Silence in Sagas

17

Willa walked into the hall for dinner along with a group of unusually quiet Queenlings. They all had the knowledge that the King would appear in mind, and that notion lay think in the air around them. She entered alongside Allia, and got to see the the tables had been rearranged into one long table.

She would be sitting with the other Queenlings tonight.

Willa walked to a bench and sat down on the wood. There was a fanfare in the distance, and the sound of doors flying open crashed in the northern part of the hall.

"Queenlings, your parents will be joining you tonight."

Willa's heart started beating. Oliwa's father would be joining her... and the other parents as well... She cast a glance at Allia and Saja who sat on each side of her. The group of adults came towards them and at last, Oliwa's father was seated beside her. Allia's parents on each side of her. Saja sat beside them. Many were looking at her. Questioning. Then with pity.

Saja looked nauseated. Willa reached for her and took hold of her hand. Saja smiled reassuringly. Willa did it to comfort Saja, and also a little bit because she didn't wish to meet the eyes of Oliwa's father who had her so confused lately.

"Now," she was saved by the announcer, who took the attention of everyone. "We shall advise you to enjoy your meal, and His Majesty; King of Sagas for the last four centuries will make his appearance."

Four centuries? Willa was missing something. She looked around at the others. They hadn't raised an eyebrow. Willa felt that feeling again; the feeling that she was lost because she didn't have the resources or knowledge to be the Queenling of Notteny.

Why had Oliwa disappeared?

Willa couldn't understand what had happened. She couldn't think of an answer either.

"I wonder how the King looks," said a parent on the other side of the table. She spoke in a hollow tone. And she was wearing a hat that reached for the sky; meaning that it was bright pink and blue and stood tall on her head.

Next to the woman sat the Queenling with the long, golden locks. From Sevonessa, Willa remembered.

"You've never seen them before?" Willa whispered to Oliwa's dad, beause this was too much.

"No, we have not," he said. "We have only seen pictures of his ancestors. Don't ask me why they showed them to us, that is a whole other mystery."

There seemed to be a lot of mysteries in this castle. They ate in silence.

"Now," the announcer was up at his podium, talking in a voice that boomed and reached the back walls of the hall. In other words, he was shouting, louder and more energetic and overenthusiastic than before. "I present to you... The King of Sagas!"

A man stepped forward. Onto a platform beside the podium that was so thin Willa hadn't noticed it until now. She looked up at the King, expecting to see an old, wise man.

What she saw made the rest of the table go silent. He was a man who looked to be around twenty.

Not older than any of the Queenlings around the table. When they all had been expecting to see a man that looked all their ages combined.

It hit Willa that she might be thinking too fast. This man might not be the King at all. Perhaps she had misunderstood, and at any time, a scrawny old man would step forward and look regal.

But she waited and the hall waited, but no other stepped forward.
"Come a little closer, my dear Queenlings."

Willa shivered. This was disconcerting. He looked like he could be the age of an older brother.