Chapter 62 Seraphine
They buried Theo in Halbracht, beneath the Pinetops and the wild hawks, in a grave beside his mother and father.
By the time Seraphine returned to Fantome, the last of the dead had been cleared from the streets, buried in the graveyards of Old Haven and beyond.
The Rose-bearers had returned to their families, and the surviving Strix had retreated over the Western Ridge, making the crossing home.
Word had spread throughout Valterre about the Silver-tongue’s defeat, and as people returned to their senses, the town leaders prepared to gather.
At Seraphine’s invitation, they travelled to House Armand, where they talked long into the night.
When the sun rose the following morning, a new ruling party had been established.
They would be the Order of Seven. Among them three saints: Val, Saint of Truth, Anouk, Saint of Clay, and Paola, Saint of Storms; three provincial leaders: of Castellan, Marvale and Montmarie, and Seraphine Marchant.
Together, on behalf of the people, they would rule over Valterre.
Without a king, they were no longer a kingdom but a republic. A country of equals. And so a new treaty was signed and ratified.
That same day, Seraphine and the saints returned to the heart of the city.
There they stood along the waters of the Verne and watched Anouk rebuild the Bridge of Tears.
It took four days of exhausting work, and four nights of restorative slumber.
But each morning, when they returned at dawn to the riverbank, a crowd had gathered to watch their Stone Maiden at work.
The new bridge was a marvel.
They called it the Bridge of Peace.
Afterwards, Anouk slept for a week straight. On the eighth day, she rose with a spring in her step, and the saints went together to Primrose Square.
As the heat of summer surrendered to the oncoming winds of autumn, an ancient tower was rebuilt.
Anouk placed the top stone on the morning of the newly decreed Day of Deliverance, when Primrose Square was filled with revellers and banners rippled from every lamp post in the city.
They watched as Caruso climbed to the highest tier of the tower and planted the new flag of Valterre: a dove soaring across a sun-bright sky.
Ransom conjured his own dove to match it. As gold as the dawn, it scattered Lightfire across the city in glittering raindrops before coming to rest on the tower. There it burst into flames, igniting all three tiers in a glorious flush of magic.
Nadia wove roses across every trough and hung the stonework with ivy until it looked like the entire structure had burst into bloom.
They called it the Versini Tower.