Chapter 15

Balthasar was pretty sure he had never seen a bigger sook in his entire life.
“It’s only for a few days…” Beowulf said to reassure himself for what was at least the third time so far, his voice wavering more each time. They had finally managed to coax the big guy into handing the queen over into Cassian’s arms, and now the knight sounded like he was barely keeping it together. Balthasar would bet from the intermittent sobs that tears were streaming down Beowulf’s face underneath his helmet. His hands hovered in the air in front of him, as if he was about to reach back out towards Maerwynn again and snatch her back into his arms.

“I know Beowulf!” the queen said to her bodyguard in slight irritation. “I’ll be fine!”
“We will take good care of her majesty, don’t you worry Beowulf,” Cassian reassured jovially for what must have also been the third time. 

It seemed the knight was really struggling with this whole separation thing, even if it was just for a few days. It has been hard enough to convince him to take the vacation at all in the first place. He had been fulfilling his duty as the young heiress’s bodyguard for half a decade now with barely ever a break, he had earned it for sure. And the property that he had been given with his knighthood had finally been properly set up, a great place to take a little holiday to, out in the quiet countryside. 

But Beowulf had not left the queen’s side for barely a moment since the assassination attempt, and everyone could tell how concerned he was about leaving her for any length of time. With how wound up he was about it, Balthasar wondered if he would even be able to relax at all during his vacation, or whether he would spend the entire time tying himself up in knots of worry. Both he and Cassian had of course attempted to reassure Beowulf time and time again, with only limited success.

“Come on Beowulf, don’t you trust Baz and Cass?” Thedrick asked as he gently tugged on one of Beowulf’s arms, trying to get him to put it down.

“Well I… I do but…” Beowulf’s sentence was punctuated by a sniffle, “if anything happened to her, I wouldn’t know what to do with myself!” He hunched over slightly and brought his armoured hands up to cover his helmet visor as he started sobbing loudly.

“Nothing is going to happen to her Beowulf, snap out of it!” Balthasar barked angrily at the knight, who quickly froze mid sob, falling silent. Then Balthasar could hear more muffled sniffling as Beowulf lowered his hands back to his sides, though his head was still angled downwards, as if he was cowering slightly under the chiding from the chirurgeon.

“Sorry…” Beowulf said in a small voice between sniffles.

“Come on Balthasar, go easy on him, it’s his job to be worried for the queen’s safety all the time,” Cassian pointed out, giving Balthasar an entreating look.

“Yes, but that is now your responsibility for the next few days, and Beowulf should show a little bit of respect for you by putting his trust in you to do his job as well as he has done it,” Balthasar retorted, crossing his arms over his chest.

“I thought you were going to help me with it,” Cassian said light-heartedly, adjusting the queen’s position in his arms. She was almost getting to the age where most people wouldn’t be able to easily carry her around as much, unless she was going to stay tiny like her father. Though however big she grew, gigantic Beowulf would probably always be able to carry her if she wanted it.

“Well, I’ll do it if it will put Beowulf’s mind at ease enough that he and Thedrick can finally be on their way,” Balthasar snipped with slight irritation.

“What, that eager to be rid of me Baz?” Thedrick asked, looking up at the chirurgeon with faux hurt in his big shining red eyes.

“Hah, finally some peace and quiet!” Balthasar retorted, not playing into the jester’s ploy for sympathy.

Thedrick’s long pointed ears, which these days he let poke out from his hat and hair, visibly fell in response. Then, after a moment, he seemed to rally himself, turning his expression into a scowl. “Well I won’t miss you either! Won’t even have time to think about you since I will be having such a good time with Beowulf!” The vampire crossed his arms over his chest and huffed.

“Ah yes, running off to a remote, secluded location with the man who tried to kill you. I’m sure nothing can possibly go wrong,” Balthasar quipped, trying to control the smirk that was pulling at the corners of his mouth.

“Th-That was one time, and I apologised!” Beowulf piped in anxiously. “I would never try to hurt Thedrick again!”

Now Balthasar smiled. “I know Beowulf, I was only teasing Thedrick,” Balthasar explained light-heartedly. “Now run along you two and leave her young majesty to us. She will remain safe and sound until your return, you have my word.”

“Alright,” Beowulf responded in a slightly shaky tone, then turned towards Thedrick and reached down to pick him up, lifting him up and placing him on the back of the draft horse that had been standing behind the two of them, waiting patiently. 

Thedrick smiled and waved down at his daughter as the knight climbed up onto the horses back behind him. “Be good sweetie!” the jester called out to her, and she waved back at the two of them as Beowulf turned the horse around and it started plodding away from the castle.

“Finally!” Balthasar exclaimed, letting out a sigh of relief. “Let us retreat within, yes?” he nodded to the castle. Cassian gave a small nod in return.

“You have to admire the lad’s dedication,” Cassian commented as they made their way through the castle, the officer still carrying the little monarch.

