so i listen to the    wind for an answer

She has grown used to Alysanne and Tembovu’s calls. They are familiar to her in the same way her parents calls had once been familiar to her, and it’s without reservation that she makes her way toward the usual meeting spot. But it’s clear, quickly, that something is wrong. Tembovu is not himself, not quite as proud, his greetings much more subdued. Her mind immediately kicks into gear, looking for any outward sides of injury or sickness. She can find nothing but tired circles under his eyes, and she cannot figure out what those might mean without asking more questions. They could simply mean he is tired, after all, between being King and raising a family.

When they all gather and he speaks, everything starts out wrong. This is not how meetings go. No, not usually, except when Elsa had called them all together to step down. But somehow she cannot wrap her mind around the possibility of this. To her, there was no other King. She has never seen another in the Edge, never really thought she would see another. If you are called the Elephant King, it is because you are destined to be King.

And then he looks at her. Her teal eyes widen just slightly as her name ushers out of his lips, and it’s all she can do to keep her mind trained to his words. Queen. Her? She wouldn’t believe if he weren’t starting right at her, thinking the sound of her name to just be a trick of the wind. But there are no other names like hers in the Edge. She almost laughs aloud when he says she might even serve this place better.

No, that she could not do. She could never dream to fill his shoes. She could only dream to do his legacy justice, to serve the Edge to the best of her ability. Hopefully, the rest of the herd would be willing to give her that chance. It is not fresh, but she hasn’t forgotten Aly’s reception on the throne, and now, there were two healers sitting there. But she could fix that. She could be better. She could be what her brother had always wanted to be.

At least, she could try.

She waits until he finishes, trying to catch Sacre and Yael’s eyes when their promotions are also announced, nodding to each. Her excitement for both of them helps to diminish her own nerves, at least momentarily, and her grin gets a little bigger for Yael.  When Alysanne is also done, her eyes find Tembovu again, nodding toward their King. Not former. He would always be the Elephant King. And she hopes, somehow through the look in her eye, that the throne will always be his. At least in some way.

“It won’t be the same without you,” she says to Tembovu, her voice quiet, loud enough for him to hear and those nearby her. Then, louder, pulling herself up in the once she once stood when she served her old home as Princess, the way her mother once stood as Queen. “I will do my best to serve the Edge if you will have me.”

She was never destined to be Queen in Morham. She was destined to be a princess, to be used for alliances and to live the life she chose. And she never dreamed of a throne when she came here. She simply dreamed of a new life, one to help ease the pain of her own. And suddenly, she has a family bigger than she could have ever imagined. Suddenly, she has a life she never thought possible. And it was a good one.

lyanna