“Yes!” Alethia retorted. “If I hadn’t seen that soldier trying to chop you in half I never would have put the Crown on, and they never could have insisted that I have to keep wearing it! How can you be so blind!”
“The Queen of Alkyra can’t consort with a caravan guard,” Maurin said, goaded beyond caution. “What good does it do me to stay?”
“You aren’t a caravan guard, you’re a Journeyman Trader, and the Queen of Alkyra can do whatever the Black she pleases!” Alethia said vehemently. She glared at the Trader. “And if she wants her husband to come to her coronation, who’s going to stop her?”
Maurin’s jaw dropped. “Alethia…” he said uncertainly, “you don’t mean it?”
“Am I going to have to kidnap you to convince you?” Alethia said, exasperated. “I have had firsthand experience, you know; I’m sure I could persuade Har and Jordet to do it. And Tamsin is a minstrel, so he could marry us—unless you don’t want to?” she added quickly.
“Want to!” Maurin swallowed. “But what will the Nobles say?”
“I don’t care!” Alethia said angrily. “I’m doing what they want; they can just live with a little bit of what I want.”
A slow smile spread across Maurin’s face. “Then what can I do but obey the dictates of my Queen?”
“I knew you would see it my way,” Alethia said sweetly, and Maurin laughed and gathered her into his arms.
The wedding was a quiet one. The guests were few, but among them were the most prominent members of the four races, including the heroes of Coldwell Pass. Tamsin Lerrol performed the ceremony and at the wedding feast he sang a new ballad about the finding of the Crown. Alethia smiled as he sang, but when the lay described the Shadow-born, she clutched Maurin’s hand beneath the table.
Two weeks later, Alethia and her family left for Friermuth. The notables of Alkyra had been gathering for some time. The nine First Nobles and the former Regent were already present, preparing for the formal recognition ceremony. Lesser nobles were arriving in a steady stream, and the non-humans were also reaching the city in increasing numbers. The citizens of Friermuth quickly became accustomed to the exotic shapes of Wyrds, Shee and Neira passing along their streets, but even the most complacent were shaken by the arrival of Queen Iniscara and her escort. Iniscara was robed in silver and rode a horse of jet black; her guards, in their black and silver, sat astride horses white as ice. With their uniformly white hair and green eyes they presented a striking picture indeed as they rode slowly through the town to their quarters.
The foreign ambassadors began arriving soon after Alethia reached Friermuth. Blythe Kyel-Semrud, head of one of Kith Alunel’s most ancient and noble families, was the first to arrive. He was followed closely by Aralyne Dohstid of Rathane, cousin to the ruler of the city and one of its most influential citizens. Prince Staryl Dundevic came from Col Sador, bringing with him the Knights of the Sword to reaffirm their long friendship with Alkyra.
It soon became apparent that there was no building in Friermuth large enough to contain the throng of people who expected to attend the coronation. A few days before the ceremony, one of the First Lords brought Alethia a list of people from which to pick and choose those who would be allowed to attend, but Alethia refused to even look at it. “I am going to be Queen of all Alkyra,” she told the astonished Lord, “and I am not going to start by annoying three-quarters of the people who have come to see me.”
“Someone will have to choose,” the Lord replied, a trifle disgruntled. “I told you, there is no building large enough to hold all the common folk. A few representatives, perhaps, but no more.”
“Then make the Nobles stand in the street as well,” Alethia said calmly.
The First Lord stared. Obviously, he thought, her new position had gone to the girl’s head. Patiently, he began to repeat the objections and recommendations he had brought with him, but Alethia cut him short.
“I have told you that I am not going to allow anyone who has traveled all the way to Friermuth just to see the coronation to be turned away,” she said. “Either find a place that everyone will fit, or move the Nobles.”
“But there is no such place!” the harassed Lord said. “And you can’t deny the Nobles; you’ll make enemies!”
Alethia smiled. “What about Starmorning Field?”
