Duir made a pleased sound and strode over to a long mirror hanging beside his bed. I followed behind, and for a moment, I saw myself behind him in the reflection and our eyes met. Certain he could see the disappointment in my eyes, I moved away.
“You have done something truly wondrous with this velvet, Virago, and I am most pleased, as should you be.” His voice was cold.
“I’m most pleased, Your Grace. I only hoped you would be as happy with it as I truly am.” When I returned to the mirror, I found he now faced me. His face framed against the high-notched collar of the vest, a style I’d thought royal and fit the luxuriance of the velvet and the dark tones of his face. I was correct in my guess for Duir was truly the picture of royalty.
“May I adjust your collar, My Lord?” I asked.
“As you will, but be quick. I have lingered long and the hounds will soon break the door apart to get to me.”
“You govern the hounds, My Lord,” I adjusted the collar so it rested properly. “And the hounds know their true master. Your father would have been most proud.” I managed the words as truthfully as I could, but they sounded hollow and my hands dropped from the collar to my sides.
“As would yours,” Duir replied. “Now I must go and you must promise you will eat and drink your fill tonight at court, for after this day your hands will be busier than ever with work!”
* * * *
My duty to Duir was done. Each step from his presence brought a sigh of relief not only from my mouth, but also from my soul. It’s over! Done and over! I am free! I laughed madly with relief and startled a couple of maids who hurried past me as if afraid they’d catch whatever had befallen me.
As I entered the main hall, I heard my name. I scanned the crowd and soon saw Therese. The moment I saw her, the joy of my pending freedom vanished and memories of the dead peacocks and Sylvain’s talk of plague flooded my head. Therese, normally robust and ruddy, seemed slightly paler than the last time I had seen her and her skin, although liberally coated with pearl dusting powder, appeared grayish and her lips, painted red, were thin and drawn.
Barely able to conceal my surprise at her appearance, I went to her. “Therese.”
“Must Duir insist on so many idiots beside him at court?” She snapped open her wrist fan and flicked it furiously before her face.
I could see tiny beads of sweat dotting her brow and threatening to ruin her painted face.
“Are you well?” I asked, taking her hand and leading her away from the swelling crowds consistent of a coronation court.
“I’ve been better, to tell you truly. I came only to oversee the theatrics scheduled for the celebration tonight.”
She must have seen my pleased reaction to this news, for she smiled proudly. “Yes, my dear, I will stage the night’s theatre, but I will not tell of the true cost for this honor, or the idiocy I have endured within these walls. It is no wonder I am flushed!”
“My brother says there is illness within your house. How do your women fare?” I asked concernedly.
Therese clicked her tongue, obviously annoyed. “Ill whores are the bane of my house all the year, Virago. Sylvain is a seer as much as I am a lady!”
“He has told you of his worries?” I noticed two long, glistening peacock feathers, protruding from Therese’s mass of curls.
“So he has and so I have named him a fool. If there is a plague, it will not be coming from anyone in my house!”
“It is I who am a fool, My Lady,” I replied soothingly as a single bead of sweat inevitably dripped from her brow and was soon followed by another. I retrieved a linen handkerchief from my sleeve and offered it to her. She took it hastily and dabbed at her face.
“I am all nerves with this coronation performance!”
Sensing her alarm, I offered my hand and she allowed me to guide her to a bench between two large ivy topiaries upon which I helped her sit.
“What of your new friend, Claus?” I asked.
“Another fool!” She sneered and flicked her fan faster before her face. “I sent him to find props specifically for this night and the idiot returned robbed of the gold I’d given him when a crowd of peasant men tricked him into dressing as a woman, and used him in shocking ways. He is a perverse creature and while I enjoy perversion, I am never taken advantage by it!”
I felt my stomach twist as her words brought back memories of Cale. “There are times, Therese, when one has horrible acts forced upon them and in these times I promise to you, gold is of the least importance. Claus is lucky to have survived such a thing and will bear scars hidden from the world as long as he lives.”
