Tears of Raven

48

"Your grace?"

"Pardon me, Attorias. I spaced out. I meant to ask if you by any chance had found the old list I asked you to."

"Yes, ma'am." The old librarian passed a heavy registry to Raven. "Luckily most of the books were untouched by the fire."

The old man had learned to accept Raven as his regular guest. He would even go as far as have a cup of tea with some cookies ready for her at the same time every day. As long as she promised not to spill it on his precious books.

Raven opened the ledger and le her finger trace the paper not sure what she was looking for.

"Attorias." She called. The old man and his long red tunic creaked as he turned, his hands full with books already. "What was the name of Twistal previous Queen."

"You mean Zephyro's mother?"

Zephyro? Zed's full name was Zephyro? An interesting choice because it meant west wind, which was still a very cold one and yet not something that might come from the north side of the continent.

Raven nodded. Attorias scratched his chin thinking about as he placed the book down.

"Vivienne of Twistal. if my mind is not deceiving. Which at this point, I know it's not."

"And how long did she die?" Raven inquired as she kept scrolling.

"Eight years ago. I recall that day very well, it was mid-February and it was unusually freezing. A very odd day for a fire to start out of the blue."

Rave traced back to the year she was looking for and begun scrutinizing every name.

There was no Vivienne but there was one name Raven recognized almost immediately.

Amidala.

Ami's name.

Raven's heart clenched as her head screamed to her that she had reached an important turning point. And when she read Amidala of Twistal next so many things were floating in her mind.

Could it just be a high lady?

Raven begun to think there was a big mystery behind all of this. She searched what book Amidala had retrieved from the library and it checked with the prince's story. He had said a book about magical creature but here it stated: Mythological beings and the magic Whitin them.

She proceeded to check with Attorias and he frowned, moving quickly to the other side of the library. To this point, it was almost impossible that another woman from Twistal would have gotten a book about magical creature the same day Zed's mother was supposed to, but it was better to check to make sure.

"Here," Attoria pulled out a large red volume with golden edges and opened it on Zed's whole family tree. There were two things that stunned Raven. The first was that his mother, was listed as one of the princesses from Strumstal and her full name was Vivienne Amidala Princess of Strumstal and that could explain Zed's name. if she was hailing from the west, it made perfectly sense that she named her first born with something that reminded her of her home.

Which meant, one other thing. The lady Ami had met, the one that had given her chocolate, was Zed's mother. And despite the idea she had made in her own mid, she had been kind to her friend. So, after all, maybe Zed was right to get mad when she had called her heartless. But why would someone gentle, order Zed to kill an innocent hatchling?

Something wasn't adding up.

During her daily visits to the library, she had discovered also that Dragons hadn't disappeared from the entire plant when a thousand years ago, the king had been cursed. They had simply emigrated somewhere else, some place where they wouldn't be bothered by humans. Where, she couldn't find.