The Slave Queen of Etherion Ch. 12

Chapter 12

Malachite Palace, Lysannum

On the thirty-second day after King Steven's funeral, Jade's coronation was held. Her coronation gown had been designed to emphasise her status as both Queen and slave. She wore a high-collared circular neckpiece that she donned beneath her slave collar, that lay across the tops of her shoulders and descended down her back and upper chest, not quite reaching down to the tops of her breasts. It was black at the top, and faded through silver to white at the bottom, and heavily embroidered with silver thread, her golden slave collar standing out against the dark background. She also wore a tight silver-embroidered corset which compressed her waist from her hips to just beneath her breasts, pushing them upwards and forwards, emphasising her glittering diamond-set nipple rings. She also wore long, tight, silver embroidered gloves that extended up to her upper arms, though her fingers were bare, and on her legs, she wore her thigh-high ballet boots. A pair of footless silver embroidered hose that would cover her legs from ankle to upper thigh and were intended to be supported by clips that hung from her corset had been made, but she had come to love the ballet boots that Rodger had commissioned for her so much that she insisted on wearing them instead. She wore her long black hair in a simple high ponytail, gathered with a modest black leather tube rather than the elaborate coiffure that a princess who wasn't also a slave might have worn at her coronation.

Rodger watched as Xenia helped Jade into her elegant, erotic clothing, and he came over to hug her... and to fondle her bare, protruding breasts and slip a hand between her legs, where he felt a sudden wetness. "I want to fuck you," he murmured into her ear.

"We don't have time for that," she said forcefully, trying but not quite succeeding in concealing a smile. "I'll be late!" However, her hand lingered on his where it caressed her breast, before she slapped it away lightly.

He laughed and kissed her on the back of the neck before stepping back to allow Xenia to continue her work.

Xenia applied makeup to the princess with a speed and skill gained from years of experience. She applied a subtle blush and eyeshadow, and applied lip paint the colour of fresh blood. However, she wasn't finished there, and also applied blush to Jade's bare breasts, and drew a mid-pink line around the edge of Jade's areolae to make them appear even more perfectly round and defined, then applied a paler pink paint to Jade's pale nipples and the middle of her areolae. Finally, she trimmed and applied a clear varnish to Jade's finger and toe nails.

"That's it... we're done, Jade," Xenia said.

"Thank you... Now... chain me, master!" she ordered him.

Rodger knelt to fit shackles around her ankles, the pair linked together by a short chain that was joined to a similar chain connecting the shackles that Rodger fastened around her wrists by a third length of chain. It wasn't as restrictive as it looked; while she held her hands high, a heavy steel ring around the chain connecting ankle chain to wrist chain ensured that her ankle chain would appear quite short, but if she lowered her hands, it would become almost long enough to run normally, save that her wrists were connected by a four-inch-long chain that wouldn't allow her to swing her arms properly.

Rodger stood and clipped a chain leash to the ring at the front of Jade's collar.

"How do I look, love?" Jade asked.

"Ravishing," Rodger complimented her. "Which is what I'll be doing to you as soon as I get the opportunity..."

Jade looked over Rodger in his formal Galadian tartan kilt and sash, and her chains rattled as she brushed away a speck of lint, tugged his sash into a flatter position, and adjusted his off-kilter sporran.

"Let's go," Jade ordered, leading her master behind her by the chain around his wrist that was connected to her collar.

Rodger had to admit that his slave had an excellent air of command when she wanted.

Jade and Rodger acquired an escort of eight soldiers armed with halberds, their breastplates and kit gleaming and immaculate. As they left the palace, Jade dropped back into a position behind and to the left of Rodger, where she would appear to be led by her master as they walked along the roped-off path through the city square which teemed with cheering and whistling people.

High Lord's Cathedral, Lysannum

As they entered the cathedral, and were momentarily in an antechamber, out of earshot of everyone but their guards, Rodger spoke. "I bet that I can fuck you during the ceremony," he implicitly challenged her to avoid it.

"As pleasant as it is, you are not going to pound my pussy with your cock during my coronation!" Jade disagreed.

"I didn't say anything about giving you a good pounding... The bet is just that I get my cock into your cunt during the ceremony. What you do once it's in there is up to you."

"All right... but no sneaky fucking when no-one is looking, everyone who's paying attention has to know that we're doing it."

