Kirra Baudille was sitting on the very edge of the throne room balcony with her legs hanging off the edge, swinging between the ornate metal railing. She had a pad of parchment in her lap and was scribbling over it with a piece of charcoal she had snatched from the fire place in her bedroom. She was humming to herself, completely oblivious of the dark smudges she was getting all over the skirt of her dress.

Her brother sat not far away, with his back leaning against the railing, the wind sweeping through his soft dark curls and deep brown eyes matched Kirra's own but her face was rounder and his nose thinner. Their father said that as they got older, they would get more and more different. But for the moment, they were kept different solely by interests.

Julian Baudille had his head in a book and though he was quick to learn there was no six-year-old that could read a book like that. And yet, as he scanned over the pages, he knew exactly what they said through pure memory. Mrs Ola, their nurse and caretaker, had read them both that story more than a million times, Kirra was sure of it. She could almost recite the story of the brave boy with the red dagger and princess with the golden hair and silver sword. Kirra was six years old but no one had spared her the gorey details of the story, even when she had been younger than she was now. She knew the names of the people that had died and she had seen the life-like paintings that showed blood and death and war.

But Kirra had never minded those things. It all seemed a little like a fairy-tale for her. Julian was the same. He never put his hands over his ears like the other children did when Mrs Ola described how Micah Baudille had sawed through Conrad Allist's neck and waved his severed head from the seond floor balcony.

And now as she drew the smudges and scribbles and hummed a song telling of that battle as well, she thought of the names her father muttered everytime his mind wandered.

Joseph, Niram, Callista, Chasin.

And they weren't the only ones. The rest of the names were written carved into a wooden board and hung in the hall.

Kirra wasn't stupid. She knew her mother and father were a little bit broken in ways that couldn't be fixed with the glue that fixed her wooden carvings when they fell from their shelves. Kirra knew that they all felt it; Imara always leaned on Lexie when she walked through the third floor corridor and her mother had had a stone mason carve the face of a very tall man carrying a long sword and place it at the doors of the throne room to stand sentry. The stone man's name was Joseph Gupta. Uncle Felix would tell you anything about that day if you caught him after a couple of glasses of wine.

It had been her Lexie that had told her about the injuries. How her mother had been bedridden for weeks, with the only exception of attending her father's coronation. Trojan Whenlocke would never walk again, while Uncle Felix got away with only a bit of a limp. Ella, who had told Kirra and her brother with a cheeky smile that if they ever called her 'aunty' she'd disown them, had almost died.

She knew about her father's coronation as well. He had told her that himself; told her how beautiful her mother had been looking up at him with the dirt and blood of battle only freshly cleaned off her and how Uncle Felix had fallen to his knees and started yelling triumphantly at the Kings at the end of it all.

Kirra knew that a lot of people were thinking about these things today. It was the sixteenth anniversary of the battle and both Kirra and Julian were well aware that they were supposed to be down in the hall to celebrate it.

"Oi!" Kirra turned around to see a tall sixteen-year-old boy with dark hair, Kannish-coloured skin and pale blue eyes looking down at her and her brother disapprovingly. He had his thick arms crossed over his chest and his bushy eyebrows raised.

Julian sighed loudly and closed his book getting to his feet. But Kirra just grinned and went back to her drawing until strong hands swept her up from under her arms, lifting her up over his head and placing her securely on his shoulders.

"Beau!" Kirra squealed and he took the charcoal and parchment from her hands.

Beau just laughed, "Mrs Ola might just faint at the sight of your dress, Sprout."

"No she won't. She doesn't want to miss Dad's speech." Kirra told him smartly.

"She's right, you know," Julian said, walking alongside Beau's legs as he brought them out from the balcony and started for the hall, "Mrs Ola hasn't shut up about it for days."

"You," Beau said, accusatively, "are too literate for your own good, Cheeks."

"Papa says it's a good thing," Julian said, placing his hands firmly on his hips.

"Your father also said that both of you were supposed to be down in hall an hour ago."

Neither of the twins had any retort to that and instead both of them just giggled. Beau sighed but the smile hadn't left his face and it stayed there as they approached the doors to the hall that had been thrown open welcomingly. Before they entered, Beau lifted Kirra off his shoulders and placed her gently down on the ground before brushing down her skirts with his palm. Kirra could have told him it was useless; charcoal didn't come out easily, but she kept her mouth shut, somehow knowing that Beau's effort was less practical and more affectionate.

"Is that charcoal again?" Beau and the twins looked up to see a tall, very beautiful woman with startling blue eyes and shiny blonde hair that fell just below her shoulders, curling at the bottom. She was wearing a slim, rich purple velvet dress with pink rose quartz lining the hem and sleeves. At her throat, a stark contrast to the regality of her dress, was a pendant chain made of crude tin that held a small carved metal silverwing bird. She seemed to radiate but Kirra could see the lines of age on her face and scars that she refused to cover with powder.

"It comes out, Mama," Kirra said innocently, "Mrs Ola made it go away last time."

"She did," Julian confirmed.

"So you decided to make more work for her?" Cataleyah Charamain asked her daughter, "As if the poor woman didn't have enough to worry about with you running about this place."

"You just wait and see, Leyah. Kirra is a style icon in the city. Soon all the little kids will have charcoal stains rubbed into their clothes," Beau said and the Queen laughed.

"Come on, you three, you were supposed to be here ages ago. Everyone's waiting."

