[ONGOING: New Chapters Every Sunday]
Kingsblade. Rise of the Raven Queen.
Her kingdom is in ashes.
She's supposed to save it, but there's one problem.
She doesn't remember she's the queen.
She doesn't remember anything at all.
With war looming on...
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Y E A R 1 0 0 4, T H E S E C O N D A G E
A few weeks after a princess and a seamstress switched places
The Tomb of Kings was cold, even compared to the Kirkko, and Liliana had to resist the urge to wake up her bum that had fallen asleep after sitting on the hard, wooden pews for hours. She rocked back and forth on her heels for a moment, hoping the movement alone would get her blood pumping again.
So many people, all dressed in beautiful but always black gowns and robes had come to share their memories of the king, the queen and the princess. Liliana supposed it took so long because they were mourning three people instead of one. Three times the memories and all.
The ceremony—Thank Elindir, Liliana thought to herself—was finally over, and now all they had to do was follow the procession into the mountain where the royal family had already been lain to rest. Adeniyi had said it was to give everyone a chance to speak with them one last time, but Liliana thought it was strange. Hadn't Priest Rajii just said they had gone to be in the Realm Above? Surely they wouldn't hear anything if they were in another land. She couldn't even hear it when someone shouted to her from across the Great Hall, much less from the Fang or Aikerness.
Liliana pondered the thought as they walked along, hand-in-hand with her Adeniyi. She inched a little closer as the chilly, damp air of the tomb pressed in around her. The lichen and moss adornments gradually disappeared the deeper they went.
What a strange place, she thought. Everything was made from marble—Adeniyi had told her it was very expensive, and she stared at the statues of the sleeping kings and queens of Áerlas. They lay in little carved out cubbies in the wall. Liliana thought they looked like the bunk beds she and the other Hatchlings shared in the big dormitory dedicated to all the children who were not yet old enough to join a House.
Liliana lost herself in recollection as the words of the spirited Hatchling caretaker, Farley, washed over her again:
"House Dove is the healer's guild. They're real good at keeping you little ones patched up, and they can nurse pretty much anyone back to health. Lots of the youngins show up here, y'know, on our doorstep sickly and lookin' like death warmed over," Farley smiled up at Liliana, who lay across the top bunk above her. Her sweet Aikerlish accent made the words roll off her tongue like a sweeping, summer gale.
"I always wanted to be in House Dove, y'know. But I didn't pass the trials. I even tried twice! Almost got sent to the Burrows, but they needed more caretakers in House Osprey, so when they offered me a place, I took it. Although, I'm glad I get to look after you little ones and not the gray-feathers or those monstrous eagles, I ne'er looked back...." Liliana listened to the muffled sound of fabric on fabric as Farley pulled the large pile of laundry toward her.
