54. Chapter Fifty Four Rhowyn
Chapter Fifty Four: Rhowyn
Callum tossed the guard to the stone floor, the landing waking him up. He startled, sitting up quickly and scooting until his back was pressed against the wall, his eyes wide and darting around as my men circled him.
“Tie him up,” Arryn instructed Baer, who knelt to do as instructed. When the guard moved to strike Baer, a blade met his throat, and he stilled instantly.
“Don’t make this any more difficult than it needs to be,” Callum threatened the man, a calm fury painting every word. The guard swallowed nervously as Callum stepped back, watching him closely for any further movements.
Jude started setting up the altar with the supplies while my father and Cyerra helped. Once Baer was done with his task, he also stepped back. Arryn squatted again, deciding to take the opportunity to ask questions. “Did you know we would be here?”
“I’m not telling you shit,” the guard spat out, clearly finding some confidence despite being bound and at our mercy.
Arryn shook his head. “Don’t make this hard. Answer my questions, and you might make it out of this alive.”
“Why should I trust you? You’ll say anything to get what you want. I’m dead either way,” the guard argued belligerently.
“Well, it’s like this,” Brannoc said, his arrogant assassin mask in place as he stepped forward. Again, the guard swallowed, but Brannoc continued unperturbed by the fear now coursing through the air, picking at his nails with a dagger as if bored by the whole situation. “You don’t really have a choice, now do you? Your only chance at making it out alive is by telling us what we need to know. You and I both know that the Queen will kill you even if you stay silent. She won’t take the risk. You’ve already failed her by getting caught.”
The guard’s eyes darted from side to side, and Arryn placed a hand on his leg, causing the man to flinch. “What’s your name?”
Confused, he stuttered out, “Al..Alain.”
“Alain, we are here to ensure that the new Queen ascends the throne as Avalonia intended. Titania has wielded and stolen power for long enough. You just might save your own life if you help us here today. After all, Rhowyn doesn’t wish to start her rule with death on her hands.”
I stepped forward, feeling that he needed this reassurance. “Arryn’s right. I only wish to free the people of Avalon from her tyrannical rule. She’s killing Avalon, and soon, there won’t be anything left if we don’t stop her. Avalonia’s brought you here to help us. Can you do that, Alain? Can you help us?”
He stared at me for a moment before his shoulders slumped in defeat. “Yes.” He lifted his head and met Arryn’s gaze confidently. “What do you want to know?”
“Thank you, Alain,” I said, before stepping back to allow Arryn to take over.
“Does the Queen know we’re here? Were you coming to look for us?”
“No. I was supposed to be watching the proceedings, but with everyone else distracted, I wanted to take the chance to spend some time with my girl. She’s a maid and, for the moment, has some time. We’ve both been so busy lately, what with the trials and ascension…” he trailed off, realizing we didn’t care about that extraneous information.
“Okay. That’s good. That helps us,” Arryn said. If the guard was telling us the truth, which my gut said he was, he wouldn’t be missed from patrol, and we’d managed to escape notice thus far.
Satisfied, I turned to check on my grandfather’s progress. Arryn’s words drifted to me as I walked away. “Just sit here, and when we’re done, we’ll let you go. By then, it won’t matter if anyone knows we were here.”
Callum growled out, “But if you try anything, I won’t hesitate to kill you right here and now.”
I didn’t hear the guard’s response, my focus now on the altar, bowls and herbs spread out before my grandfather as he used a mortar to grind them into a powder before pouring them out into a milky white liquid.
“So, what can I expect?” I asked him.
He glanced up at me briefly with a smile before turning back to his tasks. “This part is fairly easy. Similar to the consort selection, I’ll be doing most of the chanting. You just need to stand there and swear your allegiance when I prompt you.”
“Okay. I can do that. I mean, shit, if this isn’t proof enough that I’m committed, I don’t know what else would convince Avalonia,” I said, my nerves forcing me to fill the void of silence. There wasn’t much for me to do until everything was ready, so I figured I’d pick my grandfather’s brain, arming myself with knowledge.
“It’s not about that,” Cyerra said, chiming in while still mixing the ingredients that Jude had set out for her. “She knows you’re committed; it’s why you were selected. This part is about sealing the deal between you. It’s a binding agreement that, if broken, will take your life.”
“I’m not sure I like the sound of that,” I said, now a little hesitant, for good reason.
Cyerra laughed. “It’s not like that. It’s an oath to do what’s right for the people of Avalon, to protect them and raise them up. Every Queen takes the Oath.”
“If that’s the case, why isn’t Titania dead already? I mean, clearly, she’s broken her oath if the land’s dying and magics are failing,” I questioned them.
“You would think,” my father said, doing some mixing of his own. “However, with this kind of magic, there are always loopholes. She could have found a way around the words.” At my puzzled look, he continued, “For instance, if she truly believes that what she’s doing is for the good of Avalon, then she wouldn’t be struck dead.”
“Okay. I fail to see how she can even think that, but I guess I see your point.”
