The Poisoned Throne

Chapter 38

Thomas

Just as his travels had culminated with war and chaos, so must the symphony that had followed him.

There was something so strange about the sudden finality of it that shocked him. Three years had gone past, and now he was here, in the court of Etheron, alone and without friends and trusted again. It was as though the past four years had been erased and he was back to being a newcomer in a court of tradition. All he had to show for his time here was in the scribbled nodes, and so he spent day and night working on perfecting it. He even dared to touch upon William’s parts - though not too much, in fear of changing the sound.

It was captivating, he realized as he played it through on his little violin, how the music managed to capture their path in ways memories could not. It seemed to preserve it all; from Hi’taab, with its deserts, in which the sun made your skin break out in lethal blisters; through great planes where the sun had dried and cracked the surface, and where the people were as dark as the Yaguars, though taller; to faraway mountains where monkeys and tigers thrived with small, beautiful people whose skin gleamed yellowish and who lived in deep forests. And, then, sadness, desperation, devastation, war.

Now he was here, so close to home, and he wished his journey had continued. Working on the symphony had seemed to keep William alive, at least in Thomas’ spirit. Now he was alone again.

Thomas did not have a mind for politics. He could not seem to understand it. Especially now, seemed too complicated for him to comprehend. He did not understand how the people called for the youngest daughter when she had two older siblings, one of them a man and an Emperor at that, the other a great warrior.

That was why he had given up following the politics and instead immersed himself in his music and drugs, to dim the clouds of weariness and pain; that was why it came as a surprise when he found out that Queen Evelyn was to be executed the very next day.

He went to get some fresh air that night, after playing for the court. His music did not seem to reach their ears, and there had been no laughter; instead, the room had been filled by the fragile feeling of a cracking surface. The face of the lords and ladies were pale and their eyes wide in anticipation, and Thomas wondered if any of them had not been holding their breaths.

The air was cold, but it seemed to be warming. Winter was coming to an end; he had already seen little, white flowers peep out of the cold ground. He leaned onto the railing, looking out over the city, thinking back to how he had stood here with William so often. That had been years ago, and they had barely known each other. Now, those memories had changed.

He lit up his pipe and blew thick smoke from his nostrils, feeling calm enter his tense, aching shoulders. The world has changed, he thought, or perhaps it is I who has changed. Perhaps it is my own changes that has made me see the world’s sins clearer.

He had, after all, come here an innocent, naive artist. Since then, he had seen death and war and rivalry. The little countryside Temple, where music had first been introduced to him, seemed so far away now, and the memory of Eloise - of her innocence, of her easy smile and earnest promises - was almost impossible to recall now.

But I still love her. That was a fact that he knew more certainly than he knew anything. Now more than ever.

Even if he left now, Evelyn would be dead by the time he reached Riverston. When he once more held his mother in his arms, Evelyn’s arms would be forever lifeless. When he kissed Eloise and spoke to Cyril, Evelyn’s head would be parted from her shoulders. When he came home, nothing would be the same. For all her shortcomings, Evelyn was a leader, a fixed point that brought some sort of certainty. She may not be her mother or the Princess of Hearts like her sister, but Etheron needed her. She was Evelyn Turell, Queen of the Western Mountains, Princess of Etheron, the spitting image of Queen Adrianne and the envy and pride of her kingdom.