Julian and Kirra didn't need to be told twice. One glance past their mother and they had spotted Uncle Felix laughing and dancing about with a glass of wine in his hands and his husband blushing red with embarrassment at the sight of him.

Leyah walked beside Beau, watching as the children squealed with delight as Felix put down his glass and scooped both of them up in a big bear hug. Felix's own son Kadmas was with them, laughing as well at the sight of them while his sister, Athena giggled from Elex's lap. Felix and Elex visited regularly enough but they had moved to Delajenca a year after Conrad Allist had been defeated, to live close to Elex's family. It had been very tough on him losing Chasin, Leyah knew that.

Felix's brothers Barclay and Lennox had come down to celebrate today as well and Nell always looked incredibly happy when all her brothers were together. She was sitting with Lexie, Martha, and her new boyfriend Mark. Lexie looked to be only half listening to the conversation as she watched Willem Cliff, the Creatian Captain of the Guard, suspiciously. Willem had been the one to hear that the fugitive Ridley Sargent might be hiding in the Quel-yanian mountains and was currently leading that investigation. Leyah knew that Lexie would want to be here if Willem caught him. Not far from where Willem was standing, leaning against the wall with a pitcher of wine in his hand, Ella and Kerrick were sitting next to Jaegar Boister and Troy Whenlocke, on a lounge, laughing as Imara told one of her stories.

Micah was with them. He looked up and saw her, excusing himself and walking over. He was dressed plainly today; something that would have taken a lot of effort since she knew Kasey, her assistant, had been very keen on having him dressed up. But instead, he was simply wearing a cream silk shirt and black pants, with his gold plated belt around his waist, a purple cloak settled on his shoulders, and the delicate solid silver crown resting on his dark curls. The crown was fashioned to look like silver twigs had been shaped into a perfect circle and was fitted with lilac amythyst shards so that the crown cast purple light all over the walls when the sun touched it. He was holding a glass of wine in his hand.

"Found them then?" he asked as he got close enough and carefully slid his arm around her back.

"Beau did." Leyah said as she followed his gaze to where Felix was dancing around with Julian on his shoulders and Kirra chasing his feet. After a moment, she turned back to him, studying him as he watched his children. Micah, like all of them, had fallen victim to age. There were lines near and under his eyes and his skin was sun flecked and spotted as it hadn't been before. Dark hair grew around his chin and on his upper lip, not too long because Julian had told him he would look like the statues of the old kings, but not too short so that it prickled Kirra's face when he kissed her; something she would, quite stubbornly, not tolerate.

"Look at that fool," Micah said, quietly as a grin broke over his face watching Felix, who had now taken Julian off his shoulders and was trying to pull Elex up to dance with him. Elex was going a deeper shade of red with each passing second and was standing with his arms crossed, trying to resist Felix's pulling.

"Let him go," Leyah grinned, "He's drunk. And on this day more than any, it is a good idea to stay happy."

Just then, Ella stood up from the lounge, leaning on her cane, and tapped a spoon against her glass of wine.

"I think it's time our King made a speech, don't you?" she called out as the room quietened. Micah laughed at her but nodded in acceptance.

"I believe the time for speeches are over," he said, glancing at Leyah, "We all know what this day means to us. We've taught it to our children and our lands can almost recite it by heart. And I'm sure it's not just my head that replays it. What I do want to say though, is that I'm incredibly thankful. I'm thankful for the sun for shining and for the clouds for bringing rain. I'm thankful that I've been blessed with a good life to live out and a family to love.

"But today, the thing I'm most grateful for is that I get to see everyone here. Whether I am your King or one of a neighbour to your own country, you've come today. And you've made the King of Creatia a happy man."

"Bloody typical," Felix said with a lop-sided grin, "Micah Baudille; he claims that the time for speeches are over and then makes one anyway."

Everyone laughed but Micah just shook his head as though he had expected it, "It is for that reason exactly, that my toast today is to Felix Masterson. Because I'm thankful that he can now get very drunk without the threat of being found and persecuted for rebellion, and instead with the soul purpose of embarrassing his husband and children. To Felix!"

"To Felix!" The crowd echoed as people laughed. The noise returned to the room as Leyah and Micah forfeited their attention.

And for a solid minute, everything was peaceful.

Then the doors burst open and a young guard threw himself into the room, his face red and dirty. Leyah knew what it was. She had suspected for a while and as the smiles were still falling from people's faces, Leyah was whipping around to find her ward.

"Majesty!" the young guard cried and the whole room stopped.

Leyah's eyes found him, "Beau! Take the twins. Now!"

He didn't hesitate. Beau put down the glass he was holding and swept Julian up into his arms, striding over to grab Kirra.

"What is it?" Micah boomed and Leyah could hear the panic in his voice.

Leyah reached under her dress and yanked the dagger from it's sheath around her leg as Beau grabbed moved for the back door of the hall, yanking a sword from a scabbard on the wall as he went.

"It's the extremists, Your Grace!" The young guard at the door cried, "They're here. They've come for the the Queen."

THE END

A/N

WOW! All done :) I hope you enjoyed reading about Micah and Leyah and all the rest. Thanks for sticking with the story, even if it gets a little tedious in parts. Thanks as always, to Rose because you're amazing, but also everyone who votes and comments and reads my stories because it's more than a little of a confidence boost--and sometimes, shit happens and you really need one. Be sure to check out my other series, the Aspen Trilogy if you liked this or if you're into a bit of crappy spy/saving-the-world stories.

Much, much love,

Ruby

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