"Agreed," he said. "Winner gets a night with Xenia -- or anyone else they want -- and the loser has to watch, but doesn't get to cum."

"It's a bet."

There was a knock on the door, and a barely-adult altar-girl with bright coppery hair, wearing her ceremonial regalia entered. "Is the Princess ready to proceed?" she asked, blushing slightly and not looking directly at Jade.

"Briony, isn't it?" Jade asked the girl. "Briony Lovechild?"

"Uh... Yes... your... um... Princess," the girl replied.

"Briony, please look at me," Jade said. When the girl looked, blushing even more furiously than before, Jade continued. "Good... Now, do you see the slave rings in my nipples, navel and clit?" Jade asked. "What about my slave collar and shackles?"

"Uh... yes, ma'am..." Briony answered hesitantly.

Jade sighed.

"An appropriate response would be, 'I'm not blind, slave, now get to the point before you earn yourself a flogging!'" Rodger interjected.

Briony looked shocked. "I couldn't address her highness so!"

"So you shouldn't," Jade agreed. "But right now, I'm not the Crown Princess... I'm just Prince Rodger's personal slave. You're the daughter of a whore, aren't you?" Jade asked. "Your father could be any one of dozens of Johns whom your mother fucked for money, right?"

A frown crossed Briony's pretty face. "Well... I wouldn't have put it that way... but yes."

"Society makes little distinction that you're the bastard daughter of a wealthy property owner and business-woman when your mother is a whore and the madam of The King's Temptation," Jade started. "And surely, given that background, you've seen whores and slaves in a state of partial or complete undress? Maybe you've even seen what their 'gentlemen callers' do with them?"

"Well... lots of times to the first, and the other a few times too..." Briony replied.

"Well, Briony, as a slave, I'm of little more importance than a common sex slave whose owner pimps her out for profit... and unless I'm acting in my capacity as princess -- or queen -- then all I am, and all I want to be, is Rodger's slave and fuck-toy."

Briony smiled a little wryly and looked Jade up and down like a piece of meat, walking around her, brushing a piece of lint from Jade's neatly-trimmed pubic hair, lifting Jade's breasts to look at the crease beneath them, and tweaking Jade's nipple rings into the perfect position. "It looks like your slave is just about ready, your highness," Briony said to Rodger, her voice sounding as if she was suppressing her laughter with some difficulty. "There's just one thing..."

"What's that, Briony?" Rodger asked.

"Well... your slave's bum is awfully pale..." she said. "Her cheeks... and tits have been rouged, but not her bum. Shouldn't a slave have that 'Just Spanked' look?" Briony continued to sound as if she was suppressing her laughter as she spoke, then she burst out in peals of laughter as her mirth got the better of her. "How was that, slave?" Briony asked Jade when she regained her self control.

"That was perfect, Briony," Jade replied with another smile, then stood with her legs slightly apart, and leaned forward, holding on to the back of a chair, thrusting her pale buttocks toward the altar girl. "Could you please correct that oversight mistress?"

Briony glanced toward Rodger, who nodded, smiling slightly.

Briony began to spank Jade's pale bum, her strokes light and stinging, working her way around so as to cover Jade's backside completely. As she slapped Jade's bum, Rodger whispered something into Briony's ear that was lost to the rhythmic 'Smack! Smack! Smack!' of Briony's hand on Jade's bum.

By the time Briony was done, asking Rodger, "How does that look?", Jade was regretting her request. Briony had spanked her bum thoroughly, and while the individual strokes had been light and initially bearable, their cumulative effect had become painful to the point where Jade hissed between gritted teeth with the pain of each stroke.

"It just needs those last touches I mentioned," Rodger said.

'Last touches?' Jade thought, having not heard her master speak.

"Yes, Sir," Briony replied.

"Aaaah! Owww!" Jade screamed as Briony smacked her bum twice more, much harder than previously, once on each bum cheek.

"Thank you, Briony. That's perfect," Rodger complimented the girl. "You may pass the word that my slave is ready for the ceremony to begin."

"Thank you, mistress," Jade said to Briony as she straightened up.

"You're welcome, slave," Briony replied just before she slipped back out of the door.

