"Clara 01" by Sara Dungavell

147 A. I.

The wind was howling the night the child was born.  The palace prophetess, an old toothless lizard, ranted about destroying the demon child, but his parents were thrilled at his birth. King Biu was no longer young and though the Queen was only in her 2^nd decade she was a fragile thing and the midwife had said it was unlikely she could bear another child, they would not destroy this one.  King Biu had always had problems with birth.  Biu’s last queen had died in labour, she had been a beautiful woman, like a sun beam.  Her sister had been the Keeper of the Sun until the ‘unfortunate’ accident 2 years ago at the dragon games where she had died.  The King had been proud to have won the Queen’s favour.  She had been not only beautiful but the widowed Queen of Forest Land, a great prize for any noble.  Her husband before Biu, the King of Forest Land descended from generations of great Kings and Queens had died only a month before Biu had wed his widow.  Such a hurried courtship and wedding was scandalous in the eyes of the Forest Land elite, and it was rumoured that the child the widowed Queen bore from her marriage to the old King wasn’t his but Biu’s.  The child had never been seen by anyone it being considered ill luck to look upon a still born babe, particularly one that had also caused the death of its mother, so this rumour was never dispelled.  Had the babe been seen there would have been definite proof, for Biu was a dark lizard, and the child was born a spot of sun on green leaves.  Queen Milliana and the former King Lirtlin had both been shining things as well.  Queen Milliana had been the sun to Lirtlin’s glowing green forest.  They had truly been in love and had it not been for the dire need the Forest Landers had for a strong leader to protect them from the attacks of the Volcano Landers she never would have remarried.  Now though, Lirtlin and Milliana were gone, as was their child.  Though there were none to see these last two’s death but an old midwife and Milliana’s sister, now also both dead and in their graves.  If anything, that had been the demon child, the child of ill fortune, it could not possibly be this one, King Biu thought as he looked upon the future King in his wife’s arms and reflected upon the past.  That was a child that caused death, not this small innocent creature, he was dark just as Biu and his mother were.  It eased Biu’s mind to see that his wife had not been unfaithful to him.  He was after all in his 7^th decade and not a young lizard, Kala was only twenty and it would not have been surprising had she sought the company of a younger lizard all those nights while he had been away in battle.

King Biu soon left Kala’s room, he would have to find another midwife, and another prophetess.  It was surprising that the midwife would fight to defend an old woman who had been nothing but a nuisance through the entire delivery.  She had fought well as well, Biu thought, as he rubbed his arm and his cheek where she had cut him before he had put an end to her and the prophetess’s babbling.  He sighed, it would be a bother to find another midwife but he would need one soon.  One of his mistresses was next to bear a child and he did not wish her to have to go through it alone.  He must send out a messenger to the City of the Sun to ask for one, a prophetess as well.  The prophetess would best come from the City of the Stars but he didn’t trust the magicians there, no more than he trusted those from the City of the Moon, which would really be a better place to get a midwife.  He did so wish that Opal’s City wasn’t surrounded by the three cities of magic.  He would even do without their protective barrier around the crop lands if that was the price to pay for getting rid of them.  But all of that was really rather irrelevant, he had no time to deal with them when battling the Volcano Landers.  Though even then he couldn’t escape magic.  There were a large amount of magicians in all his armies.  Biu fumed the rest of the way to the moon bird’s aviary.

In the City of the Sun a message by moon bird was received that the King of Forest Land needed another midwife and prophetess.  The new Keeper of the Sun was furious, she had sent him midwife after midwife, and the number of prophetesses that were lost to him was ridiculous.  A number of prophetesses had survived of course, though now they refused to leave the safety of the Hidden City.  No midwives had ever escaped him, he seemed to blame them for the fact that his wife was almost incapable of having a child.  This child was a miracle, though there were many who called it otherwise.  It had been born during one of the worst storms Forest Land had ever experienced.  It’s birth was uncanny.  The Keeper of the Sun thought of what midwife to send, it would have to be one who would leave if her life were in danger.  That had been another reason why none of the others had survived, they had refused to abandon the women of the palace to Biu’s temper.  The Keeper did not want to send anyone, it was certain they too would die.  She would never send another prophetess, at least not from her city, one from the City of the Stars would be perfect, they could take care of themselves, all the priestesses there could.  And yet . . . the King had asked for one from her city.  What could she do?  She must obey her King.

Rose, a senior priestess of the sun, who was taking her turn in serving the Keeper of the Sun, entered the Keeper’s quarters to change the sheets of the bed, and found her leaning against it, sobing in despair.  Rose ran over to the younger lizard and tried to comfort her, but it was of no avail.  The Keeper kept crying, she was miserable and Rose could see no way of calming her short of a tranquillizer.

