Tatiana - Imperial Ruler Of Dragon's

Chapter 17

By the tightening of her lips and frown on her brows, I could tell the Unseelie Queen didn’t like that response. An uproar of whispers filled the entire room as Unseelie Fae's became enraged by the deliberate disrespect of their Queen, but none made the move to attack without permission from their Queen. The female guard to her right made a move to step forward and attack in outrage, but one lift of the Queen's hand put a halt to her steps.

You could tell everyone was puzzled when suddenly, laughter slipped out of their Queen’s lips and echoed around the room.

Rising to her feet, she stepped down from her throne and floated towards us. Stopping directly in front of Katrina. “I always liked how brave, but so utterly stupid you could be Katrina, easily swayed by emotions. Just like a weak little human.”

“Didn’t you wonder why your sister is merely sending men to pursue me and bring me back to her kingdom rather than killing me on the spot?” Katrina asks, a smug smile tilted on her lips. “She knows I have hidden your heart stone at a safe location and intends to extract it from me with due force. I have no intension of telling her where it is, so my stubbornness will only result in death. If this happens, both Kingdoms and the powers you hold will become nothing in just a few years. Every fae bowing to your leadership will slowly start to resist your hold over them. They will have a choice once again to live freely, pick their rightful leaders, and I’m sure when their minds are cleared of the haze you two placed upon your people, the two of you will be brutally ripped apart.”

Leaning forward, she whispers in a low voice. “Especially, by the Unseelie's whose real Queen was killed by you.”

I couldn’t see the fear in the eyes of the Unseelie Queen, but I could detect the slight shift in her body language which went from relaxed to slightly agitated. Stepping back, she walks right back to her throne and settles down.

“You and your friends will be given nothing more than an hour and a half to get to the mirror portal, and you will be taking Natasha along with you on your journey.”

Her response brought up a tidal wave of response from her people but she paid them no heed. Her expression blank but serious. If Katrina had any urge to refuse the Unseelie’s Queen personal guard tagging along with us, she didn’t let on. Turning to her guard, the Queen instructs.

“Natasha, take them down to the dungeon and use the tunnels beneath. It will lead you directly to the portal, when you come across the portal master you know what to do.”

Falling on one knee, her female guard bowed her head and crossed her arms in the front of her chests once again. “As you’ve ordered your majesty, your servant will obey.”

~*~*~*~

The soft clicking sounds of footsteps of our boots echoes through the silent passage of the dingy dungeon. A woodsy, earthly scent suddenly fills the air and flows out of a cell as we walked past, and behind caged doors sat a pale-skinned woman on the cold, concrete floor. Katrina and the rest halted in her footsteps, their disbelieving gaze directed at the Fae. I stared at their expressions and then turned to stare at the blonde woman in puzzlement.

She stared back at us with a blank stare, no emotion, no recognition, just two pair of eyes filled with nothing. Her pale-skinned nose scrunched up as if revolted by our scents. Her reaction makes me wonder if witches just smell bad in general, or only to the Fae's.

She has pointy ears, her eyes are a rich golden colour, glittering through the darkness surrounding her cage. Her pale face is round in shape, and she’s also short in stature, maybe about 5ft. Though dressed in rags, she looks too refined and somehow, I can just tell the green dress hanging on her thin figure used to be extravagant and bespoke of a higher hierarchy. Her long, lustrous blonde curls are worn down her back in tangled waves, the pale peeks of her bosom squeezed together by a corset beneath her dress commanded attention to the generous asserts, and on her hands are rings craved from silver and made exquisitely with fine gems.

"What is she doing here, how-"

Stepping forward, Katrina moved in the direction of her cell but was stopped by Natasha.

“Do not involve yourself in things that are not of your concern, we don't have much time. So, unless you want to get caught while we're down here I suggest you move on."

Her words earned her a glare from Katrina, but my cousin doesn't refute her statement. Storming off ahead of everyone, I watched as the rest stared back at the blonde woman with one last, lingering glance before moving forward. Following the rest, something nagged at me to turn around one last time and I was surprised, to see a small smile lingering on her chapped lips. Her lips moving to mouth the words... Dragon Queen.

Once we turned down a corner I shook my head to get over that strange encounter. Continuing down our path through a dimly lit walkaway, my gaze travelled to other cells outlining both sides of the narrow passage. Catching my attention was another far, occupying a cell just down the corridor.

It’s a creature with flat, elf-like ears and dark brown skin. The creature coiled around itself in a corner, with unblinking yellow eyes and, a long tail with a pointy end. Passing by its cell, it did not react to us and simply stared until we were out of view. In the next cell stood what could possibly be a faun... or is it called a centaur?

Either way, this creature has horns on his head, with the torso of a human and the body of a goat below the waist. It’s so frightening to see something you never thought could exist out of one’s imagination or mythical stories. Not too long after we passed the last cell do we stop before a brick wall, the wall slides to the right when Natasha pushed in a loose brick after she felt around for the right one. And as the wall opened to reveal a beautiful garden with a stream, I could do nothing but gape in astonishment.

The ground is covered by growing moss and ahead stood the bark of a tree embedded into the brick walls, it's roots connected deep into the ground, and growing out of the most outrageous places, before disappearing behind the wall covered by vines, twisted twigs, and more green moss.

