Her Cinder Throne (Completed)

Chapter 81

Cole dug her nails into her palm in an attempt to stop herself from anxiously pacing around the small village square. It was only a half-day's ride from the city, which meant that should someone feel the need to report a very treasonous gathering to Queen Gethwine, they could reach her guards within the day. It didn't give them much time to disappear again, if they needed to.

Cadfael stood near the small marble block that served as the announcement center for the village. Tanwyn had told her that the place had no real name, as it wasn't big or important enough for many people to travel to or from it. However, it was close enough to the city that many of the villagers had family members working or living in the castle. What was said here... what minds were changed here, would spread into Gethwine's territory without much need to go there themselves.

The hope was that the news of the old queen's return, and her daughter's new claim to the throne, would get to at least Gethwine's guards. If they needed to fight Gethwine, reclaiming the loyalty of the sworn palace guards would be helpful in convincing the rest of the populace to forgive the old queen's betrayal and support her once again. But that was a large hope, and one that Cole wasn't sure she could expect the people to conform to. Would even she want to serve the family of someone who left them for a man in some other world? She had taken a long time to even forgive her own father for leaving her in death.

Cadfael plucked the strings of his lyre, making sure that it was in order, and giving the people of the village enough time to spread the news that they were being visited by one of the masterful bards. And not only any bard, but Cadfael himself. An apparently extraordinary type of bard.

Already it seemed like the whole village was pushing in close, with wide eyes and mouths slightly agape as they took in every movement of Cadfael's long, sapphire sleeves as they brushed over the lyre's smooth front. He pushed them back, tucking them behind his elbows and then looking up at the crowd. A moment of tension filled the air, like the charge before lightning struck. Then, like a rising wave, a curve of glittering azure arced from behind Cadfael. His wings. They unfurled from slits in his robe, stretching out in filamented glory. It was the first time Cole had seen them, and she almost took a step back as she saw his whole fae being before her eyes. Flowing hair the color of snow, long face and eyes as if carved delicately from quarts, and wings like the calm ocean speckled with sea foam. He did not look like anything that could be found in Soma. He was more. He was Eldritch. A bard. A magic being about to show them all his true power.

Cadfael's fingers picked over the strings of his lyre, calling up a light and misty melody that Cadfael joined to with his sweet voice. His words were unintelligible to Cole, like Maelona's had been, but she could tell they were telling a story. Building tension and suspense, like the bards that must have sung at Soma's palace.

Tanwyn leaned in close. "He's singing of your mother's ancestors, reminding them of all the brave and wondrous things that they accomplished during their reigns. These are folk tales everyone will know, but we have been banned from repeating them by Gethwine since her ascension to the throne."

Cole nodded, letting the images of spring and birds and newly unfurled leaves fill her mind. She saw kings and queens in silk and velvet, with glittering crowns weaved with flowers and buds, holding swords or scrolls or loaves of bread.

Tanwyn continued. "He's reminding the people of the prosperity of the old times, so that he can now remind them of your mother. Of her beauty and wisdom, and the blood that runs through her veins. He's telling them of the oaths that the royal guard swear to the True Blood."

As Cadfael sang, Cole could see her mother now as she must have been in the days before Cole or her father. With glowing hair in gentle curls, and a face flushed the color of apple's and filled with youth and happiness. Her wings, the delicate color of petals, glittered in the sun behind her as she stood by a throne woven out of willow branches and rose bushes. It was an image Cole had never seen, and one that brought stinging tears to the brink of her eyes.