The Charmed Return by Frewin Jones

Author:Frewin Jones [Jones, Frewin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Love & Romance, Girls & Women, Action & Adventure, Juvenile Fiction, Fairies, Fantasy & Magic, General, Fantasy, Royalty, Princesses, Biography & Autobiography, Fiction
ISBN: 9780060871611
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2011-01-25T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter XIX

The doors to the Great Hall stood wide as Tania and Eden and Jade approached. Many others walked with them: the lords and ladies, knights, wardens, and serving folk of the Faerie court, summoned here by the call of the King’s crystal horns.

Tania looked from face to face, her newfound memory helping her instantly to recognize many of them. There was Lord Adriano, seneschal of Trembling Bells. And Lady Hippolyta, mistress of the Royal Stables. Lady Rosaline and Lord Ross, margrave and margravine of Forestgate. Mistress Mirrlees, dressmaker to the Royal Family, trotting along with a gaggle of other ladies at her back. And there were wardens to the King in their uniforms of dove gray, and palace servants all in sky blue livery. And she saw Admiral Belial, the captain of the Cloud Scudder, tall and gaunt and forbidding.

“The plague was deadly indeed,” Eden said as they made their way through the doors of the Great Hall. “But many more survived than fell—and that’s a thing to be grateful for.”

“But what will happen to the ones that died?” asked Tania. “I saw the graves. . . .”

“And you feared they would never find Avalon?” said Eden. “Nay, have no fear. Words will be spoken, wrongs will be righted. All shall savor that blessed place.”

Tania frowned. “Why is it sometimes called Albion and sometimes Avalon?”

Eden smiled. “The Blessèd Realm’s full name is the Avalon of Albion,” she said. “Thus either name is appropriate.”

“I don’t want to keep repeating myself,” said Jade as they came in under the high vaulted roof of the Great Hall, “but . . . wow!”

Tania smiled. The Great Hall of Faerie had been one of the first places she had seen when Gabriel Drake had originally brought her from the Mortal World. And it had been the venue for the Grand Ball that had celebrated her return after five hundred years of exile. But there was more than that now—she also remembered many feasts and festivities and dances taking place here over the years.

She remembered being five years old, dancing with her uncle Cornelius, her feet upon his as they trod the measure called the Tinternell during the Masque of Winter’s Turning. And she remembered when she had been just thirteen and the hall had been alive with birdsong on Cordelia’s sixteenth birthday.

There were no windows in the tapestried walls of the Great Hall, and it was lit as ever by two chandeliers suspended from the ceiling, wide as wagon wheels, and by many candles that burned in sconces set upon the walls. The hall was filling with people, and at the far end, under a scarlet awning, the King and Queen of Faerie sat together on two ornate wooden chairs with high backs and velvet drapings.

“Where is Uncle Cornelius?” Tania asked Eden as they threaded their way to the far end of the hall.

“He and the Marchioness Lucina and their two sons were imprisoned by the usurper in Veraglad Palace,” said Eden. “As were many others, Lord Brython and Earl Valentyne among them.

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