Read Novel Full Chapter 1723: Echoes of the Princes
Chapter 1723: Echoes of the Princes
Amid wave on wave of cheers and shouts, Elara strode up the road of glory, entered the castle, climbed the wall of the royal palace, and took the throne.
"A new sovereign takes the throne, to rule the myriad races, to cut through bramble and thorn—glory undying." Orion's voice came grave and stern from the heavens, ringing and weighty, his will surging across earth and sky, brooking no rebuttal, no protest, tolerating no heresy or false doctrine.
"May the land lie whole in your time, the realm at peace, the people content. May you sweep all before you when you march to war, and come through a hundred battles unbroken. May all be tranquil when you return, your work done and your name made."
Then came the old king Orion's blessing on the new king Elara, and as the last word fell, a soul-shaking roar pealed across the whole world. A four-headed, eight-armed Stoneheart titan phantom dropped from the sky over Stoneheart City, blotting out the sun, and when the people on the ground looked up they had the illusion that the last day was about to break upon them, that some supreme demon-god was about to wipe them out. But the last day did not come, and ruin did not arrive. The giant phantom did not fall into the crowd—it fell onto Elara, second Titan King of the Stoneheart Horde. As the phantom drew near, its form shrank smaller and smaller, until at last it gathered above Elara's head into a black-gold crown borne up by a Stoneheart titan. This was the Stoneheart Horde's inheritance, the very symbol of the Horde's highest Authority. From this moment, the Horde's power passed formally into Queen Elara's hands.
"Guarded by the will of one of the strongest—what an extravagant stroke." On the platform, in the guest-of-honor seats, the Order of the Dandelion's Vice-Master Aednor couldn't help crying out, his eyes on Elara turning weightier still. The weight wasn't scorn, nor enmity, but respect for Orion and the whole Stoneheart Horde. Crown on her head, will at her guard—you might say that on the Stoneheart Horde's ground, Elara was an unbeatable being. To strike at Elara was to strike at Orion. And Orion had stepped into the ranks of the very strongest.
"Hail the new sovereign. My friend, it seems your years of toil and giving haven't been wasted. Welcome to the age of the queen of the Stoneheart Horde." The bard Cloudsong drew his brush to a slow close, carefully rolled up the colored picture he'd painted and the history he'd recorded, and gingerly put it away. Cloudsong sat at Rhazuun's side, and Rhazuun, the Grand Magus who'd brokered the first tie with Elara, sat of course behind the Order of the Dandelion's Vice-Master Aednor and the four elemental demigods—all of them guests of honor of the Stoneheart Horde.
"Never mind that little bit of credit of mine. Without the guild-master and the elders gracing us, I'd not rank even as a worm before that old king." Rhazuun shook his head, with a fine sense of his own measure. He knew well that his "deep" friendship with Elara, and the open benefits he'd gained off the Stoneheart Horde, came to nothing before the Mirage Void. What truly moved the great figures of every quarter was the fabled Divine Mantle.
"Rhazuun, ready yourself. Square away matters here, return to the guild, and enter the Mage-God Tower for seclusion." Aednor looked back, regarding Rhazuun with a not-quite smile, his lips parting to set out the man's next step.
"Enter the Mage-God Tower for seclusion?" Rhazuun blanked a moment, then, catching up, wore a look of wild joy and stared at Aednor in plain disbelief. "Vice—Vice-Master, you've not misspoken?" As a member of the Order of the Dandelion, Rhazuun knew well that entering the Mage-God Tower for seclusion meant the guild was grooming him as a demigod seed—a treatment no ordinary man got to enjoy.
"This bard friend has the right of it. Your giving hasn't been wasted by Queen Elara, and it won't be wasted by our Order of the Dandelion. Handle matters here well and get back to seclusion soon—a Grand Magus truly holds no standing here." The Grand Magus Aednor spoke of stood level with an Arch Lord. In the Stoneheart Horde as it was now, demigods thick on the ground, an Arch Lord power didn't rank even as a local strongman.
"Right—right, my thanks, guild-master." Aednor gave a faint smile and turned back to keep his eyes on Elara, on the crown above her head. It was the handiwork of a sixth-stage power, well worth Aednor's study.
Just as Rhazuun made to share with the friend beside him the joy of his shot at making demigod, the new sovereign's accession celebration moved to its next step.
"By blood as our mirror, by glory as our witness—His Highness the Third Prince slew twenty thousand foes on the Bastion Wall, in honor of Her Majesty. His Highness wishes to open and broaden the realm for Her Majesty—may the Horde's domain stand forever firm, may the Horde's glory live undying." The Gnoll Wepwawet held high a tray draped in red cloth, a troop of guards and succubus escorts in full dress following left and right at his back, crying out as they advanced. Any soul of the Stoneheart Horde knew that this was the personal array of Pallas, the Horde's third giant prince.
Before Wepwawet had finished, the broodmother Melissa held high a tray heaped with wish-fruit and, leading a troop of guards and dream-butterfly escorts behind her, took up the cry in turn.
"By blood as our mirror, by glory as our witness—His Highness the Fourth Prince slew thirty thousand foes in the Mirage Void's Blackstone City, in honor of Her Majesty. His Highness wishes to settle and secure the realm for Her Majesty, to guard Stoneheart for the Horde—may the Horde's glory live undying."
With the blessings of the Stoneheart Horde's two giant princes taking the stage, the scene fell still. As all knew, Elara was the eldest daughter; Pallas and Kaelen were the true-born giant princes—Pallas above all, who'd lived in the Stoneheart Horde from childhood, grown up in the Horde, the genuine direct line. He held high standing in the Horde, and the great majority of the peoples backed him. And yet the throne had not, in the end, fallen to Pallas. For many of the people, this was a regret.
Just as the celebration's mood sank into that heaviness, a strange voice rose behind the broodmother Melissa.
"His Eminence the Mage-God Edward bestows upon Queen Elara a hundred cities of other worlds, in congratulation of Her Majesty's glorious ascension to the throne, her grasp of Authority, her rule over the Stoneheart Horde."