CHAPTER 5: The Return

Tamarys circled ever so slowly around the Castle grounds. A large dog, nearly identical to what we would call a St. Bernard, watched her ever so intently. The dog was seated on its’ haunches. The masked servants had lit the torches surrounding the massive landing deck and the hawk perched on the rose-colored marble railing. They were the only source of light for miles around. The Rose Castle.

That was what people called the massive pink castle which covered seven acres of land. It rose like delicate rose-colored iceberg in a sea of trees to the west, there was the empty university town of Osta. Once the glorious capital of the kingdom. It was built as a fortress to protect the most regal city. Great walls more than a hundred feet tall, embraced an architectural marvel that people from all Four Realms used to visit. It was built with magic and dragons.

The first generation of architects and engineers of the University of Osta built it, as thanks to half human half dragon lords who pledged their golden hoards to fund the center of learning. The capital was raised five hundred years ago. An impossible length of time for humans, but only a fraction of dragon’s life. Pure dragons lived for millennia, half breeds like the lord Piers Fyre only managed a thousand years, the human blood had weakened the usually unnaturally long life of the great beasts.

This was done in order to undermine the iron grip of the Realm of Uyveria, where four sister witches held sway and power. These magical adepts were but mere amateurs compared to their great-great-great aunt, the Sorceress without Peer, the Equal Among Deities, Hinaya. They held a monopoly of magic and learning.

There was a moat, and seven turrets and of course the Winged Landing, where the dragon lord Piers and recently the First High General usually made their entrance to the castle. The castle stood as a beacon of hope, the tutors and school staff were housed in the university Scholar’s Lane and given a percentage of the profits of the merchants and factories. There was an unusual acceptance process. Tuition was based on how high or how low a student applicant scored on the three-day acceptance exam. Perfect scorers were given full scholarship. Student applicants from humble means were allowed partial scholarships if they studied agriculture and science. Women were accepted.

The Curse of the Year Long bride seriously crippled scientific progress and development in the Four Realms. Thanks to the University of Osta, plumbing, sewage, agriculture and medicine had taken great leaps and strides. A city with a hospital staffed with Ostian graduates was considered the ultimate status symbols. High and low nobility pressured children to become doctors and architects.

Almost every small town pooled their savings to send a worthy son or daughter to the University. Some towns even strung the iron graduation medallions on their town’s welcome arches as a matter of pride.

The great dragon Lord had taken to gallivanting the four realms, aimlessly drifting around, returning to his castle only when the mood suited him. The continent of the Four Realms was a massive land, with the islands of the Eastern and Western waste dotting the landscape. There were so many areas of uncut forests and wilderness a dragon could go and sit in solitude. And sometimes that meant coming back to the castle three or four times a year.

His love for her was so great, that only if the marriage only lasted for year and a day, it altered his life. And being in the castle brought back memories of her. And it cut him deep.

Dragons are sensitive creatures, disregard the stories written from the pens of men. They appreciate beauty and art and sciences. The longstanding war between dragons and men was bought about by fear. Dragons knew the destructive power of men, and in their vast potential.

Dragons were threatened by the impact men had, their ruthless capacity to destroy their surroundings in their grasping greed.

The servants had been turned to dust, but a fledgling magical adept had managed to get a hold of their souls. They wore masks and grey gloves and capes. It was quite disconcerting and haunting at first, but the twenty servants who had lived their lives in service to the throne had no intentions of leaving, even after death. Such was loyalty to the ruler of Ostarii, and his year-long bride, the beauty of the Eastern Waste, Ivorie Rayanne.

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The dog wagged her tail and padded to the hawk. The dog could never tell if the hawk was upset or what emotion it was feeling exactly, beaks hardly moved upward in a smile. It took some time to get used to having to announce what the Lady General was feeling, since her expression was inscrutable.

“I bear good news, Maryzka..” The large brown and white dog looked curious, and spoke in a matronly, metallic sounding voice.

“What is it, your ladyship?”

“She’s back, your grace.” The dog ran around in circles, barking and wagging her tail joyfully.

A plump grey and white owl swooped in, the owl was quite hard of hearing, but had seen the delighted actions of the dog, and wanted to know more. The dog was aunt to the great Lord Piers, sister to his belated mother DeLanna the Brave.

“Who? What?” he asked. The owl asked in his thin, reedy voice. His name was Onoryus, and had been the University Chancellor and had been the Minister of Education for several years. The hawk circled around a life-sized statue of Ivorie Rayanne and landed on her marble hand perfectly.

“I knew it! I knew it!”

The dog cried, wagging her tail, and placing both front paws on the ground. The great dog’s entire body shook with anticipation. She looked up at the statue and the hawk and asked haltingly.

“My dear…ndearest…my dearest …niece is back -- how do we tell Piers?”

The dog suddenly convulsed and fell to the ground, a nearby servant rushed and held the enormous dog in place, another servant came to her aid and gently cradled the dog’s head, to avoid injury. One of the servants put her body across the great dog’s, to stop it from flailing.

All the others looked away. It was agonizing to watch.

The hawk and the owl flew to the railing and looked out at the magnificent view of the trees and the sprawl of the towns.

“So we tell him yet--? Would it be wise?” The owl replied prudently. He ruffled his feathers and looked directly at the dog and the hawk.

“He has a tendency to be impulsive.” The owl continued in his low yet reedy voice.

The town used to be lit up with lights by this time of the evening. They could hear the clatter of the horses’ hooves on the cobblestone streets. And the noise of life. it was all quiet now, and infinitely haunting.

“That’s true though. If Lord Piers found out, who knows what he might do. And remember what he can’t do.” The two sighed, almost in chorus. Part of the requirements of the curse was that Piers was not able to step on his own land. He could only step inside his castle, since it wasn’t part of the ground. The cursed Greater beasts could not mention or directly allude to the queen or suffer painful fits. There were four rules that the curse bound.

First, those who knew Ivorie in her life in Ostarii cannot speak her name.

Secondly, Piers cannot step on the ground, or he will bleed out and eventually die an awful death.

Thirdly, Ivorie cannot come back to Ostarii unless she killed herself by her own hand.

Fourthly, the cursed people who were turned to animals could only return to their true form if the King and the Queen would kiss.

The moment the curse was put on the kingdom, all the people out of the King’s inner circle turned into ash. They burnt to death, from the inside. It was a horrific sight. The servants were saved by a sorcerer who made a risky move at the risk of his own life.

The land grew nothing. All the plants that were already growing were spared, but not a single blade of grass, not a shoot of wheat or millet rose from the fallowed ground. Even those from the nearby kingdoms noted a slight foul smell in the air, the sulfuric breath of the sorceress’ curse.