The Cathedral

The cell doors opened, and all at once, people began to pile out of them. I watched as they passed me and headed up the stairs to freedom.

“That was easy,” I beamed as the last one passed, leaving Cynder, Seraphia, Copper, and myself behind.

Cynder grimaced. “I don’t like it. First the house, now here. It has been easy. Too easy. Why did the guards let us leave Luca’s house and why is it that only Copper is on duty here. He said himself that Luca doesn’t trust him. If he doesn’t trust him, why leave him in charge of the cells?”

“He’s right,” agreed Copper. “When I opened all those cells I expected an alarm to go off. Something’s not right.”

I hated to agree with them, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it had all been too easy. Luca had stumped me at every point until now. I knew he was caught up in his wedding, and it was possible that he had too much on his mind with the coronation tomorrow and the mass execution the day after, but he’d not left anything up to chance before now.

“Do you have the Magi’s wands?” I asked, remembering that many of the prisoners knew magic.

“No,” admitted Copper. “Luca had them all destroyed when they were brought in.”

I thought about it. We had nearly a hundred and fifty people on our side. Out of that number, ten had wands. Would it be enough? I had to pray it would be because at this point, I had little choice but to go on and hope for the best.

“Let’s go before I change my mind,” I said only half-jokingly. As we stepped out into the cold winter sun, Seraphia waved her wand again. Now it wasn’t just the ten of us that had violet broaches, all of us did.

“Does everyone know what to do?” I asked. A unison of nods went through the crowd.

“Let’s go then.”

I walked through the empty streets with my new army behind me. Luca had an army, it was only fair that I brought mine. I tried not to consider what it was that armies do best—kill each other.

I just had to follow the noise to get to the part of the city where the wedding parade route was. I took the street that would get me closest to the cathedral.

As I turned the corner into the huge square in front of the cathedral, I could see that it was going to be harder than I thought. The crowds were hundreds of people deep.

On the outside of the vast facade of the beautiful stone cathedral were a number of screens so the people outside could watch. They were set up exactly as they had been at Luca and my wedding here all those months before. I glanced up. By my calculations, Drusilla should be walking up the aisle, but the aisle was empty. I traced the length of it to see that Luca was not there yet. Trust him to want to show up after the bride. I could just about see the top of the golden carriage that Drusilla had been in, parked just outside the cathedral doors, waiting patiently to take the newly married couple away after the wedding. She must be inside somewhere, probably waiting in an office for Luca to arrive. How embarrassing for her. I almost felt sorry for her, before I remembered what she’d done to Cynder.

I had a sudden and very real flashback to my own wedding—the screens, the people, the noise. I began to hyperventilate. This is where my life had started to crumble. Actually, it had started long before that when Luca had first put the wheels in motion to take Silverwood as his own. But up until my wedding to him, I hadn’t known it. Just then, a golden carriage pulled up. It was him. I watched as he stepped down from it and waved at the crowd. I was glad to hear the majority of the crowd booing. He grimaced a little before regaining his composure and fake smile, and headed into the cathedral along with at least ten guards. My sister had died along with countless innocent Magi because of him. The fear I was feeling began to turn to anger. My blood was boiling.

Scanning the cathedral, I saw an opportunity to get in. One of the side doors was manned by only two guards. That was going to be my way in. I beckoned the others to follow me. Getting through the thousands deep crowd was more difficult than I imagined. No one wanted to move, packed tightly as they were, pushing forward to the barriers to get a good view. We couldn’t even walk behind everyone because the entire square was full.

As I pushed through the masses, apologizing for stepping on toes along the way, I heard the first strains of the wedding march. I looked up at the main screen above the cathedral door.

Drusilla had just come into view at the bottom of the screen. If I thought she would look better with a dress on, I was wrong. She was wearing a dress almost identical to the one I’d picked for my wedding although she’d decided to wear it in a size that was clearly much too small for her.

I shook my head. Drusilla’s fashion sense was hardly my main priority at the moment. I had to get into the cathedral!

By the time Drusilla had reached Luca, I had reached the two guards. Both had guns, and both had radios.

I turned to Cynder to ask him how he thought we could get through them, but behind me, I could only see the crowds. I’d gotten through them so quickly, thinking the others were right behind me, but they weren’t. I scanned the crowd quickly. I could barely see over the tops of anyone’s heads. It was useless. I glanced up at one of the screens again. The ceremony had already begun. I needed to get in, and I needed to get in now before it was too late.

The plan had been to find the entrance with the least number of guards and take them out using magic. Well, that wasn’t going to happen.

The voice of the priest boomed out via a loudspeaker.

