Heart of a Kingdom Page 24

  After the phone call from Mrs. Gallagher, Ava and Corrine sprung into action, getting Libby’s quarters ready and putting the kitchen on alert for the return of the knights and LIWs, and the feasting that would commence once Libby was back at the palace. They’d also let Fintan know that she was on her way back so he could be there when she returned. Mrs. Gallagher was two–days ride out, so they’d had a little time. Today’s call from the Knights’ Tower said she was close, just an hour away. They notified the steward of the new timeline and went to get ready to meet their sister. Before they separated, they high fived and hugged each other with the relief that their sister was alive and back and their duties as Co-Regents were about to come to an end. There was no time, but they’d soon head to the private palace bar for a whiskey to celebrate. For now, there was work to do. Corrine had a party to plan: the coronation of their new king–King Libby.

  Libby pulled the reins to slow Hoss as her team waited for her in a clearing. The minute Ruby Jane’s call had come in, Sean and Catherine had notified the knights and LIWs, who had returned to the palace immediately. They wanted to be there to welcome her home. Larra came riding in a few paces behind Libby.

  Libby looked back without much surprise. “I should have known you’d be right behind me,” she said, pleased.

  “Where else would I be?” asked Larra.

  Together, the two women entered the clearing.

  “Well, this is a bit much,” she said, “It’s almost like you missed me or something.” She dismounted so that she could hug them all. Through tears she let them know how much she missed them. Kurtis and Dyanna had morphed from the hesitant teenagers she remembered into confident young adults. She took their faces in her hands and looked them over approvingly before kissing them both on the forehead.

  “Damn Libster, you’re looking good!” John said far too loudly as he picked her up and spun her around. “Shenanigans just haven’t been the same without you. Say, I’ve been wondering what happens to the Queen’s Knight Grand Champion when you become King?”

  Libby laughed, and grabbed his ponytail to pull him down so she could kiss him on the cheek. “We can figure all that out later, my friend. I have some work to get caught up on. I can only imagine what the pile of paper on my desk must look like.”

  After all the hellos were done and everyone was convinced she was okay, Scarlett grasped her friend’s shoulders and met her eyes square on. “Are you ready? Are you ready to do this?”

  “Ready as I’ll ever be,” Libby replied and swung herself back up into the saddle. “Let’s do this.”

  Scarlett pulled Libby’s crown out of her bag and handed it up to her. “Might want to comb that hair first,” she suggested. “Looks great, by the way. I can’t remember the last time you wore it this long.”

  John started singing the Aerosmith song “Back in the Saddle” in his loud and unabashedly off-key voice, and laughter made its way around the group. She was back alright.

  Libby took her place at the head of the line. They all fell in, knights on white horses on the left, LIWs on black horses on the right, and began their processional back through the streets of town to the palace. It was quite the sight, and the perfect bookend to their departure a year and half earlier. Their Queen was home.

  Word spread quickly and the closer they got to the palace, the more crowded the path became. Fintan was waiting on top of the fortress wall, taking it all in as he mentally composed the final verse to The Tale of Queen Libby: How the Queen Tamed the Dragon, Saved the Kingdom, and Became King. He didn’t realize he was wearing a big grin on his face, the kind of toothpaste-commercial grin he used to tease her about as being too American. He’d missed her.

  Libby wasted no time getting back to work. She’d been absent almost two years including her recovery time after Dale had died, and she needed to re-familiarize herself with her Kingdom. While a lot of that was spent touring and welcoming new additions, most of it was spent in mind-numbing meetings.

  She delegated specific duties to Dyanna and Kurtis permanently, and formally relieved Corrine and Ava of their Co-Regent responsibilities. The heirs took up permanent residence at the palace, just as they would have if they had been Libby and Dale’s children, to continue to grow into their roles and responsibilities.

  One of the duties of the King was to welcome each new addition to the Kingdom, whether one joined by birth or relocation from the Normal world. One of the newest additions was Ava’s son, Luke who was born while Libby was in Japan with Jasper. Libby wanted to hold him every chance she got. So, while Ava was getting accounting reports ready for yet another meeting, she left Luke with his aunty Libby. When Ava left the room, Libby reached out to the Spirit Council members for an introduction. It didn’t take long for them to appear.

  “Meet the newest member of our family, Luke Kenjiro Roberts. Dad, I think he looks like you.” Kokichi was beaming, but all of them were thrilled. Spirit may not have much emotion about death, but they were enamored with births and all the power and possibility of a new life. Dale kept making funny faces at him, and Luke fell into a fit of giggles. Babies, and sometimes small children, can see Spirit, although most outgrow it.

  Maggie examined him closely, and then looked quizzically at Libby. Libby just smiled and nodded. She could see what Maggie saw, a soft purple glow surrounding her nephew. Magic. She’d keep all this to herself until he was older, and when Ava was ready to hear it. Now wasn’t that time. It would be hard enough to explain what the baby kept staring and laughing at. Maggie laughed. Even though he wasn’t Libby’s child, he was going to carry on both their family’s royal lineage as well as its magical gifts.

