by L M Lacee
They all walked down the long aisle and when they got to where Ella sat with Keeper every one of them glared at her and Keeper with hatred.
Ella lifted her chin high and stared back with contempt in her eyes. They hurried past her especially when Keeper raised an eyebrow and placed his hand on his sword.
Not the most attractive females Reighn had ever seen for dragons. He wondered if living a lie made one unattractive, maybe the ugliness on the inside eventually found its way to the outside. A sad thought. His dragon agreed.
Reighn looked them over, they looked well rested and well dressed. Not a hair out of place on any of them and yet he knew Lars had removed the walking stick from Yestoria after she had hit two of Johner’s guards with the heavy weapon.
Johner told him, Cuthbert had made a deal. If they could enter court without chains he would not allow his family to misbehave, it looked like it was working. Although he could see Johner was taking no chances, he had guards with stun guns ready.
He asked Cuthbert Field. “Is this all of your family?”
“Yes my Lord, there are other members of my Shadow’s family but they reside on the other continent and have been estranged for many years.”
Reighn knew this was true, well partly true. They were not estranged or on the other side of the world. Those family members had been placed in custody and were as they spoke in a cell beneath the castle. He had given their interrogation earlier to his father and his shields. He now had the full story of what had happened to Fin’s brother and Ella’s parents. He said. “You may sit.”
The older Fields sat together the daughters beside their Dam. Once they had taken seats, he asked Cuthbert Field. “Do you know why I have requested you to court on a Saturday?”
“No my Lord.”
“I see, can you tell me then the ages of your daughters please?”
“Certainly my Lord. Eugenia is one hundred and sixty. Ella is one hundred and fifty. Auremia is one hundred and ten.”
“Would it surprise you to know that I know for a fact your daughters Eugenia and Auremia are four hundred and forty and thirty respectively?”
“Told you!” Edith whispered to Ella’s surprised gasp.
Sage noticed several of the nobles were just as surprised as she was.
“Yes my Lord, it would.” said Cuthbert Field as he felt a drip of sweat run down his back. Yestoria tensed beside him. He imagined his daughters doing the same.
“Yet they are! Maybe you can answer this question instead. Why did you steal Ella and raise her as your own?”
Cuthbert swallowed hard. It took him two tries before he could answer. “I do not know what you mean my Lord. Ella is our daughter.”
Reighn grinned just a movement of his lips, his eyes hard as they stared at the female Yestoria. “Yet your shadow did not give birth to her. Did you Lady Field?”
“Yestoria’s face was screwed up in bitterness. Her eyes spat fire and hatred at Reighn but fear of him when she saw the merciless look in his eyes, cooled her words. Without expression she replied.
“I have no knowledge of what you are talking about....My lord.”
It was impossible not to miss the pause she made before addressing him as, my lord.
Reighn looked at her and her shadow with dislike. “Take care madam my patience is not infinite. Your lies and yours too Lord Field have almost exhausted any compassion I could have for you. So as you will not grace us with the truth. I will tell you what I know, what my people have learnt.
First though we will deal with the finances of Lord Field. Second Stanvis and Lady Jacqueline, please inform the court of what you have found!”
Stan and Jacks stood and together they bowed to Reighn. Stan spoke for them both.
Dragon Lord and esteem court we have searched the records of the estate of Lord and Lady Field and my Lord we have come up empty.”
“Empty! I am shocked!” said Reighn. Although all could hear he was not. “Perhaps you could enlighten us how this can be?”
Cuthbert and Yestoria sat stunned as they listened to Stanvis as they had no idea they were being investigated. Fear started to snake along their insides and etch lines on both their faces.
Stan flipped open a folder and said. “It seems my Lord the Field family live on an income that comes from one source and that is not from any work Lord Field or his shadow or daughters do. In fact my Lord, we could find no other income stream other than the one deposit that arrives in their bank once a month.”
Reighn’s stare bored into the couple. “I see, so they are destitute?”
Jacks shook her head, her English accent rang throughout the room. “No my lord, far from it. They own the estate and contents of their home, they have a good size investment portfolio which sadly under performs and both daughters, other than Lady Ella, have a sizable dowry. They are quite well able to afford their life style.”
“Do you know where the money comes from?” Asked Reighn.
Stanvis nodded. “Yes my Lord.”
“Thank you both for your work.”
They both bowed and retook their seats. Reighn looked at the family, then the forty Nobles in the room and said. “So I will tell you what I know.”
Reighn looked from them to Ella and her uncle Fin. Keeper took Ella’s hand in his, he could see his brother struggling with what he was to say. Which meant no one, least of all Ella, was going to like it.
Out the corner of his eye, he saw shadows taking all their bonded hands in theirs for their comfort or their own, it was hard to say. Ella took her uncles in hers as Edith took Ash’s, to his surprise.
Reighn took a breath in and released it as he said. “One hundred and forty eight years ago a scientist named Liam Slorah found out how to give his shadow the gift she had always wanted, a hatchling.
He took his sperm and her eggs and mixed and matched them with different components. Unfortunately he is not here to ask and his notes were destroyed, so we can only surmise on how it was done and in truth that does not matter.
