The Magical Secret of the Crystal Kingdom

Chapter 8 - The Dark Palace

Chapter 8 - The Dark Palace

Rose was about three miles from the dark palace now. They had been marching for most of the morning and it was heading towards the hottest part of the day. The palace loomed in front of her like a black cloud with lightning about to strike out of it. It had such a heavy energy and as they got closer they could all feel the negativity pouring from it. Rose was not looking forward to this at all. Her heart was thumping in her chest. She was glad that George had caught up with her and was very pleased to meet Eldred and the other dragons too. Having a few fire breathing dragons covering their backs relieved some, but not all of the tension.

At first it had seemed so strange to see George as a dragon but then as he said, it was strange for him to see her as a horse. Everything in this place was strange! Rose was also quite relieved to hear that the other dragons were bringing further reinforcements and that they, along with the horses would only be a few hours behind them and that this would be a strong deterrent for Maura even thinking of attacking them. This was something that Sunny and Eden had assured her.

Rose had no idea of what she was going to say to Maura and she hoped that something amazing would happen inside her. The others had said that when the time is right she will know what to do. All she could do was keep moving forward and when she was face to face with Maura just wait and see what would happen.

That moment was inching closer as they would soon be there and as they approached there were all sorts of ugly looking statues with deformed faces and bodies lined up along the path.

"I don't like the look of this place at all," said George eyeing each of the statues nervously, "and we're not even inside yet!"

"I know it's really giving me the creeps," said Rose.

As they got closer to the dark palace Sunny stopped suddenly and looked back at them. "Wait," he said. "Do you hear that?"

At first it was a faint drumming noise but within a few seconds it had got much louder and in the distance they could see a figure approaching them rapidly.

"Looks like Maura is sending us a welcome party," said Sunny intently. "Let's wait here and let them approach."

So they waited and watched as the figure became clearer and the drumming noise got louder until finally they could see that it was a large grey horse dappled with a long flowing mane. Perched on its back was a monkey who was beating a drum to a continuous rhythm.

The horse slowed from a canter to a trot when it came within speaking distance and eyed them suspiciously before he spoke. "Her excellency, Queen Maura has decided to grant you an audience. Consider her terms" and with that the monkey threw a small black crystal onto the ground which burst into life and projected the face of a very grey evil looking horse, her eyes glaring, staring directly at Rose.

"That's Maura," whispered Eden.

"I guessed that," replied Rose.

"So, I hear that you have come here from another world. How exciting! I bet you are having a wonderful time," started off Maura as she laughed sarcastically, the words almost spat through her gritted teeth. "Well since you are here we should get to know each other. Follow my messenger Krynto and I will grant you an audience. You never know, you might prove yourself useful to me somehow." Maura laughed her evil laugh and just as quickly as she had appeared she vanished again from sight. The crystal flew back up into the monkey's hand and the horse turned and galloped back off towards the palace.

"We must do as she says Rose," said Sunny. "If she wanted to fight she would have sent her General not her messenger. Besides, this is your message from King Abner and Queen Alva. You must trust their message. Come on, let's go and get this over with."