Thronegarden by Andrew Dickerson (top rated books of all time .txt) 📕

and queen strode out onto the balcony, they found chaos: Damselfly was chasing Trigger around the space while the dog continued to hold the toy bunny in his mouth.

“What is going on?” Handel demanded.

Trigger, hearing his master’s voice, dropped the toy. Damselfly grabbed the torn rabbit, trying to repair the damage and when the dog pressed closer, she pushed him away.

Trigger, stung by the dismissal, slunk off to a dark corner while Queen Etherelle came forward to check on her daughter.

“We’ll get you another one,” she offered, looking at the haggard toy.

“I don’t want another one,” Damselfly answered stubbornly.

Queen Etherelle, realising the day had not gone as planned, finally forgot her agenda and decided to follow her daughter’s lead.

“Let me clean him up for you.”

Damselfly reluctantly relinquished the slightly damp torn rabbit to her mother’s care and waited on the floor where she had found him. Etherelle walked purposefully to Luyna who was standing nearby and thrust the toy in her direction.

“I want you to bring this toy to life,” she demanded. “To be a friend to my daughter.”

Luyna seemed unwilling to comply at first; however, the queen’s countenance confirmed her stance, and the king was watching the drama intently from across the balcony.

Distastefully, Luyna accepted the slightly damp, torn toy rabbit and with a whispered word in the animal’s ear she brought it to life.

“Wah,” the creature cried.

“It’s all right,” Etherelle comforted, taking the shaken rabbit from the sorcerer.

“A dog had me.” the rabbit looked around, frightened.

“He won’t hurt you again,” the queen promised, straightening the bunny’s chequered waistcoat and ruffled fur.

Queen Etherelle carried the rabbit across to her daughter who looked up at them through teary eyes and slowly a smile lit up her face.

“Happy birthday, Damselfly,” she whispered.

The princess was extremely gentle with the rabbit who was still scanning around as though danger lurked just around the corner.

“My name is Damselfly. What is yours?”

“I don’t have a name,” the rabbit replied. “I don’t even have a tail.”

Damselfly lifted the bunny so she could see a tear where his fluffy white cotton tail had been bitten off.

“What is a rabbit without a tail?” he bemoaned.

Damselfly looked up as her parents came to stand beside her. It had been a long time since she had seen her father and yet she instinctively sought his help to make everything all right.

“Father, my rabbit has lost his tail and is very sad about it,” she explained.

“Well, let me see what I can do.”

King Handel took the shivering rabbit in his hands and removed a gold button from his robe, placing the button over the hole where a tail had once been.

“What do you think to that?” the king enquired.

The rabbit investigated the button carefully, wrinkling his nose at the strange tail, before nodding his head in evident satisfaction.

“I will call him Buttontail,” Damselfly announced.

“I think that is a wonderful name,” the queen declared.

“Very good,” the king agreed.

Buttontail seemed rather proud of his new tail and was happily placed back in Damselfly’s arms as the small family enjoyed their first meal together in a long time. “This is the best birthday ever,” Damselfly stated, surrounded by her friends and family.

Chapter 3 The Saddest of Times

Passage from History of Thronegarden recorded by Archivist Scroll:

Although time has stopped, it is incorrect to say nothing changes. After the events marked by Princess Damselfly’s birthday, there was a tangible change in the air.

It was not just a lull after the celebrations; the absence of time has begun to reveal unexpected consequences that no one could foresee. I believe the previous King Abeldine’s madness may be a symptom brought on by a lack of time; with death nullified are we all immortal or are we all damned?

Thronegarden itself appears to be suffering as the centuries-old stones crack daily, crops do not grow and where there is no death there can be no birth.

The darkness that has been creeping into our lives manifested in the failed assassination attempt on our current King Handel who survived thanks to the intervention of Lady Luyna. The usurper, known as Blakast, seems to be suffering from a similar mania, though his affliction appears to have made him violent towards those in authority. Little has been discovered about where Blakast came from, why he targeted the monarch or if he was working alone. All we know right now is that he does not have magical powers; instead, he manipulated a powerful artefact to bypass the castle watch and attempt his coup. Not since the repression of the Fairy King’s reign have the people of Thronegarden felt such fear.

History reveals much to those with vision. Such instances rarely fade away. No, they only add to a greater reckoning and the residents of Thronegarden wait. An eternal waiting that shows cracks in the skein of our reality that cannot be fixed by magic or kings or even birthday parties. The wheel has stopped turning, Death has fled and those who would try to harm us have been banished to the Evergarden.

So why do we feel afraid?

Blakast the usurper is not our enemy, only a product of the age. History tells us there will be more and with them comes the inevitable fallout. Some of us say without death there is no fear, though those of us wise enough to know that there are infinite things worse than death.

“Is it nearly lunchtime?”

“We only just finished breakfast.”

In the absence of time that had followed Damselfly’s birthday celebration, events had gotten worse. She had not seen her father since and even her mother had been unusually absent. It would have been unbearable for the princess without her new companion, Buttontail. The animated rabbit had fast become her best friend and they