The Unmaking (The Last Days of Tian Di, #2)(79)
Wild applause carried on for several minutes. Then it was Queen Gautelen’s turn to say a few words. Her voice was powerful and carried easily across the grounds.
“Today you swear allegiance to your King and thus to me, his Queen. You expect that I will make humble thanks for your welcome and express my admiration for the Faeries and my joy at being made your Queen. But I will disappoint you, for my loyalty and my gratitude and my admiration are spoken for already, by my own people. I have been married one year now, but still this King of yours has not fulfilled his promises to me.”
The King did not immediately register what she was saying. Then his face went white with fury and he grabbed her by the arm, pulling her back sharply. Gautelen shouted out the rest while struggling free of his grasp. “Now I demand publicly that his part of our bargain be discharged! A?Kingship, recognized by the Faeries, must be given to my father, the wizard of Lil. Immortality must be granted to the Storm Seamstresses of Shol. My people are to be given the protection of the Faery Guard against any outside threat. I am your Queen and I –”
The King pinned her arms behind her back and hissed a single word in her ear. She fell silent but her look was triumphant. She had said enough. There was an awful hush throughout the courtyard. Nobody dared to make a sound. The King looked out over the crowd, his expression part anger, part incredulity. Emyr, the First Advisor, stepped forward with a slight bow and murmured something in his ear. The King nodded, appearing relieved, and Emyr spoke.
“Her Majesty Gautelen, Queen of the Faeries, came to me with these demands and asked that I compel the King to make good on his promises. Of course, I cannot and shall not do any such thing. However, the High Lords agree that marriage to outsiders should not be entered into by Faeries in position of authority and that an outsider must never be made Queen again. I propose that this be made law and that the King’s current marriage be dissolved.”
This was met with startled silence, and then a slight smattering of applause that died out quickly. The King’s expression had changed slowly to disbelief and then horror as Emyr spoke and he began to understand the full breadth of the situation. He closed a hand over his First Advisor’s shoulder. Even those at the back of the courtyard could see Emyr turn white.
“I made no promises to this lying Storm Seamstress, though that is beside the point,” Malferio snarled. “I am your King and this is nothing short of treason. I hereby command the execution of this faithless Queen and the immediate arrest of Emyr, First Advisor.”
A buzz of voices set up in the courtyard. Gautelen raised her chin slightly, as if daring anyone to lay hands on her. Emyr looked desperately at Alvar. The Faery Guard lining the pyramid in rows moved on the King’s command, but Alvar halted them with a gesture. They obeyed him instinctively, for such was their practice. It did not occur to them for a moment or two that they had obeyed him in defiance of their king.
“I must inform the Faeries that the Sorceress Nia broke free of her Di Shang prison a matter of days ago and defeated the Mancers,” announced Alvar in his powerful baritone. The crowds fell silent again. “She has killed the Oracle of the Ancients and she has infiltrated the Realm of the Faeries. Two days ago I found her waiting for me in the Traitor’s Wood.”
The King blanched. “That is impossible –” he began. Alvar continued as if the King had not spoken.
“Years ago, this King of ours, in the madness of passion, gifted the Sorceress Nia with immortality and his own blood. Thus she became a terrible threat to us. We remained loyal to him in spite of this. He learned nothing from his mistakes and has arrogantly married another outsider, who has also shown herself to have interests entirely unaligned with those of her subjects, the Faeries.”
The King interrupted by drawing his sword.
“You are speaking lies!” he shrieked, pointing his sword at Alvar. “This is treason! High treason! Guards, take him away!”
The Guards hesitated a moment. The King of the Faeries swung his sword at Alvar, who neither flinched nor stepped aside. Immediately one of the Guards leaped forward, fending off the blow with his own sword. A tremor went through the crowd. The Guard in question seemed appalled at what he had done, but after a brief, stunned moment, the other Guards applauded him. The King dropped his sword and began to tremble.
“This is Nia’s work,” muttered Swarn.
“Quite right,” whispered a voice in her ear. Swarn spun around, reaching for the dagger that was not at her belt, but nobody was there. A muttering swept through the crowds as the crimson doors swung open again. The Sorceress Nia entered the courtyard on the back of a white tiger. She wore a glittering dress of jewels, diamonds, emeralds and rubies all woven together, sparkling in her hair and around her neck. Bands of gold were fixed around her arms. Though the outfit must have been tremendously heavy, she held herself as if it was weightless. Nobody spoke or moved as the tiger loped easily among the Faeries and climbed the steps of the pyramid between the rows of the Faery Guard to the High Step, where Nia dismounted and faced the King. As she stepped up, Gautelen stepped down and away, her eyes meeting Nia’s briefly.
The King of the Faeries watched her progress across the courtyard with an expression of pure disbelief. When she stood before him, he reached his hands out to her and said simply, “My dear.”
“I told you I would come,” said Nia, not taking his hands. “There will be no pleasantries this time, Malferio. This is the hour for revenge, and you will pay for what you did to me.”