Marco looked over the side of the dragon, seeing their home, Cly Castle far below. He also saw an army of enemy soldiers coming through the woods to lay siege to the castle.
“Father, look at those men,” he said, holding on to his father’s arm that was wrapped around his waist.
“Nay! I have to stop them. Hold on, Marco, we have to use the dragon to fight them.”
Marco held on to his father, but the ring on his father’s finger burned with vengeance. The stone that looked like an eye glowed a bright red as his father’s anger grew.
“Kill them!” shouted his father. The dragon, at his father’s command, swooped down upon the enemy, ripping men from their horses with its sharp talons, and incinerating them with its fiery breath. This frightened Marco. Never had he been in the midst of a battle, and never had he heard the anguished cries of helpless men as they went to their deaths.
His father laughed, frightening Marco to see him this way. He seemed consumed by his hatred of the enemy. “Kill them all!” he shouted. “Every one of them.”
The dragon obeyed, continuing with its savage attack, taking down man after man. As the dragon killed them, its fiery breath burned them to ashes. As more men appeared from the opposite direction, the dragon slaughtered them as well, heading for the castle.
Marco heard his father’s cry of horror when he realized the dragon was attacking his own army and also bearing down on Cly Castle.
“Naaaaaay!” shouted Marco’s father, realizing what he had done. “Stop,” he commanded the dragon, but it was too late. His father’s hatred that drove the dragon to attack had gotten out of control. The dragon incinerated man after man of his father’s own army, and then started burning and demolishing their castle as well.
“Mother,” cried Marco, leaning over the side of the dragon, seeing his mother running from the castle. Marco fell from the dragon, catching himself by one hand, holding on to the dragon’s talon. With its other claw, the dragon swiped at Marco’s hand, causing him to let go and fall through the sky to a body of water far below.
“Now I remember,” said Marco, rubbing the mark on his hand. “I think I was so terrified that I blocked out every memory of what happened.”
“Perhaps,” said his father. “Or the fall you took knocked it clear out of your head.”
“This is why we moved to England, wasn’t it?”
“Aye,” answered the man. “We came here to escape our horrible memories of the past. I couldn’t control the dragon. Hatred and power filled me and the dragon fed off my emotions, only following my command. It is my fault that so many people died that day. I am only thankful your mother was able to escape and didn’t perish that day as well.”
“So, you threw the ring away, not wanting anyone ever to call forth the dragon again.”
“That’s right, Son. Your mother was wrong to fish the ring from the water. She should never have given it to you. Now hand it over.” He stretched out his hand, palm up, waiting for the ring.
Marco started to remove the ring, but shook his head and pushed it back on to his finger. “Nay, Father, I won’t.”
“What are you saying?”
“I am saying I am one of the last Dragon Lords and I won’t let our kind fade away, never to be remembered.”
“Oh, we’ll be remembered all right, but for all the wrong reasons.”
“Teach me to call forth the dragon.”
“I won’t do that.” His father pushed up to his feet. “It’s too dangerous. Just forget all about it.”
“It is my birthright,” Marco told him. “I’ve seen the ring glow several times now, so I think I might be activating it somehow. Please, Father, teach me to be a Dragon Lord.”
“I’m sorry, Marco, but I can’t do that. I won’t let what happen to me happen to you as well. It will ruin your life and confidence forever.”
“But I have confidence. I know I can use the dragon for good instead of evil.”
“You say that now, but when you feel the power within you, you won’t be able to stop.”
“How do you know that? Has it happened to any of our ancestors in the past?”
“Nay, but it will happen to you. You are not strong enough to be able to control it. You are a weak-willed boy who has never gone to battle and will live in a hovel in hiding the rest of your life.”
“I don’t want it to be that way,” he protested. “You are a knight, but yet you don’t act very noble. You are the coward, Father, hiding away from your mistakes of the past. Well, I won’t hide from anyone. I should have been a knight by now, but you are the one who held me back.”
