“Clear the way,” Captain Monteros yelled as the gongs sounded and Carys’s mother passed through the gate into the safety of the city while screaming, “Let me go. I don’t belong here. You have to let me go.” Finally, she stopped struggling and yelling and instead kept murmuring the words to herself.
People came out of their houses and lined the streets that were lit by the power of the wind. They were no longer somber and quiet as they had been earlier during the final procession of the King and Prince. Now they were shouting and a few young children were racing down the street waving at the procession. To them death was over and the time for the next step in the kingdom had come. It was the way things were. The way things were supposed to be.
“Long live Queen Betrice,” someone shouted.
“No!” Carys heard her mother say.
Another voice took up the cheer as the streets became lined with more people looking to show their support for the new ruler.
The solo shouts grew into cheers as the procession reached the base of the white stairs that led up to the castle sitting high above.
“Long live the Queen! Long live Queen Betrice.”
Andreus helped their mother down from the cart. Oben stayed a step behind. The Queen looked around bewildered as Chief Elder Cestrum took her arm and began leading her up the white stairs.
The shouts grew louder still as Andreus took Imogen’s arm and headed up behind them with Carys following—watching her brother lean down and whisper something to the seer that made her look up at him with a small, secret smile.
Their mother and the Chief Elder halted on the first of the wide landings carved into the castle’s long staircase entrance. Elder Cestrum turned and held up his iron claw. The crowd below went silent.
“King Ulron and Crown Prince Micah now rest,” Elder Cestrum announced. “But the Kingdom of Eden continues on under Queen Betrice. Our Keeper of Virtues. Guardian of the Light. Ruler of Eden. Long may she reign.”
The cheering swelled as the Queen yelled, “No. This is wrong.”
“Mother!” Carys snapped as her mother pulled her arm away from Elder Cestrum. She nearly toppled from the stairs as she staggered back. The crowd gasped and fell silent. “No. No. No!” the Queen screeched. “They are calling to me. My place is with them. You can’t make me stay. I will join them in the mountains.”
“Your Majesty.” Elder Cestrum stepped toward the Queen. “Your place is here. You will be crowned and sit upon the throne.”
“Never.” Hair whipping in a gust of wind, Carys’s mother turned and looked out at the crowd of nobles and commoners on the street and steps below. “The only ruler is King Ulron. He beckons to all of us.”
“My queen. Forgive me, but I don’t understand.” Elder Jacobs stepped around Carys and hurried up the steps toward the Queen. She saw him shift his gaze to Elder Cestrum, who nodded. “Are you saying you renounce your claim to the throne? Are you giving up the crown?”
“Yes. I must go! Our king calls! I must obey his command!”
People gasped and looked to the Queen as Carys hurried up the steps. “It’s been a long day. We will resume the coronation after Mother gets some rest. Oben, get her inside.”
“My queen . . . ,” Elder Cestrum started.
“I am not your queen!” Carys’s mother beamed at the crowd—her hair wild in the wind. Her voice had a singsong quality that chilled Carys to her core. “Where I plan to go there is no need for a crown.” Throwing back her head, Mother laughed. Then she gathered her skirts and hurried up the steps toward the castle—her laughter still ringing in the night.
Everyone watched her go. And while Carys didn’t say it aloud, others did until the whispers became louder and more persistent and filled with fear. Because as much as no one wanted it to be true, it was clear the Queen, Carys’s mother—the only parent she had left alive—was mad.
The kingdom had lost a king and prince.
Now grief had taken their queen.
Who would rule Eden now?
8
“Inside,” Andreus yelled as the people from the city gathered at the base of the stairs demanding answers. He could hear their fear. Gods—he felt it. Father. Micah. Now Mother losing her mind. It was like the darkness was mocking them even as they stood in the orb’s light.
Imogen. She had been by his side, but now she was gone. He glanced up and spotted her white dress and cloak almost at the top of the stairs, far away from the ruckus below. His heart calmed. She was safe. He turned and found his sister staring down at the crowd that pushed against the line the castle guard had formed at the base of the steps.
“Carys!” His sister turned. Andreus saw the same fear and confusion pulsing through him in her eyes as she crossed to him and took his hand. “We have to get in the castle before panic makes people daft.”
She nodded, gathered her skirts with one hand, then hurried with him up the enormous staircase while people shouted and screamed and cried behind them. Andreus glanced over his shoulder. He could see fights breaking out in the middle of the crowd at the base of the steps.
He listened for sounds of steel striking steel—a sign that the violence had escalated and the guards were forced to intervene. He was thankful the clash of weapons didn’t come. When he reached the top, he was breathing hard, but the guards below had kept the peace.
“Are you okay?” Carys sounded strong despite the pain she must be feeling from the wounds on her back. The race up the steps couldn’t have been easy for her. It hadn’t been all that easy for him. He was having a hard time catching his breath, but all was normal . . . or as normal as this kind of thing got for him.
“I’m good,” he said, taking her arm and leading her inside the walls she professed to hate.
“Prince Andreus. Princess Carys!” Elder Ulrich called to them as they walked across the courtyard. They turned and waited as he hurried across. “I know you will wish to check on your mother, but the Council of Elders will be assembling in the Hall of Virtues immediately and I believe you should both be there when we discuss the future of the realm.”
“Immediately? The Queen is clearly overwhelmed from the death of the King and Prince Micah,” Carys said quickly. “Any discussion should wait until she is back to herself and can assure everyone that she intends to take her place on the throne.”
Elder Ulrich looked at them long and hard with his one good eye before quietly continuing, “The Queen has put something in motion that I fear cannot be stopped. There can be no hesitation when the future of the realm is at stake.” He looked around, spotted Elder Cestrum and the rest of the Elders walking with Captain Monteros, and fell silent as they walked past. Then he turned his scarred face back to them. “The Council of Elders will be gathering in the Hall of Virtues. For good or for ill, decisions will be made. I advise you both to join us and to do so very, very soon.”
He bowed, turned his clouded eye, the one Andreus found repulsive and strangely fascinating, away from them, and hurried off.