“It’s certainly large enough,” the First Lord said, considering. “But you can’t be crowned out in the middle of a field!”
“Why not?” Alethia asked. “But of course, you can always move the Nobles.”
In the end, Alethia had her way. The coronation was held in the middle of Starmorning Field, just outside Friermuth, before the largest crowd of Lords, Nobles, ambassadors, and common people ever assembled in one place in Alkyran history.
The procession that escorted Alethia from Friermuth to Starmorning Field was an impressive one. The guild representatives came first, each displaying the banner of his guild and the banner of the Lord who sponsored them. Next came the soldiers who had fought at Brenn and Coldwell. Ranks of Alkyran footsoldiers were followed by Wyrd bowmen and Shee cavalry, with the Neiran healers at the rear of the army.
The lesser Nobles of Alkyra were next, each with his escort displaying his banner and the midnight blue and gold of Alkyra. They seemed to keep coming forever; every Lord of every city in Alkyra was determined to take some part, however small, in the coronation of the country’s first ruler in three hundred years, and Alethia had not allowed anyone to be left out.
The Alkyran Nobles were followed by the Lords of the Shee and the Arkons of the Wyrd Glens, excepting Murn. Next were the Nine Families of Alkyra which had supported Kirel when he founded the country and destroyed the last of the Wyrms in the Snake Mountains. The First Lords, the heads of the Nine Families, rode in the middle of their respective households.
As the Veldatha wizards rode into sight behind the Nine Families, the crowds that lined the road hushed. For many, this was the closest they had ever come to magic, and already legends were springing up around the battle at Coldwell Pass. The Veldatha were certainly impressive with their white hair and blue robes and the Crown of the Veldatha upon every head.
The visiting Lords and Princes and ambassadors were next, just before the rulers of the four peoples. Iniscara, Murn, Merissallan, and Regent Mikral rode abreast, each carrying one of Kirel’s four coronation Gifts. Behind them was Reuel, the Grand Master of the Minstrels himself, with the Crown of Alkyra, and then, at last, came Alethia and Maurin in the midnight blue and gold of Alkyran royalty.
Even with all of Starmorning Field to hold them, it seemed that the people who lined the roads would never be able to fit around the raised platform where the ceremony would take place, but when the procession reached its end there was room for everyone. Alethia and Maurin mounted the steps together. Behind them came Reuel, carrying the Crown, and the crowd quieted.
The Grand Master of the Minstrels raised the Crown above his head, and it flashed in the sunlight. In a clear voice that carried to the very edge of Starmorning Field, Reuel told again the story of Kirel the Founder and the Alliance of Wyrds, Shee, Neira and Men which became the Land of Alkyra. He ended with Kirel’s Promise, sometimes called Kirel’s Oath, and Alethia repeated it after him:
“By the power of the Sword will I win justice for this land; by the power of the Shield will I guard it wisely; by the power of the Cup will I hold it in mercy; by the power of the Staff will I rule it in peace. This I promise to all the people in the light of the Crown before you.”
Alethia knelt, and Reuel stood motionless for a long moment with the Crown upheld. Then he lowered the Crown onto Alethia’s head, and the field rang with cheers.
“Congratulations, Your Majesty,” Maurin whispered to Alethia as she rose.
“I’m still not sure this was a good idea,” she said dryly, in a voice so low Maurin could hardly hear it over the cheering.
“Well, it’s too late to back out now, so enjoy it while you can; th
e work will start soon enough,” her husband replied. “Speaking of which, straighten your Crown; there are people coming up to see you.” Alethia suppressed laughter as she turned regally to receive the formal allegiance of the Nobles and guild-masters who were coming up the steps of the platform.
* * *
“By the power of the Sword will I win justice for this land; by the power of the Shield will I guard it wisely; by the power of the Cup will I hold it in mercy; by the power of the Staff will I rule it in peace. This I promise to all the people in the light of the Crown before you.”
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