Chapter 7: Come sit with me
Cypher admired the girl's courage. It wasn't everyday that a young girl gets to tell the king what to do and worst, call him by name. But Cypher wasn't like most kings. He was an ordinary young lad that until two months ago was a young prince who liked tournaments and spending time in the wild in the company of the charismatic Clara Wade, the girl he was in love with since he was ten years of age.
Then his father fall from a horse and broke his neck.
Cypher wasn't surprised, his father was cruel to animal and he handled his horses like they were made of stone. For an animal lover like Cypher, it was the height of cruelty a human being could show or be but overall, he was a good father or at least moderately good.
His mother had died when he was about nine years of age from childbirth and the newborn Eileen, succumbed to death after the sorceress that was supposed to heal her of the ailment that was ailing her ended up casting a death spell.
The lost of his mother and infant sister made Cypher seek solace in things around him like rocks, toad, rats and he studied just about anything to distract himself from the fact that his father paid no attention to him. It was like he died alongside his mother and infant sister. Even though the king never remarried, he kept a harem of concubines for his pleasure.
Soon, Cypher started noticing not just the pain of being ignored but the benefits too. He could go and come as he pleased. He could play with the children from the closest dwelling for hours before returning to the castle. And then he met the beautiful Clara Wade and it was love at sight.
For once, Cypher Dumont had someone to look forward to each day.
And now his first declaration as king was to open the royal ball to the public, to both noble birth and commoners just so Clara would attend and he could finally proclaim his love for her to the whole of midlands. But now Cypher was staring at the only woman that may just be more beautiful than his Clara Wade and all he could think about was Clara.
Emerald led the King to the nearest shrub and they sat down. Cypher was gentle and kind in his dealings but he knew he shouldn't be alone with an unmarried girl in a lonely private river.
"It is inappropriate to be with you here, Eireth. You are unmarried" Cypher told Emerald.
"I am not afraid of humans, Cypher"
Cypher reckoned she was the only one apart from Clara that called him by his name.
"What can I do for you, Eireth?" He was blunt. The sooner she can get whatever she wanted to say off her chest the sooner she can disappear.
"I can't stop thinking of you, Cypher Dumont" Emerald bluntness made Cypher slightly uncomfortable. No lady in the midlands has ever openly declared to a lad that she fancied him. It was unheard of and Cypher was always fascinated with the unusual.
Deep down the king felt like he could like her back if he hadn't found Clara. Eireth was the opposite of the woman he was in love with yet she fascinated him.
"It's almost like you placed a love spell on me, Cypher Dumont"
Cypher cleared his throat, he has had girls of royal birth and duke's daughters indirectly show him that they wanted him and usually ignoring them was his way of handling it but the girl in front of her was blunt and beautiful. And somehow, Cypher wanted her to know she was exactly that.
"I am flattered. Honestly, you are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen and it would have been a great honor to return your affection but I can't, Eireth"
"Why?" Eireth asked him.
"My heart belongs to another girl and there is no room for you. But with your beauty and if you are of noble birth, I can arrange a marriage between you and the duke of Ashdale. He is a good friend and he is currently in search of a bride" Cypher wondered why he was going out of his way to help the stranger beside him.
"But I want you, Cypher Dumont king of Lamek. Together, we can make the midlands the most powerful land on earth" Eireth knew that humans are obsessed with power and elevation. And she had the power to give him that. She was after all a Ferratti – a dragon mistress.
"I would rather have love than power, Eireth. Love makes everything better" Cypher stood up and walked away. He was almost close to his horse when he heard her voice.
"Tell me the truth, Cypher…if you were not in love with this human girl, would you have chosen me to be your Queen?" Eireth asked him.
Cypher thought about it briefly and then he answered sincerely. "I don't know…maybe"
He climbed on his horse Axe but before he rode away, he spoke to the dragon mistress "Come to the ball. My offer still stands; I will make a quick introduction between you and the duke"
Eireth watched as he rode away.
"It's you I want, Cypher Dumont. Why don't you want me too?" she murmured to herself before calling her dragon.
Wrath knew something was bothering her mistress and Queen. She wanted to find out.
"Something is on your mind, Mistress" The dragon asked her.
Eireth unconsciously rubbed the locket around her neck like it was a genie. Then it dawned on her, she had her own version of a wishing granting genie. She had Tiamat's wishing stone.
"Wrath, Tiamat's stone is capable of granting any wishes right?"
"Yes Mistress except wish the shadowers away for eternity" the dragon replied.
"It can grant true love to a lonely soul" Eireth murmured more to herself than her dragons.
"You can't, mistress"
"Why not? I will be queen and the ferretti's can live in the midlands" Eireth explained
"The wishing stone only grants one wish once in a decade and you can't use it for a selfish reason, Queen Emerald. The stone always knows and it always retaliate by taking something far greater from the wisher"
Wrath was tempted to say that Tiamat stone could grant the Queen true love but it would also take her immortality and Emerald would have a beating heart.