Chronicles of Arnelius The Blazing Queen Book 2

Chapter 1

                            Tamara

I have lost  sleep in the middle of the night. No I have a nightmare, the same over and over again.

It is a pattern that has become constant since we left home and now we are sailing for Nyran, for refuge. It’s only been a little over four months since we left mama to her demise yet it feels like eternity, I look back at the time my sisters, cousins and I were smuggled out of the country leaving mama and grandma to their deaths.

I always  dream of papa, mama, Yael, brother and I .

They are on the battlefield just like  it was with papa challenging who would do it? Who would kill their king? I see the dagger or at least in the dream it is the same, it hits the bullseye in his chest and then I see Theo, his face filled with jealous rage, a son who kills his own father. I see father fall and suddenly there is Yael standing behind Theo and they are laughing at him, pointing and calling him a fool. As they mock him he closes his eyes and this is when I appear crying and begging them to show respect, to help.

"What have you done?!" I always cry out. "What have you done to father?!"

"I'll burn it down!" Mama appears dressed in a white gown stained in blood. "I’ll set it all on fire!"

She screams with a voice filled with rage and vengeance so strong it consumes to the bones even in sleep.

I feel it the heat of her fury and I feel it’s sensation feeding my heart until I am blazing away.

It’s mama’s fury that sends my heart racing so fast and it  wakes me up restless and sweating. I always sit up and look to my right where my little sister Naya sleeps with my cousins Kora, Ingrid and Marishka.

They are sound asleep after exhausting themselves with mourning their mothers the whole day. On the other side of the room are Kia sleeping with baby Delia on the bed and the boys Ivar, Edmund and Claude are on the floor. I feel lonely despite so many of us. We all feel lonely we have lost our parents.

"Try to rest." I hear Kia's voice in the dark, "where we are headed is unknown it is best you save your strength."

I obey and lie down but I know she no longer sleeps well. She is young and left in charge of us in a situation a grown woman would be helpless. We were smuggled by Queen Brigitte's relations after they secured a safe haven for us in Nyran.

I don’t know how I slept but I did, all I know is I was staring in the darkness and the next thing I am opening my eyes to the blinding light. It is probably late morning, I always get up so late after staying up awake all night. I don’t bother to wash as I do not see the point of it all looking pretty. I just wear some of the clothes I haven’t ripped apart.

I do that a lot of late, rip everything my mama died for apart. We left disguised like pauper boys with our hair severly cut and I really do resemble a farmer's boy or something.

It was Finnick's idea. He told mama Yael would be looking for a group of highborn girls and boys and not poor boys alone with a young maiden at the docks.

His plan was genius and worked out well but I truly wish it had not for it made mama give up running after knowing we were safe.

What truly breaks  my heart is she died in the hands of Yael, she and papa.

I always liked Yael, no I loved her and preferred her company to mama's for she was a dearest friend but I will always be my mother's daughter and I will never forgive her for this.

I start choking on the thought of all this when I hear Kia  laughing out loud on the top deck of the ship so I decide to join everyone. I might as well.