been standing on boards, wet, creaking boards, and she could hear material cracking overhead, as if it was catching the wind like drying sheets on the clothes line. Everywhere she looked she could only see water, dark grey and heaving water that reminded her of the river in very rough weather, and yet it stretched on further than she could ever imagine water could stretch. The boards beneath her were moving, rocking, and she was puzzled by the unsteadiness of everything in the dream. And she felt a longing like an emptiness that hurt in the deepest section of her heart, as if she had lost the most precious of her possessions, and that longing was drawing her across the eerie water. She sat up on her bed and stroked Sunfire’s fur, recalling the elements of the dream, puzzled by what she’d felt, until it faded with the darkness into sunrise.
CHAPTER NINE
Q ueen Sunset had good reason to curtail her city parades. The Rebels were determined to kill her and the people were unsettled by the rebellion. But the Seers refused to let political matters interfere with religious celebrations. So, a month past, on Alunsday, she had reluctantly ridden the King’s Way, heavily protected by her escorting Elite Guards, expecting an assassination attempt throughout the entire morning’s journey. The festivities went without incident. Crowds cheered as they always did and the street was as packed with people as any other year—and for a short moment in her turbulent life she almost felt that there was no war taking place. The feeling quickly evaporated. She still reasoned that to appear in public when political tensions were at their bloodiest was testing the theory of luck too arrogantly.
‘Your Highness,’ Seer Diamond had argued when she informed him that she was not going to parade in public again, ‘the coming Erinsday is a holey event you cannot afford to dismiss so lightly. The people look to you for their spiritual guidance, and your presence among them is always much sought.’She remembered staring at the man, his long white beard and equally white hair irritating her because it was the look everyone expected of a priest. She also wondered whether or not he was serving two causes. The Rebels were supported in their bid for the throne by his colleagues—Seers who sided with her son, Prince Future—so how much was Diamond’s desire to get her into the public arena driven by alliances with his Rebel colleagues?
‘We serve Jarudha, Your Highness,’ Diamond reassured her when the rebellion began, and Seers like Light and Truth declared their unwavering support for Prince Future’s bid for the throne. ‘True disciples of Jarudha have no political aspirations. My peers are misguided in aligning themselves with either side. We should stand above such pettiness, and focus upon the spiritual battle for souls.’
Of course, she knew that Seer Diamond and his faithful colleagues also used that view to justify their complete non-involvement in the current war, and therefore their non-support of the Queen’s troops against Prince Future and the Rebel Seers. Their non-involvement meant that Future’s army held an advantage, because the Rebel Seers used their magic against her men and she had no method to counteract them.
And her Intermediary, Follower Servant, whose father had served her father, supported the Seers in their push to make her maintain her public profile. ‘Your Highness,’ he argued, ‘you are loved by the people. Prince Future is not embraced with the same passion as you, so he is trying to foster popular support. If you lock yourself away in your palace, the people will think that you are afraid of your son, and they will begin to think that he is the stronger one. People are fickle, Your Highness. They sway like reeds in the wind. You mustbe seen to be the strongest. Your presence in the Erinsday parade will show them that you are confident and they will follow you.’
Follower’s advice was seldom
CHAPTER NINE
Q ueen Sunset had good reason to curtail her city parades. The Rebels were determined to kill her and the people were unsettled by the rebellion. But the Seers refused to let political matters interfere with religious celebrations. So, a month past, on Alunsday, she had reluctantly ridden the King’s Way, heavily protected by her escorting Elite Guards, expecting an assassination attempt throughout the entire morning’s journey. The festivities went without incident. Crowds cheered as they always did and the street was as packed with people as any other year—and for a short moment in her turbulent life she almost felt that there was no war taking place. The feeling quickly evaporated. She still reasoned that to appear in public when political tensions were at their bloodiest was testing the theory of luck too arrogantly.
‘Your Highness,’ Seer Diamond had argued when she informed him that she was not going to parade in public again, ‘the coming Erinsday is a holey event you cannot afford to dismiss so lightly. The people look to you for their spiritual guidance, and your presence among them is always much sought.’She remembered staring at the man, his long white beard and equally white hair irritating her because it was the look everyone expected of a priest. She also wondered whether or not he was serving two causes. The Rebels were supported in their bid for the throne by his colleagues—Seers who sided with her son, Prince Future—so how much was Diamond’s desire to get her into the public arena driven by alliances with his Rebel colleagues?
‘We serve Jarudha, Your Highness,’ Diamond reassured her when the rebellion began, and Seers like Light and Truth declared their unwavering support for Prince Future’s bid for the throne. ‘True disciples of Jarudha have no political aspirations. My peers are misguided in aligning themselves with either side. We should stand above such pettiness, and focus upon the spiritual battle for souls.’
Of course, she knew that Seer Diamond and his faithful colleagues also used that view to justify their complete non-involvement in the current war, and therefore their non-support of the Queen’s troops against Prince Future and the Rebel Seers. Their non-involvement meant that Future’s army held an advantage, because the Rebel Seers used their magic against her men and she had no method to counteract them.
And her Intermediary, Follower Servant, whose father had served her father, supported the Seers in their push to make her maintain her public profile. ‘Your Highness,’ he argued, ‘you are loved by the people. Prince Future is not embraced with the same passion as you, so he is trying to foster popular support. If you lock yourself away in your palace, the people will think that you are afraid of your son, and they will begin to think that he is the stronger one. People are fickle, Your Highness. They sway like reeds in the wind. You mustbe seen to be the strongest. Your presence in the Erinsday parade will show them that you are confident and they will follow you.’
Follower’s advice was seldom
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