Jade twisted herself around and tried to peer over her own shoulders and under her arms as she tried to look at her own bum, until Rodger gestured toward the mirror. Jade stood with her back to the mirror and looked back over her shoulder, to see that her bum was a neat, even red all over, with the clear mark of a hand-print with spread fingers right in the middle of each of her bum-cheeks, placed in such a way that everyone would know that she had been spanked hard, and that she couldn't have done it to herself.

"Owww..." Jade said, resisting the urge to rub her aching, stinging arse. "That'll teach me not to open my mouth."

"I dare say," her master agreed with a grin. "That was all your idea."

Just then, the opening chords of the organ music that was Jade's cue to enter began. There was plenty of time before the opening chords gave way to the theme that was her cue to enter, but she checked her chains and tugged on her leash until Rodger took up his position at the doors.

"All right, love," Rodger said to Jade as they waited. "Let's go get you crowned."

As the music changed, cueing their entry, the doors swung open away from them, each of the huge, ornately-carved leaves of the door being pulled by a burly porter.

Rodger waited a moment for his musical cue, then stepped forward, leading Jade at a measured pace on her leash toward the dais where the Bishop awaited their arrival.

On stepping onto the dais, Rodger unsnapped Jade's leash.

"Prince Rodger, Tharnirion commends you for your care of your slave, Princess Jade, and thanks you for permitting her to fulfill her duty to her nation," the Bishop pronounced, Rodger giving a formal nod of acknowledgement.

Rodger bunched up Jade's leash and put it into the sporran that dangled at the front of his formal Galadian kilt as he retired to stand beside the throne that stood behind the Bishop.

The Bishop continued, now addressing the Princess directly.

"Princess Jade, please kneel," he instructed her, gesturing toward the plump, royal purple cushion embroidered with the national crest that Briony the altar-girl placed reverently between them.

When Jade had followed the Bishop's instructions, sinking gracefully to her knees onto the soft cushion, the stern-faced man continued.

"The institition of Monarchy has been handed down from generation to generation, from the first ever King, Alpharius the Wise, who received his title and his crown directly from the hand of the High Lord, Dominus Excelsus, Himself. On occasion, being the fallible beings that we are, we have forgotten that which the High Lord has decreed, and have needed to be reminded... by the High Lord himself, and by His four Saints, Koros the Restorer, Nethalem the Just, The Red-Handed One, and most importantly today, Hetara, the Queen of the Night, whose travails and triumphs showed men that women are also fit to rule, and that it is men who are the most likely to be ruled by their lusts.

"Of course, Dominus Excelsus is the greatest of the gods, the lord of Heaven, but we of Tharnirion must also acknowledge the goddess Idelinæ, Goddess of Victory, for her assistance in gaining Tharnirion's independence when the people of Etherion suffered under the rule of the dark elves of the Brialasan Empire. We must also acknowledge the evil Darin Steelmaster, first free king of Radsarnum, whom history records as Darin the Blackmailer, magus, inventor and high priest of the evil god Stelvarn, without whose assistance the Brialasan Empire would never have been driven from this world, whose price for that assistance was the hand in marriage of the most beautiful and desirable maiden in all Etherion, rule of a kingdom for himself and his heirs, and perpetual acknowledgement. Thus, let it never be said that the worshippers of Dominus Excelsus fail to honour an agreement, even when made with evil men. We must also acknowledge the fair Ella of Sneklum, who, after her true love and fiancee had been murdered by Darin the Blackmailer, agreed to marry her fiancee's murderer, and proved when she and Darin fell in love against her inclinations, that a person may have more than one true love in their lives, and that love is stronger than evil, when King Darin the Blackmailer turned from worship of Stelvarn for love of his wife.

"The Monarchy of Tharnirion has a long and mostly distinguished history. From the first monarch, Queen Lysanna the Strong, who gave her name to this city, and established the tradition that monarchs be buried with their crown when she insisted on being buried with the crown that she wrested from the very brow of the Brialasan empress herself, and cleansed of its evil with the power of the High Lord, to Queen Angharad Sorenid, who abdicated in favour of her beloved husband, King Steven Agutter, styled 'The Cunning,' and became his slave so that the curse of the Sorenid dynasty would be broken: 'Til the last Sorenid monarch dies in the chains of slavery, each Sorenid king shall suffer madness, that he knows not friend from foe, for had I been met with justice, the blessings I could have given would have proved me to be a friend indeed.' Thus spoke the witch Sharlanne from the pyre upon which she was unjustly burned to death by King Vall the Fearful for her imaginary, unproven and unprovable crimes.

