‘I’m beginning to think the Vandemark family has a thing about this tomb,’ a voice said quietly, breaking the silence.

Lewis jumped, whirling around to find Emily standing right behind him. ‘You scared me half to death,’ he said as he tried to slow his heart rate to something that could be considered normal again.

‘I never did understand the inscription,’ she said, moving past him to the tomb and looking up at the words that had been carved into the marble.

‘For the future to succeed, the end must save the beginning. For the past to succeed, the beginning must save the end,’ Lewis read. ‘Who’s buried inside?’

‘No idea,’ she said. ‘Sebastian spent a lot of time out here examining the tomb, particularly after the green star appeared.’

‘I can’t believe how much has changed since it appeared,’ Lewis mused, tilting his head slightly as he considered the words over the entrance to the tomb. ‘Maybe it’s about learning from the past—the second part at least.’

‘There was something that I wanted to talk to you about,’ Emily said as she stepped in front of him, ignoring his thoughts about the tomb.

‘Which is?’

‘The wedding.’

‘You’re having second thoughts?’ he asked worriedly.

She laughed, shaking her head, much to Lewis’ relief. ‘After what happened with The Dawn the other day, I was just thinking that, well, I don’t want to wait,’ she said, a shadow of fear flitting through her eyes at the mention of Lewis’ near miss with the precursor in the entrance hall.

‘I thought you wanted a Frost Thaw wedding,’ he said slowly. They hadn’t done any real planning, but Emily had mentioned it one sunny evening while they were riding back to Tristan from Cimant Village.

‘I know, I’ve always loved the garden in Frost Thaw, but I’m scared,’ she said. ‘When The Dawn took you, it happened so suddenly that we didn’t even get the chance to say goodbye. What if something like that happened again? What happens if you don’t come back? I don’t want to wait.’

‘We have no idea what is going to happen, but I’m not planning on going anywhere if I can help it,’ he said, pulling her into a tight hug. ‘And if I ever do go anywhere, then I promise that I’ll always find my way back to you somehow.’

‘I know,’ she whispered, wrapping her arms around his midriff tightly.

It could have been a minute or an hour that Lewis and Emily stood in the garden, their arms around one another. For the first time since they had been staying at Fir Lodge, he felt completely at ease. All his worries about the group of precursors currently residing in the barracks disappeared. Unfortunately, it was all too short-lived, though, with a voice calling his name somewhere nearby.

‘Lewis, there you are,’ Edmund said, pushing his way through the low-hanging branches of the huge weeping willow that stood to the side of the tomb. ‘I’ve been looking everywhere for you.’

‘What can I do for you?’ he asked, pulling away from Emily.

‘The coronation—we’ve been putting it off for far too long,’ he said.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

‘I’ll leave you two to it; I’ve got things I need to do,’ Emily muttered. With a quick kiss on his cheek, she slipped past Edmund, disappearing through the willow branches and out of sight.

‘When will the coronation take place?’ Lewis asked.

‘Walk with me,’ Edmund said, parting the willow branches for Lewis to pass. ‘It will take time to prepare everything but fortunately I put wheels in motion as soon as Captain Caldwell arrived in Tristan with news of your imminent return.’

‘What is there to prepare for? Couldn’t we just do it quietly one afternoon?’ Lewis said as they wandered along the grass path between the rose beds. Despite some of the flowers fading as Harvest approached, the garden was still a riot of colour. He couldn’t help but imagine what it would look like for the wedding.

‘The people will want to see the coronation, just as they have with every one before,’ Edmund said. ‘With all the turmoil over the last year with my brother’s death, Anthony’s almost coronation, and the spectre attacks, the people need something to celebrate. That’s not to mention the official delegations from the other regions, who will no doubt want to discuss what your ascension to the throne means for them.’

‘Can we not leave it as it was when Sebastian was on the throne?’ Lewis asked. He had no desire to play politics with the other regions; he didn’t know enough about any of it to make the big decisions right now.’

‘If only we could. Anthony’s temporary control over Tristan may not have been long, but it was incredibly chaotic. He made a few enemies as well,’ Edmund explained. ‘I will, of course, be there to advise you.’

‘How long before the coronation?’ Lewis said as they left the garden for the covered walkway that led back inside the castle.

‘Two weeks from today,’ Edmund said. ‘Harvest is the toughest time of year; hopefully it will raise morale in the city before it begins.’

‘Two weeks!’ Lewis said, stopping dead in his tracks with disbelief. ‘You can’t be serious?’

‘Two weeks,’ Edmund confirmed with a nod. He paused a moment longer before, with another nod, striding off down the corridor, leaving Lewis standing alone.

So much for easing back into things gently, he thought as he watched the door to the castle swing shut behind Edmund. He had no idea how he was supposed to organise a wedding and the coronation while still finding time to research previous arrangements with other regions.

‘Lewis, is everything alright?’ a voice asked from behind him.

‘Thomas! Yes, just a little overwhelmed,’ Lewis said, shaking himself out of his thoughts. ‘How did you manage to deal with everything while I was gone?’

‘Many, many late nights and a glass or two of wine,’ Thomas said with a laugh. ‘Is there anything I can do to help?’

‘Edmund wants me to renegotiate the deals with the other regions at the coronation in two weeks,’ Lewis said. ‘I don’t know anything about the old deals or much about the other regions themselves.’

‘Well, you’re in luck then,’ Thomas said with a smile. ‘It may have been many years ago now, but I dealt with most of them before Sebastian sent me to Eraea.’

‘Can you help me? Edmund offered but if you have experience with some of them it would help a lot,’ Lewis asked.

‘Of course. Between us, Edmund has never been particularly good at the political side of things; he’s too rash sometimes,’ Thomas said. ‘Him and Anthony did quite a bit of damage in the time they were in charge.’

‘What did they do?’

‘They tried to make changes to the trade deals with the Orian Empire, which upset them greatly. While the deals are still in place, there is a lot of tension over them now. The people of Oria are proud people; they take the words of any deal very seriously.’

‘Many of the Island Kingdoms in the south-west have turned their back on us since Sebastian died. They might only be small kingdoms, but they have always been valuable allies to Tristan. If it wasn’t for them, then this city probably wouldn’t be standing today!’

‘Do you think we can fix things?’ Lewis asked.

‘We can only try our best,’ Thomas said. ‘After dinner, we’ll go to the library, and I can show you all the old deals. If we can study each of the Kingdoms, we can try to tailor our deals to suit them.’

‘Shouldn’t we be starting now?’

‘You can start if you wish, but I have a couple of matters that I need to follow up on with the guard first,’ Thomas said. ‘I would recommend taking a look at The Histories of The Great Lands and Islands in the library in the meantime.’

Once again, Lewis found himself standing in the corridor, watching as one of Sebastian’s brothers walked away. With a sigh, he looked out at the sunny garden before resigning himself to the fact that he probably wouldn’t be seeing much of it over the next couple of weeks. Reluctantly, he turned away and, heading in the opposite direction as Edmund and Thomas, began treading the path to the library.