Amaranth: A Maerith Kingdom Novel - Chapter 5

Odulore walked out into the courtyard and sat down on a bench. Zyrsit the mini dragon flew in and sat next to him. Tilting his head he looked up at him and said, “Whatcha thinking?”

“What our next move is. Do we go rescue her or do we stay here and just move on?”

“I vote for rescuing her.”

Ash flew up and sat on the ground in front of them. “What’s up?”

“We are contemplating whether or not to go rescue Amaranth,” Ash told him.

Shortly there was a small group of mystical forest creatures surrounding them. Glurx walked out and joined them. “You guys keep repeating the same thing over and over. Either go after her or forget about it. The sooner, the better,” he told them and walked away.

Odulore got up and went back into his father’s room. He went up to the crystal ball and asked it, “Should I go after Amaranth?”

The thunderbolts and electrical pulses went wild all around the ball. A message came up facing him, “No! Be prepared!”

Wait? What? I need to prepare. That must mean that she is picking up where her mother left off. Great, this is going to get interesting. I wonder if Crumazz is working with her or against her.

Narella ran in and rubbed up against his legs. She looked up at him and said, “What’s the verdict?”

“We need to prepare and not go after her. I am betting that it means that she is taking over for her mother. The thing we don’t know is if Crumazz is working with her or against her.”

Oldirrim flew in and landed on the desk, “So, it’s a no go for the rescue. How about what do we do next then to prepare?”

He sat down to the desk and opened the book he found earlier. He began to read the paper that was stuffed in the front of it.

Odulore, I assume that you are reading this and that I am gone. This book will help you with what to do and when to do it. This letter will give you some background that I always wanted to tell you, but didn’t know how.

Let me help you with the family tree that is going on in the area. This will help you understand things very well. Also, it will help with why you cannot be with Amaranth.

Amaranth’s mother is Zaleria and Qrizor is Crumazz’s father. The part that you didn’t know before was that Zaleria and Qrizor were married and Crumazz’s mother is also Zaleria. So, yes, Amaranth and Crumazz are siblings. This makes them very dangerous. I do not believe that they know. They raised them separately and did not speak of their marriage. They are full siblings and very close in age.

Qrizor wanted to rule the kingdom by himself and did not want the hassle of being married. He took Crumazz to live in Miserth Castle, and he left Zaleria in the Crystal Crypt to raise Amaranth on her own. However, she decided that she did not want Amaranth and dropped her off here for us to raise her.

Why would she leave her here? She knew that your mother would never turn away an abandoned child, no matter whose it was. We never would have thought that you two would be attracted to each other. We tried to raise you as siblings.

Zaleria was an evil witch and has descended from a long line of evil witches. Just as Qrizor has descended from a long line of evil warlocks. You put the two together and you end up with children that will be evil as well.

When Zaleria was in the Crystal Crypt the only thing she couldn’t do was leave because Qrizor had put a spell on it that kept her there. When Zaleria or Qrizor pass, the spell will be lifted from the crypt.

If the dragons have come for Amaranth, then one or the other or both has happened. When they come for her, they will make it appear that she is kidnapped. However, they will be putting her in place to take over where her mother left off, especially is Qrizor is gone. Please do not go after her. I hope that you have already asked this of the crystal ball.

I have known Zaleria for a long time, and I am sure that she has written up what Amaranth is to do next. This is where things are going to be very interesting. I am sure that they are written to have her take over the kingdom. This was their plan, but they waited for Amaranth and Crumazz to become adults.

You will need to prepare for this! You will need to defend Rissingshire Castle, Demack Grassland, Bredenrath Pond, and the Calegan Forest. This is the only way to keep them from taking over Maerith Kingdom. There are more castles in the kingdom. You will need to seek them out to get them to help you defend our section from Crumazz and Amaranth. If either Qrizor or Zaleria is still alive, that will complicate things.

If you are reading this, I assume that I am gone. This means that you will also have to figure out who is responsible for my death.

Good luck on all of this. Pay close attention to the spells. These will help you.

Father

Wow! This is crazy! Odulore thought to himself. He got up and walked out into the courtyard. The mystical forest creatures were still there.

“You are not going to believe this. I just read a letter from my father. To sum things up, Crumazz and Amaranth are siblings. They are gearing up to try to take over Maerith Kingdom. We need to get with the other castles to see about defending our areas including the forest, grassland and pond. We cannot let them take over,” he shared with them.

Evatius stepped forward, “That is messed up! We need to make sure that does not happen. Although, it does explain the strange feelings I have gotten out in the forest.”

“Does anyone know what other castles are out there?” Ash asked.

“Yes, I know which ones we need to contact. There’s a master list in my father’s room. Let’s go get the list,” Odulore answered and motioned for them to follow him.

He left again and this time Evatius, Tamon, Ash, Oldirrim and Narella follow him. Standing in front of his father’s bookshelf, he reads all the titles, “Book of Crystals, Book of Potions, Maerith Kingdom. Here it is.” Odulore took the book off the shelf and laid it on the desk.

The owls and mini dragon sat on the desk looking at the book as he opened it to the map of the kingdom. Tamon sat on the back of Evatius next to the desk. “Alright, here’s a map and out here are the castles. There’s a few ponds with some of the castles in them. How do we want to break this up? Let’s go over the map.

We have Grimtol Castle within the Glassy Lagoon. We have Xodius and Zabine. This one is the furthest away. They normally just stay to themselves.

Over in the far west is Staedan and Shelyn that are in Glottenham Castle. They have the Bordshall Cove that they overlook.

Closer to us we have Avras and Arietta that are up in Eagleview Castle that overlooks Tortoise Lake.

Finally, we have Langdale Castle that is at the top of Lavalbourg Gorge. Drozan and Zolya are not the most friendly. They may be the difficult ones for us.

Does anyone have a preference?” Odulore asked them.

Tamon spoke up, “I think the pixies can help with Zolya. She’s always really nice to us. We will go talk to them.”

“I will head out to Xodius and take a couple others with me,” Evatius offered.

Ash added, “Oldirrim and I can fly out to Staedan. He has Chrono and that will help us.”

“Who is Chrono?”

“He’s an owl.”

“Ok, then I will go talk to Avras. We need to do this now. I don’t know how quick of a learner Amaranth is going to be.”

They all exited and headed off in their own directions.

Zyrsit flew up to Odulore, “Where are you headed?”

“You can come with me. I am going to see Avras.”

Zyrsit replied, “Yes. I will.”

Odulore walked out to the livery. He went up to Magnus, a black Percheron stallion that stands 19 hands high. “Ok, we are going to see Avras. You know the way.” They walked out into the courtyard where Odulore got on the back of Magnus. Zyrsit flew up and joined him.

They rode out of the castle, trotting changed to canter and into a run with its black mane and tail floating in its wind.

Continue Reading - Chapter 6