The soft, warm, and inviting sounds of the crackling fire painted the polished stone in front of the fireplace in orange hues. Besides the fire, the only other sound in the room was that of a woman reading to her child on a bed and the child’s precious giggles and inquiries. The woman was adorned in a green silk nightgown, and on her head was a crown made of little-entwined roses. The leaves of the rose were small chips of emeralds, and the petals of the flowers were rubies. The crown had small Dragon Claws wrapped around the rose stems with flakes of black amethyst making up the talons. Her eyes were a fierce blue, a rarity seldom seen. Her husband often referred to her eyes as “sea opals,” a vibrant blue and valuable gem stone brought by the merchants from the trading islands in the middle of the seas. She was exquisitely beautiful, the perfect picture of how a queen should appear in both physicality and noble demeanor. She is the Dragon’s Rose, Queen Sarinah Erin Loudas, and wife to King Danyais.
Queen Sarinah’s strawberry blonde hair was being tended to fondly by the child standing in the bed behind her. The child she was reading to, her daughter, Crown Princess Arinah. They were in Arinah’s room, and the princess’s bed was big enough for two people to sleep in. Her bed was a canopy bed, draped in sheer pastel green and pink fabrics, and scattered throughout the room were miniature furnishings designed in regards to the princess’ height.
A small dark purple chaise lounge with a matching larger one sat along a wall. There was a small table accompanied by chairs off in another corner, and thick rugs with ornamental designs covered most of the floor. Tapestries designed with floral patterns, animals, or depictions of Arinah’s favorite stories hung on the walls. Flanking her bed on both sides were ornamental nightstands with several large candles burning on polished silver platters. The fireplace was built into the wall across from Arinah’s bed. To the left and right of the fireplace hung two banners with her family’s crest on them, the Crystal Dragon clutching a rose.
Arinah’s favorite thing about the room, by far, was the ceiling. Her father, King Danyais, told her the ceiling was enchanted by some magus a long time ago when it was his room. It was gifted as a sign of gratitude for a favor to her grandfather King Ledan for lending the magus assistance on some task involving a dragon. If Arinah did not gaze into the ceiling every night when she slept, then she would not have believed her father about the dragon since dragons have not been seen in the world for hundreds of years.
When her room was dark and the sun gave way to the night outside, the ceiling would light up with the stars and moons. The magical ceiling would become an exact copy of the skies above Castle Rose Claw. Arinah already knew all the constellations due to laying countless nights under this wondrous ceiling, and her parents told her about the stories behind them. The story of the constellation Little Girl Soma, standing on the fence waiting for her father to come home, was her favorite, since her father was always busy. She could relate to Soma. While staring at the ceiling, sometimes Arinah would see white streaks falling faster than she could blink. Her mother told her they were falling stars, bringing the wishes and answers to prayers the Gods have decided to grant back to Gawraith.
With all the pastel colors, decorative plush furniture, and toys lying about, her room was fit for a princess, except for one thing. There was a collection of wooden practice swords resting on a stand in the corner of her room. The swords were definitely not the usual things one would expect to find in the room of a princess. These swords are Arinah’s most prized possessions. Her practice swords were all custom-made for her, just like the miniature furnishings adorning her room. The petite wooden swords allowed Arinah to get used to the size and weight as she practiced with them. Going from left to right on the stand, the swords were smaller, becoming larger, a direct reflection of how she would progress from sword to sword as she would grow into larger swords. Arinah’s father learned woodworking just to make them for her since Arinah’s mother issued an unofficial decree to the woodcraftsmen in Rose Claw, forbidding them from making practice swords in a losing attempt to try and discourage her husband from teaching their daughter the sword. Arinah wanted to be like her father ever since she saw her father fight at the Rose games. She even kept the broken swords and the earlier disastrous prototypes her father made in a chest under her bed as keepsakes.
Her grandmother, Baroness Zarinah, and her mother were against the notion of her taking up swordplay at first, but Sarinah, like Arinah’s father, did not have the will to deny their daughter’s persistent requests. Often when they read fairy tales together, Arinah switched the genders or roles of the princes and the princesses so she could imagine she was rescuing the gentleman in distress. Arinah’s grandmother, Baroness Zarinah, complained about how rough her granddaughter’s hands have become from all the practice and extra practice Arinah snuck in.
