"Your majesty, King Keane is here." A servant whispered, making sure she was faraway from a seething Yvonne.
Yvonne raised her head to look at the trembling maid, she was tempted to throw something at her but she managed to stop herself.
'This is not the time for this.' She thought.
"Let him in." She ordered, her voice hoarse from hours of crying.
"If you wanted to see me princess Yvonne, do you not think it is more appropriate to come than to call for me?" He asked, raising an arrogant eyebrow at her.
Yvonne laughed crazily for an infuriating amount of time before she replied.
"You must think you are now equal to me because you bailed me from that whore." She remarked, her eyes holding so much anger as she stood up and began approaching him.
"No, I think you should only be in command once you are crowned and are ready to behave like a queen. That whore you are referring to is a hundred times the queen you can ever be. It is a pity your father left before your brother came of age." He replied, not moving an inch from where he sat.
"How dare you!" She screamed as she made to slap him.
Effortlessly, he caught the hand and stood up too his grip tightening around her hand.
"Even your father could not speak to me in the manner you are right now. I honestly do not know if this is the end of the water wielders. A fire wielder as the king of the Bydreen, our Capital kingdom and a mad inexperienced arrogant girl as the queen of the second largest kingdom. At this rate, a war does not need to break out for us to go extinct.
Yvonne, if you have any respect left for your father, if you want to keep your father's honour, you have to right his wrongs. Throw Kebarah out and let us deal with our problems ourselves or else, you might as well know that you will be the last rulerof this kingdom." Immediately he had said what he needed to, he dropped her hand and made to leave when she screamed after him.
"What about those who murdered my father? Are you suggesting I let them go Scot-free?"
"To take revenge, you have to ensure your own stability first. If not, you might end up meeting your father sooner than you would have wanted. Your father had not only left a kingdom for you, he had left a kingdom on the brink of a war and you would lose if you do not set your priorities straight."
"I am sure you will not take my advise but you must know, whatever you are planning, execute it after three months. We all gave our word while you were on your knees before her and unlike you or your father, we do not go back on our word."
"What if she attacks first? You want us to lie quietly and depend on a fire wielder's promise? When the war could as well be declared already? " She asked, barely able to hold her anger but she knew she could not attack him at least not now.
"What were you doing throughout the congregation? Lusting over the new member?" He mocked.
Before she could protest, he continued his statement.
"If you had paid any attention, you would have known Aveedah is not just any fire wielder. She is focused, honourable, wise and practical. The new member, why do you think he was there?Have you bothered to find out his identity or why she had bothered to include him in such sacred community?"
"Why would she attack now? To kill you, me or every one of us, people she had released three days ago and even held a one day mourning for their lost one?
If she wanted, she would have killed you or perhaps all of us while we were in her kingdom and you had given her the perfect situation to do that but she did not. Believe it or not, we are not ready for the war your father's alliance with Kebarah had brought upon us and that three months was I, King Keane begging on my knees for some time to prepare."
"You speak as though you would opt for peace but here you are telling me to prepare and if you hated Kebarah so much why did you beg for his life too?" She asked, desperate to outwit him.
Keane laughed despite himself.
'Is it really the end for us?'
'It had to be.' He thought.
"You know nothing, do you?"
"So if I want peace, should I refuse to draw out my weapon in a time of war?"
"As for why I asked for Kebarah...." He paused for a while to look at her before he continued.
"Take this is as a brain teaser. Why will I bring back a man from the royal family of the kingdom we are about to go into war with, an interim king of our Capital kingdom which has no one to take over the kingdom. A man who had managed to invade the small kingdoms around him and conquered them, had managed to increase our food supply, had gathered the largest army and whose son's bed you were warming last night while your father laid in a casket?" He walked out ignoring her screams and promises to teach him a lesson.
"You will get to teach him a lesson but not now Yvonne." Kebarah said calmly as he came out from her inner chamber.
"You need him for now." He continued.
"And he is right, those three months should be spent preparing not attacking. I know Aveedah, she and I know she will leave no stone unturned in preparing for this war. Any rash movement will cost us e more than we can bargain for."
Yvonne walked over to him before she said.
"Promise me Kebarah, promise me I will have her on her knees. Promise me I will have her head when I am done humiliating her." Her voice desperate and her eyes wicked.
Kebarah smiled at her before he replied.
"If you do as I say, you will not have just her on her knees, you will have him too." He replied gesturing towards Keane.
She smiled wickedly before she replied.
"I suppose you have a plan."
"I do and it all depends on you. We need the Air wielders on our side." He said.
"What do I have to do?" She asked, a sadistic joy bubbling in her.
**********
"If we can forge an alliance with the water wielders, it will not be a war Vee, we will trample on them." Keevah said as they strolled side by side in her garden.
He had just returned from the mission he was sent on which was why he had not been present during the meeting with the kings earlier.
"You are saying if." She pointed out, stopping in front of her favourite tree.
" I had gotten every information on the air wielders but there is hardly any choice other than that which they are giving us." He stated, turning to look at her.
The expression on his face spoke more than he had and Aveedah knew he will not tell what she wanted to hear.
"Is that fear I see in your eyes?" She asked quietly.
"There's a good reason behind it." He replied.
She only looked on and he heaved a sigh knowing he had to say it no matter how long he delayed it.
"The current king is very difficult to deal with and we have nothing to bargain with except to strengthen the only weakness he has. The only thing that we can give him that will most definitely grant us his loyalty forever is marriage." He reported.
"Marriage? Does no air wielding maiden catch the crown prince's eye?" She joked, despite the tension in the air.
"I wish it were that simple. The crown prince of the air wielders is the only offspring the king has been able to bear despite his countless attempts and unfortunately he was born a monster. To be more specific, he is a goblin."
"He was conceived on....."
"Yes, he was conceived on a day an eclipse had occured and unlike what the king had hoped for, the son had not turned out to be a legend, nor did he die at a young age. Unfortunately and very rarely, he turned out to be a survivor at the cost of his humanity." By the time he finished, the expression on her face mirrored his.
"To wed a goblin?" She whispered quietly.
"Aveedah, if that is the only problem...." He started.
What more could there be?
What more could be worse than having to choose between marrying a goblin and saving her kingdom?
"The prophecy. It is coming true."