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to celebrate...

I needed to be in there now! I didn’t have time to wait for the others to make their way through the crowd.

There was no way I was going to get through the guards using force. They both had guns for a start. If they fired just one shot, they would hit someone. Instead, I would have to try and get through some other way.

I still didn’t know what I was going to say when I reached them.

“No entry!” said the one on the right roughly.

“Please!” I begged. “I lost my invitation. I’m a friend of Drusilla’s.”

“Guests were admitted an hour ago and fully vetted at the main door. I’m afraid that the guards with the guest list doing the vetting have already left.”

“Please. Drusilla would think me a terrible friend if I didn’t see her marry her handsome prince.”

I laid it on thick, even managing to squeeze out a few tears.

The second guard nodded lightly at the first guard.

“Fine, but be quiet and find a seat at the back. I don’t want you to interrupt the wedding.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” I beamed.

I found myself in a small antechamber. Apart from the ornate stonework of the cathedral itself, there was nothing in the room. I could still hear the sound of the priest speaking via the loudspeaker outside, but now I could also hear him, just a fraction of a second earlier, speaking in real time. His voice sounded rich thanks to the acoustics of the high ceilinged building.

I opened the wooden door opposite and walked through.

Hundreds of rows of people sat before me, all eyes on the couple at the front. A quick sweep of the vaulted room told me that it was heavily guarded.

A thought went through my mind, bringing me back to what had been said earlier. There were so many guards here and yet I was allowed entry with not so much as an awkward question to fend off. The two guards didn’t even ask my name.

It’s too easy.

Those three words had cropped up time and time again. All day, we’d managed to get past guards without being stopped. No one had been hurt. Why?

Luca wasn’t stupid. He knew I was in Silverwood’s capital somewhere, and he knew I was with Cynder. He also knew or must have figured out that I was in disguise. He certainly knew that the Magi could change my features. He’d seen it before. He’d so carefully planned everything up until this point. Why was he so lax about security today? Today, the biggest day of the year for him, with the exception of his coronation tomorrow.

Yes, he had so many guards, I could barely count them all, but if they were just going to let me do what I wanted, what was the point of them?

I knew exactly what I wanted to do. When the priest asked if there was anyone who knew of any reason for the couple not to marry, I was going to run up the aisle and announce that I was the queen.

I was just thinking this through when I realized my mistake. When I’d come up with the plan, Cynder had been by my side. I’d planned for him to change me back into my normal appearance. Without him, or another of the Magi, I was just some unknown woman proclaiming to be royalty. Who would believe me?

Damn!

I ran back into the antechamber. Time was running out. I’d been through enough weddings by now to know when the right moment was, and it was coming up soon.

Outside the exit, I saw someone arguing with the two guards. Cynder! I ran to him and pulled him inside.

“He’s with me,” I said sweetly, winking at the guards for good measure.

Taking his hand, I pulled him quickly through the antechamber before the guards got a chance to realize what had happened. We only had a minute or so left, and I didn’t want to spend it arguing with two guards.

“What are you doing?” hissed Cynder. “I thought we were all going to come in here together. Strength in numbers!”

I shook my head. “We don’t have time! I need to get up to the front, now! If I don’t, I’ll miss the opportunity. When I get to the front, make sure there is at least one TV camera on me and when I nod my head, turn me back into me. I need the whole of Silverwood to see my face.”

“No! Without the others, it’s too...”

I cut him off. I already knew what he was going to say, but I calculated I had about thirty seconds to get up the aisle. The priest had already begun to say the words.

“Sorry!” I murmured before taking off up the aisle.

The priest stopped what he was saying as he caught me running towards him. It didn’t matter; he’d already more or less said what I needed him to say. Luca and Drusilla both turned their heads to see what he was looking at. Good! I wanted them to see this.

“I do!” I shouted, stopping just feet short of Luca and Drusilla.

All around me, I heard gasps from people as they took in who was stopping the wedding. I couldn’t blame them. No one would know who I was in this disguise. Making sure there was a camera on me, I turned to the guests.

“Luca can’t marry Drusilla. He can’t because he’s already married to me!”

The guests looked on at me in shock. The collective gasps filled the cathedral. In the front row, I saw King Theron, Queen Sarina, Prince Tomas, and his two young children. They both looked miserable, unsurprisingly as their mother was currently lost. Little did they know that she was outside somewhere. Very soon they would be reunited with her. I smiled at the thought of it.

I nodded to Cynder. At the back of the cathedral, I saw him raise his wand.

I opened my mouth to tell the world exactly who I was. This show was finally over.