“What do you plan to do with her majesty while he is gone?” Balthasar asked as they approached the queen’s room.

“Well,” Cassian began as he lifted the child off his hip and set her down on the floor. “I was thinking, in light of the assassination attempts, that perhaps I could take this opportunity to teach her majesty a little bit on how to defend herself.”

Balthasar stared at Cassian in disbelief for a moment. “You want to train a five-year-old girl?”

“Well, if she were a prince, she would already be running around hitting people with a wooden sword at this age, right?” Cassian explained, turning to fully face the chirurgeon. “I don’t think it would hurt to start this young.”

“I don’t want to do that; I want to play tea party!” Maerwynn spoke up from where she stood near the adult’s feet.

“I disagree Cass, I think this time would be much better used to further her education,” Balthasar suggested haughtily. “I’m sure the tutors are covering the basics of reading and writing with her well, but I could give her some invaluable lessons on basic biology, for starters.”

“I don’t want to do that either! Can we play with dolls instead…” Maerwynn bemoaned, but neither of the adults paid any attention to her request.

“Oh yeah, that would be a great idea if you want to bore the poor child to sleep,” Cassian retorted with irritation. “She shouldn’t be cooped up inside all day doing boring book learning. She should be running around like other kids do, building up some muscle strength, especially considering Beowulf carries her around everywhere!”

“I assure you, dear Cass, that knowledge is a much more noble pursuit than violence! We should prepare her to be an intelligent and wise ruler, not to fight!” Balthasar snapped, glaring at the officer. “Besides, it’s Beowulf’s job to protect her anyway, she shouldn’t ever have to hold a sword.”

“You speak as though she will never have to know the horrors of war, when we already know that our neighbours want her head,” Cassian argued back. “Just because she is a girl doesn’t mean she shouldn’t be able to lead her armies into battle like her grandfather did. Sigrid should be all the proof you need of that!”

“Well how about we go and ask Tybalt to settle this disagreement? After all, as the regent it is his responsibility to ensure that the child ruler is properly moulded to be ready to take the throne when the time comes,” Balthasar suggested, then looked downwards towards Maerwynn. 

But the young queen was no longer standing by their feet. Balthasar quickly looked up and scanned the room for her, but he didn’t see her anywhere.

“Cass… where did Maerwynn go?” Balthasar asked as he looked around. He noticed the officer's eyes go wide, and he also started looking around quickly.

“Wh-What? She was just here…” Cassian said in disbelief, voice hitching slightly with anxiety.

“Well now she’s not!” Balthasar exclaimed, gesturing to the room. “You were supposed to be keeping an eye on her!”

“I… I swear I only looked away for a moment! I didn’t expect her to wander off so quickly!” Cassian tried to defend himself, giving Balthasar a pleading look. Then he quickly left the room and started looking up and down the hallway. Balthasar joined him, looking both ways and not seeing any small white-haired child in sight.

“She can’t have gotten that far… I’ll go one way and you go the other, we should catch up to her quickly then,” Balthasar suggested, before hurrying off down the corridor.

But it seemed that apparently, she had gotten that far, because Balthasar didn’t find her down the corridor and around the corner. He kept going and was soon searching through the castle. He ran into Cassian in another hallway, noticing immediately the officer hadn’t found the young queen either.

This of course sparked the two of them into a panicked castle wide search for her. As Balthasar searched, he was thinking about how he could hardly believe that they had promised Beowulf they would keep watch over Maerwynn and then managed to lose track of her five minutes later because of a petty argument. It was frankly ridiculous. And he really didn’t want this to turn into a massive search with all the castle staff and guards as had happened once before. He didn’t want the regent to find out they had made such a stupid mistake.

Eventually, when he was running out of places to look, Balthasar was hit by the idea of checking back in Maerwynn’s room, in case she had just hid under the bed or something as a prank and they had ended up running out and leaving her there alone. Balthasar was going to feel pretty stupid if that was the case, but he was willing to take the hit to his pride if it meant finding her and no one else being the wiser to what had occurred.

Balthasar was slightly taken aback by the sight that met him when he stepped into Maerwynn’s room once more. He was of course relieved to see that the young queen was seated at her tiny tea table, serving imaginary tea to her dolls. However, there was also someone else who was seated as best he could on one of the tiny children’s chairs. His brown curls bounced as he turned his head to look at Balthasar with bright green eyes.

“Emil?” Balthasar exclaimed, staring at the guard in surprise. “What are you doing here?”

“He’s playing tea parties with me!” Maerwynn announced firmly, pouting at Balthasar as she pretended to pour tea into the tiny teacup sitting on the table in front of Emil.
“I-, yes well-” Emil fumbled for words, “I was on duty, and she appeared out of nowhere and came up to me and demanded I play with her!”

