The Siege Of Drakkon: Book Three Of The Drakkon Series

Chapter Nineteen

Alessandra Drakkon

Queen of the Drakkon Empire

"I can take him out of the pod mother, you can speak to him, try to get his side of the story." She shook her head at me, resolutely staring out the window on the shuttle even though there was no view to be seen with us still docked inside the Falka.

"No, don't wake him up yet daughter. He still has a remaining claim on your throne, the person he has become will fight you for it. He does not deserve the throne any longer, he will abuse it's power, there will come a time where we will speak, but that is not now, I would actually prefer if you would not mention me to him at all, I fear it will affect his actions and I want to see what he does when he thinks I am not alive, not watching his every move, to see if he does not truly deserve my forgiveness. May we return to Draka now? I have no desire to be anywhere near him right now." I nod in assent and the shuttle immediately begins launching procedures, the doors are shut, we buckle ourselves in, and then we lift off, flying through the Falka's dock.

It doesn't take us long to reach Draka, a mere ten minute trip, my mother immediately disembarks the shuttle once we land and heads for the Ikari forest, as much as I want to stop her, to comfort her, I know that she needs time alone to deal with her feelings. "Where has Tanza been?" It was the first time I mentioned it all day, from my understanding she had something to deal with, but it was surprising me that it was taking her this long, I expected her to be waiting at the shuttle dock when we arrived back, but she was no where to be seen.

"She has been investigating the matter of the old woman's stall, she made a rather startling discovery last night, she has been working all morning to figure it out." What was left to investigate about that old woman, as far as I remember she had disappeared with no trace.

"Well, I suppose since it is afternoon now that she's had enough time to herself, let's go check on her progress." Surprisingly Yanu leads me towards the scientists lab, a lab that should be empty with most of them all on Solveig. We enter the lab and find Tanza staring down at a magnified image of something, she startles upon hearing the door open and bows her head to me immediately looking contrite.

"Your majesty, I apologize for my absence, but I've discovered something extremely important. I apologize if I overstepped my bounds in borrow the scientists lab, but no where else had the necessary equipment for me to properly investigate this." She grabs a tray off the table and moves it so that I can see what is on it, I stumble back upon seeing the black stone necklace the old lady had sold me at the stall, my heart raced just seeing it, which I still couldn't understand, something about that necklace made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

"I thought I told you to throw that thing away!" My voice comes out harsh, but I didn't want that thing anywhere near me, something was wrong with it, I could tell.

"I apologize your majesty, and punish me for my mistake if you must, but I plead you to hear me out before you dispose of this." I pause taking a deep breath I reluctantly drag my eyes away from the necklace and stare at her, she seemed earnest and desperate for me to listen, obviously she had indeed discovered something she thought I should know.

"Very well, what did you discover?" She bows her head to me and then puts the tray back onto the table, using a pair of tongs she gently flips the necklace over, showing the flat backside.

"I felt like that old woman was too eager to sell you a necklace, she tried to act like a normal stall seller by jacking up the price at first, but she succumbed to a new price too quickly, she was so eager to see you buy one, that when you got an uneasy feeling about it, and told me to throw it away, I kept it because I thought it might be important. Then after when we found no trace of that old woman, I knew something must be odd about it, so I've been attempting to find out what for a while now, just last night I made the discovery by accident when my hot mug of Filny spilled near it. There is a hidden compartment on the back of the necklace, it contains some type of organic matter, I've discovered that when body heat is applied." She takes a lighter and holds the flame next to the locket, it only takes mere moments before the secret compartment opens and some goo slips out, she pulls the flame away and the goo immediately retreats back into the secret compartment which seals up without a trace of it ever being there.