Arinah counted the brush strokes as her mother read, “99, 100,” Arinah paused. “Mother, what comes after 100?” the Princess asked of her mother.
“My dearest, that is quite simple. Since you already know how to count to a hundred. It is one hundred and one, Ari,” Sarinah said, smiling at her daughter using the nickname they all called Arinah. Like the sword and Ari’s rough hands, it was also her husband’s fault Arinah would be doomed to just being known as Ari. The Queen’s mother, Baroness Zarinah, harped about Arinah’s nickname just as much as her swordplay and refused to call her Ari out of stubbornness. Sarinah took the brush from Ari’s tiny hands. “It’s your turn to read,” handing her the book.
Ari jumped to the floor, her small feet barely making any sounds other than when they clapped on the bare areas with no rugs. Ari pushed a small stool, and it made wooden scraping sounds on the stone floor until Ari had it over the rugs. She guided the stool, placing it in front of her bed. Sarinah put one leg on each side of the stool, and Ari nestled herself between her mother’s legs. Her mother started to brush Ari’s bright red hair. Little Ari began to read, sounding out the words as she went along, and getting help from her mother by raising the book above her head for help from her mother when the words were too big or complicated for her.
“Mother, was father like the prince in this story when you met him,” Ari asked, tilting her head back. Her mother appeared upside down in her vision.
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“Your father, when I first met him,” Sarinah chuckled, “he was more like an ogre,” the Queen told her daughter.
“An ogre?” Ari asked, her head tilting to the side as she imagined her father as an ogre.
“He was green and ugly? Did you kiss him and make him better?” Ari asked, being serious with her inquiry. Her mother laughed. Relishing in Ari’s innocence, Sarinah scooped her into her arms, pulling her back up onto her bed.
“Oh, my sweet little Ari. I love you,” Sarinah said aloud with pure joy, nuzzling her nose against Ari’s soft cheek, causing the little princes to squeal in delight. The two nuzzled with each other, Ari’s tiny hands touching her mother’s smooth cheeks.
“Mother, I can’t wait for you to have my brother,” Ari said from out of nowhere, her tiny arms squeezing hard around Sarinah’s waist. The Queen took her daughter by the shoulders, pushing her at arm’s length, looking into Ari’s eyes. Only a few knew of the Queen’s pregnancy. Those who knew only learned of it a few days ago, along with Sarinah.
“Brother? Did someone tell you that you would be getting a brother?” Sarinah asked her daughter, confused about how even Ari would know when only a few trusted people knew. The possibility of a new royal child being born was always kept as a guarded secret until the pregnancy would present itself. Sarinah had even heard tales of some monarchs in the past condemning their wives privately for putting on too much weight, and staged arguments by the spouses to conceal the pregnancy. Not even the king knew of this yet since he was out traveling with his men, and she wanted to wait for Danyais’ return to surprise him with the news.
“Yes, it was Grandfather. He told me in my dream,” Ari said, sliding back down the bed and sitting on the stool, picking up the book and waiting for her mother to resume brushing her red hair.
“What did you say?” Sarinah questioned earnestly.
Ari was still a babe and not even walking when her grandfather, King Ledan, died. She could not even talk at that point of time in her life, and there was no way she could remember King Danyais’ father. “How do you know the man in your dream was your grandfather?” but before Ari could answer, a scream for help was heard outside of Ari’s room in the hall. What was that? Queen Sarinah thought fearfully.
The door to Ari’s room was flung open, startling both mother and child. Cina, her mother’s personal handmaiden and best friend, darted into the room, slamming the door behind her, sending a muffled boom echoing down the stone corridor outside. She latched the door lock, and Cina picked up a thick plank of wood from behind the dresser off just to the right of the door, placing it over the door between the two iron bars embedded into the stone wall to reinforce the door.
“Cina, what is going on?!” Sarinah asked hurriedly.
“My Queen, there are intruders in the castle!” Cina told the Queen, fear was in her voice.
