Chapter Twelve: Coronation

Saber wakes early to this fateful day.  He has never, not been the Crown Prince.  Born into royalty is so different a life, that he is not sure how not to be royal.  Of course, technically, he is still of royal blood, and will attain a new title of some sort.  A duke, that’s right.

            He snuggles against Cherna as he catches a chill.  The seasons are turning, soon the trees will change colors and leaves will fall. Then one day he would wake to snow covering the Realm in a thick blanket.  The moat would ice over, and the lake would crust.  Fall and winter have always been his favorite seasons.  The Castle Seasons.

            The Castle comes alive during this time.  Dignitaries and clan chiefs arrive with servants, and baggage in tow.  Private sleeping quarters are quickly filled by the earliest to arrive.  Late comers are packed into guess quarters, three and four deep.  Privacy goes out the window.  Catching up on the year, and request for royal audiences are first in order.  The Queen is consulted on everything from mating and property to harvests and sometimes-even crimes.  Occasionally the dungeons are used for these that break dragon laws, and rarely a death sentence is carried out, very rarely. 

            Every week there is a castle ball and nightly dinners, events, and parties.  Gossip intrigue and rumors take flight and soon it’s just like ‘old times’.  Oh, the good ole days, when a dragon could mate with a duchess, a maid, and a lady-in-waiting all in the same week.

            Saber smiled to himself in memory, but his arm snuck around Cherna just the same.  He would not go back to those days for anything.  He was completely ‘domesticated’ as they say.  His old cronies wouldn’t believe it, it was such a drastic change in him.

            It seems he’s let his mind wonder due to the importance of today, and the enormous changes in the royal line.  Memories of old times are easier to ponder then the unknown future under an infant queen.

            Ryoch and Glenna will become queen advisors, as Queen Father and Queen Mother for the first two years, while Bella is in the nursery.  They will choose and install a new Queen Advisory Council, and everyone from the Castle Warden to the lowest skilled maid, could be replaced if needed.  Ryoch and Glenna will have to work fast getting theirs and Bella’s affairs in order, because the Castle Seasons are coming up soon.  They have just a couple of short months to do it all in.  Saber and Cherna will help, and advise if asked, but truly it is a huge responsibility for such a young family to undertake.  There had not been an infant queen in four thousand years, the last was Sabers grandmother, and he didn’t know much of that history.  The Castle scribes can be tasked with researching it if Ryoch and Cherna need it.

            Cherna slowly came awake, and knew immediately that Saber was thinking deeply about today.  His body tensed up and his brow developed deep lines.  She smiled at him saying “Good morning, my love.”  Her simple smile, and soft voice brought him back from is worries, and he relaxed against Cherna.  Their sexual scent mingled, and right then Saber knew he was deeply in love with his mate.  It wasn’t a shock more of a startle, and without even pondering it, as he was used to doing everything of importance, he fell headlong into it.  Smiling, snuggling and loving.

 

            Ryoch dried off Mara and Missy, as Glenna finished oiling, and rubbing down Bella.   It was a chore getting three giggling hatchlings ready for such a big day.  Bella was growing so fast, she outweighed Mara by a good twenty or thirty pound, but of course she was a month older also.  One month and it made such a difference.  One month later and Leona, Saber and Cherna’s daughter, would be Queen, thought Glenna.  Would she change places with them with Leona as Queen?  In a heartbeat.  But Glenna believed the Gods had a plan for everything, so this was meant to be.  Her beautiful baby daughter...Queen of the Realm.  It was real, but unreal also. Glenna absently rubbed Bella’s feet.

                        “Darling,” Ryoch interrupted her thoughts, “I think she’s good.  You have been oiling her down for fifteen minutes.  The Crown will slip off and clang on the floor.”  Ryoch teased.

            Ryoch had lived his entire life at the Castle, until the Lair.  He was a Dignitary and of Royal Blood.  He even had a title.  Baron of something or other, Glenna thought.  She saw he was much more composed then she was.  He even had a smile, and looked almost excited.

            “I wish I had your outlook.”  Glenna told him

            “I know this is not how we planned our lives to be, but I have to believe it was destiny.  That the Gods planned this, and we just got the memo late.”  Ryoch teased her.

            “I am going along with all this destiny stuff, but you have to remember when we grew into adults, I left the Castle and never lived there again.  I have spent my last hundred years as a forest dweller, and I don’t know anything about Palace life.”  Glenna said, almost in tears.

            Ryoch set the girls down to play, and took his mate into his arms.  “Shush baby it’s going to be o.k.  I will lead and you follow.  I won’t let you fall on your face.  You have been to events at the Castle hundreds of times.  You even helped with charities and other duties when Dana called on you for it. You are a little too honest to be a dignitary, but I will be right there to help keep your foot out of your mouth.”  Ryoch soothed and comforted her.

            Glenna’s sniffles stopped, and her eyes dried up, as she remembered all of the occasions Ryoch spoke of.  He was right, Glenna had been in lots of different situations for the Crown, over the last hundred years, and she had not embarrassed herself, not once.  Embarrassed the Crown?  Only once that time with the Ambassador from the Southland's...but she would not think on that.  She slowly began to feel better, and her natural enthusiasm returned.           

            “Bella will be a beautiful Queen, won’t she?”  Glenna, always a mother, asked.

            “Yes honey, she will,” Ryoch smiled.  “Now let’s get these girls fed, and we can head over early to get a look at things.  We don’t need any surprises today.”  Ryoch hustled his family along.

