Prince Selects His Sister Pt. 05

Adam's squires fitted his armor upon his broad shoulders and helped tighten the straps that held it on. He insisted on wearing his battle armor to all meetings of the royal security council which consisted of a handful of generals, the internal security chiefs of the kingdom, along with some advisors. His sword at his side, he was much less comfortable than he would be in a royal robe. Nevertheless, decisions made in the council often sent men into battle - engaging border bandits, arresting rebels, and sometimes engaging the armed forces of other kingdoms. Adam did not feel it was appropriate for him to attend such meetings in luxurious robes, or anything other than the armor he had worn in dozens of engagements fighting for the kingdom. It reminded him of the feelings he felt in battle, the fear, the intensity, the resolve - and he'd need to remember that any order he gave would send men just like the ones from his unit, into harm's way.

He walked from his chambers into the apartment hallway to find his sister-Queen Sarah standing there. Four months had passed since their wedding and coronation but Sarah hadn't attended any of the security council meetings. She was content to be informed about the matters of the council, and trusted that Adam gave all decisions their due rights.

"I really want you to come, Sarah." Adam said to her.

"Brother, I just don't see why. You're there, the generals and advisors are capable. I've never fought a single battle. I don't know why I need to be in the security council." Sarah responded.

"You're still High Queen. You don't have to do anything but it would be nice if everyone met you and could know that you are there, you appreciate them, and are hearing them. Considering the fact that you quietly harbor the power to order any of them into battle, it would just make them feel better." Adam responded.

"You know, you look really handsome in your armor, Brother." she said to him, leaning in to kiss him.

Adam took her chin in his hand and gently kissed his sister's sweet lips, letting his tongue explore her mouth and dipping it underneath her own. She could feel the electricity run through her body as her brother's tongue invaded her mouth, and didn't know if she was imagining it but always felt like his kiss was sweet, almost like honey.

"Your charms aren't going to distract me from my request little sister." Adam told her, smiling as he pulled away from her lips, giving her lower one a gentle bite before parting from her face.

"I just wanted to kiss you my love, no distractions intended. I will come to the meeting under one condition." Sarah said.

"Anything." Adam said.

"If I attend, and I listen, I will participate. If I feel like something is right, or wrong, I'll say it. I won't sugar coat it or lie about. I don't know if you want that in the council. A voice equal to yours disagreeing with you. I attend other council meetings besides the security council because I honestly know more than you in some of those things. But not in this. What if I disagree with you?" Sarah asked.

"Then disagree!" Adam said. "That's why there's a council."

"OK. I'm attending. And I'm speaking. I'm all caught up on the crisis in Dalaria you know. I have things to say if you open this door." Sarah told Adam.

"Say them. I'm honored to have you as my equal. Come and say them." Adam said.

They walked together towards the exit of the royal apartments and Adam reached out and slapped his sister's ass just before they opened the door, to hear her giggle as they stepped into the main hall way leading to the working palace.

They walked down a set of hallways and up a set of winding stairs till they reached the high tower where the security council met, and entered the room. It was well lit, windowlight streaming from every wall. The high tower was guarded against any spies or observers, no entrance except a single staircase and no rooms in the tower except a single massive hall at the top.

They entered, and all the generals, chiefs, and advisors stood for the royal couple, along with the high vizier Lord James. Lord James had served King Tarian for over twenty years and Adam had asked him to remain by his side in his new reign.

"Your Majesties, welcome" said Grand General Elias, who reported directly to the King and chaired the security council to serve Adam and Sarah's requests and needs.

"Thank you Grand General" Sarah said, taking her seat at the head of the table next to Adam. A seat had always been there but had remained empty.

"Thank you Grand General" Adam responded, placing a folder of papers on the massive, long table in front of him.

"Is there an update on the Dalarian crisis?" Adam asked Elias.