“There are intruders in the castle?!” Sarinah repeated back, stunned at what she was hearing. We are being attacked! The thought sounded ludicrous to her, but yet she was watching her most trusted friend struggle to push the dresser next to the door in front of it.
“Yes, I did not see how many. There was a man in a robe, and behind him, I saw at least ten men. Some of their faces were painted to help stay hidden in the shadows; I saw swords on their hips,” Cina explained further in-depth.
This section of the castle didn’t allow swords unless you were a member of the King’s guard. Sarinah did not believe Cina would mistake the King’s Guard for anything other than what they were.
The Queen looked at Ari’s eyes, seeing the fear tangible on her face. Sarinah touched her stomach and then Ari’s precious cheeks. She moved decisively to the banner hanging to the left of the fireplace and pulled it from the wall. Behind the banner was a glass window. Sarinah picked up a candlestick sitting on top of the fireplace mantle with her right hand, ignoring the momentary discomfort from spilling hot wax on her hand. She smashed the glass with the candlestick to access the recess behind it, clearing the jagged glass with it, and tossed it to the floor.
The recess built into the stone wall contained a crossbow and a sword, but it was the rope within she sought. Sarinah wrapped her hand around the rope, pulling it out of the recess, twirling it around her right forearm. She placed her right foot on the wall and pulled on the rope. At first, the rope seemed as if it didn’t want to move, offering resistance, but gradually Sarinah could feel the rope beginning to move freely until a bell began to ring loudly, alerting the castle’s guard there was danger in the royal quarters. Sarinah continued to pull until she felt someone tugging at the other end of the rope, and then she stopped. The ringing of the bell became more frantic at this point, and soon other warning bells throughout Dragon Crest echoed each other as the entire city was being warned of danger. It was a small comfort for her to know the bell tower guardsman was there. Sarinah stopped pulling on the warning bell rope, letting the guardsman on the other end continue to sound the warning bell in the northern battlement. The guardsmen will come for us soon.
Cina walked over to the queen, not taking her eye from the door, and then someone knocked on the door. Shouts of “For the king!” “The Dragon forward!” “The Blood is in danger!” and other things they could not hear clearly from the room erupted outside the door. Sarinah and Cina positioned themselves in the middle of the room. Cina grabbed Sarinah’s hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze.
Sarinah moved quickly to her daughter’s bed and took her daughter in her arms, kissing Ari’s cheeks, and pulling up the runner around Ari’s bed. She knelt down, placing her child under the bed, reaching back up on Ari’s bed. Sarinah grabbed almost all of her stuffed animals and pushed them under the bed with her. Ari’s eyes were as wide as the sky, with tears leaking out, her lips quivering.
“Here my brave little dragon,” Cina said, rushing over, kneeling, and sliding one of her wooden practice swords under the bed. The act seemed to calm Ari as she wrapped her hands around the wooden hilt, her knuckles turning white. Cina quickly took Ari’s tiny hand and kissed it before moving to recess in the wall to collect the weapons hidden within.
“Baby, this is just a game, you have to stay quiet, and under the bed. It is how you win,” Sarinah said, letting go of the runner fabric. It draped back down around the sides of the bed, concealing Ari. Fear wanted to drive Sarinah to tears as she watched her daughter’s fearfully, tearful stained face vanished behind the fabric. But her motherly instinct, that furious protective rage no loving parent should ever have to feel. It wanted to burn the rock walls of her child’s room to molten lava. Sarinah stood up, turned around, and Cina was standing holding the crossbow with a bolt already loaded. The sword from the hidden recess was already fastened around her waist. The sword and belt looked out of place on Cina, who was dressed in her maid uniform, a plain blue dress with an apron marked with the Crystal Dragon of House Loudas emblem.
“Take this, my Queen,” Cina said, offering the crossbow to Sarinah. Queen Sarinah Erin Loudas’ face became like steel as she fiercely walked over to her friend. She drew the sword from Cina’s waist instead with dreadful determination. The sword and a mother’s resolve made its lethal intent known with the rasping of the metal made mingling with the scabbard.
***