"King Steven himself was a good man, risen from the gutters and slums to attend the Royal Officers' college by the sacrifices of his loving family, and come to royal estate by virtue of winning Queen Angharad's nuptial challenge. He has been called many things: Good, Wise, Just, and less flatteringly, Lustful, but the description that suited him best was Cunning: No matter the problem, King Steven always found a solution, even if it was unorthodox.

"So, we come to Princess Jade, the only legitimate child of King Steven Agutter and his slave-wife Angharad Sorenid. However, mere ancestry does not make a monarch. As its monarch is guardian of the laws and traditions of Tharnirion on behalf of all the peoples of Tharnirion and the land itself, tradition demands that a new monarch must pass certain tests, and make the vows of the monarchy in order to take their post."

The Bishop turned to Briony, who was holding an ancient sword with a black pommel stone, lying on a cushion, offering it to the Bishop. The sword was not rusty, but like an ancient carving knife, was pitted with age and had been sharpened to a mere sliver of its former self, until it could no longer be expected to withstand the rigours of battle. The bishop lifted the sword and displayed it to the audience.

"This is Elfbane, the sword wielded by Queen Lysanna herself, with which she removed the head of the Brialasan empress before removing the crown from her cold dead brows. It has seen better days, but when wielded by a true monarch of Tharnirion, it shall regain a utility in equal measure to the potential of the monarch who holds it, and the gem at its pommel shall glow with the light of the monarch's justice."

The Bishop offered Elfbane to the kneeling Princess Jade, who stood and took it and raised it above her head as the Bishop stepped back. The pommel stone glimmered with a faint blue light, and the cathedral was filled with a sudden deep, resonant thrum that shook the dust from the ceiling as the sword visibly grew from an object that was not much more than an over-sharpened shortsword to a longsword, then a broadsword, then a bastard sword, then a two-handed sword, then even larger still, until Jade's arm trembled with the effort of holding its huge bulk aloft, then the dim blue light within the pommel flared up until it was so bright that no-one could look at it, and had to turn away and cover their eyes. Then there was the sudden crash and deep-toned clangor as a huge metal bar bounced and clanged on the stone floor before coming to rest, then suddenly the thrum fell silent and the actinic, blinding light winked out, leaving the bright cathedral seemingly little more than a dimly lit hall in comparison.

Jade and Rodger opened their eyes that they had closed against the blinding light, as did the Bishop and the other ceremonial attendants, to see Elfbane, once more a mere over-sharpened shortsword, lying on the floor amidst the stones of the floor that had been chipped, cracked and shattered by its fall, a yard and more from where it lay innocuously.

"Oops..." Jade whispered to the Bishop. "I couldn't hold it..."

"Never mind," the Bishop replied equally quietly. "It was a good omen... very good."

The Bishop raised his voice once more. "The next test is the Test of Fertility. Being able to father -- or bear -- heirs of the body is not an essential duty of a monarch, but a kingdom is more stable in the knowledge that the succession has been guaranteed. To this end, we have the Girdle of Alaya," the Bishop referred to the Goddess of Fertility and Farming, as he gestured toward a young man carrying a long, broad leather belt. "Alaya's Girdle is known for being impossible for an infertile person to wear, while the number of holes which pass through the buckle indicates the number of children the wearer may father or bear. Princess Jade, please raise your arms."

Jade's chains clinked as she lifted her arms in front of her face, and the young man stepped in front of her and put the broad leather girdle around her waist, and fed the end of the girdle's belt through the tongueless buckle, then stepped back. The girdle clung to her hips for a moment, the end of the belt neither pulling in nor moving out, then suddenly the end of the belt whipped through the buckle, pulling tighter and tighter until Jade's waist was cinched in far more than her corset could ever account for, and she gasped in surprise and grabbed for the girdle. As she touched it with her hands, it stopped pulling tight, and popped back out to hang loosely on her bare hips once more.

"I think that we can safely say, 'Lots'," the Bishop said, eliciting a ripple of laughter from the assembled witnesses.

