The Dragon And His Witch

ONE

A sharp knock echoed through the darkened room. A meek voice ordered the person outside to enter before breaking into a fit of coughs.

There was some shuffling of fabric on the marble floor as three palace maids scurried inside, placing themselves near the edge of the regal bed made with four bedposts and velvet canopy.

The rich violet silk covers were draped over a frail looking body as the maids slowly began to remove the duvets.

"Princess Seraphina." One of them whispered in a gentle, motherly tone, making the woman lying on the bed turn her head in her direction.

"Is it time for me to go, yet?" The princess asked softly. Her eyes looked glazed over with pain and longing, as thick despair shrouded her features like the dark clouds were encasing the sky outside.

Lightening crackled through the windows, brightening the dimly lit room for the fraction of a moment before it succumbed in its gloom again.

An elderly maid stepped forward and sat down on the edge of the bed as she reached out to softly push the auburn hair back from the princess' forehead, making the princess look up at her with her forest green eyes.

"Matilda..." She whispered with relief. "Take my pain away, Matilda. Please." The princess begged and Matilda could only respond with the tear that slid out of the middle-aged woman's eye, seeing Seraphina's condition.

"We are here to get you ready for your wedding ceremony, your Highness." One of the younger maids whispered.

That caused more tears to spill out of Seraphina's already bloodshot eyes as she nodded her head slowly.

"What do I have to do?" She asked with dismay and defeat. She had fought so hard to avoid seeing this day, but at last, her spirits had been broken and she was nothing more than a leashed pet.

"Well, we have to get rid of those wounds first." The woman whispered, looking down at Seraphina's body with distaste.

She was only wearing a gossamer robe so Seraphina knew exactly what they all saw.

There was a deep gash from the base of a vase on her forehead that had resulted in her splitting headache. There were cuts on her arms and legs from various pieces of glass after being thrown into a mirror. And there was a long laceration on her back because of a whip.

She was writhing in pain and the only reason she was breathing was that she hadn't been allowed to die.

And now, her wounds were going to be closed up, as if they never even happened.

Matilda softly placed her hands on each side of the princess' face as she closed her eyes. Seraphina prepared herself for the usual pain that was about to come for her.

Slowly, Matilda's fingers began to work their magic as every wound in Seraphina's body began to knit together, slowly and painfully. She clenched her jaw tightly and refrained from biting down on her own tongue as Matilda worked to hide the evidence of the monster's action, who called himself the king.

Seraphina was screaming loudly when the time came for the wounds on her back to close up. Her skin was covered in a sheen of silver sweat and all she could pray for was her own death until the wounds finally closed up and Matilda removed her hands from Seraphina's forehead.

That was when her screams turned into whimpers as Seraphina curled into a ball, pulling the sheets around her, closer to herself.

She did not care that the maids heard her or saw her. She did not care how weak she looked as she wept, burying her face in the pillows, wondering why her fate had turned out so terribly.

Her sobs made Matilda's face crumple in pain as she watched the princess cursing her own existence. The other two maids only exchanged glances of pity and stood patiently waiting for Matilda's orders.

"It's your last day of suffering here, Your Highness. You'll be free soon." Matilda said softly and Seraphina cried harder at that.

She knew what was going to happen.

She was only trading one hell for another.

"I am going to die soon, Matilda." Seraphina whimpered as she slowly raised her head from the bed and tried to sit up. Her hair curtained her entire back, reaching down till the bottom of her hip as she sat up straight. "He will never allow me to live." Her lower lip quivered as she looked pleadingly at Matilda. "Kill me please. Kill me before I have to go." She begged the three maids as they all gasped at her wish.

"Your Highness, you don't know what you're talking about!" One of them whispered with resignation, refusing to even meet the princess' gaze.

"No, Lillian, you don't understand—"

Seraphina was interrupted by Matilda, "I am truly sorry for what fate has decided for you, my child. But if my daughters and I kill you today, his Majesty would make sure that we will never see the light of the day again."

Her daughters nodded from behind her as the last of Seraphina's tears escaped her eyes as she looked down to her lap.

This was it.

What she had dreaded for her whole life had finally come true. And this time, there was no one left to help her out anymore.

She raised her eyes back up and this time, there were no tears on them. Just an empty face, void of any light or emotion as she nodded her head, "dress me up then." She said softly.

Matilda's daughters quickly came by Seraphina's sides as they helped the princess off the bed while Matilda opened the doors to the bathing chamber.

