Amaranth: A Maerith Kingdom Novel - Chapter 3

Back at Rissingshire Castle, Odulore was sitting at his desk when Oldirrim flew in and landed on his desk. “What do you want?” he snapped at him.

Oldirrim sat up straight and shook his head, “Do you want us to go check on Amaranth? We can fly over there.”

“No, I do not want you to go check on her. We need to figure out what they are up to though.”

He flew out of the room. Odulore sat there just staring into space. How am I going to figure this one out? I will need to enlist the mystic creatures of the forest. They can do this. “Hey, Narella, you need to go get Zyrsit.”

Narella got up out of her comfy bed, stretched her front legs and then her back legs. She walked out of the room and went off to find Zyrsit.

Ash and Oldirrim both flew into the room. “You need to come quick,” Ash told Odulore while circling around.

He got up and followed them out into the courtyard area where a group of the mystical forest creatures were all gathered together.

Evatius stepped forward, “We need to go rescue Amaranth.”

“I don’t know if she wants to be rescued or not. Her mother ruled the Crystal Crypt as an evil witch. We don’t know if she is following in her footsteps or not.”

“How are we going to know if we don’t go find out?” asked Tamon the pixie.

They all stood there just looking at each other. Glurx came strolling out into the courtyard. “Isn’t there some magical ball or something that you could use?”

“My father had one. I have not used it. He would use it in all kinds of ways. It’s still in his study. We’ll have to see how that thing works.”

They all nodded, he turned around and followed Glurx to his father’s study. He hadn’t been in the room since his father was killed by an evil dragon.

As he walked into the room, he felt this presence, as though someone was in the room. He looked around and there was no one but him and Glurx. They stopped and looked at his father’s crystal ball as it sat on the pedestal at the opposite end of the room. Slowly he proceeded closer to the ball and there were little electrical pulses that he could see flashing inside of it.

Standing at the crystal ball he looked at Glurx. “What should I do now?” he asked him.

“Well, your father used to ask it all kinds of questions. I never heard it speak back to him though. He just kept looking at it.”

He looked back at the ball, “Where is Amaranth?”

The electrical pulses turned into lightning bolts and a picture appeared of Amaranth in her room at her desk in the Crystal Crypt.

“Well now, that’s interesting. She looks pretty cozy and not in any danger,” he said to Glurx.

“Ah, so that thing shows you pictures. That explains why your father would stare into it.”

“I would say that she is looking like she is going to be picking up where her evil mother left off. Let’s go talk to the others.” They left the room and went back out into the courtyard where everyone was still waiting for them.

“The crystal ball was very helpful. I asked it where Amaranth was at and it showed me that she is at a desk in a room. She does not look as though she needs to be rescued. On the contrary, she looks like she is working towards taking up where her evil mother left off,” he told them.

Evatius stomped his hoof and said, “Are you sure? I can’t believe she had us all fooled. I thought that she didn’t want to be anything like her mother.”

“I know, that’s what she said, but I saw it. She was sitting there reading at a desk in a nice room. It didn’t look like she was being kept against her will. It looked more like she was studying. If they have her studying up on what her mother was up to, we could all be in for a lot of trouble. Her mother was trying to take over the entire Maerith Kingdom.”

Glurx spoke up, “Hey, how about everyone go into the dining hall. It’s lunch time and we can figure this out.” He walked towards the dining hall and looked over his shoulder. Then he motioned for everyone to follow him.

They sat down in the dining hall with Odulore at the head of the table. The seat at the other end was empty, as that is where Amaranth used to sit.

Zizor the ogre entered the dining hall from the kitchen door. He was followed by goblins that brought out the food on carts. They placed the platters of food in the middle of the table, as the places were already set for the meal. Zizor was always ready to serve a meal.

He walked up to Odulore, “We are missing one. Where is she?”

“She will not be joining us. The dragons came and took her to Crystal Crypt. I checked and it looks like she is very comfortable there. So, don’t expect her any time soon,” he replied as he looked up at him.

As soon as the platters were set down, everyone dug in and got their stomachs filled. The only thing you could hear was everyone eating.

A dark whirlwind came in and encircled the chandeliers. Crumazz appeared at the front of the dining hall. “I have Amaranth and she will pick up where her mother left off. You have been warned,” he thundered. The dark whirlwind appeared again and he was gone.

“He’s a bit late. We already figured that out,” Odulore commented.

The goblins picked up all the dirty dishes and returned to the kitchen. Zizor sat down next to Odulore, “Don’t you think he is wrong? I can’t believe she is going to take up where her mother left off. Her mother was so evil. What happened with her mother? How was she killed?”

“I’m not quite sure. We just got word through the forest that she was dead. I don’t think anyone said how. I do know that my father, her mother and Crumazz’s father are all gone.”

“Ok, so where is your mother, her father and Crumazz’s mother?”

“My mother died when I was little. I don’t even remember her. As for the other two, I have no idea who they are or were. I only know that I haven’t heard mention of them.”

“I wonder if the answer to what will happen next lies with the ones you knew or the ones you didn’t know?”

“All right, you are being philosophical now. Although that is a good question, which ones will lead to our answers? There is so much uncertainty right now. Normally I would talk to Amaranth. She was always good for talking things out. I guess I will be using the magical ball. Hopefully it will provide some good answers.”

He got up from the table and walked out into the courtyard, to his surprise there were quite a few mystical woodland creatures gathered around. They were all watching him. He sat down on a wooden bench. Tamon came up in front of him. She looked at him and asked, “What is troubling you? Can we help?”

Odulore just sat there and looked at her. He wasn’t sure what to say. Plus, he had never confided in a pixie. He wasn’t sure he could trust her. Taking a deep breath, he told her, “Nothing you can do anything about.” He got up and went into his father’s study.

He looked around the room and saw many books on the shelves. One caught his eye. It had a bright blue binding with gold trim. He took it off the shelf and laid it on his father’s desk. When he opened it, the front page said, “Trodus’ Book of Spells” in gold calligraphy. Odulore thought to himself, Well, this is going to be interesting. I didn’t even know he had this book. I hope it will help with what’s going on with Amaranth. I still cannot believe that she so easily went over to the dark side. How could she? Why?

Narella jumped up on the desk and laid down on the book. After being startled, he started to pet her. His mind raced again to Amaranth and what was going on. Then the magical ball caught his eye. He walked over to it and said, “What do I do now? I have this book but do I use it?”

The electrical pulses raced around the magical ball. They slowed down and the word, “patience” appeared. He chuckled and walked away. Ash and Oldirrim flew in and landed on the desk by Narella. “Do you want us to go check on her anyway?” Ash asked.

“Sure, why not? It can’t hurt anything. I know what Crumazz said, but can we really believe him? I know what I saw, but was it the whole picture?”

The owls flew out from the room and stopped in the courtyard. The mystical forest creatures gathered around them. “We are going to go find Amaranth and see if she really is going to the dark side of things. Who wants to help us?” Oldirrim asked.

Evatius answered, “I can go with you and I can bring along a couple of friends to help out.”

“Ok, you do that. We’ll have to do this closer to dusk. We will meet at the edge of the forest where the Demack grasslands end at dusk,” Ash informed him. They all went their separate ways.

Continue reading - Chapter 4