We entered the throne room and Ellen was completely alone. When she saw me, she squinted her eyes.

“Lord Drake, your majesty.” The head horseman said.

“Leave us.” Queen Ellen snapped at him.

I watched the man practically run from the room and couldn't stop my smile.

Ellen easily saw this. “You may approach my royal personage, Lord Drake.”

I walked over to her, as if she wasn't the queen, and saw a small frown form on her face. “Good afternoon, Queen Ellen.”

“You have terrified a good portion of this city's populace, Lord Drake.”

I turned the hand cart around and opened one of the bags. “It was their own reaction to my new method of war and nothing I did, your highness.”

Ellen perked up and saw a lot of gold was in the cart. “What is this? A tribute?”

“I hardly think you deserve any tribute from me.” I said and she let out a low growl. “You already took several hundred thousand gold crowns from me to punish me, not counting costing me the land deeds in the new territories and any future funds they would have made.”

Ellen's face changed and she lost the anger. “Then what is it?”

“I liberated this from the garrison in the next town that was under mage control.” I said and as an example, dumped out the hand cart to have the open bag spill out the contents and then the multitude of other bags rolled out to pile onto the floor.

“You liberated it.” Ellen said in a soft voice.

“Yes, I did it personally with that thing that so terrified your populace.”

Ellen's eyes roamed over the gold that seemed like more than a garrison should have.

“If you're wondering, yes, this is the normal amount that a garrison should have in their PX for the soldiers.”

“How do you know that?”

“I was good friends with the PX clerk at the training base and she bought practically everything I brought to her, including any requests she had.” I said. “She was partial to near-deer meat and said I cooked it better than her own mother.”

Ellen's eyes twitched from the gold to me. “So, you were romancing other women even back then?”

“No. If I was going to do that, I would have bedded your cousin, Gillis. She would have had first rights as the woman that took care of me for nearly my entire training.”

Ellen looked shocked. “She would never lay with someone like you!”

I let my smile appear. “Perhaps not at the time. I was uncooth and quite brazen in my actions. At the end of training, she was a good friend of mine. Now I'm just ruthless and efficient with the perfect balance of noble and commoner knowledge.”

“What do you mean?” Ellen asked.

“I can see the flaws in both.” I said and didn't explain further. “I came here to get the list of other bases and garrisons that are still under mage rule. I'm leaving the capital to hunt the remaining rogue mages down. Having a list will make my hunt more efficient.”

“You are out of luck.” Ellen said and then sighed. “Melanie is sequestered to have the baby.”

“Is that why they left you all alone?” I asked and her anger returned.

“They didn't leave me!” Ellen spat.

“Oh, I see. You chose to not go with them to see the baby's birth, even if the kingdom can survive without you sitting right there for a day or two.”

“I will not abandon my country!” Ellen shouted.

“Just your friends and family, then?” I asked and she shot to her feet.

“GET OUT!”

“No. I came for a list and I'll get one.” I said and turned towards the throne room's door.

“GUARDS!” Ellen yelled and six men entered the room.

“You gentlemen have a choice. Help the irrational queen try to remove me from the castle, or remind her that without friends and family, the country she is fighting for is worthless.”

The men looked unsure.

“Remove him or kill him!” Ellen spat.

“As you can see, she is beset with stupidity once more. I am the one man that can do as she wants, save the kingdom she claims to love, and yet she has let her own self-importance dictate her actions.” I said and the men seemed to nod. “It didn't work the last time and she lost more than her command when I was done. If she chooses to do so again, I won't bother saving anything before I leave the kingdom for good.”

“YOU CAN'T LEAVE!” Ellen yelled. “I FORBID IT!”

I turned back to see her shaking in rage. “I own the land, seeded to me by your father, who was a good man. Because of him, you have your arm back and are now Queen, instead of your incompetent older brother.” I said and she didn't react. I looked at her and my vigilance told me the truth. “You don't want to give up your power, even though I told you to raise the boy up to be your replacement.”

Ellen seemed to deflate and sat down on the throne. “The nobles and the advisors are already prepared to declare him the crowned prince the day after he's born and Melanie will be Queen Regent.”

“Ha.” I said and then felt laughter bubble up inside of me. “HA HA HA!”

Ellen was so shocked at hearing me laugh that she was speechless.

“You've already lost it all! That's so fitting!” I said and she didn't tell me to shut up or yelled at me. “Don't you see? I wasn't the cause of your fall this time and you can't blame me for it! It was all you! All you! Ha hahaha!”

The men stood there and looked uncomfortable, not knowing what to do.

“If you want my advice, create a post called High Admiral of the Fifth Regiment or something, make it permanent and hereditary, and lord over it like you've always wanted, because it will be outside the normal military channels. Then you can find some idiot to hold in your iron grip and force him to give you children.” I said and walked out through the throne room's doors.

No one said anything or tried to stop me as I walked over to Melanie's office. I unlocked it and entered, only to see several folders sitting on this side of the desk. I went over to it and a note was written on top of it.

'David, here are the lists of army outposts, bases, garrisons, and the mage contingents assigned to them. Happy hunting. All my love, Queen Regent Melanie.'

“Ha! Of course she knew.” I said and took the note and the file folders. I left her office and walked down several hallways before reaching the main castle doors. I was a little surprised that there wasn't a squad or two of guards to block me from leaving. Not that they could. I was leaving and that was that.

A dozen soldiers were standing twenty feet away from the tank and were talking furiously. I ignored them and went right up to the tank.

“Hey! How are you doing that?” One of the men shouted. “We can't get near the thing!”

“That's because it's mine.” I said and opened the side door. “If you don't want to be squished, I suggest moving to the side and not block the road.”

