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The coronation ceremony was to be held in the open air, in Camelyn
Square. [24717] It seemed that almost the entire adult population of the
town, several thousand in number, had received invitations. They sat in
the temporary stand which had been erected on the south side of the
square. The ceremony would take place in the centre of the square, in the
clear area between the stand, the market stalls which had been trading on
the east and west sides of the square, and the space on the north side
which had been kept clear for the peanut races.
Astra took her allocated seat in the front row of the stand, which meant that she was at ground level. Apparently she was supposed to keep wearing her winner's medal for the rest of the day, which was a nuisance. It was on a chain and appeared to be made out of solid gold. It was in the form of a disc fully six inches in diameter and an inch thick, and was thus rather heavy. Fred and Reaibn walked out into the centre of the square. Reaibn had the Eye of Hayzus on a chain round his neck, and in his hands he was carrying a crown. Astra was sure that it could not be the ancestral crown of Allaria; in sharp contrast to her winner's medal, it was not at all impressive and looked more like it was a child's toy. He looked very calm, whilst Fred seemed nervous. Evidently Reaibn decided (or more probably the Dark Ones decided for him) that the orange outfit that Fred had been provided with on the previous day [23642] was not suitable for his coronation. Fred suddenly found himself wearing an outfit that a Cavalier from the English Civil War in the seventeenth century would have been familiar with, though it was as alien to Fred as the preceding one. He found the wig of long hair falling to his shoulders particularly strange.
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3/31/2011 11:53:55 AM
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