The Crown

Thirty-Two.

The Crown

Marcus held her close and pulled her in for a strong kiss, a promising kiss and Isabella soon became weak allowing her guard to be put down."Promise me you will come back. Promise me, Marcus!" She begged him. "I promise, with all my heart I promise I will make my way back to you," Marcus promised her for one last time before climbing on his white Arabian horse and riding away. Isabella never knew that he would never come back, only his ashes would. After being threatened in a dream in the night by the evil witch Jezebeth that she would steal the red ruby stone and burn the palace to the ground, Marcus did not tell anyone because he feared that he would be putting their lives in danger. After a dramatic departure from his wife Isabella, Marcus rode to the crypt where the precious red ruby stone of Madrid was secretly kept for years. He grabbed the small box that it was in and rode away. "Here you go, I am trusting you with my life because this is how much the ruby stone means to me. Nobody knows that I am doing this but I will soon come to tell them." Marcus gave the little box to his most trusted advisor, telling him to bury the box somewhere in Europe. On his way back to the palace Marcus was surrounded by many dwarfs, they threw a stone at his back causing him to fall off of his clumsy, scared horse.
It ran away leaving him there to groan in pain.

"Who are you people!?" He asked the short jumping people but all they did was laugh and jump. "Answer me! I am your king." Marcus yelled. "You are no ones king out here, just a hypocrite!" Jezebeth appeared in front of him. It was her, the scary woman in his dream. She was here now in the flesh. "You- "Ahahaha." She laughed. "Give me the stone and I will be on my way." Marcus shook his head refusing. "It was you, the woman who begged us for the pieces of the stone many years ago, this is your true form is it not? You- you are a... demon."
"Where is the stone Marcus, if you want to go back to your palace is one piece, I suggest you hand it to me!" She yelled. "No, you will never find it." He said, smiling victoriously. "I am going to burn your country and your kingdom to the ground." 

"Kill me instead so that my family and the people of Spain shall live. Children and infants live here, I will not possibly allow you to kill them, do not kill them, please! Take my life instead." Marcus begged from the ground as blood fell from his mouth. Jezebeth thought that it was rather foolish of him to offer his life, she was going to get the stone one way or the other and if not then she would kill the people eventually. "It is I, Jezebeth the witch of the unknown realm and you are my first enemy you may now rot in the ground." Jezebeth introduced herself before stabbing him in the heart with a sharp, black dagger and leaving him there to die. Marcus closed his eyes, bleeding out of breath. The last thing he thought about was his family. He promised his wife that he would make it back to her. And his son, who was the next air to the throne, will have to proceed and wear the crown.

~*~

"Your Grace. I wanted to speak to you." Gabriella walked up to Isabella who was seated in the garden. "What is it?" Isabella asked her "I understand why you hate me. Or why you need time to adjust. I heard about the story of Milana and your late husband. The affair they were having behind your back. I cannot imagine how that must have made you feel. Watching your husband love another woman and raise a son that was never your own. But I promise you, your grace, that those were not my intentions. I was not trying to ruin this family, I did not know I would even be a part of it." Gabriella stared at the ground, watching her tears fall in the grass. Isabella gave her a handkerchief to wipe them.

"I do not hate you Gabriella, l am learning to love you. Marcus was a good man. I always knew it, he had his reason for everything he did. Even under all the confusion I still loved him, and he still loved me up unto his very last breath. I blamed him instead of myself for holding another woman and not just any woman but a young girl servant girl from Italy. He would not have made Milana his mistress if I was not barren. I remember the anger on his face when I told him I could not bear children. His love for me was already too much to leave me. But I am thankful, so thankful for Milana because if I let my selfishness get in the way, she would not have given me such a wonderful boy to raise and call my son. I used to blame the righteous King for taking my husband away, giving him a premature death. He was so young and so strong. But now I see that the righteous know when and why he does things and we are in no position to ask him. Because everything turns out for good in the end." Isabella glanced at Manuel from across the yard.

"Now you mustn't cry, be strong because when you are strong, my son is too. He is following your examples. When you serve people, he wants to serve people too, when you visit the orphanage, he wants to visit the orphanage as well. He sees the love of the good prince shining through you. And I ask that when he gives the ruby stone, righteous King should protect him, He should protect you all, can you please make that prayer for me? I am afraid the king has turned his back on me for shaming him."

"The King will never turn his back on his people, that is what he promised us in his book, just ask for forgiveness and everything you did will be wiped off like a clean slate."Gabriella smiled. If only people behaved like that in real life. Forgive and forget to let go and move on. "But we may pray together because the righteous King always says that when two or three are gathered to pray in His name He is there and their request shall be given.

~*~

"I feel like you are leaving me again, but you will come back." Alba's weary smile began to fade, and she pulled her daughter close, giving her a hug. "Mama the righteous king has already gone before us. He has already fought our battles. We are going to give her the ruby stone and turn right back." Gabriella said. But she knew that it would not be that simple, that was why she was going because if she stayed back and heard the news that her fiancé was dead or taken, she would not be able to live with herself.

Instead of a carriage, they rode with horses. Manuel took his father's rose gold Arabian, which had become stronger over the year. Manuel allowed Aaron his white one, Gabriella sat in front of Manuel. They were travelling with ten other soldiers and the within the first hour on the horse Gabriella glanced at Manuel, she gazed at slowly and noticed something different about him.

A few hundred meters down the stony path, she glanced up again as they passed through a meadow of trees. This time she caught his look, capturing his features. It was a good look, a strong look of confidence.

They finally came to the first stop in their journey, Manuel hopped off of his horse and walked towards the bridge. Gabriella and Aaron saw another man come forth from the other side of the bridge and together they crossed to meet in the middle. The man had a mini black box in his hand. It was King Marcus' trusted advisor who had come to give Manuel the ruby stone. Manuel took it, thanking him for keeping it safe all this time. Manuel hopped back on his horse, this time in front of Gabriella. She wrapped her hands around him and rested her head on his back. A few months ago, Manuel never knew he would be giving the stone away and two weeks ago Manuel never knew he would be giving it away with such a ready and generous heart.

They stopped in their tracks when they saw Jezebeth dwarfs. They always came out before her. Then finally they saw Jezebeth descend from her skeleton horse. It returned to the dust of the ground the second she blew it. Making some of the soldiers afraid. But Manuel did not fear, he a winner on his side. "You are not alone." Gabriella kissed him before he hopped off of his horse and walked down to where Jezebeth stood.

"Ah, So you have fallen in love with black beauty after all? I saw it coming from a mile away." Jezebeth giggled. Her squeaky laugh agitated Aaron and the soldiers. Gabriella quietly prayed to the righteous King. "This is what you killed my father for?" Manuel opened the box, pulling out the bright red ore from the box. Gabriella saw how bright and shiny it was, glimmering in every corner that the sunlight touched. A precious ore like that could not be hidden anywhere but somewhere very safe in the world and away from the people in the world.

"I killed your father because he wanted to sacrifice his life instead of the stone. All he was supposed to do was give me the stone and be on his way, but he declined. I told him that I was going to destroy everything and so he offered me his life instead. It was such a pleasure to kill him but I was not satisfied, I wanted the stone." Jezebeth sent her hand forth for him to give it to her. The one thing she could not live without.

The Crown