"Yes your majesty, we have a comprehensive update. As we know the civil war in Dalaria has split their military into two camps. The legitimate side, or, what we consider the legitimate side is that of Prince Zaraster. The rebels who now control half the country and at least 25% of the military are in full control of all territory bordering us. The Dalarian mountain ranges stop towards the border with us and become foothills, and from there, we've seen multiple Dalarian rebel incursions across the border over the past month. The rebels have been looting villages and whatever else they can to enrich their war coffers. So far we've lost three-thousand gold pieces to them, private property belonging to the villagers in our towns across the foothills.

"Three-thousand!" Sarah exclaimed. "We need to pay those villagers back immediately, from our treasury. It is our duty to protect them and we failed!"

The entire room looked towards Adam, waiting for him to approve the decision. He wished to set the tone for these meetings when Sarah was present. "Yes, my queen." he said, letting everyone in the room know that he considered Sarah's word a directive to all of them, not something for him to approve.

"Lord James" Adam said, "how can we carry out the Queen's command as soon as possible?"

Sarah loved that her brother respected her so much that he was making it clear it was her order that was to be executed.

"Your majesties, I'll speak to the treasury minister as soon as our meeting is over. We'll get an accounting of what every family has lost and we will repay them." James said.

"Thank you Lord James. There is to be no delay in this action. The people must know that we do not expect them to pay the monetary price of our inability to protect them." Adam said.

"Yes my Lord" James said.

"So what then of the Dalarian rebels? My orders last time were to muster a force of five battalions of the regular army and station them in our territory, and on the next incursion to order an invasion of the foothills. That should be sufficient to prevent any further incursions into the villages. The border guard cannot handle constantly protecting the villages and the border at the same time."

"We are prepared to execute the plan your majesty", Grand General Elias said, "but we recommend sending six battalions for a total of six thousand men. Though, they are fresh graduates from the academy. We don't currently have regular army units in the area and can't have them for at least a month due to the flooding in the North and the sandstorms in the South. We diverted all resources to help the people with both and the flooding is blocking the crossing of any units that large. The 415th Brigade is all we have."

"Pardon my Lords" Sarah said. "The plan is to send six thousand men, newly graduated men who are trained for flat-land combat, into the Dalarian foothills that enter our territory? The border guards in that section of the border are all former mountain rangers with a decade of experience. That's the reason we put them there. Why are we using the 415th's flat land soldiers, fresh graduates, to fight in the foothills, when we already have mountain rangers on site. Move them into position in the mountains and let them hack away at the rebel forces. When the flat-land battalions arrive, have THEM do border control until reinforcements arrive. If you send the 415th I can guarantee you they will die in much larger numbers than the border guard would, with less combat effectiveness."

The Admiral of the Andorian Navy chimed in. "The Queen has a point." he said. "Why would we pour men who will struggle with the foothills and mountain combat instead of using the existing border guard?"

"The role of the border guard is to maintain the border" Adam replied. The army battalions aren't children, they'll do fine in the foothills. With a force of 6,000, they will wreck havoc on the rebels. It doesn't matter which set of 6,000 men we send on a rebel band." he responded.

Sarah looked at her brother, moving her chair so she could face him better, and spoke.

"My brother, if you look at every battle this kingdom has fought, and analyze the number of just LOW foothill engagements fought by regulars vs mountain ranger units, mountain rangers were 167% more combat effective at a minimum - meaning in all measures of effectiveness - losses incurred, losses inflicted, casualties resulting in death, and infrastructure costs - mountain rangers were more than twice as effective, nearly three times!"

General Pyrias, responsible for all of Andoria's special operations spoke next, "My King, the Queen is actually correct in her analysis. Our mountain ranger units are going to be far more effective, and though that unit is now a border guard after ten years in regular duty, their reassignment was less than 5 months ago. We can easily deploy them as troops to deal with this crisis. They don't even require a legal change of status. Border guards are allowed to engage even across the border for up to 100 miles before our doctrine calls for them to wait for the regular army."

