The Promise of the Trees - Sword, Ring, and Crown Book 3 (Complete - Editing)

Chapter Eleven - Madeline

A cherry tart. Danela's cherry tart. A gloriously flaky confection of the gods landed squarely between my eyes.

The heated row that had struck up between the Holly and Duir went silent as I wiped away the tragedy on my face and sucked cherry sauce off of my thumb. 

Ciaran burst out laughing, then cleared his throat as I glared at him.  Didn't he see what a tragedy this was? They had used Danela's glorious tart as a missile - no, not just one tart, but the entire plate. 

"What's going on here!" I yelled, already upset that Dom and Luke weren't with me, and Tylas had also taken off to be with Dom. Having so many of my court gone made me antsy. 

Duir had a tart in her hand, and I pointed at it. "Put that down!"

She dropped it on her plate in surprise, shocked that I'd yelled at her. Duir and Chuillen looked like they'd exited a chainsaw massacre film. They were both covered head to toe in sticky cherry sauce.  The other guests had signs of cherry shrapnel in their hair and on their face.

The row, at least, took my mind off of Luis. I'd shut down access to his emotions and thoughts, not wanting to know about his romance with a pale-faced beauty. 

Duir, with all the dignity of a five-year-old, pointed at Chuillen. "He started it."

"You insinuated that I was an infertile tree and would never see any links." Chuillen was huffing with rage, and I understood that I made a mistake in letting them both stay for dinner. It was like having a mongoose and a cobra as guests.

"You both need to leave and get cleaned up. You've stained the chairs, for Pete's sake!"

"Matt--" 

"No, Duir! I didn't think you of all people would resort to a pie fight in the middle of a war and heavens know what else? Whatever your beef is with the Holly, you need to press pause right now. Go take a shower!" I yelled. 

The loss of the entire plate of Danela's tarts was worthy of death. I was letting her off easy.

With whatever dignity she could muster while being sticky with cherry syrup she left, but before she did, she muttered, "I'm only leaving because it's uncomfortable, not because you told me to."

Other guests, mostly Trees, that had also found themselves covered with cherry shrapnel, left to get cleaned up as well. 

I slumped into the chair at the head of the table which had miraculously escaped the massacre and wiped the cherry tart off of my face.  Chuillen had to be carted off by several guards, and I asked them to keep him confined to his room for now. I'd deal with him later.

After about an hour ,I finally got some grub, minus the tarts, dangit. While I ate, some servants brought out the babies, and I filled my nails with nectar to feed them. This elicited long stares from all the Trees that had returned to the table after cleaning up, and made me pause. If they were going to be weird like Ciaran about this, they had to go too.

"What?" I barked at them. I wasn't going to go hide in a closet to feed my babies. 

 "Please go ahead, Majesty..." Willow crooned. "We're just overwhelmed to see a Tree with babies, and your branches are lovely."

My mouth dropped open at the audacity.  "That's not creepy at all," I sputtered when I was able to find words. 

She shrugged, not looking sorry. "Would you like me to leave for now?"

I was about to say yes, but some guards ran in and cried, "Master Dominic and Tylas have been captured!"

I felt my entire body grow cold and didn't even realize when the baby I had been holding was taken from me. I stared at my empty arms uncomprehendingly.