“Keeper, please, tell me what is the matter,” Rose asked, kneeling beside the Keeper, putting her hands on the sobbing cream lizard’s shoulders.

“What am I supposed to do Rose?  I am only 12 years old.  I shouldn’t be a Keeper yet, I was only in my 2^nd year of training when I was called to preform this task.  I am still a child, and yet my King demands that I send him another midwife and prophetess.  How can I agree to this and send two more priestesses of the sun to their doom?  Rose, what am I to do?”  The Keeper quickly broke down once more into tears and Rose spent much of the remaining day comforting her.  In the end no real decision had been reached, but at least, Rose thought, the Keeper of the Sun had stopped crying.  She looked so young when she cried.  Now she was peacefully asleep and wore the timelessness of that.  Rose called the Circle of the Sun together, the Keeper was too young to make a decision on this matter.  That King Biu could not ever be sent another priestess was certain.  Yet they could not openly defy their King without causing civil war.  The circle reached the same decision, yet they found no solution.  Neither did the circles of the other two cities, and they had their Keepers there helping them.  The Keeper of the Stars was furious at the suggestion that any more lizards be sent to their deaths, the Keeper of the Moon calmer, yet she felt the same about the matter.  The Hidden City of Saphire had no useful input either, the Keepers of the towers in the Hidden Cities of Silver and the Winds also found no answer.  A call was sent out throughout the entire magical community and finally a solution was found.

“My lord?” a servant softly spoke through the thick, ornately carved wooden door of the King’s chamber.  “The midwife and the prophetess that you requested from the City of the Sun have arrived.  Would you like me to show them too their chambers?”

“No, I will greet them,” King Biu answered, he rose from the table he was reviewing maps on and left his chamber.  He started towards the main entrance of the palace, in meeting them he could decide if they would give him any more trouble.

“My lord they are not that way,” the servant said nervously, his fear at correcting the King and at the tidings he was bearing filling the air with it’s smell.

“Well, where are they?” Biu asked in a low steady voice.  The servant shivered with fear at the sound of that voice, it was the voice all servants of the palace dreaded.

“They, they are in one of the inner chambers, my lord.  They were led there by their own request upon entry, I, I was just informed of their presence, had I known . . . I would not have . . . never my lord would I have . . .” The servant’s whimpered speech was silenced by a blow from the King, who started off in the opposite direction then the one he had sent the servant flying in.  He arrived at the correct room by chance, not having anyone to guide him.  It was the room in which the old Queen had accepted his marriage proposal.  He entered the golden room and was startled to see three figures instead of the two he had expected.  There was a small child, no more than three standing halfway hidden behind the deep blue skirt of one of the adult females.  The child was lovely, she was cream coloured, golden and green freckles liberally covering the rest of her.  She was dressed in dark green.  King Biu’s gaze lifted from the child to her mother.  The woman was dressed in dark blue, she wore a long dark blue cotton skirt, and a lighter blue cotton shirt.  Biu raised his eyes and met the lady’s own deep blue gaze.  He gasped as he recognised her golden face and he quickly stepped back, trying to leave the room and escape the ghost.  The door slammed shut seemingly of it’s own accord before he could reach it.  The King’s eyes moved to the other lizard in the room.  She was older and dressed in a long close fitting yellow gown.  The King recognised her as well.

“You’re dead, all of you,” he stammered, stunned and terrified by what he saw.  Queen Milliana, standing beside her dead sister, the former Keeper of the Sun, with her stillborn, yet somehow living, daughter by her feet.

“You should not have killed the midwives and prophetesses the City of the Sun sent you,” the old Keeper of the Sun said standing straight and stern, the very bearing King Biu had always remembered and hated her for.  Women should not be so confident, they should show the proper respect to their King and superior.

“You should not have threatened the life of my child so that an heir of yours could take the throne,” Milliana said, in a soft mournful voice, her dark eyes filled with sadness.

“I, I . . .how is it that you live?” King Biu asked, at a loss for words to defend actions he had considered, and still considered, correct.  “There is another Keeper of the Sun, you cannot be alive!” he shouted at Milliana’s sister, as if shouting loud enough would make them vanish.  “It is not possible!!  And you died in childbirth,” he said turning to Milliana.

“Foolish man,” the Keeper of the Sun said, laughing condescendingly.  “The Keeper of the Sun you know now was born in my 43^rd year.  It was an odd fluke, yes, but not impossible.  And Milliana told me you had said her child could not live because it was Lirtlin’s and not yours.  I arranged things for their survival.  They’ve been living back on the Nep for some time now.”

“And you faked your death because you were bored?”  King Biu asked, regaining his composure.  Even if these women meant him harm there wasn’t much they could do to him.