Adam spoke: "Mountain ranger units are built to survive long engagements in the mountains and execute the will of their commanders in harsh terrain. These are foothills. There is barely any temperature or climate variance between the peaks of these hills and the low ground. This is not what mountain units are made for, and reassigning border guards into battle and having army graduates do border patrol is not how these resources are meant to be used. More importantly it's not needed to handle these rebels." Adam insisted.

The Grand General began to speak: "The rebels aren't just a band my King. They are actual soldiers..."

Adam cut him off and turned to Sarah. "Sister..you are gleaming this from post-battle reports written by exhausted captains and commanders that are rolled by up military secretaries and analysts and sent to you in a box. You've never held a sword in battle in your life. Those numbers cannot be accurate. I've fought in foothills dozens of times, some of the men in this room were commanding me. We were more combat effective than any other unit in our corps. My unit was not mountain ranger - it was regular infantry and heavy cavalry." Adam said to her.

Sarah's face turned red at his comment about never holding a sword.

Sarah put it aside for a moment to focus on the topic. "Your unit brother, was the most elite, most skilled set of fighters that could be brought to fight alongside the Crown Prince of Andoria. You led them and you are not a medicore soldier but are one of the greatest fighters the Kingdom has ever seen. You cannot use an elite unit's experience, that was surrounded by the Royal Guard who themselves are deadlier than poison, led by the greatest knight of the kingdom, the Crown Prince, as anecdotal evidence for military decisions!"

She leaned closer to him and whispered but everyone could still hear her. "Honestly Brother, you know better than this. What are you doing?"

She had made sure to include a little flattery in her response to calm him. She was still upset at his discrediting of her experience. She had led herself into a camp on the front lines to nurse him back to health, and the kingdom did not allow women to fight. How dare he say she was lacking combat experience. If she was it was through no fault of her own!

"I read the reports too Sister. I've read every page. Where did the analysis come from? I've never seen it before." Adam asked.

"The analysis on combat effectiveness? I did that myself. I've been reading everything about this issue since the rebels started attacking the foothills and the villages beyond them months ago. The only thing I didn't know was the amount they had stolen. Also, you can check my work, I know it's right." she pulled two heavy folders with papers out of the case on the floor that she had ordered her assistant to place in the room before the meeting, and tossed them onto the table so that they made a "THUD".

All the generals in the room chuckled, not out of disrespect, but out of awe and appreciation for Sarah's work.

Lord James stepped in to mediate what was clearly turning into a conflict between the two siblings - a conflict that was above every other person in the room.

"My Lords....and...your Majesties...shall I propose that this council vote on the most appropriate course of action in this matter? And we act upon that decision?"

Adam responded, "That's fine." he said.

Sarah agreed, "Yes Lord James" she said.

James managed the vote. "All in favor of ordering the border guards to move immediately into active engagement with the rebels, and to engage as a mountain ranger unit in the foothills?"

Every person except Adam raised their hands. Every general. Every security chief. Every advisor. And Sarah.

Lord James did not wish to humiliate his king by asking who was in the favor of the idea to waiting for the regular army to arrive. It was clear it was only Adam. He simply did his job as the high vizier and spoke directly to General Issac, who commanded the border and coast guards of Andoria.

"Lord General Issac - we will execute the King's plan to send 6,000 soldiers into direct engagement with the rebels to stop the raids into our territory, effective immediately. We will execute this order by carrying out the Queen's command to have those soliders come directly from the border patrol that is already there and re-activating them as a mountain unit. When the 415th arrives, they will take border patrol duties until this crises is abated."

Issac nodded in affirmation. "Let it be known the order has been recieved by me, Lord James." General Issac said. "It shall be delievered and executed as soon as possible."

"Thank you General" Lord James said. "My Lords is there any other matter for today?"

All the council members answered in the negative.

James motioned to Queen Sarah. "My Queen, can you lead us in the prayer that ends the security council meetings? If you do not know it yet I'm happy to do it."

Sarah smiled and nodded. She truly respected how James had handled the situation. By ordering the general to carry out the King's plan, with the Queen's command. His wording was perfect. He was almost as old as her father, an ever loyal, ever truthful servant of the Crown and the Kingdom.

