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The king was dead and thus, the battle was won. The cavalry screeched to a halt, their horses’ hooves kicking up the hard packed earth, and whipped around to look back at the slain king. As he plummeted to the ground from his horse, his crown was knocked off his head, and when he hit the ground, his aura of strength and power was greatly diminished, which made him look tiny.
As the fight went out of all those scattered around the battlefield, a victory cry sounded from the conquering side. They catapulted their helmets into the air, and even the horses, steaming and huffing from their perpetual galloping, seemed to raise their heads proudly. The scene was riotous. While the triumphant tramped around the perimeter of the battlefield in a victory lap, the defeated huddled in a circle around their fallen leader. Although they bowed their heads, and felt the weight of yet another loss crashing down on their shoulders, they also felt relief at the battle’s end, for it had been a ceaseless one, lasting nearly a day.
Their Queen, however, was not at her dead husband’s side. She had not even reacted at the victory cry that had been perfectly audible from her current position. Instead, the now widowed woman was pacing inside the recovery tent that had been set up to one side of the grassy combat zone. Hands behind her back and her badly injured leg causing her to limp, the Queen was muttering quietly to herself, occasionally glancing at the detailed plans she had drawn up that reviewed schemes and battle strategies.
She now stopped at the table on which these plans had been laid out and leaned forward, resting her knuckles on the hard, wooden surface. Grinding her teeth, she wondered where the battle could have possibly gone wrong. After all, she had rules, and she had specific directions about how she wanted every battle to be won. This time, her army had not done as she had demanded, and they were going to be sorry they had ever dared to disobey her.
She turned quickly as one of the senior officers ducked his way into the tent. The Queen lost her balance as her injured leg gave way beneath her and she collapsed onto the ground in a tangled heap of white robes. Her cloak snagged on the splintering table and tore. Rapidly regaining her footing, she turned her thunderous eyes on the officer, now backing out of the tent.
“You! Get back in here!” the Queen shouted, propping herself up on the table, not even noticing she was wrinkling one of her meticulously drawn battle plans. “How dare you! What do you have to say for yourself?!”
“I-I’m sorry, my lady,” the officer mumbled, casting his eyes around the tent as if looking for an escape route. “But they- the other side, I mean- want to know when the next battle is going to- to be.” He faltered under the threatening gaze of his furious Queen.
“Tell them to be back on the battlefield tomorrow,” she snapped, whirling back around to face her crumpled plans again.
“Tomorrow! What a thing to demand! The cavalry needs to rest, your majesty!”
“Tomorrow.” said the queen in a dangerously soft and quiet voice. “And if you disappoint me again like you did today, I assure you that I will make you suffer!”
As he made a rapid exit from the tent, the officer shook from head to toe and returned to the rest of the cavalry, with his queen’s latest threat ringing in his ears.
In the recovery tent, the Queen felt herself losing strength as she pored over the plans once more. Her injury, inflicted by one of the other side’s junior officers, no less, throbbed and seared when she put it down on the floor. Yet, now she endured the pain, for her army’s sake. After all, she thought to herself. Where would they be without me? The question was pointless, for the Queen knew the answer. The pathetically incompetent infantry were nothing more than lumps of wood when she was absent from the battlefield. When she had been crippled during the duel that day, her poor army had been shattered, and were unable to perform as well. Next time, she thought, I will make sure I stay on board until the end game. Next time, I will be the one to checkmate their King.