Chapter 20 Faron #2
“Not great at making friends, is he?” Derek asked. “Such a dour sod. Does he not know this is a celebration?”
“Oh, he knows.” Faron drained the last of his current cup and lifted it high above his head to call for another. “He just doesn’t care.”
“Well, I care!” Derek insisted, and he lifted his own cup. “The king is dead. Long live the queen!”
“Long live the queen,” others echoed, and Faron was all too happy to join in.
Not long after, trumpets sounded, and cheers roared from within the castle.
Faron munched on a bit of bread and relished the noise.
He had chosen well with Isabelle. Already a queen, and her longtime foe in the Casthe royal family was about to be ground underneath her heel.
Most important of all, Faron sensed no desire in her to stop.
The goddess called for her to cleanse Kaus of the Church of Stars, after all…
Those seated at the tables near the castle entrance hurried to stand, with others rising like a wave spreading toward the outer limits.
Faron stood, curious, and saw the answer in Queen Isabelle walking the centerline path between the tables, flanked on one side by a finely dressed Marshal Oscar in resplendent plate.
King Allan was on the other, decked in furs and with a beard stretched down to his stomach.
Positioning the king in such a place of honor beside Isabelle was certainly no accident.
“She gonna give a speech?” Derek asked, stumbling as he tried to stand and nearly falling over, he was so badly intoxicated. Rowan snagged his wrist to steady him.
“If she does, you need to shush so we can hear it,” she said. “And put that drink down, you oaf, before you vomit all over yourself.”
“Yes, surgeon.”
Faron was more than tall enough to see over the tables, though Bart climbed up on his own stool to join him.
His eyes lit with a wonder that Faron envied.
This whole ordeal had to feel like a dream to the young man.
To go from a tiny village, to fighting in several victorious battles, and now to witnessing a queen’s coronation?
Better than he had any right to hope for.
Bart need not have bothered, for Isabelle herself climbed atop one of the tables, not waiting for those there to clear it.
Alex had joked she would be wearing her armor, and though it was true, it had never looked so finely polished before.
It was also dressed up with blue cloth that weaved through the creases, hanging in long strips near her legs as well as forming a cloak to trail behind her.
The crown of Doremy rested on her head, thin and silver with a single canary tourmaline set across the front.
Her sword was strapped to her thigh, and her shield rested comfortably on her left arm.
The message was clear. Isabelle would be a warrior queen, and her reign one of conquest.
“People of Doremy!” she called out, and the crowd fell into a tense, eager silence.
Faron pulsed a tiny amount of radiance to his eyes, just enough to ensure that he saw Isabelle as if she stood mere feet away.
Her image now clearer, he spotted the little silver threads dangling from her hair, which, while still long, now bore multiple thin plaits from which dangled white ribbons.
The sudden clarity of her, beautiful and armored, stole Faron’s breath.
“I would give a message, not only to those of influence, land, or nobility,” Isabelle continued.
“I speak to those who toil the fields, who trim the gardens, and who sweat beside blistering ovens. I address not only the safe, the cloistered, and the elderly, but also the strong and brave who fight alongside me in a war for Doremy’s rightful ascension.
To those who live, and those who die, equal together in the arms of the goddess. ”
Faron’s eyes widened. Something… something was amiss. Isabelle’s words, they seemed to ripple the very air. All around her, faint gold sparks burst to life and then faded like fireflies. Could no one else see?
“Of Leliel’s Four Pleas, the one I cherish most is the fourth and final,” Isabelle continued.
“‘Be kind, my children, for you all belong in my arms.’ Nothing more clearly reveals her love than this. All of you, no matter your birth, your blood, or your past. All of you, regardless of your failures, the life you have lived, the choices you have made, or the future you both fear and cherish. All of you belong. You deserve to be held. To be loved. To know the goddess smiles down upon you.”
The crowd was starting to notice, too. The gold in her eyes shone as if there were lanterns behind her irises. She drew her sword and then stabbed it into the table before her.
