Chapter 24: The royal marriage decreed by the King!

Natasha narrowed her eyes at the first princess’s intensive training with her guard. She had an inkling that she wasn’t the Mia she was familiar with but couldn’t find any proof of it. She had double checked with the assassins and they had indeed assured her that she had been drowned in the river but despite her sending search parties for recovering the body, no corpse has been found from the river. Only the assassins sent for the Queen had been slayed and even no trace of their bodies were found. But it was rather obvious from the way she wielded the sword, that she was no beginner. She was far superior to her sparring partner and he was personally trained by the General himself.

Her daughter, Vanessa flicked her hair annoyedly at her mother and tutted at her, “Mother, Caro is not responding to any of my courting attempts. You have got to step up and do something. Set us up, mom and let father announce the news of our marriage. Caro might be the King in West but he can’t afford to humiliate or disrespect my father, the King of Valyria’s decision.”

Natasha clicked her tongue annoyedly and murmured to her daughter,
“Your father’s attitude towards the first princess had changed.”

Vanessa tilted her head, not being particularly happy with her mother’s declaration and asked sniffly, “Why? Why the sudden change? He used to hate her for being such a weakling”
“Does she still look like a weakling to you? And do you not see the dragon circling above her right now as we speak, watching her train?”

Vanessa frowned at her mother. To the life of her, she couldn’t figure out how a weakling like Mia could gain the loyalty of both the blood sword as well as the Falak dragon. To her, she hadn’t even seen Mia as a challenge much less a formidable opponent. She was annoyed at her mother for concentrating too much on a nobody like her instead of fixing her own daughter’s marriage.

“Your father put off his announcement which was to declare Andrew as his successor. That can only mean one thing, that he has fresh hopes and plans for the first princess, which isn’t good news for us darling. Remember, your father is not the one with the royal blood, it is the Queen and she will kick us off immediately after his death if Andrew doesn’t board that throne.”, Natasha continued on, starting to get irked out by the rapid pace at which Mia had been heading.

She had also won both the love and respect of the locals when she risked her life for her comrade by stepping into the Labyrinth of Death and emerging outside while riding a dragon.
She knew that she needed to come up with a plan to cut her down for good before she reaches new heights but for the life of her couldn’t figure out anything about the first princess. She was always closed off and had a poker face on and she had an eerie feeling that she might quite not be an easy opponent as she was earlier. Something in her had changed.

Just then an attendant came towards them and she stepped out from behind the shadows of the tress, flushing embarrassedly at having been caught red handed trying to snoop at the first princess. Vanessa also jumped at the attendant’s presence and followed her mother out from behind the trees where they were currently hiding.

The attendant bowed her head deeply before she addressed the concubine and her daughter, “ Your Highness, the king demands yours as well as the second princess’s attendance at the royal throne room.”

Natasha shot a surprised look at the attendant, then nodded indicating that she would there right along and the attendant bowed her head acknowledging her response and stalked off to the direction of the first princess, clearly to inform her too.

Natasha narrowed her eyes suspiciously, having an inkling that something big was about to happen today.
She turned towards her daughter and sighed at the feeble, lovesick teenager in front of her.
She gently patted her back and said, “Don’t worry, I will talk to your father about your wish to marry Caro Silva”
Vanessa gleamed at her mother jovially and hugged her tightly in response, thrilled by her mother’s promise.

As they walked back to the throne room, the royal concubine still couldn’t shake off the feeling that something was going to go very wrong today. Her heart in a frenzy, the concubine stepped into the throne room apprehensively and she shot a surprised look at Vanessa as she saw that both the Queen as well the King in the West were already present.

The first princess soon entered the throne room with her guard right at her heels, looking surprised and flustered as well at the sudden invitation to the throne room. Natasha narrowed her eyes as the first princess confidently walked to the center of the throne room and seated herself beside her mother, while her royal guard stood dutifully behind her, alert and his ears perked up for any signs of danger.

Selena frowned at her mother, wondering what the hell was going on when even the council members started pouring into the throne room, looking stiff and proper. Whatever announcement her father was about to make, it was an extremely important and official one.

The Queen eyed the king warily, wondering if he was about to declare Andrew as his heir apparent?
She had done so much to ensure that the King notices Selena’s capabilities that she felt crestfallen that after all this, she still couldn’t change the king’s mind. No, the King indeed had started paying more attention to the first princess these days. She quickly dismissed these alluring thoughts from her mind and flashed a soft smile at her daughter who glowered art her in response.

She let out a remorseful sigh as she realized that she had completely shattered the already very thin ice that she was on with her daughter after the stunt she pulled with Demetri. Now, it was almost like there was no relationship left to mend.

The king stood up and everyone immediately followed suit to show respect to the King and bowed their heads politely.

“Thank you for accepting my invitation to join me in the throne room, ladies and gentleman. Everyone standing in this room is a very dear and important person to me, be it my own family or my advisors or my allies. I have gathered you all here today to announce the marriage of my daughter.
She is of a age and it’s in my best wishes to see that she weds our esteemed guest who is also our ally, Mr Caro Silva.”

Selena rolled her eyes at the king and clicked her tongue annoyedly, piqued that the king had wasted her time for such a silly matter.
Everyone on this kingdom knew about Vanessa’s obsession with Caro and it wasn’t the least bit surprising that she got her daddy to pull some strings to get her into Silva’s bed.

The queen swore internally while the concubine and her daughter let out a squeal in pleasure, a wide smile spreading across their otherwise pale faces. Having the Silvas as an ally could prove quite disadvantageous for Selena. After all, the Silvas were closely related to the Vanheusans and to top it all off, he was an original vampire so his word held a lot of weight to it.

Caro Silva frowned at the King of Valyria, deeply disappointed that he had misused his authority to force such a personal decision on him without even having the courtesy to ask for his permission first. The King had decreed the marriage in open court in front of all the council members. Going against the king in a situation like this could mean the lose of an ally. Caro was about to open his mouth and reject the decree firmly when the king continued on.

“Let the news be announced to the entire kingdom of Valyria and let the citizens rejoice in the celebrations to come. I hereby officially declare that Mia Langdon, the first princess of the kingdom of Valyria is officially betrothed to the King of the West, Caro Silva.”

The Queen shot a surprised look at her husband, hope slowly making its way back into her heart while Selena froze, a thousand matters going in her head, then stared disbelieving at her birth father. Vanessa’s giddy smile froze on her face and she shot a horrified look at her mother disbelievingly, not quite sure of what she had just heard.