Seraphina was stripped off of the robe she had around her body before her naked frame was pushed into the steaming water, scented with lemon verbena and lavender.

She sat there numbly as they scrubbed and washed every inch of her skin and when she closed her eyes for a brief moment, the glimpse of her mother's smile threatened to pull her insides apart.

She remembered the day she had seen her mother smile for the last time. She remembered the day that her father had told her how much he loved her for the last time.

And from then on, all she knew was dread.

She was the crown princess of the kingdom of Elyandria and she hated the man sitting on the throne that was rightfully hers. She hated the man who was the reason for her plight. The man who was also responsible for fixing her marriage with the King of Dragons.

Seraphina thought back on all those days in her childhood when she used to fantasize about her wedding and not once had she imagined that the most important day in her life would ever become the one she dreaded the most.

She always knew the fact that the Dragon king had demanded her presence in his kingdom since the day she was born, but her father had been reluctant to send her away to those monstrous lands.

But her father was not here anymore, was he? Nor was her mother. And if she wanted to protect the lives of the few people she truly cared about, then she knew how imperative it was for her to agree to this.

"You will find happiness, my princess. It is said that King Drystan is the most beautiful male ever created." Lillian gushed as her fingers worked to rinse the dried blood out of Seraphina's hair.

"He's almost a thousand years old, Lillian." Seraphina replied in a cold voice. She did not even know if she had it in her anymore to talk to anyone. But she could not just sit here and have them squeal about how good her future husband would be when everyone knew from the dawn of time that anyone who went into the Frost Kingdom, never came out alive.

"Yes, but some say that the Frost Kingdom has rivers of gold. Imagine the riches you will get as his wife." Maurice spoke up this time. Matilda looked at her daughters with dismay as she watched them bathing the princess.

Seraphina did not say anything to that.

The truth was, no one knew what the Frost Kingdom was like. Because no one had ever had the courage to cross the border and come back in one piece. Everyone who had tried had ended up dead.

Now it was Seraphina's turn.

She knew the reason behind the king's interest in her. It ran through her veins. Her existence was her bane.

But until two years ago, she never believed that he would actually be successful in getting her.

Maurice and Lillian grabbed her arms as they softly pulled her back up on her feet before drying off her body and wrapping her in a velvet robe.

Seraphina stepped out of the tub as she was then led to the elaborate vanity in her room. She sat down in front of the mirror that was too large for someone so small like herself but said nothing as Matilda began to work on her appearance.

Her hair was dried and then scented with lavender before Matilda braided her long and thick tresses and placed it on her left shoulder as her luscious curls encased her pale face.

Her porcelain skin was covered in powder before crushed rose was applied to her cheeks and her lips were coloured in grape wine.

Once Matilda was satisfied with how Seraphina's face looked, the princess was stripped off of her robe once again and was turned around to find Maurice and Lillian holding the most elegant gown she had ever seen.

Soon, Seraphina was being dressed in innerwear which mostly consisted of preposterous lace and then she was pushed into the gown.

Once she was finally wearing her wedding attire, Seraphina was turned around to be allowed to look at herself in the mirror.

She looked ethereal.

The gown she wore was dull gold in colour. It was cinched around her waist with an elegantly low heart shaped neckline and the sleeves were sheer net, embroidered with sequins which appeared to be glimmering stars on her arms. Around her waist, small diamond studs were gathered to depict starlight as they slowly dispersed into the flowing skirt below. The skirt of the gown was net and below it was a layer of golden silk.

Matilda placed her mother's necklace made out of emeralds around her neck while emerald studs were hung from her earlobes. In her hair, Maurice worked to place flowers crafted out of dusted gold in her braid.

As Seraphina's forest green eyes looked at herself in the mirror, she could not believe how ravishing she looked.

Her skin was flawless, not a freckle or scar to be in site while her clothes made her feel like every bit of the royal princess she was.

But when Matilda placed the small circlet of gold around her her, Seraphina was reminded of how she was not a princess but a prisoner.

The circlet was painted gold but the element was silver and her skin lightly hissed at the contact but Matilda's magic made it settle on her head. The circlet had a pear-shaped gem which rested in the middle of her brows and it looked to be emerald but Seraphina knew that it was anything but that.

It had been placed on her head to prevent her from using her powers. It was placed on her head to control her and she had been willingly wearing it for the last two years.

To anyone looking at her, the circlet was just a harmless ornament, to her, it was burning her veins with each passing second that she had it on.

After today, that control will be in the hands of the dragon king, Drystan.

And there was nothing she could do about it.