“And you just did as she ordered? You didn’t think to try and find out where she was supposed to be, didn’t think it was strange she was running around on her own?” Balthasar questioned harshly.

“N-No, no! I did try to find Cassian, or you, or anyone in charge! I carried her around and checked the infirmary, and the barracks, and here, but I couldn’t find anyone so I just… decided to stay here with her and wait…” Emil explained, shifting uncomfortably in the tiny chair. “I thought whoever might be looking for her, well, that we would have a better chance of being found if we stayed put…”

“That… is actually a somewhat smart idea…” Balthasar said as a confused half compliment towards the guard, his anger having fallen away. “Could you go and try to find Cassian for me and bring him back here? He is probably still out there looking. I’ll stay and keep an eye on the queen, properly this time.”

Emil nodded and struggled out of the chair and to his feet, and then hastily left the room. Balthasar approached the table, where Maerwynn sat with her arms crossed over her chest, frowning.

“Your majesty, running off like that was a very dangerous thing to do,” Balthasar chided gently as he knelt down next to her. “You had Cassian and I extremely worried about you.”

“I just wanted to play tea parties, not any of the stuff that you two wanted me to do…” she explained grumpily, her large red eyes looking away.

“Then you should have said so your majesty,” Balthasar suggested.

“I did say so, but neither of you were listening to me!” Maerwynn pointed out angrily.  “No one listens to me or takes me seriously except Beowulf and papa… oh, and stinky I guess…”

“Stinky?” Balthasar asked in confusion.

“Emil,” she clarified.

Balthasar had to stop himself from chuckling at that, putting his hand over his mouth for a moment. “Why do you call him stinky?” he asked mirthfully.

“Because his blood smells so good! I want to drink it,” the little vampire monarch explained, fangs flashing out for a moment as she spoke.

“Oh dear. Well you can’t, your majesty, as he doesn’t know about you being a vampire, and you know we have to keep that a secret,” Balthasar explained calmly.

“Yes he does. Wulfy accidentally told him that papa is a vampire, so he knows,” Maerwynn explained casually. “He let papa drink his blood, and he said it was sooooo delicious! I want some too!”

Balthasar stared at the child vampire in slack jawed disbelief. “He… he knows?”

“Who knows what?” Cassian’s voice came from the doorway, and Balthasar turned around to look at him. Emil was lingering in the hallway behind the officer.

Balthasar quickly rose to his feet and stepped over towards the pair. “Emil, you know about Thedrick and Maerwynn?” he asked hastily.

“Oh no,” Cassian commented, looking surprised, and shuffling slightly out of Balthasar’s way.

Emil’s eyes went wide, and then he glanced away and nodded.

“This is bad… how many other people has Beowulf told?” Balthasar wondered aloud; his voice was edged with anxiety.

“I don’t think he has told anyone else, he only let it slip to me because he was really drunk,” Emil explained quickly in reassurance.

“And who have you told?” Balthasar demanded, scowling at the guard.

“N-No one, I swear!” Emil said, putting up his hands in surrender.

“How can we trust your word?” Balthasar grated out. He wouldn’t trust the idiot noble born as far as he could throw him.

“Because I don’t want to get my arm torn off! I’ve kept it to myself and will continue to do so, I promise,” Emil entreated, almost cowering slightly before Balthasar.

“I guess that’s as good of a motivation as any,” Balthasar mumbled, backing away from the guard a bit now. He would bet they were all intimidated by Beowulf after seeing what he had done both with the vampire hunter and the assassins, and so nobody would want to get on the knight’s bad side. “Oh, and if you could keep her majesty’s brief disappearance today to yourself as well, that would be appreciated,” he added.

“Thanks for finding her for us by the way kid,” Cassian said with a grin to Emil, clearly trying to put the guard more at ease after the intensity of Balthasar’s intimidation.

“No… no worries…” Emil said, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand while looking away still.

“Can we get back to playing tea party yet?” Maerwynn called out from behind Balthasar, sounding impatient.

Balthasar’s face lit up for a moment with an idea. “Well Emil? You heard her majesty; you better not keep her waiting.”

“O-Oh?” the guard said in confusion, looking between the faces of the chirurgeon and officer. “I mean, of course.” He quickly stepped around Balthasar and headed over to the queen’s tea table.

“Now comes the part of the tea party where we make a ritual blood sacrifice!” Balthasar could hear Maerwynn announce behind him.

Balthasar smiled and shook his head in mirthful dismissal. Then he looked at Cassian, still smiling. The officer returned the smile, looking relieved.

“Let’s be more on our guard with her from now on, yes?” Balthasar suggested lightly. Cassian nodded in agreement.

“Now just hold out your hand over the cup,” Maerwynn instructed.

“W-Wait, your majesty, where did you get a knife?” The panic was clear in Emil’s voice.

Balthasar and Cassian looked at each other in alarm, and then quickly turned around to deal with the situation.