Epilogue
The very night Myrne broke down thinking of Blake, Isobel waited for her to sleep and then called Adrian in to send word to Hale and have the young prince brought to Kingsboro. From Kingsboro he would come to join them, and the next morning, Isobel, Myrne, Linalla and Adrian set out for the city of Yrrmarayn.
In the city, Anson greeted the Queen of Westrial, and Cedd came to her and explained what he had done.
“To be a High King, he must be a King, and he will be ruler in Kingsboro. I have reigned, and my reign is done. I am sorry, my dear for no longer being King.”
“But there is no need for Isobel to cease being Queen,” Anson said to her. “She is still a princess, and she is still the mother of the Prince and Princess.”
“And they will not be deposed?” Cedd said to his brother, and Anson said, “They cannot be, for who would replace them?”
And it was then that Ohean looked at the Prince Cian and the Princess Arsennon and said, “You cannot dispossess them, Anson, for they are your children.”
Anson and Essily looked at him.
And then Isobel said to Anson. “My Lord, may I have a word with you?”
And Anson, Isobel and Ohean withdrew, and the Queen said, “Forgive me, but only know I did what I thought I must.”
“Queen Isobel,” Anson said. “Please speak.”
And then she said, “Shortly after I was made Queen, I went to Sussail to visit my mother for a time. She spoke of dreams she had had, and they were much like mine. We went to the Rootless Isle.”
“It was in the time when you were isolated on the small island,” Ohean said. “Nimerly and I sent Isobel to you. She was the woman who came to you in the dark so that, when you came into your own, your children would already be born of a Queen and born to the rule of Westrial.”
And then Isobel fell to her knees and said, “Forgive it, Lord.”
But Anson said, “Isobel rise, there is naught to forgive."
The first morning of July the sky was clear and nearly cloudless. What clouds remained, were pearly and bright as the crystal stones that lined the parapet, and the glinting windows and turret tops of the towers and palaces rising up from the white and silver walls of the city of Yrrmarayn. Beneath the city, the water was clear, green blue, and across the Bight of Dauman, toward the quay, sailed a swift boat with a great black mast and the orange, roaring head of Banthra, the Tiger. White and green banners waved with the same tiger head, the banners of Solahn, and on the boat were the new King and the new Queen.
As the ship drew in to the harbor, trumpets and drums announced them, and soon, at the head of the gang plank, there stood, in green robes of state, his black hair crowned by a golden circlet, Rendan, First of that Name, and as he extended his hand, there, all in Solahnese white shot with silver, and a matching circlet on her auburn hair, was his Queen, who winked. They descended the plank something like regal, and when they reached the quay, they both gave a small bow to the King of Westrial and Queen of Chyr. In black doublet, his own short, golden hair topped by a silver crown mounted with a diamond, Anson nodded with a crooked smile and touched the sword at his side while Theone reached out and caught the Queen and King of Solahn’s hands, kissing them quickly. Beside her, all in black, a crooked grin on his face and a gold star on his chest was her husband, and he kissed the new Queen of Solahn and then she said, “Not bad for your old kitchen girl, eh, Master Soren?”
He smiled at Mehta and raising an eyebrow said, “I do not think you were ever my kitchen girl, not really. And I am sure I was never your master.”
“You should have seen her,” Rendan said, amazed. “She actually commanded an entire ship. And then, in battle, well, she wasn’t like a queen or a kitchen girl.”
“Please stop,” Mehta said.
“I won’t. My uncle, that Bellamy! He actually made a stab for my mother. He nearly had her. Well, Yarrow was down below on the field, commanding the battle, a real battle maid, and Mehta saw Bellamy carrying Mother off. What does she do? She literally, and I wish I almost wish I’d done this, but I don’t know that I could have. He was my father’s brother no matter what he did. Well, she takes this battle axe and sends it through the air and well, to make a bloody story very short, she brought an end to him.”
They all looked at her. Cooly, Mehta nodded, and Arvad said, “Much more than a kitchen girl indeed.”
“Really,” said Mehta, “I did it from a distance, and in great rage. The truth is I’d rather not think about it. A few weeks on a pirate ship and there are many things a girl can learn.”
“You will be a legend,” Anson said. “Queen Metandil, who with an ax blow did away with the tyrant!”
“You will all be legends I’m sure,” a cool voice said beside them.
