One Crown & Two Thrones : The Dragons Egg ( Book Two)

Chapter Ten - My Lord - Sebeen

                                                                                         X

                                                                                    My Lord

                                                                                   Sebeen

"Brice! Caomh!" Sebeen cried out as she dragged her mare through the forest of Meerethe, her green eyes scouring the nearby trees for any signs of her two small cousins; their high voices carrying through the forest alongside the swift clashes of their play swords.

"Come on cousin!" Caomh cried out with laughter.

"This is not funny boys! Your mother will roast me when we return home!"

"Why are you such a stuff?" Brice asked as he sprang out behind a tall ferrow tree, his green eyes, large and bright with mischief.

"I am not a stuff!" Sebeen said with arched brows and hurt eyes. "I am very liberal and considerate of our play time cousin."

"Well then do stop groaning and come and play with us," Brice said with square shoulders, his angular face and pointed nose in the air as he tried to master the portrayal of a confident man, an image that reminded Sebeen of her older brother, Lord Ada; the new Lord of Drae, the further most northern city of Meer, located within the great kingdom of Fiar. Brice reminded Sebeen of her brother when he was a young boy, his shoulders without burden and his eyes without worry. He was always trying to mirror his father, wishing adulthood to hurry up and claim him so that he could become a man, who like her father garnered great respect and high reverence. And yet where Ada saw greatness, Sebeen witnessed a heavy burden which hung upon her father's shoulders like a cloak, weaved with the endless streams of duty. It saddened her to see the young and feisty Brice yearn so much to be a man, instead of enjoying his time as a child, without the burdens of adulthood or the terrible disillusion that it brought. She knew herself all too well, the disappointment faced when suddenly you are thrust into the world of reality and how the magical image of your future is so painstakingly ripped away from you, to reveal the true depths and colours of the world and its people. Sebeen had been too keen as a young child, her eyes too driven and focused, that she found it impossible to live behind a rose tinted imagination. At the age of eleven she was betrothed the young prince Loaki of whom she had never met in her life and from that day onwards, she had been subjected to the intense programme of grooming, so that when she finally became a woman upon her name day, she would be educated in not only the required subjects of any royal person, but of the required protocol of being a wife and future mother to a family of children who may one day rule over the vast and diverse kingdoms of Meer.

Sebeen stopped wandering through the woods as she found her two small cousins playing upon the shore of Lake Meerethe. With a troubled smile, she tied up Gileth and patted down her golden mane with caring hands.

"There, rest a while," she said under her breathe as she took out a large apple from her leather satchel and planted it down upon the moist ground below. Walking away she heard her horse munch loudly on her treat and smiled as she wrapped her thick fur cloak about her short frame. Brice and Caomh were now investigating the sandy shoreline, using the tips of their wooden swords to prick at suspicious looking objects, mainly limtim worms, which curled about under the sand beautifully. With her eyes shut lightly, Sebeen lifted her round face to the cool sun and simply stood for a brief moment, her ears alert and her hands open wide. She revelled in her mornings with her cousins, of whom she was in charge of during the day as their parents spent their time at court. She had always looked forward to the prospect of baring children with Loaki, despite his lack of attention and time. With a groan she sat down beneath a ferrow tree and leaned her back against the trunk. She had only spoken with her betrothed twice in all the years that they had been bound to one another by contract, and yet she had loved him unequivocally since their first encounter, at his mother's burial, six years previous. He spoke only a few words to her that day, when the north mourned its Queen and with a small smile she brought forth her first memory of him. Thousands of subjects had encircled the great burial ground of Rilactha, all of them quiet and subdue as small pellets of rain fell from the grey clouds above. Sebeen had just turned twelve and Loaki who shared a birthday in the same month of Arna had just turned fifty eight moons, which at first when she had been told of their betrothal had shocked Sebeen- however when her father had explained to her that those of royal descent lived twice or sometimes three times as long as their subjects, her fears and reservations eased slightly, never truly dissipating- just existing within the realm of her psyche, sometimes hurling to the forefront of her mind when she found herself alone and deep in thought. But as she stood huddled against her own mother, Sebeen observed not a young man like her older brother Ada, but a grown up man, whose pale blue eyes where wiser and older than he. He was tall and against his elder two brothers, who both looked formidable and strong, he stood gentle and soft. She fell in love with him and still remembered the moment; a delicate bud of rain fell upon the tip of her nose; her tense hands lifted themselves and reached out to the forlorn prince; her heart thudded so rapidly that she felt the tremor ripple around her body, touching the tips of her fingers and toes; and she stood taller, sending a promise to the gods above- that she would forever stand by the prince and love him eternally.