War Against the Realm

by Sherri Beth Mitchell

  The Queen’s eyes widened. “Hand those over this instant!”

  Rohedon’s wife slid the necklaces over her head and let the stones fall against her bare stomach. “I don’t think that I will.”

  Quentin felt a jolt run through his body and an uneasy prickling in the back of his mind. He turned and threw open Keelan’s door and rushed in. Some strange woman was standing in the room…and she wore two matching sapphire necklaces around her neck.

  He took one look at the panic on Silvia’s face and rushed forward as fast as he could go. He saw the woman’s eyes widen and she grasped a tiny bag tied to her hip. He knew it had to be some kind of magic—no doubt to take her out of here—and at the last second he changed forms, leaping into the air towards the woman.

  Keelan and Silvia stood with mouths agape as Quentin and the witch both vanished into thin air.

  Chapter Three: Kin of Kings

  Keelan ran forward, searching for where his beloved brother and the enchantress had disappeared to. He ran out onto the balcony, but no one was there.

  Hans and Maura appeared in the doorway, followed closely by several armed guards.

  “What’s going on in here?” one of them asked. It was Lenard, wearing a confused frown.

  Keelan began talking. “The enemy is here in Nillias. My brother tried to stop her and they both disappeared. We must find them!”

  He gave detailed descriptions of Natosha and Quentin to the guards, who then hurried away to alert the city.

  Lenard hovered behind. “We will find your brother and this woman. I won’t sleep until we do, Your Highness.”

  Maura was comforting Silvia, who was shaking badly. “He’s…he’s gone,” the Lystian queen whispered.

  “Now, now, you know he always turns up, milady,” Maura said. “We’ll find him before sunup, I’m sure.”

  Silvia looked at her husband, and he saw the anger inside her. “I need to be alone,” she stated in a heated tone. She walked out into the hall, but Keelan ran out and grabbed her arm.

  “My love, please don’t close me out now,” he pleaded.

  She stopped and stared at him. “Your treachery against me is now compounded with the fact that the enemy carries your child—the child of a king. If you and I ever had a child, hers would be next in line for the throne and not ours. You’ve practically given our kingdom over to Rohedon’s Realm. I really do not wish to be around you until I have calmed myself.”

  She jerked her arm away and went across the corridor to her room, slamming the door behind her.

  Down the hall, Prince Dalton watched her go, and then walked off into the shadows.

  Silvia sat on the velvet chair in her bedchambers and didn’t move. Her mind whirled uncontrollably as she tried to take in what had just occurred. She wanted badly to reach out to Quentin through Frero or Zander’s stones, but it was not a good idea with the remaining stones being in enemy hands. It was too risky given that the witch was wearing the stones and could very possibly hear everything through them just as they could. Besides, what if Natosha had realized that Quentin had been close enough to disappear with her? A dark thought trickled its way into her mind: what if the enemy had killed her brother-in-law already?

  A noise at her balcony caught her attention. She wasn’t surprised to see the Prince of Wexford walking through the double doors into her room. It seemed he was always showing up out of the blue when she needed him.

  “What vexes you, milady?” he asked softly.

  “Too many things,” she whispered, more to herself than to him. She didn’t think twice about how he arrived on her second story balcony.

  He waited for her to go on. When she didn’t, he said, “What is the one which troubles you the most here in this moment?”

  Her glistening green embers seemed to embrace his soul as their eyes met. “My brother-in-law is gone.”

  “To where?”

  “We do not know. One of Rohedon’s witches appeared in Keelan’s room, and…” Her voice trailed off.

  “She took him?” Dalton prompted.

  “I-I’m not sure. I do not really know what happened. She took something of ours—something invaluable—and when Quentin tried to reach her, they disappeared. Both of them just vanished, Dalton.”

  Dalton wasted no time in speaking. “If they’ve vanished, they have to reappear somewhere. Let us not dally further in this room.”

  Silvia’s eyes began to clear. “Meaning what?”

  “You have what no one else in the city has, Silvia: wings.”

  “By the Dark Moon, you are right! Why am I still in here?” she said, jumping up and rushing past him to the balcony. How ludicrous that she had not thought of her shapeshifting ability to help look for Quentin!

  “I’ll search the palace to make sure they didn’t reappear here. Let me know if you find anything. And Queen Silvia…please do not worry. Quentin is very adept at finding his way back to you,” he said.

  Silvia flashed him a hopeful smile and jumped off the balcony. He watched her rise into the air, magnificent in her dragon form, a soft smile upon his lips.

  The queen was truly one of a kind.

  Natosha fell to the floor as soon as she appeared back in her room. Her eyes darted about as she looked around for the man that had charged at her in the king’s room, but it appeared that she was alone. Strange, because she was sure the man had been close enough to have travelled back with her. Perhaps he’d been farther away than she thought.