“This is all very well, and I hate to interrupt tearful meetings,” Ohean said from beside Anson, “but other people are coming off of that ship, I’m sure.”
And so they were, and as King Rendan and Queen Metandil parted, and Theone, Anson and Soren moved aside, coming down the steps together were two others, and beside Arvad, who was embracing Mehta and looking over her in disbelief, Kenneth dropped his sword and began to tremble. The approaching woman was terrible and beautiful, strong and ageless. Beside her was a wild, dark, black haired man with almond eyes, an Easterner, and his face was like a cat’s.
“Do not tremble,” the woman said, “and do not wonder. Do not doubt.”
And as Kenneth shook, Cayanne took his face in her hands in wonder.
“You were dead. You were dead and the Lady brought you back to me.”
Arvad and Maud were looking at Kenneth and Kenneth was still shaking, his eyes unfocused.
Maud said, “My Lady, I think your son needs to be alone with you. I will lead you away if that pleases—”
And then she stopped.
Her eyes went to the deck of the ship now, and Arvad, standing beside Maud and Kenneth, took her hand from Cayanne’s shoulder saying, “Lady Maud, do not worry. I will lead them away.”
And Maud nodded dumbly as Arvad led Kenneth and his mother from the quay back into the city.
Cheers were erupting now. Here was their prince. This was the one who had disappeared long ago at the request of Ermengild to find what was lost until he himself was lost. Everyone knew him. Maud knew him, and even the Kings and Queens on the quay separated for her as she came to the gangplank and Ethan came down to her, catching her face.
“My brave Maud,” he said.
Her face trembled. It never trembled. All the years, all the loss, all the waiting, the doubts, the days when she knew that, yes, he was dead after all, fell upon her and she didn’t care who saw. She let her shoulders shake, she let her face melt, she let the hot tears run down, and Ethan kissed her head and his eyes were full of tears too, and he held Maud and everyone knew what that was like, the long parting, the resurrection after you knew something was irrevocably dead, and so everyone watching them was full of joy.
In the Blue Temple, all holy things happened in the night. Theone had seen few temples, let alone a Blue one, and she wasn’t the only one who didn’t know quite what to make of it. Mostly she felt honored. A short time ago she’d just been a girl on the run and now she was, more than the Queen of Chyr, a friend invited to this very holy and, for the Blues, very strange event.
Ohean was there, and Anson as well. Inark blessed the evening with her presense as did Essily.
“This is nothing like our old Blue Temple,” Gabriel Rokamont noted. “And yet… it is not unlike it either.”
In the Crystal City, the sapphire bright temple stood out, and in the night its courts were full of starlight and torchlight. Gabriel, Matteo, Lorne and Cal, Quinton and many of the Blues who had traveled with them, bore white candles as they walked ahead of Connleth Aragareth who, for once and possibly never again, wore a white robe and had shaven his head to a fine golden buzz in the night. He recognized his sister and Obala and Sara and many he had not seen in ages, including his brother in law Jon who dandled one of Conn’s nephews on his knee. He bore his own white candle as he arrived at the altar where, also in white, flanked by Soren and Kenneth, his fellow Gozens, was Derek Annakar.
Abbot Fero stood before them and he spoke ancient words and Conn repeated them, and then he handed the candle to Derek, and Derek circled him seven times in the night, saying the same words back. They held hands and together, Conn bearing the candle, they circled seven times a little pillar beside Fero, which Theone realized was a great unlit candle, and then, together, they lit it, and Derek’s face was full of joy and love. How often had he dreamed of the day he and Conn could finally spend some time together and a little house, just the two of them, far away from everyone no matter what they might choose to do later. They had given themselves to so many, and they were still young and their missions over and they had their whole lives and oh, see! Fero took a thin blue cord and wound it lightly about their wrists, and they kissed.