“What are you saying, Virago? Claus lives and breathes, though no longer in my house. He has found himself better suited to the beastly Lord Landing, and to this, I say good riddance.”
I shook my head sadly, although glad of Claus’s escape from illness, my heart ached for Therese. “I wish you well, My Lady, and pray the illness in your house is fleeting.” I bowed low and took my leave. I thought I heard her shout to me as I walked away, but couldn’t bear to see her drawn face again. When I heard the blaring of trumpets announcing Duir’s departure and the roar of the crowds outside the palace gates, I stopped, struck with fearful clarity.
“I must warn Duir. Therese and I will go to him, and he must be made to listen.” I rushed back to where she’d stood, but she was gone.
* * * *
I struggled through the swarming streets to make my way home. When I arrived, I found Sylvain standing at the gate, his face pivoted towards the distant sounds of the coronation procession, the fox curled around his shoulders.
“Brother?”
“Yes, I’m home, Sylvain.”
“The vest?”
“A triumph,” I answered weakly as I passed him. My hand absently stroked the top of the fox’s head and to my happy surprise, it did not pull away. “Now I must bathe and dress for the celebration.”
“But are you not to see the coronation? Surely Duir has insisted upon your attendance? Even if I cannot see it, I have anticipated you describing to me the procession and eating of the street food and drinking of the good foreign ale the traveling vendors pour!”
I sighed heavily. “I forget how you enjoy these kinds of festivities. I don’t wish to attend the ceremony and he will know not whether I am there or here, Sylvain. I do not think I can face his men right now.” I’d made my way to the entrance of our home. Sylvain had left the door open and I could see a huge vase of flowers upon the sturdy kitchen table, their scent comforting and somehow sad.
“His men? Auberon, Briar, and Cale? You say their names as though you haven’t treated them as brothers all this time. Suddenly they are different? I have allowed you your silence, Virago, but now I insist you to tell me what has happened!”
“Nothing!” I shouted angrily. “If you wish the pleasures of the streets find them yourself, you are familiar and I lack the strength for anything but a bath before I must return to court.” Even as these words escaped from my mouth, I felt remorse. “Sylvain, forgive my shouting. I am in a web woven by the laws and ignorance of this place. I have always been trapped within it and it has only been recently that I’ve been made aware of the trap and now I am fighting desperately to get out of it.”
“You are the weaver of the web, Virago. But this web is not made of spider silk. It is made of velvet and iced not with morning dew, but the needs of wicked men.”
It was blind truth and my brother silenced me with his clarity.
“Did I not warn you? Did I not tell you of my misgivings from the moment my hands touched the velvet!” Sylvain’s voice was not only angry, it was wrathful. The fox lifted its head. Its eyes glittered dangerously as if it might lunge from my brother’s shoulders.
“Please, say no more. It will tear me apart to hear it. If you were right, I am eternally wrong and you will know it before much longer.” Uncertain of my own emotions, I sought the solace of the bath.
Sylvain followed me, h
is voice growing closer and louder.
“You say Duir will not miss you at the coronation, so why would he notice you absent from the revelry after, when he will surely be drunk and gorging on meat and women?”
“I do not return for Duir,”
“Why do you go again? I don’t understand you. A nobler man familiar with your recent behavior could do no more than I!”
When I tried to think of an answer as to why I was returning, all I could think of was Seton. Many things of late may have baffled me, but not the love within me.
“I’m going because I am in love. It is Seton who plays music in Duir’s court, and I will not depart until he is by my side.” When I finished, my brother’s eyes stared straight at me and for an instant, it felt as if he was seeing straight through my chest into my heart.
“I shall go with you. If Duir will not notice you, he will not notice me. He did, after all, invite me to court.”
“Court. Even the word tastes sour to me now.”
“A mug of ale can wash the bad taste from your mouth, and you shall bathe and wash the bitterness from your being!” Sylvain backed away from the stairwell.
