Princess Willowyn's Arc

Chapter 55 of 70

The guards led Willowyn through the gate. Kai walked at her side, the tiger cub tucked against his chest. The minx rode her shoulder. She knew this hall. Moss softened the pale stone. Flowers trailed from the high beams. Four months ago she had left it. Now every step toward the throne room made her stomach tighten. She had no gift and no letter. She had only her face and her silence to offer her mother. The throne room doors stood open. Queen Elara sat with her long silver braid over one shoulder. She held two bundles in her arms, one wrapped in pink cloth, the other in blue. Servants and a guard stood near her, listening. Willowyn stopped at the threshold. Twins. Her mother had borne twins, not one son, and Willowyn had not even known. "Mother," she said. Her voice cracked on the word. Queen Elara looked up. For a moment she did not move. Willowyn braced for the cold voice she remembered from childhood, the one that turned duty into a chain. She braced for a question about the four months of silence. "Mother, I—" Willowyn started again. "I should have written. I have no excuse. I left you and I never—" The Queen rose fast. She turned to a servant and passed over the two babies with care. Then she crossed the floor. Willowyn stiffened, waiting. Elara pulled her into her arms. She held her tight and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "I am so relieved to see your face," she said. Willowyn stood stunned. Then she gripped her mother back. "I thought you would be angry," she whispered. "I thought I had lost you." "I heard the stories," Elara said. She drew back and held Willowyn's face in both hands. "Riders brought them across the seasons. The elven princess who stopped a war with water. Who woke drowned sons under the moon." Her green eyes shone. "Every tale told me you lived. Every tale told me you were becoming what I hoped." "You are not hurt by the silence?" "I was frightened by it," the Queen said. "But I asked you to heal the lands and return with news. You are here. You returned." She looked past Willowyn to Kai and the cub, then to the dragon's shape in the courtyard beyond the doors. Her brows rose. "And you did not come back the girl who left." Willowyn breathed out. The fear in her chest loosened for the first time in a day. Her mother was still her ally. The silence had not broken them. "Come," Elara said. She took Willowyn's hand and led her toward the two bundles in the servant's arms. "Meet your brother. And your sister." She smiled. "Then tell me everything. There is more work waiting than you can guess, and now there are three kingdoms asking for you by name."