Chapter 20

In the black kingdom

In the palace

The queen's chambers

Queen Becca sat gracefully on her chair, she wore a beautiful dark green gown. It was simple with no jewels adorning it and the collar of the gown was low, it revealed her collar bone. Her face held a serious expression, as she held the wooden carving in he hand that her two seers had stolen from the witch of Durren. On the wooden carving was a dragon carved on it with it's wings wide aspread and it's mouth wide open. There were strange writings on it.

Queen Becca raised her right hand up which was formerly on her laps and caressed the strange writings on it . She brought the wooden board close to her lips and kissed it whilst saying,

"What could you possibly mean?"

She stood up from the chair she was formerly sitting on and walked gracefully to her magic mirror and with her two hand holding the wooden engraved board, faced it to the mirror. Her reflection stared at her the same way her figure was poised. She sighed and turned the engraved carving once more to herself. It was now evident that she was worried. She thought and as she was buried in her thoughts, one of her personal guards rushed in.

"My queen", he bowed low to the ground.

"Queen Becca, may you live longer than your enemies, may the wisdom of your enemies be turned into foolishness and may every counsel that stands against you be destroyed.

"What is it?", Becca demands.

"One of your seers brings news to you."

"Let him in", Becca says.

He bows and rushes to leave , he returns immediately with none other than Sir Edward. The guard bows and leaves the room leaving only sir Edward and Queen Becca.

Becca looks at the engraving and says, "News? Good news perhaps."

Edward says, "Words coming from the mouth of Sir lyric himself. The one he enchanted has failed to retrieve the garments which were worn by prince Evan in the day he went missing. I'm afraid your majesty..."

"What are you afraid of?", Becca thunders,"And why did the idiot not retrieve the garments of Evan."

"According to Sir Lyric, the boy said that the clothes went missing and he couldn't find them."

Becca is astonished

"Is Sir Lyric sure that he enchanted the boy properly?"

"My queen, Lyric was able to enchant the witch long enough ti retrieve the wooden engraved board, what then is a tiny, measley peasant that he can not handle?"

Becca turns away with the wooden engraving and faces the large window in her room with beautiful curtains drawn aside and she walks to the window but she doesn't step out to the open space.

"I will have to find another way then."

She then turns to Sir Edward and walks to him and hands him the wooden engraving.

"I have been trying for hours to discern the meaning of this letters and symbols on this engraving and I have only arrived at one thing which I would not say now."

Sir Edward nods, "Yes, our queen."

Becca hands the wooden engraving to him.

"You are one of my twelve faithful seers but you all must commune with one another and see what the strange writings and pictures mean."

"Yes my queen."

"Go at once."

Sir Edward bows and leaves with the wooden engraving in his hand.

As Edward walks along the corridor, he bumps into Justin almost dropping the wooden engraving.

Justin apologizes immediately.

"Forgive me."

"Are your eyes at the the back of your head?", Edward says angrily. Justin remains silent and Edward walks away uttering the word fool, loud enough for Justin's ears to hear.

*****

In the black kingdom

The commoners town

Somewhere in the black kingdoms forest

A cloaked figure is running frantically, loud panting noises are being made ad the figure tries to outrun an unseen force. The figure turns back and screams, the face of the one running is revealed to be Rehabi's, she turns back ahead and continues running, she stumbles and almost falls to the earth but she steadies herself and keeps running. As she runs, she trips on the root of a tree and falls and an evil sinister voice says,

"Kill the baby and it's mother."

Rehabi screams saying, "Nooooo. Leave my child. Get away from me. Aaaaaaahhhhhhh."

Rehabi screams and wakes up from sleep. It was all a dream. She began to pant loudly on her bed. There are beads of sweat on her forehead. She looks scared and instinctively places her hand on her belly whispering,

"Do not worry dear child, I'll protect you with my life."

She closes her eyes and tears stream slowly down her face. She now knows that as she carries the dragon queen in her womb, many will seek her life and that of her child.

She screams must have woken up her mother, as the door quickly swings open and mother steps into the room with a lantern in her hand. Mother drops the lantern gently on the floor and goes to sit beside Rehabi on the bed. She takes her hand in hers and squeezes it affectionately saying,

"It's okay child. It was just a dream."

Rehabi shakes her head and says, "How can this be just a dream and feel so real? Nobit can't be just a dream."

She closes her eyes very tight and opens them almost immediately. Her eyes glows, it is fear that causes the magic to be revealed.

She says to her mother,

"I must go see the grand white witch of the south. She will tell me what to do."

Mother shrieks and refuses.

Their were only two grand white witches, the one of the South and the other of the East. The grand white witch of the south was much more powerful than the one from the East. Their covens we're still located in the black forest but only few had seen the grand white witch of the East not to talk more of the witch from the south. The way was also dangerous and the only guides to the covens were the moon and the stars which will lead the finders of the coven to the oakamon tree.

"No", mother said, "You are not permitted to go."

Rehabi looks at her mom with tear stained face saying,

"I'm sorry mother but I was not asking for permission but only telling you what I wanted to do. There is nothing you can do about it."