by Jade White
My smile disappeared as I looked at Marvin. “I wish my father wasn’t going through this. Rowan may end up dead. I don’t want to hear the words that he didn’t make it back. The worst part last night was I kept envisioning it all in my dream.”
“I guess that’s what the man said when I asked how his night sleep was. He said it was like sleeping with a snoring dragon and started laughing.” Marvin laughed.
“That isn’t funny! You know if something like that gets back to my father, he will have me killed,” I said as I rubbed my eyes.
Marvin served me a plate of eggs and toast.
“To be honest, it is time for your father to face the awful truth. He has been the one that caused the prophecy and now he must face it.”
“What do you mean?”
Marvin stopped as he saw one of the locals walk in.
“Good morning, Lady Elizabeth!” Marvin said as he smiled at the commoner.
“Good morning, Marvin. I see that last night was quite a busy night for you. I am surprised for such a gritty pub that you had such business.”
“With a good night, it is always filled with a typical morning. What can I do for you?”
“King Athalos’ son, where can I find him?” Lady Elizabeth asked.
“Which one of the princes would be at your service? I am sure they are lurking around the grounds of the castle.”
“I don’t want those three. I was looking for the special one.
Where can I find him?”
Marvin shook his head in disbelief at Lady Elizabeth’s persistence. She was determined to find me.
“I don’t know. Why would you want any of the princes?
“I heard he was here so I packed everything up to see him personally.”
“Why would you do something like that?”
“I must see him. His father sent me. He told me last night that he was in one of your rooms. It is urgent to tell him that his father is looking for him.”
Marvin shrugged. “I am sure that his father will be sending his merry men down to collect him.”
Lady Elizabeth grunted with disgust at this. “You are impossible, Marvin. You know where he is!”
“Lady Elizabeth, any of the princes’ affairs would not interest me. They are royalty and I do not associate with such people,” Marvin said as he gave her an evil smirk. His lips curled with displeasure, mixed with the fact he was making Lady Elizabeth miserable.
“That would be a big shock that the princes’ affairs weren’t any of your interest. You are always in the pub discussing their troubles and misfortunes. It is when I need one of them suddenly, they don’t exist. You are miserable!” Lady Elizabeth muttered.
Marvin gasped in exaggeration and then began laughing. “What is the real reason you are looking for one of the princes and I may be able to help you.”
“Out of all the places a prince can hide from his father, why here? He could hide many other places in the world. I would never imagine seeing royalty here, but I heard it is a favorable place for Prince Merek.”
“You aren’t giving me anything to work with to even think about getting Prince Merek for you,” Marvin reminded her.
I tried hard to stay quiet as I sat and ate my eggs. There was nothing that interested me about Lady Elizabeth trying to find me.
“Sometimes I can’t believe you, Marvin. I don’t get why you aren’t going to allow me to talk to him! Don’t you realize that his life is on the line? I will go up to the castle myself and try to find him.” She walked out of the pub.
“I have to admit I hate aristocrats. Lady Elizabeth usually comes in here to spy on things going on in the town. That is why I didn’t give you up. I am glad she just left. One time after you were here, she went room to room trying to find you.”
I sat at the counter looking at Marvin. “What did she want from me?”
Marvin shook his head. “More likely she was making sure you were finding a bride. Lady Elizabeth is one of your father’s biggest spies. I hate having to say that, but your father does send aristocrats around to make sure all four of you are doing what you are supposed to be doing. He even sends them to watch your mother.”
I shook my head thinking about all of this. I was tired of my father having such uncanny ways.
“To be honest I am surprised he didn’t send Lord Crewe once again. I guess it is because it has become too common for Lord Crewe to end up drunk before he got any answers.”
I glanced out the window at the village around me. There wasn’t just a campaign to kill Maelyss going on, but a wedding to be planned and a bride that needed to be found. I was going to take Marvin’s advice and meet with the agent for a mail order bride.
I was positive at this point that he could be right about getting married quickly, so I could just move on and past my father.
I wanted to make sure that I didn’t leave any clues about being a dragon behind. I still had to beat the campaign and get to Maelyss first. I definitely needed to race them there, so Maelyss wouldn’t end up killing Rowan.
At least with a bride, my father would leave me alone. I just wasn’t sure about the rest of it, such as if my father found out it was me who protected Maelyss.
Looking down at the card that Marvin gave me from the night before, I knew at least what I had to do.
