The salamanders informed Dryad what the psyrens had dumped on his rocks, and smiling, he instructed them to fetch him and he made his way to Tatiana’s cave. He hoped she’d had time to calm down from whatever distressed her.
As he entered his mother’s cave, he noted how she now placed herself upon her throne. She looked as though she was about to greet her subjects. How this woman was not born to be royal amazed him. She looked up at him as he entered and knelt at her feet.
'You have allowed your mess to hit our shores,' she said cryptically.
'It was your idea to steal the Scales. Of course trouble is going to hit us,' he replied.
'I am not talking about the Scales,' she snapped, pushing her body from her seat. 'I am going to say one word and see if you can figure it out yourself, my son,' she sang.
Dryad felt his heart stop at the word “Clara”, he could see in his mind’s eye her beautiful angelic face and the tears she’d shed as he sailed away from her. Then he remembered the blood he’d shed into the scrying pool and his mother’s reaction.
'Surely you're not suggesting?' he whispered.
Tatiana grabbed his face, her icy touch making him shudder. 'You mixed our blood with an angel and in doing so you've created the most powerful thing after the gods.'
'I have a son,' Dryad said, still in a state of shock.
Their union had been forbidden, but they loved each other. Angels were the only beings prohibited to mix their blood after a child of a gypsy and an angel nearly destroyed the whole of Celestia. It was a story used to terrify children and though the story was older than known time the gods had made sure the tales served as a warning. They hated anything that competed for their power, but now they were all gone.
'I should be disgusted with you, but this could be to our advantage. Your son is so strong. I can smell his power. He will destroy us, but if we get him on side...' Tatiana sang smiling.
'We could take the whole of Celesta,' Dryad finished. 'But what if he refuses?'
'The psyrens tell me the Princess Briganti chose the prince over him. It seems he has inherited his father’s ability to fall for a woman he cannot have.'
Dryad rushed back to his rooms inside his castle, eager and nervous at meeting his son. The salamanders had been ordered to make him comfortable in Dryad’s own room anyway, but now he knew he was his son it changed how he felt.
Being a father hadn’t even occurred to him. He would never have wanted to put a child through what he had. Being a royal reject was not a good thing and he’d learned the hard way.
He soon reached his door and through the slightly ajar door he caught sight of him. Instantly, he saw Clara, especially the way his head was hung in sadness, but then he saw himself also. The unsureness and pain of unrequited love. However, his mother was right, the power that emanated from him was immense and it made him nervous.
'What do you want from me?' Orlson said softly without looking up.
Dryad stepped into the room, closing the door behind him. 'Do you know who I am?' Dryad asked standing opposite him.
'You stole the Scales. Br... We have been looking for you,' Orlson replied.
Lifting his eyes to him, Dryad felt his heart jump. Clara’s eyes. How he missed those eyes. He turned away toward the sea view out of his window. He could just make out the silhouette of a ship’s mast hiding behind some rocks in the far distance. He turned back and saw Orlson drop his eyes again to the floor.
'Princess Briganti? Ah the soon Queen of Zilva, or once married, High Queen of Celestia.'
He watched as the mention of the princess’s name ripped his son in two.
'So why are you here alone?' he pushed. He needed to get him to react, so he could be played.
'The psyrens caught us out, I was sacrificed to save the Prince,' Orlson answered with a hint of distaste.
Dryad laughed softly. 'Those psyrens’ songs are a killer.'
Orlson eyed Dryad’s friendliness with suspicion. He’d heard tales of the alchemist and up until then he was the enemy that they were pursuing. However, in his presence there was an unnerving sense of familiarity about him, that he couldn’t place and instead of seeing an evil man he saw a man filled with pain with a need to be accepted.
'Why did you steal the Scales?' Orlson asked him.
'It is a very long story which I will not bore you with right now. But the basics are that I want to gain my rightful place in Zolar,' Dryad said.
'But taking the Scales is affecting Zilva too,' Orlson said, looking up at him, again with those eyes.
'Maybe the effect on Zilva will be beneficial.'
Orlson frowned with confusion. 'How do you work that one out?'
'Zilva and Zolar are the two greatest kingdoms of Celesta. Yet Zolar is becoming even greater and richer.'
'That can't happen,' Orlson said. 'They balance each other out.'
Dryad could tell by his face that doubt was creeping in, he was getting under his skin.
'Are you sure they can't? I mean look at how prosperous Zolar is becoming yet Zilva is starting to flounder.'
Orlson couldn’t deny he’d noticed. The fish stocks around Zilva were dwindling and the crops not as good as they could be, however on their visit to Zolar there seemed to be none of the problems there.
'So why Zolar?' Orlson asked.
'My family came from Zolar, the Queen Marion and I are cousins. By rights I was to sit upon the throne as High King, but my family were banished here,' Dryad replied.
'So this is all about revenge?'
Dryad moved away from the window and sat down beside his son.
'It is about taking my rightful place. Once I am High King, my son becomes my heir.'
'Your son?'
Orlson felt the old man’s eyes look deeply within him and he felt his insides start to shake.
'I went back to Demeter to try and clear my name and there I fell in love with an angel called Clara. The result of our love was a child that I have just found about.’
Orlson began to rise from the bed slowly and purposefully.
‘Are you trying to tell me that you’re my father and my mother was an angel?’ he stammered, his heart beating fast and hard.
‘There is a power that is not even tapped into yet deep inside you.'
'I don't have any power. There is nothing special about me and you can’t be my father. I was orphaned in Zilva, not Zolar,' Orlson protested.
'But you do. Princess Briganti sees it every time she changes to a mer, but she fights it.'
Orlson opened his mouth to answer, but stopped and Dryad realised he had worked his way under his skin. Now all that was needed was to convince him to stand by him and against Zolar. He would offer the princess’s hand to his son and both would rule Celestia as one family.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Celestia's Tales: The Lybiria Scales Page 25