Thronegarden

never far away, Damselfly sat down at the table, uncomfortable, and waited, uncertain of what would happen next. Queen Etherelle encouraged the musicians to play while they began eating. Damselfly had pancakes with maple syrup, which she would never normally be allowed for breakfast, and that made her feel a little better. She even snuck some under the table for Trigger; the Dalmatian happily licked the syrup from her fingers with his coarse tongue. Beside Damselfly sat Old Nana who barely touched any of the delicious food. On the other side was Queen Etherelle who tasted every dish once (Damselfly did not know if she was checking the quality of the fare or simply trying to enjoy as many different dishes as possible). Then came Orion, sitting next to his twin sister, Luyna. In close quarters, their differences were striking, and it was almost impossible to believe they were twins. Celeste and Coral sat next to their mother in complementing blue and green dresses. The young twins were almost identical with golden hair, blue eyes and a smile that made your hair stand on end. Damselfly could only tell the twins apart by the crescent birth mark that was on the left side of Coral’s neck and the right side of Celeste’s.

The final two seats were occupied by Damselfly’s tutor, Palen, and the Master of Bells, Pariah. Centuries ago, according to Old Nana, bells were imbued with magic by powerful sorcerers seeking to create powerful talismans. The most famous example was Sereth, the so called ‘voice of death’ that was part of Death’s timepiece. The bell had the power to take a person from this world into the next. Pariah was wearing a dark brown robe with his head largely covered by a draping hood. He ate little and spoke to no one, so Damselfly wondered why her mother had invited him in the first place. After breakfast they were entertained by Nova the pyromancer who created shapes in the air using fire and smoke. Then Pan juggled a dozen lit candles, Lark performed her melody and Harlequin performed a beautiful dance, which earned a nod of approval from the queen. Pilgrim the bard offered a traditional tale from his repertoire. Old Nana’s husband was an excellent story teller and yet Damselfly found herself distracted and unable to enjoy the telling. After the performances, there was a slight lull while the next round of activities was prepared. Old Nana went to find her husband who she did not see often with them living at different ends of the castle. This left Damselfly alone with the other adults engaged in their own conversations or duties. She did not notice Coral or Celeste sneak up behind her until they began pulling on her red hair.

“Stop that,” Damselfly demanded.

Apart from the colour of their dresses, the twins appeared to be almost reflections of each other; they even shared the same vindictive facial expressions they now turned upon the birthday girl.

“What are you wearing?” Coral asked mockingly.

“Those look like fairy wings. You’re short and ugly enough to be a fairy,” Celeste teased.

“If you have wings now maybe you can fly away and we can all really enjoy the celebration without you,” Coral snickered.

“Leave me alone or I’ll tell my mother,” Damselfly threatened.

“Oh, we’re so scared,” Celeste pantomimed.

“Your mother does not have any real power. The king listens to our mother and she is a sorceress so she could turn you into a toad with a look.”

Damselfly knew magic did not work that way. Luyna had rarely shown her magical powers but turning people into toads was extremely unlikely. Unfortunately, their words brought tears to Damselfly’s eyes, a sign of weakness the twins were quick to seize upon.

“The little princess is crying.” Celeste pretended to rub her own eyes. “Her face is all puffy and her eyes are red to match that horrible hair,” Coral bullied.

Thankfully for Damselfly her mother was looking for her in order to start the parade in her honour. Queen Etherelle wanted everything to be perfect for her daughter and was aghast to find her in tears.

“What is going on?” she queried.

Coral and Celeste at least had the notion to look at their feet while the queen cast them warning looks.

“I don’t want a birthday celebration,” Damselfly sobbed.

Queen Etherelle wiped her daughter’s eyes with a silk handkerchief, giving her a brief embrace; she looked her straight in the eye.

“All these people came to celebrate your birthday. We can’t let them down, can we?”

Damselfly looked at the throng of people clearing the breakfast table, the performers mulling around reflecting on their performances and those desperate to be part of the parade and decided her mum was right.

“I suppose,” she agreed.

“That’s my brave girl.” The queen smiled.

A shadow fell upon them as Orion hovered malevolently. Damselfly felt herself blush with embarrassment under his exposing glare.

“Shall we make our way outside? The parade is about to begin,” he suggested.

Damselfly felt suddenly vulnerable, remembering what the twins had said. What could any of them do against sorcerers? And then she thought about her father. The king was powerful enough to defeat anyone: he had exiled the Fairy King to the Evergarden and brought peace back to Fable. Hoping that Orion would soon get his just deserts, they followed the sorcerer as he escorted them to the parade.

Damselfly watched the cascading fireworks that signalled the end of the parade. They rose into the unchanging sky from a ship now trapped by the barren ground where a large lake had once been.

The ship was called The Captive.

Like the moon that had once been taken hostage by the Lady of the Lake, it remained trapped.

The last ship of the fleet.

Damselfly rarely left the castle so she had never really understood the effects that the Fairy King had wrought by stopping