the Queens of Old told us.
“There is another problem,” Botum told us following that.
“What?” both Daeva and I asked, as if we hadn’t heard enough already.
“There is only one Medallion, but there will be three new Queens,” she reminded us.
“Oh yeah!” we both said. “Who gets to wear it?”
“It is not a problem,” the Queens of Old told us. “The Spirits of Magic have already created two additional Medallions and have incorporated them into the First. When the Queen relinquishes the Medallion, it will automatically split into three equal parts the same size as the original, so each of you can receive one. This event has long been foretold and preparations have been made for it,” they told us.
With those things somewhat settled, there was still a huge amount of work that needed to be done to prepare for what the military would call, ‘The Change of Command’ ceremony from a single Queen to three equal Queens. We started by looking at who was available to assist us in all of this.
There were our children, of course, but none of them were old enough to be of any help, as they were all too young. In fact, they could be a hindrance, as they all still required much care from us. Next, there were our husbands.
Botum’s husband, George, was a lawyer in a law firm that handled the necessary legal actions for Dragon Security and other Magic users. He should be able to assist us in a number of things. Next, was my husband, Samuel. He was an assistant in a musical production company that toured. He handled the various arrangements for transportation and living accommodations when they are on the road. He would definitely be a big help.
It was Daeva’s husband, Thomas, who we were most concerned about. While he is an engineer and was working for a firm doing road design, that wasn’t what we were most worried about. He was also a lieutenant in the Georgia National Guard in an Infantry unit. They believed that he was just a strong Magic user, which they had liked, and had placed him in charge of a small platoon of other Magic users. They did not know that he was a Dragon. Neither did those he commanded. Fortunately, he had completed his mandatory service in the Army in the five years since graduating from college. So he would be able to resign from the National Guard by telling them that his wife had a new job overseas, and that he was moving there with her. We were sure that they would never have released him if they knew that he was a Dragon. We were just as sure that they would eventually learn that he was not only a Dragon, but the husband of one of the New Queens of the East.
Lastly, there were our relatives whom we could ask for help. Especially, there was Aunt Doreen and her video crew who could record both ceremonies again. Our various cousins, and nieces and nephews could also help out with many of the other details like lists of attendees, invitations, and some of the reservations for those attending the ceremony.
Some of our relatives knew Dragons and near-Dragons who were artists and calligraphers. We had discussed what language to have the invitations printed in. We had considered the Dragon language first, but there were several dialects of it, and they were not easily understood by all Dragons, so we dismissed it.
Next was Gaelic, as all Magic users needed to learn it to do Magic. There were several older dialects of it, but one’s Talent allowed strong Magic users to read and understand all of them, unlike the Dragon language. We settled on Gaelic for most of the invitations, but also had some printed in English for special guests. Those whom we had hired did a great job on the invitations.
It was while we were making out our personal lists of those we wished to invite to the ceremony, that the three of us came up with the most devilish scheme.
“We should definitely invite Dukhor, the Eternal Monk. He has certainly contributed much to the success of the many villages and towns in the Dragon Lands in Tibet,” Botum told us.
“Yes, he helped our parents when they first took control of the Nest,” Daeva agreed and wrote his name on the list.
“What about Dr. Graham?” I asked. “She is the one who delivered us and has been our doctor all of these years. She is even older than Dukhor,” I reminded them.
“Yes, they are both Immortals and should get along well,” Botum agreed before something occurred to all of us, at about the same time.
“Just how old is Dukhor?” Daeva asked.
“According to Mom, he told her that in 1580 the Third Dalai Lama named him Dukhor, and told him that he would have a long life. He also told her that he had been born in1518 during the year of the revival of the Mon Ian Chenmo, the Great Prayer Festival. That would make him some 560 years old,” Botum told her.
“Maddy told Deirdre that she had learned that Dr. Graham was born in 975 in Ireland. That would make her over 1100 years old,” I told them.
“Then she is a lot older than he is. Still they are both Immortals and very old. They have few friends or loved ones, especially Dukhor. Dr. Graham does have her daughter and granddaughter and their children, but they are all much younger than she is. The only ones older than she is are Nicolae and Yuryi, and they have their own families,” I said, and we all began to smile.
“Yes, they could be friends. They have both lived through many changes,” Daeva agreed before a large smile lit up her face. “And maybe more than friends,” she added and continued to smile.
“They are both too old for that,” Botum insisted.
“Maybe,” was all that Daeva would say. We invited both of them and Dr. Graham’s daughter and granddaughter as well. We would see what happened.
Over the next six weeks, we three spent a lot of time visiting the various Dragon clans in each of our areas. We distributed the invitations and encouraged, at least, the leaders to try to attend the Coronation of the new Queen. Both the invitations and we were very careful to only indicate that it was the Coronation of a NEW Queen and not how many. That, while not a secret, wasn’t mentioned.
