The palace and city were buzzing with activity as arrivals poured in for Briannon's fast-approaching coronation. The ceremony was scheduled for the Summer Solstice - a day that the priests and advisers had deemed symbolic for its association with life and rebirth.
Blayre was inclined to agree that the kingdom could use a little brightening up - the coronation would mark the first day that those in service of the crown and directly associated with the royal family were allowed to shed their dark mourning colors for the vibrant colors of celebration.
Blayre's own spirits were high from the previous night's mini-excursion at the archery range with Rory. When she closed her eyes, she could still see the scintillating candles and feel Rory's arms around her in the chill night air. He had walked her back to the Seeker dormitory, kissing her once more in the shadows of the courtyard outside before releasing her. She had gone to bed, feeling as though she was living in a dream - a dream that could perhaps never fully come true.
Blayre hadn't brought it up. The long term possibilities of a relationship between the heir to the throne, and a seeker in the Crown's Service - even a Seeker who was the daughter of a noble, were non-existent. Legally, no one questioned her parentage. At Blumore and Mountainvale, the only one who made a stink about it was Lady Marianna - and she wasn't exactly the most loved person on the Blumore estate. In the Capital, no one really paid attention to it at all.
But they sure as all hells would if she ever wanted a serious courtship with Duke Rorrick de Vihrea.
Blayre wove her way around carts and people, her ear picking up on the different accents and dialects from around the kingdom, continent and outer isles - though most of the visiting foreign representatives would take longer to arrive.
Ripley had summoned Blayre's triad to oversee a ride that Rory, Alessa, and a handful of others were taking into the countryside that lay just outside of the city's eastern border. Blayre admitted that she was tiring of this assignment. While she was reluctant to head back to Blumore, this watch-dog business was beginning to bore her - even if it meant seeing Rory on a daily basis.
Seeing him and being with him were two different things, and she much preferred the latter.
The smells of the barn greeted her like an old and familiar friend. "Mornin' Seeker Blayre." greeted Chris, one of the stablehands that worked the morning shift. A spry and graying old man, she often pictured him leaping from loft to loft with the pitch-fork that he so commonly carried with him.
"Good morning, Chris."
"I take it you'll be getting Dove ready on your own." He grinned, displaying a mouthful of tobacco-stained teeth.
"You know me well," Blayre returned the smile, and headed toward Dove's stall. Of the triad, she was apparently the first to arrive. Unsurprising since she was usually the one to keep them to a prompt schedule anyway. Fletcher consistently waited until the last possible second to get ready, and Ainslee - well Ainslee usually walked down with her, but given recent circumstances, Blayre hadn't bothered to knock on the door to her friend's room. She hadn't the patience for the red-head's wild moods of late. She hoped she would see Seaver soon to give him a piece of her mind.
As if she had conjured him up with a thought, the subtle feel of Seaver's magic moved into the edge of her Sense. She ignored it and continued walking, greeting Dove who stuck a velvety and whiskered nose into Blayre's upturned palm, hoping for a small treat or two. Blayre smiled despite her mood, and reached into her pocket for a small peppermint the horse could crunch on. "Chris says these are bad for your teeth, but I won't tell if you don't." She said quietly to the gray mare, lifting the latch and letting herself into the stall. The half-door shut with a satisfying click behind her.
She reached for a hoof pick from her wooden box of grooming tools, and ran a hand down Dove's leg to check her hooves. Satisfied they were clean, Blayre moved on to the curry comb - the mare's favorite part of the grooming process and Dove relaxed in pleasure while her mistress made circular motions on her sable coat.
By now Blayre not only felt her brother's approaching magic release, but could hear the deep murmur of his voice as well as the even and sure tread of his footsteps. She wondered what he was doing in here - the guests had their horses in a different stable. And when he didn't appear in front of Dove's stall, she grew suspicious.
Giving the mare a pat, Blayre leaned over the stall door, sticking her head out and looking up and down the wide stable aisle.
There! She could see Seaver's back turned to her, several stalls down, and beside him the flash of red hair...
He was with Ainslee.
She flung herself back into Dove's stall and the mare snorted in slight affront - another horse may have startled and given her a kick.
"Twelve hells." She cursed. "He had better have apologized to her by now."
Dove let out a whicker as if to agree, and craned her neck around to nudge Blayre's breech pocket with her nose.
"Nothing else for you in there." Blayre said, pushing Dove's long face away from her. "Let me finish and get you tacked up."
Once Dove had been tacked, Blayre strained to hear the nearby conversation, but it had gone silent. She wondered if they were still there - perhaps Seaver had helped Ainslee with her horse and sped up the process. She couldn't feel his magic any longer, but he may have assumed she was either not there or ignoring him. If she had been ignoring him, her brother deserved it.
Blayre wiped her hand on her breeches and gripped the gray mare's reins, unlatching the stall door and leading her out and to the right toward the stable entrance. She passed the stall of Ainslee's gelding and glanced in, expecting it to be empty.
Instead she saw her brother's back and Ainslee's legs wrapped around him from the front, her friend's hands clasped around Seaver's neck.
Apparently Seaver had made his case, and Ainslee had forgiven him for his failed attempt to surprise her - or whatever had happened.
Ainslee's gelding looked at Blayre and Dove with one baleful eye, as if to say Please get me out of this stall and away from this.
Blayre cleared her throat, and both Seaver and Ainslee startled noticeably, Seaver lurching forward and thus jamming Ainslee's back against the wood of the stable wall. Blayre heard the horse in the adjoining stall snort in complaint at the intrusive noise, as Ainslee let out a small cry of pain.
