Blood Dragon

The Wizard Tower

Morning came much to fast even though it was more like afternoon but it didn’t quiet matter due to how late I had finally gone to sleep. I may have slept the day away if it wasn’t for Princess Beatrice jumping onto my bed fully dressed her face glowing.

“Who do you think she was?” Her voice was high pitched and fast as if she had been holding those words in all night.

“The King will tell us when he feels it relevant.” I grumbled as I turned over pulling the covers up over my head hoping to block out her voice.

“You can’t tell me your not the least bit curious about what happened last night?” She rudely yanked the blanket down and I glared at her as I blinked from the brightness of the room.

“Of course I curious, but I don’t think your father is going to be in the sharing mood this morning.” I sat up giving up hope that I would be able to fall back asleep.

“Well I know someone who will know.” She nearly bounced on my bed with her impatience.

I rubbed my head disparaging at my hair which was trying to resemble a birds nest.

“Can I at least get dressed before we go up there?” I asked ruthfully as I got out of bed.

“Of course.” She replied graciously as she hurried out of the room.

It took me a minute to work the knots of my hair and to dress and by the time I stepped out of the room Beatrice was nearly hopping up and down in her anxiousness.

“What makes you think Calbin will know?” I asked as she hurried me down the halls to the center of the castle.

“ He knows everything.” she replied simply as she opened a door revealing a narrow pair of stairs.

I groaned inwardly as we started up the stairs. Calbin lived in the wizards tower which happened to be the tallest tower in the castle. Princess Beatrice seemed to loose her steam about halfway up, her steps faltering as we both labored for breath.

“Why does he live all the way up her?” She asked sourly. I was pretty sure it was rhetorical question but I answered her anyway.

“Because he is a wizard and this is the wizards tower.”

She stuck her tongue out me. I had to admit that seeing her red faced and breathing hard was making me feel better about her waking me up. It had been getting steadily hotter the higher we got but as we came around the last curve we were struck by a almost icy breeze. Calbin was a wizard of course, part of a dwindling breed, and was able to do certain magic. Calbin had been able to create a spell that kept his tower cool during the hot summer. The King had been so impressed that he had Calbin cast the same spell on the whole castle. Unfortunately wizard power was not what it once was and when Calbin had tried the much bigger spell it had gotten out of control causing a blizzard right in the middle of the ballroom. We finally came to the top, a large heavy door before us.

“You knock.” she pushed me forward.

“Why? This was your idea.” I crossed my arms.

“Because he likes you and he just tolerates me.”

“Fine.” I knocked on the door. “Calbin?”

There was a muttering and then a loud crash.

“Calbin?” I yelled as I quickly opened the door.

The room was full of stacks of books all over, and in the middle was a pile that had fallen over into a heap. Something was moving beneath it.

“Calbin?” I hurried to the pile stopping because I wasn’t quiet sure how to help.

Fortunately I was saved from having to dig in when Calbin’s head popped up from the middle.

“AH, Alia how nice of you to come visit me” He smiled warmly as he extracted himself from the pile “ Princess Beatrice.” He gave her a slight nod.

She smiled at me knowingly.

“Are you ok?’ I asked worriedly as he staggered out to a chair.

Calbin gave me a sheepish smile as he flicked a curl from his forehead. Calbin was young, very young to be a master wizard and also he happened to be good looking with reddish brown hair and hazel eyes.

“Just doing some research when the pile of books decided it was done.” He stretched back in the chair trying to work a kink out.

“Did this research have something to do with that lady from last night?’ Princess Beatrice asked not able to keep her mouth shut for long.

Calbin arched his eyebrow at her while crossing his arms across his chest.

“I’m not suppose to talk about it.” His voice was full of importance as he sat up straighter in his chair.

Beatrice elbowed me hard and I knew what she wanted me to do.

“Calbin.” I gave him what I hope was a flirty smile as I walked over to the table. “We were just hoping you would tell us something, anything really.”

He looked at me for a minute and I was sure he was going to have us leave since I had no practice of flirting information out of men.

“What I tell you must not leave this room.” He fixed Beatrice with a especially hard look.

Apparently I wasn’t the only one that knew she had a hard time keeping her mouth shut.

“I promise.” I said immediately and Beatrice echoed me.

“So, as it turns out the King was married once before he married Queen Lillianna.” He grabbed a old small book opening it up showing a small drawing of the King standing next to the lady from last night.

“Her name was Mirra, and she was a Parigonian.”

“A Parigonian?” I stared at the picture “She doesn’t have wings”

Everything I heard about Parigonians said they all had wings.

“Not all Parigonians have wings, Here.” He reached into the pile of of fallen books grabbing a rather large book “It’s part of their mythology why some have wings.” He opened the book to a picture of a village about to be attacked.

“The myth is that once Parigonians were human like us, living in a small village by a mountain. One day raiders came and were about to burn the village and kill everyone. The villagers prayed to their Goddess, Felhien, she was the keeper of justice. She answered their prayers coming to them in a blaze of golden light. To those she felt were good and worthy she changed but not everyone she found worthy. As the raiders came closer those who were changed took pity on the ones who were not and they lifted them in their arms and carried them away with them.” He flipped to a page that showed a village high on top of a mountain steep cliffs on all sides. Several winged people flew about while others walked.

