Epilogue
The Palace of Levernia
Lara
I glanced in the mirror as my new lady-in-waiting, Anesta, stood behind me, pinning up my hair. She focused intensely on her task at hand and I shifted my gaze back to my reflection. There was something different about my eyes now. They used to be empty, hungry and cold. A different soul had taken its place behind my irises, and now there was a glimmer in them that had never been there before.
“What should you like to do today, Your Majesty?” Anesta asked and I gave her a simple shrug in reply.
“I’m not sure, yet.”
“I only wish to know which dress you would like me to take out.”
I shifted in my seat to face the wardrobe with heavy oak doors hanging wide open.
“Take out the riding dress, will you? And the green one for tea afterwards. The Duke of Dankershire is going to pay me a visit.”
Anesta walked over to the wardrobe.
“Anesta . . .”
She turned to face me.
“You do have to stop calling me ‘Your Majesty’.” I didn’t like feeling as if I thought myself above her.
A strange look appeared on her face.
“Is that a problem?”
“Not at all. It’s only, I like calling you ‘Your Majesty’. Very few people ever get to say that in their lives. It is the highest honour to be employed by the royal family of Everness.”
I couldn’t blame her for wanting to feel important. I had very quickly taken a liking to Anesta when Rhen showed up with her as one of his first tasks as my personal guard and royal advisor. I wouldn’t exactly get very far without a lady-in-waiting. Anesta was open and confident and possessed a sense of freedom that was unfamiliar to me. Though she could scarcely be sixteen or seventeen, she was a quick learner.
I would miss Cordelia very dearly. But I was happy she’d gone with Jack. They did fit so well together. I was only sad to be distanced from a friend.
“Very well, then,” I said. “As long as you understand that I want us to be more like friends.”
“As you wish.” She took out the dresses and carefully laid them on the bed. I had since moved to the queen’s chambers and it was very different from the room I had slept in before. This was my mother’s old room. As far as I understood, no one had slept in it after she died, and everything was mostly as she left it, apart from the room still being cleaned. I hadn’t allowed myself to look through her things yet.
Anesta walked back to me and sprayed some perfume. “So, the Duke of Dankershire,” she said with a slight smirk and I rolled my eyes.
“It’s not like that. At least, it’s not intended to be. I found a letter in the king’s study that mentioned the duke was owed money. I had invited him over today to get it settled.” I didn’t want to owe anybody anything. I had tried settling a lot of things in the past week.
I still referred to my father as the old king only because I couldn’t yet bear the idea of the man actually being my father. I had grown up hating him. Had been brought up to hate him. And I had learned that the truth wasn’t a fine line after all, but a pile of shattered glass instead. We find the stories in the broken pieces that we pick up.
“So you don’t intend to find a suitor soon?” Anesta asked.
“My coronation has just passed and it wasn’t even a public one. I have no idea how the people of Everness will react. I have a lot of politics to sort out before I can even think about suitors.” I didn’t have much of a choice in saying yes or no .
“Well,” she said, dabbing some more perfume on my neck. I let out a small cough and she put the bottle down, taking the hint. “If they get to know you like I have, I’m sure they will be pleased.”
I hadn’t allowed myself to think about Cai either.
About how we’d left things. About how I hadn’t heard anything from him since. No letters, no visits, no messages. Nothing at all. I hadn’t gone to see Lance in prison, either. He had placed me in this position and if I refused, Rhen warned me, the kingdom might fall into anarchy with Eloisa still missing. Either way, I lost. It didn’t matter that I was the one technically in power. I still felt like a pawn in this wicked game, unable to make choices for myself.
I smiled at Anesta for the compliment, nonetheless.
She gently picked up the jewel necklace from my vanity and draped it around my neck. My reflection grinned as I allowed my fingertips to touch it, thinking about how much trouble this necklace had brought me.
I had been called many things in all my life — bandit, thief, rogue — and now I would be called “Queen”.
THE END