She stood and spoke: "Great Creator, You who is one but has many names - to us you have given power on Earth and the Sea. Allow us to protect our people, defeat our enemies, and find peace wherever we can."

That concluded the meeting as the generals stood. They all made way for General Issac to leave first to officially deliver the orders to his team so they could send riders to the border immediately with clear instructions on how to handle the rebels.

---------------------------------

Sarah and Adam stood in their bedchamers.

"Why are you so angry at me? I did exactly what you asked!" Sarah said, her voice echoing in their bedchamber.

"I'm angry because you are undermining me in front of my entire security council, but not just with your opinion which is fine, but by making look like I don't even know what I'm doing!" Adam yelled back.

"First of all, if you meant all the shit you said about us being equals, that isn't YOUR security council, its ours!" Sarah shot back as she began getting rid of the heavy royal robes that she had put on as a formality to come to the meeting.

"Sarah, you're nitpicking!" Adam replied.

"No! I'm not nitpicking. I'm telling you that you speak in one way about respecting me so much and respecting my opinion and went out of your way to DEMAND that I come to these meetings that I wasn't even interested in. I TOLD you what would happen, that I'd speak my mind. And you said 'Oh please do it' and then the moment I do you have a fucking problem with me challenging your stupid decision! And it shows in the way you even talk about the council. We are equals, that means it's our council not yours alone! And if you are about to do something dumb and they don't correct you and I'm there, it's my job to keep the dumb thing from happening!"

"Oh!" she said almost having forgotten. "And what the fuck was that about me never holding a sword. Everyone knows I've never held a sword in battle. That's not my fucking fault Brother. I was never asked to, nor allowed to wage war for this Kingdom. You know, I've served in many, many other ways. I've sacrificed my time, my sleep, my health, my youth - to be the public face of this Kingdom in so many engagements. The beautiful princess this, the wonderful princess that. I was a pretty face with a name to showcase the grand accomplishments of my father and my brother. Nothing more! You're the ONLY person who made me feel better. Like I was more than that. And now you said something in there that made me feel like shit. All for a stupid decision. What the hell!" Sarah said. She was yelling now. She normally did not yell.

"You don't have to keep calling my decisions stupid." Adam said, becoming aware that she had a point about asking her to come to the meeting and then not liking the result. He stepped closer to her, still fuming in anger at what had occurred. He focused on the word stupid because as she spoke, he realized slowly, he did not have a rebuttal to anything she had said.

"I'm allowed to call your decisions stupid. And you're allowed to say I'm being a bitch about it. And we're allowed to be angry and fight. But I won't mince my words when it comes to our responsibilities Brother. I won't hold back. I never have. We have always gotten along in duties, because our responsibilities have never once intertwined. I was the faithful princess who went around doing public relations events for you and Father and ran things that had to do with apperances. That's changed now and if I'm your equal and you want me to step into that role for anything, I'm allowed to mean about it if I need to stand up for something. If a hundred more men live out the six-thousand because we sent the right men into battle, that's a hundred more families. A hundred people whose lives impact THOUSANDS of our citizens. If fighting for that with you in front of the high council makes me a bitch, then I'm a bitch.

"I didn't call you a bitch Sarah" Adam said.

"But you thought it Brother" she responded as she continued to undress down to her underwear as she got ready for bed. He looked at her beautiful body, her face still red in anger, the rest of her as addictingly gorgeous as usual. Her soft curves accentuated her hips, her thin strip of pussy hair indicating towards the sweet treasure underneath, and her nipples standing firm around her pinkish brown areolas. Even when she was angry she was gorgeous.

Adam was silent.

Sarah repeated, "You thought it. Go ahead and admit it. It's fine. I'm being a bitch right now. That what you think."

Adam nodded, reluctantly, but unable to hide anything from his sister.

"I am thinking that yes." he finally admit.

"Fine. Then get up here and fuck your bitch sister in her asshole." Sarah responded as she climbed the bed and got on all fours, her gorgeous ass in the air completely naked.