All that does matter, is in one of his experiments he struck gold, so to speak. He implanted the viable embryo into his Morag, his shadow and they held their breaths and waited.
It was not the first time this had been done, all over dragon society experiments were being conducted to increase our population.
So you can imagine his and his shadows delight when her body did not reject the embryo. Of course it came with challengers she was unable to leave her bed to continue her normal life.
To Morag it was all worth it, to have her hatchling.” Reighn stopped and looked again at the family, then Ella.
“A month before Morag was due to deliver her hatchling. Renata Philsna arrived at the house of Liam and Morag Slorah and demanded her child. It seems she had convinced herself that Liam had stolen her embryo and implanted Morag with it no matter what he or her shadow or even her sister told her. She would not believe it, or so it seemed!
This was the first strike of a campaign she waged against Liam and Morag Slorah.
For three weeks everyday she was outside their home, demanding her hatchling.
She went to the police commissioner, he investigated and found nothing untoward. She then went to the medical commissioner. She investigated of course but still nothing was found to be suspicious. As you can imagine all this took its toll on Morag.
The constant harassment when she should have been enjoying the last weeks of her confinement of her pregnancy. Instead she was having to see her shadow defend himself against this supposed crazed female.
Sadly Morag went into early labor, not totally unexpected but not ideal.
On this night that should have ended in joyous bliss, instead ended in murder. How you may ask? This was the night Renata decided to take matters into her own hands. What her full intention was we do not know or truthfully care about now.
What we do know is she stole into the home of Liam and Morag and set a fire in the downstairs kitchen.
U
nfortunately what she did not realize was that there was a faulty gas main and the lower house exploded. Before that happened and for reasons of her own. Renata had hidden herself in an upstairs hall closet. With Morag in the early stages of labor, Liam as any shadow would, panicked and fearful for his shadow and unborn hatchling rushed from the bedroom carrying his shadow in his arms.
Renata stabbed him at the base of his neck just as he started down the stairs. Killing him instantly. He dropped his poor laboring Morag, who tumbled down the long stairs dying on impact.
Did Renata intend their deaths, we do not know. Was she insane, maybe at that moment she was?”
Reighn could see that several of the forty Noble males and females were all nodding their heads, they were inclined to believe that Renata could have been insane. He smiled and said. “Although we must consider what she did next though and the insanity plea falls away.
After the deaths of both Liam and Morag, Renata cut the babe from her mother’s dead body and ran.” Gasps and cries of outrage were quickly muffled. Ella sat stunned her face white with grief. Fin lowered his head as his eyes burned with hatred and revenge. He felt a small slim hand take his. He turned his head sideways and saw the lithe she wolf, June sitting beside him. He squeezed her hand in a thank you.
Reighn finished the glass of water Sage had handed him and continued.
“There was rain that night which prevented the house from completely burning as Renata had hoped. That of course was of no matter because it was her sister’s shadow that would be the lead inspector for the county and her shadow that was the local magistrate. Between the two they managed a fairly good cover up.”
Ella quietly sobbed into Keeper’s chest.
June’s head was on Fin’s shoulder he had placed an arm around her. Charlie sat with her hand in Storms and with her face like stone. It matched Edith’s, whose was white with fury.
Sharm held her in his arms in fact all the females were being held. Whether their shadows feared they would leap from their chairs and kill the Field’s or because they needed the comfort, it was unclear.
Reighn cleared his throat as he looked at a pale, blue eyed Sage. His Dam sat hard eyed and stared at Yestoria.
Returning to his account of the tragedy, Reighn said. “But I digress. Renata left the Slorah home with the babe in her arms and ended up at her sister’s home.
What could her sister and her sister’s shadow do? I or anyone else as an investigator or magistrate would have called a healer, at least for help. Or even as her sister, I would have demanded she tell me what had happened. Then I would have called for help, for not only the hatchling but for the obviously deranged female. I mean it would have been obvious, the poor female was deranged and the hatchling just birthed.
Renata and Yestoria had not planned to have the Slorah’s die that night. No what Renata wanted was a hatchling but not any hatchling, she wanted Morag’s babe.
What Yestoria wanted was the remedy for the birth rate as a mid-level scientist she wished to be the one to have discovered the cure for the population demise. Imagine if you will what that discovery would have done for her reputation. The reputation of her family, nobility would have come calling to have their own young. She would finally be where she wanted to be, at the top of society.
Social standing was everything to both sisters but Renata had ruined everything by killing the Slorah’s and burning the home down. Or at least Liam’s laboratory. There were no notes for Yestoria to steal. So as they had nothing to show for their night’s endeavors but a hatchling and the possibility that Liam had passed on his notes to his brother. Because every scientist knew they had back up notes and as rule Liam did, but they too were in his laboratory as he was fine tuning his discovery.
So the Field’s devised a plan they would hold the child for future possible trade. With their shadows help they covered up the events of the night. Renata and her shadow Cebern would stay in England and they would place Renata in a nice home for the nervous and unsettled. Run by dragons for dragons, totally understandable what with her thoughts about a hatchling being stolen. All females understood the strain of not having their own young, it was a feasible excuse.
