Varheiman Myths: The Dragon And Her Fire

Heir Of The Flaming Throne .

Every moment Rhineas heard about his father an undefined whirl of emotions swept through him. A thought of asking Alistair about the King had blinked in his mind an abundance of time, he trusted Alistair enough to tell him about himself, would he help him to unite with his father? That would remain an unanswered question for him at this time, but Rhineas believed in the depth of his heart that Alistair would help him, if Rhineas truly sought it at some point of his life and he'd definitely be a supportive pillar in this matter.

‘Yes, your King Edgard.’ Alistair said bitterly.

Rhineas sensed a utter resentment for the King, he could imagine why. Rhineas was brimmed with fascination about what he'd heard, the Unicorn and the Wisdom of Divines. He looked forward to the hunt. Alistair had told him it could take months to find a Unicorn as they are very shy, they are highly perilous and could leap high in the air. They are unbelievably quick and their strength is indomitable. Alistair had said he will set a trap to capture one of them, it could be months before one of them gets confined. But he was more eager for the Dragon's breath. The brief silence lingered between them before Rhineas provoked the conversation about the King, again.

‘You know King Edgard?’

‘No. I don’t. But once I knew Prince Edgard.’ He said wistfully.

Rhineas gazed vaguely at Alistair with his probing eyes. Alistair perceived the look in Rhineas’s red blazing eyes, in them GLINTED the intriguing desire about Edgard.

‘Prince often visited Bustia before the great war to see the princess Pysenia, I was her guard and a dear friend. I admired the prince, he was gallant and invincible.’ Alistair admitted.

‘Isn’t he now?’ Rhineas asked impatiently.

Alistair felt the unvoiced eagerness behind his question. Rhineas has asked countless of questions before but Alistair saw simple curiosity in his scarlet eyes then. He could sense an affection behind his questions about Edgard, a concern like someone asks about their dear ones. Alistair sensed an inexplicable bond between Edgard and Rhineas.

‘He is certainly not the person as now, when he was as a prince. After the great war the King had never stepped down from the palace.’ Alistair said pitifully. ‘He’s been running the Kingdom from the court, prior to becoming a King he would ride across his kingdom sometimes he would sing the ballads with the bards on the streets and leave them gold. He would charm the ladies, and gossip with them. Now he is not the same.’

‘King Edgard still mounts the Dragon, he is the son of fire.’

Alistair was surprised by Rhineas’s defensiveness for the King. He looked at Rhineas the innocent sixteen year old face, just a couple of years and he will be a man, he didn’t know what he was saying.

‘No one has seen Edgard mount the  Dragon since the great war, boy.’ He sniffed. ‘And riding a Dragon doesn’t make you son of fire.’

‘My mother told me Emone himself was his guardian.’ Rhineas snapped.

‘Aye boy, and so was Emone to prince’s father Atis and his father before that. Every prince to be the King of Halem is guided and taught by the Fire God himself.’ Alistair said with a dull bitterness. ‘Halem is Emone's Kingdom, it is the first Kingdom of the Varheim.’

‘That is why my mother had been telling me we're the children of Emone.’ Rhineas sighed hiding his disappointment. ‘Why do you hate the King?’

‘I do not bear any kind of hatred towards him. We hunted together, we trained together.’ Alistair stared far into those days when he’d go hunting with the prince. They'd race in the open fields of Bustia.

‘Why did he strip you off the knighthood.’ Rhineas asked carefully.

‘Because I was loyal to our Queen.’

‘This is not how loyalty is rewarded by our King, my mother says he is very just.’

Alistair was getting annoyed by his constant defensiveness for the King, he felt a brief suspicion about Rhineas’s mother being so faithful towards the king when the whole Kingdom never saw him since the great war.

‘Aye boy, loyalty and honour aren't rewarded.’ He glared. ‘I loved the princess since we were little and I always looked at Edgard as a friend. I was a fool to think that he would understand me.’

Alistair felt the void in his heart starting to pull him again inside. He remembered how Pysnia had ripped the golden Dragon banner cape from his armour, how she had asked him to leave the breastplate of royal sign and abandon the Kingdom of Halem. That bitterness in her cold eyes he'd always remember.

‘On one night I heard Edgard whisper the chants of dark forces, in his chambers. He was frightened about a little boy, who would claim the throne as his first born. And that is inevitable since he is merely a servant to the God, this kingdom belongs to Emone.’ He paused to scrutinize Rhineas’s face, it was creased in anxiety and bewilderment.

‘I talked to Edgard, I asked him about it. We'd quarrelled on that matter for a long time. I’d even offered him to help, I counselled him not to approach the dark forces and listen to the wisdom of divine but he wouldn’t listen. He asked me to swear I’d not say a word to the Queen, he knew I’m a anointed Knight and the Commander of the Queen’s regiment. I was sworn to loyalty towards the Queen and her Kingdom. I'd to tell her and I believed in him that he'd understand my duty to honour the oath I swore to the Queen.’ Alistair sighed in distress.