I smiled in spite of myself and followed him.
“Come, let us drink and rid ourselves of animosity, and toast my brief yet auspicious debut at court!” Sylvain poured two mugs from the jug. Durant left my brother’s shoulders and watched us from beneath the table.
I touched my mug to his. “To you, Brother, and to all I leave behind after this final night!”
“May it be a night to remember!” He clanked his mug to mine a second time.
Chapter 15
It was hardly an hour later when we ventured from the house. As I walked, I was careful to mind my cape. The streets overflowed with people. The air was redolent with the fragrance of food, perfumes, incense, and bodies pressed together.
“Are you wearing it?” Sylvain asked, his voice close to my ear. When I hesitated to answer, he grabbed at me until his hands found and explored the lining.
“You wear your death, and for what? To mock laws and spite a fool?” He made a disgusted sound in his throat and thrust the cloak from his hands. “And does the musician wear the other?”
“Yes,” I answered. “And he is wise to the importance of discretion. You mustn’t worry. All will be well, Sylvain. It will be well.” I added the last under my breath in hopes of quieting my own fears.
“Let us hope so, Virago, or I will be visiting you in the dungeons.”
I changed the subject. “Do you not smell the saffron bread? It was always your favorite thing to eat when you were a child. Let us have a loaf and two pints before we find our way to the palace.”
“You are a lost soul in love. I shall allow you reprieve from my concerns as long as you hold them close this night. Will you promise me?”
“I promise and ask you promise to always be wise, and force me, if necessary, to listen to your counsel from this day forward!” I said this half in jest, but felt uneasy as we made our way across the street to where Duir had passed for his second and final procession to the cathedral. The street had been lined with carpet and I noticed large pieces cut away by the hands of those who wished a remembrance of the day.
“What color is the carpet?” Sylvain asked as we crossed.
“It is purple,” I answered as a young girl dropped to her knees before us and tore a piece from the already ragged edges and thrust it into an apron pocket. “The same color as the vest.”
“How lucky, you chose to show him the purple,” he mocked. “To have him wearing crimson and walk along a purple rug could have meant your head!”
“Indeed,” I replied. “Now pray my luck holds and I am able to finagle the last two loaves of saffron bread and not have to pay with my soul!”
“Allow me to do the finagling,” Sylvain’s voice grew lighter as we approached the vendors. “This is once when my handicap becomes a help instead of a hindrance.”
As promised, Sylvain procured the loaves while I attended the pints. I’d paid and collected the foaming mugs and was about to pass one to Sylvain when I heard the ringing of the cathedral bells. The coronation ceremony was complete.
“It is done, Duir has been crowned.” The words fell from him as though each pained him.
I handed him one of the pints. “So he is.” I brought my pint to my mouth. “Long live the King.”
A passerby shouted his approval and repeated my words but with greater joy.
“Long live King Duir!” Another voice rose in celebration and soon we were surrounded by the shouts of the people who knew Duir from afar and loved him as their handsome prince and would now adore him as their lord and ruler.
“I pity them,” I mumbled as we walked away.
“Or maybe you envy their ignorance,” my brother answered over a mouthful of saffron loaf.
“Aye. I am hopeful, too. Perhaps he will rule justly as his father did, and now maybe I am being ignorant.”
“It is never ignorant to be hopeful,” Sylvain conceded, then took a swallow from his pint.
“Perhaps not, but ignorance is a malicious teacher. Only recently have I been forced to see what truly hides in the darkest corners of men’s hearts.”
“You are lucky.” Sylvain answered. “Many people never see what lives in the shadows and so they pretend it does not exist and rage when what they have left unseen attacks and wounds them.” He managed a smile. “You are not a fool, Virago, but are now awake.”
It was an accurate description. I felt blazingly awake. While I may be rubbing my eyes, stunned like a child who has woken to find the day, I felt truly awake.
