Sweet Waters Throne

63 Chapter 6On the other side of the battlefield almost ten miles away, the sound of the horses’ hooves kicking the ground was hard and could be heard all over the place. Almost fifty thousand warhorses and one hundred and fifty thousand matching army with their swords raised up high.

Unlike Lord Gandalf and King Castellan army which was made up of Maldonian men from Old City and Prophisians, the Lucian Mithandir side was a collection of men from several parts of the realm and even away from the realm. The men Lucian Mithandir had were not from Maldonia, Prince Ambrose brought his own Prophisian men, Vaith added slaves from the Liberty Cities and General Haul increased the number of Prophisians in the army.

It’s almost like quarter of Lucian Mithandir’s army was made up of Prophisians who were fighting their fellow tribe men and their king. Some may call them deserters or traitors to the crown, and by this account Castellan made sure to give orders that once the war is worn, the deserters will be hanged for treason.

The deserters meant the Prophisians who sided with the so called traitor of the crown, but to these men Lucian Mithandir wasn’t a traitor. General Haul himself was there, thirty years ago when the Taelins came to power and overthrew the Mithandir.

Hence what really drove him to fight for Lucian Mithandir was his loyalty to House Mithandir. Even though he served for years under the rule of King Taelin, and he did serve as the member of the kingsguard but Haul’s heart was always with the Mithandirs.

This poison he’d spread it to his men, fifty thousand strong and they all knew nothing rather than to fight for the Mithandir. Prince Ambrose’s reason may not be to put a Mithandir on the throne, but to him anyone was better than his brother. It’s hate for his brother which drove him to commit treason.

Now back to the main host of the party, Lord Aethelind who managed to get an army from house Iron Falcon, from King Vaith of Santagar and he gave out his own men to fight the cause. What really drove him to fight a war which wasn’t on his land, and why the sudden interest in Prophis?

Some say Lord Aethelind and King Taelin once had a brawl inside a tavern about a woman. Her name was Taliya of House Ingiam. Taliya was a very beautiful courtesan and she was so famous for her higher prices, and that’s because of her beauty.

Twenty years ago, they battled for Taliya with each of the men saying he deserved more of the presence of this courtesan than the other. Lord Aethelind, a very rich lord of House Horriss with gold than the gods – that’s what most people praised him to be. And not to mention he was young during that time.

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On the other hand, you have King Taelin the courageous. Even the courtesan herself was confused as to who she should sleep with. Both of these men were of higher standards with impeccable achievements in battlefields and they were both rich.

The only difference was, one was King and the other one a “lord”, some people say Taliya spoke about this difference in ranks between these two men out in the open. She said “I’ve fucked many lords in my time, but never once a king” and with that Taelin won the fight.

Taliya went on to become Taelin’s wife and she took the place of Queen Allysa of House Claydall who was the mother of Castellan, Ambrose and Princess Thelma. Queen Allysa died of yellow fever although some people claim she was murdered by her husband, King Taelin when they had an argument although all that remained a rumor between the citizens of Prophis.

Taliya bored Taelin four sons in the period of twenty years. Her last born son was Prince Frost Taelin who was still at the capital of Prophis living with his big brother Castellan, the other three sons Taliya had with King Taelin were nowhere to be found. One by one left the capital never to return, and it devastated their mother.

The death of Queen Taliya happened just two years before the death of King Taelin, and many folks say it was because she was devastated because of her sons. She used to spend most of her days in mourning for her sons, the temple became her usual place just praying and wishing for her son’s safety until her last breath.

The rumors in the streets of Prophis were the king could have exiled his own sons especially since King Taelin was known as “the cruel” by his own people. During his rule, Taelin had killed more than thousands of people and he didn’t seem to care about these lives.

Lives of those who defied him, spoke ill about his family, criticized his ruling and some were innocent – for example the lives of the three midwives who he took just because they failed to deliver Frost and nearly caused the death of both Taliya and the newborn baby.

Taelin accused the midwives of conspiracy and treason, for which he personally conducted the sentence and took off their heads. “Prophis remembers” those were the words which arose from every corner of the kingdom the moment Castellan took off with his army.

So what was really the drive for Lord Aethelind? That is something not even Vaith knew, Lucian Mithandir was so focused on the war he had no time to inspect each of his supporters and ask why were they supporting him? It didn’t matter, what mattered was winning the war.

Hence they kept marching towards the battle field with hopes of winning it. Back at the palace in Prophis, the Queen was in charge of keeping everything in order. Katarina was well suited for the task, she was left with only two thousand men who were knights.

Castellan made sure that if there was to rise any rebel inside the kingdom, then the two knights could easily end it. Prophis stretched all the way to the Freezing Sea up high north, Maldonia to the south, Green mountains to the west and to Silent Sea to the east. The Silent Sea stretched up to the east of Maldonia too and after crossing this sea, is where the Liberty Cities were in their majority.

By this account, Castellan knew that if there was any fight to erupt in the palace then perhaps it must come within the kingdom. No fool would cross the Freezing Sea in an attempt to attack the kingdom, nor would they pass through the Green Mountains for they were as thick and as stony horses usually don’t pass.

However, if the citizens determined to attack his wife and sons, then the two thousand knights could hold them strong even though there were five hundred thousands of local citizens all over Prophis, and they all remembered what King Taelin did to their kins.

The capital of Prophis, King’s City was covered with streets which were commonly dirty, narrow, unpaved and muddy. The street which led to the market square was covered in cobblestones, after the wedding Lady Aryan was suddenly famous to the folks and some termed her as the future Queen of Prophis.

But no one identified her when she went out dressed in a brown shirt, cream trouser and a huge black hoodie passing through the locals at night. One may think because of the eternal snow and the cold that Prophis was perhaps dull, but they sure did have their eyes sworn when they visited the King’s City at night.

The city was alive during the night and people saunter around selling their goods such as ale, sweet meats and speaking of the pleasure houses... Lord Gandalf himself agreed Prophis had the best girls in the entire world. The streets were supplied with heat through burning coals to be found in every tavern, brothel and in the open streets just to keep the people warm.

Hand in hand, Aryan and Olivia managed to get past the crowd. There were live stage plays every night in the open for people to see, and the actors displayed how Castellan will die in the coming war.

This one in particular caught Aryan’s attention and she stopped at the open theater. “Why are we stopping?” asked Olivia.

Aryan didn’t reply, she held on to Olivia and pushed a few people till they were at the center of the open theatre. There were five actors on stage, two played Lord Gandalf and Castellan and they even casted a cat to pretend as a lion. The other two were Lucian Mithandir and Lord Aethelind, and at the center they placed Prince Ambrose.

The play was based on Prince Ambrose being a good person and deserting his brother, the folks cheered for him and when he wasn’t sure which side to join, they screamed for him to fight against the crown.

“They do hate him, their king” said Lady Aryan.

“They hate their father and of course in that way, his son” added Olivia.

They planned to keep walking and finding a ship to the Liberty Cities, but the play was entertaining enough and they stayed for the next twenty minutes where they enjoyed the play and even laughed.