Sweet Waters Throne

89 Chapter 8A journey from the capital to Dark Town alone wasn’t enough for Aurora to learn about her ancient history. There were tens of books inside the carriage and she read them when her grandmother was asleep, and when she awoken all Aurora could ask was about the dragons and Alienor Morrow – the first king of Morrow Kingdom. Aurora chose a simple carriage with just ten free riders because she didn’t want to create attention when she reaches Dark Town, no one must know she is the queen.

“Why was it called Morrow Kingdom? If Alienor ruled Maldonia, Prophis and the Kingdom of the Sea and all the islands. Why didn’t he call them Morrow Kingdoms?” asked Aurora with a handful of huge book which she never seem to want to let go.

“Because he brought the kingdoms together, the ice and the sun, and the waters. He styled himself as god”

“But... was he a god?”

Visenya smiled “We are not gods Aurora; we are just Dark Crawlers with magic powers”

“What sort of a power did he have? Could he see the future, was he a seer?”

“If he saw the future mayhaps he could have prevented his own death. Alienor was strong, he could summon the winds and that’s why he flew. All his sons and daughters who came after him inherited his power of controlling the wind, you are an exception my dear”

Aurora was stunned when she learned that “Am I the only one who can see the future?”

“Not the only one, but the only Morrow. There are seers in other tribes, they have been for centuries but ever since the age of Alienor it was said there will come a spaewife. She will be a Morrow by blood and she will predict the war to end all wars, and from there a new age of dragons will arise”

.....

“New age of dragons?” Aurora placed the book down and paid attention to Visenya. “What does that supposed to mean?”

“It was a folklore. Bed time stories told by the last living Morrows who were forced to escape Dark Town after the murder of all the dragons. They told the story to bring hope to the new generation

“This spaewife, am I her?”

“We’ll find out when we reach Aylesburry” replied Visenya and then she reached out for Aurora’s hand and squeezed it. “You have nothing to worry about dear child, I have seen you in my dreams. You are the promised one and your dragon egg awaits you in Dark Town with your name engraved on it”

It may have been too much for Aurora but her powers were growing and she had to finish the last stage. If she was the one, as folklore tales have sang for years then she was out to bring a new age of dragons. Although she never understood how that would look like, will the dragons be feared amongst the good folks? Will they slaughter her like how they slaughtered her people because of the dragons?

“I take it my father... Lord Kholin, isn’t my true father”

“He never was, he found your mother already with child and he took it to raise you and give you his name”

“But I have brown hairs just like him and my uncle, Sir Maxim” Aurora tried to explain herself.

“All Morrows we have brown hairs until we gain a dragon. Most of the Morrows after the fall of Morrow Kingdom and extinction of the dragons remained with their brown hairs till they died. No one has ever seen a golden pale hair for centuries, they might as well as forgotten how it looked”

“I shall have them once my dragon hatches, right?”

“No, after the dragon is fully grown and ready to be claimed. It might take a while, for now we should focus on retrieving the egg first and grow your powers”

As they kept going, the tales of Morrows dominated the journey and it was Visenya who knew them in depth. The origin of Aurora as the promised Morrow sounded too complicated for Aurora, it’s as if she was burdened with this heavy task to complete for the sake of her people.

After three days on the road they finally arrived in Dark Town. The total morbid silence is what greeted them, all her life Aurora was taught to never visit Dark Town. “No one has ever travelled to Dark Town and came back” the tales said but it was all a myth.

The late King Arteides travelled to Dark Town during his first years as King and he came back. The lord of Dark Town was a dwarf and his name was Spider. No one knows why he called himself Spider, or why the people called him Spider, I guess we’ll never know.

Lord Spider spent most of his time in the brothels where he drunk and fucked all day, all night. The population of Dark Town was less than one thousand settlers, and their houses were made of stones and looked abandoned. Most of the buildings had turned black, destroyed and without people.

“It was the war which ended the Morrows, the dragons are said to have burned the city to the ground. It never recovered ever since then” Visenya narrated the town’s history as their carriage moved past the streets led by five free riders ahorse on the front, and five others on the back.

With how quiet the town was, the horses’ hooves and pounding on the ground seemed to make so much impact and could be heard for a mile away.

“Why did the dragons burn the city?”

“Because the people were killing them. No one escaped the city when House Morrow fell, they all died altogether with the last king. From then, all the kingdoms liberated themselves. Each of the kingdoms appointed a new king, only the Liberty Cities decided to remain free without a King. Dark Town was the most populated capital in the world”

“How many settlers did it have?”

“Close to one million good folks the history recalls. Everyone wanted to see the dragons, the golden pale hairs of the gods and the tower of Morrow which was the biggest palace in the world. Some took pleasure in leaving close to the gods, they believed in good fortune just by being close”

Aurora turned her attention to Visenya “If they loved us so much, why did they kill us? What happened?” she asked.

Apparently Visenya told her to save the tales for the next day. Their carriage had arrived on the front of a burned castle, the walls were darkened and there were no doors. There were two horses outside tied to a tree, ever since they arrived at the broken gates of Dark Town – Aurora hadn’t seen even a single person passing through.

The door to the carriage was opened and Aurora was the first one to step outside, she surveyed the burned castle silently. Then Visenya followed and asked straight away “Is this the Lord Spider’s castle?”

“Yes, my lady” replied the free rider.

It didn’t take long for Lord Spider, the dwarf to welcome his guests when he showed up in his short trouser, shirt and a small cloak. Never in her life has Aurora seen a dwarf, although she had stories of them but the tales were always dark about these creatures. They were styled as devils of the dark, if one encounters a dwarf then he might not live for long to see the son.

So instead of Aurora allowing her shock to take place, she retired behind he grandmother’s back and stayed there while allowing Visenya to take charge.

“Visenya my love...” said the Lord Spider in absolute happiness while opening his tiny arms to embrace Visenya. Visenya walked up to him and picked the lord up, they laughed for about few seconds before Visenya dropped him down and they started talking.

“Where have you been all these years, I was starting to think you were laying up dead somewhere. I wouldn’t put it past especially with how the vultures are feeding the corpuses in Stonedance”

Visenya sighed softly “There are rather dark times my lord. This is my granddaughter...”

Lord Spider seemed very much informed, he bent a knee towards Aurora and stayed there. “My Queen” he said softly.

Caught off guard Aurora had no idea what to do next, that was until her grandmother told her to tell the Spider to rise. That’s when he said softly “Rise my lord” and Spider rose up and looked at Aurora.

“My queen, you are as lovely as the first dawn” he said proudly and with a flirty tone in his voice. Then he suddenly turned to Visenya and completely forgot about Aurora “Come inside, I have prepared a feast for you my love” and this time he kissed Visenya’s hand.

As Visenya and Lord Spider led the way while seemed so comfortable with one another, making jokes and laughing along the way. Aurora felt like a stranger that she was, she followed behind still unsure of even the ground she walked on. The whole town brought memories of the ghosts and the million people burned in that same land, Dark Town was cursed.