Sweet Waters Throne

169 Chapter 16Lord Leoric assured Aeryn that everything will be done discretely and Artemis would never learn about what was happening, and if the war is won that would be the best time for them to ask for what they want from the Taelins. “I’ll give them thirty thousand of my trained knights, that should be enough” said Lord Leoric and he went on to thinking if it was enough. “Or should I add another thousand?”

Princess Aeryn didn’t seem to have anything to add nor to say about that, she was there physically but her mind was wondering elsewhere. The burning of Lawsend’s City and the impact created completely destroyed her mentality and she wondered if what they were doing was actually good, maybe she underestimated her brother and he was actually capable of things which she never thought he will be like burning sixty thousand men without mercy.

The letter which Lord Leoric wrote back to Princess Thelma was safely delivered by the same rider who delivered the first letter. This time Leoric urged him to make no mistake, “If this letter somehow gets lost, both of our heads will be on pikes” he told him.

“I won’t fail you master” the rider promised and then he was off leaving Leoric with nothing but just hopes, and he had to hope they will win the war.

While the plans to take the Silver throne were underway in Whitebridge, the three colorful she-dragons were getting bigger and fiercer every day, and with that Aurora’s pregnancy too. Now she was entering her five moon and the belly was getting slightly bigger. This pregnancy wasn’t easy on her like the first time, she had frequent morning sickness and dizziness.

The vomiting and nausea never left her body, most of the times she would complain about the food being cooked by other scullions and she preferred the one prepared by Mrs Gibbilis only. “Mrs Gibbilis knows my taste buds and what I like, these other scullions make me want to vomit” she said this to her grandmother when they were strolling down the streets of Blackmount in the heat of the day.

They weren’t alone since five servants held a huge umbrella to protect them from the heat of the day, yet still this didn’t prevent Aurora from sweating. Then fifty knights wearing Maldonian colors and adorned with their shining swords accompanied their Queen and prevented anyone who attempted to cause a rift.

Most of the good folks were tempted to want to touch Aurora’s hairs, they were shocked to see the deep silver hairs full grown and glittering in the sun. Most of the people had their own assumption about Aurora’s hairs and the origin of it. Some said she dyed it silver and then did the same thing to her husband the King, while those ones who knew Aurora’s origin spoke of the ancient House Morrow and their silver hairs.

Hence these two groups of people were conflicted on who was right and who was misled with false information as Aurora passed through the streets. Visenya complained about the heat season which was upon them after the autumn ended, while Aurora was just tired of being sick on daily basis.

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“Could it be a girl?” Aurora asked her grandmother.

“Why, do you want a girl?”

Aurora sighed “I just want it to stop torturing me, I wasn’t this sick with Jahery. Besides if it’s a girl, Jeremiah will still be second in line to the throne until I bore another son. I wish I knew about my future”

“You be careful what you wish for child, some fates are better left unknown” advised Visenya and then she kept on walking.

“Wouldn’t you wish to have known your future babushka?” asked Aurora trying to close the gap between her and Visenya. “To have it all laid down to you, all the goods and the bad, sufferings and happiness in between”

Visenya turned to the side and smiled at Aurora “No” she simply said without any explanation. Then there was an awkward silence between them, Visenya decided to continue “The future will only burden you, the bad things will hunt you for years and you’ll live worrying about when will it happen, or how will it happen”

“Just like how I constantly worry about my husband’s death” Aurora took a moment to swallow it all and a tear nearly fell down on her left eye, but she was quick to wipe it and then forced a smile.

They were in the middle of the Square Market and this was the last place Aurora wanted to be seen breaking down, hence she kept it steady. Suddenly, three men dressed in rugs smelling of manure approached the Queen’s procession. It was no doubt these men were savages and foreign to the city, no one in Blackmount wore rugs no matter how poor they were.

Their hairs were braided and they were so long fit to touch their toes, to which they took a huge pleasure in seeing them that long. The rugs were brown in color, but the brown was so pale that one may mistake them for cream. They carried spears on their hands and they were also barefoot, this shocked Aurora and Visenya.

As if that wasn’t enough, these men greeted them in Low Moor. They didn’t seem to speak the common tongue nor being accustomed to the new ways of cities. Aurora wasn’t afraid of them, she replied in Low Moor and from there the men laid down their spears and knelt down before her. A shock to even the good folks and the place being the market square, Aurora knew it was filled with gossips and rodents.

Hence she faced the men “Follow me to my castle, we shall talk there in depth” she said it in Low Moor and led the way, the men followed like servants following orders. Along the way Aurora couldn’t help but wonder, was it the silver hairs that made the strange men bow before her, or was it something she wasn’t aware of.

The procession to Aurora’s Hill was short, and in the next five minutes they were at the gates of the castle. Aurora led the men inside, and she could see how amazed they were. Everything seemed to shock them, the walls, the marbles, the windows and even the gardens. Visenya and Aurora took a delight in just looking at them wondering.

“Where are you from?” Visenya asked in Low Moor.

“Far” replied one of them.

“How far?”

The short one quipped “Across the grey mountains and grass villages, they call it the dragon’s eye. We heard about the news of the dragons, and we knew the chosen one had come to light” he finished in Low Moor and looked at Aurora as if she was the most prestigious thing he’s ever seen.

Aurora was conflicted whether she should be happy to have founded some of her people whom she shared an ancestry with, or be amazed by them. “How did you hear about the dragons?” asked Aurora still in Low Moor since that’s the only language these foreign men understood.

“We heard of the fire in the cold lands” The third one finally spoke, he was the tallest one among the group. He was actually referring to the burning of Lawsend’s City. “Only a dragon’s wrath burns that much” he finished.

Then Aurora smiled, she looked at Visenya and they both smiled. Their people were finally coming out in the open ever since the dragons came to life, and this was a good sign. For centuries the last descendants of House Morrow hid in the forests and uncivilized villages for fear of being found and killed. They were termed as Dark Crawlers and being feared for their magic, but not all of them had magic of any sort and they were actually good people once one gets to know them.

Aurora took them to the dragons’ cave and there they met with Torgo who they were not related at all. This just showed that House Morrow had a lot of descendants whom some were lost in history and others didn’t know one another. It was all a mystery even to themselves and history did run deep.

Only one thing connected them ─ their common tongue, and whoever spoke Low Moor was seen as one of their own. These men were stunned to the point Aurora feared their eyes might pop out of their sockets when Artodo came out in the open. A huge large black dragon full of wrath with soft eyes, now he was at fifteen feet and weighed more than last time.

The size of Artodo alone was enough for the foreign men to be shook by, and then when Aurora placed her hand on his back and soothed it carefully while speaking Low Moor to it, this all seemed like magic to them. For so many years the House Morrow have dreamt of the return of dragons. Some prayed for it, while others went even further and finally they learned that dragons will make their comeback, and now the tales have become true and there she was… the chosen one with silver hairs and exactly what the stars and seers predicted centuries ago.