"Unbelievable!" Magrat was amazed. I wish she was amazed by my novel combination of the spells of recall and mind-talking to replay the conversation between Queen Griselda and Magus Keleher; however, her expression of incredulity though was for the content of that conversation.

"I can not fathom how any mother can decide to kill her own child," Magrat shook her head. "You poor boy, Prince Willam. I do not blame you for being upset and feeling conflicted."

"I've known for years that there was something wrong with my mother," Willam said to the table. Owl, Blue Fox, Cat, and myself were present as well as Magrat, and Uncle Sven. "I had just turned 12 when I discovered the truth about my mother. She doesn't love anyone besides herself. She's only nice when she needs to manipulate someone into doing something she wants. She is terrible to face if you do anything that crosses her. I don't think she knows right from wrong. She lives in a world where what she wants is right and what she dislikes is wrong, and doesn't care about anything that falls between those two points.

"What about your sister? Aricia?" Magrat wanted to know.

"I've not been able to be alone with my sister for over three years now," Willam looked even more unhappy. "The few times we've been able to talk, I get the impression that she's frightened all the time and scared of what mother will do to her if she isn't the perfect little princess. Mother expects her to do all the things expected of royals and nobles who have already been presented to society. Aricia is four years away from that. I know her maids put makeup under her eyes to hide the dark circles but nothing can hide the red of her eyelids from weeping."

"I believe Aricia is not in immediate danger from the Regent," said Cat. "She's the pivot in stepmother's plot. Aricia has to marry Egbert for Osterius to absorb Nordweg in a bloodless coup. The one in real danger is Father. Is there some way we can remove Father, get him well, and have him ready to put back on his throne while we overthrow Griselda?"

"No, if you want to do a palace coup that works," Magrat advised, "you should assassinate the queen and her supporters quickly in the middle of the night. Seize the palace, kill the queen and the main people behind her, and have a fait accompli by morning. I observe from the notes that you boys and Fuzzy made that she hasn't been able to replace the old nobility yet. They are sitting at their estates, upset and angry at being forced out of the government and out of command positions in the army. Have them nearby to fill the palace and force out the queen's supporters. The same applies to several of the bishops who retired before they were ready."

"Here's a thought for everyone," Uncle Sven commented. "What about waiting until five days after the winter solstice? That's the day that Andray turns 17 and can remove the Queen legally from the position of Regent to take it himself as Crown Prince."

"No, no, no, and in case you didn't hear me, no," declared Cat. "I'm the prince who ran away from home and under Nordweg law, that is enough to claim that I am not fit to be Crown Prince. Griselda, if she knows the law at all, can challenge me based on incompetency in my position, and my absence is all the grounds she needs to issue a challenge. If she challenges, she has the choice of going to court for a competency hearing or presenting me with three tests out of five of princely skill: prowess at arms, finance, fine arts, protocol, and law."

* I prefer surgical solutions. Bumping her off in the middle of the night sounds good to me! Let's not give her any room to maneuver. Let's just remove her and the Magus, throw the ministers and bishops in jail and decommission all the new officers in the army. *

"There's an additional problem I haven't mentioned yet," Uncle Sven sighed. "The guards in the palace belong to a unit created by her. The old palace guard unit was disbanded and replaced by this new unit. She calls it the royal regency guard. They recruit exclusively from the border marches between Nordweg and Osterius. Given that they are probably all Osterians, we will be facing a military unit with no loyalty to Nordweg."

* If Griselda is dead, then who do they have to protect? *

"If they are all loyal to Osterius and not to Nordweg," Sven countered, "they could kill the king and take custody of Aricia as the legitimate heir to Nordweg and the future wife for the Crown Prince of Osterius."

"Why not remove the King and Princess Aricia at the same time, four nights after the winter solstice?" Willam suggested. "That way, Cat could demand the position of Regent five days after the solstice. we blockade the palace and starve it into submission."

* I like that idea! *

"I know a good way to get rid of that mage person," Owl added quietly. "Just tell Wren he called her a slut. He'll be as good as dead as soon as she gets her hands on him." Owl grinned malevolently.

"I have a bad thought," Cat said to the table. "Griselda and Magus Keleher both probably wear those protection pendants. When Fuzzy cast the lead feet spell on Willam when he was wearing his pendant, it neutralized the spell. If we want to kill them, we have to get around those pendants."

"You could always use goblin magic tactics," Magrat suggested with that calm and friendly smile of hers. "Use magic that only acts on unliving things to swap all the breathable air around the Queen and her mage's heads and replace it with the blackdamp air from an abandoned coal mine." Magrat is one scary goblin. Glad she's on our side.

"I'm listening to all of this," said Blue Fox, "and thinking this isn't like those adventure novels so popular in human kingdoms or the epic hero poems that elves like. This isn't some fantasy adventure. This is deadly dealing you're talking about and at the highest levels of human society and politics. There isn't room for grand gestures and fair dealing. These are people who are trying to kill you three," he pointed at Sven, Willam, and Cat.

"If you want to live, pick the best time and then pick the simplest and deadliest plan you can. Surprise is good. Getting them to drop their vigilance is better. If you want a coup to work then make three or four days past Cat's birthday, when they will drop their guard since they aren't sure Cat's dead. Kill Griselda while she sleeps, and the Magus too. Secure Aricia and the King, and bring in the old guard to scare the new guard into wanting to survive. It doesn't have to be more complicated than that. This is nothing short of a small-scale war. Dump the noble claptrap and go for results.

"One other thing," Blue Fox added in his exuberance-slaying smackdown of our nascent planning. "If they have pendants that dispel magic spells, then I'll put a goblin gold piece down as a bet that the castle and sets of rooms inside the castle have magic wards on them too."

"Crap," said Cat with a grimace.