“What about the wings?” I asked my mind going back to the man who had the black wings “ I thought Parigonians only had white wings.”

“That is very interesting part of the Parigonians myth, since their goddess only changed the pure and righteous with white wings if someone who had wings did something wrong the wings will start to change.” Calbin seemed almost giddy as he flipped through the book.

“What would someone have to do to have their wings turn pitch black?” Princess Beatrice asked.

“I don’t know.” Calbin answered his forehead wrinkling “ I would love to meet a Parigonian and ask them some questions.” He paused as he shut his book.

“So what happened between the King and Mirra?” I asked getting us back on track.

“That is highly classified information.” Calbin looked down at his books.

“Please we just want to know what is going on.” I said softly.

Calbin cleared his throat as he lifted his head.

“Before Gregor became King his father arranged his marriage to the princess of the Parigonians. It was suppose to bring the kingdom protection since the Parigonians have a very fierce army. Things went very well until the King became ill with a sickness no one had ever seen before. He died very quickly and Gregor was just as quickly crowned King. No one thought anything of it, people die from sickness’s all the time but soon after he took over the throne Gregor also became sick with the same symptoms his father had. Mirra was always by his side, the picture of wifely concern until a close friend of the King caught Mirra adding poison to the Kings food. It turns out Mirra didn’t want to co rule but to be absolute ruler and she was taking out her competition. The King wanted to execute her but the Parigonians sent a ambassador pleading for mercy so the King banished her, wiping her name out of existence never to be spoken again.” we stared at him in astonishment. Mirra had tried to take out the rulers of Gavendale.

“Your father was the one who caught her.” Calbin’s words knocked me out of my astonishment.

“What?”

“He was the one who caught her and then he was the one who escorted her to banishment. Maybe...” He paused nervously as he looked at me. “ That is why your home was attacked that long ago. If that is truly the Blood stone all dark creatures will obey her words”

We all stood in silence as we each were lost in our own thoughts.

“Bloodstone, how truly dangerous could it be to our kingdom?” Princess Beatrice voice was clearly more pensive than it was earlier and when I turned to her I noticed she was much paler than she was before.

“ If it is truly the Blood stone than we are doomed.” Calbin ran a hand through his hair as he looked around his room “ The Blood stone was made from the blood of Dontra, Deathwalker, a god. He was jealous of all the creatures that his brothers and sisters created ,so he decided to create things to terrorize his siblings creations. To stop their brother the other gods had him encased within a mountain. They also banished his creations into the dark far away from their beloved creations. I have found a old text that says if the Bloodstone is heated with fire of the blood dragon where the Deathwalker is trapped he will be able to slip back into our world to wreak havoc once again.” He glared at his books as if they personally affronted him.

“All these books and all I have found is one paragraph on this stupid stone that can bring our world to ruin.”

“But that isn’t the stone because that is a myth.” Princess Beatrice said.

“Of course.” Calibin sighed “ But still the King has me looking for anything on it just in case.”

“Then we should leave you so you can continue” I grabbed Beatrice’s hand and started to pull her towards the door.

“Remember what I said.” Calbin called out to us “tell no one.”

“Promise.” I said back a weak smile on my lips.

We stepped out the door and I let out a shaky breath. Princess Beatrice was oddly silent as we started down the stairs. As we reached the bottom I gave her a worried look.

“Are you ok?” I asked

“I can’t believe my father had a whole other life and he almost died and we could all be killed at the end of two weeks.” She blurted out her face turning red.

“We will be fine.” I said to her more for myself than for her.

“I’m going to go see how my father is. Do you want to come?” She asked.

“No. I’m going to go to the chapel.”

“I think you are the only one who prays to the Gods” She said her face confused over my old habit.

“My father prayed to the Gods and who should we pray to to help us with this mess?”

“Humans will take care of this, not Gods that no one has seen for over 500 hundred years” she replied and I just smiled as I turned and headed to the chapel.

The chapel was a small building in a side garden that looked out onto the sea. It was eerily silent since Princess Beatrice was right that no one prayed to the Gods anymore. I stepped into the chapel looking up at the ceiling that was open showing the bright blue of the mid day sky. It was made that way so our prayers would rise unhindered up to the gods. In the center was a statue of the God Kimet, The Creator, and surprisingly someone was standing next to it. I paused taken aback to see anyone here. As I stepped closer I realized it was Kyro, his face tilted up towards the sky as if he was trying to see the Gods.

“I didn’t know you prayed to the Gods.” I said as I stepped up besides him.

“I thought I would give it a try, see if anything would happen but it seems the gods have truly abandoned us” His face was neutral as he turned to go.

“Or maybe we have abandoned them.” I said to his back, he paused but shook his head and kept walking.

I turned to the statue.

“Please help us” I whispered as I sank to the floor.