Chapter 38: The Heir Apparent of the Kingdom of Valyria!

The royal palace was filled with an eerie silence. Everyone was holding on to their breath, waiting anxiously for the Council of elder’s decision. Everyone’s thoughts were filled with the exact same question. Whose name had the King taken in his final moments on his death bed? Who had he declared as his heir apparent? Who is eventually going to ascend the throne of Valyria?
Even the infamous royal concubine had made her way back into the palace and it would an understatement to say that she was surprised at seeing the first princess there, fit and fine.
Selena raised an eyebrow at the concubine challengingly and winked smugly at her, which made the concubine further ground her former notion that whoever the woman standing in front of her was, she definitely wasn’t the first princess, Mia Langdon.

The woman standing in front of her was cocky, arrogant and dominating while Mia had been timid little creature who was afraid of her own goddamn shadow. She flushed with anger as she realized that she had let go of a good opportunity to be finally be done with the first princess. She had never once thought of Mia as a threat before right now. And she couldn’t touch her inside the palace, because she was under constant surveillance, not forgot the existence of goddamn dragon.
She had an inkling that the woman standing in front of her pompously would be quite difficult to handle in the future.

The council of elders came out of the king’s room and everyone immediately straightened up, tensely waiting for their judgement.
The ancient vampire fixed both the Queen as well as the concubine with a stern glance before continuing on to his speech.

“I regret to inform you all, that the King had passed away without being able to mouth even one word. As the king had failed to appoint an heir apparent, the council had come to the conclusion that currently both the first princess, Mia Langdon as well as the first prince, Andrew Langdon stands as potential candidates. After testing their willpower, their political and strategic knowledge and their strength, the council will make its final decision at the end of this month by way of open voting.”

The Queen heaved a sigh of relief, relieved that at least they still stood a chance. But she deeply suspected that some under handed play was going on, because her husband, having a paranoid and overthinking personality would never have let that matter drop so irresponsibly especially since he, himself knew that his time was ticking. Judging by the king’s sudden change of attitude towards the first princess, the Queen had an inkling that Natasha had dealt her hand quickly, preventing his order from reaching the public.

But that was already water spilt and the Queen couldn’t do anything with it unless of course, the original order declaring the first princess as the ‘Heir apparent’ miraculously comes into her hand, which stood absolutely no chance of happening either.

The Queen cursed herself internally for letting her guard down slightly when Selena had started performing well and even impressed the king. She should have known that the royal concubine wouldn’t just sit still with the first princess’s sudden rise to power.

“Who all would have the voting power?”, The Queen questioned the elders, determined to know every loophole about the selection process.

“All of Valyria’s allies as well as Valyria’s own royal family and the council of elders”
The Queen eyes snapped immediately to Caro. Her husband had defiantly given her daughter an unbeatable edge having declared her betrothed to Caro. She didn’t have any intention of letting her daughter actually get married to a man who already had a concubine and a son. The Queen being a strategist and perfectionist herself, had a habit of leaving no stone unturned and she had checked into his background details the very day the King had declared the marriage and she was appalled when she found out about his already existing family, that too with a mere human. How could a mere human compare to her daughter who was of blue blood?

She was of the firm belief that her daughter deserved much better. She wanted to make sure that her daughter never would have to lead a life like her own, always vying for her husband’s love and attention. She pursed her lips tightly as she realized that she can’t deal with Caro this quickly. She would have to deal with him only after the selection process was completed because they would need his assistance and vote.

The Queen pursed her lips tightly as she realized that though the council made it sound like they were giving the first princess a fair chance to prove her capabilities, they really weren’t. The council of elders, being ancient vampires were filled with male chauvinistic men who would never vote for a female ruler. They would never bow their head before a woman. She would have to gain the votes from the allies to stand a fair chance against them.

As the council excused themselves and went outside, everyone rushed at each other at once, murmuring amongst themselves. The royal concubine headed their way and the Queen shot her a disapproving look, having found out that she had tried to murder her other daughter too. She was already barely controlling herself around the concubine because the fact of the matter was, she had been behind Mia’s assassination attempt, but the Queen felt helpless that she couldn’t do anything about this woman and now she is even attacking her other daughter. The Queen straightened up, determined to teach her a subtle lesson.

The royal concubine narrowed her eyes at her new subject of interest, the supposed first princess and murmured right before her eyes, “My dear, give up and live a full life at the palace. Even when my son ascends the throne, we won’t kick you out of the palace.”

Selena scoffed indignantly at the concubine and spat back with a pinch of venom in her voice, “You are the one who should know your place. We belong in this palace. After all, this is our home but you, you are a mere whore who is being dignified as a royal concubine just because she was fucking the king instead of any other common man. When dream and capabilities don’t match, it always ends up in disappointment. So, either get rid of your greedy dream to see your see your son ascend the throne of Valyria or power up to beat me in a challenge head to head rather than going for your usual under handed tricks because Honey, you are not a competition and never will be.”

The Queen smiled smugly at her daughter while the concubine glared down at her, her otherwise pale face, flushed red in anger. She narrowed her eyes dangerously at the woman standing beside her, now fully sure that whoever it was, it wasn’t Mia Langdon. That could only mean one thing as they looked exactly like each other. The Queen had given birth to twins and hid away one secretly at the very beginning. So, the information provided by her assassins were indeed correct. The first princess, Mia Langdon was indeed dead and her twin sister had taken her place. The Queen had hidden the twin somewhere very confidential and the royal concubine had an inkling that it was in the General’s clan as the General was one of the Queen’s most trusted aid’s. The royal concubine froze as everything suddenly started falling into place. She narrowed her eyes at the smug woman in front of her who turned out to be not the first princess, but the Queen’s hidden ace.