The Dragon Queen

Chapter 5

Royal Advisor Iris Wynn of Sarkin

Twin City, Thegamor

While waiting for an audience with the king, Iris has reluctantly found herself sitting stop the highest point of the castle, watching the people below her like ant scurrying about a hill. She watches them endlessly, wondering about their lives and their purposes. She likes this spot for its vantage point. She can see a long way in every direction. There are two canals that meet at the heart of the realm. One canal runs north and south and splits the realm nearly equally in half, and the second comes at an angle from the north west, to the very center and then out to the north east. She can not see the ocean beyond, but she can see about half the canal, no matter which direction. She can see mountains in all directions, as well as beaches, farmland, and deserts. Almost straight south of the castle, is the island she grew up on, never knowing how close her family had been. To the north-east is where her life is now, though hidden in the mountains of Sarkin.

The royal castle of Thegamor is not like most castles she has seen in her travels. The landscape is rather flat where it resides, though further inland from the canals is almost completely different from its flat capital. The city spreads out around three sides of it, with water on the fourth. It is a fairly large city, or so it appears do to it being more spread out, rather than a cramped and bustling city. The highest building in the city is the church, apart from the castle which towers above it. She could assume that would mean something, but she is not religious, so she does not care. The castle itself looks rather a lot like a cathedral, with high vaulted stone ceilings and pillars, with tall windows and little torch light. Most of the castle has about three levels, with a few having five, but the heart of the castle has ten. It resides all of the family still living at home, with a few high honored guest rooms. One of which, Iris was forced into taking. Her set of rooms is too extravagant for Iris, so the rooms have sat mostly empty since her days at the castle. On a permanent and daily basis, the castle houses King Dorian, his wife Caitrin, their children, Duke Terrance, his wife Jaqueline, their children, and the Grand Duchess. However, she seemed to have arrived when the rest of the family was visiting. She had already seen Louisa, and her husband and children are here as well. Normally, they reside in Wardvein, Thegamor as the Baron and Baroness. Ava and her husband and children are here, despite being royals of a different kingdom, and the same goes for Catalina. It seems the only one missing in all of this is her father, but he is dead, and death is final to Iris. Granted, he was dead to her long before his mortal body died.

Iris has seen her family members many times over the past several days, and none of it was her intention. It seems that once word of her arrival circulated, they all seemed determined to talk to her. Dorian is the only one she wanted to talk to, but when questioned on a time to talk business, he simply tells her another time. Many of those encounters have happened, and so, she resides up here to keep all them away. The only one that seemed to know that she wanted to hide from them is Lucas, who always makes up an excuse when questioned about her whereabouts. Sometimes, she would see him out in the courtyard with her family, all oblivious to her hiding place, but he was not. He would look up at the tower, and whether he could see her or not, he knew she was there. She could feel him watching her, even at such a distance.

At the sound of her stomach growling, Iris decides to sneak down to the kitchens and scavenge around. The servants do not mind, and most of the time never know she has been there. This time, however, she walks right into a strange gathering. Lucas, who was usually occupying his free time around the children's free time, has managed to get all of them around a small table while stuffing their faces with sweets. Bribery, Iris mentally notes. Children will do practically anything for sweets, or so she has observed and heard. Upon her arrival, they all turned to stare at her. She does not know any of the kids, only their names but they were locked away with all of her memories of her family, which were very few. They range in ages of children to teens, and most know better than to stuff their faces with sweets but gave in to temptation.