"The final test is the Test of Gold. Gold flows toward the monarch, and it is a measure of a monarch's greatness that gold flows from her hands, that she is touched by it, yet is not burned by her desire for it."

Another altar boy stepped forward with a bowl-shaped green glass goblet filled almost to the top with solid gold. The bishop took the goblet, showed it to the crowd then turned to Jade.

"Princess Jade, please hold out your hands," the Bishop asked, and when Jade complied, he upended the goblet over them, a solid, heavy lump of gold falling into Jade's hands. The Bishop moved the goblet beneath Jade's hands and waited.

As Jade held the hemispherical ingot of gold, a ray of light appeared at a high window and shone upon the gold. The gold began to glow, first a dull red, then brightening, then turning orange, then yellow, and as it did, rivulets of gold began to trickle from Jade's hands back into the goblet, though she seemed completely unconcerned that she was holding what seemed to be a white-hot lump of melting metal. Glowing gold spread over Jade's hands, and began to flow up her arms, then across her body and her clothing, until she was encased in gold, seemingly from her feet to the tips of her hair, as if she had been transformed into a living, breathing golden statue. Molten gold flowed from Jade's hands until the goblet was full, and still it flowed, until the Bishop had to step back and hold the goblet at arm's length, while molten gold spilled over the rim and dripped onto the floor, where it seeped into the stones damaged earlier by Elfbane's fall.

The flow of gold from Jade's hands stopped just as the cracks and chips in the floor had been filled, and as the last droplet of molten metal fell, it took with it the golden colouring that had covered Jade from head to foot. The beam of light from the high window faded, as did the gold's glow, fading rapidly from a yellow-white glow, to orange, cherry red and dull red before resuming its usual form. However, the goblet, which had been almost completely full, was now full to overflowing, with the top of the gold above the rim, and curving down around the edges to meet the green glass rim.

"Princess Jade, please show your hands," the Bishop instructed in a voice intended to be heard by the crowd, once he had passed the goblet back to the altar boy.

Jade held out her hands to show that they were untouched by the molten gold that had flowed over them, and that her skin was as pale and perfect as it had ever been, and not even reddened by contact with the molten metal.

"Princess Jade has performed the traditional three tests," the Bishop announced, facing the crowd. "According to the traditions of Tharnirion, the witnesses to the Tests must judge if the prospective heir to the throne has passed those tests, and may ascend to the throne. So, hwyt saye ye, maye Lairds un Ledyes, ye hayv seyen the tysts; shall the Pryncess tayk the thrown?" he asked in an archaic form of the language. "All opposed, say ye 'Nay'?"

There was a long moment of silence, interrupted only by a few coughs.

"All in acclamation, say ye 'Aye'?" the Bishop asked once it was apparent that no-one was about to speak up.

"Aye!" the response was thunderous.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Tharnirion thanks you for your service and support.

Princess Jade, you may take the throne..." the Bishop continued, then added, "If your master permits."

Rodger cleared his throat. "Slave... To be seated, to stand, or to kneel makes no difference to your ability to perform your duties to your kingdom, so, you shall sit... but you must be mounted upon my cock when you do so." He walked over to the throne and sat on the edge of the seat, stretching his legs out in front of him and leaning back, before pushing aside his sporran and opening his formal kilt to reveal his already erect cock, a bead of precum already visible at its tip.

There was a sudden sussuration that passed through the audience sitting in the cathedral as the audience began to whisper to one-another.

Jade looked with slighly narrowed eyes at Rodger, who was smiling faintly as he waited for his slave to obey. "Yes, Master," she said after a moment that was almost long enough to be disobedience, in a tone of voice that, while apparently submissive, seemed to promise future disobedience.

Jade stepped over Rodger's outstretched legs, her chains clinking, and lowered herself onto his erect cock, showing everyone in the cathedral her vulva as she lifted her leg. She took hold of Rodger's cock and rubbed it up and down her slit for a moment before lowering herself fully on to it, sighing involuntarily with the pleasure of having her cunt stretched open. She settled herself astride him until she was resting her full weight upon his hips.

