Her Cinder Throne (Completed)

Chapter 9

The girls followed Bastian. They stopped a few feet away, and Cole watched as Bastian got to his knees in front of the woman and beamed up into her face.

"Hello, Mother! It's a beautiful day, don't you think?" He waited for an answer, but none came.

Cole fought hard not to stare at Queen Rushi. Not many people had been lucky enough to see their king's wife, and now Cole saw why. Her skin clung to her bones as if it was made of paper, and her eyes were sunken and staring into nothing. If a skeleton could have sat up and mechanically stuck a pin into an embroidery hoop, it would have been a match for Queen Rushi.

Bastian leaned closer, whispering something to her. It was not in a language Cole understood, and she assumed it was from the queen's birthplace. Her pitch black hair and softly round face marked her out as foreign, even if it was common knowledge that the king of Soma had united with her country through their marriage.

Bastian shared her dark coloring, though he maintained the strong bone structure of his father's people. He apparently had been taught her language as well, which Cole found surprising. Normally any foreign spouses were immediately expected to completely assimilate to Soma culture. It was how they kept the royal bloodline firmly in favor of Soma.

For whatever reason, the brief line in her home language seemed to shake Queen Rushi into some semblance of consciousness. Her eyes slowly came into focus on Bastian's face, and she smiled slowly.

"Son," she said in the language of Soma. Her voice was reedy and barely audible, but Bastian seemed to find it as pleasant as choral singing. His face glowed as he kissed her cheeks and plopped down on the floor by her side.

"What is the latest gossip in the palace, ladies?" he asked the older women.

Duchess Visser paused her sewing and looked up with a knowing tilt to her eyebrows. "I heard that someone is ready to get married," she said.

Bastian laughed. "Who told you that? I'm completely content to live the rest of my life as a glorious bachelor. Besides, the woman I love is already married. If only I'd been born before Duke Visser had a chance to take you all for himself."

Duchess Visser and the rest of the women laughed, but Cole kept her eyes trained on Bastian. There was an undercurrent of unease in the way his muscles held stiff and his laughter didn't reach his eyes. That interested Cole. What was making the prince so nervous?

Duchess Visser and the rest of the attendants continued to discuss the palace gossip, but Cole knew none of the people they were talking about. Also, talk of stolen dress styles and poaching of servants had zero appeal for Cole. Apparently, it also was not enthralling for Bastian either. His attention slid after a few minutes, and soon he was leaning against his mother's knee and whispering to her in her language. She rarely spoke back to him, but she smiled faintly as she stared at him, and Cole could see that was enough for him.

Cole and the other girls had nothing to do while the ladies talked, so they stood against the wall. None of them spoke, so she assumed they weren't allowed to chat amongst themselves. So the girls retreated into their own heads until around a half hour later, when the attendant ladies started to wish for tea and cakes.

Bastian glanced at the girls, nodded his head at them, and they moved to action. Meegan led the way to a side-table that took up a large section of the room, and pulled out a tea set. The other girls went to the hearth and prepared the small fire there for boiling the water, and others uncovered a small group of cakes that were hidden under the side-table. It took them a few minutes, but soon the room was filled with the smell of green tea, and Meegan poured it carefully into teacups to distribute.