“Give me the ring, Marco. It’s no use. You will never be a Dragon Lord. Our kind doesn’t exist anymore. The stories will someday be forgotten as well.”
“I won’t give you the ring, and I won’t live in hiding. If you don’t teach me to be the Dragon Lord I was born to be, then I will learn on my own.”
Marco shot off the chair and hurried out the door with his father hobbling quickly after him. “Marco, come back here,” he commanded, but it did no good.
Marco mounted his horse and rode away from him as fast as he could, never once looking back.
Chapter 6
Rapunzel watched the sunrise out the window as the sky lit up in beautiful swirls of orange and red. How she longed to be out in nature, climbing a hill or walking along the water. Being trapped away from everyone and everything, she had a lot of time to think. Perhaps she had taken the simple pleasures in life for granted. Sometimes when one is deprived of these things, they realize just how much they appreciate them after all.
She watched and waited for Marco, craving for his company and also for his touch. Being without him made each minute seem like an hour. Hecuba had been in the tower all night long, teaching her daughter what she could about magic. It was good Marco had not returned while the witch was there.
Hopefully, by now, he had found her brothers and father. They were the only ones who could save her from this prison. She was going stir-crazy trapped here, wanting more than anything to go outside. Being the youngest daughter of Lucio de Bar, she had often accompanied her father on many of his journeys.
Rapunzel was always the favored child. She cherished the way her father bought her frilly gowns and ribbons for her hair. She loved being a woman, and missed her mother dearly. Rapunzel would never leave the castle without first having her handmaid dress her in the most elegant silk in bright colors of yellow or purple. As she grew up, her father always brought her flowers, and she often wove them right into her hair.
“He promised me a rich and noble husband,” she said to herself, feeling lonely and as if her life would never go beyond this tower. “I want to be a lady with a castle, and have many servants at my command.” If she kept dreaming, mayhap she would find the escape she needed to give her hope.
“He promised you, did he?” Hecuba walked up behind her cackling as if she were amused.
“I don’t deserve to be locked in this tower,” she said. “Let me out of here.”
“You have tried that several times now, Rapunzel. The locks of beautiful hair that you spent so much time brushing when you were dreaming of your future are now the exact thing that is keeping you from having what you desire.”
“Is that why you cursed me with hair that keeps growing?”
“Aye. I used to watch you in my shapeshifting form often. You are a beautiful woman, but you focus on naught but your looks and what you think it will get you in the future. You are so vain that I decided your precious, beautiful hair – the thing you seemed to cherish the most – is what would curse you in the end.”
“You are a horrid creature!” Rapunzel lunged for the old witch, wanting to strangle her, but her hair turned against her again. It wrapped around her ankles and caused her to fall to the floor. When she looked up, she saw not only Hecuba but also two-year-old Medea laughing at her.
“Laugh all you want,” she said, pulling herself up, using
the window ledge. “My brothers and father will save me and break this curse, and we will have the last laugh.”
“Is that what you think?” asked Hecuba, stroking her daughter’s hair, holding the child who stood in front of her. “They haven’t been able to do it yet, so what makes you think they’ll ever find you here?”
“Marco is going to find them and bring them here,” she blurted out before she realized she’d just given the witch information that could stop this from happening.
“That fool from the forest?” asked Hecuba.
“Marco,” repeated Medea, smiling from ear to ear.
“He’s not a fool. He’ll do it, I know he will,” Rapunzel told her. “And once my family finds me, we will stop you from cursing any more of the de Bars.”
“Too late for that,” she crooned. “Your sister, Cinderella, is already cursed. And your brother, MacKay, will soon find himself bestowed with the worst curse of them all.”
“Nay, leave them alone.”
“Aren’t you even a little curious about their curses?”
“I don’t care.” Rapunzel raised her chin and turned away. She did care, but didn’t want the witch to know it. If so, Hecuba would only taunt her more.
