Chapter 11: Whispers Grew to Roars

Velador led me towards a private meeting room after he made the decision to postpone the wedding and I asked, “Did my parents receive an invite too?”

“They will be permitted to attend your coronation ceremony,” he said with his back turned towards me.

“But not their only child’s wedding?” I asked after I shut the door.

“This is no ordinary situation, Yyrdra,” he reminded me and sat at one of the two chairs around the square table. Old maps and treatises lined the right side wall. Scrolls of forgotten texts hung from a diamond pattern shelf affixed to the left. A window on the far side permitted light to shine upon his face; each strand in his beard casted a helical shadow on the next.

“I’m aware but they…”

“Your father agreed not to be present. I can show you the letters signed,” he revealed.

That shut me up.

I stood opposite him and pressed my hands on the table until Velador said, “I cannot promise to keep you safe. From what I’ve heard, you fended him off efficiently but he was no trained assassin.”

“I’ll be alright.”

“But what if you’re not?”

“Do you really care for my well being?” I asked and pulled out the chair. “You’ve been so cold, so distant from me that it’s hard to tell where your head lies.”

“My head is in a hundred different places right now. Rebellion, leadership, economics, state affairs, taxes, military wages, marriage, vampires,” he listed.

I sat down slowly and replied, “It seems we are two horses stuck in the same bog but at opposite ends.”

“And if we can push through the muck and the shit, then what? Are we even going to function as a married couple should?” he asked with his hands furled in fists.

“Do any married couples function?”

He laughed and said, “When one becomes fire, the other must choose whether they are water or wood.” He leaned back and said, “Old proverb about kings and queens.”

“I can be your kindling,” I said, walked over and rested a hand on his shoulder briefly before exiting the room.

* * * * *

Several days later, I sat in the courtyard with Noblewoman Malina who had given me support following the nobles voting. I retold the story of how I met Velador at the lake by happenstance and she questioned, "So, explain how you were able to move in the sunlight? Aren't you nocturnal?"

"We are very much awake during the day, although we'll sleep for a handful of hours. If we cover our skin, we won't burn," I explained and kept an eye on the shadow as it moved with the sun. Just a few feet closer and I'd burn.

I held out my arm into the sun and waited for it to redden.

"Don't hurt yourself on my account, lass!" Malina nearly yelled.

"I won't combust," I answered. Finally, after a minute or more, my wrist started changing color. I pulled it back before the reddening, blistered and said, "Usually it takes shorter."

“Anyway, I haven’t heard him mention the incident at the lake; he only told us that you hunted on our territory,” Malina said.

“I would have thought it’d be common knowledge by now,” I muttered,

"Now, tell me about garlic?" Malina pried while she toyed with the end of her raven-shaded braid.

I laughed and said, "It's foul on the breath.”

She giggled and commented, “Yes, yes, sometimes when I’m mad at my husband, I cook with garlic and pretend it's the odor why I don’t want to, well, nevermind. Do continue.”

I smirked and replied, “Garlic is just a story. Maybe a vampire was allergic and caused the rumor to spread."

"Interesting. My mother used to send me to the schoolhouse with garlic; I was never attacked so she attributed it to that," Malina smiled. "Silver?"

"Poisonous."

"Lady Yyrdra? Lady Yyrdra!" Jissabel shouted as she ran out of the castle's main door into the courtyard. Several guards patrolled the walls too and looked on at the disturbance.

“Velador requests your presence! It’s his father!” she yelled.

I stood quickly and Malina shouted, “Well go! Your betrothed needs you.”

I ran into the sunlight but only for a few moments as I followed Jissabel back inside and through the castle towards Grand Duke Maleninon’s room. I asked while taking two steps at a time, “Did he pass?”

“He won’t live to see the moon rise tonight, we fear,” Jissabel replied and we reached his floor. We burst into the room and Jissabel put her hands on her knees to recuperate from the marathon.

“Velador?” I asked and walked closer.

He knelt alongside his father and looked over his shoulder at me. He had been crying and the grand duke’s pulse barely made a beat in his waning hours. Velador said, “She’s here, father.”

With a raspy plea, he said, “Bring her close for me.”

Minister Tolston parted so I could pass by and Madam Holsienne blotted his forehead with a damp cloth. An unknown doctor eyed me with distrust on the far side of the bed, trailed by his young, female helper.

“His vision is gone,” Velador whispered in my ear.

I knelt alongside Velador and said, “I am here.”

The grand duke reached around until he found my arm and said, “Your cold skin lessens my fever already.”

I smiled and looked at Velador but he was not home.

“I am glad to have met you. You remind me of my own father,” I smiled.

“I am flattered,” he coughed and Madam Holsienne wiped some saliva falling out the side of his mouth. “I’m not long for this world.”

“We’re all transient creatures,” I whispered.

“And I hope what we’re trying to do here is something of permanence,” Maleninon said with a great struggle.

