Crown of Smoke

Chapter 17

        “Hayden!” Briar cried as he stopped short just in front of her horse, scaring the poor creature half to death and making it huff so hard that a strand of Hayden’s hair flew back from his face. “What in the name of-“

            “We have to go.” He turned to face Gwen, a ferocious panic in his eyes. “Get off the horse and get your things.”

            “Calm down, Hayden.” Ant sighed, creasing his brow together. Hayden was known for being overdramatic at the best of times, but this was new to Gwen, and to her, it looked rather serious.

            Hayden turned to Briar. “Your parents are coming home, tomorrow morning.”

            “Then we’ll need to be more careful but you can still stay in the servant’s quarters! I can bring books down from the library and-“

            “They’re bringing the king with them.” Harry sighed. Gwen hadn’t noticed him dismount his horse, but he was now standing close to Hayden with the letter in his one hand whilst the other ran through his windswept hair. Hayden looked at him and there was a silent conversation that passed between them.

            Briar and Ant were off their horses and crowding the letter as stable boys came swiftly and took the horses away. Gwen sat still on her horse, feeling like an i***t and an intruder as they all began speaking in hushed tones. Hayden looked up and sighed before walking over to her, offering her his hand to help her down.

            “I thought you were good with a horse?” He muttered.

            “I didn’t want to intrude.” She replied more sharply than she had intended, but rather than retaliating, Hayden’s expression became laced with pity. Gwen wasn’t sure if that made her want to fight him more than usual.

            “Guinevere, these plans include you now.” He said softly, taking her arm and lacing it through his as he pulled her round into the circle.

            “Hayden has somewhere we can go and stay, that shouldn’t be an issue,” Harry was saying, “but do we have enough momentum to be making an act like this?”

            Hayden was grinning now. “According to Blaine, there’s quite a buzz about the whole movement going on. Apparently, people have been simmering and this will send them over if we can do something truly public. Something the kingdom can’t ignore.”

            Gwen went to speak then stopped short. She hadn’t known that Hayden was keeping in touch with Blaine. She looked at him and he could clearly sense the question behind her eyes.

            “Blaine’s been carrying on the work we started in Eldun and some of the villages around.” He shrugged. “You and I weren’t the only ones up late having strategy sessions you know.”

            Gwen chuckled. “Do you ever sleep?”

            His grin broadened. “Not when there’s change to be had, Guinevere. I wouldn’t want to miss any second of it.”

            Briar caught the end of their chat and Gwen saw her roll her eyes, making Gwen turn her head from Hayden as she began to giggle. Hayden should write a book, she thought. Or at least something that might rally the people together some more, something that could be passed around and a little more concrete than simple word of mouth.

“So, if the king is to come over, do you believe we could get them to protest?” Harrison asked.

            “If they could get here in time, but I highly doubt that they’d be able to simply put their lives on hold.” Hayden sighed. “I wish we’d done more towards the capital.”

            “One thing at a time.” Briar patted Hayden’s arm. “It’s not like we knew that this was coming otherwise we could have been prepared.” Hayden nodded, but he took off and began to pace through the courtyard. Everyone’s eyes watched him, his mind whirring with the possibilities as he feet crunched against the gravel.

Briar impatiently began to tap her foot after a while turning back to the house followed shortly by Anthony. Harry waited a little longer, and whilst he was not great at staying still, he remained outside and sat down on the pebbles, picking stones up and threading them between his fingers. Gwen sighed and at with him, deciding that if Hayden was going to come up with something then she wasn’t going to miss out on the action. He’d spent her whole life missing on the action as it was.

The sky had continued to darken and the chill had grown in the air. Hayden, although still quiet and pacing, walked over and through his jacket over Gwen which she took gladly before slumping up against Harry.

        “I’ve got it!” Hayden’s voice came to her as though in a dream, waking her up from her sleep. Her hands were cold and the sky was dark. Against her, Harrison was rubbing his eyes as though he too had been snoozing through Hayden’s drawn-out thought process.

        “Do we actually get to know what it is or are we expected to follow you blindly as per usual?” Gwen groaned. Harry spluttered a laugh next to her, standing and helping her up. The skirt of her dress felt cold and a little damp and all she wanted to do was change into her night gown and get into bed, but Hayden’s wide-eyed gaze on her seemed to tell her that wasn’t to be an option for at least a few more hours.

        Hayden didn’t bother to answer Gwen, but strode past her into the house. Anthony was sitting awake in the library, although he was dressed in his pajamas and was now wearing glasses as he read in the candlelight. He looked incredibly handsome and Gwen couldn’t help but blush as he gestured for her to take a seat next to him on the sofa as he budged up. Her arm brushed against his, the green silk of his night shirt warm from his arm that lay just beneath. Hayden didn’t notice her blush and continued to walk through the library, pulling books from shelves and bellowing at Harry to go and find Briar.

        “Why is it he always finds his brilliant ideas when we all would rather be in bed?” Anthony murmured, putting his own book down on the floor and slumping against the back of the sofa.

“It seems you had hardly slept anyway.” Gwen retorted.

