Dusk of the Realm

32

"Something weird happened," the princess offered from behind him, and Tarin spun back around to see her attempting to get to her feet, though her knees were shaking. He held out a hand, which she took immediately.

"What, Princess? What happened?" he repeated, much more gently than he had addressed Birches.

"We were all knocked out cold," Birches stated, and Serena nodded in agreement, wrapping her arms around herself. She looked so frail, Tarin was afraid she would fall again at the slightest whisper.

Birches continued, "We have no idea what the cause of it was, but it was sudden, and it was simultaneous. We dropped like rocks, and all any of us can remember is waking up on the forest floor with these bruises."

There was a murmur from all around. The Fae were all expecting Tarin to have the answer. But he could not even comprehend the question.

"Then how do you know...?" he trailed off, knowing that his meaning was clear as Serena wrapped her arms more tightly around herself and made a strangled noise as she attempted to hold in her sobs.

Birches swallowed hard once more, his Adam's apple bobbing. He certainly looked as though he had just seen someone die. "When we woke up, there was... they left..."

He closed his eyes then and gestured towards the princess. Tarin glanced at her and noticed that she was wrapping her arms around herself not only for comfort, but in order to hold something close to her as well. It took Tarin only a second to recognize the object: his queen's crown.

He was desperate, reaching for any other explanation. "That doesn't mean--"

"It was on the queen's severed head, Sir," Birches cut in, his voice low and his face pale, as if he was about to throw up. Tarin was right there with him, which was the only reason he did not take off after Serena immediately when she dropped the crown and darted for the doors. Fae parted for her, stepping aside in their shock and horror at the words Birches had just uttered. The crown rattled against the marble floor for three long seconds before settling in place, and then all there was to be heard was the princess' running footsteps clapping against the stairs.

The queen's head. The queen, dead. The queen. Tarin had known her for so long...

"Agros, he's clearly the most qualified--"

"That's enough, Triana. He's too young, too inexperienced in the battlefield. We'll make Rook standing general, and if this lad proves his worth over time, perhaps he will be the next one."

With that, the king left the room, expecting that his word concluded that business. He did not notice his new wife narrowing her eyes at his back, or the glint of mischief that alighted in them upon the door closing behind him.

"That contest was a joke, Tarin," the queen confided in him. "We all know how dedicated and skilled you are, but Agros was going to pick Rook all along. He's Laeroth's brother; did you know that? Direcrest offered Azure a nearly absurd amount of silver to give Rook the general title."

Tarin cleared his throat. "There is no need to tell me this, your--"

"Oh, but I want to. Agros hardly knows me. He still thinks that I am weak. And old Lord Orfeo is still angry that Agros chose me over his lovely daughter Savina." Triana wrinkled her nose, and Tarin realized that he could not blame Agros for the choice; the queen was truly beautiful, and looked the part of a royal though she had only been instated as such a few months ago. Direcrest, meanwhile, was known to be a rich, but greedy city - always greedy for more power, though their wealth already gave them plenty of influence in the royal city itself.