Fyskar

Chapter 27 - Finale

Eoin breathed a sigh of relief. The moon shown a brilliant, mesmerizing white. Stars blinked and sparkled in the night sky, a trailing band of white and pink clusters stretching from one edge of the tall walls to the either. A warm breeze shifted the large leaves of the palm trees. He stepped into the water, warmed by the sun through the day. The pool was encased in a small courtyard. Planters of pungent flowers hung in alcoves and sat in corners, perfuming the air with their intoxicating scent.

Fearchar slept soundly under soft sheets. Seonaid, drinking from a little cup of qahva, sat on a porch overlooking the pool. She stared out on a foreign night, marvelling at the clarity of the sky.

Eoin allowed the thin material of his silk robe to drop away from him as he stepped further into the sweetly scented waters of the pool. His hair floated away from him as he relaxed into the depths. His ring gleamed on his finger.

His Flath crown, now to be worn as a permanent addition to his wardrobe, glinted as the water reflected moonlight onto it. His Righ crown had been tucked away to be used during formal ceremonies. A bandage wrapped around his arm above his bracer where he had cut himself for the ceremony. Qasim and Vanora received the messages for the Forest willingly, wolfing down the blood-drenched meat. He would fly them in the morning after he had conducted his family's burial and provided them with the message.

His sons would be arriving in a few days. Vasili promised to help teach Eoin how to work with his lump of gold to make Callum and Albin's torcs. He would melt down the chain, lock, and key he was presented with at the ceremony and incorporate it into the torcs. It gave him time to mix the hair oil and powder and blend the ochre for the tattooing ceremony. Mirza had promised to send sketches of the bodhran to his instrumentalists and have one set for the ceremony.

Fearchar and Seonaid were going to begin training them in what should have been their native tongue, though Mirza was sceptical after hearing Eoin drop into a rough brogue. Amina and Tau were still around to talk to the children in their first spoken language, though they had plans to travel back to establish Egret's Nest once more when the rainy season passed. A private tutor would be on retention in the palace to continue their studies in Mirza's tongue.

Mirza's father, thrilled that the physician had returned to care for two of his own sons, was astounded to discover the man who had occupied his palace for almost half a decade was a king. He had looked over the deed, as Mirza had done. The document was stored in the treasure room, promised to Eoin that they would be returned immediately if he ever needed it.

He had been provided with a plot within the family graveyard he would use to bury what little remained of his family. The last Fyskar king would see to their Walk with the rise of the morning sun before the day's brighter festivities. Leaning back against the edge of the pool, he counted the brightest stars in the sky. Eoin would see his family whole upon his death. He could not ask for a better outcome.

Fearchar and Seonaid were assigned to serve as Eoin's council. That was the best he would be able to explain between both sides of the group. He had been given new chambers farther in the palace, closer to Mirza's residence with a pool shared amongst the block of apartments the court's princes resided in and the upstairs room in which Fearchar and Seonaid were now living. He would leave them that evening after his bath to quietly make his way to his prince's chambers.

He floated in the warm water, the blue of the indigo seeping at the edges. He enjoyed the quiet of the night and listened to the croak of frogs in the trees. He breathed a sigh of relief as tears escaped his eyes. His children were safe. He was where he now understood home to be in this phase of his life. His journey was over. It had taken him ten years and travelling across the world twice to find it.