“And the Church of Stars would deny you that love,” she cried.
“They would cast innumerable sins upon you, a dozen lifetimes of bleeding lashes, and call you wretched. They would demand blood, sacrifice, and repentance, all while insisting you are nothing, nothing , in the eyes of their cruel, judging Father. It cannot be allowed. I refuse. The people of Kaus shall not spend their lives with their souls enchained!”
Faron’s heart was in his throat. The entire garden, and the thousands of people gathered within, were as silent as the grave.
Even Iris had crawled out from underneath the table to watch, her ears raised and her nose sniffing the air.
The crowd was enraptured, and rightly so.
Lightning crackled across Isabelle’s hands and the surface of her shield.
With her every word, Faron saw a wave of gold light wash across the crowd.
Radiance. It was radiance .
“I have heard the call of my goddess,” Isabelle shouted, her voice reaching a crescendo.
“I have felt the touch of her hands. I know many of you disbelieve. I know many of you whisper, and wonder, but let this be the night that ends all doubts. Let this be the night where I am not alone in my blessing.”
She lifted her arms. All the world froze.
“Let this be the night when Doremy hears Leliel’s voice!”
Four ethereal wings burst from underneath her blue cloak, sparkling like scattered gold dust. They spread wide, ruffling with feathers.
Lidless eyes blinked at the joints, mirroring those carved into the countless Leliel statues scattered throughout Kaus.
Isabelle rose higher, and when she spoke, the radiance pouring off her tongue washed over the crowd in a tremendous wave that left Faron mesmerized.
This… this matched power that even Eder might struggle to achieve.
“I am chosen, but I am not alone,” she said.
Her voice was deeper, and it seemed to thunder throughout the courtyard.
Her eyes blazed, the whites completely vanished behind a shimmering sheen of gold.
“I am blessed, but I am not the only one. I weep for my father’s passing, and I rejoice for the legacy he has left me.
I lament the ages passed, and I burn with desire to build a new age, one of unity and glory in a world that has known only fracture and chaos. ”
Higher. Higher. The wings fluttering in a sudden wind that billowed from all directions.
Her legs dangled beneath her, and her hair whipped wildly as the crowd gazed up at her.
Iris let loose a moon-song howl, aching in its cry.
Its longing, its loss, felt so fitting, none even cast the coyote a second glance.
“Unity, my beloved!” Isabelle called to the last. “All of you, held safely within my arms.”
Tears swelled in Faron’s eyes. This wasn’t the stolen radiance of the church’s preachers and their loathsome jars. This was a gift unheard-of in all of Faron’s lifetimes. Radiance, born within a human, and manifested in glory to the goddess.
A goddess Faron had never believed in.
Isabelle descended back to the table, and her wings shimmered away, scattering like dust upon the wind that slowly died. Her feet touched the wood. She pulled her sword free and held it overhead, as she herself wept, the golden glow of her eyes no longer hidden.
Never before believed, but now he wondered.
A lone voice pierced the sudden silence that followed, startling Faron from his thoughts. It was Bart, hollering with his hands cupped to the sides of his mouth.
“Goddess save the Queen!”
Marshal Oscar offered his hand to Isabelle so she might step down from the table, and he echoed the statement with his own deep voice.
“Goddess save the Queen!”
The crowd took up the cry, soldiers, commoners, and nobility alike. Faron joined in, the chant sweeping away his uncertainties and confusion. Radiance in a human… It couldn’t be, and yet it was. A queen for all ages. A warrior to tear down the Astral Kingdom.
“I don’t believe it,” Rowan muttered beside Faron. “I… I mean, I did believe, in her, but I didn’t expect… that gift. It was beautiful. So beautiful. Leliel, forgive me for ever doubting.”
Faron took her hand and squeezed it, sympathizing with her shock. To see a human wielding radiance—
He froze, and a chill pierced his spine. A human with radiance. He looked to the iron fence, his throat tightening and his revelry slipping away into gnawing worry.
Sariel was nowhere to be found.