Sweet Waters Throne

158 Chapter 15Now this was the time even the so called Master of Spies and a Maldonian King without a crown wasn’t aware of what was going. There was a shocking look on Lord Balrus’s face, and even though Artemis never admitted it that shock alone made him feel good.

Artemis knew he bit Lord Balrus on his own game and for the very first time, someone was ahead of him in knowing things.

Ambrose disagreed “My nephews are dead. Their heads were thrown outside of the city’s gates before the Usurper took my brother’s head. This can’t be true” he said looking towards his sister.

“This is all false Your Grace, Amabel and Barkis and their mother were murdered” added Princess Thelma while knowing fully well that she had received a letter too.

Now it was a battle of words between the Taelins who were pulling on their sides that Amabel was dead and so was Barkis while Artemis remained strict with his decision. “I shall only support the true heir. If that boy is alive then you must seek him out and bring him to me, he is your nephew after all... unless you don’t want him to rule” said Artemis and this came out as a sort of scream or mayhaps he was only trying to sound relevant.

All this time neither Aurora nor Lord Balrus added anything, they remained quiet and let Artemis handle the situation since he was the one who started the whole thing of inviting the Taelins to the capital.

Princess Thelma was done with hiding. She suddenly found herself saying “Even if Amabel lives, I want my brother to rule. Amabel will soon be like his father and it was my brother who sent the realm to war Your Grace. Ambrose will be the better King” she said while holding her brother’s hand.

“I agree that Prince Ambrose will be a better King, but like I just said, my support will only go to the rightful heir and that’s it. Either you seek Amabel Taelin and bring him to me, or we end it right here”

Artemis finished the conversation right there and he didn’t seem to have any more things to say. What a heartbreaking moment for Princess Thelma who sailed all the way to Blackmount only to be denied her request. She blamed Katarina for writing a letter to Artemis because she believed only her would spread the word that her sons still lived.

.....

The love and respect she had for Katarina turned to hate at that very moment. That same day both Princess Thelma and Prince Ambrose left the capital with their heads down. Ambrose was conflicted whether to rejoice that his nephews were alive or to be disappointed that because of them he lost his chance of being the King of Prophis.

They sailed using the ship which Princess Thelma came with from Loni, it was huge and luxurious than the one Ambrose boarded from Whitebridge. The ship once belonged to Lord Lothar, and now it belonged to the princess as she was the Lady of Loni until her daughter comes of age.

Princess Thelma ordered the sailors to ready themselves for a journey to the Liberty Cities. “If there is a place we shall find them then it’s amongst the Liberty Cities” she told Ambrose.

Ambrose was still conflicted “Then what happens next? Are we going to support Amabel’s claim to the throne?”

“No brother, we are going to make sure he is never heard again and his whore of a mother”

“What — what do you mean by that Thelma? I cannot kill my own nephew, I shall forever be known as a kin-slayer”

“Would you rather be a kin-slayer or a lost prince without a kingdom?” she asked.

Princess Thelma had grown so cruel in such a short time. This was a new version of her that Prince Ambrose had never seen before — a version that yearned for power more than anything. He knew better than to say anything for he didn’t want to be a lost Prince without a kingdom, yet he didn’t know how exactly were they going to get the kingdom back.

After a fortnight of sailing and crossing seas after seas, finally Queen Aryan made it home and onto her precious lover’s arms. The journey was brutal and the sea completely worn her out but all the exhaustion seemed to wear off when Olivia embraced her tight.

When they were sleeping during the night Aryan spent a significant amount of time detailing all the things she saw in Whitebridge to Olivia. She spoke of the baker who confessed to poisoning Gandalf and being sent by Lord Cregan Lawsend to do so. Then she went on to show Olivia a letter written by King Artemis of Maldonia a moon before the death of Gandalf.

Olivia was stunned “Do you think he played part in the poisoning of your brother?” she asked after reading Artemis’s letter.

“The baker didn’t mention him. But it’s very clear that Artemis wanted my brother dead, and put the Taelins back on the throne”

“What will he gain from helping them?”

“I don’t know... But I’ll soon know it and if Artemis somehow played a part in poisoning Gandalf then he shall answer for his crimes” Aryan bit his jaws at the end and Olivia knew this wasn’t so good.

“Do you mean you will start a war with Maldonia?” she immediately asked.

“I have to avenge my brother Olivia”

“Even if it means burning his kingdom and his people along with it? Artemis has dragons don’t you forget that”

Aryan refused to step back “And I have twelve lions” she said and Olivia could feel the wrath in her tone.

Whatever Aryan was thinking about it’s clearly she wasn’t thinking straight. How could one compare lions to dragons who breathed flames? Olivia had to remind her of the ancient Squires who challenged for the Sweet Waters throne centuries ago. They had over thirty mighty lions but not even once did they succeed to overthrow the King.

“These are different times Olivia, and the lions are of different breeds” Aryan said without looking at Olivia.

“When you were gone we received a note from Blackmount. The witness wrote of the flames which turned the stones black, if we fight Artemis then we shall burn to ashes”

“So what are we supposed to do? Stay steady and wait until his army is outside our borders and his dragons have surrounded us? Either way we die, whether we choose to fight now or not”

These two weren’t strangers to awkward conversations. For years that’s all they did, discussing difficult things and somehow always finding a proper solution to their problems. However this time Olivia said it plainly to Aryan, if they wanted to live then they should ignore Artemis and his dragons altogether.

Aryan although had a different idea and she was never a person who backed down easily from a fight. Her nine cubs had grown up over the months, she took time to train them as soon as she was back in Raven. She also took the three old lions and bonded with them again after being away from the capital for sometime.

Three days later, Aryan marched with fifty thousand knights towards the Lawsend City which was inside Raven. Lord Cregan Lawsend had no idea that an army of fifty thousand knights was on the way to his city. The last time he asked about Aryan, his spies told him they had no idea where the Queen was.

This was an ambush and Aryan did this intentionally to block any secret passages that Cregan would use to escape her wrath. Aryan was of course leading the army while she carried the baker’s head which was mounted on a pike. Sir Tyriol, the Lord Commander to Queensguards rode behind Aryan proudly in his helmet and armor.

Lord Tommy of King’s City and Lord Criston HighRise of Bellward all accompanied Queen Aryan to this task and they also brought out their men to the fight too. Instantly the whole city learned of the crimes that Lord Cregan Lawsend committed against the King. They immediately started to curse at Cregan in the streets and wished a terrible death on him.

As the army passed through the streets and small villages, the good folks shouted encouraging words to Queen Aryan. They showed their sympathy towards what happened to her brother and demanded that she showed no mercy to Lord Cregan Lawsend. Some of the folks took matters further by mounting their horses and joined in on the army as it passed through.

They took any weapon that was close to them. There were those who carried swords, and some war hammers while others had short knives — they couldn’t care less what sort of weapons they carried, they just wanted justice for their King. Came dusk and the army had grown to seventy thousand and that meant seventy thousand horses thumping the ground hard.

By this time Lord Cregan Lawsend already knew what happened. His secret was out and Aryan came to seek revenge. All the secret passages outside of Raven were blocked and the harbor was surrounded by men who wore Squire cloaks and fought for the Queen. This day ships were forbidden from leaving the harbor.