  Her hands went to the precious stones around her neck. She held them up, admiring their beauty. Grasping one in each hand, she closed her eyes and concentrated. The magic seemed to pulse within the sapphires, but she heard nothing. Frowning, she wondered if the Lystian king and queen wore the matching necklaces to signify their bond in marriage.

  A light rap on the door distracted her. She got up and went over to her bed, stuffing the necklaces underneath her pillows. “Come in.”

  Her twin sister entered the room, her long blonde hair billowing all the way down her back. She arched an eyebrow at Natosha. “I knocked earlier and you didn’t answer. You always answer.”

  “I was sleeping,” Natosha replied.

  Saris chuckled. “You know, I’m very cognizant of everything that you do, sister. When you feel pain, I feel pain. When you are angry, I am angry. We are in tune enough so that I know you were not sleeping when I first came by.”

  “I need not reveal every detail of my day to you, Saris. We share a strong bond, but we are two separate people.”

  Her sister nodded. “Very true. But certain details of your life I do need to be aware of, Natosha.” Her eyes went down to Natosha’s stomach, and then went back up. “I want to know whose child you are carrying.”

  Natosha’s hand went to her belly. Even though she barely had a bump, no one else would have been able to tell she was pregnant other than her twin.

  “Not answering?” Saris asked. “That’s a shame. Especially when you know that the wives in this mountain gestate faster than regular mortals and start showing well before other females would. Now, since Rohedon died many weeks ago, I know it isn’t his. It’s none of my business if you want to take a lover, dear sister. However, if that lover impregnates you in the middle of a war…well, that’s an entirely different story. Now…who is the father?”

  “I do not know his name,” Natosha said.

  Saris walked over and grabbed her hand, flipping it over so that the palm faced upwards. She placed her hand atop of it to become more in-tune with her sibling. “I would not have thought you’d ever lie to me, sister-heart. But alas, I see that day has finally come. You know who he is, but you hide it from me.”

  Natosha remained silent. She loathed lying to her twin, but getting caught in the lie made it that much worse. Her cheeks began to flush.

  Saris let go of her hand and placed her palm on Natosha’s stomach. At first she frowned, but then jerked her hand away as though it had been scalded. She backed up, glaring
at her sister accusingly. “You have betrayed us!”

  “No, I swear I have not!”

  “The child of our nemesis lives within your womb…do you deny this?”

  Fresh tears welled up in her sister’s eyes. “I do not deny it.”

  “How could you lay with our adversary?” Saris yelled. Her eyes flashed angrily as the full realization of it hit her. “Have you no honor, woman? You are only leading the Lystians ever closer with this vile bond you have created!”

  “I had no intention of harboring his seed!” Natosha cried out. “I had only meant to cause strife between the king and his fool of a wife.”

  “Yet instead of doing that you have fashioned a great distrust between you and I.”

  “But I have done what I intended to do,” she argued. “She is angry with him and I have driven a wedge between their so-called ‘love’. An army cannot be well-guided when their leaders bicker and can barely conceal their tensions.”

  “Are they not still travelling to war against us, sister?” Saris spat. “Fat lot of good you did spreading your legs to welcome our foe into our lands.”

  “Saris, please do not speak like that,” Natosha pleaded. “I was trying to do right by us—to foil our enemy before they ever reach our realm. Do you not see?”

  Her twin ambled to the door, and turned her head slowly to gaze sadly upon her. “I see treason in the form of someone I love.”

  She exited the room, and when the door shut behind her Natosha heard the lock click. She ran to the door to try and open it, but it was too late.

  Saris had locked her in.

  The court of Nillias had been searched thoroughly, but to no avail: Quentin was not to be found anywhere. Keelan used his fox nose and went through every inch of the grounds, but only found faint traces of his brother. Exhausted, he made his way in human form to the waiting chamber outside the bedroom of Lord Byarne. He stood patiently as he was announced.

  Lord Byarne came out moments later, tying a robe loosely around his midsection. “Any word on your brother?”

  “None whatsoever, I’m afraid,” Keelan answered. “I came to see if you had heard anything on your end.”

  The Lord shook his head. “I have not, King Keelan, or you would’ve been the first to know. What do you believe has become of him?”

  “He’s been taken prisoner by the witches of Rohedon,” Keelan spat out harshly. “The brother of a king being kidnapped is not taken lightly.”

  “I understand, Your Highness, I really do. What is your plan of action?”

  Keelan pondered on this a moment. “I don’t suppose I had thought that far ahead as of yet. I was truly hoping we’d find Quentin.”

  “And since we have not found him, what now? How long will you search for him?”

  Keelan’s blue eyes hardened as they looked upon the leader of the city. “I will search for him for eternity. I will not stop until he is recovered.” He thought back on all of the years of Quentin being under Gregorich Hapshamin’s spell, and how he had searched for him. He’d be damned if he’d lose his brother again to some other wicked person. “We will find him. But I know that we are also on a time schedule to reach Lordale. If the witches have him, he will be held in their mountain, which is our final destination regardless of what happens. I will give it until tomorrow night. If he is not found, we will move out on the morning after.”

