Throne of Enchantment by J A Armitage & Emma Savant

Author:J A Armitage & Emma Savant
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Enchanted Quill Press
Published: 2020-04-08T04:00:00+00:00

Light flute and harp music floated up from the corner, mingling with the clink of silverware against golden plates and the happy chatter of a hundred voices. It seemed the entire court had shown up to celebrate our festival win. The tables were laden with pastries and meats, as well as the jewel-like fruit salads that would become a precious rarity if the blight continued its march across the land.

Tonight, everyone was pretending the blight didn’t exist, and I was glad to join in on the collective denial.

“Mr. Gilding!” one of Queen Rapunzel’s ladies-in-waiting gushed. She leaned over the back of my seat at the high table and gave me a gentle, unexpected embrace.

I set my fork down and turned to look up at her. I bowed my head as deeply as I could without standing. “Lady Jessamine.”

“Congratulations,” she said, squeezing my shoulder with one of her gloved hands. “You did Floris proud.”

“Thank you.”

A few seats away, Duke Remington scowled at me. His mother, Duchess Annemie, prattled on as if she still had his full attention.

“Princess Lilian is so delighted with your Gilded Lilies,” Lady Jessamine said. “She’s talking about having an entire enchanted greenhouse built just to house more of them.”

“I hope we have the resources for that,” I said. “Of course, food should come first.”

“What use is food without beauty?” she said.

“Or beauty without food?” I countered.

She gave me a bright smile. “I sincerely hope we’ll be able to keep growing both. If not, please know that you’ve given us all a good deal of optimism today. We’ve been sorely in need of some good news.”

I was tempted for a moment to ask her if she’d seen Queen Rapunzel recently, or knew about the queen’s graying hair and the witch who might be to blame. But the queen’s condition was to remain a secret for a while longer, it seemed, and anyway, this was neither the time nor the place.

Lady Jessamine gave my shoulder another quick squeeze and made her way back to her seat. Across the room, Lady Calla beamed at me, and Lord Narcissus inclined his head in respect.

It was strange to sit here at the high table with the royal family and their honored guests. I’d eaten with Lilian probably hundreds of times before, but never at her family’s table at a royal function. It was an honor to be here. If I were truthful with myself, though, I rather preferred our picnics in the gardens--and not just because those didn’t usually include the addition of Duke Remington, who now sat directly to Lilian’s left. The gentle curve of the head table gave him plenty of opportunity to glare at me whenever possible, and I wasn’t the only person to notice.

“He doesn’t seem to like you much,” a young noblewoman from Atlantice observed. She was one of several visitors who sat between Lilian and me.

I took a sip of my wine. “How did you guess?”

“Everyone’s talking about it.” She adjusted the blue satin cuff of her sleeve and glanced sidelong at the duke.

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