The Bishop proceeded to give a lengthy sermon on the duties, responsibilities and privileges of the monarch, and the duties of those who were subordinate to the monarch. Jade had heard it all before, and in any case was somewhat distracted by the slow fucking her master was giving her, slowly, subtly rocking his hips back and forth, sliding his cock slowly in and out of her cunt. Despite her earlier objections, she was enjoying every moment, and was equally subtly rocking her own hips back and forth to meet his thrusts. She was sitting up straight while mounted upon her master's cock, so he couldn't see that her nipples were hard and erect, making her nipple rings stand up from their usual position dangling beneath her nipples, so that they were almost horizontal.

Once the sermon was over, the Bishop took a tiny glass jug full of oil from Briony the altar girl.

"With this oil, I anoint you as the representative of Dominus Excelsus," the Bishop said as he poured some of the oil onto the top of Jade's head, then smoothed it into her hair.

After the anointing, the Bishop coached Jade through her oath of office.

"I, Jade Amorette Angharadsdottir Agutter, slave to Prince Rodger of Galadon, do solemnly swear to uphold the laws and traditions of Tharnirion."

The Bishop handed Jade the royal sword, a newer, more decorative and also more usable weapon than Elfbane.

"With my sword, I shall defend Tharnirion and its people, even at the cost of my own life."

The Bishop handed Jade the Curio, a strange, angular object of uncertain purpose with many sliders, pivots, screws, levers and springs, all made from some unknown dark blue metal, dating back thousands of years to the time before the Brialasan Empire, of which the Brialasans had sought -- and mostly succeeded -- to erase all memory.

"With the Curio of Cabb'm, I shall be reminded that learning never ends, and that there is always more to be learned."

The Bishop handed Jade the Royal Orrery, a complicated but deceptively small magical and mechanial device that had accurately shown the movement of the sun, moon, major planets and worlds for hundreds of years.

"With the Orrery, I shall always be reminded of the passage of time and of the importance of punctuality."

The Bishop presented Jade with a small but ornate wooden box in which sat a tiny world, called Tharnir. On opening the box, the tiny silver-black polished tetrahedron a handwidth high sprang into the air and hovered just above Jade's head, rotating with just-visible speed.

"May the world Tharnir remind me of the importance of all things, both large and small."

Having been presented with the ceremonial items from the nation's collection of Crown Jewels, all that remained was the coronation itself. Jade's new crown was brought out upon a purple cushion by Briony the altar girl, who stood with it next to the throne while the Bishop addressed the congregation.

"The Crown is the traditional symbol of monarchy, the gold and gems from which it may be constructed and its form are intended to make it reminiscent of the sun, which is one of the symbols of the High Lord, Dominus Excelsus, as it is His light which shows His favour to an anointed and crowned monarch. According to the traditions of Tharnirion, each monarch's crown is interred with its wearer, as each crown is as unique as the monarch who wears it. However, for Princess Jade, who is both the acclaimed heir to the throne, as well as Prince Rodger's slave, her crown has additional features that reflect her two roles. As Queen, Jade may wear her crown as a physical representation of the High Lord's radiance, but when she is performing her duties as a slave, she may wear it in a different manner so as to show that she is a slave, caged by her own choice to be subject to the will of her master."

The Bishop lifted Jade's crown from its cushion and displayed it to the congregation. It was made from gold, of course, and had twenty-one points, each a handspan long, and little more than a finger-width wide at most, curving outward a little from around the headband, each tipped with a glittering teardrop-shaped cut diamond mounted with its point uppermost. The golden points were triangular, though each had a semicircular scallop cut out of each side a couple of inches above the headband.

The Bishop turned back to Jade. "With this symbol of your royal authority and lifelong servitude to both of your masters, Prince Rodger and the Kingdom of Tharnirion, I crown you Queen Jade, first monarch of that name. May the weight of your crown remind you of the weight of your duties."

The Bishop lowered the crown reverently onto Jade's head, while Briony, who had divested herself of the purple cushion, pulled Jade's ponytail through a hole at the top of the crown, and thrust a long, thick, blunt golden pin through Jade's hair just below her ponytail's binding to hold the crown in place.

"I present to you Queen Jade the First!" the Bishop announced, once Jade had been crowned.

What followed was the Lords' oaths of fealty; every noble lord and lady of Tharnirion rose from their seats along with their children, and one by one knelt before Queen Jade and recited the traditional oath of fealty to the new monarch. Rodger reflected that if it had been Galadon, that part of the ceremony would have taken all day and much of the night, but in Tharnirion, which was little more than the size of a fairly large estate in Galadon, there weren't all that many nobles, and it took a little over an hour for each title-holder and their families to present themselves individually and recite the oath.

