Dragons and Princes - [COMPLETE]

17. Faeana

The coronation was elaborate, and most of the Freyja came to see it, to pledge fealty to the young Queen Faeana Dagur by bowing. The warriors and highborn men and women offered their pledges, each worded according to their trade or skill, always ending with, "Loyalty is the shield I offer, and my Freyja calm shall be her weapon, that should she require it drawn, I will become the blade she needs. To her family, I swear equal protection, that no harm shall come to them under any circumstance, or my life be forfeit. The Queen of the Eye shall be my calm, and when the eye of the storm moves on, so shall I move with her."

To her people, after Faeana accepted the circlet carved delicately of the rarest golden wood, its leaves molded among the elegant spirals, she said, "As your queen, I swear that I will not rest until peace finds us. I will not rest until the Fenrir can never again lift a hand against us. I will not rest until this war has ended– and this war is going to end beneath my hand, as my ancestors should have ended it long ago. There will be peace, whether that peace is despised or loved. We will never again have to watch our children die, and our fear of the Fenrir will become a memory in a book, just as the peace our ancestors once took for granted. The sorrow within our song will fade, and joy will return to us and make us strong again, and the blood upon our hands will wash away, and snow-white innocense will return to us. The Ajatar will regret the day they shunned us, mourning their coldness, weeping their loss, for we will rise to be a mighty nation, and all of the earth will sing with our song. Those who once hated us will ask forgiveness, this I swear to you, my people. I will not rest until it is so."

A stunned silence followed her speech, and one by one, her people began to bow. More astonishing, there was a sound of weeping from several among the crowd as she looked across the trees to the balconies and the branches. Freyja and frey alike knelt, every man, woman and child knelt. Those her father’s age and older stared, pain within them, hope unlike any she had seen in so long. Her father Eiran Dagur had not said such bold words upon his coronation. He had sworn to lead them, but his speech had been formal and distant, as had so many before him. But Faeana had refused to repeat the same speech, had refuted tradition to give her own message, to tell them she would not be another queen who would watch her people be slaughtered, unable to do anything about it. She would not be a graceful, proper queen, she would be swift and strong and unstoppable with her will.

When Faeana found her father’s stark blue eyes, he nodded proudly and knelt as well, holding his fist to his heart, a sign of the greatest respect and love a father could give. Her heart was thundering with the passion she had spoken unto them. Every word was true, and the song in her being had pronounced the strength of her will. Faeana would not fail unless death took her, and she did not intend to die.

After the coronation, Eiran came to his daughter, not quite used to approaching as her subject but doing his best. "My queen," he bowed curtly.

She granted him audience, walking with him. "Yes, Father?"

He smiled. "I expected you to say the traditional words as you accepted the crown. I have to say I rather preferred your choice."

"I shocked the court," she told him, laughing quietly. She didn’t feel the laugh, though, for already, her mind had turned to Marquis.

"I didn’t realize you had the ability to raise the Eye," he told her abruptly, gazing at her strangely. "Why did you never tell me this? It’s been over a century since any of our people could do so safely."

Faeana didn’t know what to answer. "I didn’t know how to tell you properly, since it isn’t proper even to reveal it."

"You’ve raised hope into them with your will, Faeana. The Den will ring of that song for decades."