“I married my first bride from the agent,” Marvin said. “Everything went amazing. She was the most loving person anyone could ever ask for. She gave me a son and did everything with us. She showed me such love that it wasn’t funny.”
“What happened then?” I asked.
“You think because I got married again it was because she left me? No Merek, that’s not how it happened. An illness got her. We built this pub and inn together. The crew from the ship made their way here and brought an illness which she got.”
I looked up at Marvin. “I didn’t know that. I am very sorry.”
Even as I sat at the counter, I felt as if there was something that was beginning to happen that was out of my control. I was just hoping that since my stomach was twisted in knots, it wasn’t telling me something terrible was waiting on the horizon.
I didn’t need something else to happen, since my father and Lord Crewe seemed to have this prophecy stuck in their head. All I needed was to be hunted down and killed.
“I promise I will contact them and see what they can do for me. Who knows, I might get a beautiful bride yet!”
Perhaps this was the answer to me getting married. I had begun searching for a bride, but it seemed as if my father knew everyone who was in the area. He seemed to know who royalty was and who weren’t in the surrounding kingdoms that we were allies with.
The only problem was trying to figure out how to discreetly meet with the agent. I was just hoping the person on the card didn’t realize I was Prince Merek.
“How does it all work? Are there pictures to pick from?”
“Sometimes you meet some of the girls and they will have a cover job while others will write down what you are looking in a wife. Some of those have pictures and some don’t, but overall, I am sure you will find the right one.”
I had a feeling that soon enough I would be packing my belongings and moving to my own castle as long as my father didn’t find out my secret and kill Rowan off in the meantime.
I finished my breakfast and paid. “Where are you going?”
“I better check in with my father or my father’s men will be down here looking for me.”
Riding back seemed as if almost everyone was trying to find their place among the campaign. I was sure King Athalos was willing to pay quite a bit to have Maelyss’s head stuck to the wall as a trophy.
He was beginning to get quite obsessed with the whole thing.
I opened the doors to the castle and everyone seemed to gasp as they watched me walk in. My father looked at me as hysteria overcame him.
“Where have you been? I have been looking all over for you!”
“I was looking
for a bride since you told me that I only have thirty days to do it. Have you heard from Mother?”
“I have been worried sick about you, especially since I thought Maelyss got revenge on one of my sons. I was sure you would do something foolish, since I told you that you had to get married. I didn’t expect you to run away. Is that what you were doing? Were you running from your problems?”
I looked puzzled at my father and shook my head. “I was far from running away. I told you I was heading into town since you ordered me to find a bride. Why are you acting so strange?”
“That is enough, Merek! I was about to send a party out looking for you! I see you have gone and done everything without notifying me! What type of ruler are you going to become if you don’t even notify me where you are going?” my father asked. The tone in his voice didn’t surprise me since he was trying hard to manipulate me.
The last couple days while my mother was away, my father seemed to have been changing into someone I hardly knew at all.
Even the tone when he spoke about my mother had changed. He said her name or spoke about her as if her name itself was vile.
“I found out there is a beautiful princess on the other side of the mountains. I plan to travel there and when I come back, I will have a bride.”
My father snapped his head around to stare at me. His eyes darkened.
“You will come back with a princess bride if it is the last thing you do. There is nothing left here for you if you don’t come back with one.”
I stood there in silence as I stared at him. I wasn’t even sure where this hostility was coming from. All I knew was the fact that each day I grew to hate who my father was becoming even more.
I knew a part of me would always be here in the kingdom and castle, but another part of me would never belong. Something tugged inside of me to walk away and remember about Maelyss. Somehow, on my journey, I had to figure out how to get to the dragon’s lair before King Athalos sent his campaign there.
I wanted to scream that it wasn’t right to kill the dragons and that I was a dragon shape-shifter, but what use was it? I would be killed just like Maelyss was scheduled to be killed. There was no point in trying to reason with my father and he surely wouldn’t listen. Everything I was saying was landing on deaf ears.
I tried hard to keep quiet as I watched the familiar scenery of another campaign be scheduled to try to kill another dragon. I was sure once I began to travel on my own, the familiar screaming of the castle would be the first thing I would forget. The prophecy would be the next thing I forgot all about.
My father seemed to take the prophecy well out of context or perhaps he was blowing it out of proportion. There would be no ‘welcome home’ until I got married and Rowan successfully killed Maelyss.
The two of us were destined to be on quests that seemed to be quite difficult and we were being set up for failure.
****
Lady Elizabeth eyed me from my father’s side of the table. It was where my mother was supposed to sit and I growled. I hated knowing that my father wasn’t faithful, but he often tried to play the saint.
