Chapter 13

 

This chapter has been transferred without any additional editing

~*~

The queen was taken a few days after the get together. She was there at breakfast, but by lunch she was gone and no one saw her leave. Her ladies were distressed, wondering where she had gone; they were trained to be with her always.

“You needn’t worry about her any longer.” the king answered them. “The queen has been convicted of treason by the courts of the church. Failure to produce an heir to the throne is an offence to the Monarchy, and it was time that we had a new queen. Miss Cupshire will be my queen, and we are very much in love.” he smiled, and Liam’s jaw clenched and his heart beat uncomfortably in his chest.

“But, but why?” asked Alice, the queen’s lady, piping up form the end of the table “It’s not her fault, it’s not as if she wasn’t trying hard for a child! I know things are not easy between you, but the church forbids divorce!”

The king’s temper changed like a switch and quickly became enraged. “The church listens to me! I fund their holy war to the north as they go on their crusade to rid the heathens of every parcel of land they own, and if I want a new wife, I will take a new wife! I have not asked you what you think, be happy you were not taken with her!” he roared.

Alice looked as if she were going to cry out of fear.

“To be honest, I thought there was going to be more of a spectacle than there was. She went very quietly, not something I attributed to her style. Say, Anwyn, what did you talk about the other day? How did she seem?” the duchess asked with a twinkle of mischief in her eye.

“She- she seemed brave, sure of herself. I haven’t known her very long, and we haven’t talked much before, so I can’t judge the conversation very well.” Anwyn recalled.

“But you’ve known her for nearly two months now: a fortnight at the manor, two weeks during our travels, and nearly two weeks now at the palace. How could you say you don’t know her?” the duchess pushed.

“I- the queen is- was- a private person. She rarely was alone, and she never spoke to me before the other day.”

“Then what did the two of you talk about?” the duchess pressured, trying to get a confession out of Anwyn.

“Enough! Malene, let it be! I won’t hear this noise while I eat! I will be in my office if I’m needed any further.” the king huffed.

Malene gave Anwyn a look out of the corner of her eye, and she scurried behind the king.

~*~

“Anwyn, are you sure we should be doing this? The king could come in any second…” Liam said between kisses.

“Liam, I need this-. Don’t complicate- it right now-, I need to be simple-” she responded hurriedly when she could take a breath.

“Anwyn-” he said, separating himself. “We need to be more careful about this. We can’t be seen together, it would be the end of both our lives. No matter how much we want to spend time together.”

Anwyn plopped onto the ottoman at the end of her bed. Liam sat down a bit more carefully. “I- I want to be myself again. I want to see my family, I want to feel like a normal girl.”

“You’ll always be normal to me.” he said simply, holding her hand.

Anwyn smiled in appreciation of the comfort he gave, but it didn’t make her feel any different.

“I’m getting married tomorrow. To a man I don’t love. How can I bind my soul eternally to a man I don’t love?” Anwyn vented.

Liam was quiet for a moment. “Lie.” was his answer.

“I can’t lie to the Creator! My soul will be cursed.” Anwyn hissed, wanting to shout but not letting herself.

“Then say nothing. Or cry the whole time, and not let them make sense of any of it. The wedding is private, for the royals' safety, so no one will know that you were crying. They will paint a portrait of the two of you at the altar, but it should be brief.”

“Will you be there?” Anwyn asked, looking at Liam.

“I can’t answer that. There will be a knight there to pledge you into the monarchy, but otherwise I would only be an accessory. Hardly needed. The Church isn’t that big anyway. The templar will be there, so the king may invite us there as well… I’m not sure what’s going to happen.” Liam tried to explain.

“I don’t understand all of the ceremony that we have to go through. At home, we stand in the small church, the pastor blesses the union, and then we all celebrate and no one works the next day. How I miss home…” Anwyn lamented.

“I know, and I’m so sorry.” Liam pulled her closer, trying to make her feel less alone.

~*~

Anwyn woke to a rainy wedding day, just the sign she didn't want. Rain on your wedding day was apparently good luck because wet knots are harder to untie, but The king was the last person in the world she wanted to be tied to.

~*~

Anwyn stared at herself in the mirror of the dressing room. It had little privacy, and a templar knight was posted outside her door. Amelia had done a wonderful job with her hair and makeup, you couldn't even see the scar on her face anymore. The king’s golden bride for the golden age and the gold obsessed king. It could make any one sick. The sight of the king’s gold plated possessions no longer fascinated her, it made her feel smothered. If felt forced, as if the king wanted to control everything he could and the decorations were a small display of the control and attention to detail he had. There was no room for organic things, no room for mistakes or accidents.

There was a knock at the door, and Anwyn stood from her chair. She walked to the door, then out to the aisle, then down the aisle. Breaking down all of the actions she took, she would be able to distance herself from it. It wasn’t her walking towards a tyrant, it was someone else and she was simply along for the ride, unable to control the actions of the body she inhabited.

The templar knights stood behind the altar, the guards before it.

“Long ago, the Creator kept us as willing participants, with no will of our own to choose or want, but They saw that there was no reason to continue with a race of people who couldn’t think for themselves. So instead, the Creator gave us a will. We wanted things, we feared things, we had emotion and we desired companionship that we choose on our own,” the high priestess recited.

“King Galant, in your many travels, you have know many women, and yet Anwyn stuck out to you. Having met her as a young child, you now know her as a young woman, and you found love in your second meeting. Do you promise to love and cherish her forever and always, until death do you part?” she asked.

“I do.” he smiled, a tear coming out of his eye. Was he happy? How could he be happy? Then again, why wouldn’t he be, he had everything he wanted.

“Anwyn, you come from a small village with no possibilities to prosper. You would have lived a simple, hard life, and died on the land that you toiled over for everyday of your life. When you met King Galant, you admired his poise, his authority, and his sureness. You reminisced over having met him briefly as a child, and now you find yourself in love with the most powerful man in the kingdom, nay, world. Do you promise to love and cherish him forever and always, until death do you part?”

He lied about his last wife.

He lied about this.

He is a murderer.

If you are to play in this game, you need to play their game.

Lie.

”I do.”

A knight of the templar stood in front of Anwyn, and she bowed before them. “Do you promise to uphold the laws of the church and never waver from the lessons of the Creator? Upon pain of death do you place your oath?” oddly a female voice came out of the helmet. Gruff, but female.

“I do.”

“Swear it.” she said.

“I swear to uphold the laws and lessons of the Creator and the church.”

The templar knight stood back, and a golden knight too her place. “Do you pledge to protect the king at all costs, be it barbarian or blizzard, fire or fight?”

Anwyn couldn’t tell who was talking. It could be anyone, and they all had similar builds and the armor was nearly identical… “I do. I swear to protect the king at all costs, come what may.”

“Regardless of objection, I bid thee to be man and wife, may you live happy lives together for many years to come. It’s about time you settled down, Galant!” joked the priestess.

But, he had settled down. He had been married for over 10 years to the queen! How could the church just act as if that had never happened?! An innocent woman was dead, and they just filled in the place she was with someone else as if she never existed.

If there was anything Anwyn had learned, it was that she had to watch her back and make an escape plan should the need arise.