The Heirs

Chapter 1- The Bells

by the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells-
of the bells-
of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells-
in the clamour and the clangour of the bells!
-

Bells were ringing throughout the city of Azraq one wintry afternoon, and everyone who heard it looked up in surprise, or in dread.

Those who didn't know, were puzzled, for they'd never heard this sound before.

Those who knew, looked down, already grieving.

The King and Queen were dead.

Their daughter, High Queen Sanya, who had returned to the city after the Memorial of the lost Narnian Monarchs almost a decade ago, had signalled the head of the guards to ring the Bell. She had found her parents, both of whom had been ailing the last few months after returning from a long sea voyage, still in bed, and had not been able to wake them. They had passed in their sleep, together.

Seraphina, the youngest of Sanya's children, remained in her chambers. The sixteen-year-old had heard the Bell and been puzzled, but when she heard from the guard outside her door what it meant, she'd locked herself in.

The Death Bell was clanging in her own head, her own body, and she felt nauseated, as though her guts were being rearranged in her grief.

Erielle, her panther, was curled up at her feet- she was too big for her to carry now- but even that was hardly a comfort.

Her Nana and Nani- her solace, her family- they were dead. They had been ill for quite a while, but she'd never actually imagined that they'd die. The thought had never crossed her mind, and her mother never let on how severe their condition was.

Although she'd come into this world not long after her father had disappeared and she'd almost killed her mother with her birth, Seraphina was a stranger to loss, to grief.

She had been so depressed when she and her mother had moved away to Rihaaya, she hadn't been able to eat without throwing up in anticipation of the move, but she'd forgotten about leaving her siblings and left her home at Cair Paravel behind the moment she'd jumped into her grandfather's arms after getting down from the carriage.

They would visit, and so would she, she remembered telling herself.

She couldn't soothe herself with the same thought this time.

What she wanted most at this moment- apart from finding her grandparents alive and healthy- was to curl up beside Jem, her big brother, and Selene, her elder sister, and chat about nonsense and laugh over silly jokes, and then fall asleep cuddled into one another.

But they were in another country, and she was alone here.

Her mother- her mother would be too busy to think about providing comfort to her youngest. She hadn't even been the one to tell her. Seraphina understood she was High Queen, and was responsible for two countries (Jem may be High King, but he would send his mother letters left and right asking for advice), but sometimes she just wanted her mother, not the Queen. She wondered if Jem and Selene had had their mother to themselves, just as mum and child, not monarch and heir.

She figured they had. Mother used to laugh back then, back when her father was around, cracking jokes (Jem said he was funny, and sarcastic, and could always create levity in a tense situation) and adoring her (Selene said he'd called their mother 'Moonshine', and Seraphina's romantic heart had melted).

But Seraphina tried not to think of her father. She wasn't skilled at confrontation, which was why the feelings surrounding the lack of her father in her life had to be kept at bay, or they would explode- she would explode.