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‘We are servants of Jarudha, Your Majesty. It is not—’
    ‘Answer the question!’ Sunset snapped.
    Diamond raised an eyebrow. ‘We will not forsake Jarudha for politics. We have no choice in this matter.’
    Sunset’s anger erupted as she stood and glared at the Seers. ‘Neither do I!’ she declared. ‘Gather what few possessions you have. As of this afternoon, you are all under arrest.’
    Diamond’s anger flared in his eyes. ‘On what charge?’
    ‘Treason.’
    ‘That’s ridiculous!’ Onyx said.
    ‘Failure to obey the queen’s direct instructions is treasonous,’ Sunset countered.
    ‘You can’t just accuse us without evidence and a lawful trial,’ Diamond protested.
    ‘Your refusal is all the evidence I need, and since you’ve forgotten this small detail I remind you that I am the law,’ she replied. ‘Gather your things, gentlemen. Goodman will be here shortly with my Elite Guards to accompany you to the Royal Gaol.’
    ‘The Bogpit?’ Seer Vale gasped.
    ‘This is outrageous!’ Diamond protested. ‘You can’t do this!’
    ‘I am doing it, old man! You are not the authority here. I am. I am your queen and you will obey me or live the rest of your life in my gaol.’
    ‘You will regret this sacrilegious lunacy!’ Onyx scowled.
    ‘Not before you regret your disobedience,’ Sunset retorted. ‘Goodman will be here before sunset—unless you decide to change your attitude and your decision. I have spoken.’
    She left the chamber, followed by her bodyguard, and passed along the curved corridor of the temple, ignoring the bowing Jarudhan acolytes in their yellowrobes with their shaved heads as she strode into the garden, heading for the palace. Torches lit the white gravel path. At the gateway separating the temple enclosure from the palace grounds, she halted and gazed up at the night sky. The moon hung in its third quarter, casting a pale glow over the stone palace buildings. To be queen, she told herself silently, I have to be decisive. To stay queen, I have to take risks. The thought wasn’t hers. It was the advice of her uncle, Kingly Royal, when she succeeded to the throne after her father’s untimely death.
    ‘You can’t be anything but ruthless to rule this kingdom,’ he had said, the morning before her coronation. ‘Others will see a girl and they will think you are weak. Some will see a young princess, untried in politics, and think you weak. You can’t be weak. Neither a king nor a queen has time for weakness. Remember this, Sunset Royal, and you will not fail your father.’
    She’d wondered when she was crowned why her uncle hadn’t been made the king. The law ensured that succession went first to the oldest surviving child before other blood relatives could be considered, but he was a man, the closest blood to her father, and a strong man. If having a girl succeed was so controversial, why didn’t the members of the Royal family simply bypass her? Once she grew into the role of queen her opinion changed. Why shouldn’t a woman rule a kingdom ? she argued. What made a woman any less able than a man ?
    Her uncle Kingly died unexpectedly of a heart malady when she was in her early twenties, although suspicion was rife that he died from a poisoning meant for her. Now entering her fifties, with thirty-seven years of reigning supreme behind her, she gave no quarter on any issue to men. Her strength was notphysical, but of heart and mind. The Seers would obey her or perish. For a long time she had wrestled with them over their status and rights, power that they justified in the name of their deity. She asked them to intercede on her part, as the Seers had for her father and grandfather in wars, but they refused. She begged them, she cajoled them, she ordered them and they refused, even when members of their ranks turned against her to support her son, Future Royal. The games were finished. She would show them, after all this time of patience and frustration, that she was