While I was thinking this, I felt Sylvain pull on my sleeve. I stopped and only nearly missed walking into a large woman with a child on either hand.
“He’s coming!” she shrieked and both children squealed excitedly.
On the street, men hurriedly rolled the bedraggled and torn carpet, their bodies straining behind the massive weight of it.
“Do you see him? What do you see, Virago?” Sylvain held onto my arm.
“They are rolling the carpet is all. I cannot see anything else.” The crowd came to a complete stop on either side of the street and I could see the tops of the flags being carried by the guards who would precede and follow Duir.
Sylvain tugged on my sleeve. “Come, let us move closer. Some part of you must want to see him wearing the vest?”
“You forget I was the one who put it on him.”
“Father would be proud, it is your first coronation vest, Virago. See it for him and for me.”
“Come.” I took his hand and rested it on my shoulder. “I will see Duir, if only for you and the memory of what was.”
Once we made it to the front of the crowds, I felt naked and exposed to not only Duir, but to Cale and the others. Nervous sweat soaked my shirt so I shivered and silently cursed the masses of people pressing in on us from behind, forcing the damp fabric to stick to my wet back. “Damn this heat,” I swore and mopped my brow with a handkerchief I’d thankfully remembered, as I’d given my earlier one to Therese.
“It’s a fine day!” a man next to me snapped. “His Highness has perfect weather for his crowning. It is you who is dripping like a fevered wench!”
“Be quiet, you old fool!” the woman with the two children I’d almost run into before barked. She cast a worried eye upon me. “Pay him no mind, dearie. You do look a touch feverish. Must be the excitement of it, ehh? Look at me. My hands are shaking so I can barely hold on to these two!” She broke into nervous laughter and yanked the children closer to her wide hips.
“King Duir and long live him!” someone shouted.
“Virago, do you see him? Tell me, is he splendid? The vest?” Sylvain drew close and gripped my shoulder tightly.
“He’s coming.” I was certain Sylvain didn’t hear me, for the crowd’s murmurs and awed cries grew deafening.
“Silence!” a voice shouted over the din and behin
d this command, the crowd calmed. It was the voice of Auberon flanked by Briar on one side, Cale on the other. In their uniforms of crimson and black, they cut a formidable impression among the peasants and common folk. They stepped aside once the crowd was hushed and bowed low and as they did, the crowd following suit.
“Bow.” I felt Sylvain’s hand fall from my shoulder.
“Your Lord and God Anointed King, His Grace.” Auberon’s voice rose dramatically with each word. “King Duir. Long may he live and reign!”
“My people!” Duir’s voice was clear as a bell being rung from a high steeple. “My dear people. I am humbled by your gratitude but you may rise!”
Around us the applause and cheers of God save the King exploded, followed by blaring trumpets. Before us, Duir made a sweeping, gracious bow. I saw his gleaming smile. Beneath the dark, elaborate cut of the coronation coat, the velvet showed itself magnificently.
“How does he look?” Sylvain asked. “Are you pleased?”
“I am awake,” I answered as my eyes lingered on Auberon’s face. Tienne was by his side and smiling. Briar was there, his bald head shining, his face a mask of pride. Cale turned on the crowd. Our eyes met. I clasped a hand over Sylvain’s. “And I am afraid.”
Chapter 16
“Oh, Virago.” Tienne rushed upon me at the entrance to the hall where Duir was holding court and receiving his foreign guests.
“My Lady.” I took her hand and bowed.
She laughed and drew my head up with her delicate fingers. “You are a friend, Virago. You need not bow as if I am a queen.”
“Ahh, but you are cousin to a King now and worthy of not only my bending of knee, but the entire court, as well you know.”
“But I think of you as family, as does Duir. Is it not incredible he is lastly crowned?” Tienne looked behind. “And who is this?”
I saw Sylvain, who, overwhelmed by his first appearance in court, lingered in the doorway.
“Sylvain, my brother,” I replied.
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