Chapter 10: The Crown

On the thirtieth day the Great Hall of the West held four courts, and not one of them was smiling.

Su Ming had told Ren about the bundle in the garden the morning after he saw it.

Ren had asked the marshal outright, and the marshal had said it was linen for the old king's tomb.

Thirty days of watching the marshal's face had told Ren nothing more.

Ren stood at the foot of the dais in a coat of dark blue and gold, with his hair combed, and the crown waiting on its cushion above him.

The Western lords stood on his left in rows.

The envoys of the North, South and East stood on his right, with their hands on their sword hilts.

Behind him, three plain thrones had been set on the lower step, and three men in gray pledge robes sat in them.

Ryu and Su Ming wore silver on their wrists.

Ken had refused to wear his.

The two halves of the cuff still lay in a drawer in the north chamber, and he sat bare-wristed and furious in the middle of the Western court.

Nobody had dared to say anything about it.

Mariam came forward from the lords in her best black silk.

The old king's seal hung at her breast, heavy and gold.

"My lord," she said warmly, and loud enough for the hall. "It has been a long thirty days, and a hard thirty years. Your father would be proud."

She lifted the cord over her head.

Her hands were steady, and her smile was soft.

"Wear it well, love," she said, and set it in his palm.

The gold was warm from her skin.

Ren closed his fingers around it, and his heart began to pound.

This was the seal.

This was the one piece of metal in the world that could send three men home.

He turned to face the hall.

The old words of the oath were long, and he said them as written, in the unfamiliar voice that was his now.

He swore to hold the West in trust and to keep the peace of the four crowns.

He bent his head, and the Chief Priest set the gold circlet on his hair.

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