After that, after the ceremonial items had begun their journey back into storage, it was time to present the new Queen to her people. Jade walked down the aisle, with Rodger following, holding her leash, while music from the cathedral's pipe organ filled the air.

Lysannum City Square

As they emerged, the city square erupted with cheers. At first, Rodger felt that it was a rather poor showing, given that the crowd was little bigger than when Jade had announced her nuptial challenge, but then Rodger realised that he had been used to seeing crowds in Galadon numbering in the high tens of thousands of people, but this was Etherion, and this crowd of a couple of thousand might be the majority of Tharnirion's population.

"The Auguries!" The crowd shouted as the congregation began to emerge from the cathedral behind the new queen and her master. "Let's see the Auguries!"

"What's this?" Rodger asked.

"It's traditional," Jade explained. "The new monarch is blindfolded, and throws three ceramic jugs, one red, one purple and one black. The number of pieces they break into is said to be, respectively, the number of people whom the new monarch will harm unjustly, the number of years they will reign, and the number of years they will live."

"That could have interesting results," Rodger said, raising one eyebrow.

"It's said to be quite accurate..." Jade said, as a man wearing the ceremonial robes and chains of office of the Mayor came forward with a bag and a blindfold.

After congratulating her majesty on her coronation, the Mayor shouted, "Clear a space for the auguries to be made!", and as the crowd scurried away from the steps of the cathedral, he offered Jade a blindfold, which Rodger helped her tie around her eyes.

Once blinfolded, The mayor brought the cloth bag he carried to Jade's outstretched hand, and she felt inside, rummaging around to the sound of ceramic clinking before pulling out a glossy black pint-sized jug. Jade held up the jug to the suddenly silent crowd, then lowered her arm and tossed the jug underhanded high into the air.

The jug arced well above everybody's heads, and descended toward the cathedral steps, where it landed with a 'Bing!', bouncing intact from the stone step and high into the air again.

There was a sudden murmur from the crowd. When the jug landed again, and bounced intact once more with a 'BDing!', the crowd groaned with dismay.

The black jug fell once more, but this time landed with a 'Pock-Shhhhhhhh!' as it shattered into countless hundreds or thousands of tiny fragments which bounced across the stones of the square. The crowd's groans shifted suddenly to cheers.

During the pause while the remains of the jug were swept up, the Mayor commented, "It's going to take quite a while to count that!"

Jade reached into the bag again and pulled out a red pint-jug and threw it high into the air. It landed with a 'Bing...! Bing...! Bing-B-Bing-bing-bing...', remaining completely intact when it had come to rest."

However, rather than being delighted at the prospect of so few people being harmed unjustly, the crowd were muttering suspiciously... perhaps the omen had been too good... perhaps unbelievably so.

The mayor walked over to the jug and picked it up. "Let's just make sure that it's not been rigged," he said, and then dropped the jug, which landed on the ground and broke immediately into perhaps ten largish pieces. "Seems all right to me," he shrugged, silencing the muttering.

Jade threw the third, purple, pint-sized jug, and it bounced once before landing with a clank as it broke into a more reasonable number of pieces. As its remains were cleaned up, the number, "Twenty-three!" was announced.

Jade pulled off her blindfold. "What were the numbers?" she asked.

"Well," the Mayor replied. "For purple there were twenty-three pieces, for red there was one piece, and for black..." he paused while a richly dressed woman who looked like she could be his wife whispered into his ear. "For black, we have three hundred and seventy nine pieces."

The crowd made assorted sounds of surprise, then they began whistling, cheering and applauding.

"Well, the Queen's work is done for now," Jade said, then bowed quickly toward Rodger, her head going down below her waist and her ponytail flipping forward to brush on the ground. The pin in her hair prevented the crown from falling off, and as the crown was nearly inverted, something within it 'clink'ed, and when Jade stood upright again, the points of the crown fell down around her head, forming a cage. The edges of the points didn't meet, with a gap between them perhaps the width of Jade's smallest fingernail, though the semicircular scallops cut into the sides of the points lined up into a series of holes around Jade's eye level, two of them directly in front of her eyes. The diamonds formed a necklace high around her neck, just below her chin.

* * *