  Duke Byarne nodded. “Took the thoughts right out of my head, lad. My men will help comb the city. If he is here, we’ll find him. Perhaps you need some rest now, Your Majesty. Your eyes are puffy and sleep weighs heavily on your shoulders. I will let you know immediately if we find anything.”

  “How do you know that we will find anything at all?” came Duchess Tinaya’s voice from the doorway. She walked up behind her husband to stand next to him, tall and regal. “I’ve heard rumors of your brother, dear King. It seems as though he worked for the enemy in the past.”

  “How dare you bring that up,” Keelan seethed. “He was under a spell that kept him from me and from our family—a spell from which I freed him. Without him, Queen Silvia would never have taken her crown back and regained her city. I trust him with my life, as should anyone who is on our side.”

  “But does he know what side he’s on?” Tinaya said. She put her hand on her hip and looked the king up and down. “He could be a spy for the enemy, for all you know. This could all be for show! Do you know where his heart truly lies, King Keelan?”

  “Yes, I do,” Keelan replied sharply. “At the feet of my wife, and at no other place.”

  “Then maybe he has been put under another spell by Rohedon’s wives. It sounds to me like your brother is a very dangerous man, Your Highness. Perhaps we should all watch our backs, lest he stabs us when we least expect it.”

  Silvia soared low over the houses of the city, listening with an annoyed ear as people below screamed and shouted. All she wanted was to locate Quentin, not scare the wits out of the citizens here. She veered off to scour the surrounding countryside, going over her army several times. Her keen eyes could not find a young man with shockingly white hair, or a white-robed figure. She went farther out, soaring a little higher. After a while she noticed something in the distance that nearly made her stop mid-flight.

  Another dragon flying over a nearby hill.

  Her heart began to pound uncontrollably as her dragon nostrils scented the other of her kind. The massive black figure crested a hill and disappeared from view. She flapped her wings and gained momentum, racing towards the knoll. When she flew to the back side of it she saw the other dragon right away: it was on a grassy opening between two copses of trees and appeared to be waiting for her. She landed in front of it, breathing in the strong musk of the male. He waited patiently as she slowly walked around his towering form, flicking his tail at her playfully when she neared to look at the spikes protruding from the black scales at its tip.

  As Silvia came back around to face him she snorted through her large nostrils. His scent was somehow vaguely familiar; it was also over-powering, intoxicating her senses and arousing her. Never before had she felt anything like this; it was as though she had no control over herself whatsoever. She lowered her head submissively and the male dragon, black as the unlit sky, approached her. He lowered his head to nuzzle her neck, and a shockwave rolled through her. She let out a sound that was almost like a whimper and he answered with a low growl of lust. The dragon went behind her and mounted her giant body, being careful of her wings. When he entered her body, she bellowed, both in pleasure and in pain from his size. He thrust into her as only a rutting male would do, until he had spent himself with an earth-shattering roar. He climbed off of Silvia to lie on the ground at her side and watch her.

  Silvia’s body was reeling from a thousand sensations. As her heart finally slowed, her head drooped as the realization of what she had done hit her. Suddenly full of despair, she took off into the night towards Nillias without a backwards glance.

  The dragon she left behind watched her form fading into the sky and his body shivered as he changed back to his human form.

  “I am now yours forever, whether you will have me or not,” Prince Dalton whispered as she disappeared from sight.

  Morning came too soon. As the first yellowish pink kissed the lands on the horizon, it revealed a city in which the people had not slept the night. Every dwelling within the walls and the surrounding outskirts had been searched for the visiting king’s missing brother. His whereabouts were still unknown and an uneasy worry had set in. If the witches that ruled Rohedon’s Realm could so easily infiltrate their leaders’ court in Nillias, what else could they accomplish? Not only that, but there were hushed talks of the punishment: the taking of a royal’s blood kin was punishable by death. Wary eyes peeked out of shuttered windows, watching the Dragon Queen’s army as they concluded their search for the missing man. Even with a sizeable army camping outside of the city, the Nillians couldn’t shake the feeling of their quiet city no longer
being safe.

  And that was troubling indeed.

  Breakfast was a solemn affair, with all present eating in silence. As the plates were taken away, Duke Byarne called a meeting in an anti-chamber to the great hall. He bade them all to sit down around the large round table, upon which was a detailed map of the countryside. He regarded each person in attendance with a stoic glare, judging the mood in the room.

  The Queen of Lystia sat next to her husband on his right. Sir Grant of Crider was next, and then the Prince of Wexford, Dalton. To Dalton’s right was an intimidating looking man with skin like tanned leather and a top knot; he had heard the man was called Lord Cambry. General George and General Vyto sat next to him, then Hans, Maura, and Frero. Beside Frero, and directly to Byarne’s left, sat Lenard, and then Byarne’s wife.