‘He played his little games, he knew I loved her and plotted against me.’ He said through his gritted teeth, his jaw clenched.  ‘I informed the Queen about Edgard’s first born, that he’d an illegitimate intimidate relationship with someone, our Queen slapped me. She accused me of intoxicating their marriage to fulfil my craving desire. I was given a time to prove myself innocent but had no proof against the King. I was hurt, that my dear friend had plotted against me, I’d never ever in my worst nightmare imagined that the woman I'd loved from my childhood would turn against me. For all I knew was Edgard had casted a spell on her, or that is what I would very much  like to believe.’ Alistair swallowed his tears. They burned his throat, he grabbed his flask and gulped down till the ale killed the pain temporarily.

‘He was not the man I once knew. He'd never fear a little boy, there was something more he was hiding.’ Alistair concluded.

Rhineas felt a nudge which was sharp enough to pierce his delicate heart, he flinched in guilt blaming himself for the King's despair and Alistair's melancholy. His veins throbbed under his skin with vague temper when he learnt the way people had given a name of disgrace to the purity of love between two souls, that bounded them. For the first time Rhineas felt a detest tinging in him for the King. He felt sympathetic for Velina for loving Edgard irrevocably.

Alistair saw the nothingness in Rhineas’s eyes he'd never seen before, the moisten pearls slightly sorting up in the corner of his eyes. And he knew that it had nothing to do with him, but threaded with Edgard.

‘I am sorry, Alistair.’ Rhineas said softly.

‘Don’t spit sympathy at me boy. I am happy.’ He laughed, but, yet the misery hinted in him.

‘I must tell you something.’ Rhineas shivered.

Alistair wondered, something that he already didn’t know? ‘Aye.’ He sighed.

‘My mother is Velina....’ Rhineas began. ‘It was the time when Edgard was still a Prince.’

Rhineas divulged the story his mother had told him just as likely, emphasizing with same emotions he'd heard form Velina. The emotions smothered inside him, he let them pour out in every word. He'd understood the pain that she embraced in herself gladly, never whining or bewailing about it.

‘Holy fire of Kingdoms!’ Alistair cursed when he heard about Edgard slaying the beast.

‘Mother said he was very valorous.’ Rhineas smiled.

‘Damn he was. He killed a Lykvir.’ Alistair cried.

Rhineas learnt the name of the half wolf and half man beast. ‘Yes, if that is what they call it.’

 Rhineas conclude the story. ‘....and that is how I was born.’

‘The first born of Edgard, rightful heir of the fire throne, prince of Halem, ward of Emone.’ Alistair recited Rhineas’s titles firmly. He was not surprised. He knew it in a glance, the red hair and scarlet eyes and that triangle face and gallant  courage, all of these qualities, only the true prince of Halem would posses. It was Edgard and before him Atis.

‘No, Alistair. I’m not worthy of all those titles, I don’t want them.’ Rhineas said genuinely. ‘I just want to meet the king and tell him that he has a son.’

‘You are the first born of –’

‘Illegitimate relationship of the king with low born peasant girl.’ Rhineas completed Alistair's sentence bitterly.

‘You can’t stop the order of Emone. It is inevitable just as I said.’ Alistair looked away from Rhineas into the depth of the woods leading them to nowhere.

‘Aeron is our Prince. He is the true born.’ Rhineas admitted this fact gladly. He had no keen in ruling, he just wanted to become like his father brave and invincible.

‘He wouldn’t be ruling, he is not the fire prince.’

‘And what makes you think I am?’

‘Does it matters, Rhineas?.’ Alistair said sharply.

Rhineas was surprised at how he'd called him by the name stead of boy. ‘Please do not change your behaviour towards me.’

‘Aye, boy. I won't. You still need to learn a lot.’

‘And I believe that you would teach me.’

‘I lost my Knighthood once disobeying a king, now I won’t lose my head for upsetting the prince, boy.’ Alistair said ruefully.

The Prince and the Knight burst into a rumble of laughter to ease the pain for a brief time. Alistair had been never dubious about it, he had always welcomed the pain with open arms embracing it every night drinking the ale till he dies, and again wake up vital happily greeting new life. However, Rhineas felt a little light, his burns soothed. He was certain he would see Edgard soon.

But the actuality that Edgard feared Rhineas, shuddered him. He wanted to assure that he holds no keen in his Kingdom. All he want is a pat of appreciation by his father, and a decent job. Rhineas looked at Alistair donning on his armour, standing tall again, after whatever he'd been through. Rhineas would never understand any of those grief of losing a friend or what is it like to love a woman, for he never had any friends with an exception of Reyto whom he didn’t see much often since they've grown up and Reyto spends most of his time working at the forge. And love? He had never felt it, he'd never seen a girl and felt his heart twirling around in his chest, or the world fainting like his mother had told him. All he cared was Dragons and swords, battling with Knights and going on adventures hunting Unicorns.

‘You ought to wear one.’ Alistair said hitting on his armour with the hilt of the sword.

‘I know just the place where to get it.’ Rhineas cheeks lifted up by the extending arch on his lips.

Alistair tilted his head slightly and grinned raising his eyebrow. ‘The sooner we move, the better it is.’

Rhineas picked up his sword braced the spared baldric across his shoulders; which Alistair had worn over his gambeson. He strode to his horse and mounted it solemnly, setting the horse at its trot while it nickered.

Alistair gazed wonderfully at the boy and muttered to himself, ‘That’s the Prince I'd serve.’ 

‘You coming old man?’ Rhineas asked in a thick grim voice, imitating Alistair.