The Butterfly Quest
Wayne Russell
Copyright 2015 Wayne Russell
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FOR
Jazmyn
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
About the Author
Connect with the Author
Chapter 1
From the grey stone window of the castle, Jazmyn looked out over the gardens to the ocean. A storm was on the horizon and the sky was heavy with grey clouds.
Castle Jardin had sat on the coast at the mouth of the Jardin River for 400 years. It was known as the Garden Castle. The gardens around the Castle were the most beautiful in the world and Jazmyn loved living here. The gardens always made her smile, almost always.
Today she sat and stared out at the ocean, holding back tears and silently praying. The evening before, her father, The King had disappeared.
Every day for the past two weeks her father had stood atop the ocean cliff and watched the ships come into the town below. Watching, waiting and hoping for the ship that carried her mother to come into port. It was two weeks overdue and deep in both Jazmyn’s and her father’s hearts they knew that something terrible had happened.
Her mother had sailed to the home of her birth, a Kingdom ruled by her brother, Jazmyn’s Uncle. A trip that took three days. The waters that lay between the two lands could be dangerous. Pirates, hidden reefs and storms made the journey a risky one but the Queen had to attend to important matters. Many ships had returned from the same journey throughout the week but none had brought back good news.
Now her Father was gone. Some fishermen had said they had seen the King slip from the cliff, another said he had jumped.
Jazmyn had overheard the kitchen staff say ‘He’s gone to be with the Queen at the bottom of the ocean, poor man loved her so much.’
“No.”, she had screamed back at them, “He wouldn’t. He wouldn’t leave me alone.” Then she had run upstairs to her room, and that was where she sat now.
Castle Guards were searching the base of the cliff, and fishing boats were patrolling the waters, but still there was no sign. For the next few hours Jazmyn sat there staring. She ignored the knocking at her door, the cries from her Aunt and Uncle and even the rain that came in through her window.
Eventually they found the door key and just as the storm reached its peak they came in and her Uncle slammed the heavy wooden shutters closed and carried Jazmyn to her bed. Her Aunt wrapped a woollen cloak around Jazmyn’s shoulders and dried the rain from her face.
Jazmyn looked quietly at these people, relatives that she did not even know. In truth they were her mother’s Aunt and Uncle. They had sailed from across the ocean when they had heard of Queen Rose’s missing ship. They had come to help King Warrick with the search and help comfort Princess Jazmyn, but despite their good intentions they felt like strangers. They had only ever seen Jazmyn once before, a few weeks after she had been born, and even King Warrick admitted he hardly remembered them.
And now maybe they were all she had. Jazmyn wrapped her arms around her Aunts shoulders and for the first time since her father had gone missing, began to cry. Her tears ran down her face and onto the pale skin of her Aunts neck.
“There, There Jazmyn. We are here. We won’t let you be alone.”
“Thank you Aunt Josanna.”, Jazmyn said between sobs as she pulled her face away from her Aunts embrace.
Jazmyn pulled up the corner of the woollen cloak and wiped another tear from her cheek and then wiped the tears she had left on her Aunts neck. The cloak wiped away what seemed to be some makeup on Josanna’s neck and beneath it Jazmyn caught a glimpse of a strange mark. It seemed to be a tattoo. A tattoo of a bird, a snake and a fish, all arranged in a circle.
“What is that mark on your neck Aunt Josanna?” asked Jazmyn.
Behind her a man’s voice replied. It was Uncle Elword.
“That is the symbol of our home, young princess. Look I have one too”, Elword pulled down his high collar and showed the tattoo to Jazmyn. “Now let us get you warmed and fed. Sickness is the last thing you need now.” Uncle Elword lifted Jazmyn and carried her downstairs to the dining room. She ate, but only a little and then she excused herself and went back to her room.
The storm crashed around the Garden Castle for the next three days. It was one of the worst storms that the land had seen for many years. A large tree at the rear of the castle had crashed to the ground, destroying a wall to the royal stables and several horses had fled into the countryside. Parts of the town had been flooded and two ships had been forced up onto the beach.
Finally the storm moved on and the sky cleared. The search for the King could now continue but many of the men and ships would now be needed for repairs to the castle and town. Four of the ships that had been searching the waters for both the King and queen were now being used to pull the two stranded ships from the beach. It would take days to pull the Passion Flower and Sygnet back into the water, but still the search continued even though the hopes of most of the Kingdom were now almost gone.
It was the day after the Passion Flower was finally pulled back into the water that Jazmyn’s Uncle came to her with a gloomy expression on his face. Jazmyn did not want to listen to what he had to say but listen she did.
“Jazmyn. I know this is hard for you, unbearably hard but we must face the truth. We have searched. Searched the waters, the land and even the caverns beneath the cliffs and found nothing. The Kingdom needs a ruler and we must face the terrible truth and announce that we believe that the King is...”
“Do not say that word. Never say that word.” Jazmyn stood and looked her Uncle in the eye, “I know what must be done and I thank you and Aunt Josanna. The Kingdom must continue, that is what they would have wanted.”
Jazmyn wrapped her arms around her Uncles waist and promised herself she would cry no more.
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