Sweet Waters Throne

Rush was invited frequently to the palace by Gandalf who seemed to be using her as his spy, even though Aryan was against it, she couldn’t fight with her brother in this. “You trusted her didn’t you? Gave her our men and servants, I trust she’ll make a good Mistress of Whispers”

Gandalf then appointed Rush as his Mistress of Whispers and allowed her to keep staying in her manse and conducts her business as usual but she was to look out and watch for newcomers and any suspicious people. All these measures were done by Gandalf because he wanted to protect his son from anyone who may dare to harm him.

And indeed Prince Landan created fear and terror in Prince Ambrose who was in Loni alongside his sister Princess Thelma and his good brother and cousin Lord Lothar Taelin. The letter arrived on a good day when Ambrose was playing with his son and his wife Arya who was again with child, five months old and her belly had started to show.

It was Princess Thelma who delivered the letter to her brother, they were living in the same manse ever since the day Ambrose joined the family. Ambrose read the letter and then he froze, Arya didn’t want to intervene in such matters hence she excused herself and carried her son with her. The conversations between Prince Thelma and Prince Ambrose were always about taking back their father’s throne.

They would plan and plan to no avail for the last year ever since Gandalf came to power, none of them believed it had come to a year ever since the Battle of Stonedance which claimed their brother’s head and his family too, alongside their little brother Frost.

“He had a son?” Prince Ambrose asked still holding the letter on his left eye “He will obviously name him Prince of Raven and heir to the Silver throne in no time” then Ambrose sat on a curved wooden chair and exhaled.

Princess Thelma remained standing “What will we do then? We don’t have enough men to take back our home, and we don’t have allies either. I reached out to some of our father’s friends but they all seemed to be supporting Gandalf, bunch of traitors” Thelma cursed softly.

.....

“Can you blame them; Gandalf is the treasure in Prophis now. The highborn loves him, the nobles listen to him and the good folks think he is a god of some sort. Even the good folks have completely forgotten about us, in just a year”

“They haven’t brother. We have to move fast if we are to take back our home, I hear the King of Maldonia has dragons. He was seen flying one across the Mines, maybe he will be willing to help us since he and Gandalf are foes”

The last person they could count on to help them win back their home was Artemis, first it was because of the history of defiance and enmity which existed between their houses. Secondly Ambrose thought Artemis was vain, a perfect narcissist who cared about nobody but himself.

“He couldn’t help his uncle in Battle of Stonedance, his own blood... he won’t give us a time of his day” said Prince Ambrose and he was right. They remained silent again for a few seconds just brainstorming and thinking of the dangerous road ahead, the road which was rough and full of obstacles.

“Then maybe you should sail to the Liberty Cities, with Arya and your son. You must convince them that you are the true heir to Silver throne, not everyone loves the Usurper and there are powerful lords who were connected to father. They will help you, I know it” Princess Thelma sighed softly, then she sat down and held Prince Ambrose’s hand “We will take it back, but only if we don’t give up. I shall ask our cousin to prepare a ship for you, you must get an army if we are to go back home” she insisted.

Prince Ambrose was silent all the time, not because he didn’t have anything to say but because he trusted his sister to have good sense of judgement and she was also well informed. The next day Lord Lothar was delighted to hear the news of Prince Ambrose’s departure, he shook his cousin’s hand and wished him well but he advised Ambrose to leave Arya and his son in Loni because Arya wasn’t well fitted for long voyages. “We’ll take good care of her and she is safe here” said Lothar.

In a week Prince Ambrose captained his favorite ship which he called Ladystrong as a tribute to his sister Princess Thelma. He took fifty sailors to help him ashore and that’s because he understood very well the strong winds of Silent Sea, sometimes he wondered why was it called the Silent Sea while it was never silent. The Sea was always full of strong waves and many aships have sunken inside its waters.

As tradition before taking off, Ambrose was embraced with a farewell kiss from his wife Arya and she wished him luck. He clearly didn’t want to leave his bony wife behind and brace the currents but he had no choice, there was more to duty and family and if he will not do that, then how can he prove to be a man. Princess Thelma stood beside Lord Lothar and their daughter, they both bade farewell to Prince Ambrose and also wished him good voyage.

As soon as her brother was gone, Thelma started to miss him and she wished he would never leave but she also knew it was a good thing to do.

Back in Blackmount the shock of seeing a dragon slowly faded after a week, but none of the good folks forgot that Artemis once rode a dragon high above the sky. Songs were sung in brothels, market squares, inns, at the gates and the small villages. All ten cities of Maldonia joined in on the rhythm and some were happy to see their King on a powerful creature such a dragon.

While some feared what that actually meant for their well-being and that of their children. “What if the dragon burns us alive? Can he control the beast?” Those were the questions being asked but none of them had answers. Those who knew the ancient history of Maldonia and the existence of House Morrow – the dragon riders, were the ones who rallied against what they called abomination.

The small crowds grew to large gatherings led by a man who styled himself as the Prophet of Truth and claimed his ancestors took part in the demolition of House Morrow and their dragons which took part in Dark Town. The Prophet spoke ill of the Queen, and he publicly called her a warlock. “Our King is innocent, poor man doesn’t even know where he is led. It is she who will ruin our city, the dragons must be demolished. We must attack Aurora’s Hill with haste, every man and woman must carry a weapon and kill the guards. United we are strong, but divided we fall” he spoke out loud.

That same time as he was giving speech to the crowd which followed him, that’s when Aurora took the skies of Blackmount in her green she-dragon, she was the same height as Artodo – eight feet tall with shiny green wings and a comely face. Aurora admitted she had never seen such beautiful dragon and she was happy it was hers, she named the dragon Vizoro as a tribute to her grandmother Visenya.

The crowd dispersed with haste at the sound of the dragon roaming the skies, almost five thousand people had gathered to listen to the Prophet but in just a minute he found himself all alone. The good folks of Blackmount abandoned him, many of them went back to their houses and to their children for fear of being burned by the dragon even though none of them had seen any of the dragons breathe fire.

Now it was wide and clear that both Artemis and Aurora had dragons, the first one was black and this second one was green. The fear doubled and people were scared, Aurora kept on flying and she didn’t land on the crowd nor the one who called himself the Prophet, this was only supposed to create fear and it worked.