CopyrightⒸ 2019 by B. R. Bailey All Rights Reserved

"Your lives are only important because people consider you to be important! If you do nothing to protect them or their families they have no need for you! Right now you've left them to starve and left them defenseless!

Every person I taught magic too was supposed to go out to protect the borders of Brightstone and Alagil! Instead, I see you all here, having a party, while Dragons are attacking common people at the edges of the country! You gave me reports of such!" Galadriel shrieked, her fists clenched at her sides.

"We must keep the leaders safe," Witch Lucinda explains, standing to the right of Queen Victoria. "The cities and towns will be dealt with later. Right now they have soldiers there, keeping them safe, as their taxes paid for. Taxes don't cover a Witches or Wizards fee."

Witch Niall and Dolphina agreed, the three main witches of Alagil, who heralded in a chorus of agreements from all of the other magic users present.

"We have to protect the King, Queen and the Princess of Alagil and Brightstone. They are the rulers of the two most powerful lands and, according to these new contracts, we now control the neighboring countries. Protection from the Dragons, who have already flown over those distant areas for their own reasons."

"Lying, deceitful scum!" Sorceress Galadriel hissed, her eyes glowing green. "I gave you every opportunity do good to mankind as I have and you betrayed your own subjects. You betrayed your own words! I have no mercy for liars and thieves!"

"You have no power here anymore Sorceress," High King Henric the Third commanded in a booming cry. "Our Wizards and Witches have studied extensively and know magic far beyond that which you have taught yourself. Primitive. That is what your magic is. The only useful aspect was turning straw to gold. A feat Witch Dolphina, Lucinda and Niall assure me they can do on their own now."

"Anything you make will be false! Only I can make true gold. My magic is not primitive; it is primordial, a foundation for which all life is based. You can never master it."

"Half Breeds of the Enchanted Forests often declare that, yet we can still learn their ways. I have no doubt you are a Half Breed Sorceress Galadriel." Witch Lucinda snaps, frowning down at Galadriel. "The glow of your skin is unnatural for Mortals. Even with that, we outnumber you and our numbers give us greater power. Power you should pray you never know."

"You should have joined us when we offered to make you a member of the Royal Protection," Witch Niall declared, looking down at her fingernails, gold like the rest of her clothing. "But you refused, claiming you want the freedom to live on your 'farm'."

"Nevertheless, you served us well. Leave now and I will let your transgressions go," King Henric orders, waving his hand dismissively. "We have no need for those who are not loyal to the crown and you, Millers, refused to bow when we united the two kingdoms under one crown."

"You have not been crowned the ruler of Brightstone! The King only said he would let you lead once you had proved yourselves! We cannot bow to a power that is yet to be bestowed!" Gustav cried, perplexed at how Prince Henric had become so power-hungry and vile.

He had seemed a well mannered young man if over-eager to rule. True, he liked to wear the best of clothes and always wanted the finest food and drink. Was his union with Princess Victoria a match of lust and greed to create such a state of twisted affairs?

"On my word," King Henric the Third hissed, "You will have one last chance. Bow now and I will let you live. Bow to your High King Henric Cornelius Augustus Van Grudden the Third; your High Queen Victoria Violette Van Gruden; and your High Princess Emerald Cornelia Van Gruden."

"Recognize us as your superiors and our daughter as greater than you shall ever be. Her majesty will be greater than my own!"

"You are not High King and Queen. You rule only one land. Those contracts for the other nations are wrongly received and ill-gotten! I will never recognize you!" Galadriel shouted, causing many women to faint away in shock.

"Off with her head!" Queen Victoria shouted, waving to the nearest Guards, who reluctantly came away from the walls. "Seize them!"

Galadriel lifted one hand, warding off the attacks of three Witches. Then, raising both of her hands

above her head, she froze the hall, darkening the sky outside with black clouds, green lightning racing along as it arced through the castle into her body.

"I curse you," her voice echoed in the halls, as ancient as the stones of the walls. Greenlight blazed from her eyes as her form glowed with malice.

"You shall never rule with darkness in your hearts. By my gift I blessed you. Now my blessing is cursed. Gold of thine hands, listen well. Should Princess Emerald Cornelia Van Gruden come of age and be as dark as her parents, with greed and lust ruling her heart, all of the Royals and their supporters who stole from the poor and innocent will die, never to have the power within their hands or their lineage again!"

Lightning crashed all around, striking each piece of Gold that was from the Gold Thread Galadriel had spun over the last two years in castle Skyfort. Screams filled the air and people turned and ran in fright, but they could not escape this storm. Whether it be on their person, in their carriage or in their home, the curse struck the wrongly appropriated Gold.

"Raise the Princess right so that the people recognize her in their hearts as a fitting ruler for her actions to them and for them. If she gives them love by protecting their homes and hearths, letting families be together and have full bellies from their own hard work she will be a just Queen, one who might well become a High Queen in her own right.

"If not," Galadriel's growl shook the dust from the castle walls, loosening stones. "You shall all perish upon her sixteenth birthday, for she will never be Queen!"

Then, as the lightning intensified to blind everyone, the Millers left, disappearing just as suddenly as they had appeared years before.

Try as they might, the Guards and Royal Protection never did find them. It was as if they had vanished into thin air.

"You told me that Sorceress was just a Half Breed," Queen Victoria hissed to her top advisor. "No Half Breed should have bested you!"

"I apologize High Queen Victoria," Witch Lucinda whispered, ashen-faced.

"High Queen Victoria!" She shrieked, pointing to the courtier sitting on the dais steps, too scared to stand on his legs. "Those contracts just delivered make me High Queen!"

"High Queen Victoria, I beg your forgiveness," dropping to her knees in repentance, she put her face to the ground.

"I will make this right. We three are stronger than whatever manner of monster that cursed Galadriel is. Give us time to think."

"You have until the end of the day!"

At once the three witches came together, conversing in the empty hall, for all of the guests had run away in fright.

By sunset they returned, a spindle between them.

"It was by this spindle that the curse is bid, for the Gold Thread all come through it. This will serve as our salvation."

"How so?" High King Henric declared, fingers thrumming along his thrones shiny gold arm.

"We can alter some of the magic, if we expand upon who Princess Emerald is, sending us all into an eternal ageless slumber until the curse is broken."

"We'll change her first name my Liege," Lucinda explained after a dramatic pause. "And it might be best to keep her hidden, lest the Sorceress return and decide to kill her earlier than she stated."

"Is this the best you can do? Take my child from me and steal her identity? She is the High Princess! She is the one who should be feared, not a poor Millers wife!" Queen Victoria shrieked, hands clawing her primly curled brown hair in fury.

"There is another option, if I may be so bold..." Dolphina stated, her eyes dark and unfathomable. "For that was no Sorceress, but a Dragon. We should have realized from the old tales when she made Gold so easily. Dragons have great power."

"Dear heavens," Queen Victoria whispered, clutching her husbands' hands."How could you three put us at such risk? Having a Dragon in the castle and not knowing?!"

"No single Mortal can compare to the power of a Dragon. We need a power that can challenge her own. We need a Dragon or at least a Dragons heart. That could be used by the three of us to undo the curse, theoretically. The intent in her heart might outlast our own willpower."

"Slay the monster that froze us all? How would that be done?" King Henric asked, his ire clear as he glowered at the Witches.

"Does it have to be Galadriel? Would another Dragon suffice?" The Queen asked, looking over at Princess Emerald with sharp brown eyes.

"If we could find one and capture it alive and cut it's living heart out. Otherwise, we have to gather the most powerful Casters and teach them how to work together."