“Then, don’t you at least want to know where your sister, Cinderella disappeared to and why she has yet to come home?”
This made Rapunzel very curious indeed. Cinderella was said to have run off, but it wasn’t like her to stay away for so long. Her family was very concerned about her.
“What did you do to my sister? Tell me,” Rapunzel demanded to know.
“Which sister?” asked the witch, looking down to Medea. Medea stared at Rapunzel with those ebony eyes so dark that there was no reflection in them at all.
“I’m talking about the only sister I care about – Cinderella.” Even though Medea frightened her, Rapunzel had started to care about her as well. When she’d brushed the child’s hair yesterday with Medea sitting on her lap, it felt good. Part of Rapunzel wanted to believe that her little sister would always be so sweet. But with all the dark magic inside her, Rapunzel had to be careful. That darkness Medea was born with could someday outweigh the light. If so, Medea would turn evil like her mother. That was a thought that made Rapunzel sick to her stomach.
“You’ll learn to care for your sister, Medea, too,” said the witch. “And you will never leave this tower until you do. In the meantime, if you want to see what happened to Cinderella, take a look out the window.” The witch lifted her hand over her head and snapped her fingers. “Here comes your missing sister now.”
Rapunzel peered out the tower window, seeing a carriage drawn by a horse passing by below. A young woman rode in the carriage dressed in peasant’s attire. She had soot streaked across her face. Her messy hair was a strawberry-blond color, and her features were dainty.
“Ella?” Rapunzel asked aloud. “Is that Ella?”
“It is your sister. Why don’t you call out to her?”
Rapunzel hesitated, knowing it was exactly what Hecuba wanted her to do. That made her want to stay silent. But she couldn’t let Ella ride by and not even know she was there.
“Ella!” Rapunzel shouted, waving her arm, trying to get her sister’s attention. The girl looked up at the window as they passed by, but didn’t say a word. Rapunzel thought, mayhap, if Ella saw her here, she would do something to help her. Cinderella had a carriage, so perhaps she would tell their father, and he would save her. “Ella, it’s me – your sister, Rapunzel. I’m trapped in the tower. The witch has cursed me. Get help!”
Instead of calling back to her, or even waving in return, Ella kept staring out the window with a blank expression on her face. She looked distant, sad, and tired.
“What’s the matter with her?” Rapunzel asked, turning back to look at the witch. “Why doesn’t she answer me or even acknowledge me? It is not like my sister.”
“She can’t see you, Rapunzel,” said Hecuba. “It is only a vision I chose to show you. She is not really here. However, it wouldn’t matter if she were because she still wouldn’t recognize you.”
“That’s absurd,” Rapunzel retorted. “Of course, Ella would recognize me. She’s my sister.”
“She doesn’t know that now. Poor Cinderella might never know that again.” The witch made a tsking noise and shook her head.
“What are you saying? Does this have something to do with her curse?”
“It does. Since Cinderella has been the child in your family who always remembers everything no matter how insignificant or petty the issue, I decided to take that away from her.”
“Please, don’t tell me you did something to make her forget us.”
Hecuba cackled again, causing Medea to laugh as well. “Oh, it is better than that,” said the witch. “Cinderella has forgotten everything about her life. She thinks she is naught but a poor, bedraggled daughter of a stepmother who is so horrible she makes me look like an angel. And even I wouldn’t want to cross her wretched stepsisters. Cinderella will never remember her family, and she certainly will not remember you. So, you see, your dear sister, Ella, has ceased to exist.”
Marco rode through the night, too upset with his father to be able to think straight. He’d been lied to his entire life. The dreams he remembered of riding on a dragon were always shot down by his father telling him it was naught but his imagination. Now his suspicions proved true.
Living like a pauper for most of his life, he’d begun to believe he was no one special. But the truth was that he was a noble. He should have been trained in the ways of war from childhood. If he had been, he would already be a knight and a titled man. Now, he was a twenty-three-year-old failure with nothing to show for it.