  Libby couldn’t stop cooing and kissing him, which is what she was doing when Ava returned. Ava wouldn’t know about the little family reunion that just happened for years to come.

  A few weeks before the coronation, Libby set out on Hoss to visit Fintan. He was pleased she seemed so much better than when she left. Like everyone else, he could see that she’d changed, but he also recognized the sadness that she carried within. He saw it every day in the mirror. With a whiskey in hand, Libby asked him if he ever thought about taking a chance on love again.

  Upon seeing his horrified expression, she told him about the man she’d fallen in love with while she was away, and how much it hurt to leave him behind. She’d confessed it was the second time in her life that she was tempted to abandon her responsibilities to follow her heart, which wouldn’t be true to who she was. She knew she had to leave him, that he could never truly love her if he didn’t know the complete her. She knew Dale was right, and she needed to wait for the right man. She confessed that she was afraid she’d be alone the rest of her life.

  “Twice?” He asked gently. He hadn’t heard this story before, and she shared more with him than most.

  She stared intently at the whiskey swirling in her glass “Yes. Twice. When I came of age, I traveled outside the Kingdom. A lot. Sowing my wild oats, I suppose. I knew that the day would come where I’d become Queen and have too many responsibilities to spend extended periods outside the barrier. In my travels, I met someone. He was smart and funny and beautiful inside and out. I fell in love. I was young. I was ready to walk away from all of it. The Kingdom, the throne, my life as the heir. But in the end, I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t abandon my responsibilities. I just had to have some help making that decision.”

  She paused to take a swig. Fintan waited in silence for her to continue.

  “One day something happened, and we got in to a horrible fight. I left a few nights later while he was sleeping so I wouldn’t have to say good-bye. I knew if I had to look into his eyes and tell him I was leaving that I’d change my mind. I was also terrified that if I did tell him face-to-face that I’d see relief in his eyes and learn he really didn’t love me at all. So I chickened out and just left him a note. I returned to the Kingdom and did my job. Then, when Dad announced he was going to retire, I knew I’d have to marry. I was st
ill lonely for this man that no one but my best friends knew about, and even they only knew of him by a nickname, The Viking. Stupid, I know. When Dad chose Dalen, I gave him a fair shot, and I fell in love with him to a depth that I didn’t know was even possible. Yet, here I am. Alone. Again. Maybe I’m just meant to be alone.”

  For the first time since Sheila had died, Fintan opened up about the loneliness. He told Libby that losing his beloved was heartbreaking, but it was the loneliness of life without her that nearly broke him. He joked that poets make their living on pain, but it was too much to even write about. The reason he’d accepted her offer to move to the Kingdom was because being lonely in a new place was easier to bear than being lonely in a place where everywhere he looked, he saw a void that was shaped like her.

  Libby nodded in understanding. The loneliness was somehow easier when you weren’t at home. At home it was oppressive.

  “Libby, you’re young and have plenty of time. No matter what, trust your heart. When it’s meant to be it will happen.” He thought about what he’d just said and snorted in disgust. “Sweet Jaysus. I sound like a damned greeting card.”

  After a period where the only sound was Libby tapping her sapphire ring against the whiskey glass, Fintan cleared his throat.

  “May I ask you a question?”

  “Anything.”

  “This topic makes me uncomfortable. But I know you can see ghosts. Spirits of those who have died.” Fintan got up and started slowly pacing.

  Libby nodded, pretty sure she knew what question was coming next.

  “Have you ever seen Sheila?” Fintan asked, looking her right in the eyes.

  Libby looked away and paused, before looking up at him again. “Yes. Twice.”

  Fintan drew in a jagged breath as his eyes filled with tears.

  “Tell me.” he pleaded.

  “I’ve denied this all my life, Finn,” she started. “So, understand that I didn’t keep it from you deliberately, even though you wouldn’t have believed me if I’d told you.” She blew out a deep breath to give her a little more time to figure out what to say. “Sheila visited me about six months after she died, in a dream. She told me that she was worried about you. That you were too alone, despite having your kids and grandkids nearby. She asked me to invite you again to live in the Kingdom. She politely asked me to force you, if necessary.” Libby snorted at the memory. “Normally spirits are so bossy, but she was just as polite in the afterlife as she was in life.” Libby looked directly into his eyes. “She told me we needed each other, that fate brought us together that night in the pub in Killarney all those years ago. More importantly, she said I’d need you in a way I couldn’t possibly understand at the time. She was sure right about that. I don’t think I’d have survived any of this without you.”

  The old poet looked away as a tear rolled down his cheek. “And the second time?” he asked.

  “The second time was after you’d moved to the Kingdom. Do you remember the first time I came to visit you here? I had a horrible headache and got a nosebleed? I told you it must be allergies to whatever the flowers were that were growing on the river bank.”

  “I’d forgotten, but yes. Now that you mention it, I remember that. It was strange.”

  “It was her. Back then, before I learned how to control or accept it, I fought it. So whenever a spirit came to visit me while I was awake, I’d suffer. She was here. She thanked me for convincing you to move here. She thanked me for being such a good friend to her in life, and to you. She told me, one day if you ever asked about it, to tell you how much she loved you and how she hoped you’d take a chance on love again. That she wanted you to remember what it felt like to be happy and loved.”

