chapter 6

Minutes has passed since King Ephraim watched the carriage carrying his daughter disappeared into thin air. He stood there, looking at the familiar sight. Waiting patiently, maybe she might changed her mind and returned. But no! She was gone. They were completely out of sight. Notwithstanding, he stood still. Raging series of thought. Can a king be folly?.

"How could I be silly enough to allowed my only child traveled with the daughter of a demigod". He reasoned within his members. "What if she is killed?. What if she never returned?. What if she enchant my princess into a different version of her normal self... what if... What if?. This and many more kept roaming through his heart.

Queen Margaret was not who the people of Golden Hill think she is. The king knew of her true identity. One of the reason he preferred her above his other surviving queens was her humility. And now that Queen Lucy was no more. She was second to none.

"Jessica the daughter of the serpent god. I entrust my daughter to you. Please protect her and bring her back home safely. She is stubborn and lordly because I trained her so. Ignored this and bring her back. Please". He tighten his lips. He then began to ascend the stairs.

"What was I thinking when I let her go". He snapped his fingers and turned his face behind. More often he take his gaze back to the path they rode through but what he ended up seeing was bunches of boxwood and holly and daises hedging the pathway.

***

King Ephraim met with queen Margaret on one of his visit to Serpent Land. She was the betroth of Blaze, the second son of Tyson Odin Anaconda. The day they met, was a bad day.

King Ephraim had gone with the king's stone to killed Tyson Odin Anaconda for giving him children and killing them at the same time. All three of them. Three pretty son's died without a name. Making the king to still maintained the name barren before his people

"He is not the real Tyson Odin Anaconda". She said to him when she blocked him at the entrance of Tyson's house.

He first observed her thin eyelids. Then her bulky eyes which captivated him. A yellow gleaming eyes that he couldn't looked into. Her skin was white and her hair fell to her knees, blue and blooming. Beauty was not the proper word to addressed her looks. Those thick rosy lips call for a kiss.

King Ephraim was speechless. His anger began to subside by just looking at her.

"I...I have never met the real Tyson so I wouldn't tell the difference. This...this Tyson. He.. he killed my children". He managed to utter.

"It such a pity but that is what he does. It is who he is. He killed people for a living and commit legions of atrocities. He is doing this to soiled his father's name. The more reason he snatched any given opportunity thrown at him to disguised himself as the real Anaconda and commit evil".

" Who are you and why are you telling me this". King Ephraim was regaining his sanity. A total beauty can not defiled his mission here.

"You are not as beautiful as my queen. Queen Lucy". He kept meditating on this in his head to keep his mind focus on why he was here.

"Who you are going to see now is not him. He is his father. That is why I need you to dropped your angered here before you enter through that door".

she pointed at the door. It was a moderate wooden house in the middle of nowhere. flower garden round it about. The roof was green and the walls was the colour of the different flowers round about it

"Lady you are speaking to a king. When I asked you a question you go straight to the point". He raised his tone. He now knew why he came.

She gulped

" Blaze is the second son of Odin Anaconda. I am his betrothed. Jessica".

King Ephraim drew back and pulled his sword. Tyson took Ephraim to his house on his second visit when he went to perform the ritual. If not he wouldn't have been able to trace him urgently at that point in time.

Jessica lean on the wooden door.

"What do you think you are doing. You king of golden hill". Do you killed your helpers even before the render the help to you".

" You cannot helped me". King Ephraim screamed.

" You are all evil. Where is he and I shall killed him. That is why I came".

Jessica clapped her hands to break the spell she cast to prevent Tyson who was inside from hearing the king's heart beat and most importantly from hearing their little conversation.

Seeing that the man she wished to helped has refused to be helped. He was too angry to listen. Too brutal for her to keep pushing. She gave way.

King Ephraim gave the wooden door a heavy bump with his feet. There he saw Tyson who was standing opposite the door. He drew his sword at him.

Tyson fling his hands and he was hurled speedily into the hands of his able knights. Two of them. They stood on the field.

Jessica had glued their feet to the field when she blocked the king's way. She released them immediately she stepped away for king Ephraim to proceed into the house. Now king Ephraim stopped their short raced when Tyson hurled him. He saw himself in their hands. His back ached from the fall. They held the king's shoulder and helped him to his feet.

Tyson came out. He was looking intensely into king Ephraim pained face. His guards had drawn their sword to prevent Tyson from coming any further near the king.

Tyson snapped this fingers at them. their swords was seen on the east and west of the open flower garden trying to settled.

"You evil man. Why would you promised what you cannot fulfilled". King Ephraim said with anger when he gained his feet.

" What is he talking about?" Tyson turned to Jessica who was now beside him.

"Your son Blaze disguised as you and deceived him".

" Poor boy". Tyson said to Ephraim pitying him.

King Ephraim was confused. He was beginning to believed, maybe what the lady told him earlier on was the truth. Still he won't let the man before him go scot-free if he doesn't provide which ever body of his, that is not his real self immediately.

He brought out the king's stone. The man shivered at it sight. He put it forth against him.

