The Dragon King’s Substitute Bride
Chapter 92

HERA

Lost.

Lost and drowning.

That is what it feels like.

All around me I can hear voices, catch glimpses of images... people... memories

Not all of them mine.

I try to scream, to call out for Arydian, Midas ...

But nothing comes out.

I know my mouth is open and that my mind is screaming but the sound itself is lost in the surrounding chaos of the noise of memories all around me.

Loud and unending and oppressive.

There are so many, each fighting for my attention, each trying their hardest to be heard and moving past me at such overwhelming speeds that my head struggles to keep up. Struggles and fails.

There is no direction, no where to turn to and I am getting tired of fighting.

I can feel the sadness and the emtions in all the memories around me.

It does not matter that they are not mine.

They are everywhere, threatening to crush me beneath the weight of their regrets and unanswered wishes.

I want to give up.

Give in.

Let the darkness take me.

But then I think about him.

About never seeing him again.

And suddenly I want to fight. I want to get out of here.

But before I can try.

I feel something around me.

A sense of overwhelming fear as I realize that I am no longer alone.

I look to my left and spot a darkness...pitch black and inky... something alive...

Something evil.

I recognize it almost immediately.

Because I have seen it before.

In my dreams. The cloud of darkness behind Midas.

The same one I had seen in the hut.

The one who sent the dark elves.

An overwhelming force of malevolence radiates from it...it's smoky tendrils reaching out towards me.

And from it's very centre...A face...

I squint, struggling to make out the features.

One eye...then another...

But before I can see anymore, the eyes replace me and a voice, deep and smooth and evil calls out in what can only be surprise. "You!!"

The tendrils of inky darkness lash out, wrap themselves around both my arms.

Pulling me closer and closer towards the centre of the dark mass and the face within.

I try to struggle but it does not work.

Try to fight and pull myself away but my chest is heavy and moving my limbs feels like swimming against a tide of dark sticky tar.

And just when I think I'm about to be sucked in, to go under...

I take in one last burst of air...

And my eyes fly open and I jerk up, panting and gasping for air

Midas crushes me to his chest. "Oh thank the Gods..."

I splutter and cough like one who has been under water for a long time.

I am lying in front of the alley, Midas' arms wrapped around me.

It would appear that while I thought I had taken a step into the alley and begun walking, I had actually in reality, simply crumbled to the ground.

My mind had left, had walked the path of memories but my body had remained at the mouth of the alley between the two stone buildings.

I grip Midas arm like he is the only thing keeping me afloat because he is.

The Kingmaker leans in.

"You stepped off the path"

"Yes Arydian thank you. I was not sure."

He laughs.

The old man actually laughs.

Even while I am still struggling to catch my breath.

Were it not for his being a messenger of the Fate and looking like he has been alive for longer than a century, I would have glared at him. Midas however is much more tactful.

"Hera what in all of Hades happened?"

Or not.

But my mind is reeling with all the things I've heard, all the things I've seen and it is difficult to speak, much lesser answer questions. Arydian places his hand on my forehead.

"She is exhausted."

Another brilliant observation on the part of the old man.

I am tired and sore and it is making me snide so I press my lips together and keep my thoughts to myself.

Midas and Arydian exchange a look I do not understand and without another word Midas lifts me in his arms and together they start walking towards what I assume through the haze of my exhaustion is the place we had come to the last we were in the capital. Arydian opens the door in front of the red brick building and Midas carries me down the dark stairs, setting me down gently on a couch in the corner of the musty space.

The lights come on even though I do not actually see Arydian strike any matches or make a move to light the candles.

The room smells musty and damp, dust mites floating around in the dim orange light.

The small man buzzes around the room for a while, disappearing behind his shaky piles and groaning shelves filled to bursting with things I do not even recognize. "Here...drink this."

I sniff at the offered cup.

The murky green liquid smells extremely sweet but it closes resembles the healing elixir I have been given so many times in the castle.

But I am too tired to question it so I simply drink.

And almost immediately, I feel alive again.

"Thank you."

"Oh make no mention of it my dear."

Arydian takes the cup from my hands and turns around to drop it on a wobbly pile of books in the center of the table.

"Now that that is out of the way...."

He turns around again so that he is face is now towards me once again.

"I believe you have some questions for me."

I gasp.

"Your eyes!"

He stares at me through orbs that are now the grey, cloudy and unseeing calm I recognize.

Arydian the Kingmaker.

"Be calm your Highness...We do not have too much time. Tell us what you saw."

All at once everything comes back and I start to shake.

Midas' hand covers mine. "Maybe we should hold off..."

I shake my head. "No. I need to know the Truth."

The Kingmakers watches me saying nothing and I swallow, speaking around the lump in my throat.

"I saw my parents...on the day of my birth. My mother was crying, afraid."

"Why?"

It is Midas who asks this and the sound of his voice, deep and calming helps me steady myself.

"She was afraid that I would be taken...by the Fates."

At this point I glance at Arydian, something akin to accusation in my eyes and in my mind.

Arydian for his own part does not look the slightest bit fazed.

Midas turns to me.

"Why would the Fates want to take you?"

Arydian is the one who answers.

"Because her parents made a deal with them. In exchange for the life of the man she loved, her mother promised to let her first child be...gifted by the Fates." My starts to reel.

All this...it is too much.

"What in all the realms does that even mean Arydian?! You're saying my mother sold me out before I was even born?"

Arydian blinks slowly, unfazed by my outbursts.

"Have you by any chance your highness heard about the Oracle of Daphne?"

I frown, even more so when I feel Midas stiffen besides me.

"I have not."

The Kingmaker glances at Midas as if willing the dragon king to speak but Midas says nothing and the man is forced to carry on himself.

"The Oracle of Daphne was a goddess. One blessed with the ability to see the future. To see Events before they happened."

"Like me"

"Exactly like you. But when she died, the one responsible for bringing it to pass tried to take away her powers."

The Kingmaker turns to his table. Reaching for something...then another... mixing everything together in a tiny mortar.

"To prevent it from falling into hands, the Fates took it...but as with all powerful magic, they could not hold until it forever. They needed a vessel. Somewhere... someone within which to place this power."

He throws in a pinch of something white and smoky into the wooden mortar, grinding it with a tiny pestle even as he continues to speak.

"They needed somewhere no one who ever suspect to look."

Midas jaw clenches. "The human realm"

"Exactly. Hera..."

It is the first time Arydian will call me by my name and it is a strangely warm feeling, like being called by a grandparent.

A kind and gentle one and all my anger dissolves like it was never there.

"Your mother did not give you away. She let you be chosen to bear the Fates gifts. The power of the Oracle of Daphne lies inside of you."

The Oracle of Daphne...the powers of a goddess...hidden inside of me.

Skies above...

"What are you making?"

Midas' voice, drags me out of my shock induced stupor.

Arydian's deft hands work nimbly to turn the black powdery substance from a tiny skin pouch in the mortar.

"A warding potion. For the queen."

Midas frowns, glancing from Arydian to me and back to Arydian.

"Why would she need a protective spell?

But Arydian does not answer.

Not until he is done with his task and draws the string on both sides of the pouch, sealing it shut does he then turns to me.

"You said you saw your parents."

I nod.

"Yes, I did."

"Was that when you stepped off the path?"

Somehow I feel like he already knows the answer but I nod again anyway.

"But that is not all you saw is it your Highness?"

The face in the cloud of inky darkness.

The eyes that had recognized me.

The voice that had called out to me.

And when I start to shake again, it is not tiredness but fear.

Crushing, bone chilling fear.