They journeyed from Yrrmarayn, and the great barges took them into Kingsboro where the people, Queen Isobel with her companion Francis and her children, the Prince Cian and Princess Arsennon, had awaited their King. The last coronation had taken place while an old king had lived and funerals and wars obscured. Cedd and Anthony came down from their estate in Pembroke to Purplekirk, and Queen Bereneice was there with her king as well as Hermudis and Raoul and even Morgellyn. This time they filled Purplekirk with the royalty of all Ossar, the dark skinned, the chocolate and caramel skinned lords of Ossarian, Rheged and Elmet, of the Far Isles and even lords from Itzum. If Caedmon felt a jealousy for this he did not say so, and it was not on his face. When Theone and Rendan and Mehta came into the city, the people of Kingsboro marveled at the splendor of these foreign lords. How impressive was the Queen’s husband, Soren, Archon of the Gold Star and beside him Kenneth, Dominar of the Silver Star. Kenneth rode with a handsome red headed man, and then came a fiery, caramel skinned woman, Inark, the chief enchantress of Chyr. Also, the people of Kingsboro had seen few Zahem, save the Buwas, and they had certainly never seen the Prophet of the Zahem, so young and fair, and young wheat haired lady beside him must have been… well, she was too young for a wife.
Plain, but strangely compelling, all in black, short haired, face like a mahogany mask, rode Senaye, the Wandering Woman, Mother of Ohean, but full of majesty, and now given the name of Queen, all in silver and gold, so youthful she could be the King’s sister and not his mother, came Essily, Anthal’s wife who once had saved the nation from plague, but been banished for its lack of gratitude. Fair and wonderful she was, and the daughters of the Queen who had succeeded her looked on her in wonder. Queen Essily was followed by many fairy women, and it was rumored that, though she would stay for a time, she would, in time, ride off with Senaye as wandering was her delight too.
The choir processed the great length of the abbey, passing the assembled people, high and low of all lands and bowing at the altar before separating in two lines and moving past it to their stalls. Following them, long cloak trailing the stone floor, came Anson, who knelt at the altar as the hymn was finished, and even Pol, Conn, Derek and the other Blue priests who had born his train left him kneeling, his hands folded before him on the kneeler while, at the altar, acolytes opened the great book for the Archbishop and he came before Anson while the hymn ended.
Not in this land alone,
But be God's mercies known
From shore to shore:
Lord make the nations see
That men should brothers be,
And form one family
The wide world over.
Abbess Hilda, who had led the entire service with—to the shock of many, and the delight of Cal, Gabriel, Matteo and Quinton—Abbot Fero stood before the people at the marble altar, and now she came not to the disgruntled Archbishop Cardalan, but to Ohean who wore both white robe and white mantle, and a silver circlet on his head. A golden key hung from his throat to match the golden key hanging from the throats of Nimerly, Essily and Theone. Solemnly, Hilda took the crown from the Archbishop’s hands and raised it over Anson’s head, then called out in all four cardinal points:
“Behold, in the east, Iffan, your undoubted King. Behold in the west, Iffan, your undoubted King. Behold in the north, Iffan, your undoubted King. Behold,” her voice rang, “Iffan, your undoubted King.”
And then, in the silence of the great high abbey, Hilda bowed to Ohean, and placed the crown in hands, and now he spoke.
“My people, I here present unto you Anson, your undoubted King. Wherefore all you who are come this day to do your homage and service, are you willing to do the same?”
Anthony had looked to Cedd, and was surprised to see tears in his eyes, but then he saw that, head bowed, Anson’s eyes were wet as well. Cedd rose up, shouting with the rest:
“Aye!” and Anthony saw Queen Imogen beside King Idris brush her face with the back of her hand.
And as Ohean still held the crown, the Archbishop read: “Will you solemnly promise and swear to govern the peoples of the Kingdom of Westrial and Locrys according to their respective laws and customs?”
And Anson replied: “I solemnly promise so to do.”
“ Will you to your power cause Law and Justice, in Mercy, to be executed in all your judgments?
“I will.”
“Will you to the utmost of your power maintain the ways of all people and all faiths with respect to none and respect toward all? And will you preserve the memory of the sacredness of this living land and all in it?”
“All this,” Anson said, “I promise to do.”
But Anson, King Iffan, did not read from the book when he completed his vow. He turned from his sister, Ohean and the Archbishop to his people.
“The things which I have here before promised, I will perform, and keep,” his voice was like a lion’s roar.
“So help me, my people—”
But here, many interrupted, unable to stop themselves, crying, “We will! We will!”
And there was much clapping and stomping and Anson found himself smiling so hard it hurt, his eyes full of tears so that finally, once the crowd had settled, he declared:
“All this I promise to do.”
THE END
Thank you, all, for joining me in the journey. This long one has ended for us, but others will follow.
