Yes, that certainly seemed to be the problem. The problem here was that she was the only one trying to abide by the new rules. She had been acting under the powers she afforded herself by the new system, when nobody else was. The Parliament was not yet formed, and in reality it was Keritanima making all the decisions. She had been doing it to get a feel for it, to get an understanding of what she had to do to make it work. The nobles weren't playing by the new rules, because they didn't want to have any part of the game.

If nobody else was going to play by the rules, then it would be silly for her to do it alone.

Yes. She could see that if she couldn't persuade the nobles with honey and sweetcakes, then she would stuff it down their throats with a ramrod. If they wanted to play one last game of political chicken, she would be more than willing to oblige them.

A plan already began to form. The nobility ruled because they had titles and money. All she had to do was take away what made them different from the common man, and give them a real reason to fear her. It was very simple, very effective, and it would probably solve all her problems inside twenty minutes once she began.

"Jervis," she said in a commanding tone.

"Yes, your Majesty?" he replied immediately, looking up from the game.

"Summon Mayor Trent. Also, ask sashka if he would be so kind as to talk with me."

Nobody commanded sashka. Keritanima was well aware of that. The Vendari weren't truly arrogant, but if Keritanima ordered the subject king of Vendaka, it would be an affront to his honor. Damon Eram had made that fatal error, had alienated the Vendari, by whose suffrance a Wikuni monarch actually ruled. Keritanima had no intentions of following in her father's footsteps.

"I'll arrange it. What time would you like to meet them?"

"As soon as is convenient for sashka," she replied. "Here."

Jervis raised a brow. If she was going to summon them to her private chambers, then what she had to discuss with them was something that she didn't want known.

"I know that look," Miranda grinned. "You're cooking up something, aren't you, Kerri?"

"I'm tired of the noble houses trying to sabotage things," she said with a fret. "I'm going to deal with them."

"That sounds final," Azakar noted.

"That'll be their decision, Zak," she told him casually. "How they want to play the game is their choice, but they have to live with their own rules."

Miranda giggled. "Uh oh, that is final," she said, winking in Keritanima's direction. "You want help?"

"No, I've already wrapped this plan up, Miranda. It's pretty simple. Thanks for the offer."

"With your Majesty's permission, I'll see to the summons," Jervis said.

"Go ahead, Jervis. Try to get them here by lunch, but don't press sashka."

"You misunderstand sashka, your Majesty. If I tell him you wish to speak with him, he will drop everything and come to you."

"Probably, but I'm not going to order him."

"Order him if you want, your Majesty. He bows to your crown, so he will follow your orders willingly. Don't let the fact that he literally put you on that throne cloud reality."

Keritanima made a face at the rabbit. She never forgot that it was sashka that put her on the throne, and that was probably why she always treated him with deferrence. Mainly because she was more than aware that sashka could take her right off of it. Unlike her father, Keritanima had a full grip on the true political situation in Wikuna.

"I don't like ordering friends, Jervis," she lied to cover the truth.

"Spoken like a true Queen," Jervis smiled, then he bowed and made his way out.

"Care to enlighten us, Kerri?" Miranda asked.

"It's simple, Miranda," he told her, turning in her seat to face them. "I'm going to give the nobles a taste of what they're doing to me."

"Clever," she applauded.

"Thank you. All I need to do is give a choice between a Republic and total head-crushing oppression."

"A good plan, Majesty," Sisska said. "But your own Constitution will not permit it."

"It hasn't been ratified yet, Sisska," Keritanima said smugly. "Until Parliament ratifies it as law, it's only law if I want it to be. I've only been following my own rules to show the nobles that I'm serious about it. But if they don't want to follow the rules, then I see no reason why I have to either."

Miranda gave Keritanima a strange look, then literally fell out of her chair laughing. "Beautiful!" she managed to wheeze. "She's going to make them ratify the Constitution, if only to save themselves from her!"

"Simple, isn't it?" Keritanima chuckled with a wicked glint in her eyes.

Miranda continued to laugh, kicking the floor with the heels of her feet in glee. "Beautiful! Beautiful! I can't wait to see the faces of the house leaders when they realize that they're causing their own suffering!"

"That's what you're going to do?" Azakar asked. "Scare them?"

"Zak, I'm going to fix it so they demand that the Constitution be ratified," she said, flexing her fingers in an ominous manner. "Part of the Constitution is designed to protect against tyranny. I'm going to give them a tyrant to motivate them."

Azakar looked at her, then he suddenly laughed. "That's evil, Kerri."

"Thank you. I try."

"Perhaps putting her on the throne was a bad decision, lifemate," Binter noted to Sisska.

"I think not. At least we can put her over our knee and spank her if she oversteps herself," Sisska replied seriously.

Keritanima gave her Vendari bodyguards a wild look. Humor! Humor from Vendari! Again! What was going on with those two?

"Wait a minute, Kerri. If you're going to be a tyrant, won't it affect the commoners?" Azakar asked.

"I'll make a politician of you yet, Zak," Keritanima winked. "It could, but it's not going to come to that. If I do things right, everything will be settled tomorrow. You forget that I don't have to carry through on my threats. All I have to do is make them. I'm sure that the nobles will understand that if they don't stop interfering, my threats will come true."

"What if they don't?"

"Well, then things will get messy. I'm going to plan for that, so the nobles don't take it out on the commoners. I won't let my people suffer over what's going to be a personal spat between the Queen and her nobles."

"They'd do that to their own people?"

"Zak, to a noble, a commoner is, at best, only a tool, or at worst an expendable asset. They don't see them as people, and that's what I intend to change. Unlike most nobles, I trust the commoners alot more than I do the nobility."

"That sounds like Yar Arak," he replied. "All that suffering and pain just so the rich could get richer. I never thought I'd see that here."

"It's not as obvious here, but it does happen," she replied seriously. "But I think you'll see things changing in Yar Arak."

"What, Tarrin wiped it off the map before he left?" Azakar asked in a cold tone. He had been a slave there, so his opinion of the empire was a very sour one.

"No, they have a new Empress," she replied. "Tarrin killed the Emperor."

"He didn't!" Miranda gasped.

"He did," she affirmed. "Jervis got those reports two weeks ago, but he wanted confirmation. Tarrin killed the Emperor, and it seems that he destroyed large swaths of the city to boot. I can only imagine what drove him to that," she said, closing her eyes and feeling a bit of pain for her brother. "He killed thousands, Miranda. Thousands." She opened her eyes and sighed. "Anyway, after all that, he took the Book of Ages from the Emperor's wife, who it turns out happens to be a Demoness."

Azakar gaped at Keritanima, but Miranda put a finger to her chin in thought. "That's why he was so destructive. If I remember my mythology right, no mortal can harm a Demon. To fight something like that, he'd have to let everything go and face it with everything he has."