it, but he had worked too long for the Andinna to have it be disregarded in a moment.
“You are trying to change that now, aren’t you?” Lariana said, walking closer. “Look up, Prince, and see who you must face.”
He felt the weight lift, and his breathing nearly stopped. Before him wasn’t just the goddess Lariana. No, as they waited, the Hall of Queens filled with every previous ruler who had been her Avatar. She lifted her hands and turned to the queens of old.
“My daughters!” she called out. “This is Alchan Andini, son of Behron, and grandson of Queen Tayanna! He possesses my true bloodline, strong and untainted. He is here to become my Avatar, and like all those who make it past the first test, he is worthy of your judgment.” She turned back to him. “Which is the only reason I haven’t killed you where you sit, boy.” She smiled viciously, reminding him of his brother with the same expression, with her white tatua, horns, wings, and tail. Now, he understood his brother, the mutt of Lariana herself. Her son in coloring, if not by pure blood. “Make your case. Do it well.”
Alchan blinked as the goddess stepped to the side. He looked out over the rows and rows of those who had come before him. He recognized some of their faces. Paintings faded over the ages, but descriptions were always available in the old tomes that were once well maintained. He recognized queens who had died too young, others who ruled until their dying breath, some who made great mistakes, and others who led times of prosperity.
And in the front, right before him, he saw his grandmother.
She had led during great times and bad. She had made good choices, bold choices, necessary choices, but also made many mistakes. By the time the war happened, she was known as the queen with the broken family. Behron had been the initial poison, but it continued to fall apart after him. Luykas never truly fit in, and when it was revealed that Shadra led the invasion, Alchan had stood beside his brother, instead of giving in to the paranoia of his aunts and cousins.
That was the day he had left and never returned to the palace. He had promised his grandmother they would return when the war was won.
Then the Andinna lost because his grandmother had let mistakes happen to protect another family from being more broken—the Lorrens. His grandmother had loved Javon like her own son because he succeeded in every way Behron had failed.
“One thousand years ago, a tragedy struck our people,” Alchan began softly. “But we can go back further if you like and start this tale and my plea somewhere else. To the beginning of the Hundred Year War? That would work, but the beginning of this story was well before that. I can take it back to the birth of a bedru named Behron. Or I can take it back to the birth of an Elvasi noblewoman who later became Empress. I could take it back to the birth of my grandmother, possibly.” He would not give her a name in this place in front of these females. “But since I am the one being judged here, we will begin with me. You look at me and see an upstart. A male of royal blood has no real place in our world. I had two options in life. I could serve and die for queen and country, or I could become an outcast to be ignored. I chose the former…every time without exception. Even when my queen sent my mother away and left me with none. Even when my father tried to kill me. Even when my queen couldn’t bring herself to truly punish him for it. He tried to murder a boy and walked away with his life, but I still chose time and time again to serve my queen.
“I agonized and hated myself because that was the lesson all of you left behind for males like me. I accepted the criticism, learned control, learned patience, learned how to live in a world I wasn’t made for. An aberration of blood line and sex. Yet I still picked all of you over myself time and time again. Because that was my duty as a male, not just of the royal bloodline but any blood line. I served.”
He looked over them, wondering what they were thinking. He hadn’t been prepared to give the dead queens