23.
Queen Morgana laughed at the
meals served on the long table while her host, Queen Clarity seated on the
other end of the table smiled. The later had just returned from the
battlefield, where King Bannion had succumbed to his injuries.
“You are an amazement, my
dear granddaughter.” Queen Morgan picked at the grapes from her plate dished
out for her meal. “I am more of a meat eater, and found my diet of greens were
the occasional peas or potatoes.”
“I just came back from the
battlefield where they served nothing but chunks of meat from their captured
animals, eating it with the whiff of burning flesh of the dead on the funeral
pyre or the smell of rotting decaying bodies. I think I would stick to some
fruits and greens to ease my appetite for a while.”
“Funny, how we view the
appetite when confronted by such scenes.” Queen Morgana bite her red grapes and
let the red juice sailed down between fingers. She licked at the flowing juice.
“No cherries? I guess that is
something we won’t be concerned on.” Queen Morgan laughed. “Lord Falstof was my
first, and he was a bull. All charges and no need for any ……”
“Grandmother, I am not keen
on your amorous past events.” Queen Clarity took her bite of the persimmon. “I
am inviting you here to tell you that the war is over. You may withdraw your
army, from my land.”
“I have no need to withdraw
them. I am handling it over to you. All of it, and my lands.” Queen Morgana
smiled. “I did tell you before that I am dying. I am leaving my position as the
Iron Lady, and passing it to you.”
“That simple? I was expecting
a more lavish and gaily ceremony with the Lords and great leaders present to
see the handover.” Queen Clarity voiced out her cynical remarks. “Isn’t that
how it is done when a King abdicate the throne? How did you do it with Queen
Helena?”
Queen Morgana lowered her
fork and smiled. She recalled on her return from the forest, Queen Helena had
called on her to see the Queen. The Queen was furious at her for taking that
risk.
“Do you know the risk of the
dark forest?” Queen Helena shouted at the younger lady but the later moved
aside to show her the latest acquisition.
“Why did you bring the
dwarfs? I know him. He is Ego.” Queen Helena took up her defense and called on
the personal guards. The chamber which the Queen had met Lady Morgana then, was
filled up with a dozen guards armed with spears.
“Hold your position.” Lady
Morgana then cautioned her guests, and then glared at the guards. “They are
here as my guests. They are not a threat. I repeat they are not a threat.”
“Queen Helena, it is my honor
to meet you. You had given us a good fight.” Ego saluted the Queen. “We lost
some good friends, but that all is the past now.”
“I would be damned with your
friends.” Queen Helena told the dwarf off. “Your intervention into my affairs
caused me to fight you and lost some good allies too.”
“Anyway, we are here on the
invitation of Lady Morgana.” Ego replied. “Good bve then.”
“Hold on there.” Lady Morgana
intervened in. She looked to the Queen.
“They can be our allies. They
just broke ranks with their own.” Lady Morgana continued on. “They are offering
to help me for the rewards of some gold.”
“Gold? I should had known
that.” Queen Helena smiled. She dismissed the guards and got to know the
dwarfs. Six seasons later, Queen Helena died in her sleep. She was not able to
tell anyone how she died, but if they only knew, the three dwarfs would be
executed. Upon the death of Queen Helena, the lands that belonged to her was
given to Lady Morgana. Soon after, Lady Morgana had wedded Lord Falstof. It was
a lavish wedding with many Lords in attendance like in her protégé, Queen
Clarity.
“So, now that you are dying,
you made me the next Iron Lady?” Queen Clarity raised a thought on that. “And
leaving me your servants.”
The Queen motioned to the
three dwarfs seated on the smaller table at the side, holding their own feast
on the golden plates and mugs.
“The dwarfs joined me and
changed their nicknames to reflect their …innermost characters; Greed,
Influence and Killer. Ego had chosen Killer as he had killed more than a dozen
targets for me.”
Ego had become Killer, Hiccup
was Greed; as he does hiccup when in front of the ore, and Eirie became
Influence; hid methods was questionable but the victims always speaks the truth
sooner or later.
“They had been good
companions; served their purposes, and now I am sending them over to you.”
Queen Morgan looked to the three dwarfs. “Look after the new Queen as you did
for me.”
Queen Clarity smiled and then
asked them a cynical question.
“Do you still fear the Mirg
Clan?” Queen Clarity asked.
Killer reacted with a spell
of fire which he hurled at her, but the Queen Clarity had learned a lot from
the old Queen. She had a spell of shield to protect her from the fire. She then
hurled from her side, the spell of the icy stakes condensed from the water in
the pitcher nearby. Greed had fashioned up a shield of converting the icy
stakes into gold flakes.
“You are good, Queen Clarity
but you would not last a day with the dwarfs from Mirg.” Influence told her.
“Doc or Happy could have you wiped out easily. Or even Sneezy with his pollen
spells.”
“So tell me, Influence, how
could I even the odds?” Queen Clarity asked back.
"The mirrors of Wendell
never lied.” Influence replied. It was also an indication that the mirrors were
used for than soothsaying.
No comments:
Post a Comment