 

            The Castle was at full attention, every servant had specific orders, and every guest tried to finagle a better position to watch the coronation in. The coronation would be held in the Great Thrown Room.  The thrown sat at center stage with two slightly smaller, but still ornate, wing chairs at either side.  This was the Royal Ceremony Room, where the public coronation would occur.  There is also a private Royal Ceremony to the Gods, held in the temple across the courtyard.  The Gods are always served first, then the Procession to the Thrown, followed by the Coronation. 

            There were flowers and ribbon everywhere all kinds, and all in Bella’s colors, pink, aqua, and with deep forest green foliage.  One hundred guests will witness the great event by invitation only.  Every Clan Chief in the Realm was in attendance as well as the Ambassadors and Dignitaries.  Scribes would sit at the back recording every moment to the history books. Afterward there would be a great feast and tonight a Royal Ball.  The Castle stewards had a month to organize, discuss, come to agreements, and produce this historical event, they pulled it off beautifully.  It was set to begin at high noon, and conclude in the wee hours of the next morning.

            Ryoch’s small family arrived just after dawn, when it was safe for Glenna.  All three girls were placed in the Royal Nursery, already decorated in Bella’s colors, to nap and play.  There was no need to cart them around this early as their parents made themselves familiar with the plans for the day.  The stewards had kept it in mind that the Queen was an infant, and planned for naps during the day, with the Public Ceremony to occur when Bella was most comfortable, about mid afternoon. 

            The feast and ball were for the guests, as the new Queen would be tucked in for the night already.  Glenna would attend the feast, but not the ball, it would be said she tended the children.  This would become a common thing at all Balls the Castle held every Season.  She has already accepted that, and made Ryoch promise to attend in her place.  She also made him promise to invite Cherna to a waltz, at least once each Season, just to keep her humor up.

            Cherna, Saber and their twins arrived at 7am, to help in any way needed.  The twins joined the play in the nursery, and the four dragons worked together, walking through the entire procession in the rehearsal.  By 10am they had it down pat, and took a break. They ate lightly to save room for the feast.  Hatchlings were checked on, and the nursery staff was doing wonderfully, despite the occasional magical moment, as Saber called Links antics. 

           

            Queen Dana looked at herself in the mirror.  Had she aged dramatically the last month, or was it just her imagination?  She could not tell, and was too proud to ask a servant. 

Darna came thru the archway, and wrapped her arms around Dana.  The two sisters cried softly together for a moment.  Breaking away Dana spoke, “I’m still Queen until I place the Crown on her head, and there’s no way I’m showing up for this shindig with bags under my eyes.”  She smiled at Darna, they shared a laugh, and then got busy.  Darna helped pack the last of Dana's personal items into a large trunk.

                        Most everything else had already been transported to the new lair, where Dana would have one of the large private suites.  There were smaller trunks that needed to go down to the carriage house, and into the carriage that would transport her to her destination.  Dana was going on a sabbatical, she would tour the Realm for several months, stopping where and when she wanted to stay a few days.  Actually she was getting excited a little bit.  She had never tour the Realm before, and five hundred years on the Thrown had given her a headache, she was ready.  She had invited Darna, but Darna had her duties to Ragnor, and the hatchlings.  Maybe she would be able to join her later.

            Darna’s final duty to the Crown was placing it upon Bella’s head.  Her great granddaughter would be swallowed up by it, but it was the Royal Crown, and the tradition stated that the old Queen place it herself, if possible, upon the new Queens head.  It is a solemn moment, and Dana wanted to do it right, she would have no laughter follow her exit.  She may be stepping down into ‘retirement’ as they say, but her mannerism will forever be regal.

            There was a soft knock at the door, and Darna opened it up.  There stood Saber with a lush bouquet of flowers.  As he entered, Darna left to give them privacy.  They had not spoken in the past month, since Sabers confrontation with her.  Dana had been to the lair to see her grandchildren and great grandchildren, but always while Saber was occupied.

 

            He stood at the door, not sure of his welcome.  Dana thought he looked just like he did as a hatchling, when he came to tell her he had broken something, or misplaced something important to her, unsure and worried.  It made her smile and open her arms.  Saber took one large step, and was hugging her back.  Dana was the first to let go, as she took the flowers, now a little rumpled, from his hand.  She moved to get a vase to put them in, and said, “I am keeping these because I deserve them.  It has been a whole month since I’ve seen you, and I feel neglected.”  She teased.  With that the ice was broken, and the two talked for a little while.

            Time flew by, and things were happening quickly.  Bella was gathered from the nursery, and the others were allowed to stay, until the public Coronation.  With his daughter in his arms, Ryoch spoke the ancient words for her, during the Ceremony to the Gods.  Glenna stood to his side, and spoke the final Prayer, for Prosperity, for Bella and her Realm.  Bella sat quietly through the entire ceremony, almost as if she understood the events taking shape.    The Procession to the Thrown was next, and the family made their way to the Castle, across the courtyard.  Bella looked around and smiled at her parents.  She may not understand what was happening, but she was enjoying the attention.

            As they made their way down the aisle, Bella giggled and clapped.  The audience smiled, and a few laughed, softly.  The Thrown Room echoed her laughter, and Glenna finally felt her concern and worries slip away.  This felt right.  Ryoch was telling the truth when he said it was destiny. 

            With a deep cleansing breath Glenna stepped up on the dais and sat in a wing chair.  Ryoch sat Bella on the thrown and took the other wing chair.  The Temple High Priest said his lines and then Dana proceeded down the aisle.

            She smiled at her grandchildren as she approached.  When she reached the dais, she kneeled down and removed the Royal Crown, and carefully placed it over Bella’s head.  It immediately slipped down over her shoulders and into Bella’s lap and around her waist.  She giggled and giggled, playing with her new toy grandma had given her.