"Sorry! Sorry!" Seaver said, "Twelve hells, Blayre!" He had set Ainslee down to turn toward the sound of the throat clearing. "I didn't even know you were in the building."
"Obviously." Blayre said dryly. "I'm glad to see the two of you have made amends." She wondered if Ainslee would be making amends with her anytime soon - her friend leaned back against the wall, red-faced and scowling.
"See you out there, Ains." Blayre tossed her dark hair and continued her walk out of the building, Dove's shoes a lazy clip clop, clip clop, on the stonework floor of the stable aisle.
If Fletcher noticed the continued frostiness between the two women, he ignored it, as Blayre supposed he had learned to over the years they had spent together since young adulthood. It wasn't the first time she and Ainslee had had a falling out, and she doubted it would be the last. As far as Blayre was concerned, this time was solely Ainslee's fault for overreacting, and her brother's fault for putting her in the position of being secretive in the first place. And now that all was well in their lives, she didn't understand why the other woman was continuing to hold a grudge.
"This would be the perfect kind of weather for a coronation!" Blayre heard Alessa chattering as she walked out on Rory's arm, dressed in a sharp riding habit that boasted a jacket so dark purple it was almost black.. "I do hope it can be held out in the courtyard."
"We'll see what the next few weeks bring." Rory replied, in a tone that told Blayre that he'd rather discuss just about anything else. His eyes met Blayre's briefly and there was a look of reluctance in them. For a moment she wished to be the woman hanging on his arm, but she quickly realized she could never play the part of dependent female.
"I hope so too." The voice was rich and feminine. Like a clarinet. The Queen herself appeared in her own riding habit of all black. She adjusted a jade green jabot collar that matched the jade buttons on the smart looking jacket.
The conversation in the courtyard went silent as heads swiveled toward the Queen.
"Your majesty! How unexpected!" One of the Ladies, who Blayre could not identify exclaimed.
"Yes, I'm sure it was." Said Briannon somewhat tersely, "I had thought I had a prior engagement today, but as it turns out I am free to go on a little adventure." She smiled widely.
From the uncomfortable stiffness in the posture of those around her, Blayre deducted that the group was not all that excited to have their Queen spontaneously join them. She wondered if it had been the same when Briannon was princess. She didn't think it had much to do with a dislike toward their sovereign as much as it had to do with the added self-consciousness that would come with her presence.
"Is someone bringing your horse, cousin?" Rory asked, apparently the only one able to utter a string of words with any confidence. He kept his address of Briannon casual, perhaps to make her feel better after such a chilly welcome.
"Yes, Duke Lonan offered to bring both of the horses." Briannon beamed. "I'm so glad he's here. It will be such fun."
Rory's face fell for a moment but he quickly recovered. "Very well then. We will wait for Duke Lonan and your horses - not much else to do, unless you wanted to ride double like we did when we were young."
Briannon threw her head back in laughter. "Oh Rory, I do miss those days."
From the way Rory's mouth turned up at one edge, Blayre could tell that he missed them too.
It seemed that the Crown Mage almost always accompanied the Queen in public these days, and today was no different. Blayre felt the same twinge of Conal's magic - sturdy and steadfast, and wondered again what he was doing. Perhaps he had devised some extra magical protection to use on the Queen. But it wasn't as though Blayre would ever have the opportunity to touch her and find out. Upon seeing and sensing Conal, Blayre eagerly looked for her friend, Caval. The younger mage had grown on her, and she had hoped for his witty banter on this recreational ride, but the southerner was apparently elsewhere this late morning.
If the mood had shifted when Briannon had appeared, it seemed to have shifted back to almost-normal when Duke Lonan joined them. He was charming and had a laugh that caught on like fire to kindling, telling stories of his time in the Eastern part of the Kingdom as the group rode through the Emarian countryside.
Blayre had been riding in the rear of the party, quietly observing and feeling with her sense. The brief ride through the Crown Forest had made her nervous as all hells, but now that they were out in the open with fewer places for someone to hide and ambush, she felt much more at ease. With both Briannon and Rory on this day trip, the stakes were even higher, and she wished that the hot-headed Queen Ascending had not decided to join them. Blayre imagined the royal guard was having even more of a fit than she was with the logistics of it all.
A gentle breeze swept across the vast fields, turning them into waves of gold and green, dotted with wildflowers. At least the weeks of rain and gray had been good for something.
Blayre didn't notice that Alessa had been gradually falling back in the group until the Lady was as good as on top of her. Dove snorted as they drew up beside the other mare and rider.
Alessa barely glanced at her as she said, "He's been off all morning - since she arrived."
Not expecting the conversation, Blayre glanced at Alessa, the other woman's locks pulled back into a banded cascade of raven hair. The black mourning attire she wore made her skin look even more flawlessly ivory. Alessa turned to her then, dark eyes shaded under the brim of a black lace hat.
"He has?" Blayre asked, wishing the other woman would simply elaborate without further prompting. She had initiated after all.
Alessa's voice dropped to a whisper, "He does not like the other Duke, and if he does not take pains to curb this disdain..." The woman's face was now more ashen than ivory.
Blayre shot Alessa a harsh look. "Are you going to be sick?" She reached out and placed her palm supportively on the other woman's back.
"I can't discuss it now, but..." Alessa's voice trailed off and Blayre followed her gaze to Duke Lonan whose hearty and infectious laugh carried to them over the rolling green of the springtime countryside. "Attend me in my rooms this afternoon after the ride."
Blayre only nodded, her gaze returning to Rory's copper head with uneasiness, as Lonan's laughter echoed in her ears. It seemed that not all threats were magical, and Blayre feared she wasn't as equipped to protect against that.