Modern Magick

Music and Misadventure: 17

'Your mother can't withstand a wild night like that,' hissed Jay to me, having drawn closer to me and farther away from the mother in question.

'She doesn't need to do much. We put her in a comfy chair, ply her with victuals, let her sleep through it if she wants.'

'Ves, will you please think about something or someone other than the mission.'

'I am! What else are we going to do with my mother? She won't be left out, she won't be sent for treatment until this is all over, and she won't be fit and healthy until she's had at least a week's rest and care. We need to wrap this up tonight, and this is the best way I can think of to do it.'

Jay nodded. 'All right, I can't fault that logic, as far as it goes. But what are we doing with this party?'

I cleared my throat. 'Dad will kick off the festival. I'm sure there are ways to make a suitably public show of it, get everybody here. Right, your majesty?'

My father rolled his eyes towards the sky. 'Doubtless, but—'

'Ayllin will be here with the rest. We find her, ask her what she did to alter the lyre's song, get her to change it back, and then let nature take its course. Pass the lyre around, spend the rest of the evening in wine and song, and at some point it will choose a new monarch. Right? And then we all go home and sleep for a week. Especially Mum.'

'Just "get her" to uncorrupt the lyre?' said Mother. 'Right! I'm sure there can be no possible objection to that.'

I shrugged. 'If it's a choice between that, or going on forever without a leader, I hope she'll see sense. And it could be her chance to take the throne at last, if she still wants it.'

'You're forgetting something,' said my father. 'They hate me.'

'The Yllanfalen?'

'Yes. They threw me out, rather than accept me as king. What makes you think they'll all come blithely party with me now?'

'They threw you out, but you are still the king. Aren't you?'

'I... yes.'

'I think they couldn't have turfed you out if you hadn't let them. You let them because you did not want the role. Well, now you can pass it on.'

'But—'

'Come on, Dad. We can't do this without you.'

Father scowled in my mother's general direction. 'Is she always like this?'

'Yes,' said Jay.

'And you haven't gone insane yet?'

'It gets things done.'

'Being insane?'

Jay blinked. 'Well... that, too.'

Father sighed, and directed his attention towards the three sprites, whose only contribution to the debate thus far had been suppressed squeaks of excitement from Euphony. 'Will the sprites assist me?'

'Yes, Majesty!' said Cadence, in a ringing voice.

'I will never get used to that,' muttered Father.

I got up from under my tree. 'Fortunately, you won't have to. Let's get started. The sooner we're finished raving, the sooner we can sleep.'

It was the sprites who carried word of the revelry.

Everything began in the throne room of the King's Halls, as was fitting. This space we had never glimpsed before, or I'd have certainly remembered, for the chamber was improbably enormous, and sumptuously decorated, even by the standards of the Yllanfalen. Chandeliers as big as my car were suspended from the ceiling, and when Euphony glided, chortling, up to greet them they burst into life, casting a vibrant, sunny glow over the hall. In that light we saw: great, lush hangings covering the walls, worked in silk and velvet and gilded thread, and depicting myriad mythical beasts; a floor of polished... something, that shone as silver as the chandeliers shone gold; long, long windows, arched and ornamented, beyond which the velvet-black night lay waiting; and a banqueting table, fully thirty feet long, already set with all the ornate silverware one might need for a kingdom-sized party.