Amiranthe adjusted her bodice as she walked down the hallway, her sapphire dress clung tightly to her older frame. Her son strode ahead; he wore the dusk green velvet of their house. At her son’s side was Harold Perelle, he was late in his second decade, he was podgy and balding. The shimmering silver and gold of the mountain cat that his sigil bore. This man was so unlike his banner which made him laughable.

The meeting was soon to start; this was a treasonous meeting, a meeting to forge a force to usurp the king. Guards in the blue and copper of house Fisher, held their corseques tight to their bodies. Their Copper coated steel shields bore the kingfisher, their copper breastplate shone brightly. Their barbut helms had visors that gave the soldiers an ominous air.

Amiranthe nodded to the guards as she passed, she saw the collection of the usurping lords, they bore the banners and the Sigils of their many houses. She saw the Kingfisher of house Fisher, the puma of House Perelle, The hart of house Blackwood, The Snake of house Glyntfenn; The Egret of House Slowyng and the Crayfish of house Ludlow. The monstrous jawed mountain of house Bryant.

There in the corner sat a young girl, her frail form was diminutive to the vast hold that she was in. Her skin was pale, her hair was thin, her complexion sickly. Behind her was her Banner. A Peregrine Falcon in Azure and Silver. This was lady Serena, she was a scion of Trystan’s house. She was some bastard of Trystan’s father, she was foolish or stupid to believe that she would be legitimized to then lead her half Brother’s house. Unless Edmund legitimised her.

“Lords and Ladies of Isladoone. I have summoned you here in order to ask you for aid. Aid to avenge my lord, Lord Trystan, the falcon of Isladoone.” Harold Perelle sweated under the gazes of his audience. He held a scroll in his left hand and in his right a cloth to brush his face.

Unfurling the scroll he cleared his throat. “House Fisher; House Perelle; House Blackwood, House Glyntfenn; House Slowyng; House Ludlow...House Vitale.” There was a pained expression as he said the last one. Dansen Vitale, the traitorous lord was the lord of Gracepoint. There was no male successor to House Bryant, his niece Geneviève had taken the seat at Hullsbane. Dansen would soon find himself surrounded by the enemies who cried for his blood.

“The reason that I have summoned you here is because you were liege lords of the Duke Trystan Lothdale and I would call the banners in his name.” Amiranthe saw this as an opportunity.

“You would call the banners in the name of a dead man?”

“As we cry vengeance for him and his kin.”

“Why raise the banner for a dead man, when you can raise them for an alive one?”

“Alive one, m’lady? We were sworn in support of Trystan’s claim and he is dead.” Harold Perelle again swept the handkerchief over his face. The man would soon have a yellow doublet instead of a white one. In the corner Edmund fingered his Hart brooch, he spoke softly with a son of Glyntfenn. The man’s vivid red hair contrasted with her son’s. Good Edmund, make allies now before the civil unrest starts.

“Who would you have us support then, Amiranthe?” Catalina Fisher asked. “The true king of Isladoone, in whose veins run the blood of the Hartwood’s of old. My son Edmund of House Blackwood.” Catalina snorted, her retainers laughed behind their hands.

“I would cut my heart out before I would bend knee before a Blackwood.” Catalina’s ash blonde hair swished as she looked back to her retainers.

“She would have us bow before those who had oppressed our forefathers for better than a century. Perelle, Slowyng, surely your families have bled enough by their hands.” Justina stood and looked Amiranthe in the eye.

“It is time to bury our daggers but not in House Blackwood, Usteon broke the law of hospitality, he broke the sanctity of The Wyvern Flame. If I must ally myself with house Blackwood” She walked to Serena, taking her hand “to bring him down and to get vengeance for our dead.”

Catalina took Serena’s hand, holding it to her chest. “I would name you, Queen Serena, Queen of Isladoone.”

“She has no noble blood.” Shouted the red headed Glyntfenn.

“Silence yourself Snake! She is Trystan’s blood.” Amiranthe could not believe this, they were going to crown the bastard girl. Amiranthe felt herself getting up. “She has the blood of Bellach not Isladoone!” Perelle drew his rapier and laid it before Serena, going on one knee bowing his head.

“I, Harold of House Perelle, hereby swear my allegiance by the wyvern flame and by all that I hold dear. Should I break my oath, may the emerald flame forever burn me, may my holdings and those I love burn to ash. I bow before you, Queen Serena of Isladoone.” Catalina raised the bastard’s hand shouting “The Queen, Queen Serena, Queen of Isladoone.” Justina, and the other liege lords swore their own oaths to their new Queen.

“You have lost, Amiranthe.” Catalina said.

“And you have made yourself a Queen-maker.”

“Better a Lothdale Queen than a Blackwood King.”

Next Chapter: The Wyvern Queen