  “What!” he roared at her.

  “Hey, I just take the message. Normally, I’d force myself to ignore them still, but on that day, I argued back with her. I told her I loved her and missed her terribly, but nothing like you did. I told her I was your friend and there would never come a day where you would ask me about this, and that if you did, I couldn’t possibly figure out how to give you her blessing to find a woman to love and to love you.” Libby suddenly sat up straight. “Oh my Goddess! But that’s what I just did. Somewhere she’s laughing at me. At us. Damn it, Sheila! Sometimes spirits are annoying as fuck.”

  Fintan sat there, deep in thought. Libby let him sit in silence. She’d learned that spirits had no sense of time, at least not like the living did. For them “now” could mean the action you took yesterday, or making a decision, now, to do something next year. “Soon” could mean now or five years from now. It could get confusing. Add in human interpretation and messages could get cloudy. Clarity is a rarity, as Maggie O’Brien would say.

  Since Fintan was lost deep in memories, Libby returned to the palace. She knew she’d hear from him when he was ready.

  Chapter

  King Libby

  Most of the Kingdom had gathered in the palace courtyard, much like they had for Dale’s funeral. This time, however, Libby wasn’t hiding on the balcony. She was front and center. She wore a formal gown of dark gray silk. She was draped in her formal robes in the same emerald green as her travel cloak but of heavy velvet. Her crest was embroidered in silver on the back, and the crests of all of her knights and LIWs made up the border. Fintan had made a small suggestion to modify her crest, and now the silver ash tree was in a halo of rose gold. She carried no scepter, but her katana was strapped to her side. She wore her red hair up in a simple knot, unusual for her since she normally liked the freedom of wearing it down. But then, nothing about this was usual.

  She stood tall. She stood alone.

  Dyanna and Kurtis as heirs to the throne were nearby, just behind her. Each held a crown, the one that would one day be his or hers. For now, they belonged to Libby. Both of them. The Royal Wizards approached the heirs. Kurtis was first, offering Dale’s crown, a simple gold circlet designed to look like tree branches and roots to Sophia. Dyanna offered Libby’s crown to Awen–a silver diadem, of equally simple branches, but with tiny emeralds that made up the leaves of the Tree of Life. The two wizards took the crowns and the heirs stepped back to stand with the rest of the family.

  Sophia and Awen fit the two crowns together. There was an audible click as they interlocked, as if they were always made to be worn together. It reminded Libby of her wedding and engagement rings, a pair that wouldn’t be separated. Krystal took the two-become one crown in both hands and presented it to Libby, instead of placing it on her head. Libby had done this on her own. She didn’t need anyone else to grant her the title or authority of King; she’d gone out and taken it for herself. Libby accepted the crown, holding it high for everyone assembled to see. Then, with her heart racing, she placed it on her head, without saying a word.

  The crowd erupted into cheering: “Long live the King! Long live the King! Long live the King!”

  Libby watched all of this in silence, a small smile on her face. She’d noticed Dale appear, beaming with pride.

  Libby started laughing at the victory dance no one else but Krystal could see, and waved to everyone, motioning for them to proceed to the celebration feast.

  Epilogue

  Life as King continued more or less the same for Libby with a few notable exceptions. Scarlett transitioned into retirement, and Catherine took on the responsibilities of Senior LIW. She joined Libby in meetings and on tours around the Kingdom. This particular morning they’d set out on a tour of the force field with Fynnigan and the engineering team.

  Before she’d left on her solo adventure, Libby had put Fynnigan officially in charge of force field security, a direct liaison among the engineers, wizards and Sean. He had free reign of this project and had recruited a new engineer. He was practically giddy when he told her.

  “Libby, things are going well. Everything we theorized about tethering to the ley line worked perfectly! And we’re still learning about more options. We should be able to remove your bond to it in the near future.�
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  “Are you really that excited about the force field or do you have something to tell me?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You look like the cat that ate the canary. Spit it out. Oh my Goddess! You’re getting married?”

  “What? No! Bite your tongue, woman!” Fynnigan started laughing. “I’ve recruited a new engineer to the team! A Normal.”

  “That’s what has you so excited? She must be hot,” Libby replied, unwilling to relent in her teasing. “I trust your decisions, Fynn. Tell me about this Normal engineer.”

  “Well, I don’t know about hot. It’s my dad! He’ll be arriving later today.”

  Libby’s mouth gaped open. “Wait, what? Bas? What does he know? Does he know who I am?”

  “He knows about the Kingdom, not about you. Although I did tell him the King would welcome him personally, that it’s kind of a tradition. I thought that would be a fun surprise. He’s been in a funk since he broke up with his mystery girlfriend. Talk about a regular disappearing act. I never met her, but all he’s talked about for the last year was this woman he’d met on his travels who traveled as much as he did which is why I couldn’t meet her. At any rate, I guess she left him once and for all and he’s been mopey and ready for a change. He is intrigued by the engineering of the force field.”