“You can't tell us what to do!” He spat.

“I warned you.” I said and entered the tank.

“Well, it's kind of reassuring to know that the nobles really are idiots.” Dana said and accepted the file folders from me. “How's the Royal Consort?”

“Having the Crown Prince as we speak.” I said and she gasped. “She's the Queen Regent now, too.”

Dana looked both shocked and pleased.

“Ellen's not happy about that.” I said and turned the tank around on the spot. The men blocking the way made disbelieving sounds.

“Do you think they'll move?” Dana asked.

“It's too late for that.” I said and shot us forward to crush them instantly. “They made their choice.”

Dana gave me an odd look. “You don't feel bad about that?”

“I warned them to move. They chose not to. Choices have consequences.” I said. “If they weren't prepared to put their lives on the line every time a choice is made, they weren't making the right choices anyway.”

Dana looked thoughtful, then she tapped my chin. “I said it's unnerving to not look at the road.”

“I'm waiting for a kiss.” I said and activated the ignore and obscuring enchantments on the tank.

Dana let out a single laugh and kissed me. “Let's go back to the Sanctuary and unload this thing, go over these lists, and map out a route for you to follow.”

“I'll need to pick up more truth potion, too.” I said and she sucked in a breath. “Not all the mages feel the same way as the dissidents.”

“You're not going to just kill them all indiscriminately?”

“Only the obviously attacking ones. I have the authority to defend myself and interrogate mages for sedition.” I said and drove us through the streets and avoided the horses, carriages and people. “With Melanie's approval for my hunt, I don't have to be gentle about it. Not that I was before. I was a right bastard, as commoners usually say.”

Dana laughed. “I suppose you let the power go to your head.”

“No, I just didn't bother with being considerate of anyone else but myself and Gella.” I corrected. “If I was going to let the power to go to my head, I wouldn't have bothered to interrogate anyone at all and just killed them, guilty or not. It would have been much quicker.”

Dana had to think about that. “You're right. You could have abused your position as a Royal Inquisitor and just killed anyone that you deemed a risk.”

“I knew you would understand. I really like that about you.” I said and she blushed a little. “I won't be leaving for a couple of days. I need to prepare supplies and things if I'm going to travel around the country without having to come all the way back here each time to resupply.”

Dana thought about that. “What if you set up relay visits?”

“What are they?” I asked.

“You do up carriages or carts with the supplies you need and send them to the places near where you will be at when you need them.” Dana said as I drove us inside the Sanctuary. “They can go there and wait for you to arrive, resupply you, and come back here to do it again.”

I thought about that and it was a good idea. It would need a little changing to be viable, though. “Let's discuss that while we work on the lists and the maps.”

Dana nodded and I came to a stop just outside the Sanctuary's main doors. I opened the side door and called for a work crew to unload the tank of the loot. The enchanted weapons, sack of books, and other enchanted valuables were quickly removed from the tank and taken inside. They knew exactly what to do with them to reproduce them for the Sanctuary's use.

I helped Dana climb out of the tank and she brought the file folders with her as we entered the place. I gave her a quick tour of the lower levels and we stopped in the cafeteria to eat. I was greeted by nearly everyone and Dana looked happy about that. We ate a nice meal and drank a little wine, then we went into one of the many meeting rooms and started to work.

I sent for Jensen and he came with several other people to help set everything up for Dana's idea. It took us several hours to work out where the garrisons and army outposts were on the maps we had available. Instead of having one huge map with only dots or numbers for the places to visit first, we used pieces of paper and drew out single sections to give me as many details as possible.

That took up a lot of time as well and supper was delivered for us. We stopped working for a while and enjoyed the light conversation and the food. Dana's face seemed to have a smile permanently on it the entire time.

“I think we should call it a night, David.” Jensen said. “We can let the details settle in our heads and then get back to work in the morning.”

“Afternoon.” I corrected and he smiled and nodded. “I won't take you and the others from your jobs for much longer.”

“My lord, you don't have to worry about things like that. We all know it's important for you to complete your promise and we all agreed to help you as much as we can.” One of the men said and the others nodded.

“We also know when to give you space when you need it.” Another said and clapped the other men on the backs. “Let's go, guys.”

“Goodnight.” Jensen said to us and left with the others.

“They don't mince words, do they?” Dana asked.

“There's no need to.” I said and led her out of the meeting room, locked it, and brought her up to my floor and the room there. The healer was gone and had left a note, saying she was grateful for the payment and for the non-vow breaking fun.

“Do I need to ask about that?” Dana asked.

“I gave her magical orgasms that she's never had before.” I said and Dana made an odd face. “I meant I used magic to let her own magic get her off. I didn't have sex with her, although she did rub the back of my hand on her nightgown covered breasts.”

Dana's odd look didn't fade. “She didn't try anything else?”

“No. It goes against her vows, even if she hates her husband and gave him two children.” I said and she seemed to relax. “It was just proof to me how the messed up the noble lifestyle is perpetuating unhappiness and anger. Almost none of the marriages are happy ones and nearly all the children grow up with corrupted values and skewed viewpoints.”

Dana sighed. “I should have known you would discover how desirable you are to a woman that hasn't seen or felt genuine affection in a long time.”

I pulled her into a hug and looked into her eyes. “You are in the same physical category as them.”

“I know.” Dana whispered.

“Unlike them, I can do something about yours.” I said and started to undress her.

“David...”

“No, I'm not doing it because you need it.” I said and she smiled a little as I knelt and pulled her pants off. “I'm doing it because I do.”

Dana smiled brightly and then grabbed my hair as I licked her womanhood. She was wet right away and moaned, then she pulled me over to the bed and wrapped her legs around my neck.