“We are stressing him too much,” the doctor said. “Everyone except his son should vacate!”

“Oh shut up,” the grand duke yelled, forcing coughs to rattle his bottle for nearly a minute.

Velador said, “We are here until the end.”

“I know, I know.”

Maleninon grabbed my hand again and said, “Be good to my son, this duchy and the people will be good to you. It’ll be a hard battle but your father wouldn’t have agreed if he thought you to be weak.”

I nodded and mumbled, “I will.”

From there, we waited. We paced the room. We counted the minutes and I listened to his pulse fade over the hours as darkness began to fall.

“I would like to sleep now,” he mumbled and we all knew he would not wake up this time. As he faded to the dream world and from the dream world to whatever is beyond, we idled in solemn reverie for the grand duke and his reign.

Velador fought off tears and I knelt alongside him again. His grief flooded from his soul and all I could do was rub his back. The onlookers offered quiet condolences and hope for the future of this small duchy in a large, untelling world. When Velador found the nerve, he pulled the blanket over his father’s face and looked around the room.

“Minister, please prepare for our coronation tomorrow,” Velador commanded.

“But you and Yyrdra remain unwed,” Minister Tolston countered.

“A tradition but not law,” Velador said and the minister looked uneasy about the request.

* * * * *

In a show of unity, Velador and I sat next to each other in the throne room in the castle. I had never been there before and it sat just above the foyer of the castle, centrally placed. As all, and I mean all, noble houses filed in for the ceremony, I wondered which planned my demise right in front of me.

“We’ll make this quick,” Velador whispered while leaning in. He wore ceremonial garments consisting of a flowing, cerulean robe with a golden tassel as a belt. Underneath, he wore painted chainmail resembling gold itself and equally embellished coronets awaited both our heads.

They hastily fitted me for a blue and white gown of impressive luster and length. I turned to him and said, “Some of these people would see me dead.”

“That is why I had Minister Tolston double the guard,” he whispered.

“Some of them too,” I reminded. Many guards patrolled the perimeter with crossbows while four stood behind us with halberds.

He sat straight but didn’t reply. My gaze returned to the crowd where I saw familiar faces and quite unhappy faces forming rows and ranks without seating around a central aisle.

With everything in place, Minister Tolston spoke in front of the crowd. “Good evening, noblemen and women of the Avenadyn Duchy. It is with a heavy heart that we are here today due to the inevitable passing of our beloved, venerable Grand Duke Maleninon.”

“We shall miss his reign,” a nobleman shouted which earned agreements throughout the room.

“Thank you, but please hold your comments,” the minister stated and gestured to everyone. “With all noble houses bearing witness, we shall coronate Velador and Yyrdra, with a wedding to promptly follow,” he said and looked back at the two of us. “Now, these are unprecedented times but we must be one country going forward and unify around that pledge.”

Some of them whispered amongst themselves; it echoed off the walls.

“Now to read the Grand Duke’s Pledge,” he said and unrolled a scroll of text. “Please, arise Lord Velador and step forth.”

He stepped forward to the minister and Velador nodded with an intrepid look upon his face.

Minister Tolston boomed, “From this day henceforth until the day you pass or can no longer rule with a sound mind, you shall inherit the title of Grand Duke and all of its responsibilities. The security, interest and posterity of the Avenadyn Duchy are entirely your burdens and your blessings to bear. Please, kneel.”

Velador knelt and awaited the crown.

“Do you vow to fulfill this oath and this pledge with all of your might and will?”

“I shall,” Velador replied and Tolston placed the coronet upon his head. The intricate gold crown embellished with polished sapphires glistened in the torchlight that illuminated our throne room.

“Please arise, Grand Duke Velador of the Avenadyn Duchy!”

The crowd cheered for him and he returned to his throne to watch me accept my crown.

Tolston switched his scroll and said, “Yyrdra of Mirewood, I ask you to arise and step forward.”

Anxiety ripped through my bones but I shunned it with every fiber of my strength. I approached Tolston slowly and tried not to faint from the pressure.

He smiled and said, “From this day henceforth until the day you pass or can no longer rule with a sound mind, you shall inherit the title of Grand Duchess and all of its responsibilities. The security, interest and posterity of the Avenadyn Duchy are yours to share with the Grand Duke. His burdens are yours to shoulder and his blessings are you to elevate. Please, kneel.”

The crowd began voicing their concerns and qualms. Whispers grew to roars and palms to fists. Completing the ceremony came into question and Velador shouted, “Silence, now!”

It worked. For several moments they quieted and Velador motioned for Tolston to continue. But as he opened his mouth, a guard off to my left shouted, “The Blood Duchess shall burn in the daylight!”

With his crossbow in hand, a bolt looking far too shiny for common iron or steel aimed at me. He pulled the lever and a silver-tipped bolt broke through the air with cruelty and prejudice.

I didn’t know if I could dodge it in time…