The Ivory Knight

Chapter 25

"...Don't understand..."

"...was perfectly fine..."

"...rumors of foul play..."

"...Queen Dowager, now..."

The whispered words magnified in the hall, rustling and sighing anxiously. Adeleina stood among the whisperers, her heart pounding. Foul play. Queen Dowager. The words echoed in her head, tumbling and rolling in thought. What would happen now? What did this mean for the widowed queen's plans?

Or was this part of the queen's plans?

The door burst open. The hall fell silent and the whispers died, like flickering candles extinguished in one breath of wind. The ex-queen herself glided into the room, Damien trailing behind her. Adeleina's jaw clenched in fear and anticipation.

"I regret," the former queen began icily. Was it Adeleina's imagination, or was there an ugly twist to her mouth as she spoke the words? "To inform you that the king is dead."

Cries and shrieks cut the air. The people in the castle had only heard muffled whispers and seen blinked tears until now; to hear the words spoken so bluntly by their queen would be a knife to the chest. Adeleina's own heart fluttered with trepidation.

"The king is dead," Queen Dale repeated, her voice soft. "Long live the king!"

Damien stepped forward. To anyone who didn't know him well, he would have looked confident. Solemn, but confident. He had been dressed in a cape of thick fur, his satin tunic a deep crimson red and his head held high and proud. Though Adeleina thought that his clothing was too bright and looked more like a celebratory outfit than a mourning one, the truth was that Damien looked like a king. He looked powerful.

But to Adeleina, who knew well enough the many sides of Damien of Dale, saw that he was more than the mask he'd put on in that moment was nothing more than a disguise for his fear. His hands were trembling. His eyes flickered nervously and refused to watch the crowd. His posture was too stiff, too rigid.

It was enough to fool the courtspeople nonetheless.

"Long live the king," the obligatory cry rippled through the crowd. "Long live the king!"

♛♔♕

We need to talk.

Adeleina set down the charcoal, wiping her fingers of the black dust absentmindedly. She folded the parchment, tucked it into a fold of her dress, and opened her bedchamber door.

The guard was still there. He'd claimed that the queen had posted him there to attend to Adeleina's needs, but he was obviously there to make sure Adeleina didn't go about trying to do anything suspicious. To be honest, Adeleina had been surprised that he hadn't been posted inside her room. 

Adeleina stepped out of her room and made a nonchalant attempt to brush coolly past the guard, like she had every right to do so. At first, she thought she'd succeeded in leaving him behind when no footsteps clicked after her.

She heard them begin just as she reached the end of the hall. So the guard was going to follow her. Adeleina suppressed a sigh. How was she ever going to talk to Damien with one of the queen's dogs trailing her?

The corridors in Castle Dale were eerily empty. Adeleina's footsteps echoed as she strode briskly, trying to appear as if she knew where she was going. The absence of sound spooked her. All her life, she'd been used to  the sound of shouting and clanking from the kitchen, the occasional trill of a maid's song as she worked, the laughter that seemed to swell until it filled every nook in the castle. The stark contrast of happy, homely Corandell to vast and threatening Dale was astounding.