“Does crazy ever really understand reality?” Baer asked, leaning against the altar and smirking at me.
I laughed. “I guess not. But does anyone truly think she’s crazy? She seems to have a pretty firm grip on reality. If it weren’t for her quest for power, then I might consider her quite sane. I’ve seen politicians and actors on Earth play games and put on facades to fool their followers. All of them sane.”
“It could be that she simply feels that by being the most powerful, she can protect Avalon against anything that might threaten it,” Jude spoke up.
“Or she simply found a way to nullify the Oath to begin with,” Brannoc said.
“What do you mean?” I asked him as he stayed leaned back against the middle of the wall, all relaxed grace, but still able to see every inch and ready to pounce if needed. If you didn’t know him, you might suspect he was relaxed and bored, but I knew he was just as vigilant as the rest of us.
“She might have started out believing that more power would be helpful. However, once she obtained enough power, she was able to break the magic that bound her Oath or to subvert it somehow. After all, she has access to texts and tomes that only the Queens have ever seen. Not even Master Jude has laid eyes on them. Who knows what they hold?”
“Either way, the Oath simply makes the agreement between you and Avalonia formal. She wouldn’t have supported you and helped you get here if there wasn’t already an unspoken agreement,” Jude said, dusting his hands. He looked at my father and Cyerra, who had also finished their preparations. “All done?” At their nods, he turned to me. “Ready, dear?”
I hesitated, understanding the magnitude of this moment. After this, there would be no turning back. I’d be the Queen, and the lives of everyone would be relying completely on me. There would be no escape except through death or upon the next Queen ascending in some indeterminate amount of time. I could possibly wind up ruling for over a thousand years. That amount of time was unfathomable to me.
I was only twenty-five years old, barely starting to live my life before being thrown into this. My wishes, wants, and dreams would no longer exist. Everything I would be would amount to my people’s needs. And yet, I knew I didn’t really have a choice. I couldn’t stop the person that I was. I couldn’t walk away knowing that without me, everything and everyone would be doomed. It was the only choice, but one I made freely.
Looking around at my men, pride shining on their faces, clearly having sensed my commitment through our bonds. “You’ve got this,” Brannoc said, and I smiled up at him, my brow furrowing as I noticed his mouth was firmly shut, one side of his lips quirked up.
Shaking my head, I turned back to my grandfather. Inhaling deeply, my eyes drifted shut briefly as I centered myself. After a couple of deep breaths and long exhales, I spoke. “I’m ready.”
“Good.” He smiled at me proudly, an expression that, before Avalon, I had only seen after fights. “Come around here.” As I walked to the spot he’d indicated, he turned to the others. “Please gather close on the other side and bear witness to the ascension of our new Queen and her Oath to Avalonia.”
He picked up a bowl and turned to me. “Rhowyn Hunt, do you enter into this Ascension of your own free will?”
“I do.” I said, holding my head high, hands clasped behind my back to stop the need to fidget.
He dipped a brush into the dark ink liquid inside the bowl, the one Cyerra and my father had prepared together. “Do you take these marks of Avalonia freely?”
“I do,” I affirmed once more as he began swirling the brush across my skin, forming loops and whirls in a pattern that I couldn’t discern but knew instinctively was a language of some sort.
Once he’d finished, he set the bowl and brush down. He then lifted a glass that held the milky white liquid he’d been mixing earlier. He lifted it high. “Avalonia, I call on thee to bless this mana, to bless Rhowyn as your Chosen Heir and anoint her as your voice on Avalon.” He added a pinch of something, the drink starting to glow as soon as the substance hit the liquid. I could feel the power in the room starting to grow. It felt similar to the magic of Cashel Rí, but purer, starting as a whisper until it pounded through my veins with a roar. I gasped at the intensity, overwhelmed by it but not in pain. It was pleasure and happiness, the beginning and the end, sorrow and hopelessness. It was everything and nothing.
Jude pulled me from the sensation, handing me the glass. “Drink this,” he instructed. I swallowed the liquid which had no taste, no texture, draining the glass quickly. I gasped again as the feeling on the outside began sinking into my skin, coursing through my body until it became a part of me all the way down to each and every cell that made me who I was.
“Do you vow to protect the people of Avalon, to uphold the law of Avalonia, to lead them into prosperous times and maintain the balance that is essential to all of life?” Jude asked me.
“I do,” I said, a buzz starting in my mind and building like a crescendo until it burst from me, lighting the room to the point that I had to squeeze my eyes shut against it, and still, it was painful to behold.
“Do you swear all this upon pain of death?” Jude asked me.
“Yes.” At my final proclamation, the magic surged back into me, the sudden darkness a blessed relief. I fell to my knees as another crack formed in the shell that cut me off from my magic and my true self. I clutched my chest at the pain that left me as quickly as it had hit me, bowing my head as I felt Avalonia’s magic coursing through me, weak but there.
A slow clap sounded out, causing me to jerk my head up to find the Queen standing behind my men, a smile on her face.