“This campaign is going to be beautiful, King Athalos. I am sure you will believe me when I say this is going to be what everyone remembers you for,” she said with a gasp of pleasure.
I didn’t say a word as my eyes followed them. There wasn’t anything I could scream at the moment.
“What do you think? Our father has officially lost it?” Rowan asked as he followed me down the corridor to my room.
I started laughing. “I think he lost his mind some time ago. It is as if the prophecy’s content has made him insane. I never knew a word about the prophecy until this past twenty-four hours.
“It seems my whole life has completely changed and I realized my whole life he was battling dragons to try to keep this from happening because of his own revenge against Maelyss.”
“You know, I have been thinking about the same thing. I don’t understand why he singled the both of us out compared to Terrain ad Sadon. Those two seemed to have stopped talking to the both of us.”
“We don’t even have our kingdoms yet and he is already playing us against each other. It is as if both of us share the same potential and he is afraid of that. Don’t you ever feel as if we really never fit in? We aren’t puppets like the other two. I think that is what scares me the most, that although we have each other, Terrain and Sadon also have each other.”
“There are times that I wonder if Terrain and Sadon would kill us if our father ordered them to do so. I wasn’t sure in the beginning how I would feel about that. It wasn’t until I spoke to you that I knew I would somehow disobey our father.
“It isn’t something that I could live with, actually killing one of my own brothers. I guess I am unsure how those two feel, but to battle the crown would be their main concern.”
“I don’t know what to say. I know I am not thrilled about any of this at all. I wish we could stick together. I am afraid if you go out on the campaign that father sends you on, that you will never return.”
“What about you and your journey to find a bride?”
I shook my head. “I am not going up against Maelyss. If I found him on my journey, I would ask kindly for him to sit down and discuss why Father hates him so much.”
Chapter Three
I glanced out the window at the kingdom. Everything wouldn’t look like this on my journey and I wasn’t sure if I would even care. I was sure if our mother was here, she would have done something to protect us.
I wasn’t sure if our father could decide which one of us was a dragon or there was possibly more than one dragon in the family. All I knew was the fact that either way, our father was trying to kill the both of us off slowly. I knew if we survived, he would have Terrain and Sadon try to kill us.
As I stared out the window, I caught myself wondering where our mother was. She should have been home two days ago. It seemed as if Lady Elizabeth had been immediately stationed in her place since the time she left.
“Where do you think Mother is?” I asked.
Rowan looked at me. “I have been wondering the same thing and every time I do, I get cold chills running up and down my spine.”
“I hope you aren’t right. I honestly hope she walks through that door and begins to bark orders. It is her orders that can sentence anyone.”
“I know what you mean. I keep trying to wish her here, too.”
“Do you think there is a way that you can join me in my quest to find a bride? At least we would be together and safe.”
Rowan shrugged. “I don’t know how to get out of not going. It seems to me if I don’t kill Maelyss, I will be killed and if I do go there I will be killed. I am in quite the jam.”
“I think I have a plan,” I mumbled.
I may not have wholeheartedly agreed with him joining me, since I had my own secret to guard, but I knew that I had to do something. It was as if we both had secrets that the King seemed to know about, especially since the prophecy seemed to drive him.
I doubted it was all together a coincidence.
“Where is it you are traveling to, anyway? It might be a lot more pleasurable than trying to kill Maelyss,” Rowan asked.
“I am traveling a bit away to a place where my bride will be waiting for me. Who knows, we both might come back with brides. I am just saddened by the fact that Mother isn’t here to see us or bid us farewell.
She has always been somewhat like a good luck omen the way she carries on and blesses us.”
“I am not really sure where she is, but maybe along the way we can search for her.”
“You don’t think Father killed her off do you?” I asked.
Rowan sighed. “I have been thinking the same thing, but I wouldn’t put it past him. I think he has it in his mind that everything is going to come down to his death and he must protect himself from it.”
It was strange to see our father like this, but I knew Rowan was telling the truth.
He seemed to be getting worse as the days went by. It was as if lately he didn’t just gradually worsen, but plain out snapped. There was nothing to calm him down.
“You realize if you figure out how to pull this plan off where we venture out together, you will be a genius.”
I started laughing. If only my younger brother was actually correct. We both needed to forget about the castle or why we listened to our father for so long. We needed to listen to our souls and why we both seemed to be attached to dragons. Although Rowan was sent to battle often, he had never killed a dragon.
