How to Catch a Queen (Runaway Royals #1) - Alyssa Cole Page 0,60

one day be a great king meant nothing to their current situation, and acknowledging that wasn’t betrayal—it was accountability. Wasn’t it?

“This is in part because of you,” Marie said as she settled into a seat.

“Me?” Shanti asked.

“Yes. You’ve brought us so many wonderful ideas, and shared information about what various activists were doing in other parts of the world,” Marie said. “One of the videos you sent us said modeling public confrontation can be effective in populations where people don’t have a strong cultural history of protest. Today our goal was to show the people of this country that asking for what we need directly is possible.”

“Oh,” Shanti said, proud of her friends, but wondering what it meant that a queen was complicit in the heckling of her king.

“Njaza’s protest culture died by royal decree fifty years ago, supposedly a temporary measure to keep us safe after the turmoil of the civil war,” Salli added. “Funnily enough, temporary measures that help the ruling class often become permanent.”

“We were successful today, though,” Jendy said, raising her glass. “At the market tonight, the streets are full of debate about what the king is doing for us, and why some of us are said to be equal when paying taxes but don’t get to determine how the tax money is used. People sang my remix of ‘Sanyu II Is Our Future,’ and I’ve heard there’s even a version on the student radio station. And over there”—she pointed the glass toward the bookstore bar—“people no longer feel a need to whisper their complaints.”

Shanti tried to return Jendy’s smile and just managed it.

“Maybe we should use the momentum,” Nneka said, twirling a braid around one finger. “Maybe we should just bring everything crashing down. BOOM!”

“Or break out the guillotines!” Jendy said brightly.

What is it with her and guillotines? Shanti wondered.

Shanti breathed slowly as she tried to figure out how to defuse this talk of insurrection. She’d feared this, as months had passed and her husband seemed to ignore the discontent of his citizens, but her goal was to prevent it, not stoke the flames.

“In all likelihood, he didn’t know how bad things were before,” she said calmly. “This is the first time he’s been confronted directly and I’m sure it was a shock to him. Like you just said, the protest culture here died fifty years ago. He’s thirty-two and was raised in the shadow of an all-powerful king. And, he’s still grieving. The magnitude of the changes that need to be made may not have sunk in yet.”

Just give me a bit more time, she thought desperately. In addition to wanting to avoid Njaza tipping into civil war, she refused to have her legacy be that she achieved her dream of being queen only for her kingdom to fall. She wanted to help for altruistic reasons, but she was also in possession of an ego that had considered “become a queen” a normal and attainable goal. Just as she wouldn’t let Njaza fall victim to its own refusal to change, she wasn’t going to let the guillotine blades be dropped on her watch either.

“I know those that live in the palace are above our concerns, but how could he not know?” Jendy asked. “One of his names is Sanyu the All Knowing, is it not?”

“No. All-knowing is a title given to those touched by Amageez,” Marie said. “I understand they don’t teach religion in school as they should, but you should know that, girl.”

Jendy suddenly found great interest in the bottom of her cup.

“I think we should give him a few weeks,” Marie said. “Our friend is right. The pyramids weren’t built in a day, and the stubbornness of the Njazan king and his advisors won’t be changed in a day either. I know we are tired, but all of you are young. You have no memories of what it was like before peace stabilized the lands—I was once young, too, and I remember the fighting, the despair.

“Before we do anything rash, we must make sure that we aren’t sentencing our people to that despair, and we must discuss with others so that we are a united front. The last thing we need is several factions trying to seize power instead of a united people who are in general agreement about pushing the government to change.”

Shanti looked at Marie with surprise, then remembered that almost all older Njazans had been involved in the wars for independence in some way. She thought that maybe all