Sweet Waters Throne

248 Chapter 24Finally, the royal wheelhouse arrived in Aurora’s Hill, Artemis got out quickly and raced towards where the dragons’ cave, Dante followed him behind while he tried to keep up with Artemis’s speed since he seemed like he wasn’t going to slow down. Torgo was outside the dragons’ cave with his four assistants, they seemed to be so calm and collected making jokes in Low Moor.

“Where did she go?” asked Artemis in Low Moor, he was out breath and simply panicking.

Torgo stood up quickly, then he bowed before Artemis and so did his assistants. “Is everything alright Your Grace?”

“Yes, where did my wife go?”

“She said she wanted to ride her dragon, that’s all” replied Torgo’s assistant in Low Moor, his voice was thick and he was heavily bearded.

“Did she look like…” Artemis paused, the way Torgo was looking at him, he started to question himself if he was out of line for panicking like that. “Was she alright?” he asked.

“Yes, Your Grace. She was fine” added Torgo.

Artemis exhaled softly, then he knew he was panicking while there was no reason to. Torgo assured him that Aurora was fine and he shouldn’t worry about her, if there was anyone he should never be worried about then it’s Aurora. She’s a big girl and she can take care of herself. Somehow Artemis managed to calm down, he sat there and joined Torgo and his assistant in their jokes and tales, after ten minutes he completely forgot what he was worried about.

.....

Aurora intended to fly to Iron Falcon and face Leoric for a crime of stealing her dragon eggs, but was that really a crime? She asked herself questions while on her way to Iron Falcon, what will she do when she gets there? What if her dragon faces the same fate as Artodo when he was ambushed by spears laced with the tears of the fire? She had no clue how Lord Finnian came to posses the deadly portion, or if he knew how to use it but she was sure by then Lord Finnian was already informed of Artodo’s death and he must be prepared to kill another dragon.

Halfway through West, Aurora stopped her dragon. “Parar Vizoro, parar” she said in Low Moor while soothing her large beast. Vizoro stopped flying as she was told, nothing mattered to her than what her mother wanted, even if she would have told her to burn a city, that’s what exactly Vizoro would do. Not to mention she was experiencing grief after the death of Artodo, that day Aurora told Vizoro about Artodo’s death ─ Aurora could see the tears falling down on her dragon’s eyes, that’s how emotional dragons were.

Aurora was high up in the clouds because she didn’t want to create attention, if the people saw her then they would definitely take the news to Leoric and Lord Finnian. But since she was way up, no one could say they have seen a dragon. For that height, Vizoro looked like a hawk or a crow from below.

“We could be walking into a trap Vizoro, I can’t lose you. We have to go back” she said to Vizoro in Low Moor, then she patted her back, “Come on, let’s go…” then she hushed the dragon to turn back and she did, they flew back to Blackmount with another plan, although this time Aurora was ready to share her plan.

It hadn’t even been two hours since Aurora flew Vizoro, and now she was flying back to the dragons’ cave. Artemis was stunned and he didn’t expect her to be back so quickly, when she landed, Aurora quickly dismounted her dragon and walked to Artemis. Aurora was wearing the same long red dress from Doha and she still had K’ohl in her eye lashes, unusual sight for a dragon rider.

Artemis managed a smile when Aurora stood in front of him, “Aren’t you a little overdressed for a quick flight?” he asked.

“I didn’t mean to fly, I was actually coming to you” replied Aurora, her eyes fixed at Artemis.

Artemis pretended to be shocked, “Oh! Were you?” he asked, as if he wasn’t looking from the fifth floor waiting for her to get inside.

“Can we… talk, alone?”

“Of course, I want that too” replied Artemis and then he looked at Torgo. “Take Vizoro inside” he gave instruction.

However, Aurora intervened, “Actually don’t, we may leave soon” she said.

“Soon?” asked Artemis, he had that worried look on his face, and he knew straight away that something was not right.

Aurora held Artemis’s hand and they walked arm in arm inside the castle, Torgo just looked at them disappearing inside without saying anything, but he knew that something wasn’t right.

Once they reached their chambers, Prince Jahery was there playing with the three young dragons. One thing about this kid is that he was so attached to dragons, he could cry if he wasn’t given a chance to play with them and that’s why Aurora left him with the dragons but always under a care of five female servants and the five servants were there, one of them was carrying Princess Haisa.

Aurora dismissed them, “Take the prince and princess to another room, we need the space” she said, then she reached out to Haisa and placed a kiss on her forehead. “I’ll be with you shortly my sweet love, I love you…” and then to Jahery. “You too my strong warrior, be good okay”

“Okay mummy” replied Jahery in his childish voice, he could understand and articulate what was going on.

Artemis remained cool as he waited to hear what Aurora had to say, he was excited and scared at the same time. It could either be good news or bad news, although he prayed for good news because in the last couple of months it’s been so rough and he could use some good news.

As soon as the door was barred, Aurora turned to Artemis and held his hands.

“We have a serious problem my love” she said, locking eyes with Artemis. “And it starts with a name, Leoric”

Artemis’s eyes widened with amazement, “You know?” he asked.

“What do you mean I know?”

“I… Aeryn told me earlier about Leoric’s secret journey to Iron Falcon. He’s meeting with Lord Finnian and I guess we all know what that means. And Aryan has been in the Mines for weeks, they are plotting against me. Wait, how did you find out?”

Aurora sighed softly, “It was Balrus” she said with care, the last she needed was Artemis growing wroth because of Balrus’s presence in the capital.

“Balrus is in my city?”

“Relax, he means well this time. He told me that Leoric has our dragon eggs, two of them” now this was new to Artemis, he didn’t know about this.

“What? Balrus told you this?”

“We both know he is never wrong, it’s true. He is traveling with them discreetly to Iron Falcon, and Lord Finnian has the tears of the fire. I know I never told you about this deadly portion, but that’s what killed Artodo, it’s a deadly poison to dragons”

“Tears of the fire?” asked Artemis, he heard those words when he was fighting with Aurora and even though he asked what it was, Aurora refused to explain it at the time, he can’t blame her, she was so angry.

Aurora explained it to him, she starts with the day she had a meeting with none other than Euric Morrow and when they toured around ancient Dark Town which was called Maldonia. She went on to say how colorful the town was, and she must have seen more than one hundred dragons as she passed through.

Then Euric Morrow told her the dragons were hunted and killed by the so called Dragon Hunters who possessed the deadly portion ─ tears of the fire. Alienor Morrow wasn’t of royalty blood, he was crowned king by the Morrows because of his courage and because he saved the dragons and the last of Morrow descendants when their first land was completely wiped out by the Dragon Hunters.

“That’s when Alienor came to Maldonia at first with his tribe, he was fleeing the Dragon Hunters. Three hundred years later, the same hunters came to hunt Euric and killed him, his entire family and all the dragons. That’s the history of the fall of dragon age, if we are not careful, the same thing can happen to us” said Aurroa, now seated on the bed with a worried look on her face.

Artemis was still standing, he was pacing back and forth as he listened to Aurora narrating the whole tale, the rise and fall of dragon age.

“Do you understand me, my love?” asked Aurora, her voice sweet and calm. “The big war is here, and Balrus was right, the flames are getting hotter in my dreams”

Artemis moved to where Aurora was sitting and bent down, he placed his arms on her lap. His eyes were fixed on Aurora’s, looking up at her while she looked down on him. “Then you know exactly what we have to do” said Artemis reaching up to Aurora’s left cheek, “We have no choice” he added.