Chapter 17

I decided instead of calling for a witch I needed to get out where no one could be suspicious or overhear me. I decided to go to the magic kingdom to get some answers. I already told my mother, not my father and sent a letter to the current reigning queen of that kingdom that I was coming. And to be less of a curiosity to others, I decided horseback was the way to go instead of a carriage. I hid my head under a wrapping and started the two day journey over. It went smoothly and quietly although there were some times I thought someone was following us but I couldn’t find anyone behind us. Maybe I’m just becoming paranoid. As we were getting close to the magic kingdom gates I got the feeling we were being followed again and I couldn’t ignore it again. I got off my horse and told the guards I’d be right back. I became very good at sneaking around over the past couple years so it was easy to sneak up on anyone as long as they didn’t see me first.

I quietly went around looking to see if there was anyone here and I was about to give up and head back to my horse when I spotted a figure not too far from where my horse was behind a bush, they were starting and mumbling to themselves. I quickly snuck up on them and threw them into the small clearing where the guards and my horse were. “Damn it Immyria. I was trying not to get dirty.” I realized it was my brother Tiberius. “Tibs, what are you doing here?” I asked him. He got back up to his feet and turned around to look at me. “Because we are supposed to handle things in regards to uncle together. You promised. And I heard from mother instead of you that you were coming here alone. So I snuck out to follow you.” He said. “Tiberius. You need to be more careful. As the heir you have duties and responsibilities and you can’t just come follow me alone in the open!” I scolded him. “Well it’s too late to turn back now so when do we start heading to see the queen?” He gave me a scold too. I decided it wasn’t worth an argument and walked past him to get on my horse. I had it walk to him and held my hand out to get him on so he wasn’t walking anymore. He smiled, took my hand to get up and we started back on our way.

When we finally reached the kingdom gates they opened immediately, and a guard came to greet us. “High princess, we were expecting you but not the young high prince. The queen is already waiting for you in her study. I will show you the way. I nodded my head and followed him with my guards in toe. As we walked through the streets to the castle we caught many an eye starting at us as we went by. It made me feel uneasy but they didn’t look too friendly so I didn’t say anything. Tiberius took my silence and followed suite. We reached the castle stairs and got off the horses, a couple of stable hands grabbed the horses and led them to the stables to be cared for. We followed the guard into the main room of the castle and through the halls until we came upon a door to which he knocked and the door opened by itself to allow us in.

“Please do come in prince and princess. I’ve been expecting you.” A voice called from inside. The guard waived us in and we walked up to the queens desk and sat down in the chairs she had prepared. “How did you know I was also here your majesty?” Tibs asked when he got comfy in his seat. The queen looked up and giggled, she had violet hair with blue eyes and she looked young. Witches live for a very long time so I couldn’t let that fool me. She pulled me out of my thoughts, “well young prince, one of the perks of having magic is you can also see the future. At least I hope I can see it after practicing for 123 years. I already saw you coming even though your sister did not and had a room prepared as well.” She paused and looked at me then continued, “And as for what you came for princess I’ve already looked into it. Your uncle was in league with a necromancer that was banished from our kingdom for practicing forbidden arts. We cannot tell if he is still in league or not, however I can tell you that there is a plan in motion that involves your family. The king is sick from something foreign to this land, we cannot see much more however because magic is clouding it which also means that a witch or wizard is involved with whatever he is planning. I’ve been trying to push the block but the magic is to set in to the spell to be able to alter it at this point.” She finished. I let it all soak in while thinking.

“The magic you sense, it couldn’t be the necromancer he was in league with before right?” I asked. She frowned but spoke, “it’s hard to tell. The necromancer practiced forbidden things. It’s possible I suppose that he lived if he had access to a life source to replace the current one he had. But the body was never brought to us to prevent that.” Great. So that also means he could be a factor if he wasn’t properly taken care of. “However, I do have an answer for your brother in regards to what he came for.” She paused and his mouth opened to say something but he stopped. The Queen continued, “the legend your uncle was looking for is an ancient one. Your family alone is supposedly descended from what are called were-dragons. Like werewolves or lycans or others that have those abilities the heir to your family would be able to transform into a dragon to protect the other kingdoms as well as their own. And even when not transformed you would have the abilities of the dragon side. The hearing, the smell, the stamina, the strength, etc… and you could transform at will. Your line, unfortunately hasn’t seen that happen in many generations. Either the dragon blood dried up or the true heir to the high kingdom was lost at some point and a cover up happened. Those are the only things we have been able to deduce from all our texts and histories.” She finished. And sat back in her chair relaxing. Wow. So at some point we did transform into dragons… that’s amazing! I thought it was just a myth. A legend that people told to validate why we were the high royals, but now there’s also a possibility that my family isn’t even royal if the bloodline was lost at some point.

I put my head in my hands and said, “This is so much to think about and understand.” I let out a heavy sigh and the Queen stood to say, “Indeed it has my princess, come let us have dinner together. It’s not every day or century we get high royal visitors. They should be done preparing it by now and then I can show you to your rooms after to get some sleep from your long journey.” Tiberius and I nodded and followed her to dinner.