“I should have been a knight,” he grumbled, slowing his horse as he saw a man nailing a missive to a tree. The clinking echoed through the air from the hammer hitting the nail. The man’s horse was at his side. Birds chirped and fluttered from tree to tree as the sun rose on the horizon. “I am a Dragon Lord,” he told himself, lifting his hand, hoping to see the ring glow. He had no idea how to make it happen again, or how to call upon a dragon to do his bidding. Hell, he didn’t even know where dragons lived or where to find them. Rapunzel laughed at him and told him she didn’t believe in dragons and such nonsense. If only he could prove to her that he wasn’t a starry-eyed boy making up stories, but instead a noble and revered Dragon Lord. Or at least he should be.
“Good day,” called out the young man who was dressed as a squire with a lord’s crest on his tunic. He whistled a cheery tune as he finished securing the missive to the tree, right next to another one that was already there.
“Good day,” said Marco. “What is that?” Thankfully, Marco was taught to read, but he didn’t want to get down from his horse to do it.
“This? Oh, it looks as if there is a bounty being offered for a criminal that got away,” said the young man, reading the second missive.
Marco glanced down to see the name of the man he’d been chasing when he first met Rapunzel. Roger the Rat was the criminal’s name. The man hung out in smelly towns and stole the horses and carts of noblemen when they passed through.
“It looks like the bounty on him is one mark,” continued the man.
“Nay, not that one,” Marco told him, already familiar with the bounty on the man’s head. “I mean the one you’ve just posted.”
“Oh this,” he said, tapping the nail once more and brushing off the vellum with his hand. “I am putting this here for the de Bar family. I’m Rock – the squire of Lord Kin de Bar. Who are you?”
“I’m Marco Drago del Rossi the Third,” he said. “I am a –” he looked down at his ring and stopped in midsentence. He was about to say he was a Dragon Lord but then thought how ridiculous that must sound to people. He didn’t want the man asking questions that he couldn’t answer. Besides, he didn’t even know who he was anymore. “I’m a bounty hunter,” he said, instead.
“A bounty hunter?” asked
the man named Rock, cocking his head. “With a name like that, I thought for sure you’d be a knight or some kind of a nobleman.”
“Just tell me about that missive. For whom is the de Bar family searching?”
He knew it was Rapunzel, but wanted to take the man’s attention away from asking any more questions about him.
“Lord Kin de Bar is looking for his sister, Rapunzel, and he’s offering a large reward. Rapunzel was stolen by an old witch named Hector – no, wait, that is a man’s name. Mayhap it was Helen? Nay, it was an ugly name. What was it?” He tapped his finger against his chin in thought.
“Do you mean, Hecuba?”
“Ah, that’s it! Do you know her?”
“Now, why would I know an old, ugly witch? Do I look like someone who associates with witches?”
“I just thought since you were a bounty hunter, you might have come across her in your travels.”
“Tell me about the reward,” he said, his interest piqued by the thought of money since he didn’t have any. “Is he offering one mark like the reward on Roger the Rat? That is more than a fair price.” He was already weighing the options in his head of which bounty to collect first. If he could bring home a decent amount of money to his father to live on, perhaps he could change his father’s mind and convince the man to train him to be a Dragon Lord after all. The stress of being as poor as a church mouse was turning his father into a very bitter man, and rightly so. He was a knight and a nobleman, not to mention a Dragon Lord. Even if his father didn’t act as if he cared about losing all those things, Marco knew it wasn’t true. No nobleman should ever be so discouraged that he no longer has a drop of pride. Marco would help his father reclaim his title, his confidence, and his pride, no matter if it were the last thing he ever did.
“Nay, Lord Kin is not offering money as a reward.”
“Well, then, hand me the other missive, and I’ll be off to collect the rat.”
“He is offering gold, though.”
“Gold?” Marco’s eyes opened wide in surprise. “What gold? How much?”
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