"You killed my baby son's. You must pay for it. The man began to coughed blood. He was also dripping blood from his nose and eyes. Tyson Odin Anaconda was the most powerful magician in the whole Serpent Land but the power of the kings' stone was no matched for him.

"I..am n..not my son who ..who deceived you".

The stone was giving out different colours of light which were piercings into the heart of Anaconda.

The knights couldn't looked at the light so they looked away and covered their eyes with their palms.

Jessica entered in between them. " Killed both of us since you have refused to listen".

He was not going to take chances. He let his angered controlled him and still held out the stone against them. His knights were now hiding their faces on the ground. Jessica was going to perish if he didn't stop.

Suddenly he heard the swished from a sword cutting through the air. It was thrusting through the air to pierced his side. The sword just appeared from no where. He left Jessica and Tyson alone and focused on this enraged sword which almost cut through his flesh.

The sword got melted by the stone.

"I am he whom you seek. Let my father and my fiancée be". He saw Blaze now in his true form. He had an auburn hair. Grey eyes just like his. He was not ready for all those details. All he wanted was to wiped him off the surface of the earth.

"Why did you do it. He asked in a commanding tone. The answers was mixed with the wave of the whirlwind Blaze generated to protect himself from the wrath of the stone. but he couldn't comprehend.

The kings' stone was too powerful to go into a contest with him. It conquer Blaze hands down. He died. It roasted it corpse to flavoured meat when it overshadowed it light.

King Ephraim collapsed. The power affected him too. His knights who now struggled to their feet ran to him.

Jessica had helped the real Tyson to his feet. She put his hands around her shoulders while her hands was wrapped round his waist. She led him back to the house.

"I'm sorry". The king said to them with a loud voice from behind. They stood still. He walked to them.

"You may go. Leave us alone" Tyson told him looking at him sideward.

" No!'". I'm going no where. They said you can make me a father. Until then I am going no where.

"They said I can make you to be a father and you wanted to killed me. You want me to act so you would come back and killed me just the way you have killed my son right before me".

"He gave me hope only to take it". King Ephraim voice melted. He put his hands on his waist. He didn't recovered from the stress he went through holding the kings' stone firm to be able to achieved his aims.

" He gave me children but killed them at birth through a Raven. His messenger of doom. Three sons died at birth. What ever he did initially that my queen's took in. Repeat it. Only this time. They shall live".

"Sorry for your lost". Tyson said and told Jessica to moved. King Ephraim stopped them again

"The stone in your hands. Can't it grant your wished?".

"You know better than I do old Tyson that it can only sustained life. It does not create or give life". Tyson hissed and forced himself to moved.

King Ephraim was not going to give up so easily. He barred their way. Pleading for forgiveness and for this one last favour.

Surprisingly Jessica begged Tyson on his behalf.

"Father you are a nice man with a good heart. He did what he did for the reason I can't speak for him. But please help him with what he wished for".

Tyson gaze soften. He was dazed how she will begged for him when he almost killed them moment ago.

"You were not able to convinced him with the truth that it wasn't me he met but my son, Blaze".

She furrowed her brow and shrugged her shoulders how he managed to know what she had speak with this man about earlier on.

"You of all people should know that spells don't work on me. He drew his sword at you at the door. Again he almost killed you with the stone. Twice he attempted to killed you yet you stand here to plead for him. I don't understand you Jessica. He left his gaze on her. She looked away. Faraway on the flower beds. Colourful flower in rows and columns.

" The stone is really power then". She said bringing back her gaze and mind.

" To have affected you father". He nodded.

" What ever you what me to do. I shall. please helped me" king Ephraim lament.

Vultures were gathered at the carcass of blaze. Feasting and rejoicing over their meal.

Tyson walked and sat on the entrance stairs. "I shall helped you, only on one condition".

"what ever the condition is I shall give or do even to the half of my kingdom".

" Don't be faster than your shadow so you won't utter what you can't fulfilled".

King Ephraim lowered his gaze. He was standing by Tyson's left and Jessica by his right. While the knights were some distance away from them.

"You shall married my supposed daughter in-law".

" W...what father?"

Jessica was flabbergasted. She was staring at him with mouth agape. King Ephraim fixed his gaze on her. He had admire her when she blocked his path. If marrying her would mean him having a child. Then he is in.

"You have killed my son that was supposed to be her husband. It only proper that another replaced him. In her tribe, if a young maiden is betrothed to a man and a day is fixed for their marriage. When the marriage did not hold for one reason or the other. Just like now. If there is no other man to replaced my late son and marry her on that said date. She shall turned into a serpent for the rest of her life"

King Ephraim gulped. Tyson was staring into his eyes.

"You didn't have to say that father. I still have a week ahead to fixed this".

I...I shall married her". King Ephraim said.

***

That was how King Ephraim got married to Jessica. He changed her name to Margaret. Queen Margaret. She disguised herself in the eyes of all the people of Golden Hill and beyond so no one could see her unnatural looks and question her origin. Only the king and the two guards knew. The king most trusted knights, sir Bernard and sir Steve his second, promised with their life to keep it a top secret