The Siege Of Drakkon: Book Three Of The Drakkon Series

Chapter Forty

Kiara Solveig

Previous Queen of the Solveig Empire

My daughter had gone off to war without me, I was so disappointed, did she not realize that as a Solveig I enjoyed battle, that I would be of help down there. I knew she cared for me and didn't want to see me hurt but she must also realize that I was her mother, and she was my daughter, it was my job to protect her not the other way around.

No matter though, once she returned and regaled me with tales of her victory I would be just as excited to discuss battles with her, besides there would always be another battle, another war, that was just the way of life. Solveig's knew that better than most, our lives revolved around the next battle, the next fight, we were not afraid to die, we knew that to fight is to take the risk of dying, that the next fight might be the last. It was why our vow that if we chose to fight, then it would be our choice to die was so important, so that others know we would not blame the innocent for our own choices. It is why the Queen was more of a figurehead than an actual ruling force among the Solveigs, we understood that no one could take our freewill away if we didn't want them to.

The important thing among the Solveigs was the fact that we allowed our rulers to dictate us as long as we felt they were worthy of such loyalty, Solviegs were not afraid to kill a leader who was not leading them properly, we were warriors after all, and warriors did not shy away from bloodshed. My darling Alessandra was not scared of spilling blood, with it being an integral part of her Drakkon heritage as well as her Solveig blood, she was the ultimate predator, with claws and sharp teeth, speed and strength from her Drakkon heritage. Excellent eyesight in both daylight and nighttime, strong hearing and sense of smell, ingrained muscle memory from generations of wars fought by her ancestors, the ability to wield flames hot enough to turn metal into ash, all of this was from her Solveig blood. They granted her abilities none had ever seen before, strengths that I am sure she was still discovering, having only lived for such a short amount of time, though she would have time to learn as she aged, the Ikari bond ensured she would live a long life if nothing else.

Though she mostly possessed the physical traits of a Drakkon, with her purple eyes and fangs, her extending claws, Solveig's had fangs but they were just slightly pointed teeth in our entire mouth, not just two sharp teeth, we also had claws but they did not extend, they were merely the length they looked, red hair was the only outside physical trait she had received from me, having not received our yellow eyes with slit pupils, though she had received our blood, the undesirable taste and smell to the Drakkon, as well as the battle memory ingrained in it, the immunity from the Gorgut virus.

Her heritage probably affected her in ways she didn't even realize, things that she had lived with for so long, probably misunderstanding that everyone had the same abilities. She had the best qualities from the two of our species, though she also had some of the bad ones, the Drakkon's thirst for blood being one of them, not that I would ever hold it against her. Solveig's spilled blood for the thrill or for justice, Drakkon spilled it for sustenance, which one was better, I wasn't sure, but surely feeding yourself wasn't a bad thing.

I would probably never know because her father had never fed off me, the adaptive quality of Solveig blood making it unpalatable to Drakkonians. Not that I believed that I was missing out on something but more to the fact that I knew I would never understand it because I did require it to survive.

Rough pounding on the door disturbs me from my thoughts, I found myself doing that a lot ever since I was taken out of the pod, it was strange to be back in the real world, to not be able to re-experience my memories so easily, to not be able to manipulate my surroundings with a thought, strange but not bad, just something that would take me time to adjust to again. "Yes? Come in." The door swings open quickly, the Solveig behind it hurrying inside, looking to be in a panic. "Narya what's wrong? Has something happened on Solveig?" Everything had been going so well when I had last been there, it was so different to how I grew up, with the Gorguts gone it was like a whole different place, and now that we had the ability to leave the planet freely if we wanted to, to import goods we had never seen before, it was a novelty I never thought I would get to experience.

"Something has happened to the Queen! You must see the stream, I cannot explain it properly!" She shoves her sheeve at my face as if trying to force me to see it, I push her hand away.

"Alright, alright, just give me a moment." I bring up the casting stream on my own sheeve and display it on the wall. "The true king has returned? What fool is trying to take my daughter's throne from her? I will slice their lying tongue out." I blink in confusion as Aldrich appears on the display, what was he doing there, had he not fled to the Trennix empire?

"People of Drakkon! Your true king has returned! No longer will you suffer under the rule of the false Queen, I am your king once more. I've ended the war and slayed the false Queen, no longer will she attempt to corrupt the great empire I've built." My face drains of blood as I see an image of my daughter, my little girl, my beautiful strong daughter, floating dead in space, and the man I once loved is claiming to have killed her, the father of my child is saying he killed her to get his throne back.

"How could he do this! How could he do this to HER! TO ME! Who is this man! He is not the person I once knew! Not the man I once cared for! I will never forgive him for this! I will kill him where he stands if he even tries to sit on my daughter's throne!" I was livid with anger, I am sure my pupils were narrowed to mere slits, my lips curled back in a snarl.

"She will float in space for eternity, the false queen does not deserve a funeral for the sins she has committed. I will return in two days time to formally re-take my position as King, I am eager to see all of you again, your one and only King Aldrich Drakkon." I scream, swiping everything off the table, uncaring of it smashing all over the floor, there he stands with a crown on his head, looking so smug and proud, while he lets our daughter float in space forever? Alone? Lost? How could he do this?

I knew him, I did, or at least I thought I had, he had not been like this before, would never have done something like this before. Our daughter did not deserve this fate, no, my daughter did not deserve this fate, for killing her he severed all ties with us, I knew him no longer, I would not recognize him as anything but my daughter's killer.

I had fought with him, shared kills with him, loved him, and he does this to me? To us? My mind was racing, split, I couldn't understand where he had hidden all this from me, how he could've been so cold and heartless and I never noticed, none of this made sense, this was not the man I had loved, but an imposter in his body. When I had been in my mind space, I had many a time re-watched our memories together, re-lived them with wistful sadness.

Had hoped that one day we might all be reunited again whether in life or in death, this was not what I had wanted to happen, I wish Alessandra had never found him, I wish he had stayed lost and dead. Which only made it that much harder to bear, the fact that Alessandra had saved him from death, and he killed her as repayment. I would never let this stand, I would never let him take the throne, that would always be my daughter's place, even if someone else took her place, whoever it was, it would not be her killer. "We are with you, my Queen. We will not let this go unpunished! He may have killed her to get the Drakkon throne back, but he also killed the Solveig Queen in the process, he has made a severe mistake, we may not be as large as the other empires, but we will reign down Numa's fury on them! They will know our wrath! The burn of our flames! They will know the pain we are feeling at the loss of our ruler as we burn her name into their skin!" Narya's words were meant to comfort me, to help keep my wrath at bay, but all they did was fan the flames inside me.

Because with Alessandra dead, I was once more the Queen of the Solveig's. We were our own empire, our own army, we would not let our Queen's death go in vain, even if it was her father that killed her. Where was poor Nova in this? I hope they had both perished fighting, that they did not lose hope until the very end. Though how had she died, why had she died when Numa had blessed her, put her through that strenuous test to survive, I did not understand it, he had never failed before.

"NUMA! You said you would protect her! That you would give her strength! Where is your protection! Where is the strength you promised! Her life is a debt you must pay me!" I shouted the words, feeling them with all my heart, but I received no answer, no response from the god of shadows.

Had he abandoned me? Right when we needed him most? After serving him faithfully for generations, after we bonded in the mindscape? He abandoned me now, after my only child had just died! This was a debt he would repay, because if he didn't I would go into his realm of shadows and take my due, I knew what he hid in there, the terrifying creatures he had designed but not yet released, I would use all he had to give to get my vengeance, he could be sure of that, this was my choice, and if getting my revenge resulted in my death, then so be it.