Anthony sighed. “A habit of living in the army and being on watch late.”

Gwen nodded, pretending as though she understood when in reality it was rare for her to miss her eight hours of sleep until recently.

Briar came down in a night gown covered with a long pink gown with flowing sleeves. Her hair was pulled up and despite the sleep in her eyes, she looked as elegant as ever and not in the least disheveled. Her temperament on the other hand…

“What in the king’s name do you think you’re doing, Hayden? It’s 3 o’clock in the morning!” She half shrieked.

Hayden only grinned.

“We’ve no time to waste here my darling Briar!” He ran to her and clutched her shoulders. She smacked his hands away and he leaped back over to his books as she slumped down in the chair next to Anthony, all posture be damned. Harry remained at the door, leaning casually against the door frame, his jacket now abandoned somewhere.

“So the king will be coming to town and there will almost definitely be some sort of preposterous procession right? When was the last time the king came down here, Briar?”

“Ask me tomorrow morning.”

“It is tomorrow morning.”

“I swear Hayden-“

“Just answer the question and we can sleep.” Anthony sighed.

“Fine.” Briar huffed. “It was at least five years ago. I think.”

“Perfect! So even on short notice, they’ll be a procession, maybe even a fayre.” Hayden was pacing again now, flipping to one of the pages in the book he was holding. “So what I’m proposing is that we hide our darling Guinevere until then.”

“And then what?” Briar snapped.

“And then present her to the king.” Hayden grinned. He threw the book down on the table in front of the others who all leaned in to take a better look.

There were very few words on the page, but a picture of a young maiden taking down the hood of her cloak in order to reveal her face. Gwen shook her head. This was a children’s book. It was the story of the lost princess Amelia whose parents had been killed by an evil ruler of another land so she went to the castle and presented herself in front of the entire court. In the older versions of the tale, the princess Amelia had then decided to slay the entire court in revenge for her parent’s death, but the story she had been told as a child was simply that the king was thrown into prison forever and she united the kingdoms and ruled them with her handsome prince.

She turned her head, trying to gage the other’s reactions. Briar met her eyes, her face full of disgust. Anthony was still looking at the picture with his brow furrowed like he was trying to find some hidden code in the children’s story that Hayden could be getting at.

Harry on the other hand was staring intently at Hayden. They were having one of their many silent conversations that made Gwen forever wish for a friendship strong enough to hold like theirs. Harry nodded, just a tiny amount, and Hayden grinned.

“This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.” Briar laughed. “You cannot expect Gwen to do this. Hayden, you know I trust you with these things but seriously!” Hayden was still grinning.

“It’s a children’s book.” Anthony sighed. “And I don’t see Gwen slaying the entire court, do you?”

“Hey!” Gwen said. “My sword skills are rusty but I think I could definitely try.”

Harry laughed behind her but Anthony just rolled his eyes.

“It’s insane.” He said.

“So insane it might work,” Hayden replied. His eyes met Gwen’s for a moment and she could tell he was trying to tell her something behind them, but she had no clue what it was.

“How would we get Kaleb thrown from the throne simply by my appearing out of thin air?” She asked.

“We don’t need that straight away,” Harry explained. He moved around to meet Hayden, standing shoulder to shoulder with him. They made an annoyingly handsome pair. “We just need to start enough unrest to get the Kaleb worried about them. If there’s an uprising teamed with the war then the people will begin to feel as though he’s not able to rule properly.”

“And it will begin to unsettle the upper-classes,” Briar whispered. “s**t, that’s actually good.”

“It’s been said.” Hayden grinned to himself and threw her a wink which she promptly ignored.

“How do we know people will hear about Gwen though? And how do we make sure she stays safe if there’s going to be all the king’s guards they could easily go straight for her and stop it.” Anthony asked. Gwen’s eyes widened. She hadn’t considered that.

“If it’s public enough he’ll be too afraid.” Briar’s hand reached over Anthony and she placed a hand on Gwen’s knee which she gladly took. “With the whole country watching he would never kill even the possible daughter of Queen Juliette because the people liked her.”

“And he couldn’t publicly harm the child of King Emilian because it would cause international strife on top the war he’s already waged meaning they’d form an alliance and eh would never win fighting too armies.” Anthony nodded.

“Colvine’s army isn’t strong enough.” Hayden agreed. “He couldn’t do anything that would harm you and get back to the monarchy in Sturry.”

Gwen felt a tension in her shoulders release and Briar squeezed her hand tightly. She had never thought to be afraid for herself, not in the same way the others seemed to have. To her, it was always the internal turmoil she was being put through. Her lessons and constant degrading from Hayden, the mixed signals from everyone about what her role here was meant to be had her spiraling around in her head meant she’d never thought about how she could end up hurt or imprisoned or killed. The thought drowned out all those feelings, making her feel sick to her stomach.

Hayden noted her look.

“Even if Sturry’s army can’t stop them from getting to you Guinevere,” he smiled kindly, “we will.”

Gwen nodded, but the feeling in her stomach lingered well into the continued strategy talks.