Kingdom Dawning

Chapter Eighteen

I woke up to blinding lights and the overpowering smell of cleaner. I tried to cover my face with my hands, but strong restraints kept my arms locked to the sides of the soft bed I was laying in. I pulled again but was only welcomed to the loud clink of metal striking metal.

"Some guards said you were acting out when they tried to take you away from his highness, so I found it better for everyone if you...were detained," the voice came from the right edge of the bed. It was rough and cracking from age. I looked up to see Sir Colway glaring down at me through dark lashes. The thick black eyeliner he wore made him resemble a raccoon. 

"Where am I?" I asked with a hoarse voice as I looked around the room. 

"Does the queen not know what her own doctor station looked like?" He made a disappointing sound as he spoke. He was making my skin crawl. 

"Well, can you let me go?" I lifted my bound wrists up to him and raised my eyebrow slightly. We locked eyes for a moment before his eyes dashed to the yellow and silver tiled floors.

"Is that an order your majesty?" He sounded pained to say those words. As if calling me majesty was like acid in his mouth. I was not the type to wave power in people's faces or to be passive with my annoyance. But, for Sir Colway, I'd make an exception. 

"Yes, that is an order, from me your queen," I shook my wrists so the annoying clinking sound would fill the air. He walked over with a key and slowly freed me from the bed. 

"You took this throne from me, so I will do anything in my power to take it back. I do not care what I have to do to get it. Harmony may have seen something in you, but all I see in a scared little girl. You have no military experience, political skills, or even any fraction of an idea on how to run a damn kingdom," He hissed at me before escaping the room — leaving me in a silent room all alone — the events of what happened to me fill my head. The scenes from the water and holding Harmony in my arms played clear in my mind. I laid on my side as hot tears fell onto the pillow. I heard someone coming, yet I did not try to hide them. I was allowed to have these emotions, allowed to cry over my husband's death. 

"Cyra we need to talk seriously-" Leillan came flying into the room. Her hair tied back into a loose braid and she wore black velvet pants and an airy white shirt. When she laid eyes on me, she stopped in her tracks. I must have looked like death. I was still in my wedding dress, my hair was in a frizzed up mess, plus I was guessing my face was plump and red from me crying.

"We need to talk?" I asked 

"No, that can wait, move over," she demanded. I didn't have enough energy to argue to I moved over to the edge of the bed. Leillan quickly walked over and laid next to me. When she wrapped her long arms around me, I felt as though I had could get lost. Get lost in her limitless warmth and familiar lavender scent of her. I laid my head in the nook of her neck and let the light pulse of her heart soothe me. I could never be completely cured of this sadness that seemed to weigh on my heart but Leillan here with me; it fixed the loneliness I had felt since she left me in the ballroom. 

"So it is true? Harmony, he..." She trailed off as if saying it made it not real. I simply nodded and looked up at her. 

"Yes, he died in my arms," the feeling of someone you love go cold and lifeless in your arms was something I knew would never leave me. It would haunt me and sits in the back of my mind forever. Leillan shifted so she could look at me better. She jumped when she saw me, nearly falling off the narrow bed. Did I really look that bad? 

"Cyra!" She whispered harshly.

"Leillan?" I lifted myself on my elbow.

"Your eye! What happened to your eye?!" She sat up and pointed to my right eye. The same eye that felt as though it had been lit on fire and Harmony traced before promising he would never leave me. I searched the room for something reflective I could look through. I yanked the small silver tray near me and the sound of the needles and bandages that once sat near it bouncing on the floor. I looked into the reflection and what I saw made me gasp in disbelief. My once colorless right grey eye was now half infected with a beautiful gem green swirling through it. That color looked so familiar; I had only seen it on one person before. It was Harmony's green eyes. Harmony was part of me now, not just in power.