Mfonemana_Uduak

Dear readers, This is the most edited version of Lucy Wickshire on the net for my readers, whose eyes itch at mistakes.

Synopsis: One misty day, the higher realms call for penance; the head of a mother and child requested. The stench of blood carried on for miles, A whiff of pain trailed down pine-covered hills. A mother's head taken on a spike, a child saved despite great battle. A failure to be dreaded for years to come. Banking on time, the realms prepare for when a child becomes a woman. But the impatient child would never reward enemies with even time. A promise; One should resolve a child's grudge before the breast milk is dry. A prayer; May the realms rue the day they failed to kill Lucy Wickshire.
You are about to read the accounts of Lucy Torgenn of Wickshire and the millions of bodies burned as a backdrop to a child's rage.

Lucy Wickshire

The monks did not speak. The monk in the middle only upped out a red string and King Adrian stretched out his left hand with Amie's in it, allowing the monk to tie the string around their two hands.

"Bound on the unequal path," The monk said, "The horn calls, the feather follows,"

The monk next to him handed King Adrian an ivory horn and the other handed Amie a white feather.

Amie knew of the next part. As she was told, it was time for her to kneel. She knelt before King Adrian and he took out her crown set, one piece at a time and handed it to one monk, to receive a replacement from the other. It was a solemn moment. The bells were ringing so softly, that one could not understand how bells could do that. King Adrian stood before her, taking off her crown set, and replacing it with that given by the monk. It was as though he had learnt which order to place them, as he did not pause for one moment while carrying this out.

Just when Amie thought her knees were going to die in that position, she heard the monk ask her to rise.

With King Adrian's help, she rose without fail. King Adrian could not take his eyes off that soft smile on her face. His hands itched to reach out and pinch it away to reveal her true expression, but he held back.

The audience clapped as they both exited the hall hand in hand. It was a wedding like no other, but the true event was yet to come. King Adrian and Amie went out to meet the cheering crowd outside. Amie only gave a short wave before putting down her hand.

"I will wait for you in the palace. Make sure you get there without fail, without aid. If not, you will be my wife, but not my queen," he warned with a smile. At his words, Amie's smile did not even twitch. She had heard of this ridiculous old tradition from Madam D'huile. She knew she must walk the path to the palace barefooted and pour oil into the life lamp. Usually, this was only a test of resilience. Walking all that way with a dress and crown this heavy, as the first and only queen to have done it, did so on a hot day, it must have been horrible.

But she had other worries. No matter if the path to the palace from the holy tower was short; she still had to walk it barefooted on the coldest day of the year. She worried her feet would be frozen by the time she reached the palace.

She looked at the path before her, not caring that King Adrian had placed a soft kiss on the back of her hand before leaving for the palace in his carriage.

Many stared at her in anticipation. They too were thinking as she was. Walking barefooted on the coldest day of the year, would she really do it?

Amie heard the gong in the palace sound, signalling that King Adrian had arrived at the palace and she should start her walk there.

Before the crowd, she stepped out of her shoes onto the cold stone grounds. She stepped down the stone steps with a smile on her face despite the biting cold. The moment her feet touched the last steps, her smile froze.

Bk 2: chapter three (16)