SONG OF POWER

Chapter XXIX: The Battle of Barren Tower

SONG OF POWER

CHAPTER XXIX:  THE BATTLE OF BARREN TOWER

“Today, son, we’ll have a new king,” said Zot Lostheart as the pair trudged along the icy road towards the Grand Cathedral at Draketon.  Though the Losthearts lived in Cyen, three days’ journey from the Royal City of Draketon, Zot and his son made the journey anyway.  Zot felt it was important that the pair attend the coronation, even though they were newly arrived in Drakkenavia.

“What’s wrong with the old king?” asked Cipher, Zot’s only son.  While Zot was thick and muscular of build, his young son was lithe and streamlined.  Many compared Zot to a bear and Cipher to a great cat.  The curious young boy looked up at his father, the innocence of childhood softening the big man.

“King Baric the Unbound is old—too old to be a man, and too old to be king.  He gave Drakkenavia its freedom from the Emerians,” Zot spat out that last word as if it tasted foul, “but his time has passed.  Today the Crown Prince marries, and we will have a new King and Queen—the first new rulers of this restored kingdom.” 

“But father, the prince isn’t marrying a princess, a duchess, a marquess, or even a lady.  How can she become our queen?” Cipher asked his father.  Cipher had come to love Cyen in the short time the two had lived there.  Cipher’s uncle, Nils Lostheart, had perished, and Zot had moved across the True World to see his final rights and to take his place.  To a young boy it was quite an adventure.

Zot was silent for a moment.  No Drakkenavian had seen the future queen, nor knew who she was.  She was not one of the many nobles’ daughters that had been paraded before Prince Daman, but rather some girl he had met on his recent travels.  That fact alone rankled the nobility of Drakkenavia, who all felt that this set a bad precedent for future kings.  Even Baric McShain had expressed his displeasure with the match.  The people of Drakkenavia sensed change was coming, and many disliked it.  Daman was no Baric.

“Well son, that’s complicated.  The simple answer is that, because he is a prince, Prince Daman may choose any he wants to wed.    Also, since Drakkenavia is no longer under Emerian rule, the laws are different now than they were then.”

“I heard that when Prince Daman becomes king that bad things are gonna happen,” Cipher said matter-of-factly, “I heard that he doesn’t like the way his father rules us, that Daman has plans to expand Drakkenavia and eventually conquer Emeria.”

“Where did you hear such nonsense?” Zot forced a laugh, but he was concerned.  He had heard the same gossip, and though he loathed Emeria, he did not want to see Prince Daman undertake a quest to conquer the kingdom.

“I heard it from a gypsy,” Cipher said.

“Gypsy! Well, son, you can’t—“

“Gypsies travel all over the True World,” said Cipher defensively. “They see and hear everything.”  Zot smiled and shook his head, for those were his very words.

“You’re right, son,” Zot agreed.  The two found the road’s end at the Grand Cathedral, glad to be done with walking for the moment.  “You heard it from a gypsy.”

A mass of people were assembled around the Grand Cathedral, an edifice created entirely from ice, yet as large and strong as any standard mortar-and-stone cathedral on Gaea.  The balcony that the wedding party stood on was perilously small and lacked railings—it was constructed in this manner to give the assembly a better view of the proceedings.  A small stage had been constructed near the Grand Cathedral’s entrance to give the Drakkenavian nobles a better vantage point (and to elevate them above the common folk), but Zot and Cipher could clearly see the balcony from the ground.