Surrounding the place are delicate purple flowers and red mushrooms the size of a football. Multicoloured butterflies flew in the air as well as purple birds, all of which were spilling in and out of a large opening. Wrapped around the edges of this opening is a silver frame with indecipherable symbols craved round the structure built in a circle as if outlining what can only be a mirrored doorway, and simmering in waves in-between this frame is a water barrier simply floating in the air and emitting soft lights whenever a bird or butterflies freely passes through the barrier.

It doesn’t take a genius to know this is the mirror portal Katrina had talked about, the portal seems to be built upon jagged stone steps which are acting as a small waterfall for the water flowing in through the portal mirror and into a stream that leads down into what appears to be an underwater channel. As we got closer to the mirror, small Tinkerbell fairies began to appear out of thin air, brown frogs which camouflaged themselves on the roots of the tree hopped into view, large brown, reptile-like lizards slowly crawled out from the shadows, and pale blonde mermaids swarm to the surface of the stream with what looks like slimmer gold triton’s in their hands.

They all guarded the mirror and had threatening looks on their faces, daring any of us to draw closer. “What’s going on, who or what are they?” I ask, my voice wary as I stared at the creatures glaring at us.

“Gatekeepers, they stand guard over the Fae portals and ensure no one passes without permission. Be careful and stand behind my back, if provoked they could all attack.” Katrina whispers.

Stepping forward, Natasha yells into the air. “Portal Master come forth!” When no response came, she yells again. Her head swinging around as if searching for something or someone. “Portal Master, come forth. My friends and I seek passage through the portal!”

Materializing out of the walls and from the shadows are creatures who look completely beyond my imagination. A large stone head suddenly became visible to the human eye, the most noticeable and probably terrifying thing about this stone head is the fact that it has no body, just a face hovering in the air, and it’s eyes are a startling shade of green that almost seems hypnotizing.

Next to it, another creature came into view by lifting itself off the protruding roots embedded into the ground and I stared at its thick hair of green vines in awe, its entire face and body is made up of twisted twigs and branches rather than skin. And from where I stood, I could see tiny flowers and moss covering every layer of its body.

Two dark holes make up its eyes and it has a gaping mouth with sharp teeth’s which are pulled apart in a toothy smile.

Skittish giggling made our heads snap up in alarm and with wide eyes, I spotted a green looking monster hanging off the edge of the silver frame surrounding the mirror portal. And down to the left, slowly sticking its head out of the water is a different kind of green creature with an owl’s head, black onyx eyes, claws on its hands and feet and a long hairy tail with a sharp end in the shape of an arrow-head.

Behind its back are small skeletal wings and they rattle in vibrations when the creature opened it’s beak-shaped mouth and let out a screeching sound of warning.

Everyone shuffled back when the stone head floated in front of the barrier and stared at us with narrowed eyes. Looking around i could only stare and gape at the sight of these monsters, my eyes unable to believe themselves. “State your name and position half-bred witch?”

The loud vibrations of the stone heads voice is way louder and sharper than thunder during heavy rain. “Personal guard of Queen Leighton Koen, I am Natasha Vanek, and I’m here to seek passage through your portal with my friends. Do you permit?”

“Humph,” The stone head let out an aggravated huff. “Half-bred witch, I permit no one who serves that usurping fae to pass through my portals. Leave!” It barked, rotating its head so the back of it is facing us.

Clenching her hands, Natasha whispered to the rest of us in warning. “I’ll distract him and the others, you guys try to find a way to escape.”

She made a move to step forward but Katrina grabbed her wrist to hold her back. “Don’t do anything stupid, or everyone will have to suffer repercussions. He’s called a portal master for a reason; without his permission, no one will be able to cross over without being captured by the gatekeepers or torn to shreds by the magic protecting the mirror.”

Stepping forward she let's go of her hands and pointed at the symbols carved on the silver frame surrounding the mirror portal.

“Those symbols are old texts extracted from Säµlx, the ancient language of witches. They represent a spell created by the first Celestial Sisters of Oren back when Edora was just a century year old, no magic can penetrate or break through their barrier. So you better stand back and let me do the talking.”

Though she had a frown of hesitance on her face, the female guard let her have her way. Katrina turns around and steps closer to the stone head, falling to one knee she placed one hand across her chest and bowed her head. “Portal Master, I am Katrina Star. Heiress of the Star Line and one of the direct descendants of the Celestial Sisters. I petition you to let us pass through, my friends and I are in grave danger at the hands of the Seelie Queen. She seeks to take my life for the loss of her son, and for her heart stone which has been stolen by me. If we do not get away soon, we will be in grave danger.”

The mention of the heart stone, whatever it may be seemed to catch the attention of the Fae's. Every single one of them staring at Katrina in disbelief, before turning to the stone head to see his reaction. Immediately, the stone rotates itself in the air until it’s facing us.

It has its eyes narrowed on Katrina and floated slightly closer, gazing down at her sceptically. “Female Witch, raise your head so I may see into your eyes and know if there is truth to what you say.”

As Katrina raised her head and stared at the stone head directly into its hypnotizing green eyes, she maintained the stare off and not once did she break eye contact by blinking.

Though, as seconds ticked by it seemed like staring into the eyes of the stone head put a visible strain on Katrina because she started to sweat profusely, her face tightened and flushed red in concentration, her hands clenched by her side. I have no idea how many minutes passed before the stone head broke eye contact and rotated around, leaving Katrina gasping for breath.

She sways on her knees and immediately Troy was by her side, his cloaked figure wrapping himself around her. The rest of us rushed forward in concern but our attention was quickly drawn to the front when loud ringing sounds started to vibrate through the air and caused waves of breeze to swirl around the little garden and slap our faces.