The roses bloomed before my eyes on the arbour, their soft petals deepening to red as they stretched up towards the sun. Grinning as a few fey worked their magic on the edges of the intricate benches lining the aisle, I commented, “These are spectacular. Thank you so much.”
Nodding, they continued their work in near silence.
Suddenly realizing I’d forgotten to have a cottage ready for the groom’s parents, I took out the enchanted scroll I’d been using for planning and found the still-to-do portion. Scribbling with my pen for my assistant to have a cottage prepared, I headed off towards the castle once more. I felt like I hadn’t seen my sister in days with all this planning and implementation going on.
As I crossed the courtyard, which was being washed so it was shining, the horses were being led out for the final time before the ceremony. My two best Clydesdales were following the royal horsemen around like puppies, not realizing he was taking two carriage horses to be haltered. “Hey, Jason?” I called, hurrying over in my comfortable pants and with my hair in a messy braid.
When he spotted me, he stopped and did a low bow, “My liege. I didn’t recognize you before, I’m so sorry.”
Chuckling, I sighed, “You’ll remember that I don’t care if you bow. That’s part of the plainclothes thing,” I added, pulling at my loose-fitting pants. “Uh, I think I want you to use Darlene and Finnigan instead of the usual horses for the carriage,” I explained, checking where horses were on the list. When I found it, I looked up and continued, “Kiana loves them, and they can pull the carriage that short distance. Plus, they’re gonna be in the carriage house anyway.” Nodding at the enormous horses standing behind Jason, I smiled.
“Oh, anything you please, my liege,” he replied, bowing again. With a nod, he continued across the courtyard with all four horses. I’d been queen for nearly five years now telling everyone not to pay any special mind to me and everyone was still bowing when I looked at them. I vowed to one day do something about that.
Glancing at the scroll, I noticed the cottage request had been crossed off and smiled; things were running more smoothly than I could have hoped for a royal wedding. As I headed off to the castle again, the second-in-command of the centaurs in our region cantered up to me. “Queen Lily, we’ve run into some issues while clearing the royal highway,” he stated, nodding respectfully and pawing lightly at the paving stones.
“Um, alright. What seems to be the problem, Canus?” I asked, feeling the first prickle of concern for the wedding.
He leaned forward so we wouldn’t be overheard and explained, “Well, the portion leading through the Grey Forest has been overrun by dwarves who claim you didn’t invite them to the wedding.” Careful not to touch me, he turned around to point out the direction the road curved into the forest.
Rerolling the scroll, I stuffed it into the ample pockets in my pants, and replied quietly, “We actually didn’t invite them.” Canus stared at me as though I’d grown another head. “You recall that some farmers from the outer edges of my kingdom went just before the last harvest and we had to perform magic to stop the crops from withering while replacement pickers worked the fields?” I asked, frustrated that my no politics wedding was starting off like this. When he nodded curtly, I continued in a low voice, “Well, it turned out that the dwarf mines in that area were understaffed so they were periodically kidnapping farmers from their fields. I couldn’t, in good conscience, invite them to a royal event like this.” I shrugged my shoulders but kept up a more powerful stance than I usually held.
“Okay, I understand,” he replied slowly, considering.
“What if we concede that part of the forest around the mines, where we’ve been gathering wood for years?” I suggested after thinking about options. When Canus’s eyes narrowed, I explained, “It’s right at the edge of their territory and none of our protected trees are there. Obviously, we’ll reforest it first, then they can have the new growth as penance for not inviting them.” Still, he stared. “Look, Canus, I cannot deal with this diplomatically today. I have way too much to deal with, but I will bring up some kind of reparation for our farmers and a promise to not do it again at the next meeting,” I stated, putting my foot down.
He bowed his head and cantered back down through town.
With that emergency solved, I turned back to the castle again, now very concerned about what would happen next.
To be continued…
Pretty Twisted Mirrors 