A month or so before the ceremony, Doreen and her crew disassembled the video recording room in the Stone Mountain Nest and moved it to the Audience Chamber in the Tibetan Nest. Since it was modular, it was easily taken apart and the sections stacked together before they were sent to the Timeless Zone. The video equipment and the generator were also moved that way. Following that, all they needed to do was to pass through the portal to the Tibetan Nest, where they called the parts to them from the Timeless Zone and reassembled the video room and its equipment in the Audience Chamber there. We also hired some of the Dragons from the village in the Dragon Reality near the Nest to construct some bleachers for our non-Dragon guests.
About three weeks out, we started wondering just how the ceremony would be conducted. We had been at Deirdre’s coronation, but she was the only one being crowned Queen. There were three of us. Would we all be crowned at the same time or one at a time, we wondered.
“We need to talk to the Spirits of the Previous Queens,” Botum told us. “Our day is getting close, and we will need to get everyone lined up depending on how the Queens have decided is the correct procedure,” she finished. We all went to the Audience Chamber to see the Queens of Old.
“Your Majesties, we need to know how the ceremony will be conducted so we can arrange to have the correct people here that will be involved,” Botum told them when they appeared.
“The three of you will receive your Emblems from your consorts at the same time. There will be three thrones on the dais once you are proclaimed the Queens,” they told us.
“Thank you, Your Majesties, but how many people will we have attending us besides our consorts? When Queen Titiksha was crowned, she had two female assistants, one on each side of her, plus her husband and her father behind her. Do we need to have the same number of assistants? Also, will we three be on line together or one behind the other and in what order?” Botum asked. The Queens were quiet for some time following that, as they conversed together. Even several very old Previous Queens appeared, ones that we seldom saw, to join their discussions. After a time, they seemed to reach a decision, and several of them turned toward us.
“There has never been more than one Queen before, so this is as new to us as it is to you. After some discussion and consulting with our oldest members, it has been decided that the three of you will march up to the dais as a single line together with two assistants in front of you. You will be followed by your consorts and your father who will be behind the consorts.
“On reaching the dais, the assistants will step to the side, and the three of you will kneel. The questions will be asked then and depending on your answers, your consorts will step forward to receive your Emblems and place them on your heads. After being crowned, you will ascend to the dais, and each of you may speak to those attending the ceremony.
“After each of you has had a chance to address those here, you will march back up the aisle to leave the chamber, so the others may depart. We presume there will be some sort of celebration, but mostly outside of the Nest. WE have no desire to have all of those males in here for several hours after the ceremony. They always get into fights over something,” they told us in a disgruntled voice.
“Thank you, your Majesties,” we all said. “We will need to determine who will accompany us,” we added before departing. Later when alone, we had a decision to make.
“Who can we get? It should be someone important” Daeva told us. “But who?” followed that.
“Maddy,” Botum suggested.
“Okay, but who else? Who else is that important?” I asked.
“There aren’t a lot of people that are that famous or important,” Daeva told us. We all sat there and thought for a time.
“Mother!” Botum suddenly said out of nowhere.
“Mother?” Daeva asked.
“Certainly, she and Maddy will both be former Queens. It will be perfect,” Botum assured us.
“I think we should check on that with the Previous Queens,” I told them, as I wasn’t sure they would approve of that. We went to see them the next day. They were waiting for us, which is never a good sign.
“WE know what you want to propose. It is of no importance. The Spirits of Magic visited us after you had left. They have volunteered to accompany you up to the dais, and then step to the side while you are crowned. Their presence is sure to put to rest any of the questions or complaints that the various clans may have about the legitimacy of your reign,” they told us with large smiles. We were just blown away by the very concept. Why would they agree to do that, we wondered but quickly agreed.
“Wow, you can’t get anyone more important then that,” Daeva said as we left the chamber. She was, obviously, impressed, as we all were.
Eventually, the final day of Mother’s reign arrived. Guests, Dragons as well as humans, had been arriving for the past two days, but mostly in the Dragon Lands, as there still wasn’t anywhere close to the nest to stay in the Human Reality in Tibet. The villages at the foot of the mountain in the Dragon Lands were full to over flowing with them.
Late that afternoon, the entire Kavanagh and Sweeney Clan gathered in the Audience Chamber of the Tibetan Nest to attend the resignation of the Queen of the East. Mother was preceded by Dallas and Doreen down the center aisle, and followed by our father and our brother. At the dais, Dallas and Doreen stepped to the side, and Mother knelt before the Spirits of the Previous Queens. All were in their Dragon form at 25 feet tall (7.65 meters).
“Do you truly wish to join the ranks of the Previous Queens, Jorani?” the Spirits asked.
“Yes, the burden of being Queen has become too heavy, and I wish to resign,” Mother told them but in a sad voice.
“Consort, remove the Emblem of the Queen from her head and pass it to us,” the voice of the Spirits of the Previous Queens directed. Dad stepped forward and removed the Emblem of the Queen and its chain from around her horns and lifted it from her head before passing it to the hands of the Previous Queens.