In the meantime her sister and her shadow and the hatchling would leave and find another home far, far away at Dragon’s Gap. Leaving their own daughters to live with foster families until they called for them.
Later when Finlay came home and talked to you Cuthbert and the magistrate Cebern you then found out he did not have the notes so desperately sought by Yestoria and had no idea how his brother had produced a viable embryo.
In his grief he answered all your questions, never once realizing you were trying to see if you could follow through on your shadows plan for a trade.
Sadly for him and Ella it never happened and eventually he returned to his duties. Right then you could have done the honorable thing and you could have said you saved her from the fire. Anything to reunite Uncle and Niece but you did not. Of course as you have no honor it would not have occurred to you to do so.”
Reighn took a breath and let the anger ease from his soul. He acknowledge Fin by saying.
“Here the court wishes to welcome home Commander Finlay Slorah, brother to Liam Slorah and uncle to Ella Slorah.”
Finlay stood and bowed to Reighn and Sage. “Thank you my Lord. I am pleased to be home with my niece and friends.”
He sat as Ella took his hand. The older Fields all but groaned in dismay when Finlay had stood. Cuthbert hung his head, he knew they would be lucky to escape with their lives.
Reighn nodded to Fin as he retook his seat then he addressed the room again.
“Time passed, Ella grew. The sisters eventually returned to their Dam and Sire. All was well until Ella became older and every now and again a sign that she was true royalty showed.
Usually a ring of purple appeared in her eyes, like her uncle and her Sire, she had bred true.
What to do? They the Field’s dared not tell her or admit their guilt and then Ella took all those decisions out of your hands Cuthbert and Yestoria, she left your home. You could not object to master healer Sharm or myself. We would have wanted to know what objection you would have against her helping dragon kind especially as her Dam was a scientist in her own right!
So you did the next best thing you kept her under Yestoria’s control but then came along the Grounder. Edith Kingsley.
It must have come as a shock when she and Ella became friends. What could you do? It would be unlikely you could draw her away from Ella by degrading her in Edith’s eyes, as you had done, to any friends Ella had ever tried to make.
You had heard of all the good Edith had done, there was no way she would abandoned Ella. You could not go against her, she is shadow to the master Healer and a mystic. So what to do?
You tried by calling Ella to your estate, we can only guess at the pressure you placed her under while there but when she threatened you with Edith, who had punched a hole right through the control you exerted over her, you realized you were losing her.”
Edith touched Ella on the shoulder whispering. “You used me to fight them?”
“I did. I am sorry Edee.”
“Hush, well done. So proud of you.”
Reighn told them. “Ella was now independent and after the last visit, refusing to return to your estate. You could not make her, not with Edith helping her make friends. Why even the Dragon Lady was her friend as well as the Queen of the Faeries.
She had made friends with the castle liaison as well as the Prime and Commander Johner’s shadows. Just those females alone were bonded to powerful males, never mind the others she was becoming friends with. So what to do?
Well it was simply really she would be bonded to a male of your choosing. But how to accomplish this. It must have seemed so easy, employ witches to make it happen. The shock you must have felt when you heard Ella and Keeper had become bonded.
The cover was unraveling. Panic set in. You Cuthbert
and Yestoria needed a new plan. You contacted Yestoria’s sister Renata and Cebern, her shadow. Who told them they could have the bond dissolved. It was a new spell that had been talked about. As a magistrate, Cebern knew all about the spells.
Unfortunately for them they contacted a family of witches in England who contacted the Dragon Lady. The word had gone out, no one was to help the Fields or anyone of their family without her approval. Apparently you Cuthbert and Yestoria did not get that memo.
So there you have it, plans a made, witches contacted. Yestoria and her daughters came to the castle to demand Ella return home with them.
As you can see she did not. They met with Ella’s friend June, our liaison. Along with Prime Lars and Commander Johner and ended up banished from the castle.”
Reighn once again looked at the family that had conspired to keep justice from Fin and Ella and the years they had taken from the uncle and niece. Reighn nodded to Johner who said. “Family Field you will stand for your judgment.”
All four of them slowly stood, they were all pale and not a one of them shed a tear for what they had done. Reighn said. “I find you all contemptible! Now some may say, why punish the daughters and to that I say because they knew. They always knew and they did nothing apart from treat Ella like a lesser being. Like she was of no importance.”
He placed his attention again on the parents as his dragon filled his voice.
“You did not take this child to protect her or to keep her safe. You took her to use as a bargaining chip in a long stakes game. You did so to cover your participation in two murders. To protect a murderer. You really are as culpable as Renata who you should know is with her shadow beneath the castle in cells. And as I look at you two upstanding citizens of dragon kind. I ask why you did it. Why allow it to continue?
I have to ask myself, why keep her? When you learnt there were no notes, you could have sent her away. Given her to her uncle. Years later if you had told Ella what had happened or a version of what had happened. We all know what kind of person Ella is, she would almost invariably have forgiven you and Renata. But you did not and for that alone. I find you guilty.