“My own death was because someone,” and with that she looked pointedly at Biu,  “was trying to have me killed.  It is not a very pleasant existence always looking over your shoulder and testing your food and drink fearing an assassin’s knife or poison.  I wished to be able to live with my sister and niece in peace.  With another Keeper of the Sun there . . .? I saw no point in continuing to live in the public eye.”

“Then why have you come back?” Biu demanded.  “Couldn’t resist life without me, eh Milly?” he continued in a joking fashion, stepping closer to Milliana, who withdrew pulling even her breath away from him.  Her sister stepped between them.  Biu laughed.

“We’re hear to stop you from hurting any more of Loe’s priestesses, or any of her inhabitants.” the Keeper of the Sun said angrily.  Milliana turned towards her daughter, placed a soft hand on the frightened girl’s blond head, and spoke a word too soft for Biu to hear.  Instantly Clara froze.

“You use magic on your own child Milliana.  I knew there was ruthlessness in you somewhere.  You know, I can’t make you Queen again, since I am married, but you could remain here a mistress.  You would have a good life, you would be one of my favourites.  I did always think you beautiful.” Biu said, stepping around the Keeper of the Sun reaching out to touch Milliana golden hair.

“I did not come back here to join you in your bed again Biu,” Milliana said, standing straight and unmoving as Biu reached, and speaking in the same quite voice she had always used, tinged with the sadness that had always been their since Lirtlin’s death.  “And I used magic on my child so that she would not witness your death.  I do not want her corrupted.”  Biu quickly withdrew his hand and took a step back from his former wife so that he could see both Milliana and her sister at once.  Even if they were only women it would be wise to watch them.

“We came here to put an end to your so flagrant murder of the priestesses of the sun.  We will not allow a lizard that has killed over fifty priestesses live.  Your destiny was sealed the minute your knife descended on the first,” the Keeper of the Sun said strongly, in such contrast to her quiet younger sister.  Biu raised his hand, holding his knife to defend himself from an attack but that was not how it came.  The Keeper of the Sun raised her hand and said a word.  Only one word but Biu felt it suck the life from him.  He felt his heart slow, a gray mist invaded his vison.  He saw Milliana’s sad face and her sister’s float for a few seconds on that gray plain, and then, hearing it, and feeling each painful beat, his heart stopped.

“Are you certain it can’t be discovered we did this?”  Milliana asked, tears in her eyes as she looked down at the dead lizard by her feet.  “I do not want Clara endangered.”  She tried to pretend that was the reason for her tears, her sister could see through that, she knew Milliana had not quite had the heart to do this.

“I am completely certain Milly,” Sarina answered smiling at her sister, seemingly unaffected by having killed a man.  She was trying to reassure, but it only made Milliana feel worse.  “Not even a Keeper could detect the magic I have just used, and to a physician it will look like his heart just gave out under pressure.  The doctors had been warning him about that for some time now.  Quickly, bend down beside him, and unfreeze your daughter, I will call a servant.”

Their plan worked of course.  A servant, called by Sarina’s shout for help, came running into their rooms only to find his lord already dead.  Queen Kala was informed of her husbands death and she came to thank the midwife who had tried to help him.

“I am sorry my Queen, he was already dead when I reached him,” Milliana answered her heart wenched to pieces lying to the grief stricken face of the dead man’s wife.  At the funeral the new midwife, who had introduced herself as Milly, and the prophetess, named Sira, were granted honoured spots being the last lizards to see their King alive.  It really is a weird custom.  Many lizards Milliana had known before she left the palace were present at the funeral, and though there were some who should have recognised them none did, thanks to Sarina’s spells.  Clara was the only one of the three looking like herself and with her own name.

The funeral was a grim affair, the only true mourner’s were one or two of the King’s mistresses and the Queen.  The servants had been frightened of him and his volatile temper.  Nobles had thought him no better than a presumptuous and rude commoner.  Biu’s troops were grieved about his death, but being warrior’s they wouldn’t let it show.

After the funeral the inhabitants of Forest Land returned to their normal lives as if there had been no change.  Biu had after all been King for less than four years, and he had not made any great difference.  The change was in the life of the palace.  Nobles from every possible part of Forest Land and the plains flooded the palace courting Kala.  After three years of attempting to win her favour even the most persistent of them gave up, and Kala remained unmarried.  She was advised on matters of the state by the prophetess Sira, and the Keeper of the Sun.  Kala’s son, Frock grew big and healthy.  One of the elder generals took command of the armies.  Milly the midwife and her daughter Clara remained out of sight and out of noble minds, living a simple existence in the Healer’s cottage, near the servant’s wing of the palace, attending to births and injuries.