Chapter 68: The war declared by the Vanhuesan clan!

“What now?”, Selena asked annoyed as one of her personal maid interrupted her already not so comfy afternoon nap. She blinked open an eye and the timid maid entered her line of vision.

She timidly bowed down and addressed her queen politely, “The council requests an audience with you.”

Selena immediately sprang up and got out of the bed annoyed and tired, wondering what the hell they were up to now since she was still a little bit wary of them from the last trick they had pulled on her without her knowledge and she hadn’t yet punished the lot of them for that atrocity, despite her making up her mind firmly too and had merely let it go with a warning, not wanting to pull it any further. Her and Caro though polite with each other was still in awkward terms with one another. She knew it was kind of difficult for him to accept the fact that Selena was seeing another man, much less the fact that the man was none other than his own family member. It was quite obvious from the words he had said to her a few days back when she had caught him trying to feed her dragon, that he still hoped for a future together and was trying everything in his power to make that happen when Selena dumped the ice cold truth on to him and she suspected whether he had took it the stride or was he deeply troubled by it? Caro being always calm and composed was a very difficult man to read.

Dominic had vanished that day and was nowhere around to be seen. Selena had panicked and gone into some sort of frenzy wondering if he was alright or in any kind of danger had sent in her trusted shield, Demetri to search for him without anyone quite knowing about it since she can’t just declare an all palace search for Dominic without everyone coming to know that Dominic had been staying in Valyria sneakily way after the rest of his clan had already gone as that will only spark rumors and suspicions and she didn’t want any mor unnecessary drama, after all she had already enough drama in her life to last her and keep her entrained for an eternity.

But it had been around two days since Demetri had took off for his little side quest and she hadn’t yet heard from him either which kind of put her in an anxious and jittery mood that she had tried to sleep it out, but clearly that didn’t seem to be working much either. Demetri was a natural born tracker, so she hoped that he would find Dominic faster and put her out of her worry soon.

She nodded at the maid and she politely excused herself from the room after delivering the news for which she had come for while Selena freshened up quickly and put on a new dress and got out. She preferred to do all these mundane stuffs alone and kind of discouraged her maids from trying to help her dress as she felt that it would violate her privacy and comfort.
Her royal guards standing dutifully outside her door immediately followed her when she got out of the door and passed through the corridors. They were more keen and alert in the absence of the main royal shield and she made her way to the throne room where the council and her mother apparently seemed to be waiting for her appearance.

She rushed into the thorn room, wondering what had happened now to warrant an urgent with the council and the Queen dowager? Her gut instinct told her that something terrible or something really important had happened, otherwise they wouldn’t request an audience with her so hastily, even breaking her little afternoon nap.

As she entered the throne room, every council member bowed their heads at her as she seated herself in her designated place, i.e., the throne while her mother nodded at her, acknowledging her presence. Not wanting to waste any further time, Selena motioned for the council to get up from their knees and start speaking, whatever it was that they had wanted to convey so ardently and urgently that she had rushed all the way to here.
The council head looked worried out of his head and took several steps forward and placed himself directly in his Queen’s purview and said formally though in an anxious tone, “Your majesty, our spies has declared that there is an abnormal movement in the army of the Vanhuesans and they seemed to be heading our direction.”

Both of Selena’s eyebrows disappeared on to her forehead and she stood up from her seat furiously and yelled at the lot of them, clearly displeased by what she had just heard, “But that is preposterous. We just had the king’s duel and they had voluntarily laid down the claim to the throne of Valyria. How can they go back on their word so soon?”

The council head winced in fear at her sudden yelling and murmured in a weak, feebly voice, “Your majesty, the king’s duel stops him form taking the kingdom by laying a claim to the throne of Valyria. It doesn’t stop him from declaring war and taking the kingdom by force.”

Well, that was just ridiculous. How can they go back and declare war as soon as they reached tehri kingdom? Well, they haven’t exactly declared war and Selena had the inkling that they were trying for a sneak attack, however, their abnormal movements were caught by Valyrian spies and promptly reported on time.

Selena glared down at the lot of them, disturbed by what she had just heard, as a full fledge war would eventually mean the loss of vampires on both sides and she didn’t want any harm to happen to her own citizens. War….be it any sort of war was a terrible thing to happen.

Her thoughts immediately fled to the now innocently missing Dominic and her treacherous mind found itself wondering whether he had a hand in this? She quickly shook her head vividly as if composing her rogue mind and assuring herself that her man wouldn’t have any hand in this, no matter what. She kept reassuring herself that Dominic may not have a hand in this, because she feared what she would do if he really did have a hand in this and was making a proper fool out of her for the past few weeks.
She prayed that he was innocent and had absolutely no hand in what his family was brewing otherwise Dominic Vanhuesan wouldn’t be able to handle the fury of the Empress of Valyria.